28

PERU

28-c- Sol

In a quiet suite of rooms on the ground floor of the Reserve Bank of Peru at Lima, Dr. Edwin Walter Kemmerer, Princeton's world-famed fiscal expert, has worked calmly through the last three major Peruvian revolutions, all successful (TIME, March 9, 16). Last week slight, grey-haired, bespectacled Dr. Kemmerer emerged with a finished report on the Peruvian sol, told Peru's latest Government that they had better stabilize it on a gold basis at its present value 28-c-. Within a few hours the Government issued the necessary decree.

Only two months and three governments ago, Peru tried to stabilize her sol at 40-c-. So impregnable is Dr. Kemmerer's prestige that he can ignore the popular roar of rage: "Kemmerer has sold us out!"

This charge alludes to the fact that large cotton, sugar and oil interests in Peru prefer to pay their native help in a depreciated currency, selling their produce abroad for gold. But if the sol is now firmly stabilized on gold, Peru's public will bless Dr. Kemmerer at some future date.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.