Henderson daily dispatch., 1940-01-30

|
if they have some, they cannot spare
it. Great Britain is peculiarly III TINS
position. She is carrying on the most
desperate war of her existence ana
she affirlns that she needs her gold
/ for the purchase of the means OF war
fare and of food necessary to Sus-
tain her people. She has two and one
half years supply of our tobacco on
hand. Moreover, the l4O.OOO,oOo
pounds purchased laSt year is still III
this country. Tie British money IS
at discount of about 20 percent
over here which means that Great
Britain must pay 20 percent more
than our market price for any COM
modify she purchases. She must pay
! either in gold or cash and since the
trade balances are against her, Shc
must pay very largely cash in inc
form of gold and she has no gold to
spare. l am bringing out these !aclS
in order that our people may see the
problem.
6. Agreed that our gold policy
may have been useful at the time. II
now appears that its consequence Is
To prevent other nations from trading
here. | tia: W :,,;St make cor
rection if we are to maintain any
thing like normal trade with other
countries.
! :. Whenever any nation artIlicl-
allv interiors with the free flow OF
commodities. there is some resent
ment by other nations. We have seen
! this with respect to cotton. We nave
! lost large portion OF our Ioreisi
market for cotton. The afullciSh
measures seem to do good al the time,
| but the long run consequence was 20
encourage the production OF cotton
! throughout the world and 10 BRING
about the accumulation OF an M
imenSe surplus OF cotton here on me
hands Of the government. We SAou!G
bear in mind that while we can con-
troll Our production, we cannot con-
troll foreign production OF conSunp-
ton. | hope that we are not to lose
Our foreign market for tobacco is has
been the case so largely with cotton.
With respect to cotton. let mo say
that ii we had permitted the cotton
l. be sold as / was produced. the
prices would have been low then.
b;,; would he high now.
s. Another feet 0. significance IS
this. Tobacco prices have been rela-
lively better over = period Of seven
wears than prices Of any other farm
commodity. This his been due in
large !neaSurG 70 the expansion in
the sale of cigarettes throughout the
world In fact there are evidences
now that the expansion has been
arrested.
s. What may be done" We may
bring about some barter arrange
mentS with Great Britain whereby
/ she Will take certain amount OF our
tobacco if we will buy certain
amount Of tin and rubber or other
articles which we do not produce
and which arc available TO her. We
may reconstruct Our gold policy st
that there may be, - :".@r extent
a return flow Of gold to Great Bri-
tain and other nations. This Would
do It's no harm as we have over ST.
/ 000.000.000. far more than we need
! There has been great deal Of IL
ritation about the large debt Of Great
Britain to this country being be-
tween four and five billion dollars
There is no prospect whatever Of the
collection of this debt at anything
like par. 1t might be prudent to Sug-
gest to Great Britain that if she will
buy our farm products, we will give
her credit on this debt in some at
tractive ratio to the amount Of her
purchase This would help the farm
erS and would not hurt our country
since the debt is largely worthless
as it stands It would be in the nature
of constructive COMPROMISE. help
full to both parties. There may be
other ways and means and ! am safe
in saying that the State Department
will exhaust them in the interest or
restoring our sales Of tobacco.
10. However. l am by no mean
assured that we will recover this
market for our tobacco any time il
the near future. In fact | am fear
full that we may never fully recover
it and I think o. farmers should be
notified of this in order that they
may make timely adjustments.
II. | have been much interested
in the plans of the Conference OF
Southern Governors to bring about
better state of balance in our
Southern economy. North CaroliD;
is due to develop very considerably
in the production Of dairy products
poultry and poultry products, and
i've stock. There is some prospect
that prices for all the food products
will be better as the war goes on. as
nations at war arc inclined to buy
food and arms first and in the pre-
sent state Of the world, there are no
nations able to buy other than the
necessities of substenance and de-