Letters to the Editor
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week paragraphs.—Ed. THE SPECTATOR.]
MR. KEYNES' PROPOSALS
[To the Editor of Tim SpEersron.] sot, —The fatal and outstanding weakness in Mr. Keynes' proposals lies in the fact that, however adroitly their inner t.ignfieance may be camouflaged, they amount to a plan for relieving a country staggering under a burden of debt and taxation by the incurring of more debts and more interest charges which must be paid out of revenue. " Raising a loan " sounds so much pleasanter than " increasing the burden of debt " ; but alas ! there is no difference under sound finance." Either we ask the Bank of England to write down the figures of a big sum of money and pay its interest tribute out of taxes for money created by this laborious act of self-sacrifice, or we get private citizens to buy interest- bearing bonds. As the interest itself will come out of the taxes levied on private citizens the device recalls the econo- mies of Charky's Aunt, where, the need having arisen to tip a college servant, the necessary money is borrowed from the individual upon whom the remuneration is bestowed I Poverty cannot be cured by juggling with new debt. There is no hope until money is permitted to appear not in the form of debt. The fear that such money must lead to inflation has no adequate foundation. Money does not need always to be issued in the form of a loan to secure its ultimate use as re- payment of a bank loan and its subsequent cancellation. An expanding production of goods to meet an expanding demand can take an expansion of currency without inflation, and if in a remote future of immense prosperity money ever did show a tendency to pile up unduly, it could be collected by taxation and destroyed. Taxation is seldom popular, but taxation the aim of which was the maintenance of the value of every citizen's money would at least be less burdensome and un- welcome than the taxation we know to-day.—I am, Sir, &c., TAVISTOCE.
The Place House, Peasmarsh, Sussex.
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