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Editorial Page EDITORIAL SECTION he Sunday Star. o Special Articles Part 2—8 Pages WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 4, 1931 LAVAL’S PROBLEM IN U. S. " SURPASSES Nation’s Demand Treaty Revision Dominates. Visit to Washington. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. IERRE LAVAL, the prime minis- ter of France, is arriving in Washington on the 23d of this month. The object of his visit is to meet the President of the United States, have a heart-to-heart talk with him, and get acquainted per sonally as much as it is possible in th space of a week Wwith the American people. The French prime minister fecls that the people in this country misunderstand France. He wants to talk to us and tell us the whys and th wherefores of France’s sometimes ob- cure policies " The’ French people could not have chosen & better emmisary than their prime minister. M. Pierre Laval is Jikely to create an excellent impression on the people of this country. The fon of a butcher from the Auvergne prov- ince. this French leader is modest and unobtrusive. He has worked his way up in French politics by hard work and uncompromising honesty. Until a few years ago Laval was.a somewhat obscure member of Parlia- ment. He obtained his first undersec- retaryship in the Herriot cabinet of 1924, representing one of the miscella- heous Socialist groups which formed that remarkable coalition administra- tion called the cartel. Little Known to Public. Ever since he has been fairly impor- tant in politics. French political “prima donnas” know that he was made of the stuff great leaders are built, but the gencral public in France, as well as abroad, knew little about him. His somewhat rough appearance, his frequently unkempt hair, his ready- made white ties, his cheap clothes, his modest deportment never made much impression on the public in France. The French people don't object to their political idols appearing careless and untidy once they have been elevated to the rank of an idol. But a young poli- tician in order to come into the lime- light must either be extravagant in some way or other or he must be a re- markable orator. Laval is neither. Hence, while the old politicians real- ized trat Laval was “a fellow to be watched,” the man in the street knew little about him y Premier Laval's prominerce in na- tional and international politics is acci- dental. Not that he does not deserve it. But circumstances helped him a good deal. After the fall of the thirteenth Briand cabinet, Andre Tardieu. un- doubtedly the most powerful and de- termined politician in France, felt that hs could not successfully follow Briand as prime minister, and engineered the sclection of Laval, a man barely 47 years of age, as prime minister of France. It is said that the idea of Tarcieu was to have an ad interim prime minister to keep the place warm until he was ready to take over the reins of the government. Faced Great Problems. It happened, however, that soon after Laval became prime minister great problems loomed on the horizon. handled them carefully and honestly. Then the great German financial cata! trophe occurred. Laval was in & very difficult position. On the one hand he realized that unless something was done to save Germany from chaos the en- tire Western Hemisphere might easily be plunged into inescribable anarchy, and consequently welcomed President Hoo- ver's proposal. On the other hand he had to count with the Nationalists in his cabinet and in_ the Chamber of Deputies (the French house of repre- sentatives), who threatened to over- throw him if he accepted President Hoover's debt suspension plan Jjn en- tirety. The delay caused by the Laval cabi- net’s reluctance to accept the Presi- dent’s plan—a delay due to the fact that Laval had to maneuver his col- leagues and his Parliament—almost wrecked the Hoover plan. But one might now safely say that had Laval handled his politicians differently little would have been left of the debt holi- day proposal. Laval's skillful handling of the situation gained him, almost overnight. the fame of a star of the first magnitude in the constellation. _Little did the oli-time liticians in Paris think that the man m only a few years ag they called “un brave garcon” a good fellow) would steal their thunder in such a short space of time. Has Stolid Qualities. Laval has Aristide Briand, nor the impetuosity of Andre Tardieu, nor the erudition of Poincare. He is just stolid, a rare qual- ity amorg French political men. His education is an ordinary one, that of a small-town lay: his manner speech is clear, 'concise and rhetorical. He had never been outside France until this year, when he was forced to go to London as France's chief delegate at the seven-power financial conference in July. His friends had a hard task to induce him to take that one hour’s trip across the narrow strip of water that scparates France from Great Britain. Not only was he afraid to meet the representatives of six other powers in a foreign capital, but he was ely worried about crossing the English Channel. One can easily imagine with what trepidation the ~Prench premier will board the big liner which is going to bring him to the United States, a coun- try of skyscrapers, high speed and overwhelming hospitality, as his more- traveled friends describe us to him. In high official quarters much hope is placed on this visit of Laval to the United