The Washington herald., 1922-01-19
Points Way to Normally.

! have been puzzled over this
national business depression. its
consequent unemployment, and
have raeked my brain for the
natural or unnatural causes of II,
and have read, from time to time,
the reason or reasons given for IL,
according to ones lights, but some
how none of them rang true, and
while doubtless there have been
numerous contributory causes. none
OF them was Illuminating or sat
isfying until read in The Heraid
letter captioned Money Della
a Crime" signed by ]. r. Munroe,
Riverton, La. He seems to me to
hit the nail on the head and gives
the cause without peradventure. To
my way of thinking the Federal Re
serve Board and he big financial in
situations have absolutely pursued
the wrong policy.
His statements are either true or
untrue and IL true. which I believe
they are. the Federal Reserve Board
and the big financial interests stand
convicted of a crime that is the
blacklist since the money interests,
working for a gold standard, de-
feated the plain will of the people
in the campaign of IS96-the BRINE
tallic campaign fought on the guam
titative theory of money. The finan-
cial interests succeeded in defeating
this policy by closing the mints to
the coinage of silver and their dol
lar increased in purchasing power
to S1,29-29 cents above its par. val
ue. 1t was more beneficial to their
selfish interests to keep a silver dol
lar out of circulation from Compel
ing with their gold dollar and the
result was that interest rates scared
money became scarce and bust
ness languished. until the war with
Spain. which taxed hidden gold into
circulation. the discovery of gold in
the Klondike, and the fact that for
the first time in history our exports
exceeded our imports and the per
capita jumped from less than SIS
in 1896 to S36 before the world
war started. Then what happened
here and in Europe? They started
the printing presses running night
and day printing legal tender money,
and in a short space of time there
was in circulation four dollars for
every one dollar there had been in
circulation before the war. The
Federal Reserve Bank is owned by
the banks and not by the govern
ment. The Federal Reserve Board
and the big financial interests could
not stop this country's entrance into
the war. They were powerless The
paper money with the government
stamp on illegal tender-rolled
out and into circulation and the per
capita jumpe dto mere than $40.
Naturally, since there were three
or four times as many dollars In
circulation-in competition with
each other-their purchasing power
! decreased nearly a third. Wages
and commodities began to soar and
II took three times as many dollars
to live as before. But the dollars
were in circulation and people got
them. Then came the armistice and
the first thing the big financial in
terests decreed was that labor was
too high and then began a campaign
to beat 1t down. How? BY creating
unemployment, by creating a lack
of confidence and warning the peo-
pie to be economical. Like a fire
1t soon spread and now that II has
developed the country II is not so
easy to restore confidence. Mean
while the financial interests hold
the money and refuse to lend 1t ex-
cepting at usurious rates of inter-
est until they drive labor down
where they want 1t. Since this vast
amount OF money--nearly three
times as much as before the war
is still extant-not in circulation,
however-they have succeeded in
making money scarce. interest rates
high, causing nationwide business
depression and temporarily drawing
down the cost of living. After they
have driven wages down to a point
where they are satisfied--probabIy a
reduction of from 20 to SO per cen,
thus Initiating the purchasing
power of rxelr dollar--they will let
Dose this vast amount of money.
1t will SO into new enterprises, in
vestments of all kinds and since