The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-08-15
GOLD IS HELD RESPONSIBLE
 FOR HIGH PRICES
sy AssooIatsd Press

Washington. August 14.-Haled before the bar of the federal electric railways commission today. a billion dollars in foreign gold was arraigned by Prof. Irv- ing Fisher of Yale university as the chief culprit not only in bringing Ameri- can trolley lines to bankruptcy, but in sending prices generally SKY -rocketing to undreamed of high levels. The flood Of bullion, he said, came before the war, sent over to meet purchases by beihger- ent powers in the United States With the first appearance of the golden ln- vader, he said. prices began to leap sky ward, even prices on articles wholly un- related to the war.
 The result of the gold importation has been a depreciation of the American dol Jar, so far as it's purchasing power was Soncerned, Prof. Fisher asserted. At the same time, it's price of the actual amount Of gold it contained by weight, remained fixed, he added, and today it's buying power is one-third of what it was in 1906 and half of what 1t was in the sprfna of 1914
 The remedy is easy, the witness de- clared. StabiIization Of the dollar by regulation of the price of gold in ac- cordance with price fluctuations was pro duced, through the system of dollar values worked out by government econ- onists.
 Applying his theory of gold imitation to the case of the trolley lines, Prof. Fisher said the basic trouble was that the fixed rates of fare no longer were adequate to meet expenses, since the purchasing power of the nickel was but one-third of what it was when most of the rates were fixed. Obviously he said, the logical thing to meet the present emergency appeared to be to raise fares; but in that would be implied equaliza- tion to the new price levels of all other fixed charges, such as interest rates. salaries wages and all similar contract agreements that were fixed in terms of big dollars before the gold imitation and should not now be met with depre- cia ted little dollars
 HOW TO KILL BOLSHEVISM
 Deprecated dollars had caused the pop ulist movement which died away to be replaced by the bolshevist idea now spreading through the world, the pro- lessor said Stabilize the dollar and bolshevism would similarly disappear, he continued. adding:
 ''The most dangerous kind of discon- tent is when & man is hard hit and does not know what hit him.
 Granville MacFarlane. Boston attor- Eey told the commission that while these economic theories might explain the movement of prices, they did not explain the actual cost of living So far as the railroads and street railways were con cerned, he added, fortunes wrested out of manipulation of those public utili- ties by bankers and financiers has added to that burden which was being paid by the people at large. For that req son, he said, he would prefer to see pub lie ownership and operation, even if it involved for a time, loss. Inevitably, he declared, greater efficiency of ser vice and security from raids by finan- ciers would follow, even though graft must always be expected
 Difficulties of the New York city trac- ton lines were laid before the conmis- sion by Lewis Nixon. public service com missioner, and William P. Burr. corpo- ration counsel. AS an immediate remedy for the New York situation, the former proposed consolidation of all lines, ele- vated, surface and subway, under con- trol of a single holding company, mu- nicipal ownership of the lines. he pre- dicted, would come fin the fullness of time."
 The present position of New Yorks surface lines, MT. Burr said, was their own fault because of financial exploita- ton in the past. Their history was a record of speculation, peculation and fraud" he said, adding that municipal ownership, to which the present adminis- tration is pledged, was the only solu- tion.