THE CURRENCY CONTROVERSY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19665, 6 December 1933, Page 8

THE CURRENCY CONTROVERSY.

To the Editor of " The Timaru Herald '

Sir—Mr Paterson' was asked to publish a leading article from “The Waimate Advertiser.” Compliance with the request merely required straightforwardness. However, instead of explaining why he refused to comply with the request, Mr Paterson continues

to repeat a Scotch colloquialism. The colloquialism does not merit repetition, but perhaps Mr Paterson has to repeat it because he cannot find anything else to write. “ ‘Value’ is a’ thegither a wrang,” says Mr Paterson “He is WTong in saying that I am an inflationist.” However, it is Mr Paterson who is a’ thegither a’ wrang-—to use his own juicy morsel of colloquial Scotch. The enclosed leading article taken from “The Waimate Advertiser,” will show 7 that Mr Paterson is wrong. It will show that Mr Paterson is wrong in declaring that he is not an inflationist; it w'ill also show 7 that Mr Paterson is wrong in declaring that he never advocated a “bale of paper and a printing press” for a depression cure. The article is written on “A bale of paper and a printing press,” and these words are Mr Paterson’s words. It is certainly not very difficult to prove Mr Paterson wrong—he is proved wrong on the evidence of his own words. Consequently, it does not become Mr Paterson to contradict the evidence of his own words.

Mr Paterson increases his contra- ■ dictions by stating that the Douglas system is not an inflationary policy. 1 The Douglas system is definitely infia- 1 tion. Mr Paterson has not yet stated which Douglas sect he really supports: but possibly, as the sects are rather numerous, he has not yet made his choice. However, one Australian sect maintains that the Douglas system would represent a credit creation of something like £15,000,000,000 for Australia. Now, it is a fact that even in the most prosperous times, the deposits in Australian trading and savings banks never exceeded £600,000,000. Nevertheless, under the Douglas system, more than twice this amount of money could be issued in non-repayable credits. In other words, the Douglas system would inflate Australian currency by a terrible amount. But, Mr Paterson says that the Douglas system is not inflation! It would be interesting to know if Mr Paterson could give a more glaring example of inflation. “What the enemies of Douglas,” says Mr Paterson, “and the enemies of the people are trying to make the unwary and the unthinking believe.” It appears that Mr Paterson is not correctly informed about the identity of the enemies of the people. The greatest enemies of the people are those persons who are trying to undermine our whole social structure by propagating baseless propaganda. The greatest enemies of the people are those persons who cry down our whole social system, and w r ho advocate some mythical impossibility to take its place. These are the persons who can be correctly termed enemies of the people; these are the persons w 7 ho advocate the thing one day, and who turn round next day to swear that they never said such a thing. The enemies of the people are those who clutch hold of any absurd scheme on the chance that it will bring them before the people to receive personal glory. The enemies of the people are those persons w r ho clamour for their own personal glory, and who do not trouble about the welfare of the people. Yes, we should know the enemies of the people, we are tired of listening to the idle platii tudes continually issuing from the enemies of the people.—l am, etc., VALUE. [Enclosure.! BALE OF PAPER AND PRINTING PRESS (“The Waimate Advertiser,” November 14. 1931). The speech with which Mr A. M. Paterson, the Labour Party candidate, opened his election campaign in Waimate on Thursday was a speech on one subject. Mr Paterson has been for years an appreciated lecturer on subjects of interest to farmers and connected with his profession of veterinary surgeon and has acquired the habit of dealing exhaustively with one subject in an address. This is a detriment in political campaigning, as an audience to-day wants to hear of many things from Coalition to conciliation and from earth to education with finance and favouritism thrown in. Mr Paterson took for his address the subject of money and its scarcity. His cure for this is the old, old pitiful proposition of a “bale of paper and a printing press.” This is well cursed by the nations of the earth, all of whom have suffered by its application directly and indirectly. It has caused many an inflation which has resulted in temporary boom prices, and apparent prosperity only to bring everything crashing into ruin just when misguided people imagined themselves solvent and secure. Mr Paterson has been held up to us as a well-read man. If he is well-read, how is it that in his reading he has missed the history of the “bale of paper and the printing press" method of monetising valueless and insecured material? Has the recent history of Germany no lesson for Mr Paterson, that he proposes to inflict upon our country this ruinous monstrosity of monetised ink and paper? We feel that if Mr Paterson wishes to represent Waitaki, he will need to return to Waimate very shortly and deliver such an address on general politics ; as will counterbalance, in the memory I of the electors, his speech of Thursday j night.