New-York tribune., 1918-07-29

price of raw platinum. The govern
ment would hate to pay $500 or $500
an ounce for it in that form. Yet to
commander it on the current value of
$l05 an ounce would be hardship to
the trade and even an injustice. SO
in a diminishing way both wholesale
and retail jewellers are still working
up as we'll as selling platinum goods
There is conviction in some trade
circles that if the War Industries Board
had used little more fnesse in deal
ing with the platinum supply question
there would. not now be any serious
shortage. The complications started
when an American engineer named
Draper arrived in this country from
Russia with 25.000 ounces Of platinum
that he had smuggled out as the mes
American syndicate. headed by a Russo
American banker of prominence
Draper had such a good time telling
the press about his hairbreadth es-
capes in getting the platinum out Of
Russia that he forgot all about the
possible effects of premature publicity,
one of which was that the govern
ment promptly Communicated the 25,-
600 ounces and proposed to pay only
sos an ounce for it, thus putting the
damper on the promoters dreams or
large profit
There has been endless bargaining
over the price, and in the end the
platinum adventurers probably will
get S105, but in the mean time tn.
news of Uncle Sans penurousness has
reached the interior of Russia, and tn.
platinum smuggling industry has los,
all interest in the American market
and has turned toward Germany, which
was doing business with the smuggler>
OF hn 1,o o,rr1 - y ~
tween Germany and Russia
More Platinum Available
The next adventurer who got out
of Russia via Vladivostok with bags
of platinum didn't emulate Draper's
mistake. He cached his precious
platinum in Japan and came on to
dcker with concealed cards. The War
Industries Board couldn't see his price.
so he promptly sold his 10000 ounces
to the British government for $140
an ounce: Since, then the board has
grown wiser and is said to be con-
fident that it can get enough platinum
out of Russia, via Manchuria and
China and in VARIOUS ways to make
it quite independent of Colombia. Rus
sian platinum is more desirable than
that of Colombia because it has a
greater percentage of palladium mixed
with it. Finally, it is said that when
the $4,000 ounces that were on hand
run out and all the stocks of platinum
jewelry are used up and the crisis
arrives, the patriotic women of the
country can be persuaded to give up
suffice for indispensable uses until the
end of the war.
Platinum has many contacts with
the war industries. It's largest and,
perhaps, most important use is IN
plants for the manufacture OF sui
phuric acid as step in the making OF
explosives. Sulphuric acid can be
made without the use of platinum, but
the process is much more tedious and
expensive. 1t is indispensable to the
manufacture of promoters, which in
turn are indispensable in certain steel
treating processes where the accurate
determination of the degree of IN
tensity Of great heat is necessary. as
IN the manufacture of artillery. 1t is
essentially used in gun mechanisms, IN
chemical laboratories, nitrate factories,
auto-motve ignition, electrical work
and electrical control systems.
Now that the government agencies
with conflicting views on the urgency
of the platinum question have come
together. 1t is not unlikely that there
may soon be some further pronounced
changes in the governments platinum
policy
If the difficulties in the way of
getting platinum out of Russia cannot
be overcome or are even augmented by
such happening as Russia, and per-
haps Germany monetizing platinum (it
is now worth five to six times as much
as gold), it may become necessary to
make deal with Colombia
Chiefly due to the war. the Russian
production has declined from 100000 to
$4,000 ounces. whereas the Colombian
output has increased from $4,000 to 49,
600 ounces. Moreover. the Russian
mines are said to be nearing exhaus-
ton, while the Colombia fields are re-
puted to be scarcely touched as yet
The United States consumes about 90
per cent of the worlds production.
The platinum question thus becomes
one of peace rs we'll as of war, and it
may be necessary eventually to forbid
its use permanently for any but those
ir'rortant ntilitarian purposes to which
II il essential