The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-10-09

within the year, and I fear it will continue.
 Our 1920 budget was 10000. .OoO.-
 900, of which 51 1000, 900. .000, 900 was met with newly printed notes; in oth- CT words. a medium without fixed value, but fluctuating with the ex- change market.
 The total income of the German peoples in 1919 was estimated at 51,- 000, 900, 900 marks. Even if estimated much higher today on account of the money depreciation, the state would have to take two-thirds of every Germans earnings to buckle the budget, regardless of whether enough was left to live on or not. It Is un- necessary to prove that such a pro- ceedure would be impossible. So 1t Is easy to keep the printing
 presses working. But If the worlds supply of diamonds was suddenly in l creased thousand fold, the price would sink to a ridiculous level. Why then do so many wonder that money.
 multiplied by a thousand-fold, de-
 preciates? Imitation suffices to ex- plain our exchange, Speculation is as nothing in comparison and artificial efforts to improve the situation, while the imitation lasts, are worse than useless.
 Clear to Americans
 The American resident In Berlin readily perceives the ratio. Before the war he paid s5 a day for two rooms and a bath at hotel. Today he pays exactly the same. But be- for the war the price was stated as 22 marks. Today 1t is stated as $50 marks. Good shoes before the war cost 50 marks. Now they cost 1.2O0 -Ir, f,. nfct&l fO Q American.
 Well and good for the American, but anybody with an income in Ger man money and unable to increase 1t relatively to the purchasing power of the mark, is in a sorry position. This is a case with majority of our townspeople. Conditions are better in the country, where the chief needs of the population are supplied by their own labor and high paper prices are obtained for their pro- duce. Only the richest persons can live from an income on investments, and only the fortunate from their earnings. Therefore thousands who never before dreamed of gambling are speculating today. The lower the mark sinks, the more they fear the fate of the Austrian crown, which last year a Swiss brewery adopted as beer label, being cheaper than new paper. This fear drives people to exchange their bank notes for stocks and bonds and for eign money tangible goods.
 Hoarding Dollars
 Many of those who are buying dol
 lars and paying top prices for them, are tucking them away in the cup- hoard happy that they have sOme- thing of stable values. Others are buying goods and hoarding them un- til price advances will enable them to sell at a profit. This boosts the prices of all commodities while the money moon, no longer drawing light from any golden sun, grows paler and paler. This cannot be cured by political coalition of which half would abolish all capital and un- earned income, while the other half complains that capital is getting but 3 per cent interest
 Small relief, but wholly insuffi- cient. would come from thinning out of the army of German officials, a return to the simple life, and re-
 fusal to purchase from countries with a high exchange rate. But would the
 world tolerate that? The present
 world resembles ! lunaris art,ertSr asylum, n 1 The big nations are suttering
 plethora of raw stuffs. and goods, while they see their armies of the unem-
 ployed growing bigger and bigger
 because the countries which neeu | their products cannot buy them on 1 account of the adverse exchange
 rstes. At the same time the nations 1 suffering from low exchange rates