Show I Report From Washington Beware the Ides of f March by Rep Laurence J Burton A soothsayer stopped Julius Caesar on his way to the Ro man Senate one one day Y and said Beware the Ides of March The Ides fall on March 15 and that was the day Brutus tas Cassius sius and the boys cut Julius Juliu down This year the Ides were not able because we had to ask our frI n c 4 a A n elude clude France to In effect close the world gold bank in or der to decide how to meet the run This they did Friday the GOLD TOUR Last week I caught an 8 lIm am air shuttle from Washington to New York where two of my my col col- col colleagues leagues and I had made ar ar- ar arrangements to tour the gold hoard at the New York Feder al Reserve Bank during the morning have lunch with the officers of the Federal Reserve at noon and spend the afternoon touring the United States Assay office Forty per cent of the gold of the free world sits in the basement vault of the Reserve Bank of New York 70 feet be be- be below low the b busy sy streets of the fin fin- financial ancial district 50 feet below sea sealevel sealevel level and resting on the bedrock of Manhattan Island It has hasto hasto to be on bedrock because it Is Isso isso so heavy There is billion of it in ingold Ingold At gold bricks At Fort Knox there is a little more than 8 billion and at the US Assay of of- of fice ice there Is slightly under 2 billion The United States owns the gold In Fort Knox and at atthe atthe the Assay office but the billion in the Federal Bank be be- be belongs longs to more than 70 other countries MR CLEAN CLEAN One almost has to prove he heis heis is Mr Clean Clenn to get Into the vault undo even then no one gets through the series of clanking doors and armed guards unless he is accompanied by two armed guards and a senior official from three sep sap orate arate departments the bank its Itself EJ f auditing and sec J F locks and each departmEnt must undo its own lock let Jet us through and then relock the thedoor door Once Inside the vault one has the impression of being inside a penitentiary as there are cells each with huge iron irn bars and th three ee locks on each door On the floor outside some of the cells are gold bars on steel framed pallets and Inside each cell Is a glistening yellow hoard of gold The bars on the pallets are being transferred from flom the account of one country to another For example if Great Britain buys 50 million worth of beef from Argentina that amount of gold is moved from her account to the Argent Argentine ne ce cell 11 In the case case of our country if we spend pend 40 million to purchase goods from Great Britain we weI move that amount of gold up I the street five blocks from the Assay office into Britain's cell at the bank At the bank the bars are weighed on a scale that Is so delicate it shows the tho weight of ofa I Ia a one dollar bill If you write your name on the dollar bill in either ink or pencil and put it back on the s scale ale it will reflect an increase in weight because o 0 the added Ink or 01 lead The bars are about the size of an ordinary building brick ex except that they they weigh about 28 heavy pounds I asked If I might pick up one and our guide said sternly Yes as the two guards crowded in with their guns and the six eyes from bank aud aud and security observed ed cd carefully BACKING REMOVED This week your vot- vot voted ed to take the gold cover backing from your currency and closed the world gold bank International hankers met in Washington this weekend to figure out how to help Uncle Sam stabilize the dollar or in other words to keep from devaluing it as the had to do with their pound sterling in November Several years ago your Con Con- Congress gress voted to take silver out of the coinage for the first time since the first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander lIam Liam- Won Uton issued the first coins of the United States in 1792 We will coin no more silver dollars donars and the silver certificates will willI I not not be redeemable after this coming June 24 There are those who have said all alon along that we could pursue this disastrous spending course without any of this happening I wonder how they feel this morning Oh YES YE'S they gave s 1 a pam pam- pamphlet last week at the New NewYork NewYork York Federal Reserve Bank Ironically it was entitled Keeping Our Money Healthy and it actually says The dol dol- dol dollar lar is as good as gold You'd better believe it be be- be because cause French bankers dont don't |