Barter

Spite and silver were the amalgam holding together last fortnight's Senate coalition of Republicans and hard-money Democrats which furiously filibustered the Monetary Bill beyond midnight of June 30 when Franklin Roosevelt's power to pare the dollar died and with it the Treasury's exchange stabilization fund. Silver and pressure were what Franklin Roosevelt used last week to split the coalition, pass the bill, revive both fund and power.

A higher subsidy for U. S.-mined silver was the bill's third provision. The Treasury's old price was 64.64-c- per oz. Silver Senators demanded as high as $1.29. The Administration ascertained that 70.95-c- was a rock-bottom price for which enough silverites would desert their hard-money allies. It was crude barter by both sides, but it worked. The bill finally passed 43-39 with Senators Borah, Pittman and O'Mahoney leading seven silverite sellouts, setting the price of silver at 77.11-c- per oz.

The beaten Republicans and hard-money Democrats were left with nothing to show for their pains except a remote legal cloud hanging over the act. Since it was an act only to extend that which died before the act was passed, could the act resurrect the dead? Attorney General Murphy ruled it could and Franklin Roosevelt signed the act determined to conduct the nation's monetary affairs on that assumption. Republican Senators Taft and Austin argued to the last that no resurrection was possible, but had to admit the only way to prove their point was by a court review. This could be had only in the event that some one claims damage if & when Franklin Roosevelt does devalue the dollar further.

> The increased silver price meant an added $9,000.000 annual subsidy to U. S. miners. As soon as the Senate voted, the Sunshine Mine in Senator Borah's Idaho (nation's largest producer) announced it would reopen.

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