FARMERS AND MONETARY POLICY.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20909, 17 July 1933, Page 7

FARMERS AND MONETARY POLICY.

TO IRE EDITOR Or THE PRE.S3. Sir,—Your sub-leader to-day on the above subject would have been more to the point had you been able to indicate to the farmers of New Zealand to whom they should apply for advice on monetary policy. Without goinf n^v n r 7i mig, ? t be called the orthodox field, there is an infinite variety of opinion to be found amongst bankers and university professors. Today it is difficult to find any sort of tSS 6 fl e i n i* amon .« st them. In the poliwl Sf ld we I ? ave the experts who ih-T 3 e une , nvia ble task of imposing the policy of a banking system on their peoples. Here again we find unending confusion. There is no need to enlarge on the results. They are self evident. Then, representatives of tha nations of the world have met together tne politicians and their experts, to try to reach agreement on the difficulties that beset them on every side. The longer the conference continues the more hopeless it seems that any agreements will be reached on even the most trivial points. The inner workings of the conference are obscure; but it is evident that any hopes of agreement were doomed to failure before it commenced. About the only point all orthodox experts were agreed upon was , that the world' troubles could be settled only by international action. The conference has proved the fallacy of that already. In view of the great differences of opinion over embargoes quotas, tariffs, and exchanges, there seems little chance of even the member states of the British Empire being able to agree.

President Roosevelt suggested a tariff truce while the conference was on; and to-day we read that he has opened negotiations with South American states for new trade agreements. The early bird, etc. He has also appointed two university experts to survey the fiscal situation, the inference being that because they are strong advocates of managed money, he is laying the foundation for a managed currencv. Both Roosevelt and the Farmers' Union Conference seem to have arrived at the s;me conclusion on the next step to be taken. It is not so much a case of great minds thinking alike, but rather of our farmers saying that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. They can afford to smile at your jibe of being "sublimely ridiculous." It has taken four years of increased production and decreased returns to make the farmers study economics and, in the face of the bewildering theories of orthodox finance having been proved unsound by results, they have had to rely on their own common sense. The fierce light which has been thrown on the inner workings of financial practice has revealed the truth. When thieves fall out honest men come into their own; so, when experts disagree, the common people use their common sense. It is now a case of choose your plan first and then choose your experts. The Irish Free State seems to have a plan by which butter brings 132s a cwt in Dublin to-day. It might be worth while sending the New Zealand delegation there lor a course of post-graduate study. It might be the winning post.—Yours, etc., W. B. BRAY.! July 15, 1933.