V.gabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

With every day that passes I become more convinced that the only successful man is the one who is always trying to stir up a little fun and happiness, for himself and the other fellow. As Tom Dreier so well puts it: "The man who immortalizes each moment knows in the truest sense what immortality really is."

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An ofEcial criticism of the movies made during a discussion of the moving picture code at Washington was that they pay "unconscionable salaries to immature persons." What the "brain trust"er meant was that they pay big salaries to babies.

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Baby Leroy, famous infant of the screen and just now learning to talk, nearly ruined several sets in a recent picture by insisting on saying "Nuts" at most inopportune times. Some wag unknown taught him the exclamation and he liked it, causing many re-takes.

And then there was .n" *:, luno ,norrrht the Comrnunity Chest was the bust of the Mae West. ***

The truth and accuracy of certain cigarette ads are to be tested in a Federal Court. Aw, listen ! They'll be testing the sincerity of legal addresses to juries next. ***

Throwing Tammany out of New York City may be good for the moral situation, all right, but think of the unemployment angle !

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There is some question as to which is the fastest thing in the world, airplanes that fly three hundred miles an hour, or Hitler passing a synagogue? ***

Suppode we ignorant folks talk money again, for a minute. This nation through the R.F.C. is now in the market buying gold. We fix the price of that gold ourselves, arbitrarily. We say: "The price of gold today is $32 an ounce." So we buy it at that figure. Why so high, everyone asks? Let's see if we can guess. *rr+

Let us assume that we buy one billion dollars worth of gold bullion, at $32, which is about where it is today, according to our Governmental gold price fixing. We pay for that billion dollars worth of gold $1,600,000,000.

How do we pay it? In debentures-ninety day notes to be exact-of the United States Government.

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And what becomes of those notes? They are taken to the Treasury, of course, and cashed. There is an in,finitesimal discount charged for such cashing. So, by buying this billion dollars worth of gold bullion we have put into circulation $1,600,000,000 in currency. ***

But that isn't all. The billion dollars worth of bullion goes into the United States Treasury gold reserve. The gold reserve must be 40 per cent of any new currency issued against it. So that billion dollars added to our gold reserve gives us an actual gold reserve basis for printing and issuing $1,500,000,000 in currency-"sound money" socalled, backed by a gold reserve.

*'t*

So it seems that by arbitrarily fixing the price of gold at $32 per ounce and buying a billion dollars worth at that price we would put into circulation $1,600,000,0(X) currency which was paid for the gold; and make it possible to issue an additional $1,500,000,000 currency with the newly bought gold for backing; a total of $3,100,0000,0fi) that we could put into circulation today by buying a billion dollars worth of gold at the price we ourselves have fixed. Did I say "No infation?" Pardon me! My error! ***

When we had finished that transaction we would have a billion dollars worth of gold bullion in our national treasury, and $3,100,000,000 additional currency in circulation. Not bad, eh? ***

It looks, off hand, as though the guy with a little bunch of gold hidden away, was sitting pretty. A short time ago twenty dollars was the price of an ounce of gold. Today it is about $32. Drag otrt your hoard and get your huge profit. But there's another hitch. Uncle Sam has a law against hoarding gold. You might get your profit, and the Federal Pen might get you. So you see, there's no profit there. ***

The Hon. Stanley Baldwin, famous English Statesman, declared the other day that the American constitution has broken down, and that America is in the hands of a dictatorship. Nix, Stanley, nix ! Your trouble is you've been listening to General Johnson instead of President Roosevelt. And. there IS a difference !

The administrator's U"t*",r"" that the freedom of the press is NOT to be restricted by NRA-as has been frequently declared of late throughout the nation-wasn,t needed in my case. My respect and admiration for Mr. Roosevelt destroyed any possibility of such belief.

General Johnson n., -luJ" L. ", speeches in the past ten days, and declared in potent and fiery terms that 90 per cent of the nation likes the NRA. And I, who have traveled far of late, and talked to many men of rnany minds, can but marvel at such a statement.

The other day r sat ,": ; Jrr"rr,"", convention beside a man just returned from Washington, who was scheduled to speak in behalf of a code and the NRA. Just before he rose to speak, he said to me-,,God forgive me for being a hypocrite, for f won't mean a word I'm going to say."

As far as the lumber ,:J,t; is concerned, it looks to me as though they were trying to make a horse fit a harness; and I'm deeply concerned about the welfare of the horse.

A friend of mine says that every time he thinks about our present business-Governmental situation, he feels like Daniel Boone must have felt one time. Sorneone said to the famous *oo6"-3n-"Mr. Boone, were you ever lost in your life!" Daniel replied, "No, f never was lost: I was BEWILDERED for three days once, but I never was lost."

The lumber industry n* :*a lrr,"."U into ariother phase of enormous importance. The minimum price has arrived and isin force and effect. How will it result? What will happen as a result of it? The eyes of the industry will be fixed with intense interest on every day's developments in the next few weeks that must tell the story.

Most of the lumber "tO ," ati" p."a six weeks has been at a level far below the present fixed minimum. Mills that have tried to get cost for their lumber have had to sit on the sidelines and watch the available business go by. The chiselers got the orders-or most of them.

Even the United States Government whose code forced upward the cost of producing lumber, made many of its purchases for forestry cErmps from the lowest price makers, with no regard for the folks who were trying to back up the work of the NRA, according to report. ***

Composition roofing manufacturers who found themselves far underbid for this same forestry camp business, and found the contracts going to people not observing code rules as to hours and wages, had to go to Washington and wage a desperate fight to secure recognition for products made under code conditions. ***

Now we've got prices fixed and no one can legally sell below the government price. There will be some chisel-

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