Evening star., 1921-11-27
Economic Succor, of Europe
Necessary to Prevent Wars

Ref0u0 experiment TO sweep nllis
tarism from people unless busi-
ness and friendly relations are
The world cannot 60 on and hope
for peace SO long as the present
great differences in the values OF
. the currencies of the different
countries exist. The German mark
10 practically valueless. The Ital-
ian lira 10 almost as bad. The con-
dition of Austrian currency is
quite unbelievable. The French
franc is seriously deprecated.
Even the English pound sterling is
below par. The civilized world re-
alizes that. the last hope of keep
ing exchange upon a gold standard
is resting upon the efforts of the
British government. Our own bus
mess men and financiers must
surely be alarmed as to whether
England can succeed in maintain
ing her gold standard. Should the
gold standard disappear from the
world, civilization would return
practically to fiat money without
anything Of intrinsic value back Of
1t save the taxing power of the
several governments. Then no
government. not even our own,
could prevent the gold in its treas
ury from becoming a mere article
OF trade and commerce.
Selfpreservation demands that
we take some steps to avert this
~t~ n
money, the world would let loose
devils worse even than arms and
armament. We are the great cred
itor nation Of the world today.
We have at least 40 per cent of the
gold of the world, totalling in our
vaults more than three and half
billion dollars. Such a sum is not
needful to insure the stability OF
our monetary system. / am con-
WINGED that we could DO wltn9ut q
billion dollars of this gold and yet
maintain a perfectly safe system
Of finance.
Notwithstanding the intense
longing of the American people for
stabilized exchange. which longing
finds expression in conversation
everywhere, whether at the dinner
table or on the street corner. it is
apparent that an administration
which should attempt to rehabili-
tate the finances of Europe with
out safeguarding this country
against the assistance that might
be given and without obtaining
assurances that the aid rendered
would not be used by the Euro
pean governments to increase their
armies and navies would meet
with a very prompt and proper re-
buke. On the other hand. il any
thing can be done to restore to a
parity or to something near a
parity the currencies of the sew
eral countries in Europe under
positive assurance that the aid
would not be used Cor either the
armies or the navies of the coun-
tries to which it is given. this ac-
tion would, in my Judgment, meet
with the approval Of the American
people.
This would be a fitting supple
ment to the Limitation of arma-
ment and should go with it. 1t
would be the same as our saying
that having swept and garnished
your houses Of any further desire
to make war on other countries
we are now going to put you into
a position to resume your normal
conditions of trade and to have
your fair chance for business in
the markets of the world.
am not trying to interfere
with the armament conference or
to complicate it's work. Having
put behind me regrettabie Incl.
dents of the past, l, look forward
with hope to anything proposed
for the good Of mankind. ! mere
ly make the tentative suggestion
that an American commission
might be created and authorized
to furnish money in the shape Of
gold bullion to rehabilitate the
deprecated currencies of the old
world, provided, as l have pointed
out, that the commission be
clothed with sufficient power to
guard against the possible danger
Of the new currency which would
be issued upon the basis Of the
gold bullion being used for mill
tary or naval purposes
Not only the restoration of
Europe to real peace footing
but the revival of American trade
depends very largely upon a sta
bility of exchange in every coun-
try engaged in the world COM
merce. The economic breakdown
of Europe may we'll be considered
in promoting the altruistic pur-
poses Of the Washington confer
ence
(Copyright. 1921. by Thomas R. Marshar)