a meticulous eye on the course of exchange and buttoning up our pockets to foreign borrowers or by leaving capital free to seek its market, knowing that every time we give the foreigner the right to draw on us we stimulate our export trade, because his drawing must finally mean a demand on us for something—­goods, securities or gold—­and goods are what people are in these times most anxious to take.  If we are going to leave all the financing to be done by America and fear to import promises to pay lest they should be followed by demands on our gold, shall we not be rather in the position of Barry Lyndon, who was given a gold piece by his mother when he went out into the world, with strict injunctions always to keep it in his pocket and never to change it?  Regard for our gold standard is most necessary, but the gold standard is not an end in itself, but merely an important part of a machine which only exists to serve our industry.  If we are so careful of the machine, which is a mere subsidiary, that we check the industry which it is there to serve, we shall be like the dandy who got wet through because he had not the heart to unfurl his beautifully rolled-tip umbrella.

Again, it looks very sound and sensible to keep capital for purposes that are essential, but, on the other hand, it is so enormously important to set industry going as fast as possible that almost any one who will do anything in that direction is entitled to be given a chance.  In war-time, when labour and materials were so scarce that they could not turn out all the munitions that were necessary, such a restriction was clearly inevitable.  Now, when labour and materials are becoming more plentiful, and the scarce commodity is the pluck and enterprise that will take the risks involved by getting to work on a peace basis, it may be argued that any one who will take those risks, whatever be the stuff or services that he proposes to produce, should be encouraged rather than checked.  It is again a question of the balance of advantage.  If we are going to be so careful in seeing that capital is not put to a wrong use that we take all the heart out of those who want to make use of it, we shall do more harm than good.  If by leaving capital free to go into any enterprise that it fancies we can give a start to industry and promote a spirit of courage and enterprise among its captains, it will be well worth while to do so at the expense of seeing a certain amount of capital going into the production of articles that the community might, if it made a more reasonable use of its purchasing power, very well do without.  The same question arises when we consider the desire of the Government, not expressed in the above statement, but very freely admitted by Mr Bonar Law, in discussing it in the House of Commons, to keep capital to be lent to it rather than expended in, perhaps unnecessary, industry.  Here, again, it is clearly in the interest of the taxpayer that Government loans should be raised on the most favourable terms possible.  But if, in order to do so, we starve industry of capital that it needs, and so check the production on which all of us, Government and citizens alike, ultimately have to live, we shall be scoring an immediate advantage at the expense of future progress—­spoiling a possibly brilliant break by putting down the white ball for a couple of points.