WAR AND ECONOMICS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 148, 18 March 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

WAR AND ECONOMICS

“Economic Problems of the Next War,” by Paul Einzig (Loudon: Macmillan).

In this pungent little work Dr. Einzig, who is foreign editor of the “Financial News,” and the author of many similar examinations of economic questions from the international standpoint, discusses the problems end possibilities of finance in relation to future war. He points out that just as in the rears before 1914 there has grown up today a theory that this na’ion and that nation could not face a protracted war because their economic systems would not stand the strain. He proceeds to show that there is just as great a likelihood today (or tomorrow) of this being proved a fallacy as was the'case in 1914-1918, when the Powers were able to adjust their economic systems to the demands of war without over-much diffieulty, and were able to carry on for years. Taking the countries in turn the author examines each briefly and concisely, contrasting the facts of the last war with the probabilities of the next. The conclusion he reaches, broadly speaking, is that economic considerations will not prevent war in the future, nor will they limit its extent, but that ninch more careful planning will be necessary in democratic .countries if the economic structure is to be made fully efficient to the needs of war and placed in a position to remain undamaged by war’s effects.