March 15, 1917 
LAND & WATFR 
15 
Poverty, Prosperity and Prices 
By Harold Cox 
THE habit of all human beings is to prefer short 
views to long ones — they are more quickly 
seen. Often this habit does- but little harni, 
for the people who indulge in it are at no dis- 
advantage as compared with the majority of their neigh- 
bours and competitors, who are equally the slaves of the 
same habit. Indeed, in one sphere of human hfe. the 
realm of politics, the short view is the more profitable. 
The politician is always sure to win applause by advoca- 
ting the short view, because it is the view that the 
majority appreciate. By the time it has been proved 
to be wrong he will be advocating something else, and 
they will have forgotten his — and their — previous follies. 
Where the habit becomes disastrous is where it brings 
the human being into sharp conflict with the hard facts 
of the material world. This is exactly what has hap- 
pened in nearly all the belligerent countries, but especially 
in our own and in Germany, through the adoption of 
short views in dealing with the food problem. The short 
view is that food prices must be kept low for the benefit 
of the masses. Any one engaged in the business of food 
supply who acts on a contrary principle, is denounced 
as a grasping profiteer, and is threatened with the best 
substitute for lynch law that can be found in- the Orders 
in Council. If a mere writer, whose personal interests 
are, like those of all consumers, on the side of cheapness, 
ventures to suggest that an artificial limitation of prices 
by Government authority will defeat its own object, he 
will probably be told that he is a theoretician preaching 
a cold-blooded philosophy. Humorously enough, the- 
very newspapers that indulge in this kind of comment 
and scream themselves hoarse about the scandal of high 
prices, are the same which a few years ago were engaged 
daily denoimcing the "demon of cheapness." • Inciden- 
tally, these newspapers have raised their own prices for 
the declared purpose of checking demand. 
So far as this country is concerned, the primary cause 
of high prices is not the activity of German submarines, 
-4ior the shortage of shipping, nor the failure of harvests, 
but the unexampled prosperity of the masses of .our 
population. This increased prosperity means an in- 
creased purchasing power and the exercise of that power 
by the mass of the people drives prices upwards. It is 
not only food that is affected. Drapers, milliners, 
jewellers, and all caterers for the comforts or the 
luxuries of the mass of the community, have with rare 
exceptions been doing better business at higher prices 
than before the war. 
On the top of this increased demand has come a shortage 
of supply. In the case of imported articles, that shortage 
is partly due to German submarines, but even more to 
the absorption of an enormous proportion of our mer- 
cantile marine for the needs of the Admiralty and the 
War Office. That a good deal of the shipping so absorbed 
is being wastefully employed every private shipowner 
knows. Large ships have been employed to carry horses 
backwards and forwards across the Mediterranean from 
Alexandria to Marseilles, because the military authorities 
could not make up their minds whether they wanted the 
horses in France or in Egypt ; ships have been kept 
waiting in distant harbours for twice or three times the 
number of days necessary for unloading and reloading, 
because Admiralty, officials do not understand how to 
handle mercantile shipping. If these administrative 
defects could be cured, a considerable fraction of the 
shipping shortage would be made good. But we should 
still be short of shipping, and still be faced \\ith the 
possibility of a further development of submarine 
activity. Thus some reduction in imported foodstuffs 
is unavoidable, though hitherto the actual reduction 
has been much less than is generally believed. 
Simultaneously, there has been a reduction in the 
supply of home-grown food, largely due to labour diffi- 
culties. The farmer's best men have enlisted, and their 
places cannot be filled either by women, or by the type 
of that professional man whom Mr. Neville Chamberlain 
fancifully depicts swinging a hammer in place of a gol£ 
club. When an increased demand is accompanied by a 
diminished supply, no power on earth or in heaven can 
prevent a rise of price. But Ministers of State in all 
countries imagine that their powers are superior both 
to natural and to super-natural forces. They think that 
they litave merely to order, and that what they command 
will be done. Consequently we find both in Germany 
and in this country a persistent effort on the part of the 
Government to limit prices in the professed interest of 
the masses. 
It will be convenient to deal with the case of Germany 
first, for Germany led the way in this policy, and it is 
only after a couple of years of relative sanity that our 
(iovernmcnt is now beginning to imitate one by one all 
the blunders that Germany has been making since the 
war began. Happily for us, the Germans are more 
thorough m their follies than we are. That is why we 
are winning the war. 
The extreme thoroughness of the German organisation 
is admirably illustrated in tlieir food ticket system. 
For example, \in Hamburg there was recentl}' announced 
a general issue of new cards : namely " bread cards, 
infants' flour cards, supplementary bread cards, potato 
cards, additional potato (^ards, whole milk cards, skim 
milk cards, and supplementary sugar cards for children." 
Every person must fetch his card or cards from 
the school in his own district, and upon the day 
fixed for his own street or part of a street. The 
statements made by applicants fpr tickets will be tested 
by " information cards " prepared by the Food Office. 
In order to prevent delays, applicants are " urgently 
recommended " to bring with them birth certificates for 
all the persons on whose behalf they are applying. Take 
again the following extracts from the order issued by the 
Berlin Police authorities early in February : 
In Charlottenburg from February 12th to iStli, no potatoes 
may be supplied on the four coupons 42 a and e, and not 
more than I lb. on each of the six hatched coupons 42 
Union Jack Club 
THE King and Queen paid a visit to the Union 
Jack Club last Thursday afternoon ; it was a 
surprise visit as their Majesties wished to see 
the Club in its normal state. As they went 
through the rooms, both the King and Queen entered 
freely into conversation with the members present, who 
included representatives from the Overseas Armies and 
from the Australian Navy as well as men from the British 
Navy and Army. Every part of the Club was visited, 
and like everyone else who goes there for the first time, 
their Majesties were delighted with its general plan and 
arrangements and the way it is run on business lines 
entirely for the advantage of its members. 
Royalty from the first has taken an active interest 
in this splendid institution, and everything that is done 
to render it of greater benefit to its members has their 
cordial approval. The proposal to create a permanent 
Literary Fund, which has been advocated in these 
columns, is a case in point. The present comparative 
lack of newspapers and periodicals is a considerable 
drawback to the Club from the members' point of view, 
and leaves many an idle hour on their hands. This 
effort to strengthen the Union Jack Club in this direction 
receives support, and the knowledge that the King and 
Queen are personally interested in the Club, as testified 
by their visit last week, will further help it. 
All contributions to the U.J.C. Litei-ary Fund should 
be forwarded to the Editor, L.and & W.\ter, 5, Chancery 
Lane. W.C., 3, 
