The Savannah morning news., 1902-07-20

that made from the precious yellow
metal; in India the great preponderance
is in silver, and this is true in even
| greater degree in China.
| Staggering Figures.
| 1t is doubtful whether any one can
| comprehend the meaning of figures as
| stupendous as those which are needed
| to express the present wealth of this
country in coined gold. 1t would take
! a laborer earning a dollar day 49,
| 666 years to earn a billion and a quar-
| ter of dollars, but at that he would
have to have the longevity of more
| than 1000 Methuselahs. II the money
had to be earned by days work it
would be better to put 416,666 laborers
! at it for a single year.
Reduced to avoirdupois, the one thou
! sand two hundred and fifty millions of
gold dollars now in this country would
| represent 5000, 900 pounds, or $500 short
tons of 1000 pounds each. Packed away
| as Uncle Sam packs away his gold in
the treasury at Washington and in the
various sub-treasuries, it would fill g.
500 strong boxes, each 81 by Is by "a
inches in size, inside measurement, and
containing six cubic feet. Piled up
the gold coin thus accumulated would
make a heap containing 5000 cubic
feet; bar of gold containing 81 $780,
100000 worth of precious metal would
be feet square and 300 feet long;
erected into an auriferous monument,
1t would be a highly imposing sight,
and would make no mean showing be-
side the Washington monument itself.
albeit of about 200 feet less altitude
than that patriotic structure.
At two tons to the million, it would
take $500 double teams, or 5000 horses,
to haul this unthinkable mass of coin
ed treasure over the average roads of
the country. Fixing fifty pounds as the
proper load for the average man to
| carry any distance, 1t would require
an army of 100000 to pack the stuff.
In ranks of II 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
specie of the great republic will be
looted and carried away "by hand"
What Our Coined Gold Would Buy.
| One thousand two hundred and fifty
| millions of dollars would buy an enor-
nous amount of merchandise, and
would pay the expenses of no end of
wars or merry making. A few weeks
ago, before it could be foreseen that
the coronation of King Edward VII
would be postponed by a royal illness,
1t was estimated that the total cost of
the ceremonies to government and Eng
list people would be not far from ST.
100000. At that price for such jubifa-
tons Uncle Sans stock of coined gold
would foot the bill for 179 coronations
and leave some millions over
A billion and a quarter dollars would
build 80 Brooklyn bridges. It would
build, equip and put in commission
more than 400 great battleships. 1t
would probably suffice to buy the whole
British navy providing that aggrega-
! ton of marine fighting machines could
be purchased at anything like a fair
| valuation. At a million dollars a day.
the approximate cost of the Civil War,
the, coined gold now in this country
would wage a war for more than three
! years and four months
Comparisons of the quantity of coin
ed. gold in the country with the value
of some of the country's staple prod
ucts is somewhat startling. For in
stance. in round numbers the output