Evening star., 1931-12-27
Continued From First pase.)

far, are saved" on this continent and
/ the salvation is going on all the time.
Economists-liket the one who saw this
| crash flrst-say that next year there
will be hardly any one working at all
only The BARRIERS and the walters and
/ the man who turns on the radio.
If 1t is true that there are 10000, 900
people unemployed in the United States
and Canada in 1914 ratio of increase
of ten to one per annum-it is clear
that next year there will be 100 100000
unemployed. Indeed another distin-
guished British thinker has said that
in another five years employment will
be comparatively rare.
U. S. May Improve Money Idea.
But even If the people started to
work again it wouldn't matter-We
shouldn't know how to pay them, the
whole money system having broken
down. Currency, as everybody knows,
Is IN utter disorder The old notion of
the honest gold dollar, so it seems was
all wrong Dishonest money beats it
all hollow. The Germans by initiating
the mark paid all their debts and won
the war five years after it was finished
Tne French, on the brink of national
4 cents instead of 20 and became the
richest and most stable country in the
world. It's a little puzzling, this new
economic stuff, but you get on to it
after while. And now the English
by repudiating the pound sterling are
leaping ahead of all the world. All
rlght-but let these nations take care
AS said above, when the Americans get
hold of a good thing they always i'm
prove it. A currency law of 1882 may
turn the United States dollar into
minus quantity.
Of course. the insoluble problem of
the currency was brought about as
result Of the war. We are only now
getting light on the war, and we realize
that 1t was badly managed from the
start. To begin there was no clear
understanding who was to start it: the
Austrians understood they were to do it,
Now the Russians claim it. But it
ought to have been understood clear
ly from the start who was to paw
for it. AS it is, the accounts are being
sent all over the place.
Finds Economic Stuff Sad.
In the old days they knew how to
manage the war business. After a vic
tory they brought home everything they
could carry aWay-Wagon loads of plum
der-ornaments, pictures, women at so
much pound voirdupois-they got
something. But our 100 years of eco
nomic effort somehow got the thing all
mixed up. 1t was agreed by treaty that
the Germans were to pay but they
couldn't. So Gen. Dawes gave them the
money to pay for it. They spent that
money, and so Mr.. Young gave them the
ry1ny n 70 ~ TO
all that and there Is a general feeling
that they need more, but that it is hard
to collect it for them
Still we needn't worry about that.
Apparently money is the last thing
needed here. The country is being
choked with it. The accumulation of
unused capital is another of our un-
solved problems in North America. We
got that rainy day" idea so deeply
sunk in our minds that we kept saving
saving for a hundred years And it
won't rain. Our money is like an UNI
brella in the Nevada desert. It won't
rain because we have no "rainmakers /"
That spendthrift that John Stuart Mill
and his friends denounced so bitterly
he was "rainmaker," and they never
saw it. That merry boy, when he called
for champagne and cigars Che started
something. And that started something
else-and there you we're! We can see
/ that now, but the trouble Is nobody
wants to do the starting. Nobody
"loosens up" The dryer the weather
gets the tighter we hold our umbrellas.
If 1t does rain, We say, it will be some
thing awful. The harder the hard
times get the more pathetically we
clutch our savings. like pauper child
with a penny. Sad, isn't it, when you
think Of it-this economic stuff
Only Criminals Run Border.
Then there's this insoluble business
Of the population and the immigrants.
We've got them shut out from the con-
tinent, but can we keep them out?
Government returns show that three or
four got in last month. And the worst
feature Is that as soon as the law makes
/ it a criminal act to force ones way
| into the country, then the only people
who get in are the criminals. It's clear
as day, but it's confusing. However, if
incoming immigration and increasing
| population are the key to national
| wealth, we don't want it in America
National wealth is choking us. Give us
| national poverty. We started with that
from Newfoundland to New Mexico.
It's the only thing we understand.
These are only q few Of the insoluble
national problems. There are lots more,
but even those would have been enough
to break Us.
Yet let me ten you something. When