Flow of Gold

Ever since the gold bill was passed (TIME, Feb. 5) gold has been flowing into the U. S. from abroad at a record-breaking rate. Imports for the past fortnight totalled over $300,000,000, exceeding the all-time high of $159,600,000 in December 1916 (even allowing for the decreased gold content of the dollar).

The gold flow put an immense strain on U. S. Assay offices as importers, eager for profit, dumped hoards of foreign gold upon them. Chief receiving office was the chaste granite building which stands on the Manhattan waterfront looking across the East River to Brooklyn. There weighers and assayers fell four and five days behind in their work of testing, weighing, melting gold into ingots 7 in. by 3 1/2 in. by 1 3/8-in., each weighing 35 lb., worth $14,700. Because of the delays in the Assay office the newly arrived gold did not appear on Treasury statements until several days after its arrival in the U. S.

Directress Nellie Tayloe Ross of the Mint went to the Manhattan office, spent three days supervising its busy activities. On her orders newshawks were admitted for the first time in history, allowed to see the ingots, ask questions.

Sample question: Has anybody ever gotten away with anything here--that is pinched a brick?

Superintendent Becker: Well, it happened some time ago. The thief [an assay office employe] was a damn fool. He had hidden the gold under his sweater while at work. At the end of the day he walked out and sold it to a dealer who melted it and then had the nerve to try to sell it back to us.

Meantime the influx of gold gradually had its expected effect on foreign exchange. The franc mounted from 6.52-c- to 6.57-c-, approached its new par of 6.63-c- while the dollar fell correspondingly. The pound, which has no fixed gold value, was up from $5.05 to $5.08. As the dollar approached its new par, the profit in importing gold gradually declined, which in turn promised to reduce and eventually stop gold imports.

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