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Show COST IN - EMS II Member of Parliament Says I Economic Questions Ave Paramount Issues By C. A. McCURDY, M. P. Written for International News Service. LONDON. April 12. Practical politics pol-itics in England will largely turn or. economic questions for tho next five years. Prices, wages, profits and the high cost of living are the live political politi-cal issues which will determine the 'fate of Governments. Five years' wastage of war, five years of unparalleled destruction ol wealth and dislocation of industry can not be repaired as soon as peace comes. 0 , It is not the Inflation of the currency cur-rency nor the lack of transport that Is the root cause of the high prices ot today, but the simple fact that in every necessity of civilized life the productive efficiency of the world has still to be restored, and the wastage of war has still to be made good. j Two immediate remedies have been proposed, and are continually being! urged upon the people of this country. coun-try. I believe that both are unsound. First, there is the remedy proposed : by the- extremists of the Labor Party that we should check excessive profits prof-its altogether; that we should nationalize nation-alize the industries of the country in the hope that out of that tremendous experiment a satisfactory result might be obtained. At the other extreme are tho people peo-ple who urge that the old toctrine of freedom of trade, freedom of competition, compe-tition, the complete removal of all restrictions re-strictions and controls, is the sound economic method of lowering prices. The true remedy will be found some-where some-where between the extremes advocated advoca-ted by the Labor Party on the one hand, and the great trading interests on the other. We shall nol nationalize national-ize our industries, and so destroy the commercial system upon which our wealth and prosperity 'have grown during the centuries. Nor can it be necessary, on the other hand, that the trusts and combines and the profiteers should be given a free hand to exploit the public as they please. Some middle path of safety and wisdom must be found. There must be some form of supervision and control con-trol exercised over prices' and profits in the interests of the consumer. It is not, in my judgment, to fines and prosecutions that we must look for salvation. We must encourage, and, if necessary, neces-sary, compel the trades which have shown us their power to control and restrict prices- to exercise that power for the benefit of the public and not merely in their own selfish interests. oo |