The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1933-09-01
Iational Topics Interpreted

becoming noisy again. Rather, they
have increased the
i Deep Silence amount of their noise
LaSx. in recent weeks. The
~ volume has become
Ominous to Washington observers who,
1t seems, are quite unable to make up
their minds as to the amount of pres
sure the inflationist element in the
country can WELD. There is propa-
ganda, there are inquiries about it, and
there are statements from those who
think they carry some water on their
shoulders, all to the end that there
ought to be imitation.
1t is well to recall at this point that
President Roosevelt is the sole arbiter
on the imitation question. 1t was he
to whom congress delegated the SUI
preme authority to use any one or all
Of the several infationary plans that
were included in the now famous
Thomas amendment. Thus far Presi-
dent Roosevelt has kept his own coun-
sell; he has kept an eye on the eco
nomic structure and ON the price
levels, and has not used the powers
he has. Nor will he say whether he
will or will not use them. The result
of his maneuvers has been to make the
infiationists feel he is just about ready
but not quite-to use some Of the in
flationary proposals and to make the
sound money folks feel he is holding
off from using those same powers by
exerting every effort. 1t is situation
after all that is not without humor, for
the uncertainty has kept all of them
on their toes, so to speak,
Is the President going to resort to
inf1ation?y Ask the inflationist and he
will say EYES," Ask the sound money
group and they will say "No." Ask
the unbiased observer and he will say,
II don't know" So, there you are!
AS one of those observers here who
try to see which way the wind is blow
ing and what the reasons are behind
trends and developments, I have been
impressed by only one sign on the
question of imitation in recent weeks,
and that, strangely enough, was q
statement from one who has been an
infiationist but whose statement was
adverse to the idea. 1 refer to the re-
cent remark of Secretary Wallace of
the Department of Agriculture. He
declared'to newspaper correspondents
On the occasion in question that good
many farmers felt improvement was
not coming rapidly enough. He thought
there was some merit in their claim,
but he added that things had been
pretty sick and some time had to
elapse in order to straighten them
out. Some one inquired whether infia-
tion could not be used to boost prices
faster, to which the secretary replied:
Imitation would provide only tenn
porary relief. That does not seem to
be the answer"
And that statement came, as I said
before, from one who all along has
been an inflationist. 1t was the first,
and only, frank statement that has
come from administration sources. It
may not have significance, but am
inclined to regard it as having mean
ing. Inasmuch as Mr.. Wallace nat
urally is in close touch with the Presi-
dent every day, and sometimes sew
eral times day, would it not seem
logical to suppose that there was just
little reflection of the Presidents
views in his agricultural secretary's
observation?
Mr. Roosevelt has repeatedly de-
clared himself to be in favor of sound
money. He empha-
RumorsSpread sized it in his in
he repeated it to
congress and he has stated it in vary
ing form and in various places. But,
nevertheless, Mr.. Roosevelt took an
inflationary step when he withdrew
government support for the dollar in
international exchange by declining to
permit export of gold.
Likewise, the President announced
his purpose of boosting commodity
prices to the 1924-26 level. That was
the purpose of the embargo on gold ex-
ports. Prices have gone up only to about
the 1909-10 level, or still considerably
short of the spot which Mr.. Roosevelt
would-l like them to reach. The infla-
>tionists have been figuratively pound
ing on the White House door and
shouting to Mr.. Roosevelt to use his
imitation powers. Some of them have
been granted interviews They come
out smiling. Such was the case of
Senator Smith, South Carolina Demo-
crat and chairman of the senate COM
mittee On agriculture He went to the
White House and was received by the
President. He came out, smiling
broadly, and talked long and loudly
for a dozen or so newspaper CORE
spondents of the need for imitation.
But somehow Senator Smith neglected
to say that the Chief Executive was
going to use the Thomas amendment.
guess he forgot about it!
Senator Thomas of Oklahoma, who
led the fight for the amendment, has
issued lot of statements about the
necessity for using imitation. He at
tacES avnrv one who diSaoraac with