Farm Conditions Must Improve Before Prosperity Returns In America, Says Curley--Optimistic On Projected Inflation

"A fairly optimistic outlook for the future is offered by the projected inflation program," stated Mayor Curley in a CRIMSON interview yesterday. "It is absolutely necessary," continued the Mayor, "that higher prices be received for agricultural products as well as other commodities. There can be no prosperity in America until the condition of the farmer becomes prosperous. The agricultural element represents one fourth of the nation, and it is upon this element that the remaining three quarters is dependent. The United States' agricultural communities have been submerged for a period of more than five years, and the various sugar-coated programs that have been presented have failed dismally to restore prosperity to the farmer. The adoption of the inflation program of President Roosevelt, if we may term it as such, has resulted not only in immediate but in substantial increases in the prices of all agricultural commodities with a further advance noticeable in the last 72 hours in steel, copper, and silver. The early adoption of this program by Congress, supplemented by the States of the nation and the subdivisions of the State, should serve as a backlog for the preservation of industrial activity and prosperity when the same has been created."

When asked about his experiments in salary reductions, the Mayor made the following deduction: "The wholesale reduction of our private employees throughout the United States, coupled with the tax delinquencies due to the inability of home owners and business men to secure the necessary money with which to meet their tax obligations, left no other course open for the governmental agencies than to reduce. The contention that the reduction in the cost of living justified such reductions appears a valid one. Yet, with a considerable increase in the cost of the necessaries of life, due to expansion, it would appear sound economics when such a situation has been developed to restore wages.

"The protest that has been made against the tremendous increase in the cost of maintaining educational institutions has resulted in a reduction and sometimes non-payment of teachers' salaries throughout the country. Under these circumstances, if every public agency and nearly every private agency has found it necessary to curtail educational costs through salary revisions downward, there is no method of logic by which one can justify immunity for even professors at Harvard University, sacred as is that institution."