Finance---Public & Private
In Defence of the Rentier
I AM afraid it is still necessary that investors should be on their guard against attempts to assail their just claim for an adequate return upon capital invested. Just why the view should he held in some quarters that any movement in the direction of checking wasteful State expenditure should be accompanied by the infliction of further pains and penalties on the rentier it is difficult to see, excepting on the lines of the fallacious Socialist idea that by attacking capital and invested interests the community- derives some benefit. It might be thought that the events of recent years and the appalling industrial depression and unemployment which have followed, the years of attacks upon capital would have disproved the notion, but it persists. I am constrained to make these observations by reasons of the character of a recent debate in the Lords on the question of economy, followed by a rather surprising speech by Sir Basil. Blackett, one of the directors of the Bank of England, while certain proposals put forward by the leading organ of the Labour Party with regard to cutting down the capital of English Railways afford a further example of the tendencies I have in mind.
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