Newspapers / The State’s Voice (Dunn, … / July 15, 1934, edition 1 / Page 1
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.*5, Utt W:' . COtti-'i tents of the dodiinent refected' to , above, it. behooves; In complying with the request; to me first to stat^ ' mates of America’s tradebaianees with' the! world "j&fc a whole during the last 381 years, or from i890. And that calls for a brief discussion of^the^natureand? wherefores of trade balances.. If there were ohiy t^ft^conntrieff tn .thef world, the* matter of estimating hi^de simple. It would be on a^r, wbth'jtb^: aseieliiJs Y‘ 1 the neighbors who. provide each other with one has to spare that the pth^jiej^^drl^tbe;eii^ of the year tally. nj> the,values furnished byreach -anffi determine who owes: thd: b$ber and how. tfiuch. tJ5ut _ suppose that the one has a: truck and the other hone, and the fdrmer has! done 'all the -hauling,' it is^plamj that he may make a fan*^ charge- for his Neighbor’s share of the hauling, and that that-chargb. would dart** ■cel a part of his debt if lie-had got more 6f'hl»heighv bor’s goods, or wpulcjlnccease. his :5Jalin 1‘upda^ his neighbor if the Matter ^haC ^the balance - of trade, against him... Suppose A basvgot- lOtf; Bushels of corn from B at 65. cents a bushel, .while-B hag "got- A cow • j and ealf from A at $30 nnd three pigs worth |3 each; “ It is plain that ^ ,p^e^ B':ft|e .^ifferecc’e,, or $p.OO:'. But A, has done the hauling, fer whi&f ,h£ charges owds fe OnlyV .doll $1.00. for his part $3i M . Well, that oife dollar hathejialanee .efrtEade.'Mj&i "'A'S favdil fhoiigh he got imore of -B’s goods than got of his. And that one dollar is all the coin that has to pass in making a complete settlement of the whole year’s interchange of goods and services.. When Several Nations Are involved. r amiciuty or cnecamg tne balances witn eacn country is more complicated when several nations are' • involved in a continuous interchange of goods. For example, America might h*tiy more goods from Brazil than it sold to that country. England, on the other hand, might sell more goods to Brazil than it buys from it, and less to -the United- States than it buys from us. Jn the three-cornered settlement, the bal ance against this country in Brazil-might be settled hy cancelling it tyith England’s balance against Brazil. The international; banks act as clearing houses.r Here i^j^charge of a millioh. say, of Eng land against -Brazil; here is a charge of a million of America against England, and the same ..of Brazil against the United States. It 4s clear they balance off. And thus the balances are cleared as far as pos sible between all the nations. Peek Finds Data Insufficient. Mr. Peek, in making his estimates of the balances as existing between America and the other nations as a unit, finds it difficult to find sufficient exact data, and recommends an Improvement to the future! rec ords or bookkeeping. 'But he has worked out the best he could the several items to th^ balances and the total balance for' each of four periods and for the whole period of 38 years. The Nations in Lurtfa to Tun*i of $22,645,06d,0dfi. In briefs Mr. Peek finds that the other nations of the earth ‘ have received between twenty-two and twenty-three billions 'more from America to goods, services, cash, and every other item that becomes a charge in favor ol or against a nation and its people in the course of general trade and intervisiting of the Peoples. For example, a thousand dollars spent by an American tourist in France will balance a thou sand dollars’ worth of American goods sold to a Trench merchant. A loan to a foreign Country in cases the balance to favor of the lender. Interest Payment by a foreign country Increases the balance in favor of the lending country—that means that Just that touch more mondy would have To he sent across to balance the books or the accounts between all ele. >nents of each of fee two nations, : ^ • War Debts Included in Above Botane* * v' * ‘ 'T ->.