Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1934-02-09

Equalization of
Currencies
The Real Aim
The ~"Supply" Policy

Inc p Foley
Washington-Official Washing
ton believes that economic recovery
is SO near to being an accomplished
fact that by May there will be
plenty of work in agriculture,
business and industry. for all who
are now dependent upon the CWA.
What has been holding private capt.
tai and credit back from the COM
plete cooperation under the NRA
which was expected, has not been
any shortage of funds in private
hands or of credit in the banks, but
the unwillingness of investors to put
their money into anything when
they had no assurance what the
money they would get back would
be worth.
The Presidents new monetary
program, his supporters believe, has
put the major doubts at rest. 1e is
quite clear to everybody now that
Mr.. Roosevelt is firmly opposed to
anything like uncontrolled none
tary initiation. There have been in
flation, to be sure, and there will be
more, but it is all under very de-
finite control and inside of fixed
limits. And the uncertainty as to
where the dollar woul.l drop to in
terms of gold has been replaced by
the certainty that it will not be al
lowd to remain higher than 80
percent of its gold value o lower
than 50 percent. This las already
resulted in the return 20 the United
States of a good MANY millions of
American capital which had taken
flight from the deprec;ating dollar.
With all the authority which he
needs now in his hands, to back
him up much more fully than he
was backed up last Summer, the
mex move of the President, or one
of his first moves, will be to re-
open negotiations with foreign
countries looking toward equaliza-
ton of all the worlds currencies on
il new and s1abbIe gold basis.
tic bsias hanytAasIste
adjustment of world currencies, can
take place without b:,sing silver
back into its old money position has
pretty we'll vanished here. Thel
Pitman amendment to the gold bill
strengthens the President hands IN
dealing with the silver question:
and the likelihood that the curren-
cies of the Orient and other silver
money nations will b: equalized
with gold seems better than it was.
How all this discussion about
gold and silver affects the ordinary
citizen of the United States is one
of those things which is not appar-
ent on the surface, since an Amer
can dollar is still an American dol
lar, so long as the credit OF the
United States hold good, whether
it has gold or silver or only a prom
Use to pay back of it. And the
Governments credit is still pretty
good, thank you; Uncle Sam had
no trouble in borrowing a thousand
million dollars overnight a few days
g and nobody anticipates any
trouble when he asks for a few bill
lions more in loans.
But what the Administration il
aiming at is to raise the price OF
basic commodities. such as cotton:
corn, wheat, copper, steel, and a
long list of other things Of which
we have and produce more than We
can consume. The prices of inter
national trade goods are fixed If
the world market, not IN our owr
alone. International money is gold
nothing else. Our abandonment Of
the gold standard has already sen
the price, in dollars, of many com.
modities upward, because it brought
our international dollar more nearly
on a level with the British poune
and other currencies which hae
gone off the gold standard.
With all the money of all thu
nations of the world on an equa
and comparable basis of value, mea'
sured in gold, nearly all of tn
Presidents economic advisers agre
that world prices would come bacl
to the 1926 level. And with worlt
prices up, internal prices would g
up in dollars, there would be
profit to capital in investing in in
dustry and business, which in turf
could afford to employ more peopl