tries in private hands. It seems possible that, if our electoral system were worked along the lines of Proportional Representation, a powerful Liberal Party could be created on this platform. For the rank and file of Labour is not enamoured of bureaucratic rule, and, if there were a reasonable likelihood of coalition with a powerful Liberal Party along the lines of the “Five Years’ Plan,” many electors who now vote Labour, without a close Labour attachment, would vote Liberal.
For this progressive Liberal policy is nearer to the average electoral mind than any full-blown Socialism. The strong distrust of officials (dubbed “bureaucrats”) may seem excessive in view of the high general ability, honesty, and public spirit in our services. I think it is excessive, so far as the socialization of monopolies and routine industries is concerned. For in these industries the incentive of free competition is either absent or is wasteful in its operations. The danger that besets Labour-Socialism is its failure to recognize the fact that over a large area of industry, prize-money, in the shape of profit, must continue to be a serviceable method of getting the best results of inventive ability, risk, and enterprise, into the productivity of industry. The notion that a sense of public service will operate upon all types of mind so as to get the best they have to give in contributions towards technological and business ability, cannot be accepted for purposes of present practical progress.
