Evening star., 1932-07-24
WHAT BECOMES OF OUR MONEY?
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

registers like teams Of Swiss bell ring
ers in convention.
There are five million more people
in the United States today than there
were during that vast boom in the mid
summer of 1929 and each has S45l
! more money. More people have more
money!
Yet the money does not change
hands. The cash registers are not
ringing and the rustic of checks has
dropped to a murmur. The number
of checks passing through clearing
houses has been cut almost in half
since then.
People Are Wrecking Country.
The answer to the entire mystery is
boarding. There Is every reason to be-
lieVe that boarding is going on now on
a greater scale than at any previous
time. There are several kinds. The
| rank and file of the people themselves,
individuals, are responsible for the
greater part of it. Safe deposit boxes,
the mattress, the proverbial sock and
every other kind of hi@irg place Is
the repository Of " wealth in actual
none, .laia cash, not Intangible
credit
There has been a deal of talk about
the tin boxes of corrupt politicians and
the hidden wealth they contain. All
the tin boxes of all the politicians who
ever lived would not hold a tithe of the
cash in the tin boxes OF the hoarders.
To be sure, the politicians are pre-
sumed to keep their money In tin boxes
because its source cannot bear investi-
cation. The tin boxes of the people
contain money honestly come by, but its
| hoardlng constitutes a menace to the
Nation lmmeaSureably greater than the
actions OF any number OF politicians.
Fear of inability to lay their hands
or cash in times Of stress is at the bot
| tom of the boarding. So many toilers
have lost their hard-won savings
through the collapse of banks that they
have returned to first principles and
protected themselves and their own by
keeping their money in their personal
possession and, ike medievalists sit
guafdant over their boards
Another kind of boarding is by banks
and to considerable extent it has
been forced upon them by the public
fear. Strong banks have departed
from their usual policy and have con-
verted their resources into actual cash
/ in order to be able to meet runs upon
/ them Never before in the history Of
American banking have banks been SO
well able to meet runs.
A third kind Of boarding is practiced
BY commercial houses and corporations
Fearing that their borrowing facilities
might be cramped, preventing them
/ from grasping such business as may
/ be offered. they have maintained cash
boards
/ The strong lesson of these official
hgureS Is that there is nothing further
N the way Of infationary measures
that the Government can do It has
. poured money forth in gIittering
streams only to see it sink and disap-
pear in the sands of boarding instead
OF turning the wheels Of industry. The
j omnipresent fear of loss has had the
effect Of multiplying losses through
the secreting of the medium Of ex-
change
s The responsibility in the situation
lies with the people themselves and not
WITH the Government. No political
party can alter the situation so long
as money continues to go into hiding
Uncle Sam has provided more people
with more money to use than they had
in the topmost boom of 1929.
He cannCt use it for them.
They must use it for themselves.