LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
LIVING ON CAPITAL
Ste,—The explanations why this country is in its present perilous state have been many and various, and the long-term and the short-term plans for improvement are not very convincing. The fundamental cause of our difficulties seems to have been missed. The industrial supremacy of the latter part of the nineteenth century was based on cheap coal. It was characterised by the accumulation of much wealth and extravagant expen- diture at home, and investments abroad, combined with the extreme poverty of the masses of the people, and was based on cheap labour. Coal consists of stored-up solar energy operating through thousands of years, and is of course a capital asset, but it was assumed that it would test for so long that its exploitation was of no consequence for generations to come. Conditions have changed. The standard of living has risen, wages have gone up and social services absorb much of the national wealth. Coal is now scarce and much more expensive, and shortage of labour and the severe weather have brought matters to a climax.
In two ways this could have been avoided. The mine-owners were content to take their profits, and not to concern themselves with keeping up-to-date with labour-saving mechanical contrivances, so that we in that respect are said to be years behind the United States. While this capital was a wasting asset, no attempt was made to take advantage of cosmic force and solar radiation, which will last as long as the world itself. From time to time the proposal to utilise the water poweL of the Severn has been considered, but has always been rejected because, in a commercial sense, it could' not compete for dividends with power from cheap coal. If this or other plans had been organised to use the energy available 'day by day, our present plight would have been less serious. It was not that we could not afford the expense. Countries like Eire, Sweden and Switzerland, with very limited amounts of so-called natural resources, were not deterred from doing what they saw to be necessary in the national interest, and they have reaped their reward.
But coal is not by any means the only example of reliance on a wasting capital asset. Fuel oil is another solar product which is being rapidly used up. The United States have come to realise that their oil supplies may be within measurable distance of their end. Hence comes their growing concern about oil from the Middle East. Perhaps the chief example, and the most fundamental, because the very existence of man- kind depends on it, is the exploitation of virgin soil in many lands, and the cutting down of forests. This is not a recent development. But humanity has failed to learn its lesson. The Romans so over-cropped parts of North Africa as to turn them into desert, and perhaps thereby contributed to their own downfall. Much of the Mediterranean shore has been deprived of its humus, and ruined, by destruction of forest growth. The changes and developments in methods of agriculture in this country since the time of the Ancient Britons are well described by Sir Albert Howard in his book on Farming and Gardening for Health or Disease. It is significant that the Black Death, which carried off from one-third to one-half of the population, coincided with a period of driective methods of agricultural procedure. Quite recent examples of exploitation leaaing to erosion or a desert state are to be found in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Africa. Nearly three-fifths of the agricultural land of the United States has become derelict. G. V. Jacks and R. 0. Whyte in their book, The Rape of the Earth, 1939, state, says Sir Albert Howard, that erosion is now proceeding "at a rate, and on a scale unparalleled in history," and that between 1914 and 1939 more soil was lost to the woild than in all previous ages.
It is indeed doubtful whether the agricultural land of the world immediately available is sufficient to provide an adequate diet for its whole population. But in the United States Theodore Roosevelt issued a warning, and in 1937 the question was taken up by the Government, whose Agricultural Department has reacted vigorously. The Govern- ments of the Dominions just mentioned have also become alive to the seriousness of the situation. Fortunately they will not be without some measure of support. Sir Albert Howard's pioneer work on the living humus of the soil, and the correct methods by which what is taken away is put back, have received ample corroboration from scientific and prac- tical workers in many countries. As for ourselves, the over-cropping necessitated by the war has left the soil in a precarious condition, and time" and correct methods of soil-treatment are necessary for its restoration. This fact seems to be to some extent recognised by the declared policy of the Government to increase the amount of livestock as soon as possible. This is one means of restoring vitality to the humus. But that is only One aspect of the problem. So long as we continue to pollute our rivers with sewage, and incidentally destroy our freshwater fish, and to discharge into the sea valuable organic wastes which ought to go back to the land. and endeavour to replace them by manufactured chemicals, we are asking for trouble. Such a policy is simply suicidal. If only our food position were more secure, we could afford to regard with more equanimity the reduction of amenities, until such a time as the restoration of energy necessary for production could be achieved.
What is true of coal is also teue in less degree of metals. The salvage of scrap-iron necessitated by the war is still a moral duty, and this applies to such other metals as lead, zinc, copper and tin, much of which, if properly conserved, could be used again and again. It is not generally known that gold possesses properties more or less unique, which, if it were more common, would make its use as a practical commodity extremely valuable. Considerable quantities have been, and are being • mined, but are then stored away in vaults in accordance with an outworn financial creed. It may be argued that plastics will take the place, not only of textiles, but of metals. To a large extent they doubtless will, but not exclusively, and plastics are not made out of nothing We are indeed adept at depriving ourselves of what is needful for our subsistence and amenities. Time is required to provide the necessary alternatives to reliance on coal alone, which was bound to fail sooner or later, but much could be done at once. Serious consideration should he given to the problem of saving organic waste from towns on a large scale and utilising it on the land, thereby reducing the need for imports.
Experiments have already been made. The condition of large numbers of disused or derelict watermills and windmills should be investigated with a view to their restoration. The bread of our ancestors, vastly better than we are getting today, was made from flour ground by these mills. They were squeezed out of existence by the large installations of roller-mills at the ports, using mainly hard wheat from abroad, and depen- dent ultimately on cheap coal. We have staked our existence on one natural stored-up product, of which admittedly there is still plenty, if it were obtainable. But the prospect of getting enough at a cheap rate seems to be extremely doubtful, and it therefore behoves us to explore all the possibilities, both immediate and remote, by which it can be replaced Beginnings have been made in Scotland, and the Glen Affric scheme is in process of development, but we need not envisage this problem as almost solely connected with power derived from rain-water in hilly areas. Surely it is not beyond the abilities of modern engineering to utilise tidal energy on a considerable scale and solar radiation. The requirements are a capacity to face facts, imagination, and courage.—.
Yours truly, NORMAN 13ENNETT. Toksowo Hotel, Dulwich Common, S.E. 21.
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