The Daily News. TUESDAY? MARCH 1, 1921. ECONOMIC WASTE.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 March 1921, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY? MARCH 1, 1921. ECONOMIC WASTE.

“When waste comes in at the window, trade flies out at the door.” In this maxim is to be found a striking commentary on the economic situation of the present day. In a recent Press cable from London it is stated that Mr. Henry Bell, a financial expert who took part in the International Financial Conference at Brussels, considers that “Europe will inevitably reach a state of bankruptcy unless war expenditure is reduced,” and that economic rehabilitation is impossible until this fact has soaked into the minds of the people. The reduftion of war expenditure is, however, only one phase of economic waste, though is probably the largest factor, and may probably be justly regarded as the pattern on which waste in other directions has become so painfully familiar to all observers. It is to be seen in operation throughout most Government departments, it has forced its way into industrial affairs, and its pernicious influence has permeated national life and its activities. The enormous rise in the national debts of all countries affected by the war, the levying of crushing taxes, the soaring of the cost of production, the increased expenditure forced on every member of the community owing to soaring prices of necessaries, the ever increasing demands of Labor, together with many other disturbing factors, are all the outcome of that economic waste which Mr. Bell considers will inevitably make Europe bankrupt unless elimination takes place. The trade depression from which the United Kingdom is suffering has brought a heavy decrease ill traffic, and compelled the railways to retrench by reducing staffs. It was officially stated in January last that the full cost to the British Government of running the. railways for the year was expected to be roughly thirty-five millions, which must be paid by taxation, while it was also anticipated that at least two hundred millions would have to be met by the taxpayers in respect of claims under the war-time railway agreements. At the same date, the boards of guardians in the greater London area were paying out relief at the rate of a million sterling

a year. It is deplorable that not only is the existing depression in Britain mainly attributed to waste and extravagance, but the trade is being adversely affected by the same means. The Daily Mail asserts it is sheer dementia that a hundred millions should be squandered in Mesopotamia while the British people are being ruinously taxed. There may, however, be some answer to that charge, but what can be said of the waste caused by the strike mania? According to a recent estimate the loss in wages alone in consequence of the shipping strike in Australia is in the region of £1,200,000, and that is only one out of many instances of economic waste that should never have been perpetrated. Surely it is high time that sanity should take the place of the dementia which has caused the economic waste that is proving such a heavy burden on the shoulders of the people of many countries. Grave warnings hav'e been given as to the inevitable result of defying economic laws. It is not only Governments, but the people, who must face this problem in all its bearings.