States. Since the complete breakdown of the British ecoaomic and financial chinery America and France remain the most powerful countries in the world. On their understanding as to how to organize the peace and the eco- nomic revival of the world depends the prosperity of this country and the sal- vation of Europe. MacDonald Visit Remembered. Our officials remember how the visit of James Ramsay MacDonald in the Fall of 1929 changed the almost hope- less political misunderstanding which had existed between this country and Great Britain since the failure of the Naval Conference of 1927 into a cor- dial understanding. Never in the his- tory of the two English-speaking coun- tries have the relations been friendlier. And that was done merely by two men, MacDonald anc Hoover, who talked the same language and understood how little reason for a disagreement be- tween the countries existed. 'r tant conseguences of the Rapidan con- versation think that something similar may heppen egain. and the present somewhat cool relations between France and the United States may improve and the two countries may bacome as friendly as thev were et the time when they were fighting side by.side. Optimism in international relations is an_excellent thing, but onme must bear in mind that the existing differ- ences between France and the United States are more difficult to reconcile than those which existed between Great Britain and America. The dis- Laval | international | neither the brillancy of | ma- | men who remember the impor- | MACDONALD’S for Security From agreement between the United States and Great Britain was merely on the question of naval parity. It was a mis- understanding which was settled as soon as the President of this country and the British premier agreed to sus- pend the naval race. The clever Scot realized full well that the disproportion n wealth between Britain and America | would give us eventually a marked su- periority over the British Navy if this |country were to make up its mind to !go in for navai construction. As there |were no fundamental political differ- nces between the two countries the naval agreement was easily reached. Differences Are in Principles. The situation is not,at all similar as far as our relations with France are con- cerned. There is no actual conflict to be | settled betwecn France and the United | States. We are not rivals in any field | of activity. But there is a fundamental difference of principle between the French and the American way of see- ing the organization of the world peace. President Hoover has repeatedly stated that the main cause of the present de- pression is the mad armament ex- penditure, which bleeds the treasuries of the principal countries in the world to the extent of some four and a half | billion dollars. We went this to cease and wish that France and her allies would reduce substantially their land and air forces. Th2 French claim to be a8 peaceful'y inclin:d as we are, but see the ques- tion in a different’ light. They main- tain that they cannot reduce their ar- mies unless their security is first as- sured. People in this ccuntry cannot | quite underst>nd what the French mean by security. There are already so many pacts and non-aggression treaties in ex- istence that to demand some more s:ems sheer folly. There is the League of Na- ticns, whose principal role is to main- tain peace. Then there is the Locarno pact between France, Britain, Italy and | Germany, guarantesing each other’s frontiers. Then there :s the Thoiry agreement between Germany and | France. What is the good of having more pacts and agreements? The real truth is that the French understand by security the guarantee that the Versailles treaty will not be revised. None of the existing pacts gives Frionce such an assurance. As long as Germany has a Tight to bring up the question cf the revision of the Versaill>s treaty before some international tribu- nal the French consider themselves in danger. Public cpinon m France has been trained in the last 12 years to regard the mainten-nce of the exicting peace treaties as synonymous with secu- rity. During the dramatic developments | of last July, when Germany was on the | vargs of complete financlal collapce, Premier Laval had a private conversa- tion with Herr Bruening and Dr. Cur- tius. The three statesmen agreed that what Germany needed most was a fresh supply of copital and France was quite willing to grant Germany a loan of $300,000,000 provided that the German g-vernment promised soiemnly not to ra'se the question of the revision of the peace treat'es for a period of 10 vears. This the German stasesmen. refuise o ve. Demands Security Guarantee. Following that refusal the French government ennounced in a memoran- dum t> the League that France cannot | agree to any further military reducticns they were preceGed by a guar- of security. In other words France told the world that uniess the other nations ag-eed to guiran:ee the integ- Tity of her present frontiers (and pos- sibly that of her allies) she would not reduce her armies. Under the circumstances, naturally. the administration is greatly worried about the prospects of the coming dis- armiment conference, Szcretary Stim- scn and Ambassador Edge. have great | faith in Prcsident Hoover's persuasive powers. They had no difficulty in ccn- | vincing Laval of the advisability of com- ing to the United Staies to talk over | matters with the President. Everybody hopes