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Show SILVER EDICT NEEDS ACTION BY CONGRESS Mining Men Want to Lift Uncertainty Left by Proclamation Feeling seemingly was growing grow-ing among Utah mining men Wednesday that early action by congress will be necessary to lift the silver industry out of the bog of uncertainty that was opened by the new silver price proclamation. procla-mation. At tha aama time, In Waahlngton, D. C, a charge waa made that the atlver-purchaae program haa eauaed "public confusion" and International Interna-tional 111 will. Senator Townaend (R., Del.), Introduced In-troduced a reeolutlon calling for a joint congressional investigation of tha entire arrangement, saying In a press statement that si per cent of silver purchasea under the act have been made abroad. Mora In Clrculattoa "There la now more etnas three timea as much silver In public circulation as there was In circulation circu-lation before the program started," he aaid. "In addition there are held idle In the treaaury not as backing back-ing for ailver certificates almost 1,000.000,000 ounces of silver costing cost-ing over lo30,000,000." Possibility that unless a olarltl-catloa olarltl-catloa were forthcoming soon smelters would be able te pay only tha foreign price to producers of newly mined silver was expressed by W. J. O'Connor, general man-sger man-sger here for tha American Smelting Smelt-ing and Refining company. May Pay Ferelgn Price) Unless there is clesr Indlcstlon that the government will accept, at the ot.se.cent price, all ailver mined up to June 30, we may get orders to tart, say April 1, paying producers tha foreign price, with the remainder remain-der to be paid when, ae and if we are assursd ths domsstic pries on all silvsr mined up to June 30," he said. The uncertainty grew out of the deadline of June 30 for delivery of silvsr to the mints, aa aet in the Saturday proclamation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in which he reestablished tha treaaury price of 4.S4 cents an ounes. As some mining Isadora aee It, the length of time required to process snd deliver silver to the mint would hsvs ths effect of setting set-ting sn ssrlier deadline on mining operations, depending on the processing proc-essing and shipping period. Curtailment Seen Views raneed uowsrd from an "almost immediate" curtailment of mining operations. Mr. O'Connor expressed the opinion opin-ion thst ths government would repeat re-peat Ita practice of, when psst proclamations proc-lamations were about to expire, announcing an-nouncing that all ailver mined up to the expiration data of the proclamation proc-lamation would be accepted. "I am not eepecially worried on that acore," he aaid. "With the senators sen-ators ws have back there, I feel certain that the government will announce that silver mined up to June 30 will be acceptable." Others, however, ssw legal difficulties.. diffi-culties.. Senator William H. King, talking to a Telegram repreaenta-tlve repreaenta-tlve in Washington, D. C, said that (Continue on Pom Twtlvt) (Column Six I CONGRESS ACTION HELD NEEDED TO CLEAR MUDDLE ON SILVER (ConUauee From Peg Oner while there waa no queatlon of the authority of the treaiury to continue to purchaae ailver, the price the treaaury la to pay la another matter." mat-ter." - "Ai long aa the ailver purchaae act remaine on the books, the secretary sec-retary of tha treaaury muat continue con-tinue to purchaae until the atock of government ailver conatitulea one-fourth one-fourth of the metallic monetary baae. On tha baeia of preeent atorka of gold and ailver, thia requires the purchaae of a billion and a half ouncea of ailver to bring about tha legally f'xed ratio, unleaa the price. In tha meantime, ahould reach 1 1.2 an ounce. "Thia law la mandatory: It leavea no dlacretion to the aecretary. But, of cnurae, the ailver purchaae law itaelf doea not direct the president to fix the price, and it mignt be that the aecretary of the treaaury. though ha continued purchasing, might buy al the world price after June 10, if nothing la done by congress con-gress In tha meantime to provide payment of mora than tha world price for domeatie ailver." , Thia difficulty, a some ace It, arises frnm tha fact, that tha president. presi-dent. In hta December 11 proclamation, proclama-tion, alluded to the authority under the gold reserve act, which expiree Juno 10. It alluded alao to the amendment to tha agricultural adjustment ad-justment act which eome hold alao expiree June M, 1J and le the sliver purchaae act. Earlier proclamations have alluded al-luded to all these authorities but the June SO expiration dale la regarded re-garded aa Injecting a new factor. W. H. Eardley, smelter manager for the United States Smelting, Refining Re-fining and Mining company, discussed dis-cussed the possible effects of the June 30 deadline la the following statement: "The smelters already have ores, by-products and bullion on hand, the silver In which waa paid for on the basis of tha 14 M-cent price. "Naturally, they will have to recover re-cover the ailver from theaa products and deliver suck ailver to the mint before June JO, 139. "The amount of new era that can be procesaed and the ailver therefrom there-from delivered to the mint before i June SO, IMS, Is, of course, problematical. proble-matical. Could Bo Improve! The situation could bo Improved by making all ailver mined up to June JO. 13, eligible for the M-cent M-cent price or by permitting ailver mined during 131 to be turned into the mint after June ao. 13. "But there now arises tha queatlon quea-tlon as to whether the new proclamation procla-mation supereedea tha ona covering cover-ing 1(3 production, necessitating the delivery of ailver from ores 'produced during 131 to tha mint by June SO, 1311. "In such event tha 138 product would have to bo worked up first and aa much of tha new product aa will be possible to mill, smelt and refine, and deliver the silver there-from there-from to the mint by June 10, 13." Mew by Thomas The view that congressional action ac-tion would bo neceaaary waa strengthened by a statement by -Senator Elbert P. Thomas, also made in Washington, D. C that ha believed the president, acting under the amendment, could not -fix a price on newly mined do- maatie ailver running beyond Jane 30 and that that price necessarily had to apply only to ailver delivered deliv-ered to the mints by that date. Author of that amendment, Senator Sen-ator Thomas feels that congress, before June 30. must reenact the amendment or some comparable legislation If the price la to be kept after that date. In that he feels , that the price must refer to the mint-delivery data rather than to the dale of mining, the senator waa regarded here aa giving little hope for governmental announcement making ailver mined up to June 30 acceptable. Senator King, aa chairman of tha senate ailver committee, waa fx-pected fx-pected to call an early meeting of w astern aenatora to draft legislation. legisla-tion. Their task is seen aa twofold: two-fold: To retain tha ailver-purchase r act and to continue the president's authority to fix a price stimulating u thia important western industry. Senator Thomas feels that there are enough votea to enact aiiver legislation, but believes that aiiver will not bo dealt with alone, but aa part of a new general monetary law ha expecta to be drafted by the treasury department and submitted sub-mitted to cognreaa by the president. |
