The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, January 8, 1934, Page 4

2 Y.l, be regarded as a burden on taxpayers as a ' whole. This is undesirable but apparently in- %4 THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE, MONDAY, JAN. 8, 1934, Daily Alaska Empire GENERAL MANAGER KOBERT W. BENDER - - Published every evening except Sunday by the EMPIRE_PRINTING COMPANY at Second and Main Streets, Juneau, Alaska. Entered in the Post Office in Juneau as Second Class matter. SUBSCRIPTION RATES. Qellvered by carrier in Juneau and Douglas for $1.25 per month. By mail, postage paid, at the following rates: One year, In advance, $12.00; six months, in advance, 96.00; one month, in advance, $1.25. Subscribers will confer a favor if they will promptly | notify the Business Office of any fallure or irregularity in the delivery of their papers. Telephone for Editorial and Business Offices, 374. MEMBER OF ASSOCIATED PRESS. The Associated Press is wxclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to | it or not otherwise credited in this paper and also the | ALASKA CIRCULATION GUARANTEED TO BE LARGER THAN THAT OF ANY OTHER PUBLICATION. THE ALASKA BUDGET. The Alaska secton of the Presidential budget reflects the desire of the President to reduce the, regular operating expenses of the Gove.nment. The amount fo reach activity of the Federal Government is slightly lower for the coming fiscal year than was appropriated for it during the ‘cufrent one. The decrease, however, is large in no particular instance, except that for the Alaska Railroad, and no par- ticular injury, as far as can be seen now, will be done to any agency of the Federal Government. The | menagement of the Alaska Railroad recently tm—‘t nounced it would not operate at a loss during the| fiscal year Leginning next July 1. Thus, it is not| necessary to seek funds to cover the usual deficit. Due to the Federal emergency funds that have been allotted to the Territory since last Summer, | much of which is not yet expended, there will be a great deal more activity by the Government agencies here during the next fiscal year than there has been this year and for several years past. It is evident Alaska will not suffer even slightly from the reduced budget. PEACE BY DISARMAMENT DEFERRED. | The Disarmament Conference is apparently doom- ed to failure. Italy, France, Germany and now England have accepted that as inevitable. Thus,| the likeliest road to peace, reduction of armed’ forces, cessation of preparations for war, seems| blocked at least for the present and maybe for many, tional Highway. As the Times points out, it would visualize the project for millions in this country and Canada. Dramatizing a great improvement intelligently never militates against its success. At this time the world is excited to an extraordinary extent in the yellow treasure, and linking the enter- prise with the search for it would be smart publicity. The proposed highway across British Columbia, Yukon Territory and into the heart of Alaska has had much gratis publicity. It needs all it can get Calling it the “Gold Road to the North” smacks of sound phychology just now. Now that the returns from the CWA are pouring in from all over the country in the shape of better business and more cheerful people, some of those who condemned it at first as a crazy scheme are beginning to admit that it has something to it after all For the Government, as for the individual, there is but one way to reduce taxes—that is to spend less money. The Consumer in Recovery. (Cincinnati Enquirer.) Although we have paid lip service to the hege- mony of the consumer in our economic system for many years, it is undeniable that the United States has lagged far behind other countries in develop- ing machinery for the expression of the consumer's point of view on concrete problems. While England and Scotland and a number of Continental nations have seen a tremendous devel- opment of unofficial or semi-official agencies to represent the interests of consumers ds such, we in America have relied on the basic privilege of the consumer to buy what he wants and reject what he does not want. Of course that is the consumer’s strongest weapon, and always will be. But the exigencies of the NRA and related movements have shown that there is a legitimate place for the representatives of con- sumers. In connection with some other matters, such as tariff rates, there might well be provision for hearing the point of view of consumers as well as producers. To date the consumers’ councils sponsored by the NRA have not been strikingly effective. But the machinery is only partially completed, and in an- |other month or two we may find that this end of the recovery machinery is playing an important role. This will be the more true if price increases go so far as to increase the cost of living considerably and make consumers more self-conscious. Whatever the developments along this line, we should remember that the fundamental, long-run in- terests of consumers are nearly identical with those of producers. A workman is a consumer in respect of his expenditures, but his income is dependent on the well-being of a producer whose employee he is. A manufacturer thinks of himself as a producer, but the market for his product depends