LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often more read,and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.] PROTECTING THE NATIONAL SOLVENCY.—A STRONG LEAD NEEDED.
(To TILE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR.")
Sui,—The vital necessity for a strong lead by the City, and the business community generally, towards protecting the national solvency which Mr. Arthur W. Kiddy urges so cogently in his letter appearing in your issue of the 4th instant is fully appreciated by all thoughtful and well-informed busi- ness men who see the " breakers " ahead if, as a nation, we do not pull ourselves together industrially without any further delay. Mr. Kiddy suggests that Lord Inchcape, who has already had the courage to write in no measured terms to the Press pointing out these dangers, will,be well fitted to give a lead in organizing the forces of the industrious and sober- minted section of the community, whether capitalists or wage- earners, so as to provide (as Mr. Kiddy puts it) " a corrective to those forces which at present seem to be supreme in swaying everything that pertains to political and legislative activities."
Let him take the initiative in securing the co-operation in this direction of the leading professional institutes and associations which are concerned the most intimately with finance and in- dustry. The bodies I have in mind are the Institute of Bankers, the Institutions of Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Directors, and the Chartered Institute of Secretaries of Joint Stock Companies. Others can probably suggest additions to this list from amongst the large number of professional bodies and employers' associations of the country. The main points upon which to concentrate attention should be reducing the costs of production and ensuring the output of full effort by workers of all classes during the work- ing hours of each day. When the employing forces are properly co-ordinated and concentrated on these two main points, the co-operation of the level-headed wage-earners, who constitute the great majority of that class throughout the oountry, must be enlisted through the appropriate channels. We shall then obtain an effective and concentrated effort by the producing classes, on whom the wealth and industrial progress of the nation mainly depends, towards stabilizing and planting on a firm foundation a prosperous community pulling together in the single effort of peaceful progress, towards gaining which so much blood and money have been shed and spent in the recent
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