Evening Star Newspaper, October 18, 1931, Page 35

Edito rial Page Part 2--8 Pages LAVAL VISIT TERMED MERE FRENCH EXPLORATION TRIP Premier Unable to Make Concessions on Disarmament or Reparations. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. “ HE visit of M. Laval of France | to Washington will be important | or no more than a mere| courtesy incident precisely as | the discussions resulting from | his visit bring about some program of financial and economic order in the world. Nor can any progress in this direc- tion be made without the frank recog. nition that it is impossible to do bus ness with Germany on any basis what- foever so long as the German people | find themselves bcund to pay repara- tions. The present Germen government is rapidly sinking under the attack of the Naticnal-Socialists; th2 recent election Hamburg showed astounding gains br the Hitlerites and impressive gains by the Communists. The Bruening government is almost at the end of its Tope. It can be saved, if at all, only by some decisive action in the matter of reparations. And that action is im- possible without some corresponding | move on the part of the United States. | War Debt Plans Dead. | War debts and reparations are both | dead. ‘The attempt to renew the proc- | ess of payments by which the United | States lent money to the Germans, who | paid it to the Allies, who paid it to us, | is not to be renewed. We have $3- 000.000.000 tied up in frozen credits in Germany now and the British about half as much. If Germany goes in for a Fascist dictatorship, we shall never get a penny back and neither will the British. If Germany goes in for a Fascist dic- tatorship, Europe will see this Winter the most astonishing burst of arma- ments which has taken place since the war, for France, Poland and Czecho- Slovakia will feel themselves under im- mediate menace. The slightest serious success on the part of the German Fascists would put disarmament off the calendar indefinitely. M. Laval doces not. come to Wash- ington with free hands. He is pre- cisely in the situation in which he found himself when he went to London at the moment of the German crisis last Summer: He can make no con- cesson in the matter of armaments which is not matched by an American concession in the matter of guarantees. Naval reduction and a holiday are quite possible if the United States can bring Germany to abandon her pocket- battleship construction and Italy to agree to a status quo, which would | leave France on the two-power stand- ard against Italy and Germany, like that which Great Britain insists upon | in the face of Italy and France, but not otherwise, unless Mr. Hoover can persuade the Scnate to accept the sort of consultative pact for which Mr. Stimson and Mr. Morrow tried to obtain his approval in the London Con- ference. Army Reduction Tmpossible. Military reduction is totally out of the question in any event. There is no way of reducing the German army, now barely adequate for police purposes, and the French army will be main- tained at a strength to cover Prench {rontiers against both Germany and aly. Disarmament, limitation of arma- ment, naval holidays—these are details of the larger European problem, which is first political and then financial. It the British and American governments, through their influence at Berlin, can persuade the Bruening government, in return for reparations favors, to make political concessions, and the Bruening government can survive such commit- ments, then the way is open for useful international operations. But not other- vise. The situation in Europe today fs clear. All power, political, military and financial, is vested in French hands. The political power rests upon the series of alliances with all the consider- ably armed states save Italy and Soviet Russia. The military rests upon the same basis. The financial is based upon the fact that all European countries need cash and only in Paris is cash available. It is a combination unrivaled in aj century. In this situation the French people | are resolved to turn their power into definite results. They mean to put an end to the German resistance to the territorial provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. They already have forced both Germany and Austria to renounce the tariff union. They have forced Bethlen out of power in Hungary, be- cause he played with Rome instead of Paris. There remains the question of the Polish corridor, and the basis of any transaction between France and Germany is the cessation of all German agitation for treaty revision in this re- spect and in the case of Upper Silesia. In the case of the corridor, the French have invested large sums both in the port of Gdynia and the rallway from Kattowitz to this port, to bring ilesian coal to the sea. All this invest- ient would be lost if the Corridor were suppressed. However, it cannot be sup- pressed, in any event, without war, be- cause the Poles are prepared to fight to_maintain it. M. Laval can talk to Mr. Hoover simply about the advisability cf