The Coolidge examiner., 1939-04-20
ECONOMIC HIGHLICHTS

Gold, as anyone will agree is pleasant commodity
to have. But economists have been wondering for
time isn't possible to have too much of iso much
indeed that there danger of becoming economically
valueless
The case in point is the u S. Government Five years
ago we had little than 1875, 000. 900 of
monetary gold Today have double that amoun-431,-
100000 ounces And the yellow metal is still coming into
this country from abroad at acceerang rather than
diminishing rate Hardly week goes by without gold
shipment.
If this gold were melted down into single ingot
it wouldn't be as imposing a spectacle you might
imagine 1t would make bar measuring 62 by 20 by 20
feet But that bar would have the incredible value-at
artifically established gold price of S35 per
Of over SIS, 900 900 00O
More important than the money value of
gold is the fact that it represents pretty close
to so per cent Of all the monetary gold in the world AL
most equally important, the U. S. News points out
the fact that the remaining foryodd per extreme
y badly divided England and France have the bulk of
it. number Of small powers have some. And three of
the great powers Germany, Italy and Japan, have
practically none-not than per cent of the total
Gold is flowing into this country for variety of
One that under law the Treasury must accept
every offered and pay S35 for it in currency
whether be used not and today gold
Is almost infinitely greater than requirements fgur
ing on the most conservative bass) Another increasing
y potent is that European capital is frightened
the possibility of war; and wants to get its money
away from the of pending hostltes pos
sibe The outlook then is for gold imports to
tnue to Even today is coming in at the rate of
s1OO,OOOOOO week-and if that rate to be con-
tinued in three years would have every ounce of
monetary gold in the world.
And that's what has the economists puzzled. 1t is
obviously possible especially in the of that we
may find ourselves with practically complete on
gold No other country would have enough to be worth
mentioning And, in that event, they would have to tie
oth
Already that being done in the fascist countries with
their nfinesimal gold Germany for example,
has virtually announced to the world that and will
get along without gold. And by the of the barter
SYSTEM "bocked marks etc. it has gotten along so far
Whether it keep going in the future without
further mperiling its less lottery economic
structure is a matter for conjecture.
1t is hardly matter for conjecture however, that
all the other powers finding themselves without gold got
together and decided to revise their monies and trade to
fit other standard it could eventually be done And
then we would find ourselves with S25 900 900 900
worth of gold which was useful for ornament and for
almost nothing else But that of not imminent
possibity-France and England, which still are the
great financial powers of Europe have shown no ncna-
on to throw gold board And the fact that gold has
symbol of sound value and security to the human
race for tens of centuries would likewise make its abolish
the primary instrument of international trade and
the mainstay of currencies extremely difficult
Some talk is going the rounds about the possibility
that this government might its huge gold to
bring initiation certainly could be done But judging
by the cautious non-experimenaP attitude of the pres
ent Congress- there's small danger of any significant in
flaton occurring
The stock marget has been going down in the face
of little change in business One is the fear of
the day Italy invaded Albania shares took tremendous
drop and the ticker couldn't keep with sales Another