on the buying power of consumers as a whole. An Ascending Spiral. (Kansas City Times.) Of all the achievements of the Roosevelt Ad- ministration, since its brilliant handling of the banking situation at the outset, the institution of the Civil Works Administration has produced the most direct and effective. results. many years. At best it is a rough thoroughfare and as soon as one obstacle is removed or surmounted, others seem to grow. For the present, at any rate, the world will have to turn to other means of curbing Mars. If the nations cennot agree not to arm mightily, and will not reduce their present armaments, then the old machinery of treaties must be resorted to, even | though it has been pretty conclusively proven lhat" treaties are weak obstacles to war once national | jealousies and hatreds are aroused. In a recent speech at New York, Frank B. Kellogg, former Secretary of State, co-author of the Kellogg-Briand treaty of non-aggression, and mem- ber of the World Court of Justice, outlined this way to peace as follows: I believe that the road to permanent peace lies through the development of con- ciliation, arbitration and judicial settlement of those disputes which are today the great- est danger to the peace of the world and have for centuries produced war; that there must be a development of world sentiment, of public opinion, which will support those treaties and demands for the pacific settle- ment of international disputes. This can only be accomplished by educa- tion, by the activities of all the instru- mentalities of peace, the press, the churches, the schools and peace societies. In the last ten years greater progress has been made in this field than during all the turbulent history of mankind. That now seems to be the only road left open. By holding to it, constantly upholding conciliation, arlitration and judicial settlement, maybe the day will come when the world can have real disarma- ment. INCOME TAX REVISION. Among the proposals for Congressional action at the current session, is a revision of the income tax laws. Secretary Morgenthau has asked that adjustments be made to tighten up the loopholes through which some of the richest men. in the country evaded payment within the bounds of legality. Details of how the evasion were made were bared in hearings of the Senate Banking Committee during the past summer. It is proposed now to prevent future occurrences of this nature. It is proposed by Secretary Morgenthau to change the capital gains tax so that it will allow deduc- tions of capilal losses only from capital gains and to permit the carrying forward of losses only for one year, which will make it more equitable and at the same time more productive of revenue. This will tend to remove the anamolous situation whereby a modest bank clerk pays a $50 income tax while a wealthy banker pays nothing. By permitting losses to be carried forward one year, the plan seems to avoid undue hardship on those whose incomes are largely speculative. Inasmuch as they are expected to produce con- siderable additional revenue, the taxation proposals icreasingly popular and which men to work on local projects is getting the money to the grass roots. It is taking families off the relief rolls and permitting their breadwinners to earn a living. Their earnings are going for the purchase of goods which in turn is increasing em- ployment in the stores, and is being reflected back to the primary manufacturing and raw material industries. For, just as the descending spiral of unemploy- ment tends to increase the number of men thrown out of work by constantly cutting down the demand for goods, so the ascending spiral tends to bring back to work and restore business to a normal basis where there can be a constant exchange of goods and services. Research and Synthesis. (Cincinnati Enquirer.) Careful research in the social sciences tends, as always, to become more concrete end more ex- haustive. The books written in history and politics, economics and geography, even though for general sale rather than strictly scholarly uses, follow the same tendency. They subdivide the subject matter more minutely and deal with it more thoroughly. Tt is very difficult for Americans of this generation to think dis- passionately about silver. To a large part of the nation, the city dwellers, it is the symbol of dan- igers that were averted once and fer all in 1896; to discuss seriously the place of silver in the monetary system of the world seems like re- viving a heresy that was exploded long ago. I know that I have never until in recent years I began to realize it, been able to overcome my own childish memories of 1896 and that intuitively I hava looked disreputable to be studied with an open mind. There must be many who have this ingrained prejudice. In the thirty years or so since 1896 the prejudice has been confirmed by two things. One is that silver was associated with Bryan, and Bryan came to be associated in many minds with prohibition. with laws against the weaching of evolu- tion, and with an appalling nai- vete on the subject of internationa! peace. The other is that the Re- publican victory of 1896 on an anti- silver program was followed by an era of very great prosperity. As a consequence, those who were on the winning side