all- around cancellation of debts and a pro- portionate wiping out of reparations. He cannot propose that France should surrender the amounts she receives over her debt payments, because the French people would reject his bargain and turn him out if he did; He can only talk about disarmament as any French contribution is matched by German naval surrender or an American guar- antee pact. Nothing can be done in respect of Germany, nor, indeed, of any of the European problems until political ques- tions are settled, and the President of the United States is visibly in a diffi- | cult situation to discuss politics. It is |an unfortunate fact that the French press and public, so far as favorable at all to the Laval visit, look to it to pro- cduce some political agreement, some re- storation of the close association of the American nation with Europe and some equally close ascoclation between France, Great Britain and the United States for the solution of the financial ;nd economic issues of the present our. Laval Likened to Coolidge. Laval, a shrewd, hard-headed public man, comes from the Auvergne, which means in France about what Mr. Coolidge has made coming from Ver- mont mean in the United States. Laval has good sound common sense; he is not in any sense the representative of extreme nationalistic ideas. On the other hand, he is not an expansive or | emotional idealist, like Herriot. Tar- dieu is his most influential political associate. He can be counted upon to |talk with extreme reasonableness and | |to act with moderation, but he is just |about as likely to make far-reaching | | concessions as Calvin Coolidge, as firesxdenz, was to propose debt cancella- | tion. ‘The Laval excursion in most French | eyes is a rather dangerous experiment |in prestige. France has reached the unchallenged supremacy in Europe and the invitation to Washington is ac- cepted as an American recognition of French primacy in Europe. It is, in | a way, felt to be a tacit apology for the fashion in which France was ignored when Ramsay MacDonald was | asked to come to the Rapidan just be- | fore the London Naval Conference. But the French will feel a great deal easier in their own minds when Washington | is a memory and Laval is home. If he could bring a security pact, his fortune would be made; if he agreed to any unilateral concession, his days would be numbered. Just an Exploration. After all, then, Laval's trip to Wash- ington amounts to adventure in exploration to discover whether the United States is ready to join France in the support of the present political system of Europe, established by French military power, financial ability and diplomatic skill. Certain conces- sions are possible in return for Amer- ican participation, but no material modification of the existing structure 1s possible. For the first time on American soil an administration is going to deal with a victorious France, which, in the mat- ter of the Austro-German tariff union, has just won the greatest diplomatic triumph of the post-war years and is now resolved to translate this triumph into durable benefits, the first of which must be German acceptance of the territorial status quo of the peace treaties. And to this end France ex- | pects both American and British help. At bottom, this is the objective of the Laval visit. Once this political issue was settled, all sorts of economic and financial agreements would follow logic- ally, but not before. | Washington is going to have a new | experience with a new France, or with the old France in a totally new mood. (Copyright. 1931.) Views of Balkans as Turbulent Peoples Being Rapidly Modified BELGRADE, October 18.—Some preju- dices regarding the people of Jugoslavia will have to be revised. People who have only vague memories of various shootings and bombings and confused impressions concerning troubles in the Balkans before the World War un- doubtedly think of the inhabitants of ;hls country as an unruly and turbulent ace. Yet when a constitution was granted them after two and a half years of dic- tatorship they were as calm as Dutch- men. There were no excited crowds in the streets, no manifestations before the palace.” People read the proclama- tions and the newspapers, and sat down to think it over. To talk it over, too, but not excitedly. They were calm when the dictator- ship was established. They remained calm when prices of agricuitural prod- ucts fell, although most of the peasants probably could not understand that this was due to the world economic situa- tion. As a matter of fact. the people as a whole have never indulged in riot- ing such as so often causes or accom- plishes changes elsewhere. There were always bandits of the Robin Hood type to oppose the Turks, and individuals often enough carried out political as- sassinations. But no part of the coun- try has ever had anything like a real Tevolution, except the risings the Turks. Hard to Stir to Excitement ‘The debates in the former Parliament were very bitter, it is true. But this was due more to a lack of that form of hypocrisy