| Show SHOULD SILVER BE ALLIED TO GOLD restoration of 0 the gold standard has been widely acclaimed as the maln main achievement of postwar post war viar economic stabilization with nearly all nations using money which exchanged tor for gold at constant ratios they resumed normal trading find and stability seemed to have returned to world commerce within ten years much of this work lias has been undone the metal has been Cra draining InIng out of the lesser trading nations so persistently that they have not been able to maintain the fixed fined ratio they have gone off the gold standard tt T t other words they now bae incon i currencies some of the stronger like great britain are also tx rien cing the drain although the process ce s hns has not in such countries readied reached r p dangerous stage most lost of the lie vanishing gold Is coming cither to france or tile the united states I 1 r p smartly in payment of public and te obligations of late the tide hasi dpn as much propelled by the gold losers deserting their own omi currencies as by the gold gainers recalling t investments yet neither the united states nor rince r ince nee Is making use nse of the incoming r tal in prewar pre war days it would au automatically torna have given rise to fresh supplies f credit and currency within the re ieng country today it flows into biml itie fele lake becomes sterll steril led and might aist as well nell be back in the mines tor for all i njg 1 I service it renders tn in vain have the losing centers tried to te hold back the stream by inviting for f n investments tile bid tor for foreign Y ney incy by the gold losers Is more or ae les fr effective despite the high rates that ara being offered for it in such circum frances the gold losers are thinking of ether measures of eking out an existing nii n td i i prospective shortage inevitably one of 0 these proposals Is a r turn to bimetallism a gold plus sliver silver it seems a simple solution sll sil vr which Is selling at ridiculously low lr lrichs ices Is available in quantity it if jt it were lath 1 0 I fixed relation to gold its place side by side alth sod oyd in bank vaults its would keep wobbling currencies linked firmly to metal moreover by promoting on an outlet tor for silver it would raise its price and consequently would increase tile the buying power tor for foreign goods of the ellier using orient I 1 so long as gold Is the standard the iso main problem in monetary policy Is to I 1 promote a stable level of commodity prices in terms of gold the yellow metal I 1 I 1 of late years has proved to be a very unstable stable basis of valuation hut but silver Is 15 i j equally unstable and it it Is added to i gold as the measurement of 0 price it a subsidiary problem will be introduced ot of keeping silver in sympathetic relation to gold the financial history of the last century contains a testimony in the form of constant changes in the gold silver ratios of the difficulty aini culty experienced by double standard countries what was true a hundred years ago Is no less true today but nations which cannot keep their gold or alternatively feel that bat foreigners have too large a claim upon pon it must do something if the gold creditors will nill not though england led the world to the adoption of tile the gold jandard over a hundred years ears ago it Is in that country that the arguments in favor ot of bibet allise are now most often used As the correspondence columns of the london times show many distinguished converts to tile double standard have been made in england in the last twelve months mont lis the agitation should be carefully followed by the gold creditors As J 11 keynes says the value which inhered in a yellow metal because it tick led tile lie fancy of bara a rages Is clearly a 1 chancy and irrelevant thing on oil which to base the value of tile the worlds money and the stability of its industrial SS tem but man Is still tethered to a metal and it if lie he cannot have the one lie will probably use tile the other that Is if tile the redistribution of 0 gold Is not undertaken without loss lobs ot of time christian science monitor |
