New-York tribune., 1921-11-28
Money Sterilization

Inere IS nlgn authority Tor the
statement that q house built on the
sands cannot stand. Nor can one
stand which rests on quaking quag-
n1ire--a quagmire that is not merely
soft and yielding, but which now
rises and now falls.
A major trouble of disturbed Eu-
rope is that it's economic structure
rests ON such heaving morass. That
is to say, It is cursed with unstable
money. Exchange rates and prices
change from day to day, not in re-
spcnse to the fluctuations Of demand
and supply but according as the
yardsticlSs Of nominal value shorten
or lengthen. Even more practically
important than the decision at Wash
fngton is the re-establishment of
monetary stability.
If Mr.. Vanderlip or any other per-
son has plan to remedy effectively
the great evil his advice should be
needed. Economic craftsmanship is
moro needed than political states
manship. A league of nations worth
while would be one with power to
make it possible for buying and sell
ing to proceed, with one side knowing
what it is to pay and the other know
ing what it is to get.
Trade is still at bottom barter, as
it always has bcen, but under modern
conditions it is barter by two trans
fers, not by one. A sells his surplus
goods to B for money, and B, in turn,
sells the goods to c for money. Thus
there is a swap of goods between A
and C, with money the truck that
made the deliveries. But time is con-
sumed in the process, and if in this
time the truck shrinks or swells in
carrying capacity and the obligation
is to deliver e. truckful, then trade
necessarily languishes. The size of
the truck body, whether large or
small, is not vital, but whatever it
is, it must remain the same or men
can only haltingly buy or sell.
It would seem impossible to raise
to gold par the vast volumes Of paper
currencies. To do this would be as
unjust to debtors as the decrease in
currency values has been unjust to
creditors. 1t follows that there must
4 be q refunding in some fashion-ir
some nations perhaps repudiatior
Of the paper, allowing it to go tt
sleep in the pockets of the last hold
i Or, even as did our first Continenta
a currency and as did the assignats Of
revolutionary France.
But 80 far there is no report tina
any country has seriously attacked
it's monetary problem. The printing
presses are still revolving. There il
drift, in the vain hope that miracl
will occur. An international congress
is required to bring pressure to com
pei each country to revalue it's cur
rency, and thus bring it into som
sort of relation to fact. The mark
the franc, the Ira, the pound, mus
have some definite value-if not il
gold, then a value based on a com
posite of the current prices for tn
principal world commodities.
Financial economists are not igno
rant Of the necessary effects Of de
graded currencies and they are no
ignorant to-day that their prophecie
have come true. Yet there Is nerve
lessness and inaction. We talk mucl
Of the leadership Of America; il
nothing could it be better displayed
than in leading the way back t.
stable money, and thereby to stabl
; exchange. We cannot hope to sci
much to Europe, and thus to emplo.
,our people, when no one can tel
what he is to get in return.