Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-01
OUR CHESTS OF GOLD
UNITED STATES HAS A RESERVE
OF $3.50, 600, 600 IN TREASURY.
Enough Of the Yellow Metal to Give
Each Man, Woman and Child
More Than Twelve Dollars.

fom the Salt Lake Herald.
At present the United States has more
gold than any other country in the world.
In the treasury there is a gold reserve of
$3.50. o0o.Oo0. to say nothing of $322.ooo.ooO
more in the national banks.
And to swell the total We are, notwith-
standing the vast store of gold in this
country, beginning anew the importation
of the pr, cious metal from Europe. 5000
| 600 having recently been contracted for
Uncle Sans children have over s12 in
| gold apiece. which, however. is less than
| the citizens of the French republic possess
For each of them there is a little
more than 81 of gold coin head. Ger
many comes third in the per capita COM
| putation, the figures being si2.s1. Great
Britain has S12.34 of gold per capita. and
Russia, with her enormous popupation of
12S.OO0,0O0. only $5.64.
The per capita figure for the entire Brit
| ish empire is a shade under $50, that of
| midas enormous horde of 297 900, COO souls
being only fifteen cents. Here as in other
| things, the British empire exhibits the most
astonishing extremes, for there parts
thereof where the per capita of coined gold
Is in great excess: in Australia. for in
stance. there is sd rs in coin as money for
every man, woman and child. At one time
the South African republic led this with
per capita figures of $26.34, but now Aus
tralia is the highest. Canada's per capita
IL one man should own the enormous
hoard of gold in Uncle Sans treasury
what lot of good he could do,
Power of the Wealth.
He could pay up the debt of the Argentine
republic, and European bond holders would
put up monument to him. 1t would be
rather costly monument. because it would
take all his gold to win it. He could take
the burden of debt off the shoulders of
Canada. That would make him a pro-
| moter, for then he might be willing that she
ing eagle.
This newly rich man might not think of
any of these things at all. Here are a few
more suggestions made in entirely
friendly spirit. If he couldn't pay Uncle
| Sans debt, 1T would naturally be supposed
| that he could help his uncle out in the mat
| ter of pensions. But, bless his soul he
couldn't do much in that line He would
! be unable to touch the bill at all. and could
| only pay the pensions for couple of years
While his uncle was getting his breath and
preparing to start in on those for the Span
! fsh war. If he really wanted to helm his
| uncle he could run the Post Office Depart-
ment for two or three years, paying ali the
| ellls, and then he'd have either to start
out ana gather in new fortune or go to
The Home for INDECENT Milionaires
If his brain boiled with bigger MANS he
could Keep up the armies of the tsar and
William the kaiser for a year and allow
tneSe Two nghters to promote their schemes
! of universal peace
| If his travels in collecting gold gave him
the collecting mania he could make string
or Skyscrapers here in New York buying
up every building more than ten stories
nigh and the land ON which it stands
There are limitations even to the million
aire' but this he could do. And, if he
didn't like their style. he could wipe them
All OUT ana puiid twice as many more some
where else on the island and in some other
way. ~
Money to Burn.
The American nation has money to burn.
The trouble would be to find a place to burn
II. II you were to take this enormous sum
OF money In one-dolar bills and fasten
them end to end they would make a string
! ol,Zoo miles long, which you could easily
| wind around the equator three times and
even leave 10000 miles so hanging out
in airy space. To make a bonfire of these
bills would probably require one of orr
biggest parks "
The immensely of this sum- the gigantic
dimensions of its bulk in gold. or what is
more startling, in silver, and its yaIue
ana purchasing power in this world arc
eewildering to contemplate. Distributed
among the population of the land it would
eve every man, woman and child s12 Dis
trlputed among the popula ton of this civ
each man, woman and child would receive
fooo' II you will consult your almanac Won
va WI, nn ma that there are in this country over
among them each would receive over go
WA small fortune '
ms amount of money would buy the
Mioie brltlsh navy. if that navy were for
eale' ana JeaFe enough surplus to carry on
pretty lively war Or If YOU did not cara
10 invest the whole sum in one epternrisa
you mn might for less than half of it, or
ssI9,oU'ooo' buy or duplicate all of the
ioiioWlng interesting things:
Would Buy Them All.
ships. ""''ic
The st. Louis worlds fair.
The Brooklyn bridge
Half a dozen buildings like tho coni,,
at Washington. the house of parliament
Westminster Abbey. Notre Dame catbe-
aral; In Paris. and a handful of castles on
the Rhine. "
III all this gold were rolled into one bah
IL would make sphere which would weigh
IN the nefghborhood of 2 600 pounds RI
you We're to divide it into six balls of s1o0.-
Vp,ooo each and place them upon heavy
wagons, IL would require a long train OF
elephants to drag them
Really, this is a marvellous suno of ,,oror-
Wnen You come to measure 1t. If it were
given TO you in s. gold pieces which az
corulng 10 the report of the director of the
mint. are 40 OF an inch thick and you were
anie TO stack them one upon the other as a
gambler piles his chips you would have a
goiden rod 100000 feet high-more than
eighty-six miles. or fifteen times as high as
mount Everest, Asia's loftiest peak
III you would rather have the pile thicker
you might take the gold In cubic blocks
one loot in thickness, each one of which
would be worth 100000. If you were to
pie these blocks one upon another your
1000 would make a column l.5OO feet
high. iee'
A cubic foot of silver is worth $1,000 in
these days. moments figuring will show
you now high your column would be If Won
could exchange all this gold for silver IF
an the gold in the world were to be rolled
INTO one sphere it would make globe d
feet in diameter. Our 5000 600 600 would he
one-seventh of this quantity.