Page 286 - clra62_0019-(GIPE)

XXVI.

ARE WE LIVING ON CAPITAL? I
HERE has been much talk lately of the waste or
T expenditure of National Capital in different ways.
One of these ways is the expenditure upon armaments
and preparation for war. Nations, it is alleged, are
engaged in a competition where all must lose, spend-
ing more than they can afford in preparation for the
evil days of a war which may never come, and piling
up heavy debts which they can ill bear, so that their
whole industry is crippled in consequence. While they
are not alone in the matter, American statisticians and
economists, as well as American public men generally,
have a good deal to say on this head to the disad-
vantage of European nations compared with America.
The greater welfare of the American people, and the
superior productiveness of their industry, are asserted
to be the result of the freedom of America as compared
with Europe from such wasteful expenditure. Another
kind of discussion which has taken place is with refer-
ence to the position of this country in its international
trade. The allegation is~ade that, in the course of
this trade, we are living upon our capital, parting with
valuable property in order to obtain food and other
things which we import from abroad, in excess of the
goods which we are able to export. Metaphorically
speaking, it is said that, as a nation, we shall, before
long, be in the poor-house, or what answers inter-
nationally to the poor.house. It may be useful, there-

1 Read before the Institute of Bankers on Wednesday, May und,