Nogales international., 1934-02-10

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. It is
quite clear to everybody now that
Mr.. Roosevelt is firmly opposed to
anything like uncontrolled none
tary- initiation There has 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 would drop to in
terms of gold has been replaced by
the certainty that it will not be al
lowed to remain higher than so
| percent Of its old gold value nor
lower than so percent. This has al
ready resulted in the return to the
United States of a good many mil
lions of American capital which had
taken flight from the depreciating
dollar.
Equalization OF Currencies
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
next 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 a new and stable gold basis.
The belief that any complete re-
adjustment Of world currencieS can
| take place without bringing silver
back into It's old money position has
pretty well vanished here. The Pit
man amendment to the gold bill
strengthens the Presidents hands in
iealing with the silver question, and
The likelihood that the currencies Of
The Orient and other silver money
nations swiil be equalized with gold
seems better than 1t was.
How all this discussion about gold
and silver affects the ordinary citi-
zen of the United States is one of
those things which is not apparent
IN the surface, since an American
dollar is still an American dollar,
so long as the credit of the United
States holds good, whether it has
gold or silver or only promise to
nay back of it. And the Govern
'nent's credit is still pretty good,
I thank you; Uncle Sam had no
trouble in borrowing thousand
million dollars practically overnight
few days ago, and nobody antici-
pates any trouble when he asks for
q few billions more in loans.
The Real Aim
But what the Administration is
aiming at is to raise the price of
oasic 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 in
| the world market, not in our own
alone. International money is gold,
nothing else. Our abandonment of
the gold standard has already sent
the price, in dollars, of many COM
moditieS upward, because it brought
our international dollar more near
~ on level with the British pound
and other currencies which had
gone off the gold standard.
| With all the money of all the
nations of the world on an equal
and comparable basis of value,
measured in gold, nearly all OF the
Presidents economic advisers agree
that world prices would come back
| to the 1926 level. And with world
Iprices up, internal prices would go
fup in dollars, there would be profit
to capital in investing in industry
and business, which in turn could
| afford to employ more people at
good wages, who in their turn could
tSpend money for more things than
they can now, and the wheels OF
prosperity would again begin to
turn. x.w,xsA