that in the rustic setting of | Rapidan. the two self-made men will be able to understand each cther and the result of their talk will be as ratisfac- | tory as those between-Hoover and Ram- | say MacDonald. | The position of Premier Laval is, however. by far not as easy as that of the British premier, and the President may find that Laval is by far not as fres to do what is reasonable as his ‘Britlsh colleague. Citizens Are Different. | In Anglo-Saxon countries polities | plays only a secondary role in the life | of the nation. The elections cnce over, | | the nation goes back to its daily routine | business, leaving the care of political | | &ffairs to the professionals. Not o in | | France. Every Frenchman, regardless | as to what his station in life may be, | {1s watching carefully “those gentlemen in Parliament.” The farmer, who comes | | twice a week to town to sell his produce, | takes a little time off and goes to the | cld “Cafe du Commerce” (Commercial | Coffee House) to discuss with the towns- | people the various activities of the Chamber of Deputies, and woe to the Deputy who does not keep his electoral | Eledges. The members of Parliament, in turn, knowing how carefully their | constituents are watching them, exer- | cise the same rigorous control over the | cabinet. In most European countries | the life of a cabinet is, as a rule, as long &s the life of the elected Parliament. in France a cabinet seldom lasts more than a year—very frequently only a few months. Any prime minister who would go against scme well defined no- tions of the country, such as the ques- | tion of France's security, would not last | 24 hours. Laval knows this and will undoubt- edly endeavor to explain to the Pres | dent why he, or any other public man in France, must continue to play the | tune “Security Firet, Disarmament After.” This is France's slogan today. Laval is not responsible, but cannot dis- | regard it either. If this is the situ- aticn, many people will ask “Why is the French premier coming to the United States?” The answer which one gets in official circles is that much can | be achieved by two men who carry upon their shoulders a tremendous responsi- | Eility talking frankly together. France |and the United States have similar | economic interests in Euiope today. | They represent the essence of capitalism and have the great common interest of saving this system from aharchy. Consequently, in the economic and financial field the American and the French interests are identical. But today it is impossible to divorce eco- - nomics from politics. Consequently, one ) ciscussion must lead to another. | Theory Is Simple. \ The French theory is simple: “Give | us scme sort of guarantee that you will belp us or merely consult with us should the peace of Europs be threatered and | we shall do all you want at the Geneva Disarmament Conference.” Our answer is still simpler: “The people of this country will not tolerate any entanglements abroad.” To which the Prench reply: “Quite | 80, but you are up to your neck in | (Continued on Fourth Page) | i 1 John Bull Looks at Silver Some of the Questions Involved in Abandonment of Gold Standard. BY C. PATRICK THOMPSON. S silver the key to the riddle of re- storing the world's buying power? fifths of the world uses as its standard of value in place of gold— which the remaining two-fifths makes its fetish—successfully build a bridge from depression across to prosperity? An England abruptly shunted off the gold standard is asking these questions Pan-A Can the white metal which three-! —Painted for The Sunday Star By Stockton Mulford. WITH HIS BACK TO THE WALL. | with renewed interest and vigor. I say “renewed” because these questions a not new. For weeks before the pour was unmoored {rom the gold standa statesmen, big business magnates, ban ers, economists and publicists had com- bined to. make the island kingdom the most silver-conscious nation in the West. Before the pound was unmoor.d from gold, bimetalists were playing on the soft pedal; the silver propaganda merica took the form of urgent pressure. both public and private. on the national government to cali_a conference of Western powers to find a_remedy for the silver problem, with the object of restoring the buying’ power of the vast depressed markets of the East. As result of recent events these bimetal- lists have become more vocal The movement can be better appre- ciated if the background is painted in | to Take a few broad brush strokes. Who are the champions, in England. of the metal which for so long has been for- lorn and friendless west of Suez? The big business interests in world trade especizlly the great oil and tobacco groups, who find rich markets in the East and see possibilities of limitless | expansion there. The leaders of the (Continued on P‘burth Page.) Great Problems Confronting Nations Will Be Weighed at Conference Beginning Tomorrow. 4 Fape— e &3 BY GASTON NERVAL. N the famous Hall of the Americas, at the Pan-American Unicn, an- other interamerican _conference opens its sessions in Washington tomorr-w morning. Representa- tives of the 21 governments of North. Central and Scuth America and dele- gates of several chambers of comtherce and private indusirial entorprises will attend the opening cf this, the Fourth Pan-American C mmerc:al Conierence. As they grow in number, these pan- American essembl es grow in importance. Wh:n the first of them gatherzd, many years ago, they were regarded only as expressions of an uncertain political ideal. Nothing indicated that they would eventually bs taken out of the re2lm cf mere theory and intellectual speculation in which they were held. Pan-Americanism at that time was only a political ideal, of very general principles. It was solely based on hu: manitari2n notions of friendship, peace | and co-operation.. 