Mohave County miner., 1914-10-31
Why Gold is Supreme.

L
wherever mining men foregather. 1t
was printed in recent issue of "West-
ern Opinion:
This is the most propitious time in the
history of mining for the legitimate
exploitation of meritorious gold mine.
With all the great dynasties of the Old
World lettering to their fall, the domain
of gold mining is the only principality
that remains undisturbed, for its pro-
duct is always in demand by all nations
of the earth, and at this appalling june
ture is commanding big premium.
Among all the monarchs of the world,
gold is the only one that now sits secure
and serene on his throne.
The mother Lode of California, en-
bracing the five counties of Amador,
Ell Dorado, Calaveras, Tuolumne and
Maricopa, with the four counties of
Placer, Nevada, Sierra and Plumas,
lying to the north in the order named,
constitute the great gold belt which was
the scene of the wonderful discoveries
in 1S48 and 1849 that turned the tide of
civilization toward the Pacific coast.
This is the country immortalized by
Bret Harte. In 20 years the gold it in
fused into the sluggish arteries of the
worlds commerce set civilization full
century ahead.
During the sixty-four years from 1S49
to the close of 1918 California produced,
principally from this area, the stupen-
dous sum of 1000, 900, COOS in gold, or
nearly as much as all the other mining
states combined. During all these years
the gold output of California averaged
nearly rs, 600, COOS per annum, or more
than 2,OOO,OOO$ a month. The state
still maintains the lead in American
gold production, the output for 1913
being little more than 20, 900, OO0$.
The ever-increaslng army of prospec-
tors and gold miners spread northward
and eastward, and ten years later the
famous Comstock Lode was discovered,
Just over the line in Nevada. The ire
mendous output of silver and gold from
the Comstock mines, added to the large
contributions of the yellow metal from
California, saved the credit of the
nation at time when not only her pO-
litical integrity but also her financial
status was in danger, and made possible
the adoption of the fourteenth amend
ment, the most important amendment
ever made to the constitution of the
United States.
But the service rendered by California
and Nevada to the nation during that
trying period was eclipsed by the world
wide influence of their subsequent
achievements in commerce and finance.
They poured into the lap of commerce
the greatest volume of gold and silver
ever produced anywhere in the same
space of time. They sent their miners
to sit among the princes of finance in
the parliaments of industrial progress
and commercial enterprise. They sent
others to the senate of the nation.
Upon others they bestowed the judges
ermine and the bishops inter.
They raised host from perjury to
affluence, and scattered millions in that
now obsolete form of charity that let
not the left hand know what the right
hand was doing.
The revolutionized and languishing
industry of mining, and their great
mining camps became training schools
for the pre-eminently efficient mining
engineers, metallurgists and practical
mine-workers who later developed the
vast mineral resources of Australia and
South Africa.
They laid railroads across the noun
tains and the deserts and East to the
West with bands of steel.
Their telegraph wires are strung from
ocean to ocean, and their cables unite
the continents and bind us to the Orient.
Strange that the descendants of the
intrepid pioneers who accomplished
these great things should be so blind to
the wonderful opportunities that are
still reckoning to them from the prac-
tically inexhaustible goldfelds that
stretch for hundreds of miles along the
o.. T..