Evening star., 1933-01-03

ployed. while prices of farm products
fell lower and lower, and while trade
throughout the Nation and the worlc
grew less and less.
They loaned the banks more thar
$500, 100000, the railroads more thar
S300,000,000 and the farmers S81 ,000,-
600. What is the result? Conditions
are getting worse and worse. Every
body knows now that we can't end the
panic by loaning vast sums of the tax
payers money to those at the top oi
the social, industrial and financial
system.
That was the principal reason why
the people of this country staged a
revolution by ballots few weeks ago
Now they want revolution of remedies
and methods for ending these hard
times. Thus the biggest question in
America today is: What will Mr.
Roosevelt and his supporters do in
response to this demand? Nobody
knows, but remembering his back
ground Of long public experience. his
devotion to the progressive policies he
has championed and the planks of the
Democratic platform, we can sense his
method Of solving the pressing prob
lens ahead Let me illustrate that
method by telling story of the method
used few years ago to build new
bridge connecting two cities across the
Ohio River.
Likens System to Bridge.
The old bridge was highly unsatis-
factory. The mayors of the two cities
called a meeting to decide what to do
Some said, Let us blow UP the old
bridge and build new one" Others
said, LET us abandon the old bridge
and select another site for the cross
ing and build another kind of bridge.
But those who considered the needs
of the people and the habits of the
people, as we'll as the necessity Of a
new bridge, that is the engineers, they
said, Let US go on using the, bridge
and rebuild it while we use it." And
so they rebuilt the bridge by replacing
old parts with new parts, without los
ing its use for a single day.
Just so Mr.. Roosevelt Is not likely to
want to destroy existing economic or
financial systems He will probably
be opposed to entirely new schemes. He
will most likely want to modify and
rebuild existing systems, but keep on
using them while he brings about the
changes desired. This policy may re-
quire q little more time, but it Is more
in keeping with the American way of
revolutionizing conditions for the bene-
fit of all.
Take the solution of the money prob
lem as an example of the application
of this method. Everybody agrees that
the Government must do something to
increase the amount of money in cir
culation until public confidence is re-
stored. The money we now have is
all right The trouble is that there
isn't enough of 1t in circulation. 1t is
frozen, as it were. A large part of
this lifeblood of commerce seems to
have dried up. The value of the dollar
is too high. What shall we dc
about it?
Some say we should abandon the gold
standard as 26 other nations have done
and then print paper money based on
the Governments promise to pay and
circulate that as the medium of ex-
change. Others say we should re-
moniti2e silver end Ak a Government
price for silver and then buy and coli,
1t in unlimited quantities until w:
have sufficient money In circulation {.
meet our needs.
Both of those plans propose to over
turn the present money system. They
would establish new basis for money
regardless of the effect on our worle