davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1921-01-30

and of the varying rates Of recovery
that the different European countries
will probably experience, reasoning Of
this type | realize is exceedingly dan
gerous. How far the world must de-
fate, and in particular how far the
United States must debate, before a
safe gold basis shall be reached, there
is no way of safely measuring. The
unknown factors, both economic and po-
litcal, are too many and too large. The
above facts and figures, however, at
least suggest that much more de1ation
will probably be necessary before the
gold standard is restored in Europe and
before our currency and bank credit
are on a strong enough gold base to
Justify forward pushing confidence
in the monetary standards of the
| future.
The answer to the question Of how
far defation should go is largely a
question of the reestablishment Of ade-
quate gold reserves for the restora-
ton and maintenance of the gold
standard in the leading countries of
the world. Europe so far has Debated
very little, and gold reserves in most
formerly belligerent countries are al
together insufficient to enable them to
return to sound gold standard. Our
own gold reserves IN the united
States are still inadequate safely to
support our present huge superstruc-
ture of paper money and deposit cur
rency. AS Europe returns slowly but
surely to the gold standard, she will
reclaim much Of the gold she has sent
us since 1918, and as result both the
/ amount of monetary gold in the United
States and our percentage Of thu
worlds supply Of monetary gold will
slowly extraordinarily probably
to figures that will represent something
like pre-war proportions. On tho as
sumption that the gold standard will be
restored in the lending countries of
the world which have abandoned it
since 1918, and will be strengthened
in other countries in which it has been
greatly weakened in recent years. and
on the further assumption that general
pre-war conditions Of economic pro-
duction and organization will within a
reasonable time be restored through
out most of the world, in forward
moving equilibrium, a large amount OF
further dehation in Europe and a sub
stantial amount in the United States
would seem to be necessary.
(The foregoing article was written 10,
Tho Bankers Econonaio Scrvice.-Finan
cial Editor)
New-York tribune., 1921-01-30

numbers. But the price level in the
United States is probably still higher
than it was in 1913 by four to five
times the pre-war rate of increase of
10 per cent in eight years
Let US approach the question from
another angle. For December 81, 1912,
the world stock Of monetary gold was
estimated by the Director Of the Mint
at $85 billions, of which sum the
United States held $1.9 billions, or 22.4
per cent. At the end Of 1919 the
worlds stock of monetary gold had de-
clined to $7.6 billions. Figures are not
reduced gold production during the
last year and Of the greatly increased
proportion of the total new gold that
has for some time been going into the
arts probably will justify the con-
clusion that the figure for December,
1920, will prove to be at least no larger
than that for December, 1919 We
shall assume it to be the same. Our
own stock Of monetary gold on De-
cember /, 1920, was $2.S billions, or
36.8 per cent Of the estimated world 3
stock. We're our stock =, of monetary
gold to be reduced by the rchabilita-
ton Of the gold standards of Europe
(and of the rest of the world) to it's
1918 percentage we would have to-day
only. s1.7 billions; in other words, we
would lose Sill billions, or about 40
per cent of our present stock. Even if
every dollar held in the worlds none
tary uses in 1913 should be restored to
them-an extreme assumption--and if
three-fourths (the normal pre-war pro-
portion) of all the new gold produced
since 1918 should be turned into the
monetary uses the total worlds stock
of monetary gold to-day would not be
over approximately s103 billions, OF
which our pre-war proportion would be
$2.3 billions, which would involve a
loss of half a billion dollars of oul
present stock But our present stock
is less than three fourths as large in
proportion to the paper money and
bank deposit credit it must support
than it was in 1913. Doubtless the Fed
eral Reserve system will enable US te
get along with a smaller percentage OF
gold reserve to our paper money anC
deposit currency than we had prior tt
tho war, but it would take large
amount Of optimism to conclude that
We could permanently support witt
safety anything like our present large
structure Of paper money and deposit
credit on gold basis reduced by $11
billions, or by even half that amount
| from it's present figure.
In view Of the changed economic con.
ditions in Europe wrought by the wal
New-York tribune., 1921-01-30
Quality Cheapened
To Meet Low Price.
Complaint of Buyer
Production of Sub-Standard
Goods as ''Firsts'' Menace
to Trade, Is Warming;
Practice To Be Opposed

