Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-24
Written for The Evening Star.

Written Tor The Evening S.at.
Which is the worlds most precious metal?
Wall street would say gold. Pittsburg
would say iron. So many reasons and fig
ures could he given in favor of either that
the average man would be as puzzled to
decide as ever was any reader of Stockton S
The Lady or the Tiger"
1t Is certainly one of the two. No other
metal approaches either of them in none
tary value or worldwide Importance, al
though the electricians might have a word
to say in favor of copper, on the same
principle that the cobbler declared there
was nothing like leather.
So far as the actual money value of the
mined material is concerned. gold undoubt-
eddy takes the lead, not only in the United
States, but throughout the world. On the
other hand the production of iron ore is in
Creaslng at much greater rate than the
production of gold. But gold, Wall street
would say, vitalizes all the worlds indus
tries. including iron and steel.
How could YOU develop your mines and
your steel-mallng plants If we didn't put up
ask.
You could not work your gold mines at
all without our machinery of steel" Pitts
burg might well retort
1t would be true. The great modern de-
velopments in gold mining have only be-
come possible through the progress of the
iron and steel industries. Deep-level min
ing could not be practiced without the help
of COLDS greatest rival among the metals
Without iron and steel, gold-washing and
gold mining would have to be carried on in
the primitive ways of the lncas.
Pittsburg might urge, further that gold
Is only a medium of exchange Which is of
small practical value in itself to he world
at large. Another medium of exchange
might be found, but nothing could take the
place of iron and steel. There are other
10 u ha 10 70 hnir
purposes, but those metals are too rare, and
therefore too expensive, for anything like
common use.
Could Not Exist.
Without iron and steel, bridges, railways,
steamships, skyscrapers, all the things we
have grown to depend on in our daily lives
and have grown to regard as Indispensable,
could not exist.
The sewing machine, the reaper, the
steam engine, which has revolutionized the
worlds industries and transportation sys-
tem-none of these things would be posi-
BILE but for iron and steel. The age of ma
chinery would never have come into being
at all without them; the inventors occupa-
ton would never have existed, for no mat
ter how ingenious the machine he con-
trived, it could not be built to operate prop
erly without the strong, yet cheap metal or
which nearly all modern machine are con-
structed. The modern industrial arts of
peace could not be practiced without iron;
neither could modern war be Waged, since
nothing but steel is strong enough and
cheap enough to make into huge power
guns. 1t Is commonly said that money
resources-which means gold, or the ABILITY
to get hold-will decide the far eastern war
But is not steel even more necessary to the
fighters although the days of the Redeemed
blade have almost past? And the very sur
geons who attend to the wounded men on
the battlefield could not do their work with
out the finely tempered instruments thal
mark the apotheoss of steel.
you must have our goods, PittSburg
would conclude There are no substitutes,
but gold is only token, and you could get
something else in place OF II.
To this very reasonable argument Wall
street would retort by asking where another
medium of exchange as good as golo IS 10
be found. There are other MEDIUMS, pue
gold has to be at the back of them, in the
Greater part of the civilized world, at all
events. Look at the people who use other
tokens-the savages with their beads ana
cowries and elephant tusks' Are we 10 re-
turn to their condition! 49,
And so the controversy would go on, until
the average man was hopelessly bewiIdered
Rut whether gold or iron deserves the
naIm II is at least certain that the produc-
t'on and treatment of both metals are in
dustries of the highest Importance to the
United States. In regard TO both or them
this country plays a leading part in the
world We are now far ahead or all COM
netitors In the production of pig iron and
steel. but we have lost our former premier
place as the worlds greatest producer Of
gold.
An estimate has been made that the
amount of gold raised from the earth from
the year 1892 to June 80 1881, was worth
So 800 $50, O66. Previous to 1892, the value
of all the gold raised was 1921 ,3I4000.
This large figure takes account of the vast
treasures of gold brought from the land of
Ophir by the servants of King David and
King Solomon for the building of the tenn
Pile OF course, these figures are simply wild
conjecture: so, also. is the theory that about
half of the gold from the time of the dis
coverics of Columbus down to the year 1881
came from the American continent. But
when we came down to more modern times,
we get exact and interesting figures.
In 1851 the United States enjoyed undis-