Page:The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/163

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Germans. If these things could happen at a time when the nation's existence was in jeopardy, anything like good team work between the departments for the furtherance of industry in normal times seems to be a very remote aspiration.

But when we dwell upon all the evils of Government control that have been evident during the war—extravagance, friction between one department and another, changes of policy which have involved enormous waste, and an attitude towards labour which has cost the country millions in the payment of wages, while only increasing discontent and unrest among those who thought that they were not being paid enough—we have to remember that the advocates of nationalization have a good deal to say on the other side.

There is no doubt that the Government was able, by inquiry into costs of production, and by centralizing production on a great scale, to effect most valuable economies in the price of shells and other munitions. On the other hand, the industrial problem that it had to face was a very simple one as compared with that which is before the producer in ordinary times. The Government knew that all that it had to do was