14 FEBRUARY 1931, Page 2

It is obvious that if Mr. Theodore's theory was applied

primary products could not be sold outside Australia at the fixed price so long as they were in competition with primary products of other countries offered in large enough amounts at a lower price. In Australia presum, ably it would be possible to compel observance of the legal price, but the effect of that would be that everybody in Australia who was a buyer would become suddenly poorer. Mr. Theodore has naturally foreseen that difficulty, and he therefore proposes that the banks should give credit to buyers " on good security." If individual bankers shied at this they would be encouraged to remem;. ber that (according to the scheme) the Commonwealth Bank was behind them. We cannot say whether the hankers would consider the security of many borrowers "good" enough, but as general insecurity is the trouble of Australia at the moment, we cannot help feeling that Mr. Theodore has produced a faith cure, not a practical medicine.