We
wanted to do our part in bringing prices from an artificial to a natural
level. I am firmly of the opinion that if at this time or earlier
manufacturers and distributors had all made drastic cuts in their prices
and had put through thorough house-cleanings we should not have so long
a business depression. Hanging on in the hope of getting higher prices
simply delayed adjustment. Nobody got the higher prices they hoped for,
and if the losses had been taken all at once, not only would the
productive and the buying powers of the country have become harmonized,
but we should have been saved this long period of general idleness.
Hanging on in the hope of higher prices merely made the losses greater,
because those who hung on had to pay interest on their high-priced
stocks and also lost the profits they might have made by working on a
sensible basis. Unemployment cut down wage distribution and thus the
buyer and the seller became more and more separated. There was a lot of
flurried talk of arranging to give vast credits to Europe--the idea
being that thereby the high-priced stocks might be palmed off.
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