RECONSTRUCTION.t
Ir is generally as well to meet the cynic or pessimist half-way and concede the right of sarcasm or depreciation at our expense whichever way things turn out. Here is an opportunity. Let him say that just as we were unprepared for war, so we shall be characteristically unready for peace. Or on the other hand, if books that deal with post-bellum reorganization are palpably obtrusive, let him remind us that wo must catch our hare before we cook it. The Munitions of Peace expresses the views of a well-known business organizer and belongs to the same class as the more lavishly advertised Eclipse or Empire ? which we lately reviewed. There is much that is true and stimulating in it. But the first portion tries to cover too much ground in the short chapters on production, the markets, the worker, the employer, and the Govern- ment. The result.gives an impression of superficiality, and where real mistakes or faults are pointed out the blame comes with less weight on account of vague denunciations. For instance, it is merely irritating to read that " more care is taken over the development of an asparagus • Pencra ft : a Plea for the Older Ways. .By William Watson. London : John Lane. [23. 6d. net.] t 7'he Munitions of Peace. By II. E. Morgan. London : Nisbet a, Co. [es. Bd, net.] shoot or a bull-calf than over that of some of our future citizens." If the writer meant that. some man took more trouble over an asparagus shoot than over his own child, he might well denounce him ; but from the context we believe that he means that a man' may take more trouble over his asparagus than the State does for the children of its citizens. That is to say, he is making a comparison where there is no relation— a fatal mistake for a Socratic gadfly. Furthermore, blame in such matters should be moral if it is to carry weight, whereas Mr. Morgan's theses are mainly material. The employer ".must learn to recognize business as an end and not as a means only." It may not be fair to quote this baldly apart from the context, but it is illustrative of the general spirit of the book. After so much complaint, let us add that Mr. Morgan writes wisely of Trade Unions, upon the restriction of output in particular.
The second half of the book is a proposal for a great National Trade Agency. Here again Mr. Morgan has an idea which might be valuable, but he does not give us a solid enough proposal to judge. He raises a picture of an organization which seems bound to fall between two stools as being neither business nor government. It is to be partly the one and partly the other, taking over some functions of the Board of Trade and others of our Consular Service throughout the world. It is also to be a world-wido advertising agency for British goods and to outdo the Germans in "-working " the Press of othercountries. With this it is to combine such details as the conduct of State banks for lending money to traders, the control of transport,• and the distribution of British women more equally through the Empire ! We fear that it is too superficially complete, and does not rest upon the self-reliant enterprise that makes a successful trader. It is likely rather to undermine his energy. We should prefer advice to traders to co- operate voluntarily where they can thereby attain economy, while competing together in efficiency. Reliance upon a vast institution would cramp their individual energies. But they may find some useful hints on many points in Mr. Morgan's book.
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