Spokesmen for Mining Groups Urge
Free Market for Gold or Subsidies
By John Kamps
Associated Press Special Service
WASHINGTON UFi — Spokesmen
for mining groups recommended
Tuesday a free market for gold or
subsidies for domestic production.
Users oppose any change in the
government-controlled situation.
The spokesman testified at a
Senate Interior Subcommittee hear
ing on bills designed to revive the
domestic mining industry which is
producing only half the gold need
ed in the United States.
A bill to authorize payments
of up to $105 an ounce for do
mestic gold, instead of the $35
which has been paid by the gov
ernment for 29 years, was urged
by Robert Palmer of Denver, ex
ecutive president of the Colorado
Mining Assn., and by Sen. E. L.
Bartlett.
Users Oppose Subsidy
Spokesmen for manufacturers,
fearing" they would have to pay
more for gold, opposed any subsidy
for gold miners.
Palmer asked “why is gold — a
legitimate product — denied the
right of the free market?
“Why are people denied the
right to own gold and sell it to
the highest bidders at home and
abroad?” he asked.
“Is there any other legitimate
product of American industry
treated with such rank discrimi
nation?” he continued. “Why can
the citizens of certain other coun
tries demand gold in payment of
obligations and citizens of the
United States be refused this right?
“What is vitally needed,” Pal
mer said, “is relief from the
shackles which control free man
euverability of newly mined gold.”
Several spokesmen for dental,
optical and jewelry firms testified
against the subsidy bill.
Charles Oddy, secretary-treas
urer of the Optical Manufacturer’s
Assn., said in a statement gold
is not only a monetary metal but
Nome Sanitary
J
Service
Dial 2671
P.O. Box 460
also an important commodity to
a number of domestic industries.
“A substantial increase in the
price of the metal,” he said, ‘‘would
be disastrous to these industries
as well as dangerous from a
monetary standpoint.”
He estimated increasing the gold
price from $35 to $105 an ounce
would raise the price of gold filled
spectacle frame to the consumer
by 50 per cent.
‘‘No matter how you look at the
proposed legislation,” he said, “the
end result would be a subsidy for
the mining interest.
“We naturally must ask if this
subsidy is necessary since all re
ports indicate the industry has
realized a handsome profit at the
present $35 an ounce rate.
“This subsidy would amount to
milions of dollars,” he declared,
“it cannot be justified.”
Contradicted Testimony
Both Palmer and Bartlett con
tradicted testimony by a Treasury
Department spokesman Monday
that the value of the dollar would
be undermined in the world mar
ket by a two-price gold system
in the United States. Under the
bill the government would pay
$105 an ounce for domestic gold
and $35 for foreign metal.
Palmer said a two-price system
in Canada and Australia has not
weakened the Canadian dollar or
the Australian pound.
Bartlett said that the “Treasury
displays a singular lack of confi
dence in the dollar’s strength.”
He added:
“The dollar is by no means the
shaky thing that the Treasury
thinks it. This kind of thinking
and speaking, on the part of a
United States government agency,
surely causes more harm abroad
than could any domestic subsidy
program.
“I am convinced,” Bartlett de
clared. “that the Treasury Depart
ment is well aware that a modest
subsidization program for domes
tic gold mining would not in any
serious way weaken the dollar or
add to our balance of payments
problems.”
Bartlett said the Treasury De
partment, in Republican as well
as Democratic administrations, has
consistently opposed gold mining
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BRANCHES IN KOTZEBUE and BARROW
71 Military Pilots
Recommended for
Possible Astronaut Duties
HOUSTON <*> — The Manned
Spacecraft Center said Tuesday 71
military pilots have been recom
mended for possible astronaut
duties.
The breakdown was Air Force
G2, Navy 34, Marines 10 and Army
1.
The total of applications received
by the center is 271, including
three women.
Space center officials this week
confirmed that Miss Jerrie Cobb
of Oklahoma is one applicant.
Miss Cobb, 32, a flier, is attempt
ing to become the nation’s first
spacewoman. She recently took
verbal potshots at the National
Aeronautics and Space Adminis
tration because it nas not named
a female astronaut.
