News of the Week
TWO gleams of light in the environing darkness, one definite, the other still prospective and contingent, are the adoption by the Senate of a Revenue Bill pointing to an ostensibly balanced budget in the United States and the assent of the Government of that country to the British proposal for the summoning of an international conference to consider methods to stabilize world commodity prices. The American Budget is not being balanced in the way President Hoover, who made a dramatic personal appearance in the Senate on Tuesday, desired, for the Sales Tax he was advocating has been rejected. But other imposts yield the required result. Whether revenue will in fact equal expenditure depends on the realization of many very questionable estimates, but even a Budget that merely appears to have balanced has a psychological value that means something at this juncture. As to the proposed economic conference, the outlook is a little obscure. It is not clear what relation it will bear to Lausanne, where among other things monetary problems (on whose solution the stability of prices depends) are to be discussed. Nothing, moreover, could be more disastrous than the convocation of an international conference on so vital but controversial a question without proper preparation. Geneva is full of carefully compiled material on the subject, and it would be wise to bring the work of the proposed conference as far as possible within the framework of the League, if only in order to ensure continuity. The United States and Russia have shown themselves perfectly ready to go to Geneva for special purposes such as this.
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