Many of them have an extreme reasonableness. The
extent to which they will be adopted depends, no doubt, very largely
upon the politician and permanent official, and both these classes are
prone to panic in the presence of reality. In spite of its own interests
in restraining a rise in prices, the old official "salariat" is likely
to be obstructive to any such innovations. It is the resistance of spurs
and red tabs to military innovations over again. This is the resistance
of quills and red tape. On the other hand the organisation of Britain
for war has "officialised" a number of industrial leaders, and created
a large body of temporary and adventurous officials. They may want
to carry on into peace production the great new factories the war has
created. At the end of the war, for example, every belligerent country
will be in urgent need of cheap automobiles for farmers, tradesmen, and
industrial purposes generally, America is now producing such automobiles
at a price of eighty pounds. But Europe will be heavily in debt to
America, her industries will be disorganised, and there will therefore
be no sort of return payment possible for these hundreds of thousands of
automobiles. A country that is neither creditor nor producer cannot be
an importer. Consequently though those cheap tin cars may be stacked
as high as the Washington Monument in America, they will never come to
Europe.
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