Crítica
- PARAGUAYAN WAR MINISTER EXPLAINS THE FORMOSA INCIDENT
- THE BELGIAN FRANC WILL BE STABILIZED AT THE RATE OF 174.31 TO THE POUND
- TIRES SHOULD BE USED AS LONG AS THEY WILL TAKE PATCHES, THEY SAY IN THE U.S.
This front page of the Buenos Aires daily Crítica for 25 October 1926 carried one regional report and two foreign ones. Paraguay's war minister denied that Paraguayan soldiers had clashed with Argentine settlers in Formosa. He said the troops had been chasing cattle rustlers who stole livestock in Paraguay, and the paper added that eighty head were seized from them. A cable reported that Belgium would stabilize its franc at 174.31 to the pound the next day, when a hundred-million-dollar stabilization loan went on the market at 7 percent interest plus 1 percent amortization, repayable over 30 years. From the United States came advice to keep tires in use for as long as they would take patches. E. G. Holt of the Commerce Department's Rubber Division warned that foreign governments, encouraged by the success of the rubber monopoly, were trying similar schemes with camphor, coffee, nitrate and other American imports.
Translation
PARAGUAYAN WAR MINISTER EXPLAINS THE FORMOSA INCIDENT
There was no such incident between Argentine settlers and Paraguayan soldiers; rather, the soldiers were pursuing a band of cattle rustlers who had stolen livestock in Paraguay.
EIGHTY HEAD WERE SEIZED FROM THEM
THE BELGIAN FRANC WILL BE STABILIZED AT THE RATE OF 174.31 TO THE POUND
The stabilization of the currency will be carried out tomorrow, when the new stabilization loan, which amounts to one hundred million dollars, is launched on the market. It is known that the interest on this loan will be 7 percent, plus 1 percent amortization, and that it will be repayable in 30 years.
TIRES SHOULD BE USED AS LONG AS THEY WILL TAKE PATCHES, THEY SAY IN THE U.S.
Mr. E. G. Holt, chief of the Rubber Division of the Department of Commerce, indicated that, in view of the success achieved by the rubber monopoly, foreign governments have tried to create similar situations with camphor, coffee, iodine, nitrate, potash, mercury and other articles that the United States imports in large quantities.
Context
Why the Pilcomayo frontier at Formosa was sensitive
The Formosa episode took place on a border drawn after the Paraguayan War. Under the Machaín–Irigoyen Treaty of 1876, Argentina gained Misiones and all the lands south of the Pilcomayo River, the territory that forms Formosa Province. The treaty left the question of the Chaco Boreal, north of the river, unresolved. Both sides then accepted arbitration by U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes, who decided in Paraguay's favor on 12 November 1878. The Chaco Boreal was bounded on the south by the Pilcomayo and Argentina, and it remained almost unpopulated and unexplored until the late 1920s. The pursuit described by the Paraguayan war minister therefore happened along a thinly settled river frontier between Paraguayan-held Chaco and Argentine Formosa. The article gives only his side of the story: he denies any clash with Argentine settlers and says the soldiers were chasing rustlers who had stolen Paraguayan cattle. Bolivia also claimed much of the same Chaco region, and that unresolved dispute later led to the Chaco War of 1932–1935.
How Belgium's 1926 stabilization created the belga
In 1926 Belgium, like France, suffered depreciation and an abrupt collapse of confidence in its currency. The response was a new gold currency for international transactions, the belga, worth five francs, together with Belgium's withdrawal from the Latin Monetary Union, which ceased to exist at the end of that year. The belga was tied to sterling at 35 belgas, or 175 francs, to the pound. The newspaper's figure of 174.31 francs per pound is close to this round reference rate but not the same. The article links the stabilization to the launch of a $100 million loan at 7 percent plus 1 percent amortization, repayable in 30 years. Those loan terms come from the cable printed in Buenos Aires. The new unit soon appeared on Belgian money: in 1927 the National Bank introduced notes with denominations given in both francs and belgas.
The rubber monopoly Holt had in mind: the Stevenson Plan
The Stevenson Plan was a British government scheme, in force from 1922 to 1928, that restricted the supply of natural rubber in order to raise its price. That is the rubber monopoly to which E. G. Holt of the Commerce Department referred. The scheme mattered especially to the United States: in 1922 British interests controlled about 75 percent of rubber production, while the United States consumed about 75 percent of the rubber produced. The Dutch refused to join the restriction, partly out of reluctance to regulate their own industry, so the British control was never complete. When Holt spoke in 1926 the scheme was still in force; the Stevenson Act was repealed and ceased to apply on 1 November 1928. Holt's warning that foreign governments were copying the model with other commodities reflects how American officials then saw the rubber restriction: as a successful example of government-backed control over a raw material the United States had to import.
Hoover's counter-campaign and the advice to patch tires
Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover did not object to regulating the supply of rubber as such, but to a government's involvement in that regulation. In response he proposed a government-supported scheme to investigate the production of synthetic rubber, and he warned the British that if the Stevenson Plan stayed in effect the United States would try to protect itself in any way it could. American efforts increasingly turned to recycling and reclaiming rubber and to using tires more economically. The headline's advice to keep tires in service as long as they would take patches belongs to this conservation drive aimed at American motorists. Holt's list of camphor, coffee, iodine, nitrate, potash and mercury, as reported by the paper, extends the same Commerce Department concern about government-run commodity controls beyond rubber.
Original
EL MINISTRO DE GUERRA PARAGUAYO EXPLICA EL INCIDENTE DE FORMOSA
¡ No ha habido tal incidente entre pobladores argentinos y soldados paraguayos, sino que éstos persiguieron a una banda de cuatreros que robaron ganado en Paraguay LES FUERON CAPTURADAS OCHENTA CABEZAS
EL FRANCO BELGA SERA ESTABILIZADO AL TIPO DE 174.31 POR LIBRA
La estabilización de la moneda se llevará a cabo mañana, cuando el nuevo empréstito en pro de la estabilización, que se eleva a cien millones de dólares, se lance al mercado. Se sabe que el interés de este empréstito será de 7 o | o, más 1 o | o de amortización, y que será reembolsable en 30 años.
LOS NEUMATICOS DEBEN SER USADOS MIENTRAS SOPORTEN REMIENDOS, DICEN EN EE. UU.
Mr. E. G. Holt, jefe de la División del Caucho, del Departamento de Comercio, Indicó que, en vista del éxito obtenido por el monopolio de caucho, los gobiernos extranjeros han tratado de crear situaciones análogas con el alcanfor, café, yodo, salitre, potasa, mercurio y otros artículos que los Estados Unidos importan en grandes cantidades.
Source: Source: Internet Archive / Biblioteca Nacional de la República Argentina