The Coolidge examiner., 1932-08-05

I " W otIHaNtsJ
NISCOVERY Of gold belt
more than 100 miles long
- and from three TO ten miles
wide in northern Quebec, Canada,
and the recovery of the golden
treasure of the Inflated steamship
Egypt which lies on the floor of
the Atlantic off Brest, France, have
recently brought the precious yell
low metal into the world news.
Hardly a day passes. however,
without gold creeping into the
headlines. One day a great nation
drops the gold standard On an
other day another nation adds
steadily to its stock of gold; on
another n new mine is discovered
somewhere; on another. unusually
large shipments of gold cross the
Atlantic, the Pacific or the Indian
ocean.
Despite n universal interest in
the gold. the average man probably
has hazy ideas OF the actual
amounts OF gold involved in world
stocks. annual production, and the
incessant shipments back and forth
between countries. To a consider
able extent this is owing to the ex-
tremely small unit-the fine
ounce"-by which the weight of
gold is measured.
"lt will help visualize the amounts
of gold that figure in the worlds
news, IL we construct in Imagination
n "super dollar of gold worth one
hundred million dollars. This SUI
per dollar will be n disk one foot
thick and just a tiny fraction less
than 1S2 feet in diameter. 1t will
thus retain. roughly, the shape and
proportion of the ordinary gold dol
lar. will contain a trifle more than
27i1 cubic feet of gold, and will
weigh a little less than 166 tons.
Gold production statistics are not
available for the period covered
by the history of civilization, nor
even for the Christian era. But
we do have fairly accurate esti-
mates of the total amount OF gold
mined in all parts of the earth since
the discovery of America by Colum-
bus. Let us imagine all this gold
brought together today at one spot
and minted into super dollars. With
the aid of huge crane we can have
these yellow 'chips" piled one on
top OF another to see how high the
worlds stack" will reach. When
90 have been put in place the sup
ply of full dollars" will have been
exhausted. To bring the pile up
TO date, we will have to hoist TO
the top as a cap-stone, a half of
one of the disks, shaped like half a
pie, and worth only $50,OO0,OO0.
Worlds Gold In a Column.
Here, then. in a sparkling column
1SA feet in diameter and more
than 224 feet high. would rest all
the gold that has been cleaned by
myrTads of men in 440 years of toll.
The column would be about as high
as a 20 story Office building, and
would be worth approximately
So, ,450O00,000. During the past
FIVE years, a 'super dollar" has
been added TO this world pile ap-
proximately every three months
about S40O.0O0,OO0 worth of gold
each year.
But as soon as we have built up
our imaginary stack, we must begin
pulling it down If we would repre-
sent the current gold situation. For
although almost twenty-five and
half billion dollars worth of gold
has been produced from 1892 to
1882, this is not the amount 'in
sight in the world today. Nearly
half the precious metal represented
by our imaginary stack has been
lost, hidden away, or used up In in
dustry, the making of jewelry, the
gliding of ornaments, and the like.
The total known stock of gold
money and gold bars In the world
at the end of 1881 was worth ap-
proximately eleven and a half bill
lion dollars. We must therefore
discard something like the upper
half of our imaginary stack of gold,
leaving only 115 of the huge disks
in place. This 115 foot tower of
precious metal, that we have built
in fancy. represents the monetary
gold of the world. On it are based
all monetary systems in so far as
they depend on gold
But again we must alter our i'm
aginary gold tower. At no time, of
course. has all the worlds monetary
gold been assembled in one coun-
try. The greatest concentration
within the borders of one nation oc-
Cured in September, 1881, when the
amount Of gold coin and gold cast
in bars in the United States slightly
exceeded FIVE billion dollars in
value In the United States, then,
there could have been built last au-