" PLACING " OUR RESPONSIBILITY.
Meanwhile, however, because I would not wish to minimize for one moment the importance which Professor Cassel attaches to banking and monetary policy as a solution of our difficulties, let me, before concluding this article, give the closing words of Professor Cassel's peroration when addressing the bankers in the City last week. After referring to the importance of the Central Banks coming together in the manner I have mentioned, he said So long as the Central Banks decline to do so and, on the whole, to take any responsibility for the purchasing power of their money, humanity will inevitably feel itself in the same situation as that of the passengers on an Atlantic liner whose captain came down and declared that he had lost all control over the movements of his ship and could not take any responsibility for her course. Let us Ben to it that we shall have captains capable of maintaining the course they have set for their ships in spite of occasional deviations caused by wind and waves."
I do not think, therefore, I have overstated Professor Cassel's case when I say that he is disposed to lay upon the shoulders of the chiefs of the world's Central Banks the responsibility for uniting to determine upon some monetary policy which shall in some extraordinary fashion safeguard the destinies of peoples in every country irrespective of their special circumstances and conditions. Both on political and economic grounds the task would seem to be a well-nigh impossible one.
ARTHUR W. KIDDY.
Previous page
