PICKED UP AT SEA

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 83, 4 October 1930, Page 9

PICKED UP AT SEA

(Received 4th October, 2 .p.m.)

LONDON, 3rd October,

A curious find is reported . from Osteud. Three motor ;fishing boats picked up oft' the.English coast a number of cases full of rubber bearing an Australian trade-mark. One boat secured seventy and another thirty-six, but the- third only secured a few. Speculation is rife as to what happened to the ship carrying the. cases.

tho hostility,. created abroad Tjy the tariff are viewed,as discouraging any early return to the good times to which most Americans had become accustomed as the inevitable accompaniment of a "new era." It is predicted by many that the country, before its return to normal prosperity, must go through a period of deflation similar to that which has taken place in many countries abroad, and that the high standard of living to which the majority of the American people had attained during the period of "war prosperity" must be revised approximately to the conditions prevailing before the big boom started. HIRE-PURCHASE BREAKDOWN. One of the many uncertain features of tho present situation is the fate, of the instalment system of purchase, under which the majority of Americans have bought their motor-cars, radios, vacuum cleaners, and domestic - furniture. Tho prediction freely made some years ago that tho instalment system would crash at the first sign of a slump has not been verified. If, however, the savings bank accounts become exhausted, the breakdown of companies established to finance the partial payment plan would seem inevitable, and with the return of the goods to the dealer a market already overstocked would be further, glutted. • To avoid a breakdown a moratorium suspending payments until bettor times arrive ..has been discussed, but such a plan is criticised in advance as a counsel of despair likely to do more harm than good. . . A characteristic of the slump of 1930 in America is that all parts of the country and all classes are suffering, and not merely sections, which has been the ease in some previous depressions. The manual toilers and middle classes are affected by unemployment, cither x jal't or complete, and tho demand is made that Congress introduce immediately a Bill providing for a five-day week in order that employment may be more equally distributed. Tho rich and the moderately wealthy are affected by the decreased earning power of capital and the unexampled losses in the stock market crash. . •■