The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1948-01-29

ganCe OF the fabulous Clldi ave-
known as the drunken sailor"
Auto Makers Were Not Loafing
Maybe you and a lot of other folks
didn't get that new car you were
hoping for in l947, but the auto man
ufacturing people were not exactly
loafing on the job in the year Just
closed, as a glance at latest produc-
ton figures show.
In the United States the factories
made 3,555927 passenger cars. Now
this is not a record figure but 1t Is
better than average for the industry
and probably would have been close
to the record if it had not been Tor
two things. One was decided short
age of materials, particularly steel
that forced facilities into idleness at
times during l947. The other was
the pressing need for truck transport
in this country. Much OF the mater
ial and production ability went to
make l,238447 trucks.
There is no argument about a
truck production record. 1t was well
over 100000 vehicles above the next
best wear in the United States, In
l94l. The total vehicular output
cars and trucks. put out in the Unit
ed States last year was 4'794'3f4'
Only 1941, 1887, and 1929 years beat
this total. So the auto men, you see'
| were not loafing.
! The year of 1948 will bring the
| auto industry new headaches, no
doubt. Steel mills still consider
scrap steel shortage as one OF their
| most serious problems in the year
ahead. We predict, however, that
American ingenuity will keep the
assembly lines going in l948 at a
pace equal to or better than that
A Safe Guess
| One editor in Washington declares
| in loud headline that he has made
discovery that "the Marshall plan
for aid to Europe will be approved
in some form"
One Initiation Aid
"A little known but highly lmpor-
tant event of 1947," according to
Francis H. Brownell, highly and
widely respected authority on mon
etary questions, was the increase IN
| gold stocks of the United States OF
over $2-billion."
Mr.. and Mrs. Average Citizen are
likely to skip this information as
thew hunt for advertised bargains
because they little suspect that in
| flated prices in their local stores are
directly related to our government
gold purchases, This relationship
| comes from the fact that our govern
ment, after the purchase, proceeds to
store the physical gold in the treas
| ury and then turn it into bank credit
money. It also increases by this am
cunt bank credit reserves, which
) makes possible increases of bank
credit through loans or discounts to
the extent Of five times such reserv-
es. Thus the 1947 gold purchases SER
we'd as the basis for increasing bank
credit $10-billion, which, plus the
original $2-billion, makes a total OF
$12-bilion. or a possible increase OF
bank credit money of Sc for each 81
of gold.
Mr.. Eccles, chairman of the FEEDER
al Reserve Board, on November Is,
1947, expressed the belief that the
inflow of gold in 1913 would be be-
tween 2 and billion dollars and
then added, multiplied by six, this
would permit an expansion OF bank
credit of from IL to Is billion dol
lars" Such an inflow would mean
a greater expansion of credit, more
easy money and subsequent infla-
tionary trend toward higher prices
for everything you buy.
MIR. Brownell has been leader in
the mining industry for generation
and student of the American
Smelling and Refining Company In
an open letter which he recently
wrote to Senator Charles w. Tobey
and Congressman Jesse. P. Wolcott,
respective chairmen of the Commit
tee on Banking and Currency in the
Senate and the House, he spelled out
the direct inflationary effect which
our heavy gold purchases carry
It is easy to see from Mr. Brown
ellis letter how our ownership today
of go per cent of the worlds none
tary gold and our continued heavy
purchases of monetary gold to IN
crease the dollar stringency abroad.
Mr.. Brownel suggests the way to re-
medy these situations is: !. Resclnd
the prohibition of ownership of gold
by United States citizens. O. Permit
free market, both in the United Sta
ties and elsewhere, for all gold in
Guiding United States mine produc-
ton, and 3. Leave the present gold
policy otherwise unchanged, continu-
ing the obligation of the treasury to