ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 154, 28 December 1936, Page 6

ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION

(To the Editor.) Sir,—ln quoting with approval Mr. Anthony Eden's declaration' at Bradford, "that the world would act wisely were it to turn from armaments competition to economic co-operation," you say: ". . .if some means could be discovered to use the surpluses of one part to balance the shortages of another part, the wealth of the world would be better "used, and. the way would be open to increase that wealth by bringing into production all the idle forces and resources of labour, capital, and land. Yet how- to do this is not clear. Statesmen, economists, and financiers speak with uncertain sound." Later you add: ". . . the formulation of a world economic policy appears difficult indeed." It may well "appear difficult indeed" when statesmen, economists—more especially "economists of note"—and financiers carefully and resolutely turn a blind eye to the most fundamental facts of economics—(l) that absolutely the only field for the employment of labour and capital is th^ land; and (2) that, in the last analysis, all wealth, including capital, is produced by labour from the land. But for this wilful blindness, they would, surely, realise that the root cause of unemployment is- not foreign competition, but that land, monopoly which locks up the land and locks the people out. ;■ And realising that fact, the way would then be open for them to accept the means, long ago discovered, of "tfsing the surpluses of one part (of the world) to balance the shortages of another part." That means, of course, is absolute free trade between the nations of the world, as was clearly shown by Henry George many years ago—but, of course, Henry George is not "an economist of note"—in his "Protection of Free Trade?" In that book, too little read nowadays, Henry George demonstrates that tariffs, embargoes, quotas, and other trade barriers are, in essence, forms of economic warfare and are bound to lead in the long run to actual warfare; whereas absolute freedom of trade, which involves the abolition of land monopoly as well as of all taxes on trade and industry, is the natural and the most perfect' form'of economic co-operation between the nations of the world.—l am, etc., GEORGEITE.