Finance—Public & Private
Our Greatest Problem
READERS of Dombey and Son will possibly remember that it was Mr. Baps, the Dancing Master to Dr. Blimber's scholastic establishment, who at an annual social gathering propounded to various guests in turn the problem of what you were to do with your imports of raw materials when they came into your ports for your drain of gold," and the suggestion of the immortal Mr. Toots that you should " cook 'em " did not, it will be remembered, entirely assuage Mr. Baps' thirst for enlightenment.
In these days, when there seems to be a tendency to shirk rather than face facts and realities, I cannot help feeling a kind of admiration for Mr. Baps in his earnest quest for a solution of the problem of payment for our imports. Moreover, if this particular problem were faced a little more intelligently and a little more bravely, I believe that we might see a greater display of common sense on the part of capitalists and wage- earners alike, and there would be less readiness to settle industrial disputes along the lines of a strike or a lock-out. For, of the many economic facts which we are called upon to consider in these post-War years, there is not one which presses more urgently upon the attention of every member of the community than the question of making payments for our imports of absolute necessaries, such as foodstuffs and -raw materials for our manufacturers.
(Continued on page 355.)
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