power of our money, modified by a very gradual return towards its pre-war value and the restoration of the gold standard. This desire for a return towards pre-war value of money—or pre-war level of prices—was based on the view that the rise in prices had inflicted a great injustice on salary earners and wage earners and owners of fixed incomes who had not been able to expand their incomes as fast as it went, and that the rise had also put unearned and often unsought profits into the pockets of those who from the nature of their business, had to keep a stock of goods in hand. In other words it had, instead of laying the war sacrifice on the shoulders of all in accordance with their ability to bear it, as is roughly done by graduated direct taxation, made its burden unequal, and especially heavy for those least able to carry it. Since this injustice had been done, there was something to be said for the view that it should be partially amended by a reversing of the process by a fall in prices.
My own opinion was that a very gradual fall in prices was wanted for these reasons, but that anything like violent measures was the last thing that the occasion needed. It seemed to me that all that was needed was for the Government to forswear financial sack and live cleanly, paying off debt out of revenue; that artificial
