Evening star., 1934-10-28

The effect Is narcotlc-tnac OF Cem-
porary stimulant like Tennessee
moonshine Temporarily, devaluation
means that the foreigner can buy with
his money about 70 per cent more Of
our cotton. Actually he does no such
thing. Cotton has an inelastic de-
mand in the first place, and other
| countries are forced to dispose of
their cotton on lower terms in the
second place. What actually happens
is that devaluation eventually raises
the price of cotton. But devaluation
likewise raises the price of all foreign
goods by the same amount. Devalu-
alton simply raises the tariff on i'm
ports. II you think this helps the
South in the long run, somebody has
been misleading you. A hundred
years ago South Carolina was threat
ening to secede because OF tariff laws
/ that did not compare with this dis
guised Democratic devaluation tariff
OF course. the whole monetary
policy is self-destructive from the
standpoint of our foreign trade. Its
immediate effect Is to discourage i'm
ports and stimulate exports. But its
main purpose is to raise domestic
prices, and 1t Is undoubtedly true
that If you keep pumping bad money
! into circulation prices will eventually
rise. Once the inflationary process
is stopped, the higher price level re-
verses the movement, reducing exports
and stimulating imports. Our whole
policy is based on one of the oldest
and most harmful errors in history;
the idea that you can somehow man
age to sell more to foreigners than
you buy from them. In the better
colleges We funk sophomores who
cannot see the fallacy Of this notion.
First Dose Fails.
Already the failure of the first de-
valuation dose Is evident in the
propaganda for further devaluation.
The South has more to lose and less
to gain by the present monetary tink-
ering than any other section.
Just inside the family, there is an
other thing for the South to think
about That Is this business of q lot
OF college professors from the North
and Republican editors and lawyers
from the Middle West sitting around
in Government Offices and working out
plans to move the Southern people
around the same way they have been
moving cows from the drought
stricken Dakotas. We have lived in
the South a long time. through war,
reconstruction and depression. The
South was settled a long time before
| Iowa had any inhabitants but buffa-
loes and when the ancestors Of our
most favored economic planners were
living in south Russia. Our section is
the last great stronghold in America
of that English stock that made this
| country and gave it its laws, its re-
ligion, its customs and its hitherto un-
conquerable independence of spirit
and love Of liberty.
Work Out Destiny.
We are working out our own des-
tiny in the South. South Cardinals
cotton land may be pretty well burned
out, but it strikes me that If South
Carolina people want to grow cotton
on that land no outsider should come
in and tell them to move out. South
Carolina does not appeal to me as a
national park, even with a belt of
trees. I hear that when the T. v. A.
wanted to move tiny village in Ten
nesSee to build dam they ran into
trouble. And yet a lot of theorists,
all tangled up in their own bewildered
nationalism, are still talking about
withdrawing from use Sc, 900 900 acres
Of American land
1t may appear that the A. A. A. and
the N. r. A. have been harshly judged
in this little family talk The criti-
cism is not partisan. There is very
strong support from these views in
the highest Democratic circles. Note
this statement about crop restriction:
We condemn the unsound policy of
restricting agricultural products to
the demands of domestic markets"
This statement is from the Democratic
platform of 1892.
Consider also this statement: "I
Stare the Presidents complaint
against regimentation, but unlike him
l dislike it not only when it is car
ried on by an informal group, an un-
Official group. amounting to an eco
nomic government of the United
States, but also when it Is done by
the Government of the United States
itself"
This statement was made by Frank
lin D. Roosevelt when he was a candi-
date for the presidency of the United
States.