OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19668, 9 December 1933, Page 9

OVERSEAS OPINIONS

SOME INTERESTING VIEWPOINTS. What is Inflation? “If a Government, by legislation which removes obstacles to trade, i thereby stimulates demand, and prices rise in consequence, that is not infla- | t ionary. If, however, the Government itself, and not the private business ! man. borrows in the market and embarks on ’capital* expenditure on an unusually large scale, what do we call it? We can usually call it shockingly bad public finance. But that is not the j point. The important feature is that it seldom has any permanent net effect on the credit situation; so long as it is done within the limits of ordinary fin- ! ancing, it is not enough to overcome the friction of a stagnant business position. Normally, therefore. Government expenditure is not properly described as inflationary (unless it is carried out in a time of high business activity). It becomes definitely inflationary, however, if the ordinary channels of credit are in any way strained in order to provide the necessary money. In such a situation, the foundations are laid for a serious modification of the credit structure and an immediate rising tendency in prices without necessarily any direct expansion in private demand."—"Financial Times’* (London >.

A German Idea. * “Germa banks are willing to start new industries and leave money in them under control for many years. English banks, rightly. I think, regard this as not their function, and keep | their resources more liquid. But there does seem a need for easier facilities for the financing of approved inventions and other new industries at an , early • stage, before they are ripe for a public appeal,” writes Sir William Cecil Dampier in “Lloyds Bank Monthly.” Perhaps a corporation under the common control of the joint stock banks might undertake this work. A committee of men of science might advise, or recommend someone who could advise, on the mere technical soundness of new ideas. They would not be fitted or expected to deal with the economic prospects, which could only be estimated by business men conversant with the particular industry involved. By some such interlocking scheme, new industries—necessary in times when old ones are depressed and savings super-abundant—might be

helped into being.” Demand for Self-less Service. “My own conviction is that nothing is going to stop mechanical progress, but it has become most imi>ortant that side by side with the exercise of invention there should be the application of equal brain-power to an effort to effect an adjustment of modern conditions, such as will make life tolerable,” say# Dr. W. W. Vaughan, formerly headmaster of Rugby, in the “Daily Telegraph.” “One difficulty is that while big rewards go to people who bring out and apply mechanical invention, little material benefit is available for those who are endeavouring to think out the possible ultimate effects of the processes in operation. On the other hand, we have reached a stage in our progress when humanity needs unselfish service devoted to unravelling problems created by our economic and industrial conditions. Such unselfish service is becoming more and more necessary."

The Craving for Change. "If a sunset were as rare as a total eclipse,” says the "Boston Transcript,** "the memory of it would stay by u# for ever, but by repetition for ten thousand and one nights it becomes a commonplace so that we can hardly be dragged to the window to look out upon one of extraordinary splendour. Twenty-five years ago people used to travel miles to see an exhibition of flying in an aeroplane. To-day they hear the droning of the machine overhead and will not lift an eye to behold the wonder in the sky. though the miracle :>f flight is hardly less amazing now

than then. Satiety is our bane; we uffer because life Is too much of a good thing. And the child is father to the man in this feeling of surfeit.” An Irrevocable Step. “A side issue in the battle so far may prove of more lasting importance than any other, and that is the ira- - ism. Hitherto unionism has been lit tie more than u .shadow in American industrial life. But the Recovery movement has made American labour suddenly self-conscious and the Ann support of the President and the crass folly of the Industrialists* opposition to it have made the new codes' very lmportant charters of the Amerlcun workers' liberties. Whatever else may happen. It seems unlikely that these newly-won liberties can ever be taken away again."—“News-Chronicle.”