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Show Economic Highlights Happer.ings That Affect the D.nner Tails, Dividend Checks and Tax Bills of Every Individual. National and International Problems Inseparable Insep-arable from local Welfare. Biggest international economic news in many a moon was the announcement an-nouncement that France had finally fin-ally left the gold standard and devalued de-valued the franc, and that England, the United States and France were at last to cooperate in seeking to stabilize currencies. There are various ways of looking at France's leng anticipated move. Critics say that currency devaluation devalua-tion is simply a dubious scheme for making one dollar into two that is simDlv another word for inflation. England started it, five years ago, and was followed by the United States three years ago, when we changed the fixed price of gold from $22 to about $35 an ounce. However, the great bulk of commentators com-mentators feel that France's action and the three-power stabilization compact are good things. Even such strong anti-New Dealers as Frank Kent and Mark Sullivan have given the President credit for authorizing auth-orizing the agreement. The reasons for such approval are two fold: It is believed that stabilized international internat-ional currencies will be a spur to lagging world trade and will better the chance for keeping wCTld peace. There are three main currency units in the world the franc, the pound, and the dollar. Other cur-' cur-' rercies hinge upon one or the other of these that is the purchasing power cf the lire, the mark and other currencies is dependent upon what happens to the currencies of ' the three great financial powers, ' with their tremendtus gold reserves. As a result, if the franc, the dol-; dol-; lar and the pound are stabilized so that their purchasing power in relation re-lation to each other does not change from time to time, as it has in the 1 past, the purchasing power of other oth-er currencies will likewise remain 1 constant. ; The effect of this on the world : trade situation Is obvious. When currencies move up and down In 1 their relation to each other, normal trade is impossible, for the reason that a country cannot carry on Import and export business when it doesn't know what a dollar will buy ; tomorrow in England, or what a ' franc will buy next week in the ' United States. All during depres-' depres-' Kion the mator currencies have been 1 subjected' to great fluctuation and - the upshot Is that international ' trade has stayed at a very low 1 level, while dome.slc trade in most 1 countries has been expanding and upprcachlng "noimal" levels, t The efTcct of currency stablllza-? stablllza-? Urn on world peace, in turn, Is 1 iTiiMilly obvious-. Cordell Hull once I raid that ecsntrmlc contentment Is " the best preventative of war. That - is, countries which are ciijoylm? normal and pre fltablc commercial ' relations with each other are much - less dl(;.o;;rd to resort to military action tnan countries which are I. not. No man wllllnuly cuto tlio throat of a good customer and what is true oi individuals and in-OJustiies in-OJustiies is largely true cf nations. No one, of course, expects that currency stabilization will immediately immed-iately boomi world trade, and send the nations' merchant marine scuttling scut-tling back and forth across the ojean under forced draft to make deliveries. But in view of practically practic-ally all the experts, tne move wili stimulate trade, which in turn will stimulate domestic business, which in turn may cast some rays of peaceful light into the shadow of war. One dramatic, if relatively unimportant unim-portant aspect of the agreement was Russia's dumping of a millioii pounds sterling on the New York iiiarket 24 h-urs later. Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau at once purchased this out of the $2,000,000,-000 $2,000,000,-000 stabilization fund, intimated that Russia was attempting tp wreck the three-power compact and' make stabilization impossible. Most observers are of the opinion that Mr. Morgenthau exaggerated they say that Russia certainly knows that a million pounds, which is a little less than $5,000,000, isn't enough to even faintly embarass the three powers. Fall is witnessing the expected upping of production in many industries. in-dustries. Big element, as in the past, is motors. Car builders nave their new models all set for the market some of them may be out by the time this is read. Production schedules, sched-ules, according to Business Week, call fcr 1,000,000 units during the next quarter. Steel recently touched a high for this year, continued upward . The employment aspect likewise showed betterment. In manufacturing manufactur-ing industries, total employment has at last reached the fall 1930 level, is above a year ago. Prices continue their up-trend, but slowly. Biggest Jump has been in food costs, Manufactured goods have changed little since summer. As usual, the farmer is in the headlines. Both Roosevelt and Landon Lan-don have cautiously endorsed crop insurance, both have pledged to aid the farmers in other ways. Security markets have been fairly fair-ly steady, and It is not likely that any major developments will take place after election. Investors and speculators are talking about "Roose velt stocks" and "Landon stocks" and would give a great deal to know who will take the oath of office from the Chief Justice next January. |