The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-04-18
TUESDAY. APRIL 10. 1893.
RECITATION


The bank program, essential as it was in
volved further wholesale defation in the form
OF withdrawal Of gold and gold certificates
from circulation and the impounding of many
billions of dollars of deposits in closed banks
The essential federal economy. program is
likewise defiationary to the extent of more
than one billion dollars
All this has added to the state of unbal
ance has made the dollar dearer. 1t has
widened the gulf between the debtor and
creditor classes and made more impossible
the payment of 1924-29 inflated debts with
1888 debated dollars
Fortunately, however this is only one side
Of the picture. President Roosevelt obviously
is not a deflatonst. The administration
banking and economy programs we're not I'M
dertaken because they were delationary. but
despite that It was choice of evils.
But the President moved Immediately to
offset that defation. He reopened the sound
banks. He expanded the currency under the
new bank law. And he urged upon congress
quick enactment of the following measures for
releasing frozen values and for purchasing
power imitation this year:
l. Federal unemployment grants to states
$5O0,OOOoOO.
2 Afforestation, $1480O0OOO
g. Tennessee basin project, $34 ,OOo 900.
4. Increased r. F. c. credits, $500 100000
D. To refinance farm mortgages, $2,OOO,-
100000
g. To reinance urban home MORTGAGES
$2,OOO,OOOOOo
T. Estimated increase in farm purchasing
power from farm price bill, $1,000 100000.
In addition to these infationarv measures
the President has two more of Importance
One is vast public works program and bond
issue, expected to total from $4,000 non nm r.
$e'oOOoOOoOo. The other is the short-work-
week and minimum-wage oil now being
drafted as an amendment to the Black hill
by the house committee and Secretary of
Labor Frances Perkins, the object being to
increase pay rolls and revive purchasing
power.
Usually those who discuss the need for in
natlon or relation ignore these Roosevelt
policies already in process. These policies II
Should be noted, cover the two elements n
imitation; that is, currency expansion under
the bank law and large-scale government
bonding and spending to put more money into
actual circulation.
Whether these ref1ationarv nooves mil, /,
adequate is another question Maybe not
But no one will know whether they are ade-
quate until all of them are in actual operation
Hence the folly of some of the inflationists
In congress; they are defeating their own
ends by flibustering against the farm relief
and other Roosevelt inf1ationary bills
An intelligent approach would seem to be
for the extreme infationists to help mass the
present Roosevelt program as quickly as nos
sible, on the theory that then, and then onlv
can they prove the need of additional in
fation
In fact. the President himself is on record
as favoring not only sound, but an adequate.
currency. While he is not likely to flon tn
greenbacks or sixteen-to-one silver he def
nitely and deliberately has left the door open
for some form of further controlled currency
imitation if the present moves toward mild
currency imitation. credit and bond imitation.
and purchasing power imitation, prove made
quate or too SLOW
Moreover. the pending foreign negotiations
make the present imitation flbuster in con-
gresS untimely. All inflationary arguments
are based in part on the disadvantage suf-
fered by the high dollar in world market COM
petition with low currency countries.
The fact that Great Britain is off the gold
standard frequently is most advanced as a
reason for us to go on similar basis
But at this particular moment Great
Britain may be headed back to the gold stand
ard. She has been buying gold and now has
the largest reserve in her history. Many iu-
formed persons in London and WASHINGTON
believe that Great Britain intends to return
to fixed gold standard, provided she can
bring about an international agreement to
protect herself from foreign gold drains.
: This and related questions concerning sta
bilization of international exchanges are to be
discussed in the coming Roosevelt Macdonald
and Roosevelt Herriot conversations
No intelligent decision on American none
tary policy for the future can be made until
our government knows the future policies of
Great Britain and France and whether these
British and French policies will be changed
as result of the pending negotiations
< In any case, now is the time to get the
present Roosevelt infationary program into