Plan For Reconstruction

Plan for RECONSTRUCTION A PROJECT FOR VICTORY IN WAR AND PEACE by W. H. HUTT PROFESSOR OF COMMERCE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD. BROADWAY HOUSE: 68-74 CARTER LANE, E.C.4 First printed Reprinted • ~43 i IrJ44 The central issue in reconstruction is the basis on which the State is to be organised. Will industry be organised in such a way as to produce the maximum of profits and wages for its staffs or so as to produce the maximum of goods and services for the community ? Will trade be organised so as to produce the maximum of protection for its vested interests or so as to furnish the greatest possible flow of goods for consumption ? . . • It is inevitable that the post-war State should be more interventionist than ever before. But it must intervene to free the citizen, not to protect the clique or claque. It is Particularism v. the Commonwealth that is the question ; and the crime of the parties before the war was that, with Particularism in charge on both sides, every answer but one was suffocated. ( The Economist, 5 April 1941.) THIS BOOK IS PRODUCED IN COMPLETE CONFORMITY WITH THE AUTHORISED ECONOMY STANDARDS Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd .• Frome and London CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE VI INTRODUCTION PART I: THE PLAN ITSELF (a) LABOUR SECURITY BILL (b) CAPITAL SECURITY BILL (c) RESOURCES UTILISATION PROTECTION IlILL PART II: 5, 20 THE PLAN EXPLAINED 65 SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS Chapter I II III IV RESTRAINED PRODUCTIVITY 67 Tm, 8l RESTRICTIONIST MENTALITY STATE PLANNING FOR WAR, AND ITS OBSTACLES ENTHEPRENEURSIIIP, CoNCENTRATlON AND DISTRIBUTIVE PROBLFM V VI VII VIII IX X XI XVI XVII 102 132 LESSONS F0H PEACE THE IDEAL OF EQUALITY 137 DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE 146 LABOUR SECURITY 165 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY 187 CAPITAL SECURITY 205 TJrn INSTITUTION oi PROPERTY XII T1rn RESOURCES UTILISATION CoMM'issION XIII STATE OWNERSHIP XIV Co-ORDINATION AND STATE PLANNING xv 93 THE COLLUSION AND PRICE lJISCRIMINATION 215 221 232 248 272 Appondix I 2 97 II 298 " CosT OF THE PLAN 301 CONCLUSION 3°5 3 19 INDEX V PREFACE IN this book I try firstly to :,ketch, in the broadest terms, the inst1tut10nal requirements for the most efficient pursuit of a long total war; and secondly to describe in detail a way of tackling the m1111ensc task of turning from war to peace. I have written 1t 111 the security of Cape Town whilst Russia has been overrun and the Bntish have been preparing for a second spell of resistance to ruthless bombing. I ,ike others, I have wished to help. This is my contnhut10n. I have invested my relative good lortune in making it. My distance from Great Britain may well have given perspective to my studies of her problems. Detached from all active contact with British politics, I have for years been quietly thinking about the economic position of the Mother Country in whose prosperity and future strength we in the Dominions are so closely 111te1 ested. And since the war broke out I have been even mo1 e deeply submerged m the study of issues which the Bnt1sh will have to face. Some years ago, m one of my previous works, I promised a hook contammg the suggest10ns winch follow. This 1s a partial lultilment ol that promise. The urgent necessity of making plans t