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Show I WALL STREET VIEWS By Jamas McMuDin, Financial Observer , . Actually the treasury baa bought halt billion ounces more than that figure, but nwamrMla its gold holdings have increased to Is billion doiiaxA. Be now. to reach the desired ratio of 1 to 1. it would still need to purchase snore than a billion additional ounces of allver ea top of the ( t billion In ita poaaeaaion. Like a man on a treadmill, the treasury has been running like biases for fly. years and is still Just about aa far from the goal aa when it , started. , The silver buying program was I also supposed to promote the wider wid-er uss of allver as a monetary metal In other nations and to im- s prove the purchasing power of silver standard countries. It baa had precisely the opposite effects. Insiders call the silver act the "Wrong Way" Corrigan of legia- , latlon, with the qualification that Corrigan at least landed earns-where. NEW YORK The euUUnding a reaction of key New York sources to Hitler's retchetag speech waa one of relief. Making due allowance allow-ance for the customary cheat-thumping cheat-thumping to Impress his German listeners, they read strong hints between tha lints that ha would much prefer to reach aa under-atanding under-atanding with his western neighbors neigh-bors than to fight thorn, rive points stood out in the Interpretations Interpre-tations of financial blg-tlmers. L Admission that a "grave economic eco-nomic situation" exiata In Germany. Ger-many. Taken as a bid for greater British cooperation in solving his economic problems; also as Justification Justi-fication for extension of German domination over the Ukraine and the Balkans. 1. Warning to the democratic powers not to Interfere with nasi ambitions. Applies primarily to projected penetration of the Ukraine and Rumania Perfectly safe, because neither England nor France haa the slightest intention inten-tion of opposing German expan-toon expan-toon to the east by force. ! I. Assurance met Germany win support Italy If Italy becomes involved in-volved In a war. This had to be said for world consumption, but it doesn't mean much. Hitler knowe perfectly well that Muaao-linl, Muaao-linl, for all his swashbuckling, will not of hla own volition start any war with major powers. 4. Talk of colonial demands. Interpreted aa poker playing. The beat Information Is that the Germane Ger-mane won't force the colonial Issue to the danger point In the near future. They will be too busy In eastern Europe. 5. Cracke at "warmongers" In the U. S. Taken as a defensive gesture to Indicate that Hitler isn't looking for trouble with this country and is anxious to avoid it if possible. On the whole, the speech is accepted ac-cepted as omen for peace between Germany and the western powera. What may happen to Poland, Rumania, Ru-mania, the rest of the Balkans and Russia is another story. 4 The suprems court decision last Monday dismlasing the private utility auit against the Tennessee valley authority was foreshadowed In this column. It carried much broader implications than moat people realise. t The court did not directly pass upvn was Luimuuiiuiia-vj vt VA, but that's no consolation to the utlliitea. So far as tha practical prac-tical result la concerned, the agency's activitlea in the powtr field have now had the official blessing of the nation's highest Judicial authority. But the essence of ths ruling goes far beyond the power indue-try indue-try in Its connotatlona The court rejected the private utilities' argument argu-ment on the basis that they hold no monopoly on the sale or distribution dis-tribution of power, and that therefore competition from whatever what-ever source Is legal. The logical conclusion from this must be that the government can constitutionally constitution-ally compete with private industry indus-try in any field it chpoeex. Suprems Su-prems court sanction for this theory gives industrial and financial finan-cial leaders the shivers. We recently reported that the government's silver policy has led to a huge accumulation of metal we can't possibly use at artificially arti-ficially high prices, and that Uncle Sam probably can never dispose of it except at terrifically heeary losses. Apart from this angls, sponsors of the silver purchase act atated thkt the ultimata objective waa "to have and maintain one-fourth ef the total monetary value of American gold and silver stocks in silver." When the act Vera me law, the treasury owned S7.Ue,-000.000 S7.Ue,-000.000 in gold. Deducting silver then on hand, we should have had to buy 1.328,000,000 ounces of silver to ranch this objective. |