COMMODITY PRICES

Evening Star, Issue 21580, 28 November 1933, Page 7

COMMODITY PRICES

AMERICA'S EXPERIMENT

SURVEY OF RESULTS v

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright

WASHINGTON, November 26

A comprehensive price survey declares that after a month of the gold buying experiment, the price level, based on the index of 100 commodities, has not increased anywhere in proportion to the increased price of gold. Actually it has declined a fraction of 1 per cent., while the value of gold has increased 13.29 per cent. The gold value of the dollar has decreased by 11.72 per cent. The average price of 40 domestic bonds has decreased by 4.74 per cent., and Government securities by 2.91, while 10 foreign Government bonds are up 3.18. CRITICS DENOUNCED WASHINGTON, November 26. A former Senator, Mr llobert Owen, one of the framers of the Federal Reserve Act, denounced President Roosevelt’s critics. Ho predicted that if an opposite course was taken —that is, continued deflation —recovery would be halted, the depression renewed, and there would probably be “a violent lunge into Communism.” MR AGHESON'S RESIGNATION OPPOSED TO GOLD BUYING.

NEW YORK, November 26

The ‘ New York Herald-Tribune ’ declares that Mr Achesou was forced from his Treasury post because of his contention that gold buying through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation was illegal. In a memorandum submitted to the President before his resignation Mr Acheson construed the provisions of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act as not being such as to allow its securities to be exchanged for gold. Countering this, the corporation’s counsel and the AttorneyGeneral (Mr Cummings) submitted opinions declaring that the corporation, was authorised to refinance itself through the sale of its securities, and thus purchases of gold were within the law. It is expected that Mr Acheson’s legal view will form the basis of a Congressional attack on President Roosevelt’s policy, with possible revision of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation law. FIXING OF GOLD PRICE PROFESSOR MOLEY’S CONTENTIONS. SANTA BARBARA (California), November 27. Professor Molcy to-day defended his former chief’s monetary policy. He asked: “ Someone has to fix the price of gold, and why should it not be the United States?” He added: “ For years the Rank of England fixed the price of gold and no one ever howled. Now that the President has decided to have the United States fix the price, why should there be any objections? There was no complaint when England was forcing the pound down from 4.86 to 3.25, so why should there be complaints now that President Roosevelt has forced the pound back, regaining the international trade that was being diverted to Britain by the decline in the pound?” THE UNEMPLOYMENT POSITION WASHINGTON, November 2G. (Received November 28, at 1 a.m.) The American Federation of Labour’s estimates declare that there were 10,076,000 unemployed in October, compared with 10,065,000 in September, which, it says, indicates that the N.R.A. is keeping the employment situation under better control than is usual at this time of the year. It is pointed out that unemployment during the depression years usually increased by at least 450,000 from September to October, due to the seasonal decline in industry. The report points out, however, that the President’s Re-employ-ment Administration put 1,000,000 men on emergency work this month, and 3,000,000 more are expected to follow.