A concrete example will be useful. In the beginning of 1918 the owners asked for an increase in the price of coal. Partly because of a debate in Parliament and partly because a large number of collieries were anxious to be in a more favourable position should the Coal Control cease, it was decided in June, 1918, to add 2s. 6d. per ton to the price of coal.
This meant that in order to save £850,000 a month, or about £10,000,- 000 a year (this sum being then paid out by the Coal Control to meet certain losses on some collieries and maintain the pre-war standard of profit to the owners which the Government had guaranteed) the Controller fixed on the consumers an additional cost of £25,000,000 per year. Recently we have heard a good deal about H.C.L. in Shanghai and some of its causes, and the above example demonstrates how the action of a Government in placing unnecessarily heavy burdens on a community at the same time makes the cost of everything higher for the community.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.