Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1931-11-05
THE MONEY QUESTION
Continued from Page ~

SoitihuCu GOV ~
solve the present depression and bring
back a resemblance of normal ex-
change and business.
In order to explain the effects the
lowering Of the buying power of the
dollar would have, make a concrete
example: If farmer loaned $1,000
when potatoes were worth 81 per
bushel he would have to raise 1000
bushels to pay off this Indebtedness.
If potatoes in the meantime go down
to 20 cents per bushel he has to raise
5000 bushels to pay off the indebted
ness, however, if we force the buying
power of the dollar down so that a
bushel of potatoes costs $500 he will
only have to raise 500 bushels to pay
off his debt. Generally speaking most
of our debt was obligated when prices
were high during the World war and
shortly thereafter, the buying power
of the dollar being low. Since then
the buying power of raw commodities,
we will say, has decreased &c per cent
or in other words it is now necessary
to produce three times the amount Of
raw commodities as at the time our
debts were obligated. This of course
cannot be done and consequently we
sink deeper in debt. Foreclosure is
the result and nothing gained as the
debts will eventually have to be writ
ten off the slate at small percentage
of their original value.
The money powers Of the world
think that they will benefit by keep
ing the buying power of the dollar up,
in general people with cash in banks
and holders of bonds, mortgages and
other securities, will have greater
buying power if money is kept up,
that is however, provided they can
collect their money and realize on
their bonds and securities, but with
banks going broke right and left,
bonds going down and foreclosures re-
sulting with the necessary lowering
of production and consumption it is
hardly necessary to say, that nobody
will gain when there is no business.
However, if we lower the value of
money, business could pay off its in
debtedness and taxes. Wages would
go up in proportion to production and
eventually things would be humming
again. The tendency of course to
work against would be too much de-
flation of money. However, it may be
pointed out that no system is per-
manent and things will have to be
adjusted as conditions change.
The general impression seems to be
to leave everything to experts, but all
improvements are usually made by
the laymen, we have all read about
how the experts and best minds in
Columbus day, told him he was crazy,
that the world was flat, etc. Still
he proved to them that they did not
know it all. Show me anything &C
|complished by the expert and l can
show you ten things accomplished by
the layman. Our International Bank
ers think they know it all, that their
judgment is infallible. 1t did not
take the statesmen of Europe long
to make perfect fools out of them. A
month or so we were reading about,
how they saved the English pound by
making England loan of half a bill
lion dollars and even while this noisy
wind was blowing the English went
off the gold standard and the pound
dropped it's par $4.S6 to as low as
S3.40. Denmark, Sweden, Norway and
Finland followed and things seemed
to improve in spite of the awful things
they predicted if the pound was not
worth $4.86. 1t will now be possible
for England to pay off its internal
debt and resume something like bus
mess status. The stability of the dol
lar in its present relation to our other
commodities is an absolute evil.
S. ]. SIMONSEN.
Chitina, Alaska, Oct. 20, 1881.