Edwin W. Smith

THE BOOK OF THE QUARTER: CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

THE Royal Empire Society is to be congratulated upon 1 summoning the first Conference to discuss Empire development from the standpoint of consumption and production (the order of the words is significant); and also upon having issued a volume of the papers and speeches, edited with his usual skill by Professor A. P. Newton. Economists have concentrated in the past on problems of production. Production of what ? Of an endless series of inanimate objects. Now we begin to see that what we should really try to produce first is the best possible human beings. And this means that emphasis must now be placed upon consumption. Why is it that in England and Wales the general mortality rates in poor districts are fifty per cent. higher thaIl in the wealthier ones ? Why is the proportion of infantile mortality in these areas as two to one ? A study of the facts forces one to the conclusion that poverty is linked with malnutrition, disease and premature death. There are other factors in the problem, but the chief are nutrition and housing: and these are two aspects of the general problem of consumption. In other words, health depends firstly upon a sufficiency of the right food, and upon the provision of proper dwellings: the primary physical needs of a healthy population are for a higher standard of living, which means a higher consumption of foodstuffs and housing materials. Scientific enquiry has made known what are called optimum standards in relation to food and housing. There i.s a decent minimum standard at which a nation will aim when it is determined to secure the best available life for the whole of its people. A comparison of such a standard with the actuality provides