MUTUAL EXCHANGE OF SERVICES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 93, 21 April 1933, Page 6

MUTUAL EXCHANGE OF SERVICES

■ *To the Editor.) Sir,—There seems to be some considerable confusion of thought as to what is meant by a mutual exchange of services. There are. those who think that it merely applies to individual relationships, and therefore has very little bearing upon the present world crisis. Such a view is tirely wrong. Any economic law that is applicable to the individual, must also apply, not only to the nation, but also internationally, or\ its principle is unsound. I claim that the mutual exchange of services, individually, nationally, and internationally, is the key, and the only key- to the solution of the world's present crisis., Unfortunately, the practice in the psit has not resulted in a mutual exchange, but has been more or less on a six to four basis,, with the result that we have huge amountsl of frozen capital on the one hand, and our stores and.granaries are full of produce, all of which, is. perfectly useless at the present time, because the world at large is po'syerless to make use of it.,. It is not that it is not wanted, but that the people have not the means to obtain it. Hence the whole machinery of our exchange of services has been thi'own out of gear. ,'.'",,- Many and varied '■ expedients have been devised and adopted with a view to bolstering up the old six-to-four system, but all of those that* have hot already failed are now failing to .bring about the required adjustment., The world has been surfeited, with questions of gold standards, finance manipulations," Ottawa agreements, Empire preference, quotas, etc., all of which are quite incapable of coping with the position. The world has suffered three years (more or less) of these various nostrums, : and -the; more she has struggled to get out of the mire the deeper in she has got, which only goes to show that "balancing budgets," creating unemployment, increasing taxation, is the surest way to ruin; .. ' And now it is suggested that we restrict output with h view to increasjng prices, oblivious of the fact that reduction of output means a corresponding reduction in copsumption. Hopes have been-raised at times over; the possible increase in prices, but, until there is a change in world policy, or' at: least Empire, policy, prices cannot rise materially. They will continue to fluctuate, but the tendency of the various expedients imposed upon us is- to reduce prices, for the reason that all of these expedients have a depressing influence, the one depressing the other, and all working in a vicious circle. Strange to say-, the biggest factor in. retarding recovery and making the exchange of services more possible, has so far been-entirely overlooked. And it is to this factor more than any other, that the world owes its present position. Being a matter.affecting financial interests, ■is probably the reason why it has n6t been discussed. Unfortunately, it is too big a subject to discuss in the scope of this letter. In conclusion, let me say that the ohly way to world recovery lies through a mutual exchange of" services, individually, nationally, andl internationally^ and anything which stands in the way of this being accomplished, has to be ruthlessly thrust on one side. We have a great future before us if we will only grasp it, but we require a greater knowledge o£ the facts by which we are surrounded, a gi'eater realisation of true values, backed ,up by a strong spirit of "doing unto others as we would that they should do unto us."—l am, etc., W. MADDISON.