SIR,-1 will give Mr. Angelo "the lie direct". Savings do not cause unemployment. A progressive industrialist decides to introduce new labour-saving machinery whereby he can increase his output by 50 per cent. with 20 per cent. more labour.
The new machinery must be paid for, either out of the employer's savings or out of somebody else's savings. The building of the new machinery will employ labour; the production of the 50 per cent. additional output will employ 20 per cent. more labour. And it is a continuous process. No employment is possible without capital, i.e. without savings.
Mr. Angelo says that it can be proved by higher mathematics that savings cause unemployment. Now unemployment occurs because John Bloggs, Esq., decides to sack 100 men. No mathematician can tell me what John Bloggs will do in any particular circumstances. You cannot apply mathematics to moral problems.
Keynes says that an employer's profit " is the quantity he endeavours to maximise when he is deciding what amount of employment to offer ".
In plain English, this means that an employer will always sack 100 men if by doing so he can increase his profits by £1,000. This is perverted Calvinism.
According to the Catholic Dictionary. Calvin said that " man has no free will because the grace of God is irresistable ". Keynes says in effect that man has no free will because the lure of profits is Irresistible.
If John Bloggs finds that his profits are falling. he has many courses open to him : (1) RV hard work and hard thinking, he may he able to reduce costs
or produce an article that is more acceptable to the public; (2) By spending more time at his business and less at golf, he may be able to " tone up " the whole of his enterprise. If all else fails he has two alternatives : (3) He can accept a lower profit; (4) He can sack men.
What will John Bloggs do about it ?
Neither I nor Mr. Angelo can possibly know.
John F. L. Bray 132, Abbots Road, Abbots Langley, Watford.
Animal Eyes
SIR,-I regret that unnecessary
pain was caused to the Countess of Kinnoull by your article on the White Father Doctor who collected animals' eyes in order to teach some of his nurses how to give sight to Africans afflicted by cataract.
Having seen Doctor Goamisson at work. I can assure the Countess and other readers who may have been distressed, that the eyes in question all came from dead animals. They were, in fact, collected from the local butcher.
Doctor Goarnisson has restored sight to at least 5,000 Africans; hence his local title of "Doctor of Light".
(Fr.) Gerard Rathe, W.F.
White Fathers, Sutton Coldfield.