The general commodity price level, after declining 34 percent from 1925-1929 average levels during the past three years, returned to approximately pre-war levels in January, 1932. From then on, until September, 1932, it remained fairly stable.

Since September, however, the general price level has been falling again at the rate of one or two points a month. How long the decline will continue, no one knows; but agriculture and industry can not begin to recover until the decline is arrested. The urgent need for some form of control of the general price level is steadily becoming greater.

The present circular deals with the control of the general price level. It points out the need for this control, and shows what the Federal Reserve System has been doing to check deflation since the depression began. There is not space enough, however, for a presentation of some of the stronger reflationary measures that have recently been proposed. These measures will be presented and discussed in a later circular in this series.

This is the fifth publication in the series dealing with the present agricultural emergency. The first circular in the series, 'The Situation Today," presented the main facts of the case. The second circular, ."The Causes of the Emergency," dealt with the causative factor. The third circular was entitled "The Domestic Allotment Plan." The fourth was entitled "The Iowa Farm Mortgage Situation." The present circular, dealing with monetary questions, is the fifth in the series. A later circular will deal further with the same subject.