SHADOWS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 13, 17 January 1933, Page 6

SHADOWS

"No intelligent man will grasp at that shadow," says the British Prime Minister, in pointing out that millions spent in unemployment-relief will have to be paid for. ' In so far as relief money is over-spent; it "will have to be paid off by a new and widespread distress^" In other words, leeway begets leeway. But progress also begets progress, and if once the'wheels, of economic industry can run at profit, then the-num-ber of workless, and the public money spent on their relief, should be within control. Grasping at shadows is not confined, however, to workless who demand mythical millions. There is a ' grasping at shadows which takes the form of capitalist-demand for unlimited credit. A number of people in business, from small farmers to large manufacturers, are again at %^ork in the old Congress for expansion of currency and credit. In the new Congress, President Roosevelt (to be) will find such demands insistent. Yet it is clear that an inflation that will keep afloat all the old capital values, and all the old wages, is im-, possible. Mr. Hoover told its advocates that they grasped.at a shadow. Mr. Roosevelt, too, will have to tell them that "the writing (down) is on the wall." Whatever writing-down measure is shrunk from "will have to be paid for by a new distress." The point of 'balance between the old and the new values will be found, not by formula, but by process of trial and error. .