The fourth principle of the Labour Party’s policy of social reconstruction is “the diversion to the common good of the surplus over the expenditure required for the maintenance of the national minimum of life.” This surplus is said to be embodied in the riches of the mines, the rental value of lands superior to the margin of cultivation, the extra profits of fortunate capitalists, now alleged to be absorbed by individual proprietors, and devoted to the senseless luxury of the idle rich. It is to be secured by nationalization and municipalization, and by steeply graduated taxation of private income and riches. From it is to be drawn the new capital which the community day by day will require for the perpetual improvement and increase of its various enterprises, and for which it is said to be dependent now on the usury-exacting financier.
“It is in this proposal for the appropriation of every surplus for the common good—in the vision of its resolute use for the building up of the community as a whole instead of for the magnification of individual fortunes—that the Labour Party, as the Party of the producers by hand or by brain, most distinctively marks itself off from the older political parties, standing as these do essentially for the maintenance unimpaired of the perpetual private mortgage upon the annual product of the nation that is involved in the individual ownership of land and capital.”
International Co-operation
From Labour’s home policy we turn to foreign affairs. Its international aims are “peace and co-operation between nations; the avoidance of anything making for international hostility; the development of international co-operation in the League of Nations,” and “an ever-increasing intercourse, a constantly developing exchange of commodities, a steadily growing mutual understanding, a continually expanding friendly co-operation among all the peoples of the world.” “Imperialism,” defined to mean extension of empire over countries without reference to the wishes of the inhabitants of those countries, is repudiated as rooted in capitalism, and springing only from a desire for profits and for selfish exploitation of the natural resources belonging solely to those inhabitants. “Protectionism” in any form, whether by prohibitions on imports, embargoes, tariffs, differential shipping or railway rates, for the purpose of limiting the amount or restricting the free flow of foreign commodities into this country, is unreservedly condemned. Protection for the benefit of a particular trade, or all trades, while it may conduce to the immediate advantage of Labour, is presumed to operate to the greater ultimate advantage of the capitalist, and to strengthen his position. Anything tending to such a result is “contrary to the true interests of Labour.” Protection is said to lead to capitalistic rings, combinations and trusts, higher prices, diminished consumption, reduced employment. This being so, Labour favours the free importation of all foreign goods, and their sale at rates as low as are consistent with their manufacture under unsweated labour conditions in their land of origin.
No Protective Tariffs
All tariffs, especially if differential, must, so Labour contends, inevitably create international friction, retaliation, enmity, and ultimately active hostilities, and are to be more especially discarded, inasmuch as they are the favourite instrument of capitalistic groups eager to make profits out of international ruptures. Labour accordingly objects to the protection of key industries for purposes of national safety. “It is impossible to make either the British Empire or the British Isles self-contained or self-supporting. Even if practicable, the policy of self-sufficiency would indicate a provocative intention to maintain a national condition of perpetual preparation for war.” Therefore, except so far as is necessary to avoid the spread of disease or prevention of accidents, there must be no restriction on the transit or importation of any commodity. Imperial preference is likewise rejected as a selfish attempt to reserve for the inhabitants of the British Empire the raw materials and markets of the Empire, a course incompatible with any kind of lasting peace, having regard to the resentment it would provoke amongst the nations excluded from participating in these raw materials or from supplying our imperial markets. Labour calls for “the open door” in all our Colonies and Dependencies, and in “non-adult countries,” meaning by this term “exploitable countries” like China and Africa. The position of the capitalist has been so undermined by Labour’s attack at home that capital, in Labour’s opinion, is now making its real profits and consolidating its power by expropriating natives, and compelling them to work for low wages.
Freedom of International Trade
In order to free Europe from “the rivalries of Capitalism—Imperialism—Protectionism, which poisoned international relations between 1880-1914,” Labour desires to see an economic side of the League of Nations developed so as to secure the removal of all economic barriers and maintain equality of trade conditions. But surely it was Labour itself that called loudest for self-determination, which has so grievously impaired the economic restoration of Europe. A World Economic Council of the League ought to apportion the supplies of food-commodities and raw materials and maintain credit in the various countries so as to ensure fair allocation of raw materials, the furtherance of production, the development of international lines of communication, and the prevention of exploitation by trusts. As an alternative to “the present profit-making capitalistic economic system,” Labour proposes to use for purposes of international trade, an organization on a world-wide basis of the different national Co-operative movements. So long as foreign trade remains under the control of the competitive and capitalistic system, Labour asserts that its general international aims can never be attained.