National City Bank Officer Speaks Out New York, Apr. 2.
Stability of values 1s most import ant to trade relations, and prices must be permitted to find their natu jai levels, declared Mr. George _B. Roberts, Vice-President of the Naional City Bank in an address to the Academy of Political Selence here. to-day, His statement was a preface to a Vigorous criticism of the United Stateo silver-buying programme, The apparent objectives of the programme, to acquire more silver and to make the price of the white metal $120 er ounce, must be acknowledged as complete failure, he said. In. the first place, the higher price of silver indueed by the programme "had failed to increase Chinese purchasing power, he pointed out, and Chinese impens from the United States declined 2 per cent. in 1934 and er cent. more in 1935, The pera Nous of the purchase-programme, Mr-Roberts said, had aroused resentment in a friendly country, In the second place, the bank cial asserted, the silver-buying activi ties had weakened the monetary base of the United States currency by adding a stock of metal which, in time of stress, was likely to be unavailable as an asset,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.