Evening star., 1933-06-04

is again the rip-roaring mining town OF
20 years ago. The high price of gold
awakened 1t from it's long somnolence
and it. is today the most prosperous city
in Australia. Saloons, cafe and dancing
resorts keep open all night and the gold
fever has seized every one"
RUT the boom that has taken hold In
Australia is dwindling in the United
States Miners here still receive $20.67,
an ounce for the gold, but the Nations
desertion of the gold standard has
brought about depreciation of approxi-
mately Is per cent in the dollar. Gold
here brings close to S. an ounce less
than the world price. The Canadian
dollar is also deprecated, but the 30 per
cent premium, increased from Is per cent
when we went off the gold standard,
gives Canadian miners the prevailing
international price for their metal.
This is why the ghost town is headed
back toward oblivion. Much of the ore
that is produced from these mines is
what is known as marginal ore. When
the margin favors the miner because Of
international conditions, operations go
on. When the margin is against the
miner, operations cease.
Dismal as may be the situation OF
these towns, hanging onto their new life
by just hair, miners are not altogether
without hope that the conditions will be
changed. They say that soon the Gov
eminent may give them the permission
they seek to export their metal, or that
it may pay premium sufficient to bring
the price up to the world level.
Another solution to the problem that
confronts the industry is for the PreSi-
dent to avail himself of the power he
has from Congress to reduce the gold
content of the dollar. This would inn
mediately benefit the gold miners.
What will be done, if anything, is prob
lematical, but it must come soon to aid
the ghost towns. They are hanging ON
by thread. That slight thread may
be severed. Then the ghost towns will
be ghosts again. Unused roads again
will lead through deserted villages. Roofs
will sag. Doors will hang open like sag
ging mouths. The still air of decay again
will pervade the mountain air. The
picture is disquieting, but we know from
experience what can happen. Nothing
will come to these ghost towns of the
gold-mining West that they have not
known before.
THE same wind that threatens to watt
stiffness into the gold communities
may breathe a new life into the ghost
towns of the producing areas.
There are afoot many plans to rejuve-
nate silver as a precious metal, to give.tt
a standing in world affairs close to that
of gold. Silver prices, with the defeat
of Bryan and the collapse of the eco
nomic theories dreamed by the great
commoner, declined to a fraction Of
what they were.
The same conditions prevailed in the
silver ghost towns as in those of the
gold areas. Communities were deserted.
There was only stiffness and death. But
for them there was no second life. Now,
however, there are those in Washington
who plan to rehabilitate silver. They
would permit the nations of Europe to
pay their war debts in silver. They would
establish relation between the price
of silver and that of gold. Even Bryan's
old battle cry of "16 to 1" was revived
in the Senate. The result has been an
increase in silver prices, new interest
in silver mining.
The silver camps of the last century
had history as glamorous as that Of
the gold towns. Silver City in New
Mexico, Leadville, Silver Cliff and Aspan