Evening star., 1933-11-07

Fall of the Daladier ministry In
France. followed by the installation Of
Sarraut as premier, Is believed in this
country to mean little change in the
governments tendency to support the
gold standard. but there are express
sions Of fear that the battle over gold
among the leaders in Paris will con-
tinue.
Abandonment of the gold standard
in France might be followed by serious
political upheavals," thinks the Charles
ton Evening Post, "and the French gov
ernment viii cling to the standard to
the last possible moment" That paper
believes that such abandonment by
France would probably be followed by
and Belgium" The Evening Post Is
convinced that, with such course of
events, "the nations would certainly
confer without delay to arrive at some
plan of stabilization and general return
to gold"
'1The new premier has already stated
that he will insist upon maintenance of
the gold standard" observes the Provi-
dence journal, which points out that
the same realistic attitude will be
shown toward balancing the budget II
M. Sarraut clings resolutely to his prin-
ciples." The Journal, however, con-
cludes: eff the Sarraut ministry obtains
no better cooperation from an intensely
political minded Chamber Of Deputies
than It's predecessor cabinet the Sarraut
policies are likely to come to grief be-
fore they have fair chance to demon
strate their merit. It is a rather serious
situation for France, particularly IN
view of the important and significant
part the French are playing today on
the stage of international finance"
"The French people do not realize" IN
the opinion Of the Sioux Falls Daily
Argus-Leader, that their actions In
respect to a balanced budget are making
q departure from the gold standard
inevitable The Argus-Leader also
finds a parallel 20 previously existing
conditions in this country and declares:
1.-The situation now in France Is identi-
cal to that prevailing last Winter IN
the United States. Our Congress re-
fused to balance the budget. 1t author
lied great expenditures, but failed to
adopt compensating taxes. The people
OF the Governments money and con-
verted it into gold. The drain upon
gold became so strong that it was ap-
parent that the United States Treasury
could not meet the demands as long as
the public felt that gold was worth more
than paper money. The craze for gold,
however, could have been stopped at
any time by the Inauguration Of
program to balance Government receipts
and expenditures and provide for some
debt retirement"
Taking account OF the fact that IN
Sarraut's allegiance to the gold stand
ard was inherited from his predecessor"
the Atlanta Journal adds that "this is
tied up with a tangle Of economic and
fiscal problems" and continues: BE
cause Daladier insisted upon balancing
the budget, his ministry was overthrown
by the Chamber of Deputies. They were
willing enough to follow him as long as
came down to such definite proposals as
cutting the salaries of government en-
ployes and providing additional taxes to
bridge over the gulf between receipts |
and expenditures, they voted him out. |
An American observer has described the |
predicament thus: There is only one
way to stave on the imitation of cur |
rency which French sentiment breads, |
with its threat Of driving the franc |
into new depreciation like that Of 10 |
years ago. The treasury must be made |
solvent. Borrowings and ingenious |
bookkeeping cannot be resorted to per-
manently in order to obscure or hide
the unpleasant facts Just what steps |
NJ. Sarraut viii take to accomplish this |
unpopular task are yet to be seen. If |
he balances the budget and stimuli
taneously reduces taxes, he will be q
at is quite possible" suggests the
Baltimore Sun, that, through q dead
lock in the Chamber on the new taxes /