Newspapers / Carolina Watchman (Salisbury, N.C.) / Jan. 8, 1932, edition 1 / Page 2
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Uncle Sam’s Golden Yardstick Measures , All World Money BY CALEB JOHNSON Gold is today the measure of valuf the world over. That is not because gold in itself is any more valuable than any other metal, but because it i: rather easily stored and does not rusl or corrode. When it comes to actua: value in usefulness, there is no doubi that a ton of steel or of copper i: more useful than a ton of gold. But from time immemorial gold has been the principal standard of wealth, as it is today practically the world’; sole standard. It is a yardstick, in fact. All units of measure are arbi trary. They represent something agreed upon between individuals and nations, and individuals and nations are unanimous in agreeing that gold, measured by weight, is the standard by which all money and all wealth is measured. For thousands of years, when silver was less plentiful than it is now, silver was the principal money standard in many parts of the world and until comparatively recent times both silver and gold were used as measures of wealth everywhere. Until after the great European war the gold unit by which all other money and wealth was measured was the English pound sterling. It is curious that the name of this unit comes down from the days when silver was the stand ard. A "pound” in money was a pound of silver. But by the early part of the nineteenth century silver had begun to be so plentiful by comparison with gold that it no longer served as the best standard of money, and first Eng land and then one by one the other na tions of the world accepted gold as the sole monetary standard. The val ue of the gold pound, measured by United States dollars, is $4.8665. That represents- substantially a quarter of one ounce of the precious metal, which is so compact that a bar of gold, 6 3-4 inches long, 3 1-2 inches wide, and 13-4 inches thick, is worth $10, 000. All over tne world statesmen and economists are now discussing the pos sibility of arriving at some new agree ment by which silver will be restored, in part at least, to its former position as a standard or measuring stick for money. And the reason for that is that with the exception of the United States and France, none of the great nations of the world has been able to hold on to enough gold to be able to pay its bills in gold when gold is ask ed for. The English pound is no longer the standard money of the world. The American dollar has taken its place. For England went off the gold stand ard last summer and the pound today represents merely the British Govern ment’s promise to pay. And the'Biit ish Government is in such serious fi nancial difficulties, as compared with the United States, that the price of the paper pound has been as low as $1 20, and well under $3.50, instead of $4. 66, for several months past. In other words, the nations of the world are measuring their money and their wealth by the standard of the United States dollar. That is oe cause we have in the vaults of the United States Treasury, the Federal Reserve Banks and other banks, the largest volume of gold that has ever been ac cumulated under one flag in the his tory of the'world. We hold, in round figures, about forty-five hundred thousand thousand dollars $(4,51)0, 000,000) worth of gold, France has between two and a half and three bil lion dollars worth of gold behind its currency. __ui„ r_~i_i i_ that her trade with foreign nations got to a point where she could not col lect gold for the commodities she ex ported as fast as she had to pay out gold for the commodities which she imported. For while gold cuts very little figure in business transactions inside of national boundaries, it is the only universally acceptable medium of exchange in international trade. So, in order to prevent the complete loss of all of her gold reserves, England had to begin to refuse all demands for gold and to offer instead unsecured promises to pay, which is what the notes of the Bank of England amount to today. Nobody questions that event ually England will come back to the gold standard. Nobody in a position tc prophesy, however, is'willing to pre dict how long it will be before that happens. In the meantime, the money of the British Colonies has deprecia ted, measured by the United States dollar standard. Canadian dollars have been worth less than eighty-five cents in United States money for several weeks. Money of the other nations that have not been able to maintain the gold standard is also down when meas ured in dollars. One effect of this is to stimulate purchases by the United States from those countries. Foreign goods are cheaper in dollars than they have been at any time since the great European slump that followed th< wan If the rest of the world can in Japan’s Premier Tsuyoshi Inukai, new head of the Japanese Government, who warns the rest of the world to keep hands of? in Japan's difficulties with China. Five Point Value In Dairy Farming More attention to the dairy cow in North Carolina offers five opportuni ties to the North Carolina farmer. "While we realize the value of milk as a food and know that there should be at least one cow for every five per sons in the State, we should not over look the opportunities provided in in creasing the number of cows in all sections of the State,” suggests John A. Arey, dairy extension specialist at State College." In nearly every part of the State there is the opportunity to increase the number of cows so that the cream and milk may be sold. Farm dairying offers first a sure monthly cash income; second, profit able employment for farm labor throughout the year; third, a good market for home grown feeds; fourth, a system of farming that will check erosion and build up the fertility of the land, and, fifth, cash returns from pasure land that would otherwise be idle.” These five points were also recom mended by committees of farmers at the regional agricultural meetings which have been held in the State dur ing the past month, says Mr. Arey. For a person to engage in the sell ing of cream or milk, he should have a unit of not less than five cows for the expense of collecting either milk or cream from smaller herds is rather heavy. FIVE NEGROES ESCAPE Greenville.