PESSIMIST AND OPTIMIST

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 12, 5 September 1919, Page 8

PESSIMIST AND OPTIMIST

SIR LEO MONEY'AND SIR AUCKLAND GEDDES

HAS THE WAR REDUCED US TO POVERTY? Sir Leo Money has made a spirited reply to tho pessimistic statement by Sir Auckland Geddes: "You cannot live like niil'lionaires if you are as poor as a church mouse. This nation is now poor; it is living as though it wero wealthy."

"Has the war really Teduced us to poverty?" a?ks Sir Leo in the "Weekly Dispatch.'' • f 'ir we have regard inorely to uwnatary valuation, then' the answer is perfectly plain. Tho _ monetary valuation of tho material wealth of the United Kingdom at this moment is much greater than it was when the war broke out. It is at .least sreater. But . that is a deceptive test, because Values have risen and because tho aggregates of the individual possessions of British | citizens tako into account the National Debt, which represents not material wealth but « lip.) Minn. f>r> work oi tho Ration possessed by some of its citizens. .'ls; the nation, as a ROin? concern, intrinsically as good and as valuable as it was when the. war broke out? The answer to this question is that, taken as a whole, the nation is now a better working unit than it was in August, 1914. There have been losses, as in ships and a? in the deterioration of great services through lack of labour and materials during tho war. Our railways, tramways, houses, and 60 forth, are not in as good repair as they would have been if there had been po war. Put against this has to bo pit the fact that during the war a very large number of engineering, chemical, .and manufacturing establishments! were greatly enlarged and a very large, number of new factories were built. "And it was not Inerely that hew factories were built. New and important industries were established, and a number of infant industries were developed into firet-c'ass economio, factors. Old industries, such as the iron and steel trade. ,wero very greatly enlarged. Our steel capacity was increased by 50 per cent., our .by-product coke ovens increased by thousands "In the chemioal trade a, splendid work was accomplished. We end the war' incomparably better fitted to compete in the chemical. world than when we becran it. Or turn to a different branch of manufacture—to oils and margarine. When tho war broke out wo imported one-half of tho margarine wo During the war wo have so ereatlv enlarged our 'oil plant that wo can produce all the oil needed for margarine. 'and we have so increased our margarine plant that w,e can make enough margarine to supply the whole of our home population, with a big stuv olus for export. "As to our engineering trades, during the war we manufactured arid imported euch a great quantity of first-class machine tools that at tho present moment our engineering plant completely eclipsefl that which we possessed when tho war commenced. "Clan' this better wealth-producing instrument function in this new world of after-t.ho-war? Is our Professor of Anatomy justified in accusing'onr workers of throwing strain upon our exports through high wages? "There are three practical answers. Exports Doing Wall, i, "The first is that, in tho circumstances, • our exoo'rts are doing remarkably well. The Board of Trade returns show that our exnorts rose to over j£G4,OOO,OGO in tho month qf May. High prices helped to swell this figure, but when all allowance is mado for that fact it is not a little remarkable that within six months of the end of a war which lasted for four years, and when all war exports had stop-ued'-.our exuorts werei worth <££(,000,000 in a 6ingle'month. ' "The second is that all experience fihowß that high-wag© countries and not low-wags countries are tho chief exporters of t.hn world. '. "The third point is that the rise in wages and in the standard of living is a universal symptom throughout the world, and that it is folly to suggest that a rise in waces here will out us out of the running when the United States pays much higher wages than we do. "The general truth about the future of our oxoort trade is that the world will shortly idvance to new and much highfcr standards of consumption. The trade and nroduction figures of the past will be completely eclipsed in the course of the next ten years. Inthis new world of enlarged prosperity, Of superior oconomv. and of higher social standards there will be plenty of room for all comnetitors."