New-York tribune., 1919-04-08
Finance Economics
(Corytieht. 1910 N~y York vr,b,,n, Inc J

't'pFrgn, lvlv, new lnrN Tribune Jnc1
In volume of transactions ap-
proximating million shares, the
stock market in the early trading
was strong, gains in the general list
running from 2 to 4 point. This rise
was accompanied by much optimistic
comment on Lloyd Georges remark
that peace was probable by Easter;
on the intmationa that the Pres-
dent would return by May | , and on
The hope that he would isuc Il call
for an extra session OF Congress to
convene some time in the middle OF
May. The price situation in steel
was still left undecided. The an
nouncement appeared in the late af-
ternoon that there would be no con-
ference that day between Director
General Hines and Chairman Peek.
This, and the unexpected jump of
the call money rate from a to 6
per cent, with few odd lots going
at 7, probably aided technical con-
ditions in bringing about slight re-
action late in the session, though
stocks closed with net advances The
feature was tho rise of 9 "a points
in American international Corpora
ton stock, in which transactions ap
preached 100000 shares
"In JAPAN" says Senator Owen,
Of Oklahoma, chairman of the Bank
ing and Currency Committee, "the
currency is about $40 per capita, in
the United States $57, and in
France $3.50. Thus, a Japanese
workman, for a days labor in quail
ity and quantity the same, would
get but one-fifteenth as much gold
as a French laborer would get, and
about one-sixth as much as an Amer
lean laborer. Japan, therefore, can
advantageously manufacture goods
on a cheap gold basis and undersell
the United States and France" He
wants, therefore, "an international
agreement by which the per capita
circulation of money between all
nations would be more equitably ar
ranged" by which may be inferred
that he would think an arrangement
by which all countries had the same
per capita circulation ideal.
Senator Owen apparently takes no
account of the amount of the ma
terial wealth, the goods and services,
the commodities, the real riches of
nations. These are the true test of
relative national and per capita
wealth. They are greater in Amer-
ca than in any other country. And
the true way to guage relative per
capita circulation is to measure it
against per capita goods and SER
vices. If individual Americans have
four times as much goods and SER
vices as individual Europeans, they
should have four times as much
currency. That would be necessary
in order to keep the price level the
same. If individual Americans had
only as much individual currency
circulation as Europeans, our price
level, under the foregoing supposi-
ton, would be only one-fourth as
high, or rs per cent less than
Europe's. 1t is the comparative
ratios of circulation to commodities,
and not tho comparative circulntions
themselves, that coun,
America would be nearly the laat
country to have anything to fear
from such inequality Of circulation.
Out OF the sixteen principal nations
or the world, our per capita cur
rency ranks fifth from the lowest.
1t is interesting to notice how i'm
mensely the Russian per capita
paper circulation exceeds all others.
The following comparison, taken
from the Swiss Bank Corporations
annual review, gives a comparison
of per capita paper circulation of
the leading belligerent and neutral
countries at the beginning Of 1919,
and in 1914:
Belligerents 1914 1919
Great Britain ... $3.50 $4,000
France ......... 5000 1880
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