The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-05-14
GOLD IN THE ARTS.
From the Chicago News.

FROM Iht CnlCdSO News.
The quantity Of the precious metals used
In the arts and sciences has been PROB
lem that financial students and statis-
ticians have found impossible of solution:
While the quantity and value OF the gold
and silver produced annually can be as
certained with u good deal OF eXactness.
the percentage of each that goes into ana
permanently remains money battles all ex>
act calculation. 1t is owing to this fact
almost alone that financial writers vary
so widely in their conclusions when esti-
mates of the amount Of the circulating me
dium In any country is the subject of dis
cusson. Silver being the more abundant
and cheaper metal it is not so important
to be exact. as is the case when gold is In
question. The chief difficulty In the way
Of getting at the exact quantity of gold
that finds its way into other uses than as
money Is the fact that most of 1t so used
Is taken from the coinage direct. The gov
ernment mint stamp Is an indisputa Bile evil
dence of the tincness of the metal while
in the case of bullion the fineness Is not
so well attested. and in this way pre-.
MUM is offered fOry taking the coined
metal and converting it to the use of the
arts and sciences.
The most eminent statistiCans of the
world have wrestled with This problem
and the difficulties it presents are abun-
dainty attested by the wide variation in
their conclusions. DR.. Soetbeer, one Of
the ableSt investigators of the century.
gold used in the arts was sG0Oco.OOO worth,
which was somewhat over one-half of 'he
total output of gold in the world during
the period between 1876 and 1885. Subse,
qllent Investigations led him to the cons
cusion that that estimate was very much
too small. but he is frank enough to say
that all such estimates are little better
than mere guesses. In his latest work,
written in $780, just previous to his death,
he said: lone could not demonstrate by
figures the incorrectneSS of the hypothe-
sis that in recent years the Industrial use
of gold, together with the needs of oren-
materially arrested the increase of the
monetary stock and had very probably alb.
sorbed the annua! production of the
metal: but proofs are equally lacking 10
shows that DR.. Soetbeer himself regard
ed all such estimates as largely hypotheti-
cal. But 1t must be admitted that his cal
culations have been very generally ac
cepted.
Lord Playfair. now a member of the
British Gold Defense association. declared
in Il speech delivered in the house of COM
in the arts amounted to at least u per cent.
of the annual production for the year 1889,
which was Sl23,0OO0O0." A still more eX.
treme estimate is that of Mr.. Giffin. a
an article IN the Nineteenth Century maga-
zine in 1889 said the amount of gold
now regularly absorbed for mere non
monetary purposes appears almost equal
to the entire annual supply" At that
time the annual gold product of the world
was $i2G.O0OOOO. Since then the annual
product has largely Increased. until it was
last year in excesS of 500. 900, Whether
the consumption Of gold for non-mone-
tary purposes has kept even pace with
the increased production Is uncertain 1t
will be seen what Il wide difference the"o
is between the calculations of Soetbeer and
IN oh
per cent. of the present gold product Is
used in the arts and sciences, while accord
ing to the latter about ~ per cent. is so
diverted. Between these extremes differ,
ent writer's take such figures as shall
best subserve the purposs for which they
write.