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Show Treasury Sees Extension of Silver Buying Program PROCLAMATION BY PRESIDENT FORECASTS00II ' Renewal of London' j .t Pact Held as I I Unlikely WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (INS) -President Roosevelt will con-, con-, tinue the government's domestic silver purchasing program in its present form by issuing a new proclamation before December , II, it was indicated today in treasury circles. Thin action will bo part of the administration'! drive to halt the current bunjneae recession. At the aame time, the United States probably will make no effort ef-fort to renew the silver treaty signed at London In 1033. under I which this country, Australia, Can-i Can-i ada, Mexico and Peru agreed to keep certain quantities of their silver sil-ver off the world market as a stabilising sta-bilising measure. Fixe Price k Some months after this treaty wss ratified, ths president, by prpc. lamatioa, directed the treexary to buy silver produced in Americaq mines at 77.97 cents an ounce. Ths proclamation, and the Lon-don Lon-don treaty, expire December 31, although al-though the president, by a supplemental supple-mental decree, can continue to fix the domestic price until June 30, . 1938. Under the silver purchsse sot, the treasury is directed to buy sil- ver until that metal equals one-fourth one-fourth of the nation's monetary i stock, or until the world price of silver reaches tl-2 per ounce. The current world price is about 44 cents sn ounce. I While there has been no obli-j I gstion upon ths tressury to psy 77 cents an ounce for American sil-! F ver, this price was fixed to satisfy, the congressional silver bloc, which contended Americsn mines faced bankruptcy unless this pries wu psid. I 'Expected Action While the administration has lit- . tie enthusiasm for the silver pro-! h gram, it is expected Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt will use his authority to con-: tinue the 77-cent price for the do-, mestic output. i f Senators Pittmsn (D., Nev.) snd I King (D.. Utah), leaders of the senate silverites, already have held several conferences with Secretary of the Tressury Morgenthau urging maintenance of the present price. , Should the president fail to issue is-sue a new proclamation, the price of domestic silver would fall to the, level of the world market Pitt-' man said such action would close virtually every American silver I mine, since it costs 60 cents to produce an ounce of silver in this: . country. I 1 , No Definite Word There has not yet been a word ' from the treasury as to what is go- l ing to happen after December 31 ? and this whole thing is an ex-, tremely serious matter." he assert- j ed. "The president should extend' his proclamation immediately be- I cause there is an uneasiness pervading per-vading ths whole western section. There is a lack of confidence and fear that ia preventing the flow of capital Into all kinds of mining i Industry." |