Renationalization a Vital Issue, Viscount Hailsham Tells R.H.A.
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" YOU have been singled out for this attack through no fault of your own. No one can accuse you of being a monopoly. On the contrary, your industry is one notable for its conipetitiveness. No one has accused you of inefficiency or of having failed the nation.' Whatever-may be true of the railways, airlines or steamship companies, road haulage is not subsidized by Government." Members were told this at the annual dinner of the Road Haulage Association held in London last week. during Viscount Hailsham's vigorous attack on the Socialist threat to renationalize haulage.
Nationalizers were angry that the Association had dared to defend itself, he claimed. They were angry because they were frightened. Nationalization began as a crusade: It continued as a racket. It was becoming an embarrassment. When the time came that it was made a liability, the fight would be over, said Viscount Hailsham. He advised members not to attempt to appease the nationalizers. Hauliers one chance of survival lay in the utmost aggressiveness.
If the occasion arose, the decision that an industry was "failing the nation" would be made by the Socialists. They would be judge, jury, proSecuting counsel, court of appeal and executioner.
But that would not take place until after the General Election, which they would seek to win by pretending that they did not design to nationalize anything very serious, except road transport and iron and steel. That was why the campaign against renationalization of road transport was so vitally important---" your cause is the cause of all," said Viscount Hailsham.
If prices went up it was claimed that the industry had failed the nation because they were high. If they went down, like road haulage, they had still failed the nation because they were then responsible for the financial weakness of the railways.
Whatever denials or evasions the Socialists may make about the nationalization of other industries, Viscount Hailsham emphasized that the road haulage industry was named as victim by the Labour Party in their current programme.
Though hauliers would rather stay out of politics, they were very much involved because it was the nationalizers themselves who had put road hauliers into politics.