"IN A TROUGH OF THE WAVES.

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 19, 22 January 1921, Page 16

"IN A TROUGH OF THE WAVES.

Sir R. Home, President of the Board of Trade :'■''•' . ..••.-. * "We have not to consider abstract economic problems of how the thing is jjoing to^'atfect the finance of any particular industry. What we have to consider is.'-, tha^ood of the State and the prospects of finding content and harmony for the whole body of-the people. At present we are rather in the trough of the ' waves, after having' been for two years almost on the crest.. Every. great war has the same result. , We have had two years of good trade j but I am afraid people.have been spending.and speculating with a complete disregard to the dis 7 location which has taken place iii the fortunes and finances of the world. To expect that we were immediately to arrrive again at a period similar to the' beginning of 1914 would.be tlie work of a dreamer, and not of a practical man. There must be harder work by employers as well as by workmen. What is needed is an enormous iricrease ( in,the output of the whole body politic. Unless we.have greater, production ,we , cannot have decreased costs. I believe that in the near future ships are going to have more coal to j carry than during the last few years. If we get back to anything like the coal output before the war, it will-make ah efaormous difference! to; the' ship-owning, industry. '•', In many respects , labour in. this country is ; steadier and- sounder than at any perjod during the last two. years. There are extremists, who cause trouble-in certain.districts, but they do not count in comparison with the great body of steady British opinion. We have less to fear from the Bolshevist spirit in this country than at , any (time during recent months.-. Very ;few'desire to follow in'the steps,of Lenin'and Trotsky. America, has been able- to get into "our colonial markets. ": We ought to do every- 1 thing in our power to get bock the >trade.and commerce of our great Dominions, and to exploit other markets as well. It is no longer any good to say we will not trade with Russia, because of the character of her .Government.' Sooner, or later we'must trade with Russia, and it is no good waiting "