Evening star., 1933-09-25
WHEELER TO URGE
FREE SILVER PLAN
Senator to Press for Remoni-
tizati0n of 16-to.1 as In
fIation Medium.
BY G.. GOULD LINCOLN.

| Reconciliation Of silver at the ratio
fof Is to / will be strongly urged upon
President Roosevelt by Senator Wheeler.
Democrat. of Montana. as the best
means Of bringing about controlled
imitation in this country.
| Senator Wheeler, who returned to
Washington today, has recovered al
most entirely from the injuries he re-
ceived recently in an automobile acci-
| dent
The remonitization Of silver"
Wheeler said, presents by far the best
method of imitation which is greatly
needed in this country at this time.
Business in general expects measure
of imitation by the Roosevelt admins
tration. If no imitation comes. with a
rising Of commodity prices. there will
be tremendous disappointment followed
by another crash
Credit Expansion" Failed.
Senator Wheeler said credit expan-
sion" had been attempted under the
Hoover administration, but had not
filled the bill. He insisted it would not
suffice now
Il do not propose that the Govern
ment shall buy silver and make it into
dollars or hold it as basis for paper
money continued the Montana SEN
ator. What l propose is that any one
| can take silver to United States mint
and have it made into silver dollars. or
! can receive paper dollars in place of the
/ silver which then will belong to the
Government and can be held as a basis
for the paper money
| The Wheeler plan is the old free
silver" plan OF the Bryan days Of 1896.
1t follows the line of the proposal he
offered in the Senate last Spring and
| uhirh u-ac of taI Nv, no
dozen votes The vote in the Senate
at that time forced the adoption CT the
| Thomas initiation amendment to the
| farm relief act. which authorizes the
, President to use various kinds of meth
ods to initiate the currency. among them
the reconciliation Of silver as now
again proposed by Senator Wheeler.
Sees Initiation Measure.
IN my opinion" Wheeler said,
there is going to be some measure
! of initiation. Either the administra-
lion will bring it about before Con-
will put through mandatory law after
it meets.
The reconciliation of silver is a
far better method of imitation than
the issuance Of paper money. l have
talked with one Of the most prominent
! bankers in New York and he said
| frankly that he would much prefer the
| reconciliation of silver at a 16-to-1
! ratio than a flood Of paper money,
| The difficulty with the issuance of
paper money is that once it is started
it is almost impossible of control
Senator Wheeler said that so far as
silver Is concerned. the country would
not be flooded with that commodity.
China and India would have to hold on
to their own silver if they were to con-
tlnue to do business. he said. The eff
feet OF the remonetization of silver, !
insisted, would be to expand ere;
greatly. not only in the United Ste
but in other parts of the world, Part
iarly In the silver countries like c.
and India
These nations, he said, would
be able to buy American goods :
they have been unable to 90 in
quantities because Of the operate
the currency exchange against tbs
! Country Would Benefit.
Senator Wheeler insisted he was
seeking the interest Of the silver
ducers alone in his effort to ob,
| remonetization Of silver. They VIC
benefit, he said. but the great benz
would come to the entire count
III ouSIl tlIc lux tLcI ShpdliSlOli VI CISl
and of currency. II would aid greatI-
he said, in expanding our foreign tradt
The fact that the United States is
today a creditor nation, Senator
Wheeler continued made the remone-
tization Of silver a very different pro-
posal than in 1896 when the country
was a debtor nation. Furthermore.
the nations gold supply is guarded
now by action of the Government and
the country Is in no danger Of being
drained of gold if silver should be
monetized al the ratio of Is to /.
So far Senator Wheeler has made
no appointment with the President.
but he hopes to do so within the next
few days and to be able to talk over
with the Chief Executive the entire
situation. He is convinced that unless
steps are taken to bring about imitation
within short time, there will be a
recession in trade and that the whole
recovery program will fail. Such
condition, he said. would be tremen-
dously serious for the country.