Imperial Valley press., 1942-07-01
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison

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There's n move On now 20 get
back into general circulation some
S4 billion worth of gold certifi-
cates-meaning folding money OF
various important denominations
bills which have been stored in
those mysterious u. S. Treasury
vaults even since 1884. when the
country went off the gold standard
and all those beautiful yellow bank
notes were called in.
These 81 billion worth Of
masterpieces of the engravers'
art of the new, small series of
1928 size-not the old bedspread
or tarplulin size that adorned
pOcketboOks i'm the last war.
Furthermore, this 81 billion
worth of the short yellow is all
brand-new spending money of
the criSpy, crunchy kind that
crackles and snaps like boot
blocks shine rag playing a tune
over new brOgans. This neat
government hoard of the root
of evil represents reserve
stock that was printed up back
in the days when such currency
still was legal tender and
spendable paper of the realm.
The move to get this money back
into circulation represents no deep
dark inflationary plot. The alarm
ist fear that the printing presses
might be started to reduce some
of the public debt hasn't been real
lied yet The idea is simply sign
that in an emergency it's possible
to cut through red tape and use
common sense, like this:
As business expands and national
income goes up, there is an increaS-
ing demand for more money in
circulation. This $4 billion reserve
supply of gold notes represents a
81 million printing job, taking into
account the cost of paper, ink, ny
lon and time on the presses. All
these materials are now scarce. To
print up a new batch of green
backs sufficient to take care OF the
war demands would cost another
50 million or so. The logical con-
clusion would be to bring these old
gold certificates out of the safe
and put them to work
Y MARKS THE SPOT
Cne obstacle to this plan which
| has apparently been overcome
concerns a LITERAL translation OF
the languages printed Oh these gold
notes. On each bill it says, Re
deemable in gold" meaning that if
you wanted to get tough, you could
shove one of these through the
bank teller's window and demand
gold coins for it. Of course there
aren't any gold coins in circulation
and there can't be, as long as the
country is off the gold standard
unless the law is changed.
At first it looked as though
these cold storage gold notes
couldn't lie used unless they
were run through the printing
presses again, and that Re
deemable in Gold" phrase
! XXXXXX'd out.
But finally the lawyers and the
anti-red tape experts decided that
since the law oil 1884 said you
couldn't circulate gold coinage, ii
didn't make any difference what
it said on the face of the gold cer-
tificates. So the idea now is to
! go ahead and use the old things
anyhow. and tell everybody to pay
no attention to what it says about
being redeemable in the stuff that
clinks and glitters.
BUST THOSE BANKS
From gold notes to two bitses
and five centses is quite a jump
but just to get you back down to
earth and your usual level again
the Treasury Department wishes
you would please break up all the
children's china pigs and other de-
vices for saving small change, sc
as to get all this subsidiary cur
roncy back into circulat on. The
reason is simply that there's such
a shortage CT all denominations
from penn" to half dollar that mer-
chants, payroll clerks and suct
people are having trouble making
change.
The Treasury line, if they
issue formal announcement
about il, viii not be a against
saving as such. Uncle Sam still
wants you to save all you can.
But instead OF saving il i'm
coins, buy savings ST mps with
1T. so as to get the copper, mic
kei and silver into use.
Cnc things that particularly wor'
rles the mint people right now /.
the unconscious boarding of meta
coins being done by juke boxes
automatic vending devices, pay
station telephones and slot ma.
chimes. II you just stop to contem.
plate the 20 or more nickels lyinl
idle in the craw CT every juk,
box of the country, it isn't hare
70 coniure up an image OF noun.
tain of metal in the form of small
change.
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