Milford chronicle., 1935-07-26
MIR. MORGENTHAU'S
MONETARY CURE
By Delmer Hubben

When does a sick man get well be-
cause of his doctor and when in spite
of him? The National Republican
Builders are interested in that ques-
tion. Moreover it is a nice question
which Republican strategists will
have to consider. Secretary of the
Treasury MOrgenthau has blanketed
the air in defense of the sO-called
monetary policy of the New Deal Ad-
ministratiOn and claims that because
our foreign trade is higher than in
1882 and because certain large do
mestic corporations are doing more
business, than at the bottom of the
depression, the dollar juggling of
1888 has been justified.
Rather lame. In fact it puts me
in mind of sick man whose doctors
have Quarreled over the treatment
and whose nurses have detied the
doctors, given the wrong medicine
and generally treated the poor fell
low shabbily He is sick because of
oVer-induIgence and is scared half
to death.
That was your Uncle Sam in the
winter of 1882 to 1888.
In spite of his bad treatment and
in common with the rest of the world
he had passed the crisis.
Then came the New Deal.
All competent physicians were
fired. A group of wOuld-be doctors
with a lot of untried and discredited
ideas up their sleeves were called
on the job. They began experiment
ing.
In spite of them the patient con-
tinued to recover
His recovery was due in part to
his natural recuperative powers and |
in part to artificial stimulants, the |
evil effects of which We have yet to /
see.
But he recovered.
He recovered in a queer way, to
be sure; in an uneven way, so that
now, after two years of GONZALES
cence he is still half well and half
sick. Yet. because he is half well
the doctors are proud of their job.
They ignore the fact that he is only
half well. They have to do so. Poll
tics makes it necessary. They also
ignore the fact that with competent
care the patient would be much fur
ther on toward recovery than he is
now
Secretary MOrgenthau's effort to
connect the monetary policy with re-
viving foreign trade is particularly
lame. He evidently has forgotten
those hectic days in 1888 when a de-
Valuated dollar, managed currency,
imitation and commodity dollars were
ballyhOOed to the country as means
of raising domestic prices and stim-
ulating business. Nothing was said
about foreign commerce. That was
thought of later, after the monetary
policy had failed to do what had
been claimed for it.
The New Dealers in this respect
were very much in the position of
the quack doctor who gave his pa
tient medicine for house-maid's knee,
only to discover after awhile that ,
the patient was recovering from tom
silitis. The doctor thereupOn an
nOunced that the medicine after all I
had been for tonsilitis =
We must remember, further that r
the sterilization of international I
currencies which the Administration /
now seems flirting with, is the same
vital and fundamental measure which =
the President demanded in May 1888 !
Six weeks later he knitted the Lon I
ion Economic Conference in the back r
and shelved international stabiliza- I
lion so that he might try out the
tinkering ideas of his !
doctors. The past two years 4
Of doubt. hesitancy and slight recov- /
cry throughout the world have re- 4
suited. I
Well, the New Dealers tried their !
monetary tinkering and because the
patient did not die on their hands,
hey claim their experimenting was 1
d
It ought not to be difficult for Re- I
lublicans to checkmate the SecFe- !
ary's claims. Ii
Our reformers thought the United 4