Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-02
PR|CE-F|X|NG PLANS
HAVE GONE ASTRAY
0verproduction Proves Too
Great a Handicap to Sta
biIity of Values.
BY JOHN F. SINCLAIR.
Epeciai Dispatch TO The Star.

special Dispatch 10 The star.
NEW YORK, June 2.-Overproduc-
tion!-this is the word used to tell one
side of the business story today. Or
should it be underconSumption-t
lack of effective demand for the prod
ucts of the farm and factory?
Anyhow there is a worldwide sur
plus Of wheat, cotton, rubber, sugar, tin,
copper, coffee, tea and petroleum.
When three staple articles like sugar,
coffee and copper have reached the
lowest prices in many years. and wheat
is moving down into that cellar of de-
spair, the cry is heard everywhere I'VE
ought to have law against that!
This is the substance of the charge
against the Federal Farm Board made
by the United States Chamber of Com
merce. The officials of the chamber
maintain that the Farm Board should
not encourage farmers in planting more
cotton and wheat by holding UP, prices
artificially. They say 1T only makes Tor
more. not less, Generalization and that
Brazil has learned this lesson in coffee,
Cuba in sugar and the United States In
copper. s
Relief measures have been suggested
in every country where these items are
major exports, but no country mas
worked out an economically sound plan.
OF course, the hand-to-mouth poll
cies. which have been IN erect LOT
MANY years is the real reason why SO
little distress merchandise" has been
dumped on the market since November:
Nevertheless, with the world organized
az II is today, no country has been able
to hold prices I'D to an artificial level
and get away with Indefinitely.
Poor old man Silverl He's fought WITH
his competitor, Gold, for 1000 years
and he's having a hard time now 10
stay in the ring.
Silver is at the lowest point ever
reached-about 37l2 cents an ounce, as
against SIPS an ounce at the close OF
whats the trouble? In word. dis
couraged silver mine owners nnd no oe-
mand for it. Neither from emma, nor
India. nor even from the United states.
No silver dollars have nee 9o cor1 ONE d ~
the United States since 1873: Inc oe-
mand for the old "cartwheet tthe sl-
yer dollar) is dying out.
Should China, the big silver country,
adont the gold exchange standard, rec
commended by Prof. Kemmerer, it would
be the real knockout blow.
Gold has had no easy time, either.
In 1920 it was worth only hah as nlucn
as It was in 1910. Now. measured IN
commodities, gold is worth about SO per
cent more than it was in 1920.
RI,t the case of silver is different.
IT'S like an orphan crying IN storm.
II NAV be fighting its last big battle,
although there are still some old guard
silver champions who try 10 oeIeVe
that old man Silver will come back 10
his former glory.
"Old age security is what ingalls,
Kirnballs, director of group annultles OF
the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.,
calls industrial insurance. "Retirement
annuity is what John G. Lonsdale OF
ST. Louis. president of the American
Bankers Association, calls 1t.
But "old age security" and retire
nent annuity. are one and the same
and are without a doubt the major
problem of industry in the united
States.
MT Kimballs believes that insurance
companies can do nothing with regard
20 old age pensioning, but industrial
leaders, through a sound method OF
education and cooperation with their
employees, can bring about that happl-
ness and ease from worry IN ola age.
Drop the word pension from any
mention of old age problems, they both
urge, and a long step will have been
made in the right direction. Then
educate the employer and employe to
Join hands in contributing to the fund
and before many years are past a SUD-
stantial capital awaits the faithful en-
ploye ready to step out of active indus
try to carefree old age.
The old age problem is a serious one.
Many industries are today carrying on
their pay rolls men who are really too
old to do their work efficiently-a dis
tlnct industrial production loss. Men,
like machines, get worn out and grad
ually lose their efficiency.
It is then that the wise industrialist,
who has long since urged careful con-
sideration of the old age problem on
the part of his employe, will benefit,
for it will no longer be old age depend
ency, but independently.