tion. But in the name of Socialism it was felt necessary to look after the economically weak force.1 The Möllendorff scheme had provided for representation of consumers from the Central Association of Consumers' Societies (Co-operative), but the idea was not much insisted upon, as it was expected that the egoisms of the various producing groups would cancel each other out. But Sinzheimer, the reporter of Committee of the National Assembly concerned with Article 34a, had emphasised the importance of the consumers' element, and in the course of the proceedings there it had been remarked that in the making of prices by the parties to production the consumer had been made to suffer. This had been so in the regulation of coal prices, where the employers and employed had come to happy agreements at the expense of the coal consumers.2 Departmental representatives from the Ministry of Labour were against the introduction of the consumers, as it would disturb the parity between workers and employers, and would cause difficulty in the numberrelationship of all the other groups. Little was said in the National Assembly debates on this question, as the purely constitutional relationship between Reichstag and Federal Economic Council was there of more importance. On the Economic Committee of the Ministry for Economic Affairs, consumers had their representatives, and in the Ministry itself, Professor Hirsch, successor of Möllendorff, advocated consumers' representation and care of consumers' interests under a policy called "consumers' Socialism." 4 3 The In the Government project of December 4, 1919, the consumers were given 10 per cent of the total representation of 200, and the Ministry for Economic Affairs made great play in their argument for the project with their scheme consumers' representation. Along with 1 Cf. Schäffer, op. cit. p. 24. 2 Aktenstück, Nr. 391, p. 398. Industry, Agriculture and Commerce," it said, "as the vocations serving the production and distribution of commodities, the final consumers must find their representation in the Federal Economic Council; this need not be so for the intermediate consumers because they are already provided for in their capacity as producers. On the contrary the interest of the final consumer is not sufficiently secured through the parts of the population called to represent the producers, as experience has shown that in the conflict of interests the workers, too, are inclined to the producers' standpoint, and the danger arises that workers and employers will come to an understanding at the expense of the consumers.' This was true, but what did that truth imply in terms of representation? "The interests of the final consumers in a Federal Economic Council, which has to concern itself with questions of production, cannot, of course, claim equal numerical representation with the producing groups of the population. Nevertheless its consideration must be so weighty, and the selection of the representatives be so established, that an assured weight of voting will be secured to it, and the manifold consumers' groups given the possibility of bringing forward their various wishes." It was expected, then, that the 10 per cent of consumers as a group would be supported by the group of officials and liberal professions, and on occasion by the Reichsrat and Government appointees. Industry was not much in favour of such representation, and but a few days after the project appeared, the journal of the German iron-smelting industry 1 proclaimed, in an article entitled "No Economic Parliament !" against special consumers' representation, on the grounds that pure consumers were represented in the Reichstag (the political parliament) and the producers' associations were consumers of each other's products. This argument 1 Stahl und Eisen, Nr. 50, Dec. 11, 1919; "Kein Wirtschaftsparlament!" Dr. Friedrich Fremdt, Berlin. became the weapon of the producers in their battle with the consumers. Against this the consumers' organisations began to point out that the Industrial Alliances would exploit the consumers, and that a policy of priceraising could be easily pursued without the workers understanding what was occurring, because they knew nothing of the facts of costings. In the National Assembly a member of the German People's Party rejected the claim for consumers' representation on the ground that the task of the Economic Council was to ensure increased production, and here the consumers could not help; the best protection of the consumers is always and will always remain the increase of production." 2 According to what policy, in what directions, in what qualities and quantities, production was to be increased, was not discussed in this speech. Yet such questions were the essential of consumers' Socialism. In the Sixth Committee of the Constitutional Assembly in February-March 1920 came the main onslaught of the producers' organisations on the consumers' representation. The Imperial Associations of German Industry, asking for more representation, said it could be given without an increase in the total membership of the Economic Council, by the mere elimination of the consumers, for Parliament, the workers, and the mutual claims of the various groups safeguarded their interests sufficiently. Agriculture, too, wanted the complete abolition of consumers' representation; so did the Central Industrial Alliance, and various commercial organisations. Against these tactics the various consumers' associations, the Federal Committee for Consumers' Interests, the Federal Association of German Consumers' Societies 3 (Co-operative), the Central Association of German Consumers' Societies (Co-operative), petitioned for more 1 Cf. Schloesser, Der Konsument in Rätesystem. 3 2 Cf. Heilfron, vol. ix. p. 92. Representing, the petition said, 16 million consumers. representation than was already accorded them. Through the influence of the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs in Committee and Sub-Committee, the consumers' group rose in number from twenty to thirty; yet fell slightly in proportion to total membership through the great increases accorded to other groups. Whatever there was of conflict in the establishment of a "Provisional" (changed from " preparatory " by the Sixth Committee for Economic Affairs) Federal Economic Council centred mainly on the numbers of the groups and the consumers in relation to the producers. The other articles passed the various stages of discussion with little controversy or alteration.1 We have now to turn to an analysis and appreciation of the constitution, status and procedure of the Provisional Federal Economic Council (Der vorläufige Reichswirtschaftsrat). 1 The following is a table showing the representation of the groups in the Council, according to the Government project of December 4, 1919, and the final form of the decree of May 4, 1920: CHAPTER V THE FEDERAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL, ITS COMPOSITION, STATUS AND PROCEDURE The rights and interests of a nation can only be preserved by institutions. It is not the spread of knowledge or the march of intellect that will be found sufficient sureties for the public welfare in the crisis of a country's freedom.— DISRAELI. THE decree of May 4, 1920,1 called into life the Federal Economic Council, which met for the first time on June 30, 1920, in the former Prussian Upper House in Berlin. Though it is not a governmental body whose constitution, powers and status are definitive, and though it exists partly to establish a new constitution and substructure for itself, the conflicts which were solved with so much difficulty at its birth, the general satisfaction with the division of seats among the various groups, the services it has rendered, and the extreme difficulty of finding any more precise and intricate basis for its composition, make it difficult to imagine any speedy change of system for Germany, or any very much better model for argument for other countries. The full translation of the decree has been reserved. for a place in the Appendices,2 and in this chapter we shall be concerned only with a general description of the constitution of the Council, together with a commentary thereon, and a discussion of its internal organisation and procedure. 1 Verordnung über den vorläufigen Reichswirtschaftsrat vom 4 Mai, 1920; Reichs Gesetz-Blatt, Nr. 99, s. 858. 2 Appendix VI., q.v. It is an integral part of this chapter. |