The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY. SEPT, 27, 1933. EYES ON AMERICA.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 September 1933, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY. SEPT, 27, 1933. EYES ON AMERICA.

All eyes are on the United States, or rawer to. be more correct, on the President. The issue is, wi.J he adopt openly, a policy -.of inflation? iVl.r Roosevelt has not deigned to satisfy curiosity, but the cable news published on Monday indicated the crisis was at hand, and a decision would require to be reached. Yesterday the news cl'ariiied the situation for the time being, by intimating that inflation was avoided by using the credits in the closed banks! Just how this is being accomplished in regard to institutions which were supposed to be lion-financial as manifested by their closing, is not clear. It may be that Government securities are being .lodged to replace cash in hand, or there may be a simple system of borrowing. It would appear, however, that for the time being there is a sufficiency or real money, and the situation is met. But for iiow long is noj; disclosed. Financiers outside the confidence of the Government in America, believe that, inflation is essential. And there is also the interesting statement that it may be necessary to stabilise the dollar by tieing it to sterling! That would be a strange commentary on the issue on which the London Conference broke down through the refusal of the President to consider the stabilisation of currency. Mr Roosevelt must be a man of remarkable courage indeed. He lias the greatest task ever undertaken, and is bent on what a Vancouver prper recently called a revolution in the control of domestic affairs. It was pointed out “the Umtod States Government is going into the fields, factories, stores, warehouses and offices of the United States, and telling the people it finds there what they shall do in their business. It Is telling employers of labour wliat shall be the conditions of wages and hours of labourIt is telling wage-earners that they shall not resist the operation of a fair “code,” once they, have subscribed to it. It is telling farmers what they shall grow and how much of it. It is fixing prices of commodities. Within the framework of a society which accepts the institution of private property, this revolution of the N.R.A. if attempting the vast revolution of a planned and ordered economy. Wo cannot pronounce upon it, and we have to leave it at the little we have said. In a profunod sense, there is little that anybody can do about this thing, now that it is under way, but wait and see. The hope and the promise of it, nevertheless, is not and never has been in the demonstrable wisdom of its policies, but wholly and solely in the fact that it is a co-operative national effort of goodwill. Win or lose, it will have tremendous consequences, and we can say of it that every man of wisdom and goodwill everywhere must hope, despite all the dubieties, that it will succeed.” The doubt and uncertainty as to the final issue of the great experiment has been expressed also by Messrs Forbes and Masters who had the opportunity of meeting the President and making a short study of the situation. It is agreed that M Roosevelt is an outstanding character, and has arrived at a time when the country required a change of policy. He has Associated with him groups of economists who are ventilating theories on a grand scale. But with all the expert advice, there is on tlie other side a strain of criticism from those engaged in big finance on practical lines, which discounts the chances of ultimate success. Yet this criticism is in a minor key really, for it is plain that there are sincere hopes the President’s plan will succeed. Step by step the plan is holding its own, but it is apparent it will require bolstering, and it is just a matter of seeing bow long that will be necessary. Naturally the eyes of the world are on America.