AN IMPERIAL STOCK-TAKING.
THE British people is just beginning to discover the British Empire. It can hardly be said to have begun to realize all that this discovery implies. But it is, at any rate, becoming increasingly aware of the fact that this Empire exists and that- it is not only a wonderful thing in itself, but the most hopeful thing in a world of political and above all economic difficulties. Dimly it sees in- it the saving opportunity which may enable us to refashion 'our world again after the great breakdown; and to refashiOn it in accordanee with those ideals which the .War itself made all the more vivid and purposeful in contrast with its own wastefulness.. There is conse- quently a widespread eagerness for information about the Empire. That eagerness is a very real thing in the House .of Commons, and in all parties, notwithstanding the regrettably parochial attitude of many of thOse who Were responsible for the anti-Imperial vote against Preference the other day. It is very real and growing in the business world, with the general public, and last; but very far from least, in the world of schoolmasters and teachers. And, as Mr. Baldwin said in this connexion at the Australian and New Zealand Luncheon Club, " the more eager desire to learn may be very easily translated into an eager desire to do."
Fortunately the opportunities for satisfying that desire for knowledge are rapidly multiplying. : Wireless and the airship may, indeed, multiply them enormously in the next decade. Meanwhile; to confine ourselves to the present day, we have, the Empire assembled and made visible to the masses of our people at Wembley. Whether that Exhibition will prove a financial success or not will, no doubt, depend on that most uncertain of all factors, our English weather. But its success as a tremendous instrument_ of _ national education is already assured. One can only- throW out, in complete. uncertainty. as to its practical feasibility, the suggestion that somehow Or other it should not simply be dismantled and disappear, but should be made a permanent institution and a permanent centre of pilgrimage for all the citizens of this country, from the schoolchildren upwards. Some adequate pic7 torial and literary record of it in book form_ should at any rate be compiled and rendered available atmoderate cost; bah for those who have not been able to, visit Wembley; and, as a quickener of memory, to those who have.
That is far the general public. - The needs of the more serious student are, indeed, already being met in several ways Under, the- title, 'The BritiSh Enipire : . a Survey, a series of twelve vohimes is being -issued* under the general editorship-of Mr. Hugh Gunn, assisted by a strong Advisory Cominittee, of which four volnines are now Published. Of these, 'The 'Story of the -Empire is dealt .With by - Sir Charles-.Lueas; The Constitution, Administra- tion and Laws Of the Enipii.e by Professor A. Berriedale -Keith:, The Resources of the Empire and their Developnient by Mr. RI-Taxis:Lewin; Health Problenis_of t1W Empire,' Past; Present and Future, by Dr. Andrew Balfour and-Dr. H. H.
Scott; It is enough to say_ of these volumes that they are not only in their matter worthy. of the competent authors who have produced them,- but that-they are.well arranged and Well written, books .which everyone'inter- ested in Imperial affairs-will want to-read for their interest and suggestiveness as well as to have it hand on his shelves for- reference. . Of a different' type; but no less significant as evidence of the deiire for information about the Empire; is the series of twelve volumes on - The Resources of the E-mpiret; which has, been brought out * The British Empire a Survey." (W: Collins. 12 vols. -16s. each:) t The Resources of-the Empile.- -12- £7-.7s. the het; 21a. each vol.) by the Federation of British Industries. Each of the great categories of materials or foodstuffs has its volume; the most interesting, perhaps, for the general reader being the voluines on Chemicals by Messrs. A. W. Ashe and H. G. T. Boornian, on Fuel, edited by Mr. G. W. Andrew, and on Communications, by Mr. W. Tetley Stephenson, with an introduction by Sir Halford Mackinder. These are, in 'the main, workS of reference, and their general character is well described by the Prince of Wales, in a pithy little foreword, as an "Imperial stock-taking," and by Sir Eric Geddes, in his General Introduction, as " a compendious BUYers' Guide to - our Imperial Resources."
Confining ourselves, for the moment, with the Federa- tion of British Industries, to the economic aspect of the Empire, what is the conclusion to be drawn from all this mass of information ? It is the neglect of our vast unutilized assets, the failure to make use of our oppor- tunities. To realize the full measure of that failure we must have a standard of comparison. Such a standard is afforded by the United States. The United States are in extent less than one-quarter of the British Empire, and somewhat less than one-half of that part of the British Empire which is more especially comparable with them, viz., the area comprised by the self-governing Dominions. With the one exception of mineral oil their total ascertained and potential natural resources are incomparably inferior to those of the Empire. More compact geographically.they have, in their develOpment, been confined in the mainto. land transport, as compared with the cheaper ocean transport available for the pur- poses of Imperial development. For the capital and population required for development they have had to indent upon others—in the main upon this country. There is no inherent reason why the development of the United States during the past century should have been much more -rapid or on a much larger scale than that of the British Dominions. What are the actual facts ? In that period the United States have built up an addi- tional population of about 100 millions on a higher average level of prosperity than exists anywhere in the world. Their railway mileage is nearly as great as that of the rest of the world put together. Their output of Coal and oil, of iron and steel, greatly exceeds that of the rest of the world. _ So does their. consumption of, elec- tricity. Ai for • such things as niotOrcars the United Statei turn out, I imagine, many more in a month than the rest of the world turns out in a year. In the British .
