The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-02
VENUS SUBMERGED

WOuiu nave JaFfeu the -Amerlcan na- ton. We ar, the great creditor, possess tho controlling gold supply and other nations are guarded in what they say lest offense be given. MT. Babson is right The Harvey episode has been mot disquieting. Our economic affairs grow worse daily. No remedy in the form of statute or administrative policy has turned the unfavorable trend. Values have dwindled to the danger point and thousands of men and women and business concerns whose financial stability has never been questioned are wondering today whether they are or are not worth cent.
 We are gathering the harvest of our own sowing.8 Except for the op-s eration of the federal reserve bank ing system, we would now be in the midst of the worst panic the world has ever known. Nevertheless a pro cess of liquidation is now going on in the banks just as fast as it is safe to conduct it, Business enter prises whose inventories and physi- cal property on present standards do not equal their indebtedness in the banks arc quietly being closed out. Assets change in valuation. but debts never do.
 How easily it could all have been | avoidA1 if th. tro,t,, o% Uarso;Ijao had been ratified by America. If we had taken our place in the councils of the nations of the earth, when the war was over, economic readjust-- tiens that would not have brought the distress which we now witness. That was the psychological moment for action, but notwithstanding our de- l lay the time was yet ripe in the lat l ter part of 1920, and if mandate l expressive of the real conscience of America had been expressed in No vember last year, Europe would have
 been given the credit necessary for the purchase of commodities needed.
 The dawn of rehabilitation was in
 sight, but it was obscured by a re-. suit the effect of which in its ex- 1 tremity has not been felt. In a word,
 our unhappy business conditions are due today to vast inventories bought at high prices and which. cannot be sold even at great reduction. Europe needed every dollar of our surplus
 of farm and factory. and we had a
 prosperity not long ago upon which
 we could have based a credit that | would have saved the day.
 The stagnation on the farm in No- vember and December, 1920, and the
 surplus of manufactured goods could
 all have been avoided. Inventories l would have been turned into cash and
 the banks today would have more
 money than at any time in the. his 1 tory of this country
 In times past, when manufacturing l was at low ebb. banks had ample l funds; now money is tight and fac
 tories are doing little or nothing for tAo Nofy tcaSou tn8t Va5L luVen ntOfle3
 have not been turned into funds.
 Readjustment at it's worst under
 the circumstances of international
 corporation would have been as but
 a slight fever. We are now witnsss-
 ing stroke of paralysis. That's the 1 difference. That's the cost. Bsbsan
 has spoken in words that men undey-
 stand, because his subject matter con I cerns their pocketbook. #
 The good book sayss Whatsosvsr .
 man soweth, that shall he also reap"
 When the clouds of war lifted we.
 rich in resources almost beyond
 words and Relatively untouched by
 tragedy. had the opportunity to be
 the good Samaritan. to reach out our
 hand and bind up the wounds of .
 stricken world. Within Gods sight. l we turned away and pAssed on tho other side. What can we expect nowf