WORLD LUNACY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23504, 19 May 1938, Page 14

WORLD LUNACY

ro rilli EDITOR Sir, —According to St. Paul, the " carnal mind is enmity against God." This mieht be translated: "The concrete mind is incapable of perceiving spiritual truth and therefore inimical to it." In the realm of economics there is a parallel to this. The money mind, which mistakes the symbol for the reality symbolised, is enmity to economic truth. Else how can we account for the widespread lunacy which regards as sane and reasonable such matter as we read in to-day's cables: "The outlook, thanks to the dry weather, is for high prices for some time, but the rise will result in the consumption being 300 to 400 tons a week less (of butter) than a

year ago. The cheese market is also firmer, and the drought makes , a further app rec j a ti on most likely." That is to say, we welcome scarcity m the interests of the price system. One new economist said he was awakened to the absurdity of the system by seeing a news poster with the caption "The Peril of a Bumper Crop." The message from which I quote goes on to state: "A five-year 'pumppriming' plan of public works to cost £500,000,000 is foreshadowed (on loan credit). . . . The five-year plan is largely designed to meet any recession " (you do not nowadays mention depressions) "which may occur when the armaments programme l begins lo taper off." It used to be strenuously denied that British •" recovery " was due to making guns, etc., in order to buy cabbages —in other words, to Government expenditure on armaments—but murder will out. Facts are awkward things to dodge. Now it is put forward as good foresight and providence on the part of the Government to continue that kind of thing in some form or other, although, with the resulting increase of debt, it will be increasingly difficult to "explore further avenues" for increasing the income tax. And the people put up with it! " Lord, what fools these mortals be!" And the jargon of this lunacy! The following is from an account of the hearings of the committor on the Goldsborough Bill in America —published by the New English Weekly:— February 7—Dr Walter E. Spahr is the witness—looking like one of the bankers' " front men " in a novel by R. C. Large or John Hargrave. He's a gold standard man.: he writes for Hearst's financial page. He introduces himself as professor of economics in New York University. Three members immediately challenge him. What other connections has he? What is his interest in appearing against the Bill? ... He insists on reading his prepared statement. ... The Bill. he begins, is a mixture of Douglas social credit, Irving Fisher's 100 t>er cent, money, the commodity dollar, and a monetary authority. Goldsborough warns him not to drag in Douglas or Fisher, but to take the Bill on its own merits. Spahr continues on the "fallacies" of Douglas. There is, he tells the committee, no deficiency of purchasing power to cause a depression. Representative Ford: What the hell else would be the cause? Dr Spahr: There is no cause. Representative Ford: Lack of purchasing power is the reason. Dr Spahr labours on. All the discredited folklore of finance is fished up. The only sound method is to increase production . . . many reasons ior the recession . . . favours to the gold standard at the right time . . . dangers of excessive money . . . must restore business confidence . . . world war adjustments . . . speculation unhappy European situation '. * . strikes . . . Mumbo-

Jumbo. It is interesting and hopeful to read that the members of the committee seemed to know it as such. Economic sanity.may be on the am, etc., lrmn.