Evening star., 1923-09-16
Can Europe Hold Together?
III-The Break of the Gold Point.
BY JOHN F. SINCLAIR

mental expenses not otherwise met, is
a malignant growth. dangerous,
treacherous and fatal to any society
or any government using IT. 1t de-
/ stroys the, lives, the ibertles ana
properties of people. and ii always
works the same way. Its law is i'm
mutable. It is Europe's most terrible
scourge today. Even as war meas
ure it has no basis for use. A capital
levy on the property OF all citizens to
square the national accounts is a
vastly wiser policy.
The next step, making it illegal to
send gold outside of the several coun-
tries, was soon adopted. And thus
the international basis of exchange
was shattered and the gold point was
broken.
When the war closed, late in 1918,
Europe was face to face with monu-
mental debts, both Internal and eX-
ternai. tremendous increase IN the
cost of living, disorgantZed eco
nomic and Industrial machine, intense
feelings of nationalism. All these Eu-
rope in time might correct. But she
could not start, because the ma
chinery of exchange had broken. Here
is the record:
In Russia an American dollar in
1914 would purchase rubles; in 1921,
$50, 100000.
In Germany an American dollar in
1914 would purchase marks; in 1921,
$50, and 100000 in August. 1928.
In France an American dollar in
1914 would purchase 5 francs; in 1921,
10 francs, and now 20 francs.
= x !; x
Now just what does this mean to
modern civilization? II means. and
II weigh my words carefully and
judiciously, that the>whole complex
process of production and distribu-
ton of our modern life. which is built
on sound and trustworthy money. is
breaking down. You cannot run a
factory if you cannot pay wages at
the end of the week that have some
tangible meaning to food and clothing
and housing. You cannot store and
distribute food. You cannot borrow
money. You cannot lend. You can
mot give credit. You cannot accept
contracts for delivery of goods at a
future time. So IL means slowing
down production. 1t means that those
countries suffering from bad money
! are being forced into barter There
lis no class of human beings who can
| get along without money except the
peasant, and Europe-beginning with
Russia and spreading westward-is
rapidly relapsing toward a peasant
| life.
You say what does this mean 1t
means that people can live at the
peasant level, but not, so many people
, can live at that level, not nearly so
many people. A country like Ger
many, which can carry sixty millions
of people under conditions of modern
| lindustrialism, cannot carry at the
same standard of living twenty mil
lions of peasants. And so we are
faced with Europe which, country
after country, is becoming aware that
its population contains superhuous
millions. What is going to happen
] to these scores and scores of millions
If the modern industrial life goes?
| 1t means, this dying down/of the or
ganization of civilization which fol-
| lows upon the collapse of the money,
! peStilence, disorder, misery and death.
A great drying up of culture and
science and art in general, and of old
lpeople and children in particular; it
means death in a million wretched
| shapes until the stricken and shat
tered countries are able to readjust,
| If they ever do readjust, somewhere
down there at the level of the new
dark age.
Next-'Infation and Defation-Twin
Brothers in Crime"
copyright. 1929, in United states and Great
4 Britain BY North American Newspaper
4 Alliance. ALI rights reserved