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of his shares. Following ancient traditions, and some policies of his own that he had given voice to in earlier years, - that gold had an innate value - he had bought gold bullion. He had been doing it for several years. He had been doing it for long enough so that it didn't make a terrible flurry on the metal market at the last minute. He had stacked away enormous quantities of gold bullion. Also, all during the period from '31 on he had bought gold bullion and stacked it away.

I don't know the truth of that, but some body must know. I heard it in a group of Cabinet and sub-Cabinet people. It was embarrassing. I don't know just what was done, but something was done to relieve Baruch of embarrassment. That is, he was not required to bring in $10,000,000 in gold bullion all in one swoop. Something was done for him. He had meant no harm when he bought the gold bullion. The flight of gold might have dropped the bottom out of the market, but he didn't intend to do that. When Dan Roper laughed and said, “It might be true. I wouldn't be surprised,” he also said, “You know, Baruch's a very smart man. He's particularly smart in looking after Bernie Baruch.”

That was the opinion of him. He had thought principally in terms of protecting his fortune and not in terms of his