Lowered standards of quality to meet
the new ideas on low prices is a COM
plant that buyers are now beginning
to charge against some producers of
merchandise. The complaints are not
made against all producers, but manu-
facturers who have cheapened their
products in this manner are numerous
enough to bring the subject up as one
of the new phases of the general bust
ness situation.
The tendency to produce sub stand
ard goods has been particularly notice
able in knit goods lines, buyers assert
and has become so prevalent that the
National Association of Hosiery and
Underwear Manufacturers has issued a
manufacturers of the danger of such
processes. 1t is said that some of the
new hosiery and knitted underwear
now coming into the market classed as
"tirsts" would not be sold as seconds
in any reputable department store.
The shoe trade also is suffering from
this evil. Some of the extremely low
prices on shoes that have been named
recently by manufacturers are believed
to result from the use of poor mate
rials and slip-shod methods of produc-
ton.
The practice also has become fairly
prevalent in the garment trades, with
the result that many buyers are seek
ing to make new connections because
they assert, some of their old sources
are producing garments not up to the
former standards.
The greatest sufferers from this
practice appear to be the manufacturers
who have adhered to quality standards
The price competition from the sub
standard merchandise throws their
product into high relief in the price
range. They are endeavoring to COM
bat this competition by lengthy explain
ations to buyers about the quality OF
raw materials and high standard OF
workmanship put into the products.
One shoe manufacturer is telling his
customers that there are 1870 distinct
labor operations in each shoe produced
in his factory, whereas shoes can be
produced with as few as fifty or sixty
operations.
New-York tribune., 1921-01-30

monetary unit In the near future, and
the problem of price readjustment is
one that calls for q program of prompt
action. Because, therefore, no substi-
tute for the gold standard that is both
sound in principle and politically at
tainable in the near future has been
devised, the world must adopt pro-
gram for the restoration of the gold
standard. We may grant most Of the
evils that the opponents of the gold
standard charge against it, but we must
remedy has yet been offered that is not
worse than the disease.
Europe Needs More
Has deAation then gone far enough
to restore the gold standard on q
safely adequate gold basis in the lead
ing countries of the world? No one
at all familiar with the present situa-
tion in Europe could answer this ques-
tion in the affirmative so far as Eu-
rope is concerned. The former belliger-
ent countries of Europe are all on a
deprecated paper money basis, with
their circulations Of paper money and
deposit currency so inflated in relation
to their meager gold reserves that their
monetary units are greatly deprecated
most of them to small fractions of
their legal gold units. Except perhaps
in the case of Great Britain, the de-
f1ation in belligerent Europe so far
has been negligible. In almost every
country the paper money currency to-
day is substantially greater than it was
when the armistice was signed, and the
gold value of the monetary unit is
lower. The international Financial Con-
n 70 80 nat o 4.
I'm nearly three out of four of the
countries represented at the confer
ence, however, and in nearly eleven
out of twelve European countries
budgets do not at present balance, and
many OF them show no prospect of
doing 80 In the near future"
These deficits are still being met in
many countries by paper money in
flation. The conference report further
declares:
ut is Of tho utmost Importance that
the growth Of imitation should be
be stopped. It should be clearly under.
stood that this artificial and unre-
strained expansion Of the currency
does not and cannot add to the tota,
real purchasing power in existence, sc
that its effects must be to reduce the
purchasing power Of each unit Of the
currency"
| In order to return to q gold basi.
Europe will have to increase heroicall,
her ratios of gold reserve to pape1
! money and bank deposits. There is 8
strong probability that some countries
as for example. Russia, Germany an,
some Of the states carved out Of tn;
old dual-monarchy, will meet the diff.
Guilty in large part by debasement OF
their old gold monetary units, adopting
new gold units somewhere near tn,
gold values of their present pape
money units. An early return of Grea
Britain to her pre-war gold standar,
seems highly probable. 1t is also rea
sonable to expect, although for mucl
later date, the restoration of the pre-
war gold monetary unit in France
Belgium and Italy. On this side O
the Atlantic, Canada should soon b.
back on the gold standard. Mexico re
turned to the gold standard four year
ago.
New-York tribune., 1921-01-30
BilZi0nnaires Wanted TO Abolish P0uertu

