MR LLOYD GEORGE'S PLAN.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LVI, Issue 41, 24 May 1935, Page 4

MR LLOYD GEORGE'S PLAN.

Advocating his plan for national action, Mr Lloyd George said that recently there had been abundant evidence of a growing public opinion, by no means confined to one party, in favour of a bold initiative being taken by the Government in the direction of using public credit to substitute work for doles. He had consulted some of the most reliable financial experts in the country as to what money would be available each year, for capital expenditure on development of home resources, over and above what was required for the ordinary transactions of business and commerce. Lord Snowden, after a nfost meticulous examination of the figures of the national income, had come to the conclusion that there was a surplus of saving of at least £200,000,000 a year, and he was convinced that that sum could be applied forthwith and every year for the purposes of national development and reconstruction. Before the War this surplus was lent to foreign countries and to the Dominions, and, occasionally, to the Colonies, for the development of their resources. A great deal was expended on wild-cat advances, and hundreds of millions had been lost in that way. They were making practically no advances at the present moment for enterprise, sound or unsound, across the seas, and therefore the money was available for opening up home resources. What were they doing with it? They were hoarding it. Treasuries throughout the world were always attacking individuals who hoarded gold. They were not nearly as foolish as Governments who hoarded credit. "If you hoard your gold it does not fruitify; it does not sprout and bud and bloom and bear, fruit. But if it were dug up in a hundred years it would still have its fuli value —perhaps a higher value—but if you hoard paper —and that is what unused credit means —it is not merely that it does not grow and bring forth abundance, it soon crumbles. Worst of all, it is apt to rot. There are signs that it is beginning to rot in this country, as it did in America. Use it. Make it circulate. Get it to do work to produce something ere it is too late. It is better for its health."