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Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. ONE OF MY MEMORIES of early childhood days is that of a sizeable -hite house, standing in spacious grounds, in Bloomfield, Iowa. It was the show place of the town, the home Df General Wtaver, the town celebrity. celeb-rity. Locally, at least, the General was th,e reputed instigator of the "greenbacks," the printing press currency that had nothing more back of it than the government's promise to pay. You could get another an-other "greenback" in exchange for the one you had depending on the point of view. General Weaver was rated either an outstanding patriot, a financial genius or a charlatan. charla-tan. It was not a day of economists and he was not classed as such. Today the government is issuing many strange varieties of printing press money that is not backed by the authority of congress but the treasury department and the army do promise to pay. With one or another an-other of these varieties the men and women of our armed forces serving serv-ing abroad are being paid, and to them the strange money is entirely acceptable. It is classed as invasion currency. For the troops in Italy, for example, ex-ample, we are printing Italian lire that have equal value in Italy with that of Italian national currency. They can be exchanged for American Ameri-can dollars on a basis of 100 lire for one dollar. The American soldier sol-dier in Italy who has $50.00 due him receives from the paymaster 5,000 Italian lire produced on printing presses in Washington. As we invade, or have Invaded, each country invasion currency will be, or has been, issued. There are, or will be, French francs, Belgium belgas, Holland guilders, Norwegian krones and many others. Probably the most unusual variety of this invasion currency is the Hawaiian dollar, used, and accepted all over the islands of the South Pacific and countries of the Far East in which American troops are fighting, but not in Hawaii. Its value is based on that of the Japanese military yen. Authorizing and valuing of United States currency is constitutionally con-stitutionally a function of congress. con-gress. This invasion currency was not authorized by congress but by the treasury and war departments de-partments as a military expedient. expedi-ent. Billions of it has been printed and paid to our armed forces, or used in the purchase of supplies in invaded countries. How and when it will be redeemed re-deemed is anybody's guess. While it has been issued on the basis of a fixed exchange ratio, with the currency of the countries coun-tries in which it is used that value could be wiped out by a wild inflation, such as Germany had following the last war, in those countries. That would leave the United States holding the bag with billions of invasion currency to be redeemed at a fixed ratio. Whatever the end may be this strange currency is serving a useful purpose in fighting fight-ing a financial battle with our enemies, along with the war of bullets. I wonder, if old General Weaver could be alive today, would he approve ap-prove of this, our latest venture in printing press money. I expect he would. OF WHAT DOES our boasted American culture consist? Does it cause us to prefer the "funnies" oi the newspaper rather than attract our attention to the history-making news, the commentaries of the columnists col-umnists or the opinions of the editorial edi-torial page. In one community a local writer contributed pieces on serious and timely subjects to the columns of a local daily paper. Over many weeks there was no reaction, no comments, from any one in the community. Then he wrote a piece abou! Charley Chaplin, whom he had known in past years. Chaplin was then bekig tried for alleged violations viola-tions of the Mann act. That piece brought instant response and state ments of interest. The writer, as one who had known Chaplin, rose in the estimation of the people of the community. Does the incident illustrate the status of American culture of today? Have we degenerated from the At lantic Monthly to the bathing beautj picture books? If we have, ha! America a culture that is wortfc saving? It might be well to tak our America of today apart and se of just what it is made. SOME MEN, MANY OF THEM CHOOSE politics as a career, t government job is more desirabli than being on relief. Others, a fai smaller number, select public serv ice as a career. They are a typi whose earning capacity would bi much greater in private business oi a profession. There is a vast dil ference between the two. We nee the public servants. THE POLITICAL OPPORTUNIST is not a valuable public servant. Hi is of value only to himself. |