The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-01-26
Liberal Viewpoint
=By DR.. HARRY ELMER BARNES

YESTERDAY, I indicated why professors OF
L economics, who should know better, appear
to be sincerely alarmed at President Roosevelts
monetary policies and urge their immediate
! suspension.
It should be clear to any economic scientist
that if the Presidents monetary policy is dam
oprol1s at all it is only because it may prove dam
gerollsv indecisive and inadequate. Likewise,
the alert economist must be fully aware OF the
extremely harmful character OF the dehatlohary
policies of the last four years.
Most of all the realistic economist should
recognize that most of the popular fear of intia-
ton has been due to the DOGGY nnonger1ng OF
self -interested money changers. BY joining IN
the calamity chorus, the professors have aldeo
and Allotted the creation Of the very tears Whlch
they now assert they wish to allay.
Professional students of economics should
recognize the havoc which has accompanied our
stubborn adherence to the gold standard in re-
cent years. The tremendous fluctuations in
prices during the last decade have brought IN
stability and ruin in their wake.
Moreover. these economists must know we'll
enough tina. Mr. Roosevelts plan to restore
prices to approximately the 1926 level is emil
nently fair and perfectly safe. The only rational
basis for apprehensiveness is that it may not
succeed.
TINE gold standard is today in a position
| L somewhat like democracy. The latter may
be the best form Of government thus far eX-
4 perimented with. But it is obviously inadequate
to meet the strains and stresses Of contemporary
life unless very radically revised and improved.
Similarly with the gold standard it may be
! the best standard of value thus far employed
But the economic developments OF the last
quarter of a century have revealed fully its
weaknesses.
OF this fact. economists should be better
aware than any 9TH. group, They should be
in the vanguard Of - sse who urge scientific
but resoute experimentation in the monetary
field which will produce something more salts
factory than the old-fashioned gold standard.
Economists should be able to free themselves
from both gold prudery" and the stereotypes
produced by orthodox economic instruction. No
body has better stated the basic monetary al
ternatives which confront us than G. D. H. Cole:
The question which the woodland each
country-has to decide today is whether 1t has
at its command Suf1ciency Of skill and knowl-
edge to undertake this vital work of monetary
control or whether it must remain in the future
as heretofore, at the mercy OF monetary system
which. supposed to be automatic and selt-adJust-
| ing, has in effect again and again thrown the
entire productive organization out of gear, and
| condemned many millions Of people to unem-
ployment and unnecessary poverty.
CT AM far from suggesting that the technique
i of control needed to remedy this situation
has. been worked out fuliy,--Or that there is
general agreement among skilled persons about
the basic principles Of monetary management.
IF we attempt control, we shall make many
Mistakes but We shall learn from them, and it
surely is better to learn from our mistakes than
to drown because we refuse to attempt to mas
ter the difficult art of swimming"
It should be said in eXtenuation Of the pro-
fessors that not all Of them have enlisted under
the banners of the money-changers Professor
Warren and Professor Rogers have been respOn-
sible for the relation policies adopted by Presi-
4 w0fa
among them members of the faculty at SWarth-
more college. have expressed confidence in the
President and urged him to continue with his
monetary experimentation. Monetary experts
ike Irving Fisher and Bernard Ostrolenk have
shown that insight and realism which We might
legitimateiy expect from intellectual leaders in
the profession.