The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-22

com Ihey prefer its paper representa-
tive. Banks in this city which undertook
u pay out gold some yeari ago in marry
cases found that their customers re-
drested them to give currency in place
or gold 1t has been pretty we'll demon-
sttated that the American people prefer
Paper, at least for ordinary and over-the-
counter daily transactions in case they
are certain that this currency is sure to
be redeemed by gold whenever the re-
demption is asked for.
A Serious Question
II 1t is true that the precious metal
mines of the United States are beginning
10 SNOW signs of exhaustion then some
what serious question related to financial
operations, and in fact to the general b,lsI-
ness OF the country. will be presented be-
fore many years have passed. For as
soon as normal conditions are restored
ana the friction ended which is now oc-
casloned by the attempt to readjust mod
ern business methods to popular will il
Is certain that undertakings upon a great
scale will be begun, some of them In the
diiection of turning into material wealth
various natural resources of the United
States. These undertakings could be more
easily handled If the gold production of
the United States continued to increase for
the next 10 or 20 years proportionately as
it has increased since 1896.
Where the Gold Is
The director of the mint states that out
OF the Alaska fields between s17,00O,o00 and
SIS 100000 worth of gold was mined in 1912
These figures confirm predictions made
Years ago by former Senator John p
Jones of Nevada. His expert and scien-
tine familiarity with geological conditions
associated with the deposits of precious
metals justified him in predicting that
the day would surely come when the
Alaska peninsula would be the greatest
gold producer in the union or outlying
territories But for Alaska we should
have made comparatively poor showing
this year. California Colorado and Me-
vada seem to hold their own as gold pro-
ducing states, California still maintain
ing pre-eminence with production.of $2O,-
100000, but Colorado pressing very close
with a little under S9000Oa0 The golu
production reported from Alabama, Geor-
sia. North Carolina, South Carolina and
Tennessee represents the auriferous
stieaks stretching all along the Appa-
lachian range. And these ores may by
and by be even more profitably worked
than they have been in the past Ala
bama's production is $4,000, but if that
state can produce $4,000 worth of gold
when so little attention is paid to that in
dustry in that state, it should produce
more when attention is directed toward
1t. 1t is a somewhat curious fact that
Alabama. Georgia and South Carolina
each produced very nearly the same
amount of gold in 1912 Alabama's output
being the largest, at $4,000, and Georgia s
and South Cardinals being practically
the same, $4,000 These figures, however.
represent potential wealth in precious
metals along the Appalachian range the
best illustration of which is the gold pro-
duction of North Carolina, which is ap-
proximately s15000o.
The chances are that some day we shall
secure large annual production of gold
from the Philippines. the archipelago hav-
ing produced no gold, although the aurif-
erous kin of the gold streams which are
being mined in North Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama and South Carolina is to be
found in the Adirondack region. There is
plenty of gold in the Adirondacks, but
it s scattered here and there and science
has not shown the way by which these
scattered deposits can be profitably util-
lied although some 20 GEARS ago smelling
plants We're set up among the foothills of
the Adirondacks about % miles north Of
the town of CslOyprSVile n Y