—Five negro prisoners used an angle bar ripped from the top of their cell to break out of the Pitt county jail. duce us to buy enough of their com modities and pay them in gold, they can speedily return to the gold stand ard. But in the present condition of business in the United States we are importing fewer commodities than for many years past. Some economic authorities do not believe that it is possible for the whole world to continue to maintain the gold standard, and there is a strong move ment toward some kind of a new in ternational agreement which would make a limited proportion of silver equal to gold as a monetary standard. They want to serve the double pur pose of putting up the price of silver, which is now around thirty cents an ounce, and has been in the past as high as $1.30, and of ihcreasing the metal lic reserves against currency. There are great areas with enor mous populations that have no use for gold. India, with its three hundred millions of people, was forced to the gold standard in 1926 by the British government, but the people of India still prefer silver to gold. The aver age worker in India seldom accumu lates enough surplus to invest it in even the smallest gold coin. The Hin du has no use for paper money, be cause he has no safe place in which to keep it. He wants to store up his wealth in the form of silver orna ments, bracelets and bangles which are often merely small coins pierced with holes, so that he can carry it with him all the time. ■c_i_i„ ___ pers or listens over the radio is going to hear a lot of discussions of this gold and silver problem in the next few months. In the meantime, it is well to keep in mind that one of the reasons why it is important is that all of the war debts owing to the United States from Europe, as well as all of the pri vate debts owed by foreign business to American bankers and merchants, are payable in United States gold dollars, and the rest of the world is very eag erly trying to find some way either to make it easier for them to get gold dollars or to reduce the value of the United States dollar. There is not the slightest chance, however, of the Unit ed States going off the gold standard, as conditions stand today. JAPAN ISSUES AN APOLOGY FOR CONSUL ATTACK Mukden, Manchuria.—The deepest apologies of the Japanese government were conveyed to the American con sul-general for the attack by three Japanese soldiers on Consul Culver B. Chamberlain. At the same time Lt. Col. Matsui member of the staff of General Shig eru Honjo, Japan’s Manchurian com mander, expressed the opinion that Mr. Chamberlain was attacked because he had treated Japanese soldiers "as if they were Chinese.” At a preliminary hearing conducted by Japanese authorities, it was brought out that the three men who set upon Mr. Chamberlain as he stepped out of an automobile bearing the United States flag and coat of arms, blamed the American’s "arrogant, provocative attitude” for the trouble. The Japanese government’s apologies were presented to Myrl S. Myers, Am erican consul general, by Kazuhito Morishima, temporarily in charge of the Japanese consulate. M. Morishima informed Mr. Myers that Lt. Col. Hyakutake, chief of the Japanese military mission at Harbin, had expressed the apologies of the army to Mr. Chamberlain. After being treat ed for his wounds—which included two deep gashes in his face—Mr. Chamberlain continued on his way from Mukden to Harbin. He is tak ing up his post there after a vacation in America. Two privates in the army and a Japanese interpreter, temporarily en gaged because of his knowledge of Chinese, were identified as the three attackers, M. Morishima said. He in formed the consul-general that the in terpreter had been dismissed, and the two privates had been arrested pending decision about whether they should be courtmartialed. DISCOVER KEY TO CONTROL OF SEX New Orleans.—A key to control of sex in the discovery that a battle be tween sexes starts in the original egg is one new year’s present of the Ameri can Association for the advancement of science. This discovery was describecr by Dr. Emil Witschi of the University of Iowa at'a symposium where the latest findings on how and why sex origi nates were presented. The battle begins the moment the new life starts in the embryo, the out er covering of which tries to become female, while the inner portion de mands to be male. One or the other wins, and that first battle settles whether that indi vidual shall be male or female. Dr. Witschi showed its progress in photo graphs of frog embryos. Usually, he explained, the cards are stacked before even this beginning, so that one or the other side is doomed to a futile struggle. The "cards” in this game of life are the sex chromo somes contributed from the parents of the young animal. But the stacking is not invariably sufficient. Dr. Witschis pictures re vealed that environment may come to the aid of one or the other disputant, and decide the contest. He photo graphed extreme cases where environ ment even overcame heredity and changed a sex already well defined. He showed low temperatures chang ing a male frog into female and high temperatures changing a female into a male. The fact that temperature will fix the sex of certain small animals has been known for some years, and used to produce sexes wanted at will. Dr. Witschis work explains why cold pro duces female and heat makes males. In low temperatures the outer cov ering, the female side, called the cor tex, grows faster than the inner male portion, named the medulla. Soon the cortex cells outnumber the medullas, and the females win. But in high temperatures the med ullas multiply the more rapidly,, and have their own way about producing a male frog, even if "he” was a "she” when the hot wave struck. . VICTORY DRIVE NEARING Wadesboro.