which permits urbane in- dividuals to enjoy frictionless associa- tion with their enemies than to any ex- treme exuberance of natural tempera- ment. Probably when the new Parlia- ment of two chambers meets there will again be debates a little liveller than is strictly necessary. But this will prove nothm‘g regarding the fundamen- tal nature of the people. I saw a student riot the first time I visited Zagreb. While the student ora- tor made an impassioned speech people not in his direct following stood about and smiled. Then one of the students threw a stone through the window of @ cafe in a building occupied by the Italian and Hungarian consuls. _ “Move on!” said the police. The stu- Cents marched across town, past Mes- trovich’s statue of Bishop Strossmayer and broke some more windows. On the way back the police barred their pass- | age through a street. They stopped and sang a song. Later they broke two more windows. Meanwhile most of the crowd, bored, had dropped off into res- taurants or movies. Excitable? They would be scared to death in a New York subway .crush. Not an Inferior People. Actually, the Balkan peoples are the potential equals of any race. Physically they are superior to many nations. Theit iatelligence is high, and many an illiterate peasant exercises better judg- ment than it is safe to assume to exist in educated people. All of their failings and difficulties | may be ascribed to one lack—experi- ence. The Turks kept the Christian Slavs in a state of vassalage. The Aus- trians and Hungarians, while supplying a higher culture to the Slovenes and Croatians, gave them only meager and perverted political experience. ‘The spirit of compromise, which is the essence of politics, could not be de- veloped by & people subject to alien rulers. With these there could be no compromise. During his dictatorship King Alexan- der showed the way to compromise making necessary concessions to feelings of the Crotians. The sincerity of his purpose, to make a nation of the Jugoslayvs, is beyond question. Jugoslavia is inhabited principally by two classes of people, the peasants and the educated. It would take a wise man to tell the difference between a Croatian and a Serbian who have both been educated at Geneva, Now that the land reform has been carried out the peasants of all sections and religions have about the same interests. Those who have but recently become proprietors are in experience. In the first decade of Jugoslavia's exist- ence they "m ld.mkfl]t‘l‘y mlfie}d‘ utghthe p s~ of unscrupulous pol ns. Profibly have already gained an experience Wi s0. In any case, their g'll knowledge is boun me. 2 little ngnhlnl he works hard and long. ich will make them less | stiff. EDITORIAL SECTION he Sundiy Star, WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNIKNG, OCTOBER 18, 1931. Special Articles BY ROBERT P. LAMONT. *crlllly of Commerce. | ILL world trade recover? How | will the trade in foreign markets be affected? Is the structure involved? These were some of the questions that occurred to many when the por- tentous ' announcement was made in London of Britain's suspension of gold ' BY STEPHANE LAUZANNE, VERY man, big or small, has a day in his life that he prefers to all others and that he loves to remember. Plerre Laval. the France, has such a day deep down in | his heart. If you ask him what sort of a day it was he will answer you unwaver- | ingly, “It was the day when I took my | t degree.’ And gladly he will tell you the whole story. His father was a hotel keeper-— a keeper of a small hotel in a small city in France, the city of Chateldon, in fayette—and he had no money to waste for his son’s education. So the boy was ut in charge of driving the bus of the fiotel. He had to wait for hours at the he hated it, because he felt that he was wasting his time. To divert himself he asked a schoolmaster in the town to lend him some books, and these he at the station for incoming trains. Not only did he read them with passion, but he learned them by heart. And thus he learned the subjects he would have been well that at the age of 16 he took his first degree. “Never in my life,” he says, “did I experience such joy.” His father, of the hotel bus and sent him to the uni- versity. There the boy learned more and bettereg his condition. He became a lawyer, a Deputy, a mayor, & minister France. Man Without Eloguence. What characterizes him best is his complete absence of nerves and pathos. sidered second nature, he has, in fact, no eloquence—or, if you prefer, heshas very peculiar eloquence He just says what he wants to say in a few clear- rhetoric or in emotion. For instance, he very rarely ascends the tribune in the Chamber of Deputies, and even in nces, after stands .up in his place on the front bench of the government and addresses the Assembly in @ short and simple manner. “that because you make & long speech you necessarily make a good speech. There are one or two things which you have got to tell an audience to carry these things have been told, that is quite sufficient. And there