The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-09-22

~ of gold, and myriad other ref
erences to gold have kept the
yellow metal before the public eye in
recent months.
Gold coins brought from the wreck
by Robinson Crusoe were worthless TO
him. On his island, nobody was in
sight from whom he might buy.
But when Crusoe was rescued and
could mingle again with other men.
then his gold would buy anything he
wanted. What a simple lesson in the
power of gold!
Lust for gold, and the power it
yields, recast Old world geography in
the pIundering raids of Alexander the
Great. 1t brought changes to Eu-
ropes map in the Punic wars, and in
the campaigns of Marius, Pompey,
Paulus Aemilius. and Julius Caesar.
Leaping the Atlantic in the wake Of
Columbus. il was again the gold fever
which led the cOnqUering hOrdes on
those long explorations which not only
wrecked and robbed the Aztec and
Inca empires and slew or ensiaved
NhOlc lllDES VI AllAAslAlSf Jul AeaAN lAAC
first lines of what is now the map of
the western hemisphere.
Yet a third geographic chapter in
mans worldwide gold quest dawned
when the trail wove back and forth
across the Pacific, from California TO
Australia, back 10 Alaska, then away
off 10 South Africa. Always, on the
cultural map, the goldseeker left his
mark. Consider California. The For
ty-niners' rush TO its rich placers
started that western migration which
was to build railways and new cities,
found industries, and cover the West
with farms, sawmills, and school
houses. Gold strikes. in the same way,
swelled the human tide to Australia
and FASTENED its settlement and
growth.
When gold mines of fabulous wealth
opened in South Africa, they put the
Dark continent in the worlds eye and
led, indirectly. TO the BOer war. Grip
pie Creek, the KlOndike, northern On
taria. now the greatest gold area in
the western world. all have had their
profound effects on human progress.
Gold Is Not Static.
When gold was used merely as per
sonal adornment, in plate, or in the
decorative arts, it swayed the destiny
only of those who possessed it, as in
Peru and Mexico, or when Rome paid
chariot loads of it to the barbarians
10 save herself from being sacked.
But when gold came into wide use as
money, to measure wages, prices, and
the cost of living in all nations, then
it began TO influence the whole world.
Tariffs, the gold standard, foreign ex-
change and debts, arbitrage
brings them all into the picture of in
ternatiOnal relations.
You think of all this when you walk
through the United States mint in
Philadelphia and see the shiny new
gold coins come tumbling out; or when
YOU explore tLa vast, silent vaults Of
the Federal Reserve bank in lower
New York city, sunk far below the
Hudson river level, with their stacks
of gold bars and bags of coin worth
billions. High above you, in the busy
street. armored trucks and armed
guards come and 90 with still more
gold, the gold that is forever crossing
and re-crossing the oceans, the gold of
Paris and London, of Tokyo, and
Buenos Ayres. For gold is never stat
ic; necessarily it changes form and
place, and yet endures.
Look at your own gold watch and
think. Some Of its gold particles
might conceivably have come even
from the gold of SolomOn's temple;
from an old treasure ship plundered
by buccaneers of the Spanish Main;
or. again, from new gold mined only
last year in Arizona.
Look at the motley heaps Of second
hand gold jewelry in any pawnshop
window. Visit one of the great fac
tories in New England or around Man
haitian, where costume and other
jewelry is turned out by the carload,
and you see again why industry uses
so much Of all gold produced. Or con-
slider the fortunes in gold leaf laid on
the crosses and domes of churches,
such as st. Paul's cathedral in Lon
don, the mosques of Meshed and An
Najaf. such structures as the Wool
worth and American Radiator build
ings in New York, or the fortunes in
gold worked up every year in the den
tai and sign-painting trades.
Half Used in Industry.
AoT % ha r,oT5
production since the discovery of
America can now be definitely located,
SAYS the director of the United States
mint.
Since 1892 the world has mined more
than so. 100000, as officially re-
ported. OF this, about so per cent
was produced since 1S60.
But today, the worlds nations hold,
as monetary gold stock. only about
S11. 940,OOO,OO0.
What. you ask, has become Of the
rest Of it? Where are the missing ten
billions or more?
1t went, much Of it, just as in olden
times. into ornaments. In 1881, for
instance. of. roughly, 100000 Of
gold mined in the United States alone.
about S29.OO0.OO0 was consumed in
industry.
To understand COLDS place in the
world today and how II affects our
well-being. one must first swiftly trace
ifs use through other times
Europe's gold when Columbus first
sailed westward amounted TO less than