Page:Bankers and Credit (1924).pdf/195

 Everything else needed for wealth we were alleged to have in practically unlimited supply; all that we lacked was money, and war had shown how easily money could be multiplied. We only had to make Mr. Kitson our Currency Controller, or Currency Creator—for with his theory he would surely have scoffed at the notion of control—and give him a free hand to print, and boundless wealth was within our reach.

And yet one or two points in his argument are not quite clear. Is it really true that we have a practically unlimited supply of "man" and of "nature"? There is indeed quite a large number of men in this country, but how many of us are really well equipped for increasing its wealth, trained to do our jobs as they ought to be done and eager to work as hard as it would be necessary for us to work before boundless wealth began to look like being our portion? Is one in a hundred an optimistic estimate? And as to "nature," there is plenty of it lying about in the world, but much of it is not ploughed or tilled, means of communication are not yet all that they should be, and some considerable additions to plant and machinery seem to be required before we can be sure that lack of money is the only bar to an endless flow of milk and honey.