-— Want Ad* Brine Result* The Alleghany Times Subscription Price - $1 * year in advance Volume 10, DEVOTED TO THE CIVIC, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF ALLEGHANY COUNTY SPARTA, NORTH CjAROLINA,THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1935. 6 PAGES Number 41. Washington Correspondent THE GOLD CLAUSE CASES The Supreme Court decision on the gold clause cases cleared the way for Congress and the Ad ministration to go ahead with the program of the New Deal, al though the legislative branch of the government seems to be in no hurry to puss measures submitted to it. By a five to four decision the Court upheld the power of Con gress to abrogate the ‘gold clause' in private contracts and although the power of Congress to do the same thing in regard to govern ment bonds was not upheld the further opinion of the Court that holders of these securities can show no loss and are hence en titled to no damages amounts to the same result. In this connection it is hardly worth while to attempt to cover the argument presented by either the majority or the minority opinions. However, it might not be out of the way to give a few facts concerning the situation. There are outstanding about $12, 000,000,000 in “gold clause” gov ernment bonds and about $16, 000,000 of non-gold clause obli gations. The gold clause bonds were issued during the war. Prof. Irving Fisher points out that the purchasing power of the dollar is now twice what it was “when the last Liberty loan was floated,” and that “persons who lent the government in 1918 and now get $1,000 back get twice as much in purchasing power.” Obviously this is what the ma jority of the Court had in mind when it said the plaintiff in the bond case “has not shown, or at tempted to show, that in relation to buying power he has suffered any loss whatever” and that to give him now an increase -of 69 per cent in dollars would “con stitute not a recoupment of loss in any proper sense, but an un justified enrichment.” It is worth pointing out, we believe, that the government bonds did not specify payment in “gold coin of or equal to the standard of weight and fineness” existing when the bonds were sold. The obligation was payable “in United States gold coin of the present standard of value.” TARIFF LOBBIES ACTIVE Strongly organized opposition to all concessions granted in re ciprocal trade treaties is certain and tariff lobbies will vigorously resist any effort to encourage for eign trade. Representations get to the President and affected in terests send out a stream of prop aganda, emitting shrieks and yells or real or fancied injury. It was so in the case of manganese, ; wine, cork, sugar, glass, cement and matches. It will be so in regard to almost every commodity that is touched. The lobbies are resourceful and acquire publicity rivaling that of the administra tion, insofar as the particular is sue is involved, and Congress men never fail to hear from those who think their tariff protection may be lowered. battling over the bonus The bitter battle between fac tions of veterans over the form of the bonus bill has been intensi. fled lately. Recently, Represen tative Patman queried Commander Belgrano, asking pertinent ques tions, and commanders of two vet erans’ associations have engaged in debate over the issue. Mean while, reports of a compromise are being heard, in the hdfce of pull ing the President over to quicker payment by an agreement that payment of the bonuB shall pre * elude all future claims. It is said that the administration is worried over what the future may hold when the inevitable demand for a service pension arises. FEAR PENSION DEMAND ■ If in the future a plain pension is given to all who served in the World War and to their depend ents if they are dead experts hes , itate to estimate how much it will cost. Already the American Le gion is advancing the idea of a pension for certain classes and it is but a step forward to ask for the same pension plan that now costs the government $86,000,000 ■ a year for the handful of soldiers who fought in the Spanish-Amer ican war. ’ At present survivors of World War veterans only benefit If death l is attributable to the war. Pen sions for survivors of other wars I are far more liberal and, if ex tended to those of the recent ^conflict, will require an immense l sum. At this time, and without including such a pension, the | Veterans* Bureau estimates that, P (continued on page ?) Fury Of Waiter Descends Upon Western States Snow And Hail Follow Great Dust Storms. Property, Stock And Crops Suffer Heavily Kansas City, Feb. 25.