somebody else, to pocket big profits, big salaries or big wages while doing as little as possible to earn them, and generally to have a glorious time because peace and plenty had returned and there were cakes and ale, and ginger, by Saint Anne, was hot in the mouth, naturally and inevitably spent, collectively and individually, extravagantly and recklessly.
Any attempt to balance expenditure and revenue was felt to be unsuited to the atmosphere. The national debt, in fact, went on increasing from the Armistice date, November 1918, until the end of December 1919. Even if Mr. Gladstone and Lord Welby had been in charge of the national finances, it would have been impossible, as soon as the war was over, to bring outlay within income. Very heavy expenses were involved by demobilization of the army and by the problem of returning to ordinary industry the millions of men who had been in the fighting line and in the field or on the lines of communication, or who had been employed directly or indirectly on work for war purposes. On the whole it may be said that this business of getting the great majority of them back into ordinary industry was carried out with astonishing rapidity and success, for which the Government, in the midst of the chorus of criticism
