The Cold FAIR WAGES WITHOUT INFLATION ? Modern Church S IR,—.1t

seems to me that you still place too much reliance on your belief that there is a fixed sum of wealth in the community—the national cake----and that the " sectional greed " of the 1 rade Union interest has led its leaders to seek popularity by demanding an excessive share. To make my reply briefly, I will put it in numbered paragraphs.
(I) "there is no " national cake •' of a fixed size--there are only the limitless resources of an unfathomable universe. in which. the Christian worker trusts, Almighty God has provided potentially what is sufficient for the real needs of all his creatures.
(2) The responsibility for making these resources available to the proper use of mankind rests on all men; but, as you yourself have said, that responsibility is not equally divided amongst all men. Those who have greater skills, who are born to a position of wealth Or influence, the managers, directors, and the effective shareholders in a capitalistic economy like our own, have higher responsibilities for the welfare not only of their " firm" hut for the whole of their industry, fer their workpeople, for the consumers of their product, and for the community at large. On those who have. by mergers and alliances, by employers' federations and so on. built up enormous business empires (and I say nothing of the conquests by which some of these were achieved) the responsibilities are correspondingly enormous. Are they being faced even as adequately by these as the mass Unions, with their many inefficiencies, I know, are facing theirs?
(3) There is all the difference in the world between good labour and cheap labour. The primary reason for what even a Trade Unionist can admit as " over-full employment " in the sense that it has no real relation to productivity, is the basic cheapness of labour. Cheap labour holds up the mechanisation of jobs which could more suitably he done by machines. It has led some firma to bold on to men doing unprofitable work in the possible expectation of some " boom " when they will be needed—and when the still largely jungle law of the present economy woeld force up their price (wage) by competition among employers themselves,
(4) Finally, inflation is fundamentally a monetary thing. " Money " has never really meant Just " hard cash," and in the last century we have realised just how wide is the scope of credit transactions which it covers. No apportioning of responsibility (which is the first step to remedy) for inflation can ignore those who exert an influence over the volume and speed of monetary transactions.
For those keen on a further discussion of these problems North London Acru is holding an open discussion, led by Dr. J. L. Bray, on "Fair Wages without Inflation," at Si. Monica's School Hall, Cannon Hill, Palmers Green, 8 p.m., September 19.
Paul D. Olsen (Hon. Press Secretary, Westminster A.T.C.U.). 29, Oakhurst Avenue,
East Barnet, Herts.