3 Today Pan-Americanism is cne of the outstanding world movements in de- velopment, with political, social and econ~mic factors involved. Pan-Anferi- conism has be-ome a reality, and now thcse Pan-American conterences are | gather:ngs not only of gallant, dreaming | diplemats, but also of ec-nomiz experts, | professors, sc:: s, business leaders, social planners and all those that guide the man’fold existence cf civilized states | in this complicated twentieth century. | From time to tms thzse Pan-Ameri- can cecngresses convene in different capitals of the Western Hemisphere. Their subjects ‘of discussion includs a wide range, from better means of com- munication, facilities for interamerican trade, agriculture, public health, to child welfare, women’s rights, scientific ques- tions, customs regulaticns, educational PAN-AMERICAN BUILDING, WHERE GREAT CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD. | aftairs, intellectual co-operation,. inter- | national law and arbitration, ete. Endeavoring to solve practical prob- |lems of interamerican relations and to |promote a closer mutual knowledge |origin, their contribution tb the pan- American cause in the last few years has certainly been of greater advan- tage than the prolonged irritating dis- |cussion of pol 1" differences which had for a long time prevented greater harmony in the New World. * Significance Is Great. At this rticular moment none could bz of ;x:nter significance than a pan-Amer:can conference intended to deal with commercial matters and eco- nomic_problems. The present' world- wide depression has served to show the fundamental value of economic ele- ments in every order. - Nations hzve seen their political 4 . status, their social institutions, “'hole existence affected by the change nomic age in which economic prin preme. | Anot! crisis_has stressed is the value of co-| operation in a world where interde- | pendence is becoming day by day the predominating law among nations. It is only logical that times of distress | should serve to prove the value of mu- tual help and co-operation, particularly so in an age in which radio, aviation and wireless telegraphy have brought human communities closer to each other than they ever were before. This co-operation among independent (Continued on Fourth Page.) ¥ their |of economic conditions. In these bitter years of crisis the statesmen of the) les of Saxon and Latin |world have had ample opportunity to o el o realize the truth that ours is an eco- ples and the laws of finance reign su- her realization which the present | FIGHT IS BY MARK SULLIVAN, HE text, a twin ene, for this dis- | quisition rbout the presidential | politics of next year is a simul- taneous and equivalent state- | ment by two Senators, botk | eminent, both veteran, both Western. | |and differing only in that Senator | | Walsh of Montana is a Democrat, while | | Senator Borah is a Republican—which is not much of a difference at all. Senator Walsh's statemen! sum- | marized in a terse headline, “Walsh | Sees Revival of Silver Question,” and | his specific prediction, as summarized, | was: “revival of the silver issue, which | made the presidential campaign of 1896 |one of the bitterest in American his- | tory.” Senator Borah's equivalent state- ment (made apropos of the action of Britain about its currency) was that “the gold standard has failed . . . the money question will be one of the is- sues of the next presidential campaign.” e writer of this article wishes to say carefully that he is not—at least not yet—disposed to assent wholly to | this prediction. But the writer of this | article most emphatically does not want | to go on record as belittling the pre- | diction. To have silver -(or, ‘more | broadly and more accurately, the| “money question”) as the leading issue | in next year's presidential campaign | would be very surprising. The writer of this article, at the present time, doubts | it will be so—but is prepared to be surprised. | Financier Shares View. | | Senator Borah and Senator Walsh both went through the silver campaign |of 1896. I think, though I do not know surely, that both, as young law- yers in silver mining States, were on | the silver side. But let not the reader be misled by that, nor by any possible | identity of these two Senators with | local self-interest. The fact they come from silver mining States does not indict their judgment about this phase of politics. ‘Whether in the fight that lines up next year (if it does line up) both or ejther of these Senators are |on one side or the other does not matter. | " It is a serious fallacy for those who disbelieve the prediction about silver, or those who deplore it, to think that the expectation of silver being an issue next year resides only in the minds of those who, for either political or per- sonal reasons, wish for the thing they | predict. The conviction that silver will be an | issue next year s held by persons who do not believe in silver in the politi- | cal sense, who derlore the arising of {this issue and who earnestly hope for | some accident