Doctor Looks at Dollars

Respect has mingled with curiosity as, through the years since the War, the U. S. public has watched a roundheaded little Princeton professor with thick spectacles travel hither & yon through the world as physician to sick money systems. Princeton has loaned him freely to various nations since 1912, but long before (in 1903), he helped the U. S. Philippine Commission start the islands off on the gold standard. Since then he has probed the problems of Egypt, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Union of South Africa, Chile, Poland, Ecuador, Bolivia, China, Panama and Peru. In 1925 he analyzed the economic ills of the great nations of Europe, serving as the expert on currency and banking for the Dawes Committee. So sound and fruitful have been his labors that the name of Edwin Walte'r Kemmerer, Ph.D. stands topmost in the realm of fiscal theory and practice. Last week Money Man Kemmerer arose to make a pronouncement upon a currency which few people would ever have thought needed his attention. Yet the U. S. public as well as the Advertising Club (Manhattan), his luncheon host, seemed glad to hear Dr. Kemmerer speak as follows of the U. S. Dollar:

"We in America still have the largest supply of monetary gold of any country in the world. . . . We have recently lost $700,000,000 of this gold, but this amount is only about 14% of our September maximum holdings and merely puts us back to about the figure we had in January of this year.

"The gold standard in the United States today is strong--very strong--and the fears entertained ... of the possible breakdown of the American gold standard, have no justification whatever in the cold facts of the situation.

"I can imagine few things more foolish than for anyone actually to hoard gold in a country with such a large gold supply as the United States and with such a strong credit position in relation to the rest of the world. The hoarding of paper money in the United States is likewise foolish. All of our American paper money, in addition to the other assets back of it, enjoys the guarantee of the United States Government itself and our national Government meets its obligations."

Observing that New York is by way of becoming the financial centre of the world, Dr. Kemmerer concluded: "The all important question is: Have our bankers enough knowledge of international finance, enough experience, enough vision and enough financial leadership to take the position that London is now passing over to us? It is our opportunity and our responsibility."

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