Friday, April 8, 2011

Is President Gerald Ford the Real Hero for Signing Legislation Allowing Americans to Own Gold?

In a post yesterday, I hailed President Ford for signing legislation that allowed Americans to be free to buy gold. But Charles Curley, one of the founders, in 1971, of the National Committee to Legalize Gold, emails me and speculates that the real hero might be some unknown aide.

Mr. Curley writes:
I read your blog entry on the repeal of FDR's gold ban with interest. I doubt Ford should ever be considered among the "greatest Presidents of all time" for signing gold legalization.

I was one of the founders of the National Committee to Legalize Gold in 1971, and followed related events closely. If I recall correctly,Congress passed gold legalization just prior to Nixon's resignation,which was on August 9 of that year.

I have long had a sneaking suspicion that Ford arrived in the White House with a huge stack of bills and other papers on his desk, and an aide said "Here, sign these", which Ford promptly did, probably without reading most of them. I am sure that a bit of research will confirm or disprove this suspicion, but I have not done that research. More research should indicate his position(s) on the gold legalization bills in the House. Many Republicans opposed gold legalization, to their shame
In a follow-up email from Mr. Curley, when I asked permission to reprint the above, I also asked if he had any suspicions as to who the aide might have been, Mr. Curley wrote back:
No. I assume some White House staff were helping Ford to learn his way
around the place, etc. Of course, there may not have been one. He might
have looked at his in basket and gone ahead and signed them.

Something else that I recalled after I sent the email below. Nixon was
opposed to gold legalization. So it is quite likely that his
resignation saved us a veto and another year or more of pushing
legislation.

1 comment:

  1. Ford also had the "Whip Inflation Now" (WIN) buttons. There's little doubt he was a hero. Without those buttons, who knows what kind of shape the world would be in now?

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