ESSAYS IN PERSUASION

PART

164

the Moloch of finance is a sufficient proof of thestate of hysteria and irresponsibility into whichCabinet Ministers have worked themselves.For it is impossible to represent this cut as oneof unavoidable necessity. The money savedis £ 6 , 000 , 000 . At the same time ^32,000,000is going to the Sinking Fund, whilst tea, sugar,and a tariff as sources of revenue are left un-tapped. The Prime Minister has offered nodefence, except that some of his former col-leagues, who have since recovered their heads,were temporarily frightened into consideringsomething of the same kind.

The school-teachers are the most outstandingcase of injustice. But the same considerationsapply in varying degrees to all the attacks onthe standards of Government employees. Theprinciple of discriminating against persons inthe service of the State, because they can bereached most easily, is not right. At least itwould have been more decent in the circum-stances if the phrase “equality of sacrifice” hadnot been used.

Moreover, the Government’s programme isas foolish as it is wrong. Its direct effect onemployment must be disastrous. It is safe topredict that it will increase the volume of un-employment by more than the 10 per cent bywhich the dole is to be cut. It represents a reck-less reversal of all the partial attempts whichhave been made hitherto to mitigate the conse-quences of the collapse of private investment;and it is a triumph for the so-called “Treasury