THE CURRENCY PROBLEM.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19670, 12 December 1933, Page 4

THE CURRENCY PROBLEM.

To the Editor of “ The Timaru Herald *' Sir,—lt seems that “Value” was really in earnest when he insisted that I should publish a two-year-old Waimate editorial, seeing that he has now published it himself. It is quite evident from this that, he has a very poor sense of the fitness of things, for, all he wished your readers to know was that a Waimate editor was in agreement w'ith him in his belief that I am an inflationist; and he could have told your readers that, without wasting valuable space with the editor’s article. The editor, it appears had used in this editorial, the phrase, “a bale of paper and a printing press,” and "Value,” seizing upon this, triumphantly declares: “These are Mr Paterson’s words." Had “Value’ been able to reproduce a verbatim report of my actual utterances, on the occasion he refers to, he would have occupied solid ground. Failing this, he is simply pawing the air. Notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, “Value” still believes the Douglas plan to be inflationary, in the sense that it would raise prices. Had he been acquainted in the slightest degree with the Douglas plan, he would have known that it proposed to low r er prices; and he would have realised the absurdity of claiming that it must of necessity raise prices by low rering them. The Douglas plan proposes to give consumers assistance in purchasing goods by paying the sellers of those goods part of the cost of producing them. So. it will be seen that something in the nature of a miracle would have to be worked in order cause the Douglas plan to r\ k a“Value” thinks it will. He nt . that I am incorrectly informed regarding the identity of the enemies of the people. Well, let us see. The enemies of the people, I take it, are those whose habitual policies injure the people. And who are they whose policies injure the people? Those whose policies are responsible for slumps, the creation of slums, the robbing and ruining of the industrious, and the plunging of empires into war. I think “Value” will agree with that. He will agree also that those behind such policies are the people who are successfully destroying good social conditions. and giving bad ones instead. Now. the men who have the power to do all these evil things, are the men who sec red control over the money- * supply of the world; and the only way ‘ they can be prevented from doing - more harm to mankind than they have ' already done, is by depriving them ot ! ! then* power over money: and it so hap- h pens that this is exactly what the i ; Douglas plan is intended to do. In i ' operation, this plan would put an one! '• to war. by removing the cause, which is the struggle of contending profiteers |

for foreign markets; it would clear up the slums of the world; reward honest endeavour as it has never been rewarded before, and, raise the standard of living of all, at least four times higher than the average of prosperous times, such as we have known them In the past. If “Value' cannot see how all these good things are to be accomplished, then for heaven’s sake, let him study the subject, and cease writing budgets of scraps which only display his ignorance of Douglasism and of other systems of currency reform.—l am, etc., A. M. PATERSON. Timaru, December 8.