ESSAYS IN PERSUASION

PART

264

will be attributed to the industrial disputeswhich will accompany it, to the Dawes Scheme,to China, to the inevitable consequences of theGreat War , to tariff's, to high taxation, to any-thing in the world except the general monetarypolicy which has set the whole thing going.

Moreover, this course need not be pursued ina clear-cut way. A furtive restriction of creditby the Bank of England can be coupled withvague cogitations on the part of Mr. Baldwin(who has succeeded to the position in our affec-tions formerly occupied by Queen Victoria ) asto whether social benevolence does not requirehim to neutralise the effects of this by a series ofillogical subsidies. Queen Baldwin’s good heartwill enable us to keep our tempers, whilst theserious work goes on behind the scenes. TheBudgetary position will render it impossible forthe subsidies to be big enough to make any realdifference. And in the end, unless there is asocial upheaval, “the fundamental adjustments”will duly take place.

Some people may contemplate this forecastwith equanimity. I do not. It involves a greatloss of social income whilst it is going on, andwill leave behind much social injustice when itis finished. The best, indeed the only, hopelies in the possibility that in this world, whereso little can be foreseen, something may turn up—which leads me to my alternative sugges-tions. Could we not help something to turn up?

There are just two features of the situationwhich are capable of being turned to our advan-