Economy and its Limits The official committees on local expenditure
set up by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in July have brought in recommendations very similar in essentials to those of the Private Members' Committee -discussed in last week's Spectator. As a whole they confirm the impression that economy may as easily be a danger to be averted as a virtue to be pursued. There is certainly room for saving on roads, and if money remains as cheap as it is houses may be available from the efforts of private enter- prise, but there must be virtual certainty of that before public effort is relaxed. or the State subsidy dropped. No such certainty .exists as yet. While, moreover, it is obviously right from one angle to avoid legislation involving local authorities in expenditure it may often be better business to provide employment for productive purposes than to create unemployment and then cast about for means of relieving it. All that can be said there is that local authorities must consider both aspects of the question and decide every case on its merits. The proposals regarding education are almost wholly retro- grade. Larger classes, fewer evening classes and higher fees for them, promise an increasingly inferior equipment for a generation fated to make its way in a world where competition is increasingly keen.
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