London, Nov. 7.
The rise of the Bank rate from 5 per cent. to 6 per cent. has not unnaturally caused the newspapers to review in anything but a cheerful spirit the outlook for the coming winter. It is not that they anticipate trouble of a domestic nature, but that they know—that the economic prospect is such as to render it almost certain that there will be acute and general distress.
One month ago we had the railway strike, and the one concession that the Prime Minister made to the men to induce them to resume work was that the present scale of wages would be maintained till September 20, 1920, and not reduced if, as was originally suggested, the cost of living fell below 110 per cent. more than prior to the war, and then only if this was the case for three months.
The promise reads now-a-days as if it was bitterly ironical, Even reputable papers such as the "Times" admit that this winter it is almost certain that the cost of living will be 150 per cent. more than in 1914, and next year it may be more. Everything is still on the up-grade, more especially the absolute necessities of life, and just as in the war you can live rather better if you are willing to spend a little more on pure luxuries.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.