THE "LAST HOPE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 62, 15 March 1933, Page 4

THE "LAST HOPE."

AMERICAN CRISIS.

INFLATION RECOMMENDED

When tlie last mail left signs of the approaching national financial crisis were evident on all sides. Amongst those who advocated inflation as a remedy was the well known Senator from Idaho, Mr. Borah," who asserted emphatically that •'a dollar which takes three times as much wheat to buy, three and four times as much cotton to buy, two or three times as many hogs to buy in 1933 as it did in 1929 is not an honest dollar; it is a dishonest dollar." What he. hoped for was "not a cheap dollar or a dishonest dollar, but a dollar which does equity between the debtor and the creditor." . Another advocate of inflation, the Philadelphia "Record," wrote as follow: —""Stabilisation of the value of the dollar by controlled inflation is the only immediate cure for the depression. It is as much the function of the Government to maintain a stable dollar value as it is to stop counterfeiting or enforce contracts. Having pledged the Government's credit to support railroads, banks, farm co-operatives, agriculture, Washington is faced by two alternatives. Either it steps in by inflation to raise the price level and stimulate business so that it can get its money back, or else it permits prices to continue their fall and is ultimately forced to take over many of our railroads, banks, insurance companies and agricultural marketing associations. Inflation or State Socialism are the alternatives. Hesitation in applying the first may force the Government into the second. Inflation is the last hope of American individualism."