The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1918-12-06
DEPRECIATION OF GOLD.

DEPRECIATION OF GOLD.
| A serious situation, so far as the government
is concerned, has come about with regard to gold
production in this country. There has been a
progressive shrfnkage in the volume OF produc-
| ton of this previous metal-No less than 80 per
cent since 1915-and ways and means are now
being considered to effect relief to the extent
of not only restoring the normal line of produc-
ton but extending it beyond that conf1ne accord
ing to the Business Digest.
| The establishment of peace has come as a
timely aid, but peace of itself is not going to be
the all-sucient corrective This is fully realized
by the government and the producers alike. The
gold producers ventured the assertion recently
that large percentage of the normal annual
production of the yellow metal would be ire
trievably lost if some measures of immediate re-
lief of high operating costs were not forthcom-
ing. To furnish that relief, without disturbing
economic conditions, is the problem to which the
government has now addressed itself, through
the medium of a special committee appointed by
the Secretary of the Treasury.
The answer to the problem is not an easy one.
It is interviewer with momentous possibilities.
The gold producers must be given relief from the
oppressively high costs occasioned by the war
in order that production may be restored to nor
NAL and at least kept to that level. Also the
gold standard must be maintained at the same
time. If gold is to be treated as just another
metal or commodity, and higher price is to be
placed on its production, then it would seem that
the gold standard would have to be abandoned
and another measure of value found, to serve in
the place of it.
The cost of producing gold is to-day nearly
twice as much sit was in normal times What
does this mean for the gold miners? It means
that they will have to either close down or con-
tinue to work at a loss, for, the price of gold,
which is the product of their labors, is fixed by
long-established international consensus. In
Great Britain so acute has the situation become,
the matter of readjusting the price of gold has
been preached by producers to the government.
As matters stand, the foundation of our whole
credit structure is threatened. The large cour-
tries engaged in the great war, increased their
Indebtedness at an average rate of about forty
billions of dollars year, amount which is,
roughly, about four times the present estimated
value of the total gold reserve of the world Fur
ther the amount of currency in circulation at the
conclusion of the last calendar year is said to
have been something like thirty billions of dol
lars, figure which, of course has been greatly
expanded since that time
What to do, is plainly the question, but the
way is not at all clear. Perhaps, as one econo-
mist has recently suggested, the best thing to
do is to start extensive discussion of the gold
problem in the hopes that out of the theories
that doubtless would be advanced by students of
the question, enough of practical nature will
be cleaned to make possible the achievement of
not only national but international decision
that shall guard the economic future of the
world.