The Socialist Failure in France

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 154, 26 March 1938, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Socialist Failure in France

~ SPENDER, who has recently paid a visit to France, writ- |% /■ ing in the “Yorkshire Observer,” draws the following political and I I economic moral. He says:— 1V JL “&■ small amount of a few commodities, such as coffee and cotton, which were grown for export, but have been shut out of their natural markets by Protectionist folly, have been destroyed, and a great advertisement given to their destruction. Add them all up, and they are but an infinitesimal fraction of the ’world’s needs. “To argue from these exceptional cases that there is a great store of wealth being wickedly destroyed, or withheld from the markets which would be opened up if only more people were provided with more money, is stark nonsense. “Wherever this idea is tested—and it is being tested in various unavowed ways—inflation follows and money rapidly loses its value. “Since the War nearly all nations have tried this conclusion by distribuh ing money boons, hut invariably with the same result. “Unless these boons have been accompanied by a corresponding increase of production, all classes have been impoverished, since the same or a smaller product has had to be distributed between a larger number of people. “This is really what happens when currency depreciates. Everybody’s pound, dollar, franc, mark or rouble, as the case may be, buys less.

“From this point of view it matters not a straw whether a Government call itself Socialist, Individualist, Radical, Conservative. All are up against the same hard fact, that things have to be produced before they can be distributed. “I am writing from France, where this thing is being tried out under one’s eyes. After 18 months, in which the Government has been lavish in distributing money, or boons which cost money, politicians have to face the fact that production, instead of increasing, has declined, and that the franc has lost half its value, thereby registering the fact that a smaller quantity of things is being divided among a larger number of people. “With the exception of the Communists (who seem to be bent on wrecking) all the members of the ‘Popular Front,’ whether they call themselves Socialists or Radicals, are now telling the country that their programme cannot be carried out unless production is largely increased. “It has now become a necessity to form a Government which will bring this unpopular truth home to the mass of people and take the measures needed to redress the financial situation. This Government will be formed, because it must be, but there are great difficulties. “All through the week in which I am writing half the members of the ‘Popular Front’ have been saying that they will be ruined politically if they support such a Government, and the other half that the country will be ruined economically if they do not.”