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ESSAYS IN PERSUASION

PART

will relieve the pressure on the Bank of Eng-land ’s stock of gold. But, ultimately, its maineffect will be realised, not in a reduction of ex-ports, but in an increase of imports. For thenew schemes will require a certain amount of im-ported raw materials, whilst those who are nowunemployed will consume more imported foodwhen they are once again earning decent wages.

Here, then, is our answer. The savingswhich Mr. Lloyd George’s schemes will employwill be diverted, not from financing othercapital equipment, but partly from financingunemployment. A further part will come fromthe savings which now run to waste throughlack of adequate credit. Something will beprovided by the very prosperity which the newpolicy will foster. And the balance will befound by a reduction of foreign lending.

The whole of the labour of the unemployedis available to increase the national wealth. Itis crazy to believe that we shall ruin ourselvesfinancially by trying to find means for using itand that “Safety First” lies in continuing tomaintain men in idleness.

It is precisely with our unemployed pro-ductive resources that we shall make the newinvestments.

We are left with a broad, simple, and surelyincontestable proposition. Whatever real diffi-culties there may be in the way of absorbingour unemployed labour in productive work, aninevitable diversion of resources from otherforms of employment is not one of them.