cure for the worlds dearth but great
enterprise-drawn by the vision of
great gain.
We shall not recover peace and pros
perity by mere drift and resignation;
ror will the moralization of politics
avail. The notion is illusory that the
race will be saved by Standardization
Eof conscience, an ecumenic agreement
as to what is just and right.
The truth seems to be that the ap-
paratus of civilization is running down
for the lack Of dozen men with eyes.
We are in danger of losing our fine
arts and our coarse arts, as has hap
pened hundred times before in his
tory, because men of affairs do not
understand how to fuse their egotism
with their altruism, how to get rich
by delivering the real goods.
No Merchant Adventurers
For the moment tho world has been
swept bare of great merchant adven-
turers. There is nobody with the hori-
zon view, no soul of sea-rover seek
ing indissuadably Northwest or South
west passage out of the deadlock that
has fallen upon the race.
Yet l am confident that the pioneer
ing genius of America will not fail in
the final test. We shall be saved, not
by red guards or white guards, neither
by moralists, legalists nor utopians
but by few frankly ambitious and
impatient men, seeking their own great
fortune in Strengthening the estates OF
cities and nations. 1t is not ques.
tion Of heroes--but of the recovery Of
normal human nature.
What we care about in the memory
Of Cecil Rhodes or "Jim" Hill, Of the
Great Northern, is no transcendenta
quality, but certain unity Of mind
whereby they moved instinctively te
make their private fortunes concen
trio with the fortune Of a population
or continent. Such men stand ou'
among us because they are not senti
mental and sordid. They are not moon
ers and understanding half theil
minds to ideals they cannot realize
and the other half to realities that can
not be brought into focus with any
thought of beauty or desire.
Accordingly it appears that tn
saviors of the race are not super
men, but simply whole men-mer
whose instincts and intellect are O
one piece. These are able to pour the
passion of romance into the substance
pulses with their sensibility. Since the,
are able to think with emotion, the,
are able also to feel with discretion
If they can see what others canno
see it is because they have bette
eyes.
Relation of United States to Europe
Take this matter of the relation o.
the United States to Europe. Wha
hot lava-streams of pathos and char
ity! What cold lava beds of ston,
cohtortion and dry ash
Mr.. Hoover is a specimen Of thu
best of us. He was wonderful in tn,
war. He is wonderful now in anothe,
way He is sure that we ought t.
make large and permanent invest
ments in the disordered places of Eu
New-York tribune., 1921-01-30
End of Moratorium
In Cuba Expected
To Bring Crisis
Attempt to Resume Normal
Trade ON Restricted Scale
Holds Possibilities of
Important Developments

Important financial developments are
looked for in Havana by Tuesday, ac-
cording to private cable advices re-
ceived in local banking circles, as a
result Of the new lesigslation recently
enacted by the Cuban Congress sub
stituting for the moratorium expiring
tomorrow a new arrangement which
will result in liquidation Of frozen
credits on the island and make possible
normal resumption Of business This
is expected to be accomplished by
April 80.
The moratorium which has tied uI
bank deposits in Cuba went into effect
In October when the sugar market col
lapse precipitated a financial crisis
throughout the island republic causing
runs on banks and resulting in gen
eral paralysis of trade.
New-York tribune., 1921-01-30

