The Wigan Town Council has expressed approval of a Labour
Committee's propoSel to .finenee its housing scheme by issuing
paper money °tithe security of the rates. The idea is to borrow money without interest, and thus get cheap houses. It is almost a. pity that the Wigan Socialists cannot be allowed to try the , experiment and see for themselves the results of disregarding the elementary principles of economies. If paper money were wealth, as they seem to assume, we could not have too much of it. Let all the printing-presses be set to work and we should have no more financial troubles ! Unfortunately the experiment has been tried on the Continent with disastrous consequenoes, because, while paper money has been multiplied, the prices of real commodities have risen to fabulous heights—in terms of paper. We should have thought, indeed, that the rise of prices here, in currency notes, would have exposed the fallacy that paper money can be safely manufactured without limit. But the lesson has not been learnt at Wigan. There may be something in the idea of municipal banks, but municipal paper money would complete our financial confusion.
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