Malvern OutMalverned

All the Protestant denominations in England have just joined in issuing a far-to-the-left program for "Social Justice & Economic Reconstruction" which:

> is even more liberal or radical than the now famous Malvern Conference of Church of England liberals last January;

> is sponsored by a commission of 80 official representatives of many sects rather than by a hand-picked group from one denomination like Malvern;

> goes into much greater detail than the Malvern resolutions (of which 500,000 copies have been sold) about the economic goals it sets for humanity.

Says this report: "The war lays bare a situation which brooks no further delay. Decisive remedial measures must be taken in our time if worse calamity is to be averted. ... If this situation is not wisely handled it might lead to such revolutionary or reactionary folly as would bring immense loss and suffering to all classes. . . . Very big social changes are inevitable and rightly due. . . . Christian people . . . have been too ready to resent the application of a Christian critique to their own social standards and practices."

The commission's program is described by its chairman, the Archbishop of York, as "a conscious and deliberate attempt to cancel the divorce between theology and economics." Its avowed aim is to create an economy of abundance with "the interest of the consumer . . . the chief regulator of production."

To come out in favor of an economy of abundance is as safe for a churchman as to come out in favor of Heaven. About the still unsolved problem of how to make an economy of abundance work the churchmen of Britain are rather vague. They at no point tackle the problem of how to make the competitive forces of a free economy produce and distribute abundance. Competition is never mentioned in their report except to condemn its excesses. From start to finish the emphasis is on broad social planning and Government intervention in the interests of a more socialized economy.

Similarly the churchmen showed little understanding of the price mechanism, and at one point actually urge that the supply of money should be "scientifically directed" to two often opposite ends at once--to maintain steady production and at the same time to keep the currency steady in value (i.e., prevent changes in the price level).

But any man of good will can easily subscribe to most of the economic goals which the churchmen propose. They say: "The pre-war minimum standard of life and education was out of all proportion to the wealth-producing capacity of the community. . . .

"In the New Britain we seek:"

Individual Rights. "Every man should have the opportunity of a decent house, a healthy childhood, an education suited to his abilities and a chance to develop and express his social and spiritual nature --in work, in leisure and in retirement."

Job Security. "No man will have to fear the wreck of his home life and the destruction of his power to fulfil his family responsibilities through changes of employment quite beyond his own prevision or control."

Generous Wage. "A generous standard of life for all who are willing to take their due part in the work of the nation will be the first charge on industry as a whole."

Equal Education. "The social injustice of creating a cultured elite without giving to the great majority of the nation's youth a rightful share in our cultural heritage should cease at once."

Social Services--"as unconditional and universal as the use of the roads."

Equally sweeping and specific is the churchmen's program for industry, which is based on the premise that "the first need is a new public opinion which will discountenance any form of financial transaction or arrangement that yields a profit without rendering commensurate service, or that endangers the rights of others." This would immediately condemn "all speculation in currency or industrial shares" and "irresponsible use of wealth." Some of the other "rights and responsibilities" which the churchmen feel industry must regard "as no less binding than honesty or solvency":

Industrial Responsibility. "The nation will no longer allow the major decisions in industry and finance, which determine the country's wage standards, work standards, and unemployment totals, to be taken as now by a handful of people who are not bound to answer for the social consequence of their decisions." If private enterprise is "willing and able" to discharge these obligations, say the churchmen, "well and good." If it is not, the nation will step in.

No Price-Boosting. "The prices of all necessary commodities" must be kept "within the reach of all."

Congenial Work. "The grade of employment to which each man or woman should be entitled should not be lower than the grade for which he or she is qualified by experience and training."

Monetary Control. "The issue of money (including credit) shall be scientifically directed to keep the currency steady in value, to maintain production steadily at its best possible level, and to keep the purchasing power of the public level with the goods so produced."

Long-Range Planning. "The experience now being gained in the partial subordination of finance to war production, and the present experimental methods of financing public expenditure with a minimum of interest charges, should be extended to the post-war program of House Building and the necessary development of Agriculture and whatever other industries may be necessary to a balanced economy."

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