Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1918-08-24
THE SITUATION OF GOLD AND
 SILVER

ClLt
 The meeting of representative mining men ant members of the American Mining Congress last weel at RenO Nevada brought out conclusivey the pre- carOus condition of gold and silver mining in the United States, and in fact every part of the world where the mining for precious metals is carried It was demonstrated without the peradventure of q doubt that the cost of mining, milling and market. ing gold since the beginning of the great has increased at least 50 per cent and that the smaller mining corporations which had been barely getting by either obtaining no profits or were op- eratng at loss. It becomes < question with the companies having large reserves whether it is their patriotic duty to produce gold and deplee their ore bodies or whether they do not owe it to their stockholders to conserve their until pro- duction conditions again become normal.
 Before the war the reserves of gold in the world estimated at ten billions of dollars, which rep resented approximately nethird of the bonded debt of the nations at war, but which is only small margin of all the debts of the world national, state and municipal, not mentioning that of large corpora tiOns, whose credits based gold as money for redemption of their paper. Gold is the basis of money in every civilized country of the earth and to maintain the standard it is all important that it's mining go unimpaired for all tme Year by year 1t is being produced in constantly decreasing amount and the estimate for this year decrease of nearly 35 per cent. So alarming has the shortage of gold become that many strong financial interests at first opposed to aiding the production of gold, now are asking that something tangible be proposed by which a greater production may be assured. Today, were it not for the copper and lead mines carrying values in gold and silver, there would be less than forty mill lion dollars produced in the United States. Many of the old time gold mines have had to close down on account of the absolute of loss should op- hn enough to believe that there many more Cripple Creeks GOldfelds to be found in the United States to create new mining sentiment and new productive fields. There is question that the ores remaining in the old mines have gold than they have pro- duccd but depth and other conditions initiate against their operations at profit, even under ideal conditions Some of the mines of the old Comstock are now at- tracing attention and it is possible that some new ore bodies may be opened that will net goodly sums of money, but in the main these old properties are only fit for the tributer and not for operation on d large scale.
 Gold is said to be the life blood of commerce, and it is quite true. Its place in the economy of nations has been assured since the first grain of the yellow stuff taken from mother earth, and it will con- tinue on down the ages. It is the basis of the na- tional wealth, no matter how much may prate about other essential products The country that lhe ana retaln the metals IS the country where clV ilzatiOn will be found with the highest ideals. Men have braved the frozen north or the deserts burning sands to find ranch, but he braved every hardship in search for gold and has bazed the trails the world for every other industry. Food is an essential to man, but gold and silver are the stuff that go into the far recesses of the earth in search of and point the way for the OncOming of civ lizatiOn. It the mining of metals that developed the higher civilization and without it the whole world would go into decay and dry rot within the century,
 But we must come back to the question of what can and shall be done for the gold miner to keep him in the field and to create interest in furtherng its production. It is out of the question to remonetize gold it would dsorganize the monetary systems of all the countries, but government could mandeer all gold produced in the United States at given price per Ounce say about ESQ., and that sales to other than the government would bar the seller from participating in the higher price. Silver would then have to be taken of in practically the way, silver will be found necessary as money metal in the days after the war; and possibly long be- fore that time. The opening up of relations with China Japan and the other eastern countries, where silver is practically the only medium of trade, will make it imperative government to coin silver in quantity sufficient for all trade needs These countries will be able to assimate millions of dol lars in silver coin and if the United States is wise it will extend the of the white metal and increase its trade in all these countries. It is up to congress or the fixing commission which has been pricing all the other metals to keep mining of them alive.