Our Industrial Problems. 
lustrial community in the world is doing 
o-day, and must do increasingly as the 
supply of new markets gives out and the 
echnique of production becomes more and 
nore marvellously efficient. = The dispro- 
hortion between the limits of production 
nd the Yimits of consumption is the chief 
source of international war and of domes- 
tie strife, 1t is not perhaps desirable that 
we should produce less. What is not only 
lesirable but imperative is that what is 
produced should be consumed. And this 
Sannot be done without a drastic readjust- 
nent in the technique of distribution, 
which is one of those corollaries of which 
xe have spoken as being rendered inevi- 
sable by the mechanical. revolution. Pro 
luction and distribution are like inspirae 
sion and respiration. In a healthy. organ- 
sm there is a correspondence and equivas 
lence between the two. Our vital prob- 
‘em is not how to produce, but how to 
1istribute our products. 
More Money. 
They are distributed to buyers. But a 
reference to statistics which need not be 
juoted here will show that no mannfac- 
uring community in the world can afford 
:0 buy what it produces! This is the ano- 
maly which is the main cause of the 
world’s present industrial and economic 
troubles. We cannot afford to buy all, 
sr anything like all, ofthe things we pro- 
juce. Crudely put, therefore, what we 
all need, in order that the equivalence be- 
tween production and consumption may be 
healthily maintained, is simply greater 
yurchasing power, in other words, more 
money. And this apparently farcical con- 
slugion is a plain statement of a faet 
which in its consequences is by no means 
farcical, but tragic. 
Well then, it may be said, we have 
merely gone a long way round to arrive 
16 the familiar ery of the wage earner, for 
nore wages. By no means. For there is 
‘his important difference that we recog: 
prise that any increase in wages or salary 
is not to come, and eannot come, from 
2 raid on profits. And this again is a mere 
matter of figures. The profits which look 
so large in the aggregate wonld not, if 
every penny of them were added to wages, 
make mueh of a showing when divided 
among tens of thousands of claimants. 
This is the element of truth in the popu: 
jar refutation of Socialism as a scheme 
for “dividing np.’ We are asking for no 
such thing. We are asking not for an 
increase in wages or salaries. but for an 
increase in money. But. it will be asked. 
if it is more money we need, and if thers 
97 
srying for the moon? The problem re- 
is” no more money available, why go on 
mains unsolved and insoluble, and the ef- 
forts of wage-earners to improve their pe- 
cuniary position will continue to be a pros 
cess like that of the cat chasing her tail 
~—the tail being the rise in the cost of 
goods (or fall in the .value of money) 
which at: present antomatically accompane 
tes every rise in wages. 
The Basis of Credit. 
But this despairing conclusion is based 
spon a fallacious assumption. The as 
sumption is that the supply of money is 
a fixed quantity. Our discussion has now 
brought us to the edge of that “dark 
wood” of financial theory from which 
most of us are scaréd away by a sense of 
4s mystery and incomprehensibility. Once 
again brevity compels us to dogmatise: 
We must be allowed to deny the mystery. 
For our purpose it is suflicient to say that 
the amount of money in the world at & 
given time is not fixed by any iron law 
of nature. As much movey can be made 
yut of paper as anybody likes who has 
‘he power to make and circulate it. it 
Joes not follow that this power ig always 
axercised wisely or socially. In any come 
nunity there must be maintained a ratio 
between goods and money (or credit). In 
a perfect community the ratio would be 
one of exact equality. The money (or 
credit) would buy the goods, But this per- 
fect ratio may be disturbed in either of 
two ways. There may be too much money 
in circulation, or too little. The couten- 
tion of this essay is that our present in- 
dustrial troubles arise mainly from the 
lact that the ratio has been disturbed in 
the second of these two wags. There is 
pot enough money in circulation to buy 
the goods which are produced. The solu- 
tion of our problem lies in such a reform 
of our -credit system as will remove this 
anomaly. The control of eredit is the cou- 
trol of the world. That control must be 
resumed by the community, and directed 
to its proper end—the maintenance of 
stability with justice in. our industrial 
world. 
We have redched the limit of the space 
lowed us. It is impossible to carry the 
discussion further or enter on details. We 
are content to have indicated the diree- 
ion which must be taken in the search 
for industrial peace. The point at which 
industry needs attention is the point net 
of production but of distribution. Our 
evils arise from maldistribution, which in 
its turn has its source in a system of 
sredit which is radically anti-soeial. 
The Complete Home Paper is “The Western Mail.”"