—Sleet, snow and hail drummed out to night a dismal finale to a wild weather display that pounded and tore from the Rockies to the Mississippi and beyond. At least 13 persons died, heavy property damage was recorded and stock and crops suffered widely from devastating dust storms and tornadoes followed by a blind ing blizzard. The wheat belt profited from the moisture of sleet, snow and rain—the first precipitation in some arid sections since last summer’s drought. Otherwise, the storm, appar ently centered tonight in the Great Lakes region with clearing weather in prospect elsewhere, left little on the credit side immedi ately recognizable as such. There were no available esti mates of the widespread- damage wrought by hailstorms, twisting winds and highway-choking snow banks in many states. In the great tri-state lead and zinc fields of Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, aid also near Wichi ta; Kan., mounting reports of losses pushed estimates of dam age in Sunday’s tornado past the quarter-million dollar mark. Tornadoes also struck in two sections of western Arkansas. Nine persons were injured. Of those dead in the siege of storms, six died in and near Chicago in traffic accidents. A 69-year-old woman, Mrs. El len Teague, died at Picher, Okla., from injuries received in the tor nado. Her husband and a small girl were "feared near deaths An other Oklahoman was found dead of exposure near Foss. He was believed to have been struck by a motorist blinded in the storm. A Milwaukee woman collapsed and died battling snowdrifts. A Wisconsin motorist skidded to his death in a ditch. Death struck strangely in Iowa, Colorado and Nevada. At Des Moines, a man fell dead shoveling snow. A young girl died in Colorado when her motor car struck a sand drift. At Loray, Nev., Raymond Abolos. 11, was killed when an icicle fell, hitting him on the head. Illustrative of the suddenness of the cold wave, temperatures at Frederick, in southwestern Oklahoma, fell from 77 to 16 degrees above aero during a dust storm. Similar reports were num erous. The midwestem tornado topped off a series of weather distub ances. They began with a dust storm Thursday that swirled over parts of Colorado, Oklahoma. Kan sas, Missouri, Texas and Neb raska. It accompanied a sudden cold wave that caused suffering among livestock in the range, country and threatened destructive frosts tonight in the lower Rio Gnmde truck citrus area of Texas. Approximately 139 persons were injured by the freakish twister. It was described as a brown, roaring funnel. A cow was picked up by the wind from a bamlot, near Wich ita, and was carried, spinning, approximately 100 yards. Dropped unharmed in a field, she walked back. When the tornado struck Jop Ccontinued on back page) McKnight Is Given Pounding At Home At Whitehead Rev. -C. H. McKnight was given a very generous community pounding last Friday night at his home at Whitehead, The oc casion was an expression of wel come to the minister, who has re cently gone iigp that community. Thirteen persona were baptised into the fellowship of the church at Pine Fork Sunday. This makes a total of sixteen repent additions to the church, which, it is said, had been, practically dormant tvf several years. The Rev. Mr. McKnight is appoint in the being requested to H ments at other churches Farmers May Apply For Loans Here In Crouse’s Office Farmers of Alleghany county may file their applications for loans with Mrs. Octavia Waddell, who is located in the office of Floyd Crouse, in the Court House in Sparta. Loans are now being made by the Wilkesboro Production Credit association to produce crops, pur chase livestock and also to make alterations, repairs and improve ments on farm buildings. Mrs. Waddell has charge of the local office, and Will Pugh, of Whitetop, is the inspector for the Association in Alleghany county. Gold Decision Looms As Issue In 1936 Campaign Many Think Hoover’s Statement Made Result Inevitable. Stirs Up Gold “Hornet's Nest’’ Washington, Feb. 23.—The su preme court’s gold decision has become inextricably tangled in the web of national politics and looms as an irrepressible issue for the 1936 presidential campaign. That result was made inevit able, many thought, by a state ment from Herbert Hoover, titular head of the Republican party,, pushing the vast implications of the verdict—and himself to the forefront of political discussions. His urge for a return to the monetary standards of other days stirred up, figuratively, a gold hornet’s nest. The situation was intensified by o quick and chilly reply from an administration spokesman, and by a torrid senate debate which saw two factions ’of the Democratic party battling each other on the court’s finding that the govern ment had no right to disregard the gold payment promise of its own bonds. Upholding in private statements Hoover’s view that the currency should be made immediately re deemable in gold, senate Republi can leaders for the most part scrupulously avoided taking any part in the acrid argument which divided the senators on the other side of the aisle. Instead they gleefully watched the Democrats fight it out among themselves and complacently not ted flying pencils and dashing copy boys in the press gallery overhead. Advocates Of Tax Substitute Answer Maxwell Raleigh, Peb. 26.—The dif ferences between Commissioner of Revenue Maxwell and the proponents of the substitute tax plan center around two