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THE RETURN TO GOLD

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respect; namely, to cease purchasing thesecountries’ exports. So long as the gold standardis preserved—which means that the prices ofinternational commodities must be much thesame everywhere—this involved a competitivecampaign of deflation, each of us trying to getour prices down faster than the others, a cam-paign which had intensified unemployment andbusiness losses to an unendurable pitch.

But as soon as the gold exchange is rupturedthe problem is solved. For the appreciationof French and American money in terms of themoney of other countries makes it impossiblefor French and American exporters to sell theirgoods. The recent policy of these countriescould not, if it was persistently pursued, end inany other way. They have willed the destructionof their own export industries, and only they cantake the steps necessary to restore them. Theappreciation of their currencies must also em-barrass gravely their banking systems. TheUnited States had, in effect, set the rest of usthe problem of finding some way to do withouther wheat, her copper, her cotton, and hermotor-cars. She set the problem, and, as it hadonly one solution, that solution we have beencompelled to find.

Yet this is quite the opposite of the note onwhich I wish to end. The solution to whichwe have been driven, though it gives immediaterelief to us and transfers the strain to others, isin truth a solution unsatisfactory for every one.The world will never be prosperous without