ABSTRACT
We have now reached the most difficult part of our task. Having dealt with a number of reform schemes, we must now attempt to extract from them the points that in our view are worth retaining, and to co-ordinate them into a combined reform scheme. The task is both difficult and thankless. Monetary reformers, enthusiastic about the particular scheme which they regard as a hundred per cent solution of the problem, have every reason to resent an attempt to reduce the importance of their proposal to, say, 10 per cent or 20 per cent of the total. Indeed, coming as it does from quarters which are in sympathy with their ideas, they probably resent the attempt more than they would the total rejection of their schemes by their orthodox opponents. Even those would-be reformers who are broadminded enough to consider it necessary to adopt more than one remedy usually lay too much emphasis on their own favourite idea. And yet it is a mistake to imagine that there is one simple patent medicine that could possibly cure all the ailments of our highly complicated economic system. If only all serious would-be reformers could be brought together and induced to see their own favourite schemes in true perspective, the result of such a conference would be the elaboration of a truly constructive and comprehensive reform scheme supported by the whole united force of the monetary reform movement. As it is, the reform movement is hopelessly divided and its influence is diminished by rivalries between the various schools and the various factions of each school.
