Evening star., 1933-06-18
CURRENCY STERILIZATION
VITAL CONFERENCE ISSUE
Fixed Trade Declared Dependent on
Settling Problem-Dollar Expected
to Be Fixed at 1926 Value.
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

w Y.TH the International None
n tary and Economic Confc"-
NN ence at work, We shall hear
much, until it succeeds or
fails, about "stabilization of
currencies" 1t is important that
America should look at this clear
sightedly. 1t contains much worth
may see in it. BY many. unhappily,
it will be regarded as mystic phrase
having the quality of "abracadabra,
another of those white rabbits of
which We have had a considerable pro-
cession since this depression began:
one can recall them. and recall how
briefly their hoped-for potency lasted.
"technocracy," stamped currency"
scrip" .'mor1 .orium," price fixing"
the equalization fee" for farming, the
"McNary- -Haugen plan" for the same
industry.
Not all of us-by no means .,all of
us-have yet learned that nett = the
state of the world can be altered nor
any other condition attained by some
one waving a wand and uttering "a
magic word Both the magicians and
the magic words have failed us. Not
merely the magicians, but the solid
men in whom the world justly had
faith. There was a Dawes plan"
and young plan" Both are in the
scrapheap Of failed hopes, and it has
turned out that neither Charles G.
Dawes nor Owen D. Young in their
personal relations to or responsible
ties for American corporations and in
stitutions. was any more able to resist
this depression. nor escape it nor avert
it, than any of the rest of U.s. The
examples are countless In which not
only have slogans and phrases and
formal plans" failed, but men who
were the symbols of success, Gibraltars
of business. symbols of almost omnipo-
tence, very demigods-are now tum-
bled down.
Declares Phrase Cannot Help.
So the first point to remember about
"stabilization of currencies" is that
the phrase as phrase cannot help.
No phrase and no word can help
Only things can help things as dis
tinguished from words. The thing that
stabilization of currencies means can
help, the condition for which that
phrase stands can help, can, indeed, be
almost alone a sufficient cure.
But there arises another common
fallacy. Almost universally it is as
sumed that the delegates to the Lon
don Conference can meet round a
table. can talk, can finally say: I'VE
are now agreed there shall be stabiliza-
ton Of ctlrrencies at this figure or
that'-and that thereupon the worlds
troubles are over.
The delegates to the London Confer
ence can do no such thing. To ex-
plain why they can't, one may quote a
pregnant observation from a very wise
man, the late President Calvin Cool
idge: Laws are not made-they are
discovered" Stabilization of eurrencies
cannot be made; it can only be dis
covered. More accurately, it can only
be arrived at-arrived at, not by dele
gates to conference. but only by world
conditions. And it is by no means GER
tain that world conditions are yet at
point where they can express them
selves in stabilized currencies. The
value OF currency in international
trade has pretty close analogy to ther-
mometer. When conditions are normal
currency Is stable at certain figure,
precisely as, when a human body is
normal. the thermometer is stable at
98.6. What has been going on for sew
eral years in several areas in America
and the world is in truth a process in
which men and governments set the
then expect conditions to conform.
The delegates to the London Con-
ference cannot, think, stabilize cur
rencies" They can. however, take GER
tain steps, do certain actions about
conditions, out of which, ultimately.
really dependable stabilization of cur
rencies can come about. I find that
the most important delegates to the
London Conference understand this. \
nnd President Roosevelt understands it
consequently there is real hope of
progress.
The national currencies of the world
at this time run up and down in reIa-
ton to each other like the two monkeys
OF the opposite sides of the stick on a
familiar childS toy. Within eight weeks
the American dollar in relation to the
French franc has ranged between So
cents and 100 cents The British pound