you have Plerre Laval in a . What he cares for is the Tre- does not mind if the achievement is a small one. As long as it is something tangible and practical, something which is not in the clouds or in smoke, he Editor-in-chief of Le Matin. E young and successful premier of the very Auvergne whence came La- railway station for possible guests, and read on the coachbox while he waited taught in school. He learned them so course, ceased to insist on his driving in the cabinet. Today he is premier of In a country where eloquence is con- cut sentences, and he never indulges in the most heated debates, he merely “It is not true” he said recently, its votes or its approbation. When He loved only achievement. He feels satisfied. And, mind you, he never cheats. He the very beginning he says “yes” or o Thus he did with Chancellor Bruening in his dramatic interview of last July. “I know,” he at once told the Geerman statesman, “what you need. You need money to save your country. I would be perfectly willing to lend you the money if it were my own. But it is not. It is the money of the French people. And they will never lend 1’&1 W{Lh:;l financial guarantees or political - peasements. Are you prepared to give them?” This declaration was rather sharply criticized abroad as being harsh and But he could not say anything said else he lays his cards on the table and from | time being at least, of the pound’s old value of $4.8665 that had been main- tained since 1925, when it returned to its pre-war gold parity. In ever strength of our financial| pormeo to Iceland, from New York to | probably does h | Hongkong, people in every walk of life | terest in the may be affected by the depreciation in the value of the pound. For no matter whether the national currency be dol- lass or marks, yen or pesos, francs, PREMIER LAVA! we must not forget that no later than two years ago, when the Young plan came into operaticn, the French people as a consequence of the agreement were invited to subscribe to a loan in favor of Germany—the famous loan known as “the 5 per cent German international loan.” y subscribed to it eagerly and in a few days there was ht to have deluded h{ inter- locutor, To understand the situation ! the some hundred million dollars, which was transferred to the credit of the German treasury. EY settling international accounts | through pound credits. The farmer in Kansas who sells heat at a country elevator and is was | w ave very little direct in- value of the English pound, even though the grain 1is destined for Liverpool delivery. But indirectly he is interested or affected by a depreciation in the value-of British —Drawn for The Sunday Star by 8. J. Woolt. L OF FRANCE. 4 the loan been subscribed than all kinds of unpleasant incidents occurred in Germany, such as a parade of Steel Helmets in the presence of the former Crown Prince—Nationalist manifesta- tions—announcement of the launching of a new pocket cruiser, etc. result, coupled with the German financial crisis, was a sharp decline in German bonds. They had been subscribed by French investors at nearly a thousan d | preci No sooner had | francs. They fell to 700, and they are | part of the small farmer of France. World Trade and the Pound Problems Involved in Recent Great Effort to Stabilize Conditions Discussed by Commerce Head —Drawn for The Sunday Star by L. Kasimir. | payments—the abandonment, for the | milreis or pengos, the chief method of | currency, for inability to make inter- | national settlements promptly and on {a stable, little varying basis may slow up, discourage and impede world trade, | restrict markets and make more diffi- y corner of th: globe, from |paid in dollars and cents may and | cult the exchangs of needed commod- itics. Until the pound was released from its gold parity the American exporter of the wheat or other commodity could " (Continued on Fourth Page.) Laval, Self-Made Premier ‘America Will Find in Him a Man of Few Words but Much Action and Will Power quoted today on the French Stock Ex- change at less than 600 francs, which means that the holders at present are out 40 or 45 per cent of their money. So, very natarally, if the Prench people were invited today to subscribe to another loan of another hundred m! lion dollars in favor of Germany the: would ask for a guaranty that in six months there would not be another parade of Steel Helmets in the presence of the former Crown Prince and that the new pocket cruiser would not be called Alsace-Lorraine or that some financial pledge would be given by Ger- many. And this Chancellor Bruening. who is a loyal and upright man—and who, by the way, produced the best im- pressicn in Paris circles—of course can- not promise. He must take into account German susceptibilities as well as Ger- man chauvinism. Something Else Suggested. “Well, then,” said Pierre Laval, “let’s drop that subject and try something else. Let's see if we cannot reach some other arrangement on some other mat- ter.” He believes that it is too early to reach a_political agreement with Ger- many. Passions