Great Falls tribune., 1922-04-15

nations who had gold shipped it t
the United States to pay for fooe
stuffs and other goods we had fol
sale, and 80 purchased them cheap
er than could have done otherwise
In this way our gold accumulation
grew and grew and grew. It was
like Mr.. Pinney's turnip that grew
behind the barn, and it grew. and
grew, and grew, and did no harm
The people that gave US this gold
thought at least that they got some
thing for it that was worth the GOLD
they sent US, and that they needed
more. They got our goods and we
got their gold.
Now however, having consumed
our goods they have a different
mind about it. They say we are
| greedy and mean and unfair not to
send their gold back to them be.
cause they need it and we do not
One Christian Rakovsky, premier
Of Ukraine, one Of the new repub.
lies that has aborbed the philosophy
| Of Lenine and is in sympathy with
| soviet Russia, gave voice to this
idea at the Genoa conference the
other day. After making the state.
ment that in two years Russia had
disarmed by cutting down its army
from 5,36o,0oO men to 1,450,000
men, he added, Russia has already
disarmed, but all will be useless
until the great masses Of gold
which really belong to all countries
shall be distributed fairly. instead
| of being concentrated in the hands
Of few nations Great Britain
France, and the United States are
the countries indicated. They have
a large part Of the gold Of the
world, and our own republic has
the biggest hoard of all. The soviet
argument is that a man has right
to eat his cake and still have it,
but this pleasant philosophy is only
current in countries that have eaten
their lake.
We are Of the opinion that the
United States which gave value for
all the gold it got from abroad
is not going to send it to its former
owners without also receiving
value for it. A good many coun-
tries like Russia, Austria and
Poland which are cursed with a
worthless paper currency would
like US to give them enough gold
to reform their redundant paper
money and get on a gold basis
again, but as a rule these coun-
tries have little or nothing we
want to pay us for that gold. They
want to give us bonds or paper
promises to pay us some time in
the future for our gold. But the
reason they want the gold so badly
Is that no one believes in their
ability to keep their promises to
pay gold which is written on their
cheap paper money. If they cannot
keep their promises to pay their
own people written on their paper
money is it likely that they will
keep their promises to pay US for
our gold written on their bonds?
It is doubtless true that this re-
public has more gold than it needs
to sustain our volume Of paper
money and keep it "as good as
gold" It might be that we could
spare a considerable portion Of it
to restore some foreign currencies
to a gold basis. But the very first
requisite in that transaction would
be absolute assurance that we
would get something back again
just as good as gold to us-goods,
services, or securities that would
surely be paid when they were due.
There has been some talk of an
international bank currency for
Europe based on gold and the gold
loans secured by the joint obliga-
ton of all the countries that used
such currency. Uncle Sam might
bite at that. The fact is we have
the gold to spare. We got it by
giving values for it. We arc not
likely to part with it on any other
terms than those on which we re-
ceived it.