The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-08-05
GOLD is GROWING COMMON
PLACE.
PHILADELPHIA North American.

philadelphia North Americana
About fifty Years hence. when poll
tics shall have taken on aspects none
of us living today dare forecast. there
MAY he Il convention in Chicago. ILL.,,
or Wichita. Kan. or Buffalo. y. V, mr.
some other vast metropolis. of that
new era. ar which q great. despairing
leader will arise and cry out:
Shall this powerful nation, With its
500 GOO. 600 of people, quail before Its
ancient destiny and bow ~democracv's
proud head 10 the effetc lands of Ell
| rope by abandoning its traditional 10y
atty t" the gold standard in favor of
this rare and unreasonable medium of
EXCHANGE. platinum" Is our immense
res"rNe of gold. the worshiped wealth
OF the ages. nothing more than pitiful
drhss? Shall We run our gold mining
irdustrH in order that the most treas
ur"h, most dlctilr. most beautiful of
methods shall be arbitrarily reduced
TO tho shameful office of making pans
:" Nash tho supper dishes in?'
Which. allowing for oratorical hyp-
o~roole. is precisely what we MAY pos
sihlY do. some time or other. if sold
Keeps on becoming Very much more
common. and platinum should become
somewhat less rare than it is now.
Already The eoldsmith's art has. to
an appreciate extent. been transfer
rcd 10 a platinum baSis-and for only
on" reason in the world besides the
circumstance that the new meta hap
pens to he so rara that gold is dross
l,v comparison. AS for intrinsic MGR
its. gold meier had any notable super
ioritY over metals infinitely more OBJ
'ainal'n. but TIL" only time iron money
Was minted WAS when old Lvcurgus,
in Sparta. used it with the deliberate
purpose Of destroying the value of all
money as a medium Of exchange
Nowadays. when the society report
or spills superlatives over the wedding
gifts of some famous heiress. leading
| place is civen the iewelrv with plat
mum settings. Jewellers will say that
an arrrnciahle utility inheres in the
use of platinum as a background or
bedding for diamond or pearl; but a
better reason is that like the cowrie
shells TIL" carly saNaces used as cash.
it is somewhat hard to get and. there
fore. much more expensive.
1t has always been hard TO get: but
there have been times. and they only
a few years ago. when wealth and
beauty would have been insulted by
tho sift of a complete toilet set in
platinum. such as now only the
W~calthiest of the m~illionaires would
dream of assembling for a bride.
Huh" the mother of todaN's bride
would have said when she inspected
the presents twenty-five years ago.
PITY they didn't send me some good
honest tin baking pans and coffee pots.
The metal would have cost nearly AS
much"
a dozen Years ago-and these are
official figures-no more than 400
"nnces of platinum We're mined in the
United States. and nearly all the rest
Of he worlds supply came from the
l'ral mountains. in Russia. as it does
still. 1T was worth the paltry sum If
$2,o0n-little mor than So an ounce.
and that at a time when its import
ance in electricity for the manufac-
ture of i~ncsndescent hulbs vas fully
appreciated.
But note how craftily everything
that can possibly become .aorcy is
studied throughout the world. Russia,
potentially rich in its practical monop-
oily of the rare metal. had already he
gun to mint its platinum in a special
form of coinage, which called for high
values in small weight and compass.
Weight for weight. the value of these
coins was midway between those in
silver and gold, a very useful cornprn-
mise for small pieces, like a f1~ve-ruble
coin. which, worth s2.55 1-2 in Amer
lean money. would be a cumbersome
cartwheel in silver, smaller than n los
able dime in gold. But the nla1inum
worth then about one-fourth it's weight
in gold. gave a coin between a quarter
and a half dollar. with legal tender
value slightly above s2.5o-aimost
ideal in it's relation between bulk and
purchasing power.
Any today who happens to have
five rubles in platinum. mintc.l on the
basis of ten or fifteen years ago, pos
sesses an intrinsic cash asset IL about
s23. The increase has been nearly
900 per ent Gold now is worth $50
to $21 per ounce troy; platinum is
quoted at s56 to s57 per ounce. al
most three times as much.
Yet the worlds output has mutt
piled in direct proportion to the en-
hancement of the value. a remarkable
phenomenon. and in surprising def
ance of the rule that increased quaint
tiles are attended by lessend values.
Russia hasn't done it; no trust has
operated h change: no Vaccinations
of greed have pushed platinum's price
a single notch higher during its brief