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ESSAYS IN PERSUASION

PART III

understand from their July Monthly Review , isalso the recommendation of the high authoritiesof the Midland Bank.

That there should be grave difficulties in allthese suggestions is inevitable. Any plan, suchas the Government has adopted, for deliberatelyaltering the value of money, must, in moderneconomic conditions, come up against objec-tions of justice and expediency. They are sug-gestions to mitigate the harsh consequences ofa mistake; but they cannot undo the mistake.They will not commend themselves to thosepessimists who believe that it is the level of realwages, and not merely of money wages, whichis the proper object of attack. I mention thembecause our present policy of deliberately in-tensifying unemployment by keeping a tighthold on credit, just when on other grounds itought to be relaxed, so as to force adjustmentsby using the weapon of economic necessityagainst individuals and against particular in-dustries, is a policy which the country wouldnever permit if it knew what was being done.