Empire, over the same period, our white populatiOn has -grown '14: only $0". -thinking, and of that growth barely 15 has been outside theie iilandS. There has been a great growth of populatian -in India and Africa, it is true, but not 'so much-the result of positive economic development as of the removal of negative retarding factors such- as civil war or. 'slave, -raiding. Measured by, the other standards of wealth produetion _ indicated aboireand even _alloWing far our greater volume of shipping—it would- be -difficult to claim for the British Empire as a whole an effective economic, output of much more than half that of *the United States: As for the Dominions, Which in population, climate' and character most nearly resemble the "United-States, they are, frankly, nowhere in compairiSon. Canada, lying alongside of the United States for the whole .width of a continent has barely added eight millions -to her population in a century. Australia; - which Froude thought forty years ago would by now have thirty millions, has not yet topped the six million inark: . - - How are we to account for this immense disparity be- tween Arnerica's` economic achievement and our ,own ? The answer lies -in the simple fact that Ai:erica has had a national economic policy of development, and conse- quently has developed, while the British Empire has had no such policy. A national policy is one which aims at concentrating and intensifying, within the political frontiers of a State, the whole cycle of economic develop- ment, to the farthest possible extent to which the material and human resources of the State will allow. That cycle begins with the interaction and mutual stimulation of production and consumption, and widens progressively as the surplus of production over consumption in the shape of capital, on the one hand, and in the shape of increased population on the other, increase both producing and consuming power. The process may be intensified; Where natural resources are abundant, by encouraging the influx of additional capital and additional population from without. Where capital and population are abun- dant but natural resources limited, the natural limitations may be overcome by the importation of additional raw materials and foodstuffs. In either case the complemen- tary factors required for rapid development are purchased by the export of part, of-the surplus of production. But the process may also be slowed down and, in greater or less measure, dislocated, if surplus capital and population leave the territory of the State, or if its consuming power is not used to stimulate its own production, but dissipated in stimulating foreign production. Now, the policy of the -United States has been one which has consistently aimed at meeting the whole needs of American consump- tion by American production, and at intensifying the process of development by encouraging the influx of capital and—till quite recently—of population. In this country, on the other hayed, there has, for most of the last century at any rate, been no attempt of any kind to see to it that our consumption should stimulate either local or Imperial production, or that capital or population should remain within the confines of the Empire. The unregu- lated economic activities of our people have consequently been dissipated all over the world, building up the United States, building up the Argentine, building up our indus- trial competitors in Europe.. Wherever any country has had an economic policy it has made use of our capital, our population, or our market for its own purposes without let or hindrance. Amid the general scramble our Dominions and Colonies have only secured a very trifling share of the life and growth-giving factors which we squandered at large. Most of the Dominions, it is true, have had a local economic policy, aimed at local develop- ment. But the smallness of their population and home market, and the competition of more favoured starters in the scramble for the capital, settlers or markets of the Mother Country, have imposed very rigid limits upon the success of their several and unco-ordinated policies.
If the British Empire is to develop, if its vast latent resources are to be translated, into terms of population and human welfare, it must have an Imperial economic policy. Such a policy need not preclude the existence alongside of it of particular local policies, aimed at the special stimulation of local production. The ideal of an Imperial Zollverein, with complete internal Free Trade :and a single tariff against the outside world, may be attractive, and ultimately, perhaps, not impossible. But it is not practical politics at present, or, indeed, easily compatible with the constitutional, position in the Empire. And in any case it is not essential to a policy of Imperial development. All that the latter requires is, that the market of each part of the Empire, in so far as it is not supplied by its domestic production,_ and its capital apd population, in so far_ as they are not usefully absorbed at home, should be prim- arily devoted to helping forward the development of the rest of the Empire. That result can be attained, in complete consonance with the political and eco.nornic autonomy of each part of the Empire, by the policy of Imperial Preference. Everywhere in the Dominions the immense possibilities of a. policy of Imperial. Preference have long been realized. The obstacle to Empire development lies in this country, an obstacle created partly by lack PI sufficient imagination to think Imperially. partly by the widespread incapacity to understand even the elements 01 national economics km which tho or,.so7called k! orthodox" school of economists, has been. respoosible, Wembley and such hooks as,those under review may help to remedy the. former. failing. For the latteY only the bitter lessons of experience, it .would semi, are likely to provide a. cure.
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