• *r'V''V* : • j ;>'5-.f-■ • - >> - v^ , jg a..>.’• Vn*?>:avv.L*/!?li;ikofi,: >'ITne ... ;»,y >V- . ; T ..... o«mr ;iaclode*tli^ macfr -discnssed* t the mao who- aept ^e, • ‘ b«f friend at fnottiiioB from an> .TaddreSs by Senator Borah/jbewailing the ’repudiation^ those; debt* by i#e? nations, 'thus- indicating th$t> ^fta^^Intesr^KtedJl^te; foll^tlba |&e'fcjutf&bfafc ;^No more pertinent characterisation of the war debts;. ■;OMv^o«a: otheis of the .■wore than'a score oj? billions' |b&8 beeO Be^ 'feidht®, Wrttei^ thnn^iitot'^ ^ O^aa! h’orsk VThe- sooner'- fcofiA bih'ftd the better'foi^evenr^ jt. ^V-. <*?*" ~ * *J.;•&&.?' '. 'V- v • .J# .:' ^.vS ; _ 'X&h&ri ■'■ -*f^c£3N&i4*jEirih & | tbeais 'tbatr godds ^ >oniy -' goods and services, -the doctrine, seemed, ah utterly;, dew ;one Uf this- country. But the~ sentiment'-hasvde^ ; dldedly-thadged and*my[ individual.' view;" ofOtbifee * ;years /tgo.ds, ndjy .the-* general view.1 It is>a recog :. mgOd;,fact„ that .theFe- i^ dot i^ugh goiid iu 'iliwvdrld t to’.pay the-debt due America. If America* once .got r alf the^old any of it that should go back except in . ^actua|,payment of the Valance of- trade Xwfcieh would; ’ '" %Jbe,hga|nst qst wejutd’agmfl. ;jS*Iance of tfade ^get any m _ .. . _ . v th'gt fhrdefet camuever • be paid-in money, And that If • it could, it Woujd mean the end of foreign commerce. I\’je3fight Hare HpMt in Goods. On the contrary, it could he paid in goods simply by our buying, say, a billion dollars’ worth of goods more each year than we; sell, at least/ to the debtor nations. That door has .been open all the time. Ger many, England, and almost any other debtor country: would have been only too glad to sell* us the goods; We‘simply didn’t want them—wouldn’t have them. ’ From Finland we did buy more than we sold to her, and all she had to do when her payment became due July 1 was _ to credit the United States with the amount . of the payment. It simply lessened the amount America had to pay her to that extent. No other debtor country was in that $3:, -and it was no fault of theirs. We don’t want goods from abroad that we can produce ourselyes. That is the short of it. The farmer in* the 'case with which this article began wanted his $100 in money or in -something that he didn’t have enough of. The man who had bought his cprn may have had corn himself to spare at settling time but if the other, had plenty of corn, he didn’t want any more. * How Big Is That Dead Horse? ^ . Jet’s inspect that “dead horse.”—Maybe it was a pony Instead of the Fercheron the figures would in dicate. Its size bulks large in dollars. But let ns remember that real values do hot change. Prices do change. Tfde values are determined by the sum total of efficient labor and efficiently used capital involved in their creatiOfl. The labor and capital (money isn't capital) necessary.to produce a bushel of wheat or a ton of'steeT war period were no greater than last year, yet the biHions of dollars loaned to the European nations during the war were largely paid in American goods bearing three times the prices the same goods bore last year or in 1914. That is, we actually loaned the Allies a definite amount erf la bor and capital rental. Paid back in terms of the gold dollar any time within the last five years we should have been trebly paid. On the other hand, if paid hr goods we should have received the benefits of three times the amount of labor and capital rentals that we consumed hr supplying the goods which made IRSSSSSfc* that at a tine when ten men were idle in Ameriea ! The poopie of this connr would scarcely have Igsen willing the past five years for a millio^ men to come iHto:Ambrtca and* ;< ./*. ^^ ~ 's^T‘■ ''* ‘.'^ • *^|*' ,- y^r **■ ^ ^.■ *i **v* * ^ . •v'* ^ ■ **■ -, ~ ' "*®>*•',.