11 DECEMBER 1915, Page 3

Speaking generally, advocates of "the trade" like Mr. Agg- Gardner

prove too much. If his financial argument were a sound one, then such a thing as national saving could never exist in any circumstances. All his arguments would apply with equal force to any other proposal to save anything, and we should be condemned to wear various sets of economic chains in perpetuity lost this or that person should be ruined by the reduction in expenditure. It is, in essence, the argument of the rick-burners when they fought against the introduction of labour-saving machinery.