Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-19
BILLIONS IN GOLD
Uncle Sam Has Piles of the
Yellow Metal.
BEATS ALL NATIONS
AN UNTHINKABLY VAST SUM IN
MONEY.
Would Buy the British Navy or 1000
Acres of American
BEATS ALL NATIONS


lue Evening Skdrs
Through the Treasury Department OF his
government at Washington Uncle Sam
gave out rather startling piece Of news
the other day IN the statement that this
country at this moment possesses about
a quarter of all the gold that has been
made up into money in the entire world.
To quote the official figures correctly,
there is now in the United States dncluding
treasury coin and bullion) one thousand
two hundred millions of gold money, wnere-
as the worlds entire stock of gold money
is worth less than five thousand millions
ga, 906, 100 600, according to the latest fig
ures). New York financiers believe Uncle
Sans figures as to his own gold money are
shy, and that in truth the amount of gold
| money in the country is close TO 81 $4,000
"a billion and quarter-while all the rest
of the world possesses less than 81, 10000
600. This is a larger sum of coined gold
than has ever been possessed by a single
nation In the history Of the world.
Next to the United States, according to
the latest reports, comes France, with $S1o,-
| 600. coo, followed by the British empire, with
S769, 7O0,O 600; Russia, with S724,300,OOO, and
Germany, with S72l 800, 600. So far as COIN
ed gold is concerned. 1t will be observed.
the United States is in a class by itself.
The British empire is second in the second
class but Great Britain proper is last, its
store of coined gold amounting only to
SSH 600, GOO. All other peoples are so far
behind in the race as not to be eligible
even for the second class. Austria-Hun-
gary leads the third class, with about $40
600, 600, but even at that the great empire
is very poor in gold money, relatively as
we'll as actually, for her gold supply
amounts to less than $3.50 per capita for
her population of 100000 souls. Uncle
Sans children have nearly SIG In gold
apiece, which is less than the citizens of the
French republic, for each Of whom there
is a little more than s21 of gold coin head
Germany comes third in the per capita COM
putation, the figures being S12.S1, Great
Britain's being 1924, and that of Russia,
with her enormous population of 12S,300,Oo0
only 1854. The per capita figure for the en-
tire British empire is shade under s. 20
that for midas enormous horde of 29l,ooo,-
600 being only Is cents. Here, as In most
other things, the British empire exhibits
the most astonishing extremes, for there
are parts thereof where the per capita OF
coined gold is in great excess; IN Australia
STA, for instance, there is S2426 in coined
money for every man, woman and child AT
one time the South African republic led
this, with per capita figures of 1854 but
now Australasia is the highest. Canadas
per capita is a few cents in excess of $500.
But these per capita figures of coined
gold should not be taken as indicative
either of country's actual wealth or the
per capita of money in circulation. The
total amount of money of all sorts in the
United States is rising of two thousand five
hundred millions, or more than S2S FOR
every citizen of Uncle Sam, about double
the per capita of gold. In Australia where
the gold per capita is highest, there is little
money circulation at all except that made
from the precious yellow metal; in India
the great preponderance is in silver, ana
this Is true in even greater degree in China.
Staggering Figures.
It is doubtful whether any one can COM
prehend the meaning Of figures as stupen-
dous as those which are needed to express
the present wealth of this country in coined
gold It would take a laborer earning a
dollar a day 4166e6 years to earn a billion
and a quarter of dollars. but at that he
would have to have the longevity OF more
than 400 Methuseahs If the money had
to be earned by days work it would be bet
ter to put 416,GG6 laborers at it for a single
year.
Reduced to avoirdupois the one thousand
two hundred and fifty millions of gold dol
lars now in this country would represent
5,OO0,000 pounds, or 900 short tons of 1000
pounds each. Packed away as Uncle Sam
packs away his gold in the treasury at
Washington and in the various subtreas-
uries, it would fill $500 strong boxes, each
81 by IS by "a inches in size, inside meas
urement, and containing six cubic feet
Piled up. the gold coin thus accumulated
would make heap containing 1000 cubic
feet; bar of gold containing S1.2J0 600 600
worth of precious metal would be five feet
square and 800 feet long; erected into an
auriferous monument, it would be highly
imposing sight, and would make no mean
showing beside the Washington m onument
itself, albeit of about 300 feet less altitude
than that patriotic structure.
At two tons to the million, 1t would take
800 teams, or 5000 horses, to haul this I'M
thinkable mass of coined treasure over the
average roads of the country. Fixing fifty
pounds as the proper load for the average
man to carry any distance, it would re-
quire an army of 100000 to pack the stuff
In ranks of twelve moving in fairly open
order this army of gold bearers would
stretch over eleven or twelve miles or about
the length Of Broadway on the Island of
Manhattan.
There is little danger that the yellow