Browning chief., 1947-06-13
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VALUE OF DOLLAR SLOWLY
CLIMBING TO NORMAL

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each pay day the number of dollars
the boss passes out to us today, and
have each dollar buy what it would,
say in 1910.
AT that time, and down to 1888,
for each dollar we turned in the
government would give us, if we
wanted it, 100 cents worth of gold at
that 1910 price of gold. Our United
States currency, down to 1888, was
backed by gold. Then, like most
other nations, we quit the gold
standard; devalued our currency by
one third by raising the price of
gold, and our dollar had no stand
ard of value. A dollar was worth
only what dollar would buy.
During the peacetime years
between 1888 and 1871, the gov
ernment was spending each
year for unpr0ductive work, bill
lions Of dollars more than it was
taking in, and increasing the
number Of dollars in circulation
to the extent of billions.
With no standard of value, and an
increase in the number of dollars in
circulation, there was a decrease in
what each dollar would buy. For
each dollar we could not get as
much value in clothes, food, fuel or
other necessities and luxuries be-
cause there were too many dollars
and no standard of value. Had we
have maintained gold standard
we would not have had the surplus
dollars, for we would not have had
the gold needed to back them.
LIMITED INITIATION
AS long as the amount of COM
modities produced kept pace with
the demand of the ever increasing
number of dollars in our pockets,
competition helped to keep prices
down and the purchasing power of
the dollar up. But we had imitation
in limited way. By 1941 our dollar
was worth in commodities about so
cents.
Then came the war. Our factories
turned from producing things our
dollars could buy to making of the
implements of war, the only pur-
pose, or value, of which was
destruction. Competition changed
from that of sellers to that of buy
erS. 1t was race between rising
wages and rising prices. There we're
not enough peacetime commodities
to meet the demand of our all too
many dollars with no fixed value.
Under such conditions the govern
ment's effort to fix prices resulted
in creation of the black market.
These things, despite the ex-
cessive taxation on the part Of
federal and local governments,
meant additional initiation, and
that we still have. Our present
day dollars, with no fixed value,
today will buy less than one
third of what our 1910 dollars
bought.
Today we have such a large
number of destanda rdized dol
lars in circulation, 10 times or
more as many for each of us as
in 1910, that the dollar has
long hard road to travel before
it gets back to that 100 cents
value it had before the govern
ment devalued and destandard-
lied it. That, together with war
conditions, reduced its purchas-
ing power to the approximately
30 cent value of today.
The tide has turned, and we are
climbing back very slowly. If we
could stop the issuing of additional
dollars we would gain in value more
A balanced budget will help
in that it will stop the issuing of |
more government bonds to be sold
to the banks, and government bonds
are largely the foundation on which
bank note dollars are issued.
1t will be happy day when our
dollars again can be backed by |
gold, when they have fixed value,
but that day is seemingly a long
way in the future.
DISTRIB BUTTON of money
without production of commodi-
ties the money can buy is
cause of imitation. General Mo-
tors pays wages to something
like 100000 employees, but pro-
duces product to take up those
wages, and more. The govern
ment pays wages to more than
1000, 900 civilian employees and
produces nothing.
DON JUAN, seemingly, does not
appreciate Francois intentions of
passing to the Spanish pretender
The crown Of Spain.
You help yourself when you
spend your money in the home
town.
In this age of speed we are in a
hurry to get somewhere, but we
are not sure as to the reason for the
lrge.
FOR A NUMBER of years the
American government was prolific
n producing plans that accom-
olished nothing other than in
national Indebtedness. We
damned and built towns in which no