Condition Unchanged
SEA.TTLE (jP> — The condition j
of Brian Sternberg, injured Uni-1
versity of Washington pole vaulter.
is still unchanged, doctors at the
University of Washington Hospital
said Tuesday:
Sternberg, 20, was injured in a
fall on a trampoline July 2. At
the time of his accident, his vault
of 16 feet 8 inches was under
consideration as a world’s record.
The hospital said that the prob
ability of permanent paralysis is
still “very high’” for Sternberg.
He is paralyzed from the neck
down.
legislation “even in times when our
balance of payments was over
whelmingly favorable.
“They have opposed it in times
when the American dollar was
stronger than any currency has
ever been in history,” he said.
“They are against such assistance
in fair economic weather or foul.
“The need for subsidy assistance
to the United States gold mining
industry is clear and straightfor
ward,” Bartlett said. “Gold is a
product. It is useful for a country
to have.
“Once mined, it is always held.
It is not thrown out, used up or
suspended. It does not go out of
style. It is in the interest of the
nation that we make use of the
ample resources of gold that have
been given us.”
Tape Recording Relates
Fatal Shooting of Woman
SEATTLE dP — An hour-and
ten minute tape recording in
which Roy Alien Willis, 30, de
scribed for police his version of
the fatal shooting of Mrs. Helen
Marie Finnie, 27, was played for
a Superior Court jury Tuesday.
Willis, a Canadian also known
as Lance Miller, was on trial for
the second degree murder here last
October of the Seattle mother of
five children. Willis, formerly of
Anchorage, Alaska, was arrested
at Calgary, Alta., on another charge
and extradited here.
The recording said Willis was
with Mrs. Finnie in her apart
ment when the pistol discharged
accidentally, as he pulled it from
his trousers pocket to place it on
a table. She was shot between
the eyes.
Her body was found a week
later by a hunter near Sedro
Woolley north of here. Willis said
he placed it there behind a log
rnd fled to Canada, because he was
an alien and ex-convict, and fear
ed Iris story of the accidental
shooting would not be believed, the
recording said.
Well Drilling Starts in
Brooks Mountain Range
FAIRBANKS UP> — Gubik No. 3,
the first non-government oil or
gas well north of the Brooks Range,
was started Tuesday by the Colo
rado Oil and Gas Corp.
The well is being drilled at a
site near the two gas wells drilled
by the Navy in 1951-1952 on what
is called the Gubik Structure, about
20 miles from Umiat.
Colorado Oil and Gas Corp., a
substantial lease holder in the
Gubik area, is the unit operator for
itself and several other oil com
panies and individuals who have
interests in the same leasing unit.
The Denver based company owns
much of the oil field equipment in
the area north of the Brooks Moun
tains. Much of the equipment was
purchased from the Navy at the
completion of the naval petroleum
reserve's exploration program in
1953.
Twenty men making up Colo
rado’s drill crew are at the drill .
site now and probably will remain
in the Arctic for several months. !
Eight DEW Line Sites
Eliminated in Alaska
FAIRBANKS — The elimina
of eight Distant Early Warning
Line sites in Alaska will not cre
ate a personnel problem, accord
ing to officials of the Federal
Electric Corp. which operates the
stations.
It was announced Monday from
Washington, D.C., that 20 DEW
Line intermediate sites in Canada
and eight in Alaska would be shut
down. The reduction would involve
some 60 civilian employes in
Alaska.
F. B. Martin, project director
for the corporation, said:
“Employes assigned to these
stations whose contracts have not
expired will be re-assigned among
the remaining main and auxiliary
stations. Normal contract comple
tions and attrition during the
phase down period will take care
of any surplus personnel problem
which might otherwise exist.”
Wants to Slay in Britain
LONDON GP — Italian scientist
Giueseppe Martelli says he would
like to remain in Britain, the
country that accused him of pre
paring to spy for the Russians.
A jury found Martelli innocent
Monday of nine counts of plotting
to spy.
“I like this country,” the scientist
said as he strode out of Old Bailey
Court a free man. “I would like
to stay here and work if I can.”
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