The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1914-10-17
SENATE HEARS
WALSH'S PLEA
MONTANA MEMBER TELLS OF
DECREASE IN GOLD
OUTPUT

WASHINGTON, Oct. IA. = De-
crease in the worlds gold produc-
ton is reaching such a point that a
note of warning has been sounded
in no uncertain terms in the United
States seate by Thomas j. Walsh,
the junior member from Montana.
That this condition will be aggra-
waited greatly by the closing of sill
yer mines was brought out clearly
by Mr.. Walsh.
1t is of vital importance hat the
gold production of the United
States be increased, as was shown in
a letter from the secretary of the
American Mining Congress, which
Senator Walsh used in connection
with his remarks. While it is the
of opinion that every eff
fort should be made first to increase
the gold yield through scientific re-
search and investigation, no effort
was made to avoid bringing out the
possibility of the need for providing
for a bounty to stimulate work in
low-grade refractory gold-bearing
ores
In the face of the great work that
is being done for agriculture by the
government, the appropriations al,
lowed the bureau of mines were
termed ''pitifully small and painful
ly inadequate"
The following summing up of GER
xn.r 80 k,1 iIaa1 1vDrccoI ryA-a
laid before the senate by Mr.. Walsh:
Cd The need for gold to main
tain a proper ratio between base and
structure of credit is increasing with
the great increase in u commerce.
CD Increased cost of operation
now and always will add to the bur-
lens of gold produckvn so long as
Jul credit money is at par.
CD The increased foreign de-
mand for gold reserves is absorbing
a great part of the worlds produc-
ton.
(4) The increased use of credit
money, made possible by the new
currency bill-that 1 may not be
misunderstood, let me say that 1
consider this bill the most import
ant, the most valuable, and that in
effect it will be the most useful leg
islation Of recent times-increases
the burden upon an already over
burdened gold supply by requiring it
to support a greatly enlarged "su-
perstructure of credit"
Ky The hirhJu nrnIVofixyA ,ofn0c
of the country are being rapidly ex-
hausted and no comprehensive eff
fort is being made to develop other
mines to thereafter maintain con-
tinued production or to employ the
labor, the skill and the capital now
so employed.
Senator Walsh's address was ac-
companied by complete statistics
showing decided decreases in the
production of gold in the leading
mining countries of the world. The
principal falling off was shown to
have been in South Africa and in the
United States, the two greatest gold
producing regions of the world. The
passing of the high grade ore bod
les as we'll as the increasing cost OF
labor, machinery and supplies, is
making the mining of gold less at
tractive each year. Conditions of
general prosperity induce additional
operations in the mining of other
minerals, as the increased demand
raises the price; the opposite APP
plies to gold mining. In times of
general prosperity, everything need
ed in the operation of a gold proper
ty is more expensive, but the pro-
duct retains it's unfluctuating value.
These and many other pertinent
facts were called to the attention of
there is evidence that a deep i'm
preston has been made.
The question brought out by Sena-
tor Walsh, as well as many other
matters of important interest to
every man dependent upon the min
ing industry, will be discussed at
the seventeenth annual session of
the American mining congress, which
will be held at Phoenix, Arizona,
Dec. Z, s., 9, 10 and II. AS one of
the effects of the war has been to
accentuate the need for a greater
production of gold in the United
States, it is expected that the meet
ing of the American mining con-
gress this year will be of greater i'm
portance than has been any other
in the history Of the orpapj-