DeccmbtT 30, 1915. 
LAND AN D WATER 
bv plundering conquered pro\ uices. dennany has ob- 
tained lu'f supplies by all three methods. But owing to 
the Allies' command of the seas, her opportunities ,fpr 
purchasing ha\e been greatly hampered. Hence lier 
need for gold is enormously reduced. This, ho\ve\er. 
gives our enemy one advantage. It compels him to fall 
back on his own productive resources, thus saving him 
and his descendants the future burdens of interest charges 
on foreign loans. How much he has secured in the shape 
of forced indemnities and plunder from Belgium, France, 
and Poland, we cannot tell. There are evidences that 
hundreds of thousands of men and women have been 
enslaved and forced to contribute their labour towards 
))ro\iding the enemy with food, clothing, and munitions. 
\\'hatever he secures from these sources are obtained 
\\ithout the need of either gold or loans. On the other 
liand, the Allies' supplies are obtained by production 
and foreign purchase, and hence their need for gold and 
foreign loans is far greater than the enemy's. 
Now the particular method of raising funds has a 
most important bearing on production both present and 
future. And it is here that danger lies, whicli few, if 
any, writers have so far mentioned. At the beginning of 
the strugi;le, Mr. Asquith stated that there were three 
methods of paying for our importations of munitions and 
other necessaries. One was by e.xports of our own 
products and our maritime services, another by the sale of 
foreign investments, and the third, by the loan. And he 
advocated the last as the most convenient for the nation. 
Let us consider these. 
To pav by our exports, would mean that we should 
be compelled to produce continuously for export at least 
as much as in ordinary times of peace. But as a large 
proportion of our factories are now turned over to special 
work for war munitions — which from the economic 
standpoint is absolutely waste — our exports are neces- 
sarily curtailed. Similarly, , since our ships are mostly 
employed in transporting men and munitions for the war, 
our maritime service, liitherto profitably employed on 
foreign trade, is also greatly reduced. 
As to hnancing by means of loans, this is eventually 
the most ruinous of all methods, although the most 
popular, because its evil effects are not immediately per- 
tcived and the burdens entailed are spread over a wide 
area and a long period of time. I'uiancmg a world-wide 
crisis like the present by the method of tlie loan, means the 
inevitable enslavement of this and future generations. 
It inflicts a perpetual burden upon production. It con- 
stitutes a wedge which separates society into the two 
eternally-conflicting classes, the idle rich (who live on 
interest) and the over-burdened poor (who must produce 
it). Its effects are disastrous, both socially and economi- 
cally. It is probable that at the end of the war our 
national debt will aggregate at least £3,000,000,000 ! 
The annual interest on this sum will be £130,000,000 ! This 
is three times the total net earnings of all the railway and 
tramway companies in the United Kingdom. It will 
be as though the enemy had invaded our country and 
seized all our transportation facilities and commandeered 
the entire prolits for ages, until the loans are paid. And 
what advantage does the nation get in return for this 
annual tribute ? Merely time ! Actually (his and nothing 
more ! ! 
We shall be paying this colossal sum merely for the 
privilege of being allowed to pay the principal, if ever, 
at a more convenient season. At the end of twenty 
years we shall have paid in interest charges a sum equal 
to almost the entire cost of the war, without having re- 
duced the original debt by a single shilhng ! Such is the 
merciless nature of the loan ! 
There remains for us to consider the other method of 
financing the war mentioned by the Prime Minister. 
This plan has. recently been adopted by the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer. American securities arc now being 
exchanged for British Government Bonds, so that pay- 
ments for American munitions and, other goods may be 
made in American currency. This is by far a better 
arrangement than that originally adopted by the Govern- 
ment. BrieHy stated, the advantages arc as follows :— 
(i) It will tend to confine the Government loan to our 
own people, and therefore the interest will be largely ex- 
pended on British products. 
(z) It will tend to reduce, the volume of tributary gopds 
flowing into this'country from abroad which ha\e hitherto 
competed with our home products, and served to reduce 
wages and foment labour troubles. 
(3) It will tend to cheaj)en future loans for ]>roductive 
enterprises— a consummation devoutly to be wished. 
SOME POETS OF TO-DAY. 
By S. P. B. Mais. 
WAK books are at a discount, even novels 
fail to turn our thoughts from the over- 
powering darkness and shadows that 
threaten us ; only our poets can ease our 
minds and uplift our hearts. So we have Mr. John 
(Jxenham turning from his novel-writing to " Bees in 
Amber" and "All's Well." and becoming thereby 
more famous and beloved than ever ; we have 
anthologies of " Poems of To-Day " read and re-read by 
all the boys and girls in every sort of school in the king- 
dom ; we have Miss Elinor Jenkins and Miss Irene McLeod 
(new names both) selling their slim modest volumes of 
verse in thousands : . . . there is no end to the list 
of the poetry that e\'erybody reads to-dav. .\nd vet it 
was but two years ago that John Masefield was the only 
name in people's mouths when contemporary poetry was 
mentioned ; he alone could capture the heart of the 
great reading public. Rupert Brookes success stands 
somewhat outside the i)resent boom. He had every 
gift that man could desire. The fact of his death, tha"t 
noble laying down on the altar of honour all the magic 
gifts which he had had bestowed on him by a bountiful 
nature, of beauty, of charm, of intellect, of,gehii}s, attracted 
numbers of people who would otherwise iJfiy.er. h^ve 
heard of him. ', .' ; 
The reasons for this sudden volte face arc many, but 
I venture to think, sound. In the first place there" is no 
doubt whatever tliat the war has shari)ened our faculties 
of perception and intensified them to a quite unheard of 
degree. We have at last, not without dust and. heal 
and much inward tribulation, cultixated our imaginations. 
In tlie last eigliteen months we have many of u^. suddenly 
i;rown from childhood to manhood, and we feel the grow- 
ing pains to be more severe than we can bear alone. Of 
old we were content with the darkness ; it never strucly 
the majority of us that there was such a thing a's beauty i 
Life with her skill of a million years' perfection 
To make her heart's delighted glorying 
Of sunlight, and of clouds about the moon, 
Spring lighting lier daffodils, and corn 
Ripening gold to rudds--, and giant seas, 
.\nd mountains sitting in their purple clothes ; - 
It is only now when " Life, the wonder " is aboirt to 
be " all blotched out by a brutal thrust of fire, like a 
midge that a clumsy thumb squashes and smears " that 
we realise what it is that we are about to give up. Wlien 
there was nothing to disturb our vanity, no murder or 
sudden death, we felt that we were to live for ever. The 
clouds riding across the heavens, the smell of lilac 
and sweetbriar, the wind on the heath, " green 
lanes where little things with beating hearts hold 
shining eyes between tjie leaves," autumnal hues, 
the freshness and glory of Nature's re-birth (.very spring, 
dawn, mist and the mantle of dusk, all failed to pene- 
trate the dullness of our sight ; they were always with us 
and we failed to realise them. 
It is these things now that save us from madness ; 
most of \is know from experience or fronijetters received 
from the trenches wliat an enormous difference dawn and 
the singing of birds have made to tho.se who are fighting. 
" Had this war been fought in a room I should have gone 
out of my mind long ago, " writes one subaltern, echoing 
a thought that every one lias felt. 
War then has developed in u-- a sensf of a longing 
for the beautiful, and we are impelled to cling to those who 
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