The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-09-15
By AGNES c. LAUT.

n DAYS and you'll find it about as
easy to obtain as platinum, palladium,
iridium-which aren't obtainabe at all
and for which the Government is paying
prices running from $l05 an ounce 10
SIS.
And though Won can still obtain silver,
the fact remains that in proportion to
the dcmand-especially for foreign trade
silver is becoming, il not absolutely
scarce relatively, rare as the rarest metal.
Is the day coming when silver, too, will
become shy and disappear in the invisible
"sink" that ;hsorbs precious metals in
times of war. Silver at 81 plus an ounce,
which used to cost - and 90 cents is Il
far more startling phenomenon than cof-
fee at % cents, which used 10 be IA cents
a pound. For the silver production of the
world is a very limited quantity, and ex-
cept IN Il few rare silver camps, like
Cobalt or Slocln in the early days, silver
comes chiefly as 4 hy-pgoduct of other
metals
We talked in the early days of the
war of money as silver bullets" Are
we coming To paper buIiets" For the
war has reversed every economic theory
the world has ever hid, and the free
coinage of silver to-day woald no more
relieve the acute demand for silver coin
than the free coinage of mud. The de
mand for silver com IN one country alone.
India, exceeds for a single wear the entire
world production Of silver.
Like Leaking Reservoir.
The demand for silver is exactly like
dozen inilOwng pipes and an unknown
number of leaks IN the bottom. All we
see Is that the surface level of the water
keeps sinking faster than the flow comes
in. We find one hole and stop tho leak.
Up comes the water level: but before the
world financiers have had Il chance TO soap
their hands with satisfaction down the
water level goes again.
That is where the whole world Is with
silver just now-Iust where King Canute
was when he found he could not command
the flux and refiuX of the ocean tides.
Time was less than two centuries ago
when the proud Silversmilhs of London
met in pompous satins and wigs behind
closed doors and set the price of silver
for the whole world. They were sue
ceeded by the silver brokers of London;
but the war was barely two years old
when the whole beautiful scheme of the
past sprang leak. Silver began leaking
away through other pipes than London
through France, through Mexico. through
China, through the Philippines. through
India and through New York and San
Francisco 10 INDIA.
Stop gauges were jammed on in the
shape Of Government regulations by
France. by England by Mexico, by the
United States. by India, but they were
jammed on too late Not all the man
made regulations can stop the tide, any
more than Canute could command the
Sea India's demands alone could drain
the world of silver
Some Of the Important Facts.
Take few disconnected facts.
Within few months the American
Government melted down 100,0o0.000
silver dollars for export to India, China
and Japan.
Immediately afterward, about month
ago, the Treasury fixed the maximum
price for silver at Sl.0l12. 1t then an
bounced that export licenses for silver
would he granted only on condition that
the maximum price was not exceeded.
This was to stop the spectators, who had
been buying silver at 81 and reselling it
at $l.0S and S1.07. As the Government
pays only ST an ounce its profit is ~
cents, which DIVERS the expense of melting
and recoining.
France tired 10 stop the leak by demon
etning silver. When 15,000,0000 small
nickel and silver coins were struck off by