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Show Economic Highlights Industrial News Review Happenings that Affect the Dinner Pails, Dividend Checks and Tax Bills of Every Individual. National Nation-al and International Problems In-separatee In-separatee from Local Welfare. oOo "Not another winter like the last!" That was Mr. Roosevelt's pledge when he came to office, The N. R. A., the N. I. R. A., the A. A. A., and the rest, to give the the initials by which they are now unusually known, were brought into being for that purpose. The president himself has said that they atl.. represent emergency, as distinct dis-tinct from longvicw measures, and the theory is that they will be discarded when emergency passes. The NRA has done some excellent things, and it has made good headway. But it hasn't done all that was hoped. Men have been put hack to w,:rk but not nearly so many as was anticipated. Wages have been upped in most indu tries' but it's obvious that many units within with-in those industries aren't going to be able to pay them unless credit strings are loosened. The, problem is not only to make further gains against depression, depres-sion, but to hold unimpaired the gains that have already been made. The way the wind is blowing is indicate by the latest presidential announcement he is planning a great federal non-profit corporation to buy essential supplies and distribute them to the noedy during dur-ing the winter. It has been the hope that direct relief of this sort would not be necessary, but as matters have developed it appears necessary if the bitter experience cf last winter is to be avoided. That's why inflation talk has bobbed into the headlines again. Many observers, including some who have qualified as experts, believe that if the recovery drive is to be continued con-tinued on present lines, inflation is unavoidable. Senator Thomas, Senate Number 1 inflationist, has been, threatening a march of 100,000 men on Washington unless the printing presses in the treasury begin humming. hum-ming. Senator Pittman of Nevada, whose principal mission in life is to ' get benefits from silver, wants inflation infla-tion through the free silver route. Farm groups have been hot on the trail of Secretary Wallace because he said that inflation wouldn't be a farm-; farm-; ers' cure-all. In the face of all this, Mr. Roosevelt hasi kept his head, his humor and his sense of bilance. unimpaired. unim-paired. He has learned how to say "No" with polite definiteness, and he j is a master of evasion when that : seems the soundest course. He doesn't i want currency inflation, and he will j accept it only when everything else I has been tried and has failed. His so-'i so-'i lution is of an entirely different kind credit inflation. There is no essential lack in the country of money the problem is how to get it out of hiding and put it to work. If that can be done, he believes, it will be' found that currency inflation is unnecessary. The Federal Reserve and Reconstruction Finance corporation will be his principal prin-cipal tools at first. On lntcst reports, the president was preparing to have the latter buy the preferred stock of banks which are still closed, thereby ! releasing billions now frozen in de-j 5 posits which the owners can't get, to I provide additional purchasing power. 1 Intimately associated with inflation and recovery, is the question of the j dollar. A while ago the managed dol-. H lar was news. In the near future there is going to be a lot of talk about the 1 compensated dollar, the creation of 1 George F. Warren, a Cornell profes-I profes-I sor, who was given the job of study-S study-S ing dollar devaluation and stabiliza-, tion by the president. The compensated compensat-ed dollar would, like the familiar one,, k be redeemable in gold, but with this U basic difference the amount of gold "j it was worth not be fixed, but would vary with the wholesale commodity price level. As professor Warren said, "This proposal would give the dollar , a fixed value and a rubber weight." ; The dollar we know is all gold his dollar is what he thinks to be judi-'k judi-'k cious blending of the fixed and pliable. ' . -oOo-4 A very interesting fact appears in I the trcamry stat-ment of August 31: I The post office department, after long I years of terrific deficits, is practical-I practical-I ly self-sustaining. The d fic't on. Au-I Au-I gust 31 was less than $3 000. For the I corresponding period to months of ' Hie 1932-33 fiscal year, it was more than $15.000. COO, and for 1931-32, I20.000.GOO. oOo Some items, of general interest follow fol-low : Steel According to the Iron Age, the market is reviving because of public pub-lic works activity and renewed steel buying. The downward trend in production pro-duction has become less pronounced. Retail Trade When pvid-nc? of re- rt eovery appeared a. few months ago, r this was a disturbing factor, as it y showed lit'le improvement while other fields showed much. Recently there has been a sharn gain due, in the view of Dun & Eradtreet, to the NRA. Best e:pcri nee of all was in the midwest and Pacific coast. Cost of Living Up 2.3 per cent in August; still 23 per cent below August, Au-gust, 1929. Employment and Wages Employment Employ-ment gained 750.000 in August. Factory Fac-tory employment gained 6 4 per cent and payrolls 11.6 per cent. |