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Show SOME NEW FACTS IN THE HISTORY OF GOLD MONEY It is quite a comedown for gold to be used for money or the basis for currency. It would require a combination of historian, philosopher, banker, politician poli-tician and mystic to write the history of the precious metal, Dr. Frederick G. Howe, 'consumers' counsel of the Agricultural Adjustment administration, administra-tion, told the Cosmos club the other night Among the ancient Hindus it was revered as sacerdotal. "He who tampers tam-pers with it," said the law, "dies on a dunghill and rots in hell to the end of time." Only princes could so much as touch it Gold was first demoted to the profane pro-fane status of "money," Doctor Howe said, by the Lydians, who put the king's stamp upon it and used it as a medium of exchange. Interest Immediately Imme-diately arose to 36 per cent, farmers lost their land and sold themselves and their families into slavery In order to live. This 3G per cent, Doctor Howe said, was the first money Interest and arose naturally out of the former Ly-dian Ly-dian system of doing business. Trade had been primarily In cattle. When cows were sold on credit It was assumed they would have calves. So the seller demanded the price of a calf as additional payment This was calculated at about one-third the value of a cow. When you pay interest to the bank today you are paying, genetically considered, the price of the calf of the cow you borrowed. , Other notes on gold from Doctor Howe's studies : All the gold on earth Is worth about $11,000,000,000. It could be stored In a room of 30 cubic feet The workers of the United States could earn it all by working 00 days at $5 a day. They could earn all the gold In their own country In 20 days. The total of gold in the United States has about the same intrinsic value as to total of diamonds. Washington Star. |