rope. but he has no suggestion as to
can be kept alive in the midst of per-
ishing populations. His practically
begins and ends with muniicent aims.
He would put the American flag in the
hearts of European children. He
would establish in American house
holds the ritual of the unoccupied
highchair.
But business to Mr.. Hoover is quite
another matter. Business is supposed
to be governed by inf1exible laws that
take no account of human nature.
Business prides itself on having no
statable aim. 1t lives q self-containe ed
super-human or sub-human life-a life
Of complete abstraction, absorbed like
an Oriental mystic in rapt contempla-
tion of its own navel
Mr. Hoover is quite sure that this
question of feeding hungry children
belongs in the mental water-tight COM
partment called Charity, not in that
called Business. He makes no rehec-
tions, as an engineer and a man of af-
fairs, upon the fact that after the
lapse of more than two years of seed
time and harvest the people Of one
continent are called upon to nourish
the offspring of another.
do not say it is gross or unideal to
treat business as if it were pure mathe-
matics wholly concerned with the fig-
ures in book. l say it is excessively
idealistic to do so-that what business
lacks is realistic brains. Never since
the world began has the general hu.
man situation presented so alluripg ar
opportunity to men of a practical
| talent.
Business Convicts Itself
Business convicts itself of unintelli-
gence because it does not know how tc
make living out of the materials and
powers that are at hand.
1t has fallen into intellectual con
fusion because it has refused to ad-
init that making living for communi
fortunes Of tomorrow will go to those
who can think of business in terms Of
life-sustaining ability. The billions
are bound up in the conception of {
mobile organization of productive
power that can support itself in a con
diton of stabilized prosperity under
any and all circumstances.
In the business world we are being
forced, even against our will, towart
the idea that the working organization
of community must be dealt with as
a whole. 1t is not primarily a socia
or sltruistic idea; it is an engineerin,
idea. 1t imposes itself upon US because
Of the nature of the technical appa
ratus that sustains the life of moderr
communities.
Modern communities get their living
in very complicated manner. The
apparatus that furnishes the food, fuel
clothes, housing, transportation, com
munications and mechanical power i.
as fine and high-tensioned as a living
organism. Competition can go OF
among individuals to determine theil
several places in the system, but tn.
vital parts of the system must no
| compete with one another-just as
New-York tribune., 1921-01-30
Predict Straw Hat Shortage
Manufacturers Say Lack of Or
ders Has Cut Production

Following the widespread reductions
in prices by manufacturers of mems
straw hats in December and January
sufficient orders have been received to
enable some factories to resume pro-
duction. AS yet retailers have been
unwilling to place orders for complete
lines for the coming summer season,
present orders, it is estimated, being
about one-third in unit volume COM
pared with normal years.
Straw hats reached an abnormally
high price last year. This checked con-
sumer buying to such an extent that
great reductions were made to move
out stocks and few retailers made
money on the seasons business. Manu-
facturers started to sell hats for this
summer as early as last August, but
retailers have held OFF buying until the
present. Manufacturers are beginning
to talk Of a shortage of hats before
the season is over, asserting that pro-
duction lost in the fall months because
of Il lack of orders cannot be regained.
New-York tribune., 1921-01-30
BY Charles Ferguson


Formerly Special Agent of the De-
partment of Commerce IN Eatro-
pean countries, lately of the State
Department
WE ARE about to enter into an
wv era of great fortunes. These
fortunes will not be got by
monopoly or restraint of trade, but by
organization of productive power in
scientific manner and on an unex-
ampled scale.
On the threshold of this new era
we hesitate. Opportunity to make bill
lions invites, lures, threatens, but we
do not respond. Billionaires are want
ed. But we have come to think of
billions only in terms of war and
waste. In the face of billion dollar
services of creation and renewal that
cry aloud for investment and leader
ship we stand bewildered-for the lack
of Millionaire minds. We admit the
need Of these services, but we lack
the intelligence to undertake them.
OF course l mean by intelligence
something more than intellect. l know
scores Of men of fine passive under
standing who know what should be
done, perceive the incompatible profit
of it and could do it if they dared.
But they disbelieve in the validity Of
their own mental processes. They are
profoundly convinced that whatever is
rational is not practical-that nothing
can be done that is not smart or dull,
an exceptionally clever scheme or a
matter of humdrum and routine. They
are intimidated by their consciousness
Of the average shrewdness and stupid
ity-mentally cowed by the mass-cult.
These men have discovered the idea
of personal power and fortune from
the thought of magnificent achievement.
They are keen for the former in bust
ness hours, but the latter has been re-
manded to moods of high devotion or
mere wistfulness. In these moods they
think with lucidity. But their thoughts
have the texture Of dreams. They see
men as trees walking
Realm of Pure Altruism
It seems that to the present race of
big business men the ideal world is a
realm of pure altruism-a sacred realm
into which secular considerations must
not intrude. When one sets out to do
good one must not make any money,
one must even be careful to lose some
Because of this severance of ma
terial fortune from the interest of the
mind, the spirit of great enterprise has,
for season, yelled her eyes. Half the
world is perishing in sheer physical
dearth because there is no vision in
the eyes of business We are asked to
believe that this state of affairs will
settle itself by the laws of physical
gravitation--that there is no need of
vision. This is mistake. There is no
New-York tribune., 1921-01-30

