Evening star., 1935-11-17

can be sure no foreigner would buy
this silver back from us at what
we pay for 1t.
1t is no doubt part of our good
neighbor policies that we have joy.
fully subsidized every foreign spec
ulater In silver. We have also SUBJ
sidized every silver mine in Austria
liza, India, Mexico. and Peru. But
we have pursued these good-neigh-
Dor policies further. We have
stirred up currency troubles in
China and other silver currency
countries. We have stimulated
their good feelings by flooding
them with bankruptcies, labor
troubles, and juggling their cost Of
living.
Gold Influx Contrasted
With Goods of Trade.
Another result of economic
planning" has been the attraction
of billions of gold-over two billions
in two years-that we do not need
for any conceivable purpose. We
ought to have had goods instead.
Apparently planned economy"
aims to become bi-metallic Midas.
Although we cannot recall the
100 per cent dollars we can we'll
consider the results Of devaluation.
We devalued the dollar Al per cent
under the hypnosis that If we re-
duced the length of a yard to 21.2
inches we would have more cloth
in the bolt. One result is that the
foreigner is shipping us more gold
every day to buy our good domestic
assets for the price of 21.2 inches
to the yard. That is a complicated
problem of New Deal economics,
but if you will search around in it
you will find much of interest. 1t
Is likely to represent more loss to
the American people than a whole
years Treasury deficit.
While on this romantic subject
of currencies I may mention that
when we entered new national
planning" in currency we were
promised a managed currency"
that would be adjusted to American
life and conditions. OF course, if it
worked it would increase the cost
of living by al per cent. Thus it
would reduce the living to be OBJ
tanned from all life insurance poll
cies, college endowments, pensions,
wages and salaries, and would in
crease the housewives cost of liv-
ing. BY it we forgave Al per cent
of most Of our foreign debts. That
is, they can pay them today with Al
per cent less gold than they ex-
pected to pay. You will remember
those private foreign loans. They
were denounced as the cause of all
evil, so we now reduce the evil by
reducing them Al per cent. But
offsetting all these pains. it was
supposed to reduce the burden of
mortgages. And equally if it works
it lessons the burdens of all bonds,
Government and otherwise. Here
we again enter higher economics,
but if you explore it thoroughly
you will find that the 100000
stockholders Of corporations, in
cluding the unhappy power COM
panies, profit at the expense of the
65,000,000 insurance policy holders.
The sum of all these shifts do not
make the poor any richer.
Currency Seen Geared
To Pound Sterling.
But above all this managed cur
rency was to be thoroughly Ameri-
can and would make us indepen-
dent of world influences. Two
billions of dollars were appropri-
ated to stabilize secretly foreign
exchange and no accounting of the
losses appears in the national def
icit-that is, not yet. But behold!
Our mystery fund has been most
successful in stabilizing our cur
rency to within few per cent of
the pound sterling for over a year.
We have attained that stability
which comes from leaning up
against the British. We are the
thirty-flrst member of the "ster-
ling bloc" of nations. Let us re-
member that the British also have
a managed currency, and in the
sterling bloc" we are only one of
the 81 planets which revolve
around the British sun. We have
thus trustingly reposed in London
large influence in American val
ueS and freedom of American
trade. I do not pretend to know
where all this will take us, but
do know that I prefer a currency
that no national planning" can
manage for us, not even the
British.
In any event SO long as man
aged currency" lasts the purchas-
ing value of the dollar lies at the
whim of political government.
Politics are bound to be in every
government managed currency.
You can never make the American
dollar ring true on the counters
of the world nor on the counters of
our savings banks so long as there
is the alloy of politics in it. So
long as it has that alloy in it
people cannot invest $l00 today
with full confidence as to what it
will be worth in old age. One re-
suit has been delayed recovery in
the construction industries and
continued unemployment In mill
lions Of unhappy homes. That goes