on both sides run too high; resentment is too vivid. But it is not too soon to reach an economic agreement. In fact, many private understandings under the name of “cartels” have been concluded between French and German producers and French and German industrial concerns. ‘Why not try to enlarge them? Why not associate governments in undertakings in order to lead and control them? If the two nations co-operate in the fleld of trade, won't this be an inducement for them to co-operate later on in the fleld of politics? The recent Berlin meeting had no other purpose. And Pierre Laval felt perfectly happy to have attained such a purpose. “We have planted a small shrub,” he explained when he came back from Germany, “but if that shrub takes root and we look after it carefully there is no reason why it should not grow and become & big tree.” Intense Interest In Trip. Such is the man who is going across the Atlantic to answer the call of Presi- dent Hoover and confer with him in ‘Washington. Never, perhaps, has such a meeting been so intensely interesting, not so much because the two men actually represent the only two countries in the world which are not “panic stricken” and which may be able to bring 'some order out of the confusion existing in the world, but because they have many curious points of resemb- lance. Both are self-made men. Both have had hard beginnings in life and both have attained the top of the demo- cratic ladder through the efforts of their labor. Both care much about facts and little about words. Both are above all realists. stn.m enough, one speaks very little English, the other very little French, and, ne less, speak the same language. It may be that one little thing will make Pierre Laval somewhat unhap] during the 12 days he will be on the Atlantic and the six days he will be in Washington. He won't be able to in- gut.re twice or three times a day, as he oes in Paris, about farm in Nor- mandy. This farm is his hobby. When you are sitting near him during his ministerial work at the ministry of the interior it is a common occurrence to hear him call some one on the tele- phone in the middle of a political con- versation and say, “Don’t forget to get in the hay”; “Take care of the grass,” or “Look after the sheep.” Of course, he could still do this from Washington by using the long-distance telephone; but he won't do it. And the hig farmers of the Middle West will no doubt :K; iate the size of the sacrifice on BY MARK SULLIVAN. HE aim of this article is to make clear a situation which has just come to a head: which, to state it more accurately, is at this | 1 uation which is at the bottom of every aspect of business, which will be the principal influence and most contro- versial subject in the coming session of Congress; which—if the situation takes one of the two paths—will be the prin- cipal influence and the most con- troversial subject in the Presidential year ahead; which is the primary cause |of wage-cutting, of reduced dividends, | of inability of some debtors to pay their debts of bank failures, of hoarding, of | | runs on banks: in short, affects literally | | every human being in the United States | —but which is one of the most difficult | of all possible subjects for a writer to make clear, or for human understand- | ing to grasp. If in that opening paragraph I seem to waver between present tense and past, between “is” and “has been,” the reason is that right now as I write and during 12 days since President Hoover acted to end the panic the sit- uation has been in chaotic flux. It has been in process of determining which of the two paths it is going to follow. Commodities May Jump. One of the two paths is rising prices | of commodities. If, during the next | few ‘weeks or months, wheat begins to |rise in price and seems likely to. go | higher; if cotton should go to 7 or 8| | cents a pound; if copper should rise | from its present 7 cents a pound to |9 or 10—in that event most of what |is said in this article would cease to | have meaning. 4 Since no man can tell whether com- | modity prices are going to rise: since, | in short, no one can tell yet which of | the two' paths this situation is going | to follow—because of that I shall de- scribe the situation as it is and has been. | I begin with & newspaper headline which epitomizes the situation: “One | | Dollar Now Equal to a Dollar and Sixty-four Cents.” That is not an ac- curate way to express it. It is, however, as good a way as can be contrived to convey the condition to the common understanding. What is meant is that | what was $1 five years ago (in purcha: | ing power of food or wheat or copper | |or any other commodity) is now $1.64. | Not all the authorities agree that the | change has been exactly from $1 to |$1.64. The calculation of Dr. Irving| | Fisher of Yale University, for example, | says the change has been from $1 to | | about $140. "Also the change varies with different commodities. Dollar Has Doubled. T ignore these variations, assuring the “ reader that the fundamental truth is