The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-04-16
Apples And Marbles
Bv CARLYLE MORGAN

BY CARLYLE MORGAN
was talking to a man in hotel lobby
about Breton Woods the other day. He said:
Cant you put it in terms of apples or some
thing that everybody can understand" said:
Eyes, if have enough roon1-say medium
sized book-in which to explain the subject
And then I began to wonder if I needed that
much ROOM I'm still wondering. So let us see
Breton Woods, you know is synonymous
with plan through which the United Nations
hope to facilitate international loans after the
war and to keep the currencies of the various
nations in stable relationship to one another,
so that pound will always be equal to about
the same number of dollars, dollar equal to
about the same number of francs and so forth
Now We'll get down to apples. If you know
much about international monetary problems
this is where you came in. But the man from
the hotel lobby is sitting next you. Please
avoid his toes you 60 out.
In the next picture you will see some boys,
three groups. three in a group. They could be
having picnic. But they are arguing. They
are up against this problem: One of the groups
owns apples and biscuits; another owns candy
and pop; the third owns jam and ham. To
change brawl into picnic all they need to
do is exchange some of these things. But they
have no measure of value to apply to their
goodies; so they argue, or worse.
= A little while ago not only the groups but
the individuals within the groups fought over
these things. The individuals settled the ques-
ton this way: Group One introduced red mar
bles as money Each of the three boys in this
group would always exchange an apple or
biscuit for red marbles, even when he would
not exchange an apple for a biscuit or vice
versa. This was because the red marbles al
ways commanded whichever of the two foods
he wanted.
Now if all three groups liked red marbles,
there would be no problem. But Group Two
likes green marbles; Group Three likes blue.
Now you might say: "You are silly little
boys; all the marbles are just as attractive
as red or blue or green" And the boys will
say 'Yes'm' or ''Yessir'' Gf they are polite)
but they won't act on your advice. Becausel
each boy knows how many of his own marbles
it takes to buy the ham, or apples, or pop
in his own group. But when you get another
color you have to begin all over again to find
out what it's worth.
So you feel like saying: why don't they
get together and work out system so that
they can use all their marbles and 80 can
share all the good things they have among
them?" At that point I am tempted to start
writing that book about Breton Woods But
the boys have apparently realized by now that
they have been, as you said "silly." They arel
all sitting in a circle showing each other the
red, the blue, the green marbles. Since one
red marble will buy one apple within Group
One, and since one blue marble will buy a
small piece of candy in Group Two, and a
green marble will buy thin slice of ham in
Group Three-Well, you see, they must all
decide how these different purchasing powers
OF their marbles ought to be balanced.
If they agree this, they are ready
to begin operations in foreign exchange
They will sell apples, or candy, or pop, to any,
one with any of the three color of Marbles
and they will also exchange their marbles for
marbles of another color to facilitate this sin
ternational trade
BY now, they have worked out 'parities''
at any rate that is what Government experts
call the values of the moneys which they
agree. The boys next job is to preserve fair
ly constant relationship between the parties
of their marbles. This means they must all
work to keep supply of ham, of pop of can
dy and so forth on hand to satisfy the demands
of those who can offer marbles in exchange
Because, Of course, the minute you find that
your money, or your marbles, won't buy the
goods you want, the value of that money be-
gins to diminish and you find yourself in an
argument again. So they boys agree to supply
one another with goods on credit at times.
There is nothing new about this But they also
form a pool on the marbles in various colors
They agree that when one group or another
gets "up against it, for the time being, that
group can dip into the pool of marbles, get
the colors it needs and pay these to other
groups to whom it is indebted Meanwhile, it
will try to put it's own supplies of wanted goods
in shape again.
That pool of marbles may be Hkened to
the International Monetary Fund proposed at
Breton Woods, and to make it as safe as
possible for everybody the agreement to set it
up has to be very long. You couldn't shorten
the agreement simply by substituting mar
bles'' for currencies, and "apples'' for trade
balances You would still, I told the man
in the hotel lobby, have to write medium
ci1 hook Cbric Monitor