DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22140#0217
THE ECONOMIC DOCTRINE OF WASTE. 201
blunder to the metaphysician, is a hope to the economist. Let
us never despise experiment. It may answer, if we deal with
ants and bees, and the origins of the human race. It is
dangerous, if you challenge vested interests. But youth, and
especially Oxford youth, is very considerate of those interests. It
has a proper respect for age, even for disreputable age. It is
impossible for me not to appreciate the sympathy of what, I
trust, is reputable in any case. I do not, however, see why we
should be considerate of institutions. In my mind, it is the best
education to criticize them.
There is, however, one kind of waste, generally conceived to be
excusable, but of which the recent history is most inexcusable,
and the most dishonest. I am referring to the premature de-
velopment of industrial undertakings. In the United Kingdom
such things have happened, but we can bear them. In our
colonies they bid fair to ruin the fairest hopes. I think that I
can easily illustrate what I mean.
Let us conceive a German Jew (I have no objection to origin
or race, and think that what is objectionable in either, if it exists,
is kept alive by an intolerance), who, having kept a grogshop at
Ballarat in the gold-digging times, and having dealt profitably
with the miners, and deleteriously with their health, transfers his
gains to a neighbouring colony. He is the smartest of the smart,
and makes it his business to ingratiate himself with the people,
few and busy, who are seeking to acquire a rapid fortune in their
new home. Now there is one direction in which such people
can be readily influenced. This is to dwell with emphasis and
enthusiasm on the illimitable but undeveloped resources of the
new country, and to suggest the immediate and extensive
development of new harbours, docks, and railroads, the capital
being borrowed in the United Kingdom, and the income assured
from the earnings of these public works, and further covered by
protective customs duties. The colonists are invited to discount
their future expectations, and to load themselves with debt, while
the country of their origin is met, after advancing the loan, with
the grateful tribute of a hostile tariff. As a reward for his services
in making the colony stagger under a debt, which might have
been incurred fifty years hence with advantage, but under present
blunder to the metaphysician, is a hope to the economist. Let
us never despise experiment. It may answer, if we deal with
ants and bees, and the origins of the human race. It is
dangerous, if you challenge vested interests. But youth, and
especially Oxford youth, is very considerate of those interests. It
has a proper respect for age, even for disreputable age. It is
impossible for me not to appreciate the sympathy of what, I
trust, is reputable in any case. I do not, however, see why we
should be considerate of institutions. In my mind, it is the best
education to criticize them.
There is, however, one kind of waste, generally conceived to be
excusable, but of which the recent history is most inexcusable,
and the most dishonest. I am referring to the premature de-
velopment of industrial undertakings. In the United Kingdom
such things have happened, but we can bear them. In our
colonies they bid fair to ruin the fairest hopes. I think that I
can easily illustrate what I mean.
Let us conceive a German Jew (I have no objection to origin
or race, and think that what is objectionable in either, if it exists,
is kept alive by an intolerance), who, having kept a grogshop at
Ballarat in the gold-digging times, and having dealt profitably
with the miners, and deleteriously with their health, transfers his
gains to a neighbouring colony. He is the smartest of the smart,
and makes it his business to ingratiate himself with the people,
few and busy, who are seeking to acquire a rapid fortune in their
new home. Now there is one direction in which such people
can be readily influenced. This is to dwell with emphasis and
enthusiasm on the illimitable but undeveloped resources of the
new country, and to suggest the immediate and extensive
development of new harbours, docks, and railroads, the capital
being borrowed in the United Kingdom, and the income assured
from the earnings of these public works, and further covered by
protective customs duties. The colonists are invited to discount
their future expectations, and to load themselves with debt, while
the country of their origin is met, after advancing the loan, with
the grateful tribute of a hostile tariff. As a reward for his services
in making the colony stagger under a debt, which might have
been incurred fifty years hence with advantage, but under present