e dread of hunger worse
than the actual pangs.'" Yet there are many persons apparently in whose
opinion justice requires that such beings should pay tribute until they
are forty or fifty years of age in relief of the British taxpayer.

CHAPTER VII

REMEDIES

It is difficult to maintain true perspective in large affairs. I have
criticized the work of Paris, and have depicted in somber colors the
condition and the prospects of Europe. This is one aspect of the
position and, I believe, a true one. But in so complex a phenomenon the
prognostics do not all point one way; and we may make the error of
expecting consequences to follow too swiftly and too inevitably from
what perhaps are not _all_ the relevant causes. The blackness of the
prospect itself leads us to doubt its accuracy; our imagination is
dulled rather than stimulated by too woeful a narration, and our minds
rebound from what is felt "too bad to be true." But before the reader
allows himself to be too much swayed by these natural reflections, and
before I lead him, as is the intention of this chapter, towards remedies
and ameliorations and the discovery of happier tendencies, let him
redress the balance of his thought by recalling two contrasts--England
and Russia, of which the one may encourage his optimism too much, but
the other should remind him that catastrophes can still happen, and
that modern society is not immune from the very greatest evils.

In the chapters of this book I have not generally had in mind the
situation or the problems of England. "Europe" in my narration must
generally be interpreted to exclude the British Isles. England is in a
state of transition, and her economic problems are serious. We may be on
the eve of great changes in her social and industrial structure. Some of
us may welcome such prospects and some of us deplore them. But they are
of a different kind altogether from those impending on Europe. I do not
perceive in England the slightest possibility of catastrophe or any
serious likelihood of a general upheaval of society. The war has
impoverished us, but not seriously;--I should judge that the real wealth
of the country in 1919 is at least equal to what it was in 1900. Our
balance of trade is adverse, but not so much so that the readjustment of
it need disorder our economic life.[157] The deficit in our Budget is
large, but not beyond what firm and prudent statesmanship could bridge.
The shortening of the hours of la