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Show Fuels vs. "liuloney" Former Governor Alfred E. Smith puts himself down aa u "sound money man" but does not define what is "sound money. " It therefore may be fair to assume that, Governor Smith arrived at his conclusions by the same process of investigation in-vestigation as Lhe Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, whose position he endorses by refusing to look at the evidence supporting lhe soundness of the President's monetary program. For the first time in his distinguished career the governor has neglected his own sound advice always al-ways to "look at the record." Up to March 4th the United States engaged in the greatest monetary experiment by remaining on the gold standard after :il nations had found it impossible or undesirable unde-sirable to do so. The, American people were made the "guinea-pigs'' then and were placed on a starvation diet! Under the guidance of the Federal Reserve and the financial fin-ancial leadership of New York, the American people were put through a ruinous deflation. It brought falling prices and unemployment. Farmers had to produce two or three times as much to pay their debts in gold. Homes that workers work-ers were trying to pay for lost their value. There were no tenants for hew skyscrapers erected when financiers were making what they thought were safe mortgage loans under Governor Smith's "sound money." ... Bank assets were impaired; millions of depositors lost their savings.. With assets reduced, some insurance companies com-panies failed, and finally on March 4fh, sticking to the "good, old-fashioned gold standard," out entire banking structure collapsed. : ... These are facts and not "baloney." There was something so wrong with the gold standard that England, with the wisest financial leadership in the world, went off the gold two years ago and increased the price of gold from day to day in her London free gold market, mar-ket, exactly as President Roosevelt is doing now for the United States. For Australia and New Zealand she doubled the price of gold and restored prosperity. It takes insight into the financial mechanism and careful care-ful study to understand these problems. At Cornell University, Univer-sity, during .the past fifteen years, there has been carried through the most exhaustive investigation ever made into gold and prices. It is fortunate for the nation that we have in the White House a man with monetary insight who is thoroughly familiar with the results of this research. . Guided by the results of this work, President Roosevelt is now carrying Ihrough the necessary monetary changes to re-establish our prosperity. He is proceeding with greater understanding than any statesman who has grappled with the problem. , Rebuilding to really sound money and a proper medium 1 1 ' of exchange is too complex a problem to be dismissed with Governor Smith's epithet "baloiey.'' Blindly returning to ' ' the gold standard is not the solution. Insight and con-,' con-,' i structive statesmanship are required. |