Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-25
The HQskin Letter 8 '= s2:s=
THE EUROPEAN LOAN

nearly everybody had not long z
agreed that gold should be made the
yardstick of trade, gold would not be
much coveted. AS a commodity it is
not nearly so useful as iron.
Take a case in point. When the
Roman emperors sent as gifts to bar
barian chieftains in Germany and Hell
vetia, gold and silver jugs and vases,
these objects, which were Of great
value as measures of wealth in the
Roman world, were regarded no more
highly by the ~barbarians than their
own clay jugs, and the Romans found
that the clay and silver vessels were
their value placed upon them was their
utility.
A ~legionary who had been recruited
from a barbarian province and knew
nothing Of the Injuries of precious
metals and jewels was taking part in the
rout of a Persian host and the looting
Of it's camp. He found a leather bag
filled with pearls of great price. After
an examination, he threw the pearls
away and kept the leather bag. He
could think Of no possible use for the
nacreous little stones, but knew that
the leather bag was a useful object.
Human nature does not greatly
change. The war has shown how in
MANY ways people return to primitive
facts. 1t is regarded by many observ-
ers as not at all impossible that If q
majority of the nations become abso-
lutely bereft of gold, they will repudi-
ate its use as a monetary standard.
Soviets May Make Change
It is a fact that reports already
have come out of Russia to the effect
that the soviets are considering max
ing platinum the monetary standard of
Russia and the basis behind their cur
rency. Such a plan scarcely would be
adopted, for the same objection that
would apply to gold with all the gold in
the hands Of one nation. Russia has
practically a natural monopoly of plat
mum. She might very conveniently
make platinum a monetary standard,
but. as other nations have scarcely any
platinum at all, they would not consent
TO the new yardstick and therefore it
would be useless.
The economists say that to put the
worlds currencies to rights and re-
establish exchanges and normal trade
the gold or whatever precious and con-
VeUlHUL utldl 10 uCCu 10 q
must be distributed with some sem
blance of evenness. Else, the nations
must return to a strict system of bar
ter. In such q case, the American ex-
porter would send cattle to Germany
and be paid in potash; England would
sell p~iecegoods in India and receive in
return rice or hides; Australia would
ship wool to France and be paid In
wine. Sooner or later, this system
would develop a new measure OF com
merce, and the world would be back on
a normal basis again.
Frederic G.. Go~odenough, chairman
of Barclays bank, London, n of the
two or three biggest banks in the
world, recently said:
1.-THE establishment of a fund abroad
through loans and credits, from which
payments will be made either in gold
or the equivalent of gold, would be the
first step toward the re-estabishment
of a currency with a ratio to an ef-
fective reserve of gold or its equiva-
lent. By means of this plan, the ulh-
mate return to a full gold standard tor
currency will be achieved.
The same sentiment can be quoted
extensively from the big bankers Of
this country.
But, always, back of these considera-
| tons is the query, If the United States
made another big gold loan abroad,
would it not serve to encourage Europe
to look upon this country as a paternal
institution on which it could lean at
will and, in the end, would not Europe
come to demand, as n right, supplies
of money now proposed to be advanced
as a business proposition?
The entire east is beset with the
| greatest difficulties and the statesman
or economist who can settle it will be
one of the greatest figures of modern
history.