ing out loudest against the high taxation that was alleged to be strangling our own industry, were quite ready to talk in a way that implied that the imposition of an indemnity on Germany, and the high taxation involved by it, were going to make German industry work all the harder and all the better.
And so we seem to be led to the curious conclusion that the royal road to the capture of the world's trade lies through two gates, the first of which is currency debasement, and the second is the obligation to pay a crushing indemnity. But was there any reason to suppose that because the German employer and workman were going to be taxed to pay an indemnity they would therefore work harder and better? Perhaps there might be a few highly patriotic souls who could really maintain such an effort in order to free the Fatherland from economic bondage. But to most of them—though German patriotism is surely a marvellous force—the effect of this payment would seem to be more likely to have a damping effect on the daily and yearly effort. If there were no indemnity to pay and all that German industry earned went into its own pocket and that of Germany, then one might well imagine that the "boundless passion and tenacity" spoken of by Mr. Crammond would
