LAND AND WATER 
February 3, 1916. 
the late Mr. Arthur Loc, a well known financial nnd 
commercial authority who had fjivcn j'ears of study to 
this particular subject. The reader need hardly be 
reminded of the vast importance of this particular ques- 
tion — especially at this time — when we are threatened 
with a stupendous trade war at the conclusion of hostilities. 
As our industrial and commercial classes will not be 
able to afford to carry any unnecessary burdens, it is wise 
now to consider closely whether this luxury of a free 
gold market is worth to the nation what it is'costing. 
Mr. Arthur Lee was a member of the I.ondon Chamber 
of Commerce and at one time President of the Bristol 
Chamber of Commerce, and in reply to an enquiry as 
to what advantages, if any, ftlir free market for gold con- 
ferred upon British trade and industries, he wrote : — 
It would be true to say that a free gold market in London is 
of assistance in securing to us sucli advantages as may 
accrue from I-ondon being the clearing house of the world. 
So long as London is the market of the world where gold 
may I'C most freely bought and sold, and so long as a 
monopoly is conferred upon gold in respect to its debt- 
redeeming power, so long will the exchange bankers and 
bullion dealers retain the enormously jirofitable fmancial 
business in which they have been engaged ever since 
modern laws conferred a monopoly value upon gold. This 
would be an exact and truthful statement of the case. 
^V'hcnever the pronoun " we " is used, I am always 
tempted to ask the question, who are " we ? " I have 
lieard from the lips of a working man words somewhat 
similar to those you say j'ou found in a recent article 
on the subject of " London's l^ree Gold Market." I 
asked him if he had thought whether " we " included 
himself, and if not, would it not be well for purposes of 
argument if he used the correct noun instead of an in- 
correct pronoun ? The advantages of a, free gold market 
to certain classes are obvious enough, but the advantages 
to the country as a whole are counterbalanced by such 
serious disadvantages that it seems probable that the 
latter outweigh the former. The advantages are : — 
t. The expenditure in this country of the profits made by a 
very small class of financiers (mostly cosmopolitan). 
2. The deposit in this country of balances due to foreigners, 
payable on demand, or at very short notice. 
3. The ready negotiability in a foreign country of a bill of 
exchange payable in London. This may possibly enable 
a British* l-.uyor to buy foreign goods at n low^r pi ice 
than a buyer in another coimtrj'. 
'Ihe disadvantages are: — 
J. The constaht distnilvance to business caused by rapi<l 
fluctuations in the rate of discount. 
2. The opportunity given to foreign speculators to make 
profit at the expense of traders in this country by mani- 
]nilating the oj)en gold market. 
3. The diaining of the savings of the people confided to country 
bankers in the direction of Lombard Street and thence 
to the financing of foreign speculators. 
4. The discouraging of what is termed " the fixing of capital " 
in this country, which is another term for money sunk in 
sowing the seed which will spring up for the future benefit 
of our home industries. 
5. The fmancial danger to the country of holding upon loan, 
large floating balances payable on demand, or at short 
notice, to foreigners. 
The advantages and disadvantages of a free gold market may 
be shortly summed up thus : It gives us facilities for get- 
ting into debt and it places debtors poculiarlv at the mercy 
of creditors. ^ 
This letter appears to give a fair and complete 
summary of the whole question. As to the enormous value 
our banking methods and free gold market have been to 
foreigners — particularly to the Cermans, in creating 
German industries which have successfully competed witii 
our own, the following extract from Mr. Hartley Withers' 
" Meaning of Money " will show :— " Foreign financiers 
were quick Jo detect, the advantages of the English crecht 
system and to turn them to their own profit and to the 
furtherance of the trade of the, countries that they repre- 
sent. It is often contended that ilie rapid expansion of 
German trade, which pushed itself largely by its elasi.iciiv 
and adaptability to the wishes of its ciistotners, could never 
have been achieved if it had not been assisted by cheap 
credit furnished in London, by means of which German 
merchants ousted English manufacturers ivith offers of long 
credit facilities to their foreign customers." 
Could any indictment of our Banking System be 
stronger than the words italicised here ? 
London bankers ..av-. nevei Jiscnminatcd against foreigners in 
favour of British merchants. A foreign biivcr can as readily arranse 
to have his bills drawn on London, as the British buyer, and so obtain 
the same advantages. N'o one can lighily accuse London Bankers 
of any excess of patriotism ! — A.K. 
THE FORUM. 
A Commentary on Present-day Problems. 
THIS page of commentary in the last issue dealt 
with a vigorous letter of protest against the 
modern spirit of organisation and eflicicncy, 
and promised to concern itself this week with 
a brilliant little satire, The Devil's Devices, written by Mr. 
Douglas Peploe and illustrated by Mr. Eric Gill in which 
essentially the same protest was attractively elaborated. 
The general ideas which the author of this exceedingly 
able little satire seeks to establish are : That under the 
general formula of organisation and efficiency an enormous 
amount of fussy, grandmotherly and, at worst, tyrannisal 
legislation is being forced upon the simple folk by a law- 
making caste ; that the liberty of the worker is being 
threatened in the name of democracy as it was never 
threatened by monarchy or oligarchy; that, in fact, 
not merely Conservatives and Liberals of the landowning 
or manufacturing classes, together with the theorising 
Radicals, but that the very extremists among the leaders 
of Labour and Socialism are all combining to forge new 
fetters for the w'orker ; that the whole paraphernalia of 
Compulsory Educaton, State Insurance, Old Age Pensions, 
School meals form but successive links of the fetters. 
This last idea is, of course, not new, but it is usually urged 
by the people who have more natural sympathy with the 
managing tlian the exploited classes. 
Some patience is necessary to disentangle the real 
meaning from the fantastic form in which our author 
has chosen to present his vision. " The Devil " of this 
satire is a very plausible person, the ser\-ant of the 
capitalists, the lawj-ers and the politicians, who presents 
the case for organisation and efticiencj- with an immense 
show of good feeling for the worker, much sweet reason- 
ableness, and a fine zeal for ordered accomplishment and 
all the modern watch cries — education, health, increased 
production, scientific management, success. 
The chief idea that the author seems to wish to 
canvass is that the true line of progress for Labour is to 
throw off the policy of d^manding doles and accepting 
controls, controls which are only making of the man 
more and more a mere cog in the industrial machine ; 
and to demand and take on more responsibility, to show 
less " funk." The significance of all this is that it rein- 
forces a judgment which from quite chfferent points of 
view other thoughtful students of the labour tangle arc 
making. Most casual observers of the Labour move- 
ment, as well as most employers, are apt to sum it up as 
an organised attempt to get ir^rjrc pay and do less work, 
and to say that the case at issue between Capital and 
Labour is merely the question of the distribution of 
profits. The idea that the real demand of Labour is a 
demand for status rather than for wages, and that the 
essential bitterness of Labour, by no means confined to 
agitators and extremists, is formed by the growing sense 
that they are not their own masters, but, increasingly, 
other peoples' pawns, is well worth the jleep consideration 
of those— and what men of vision or reflection arc not 
amongst them ? — who view the re-opening of the Labour 
question after the war with serious apprehension. 
It is of course true, as it is natural, that the'Labour 
issues are most often expressed in terms of wages, hours, 
limitations. These are the tangible, immediate gains 
proposed by " practical " leaders who ajipreciate the 
difficulties of holding men together merely by the larger 
visions and hopes which, however substantial, are neces- 
sarily hopes deferred. But go deeper and you find (he 
