 It's time for the Lawn Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, a presentation of the Lawn Jean Wittner Watch Company, maker of Lawn Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Lawn Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Lawn Jean Chronoscope? Larry Lusser and Winston Brudette, both of the CBS television news staff. Our distinguished guest for this evening is Mrs. Ivy Baker Priest, treasurer of the United States. Mrs. Priest, most of us have seen your signature on our currency, but if many people are like myself, we're curious about just what the treasurer of the United States actually does. Do you really sit at a desk all day signing dollar bills? Well, I'm sure, Mr. Lusser, that most people have visions of me sitting there signing all of those bills. Actually, I don't sign the bills. Their signature is, of course, sent down as your printing and engraving and engraved on the bills. However, I do have a great deal of routine signing to do. I have to sign for the moving of coins from mints to Federal Reserve banks and to foreign depositories and so on, much routine signing. However, I find a good many people do, like you, want to know what the duties of the United States treasurer happen to be and how that differs from the job of the Secretary of the Treasury. I always say it's a minor difference. The Secretary of the Treasury is the boss of the whole works. He is the policy-making, of course, and the cabinet member. But the Treasury of the United States, in brief, is the banker of the country. We do everything a bank does, except loan money. But, of course, I don't think any bank has the volume of business that the Treasurer's Office handles in the course of a year. Would you be interested in knowing a little about that? Yes, indeed. Well, I think there are about 300 million checks a year drawn against the Treasurer's Office, and we keep we redeem mutilated and worn-out currency at the rate of about a billion, five hundred million pieces a year. Well, how long has the dollar bill actually lasted? The life of a dollar bill is somewhere between nine and ten months, Mr. LeCere. The larger denominations, of course, will last a little longer. And then they wear out? Well, yes, they wear out. The one dollar bill wears out after nine months? That's right, and it comes back to us where we, of course, destroy it. Well, Mrs. Priest, isn't it true that all of our currency must be backed by silver certificates or a silver bullion? And just what would you do if the amount of currency you issued didn't balance with the amount of silver bullion and silver certificates in the Treasury? Well, I can't conceive of that situation coming about because I'm sure that it would, but don't forget we have all that gold at Fort Knox. I see. Would you actually balance your own checkbook well? Oh, well, yes, I have had to do that all my life, so that's second nature. Well, this administration did run a survey of the gold in Fort Knox. Can you tell us, was it actually all there? Yes, the Secretary of the Treasury had a full accounting and audit of all of the assets on hand. The gold at Fort Knox, the gold on hand at the Mint's and so on. He had a complete audit, and we found everything to be in order. Well, Mrs. Priest, since money is your job and money, of course, is the subject of universal interest, you must get a good deal of interesting mail. But you're quite right, I do. And from all over the world, as a matter of fact, and I like to get mail. I hope that my writers will continue to write me whenever they feel that they have something they like to tell me. However, as most people, there's always one or two letters that come in which create the chuckles. And I had one about two weeks ago, which I think you would enjoy hearing about. This man wrote in and he said, My dear Madam Treasurer, I'm getting sick and tired of reading about this huge national debt and about the government's inability to balance the budget and about all this deficit spending when the solution to the whole thing is so simple. Now he said, I guess that's why you people haven't found out about it back there, it's too simple. But he said you waste all that paper printing the money on both sides. Now why don't you just print the money on one side, sell the other side for advertising, you got it leaked. I guess a lot of advertisers think they were lucky bucks. Mrs. Priest, actually you've been a housewife, you're a mother and you were formerly the Assistant Chairman of the Women's Division of the Republican National Committee. How do you actually account for the recent upsurge in women's interest in politics? Well, I think women all over the country, Mr. Treasurer, have shown a marked interest in politics the last few years. It isn't just something that's happened all at once, however. In my opinion, I think it has been a slow and steady growth. The nonpartisan women's clubs have helped materially in creating an interest on the part of women to know more about their government and to take more active part in local governmental affairs in the politics of their communities and their state and so on. And this interest is being manifest now by we find many more women are appearing before state legislatures and taking more interest in their city councils and so on because they are realizing more and more, of course, that the laws affect all of us and so if we want good government, we're going to all have to be interested much more in our government. Mrs. Priest, while we're on the subject of politics, you've said in the past that it was probably women who were the decisive factor in the election of President Eisenhower. Well, in light of that, how do you account then for last Tuesday's Democratic sweep in the local elections? Well, what do you mean, Mr. Treasurer? I haven't had a breakdown on that. Were there more, what was the mean of vote on that? I know that more women did register than men and, of