The Alaska daily empire., 1921-03-18
lECISLATORS TO
 START CAMP AICN
 TO SWELL FUND
Men From Each Division Meet with C. I. Jackson
 Pledge Aid for Bill.

That everything possible will be done by Alaskan Legislators to raise money in their respective divisions for the fund for the promotion of the passage of the, McFadden Gold Ex- else bill at the coming session of Congress was the unanimous expres- sion of opinion at the meeting of yes terday held at the office of George T. Jackson, General Manager for the Alaska Gastineau Gold Mining Com pany and representatives of the Am erican Mining Congress in Alaska for the fund.
 MT. Jackson met with legislators of all the divisions including Rep resentative E. L. Holt of the Second, Senator E. E. Chamberlin, of the Third, Speaker Andrew Nerland of the Fourth and Representative P. J. Rickert of the Fourth. Each ex 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 endeavor to start a fund for the promotion of the legislation.
 MT. Jackson will have general charge of the campaign in Alaska and will take personal charge in this 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 in connection with the effort to be put forth to put the bill through both houses of Congress.
 Bill Recommended
 Renewed hope has been given that the bill has a very favorable chance 1 to be enacted into law when the subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee of the House | after conducting hearing on H. R. 13,- 201 (the gold excise and premium bilD reported! to the Committee of the Whole recommending a favor i able report thereon. The personnel of the subcommittee is as follows: { Charles H. Timberlake, Chairman. Luther W. Mott, Isaac Bacharach, John L. Garner, Whitnell P. Mar tin.
 Regarding the measure. Mir. Jack son said today: "This bill was introduced by Congressman Louis T McFadden, Chairman of the Banking and Currency Committee of the House, to prevent further decline in the nations gold production and the continued wastage of developed h.y 5.avf ing and the rotting of timbers when the mines are shut down. The gold production of the nation declined from $101, 100000 in 1915 to $49.- 50000 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 be- cause gold mining is no longer at tractive to capital.
 Low Grade Ores
 'Our present limited resources are | principally low grade ores developed i at great cost and requiring large scale operations. The mines that are still 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 X cannot be replaced, but the non use and scrapping of expensive plants i which the mines will not again jus 1. tify building.
 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,- 00.000 and in excess of the produc tion of that year of $15,000, 900. [ The price of gold being fixed by the Government has rendered gold pro duction unprofitable during this per iod of rising costs. while the jewel 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