INFLATION: A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE

Babson bays Inflation Is Contagious Disease By ROGER BABSON NEW YORK CITY Inflation is as catching as smallpox and much more serious. If allowed to spread it will cause far more deaths than epidemics of suicides, heart failures and nervous breakdowns. No wonder life insurance companies are fighting it tooth and nail.

If the same intelligent approach is made to the problem of avoiding inflation as was made in the case of reducing and eliminating smallpox we shall be all right. But if we neglect the present signs of the growing epidemic of inflation I am afraid we shall soon be beyond hope.

Some people are saying Let inflation come. They hope it will help sell some long-held stocks which now show a loss. Possibly, but what will the money received be worth? It may be far better to hold stocks than to sell them at double the present price and get money worth only 40 per cent or less of its present value.

The same principle applies to buying stocks now with the hope of selling them later at a profit. Even when buying the right stocks as an inflation hedge they should be considered.