Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1920-11-06
M'FADDEN ANEWERS
 BONUS CRITICS
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the bill as means tor adjusting the excise and premium as being similar in its application to the plan of Pro lessor Irving Fisher for stabilizing the dollar, shows a marked lack of knowledge concerning his proposal. The index number as used by Pro lessor Fisher would lessen or increase the number of grains in the standard dollar from time to time, funda mental change in the gold standard, while the index number as employed in the bill in no way changes the num- improvement in the money market resulting from the small amounts of gold which have come in from Europe. The National City Bank statement of October makes the following refer ence: "One explanation of the easier tone in the money market is to be found in moderate increase of re serves, due to importations of gold from Paris and London. The lawful reserves of the reserve banks on Sep tember 3 aggregated $2,117, ,957 ,000, and on an increase of some $34, ,OOO,- 0O0." In the statement of The Me chanics and Metals National Bank of October the following statement is made: "The gold coming from France is helping to increase the base upon which that credit rests" In the ten days ending September 30 approx inately $11,OOO,OOO of gold was i'm ported from France, which indicates and is used merely as basis of com parison in order to equitably adjust the cost and price equation between the producer of new gold and the con sumer of industrial gold. AS used in the bill, the index number has also been used for many years as basis for regulating wages and for adjust ing costs.
 Ample Protection Against Fraud
 The Committees objection to the bill based upon the possibility of fraud arising from the difficulty of distin- gushing between virgin and old gold is more serious in theory than it will prove in practice. With the cooper ation of the Bureau of the Mint, the Bureau of Mines, and the Geological Survey, all of which organizations have field representatives in the gold mining districts, any successful fraud on the government could only be on very small and negligible scales The affidavit of production specified in the bill and the penalty provided in sures the Government every protec- tion against fraud.
 British Gold Supremacy.
 In 1915 the United States produced 21.5 per cent of the total worlds gold output, and the British Empire 63.7 per cent. In 1919 the United States produced but 16.6 per cent of the total worlds gold output, while the British Empire produced about 70 per cent, Since July "A, 1919, the British Empire has been paying an exchange premium, as high as 50 per cent, to the gold producers of South Africa, where the bulk of the British gold is produced, while in the United States no assistance has been rendered the gold mining industry. The gold pro- ducers of all British possessions are receiving the benefit of an exchange premium. This year the contribution of the United States to the gold pro- duction of the world will probably be not more than 12 per cent, about half of that which it contributed in 1915, while the stimulating effect of the ex- change premium will probably in- crease the quota which the British Empire will contribute to 75 per cent. Whereas in 1915 the British Empire produced three times as much gold as the United States, in 1920 Britain will have produced six times as much. Are we to continue to ignore the problem of gold production in the United States, thus permitting the British Empire to gain an unquestion- ed supremacy?
 Retention of Gold Standard
 1t is. fundamental to the reestab- lishment of the gold standard as the basis of world intercourse that gold mining should go on at something like it's normal rate. This requires that prospecting, exploration and develop ment shall be carried on continually and that the industry shall invite in Vestment upon terms fairly competi- tive with other industries, Gold min ing under modern conditions is not an industry into which or from which capital can readily be shifted. It takes long time to find and develop a good gold mine. It is not casual industry, which can be suspended and resumed without serious interference with the volume of production. A considerable portion of the output al ways is obtained on a small margin of profit, and if such operations are suspended and the mines fill with water, they are likely to be abandon ed permanently. The gold mining industry, which has so greatly shut