ECONOMIC STUDIES
THE books published just now on economic subjects are mainly of two classes, namely, collections of facts directly connected with the War, with or without theories deduced therefrom, and secondly, frankly theoretical books with more or less attention to facts due to the War. Dock Labour and Decasualisation is an example of the first class. The authors have compiled an impartial history of British dock- labour and leave us to be impressed by the revelation of squalid facts. It is disheartening to see how the Unions have shortsightedly concentrated only upon immediate rises of wages, and have left untouched the larger questions by which wiser leaders might also have advanced the men's welfare on a stronger basis. The employers with less visible interest in decasualization and continually harassed in the matter of increased wages, have neglected to initiate reforms on a serious scale. The Report of Lord Shaw's Court of Inquiry, held in 1919, contains several excellent recom- mendations to which both sides agreed and yet there is little progress made. Another record of facts without much dogmatism has a wider interest though it covers a shorter period of time. This is Mr. Lloyd's Experiments in State Control, excellently produced by the Carnegie Endowment and the Clarendon Press. The author was intimately concerned with the War-time control begun by the War Office over jute, wool, leather, &c., and later with the infinite ramifications of food control. He gives in detail the story of these controls and the general reader will find plenty of illumination upon his own past trials and learn of other people's trials which he never suspected. Mr. Lloyd writes well though occa- sionally repeating himself and makes even " Oils and Fats " attractive subjects. Without making much of difficulties with Allies and neutrals, shortage of tonnage or other impedi- ments, he does not disguise his opinion that the trained officials and the business men brought into Government offices did uncommonly well for their country, and we agree that they did. None the less he is refreshingly aware of the dangerous temptations of our Civil Servants to become our masters. He proves his case that if a Ministry needed to control the supply or price of a retail article over the counter it really had to control the raw material in a Scottish byre, an Indian plantation or a New Zealand homestead. He rightly praises the wisdom with which the new bureaucrats, the experts in each trade, were encouraged to take respon- sibility. Equally he realises, that they would never make a success of, or even consent to, the "rings " (the recognized associations of traders) or the State monopolies in time of peace. If not competition, then some other stimulus must take the place of that desire to win the War which alone, at home as in the field, induced successful administration and patient acquiescence by the population. It was not a matter of the pocket but of the spirit. Militarism was forced upon us : so, too, was State control at home. Mr. Lloyd sees how they went together, and though an official he honestly exclaims, " Personal freedom and private property are condemned by the exigencies of modern war : and I confess to a prejudice in favour of both."
The question of State initiative and control is prominent in the thesis of an Indian student upon the histories of British, Prussian and Indian railways. The more backward a nation is, the more need for State action. Railways were successfully initiated by British private enterprise. In India they have had to be to some extent imposed by the Government. Though Mr. Jagtiani states that private enterprise failed there, he means no more than that only a few companies raised their capital without a guarantee of interest from the Government. This is purely a matter of finance. It is recognized that nearly all were laid by money raised in the English market and that in management the Government has not succeeded as the companies have. In finance and industry, as in morals, personal liberty and responsibility draw the best out of those who are advanced enough to use them, and the story of the Prussian railways confirms this. The people there were more backward than the British, especially before despotic rule was shaken in 1848, and the State there had to take far more control cf development.
The last two books before us deal mainly with the present and future. We make no apology for again referring to Is Unemployment Inevitable ? which we mentioned a few weeks ago. Though a composite book by a dozen or so writers can hardly be attractive literature, this is an important collection of opinion. We dealt with their treatment of matters of gold and exchange. These subjects also appear in The Unclaimed Wealth. Mr. Abbati has a confused style in which he urges that the modern commercial problem is not how to produce but how to sell products. The solution should lie in equalizing production and consumption. The Government should guarantee effective demand for products by turning on and off the tap of employment. The public should spend to the utmost, for saving is anathema. Demand. not production, makes wealth. Does this mean that un- limited inflation would bring us infinite wealth ? That goes too far even for those who, like ourselves, have opposed a rapid artificial deflation. But the authors of Is Unem- ployment Inevitable ? touch on many subjects besides the evils of deliberate and exaggerated inflation and deflation and the desirability of stabilizing prices by regulating bank rates, not according to reserves, but to fluctuations of prices. They press, as we have done, for the advancement or post- ponement, according to the state of employment, of works paid for by public bodies. They write as Free Traders and have no foolish dread of high wages at home or prosperity among our continental customers. We are not convinced by Professor Cassel's arguments that high taxation does not increase costs of production, but he writes with excellent sense upon unemployment. They are not optimistic about our iron and steel trade and are rather doubtful over cotton, but with these two very serious exceptions, their reasoned views encourage us greatly.
Previous page
