The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1935-04-12

%S'ESS$ Why Is our
Lewis Haney Govern ent
buying silver? A law passed in
1884 directs the President to add
silver to the Treasury's metallic
reserves sufficient to make the
quantity of silver equal one'third
the quantity of gold, as judged
by monetary value"
BY splitting our gold into
smalle::' gold dollars, and buying
more colo, we have increased the
monetary value" of gold in the
Treasury to over $8.5 billion. So
we are ION the way" to buying
a tonnage of silver which must
have a monetary value of over
$28 billion.
This will require the purchase
of over a billion ounces Of silver
above what we had at the close
of 1884. The total monetary sill
yer stock reported is less than
one-eighth of the gold, and the
Treasury will apparently have to
triple it's holdings to fulfill the
law.
To do this we may have to buy
up the entire world production OF
silver for a period Of four or live
years!
What is the urpose Of this law?
In part, the idea is to help
our silver producers and thus
stimulate" business. But our
silver production is SO small,
that the few million dollars in
volved are a drop in the bucket.
Zone must believe that the pO-
litical power of the Senators
from the silver States is the real
point.
In part, it has been alleged that
the idea is to help the Chinese,
and our trade with them. But this
is hypocritical nonsense. Instead
we are running China by forcing
up the value of her silver money,
which has deflationary effects
Probably China will abandon her
silver standard and join the "ster'
ling bloc"
In large part, the idea is to
broaden our monetary base.
This is aimed to meet the de
mands of those who assert thai
the nation needs more money. II
is an inflationary step.
AS I have shown several times
we have more money than we can
possibly use, whether at present
prices or 1926 prices. Without
adding another penny to our me
tallic reserves, we can have many
billions of circulation-15 times
what we are now able to use, ano
sufficient to satisfy the widest
inflationist. We have never hao
so much money. EmphatlcalIJ
there is no need of more.
We are therefore forced to the
conclusion that the real rea
son (aside from sweetening silver
Senator's is to depreciate our cur
rency. The object is to force down
the purchasing power of the dol
lar. Currency initiation is the OBJ
vious underlying purpose OF the
silver buying.
First, the aim is to get the psy
Geological effect of huge add
dition to the potential mass OF oW
currency, which might run to oveI
seven billion dollars.
Second, the aim is to reduce
the security for our money. Sill
yer is being over-valued and be-
ing bought for far more than 1t
is worth. 1t is therefore dilutine
the value of our metallic reserve
per dollar Of currency.
Third, the aim is to force thi!
cheapened money into circula
ton, and thus make it's cheap
ness effective in initiating prices,
BY actual silver purchase, a
large amount of paper dollars
is actually spent-"passed." I'm
der the law, silver certificates
must be issued, and they are
actually replacing Federal Re
serve notes to a considerable
extent. And silver currency is
made completely 'inelastic" by
the law-once issued, it cannot
be retired.
Fourth, the aim is to "write
up" further profits for the
Government. They will have
bought the bulk of their silver
at prices ranging from As cents
to IS cents an ounce. Then
they value it on their books
at $1.29 an ounce! when q
corporation does such things,
we have. name for it!)