Milford chronicle., 1948-09-17


ject Of imitation and PATTERSON
told me he had so
protected himself that he could
Withstand whatever disaster infia-
tion might bring.
HE TOLD AIE HIS protection con-
sisted Of putting away enough of.
what he termed good 100 per cent
money to see him through. In re-
sponse to my query as to where
100 per cent" money might be
had, he explained:
''YOU REMEMBER the money
we had up to the middle thirties.
Those large sized bills were re-
placed by the little ones that now
are used. On those large sized
pieces Of paper currency the gov
ernment printed its promise to re-
deem them in gold on demand. The
savings that will see me through
a defation are in that kind Of money
and it is'in my possession. That is
100 per cent value money. My gov
ernment makes good on its prom
ises."
TRIED, but did not succeed,
TO convince him that the currency
he held had no greater or diff.
ferent value than the currency
now being turned out on govern
ment printing presses; that the
gOvernment-his government
had repudiated the promise to
redeem in gold; that following
the repudiatiOn, the government
had fixed a higher price on gold,
decreasing the amount Of gold
in any one dollar by one third;
that IL maintained the new price
by buying all the gold offered, re-
gardless Of the country from
which il came; and that he not
only could not exchange the cur
rency he held for gold, but that
his holding Of that currency was
a violation of the federal law and
he could not use it as money.
COULD, think, understand the
belief and reactions Of the elderly
man. I rather appreciated his faith
in his government, even though it
was not well-founded.
THE BONDS that represent our
unprecedented national debt were
purchased by those who hold them
with dollars worth so cents or less.
We must redeem them with dollars
of the same value or the nation
faces bankruptcy. For us to go back
now to a gold standard at the ratio
we abandoned in 1894 would be prac-
tically doubling that national debt
We would be paying it off with 25C
billion 1OO-cent dollars instead oi
$50 billion 50-cent, or less, value
dollars.
SUCH A CONDITION does moi
mean we could not now go back to a
gold standard and by doing so sta
bilize our currency by giving il {
fixed value. We again could increase
the price Of gold, thus giving to each
dollar a less quantity Of gold, and 81
reduce the gold value to so cents Of
less. An international monetary con
ference might agree to fix such {
price for gold. If not, we could f2
the price and maintain it by agree
ing to buy all gold offered at tha
price.
SUCH A MOVE would stabilize
our dollars at about their presen
purchasing value. To maintain tha
value we would have to stop issuing
more dollars. Our present stock o
gold is sufficient to cover a golC
redemption promise on approx
mately 90 billion dollars Of printing
press currency now in circulation
but it would not permit a continuou
increase in the amount Of printing
press money in circulation.
THERE is A MOVEMENT on
at the present time for a return
TO the gold standard and a bill
TO accomplish that was intro
duced at the last session Of con-
gress. An effort to arouse inter-
est in the passage Of that bill is
being made by Philip M. McKen-
ma, president Of Kennametal COM
pany, LatrObe, Pa. With the prop.
er provisions to protect US against
an increase in our national debt,
returning to gold standard
would be the best way Of stabiIiz-
ing our currency, putting a damp
er on imitation and, incidentally,
restoring the faith Of my elderly
acquaintance in the integrity Of
his government.
THE FOLLOWING FIGURE
may sound fictitious to many farm
ers, but they are authenticated b
the agricultural department. In 10:
the farmer received 80 cents out
each dollar the consumer paid fl
food. In 1947 the farmer took
cents out Of each consumer foe
dollar. The rest Of the dollar wei
for processing and for profits
professors, wholesale and retail di
tributors. On meats the farmer
share went from So cents on eaC
dollar as a 1933-1939 average, to
cents in 1947.
Burblary Takes The Cal