2 JULY 1927, Page 37

ROOT CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE.

Nor is it possible to ignore one feature of the situation which more than any other perhaps deserves attention— viz., the enormous growth in the National expenditure which is responsible for the heaviness of the taxation which is crushing the business enterprise of the country. I do not hesitate to say that if the same zeal and the same ingenuity were experienced for a period in striving for economy in National expenditure, which at present are displayed in raising the requisite amount of revenue to meet the expenditure, we should be faced with a situation very different from that with which we are con- fronted to-day. Indeed, it would be well if the irritation caused by the absurd character of the regulations in time new Finance Bill should serve to concentrate attention once more upon the root cause of the evil—namely, excessive expenditure 'followed ineVitably by excessive taxation. It is a theme on which much has been written in these and other columns, but I am afraid it will require a much greater- agitation than that 'which has been fomented at present to bring about those economies without which we shall never have a return to real pros- perity and industrial activity. The record of the present Government in the matter of National Economy is dis- appointing in the extreme.

ARTHUR W. KIDDY.