Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1918-11-23

secret agent who gave me the facts. for which he afterward paid with his life.
 It will be recalled how last spring, when it was declared in the house of commons that Great Britain had T. 100000 men under arms, a shock of surprise came to the people who think below the surface of things when they learned that 100000 of those 7,OOO,- 900 were under arms in the far east. Why? To counteract the revolution ary propaganda manipulated by Ger many, chiefly from headquarters in San Francisco. Always India has been "a sink" of precious metals, de- manding payment for exports in gold or silver, at once withdrawing the coin from circulation, either to hide and hoard it or melt and beat up the coin into bangles and jewels and orna- ments.
 And now the war brought conditions to India that literally set5 match to gunpowder' The general population of India.will not use paper currency but 1ndias exports are essential to the winning of the war. India has jute and hemp and wheat, and India has cheap labor.
 Ordinarily India buys about $90,- 100000 more than she sells, but lack
 of tonnage has cut off her imports and
 increased prices have swollen hef~ex-
 ports. The allies owed India $36O,- 100000 for war purchases, and India
 would not accept payment except in coin. How easy for enemy propogan-
 da to fan factional unrest to revolu-
 tion if there had been any delay in
 the payment of that coin! It was the
 place where the changes of money
 might have become the dictators of
 second Russia, but where was that
 great mass of coin coming from?
 Only one source of silver had been
 left undrained in the whole world
 those silver dollars piled up dead and
 unused in the United States treasury.
 Even before the Pullman act permitted
 the melting and exportation of these,
 private purchases had sent the price
 of silver up 50 per cent. For the ten
 years preceding 1908 India had ab-
 sorbed and "sunk" or lost to circula-
 lation $135, 900, ,O0O of gold-more than
 a quarter of the worlds yearly pro- duction of gold.
 For the ten yearsNafter 1908, that is to 1918, India had absorbed and 1. sunk" $44O,OOO,OOO of gold, or more 7 than the worlds production of gold
 for one year.
 ) By 1917 the dangers to shipping by way of London had become so great that coin was going to India by way
 of New York and San Francisco, and the brokers of London were powerless ) to stem the flow. Russia. and China ! also were buyers of silver here. The ! dominance of the London brokers in precious metals had passed forever. ) one single purchase of silver to the extent of $20,0O0,000 was supposed to have gone to India by way of Canada, ] and what had begun as trickle be- , came flood.
 By the end of 1917 India was draw ing three-fourths of all the silver pro : duced in the world. Silver had to be supplied to India to avert financial panic and perhaps a revolution. The , world had produced about 175,0O0, 900 ounces of silver and India needed ) immediately. $200,O 100000 worth and later $15O,OOO,O00 more, so the United 2 States treasury dollars were melted , and exported.
 But before that curious situation ) had arisen as to the rupee. The pre- lmium was so great on metal that the silver in the rupee was worth more than the face value of the minted ru- pee, so rupees were being melted up
 and going out of collection. A law was passed in India making it penal offense to melt or export coin. Sill , yer cannot now be shipped to India except by purchase of the government But this is not the whole story of the advantages of silver in the war We are now paying France our army disbursements in silver With India requiring $175,OO0,0O0 more in silver r than is produced in year and France taking payment for our army purchas. es in silver, it is not surprising that r silver has doubled in price.
 The free coinage of all the silver ir . the world would not satisfy today's t tdemand on silver. Shot through witf 7 the blood of millions of men is the II Continued on Page ?