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ESSAYS IN PERSUASION

PART

these counsels of expediency, the certain resultwill be to break the present Government andto substitute for it, in the confusion of a Crisisof Confidence, a Cabinet pledged to a full pro-tectionist programme.

(ii) On the Eve of Gold Suspension(Sept, io, 1931)

The moral energies of the nation are beingdirected into wrong channels, and serioustroubles are ahead of us unless we apply ourminds with more effect than hitherto to theanalysis of the real character of our problems.

The exclusive concentration on the idea of“Economy,” national, municipal,and personal—meaning by this the negative act of withholdingexpenditure which is now stimulating the forcesof production into action—may, if under thespur of a sense of supposed duty it is carried far,produce social effects so shocking as to shakethe whole system of our national life.

There is scarcely an item in the EconomyProgramme of the May Report—whether ornot it is advisable on general grounds—whichis not certain to increase unemployment, tolower the profits of business, and to diminishthe yield of the revenue; so much so that Ihave calculated that economies of £100,000,000may quite likely reduce the net Budget deficitby not more than £50,000,000, and we are justhoodwinking ourselves (unless our real object isto pretend to balance the Budget for the benefit