Professor Keynes and Mr. H. D. Henderson have written a
clever and plausible pamphlet answering in the affirmative the question Can Lloyd George Do It ? (The Nation office, 6d.). They maintain that the Liberal leader'S pledge to reduce the unemployment figures " in the course of a single year to normal proportions " without adding a penny to national or local taxation has been carefully thought out. in the past four years, and that it is sound from the economist's standpoint. Their detailed exposition is ingenious, but incidentally reveals the dubious assumptions that Mr. Lloyd George and his friends treat as assured facts. The- authors belong, of course, to one narrow sect of economists. and their theories of currency and trade are anathema to most students of the subject. We must add, too, that they arc very unfair and inaccurate in representing the Government's policy as one of " negation, restriction, inactivity." Some Conservatives think, though we do not, that the Government has dime far too much in its strenuous and, on the whole, successful effort to improve housing and roads and to diminish unemployment.
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