76 Hoiv to Pay jor the War 



immediate need for a financial institution, not necessarily 

 with any banking functions, but with very large resources, 

 so that it should be in a position immediately after the 

 War to provide large sums to enable British industry to 

 compete with the powerful combinations of German and 

 American trusts and cartels. . . ." (Page 63) : "If the 

 world's trade is to be fought for by great foreign com- 

 binations and cartels, we, too, must build our industry, 

 on a large scale, ^ and large industries require large 

 methods of financing. . . ." (Page 61) : " It would 

 be prudent that any such scheme should start on a 

 modest scale, and that its operations should at first be 

 limited and cautious, . . . there are few institutions, 

 either of a financial or industrial kind, which have not been 

 built up from small beginnings." Probably at first it would 

 be wise (for the institution to be established) to act mainly 

 as " Societes d'Etudes " ; but soon, very soon, we hope, a 

 strong, wide-spreading fighting machine would be evolved 

 and set to work ; such a machine as has been discussed in 

 previous articles. 



Let us now comment on and quote those sentences 

 which express our views on the drawbacks of our present 

 financial system compared with Germany's, when it 

 comes to a matter of pushing the influence and trade of 

 this Einpire abroad in competition with those of our 

 rivals. The future domination of the world, the ability to 

 come out and to remain "top dog" in the international 

 struggle for supremacy lies, we have always claimed, with 

 the country owning the biggest purse. For this reason, 

 the time has come when banking institutions should be 

 pressed into the service of the State and framed to help 

 those who have shown themselves able to help themselves. 

 'I'o pick and choose such men will be quite easy ; in any 

 case, it will be as easy as it now is to choose which out 

 of the sea of men that look up to the Throne, are to be 

 picked out and honoured with a knighthood, baronetcy,, 

 peerage, &c. Instead of that honour, impartial judges 

 will choose among the pushful, and probably penniless, 

 pioneers of the Empire, those whose brain and grit, whose 

 perseverance and knowledge, possibly through long years 

 of a lonely uphill fight in a foreign country, have increased 



' But to do this we must have the pioneers or trade scouts out all over 

 the world to scent out the new openings and pave the way for the regular 

 trade soldiers to follow.— Ed., Ttopical Life. 



