Evening star., 1933-01-15

|
added, the present depression Is
not likely to prove to be automatically
| self curing. We shall have to do some
thing about it,
Already various measures have been
tried. There have been Government
loans to private business. price stabili-
| Zation, farm relief, Federal Reserve
policies, unemployment relief, made
work." "share-the-job" programs. In
each case some sagging group has been
helped temporarily, but debts grow ever
larger, agricultural surpluses pile high
er, idle factories continue idle while the
American army of the unemployed has
increased to nearly three times the num-
Der of our men in arms in 1918. Some
fundamental and far-reaching adjust
/ ment is vitally needed-and many be-
lieve that 1888 Is the year in which the
remedy must be adopted and applied.
Our economic malady has been dag
nosed by DR.. Irving Fisher as primarily
too much debt and too little money and
credit-the debt disease and the
money disease"
Its most conspicuous symptom is the
shrunken pocketbook, or. in the econ
omist's more elegant term, "shrunken
purchasing power" The shrinkage to
date amounts to about SO per cent of
tIldl III lIlC CdoC OA ACA boAA
groups it Is far greater. The farmers OF
the United States, for example. received
during 1882 an income that was only
about 81 per cent of their 1929 income.
And the more than 100000 unem-
ployed have dropped out Of the buying
ranks almost altogether.
As Billions Lost.
Roughly the annual national income
with which OUR people do their buying
was about 80 billions of dollars before
the slump, and 1t Is about As billions of
dollars now. This shrinkage Is many
times the loss of our foreign trade. 1t
is nearly four times the total Of the war
debts owing the United States. All ether
items in the defiation are minor beside
this huge loss of some As billions from
the purchasing power OF the American
public.
1t is not only that our purchasing
power has shrunk about half, but some
of the purchasing power that remains
has gone into hiding. Fear of the fu-
ture has caused owners to tuck away
in safe-deposit boxes, in mattresses,
stockings and other individual repoSi-
tories some $500, 100000 of the cur
rency that Is supposed to be In circu-
lation in the United States. II this
money were put to use in buying Sc
curities, in buying goods and services:
its circulation would start spiral OF
demand that would grow into widen
ing circle of purchasing that would lit
us out of the Slump-so says one group
Of economists.
Perhaps the most direct and novel
proposal to get at these idle funds is
that suggested by Roger Babson, the
statistician and forecaster of business.
He sees as the immediate cure for our
economic ills a broad program OF ad-
vertising and selling.
''If you will make me the employ
ment MuSsolini Of this country an
nounces Mr. Babson, Il agree to or
| ganiZe and train an army of men and
women now unemployed to present a
Nationwide educational campaign to
| create legitimate demand for goods.
Give me small portion of the money
| which public officials today are spend
ing upon charity and let me use this
money in giving group of the un-
employed supervised promotional work
and the demand for goods will imme-
diately return. Then industry viii call
back its unemployed, and before long
business will be back to normal"
Statesmen Of Prosperity.
Whether a group Of statesmen would
be able to overcome the caution and
lack of confidence which have locked
up these cash reserves is question.
| They would have to be statesmen Of
prosperity quite as much as statesmen
| of the particular commodity they were
representing
Indeed, there Is a serious question
whether anything constructive and per-
manent can be done until public con-
| fidence Is restored. Many believe that
this confidence must manifest itself
| IN the securities market. In an article
In the Atlantic Monthly David Friday