Current Literature
MR. RATHER is singularly unfortunate, his book Is Britain De- cadent ? with an introduction by C. E. M. Joad (Sampson Low, 7s. Gd.) written on the assumption that we should retain the gold standard, appears at the very moment when our policy has been reversed. This does not, one imagines, affect the essential soundness or otherwise of his argument, but as this is based on actual conditions, he would surely have preferred to re- write those parts of it which assume the retention of the gold standard. In all other respects it is, however, highly topical. It consists, in brief, of a statement of the economic facts of our position to-day, of an explanation of the phenomenon of the trade cycle, in which Mr. Rather follows the theory put forward by Professor Keynes in his recent book, A Treatise on Money, and in a discussion of the rival remedies which have been proposed ; in particular, those of Empire Free Trade, the ordinary tariff, and the revenue tariff. Mr. Rather is a strong orthodox free trader, who with a quiet air of hirmless- ness understands how to bring arguments of devastating effect to bear on the advocates of all these three remedies. Inci- dentally, he has a considerable store of comfortable words to say about our true position, which he believes to have been greatly misjudged .by. critics such as M. Siegfried. His book deserves wide circulation. Free traders could wish for no better help in meeting the attacks of their adversaries, and pro- tectionists ought to read it in order to see whether their theories can stand the assaults made upon them. Except in one or two short passages, the argument is lucidity itself, and it is not easy to find any important consideration of which account has not been taken.
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