Spirit of the Press.

Northland Age, Volume 2, Issue 25, 24 March 1933, Page 6

Spirit of the Press.

SOUTH AFRICA ABANDONS GOLD

South Africa’s abandonment of the gold standard affords a fresh illustration of the inefficiency of the present economic structure. The inability of the country which produces 53 percent of the world’s annual gold output to maintain its currency on a gold basis is evidence that something is fundamentally wrong with the system. . . Only five countries in the world now remain on a gold basis. Of these, only the United States and France are important in international commerce and finance. They carry on trade

with forty-five countries whose money is on a paper basis. However satisfying it may be to national pride to remain on a gold island in the midst of a sea of depreciated currency, producers in gold-standard countries find their foreign marketsi contracting steadily because their production costs are higher than those in countries that are not on a gold basisi. . . The sterling bloc, trying hard to make a virtue of necessity, professes to be satisfied with the present monetary situation. As a matter of fact, Great Britain and most other countries now off the gold basis would be glad to return to it if they could. It is to the interest of the United States