Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1920-01-24
SilUer The World Sen-
 satiOn in 1919-192O


 cents at par and actually selling al AT cents for many years, sold al around $1.05 most of the year. The Shanghai dollar, worth around 7f cents at par, and actually selling around $1.65 at the end of 1919. The India rupee, worth 32 cents at par be, fore the war, and about IS cents ac- tual value, commanded 43 to 46 IA cents throughout 1919. In short, the money of the great silver nations was selling at 150 to 250 per cent of par or pre-war value, generally over 200 per cent, whereas the money of the gold nations was selling at 8 or 3 cents on the dollar as in Germany and Russia, and 77 cents on the dollar in British money, which was most "well off" of the big European nations, and with, American money considered at "par." @ .- ....,-
 Why World Production Declined
 World production of silver fell off heavily in 1919. An increase in Mex ican production, chiefly at Pachuca, was wiped out by natural decline in productivity of the older established silver districts of Cobalt (Canada), Tonopah (Nevada), and Broken Hill (New South Wales, Australia. |. Strikes also interfered in Nevada and Canada. Worst of all, over 60 per cent of the worlds silver production comes, not from silver mines, but as a by-product from copper and lead mines. Copper production was cur tailed to under 60 per cent normal, and lead production curtailed nearly as much throughout the world. World output is estimated at under 160, ,000,- 900 ounces pure silver in 1919 versus 177 ,453 ,000 ozs. in 1918, and record high of 228, ,738 ,00 ounces in 1911 when Cobalt, Tonopah, and Broken Hill and also Mexico were in their prime.
 Coinage Requirements Heavy
 World demand for coinage purposes was, close to 300,000, 900 ounces as in 1918 and 1917, or double the total world\ production of new silver. h. dia, China and Mexico increased the output of new silver coinage; the Uni ted States hints worked heavily but not at capacity. There was a de- crease in European coinage owing to the coin value of silver in European money being less than the bullion value or metal value of the coin. The total minting of new silver coinage in Europe, while heavy in the aggre- gate, is comparatively small when compared with India and China, and the decrease in European silver new coinage in 1919 was more than off set by the prodigious increase in coin age in India and the Orient.
 The Mexican hints, practically idle in 1918 and early 1919 when silver sold at a higher value than the coin value of the Mexican peso, resumed activity in 1919 when the government in recognition of the high price of silver, lowered the amount of silver legally required in the peso (by act of November, 1918, again Oct. 25, 1919). The Mexican government bought g., 100000 ounces early in the year. The act of Oct. 25 authorized the govern ment hints to commander half the sill yer production of Mexico.
 A corresponding reduction of the amount of silver in European coins IS inevitable, and legislation to this ef- feet has already been introduced in Holland, as we'll as in the United States, and is pending in Britain, as we go to press, as we'll as in Germany and France. As with Mexico, Euro pean hints and our own must become heavy coiners again, once the new coin basis is established with reduced amount of silver per coin, and there fore higher price of silver per ounce.
 The use of silver in the arts and in dustries requires over 60,OOO,OOO ounces of new silver yearly.
 Great Britain now a Debtor to India.
 Probably even more important than the huge coinage demand for silver is the demand to pay the net trade bal ance owing to India, China, and sil- yer nations, by the world. It is for tunate, now, in the world shortage of gold, that these nations will accept silver.
 The world owes India in 1919 about $50, ,OO0,O ,OOO rupees, about $382, ,0OO,O ,O0O with the rupee around 45c. The debt to China, Hongh Kong, and the East Indies, is nearly as great again. Brit ain has become a debtor nation to India, where formerly she was 1ndia's only great creditor nation.
 This has an important bearing, es- pecially because the premium on the rupee and the discount on sterling ex- change practically insures Britain con tinuing a debtor nation, and, practi- cally insures Britain maintaining h. dia on a silver basis. #7
 There might have been a .tempta- tion to place India on a gold basis so long as the world could thereby have been compelled to pay India in gold,
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