The Hyder Weekly Herald
Established 1924
Published Saturday at the Her
ald Building in Hyder, Alaska.
Chas. F. Sandford
Owner and Publisher
Entered as second-class matter
at the postoffice at Hyder,
Alaska, under the act of March
3, 1879.
Subscription price $3.00 per
year in advance by mail or
carrier.
Advertising Rates
on application
An Independent Newspaper
Gold A Yardstick
Modern finance is more or
less of a mystery to the average
person, hence we are not sur
prised at the many inquiries
made as to the reasons why
the recent withdrawals of gold
by individuals from the nat
ion’s banks not only precipited
the so-called “bank holiday”
but also imperilled our entire
financial structure.
Many persons cannot under
stand how it can be that with
more than a third of all the
world's gold in our possession
the metal must be so carefully
conserved in order to avoid
some sort of financial disaster.
The answer, reduced to the
simplest terms, is that gold is
no longer a general financial
commodity as it was several
decades ago, but has become
a sort of financial yardstick
a measure of wealth by which
virtually all other concrete val
ues are measured. The metal
no longer circulates generally.
The average man seldom sees,
let alone owns, a gold piece.
The nation’s gold is held in the
banks as the security or back
ing for the great volume of
paper currency which forms
the ordinary money of com
merce.
A major portion of this cur
rency, however, is redeemable
in gold on demand, so that a
bolder of gold notes can go to
the bank and demand and re
ceive gold for his paper money.
Ooupled with this is the fact
that there is much more gold
backed paper money in circu
lation than there is actual gold
to secure it on the basis of dol
lar for dollar. The normal
gold reserve for federal reserve
bank notes is 40 per cent,
whereas there is issued against
each dollar in gold around
$2.50 in paper currency. —
Thus if all holders of federal
reserve currency should de
mand gold for their paper, the
amount of gold available
would not be adequate to meet
the demand by more than one
third.
This was what was happen
ing when the President de
clared the national bank holi
day; the effect of which was to
prevent withdrawals of gold
from tha banks, with resultant
weakening of the nation’s fi
nancial structure.
If permitted to function nor
mally, the supply of gold is
more than adequate to meet
demands, but when the de
mands for gold in exchange for
currency reach a point where
they threaten to absorb the 40
per cent of gold behind the
notes and to leave unpayable
millions of dollars of curren
cy—represented by the ap
proximately 60 per cent more
paper than there is gold—
there obviously rtnict occur a
general weakening of the mon
etary system, as each dollar of
gold taken out of circulation
removes the backing, or secur
ity from $2.50 worth of cur
rency.
Just for Fun
-0
To wrestle with present con
ditions-is a sort of “cash-as
cash-can affair.
If the rank and file of those
Japanese and Chinese armies
ever find out what all the
shooting is about it will be real
news to them.
Anyway, the bank holidays j
did not make much difference j
to those of us who are accus
tomed to doing without money.!
The League of Nations, too,
is worried over some important
hold-outs this season.
“Japan Flatly Quits League”
—headline. And the nations
remaining are also flat.
Democracy is a form of gov
ernment in which those who
heller the loudest get what
they want.
One nice thing about that
bank holiday was that debtors
got an even break with cred
itors.
The idea that women are
hard to please is refuted by a j
look at some of the husbands j
they pick.
INTERESTING NOTES
Nearly seven billion postage j
stamps were sold by the British j
postoffices during 1932.
American airplanes were re- j
cently sold to Switzerland’s!
leading air transport company. I
Miss Frances Perkins, secre
tary of labor in President
Roosevelt’s cabinet, is really
Mrs. Paul Wilson and is the
mother of one daughter.
Three members of President
Roosevelt’s cabinet are former
republicans—Secretary of the
treasury Woodin; secretary of
the interior Ickes, and secre
tary of agriculture Wallace.
TEN YEARS OR SO AGO
From the Hyder, Alaska, Miner
January 31, 1923.
-o
Albert Johnson and Morris
Pederson have been working
all winter driving the Virginia
tunnel.
Dr. C. D. Carter, well known
Alaskan dentist, has wired
from Seattle that he will arrive
here February 8 to open a den
tal parlor.
Joe Cullen has gone up to his
Americus Girl property on Bit
ter creek to resume operations.
T. W. McDonald returned
this week from the south bring
ing his wife and children, in
cluding little Jean, who was
born recently.
Mrs. L. L. Bregonze has
opened tonsorial parlors in the
McGrew building, near the
head of Main Street.
Louis Harris, Mrs. Harris
and their son, Dugan, arrived
on the Prince of Wales from
Ketchikan and will locate in
Hyder.
The steamer Griffco took out
1100 tons of Premier high
grade to the Tacoma smelter
this week.
That the tunnel on the Inde
pendence is, and has been for
some time, in a solid body of
high grade milling ore, with a
large proportion that can be !
sorted and shipped without
milling, is the word brought j
down this week by Jack Fitz-1
gerald, who went up to see i
how Owney McFadden and j
Eli Watland, who are driving
the tunnel, are getting along.
Harry Hummel and Harold
Johnson were down this week
from the Cripple Creek prop
erty, where they are driving a
tunnel. The tunnel is in 45 |
feet and the ore is showing
heavier mineraliz a t i o n as
depth is gained. Judge James |
Wickersham, J. W. Kehoe and j
Lockie McKinnon of Juneau,!
and Commissioner John W. i
Frame of Hyder, are interested
in the property.
A three-story concrete exter
ior, with frame interior, hotel
is to be constructed in Hyder,
according to announcements of
Seattle and Alaskan capitalists
made recently in Seattle. The
hotel will be called the “Suth
erland” and will have rooms on
the ground floor for business
concerns, with two upper floors
for accomodation of the travel
ing public, and will be steam
heated and electric lighted.
The plans call for construcion
of 40 rooms. It is to be ready
for occupancy by June 15 and
the estimated cost will be $50,
000, the reports said.
Hyder
Methodist Episcopal
Church
Rev. F. Bushfield, Pastor.
Hyder Methodist Episcopal Church
Sunday School at 10:30 a. m.
Evening Service at 7:30 p. m.
Everyone is cordially invited to
the services.
PORTLAND CANAL LODGE
1218
LOYAL ORDER OF MOOSE
E. D. Haddon, Dictator
P. S. Jack, Secretary
Meets Second and Fourth Thursdays
Second Thursday in Hyder
Fourth Thursday in Stewart
CHAS .F. CANDFORD
NOTARY PUBLIC
HERALD OFFICE
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