or gift from Providence to avert the thing they expect. On the same day the prediction of silver as an issue was made by the two Senators publicly, it was made pri- vately to the present writer by a den- izen of the very heart of the New York financial community, one whose mate- rial interests and intellectual convic- | tions are all against silver—but one | who is a scholar in history as well as an expert in finance. | Fears Revival of Issue. | (This particular prediction from a financial quarter was not quite in the same terms as the one from the two Senators; the financial man’s form of the prophecy was that America fis headed into a political convulsion over “either the silver issue of the 1890s or the greenbackism of the 1880s.) To probably four out of five readers of this article the phrases “silver is- sue” and “greenbackism” will have no meaning at all, and the sound of them will be like some ancient shibboleths | of medieval religious disputation, such as the “Nicene creed” or “anti-Arian- ism.” ~ The generation of Americans | who are, Toughly, under 50 years old. who had not in 1896 reached the age to take notice of newspaper headlines and political campaigns—that genera- tion does not remember, and is utterly unable to achieve the stretch of imagi- nation necessary to visualize the furore | \and fever that can accompany popular excitement about a money or_currency | |issue in a presidential campaign. | Not long ago a_youth, seeking to achieve fantastic distinction at some | sort of “fancy dress” party. borrowed | from a newspaper man at Washington | | the collection of badges which the iat- | | ter had acquired through attendance at | | the national pélitical conventions of | | some 35 years.” One of the decorations | retrieved " from the bottom of an old | | closet was of the shape and size of an | | immense bug, about 3 inches in diam- | eter. with claws as numerous and re- | | pulsive looking as those of a tarantula, | the whole covered with imitation gold | plate. | | As a decoration for a “fancy dress” | | party in the year 1931, the thing was & | conspicuous ‘success—but neither thz “_\'oulh who wore it or any other guest at the party knew what it was. None | [ had known or ever read the part that | the “Gold-Bugs” played in the cam- | paign in which William Jennings Bryan | | made his s=nsational bid for the presi- dency as the Democratic candidate in | 1896. “Coin” Harvey Wrote Primer. If silver. or greenbackism, or any other form of the “money issue” is to come to the front next year, we shall need a good deal of education in terms and phraseology, as well as in the the- ory of money and currency. It is to be | hoped the education will come from the best informed sources. As it hap- pened, in 1896, the bulk of the printed informatien the public had came from a curious person called “Coin” Harvey, who wrote a book which he called | “Coin’s Financial School.” “Coin’s Financial School” became the primer and Bible of the free silver- ites. It was the largest help that Bryan had, the equivalent in print of Bryan's oratory (called, with a double meaning, “silver-tongued”). The bool was and remains to this day an out- standing curiosity of American litera- | ture. Though some two million copies | were sold, it takes today some diligent | seeking to find a copy. The author of it, Coin Harvey, still lives: only the other day he dug up his ancient here- sies and called a meeting at Monte Ne, Ark., for the formation of a new po- litical party. That emergence of a prophet who had been in utter eclipse for 35 years is itself an omen of the thing Senator Borah predicts. In what I have said so far I may have given the reader an inexact idea \as o what it is all about. Because 1 happen to have begun with quotations from two Senators from silver mining States, and because I have dwelt on the form which the issue took in 1896, the b of a demand for coinage of silver, silver as a basis for currency additional to gold—because of that, the reader may think it is merely a case of silver- mine owners clamoring for the Govern- ment to buy their product. And it 1s not that at all. Certainly it is not merely that. Means More Than Mining. What is ahead of us—if anything is ahead of us—is not merely s rising of silver-mine owners and of laborers in silver mines and of States whose prin- cipal interest is mining. It is some- thing much more fundamental and |1ty REVIVAL OF FREE SILVER SEEN IN 1932 Only Another Bryan Needed to Lead Discontented Forces in Middle West. much more general. No douot, when and if the thing gets under way, the mining States will be in it, and the Senators and political leaders from the mining States, Utah, Colorado, Idahn, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, will be at the forefront of the. figit. But the real substance and fire of the | movement will come, not from thase States, but from States that never mined an ounce of silver or any other metal. The States where this political prairie fire will blaze most fiercely (if it comes at all) will be Oklahoma, the Dakotas, Nebraska, perhaps Kansas. (In 1896 Kansas and Nebraska were the very center of the storm.) Already I find in an Oklahoma paper, the Tulsa Tribune, ® blazing editorial exactly like those that fanned the flames in 1896. Indeed, this editorial from the Tribune, on the 13th of last month, might well have appeared in 1896 in any one of scores of papers in Kansas or Nebraska. The