Disaster Feared By Lloyd George.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 14, 1913:
He Thinks Increase in Armaments Will Result in Revolutionary Protest.
POWERS SCARE EACH OTHER
Feverish Rivalry In Expenditure in France, Germany, and Russia Cause of Money Stringency.
By Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Aug. 13.— A striking speech was made by Chancellor of the Exchequer Lloyd George in the House of Commons to-day on the question of the expenditure on armaments.
    Mr. Lloyd George said the powers were just scaring each other into this expenditure. He was afraid it would end in a great disaster. He would not say the disaster would be in this country, but it would come. He did not suppose there would be a revolution in any country because the Government was spending money on armaments, but the consequences would be such that the people would be goaded into some form of revolutionary protest.
    Nothing, said the Chancellor, had done more to create money stringency and arrest new orders than not alone the war in the Near East, but the sudden feverish rivalry in the expenditure on armaments in France, Germany, and Russia. With every additional pound spent on armaments credit was destroyed, with the confidence which created the activity and energy of commerce.
    When, said Mr. Lloyd George, they spent money on social reform they were improving the health and efficiency of the people as machines; they were making better men.