in 1896, and those Today and Tomorrow By WAL'i‘ER LIPPMANN e The Silver Question Copyright, 1933, New York Tribune Inc. upon silver as too discredited md; it throws upon the causes of the fall of world prices since 1925 and of their collapse in 1929. Before any one is entitled to feel reason- ably sure that he knows what he is doing when he advocates an im- mediate return to the gold stan- dard, he needs to have an intel- ligible explanation as to why world prices began to fall while England, Italy and France were in the pro- c of returning to the gold stand- ard, angd why they collapsed a litile more than a year after the stabil- ization was comnleted. When a coumry returns to th’ jgold standard it promises to re- i deem its money in gold. Tts money consists, of course, of its currency plus its bank deposits. It is im- possible to have it all covered by gold. There is not enough gold. In order to keep people from calling for gold, there must, however, be enough gold on hand to make them believe they could get it if they wanted it. The workable proportion seems to be somewhere between ten and fifteen dollars of bank cradit plus currency to one dollar of gold If, therefore, a dollar of gold is drawn out of the banks, and hoard- ed or taken out of the country somewhere between ten and fifteen who went to school to them in the years since then, approach mone- tary questions with a deep bias that silver is one thing a sound- thinking American does not think about. But the silver question, which men debated so furiously between 1873 and 1896, has not been dead It has been dormant. When th basic difficulties of the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century return- ed, when gold prices fell and then continued to decline, the silver question was revived and we are compelled to reconsider it. The ac- tion of the President in orderin: ‘The $400,000,000 that is being expended to put | the purchase of all silver newly mined in the United States is gen- erally recognized as significant be- cause it brings silver to the front as a practical problem. . That this action was not a mer: Christmas present to American sil- ver miners, but is part of a large monetary program is evident to any one who examines the histor- ical record of which it is a part On June 19 the Administration submitted to the London confer- ence a currency program which is known as the Pittman resolution This proposal dealt with silver as well as gold. It called for the re- establishment of a reform interna- tional gold standard. As to gold, it called for a reduction of the gold reserve ratio of central banks to 25 per cent. As to silver it called for two things: one was that the price of silver should be raised, and the other was that as much as one-fifth of the metal cover of central banks should be permitted in silver. The Pittman resolution thus committed the Roosevelt Ad- ministration to an effort to raise the world price of silver and to! the revival of the use of silver as part of the metal cover of the currency. At London, Senator Pittman ne- gotiated an agreement, among the silver-owning countries and the silver-producing countries, which dealt with one part of this pro- gram: that is the effort to raise the world price of silver. The As long as the material is handled interestingly, as well as accurately, there can be little complaint of this trend. There is another class of books which is in- in addition holds promise of great usefulness. That is the synthesis of available information on a broad subject, some- times written by one individual, sometimes compiled from the writings of a number of authoritative specialists. Such ' books tend to assume colossal proportions and yet sell at a reasonable price. Such inaccurate but comprehensive and easily read books as H. G. Wells's “Outline of History” set the fashion for the latter type of synthesis. G. D. H. Cole, the Oxford economist, has improved on this technic with his little volume “What Every- one Wants to Know About Money,” therein taking a narrower field and yet bringing a wealth of diverse talents into the job, and again in his “Europe Today,” with a broader field. Walter Lang- sam, of Columbia University, has performed a sim- ilar service in “The World Since 1914.” There is greater danger in the process of synthesis, especially since our scholars are trained for exhaustive research, and in graduate school lose some of the breadth and freshness of approach essential to successful synthesis. Shoddy books are most ' frequent in the realm of ‘“popularization,” which includes many synthesis or compendiums. But the need is great for readable and com- prehensive volumes devoted to broad fields of know- ledge. As the years pass more and more persons are involved—a‘ least in the remaining democratic countries—in the making of major social decisions. If they are to keep abreast of their problems, they must have accurate and yet comprehensive books to read. Perhaps, in vfew of the job to be done, our graduate schools might let up on footnote chas- ing for a bit and train a few men to synthesize what pure research has uncovered. Simeon Fess condemns NRA as a failure and hindrance to progress. It is only such boosts in cheerless times that give F. D. the heart to con- wmnh‘mwm ~ the proposed Pacific-Yukon, or “Why not call the proposed ighway ‘The Gold Road to has an infinitely more Acific-Yukon or Interna- tinue.