ondary, or university teaching, with regard solely to the greatest possible educational efficiency, and free maintenance of such a kind as to enable the children to derive the full benefit of the education given; and

(d) the recognition of the teaching profession, without distinction of grade, as one of the most valuable to the community.

16. HOUSING

That the conference, noting the fact that the shortage of habitable cottages in the United Kingdom now exceeds one million, and that the rent and mortgages restriction act is due to expire six months after peace, regards a national campaign of cottage building at the public expense, in town and country alike, as the most urgent of social requirements.

That the attention of the government be called to the fact that, unless steps are taken to insist that the local authorities acquire the necessary sites, prepare schemes, plans, and specifications, and obtain all required sanctions, actually before the war ends there is very little chance of the half-a-million new cottages urgently needed in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales during the very first year of demobilisation being ready for occupation within that time.

That it is essential that the "Million Cottages of the Great Peace," to be erected during the first two or three years after the war ends by the local authorities, with capital supplied by the national government, free of interest, and a grant-in-aid in one or other form at least sufficient to prevent the schemes involving any charge on the rates, should be worthy to serve as models to other builders; and must accordingly be, not only designed with some regard to appearance, not identical throughout the land, but adapted to local circumstances, and soundly constructed, spacious, and healthy; including four or five rooms, larder, scullery, cupboards, and fitted bath but also suitably grouped not more than ten or twelve to the acre; and provided with sufficient garden ground.

17. THE ABOLITION OF THE POOR LAW AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUNICIPAL HEALTH SERVICE

That the conference notes with satisfaction the decision of the government both to establish a Ministry of Health and to abolish the whole system and organisation of the poor law.

It regards the immediate reorganisation, in town and country alike, of the public provision for the prevention and treatment of disease, and the care of the orphans, the infirm, the incapacitated, and the aged needs institutional care, as an indispensable basis of any sound social reconstruction.

It calls for the prompt carrying out of the government's declared intention of abolishing, not merely the boards of guardians, but also the hated workhouse and the poor law itself, and the merging of the work heretofore done for the destitute as paupers in that performed by the directly elected county, borough, and district councils for the citizens as such, without either the stigma of pauperism or the hampering limitations of the poor law system.

It feels that only in connection with such a reorganisation of the local health services-urgently required to meet the dangers attendant on demobilisation-can a Ministry of Health be of effective advantage to the nation.

18. TEMPERANCE REFORM

That the conference records its sense of the great social evil and national waste caused by the excessive consumption of alcoholic liquors, and by the unfortunate intemperance of a relatively small section of the population; that the conference sees the key to temperance reform in taking the entire manufacture and retailing of alcoholic drink out of the hands of those who find profit in promoting the utmost possible consumption; and the conference holds that in conjunction with any expropriation of the private interests the electors of each locality should be enabled to decide, as they may see fit:

(1) to prohibit the sale of alcoholic drink within their own boundaries;

(2) to reduce the number of places of sales, and to regulate the conditions of sale;

(3) to determine, within the fundamental conditions prescribed by statute, the manner in which the public places of refreshment and social intercourse in their own districts should be organised and controlled.

19. RAILWAYS AND CANALS

That the conference insists on the retention in public hands of the railways and canals, and on the expropriation of the

present stockholders on equitable terms, in order to permit of the organisation, in conjuction with the harbours and docks, and the posts and telegraphs, of a united national public service of communications and transport, to be worked, unhampered by any private interest (and with a steadily increasing participation of the organised workers in the management, both central and local) exclusively for the common good.

The conference places on record that if any government shall be so misguided as to propose, when peace comes, to hand the railways back to the shareholders, or should show itself so spendthrift of the nation's property as to give the companies any enlarged franchise by presenting them with the economics of unification or the profits of increased railway rates, or so extravagant as to bestow public funds on the re-equipment of privately-owned lines, the Labour Party will offer any such project its most strenuous opposition.

