GLEAMS OF LMTIT.
Ilia While it maybe true and even obvious that unrest and unsettlement following the War—along the lines I have described arc blocking industrial and financial progress, the question is whether there are any signs of these obstructive forces becoming less marked. I think there are, though we shall do well, not merely to look for signs of improvement but to note carefully the lessons to be derived from the evils themselves. Whatever may be the happenings years hence, when general prosperity has once more returned—as it will return—I believe that, looking first at international affairs, we have reached the stage when there is a clearer recognition than before that international peace, amity and confidence are imperative if there is to be returned prosperity. Either through a Pact or through the League of Nations alone we may work to this end far sooner than is at present apparent. And just as internationally the evil will tend to bring the cure, so at home there are not wanting signs—such, for example. as the recent defeat of the miner extremists BlackpoOl—that a common danger is bringing Capital and Labour to a clearer recognition of the need for co- operation and effort. A nation after all is but a collection of individual., and just as the individual brought up in conditions of affluence has often needed the spur of a reverse or even of impoverishment to ensure the full measure of effort, so in the case of a nation the same is true. Equally, however, as the individual through his reverses may have lessons to learn, so we shall do well to learn as a nation something of our past shortcomings. 'Ruch of our present trade depression can be traced to unreasonable and even impossible exactions by Labour. But those demands and that attitude on the part of Labour can also be traced to past exactions on the part of Capital. If in the future we are to retrieve commercial prosperity the conditions must be such as to ensure the maximum amount of effort and-efficiency on the part of employers and employed alike, with the guarantee to each of a reward adequate to and proportionate to the amount of effort and risk contributed. The principles enumerated may seem ideal, but I venture to think they are more likely to prevail here than in any other country, because they are founded upon justice, which has always been one of the foremost characteristics of our nation. Nor, perhaps; are the easier conditions in the money market entirely to he ignored, for they are, in part, the result of the fact that a good deal of gold has come here since we returned to the Gold Standard. - It is too early yet to determine whether the easier conditions of money will continue, but should they do so it will be interesting to see whether the utmost use of the fact is made by our industries.
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