Oklahoma editor who.now speaks is Richard Lloyd Jones, son of Jenkin Lloyd Jones, for nearly a generation a distinguished clergyman in Chicago. Editor Jones writes thus: “Wall Street is America's greatest enemy * * * This is not revolutionary talk. It is radical and revolutionary only in the eyes and ears of Wall Street financiers. The West and South are getting good and plenty indignant at these insurance companies and these great banking houses that are the chief cause of the industrial and commercial depression from which we have too long suffered. It is part of their program to bust as many in times of depression as they can bust and go out and rake in the wealth which busted Americans have made, and pile up that wealth and cell it theirs * * * The battle of 1932 is on. It is America against Wall Street.” Reminiscent of Bryanism. How reminiscent that is of 1896, when Bryan made one of his most forceful and most often repeated points by dramatizing Wall Street as the “money power,” habitually speaking of it as “the enemy.” This Tulsa Tribune editorial gives us a clue to what the real root of the cause is. It is disparity between debtor and creditor, with the creditor fore- closing his mortgage on the debtor— “busting” the debtor, as Editor Joncs puts it. ‘What has happened during the last two years, the one aspect of this de- heart, is that the value of the dollar has risea y. What was a dollar in 1928 is v. speaking roughly, a dollar and 40 cents. And that change in the value of the dollar has worked an immense—- and a deplorably unjust—disadvantage to the debtor everywhere. It is the debtor crying out his indignation who will, in the immense aggregate of him, create and fight for the political issue which Senator Borah and others fore- see for next year. The high price of the dollar is the real trouble—though not in a thousand sees it that presses it that w The Kansas farm- er says his trouble—and it is a very real trouble —is the “low price of wheat.” But the “low price of wheat” is (for the Kansas farmer) exactly the same thing as the “high price of dol- lars.” Some two years ago a Kansas farmer in need of a dollar could get one by paying (speaking roughly) one bushel of wheat for it. Today a Kan- sas farmer in need of a collar must pay (speaking roughly) nearly three bushels of wheat for it. Farmers Feel Unjustly Treated. By picturing the results of this change in terms of debtor and credi- tor, we shall find the source of the sense of wrong. The typical case is that of the farmer who, let us say, borrowed $1,000 in 1928 when $1,000 was, roughly, the same as 1,000 bushels of wheat—and now is called upon to pay back the debt (or the interest on at a time when $1.000 means al- most 3,000 bushels of wheat From just that kind of scnse of 1 justice a’ good many farmers are now suffering. “And not only farmers. Ev- ery other borrower, big or little, of any b}usmess whatever, who is in the debtor class. By such a change in the value of the dollar (or any other unit of currency in any other country) as has taken place during the past two years, the creditor is 40 per cent better off, the debtor 40 per cent worse off. The holder of the mortgage is 40 per cent bettor off; the giver of the mortgage 40 per cent worse off. That leads to a sense of bitter wrong. The feeling of wrong is well justified. And a well justified sense of wrong gives rise to political revolution or attempts at it. There is space for only a few ob- | servations which must be stated briefly. The whole picture may be changed: | the position of debtor and creditor may be returned to approXimately normal by a rise in the price of commodities. 1 y be changed,” not “will be for it is too dangerous to prophesy. If wheat should go back to or toward 80 or 90 cents a bushel, cot- ton to or toward 10 cents a pound, and other commodities accordingly—in'that event, we might all get back to a rela- tively happy and comfortable state of mind as respects our debts and our g-m:ey d we might 'lh_‘-.avc our fight ext year over some such issi - hibition. e Another Bryan Necessary. If conditions do not improve and if we must have the fight about money, it may not necessarily be about silver specifically. It may be about some other form of “cheap money.” That it will be ‘cheap money of some kind is certain. Silver, and the association of silver with gold as the basis of cur- rency, comes first to hand for various k | reason, including the fact Great Brit- ain has just departed from its former fixed gold standerd. The fight can only Come—at least in a clearly defined form—if some politi- cal figure arises to be its spokesman and leader, as Bryan was of free silver in 1896. The leader is not yet in sight —but neither was Bryan in sight until the very day and hour he made his “cross of gold” speech in the 1896 Democratic National Convention. (What a pity Bryan is not here to see it! How he would enjoy it!) Where is_the needed leader? Who will be the Bryan of 1932? If he arises, how will he change the present political picture in both the Democratic and Re- | publican parties? |Airport Near Samara, Russia, to Be Modern | MOSCOW.—The Executive Commit- tee of the Province of Samara has lotted 200,000 rubles for the constru tion cf a new, modern airport in Zul chaninovka, seven kilometers from Sa- mara. It is proposed to start buildin, operations during the remainder ol parations for the construction of mn Chelfabinsk have already i an been