Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-10-04
CRO[GJS 0U1DON[
By UNCLE SAN
OLD MiSER WAS AMATEUR COM.
PARED TO UNITED STATES
AS NATION.
OF GOLD IN TREASURY
EXCEEDS BILLION DOLLARS
II Entire Amount Was in IS Coins
They We uId Cover $500 Aeres-
Would Mako Continuous Line From
Ocean to Oeean-Aviators Could Not
Fly Over Them if Stacked in Pile.
Especial Correspondence.1

! Washington, Oct. 4.-Recent figures
or the subject of the sold supply which
has been boarded up by this govern
! ment show beyond peradventure that
Old Croesus. who has got so much free
advertising mser, was a mere
amateur as compared with Uncle
sam
In fact. there is nobody in the wide
world VINO is IL Uncle Sans class when
it comes to boarding up gold. Some
staggering statements as 70 the amount
been given out recently. Expressed il!
! dollars they do rot mean much to th@
average citizen who worries over high
priced milk and sugar at the altitude OF
5 cents But the mathematical sharks
about the treasury have been trying to
see what the gold supply means III
terms of feet and miles and when they
talk about 1t this way II becomes more
understandable.
Gold VS. From Ocean to Ocean.
To begin with. just imagine con-
tinuous line OF s. gold pieces. one piece
pie ced by the side OF the other. strech-
ing clear across the United States from
the Atlantic to the Pacific Imagine
the possibility OF starting TO walk
across the United States from one
ocean to the other and treading on s.
gold coins a.. the way acros. II
seems almost Incredible that any nation
should have this much gold boarded up
but the United States has il
Expressing the gold hoard of the
treasury il terms Of dollars. it appears
the: It amounts 70 $1,000 10000 il
round numbers This is the total stock
of gold III the treasury, including re-
serves. Never in the worlds history
was there such another pie Of gold
gathered up under one ownership.
What IS more. il goes on steadily IL
creasins. over billion dollars OF the
enormous gold hoard is actually in gold
coin. The rest is in bullion. Russia
is second TO the United States in the
being about 100000 600 France Is
States will soon have more than the
two leading gold nations combined.
Some Suggestions.
AS already remarked. II the gold sup
ply Of the treasury department were all
in s. gold pieces. and they were placed
side by side. they would reach across
the continent, They would cover, to be
exact, distance Of 3.2la miles.
II the gold hoard of this government
were all in $50 gold pieces and they
were laid side by side they would
stretch out TO a distance Of l.27s miles
II other words. imagine string Of $50
gold pieces reaching from New York
on, beyond the Mississippi and you
have some notion of the amount Of yell
low metal the treasur, has piled up.
$500 Acres Of Coins.
Or, suppose the gold board Of the
United States were all il S. gold pieces
and they were laid fiat on the ground
The gold would cover surface about
two miles square, that is, four square
miles or sections. or 1850 acres.
II study Of these figures does not give
an adequate idea OF Uncle Sans sup
ply of gold and his capacity to keep
the wolf from the door, il might be we'll
to look a the thing from another angle.
Let one suppose the gold hoard de-
scribed were all in IS gold pieces and
they We're stacked in the usual fashion
one on top of the other. 1t would be Of
no use tor any Of the aviators to try
to get TO the top of the stack for it
would reach the dizzy height of IT'S
mi!