—(Detroit News.) —_— Never mind what the dictionary says; the present day definition of surplus is anything that cannot be sold—(Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.) —_— Once again there will be a distinction between hooch” and properly distilled rye or bourbon.— (St. Louis Globe Democrat.) Misnomerest of all misnomers: “The Disarmament Conference."—(Akron Beacon-Journal.) countries, like India, which have large stocks of silver, agreed not to dump them; the countries which produce silver, like the United States, agreed to buy up or with- hold from the mar’et the new pro= duction. It is in accordance with this international agreement that the President has now acted, and presumably the other silver couns tries will do their agreed part. But, in the light of the Pittman resolution, this measure is clearly only a first and a preliminary step. It merely stabilizes, perhaps at & higher level, the price of silver as a commodity. But the procedure is artificial as long as silver is mere- ly withheld from the market, as long as there is no new demand for silver created. The Pittman resolution, however, proposes to create a new demand for silver by making silver a part of the per- mitted legal reserves of the curren- cy. If this were done, silver would cease to be a mere commodity in the western world, and would b2 come a substitute for an addition- al supply of new gold. What we have to understand is' why the advocates of silver believe that increasing its price and ndd-[ ing it to the stock of monetary | metal is so important and may be so beneficial. In seeking to under- to benefit. There are silver cranks, plenty of them. But there are also disinterested men who earnestly believe in the importance of silver and they are entitled to be met in fair and open debate. Their argu- ment is not answered by pointing out that the silver interests believe in it any more than the argument for balancing the budget is an-| swered by pointing out that the bankers believe in that. The most persuasive part of the . values. When the value of silver | when there was already an abnor- dollars of credit have to be can- celed. That is not an absolutely ac- curate statement but broadly speaking it is true. It follows that if for any reca- son there is a heavy demand for gold, credit must contract and, when credit contracts, gold buys more goods, that is to say it im- creases in value. The effect of that is to step up the demand for gold sinocs that is the one thing which is becoming more valuable. The greater the demand for gold, the| more credit contracts and the more prices fall, Now, between 1925 and 1932, or thereabouts, gold enhanced in val- ue, credit contracted, and prices fell. What happened in those years? According to the monetary heretics, a number of things hap- pened, all of which combined pro- duced an abnormal demand for gold. In the first place, the gold| supply itself was short relative to the growth of business owing to several years diminished gold min- ng during the war. In the sec- ond place, as one country after another, beginning in 1924, return- ed to the gold standard. it had:to bid for gold to build up a gold feserve. Thus there was an enor- mous demand for a somewhat short supply. Yet prices in all countries were 150 per cent of pre-war, and unless credit was stretched be- yond anything in history and kept Stretched, there was mnot enough gold to maintain those prices. The position was made more difficult by other abnormal demands for gold, such as reparations and war debts, tariffs raised by creditor countries and our bull market. All these things combined, a relatively short supply of gold, a high de- mand for gold to establish the gold standard, and the complica- tions of post war politics and fi- nance, go a long way to explain why world credit contracted and prices fell. It is here that the silver people enter the discussion with their most telling argument. They ac- cept all the reasons outlined above for the rise in the value of gold, and they add another one. They argue that in the twenties a se- ries of acts by governments in Eu- rope and Asia destroyed the value of silver, and that this put an ad- ditional strain upon the gold stan- dard. In 1920 Britain debased its silver coins and sold its surplus silver. In 1928 and 1929 Indo-China and Belgium demonetized silver. Now, the effect of all these things was to reduce the demand for silver and to increase the supply offered for sale. The price of silver fell j C.. but | himself of the opportunity. P 20 YEARE AGO Prom The Empire d | JANUARY 8, 1914 i The District Court with Judge R. W. Jennings, presiding, con- vened the previous afternoon at 2 o'clock. The day was given over to motions and the sztting of trials. Judge Jennings said that he was glad to be home and that Mrs. Jennings planned to spend several more weeks with their daughter, Cordelia, who was attending school in Seattle, before returning. | Weather reports of the previous day gave the maximum tempera- ture as 34 and the minimum as 30.