AMERICAN CONDITIONS

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 208, 3 September 1934, Page 3

AMERICAN CONDITIONS

"ROOSEVELT'S STOCK FALLING." VISITOR'S IMPRESSIONS. "Canada has had a very poor wheat crop, and the farmers are in a pretty bad way," said the Very Rev. Dr. R. G. Macintyre, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Sydney, who arrived by the Niagara this morning from Vancouver. He is returning to Sydney after spending a holiday in Canada. "The present plight of the Canadian farmer is partially due to the poor wheat crop, but is also largely contributed to by over-capitalisation of the land, for which too high a price was paid," said Dr. Macintyre. "Unemployment in Canada is, I should say, worse than in Australia, and the Canadian provincial Governments are trying to meet the position by getting assistance from the Dominion Government. "President Roosevelt's stock is going down, and Americans are getting alarmed at the enormous debt piling up. One prominent American told me that Roosevelt is mortgaging the future to creale an illusion of wealth, but at the same tinie I think Roosevelt will save America from the disastrous crash which is threatening the country. "The real trouble may arise from the President's land policy. He has persuaded the farmers to reduce cultivation, and is paying them an allowance for land uncultivated. Nature then steps in. and there is a drought, with a resultant shortage of wheat. "Currency reform is a big question," said Dr. Macintyre. "There is not the faintest chance of Major Douglas' proposals ever coming into operation, because the economists and the men who understand, economics are convinced the proposals are unstable. At the same time, it is recognised that there will have to be some alteration in the present banking system, but whatever is done will have to be international."