accurately stated in what is here said. The variations from literal exactness are made only in the interest of clear- | ness. Economists and experts will see | | these departures, but will agree fully | that the central truth is as here stated. |Only by accepting and ignoring the | variations from exactness is it possible to make the central truth clear to the lay_reader. | With this explanation and this apology to the experts, I shall express the, process as the headline writer has, | sayIng that the dollar has enlarged its | size. For simplicity's sake I shall say | that what was one dollar has become | & double doliar—$2. (Though, in fact, {the enlargement, on the average, is | much less.) Let the reader follow with as much patience as he can and as much con- centration. (Concentration, especially, is needed) For as sure as the sun shines he will have before a year has passed over his head much need to understand what is here said. (Unless, as I have pointed out, there should be | a rapid rise in commodity prices.) We can approach clearness by taking wheat as a typical commodity. In the same interest of clearness let us turn the propasition around and express it thus: Must Give Two Bushels of Wheat. A farmer five years 2go, wanting $1, could get one by giving a bushel of wheat for it; today a farmer needing $1 must give two bushels of wheat for it. (The price of wheat (average) in 1926, Chicago Board of Trade, was $1.58, the price today is 49 cents.) Similarly in 1926, & miner of copper wanting $1 could get one by giving seven pounds of copper for it; today ;.e ;':“m give 14 pounds of copper or $1. So to achieve complete understand- ing of what has happened I ask the reader to reverse his' habitual way ef thinking about what he calls “prices.” I ask all readers and all persons to do this. Universally people say “the price of a bushel of wheat is 50 cents. They will make progress toward understand- ing the money question if they will turn it around, saying: “The price of $1 is two bushels of wheat.” And make no mistake about it, the money question” is with us and de- mands understanding. That there should be perfect or universal under- standing of it is impossible to hope. The best we can do is to labor toward making it stmple. ‘Through the change in the price of $1 an immense disparity has arisen be- tween debtor and creditor. This, again, can best be illustrated by using wheat as an example. In 1926 a farmer bor- rowed $5,000. That is, he borrowed what was at_that time 3,333 bushels of wheat. Today, however, his debt is not, truly speaking, $5,000; it is three times $5,000. For today, the farmer, to pay. his debt, must tender 10,000 bushels of wheat. The debtor finds his burden tripled; the creditor, on the other hand, finds his wealth tripled. Affects All Classes. ‘This disparity, this increase of the burden of the debtor, this augmenta- tion of the wealth of the creditor exists wherever debts exist, wherever the re- lation of debtor and creditor exists. It affects all classes. A wage-earner borrowed $100 in 1926 when his wages were $10 & day (and he was working full time); today he is called on to re- pay when his wages are $8 a day. A steel manufacturer borrowed $1,000,000 in 1926 when the steel he sold was $41 a ton; today he is called on to pay it bla': when his steel is worth only $29 a ton. ‘This disparity is a hardship. It is the sort of hardship that leads to eco- nomic distress and to political dis- content. But, having said this, let us at once clear away one of the fallacies that has always arisen in this connection, a fallacy that rose in 1926 and will | | | | MONEY QUESTION ISSUE IN PRESIDENTIAL RACE Increase in Price Commodities Held Only Factor That Will Change Aspect in 1932, ‘That is not true. The great majority of us are in both classes. A wage- earner who in 1926 deposited $1 in the savings bank can draw out today $2. As a savings bank depositor he is bene- fited by the rise in the dollar. Similarly, a man with his life insured, who in 11926 paid a premium of $1, can today draw out $2, in loan value, if he now borrows on his policy, or in death bene- fits to this family if he dies. Farmer Benefits. Precisely the same farmer who in 926 borrowed $5,000 and now must pay $10,000—that same farmer quite likely took out in 1926 a life insurance policy for $5,000, and if he dies today his family will get $10.000 (in com- parative purchasing power). This farmer, as a debtor with a mortgage, is hurt by the rise of the dollar; but as holder of a life insurance policy he is helped. Practically all of us are in that same position, partly debtor, partly creditor. In the net it is difficult to say as to any one individual, whether the change in the value of the dollar has helped or harmed him. But in organized so- clety as a whole, it has worked tre- mendous dislocations and injustices. ‘There is another fallacy which the reader will need to guard himself against. This fallacy, like all the fal- lacies made easily possible by the in- tricacy of the subject, was widely ex- ploited