414 SECTIONAL 'TRANSACTIONS.—F*. 
obscuring individual liberty or retarding the dynamic impulse to progress 
of individual initiative. It examines closely the following aspects of the 
problem :— 
(1) The labours and sacrifices of generations of scientific thinkers and 
workers have given the human race, with amazing swiftness, a new age 
of MACHINES, full of immense potentiality as the productivity of man soars 
upwards. We are now in process of adjusting ourselves economically and 
spiritually to the new world of untold material plenty which lies ahead. 
Unless we solve the problem aright, man will become enslaved to the 
machine, and civilisation will crumple. 
(2) The era of ‘ laissez-faire’ is swiftly closing. Free and ruthless 
competition was the guiding principle of this phase of industrial evolution. 
Many still feel that industrial liberty is inseparable from competitive in- 
dustry. A new mentality and a new spirit must be projected on to this 
intangible thing called individual liberty and freedom. The issue between 
democracy and dictatorship is raising its head high. The basic principle 
of service, ‘ We are all members one of another,’ must receive widespread 
recognition if we are to find world salvation. 
(3) The planned economy of the future must be erected on the foundation 
‘Plan to Serve.’ Management must operate through an enlightened 
system of planned budgetary control. ‘There must be planned co-ordination 
of production and distribution, and our monetary policy must be adapted 
to serve the needs of the planned industrial policy. ‘The objective of the 
industrial policy must be to improve its service function—service to all 
those within industry ; service to the owners of capital ; and service to the 
community. 
(4) The human factor—that intangible and supreme factor in any econo- 
mic system—cannot be planned. The final test of any such system must 
be the degree to which it permits human personality to unfold its divine 
destiny. 'The planned economy of the future, to be successful, must be 
founded on the principle of planned co-operation. Its self-governing 
mechanism must afford every human unit the chance to contribute, to the 
working of the system, the maximum service which can be drawn from his 
distinctive personality and ability. The ‘ Industrial Highway Code’ of 
the future must be dedicated to the divine law of love. 
Mr. O. W. Roskitt.—Freedom and planning: some problems of 
industrial structure. 
(a) The post-war growth in large scale industrial enterprises. ‘The 
anticipated and achieved benefits of rationalisation and amalgamation. 
Central purchase and central sales. The movement towards administra- 
tive decentralisation. Staff and their recruitment in relation to increasing 
size of units. (6) Trade Associations : their functions, objects, and limita- 
tions. Co-operative sales development and research organisations. Price 
fixing and price cutting. Standardised costing systems. Independent 
chairmen. Compulsion of minority by majority. (c) Redundancy problem 
and relation of capacity to output. Inoperativeness of the check of bank- 
ruptcy with growth in size of units owing to social implications. Relation 
of financial strength to technical efficiency. Effect on amalgamations. 
Family investment trusts. (d) Marketing at home and abroad. Different 
types of retail outlets. The growth of the chain store and its effect in 
reducing retail prices. Opposition from small shopkeepers and the pos- 
sibility of grouping the latter either under the zgis of a wholesale house or 
in financially linked chains of independently managed shops with central 