20. THE NEW ELECTRICITY SUPPLY

With regard to the generation of electricity for the provision, both for the factory and the home, of the cheapest possible power, light and heat, the conference declares that the Labour Party stands for the provision, by the government itself, of the score of gigantic super-power stations by which the whole kingdom could be supplied, and for the linking up of the present municipal and joint stock services for distribution to factories and dwelling-houses at the lowest possible rates.

The conference notifies that the Labour Party will offer the most strenuous opposition to this great national service being entrusted, on any terms whatsoever, to private capitalism.

21. COAL AND IRON MINES

That the conference urges that the coal mines, now under government control, should not be handed back to their capitalist proprietors, but that the measure of nationalisation, which became imperative during the war, should be completed, at the earliest possible moment, by the expropriation on equitable terms of all private interests in the extraction and distribution of the nation's coal (together with iron ore and other minerals).

The conference asks that the supply of these minerals should henceforth be conducted as a public service (with a steadily

increasing participation in the management, both central and local, of the workers concerned), for the cheapest and most regular supply to industry of its chief source of power, the retail distribution of household coal, at a fixed price, summer and winter alike, and identical at all railway stations throughout the kingdom, being undertaken by the elected municipal district, or county council for the common good.

22. LIFE ASSURANCE

That the conference declares that, partly as a means of affording increased security to the tens of thousands of policy holders whose bonuses are imperilled by capital depreciation and war risks, and partly in order to free the nation from the burdensome and costly system of the industrial insurance companies, the state should take over (with equitable compensation to all interests affected) the whole function of life assurance, giving in place of the present onerous industrial insurance policies a universal funeral benefit free of charge; putting the whole class of insurance agents in the position of civil servants administering the state insurance business; developing to the utmost the beneficial work of the friendly societies in independence and security, and organising, in conjunction with these societies, on the most approved principles, a safe and remunerative investment of popular savings.

23. AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL LIFE

(i.) That the conference regards the present arrangements for the production and distribution of food in this country, and the life to which many thousands of country dwellers are condemned, as nothing short of a national disgrace, and as needing to be radically altered without delay.

(ii) That it is essential that the government should resume control of the nation's agricultural land, and ensure its utilisation not for rent, not for game, not for the social amenity of a small social class, not even for obtaining the largest percentage on the capital employed, but solely with a view to the production of the largest possible proportion of the foodstuffs required by the population of these islands under conditions allowing of a good life to the rural population and at a price not exceeding that for which foodstuffs can be brought from other lands.

(iii) That this end can probably best be attained by a combination of

(a) government farms, administered on a large scale, with the utmost use of machinery;

(b) small holdings made accessible to practical agriculturists; (c) municipal enterprises in agriculture, in conjunction with municipal institutions of various kinds, milk depots, sewage works, etc.;

(d) farms let to co-operative societies and other tenants, under covenants requiring the kind of cultivation desired.

(iv.) That under all systems the agricultural labourer must be secured a healthy and commodious cottage, with sufficient garden ground, the opportunity of getting an accessible allotment, and, when he so desires, a small holding, together with a wage continuously adequate for the requirements of body and mind.

(v.) That the conference suggests that the distribution of foodstuffs in the towns-from milk and meat to bread and vegetables should, with equitable compensation for all interests expropriated and persons displaced, be taken out of the hands of the present multiplicity of dealers and shopkeepers, and organised by consumers, co-operative societies, and the local authorities working in conjunction.

24. CONTROL OF CAPITALIST INDUSTRY

That the conference insists, especially in view of the rapid development of amalgamations and trusts, on the necessity of retaining after the war, and of developing the present system of organising, controlling, and auditing the processes, profits, and prices of capitalist industry; that the economies of centralised purchasing of raw materials, foodstuffs, and other imports must be continued, and, therefore, the "rationing" of all establishments under a collective control; that the publicity of processes thus obtained has a valuable effect in bringing inefficient firms up to a higher level; that the "costing" of manufacturers' processes and auditing of their accounts, so as to discover the necessary cost of production, together with the authoritative limitation of prices at the factory, the wholesale warehouse and the retail shop, affords, in industries not nationalised, the only security against the extortion of profiteering; and that it is as much the duty of the govern