—Banks D. Thomas, recently appointed Anson county chairman of the Victory Drive com mittee by State Chairman C. L. Shu ping, anhounces that the campaign will start January 14. At this time a committee will operate in every precinct of the county and every vot er w 11 be asked to contibute. PROFESSORS TRAVEL Raleigh.—Members of the faculty of N. C. State college attended several scientific meetings in various parts of the country over the Christmas holi days. All of them paid their own expenses as the finances of the college do not permit any travelling expenses. Crusader of the ’90s Portrait of Dr. Charles H. Firk hurst, painted by Paul King recently, hangs in the rooms of tile Clergy Association of New York. Dr. Farkhurst gained world-wide fame by his attacks on political partner ship with vice. HOOVER SURPRISES CONGRESS WITH A SPECIAL MESSAGE Washington.—President Hoover in a surprise special message to Congress Monday urged immediate action upon his emergency economy program. He declared emphatically, the mes sage said, for "even more evidence” than when it was first laid before Congress and pleaded that here be no partisan action, that there be un ity in swift adoption of the eight measures previously proposed by him. "We can and must replace the un justifiable fear in the country by con fidence,” he said. Here are the measures he named: Strengthening of federal land bank system already passed by the house. Creation of $5 00,000,000 recon struction finance corporation. Creation of a Home Loan Discount Bank system to revive employment ind stimulate home building. Enlargement of discount facilities of federal reserve banks. Development of a plan to restore part of the money in closed banks to depositors. Revision of the law relating to transportation as recommended by the interstate commerce commission to "restore confidence in the bonds and railways.” Revision of banking laws in order the better to safeguard depositors. Reduction of federal expenditures "adequate increase of taxes” and re striction of issues of the federal se curities. Always Read The Watchman! Gambling? YOU are gambling if you keep your valuables in your home without ade quate protection from fire and theft. Why take this chance when you can buy a Meilink Fireproof Chest for $|Q°o II II SEE THEM AT ROWAN PRINTING CO. 126 N. MAIN ST. PHONE 532 SALISBURY, NORTH CAROLINA | . 1 ROWAN NATIVE IS MURDERED Four negroes, two of whom were trailed by blood hounds, have been ar rested in connection with the slaying in Yazoo Gity, Miss., of John L. Ed dleman, native of Rowan county and former resident of Concord. Ffe was shot Saturday night as he left the gar age of his home. Mr. J. Ed Cline, sister-in-law of Mr. Eddleman, has been advised that the wounded man lived only about 15 minutes after being shot. Robbery is thought to have been the motive for the attack. Mr. Eddleman, who was in his 65 th year, lived in Concord several years ago, being an overseer with the Can- , non Mills Co. Ffe was born in Rowan county, near Ebenezer church, a son oif the late Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Eddle man, and was married to Miss Emma Strieker of Concord on October 19, • 1892. Surviving are his wife; two sons, Louis, of Meridan, Miss., and Thomas, a student at the University of North Carolina; two brothers, Calvin, of Rowan county, and Albert, of Mays Landing, N. J. Mrs. R. L. Doiighton, , wife of Congressman Doughton, is a , sister of Mrs. Eddleman, and the fam ily is prominently connected through out this section of the state. i Mrs. Cornelia Brice Pinchot, wife of the Governor of Pennsyl vania, announces that she will be a candidate for the place now held by Representative Louis T. Mc Fadden. THREE CHILDREN BURN Red Springs.—Three negro children verc burned to death and another :hild was brought to safety in a fire lere. It is thought that the -house :aught from a lantern hanging on a Christmas tree. CAT IN MAIL BOX Greensboro.—Kids, playing with a :at, started trouble here ■ when they leposited the cat in the letter box. A nother of one of the kids called at :he post office and had a clerk to go >ut with a key and free the kitty. THE NEW . . . Underwood Portable $1.00 weekly BUYS THIS WONDERFUL LITTLE Typewriter • STANDARD KEYBOARD —Plus— MADE BY UNDERWOOD! Think of what it means to students. Re ports and exercises are no longer dreaded as dull duties . . . for these exercises be come part of a fascinating-new experience actually learning to do one’s own typing. There’s nothing that quite appeals to young people like learning to type ... And how they can make those keys click after a few weeks’ practice! Moreover, typing is an accomplishment that is a very val uable asset when a youngster gets out in the business world. Think of what an Underwood Portable will mean to the adult members of your family. How easy it is for a woman to keep her correspondence up-to-date when she can run letters off on an Underwood! An Underwood is even more of an asset to a busy man. It eases the burden of the extra work that he brings home from the office. SEE THEM AT Rowan Printing Co. 12 6 N. Main St. Salisbury, N. C. PHONE 532
Carolina Watchman (Salisbury, N.C.)
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Jan. 8, 1932, edition 1
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