The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-01-17
World Front
By HARRY CANNES
9 Old FOgies and Gold
A Jittery Decision
Its World Import

=
It's World Import
BECAUSE nine old fogies
~ wearing the solemn black
robes of Supreme Court Just.
ices of the United States are
about to pronounce on the
validity of the gold clause
payments in contracts valued at
$l00,000,00000O the whole financial
relations Of world capitalism 70
jittery.
The dollar rises on the world
money market. The foreign gold
currencies plunge downward stock,
bond and commodity prices in Wall
Street gyrate and get dizzy.
The whole situation shows how
sound and stable" the financial
structure of world capitalism is. 1t
is so rotten. so undermined. so rent
with contradictions, that If the
judicial breath blows the wrong
way it may all topple into a mo-
mentary panic.
What is behind the whole things
Normally under capitalism the rock
Of ages, the only ultimate stable,
sure guage of wealth is gold. Dur
ing the present crisis, the gold
standard had to be wrecked in
order to advance imitation in
desperate effort to save capitalism
from collapse. Each CAPITALIST
country tried to. get into an adj
vantageous position as against am
other by lowering the gold value
OF its currency in order to unde-sel
on the world market, in order fur
ther to slash wages at home and
raise prices and profits.
nUT just to meet such an emer-
- gency. because capitalism's his
tory is fuller of crises than a Swiss
cheese is of holes, contradicting
parties, especially on big deals like
tens of million DOLE bond issues.
inserted a clause declaring that
final payment must be made in
gold of existing f1neness.
Now Roosevelt under his New
Deal cut down the gold content Of
the dollar So that if a contract
said previously that S35 should be
paid in gold today, the Roosevelt
| government has so inflated the dol
lar that the recipient gets only $40
in gold equivalent value. No gold
at all is allowed to be paid out. In
other words, contractor gets s35
in paper money. which has a gold
value as of the time the contract
was made, of $40. He now insists,
in appeal to the court, that he be
paid not s35 in paper money, but
in actual gold, which would mean
at least 70 per cent more in paper
money than he now gets.
IN the meantime, all of the UNI
1 certainty Of the capitalist f1nan.
cial crisis is cropping to the sur
face. and almost panic conditions
are gripping the world money MARI
kets and the stock exchanges.
Actually, the big finance capi-
taliSts have nothing to fear. A de-
cision in favor of the gold clause
would temporarily knock the stock
market for goal. 1t would tie
knot in. business and further dis
organize the price structure But
Roosevelt, Congress and the Treas
ury Department would quickly come
to the rescue with infiationary
measures to even matters up.
More likely, the nine austere JUS
tees, who Mr.. Dooley said. always
have their eyes on the election re-
turns and, we add, their fingers on
the pulse of diseased capitalism. will
uphold the Roosevelt inflationary
measures. Their only hesitation is
the fact that, presidents may be
set which are dangerous for capi-
talism. When it. comes to unem-
ployment insurance, the Greens, for
example, taking their cue from the
most reaetionary capitalists, yelo
about its "unconstitutionality.' If a
decision is made by the court to
affirm the elimination of the gold
clause, they are afraid it would
open TIE door to many arguments
on the con5titutionality of othe- is
sues which the capitalists do not
want.
4 In short, the whole development
of the economic crisis creates the
4 most interrninable contradictions
] for the bosses. They are forced to
distort the whole financial basis OF
capitalism. gold They rush into
imitation but inflat' on creates more
i contradictions for them. The con-
tradic ion between the legal pre-
cedsnts and legal phrases (the
whole juridicel st.ucture) and the
reces5.t!es Of immediate action by
the Roosevelt regime in the inter-
est of finance capital crops UP.
But whichever way the decision
goes, the toiling masses will lose.
! Should the gold clause be sustained.
the impact will for the moment
create a panic. throwing many
workers out or wcrS. Should it not
be su5tsined. there viii be an added
impetas to s0ccdier imitation, with
higher prices for the masses. as
vel IS sharpe monetary conflicts
On The world narke, with q lower
ing OF the standard of living of the
workers.
No vo1der the nine doddering
oldsters in tbs basement Of tne
Capitol building are worried.