Mr. MacDonald's Hopes.

There is high banker authority (American) behind the statement that a full or even liberal use of the powers given to the President by Congress would mean a flight from the dollar. How the dollar will behave at home depends upon the nicety of President Roosevelt's discrimination. As these inflationary powers poured in upon the President—gifts of a Congress that did not know what else to do—it became more and more unlikely that he would tie his hands with any pre-conference international commitment concerning the dollar's exchange value. The mystery is how Mr. Ramsay MacDonald was ever persuaded to hope otherwise. If President Roosevelt gave any confidential pre-conference assurance, its letter, if not its spirit, is evidently dead, as dead as Mr. Hoover's supposed pledge to France to maintain the gold standard.