course, the... Did they vote? I'm not sure of that, but I know that the Democrat was elected. Well, there may be more women registered. I'd be interested in knowing if they voted. You see, in the last election, women cast 52% of the total national vote. They actually have a voting potential of 54%. And I know that they registered and voted in the 52 elections and it was 52% of the total vote. So I'd be very much interested in the breakdown to see just how what the woman vote was in this last election. That was a very diplomatic answer. We can't move anything there, but to broaden, Larry, this is a question, Mrs. Priest, what comment would you make on the results of the... I'm thinking particularly of the New Jersey elections, because New Jersey was taken more or less as a statewide test of political sentiment, the best one we had, and, of course, it did go democratic in both the vital elections there. Well, I don't know that that would be setting any particular trend. However, I do think there is a lesson to be learned in the results of those elections. I do feel that perhaps the Republican Party is not telling the stories it should, because after all, I think that a good many people realize, and certainly many more should realize, that things that have to be done for the good of this country are not easy, requires sacrifice on the part of all of us, and no administration can go in and make every group happy. You simply can't give this group, that group, and the other group everything that it feels it must have and need. There's bound to be some hurt somewhere along the line. We have to make sacrifices, but we're still citizens of the greatest country in the world, and we still are extremely fortunate and should be giving thanks each day that we are so fortunate, and I do believe that if we get the story over and the American people know the facts and know what we are facing, I have a great deal of confidence in the fact that they are not averse to tightening the belt and taking it. Well, Mrs. Priest, actually you come from Utah, and Utah we all know is a great cattle raising, mining, and agricultural state. Secretary of Agriculture Benson also comes from Utah. Can you tell us about the sentiment regarding Secretary Benson in your home state? I think in the home state the sentiment, the majority sentiment would be that they feel Secretary Benson can certainly outline a program that will not only be a great benefit to this country, but to the farmers as well, and after all that's ultimately what we want, and I think they have great confidence in his ability to do this, but certainly he must have time. No program of the size and scope of the agricultural program can be put into effect overnight. And another thing I'd like to say here, Mr. Lissour, is that perhaps we're going to be hurt a little here and there. Perhaps many people and various segments of our population have been hurt a little here and there, but it's far better to be hurt a little in an orderly readjustment to a sound basis from which we can build our economy than to have had the whole thing collapse like a house of cards. Mrs. Priest, you go press forward on politics again. You were actually a leader of the so-called young Turks that were responsible for nominating General Eisenhower at the Chicago Conventions. Could you tell us now from your position in Washington, do you think that the split has been healed in the ranks of the Republican Party? Oh, I think, Mr. Lissour, there was a very definite attempt right from the Chicago Convention on to bring the party together, and I think with the full realization that of course we would have to work together if we were going to bring about a program for the good of the country. And another thing, there's always room in any political party for divergent opinions, for differences of opinions. That's how we grow a healthy difference of opinion, but as far as a so-called split in the party, I very definitely think that all party people have been working diligently toward the solution of the many problems that beset this administration. Well, Mrs. Priest, there's a final question. Do you think that women in general now have a grasp of the fundamental economics of our country? I think they have always had a grasp, Mr. Lissour. After all, you know in most families, the women sort of look after the income and outgo, they have to balance the budget, they have to stretch that dollar as far as it will go. And I like to say that the average woman runs a little government right in her own family. She knows about budgeting, she knows about health and welfare, and certainly she has to be a diplomat. And I would say also that if she has more than one child, she knows all about pressure groups. So really, I feel that women do know a great deal about budgeting, and it's quite fitting that women should handle the money, I think. I believe you remember a little about the controversy about whose picture should be on the money. And I think you remember we decided that men could have their faces on the money as long as women got their hands on it, it would be the way it would go. Thank you very much, Mrs. Ivy Baker Priest, for being with us tonight. I wish your picture were on the dollar bill. Thank you, Mr. Lissour. The opinions you've heard our speakers express tonight have been entirely their own. The editorial board for this edition of the non-gene chronoscope was Larry Lissour and Winston Bredette, both of the CBS television news staff. Our distinguished guest was Mrs. Ivy Baker Priest, Treasurer of the United States. Every year, about this time, the great arena in New York's Madison Square Garden comes alive with color and drama, as international society assembles for the national horse show. And this year again, here, as in the great horse shows of Paris, Rome, Madrid, and elsewhere, non-gene is exclusive official watch for all timing. 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