R.H.A. a Monop oly, Says Labour
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IN a pamphlet issued last Week by the Labour Party, the Road Haulage Association (wrongly referred to as the Road Hauliers' Association) is associated with cement, sugar, and iron and steel organizations in the party's attack on monopolies.
The pamphlet declares that " vast Press and advertising campaigns financed by the Cement Ring, Tate and Lyle, the Iron and Steel Federation, and the Road Hauliers' Association have been used to influence public opinion. The funds thus used to protect monopoly have, in the first instance, been raised by the use of monopoly powers."
According to the pamphlet, the Labour Party will place private monopolies in public hands.
Monopoly organizations are described asbeing of two kinds. One is the combine, which arises from the amalgamation of independent concerns. The other is the association, in which the separate, ownership and organization of the undertakings is preserved.
In a statement to "The Commercial Motor, a spokesman of the R.H.A. said that the accusation was so absurd that it hardly deserved to be answered. On the whole 'of the anti-nationalization campaign, which was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Government monopoly in long-distance transport,
the R had spent little more than the Road • Haulage Executive spent on publicity in a year. There was now more of a monopoly in transport than. before nationalization.
He pointed out that the Associalion was not a trading body and had no control over the operations 'of its members. Any advice givenon the question ofrates was limited to recommendations, which could not be enforced, for increases when specific incidents, such as a sharp rise in taxation, occurred.