by its progress can the evils which are usually laid to the door of
finance be cured by being attacked in their real home. In the meantime
much might be done by more candid publicity and clearer statements in
prospectuses of the objects for which money lent is to be used and of
the terms on which loan issues have been arranged. Any reasonable
attempts that may be made to improve the working of International
Finance are certain to have the support of the best elements in the
City.

At the same time we may hope that as economic progress goes slowly ahead
over the stepping stones of uncomfortable experience, borrowing
countries will see that it really pays them to pay their yearly bills
out of yearly taxes, and that they are only hurting themselves when they
mortgage their future revenue for loans, the spending of which is not
going to help them to produce more goods and so raise more revenue
without effort. War is the only possible excuse for asking foreign
nations to find money for other than reproductive purposes. In time of
war it can be justified, even as an individual can be justified for
drawing on his capital in order to pay for an operation that will save
his life. But in both cases it leaves both the nation and the individual
permanently poorer and with a continuous burden to meet in the shape of
interest and sinking fund, until the loan has been redeemed. Loans
raised at home have an essentially different effect. The interest on
them is raised from the taxpayers and paid back to the taxpayers, and
the nation, as a whole, is none the poorer. But when one nation borrows
from another it takes the loan in the form of goods or services, and
unless these goods and services are used in such a way as to enrich it
and help it to produce goods and services itself, it is bound to be a
loser by the bargain; because it has to pay interest on the loan in
goods and services and to redeem the loan by the same process, and if