The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-01-25
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

Editors NOte-This is the first of two
articles by Harry Elmer Barnes, Phi. D.. on the
opposition of the professors to Mr.. RoOseveIts
monetary policies.
A has often been the case in the past, aca-
"A demic elements are lining up with the
bankers and other reactionaries and Joining in
the panic cry against imitation. Already, num-
Der OF professional groups have issued mani
feStoS denouncing imitation. Petitions have
been drawn up, beginning with that of the thir-
ty-eight Columbia professors, demanding the
cessation OF the administrations monetary pol
icieS and urging return to the good old sound
money" policies that landed us in the Black Fri
day of March 3, 1888
Indeed, an economists national committee on
monetary policy, headed by leading deflation-
lists, has been formed Meeting recently at
Philadelphia, they demanded that the admin
iStration should abandon its monetary expert
mentation Immediately, in order to ''diSsipate
the widespread fear Of imitation and reduce the
financial decentralization now retardirg recovery"
College and university professors have a very
special interest in opposing imitation. The funds
from. which theft salaries are paid are derived
mainly from interest on bonds and MORTGAGES
This interest rate is fixed and its purchasing
power would decline in proportion to price rises
WET, the supreme obligation of scholars is not
l. to maintain their purchasing power but to
afford authoritative and diSpassionate guidance
for the public. Professors of economics are sup
posed to be among our most reliable experts on
economic and financial affairs. Their sense of
responsibility to the public should rise above i'm
mediate self-intereSt.
Indeed, they should be sufficiently we'll in
formed and logical to recognize that even their
Selt-lnterest is today most likely to be forwarded
by reasonable imitation. If def1ationary tactics
are revived and allowed to wreck business still
further, there is likely to be wholesale defaultng
IN the payment of interest on bonds ana mort
cages.
1t is doubtful, however, if the critics of the
professors who explain the opposition of the
latter to imitation wholly on the ground of i'm
mediate Self-intereSt are entirely correct Most
academic opponents of initiation sincerely believe
in what they say, though some may sign a mani
festo as a result of local pressure with their
tongues in their cheeks
PROFESSORS like everybody else are victims
l. of StereotypeS. The most powerful of all
stereotypes in conventional economic doctrine
are the money illusion" and the hard money"
dogma Not even the law of supply and demand
possesses such sanctity
Then, some financial experts are possessors of
single track minds and victims of the ideal of
the theater." They are passionately welded to
the doctrines Of their own school of financial
thought.
Finally, university professors, like other NOR
tails, are subject to the sentiment of the invid-
ious They boil inwardly at the spectacle of one
or two of their number receiving special public
recognition or getting extended and protracted
public acclaim.
1t is quite understandable how irresponsible
antl-inf1ation propagandists brighten the
man-in-the-Street through the use of all sorts
Of absurd historical analogies and the utterance
Of completely unsupportable allegations about
the disastrous effects of controlled initiation.
University professors, most of all professors
Of economics. should, however, be proof against
vulgar assaults. Any professor of economics
worth his salt certainly must know that any in
fiation which looms on the horizon today is not
of serious character.