AMERICAN GOLD

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 90, 12 October 1929, Page 20

AMERICAN GOLD

NOT NECESSARILY. WEALTH

"Her cardinal error has been to mistake gold for wealth." said 2vlr. S. F. Ferguson in an - article in the Melbourne "Argus" on the economic prospects of the United States. "The gold supply of- the world is limited, and if the present drift continues, the time will come when gold will be so scarce in other countries' that its value will increase Of all • reason. The only way in which this can happen is by the price of all other .'co'mm'odUie's fall ing. With the increase in the value of gold it will no longer pay those countries to buy American goods, however' prices may be reduced. On the other band, with gold at such a premium, .the- United. States will; have- to take "desperate-measurbs-if 'her citizens are to be restrained' from"'exporting the metal, at ..its . enhanced „value, in exchange for1 goods. ' Whether 'the United- S'tate'sj- when' that time;, conies, -will decide to: import -o'i to abandon her export, trade, lier unemployment "and. :overproduction- problem/will, be one of ,a magnitude never before faced by any nation." .• - : . . ■

Examining . the effect, of . increasing imports of goods instead of gold, Mr. Ferguson points, .put that the former would-be absorbed-cither.through an increase in leisure or; by the development of consu'mijtive■ demands;. '.'During the last century both "industrial efficiency and human wants have increased amazingly-, - efficiency iaviifg gaincd.snme ground; at is shown by. the roduced working honra how/as coinpaVedv.with a century ago/" he :remarks.' " If 'man asked as little of. life now as tie did a hundred yeara';.Tsga' Me. .would .Erobably* find it necessary to work only a few' hours a we'eEi'iJlutLKis demands to-day are : very-;.muoh modest. -In the United States .workmen. ; w.ork-.-;;longer hours; than islnecessnry.atitho piese'nt standard of'living,-in order to "enable great quantities of.'useless-gold' to be; accumulated. Np dpubtj if goods were exchanged for goods instead : of- for gold, new wants would soon be found, so that tho; increased quantities of real wealth in tho country might bp absorbed. Some.reductio;i of working.hours might b.e effected if/the dc'sirb. for leisure wisrn stronger than the desire for moro material possessions."