The Cordova daily times., 1921-03-25
PLEDGE AID TO ENACTMENT OF
 M'FADDEN BILL,

Everything possible will be done by Alaskan legislators to raise money in their respective divisions for the fund for the promotion of the pas sage of the McFadden gold excise bill at the coming sssion of congress. This was the unanimous expression of opinion at a meeting held at the office ill Juneau, of George T. Jack, son, general manager of the Alaska Gastineau Gold Mining Company and representatives of the American Min ing congress in Alaska for the fund MT. Jackson met with legislators of all the divisions including Repre-. sentative E. l.. Holt of the Second, Senator F.. E. Chamberlain. of the Third. Speaker Andrew Nerland of the Fourth and Representative P. J. Rickert of the Fourth Each OK pressed realization of the importance of the bill to Alaska and promised that he would communicate at once with the people in his division and i en3eavOr to start a fund for the pro motion of tho legislation
 1 Nr. Jac.'.tr will have general charge of thG campaign i'll Alaska and will take personal charge in the First division. It is hoped that a substantial sum of money will be raised to place with money already in hand for use in educational work l in connection with the effort to be put forth to put the bill through both 1 houses of congress-
 1 Renewed hope has been given that the bill has a very favorable chance to be enacted into a law when the subcommittee of the ways and means committee of the house after conducting hearing on H. R. 13,2O1 | (the gold excise and premium bill) reported to the committee of the whole recommending a favorable re- port thereon.
 Regarding the measure, Mir Jack son said. This bill was introduced by Congressman Louis T. McFadden, chairman of the banking and curren- | cy committee of the house, to pre- vent further decline ill the nations gold production and the continued wastage of developed gold ore re- sources by caving, flooding and the are shut down. The gold production of the nation, declined from $101, ,OO0,- 900 in 1915, to $49,500,00 in 1920, which indicates to what extent the mines have already closed down. At the time of the Civil war American ! gold fields were largely unWorked, These fields have yielded over three billion dollars, and the best deposits are exhausted. There is less chance now for the discovery of new gold mines, and prospecting has virtually ceased because gold mining is no longer attractive to capital.
 Our present limited resources are principally low grade ores developed at great cost and requiring large scale operations. The mines that are stAl working are mostly restricting production to their best ores, gut ting the mine. This is a fatal policy not only involving permanent loss of developed ore reserves, which cannot be replaced, but the non-use and scrappiug of expensive plants which the mines will not again justify build ing.
 "The director of the mint reports that the gold supplied for the manu- facture of jewelry and other indus trial uses in 1919 amounted to $75,- 500,00O and in excess of the produc- tion of that year of $15,0000OO. The price of gold being fixed by the gov government has rendered gold pro- duction unprofitable during this pc riod of rising costs, while the jewell CTS and other consumers of gold be- ing supplied with their metal at pre- war prices are in effect subsidized.
 "Mr. McFadden in an interview, stated that the bill which he has introduced, corrects the cost and price equation between the producer of new gold and the industrial con- sumer of gold without in any way interfering with the monetary unit On account of the emergency now confronting the gold mining indus try MT. McFadden urges that con- gress expedite the enactment of the bill"