Preface to First Edition

Preface to the First Edition THREE things may be said about this book upon which there must, I think, be general agreement, and I mention them to save my critics trouqle. The first is that the book is in bad taste, dealing as it does with matters which, by common consent, are not usually written or talked about. Secondly, the book aspires, to no literary merit. The matter of it has been dictated in the manner of commercial corre spondence and no attempt has been made to shield bald fact behind art or style. And thirdly, the 'book and the arguments it contains are decidedly material istic. That is not because I am unconscious of the ethical side of all these problems, but because I am concerned for the moment with the more practical . aspect of affairs. I have endeavour~d to put a point of view which is all too little considered in modern discussions, and without which, so it seems to me, all discussions of the common wealth must be futile and dangerous.

As will be obvious from the length and complica tions of the story, my obligations to others are too heavy and numerous to mention in detail. But the book could not have been written without the accom plished help of my secretary, Florence Robinson, or of G. L. Jarratt and B. H. Tripp .. Nor would it have seen the light but for the kindly encouragement of myoId friend, Sir Arthur Spurgeon, who was good enough to spare time to read the manuscript. Oxted, September, 1925. E. B.