LII 1914, according 10 Cne census re-
turns, there were 200 establishments in
the United States manufacturing toys
and games, with an aggregate capital
of S10,4S3 .843 and a ,otal of $500 per-
sons engaged in the industry. The pre-
war demand far exceeded the domestic
production and the decline in tho re-
ceipts of imported toys from 1915 until
after the armistice led to an extensive
development of the toy industry in this
country.
The retail value of the toy prcduc-
tion in 1913 was probably not less than
S20,000,000, in contrast to which a re-
cent bulletin of the Toy Manufacturers'
Association of the United States of
America, which comprises about 110
members, estimates the sale of toys
during the last year at $100,0 900, of
which $80,0000O0 was made in the
United States, with indications that
1921 probably will show an increase in
production of at least 80 per cent. 1t
is said that about 10000 persons are
now employed in toy making.
Growth of Foreign Trade
The pre-war condition of the in
dustry is reflected in the annual for
eign trade in toys during the last
decade. Imports were on the upward
and exports on the downward trend
but the war changed this condition.
In 1910 the total imports of toys and
dolls were valued at $7,565,530, and ex-
ports at $1,273,853. By 1918, the last
pre-war calendar year, imports had in
New-York tribune., 1921-01-30
mans lungs must not compete with his
liver.
Europe Chooses Politics

Europe Chooses Politics
Having arrived at organic structure
and function through the developm ent
of great technology, we are compelled
to choose whether we shall throw the
DEMONSTRATING apparatus into politics
and let the policemen and the lawyers
try to run it, or whether, on the other
hand, we shall think new thoughts
about business. Faced with this al
tentative, Europe has for the moment
chosen the way of politics. The con-
sequences have not been reassuring
America has not yet been pressed to
the moment the drift in America, as in
Europe, is toward a condition in which
the individual shall feel himself help
less, and politics shall be all in all.
There are, to be sure, influential bust
ness organizations that resist this ten
dency But they do not make mucf
headway against the tidal current
Their faith in the sufficiency of busi
ness enterprise to put the world ir
order is too weak to prove itself by
any notable works. And they seem tx
discontented farmers and workmen tt
resist the socialism of the multitude
for socialistic reasons of their own.
1t is impossible to put too sharp {
point upon this issue. We are positiv
ely forced to choose between socialism
and bigger business. And in view O.
the lesson now being learned in Europ'
we shall get closer to our facts ant
make the issue clearer if we strike ou
socialism and substitute Bolshevism-
the dictatorship of the proletariat. Fo
the lesson is that socialism reduced t,
practice falls into factional confusion
and gives place to an arbitrary powe.
that represents nothing whatever bu
the crowds hatred of capitalism.
Places Hope in Capitalism
We arrive, therefore, at the PROPOSE
tion that capitalism regime O
profits, personal initiative and fre,
competition-must save the world from
Bolshevism by rising above it's owl
historical character and old habits. I
must develop super-capitalism.
This super-capitalism will be re
gime of greater profits, bolder initia
tive and intenser competition. Blu
these things will be changed in thei
color and temper. The old malignan
and careworn struggle will have passe,
away.
The malignance-the headache an,
heartache-will be cleared out of tn
business system simply by making
self consideration top to bottom. Th
higher capitalism will actually do wha
capitalism has always pretended to dc
to wit: guarantee to every man pur
chasing power and equipment in pro
portion to his productive ability.
The great fortunes will be made b.
the rectifers Of the business system
This rectihcation will be accomplishe
in the sphere of finance-by new rae
of tinanciers who will understand tha
their proper business is the organiza
tion of productive power-the assur
ance of promotion and career to tn
masters of production.
New-York tribune., 1921-01-30
Still Too Much Water in
Prices, Says Economist
Kemmerer Asks Further Reduction of
Volume of Purchasing Power and
Predicts Normally Will Mean
Outflow of Cold to Europe
By E. w. kemmerer

of University
deaon enough? Far whom?
what? If the title question submitted the millions
whom declining and prospectvey declining have
the planters, the
prices chief products fall below their
duction textiles
products
manufacturing
partme by price declines;
these economic
undo ubtedly be