"Direction of Labor"

Britain's Labor Government delicately termed it "direction of labor." But the socialist decree, which goes into effect this week, had been drafted by Minister of Labor George Isaacs under the Government's emergency economic power, and meant, to all but pussyfooting apologists, labor conscription. It provided that:

P: Men & women who lose their jobs can get new jobs only through Government agencies.

P: With certain exceptions (married women and girls under 20), the Government can send unemployed workers anywhere that it wants them.

P: Employers may not dismiss a "directed worker," nor "hire or try to hire" new personnel except through the Government. Maximum punishment for infractions: -L-100 ($400) fine or three months in prison. Cooed Minister Isaacs: ". . . It will be necessary to force only a small minority to accept essential jobs against their will."

Since the order applied only to unemployed workers, it could be made effective on a large scale only by creating unemployment. Said the New Statesman & Nation: "First . . . labor has got to become unemployed; and as a means of creating unemployment, unessential trades will be denied priority in allocation of fuel and raw materials. In other words, manpower is to be redistributed by inducing over a not yet clearly defined sector of industry, a species of creeping paralysis."

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