Ill

THE RETURN TO GOLD

235

the part of American bankers and investors to-wards foreign loans, of but little consequence tothem, may shake us. If gold and short creditsand foreign bonds can flow without restrictionor risk of loss backwards and forwards acrossthe Atlantic, fluctuations of given magnitudewill produce on us effects altogether dispropor-tionate to the effects on them. It suits theUnited States that we should return to gold,and they will be ready to oblige us in the earlystages. But it would be a mistake to believethat in the long run they will, or ought to,manage their affairs to suit our convenience.

What solid advantages will there be to setagainst these risks? I do not know. Ourbankers speak of “psychological” advantages.But it will be poor consolation that “nine peopleout of ten” expected advantages, if none in factarrive.

That our Bank chairmen should have nothingbetter to cry than “Back to 1914,” and thatthey should believe that this represents the bestattainable, is not satisfactory. The majority ofthose who are studying the matter are becomingagreed that faults in our credit system are atleast partly responsible for the confusions whichresult in the paradox of unemployment amidstdearth. The “Big Five” have vast responsi-bilities towards the public. But they are sohuge and, in some ways, so vulnerable, that thereis a great temptation to them to cling to maxims,conventions, and routine; and when their chair-men debate fundamental economic problems,