The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-04-17

Carl Snyder in Golfers: There has
never been a time since an accurate
record Of Price Movements has been
kept when prices have changed more
violently or rapidly than in the last
sixteen years.
From the low point of 1895 to the
high point Of 1912, last June, the aver
age Of twenty-five food products tabu-
lated by The Annalist of New York
shows a rise of 75 per cen This
means that in money it cost just, rs
cents more to buy a dollars worth"
Of food than in 1898.
In other words, the value" of the
gold dollar had deprecated AZ per
cent.
A gold dollar of 1895 had in 1912
the purchasing power of only So cents
A dollar that could lose nearly half
OF its "value"-that is, nearly half OF
It's purchasing power-in sixteen
years is al wobbly a standard OF
value as anything that anybody ever
dreamed might result from free
silver in 1896.
How could it happen that so many
serious and otherwise clear-headed
men, Mr.. Bryan and his opponents as
we'll. could be in so many ways SO
absolutely wrong!
What happened, what was happen
without either MI. Bryan or his ad-
versaries having the least inkling OF
1t, was a sudden and amazing increase
In gold production.
After the discovery Of the great
gold fields in California and in Aus
tralia in '49 and in the early SOS
there was a very large increase in the
output of the worlds gold mines which
reached Its climax about 1858. There
after the annual production consider
ably declined to a level that did not
greatly vary through the next thirty
years.
New Gold Is Poured In.
Then about 1890 came new processes
and inventions which simply revolu-
tionized gold mining. These were:
Ffrst-The steam or power drill
which enabled one man to do the
work of twenty or twenty-five men
working by hand.
Second-Cheap dynamite and other
explosives.
Third-The introduction of Cyan
ide" and "chlorination' process for
teaching gold out of the ore, after
the rock has been stamped into a
powder.
LLSSe new processes permitted Jl6
working, on a large scale with profits,
of the newly discovered Rand mines
in the Transvaal, and of other great
properties Of Australia and elsewhere,
with this result:
Whereas for a long time before 1890
the gold production had been a little
over 500, 000, 900 annually, by 1895 it
had reached $500, 900, 900.
Before 1900 it had reached $500, 000,-
600.
BY 1906 it had reached $500, 600, 900.
Last year it was in the neighbor-
hood of $500, 600, 900.
The Rand mines alone last year
produced more gold than the whole
world had ever produced prior to Mr..
Bryan's defeat, and nor than twice
as much as the whole world in the
year of that defeat.
In consequence of this enormous
production, the worlds stock of gold
coin and bullion has reached a fabu-
lous figure. The various estimates
are unsatisfactory, but it is now at
least seven billions of dollars, and
probably much more. 1t has certainly
doubled in sixteen years.
In other words we have now a larger
stock of gold than probably the wild
est antagonist of free silver ever
dreamed we might have of silver, if
Mr.. Bryan had carried the day.
Nor is there the slightest prospects
now that this huge output of gold will
be lessened within any hear period.
On the contrary there seems every
prospect that it may continue to in
crease, and in the minds of some, still
more rapidly than within the past
twenty years.
Prof. Charles r. Keyes, one of the
ablest and most thoroughly informed
and widely travelled of mining engi-
neers, believes that the greatest source
of the worlds gold has as yet scarcely
been touched. This is the deserts!
Moreover, a very large part of the
worlds gold is contained in the So
called refractory ores from which
extraction is so difficult that at pres
ent it is not profitable.
Will There Be a DeIuge of Gold?
A single invention might double the
worlds gold supply within five years.
That would be a magnetic separator,
Or some similar device which would
sort the gold powder from that con-
tanning the refractory" metal, and so