The Alaska citizen., 1917-01-08
FEAR OF TOO MUCH GOLD.

l story appeared III the eastern press
 10 the effect that the entente allies l contemplated the demonetization of gold It was asserted that a secret | meeting of the greatest banking in i terests in the country was held at | Chicago to take steps to prevent, if | possible, such a calamity and if not
 10 erect buffers to temper the shock.
 The first assertion was modified | a day or two after and it was given
 out with some authority that the al | lied powers, which have been bOr- rowing and purchasing from this l country at a tremendous rate might take such step if this nation showed signs of closing down on
 heir credits.
 There is present always the pos 5ibility that Great Britain, the last
 0f the fighting nations to stick by | gold payments, may suspend specie payments, which step would have it's influence on this creditor country It Is this way: The United States has a plague of yellow metal. It is | in possession of third of the worlds visible supply. It has more gold l than the whole of the entente al ! lance now controls and three times | that held by the central powers. l Gold, In a sense, is a drug in the market If the European borrowers were to say to this country, sour grapes" and turn their attention to silver, it would not be well for the | United States for the time being.
 But there is little proba ability of such a step being taken by the very power
 that for centuries has been pressing
 the gold standard upon the civilized
 world-Bryan's cross of gold. The Chicago meeting referred to
 was called to deal with the gold sit l nation and with the future loans re | quired by the allied nations that l have already borrowed from this 1 country, in one way or another, | about a billion and a half of dollars.
 More gold is not sought in this coun-
 try; if some arrangement can be
 made for other security from Flu
 rope it would be well.
 In a series of articles being print
 ed in a Chicago newspaper regard
 ing the gold situation and the influ- 1 ences which the huge surplus may | have upon the industrial and con- mercial affairs of the nation in the | immediate future, leading bankers
 are calling attention to the seeming 1 contradiction that gold is not every | thing, that there may be too much | of it lying about for the country s l good. George NJ. Reynolds, presi- l dent of the largest Chicago bank, is not afraid of the demonstration of l gold, and he is not alarmed over | the standing of the borrowing coun- 1 tries after more than two years of
 war or their ability to meet all ob- l ligations.
 What this banker and other stu l dents of economies are concerned
 with is the ability of this country
 to meet the gold withdrawals that will follow war-not the loss of the actual gold, which could we'll be
 spared in one sense but what the 1 withdrawals mean to the industry
 of this country. The only way the | gold can be withdrawn, short ot | force, is for the balance of trade to 1 be against us and in favor of Europe. | Under the whip of necessity Europe 1 has reached a state of efficiency in
 manufacture and output that will tell
 after the war. Europe may be able
 to undersell this nation on it's do- meStic needs and invade this nations
 markets in Central and South Ameri- 1 ca and the Orient If this condition
 comes true, exchange will work
 against the United States, but what
 is far more important, home produc-
 ton will fall off. And the economic
 war that is to come will be to re-
 claim the gold and credits, given to
 this country in time of stress under
 conditions named by the leaning na-
 tion, by determined competition in
 every line and at every point of con-
 tact.
 The national election being over,
 this question can now be discussed
 without partisan rejudice.-Denver
 News.
 THE Ketchikan Progressive Miner
 has adopted a slogan. It is We
 Want Statehood for the First Divi-
 sion"