in the 1896 campaign on the money question: it will again be widely exploited in the political agitation B?oub the money question just ahead of us This fallacy is that the change in the value of the dollar was brought about deliberately and cunningly by certain persons, or certain classes of persons, for the conscious and evil pur- pose of enriching themselves by grind= ing down the face of the debtor. Already this has been said by Sen- ator Couzens of Michigan. He. on Sep- tember 26, permitted himself to be quoted a ssaying: “The boosting of the alue of the dollar is undoubtedly a concerted effort to make it more diffi- cult for debtors.” Misstatement Short of Wicked. That is a misstatement. In the light of the facts and of the present stat~ of the times and of what is zhead of us, Senator Couzens' misstatement is little short of wicked. It is the advancs opening fire of what we shall hear fron all the demagogues in the controvers, ahead of us. The change in the value of the dor- lar was not brought about by a “con- certed effort” If Senator Couzens thinks it was—and only a queeny warped mind can sincerely think so-- let him name the “concerters.” means to imply, of course, rich, or some group among the ric or presumably the bankers, were th “concerters” Wwho deliberately broughs about the change in the value of tbe dollar. That is utterly false. The rich as class have been more hurt, relatively. than the poor. The bankers are sweat« ing blood over the rise in the dollar. Ask any banker if he is pleased with what has taken place. You don't need to ask him. Take a look at his wor- | ried face. Ask any rich man whether he is pleased with what now is—or whethe* he would prefer to go back to what was in 1926 or 1927 or 1928 or 1929. There is one rich man who happens to be the object of Senator Couzens' almost obsessed dislike. That is Secre- tary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon. Without knowing a thing about it I should say Mr. Mellon's wealth today is probably less than half what it was in 1929—and I am quite confident his cares and anxieties are at least doubled. In short, Senator Couzens' statement that some group of men, rich or poor, deliberately got together and deliber- ately changed the value of the dollar, is—oh well, let us call it fantastic. Change Worked Hardship. I am only denying that the change in the value of the dollar was brought about by what Senator Couzens calls a “concerted effort.” I am not denying that the change has worked hardship. On the contrary, that is what I am emphasizing. The hardship calls for relief and the demand for amelioration is going to express itself in the Congress that meets in December and, unless commodity prices rise sharply, in the political cam- paign of next vear. The demand for relief is already made. I have counted 12 United States Senators who have publiely made the plea for amelioration of debtors, and whose demand for relief takes one specific form. ‘They, or at least some of them, want the Government to coin great quanti- ties of silver into dollars, thus making dollars more numerous, and, therefore, easier for debtors to get. Of that we shall hear much more. The “silver question” is ahead of us; it is one phase of the “money question,” and that is ahead of us in a dominating way. Some things about silver (though not “free coinage”) can be done (chiefly in quarters of the world outside the United States) and they command the support of some (though not all) per- fectly sound and conservative men. If, however, the silver advocates put their demand in the same shape as Bryan did, that is for setting up silver as a basis for currency jointly with gold in a fixed ratio—if they do that the com- ing political fight will take precisely the lines of 1896. Tell me—that is, predict for me— whether the price of wheat six months from now will be, roughly, the same as now, and other commodities the same. If you can tell me that then I can tell you the “money question™ will overshadow everything else in the presidential campaign. But if you tell me that six months from now wheat will be $1 a bushel and other commodities likewise up— than I can tell you the presidential campaign will be fought on prohibition or something else, something other than the “money question.” . Likin mesmred By Canton Officials SHANGHAI, China.—Tired of run- ning its own likin tax office, the Canton government has auctioned off the priv- ilege and gained more than 1,000.000 silver dollars in the deal. The govern- ment placed an opening bid of $300,000 and sold to the highest bidder for $580,000. It was later reported that during the last year the government arise in the political “money fight” ahead of us. The fallacy, gloriously ex- ploited by demagogues, that all debtors belong in one class, now put upon the cross—and that all creditors belong in- another separate class, now enriched. had only been able to collect $80,000 out :I' likin taxes. Likin—that i, in- finance last 'hwm 1 ln?' year, for im- mediate funds, the Canton :;:gnmfihnmmm force k|