"STOP HOARDING!"

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 30, 5 February 1932, Page 6

"STOP HOARDING!"

President Hoover appealed to the country on Wednesday to stop hoarding money. The cable message which gave this, information, added that the President estimated |hat a billion and a quarter dollars which were normally in the banks had been withdrawn and stored away. The message may be misunderstood. It is not an appeal to .people to spend; but to put the money to use. This is made quite clear by the reference to' withdrawals* from the tanks. Money, in the banks and other investment agencies is not hoarded, or withheld from use. The financial institutions themselves apply it. to some good purpose, often with better-judgment, because of their knowledge and experience, than the private, investor. Hoarding is the imitation of the action of the wicked and slothful servant of the parable who hid his one talent in the earth.- That such hoarding,should be extensively practised in America is strdnge indeed; for in the United States, above all countries, means for putting the smallest savings to use have been provided in abundance. There are actually hundreds of agencies which , will accept the smallest sums from the investor and promise him an adequate return. _ } It is difficult to calculate -how much of the withdrawals from such institutions is due to unemployment and bad times, causing savings to bel drawn on for current expenses, and how much is the result of lack of confidence. But if,the sum withdrawn and hoarded is so grea^ as President Hoover estimates it shows how far confidence has been shaken by the collapse of. the weaker banks sad financial agencies. Loss of confidence has apparently caused millions '' of Americans to revert to., the peasant habit of.hoarding^,Here^in New Zealand.there has been loss' of corifif dence, but it has taken, a form; Uncertainty in business, depreciation of many accepted'secuntKSy and some untimely agitation for in^rferehcewiih. capital and interest have caused people to withhold funds from. the. usual fphns'-;6f investment. But confidence in the established banks has not been shaken ahcl their; funds held on fixed deposit at fixed rates pf interest have grovyfn. It is just one illustration of the importance of confidence in business.