LOWER COSTS AND HIGHER WAGES 207 
perity lay in higher wages and purchasing power of labor, 
or, stated in general terms, on a more equitable! distribu- 
ion of wealth produced. His statement, in part, was as 
follows * 
In my opinion, the ratio between production and consump- 
lion cannot be balanced, corrected or materially improved 
either by the creation of further credits or by regulating the 
low of Government expenditures. The first cannot affect 
the ultimate purchasing power or permanently increase either 
production or consumption. Credits are already ample. The 
banks are now overflowing with money, altho far too much of 
it, in this section of the country, is being used in stock specu- 
lation. Any manufacturer in fair standing with surplus 
stocks of merchandise can borrow. 
So far as concerns the ultimate effect of regulating Gov- 
ernment expenditures, it would be about as important as a fly 
on an elephant. 
The only ways that occur to me of increasing production, 
and relatively increasing consumption, so as to assure steady 
employment, are by either adding to our exports or by resort- 
ing to other means of increasing the purchasing power of our 
own people. 
The chances of relief from the first alternative are growing 
dimmer day by day as the European nations are reviving 
from the paralysis of the war and are becoming keener com- 
petitors. We cannot hope to compete in the world’s markets 
with pauper labor of Europe. The most we can do is to build 
a “Chinese Wall” against flooding our markets with their 
products. 
Our most promising avenue of relief will, I think, be found 
in the other alternative if it can be brought about. There 
must be a wider distribution of wealth. The vast fortunes 
and incomes therefrom in the hands of a relatively few indi- 
viduals are not on the whole employed in manufacturing in- 
dustries, nor is an adequate proportion of these fortunes and 
1 New York Evening Post. February 11. 1928.