* •'- * -: ‘ *. _•*. --1 - wbfkfor nothing Webacl morelaB<MS*i*iore capital," and more raw material of nature's F^pffdping than we^'W -.knew what to do with. And goods from abroad.-ki! ..the Ultimate analysis, are nothing but Itfbor ami eapirj tal rentals materialized. *.* < ^ ' * •’, 7 , v Hovv change and Labor Safe# Affect this;, * ' ; .-„ .- Si?o of the Dead Hor*e» «. - *? ■> / It has been shown above how the war debts, the- • .biggest item in the;world Balance' pf the last38 ycarsy . *■' fr-mir favor, performs the teaf^f Governor Vinei’a .catfish when reduced to terms of.labor and capital’ V Rentals—they “swihk,” as the -Negro told, the Governor’' ' those, inflation, dollar measures cease, to apnly fo tha> ..aetualgopdsof.wWeh the wardebtg iarg6ly consisted*,'- ■ ,. B find- that .they. have;'Wtrak”, almost' beyond recoil ■ 7 ~ ■- ■•■:■; -. ' ^ >t-US what‘Africa . With its' ‘ ’ ^^exchange-rate-.doilar and: gobds produced under^ ‘‘ " : y I«Wibatt^standard: of; living” was doing to. fhe1 * .--conn es whose currencies rated-low because of the laterial UbpVt wMoV'lhoT# i£-, trade -for examples,'■ ^v^d^^Ame^ as Wc America, Webe:’ gH^ng;0aI^f of sa Mexican-dollar. %$$£■'] cpr^ngly, when if came io balancing" off ’ the. goods’ ? r ; b^u^bnnd^ of or;tp America, jjt JCevident iba£*V-S one day's labor of the American labour bought S©^ era! days’labor of the Chinaman or Indian. - v That was a fair t.rade if the efficiency of the Aiphrt," can was actually so many times greater.:thah that of f Jthe foreigner. Yet the probability is tha^m Ammai |S can would^e no; more efficient in produdrig the gooflp* .we buy from those countries than their actual pro - ducers are. Probably ho American textile workers* - have the .skill in producing silks that the ChiUbse' 7 have. We bjiy millions of eggs from China,, yet & . member of a. woman’s missionary-society, here not so : ’ long ago could have sold a dozen'eggs and sent the^ price to a missionary in China and he could have,4 bought three dozen with the money.. The difference' was due to two factors—the high exchange value of - our dollar and the low -wage and commodity prices.* prevailing, in. China because 3f the small per capita, circulation of their cheap money—cheap in terms at- ■’ gold but high in purchasing and buying value in China because at its scarcity.'. ... . , . .y :-A r . 7 j.ne twenty-two billions of debts were built tip dur-' ■£'?? ing periods of the high exchange value of the Ameri •can dollar and high wage scales here. The debt > C not increased since 1930—in fact,-the indebtedness^,;;, according to Mr. Peeh’s.figures. haa decreased - ' siderably over, a billion dollars within the last four* years. Necessarily, then, when the debt was made* Jf ' America was selling real values at * gte«* premium: % over the sane values in the customers’' countries, and; if, the horse is dead upon wNich we prided ourselves ' ’ this Inspection should convince us that the world does. .<■ not owe ns in terms of brawn and skat and capital' Wy rentals anything like the sqm it shows up to be in: dollars. Our trading with the cheap money add low wage countries has been on a Jjar,.with that of the merchant who might buy a Neg*oteWatermelons af five cents a piece and charge him #vf vents a piece for bananas, or the dealings, betyeggr a lawyer and > bis dient the former charging fl|ye dollars as hour: for iis .workand allowing the client to work it out; at a dollar a day. If the-ehent should^ ballf when Jam had worked forty- * “ for. ten hoars* .work, the lawgee son . to grumble. Suppose the Debts OmM Be Paid in Gold? i’S'S' But let us aJ^me that the^ehts can be paid In ; " (Oontinned"oa Page^rbree) '.- '"* ■. ‘j’. ■
The State’s Voice (Dunn, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
July 15, 1934, edition 1
1
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