VI

EL ROPE AFTER THE TREATY

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altogether desperate, and one of the most fundamentalfactors in her existing economic disorder. And inPoland, Roumania, and Hungary the position is notmuch better. Yet modern industrial life essentiallydepends on efficient transport facilities, and thepopulation which secured its livelihood by thesemeans cannot continue to live without them. Thebreakdown of currency, and the distrust in its pur-chasing value, is an aggravation of these evilswhich must be discussed in a little more detail inconnection with foreign trade.

What then is our picture of Europe ? A countrypopulation able to support life on the fruits of itsown agricultural production but without the accus-tomed surplus for the towns, and also (as a resultof the lack of imported materials and so of varietyand amount in the saleable manufactures of thetowns) without the usual incentives to market foodin return for other wares; an industrial populationunable to keep its strength for lack of food, unableto earn a livelihood for lack of materials, and sounable to make good by imports from abroad thefailure of productivity at home. Yet, according toMr. Hoover, " a rough estimate would indicate that thepopulation of Europe is at least 100,000,000 greaterthan can be supported without imports, and must liveby the production and distribution of exports."

The problem of the re-inauguration of the per-petual circle of production and exchange in foreign