PAYING FOR THE PAST

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 125, 23 November 1932, Page 6

PAYING FOR THE PAST

A graph included in the Public; Works Statement illustrates one of the causes of oiir present-day; difficulties,in so,far as the causes<are local. The graph ; records Public' Works loan expenditure from 1920 onwards. In 1922 it rose steeply to £7,000,000, and it has not since been below £4,000,000. Its high peak was reached in 1931, when it passed : £8,000,000. This year it is esti/mated that •it will be a little above '£2,000,000. The facts 'are not new, but the graph reveals them with startling clearness. The greater part of this borrowed money has been spent: on works employing armies of workers. When the flow of money 'dwindles the armies can no i longer be maintained. Further, a considerable part of the loan money has gone into:projects which are not yet showing a direct and adequate return. Few works are paying full interest;; some pay no interest at all, and others show, an actual loss without .considering interest. It is gratifying that, as the Public Works Statement reveals, the check has at last been applied to free spending of borrowed funds. But the check does not at-once remove the cause of the trouble. We have still to pay for the past: interest on unproductive works and the disorganisation which comes when we can no longer maintain thousands of Avorkers on loanfinanced schemes.