Evening star., 1933-10-01


golden eggs. That's an old
story; but this time the end
~ ing Is different.
The goose laid. eggs and eggs
and eggs, all golden. It laid them for
years and years and years. AL the
world wondered. The British lion, the
French stag, the italian Roman wolf
the Dutch duck, the German dachs-
hund-all said:
"This goose has the secret Of per-
2etual prosperity"
Then in 1929 the goose began to get
thin. It got thinner and thinner. 1t
lost more weight than any other ma
tional animal in the international ZOO.
eggs, still all golden. The other
animals concluded that its emacia-
ton was only transitory and that it
soon would recover its plumpness
through its power Of accumulating a
seemingly endless golden egg supply.
What was the astonishment Of all
onlookers from the farther verge Of
the Atlantic when in 1888 the goose
rose suddenly from its auriferous nest
and announced-not with dismay, bur
with elation-that 1t had not decided
to go of the golden egg standard!
What was their increased -astonish-
ment when 1t announced that 1t was
consulting doctors who hereafter might
enable it to lay eggs OF paper or CT
rubber!
What was their fine and complete
astonishment when the goose began to
One Hundred and Twenty fifth street
in search, it said, Of balanced eco
nomic diet, which was somewhat some
where, presumably in the direction OF
the Bronx.
The onlookers gathered themselves
together in their clubs and cafes and
said to one another:
"Why, that's only just a goose; and
if you want really to ask us, it's our
present judgment that it's a wild goose,
lost. It doesn't know whether it's
going North for the Summer or
South for the Winter. Well! Let's
hope it alights some day. But, mean
while, we have given orders to our
workmen to tear down the statue which
used to stand in the middle Of our zoo
in honor Of the golden goose"
That's the attitude, in sum. now
taken by the Europeans toward what
used to be called E Dorado. And ]
heard an Englishman suggest that our
national song should now be:
"Yes, we have no bonanzas today
heard so many jests Of this sort
at the International Monetary and
Economic Conference this year that
stopped putting them into the note
book which I had opened for my per-
sonal national modification. I con-
soled myself by rejecting that mortif1-
cation leads to humility and that
humility leads to sanctity and that
presently Columbia, If her former pride
were sufdciently replaced by the opinion
that the world now has of her, might
be canonized.
Progress ut Conference.
Her progress toward qualifications for
canonization proceeded apace at the In.
ternational Monetary and Economic
Conference through the experiences
there Of our American emissaries OF
economic salvation.
Many such emissaries arrived in Lon
don, some public, some quasi-public
some quasi-private, some private and
some sub-private. They discoursed to
the financial and economic experts OF
Europe on the marvellous medicinal
properties of the new springs of eco
nomic healing discovered now by the
American goose in the course Of its
flight through the stratosphere Of COM
prehensive monetary research. The
waters from these springs, said our
emissaries, would make any national
animal as good as new All that was
needed was that all the national ami
mails of the whole world should drink
of them together.
Fair enough, I thought. We Amer
leans are the worlds leading business
nation. It's swell of us, when we have
bright new business idea, to share 1t
up with the others this way. IN watch
them grab at it.
watched a long time, and not one
Of them grabbed. The British were, Of
course, the most deceptive. They are
always the most deceptive; because they
are always the most open-minded at
the start and the Solidest-mtuded af