The Ely miner., 1938-02-24
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sides the War Finance corporation
and some others of that wartime
era, it is proposed to get rid of
some things of more recent date.
The Commodity Credit corporation
and the two export-import banks, to
mention only three. Now, there is
no reason available for retention of
the skeletons of the World war, and
there appears to have been no rea-
son for creation of such things as
the export-import banks. I mean
there was no sound reason. Those
radicals who forced the diplomatic
recognition of Soviet Russia thought
there was reason for the export
import banks because they held
such banks would enable trade with
Russia. But Russian trade has
amounted to about the same as the
sale of mules in my home county of
Missouri.
Two other pieces of legislation
which Mr.. Barton seeks to repeal
are strictly New Deal. One is that
law which gave the President the
right to change the value of the dol
lar at will, within certain linita-
tions. I suppose there are some
who still believe that devaluation of
the dollar has done or can do good
in aiding recovery. It seems to
me, however, that existence of that
power in the hands of one man is
just another basis for uncertainty
among all of the people. In any
event, the failure of that panacea
has been amply demonstrated.
The piece of far-reaching New
Deal legislation concerned is the So
called Guffey coal law. That thing
is price fixing measure. 1t gave
authority to a coal commission to
prescribe prices throughout the
country, and producers would be
violating a law if they sold below
those figures; they would be sub
ject to fines and prison terms. Only
recently, the price fixing features
were enjoined by a circuit court of
appeals and SO at the moment they
are not operative. Yet the threat
exists. And attention should be
called to the fact also that the three
judges who granted an Injunction
were appointed by President Roose-
welt and supposed, therefore, to be
very liberal in their views. Mr..
Barton called the Guffey coal act
piece of "grand larceny against the
consumers" because, he explained,
the consumers are made to pay the
higher prices fixed by the commits
sion and they have no word to say
about it.
Among other laws which Mr.. Bar
ton wants to repeal is the ill-starred
silver purchase act. That law was
another one which the infiationists
in congress forced through in 1884
when all of the brain-trust camp
followers were in their heyday. The
only result that I can discover flow
ing from the silver purchase act is
a grand outpouring of cash for the
owners of silver mines. They OBJ
tanned two or three times what their
silver was really worth.
Analysis of the limited number of
laws, I believe, shows the trend of
the Barton program. It may be
that he will never get to first base
with any of them. My conviction,
however, is quite to the contrary. I
firmly expect to see a growth in
the strength that such a program
will muster.
About the time you are reading
this column, there will be an Incl
~, dent taking place
Milestone in way off in Tient-
Army History sin, China, that is
a milestone in the
history of the United States army.
Late in February orders become
operative for the departure of the
Fifteenth United States infantry
from Chinese soil. That, of itself,
Of course, does not provoke particu-
lar interest. But the famous Fiji
teenth has been on foreign duty for
26 years and that is the longest any
unit of the United States army ever
has been away from our shores.
It ought to be explained that very
few of the soldiers making up the
Fifteenth infantry were with the
outfit when it first was assigned
overseas. But the regiment has
been stationed abroad and the re-
cruits to it's ranks have been dis
patched continuously to it as re-
tirements and expiration of enlist
ments have occurred. It is now
coming back to American soil and
will be stationed at Fort Lewis.
The Fifteenth has most honor
able record, beginning with its or
ganization in 1861. 1t won honors
at Shiloh and in the campaigns of
1862 in Alabama and Kentucky. It
fought at Murfreesboro, at Chicka-
mauga, Chattanooga, and at Allan
ia. In 1880, it was at the frcnt in
the campaigns against Utes, and
again in the China relief expedition
of 1900, and these were followed by
action in the Philippine insurrec-
tion. There was a brief spell when
the regiment was on home soil, but
then it went to work in Cuba. Sub
sequently, it was moved around
here and there until the Manchu
dynasty was overthrown and China
became a republic. It sailed for
Tientsin in November, 1912, and
there it has remained.