° There had been .65 inches of pre- cipitation during the twenty-four hours and there were 6'c inches of snow on the ground. The hoard of medical examiners finished its first session with the election of officers and adjourned until the first Tuesday in July. Those elected were, Dr. J. H. My- ers, of Ketchikan, president; Dr. H. C. DeVighne, of Juneau, secre- tary. F. W. Bradley, president of the Alaska-Treadwell and the Alaska- Juneau companies, gave as a Christmas gift to the University of California, of which he was a graduate, $10,000, payable in ten to be used in the establishment of a Mining Student Loan Fund. and the terms of the gift provided that the money was to be loaned to students taking the mining course to aid them in continuing their work at the University. Winifred T. Denison, former As- sistant Attorney-General, but re- cently appointed Philippine Com- missioner, arrived in Juneau and was spending a few days at the Hotel Cain. Commissioner Denison was on his way to his new post from his home in Washington, D. finding that he had time to visit Southeast Alaska, availed He planned to visit Skagway and Sitka before resuming his journey. NOTICE After January 10 no telephone rentals for the month of January will be accepted at a discount. All remittances by mail must bear postmark of not later than last discount date. Please be prompt JUNEAU AND DOUGLAS TELEPHONE CO. adv. Deep . . . understanding of hu- man feelings enables us to impart dignity to that service which adds “Final” to life. We overlook no de- tail, Funerals, com- plete in every respect. The Charles W. Carter Mortuary PHONE 136-2 “The Last Service Is the Greatest Tribute” PROFESSIONAL r—— |T Helene W. L. Albrecht | PHYSIOTHERAPY Massaze, Electricity, Infra Red Ray, Medical Gymnastics. 307 Goldstein Building Phone Office, 216 Rose A. Andrews } Graduate Nurse Electric Cabinet Baths—Mas- sage, Colonic Irrigations Office hours 11 am. to 5 p.m. | Evenings by Appointment | Second and Maln Phone 259 o E. B. WILSON | Chiropodist—Foot Specialist 401 Goldstein Building | PHONE 496 | —— bt oF | Gastineau Channel | T s kg T I" Fraternal Societies il B. P. 0. ELKS meets every Wednesday at 8 p. m. Visiting brothers welcome. L. W. Turoff, Exalt- ed Ruler. M. H. Sides, Secretary. R e e o ENIGHTS OF COLUMBUR Seghers Council No. 1780. Meetings second and last Monday at 7:30 p. m. Trensient brothers urg- ed to attcnd. Councll 1 . v | %2y Chambers, Fifth Streed, JOHN F. MULLEN, G. K. H. J. TURNER, Secretary [z — | Our iru’ks go any place any | | time. A tank for Diesel Ofl | ilnd a tank for crude oil save ' burner trouble. - DRS. KASER & FREEBURGER DENTISTS Blomgren Building L PHONE 56 Hours 9 am. to 9 pm. i Dr. C. P. Jenne DENTIST Rooms 8 and 9 Valentine Building Telephone 176 annual installments. The fund was g————nou--— ————~ —— @ - AP AR P Dr. J. W. Bayne DENTIST Rooms 5-6 Triangle Bldg. Of’ice nours, 9 am. to 5 pm. cvenings by appointment. Phone 321 t. D. Jreduate Angeles Col- lege of Optometry and Opthalmology Glasses Fitted, Lenses Ground [ R R ST 0 ————————=2 { Robert Simpson s PHONE 149, NIGHT U8 | RELIABLE TRANS¥ER i (RS s\ Wise to Call 48 ‘ | | Juneau Transfer Co. when in need of MOVING or STORAGE Fuel Oil Coal Transfer i DR. K. E. SOUTHWELL Optometrist—Optician to 12; 1:00 to 5:30 [ JUNEAU-YOUNG i R S e o (SR .i.)r. Richard Williams DENTIST | OFFICE AND RESIDENCE | Gastineau Building, Phone 481 [ !l Funeral Parlors } Night Phone 1851 Day Phone 12 L — N He—— — || s4BIN’S | I RN L T Dr. A. W. Stewart ! DENTIST | Houvrs 9 am. to 6 pm. | SEWARD BUILDING | ©Office Phone 469, Res. | Phone 276 Everything im Furnishings for Men THE JuNEAu LAUNDRY ' Franklin Street betweem ] Front an? SBecond Streets JUNEAU SAMPLE SHOP The Little Store with the BIG VALUES C. L. FENTON CHIROPRACTOR South rront St, next to Brownie's Barber Shop orfice Hours: 10-12; 2-8 Evenings by Appointment Groceries—Produce—Fresh and Smoked Meats Front Street, opposite Harris Hardware Co. CASH AND CARRY T e T e HI-LINE SYSTEM | PHONE 350 ¢ — 2 P R e S T JUNEAU FROCK SHOPPE ————3 HOTEL ZYNDA ‘ Large Sample Rooms ELEVATOR SERVICE 8. ZYNDA, Prop. ‘ l ARBAGE HAULED Reasonable Monthly Rates | | ; E. 0. DAVIS {from about 70 cents an ounce in 1925 to about 30 cents or worse in 1932, Now why did that matter so much? Whom did it affect besides the silver interests? The is that the investments and wealth of Asia have been kept in silver fell. there was a large flight of Asiatic capital out of silver cur- rencies into gold. Thus there was created another very great de- mand for gold at the very moment mal demand for a relatively short the silver agitation must be pre- stand this we must dismiss from prices raise order ding silver the gold dard their them to expand cr " < ° ° Through all the forty-two years, the here, and the good the institution. . GUY McNAUGHTON, Cashier /)y Holding Fast to Established Principles o B. M. Behrends Bank has remained the same, and has adhered unfailingly to the established principles of sound and con- _servative banking practice. Now, as since 1891, the safety of de- . positors’ funds is the first consideration regarded as the greatest of the assets of OFFICERS B. M. BEHRENDS, President JAS. W. McNAUGHTON, Asst. Cashier " TheB. M. Bank JUNEAU, business changes of management of The will ‘of customers is GEORGE E. CLEVELAND, Asst. Cashier Behrends ‘ALASKA” KL\l TELEPHONE 584 Phone 871 SRR AN g |