RUIN OR RECOVERY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13903, 3 November 1919, Page 2

RUIN OR RECOVERY.

(By Harold Spender.)

Are we not just a- little overdoing ifc? There are really some genuine marKs oi hysteria in all this talk of the "road to ruin.'.' . . . ~ j A noble lord, writing in a bunday paper, sinus up his policy of economy in two recommendations... At home ha wants us to repeal the Housing and the Education Acts: abroad he implores us to sell the Bahamas and several other of our North Atlantic possessions. What a noble policy for a- country iust emerged from a great war! What, glorious emblems of victory, to leave vour own people unhoused and uneducated, and to substitute sale for surrender in regard to your Empire! Iteallv these ideas are bred of panic. We have not redeemed our Empire with ! the lives of heroes in. order to hand itover the counter for cash down, t-veu to a rich ally. . Such talk mav well pull us.up short, and ask us to reflect. May we not be. depreciating our own property by exaggerating our troubles? Is it wise to be crying "stinking fish" on the housetops'"' . . -it The British Empire is a- great deal richer than any of us realise. Ido not propose to bandv figures on the subject of our incalculable assets. But I suggest that tin's policy of despair is not the confession of poverty, but the outers- of frightened wealth. "These times," said Wordsworth, in the height of the Napoleonic wars, "strike °moiiied worldlings with dismay." The same thing may be said of our time. The need of the moment is that wealth should pay in kind as the people have paid in body. Of course wealth is alarmed. But we must- not allow ourselves to confuse her fluttering outcries with the true forecasts ot coming doom." Of course, our expenditure must be cut down : it is being cut down. There are some people who would have blamed the Government whatever they nad done I will undertake to say that a "•ood manv of the Admirals and other persons who are blaspheming the Government with a licensed utterance denied to commoner mortals would have been the first to denounce the Government if economy had begun earlier. The. British public always moves in fit<- and starts, and at the moment it fit of thrift, has taken the place of a fit of extravagance. The Government will take the country at its word. They ; will economise. The Army will be. cut ] down to its pre-war strength. The. Fl.cet will be reduced to below its pre», war strength. Do vou imagine the Government will gain ahv gratitude for those acts? Why, within "a year those same Admirals will be denouncing there for having betrayed the country and for having weakly surreiidered to a popular"cry. It willbe "Sack the lot who have- weakened the Navv '" The great' defence Services will' be inspiring in Parliament and in the Press a- campaign which is quite, as likely to destroy the Government as. the present campaign against excessive expenditure. What is the duty of the Government? First, to cut down all war expenditure, to the point of safe, defence; and un-. der the League of Nations that ought not to be- a very high point. Second, to tax the people into personal t.hnlt.

It is no good for the Government- to preach to the people t-he--virtues of domestic economy. The people feel instinctively that- their personal habits of living are no affair of Lhe Government. What people want of the Government is that the Chancellor of the Exchequer should tell them how much is wanted For national expenditure, sternly levy it-. and leave them to spend the rest, of their money on their private affairs. Jt is impossible for any Government to say whether people are spending ex-. travagantlv or not. How can anyone any? IF we look around to-day we can see that. British families are taking holidays very freely. Hut we must remember that, they have been starved of holidays for live years,mid that many families have only just coino together after the return of many,,breadwinners from the war. ,

) Then we can set; Hint thousands of men are spending very freely—aye. and women,' too. But we must recollect that these men —and women —have spent very little for the last four or five vears." They have been living hard lives* and in the ease of the richer men their incomes have been accumulating, at Home. It is not reasonable for us to be surprised that they should have a bout of expenditure when they return from the Avar to their homes. The great thing is that they should get over this 'bout quickly and settle down rapidlv to normal ways. The Government has to balance the national account. It must stop borrowing and live on its income. That must plainly be done by bringing the national expeiMiture down and. thenational income up. The Government must save on the one hand and tax more on the other. It is not to be imagined that the. ..whole process" can be effected by savj ing. A torrent, cannot be stopped in I a day; and \v.\r expenditure is a torI rent. The war accounts will take someI time to close up. We have conquered ' a new Empire. The new responsibility j of these new lands will cost a great \ deal. We cannot have glory and victory for nothing. But.it is surely be-t- ---! ter'to pay this money for victory than I for defeat. Personally I would prefer, in spite of Lord Rothermere, to help the Bahamas rather than to sell them. Before we give way to further panic, let us reflect on two things. The first is that though our-'expendi-ture is very high, a great deal of the money is going into the pockets of the people. £100,000,000 a year is being spent on pensions; that is a just and remunerative payment, which circulates immediately in the form of expenditure on simple commodities. Then there is the £60,000,000 for broad. That goes straight into our mouths, and it is a payment 'by the whole community for the good of the class thutlives specially by bread —the poorer class. Does Lord Rbther-mere suggest iha.t the pensions and the bread subsidy should be abolished, as well as the money contemplated for houses and schools? That is to meet bankruptcy half-way\ and to become bankrupt in I soul before we are bankrupt in pocket. j Then*there is the unemployment sub- ! sidy, which is now a diminishing pay- ■ merit. A great deal of nonsense has been talked about this so-called "dole.'" Of course there have been rough edges to its administration. But what would have happened if we had not given any unemployment benefit after the armistice of November, 1918? We should have had vast masses of discharged soldiers and niuuition workers clamouring .at our gates and causing grave public heart-searching ■ and >ui« rest. These same people who are now criticising the Government would have been far louder in their abuse if England's fighters had been neglected in the present hour. The Labor Party, now so eager for economy, have always' been in favor of increasing the unemployment pay. In such cases, both abroad and air. Home, the coat will have to be cut severely to fit the cloth. But that is no reason whv we should despair oi the State. Those who talk glibly of the "Road to Ruin" are apt, like Laertes in ''Hamlet," to tread that primrose path j themselves. A truer phrase is, "TheRoad to Recovery." It is along that path that wo have to tread, calmly and steadily and without panic. Never fear, we shall survive.