The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1942-10-09
. Clapper
God Net the Fabulous
Symbol II Used 10 Be
Metal Has Lost Ms
Place In World Scheme
Goods. Not God. The
Great Consideration
~ RAYMOND CLArPER

>AHHIHA4 AtItAAItn NNNta nav
found in the newspapers this week.
wPR hss decided 20 close all Of
the larger gold mines OF the coun-
try.
Note The reason for that action.
II would have made no sense what
ever a few years ago. MPB h
shutting down On gold mining he
cause the miners are more valuable
at other work.
We need copper, not gold. We
need zinc. lead. nickel and man
ganeSe. They will buy US what
We need. They viii buy us air
plane engines. electric wiring for
bombers. armor plate for our tanks
and high-alloy steel for our gun
barrels.
We don't need gold now except
for filling teeth. We have % bill
lion dollars worth on hand. which
should be enough TO last through
the war. SO we finally do the
sensible thing. We stop wasting
the labor of miners who have been
digging needless gold and we put
them 10 digging metals we do
need.
This Is the prosaic end to some
thing that has been second only
to love in the hunger of the human
race. The struggle for gold has
saturated history and the fable
throughout the age Of man. from
Midas To the Klondike, from the
quest of the Golden Fleece 10 Cecil
Rhodes. Bright yellow gold was
the first metal to attract the eye
Of early man. II has been the OBJ
session of human dreams, the
common medium of exchange. the
yardstiek Of civilization. down 10
the time when the Roosevelt sd-
ministration tried 10 control all
prices by manipulating the pur-
chase price of gold.
We were slow TO see that gold
had lost its place in the scheme of
things. After the last World war,
some of our penetrating thinkers
recognized that production OF use
full things. capacity to make useful
things. was what counted. That
was pointed out in 1919 by Sir
Halford ]. MacKinder. from whom
Haushofer got his inspiration for
German geopolitik.
Maekinder was alarmed that
English people were saying Ger
many had been so impoverished by
the war that she would be harm
less for a hundred years. Mac
Kinder. in his widely ignored
Democratic Ideals and Reality
said such people were mistaken a.
to the real nature Of riches and
poverty in the industrial age. Hs
said productive power, not dead
wealth. was what counted.
Hitler had no gold. But he bull,
factories. Those were his riches
He had no money. But he put
people TO work making planes and
tanks. You are wealthy II you
have the things needed and poor
II you don't have them, no matter
what other goods you possess.
Britain thought she was wealthy
because she had the riches OF India
But she was poor. poverty-stricken
at Munich, because she had money
in the bank but no airplanes. Hit
Ter had no money, hut he had
planes.
We haven't used gold except In
sentimental way for a long time
We don't even use II as a yardstick
Of price. Gold reserves have no
relation TO prices now. Farm par.
ity7 That is nothing but an al.
tempt To measure prices by what
a farmers crops viii net him in
clothing. fuel. farm implements
and other things he needs. Parity
is a way Of arriving at . price
for farm products based on the
amount Of goods the farmer could
get for his crops back in so-called
normal years.
That Is an attempt at realistic
economies. Shifting gold miners
to copper mines IL another attempt
at realistic economies. Another
realistic attempt 10 priee-fixing
Ordinary balance Of supply and
demand has been shot 10 ruins. and
those forces cant regulate pnoes
under var conditions.
We must break away from dead
isngusgs. dead phrases. dead rules
ana apply this same kind Of gold.
mining realism 20 military STRAIT
egy, 70 foreign policy and 70 post
war world relationships. That'i
the way the Germans have beer
able to do 70 much with 40 little
and a. a result they almost tool
the whole ball Of wax away from
the sloS-Vitted dsmOcracles.
Were gong to get out u thi
only BY the skin Of our teeth an,
only b. being a. realistic in on
actions as they have been In theirs