National Affairs: Inflation Pox

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By taking over all the silver in the U. S. and then proceeding to buy 50,000,000 ounces of silver each month (20% to 30% of total world production per year), the Treasury would put up silver prices to great heights, give large profits to silver speculators and to the big copper and lead companies who mine most of U. S. silver, and greatly please the seven states* which mine 95% of the U. S. silver output. Meanwhile the U. S. Treasury would have to pay for large quantities of silver to be buried in its vaults and several hundred million dollars of currency would be paid out to silver producers and speculators. Faced with the combined strength of the silver and inflation blocs. Administration leaders scratched many a greying lock while they wondered how they could muster enough votes to beat this bill, or emasculate it.