My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyuntil greater production for the larger market of Europe will enable us to pay for manydesirable things we cannot now afford. The present burden will eventually be lifted bythe larger turnover available for taxation through this increase of production and ofreal wealth. It will be easier to secure agreement for the policies of expansion than forthose of contraction. Trade unionism can then play not a lesser but a larger part in thedevelopments which greater policies make possible.A world of many new possibilities presents trade unionism with an invitation and achallenge to move from the present to the future. There is no limit to trade unionactivity except taking over the government of the country; yet when they forbidgovernment to intervene in questions of wages and prices this is precisely what theyare doing. The function of government in the modern world must be chiefly economic,and the main question in modern economics is the matter of wages and prices. Ifgovernment cannot enter this sphere of wages and prices it ceases to be a government.If trade unionism stops a government doing the job which the people have elected it todo, a showdown in the end is inevitable and will have to be faced. The will to facesuch a sad situation should always be present, though I hope and believe it can beavoided, with the aid of clear thought and good will.Law and orderGovernment's duty to give economic leadership in the modern age is becoming asclear as its duty to maintain law and order. Failure to play a decisive part in economicaffairs can even lead to failure in its first task of maintaining order. When thegovernment is proving so inadequate in this respect even within the affluent society, agrave question can arise in economic conditions more conducive to disorder. Indealing with any such issue I must bear in mind the long time it has taken me to livedown my old reputation for being too tough, but I think many reasonable people willagree with the proposals I have now to make for the maintenance of law and orderwhich even today shows signs of breaking down. The first principle is to have a largeenough police force, properly paid and treated. Both in the size of our police force andin the treatment of their members we compare badly with some other Europeancountries. The proper payment of scientists and police should be the first charge onthe State, for even the survival of the nation can depend upon them. The secondprinciple I advocate is the constitution of a national police force in addition to thelocal police forces. The local police with their regional roots give admirable andindispensable service. Yet to meet mobile threats to law in the modern age we needsomething more than a system devised to deal with highwaymen on horseback. It isrightly said that the certainty of detection is the best prevention of crime, though Iwould add that we must be tougher with violent crime than present political opinionwould permit. To govern we must have a proper and modern machine of governmentand to prevent and defeat crime we must have a modern machine of law and order.This means a national police force, and as our people awake in crisis we shall get it.Crisis and the way into EuropeThe very severity of the coming crisis will bring a new clarity and sense to a peoplewhose finest qualities are always shown in emergency. It may be thought that I desirethis economic crisis to come, because I originally staked my political life on the beliefthat it would occur in the end. Yet I gave my whole life to the effort of ending thegrinding misery of poverty in my generation, and cannot therefore wish to see even atemporary interruption of the affluent society for the present generation. Probably the416 of 424