xpenditure of about a million
sterling. The Development Commission began to consider schemes for the
construction of light railways, for the improvement of the navigation of
rivers, etc., in order that work of this kind should be ready to be put
into operation when the necessity arose. The Board of Agriculture has urged
that where practicable the acreage under wheat should be increased. This
suggestion is, of course, valuable, but will not greatly affect the
industrial situation. Even if the schemes sanctioned by the Local
Government Board and those adopted by the Road Board were put into
operation immediately, which is almost impossible, they would not make a
very appreciable difference to the total wages bill of the country. But
perhaps it is thought by the Government that the state of employment is not
sufficiently grave to warrant a greater expenditure at the present time. In
spite of the insistence on forestalling destitution, there is still
among local authorities much confusion of charity and relief work with
anticipation of future needs calling for employment through the ordinary
channels of trade. On the whole the Government has not met the domestic
problems of the war with the unanimity and boldness which has characterised
its actions in the actual prosecution of the war and in dealing with the
financial crisis.

4. _The New Spirit._--The broader social effects which showed themselves in
the early days of the war are illustrated by the remarkable growth of State
Socialism. The nation became a community, united in a single purpose;
breaches which many imagined to be permanent, cleavages which were thought
to be fundamental, no longer existed. None was for a party; all were for
the State. The three political parties formed a Parliamentary Recruiting
Committee, and altogether impossible teams of people appeared on public
platforms with a common aim; Mr. Ben Tillett, in words that might have
fallen from the lips of a Tory ex-Cabinet minister, declared that "every
resource at our command must be utilised for the purpose of preserving our
country and nation"; the anti-militarist trade union movement earnestly
appealed to those of its members who were ex-non-commissioned officers
to re-enlist; the Queen and Miss Mary MacArthur were members of the same
committee. This unanimity, which has pushed into the background for the
present causes of difference, has led the vast majority of people to submit
cheerfully to the wil