So far as I am able to distinguish among
the things that are being said in these matters, they may be classified
out into groups that centre upon several typical questions. There is
the question of "How to pay for the war?" There is the question of the
behaviour of labour after the war. "Will there be a Labour Truce or a
violent labour struggle?" There is the question of the reconstruction of
European industry after the war in the face of an America in a state
of monetary and economic repletion through non-intervention. My present
purpose in this chapter is a critical one; it is not to solve problems
but to set out various currents of thought that are flowing through
the general mind. Which current is likely to seize upon and carry human
affairs with it, is not for our present speculation.
There seem to be two distinct ways of answering the first of the
questions I have noted. They do not necessarily contradict each other.
Of course the war is being largely paid for immediately out of the
accumulated private wealth of the past. We are buying off the "hold-up"
of the private owner upon the material and resources we need, and paying
in paper money and war loans. This is not in itself an impoverishment of
the community. The wealth of individuals is not the wealth of nations;
the two things may easily be contradictory when the rich man's wealth
consists of land or natural resources or franchises or privileges the
use of which he reluctantly yields for high prices.
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