UNPRODUCTIVE EMPLOYMENT
• [To the Editor of '1'n E SPECTATOR.]
Sut,—It may perhaps be the irony of fate that, while such desperate attempts are now being made to put some limits on the unproductive expenditure of war, it is found necessary to put forward proposals that may provide means, if only by loan, for a gigantic outlay and thus provide employment, and also purchasing power, by schemes which may be also unproductive themselves.
Direct taxation in time of war, however ruinous, had some hopes of redemption in that it acted perhaps as an indirect deflation which could counteract the direct inflation, which was also an indirect taxation, although there was a great con- sumption in time of war to reduce the amount of goods in actual circulation. • Any international inflation, however, must also mean some international taxation, even if only indireCt, while there is no guarantee of such international consumption as would keep the amount of gOods in circulation within reasonable limits and so maintain or increase prices; which is the great need of the hour.
Tariffs, bounties and other means of restriction or expansion of trade are purely national in operation.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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