The Sunday Oregonian., February 04, 1912, SECTION SIX, Page 4, Image 70

4 TITE SUNDAY ORECOXIAX. PORTLAND. FEBRUARY 4, 1912.
SUCH TfSmRED TBZffiTBEJN r f- C 'xT - T7T'tI
9 - ' - ..'r - I ! u y-:. 3 . . rf - ' 4 . L- - . . - ,v - " - .
. -ran
1 1 . 1 1
f i -X.---
t - -
t
f-tlln- jmrr- iii iii huh --- .l wwf
mm?
BT WILLIAM ATHiKTOIC DTI ft t.
EVERT workinir r la tb a
bj-pothetIcl 1rr bck up to th
mints of th United 8tt nd on
loads a ton of pur and refined gold.
The mints of th United State regu
larly consume sucb quantitt of the
yeJIow motal as a large-siied hotel con
sumes of coaL
The Nation Is buying this standard of
value by the ton, and never does a day
pass without the- purchase of such an
amount as would make, a good two
borne load of It.
For Treasury statements for the past
rar show that the United States la
pillna- up In Its treasure-house such
amounts of (cold as would make the
wealth of MMas and Croesus look Ilk
tie. paJtry change for an afternoon's
shopping. The wealth of Its stores
li amounting to such stupendous flK
urn as would mak the (old of
riMi and of Ind pale Into Insig
nificance. The potentates of old.
"vhowered with barbaric pearls and
Fold." would stand as paupers and frase
upon the vast hordes of pure gold that
are stowed away
Philadelphia as the farmer of vast es
tates might pile up bis grain.
The balance sheet for January 1
shows that the United States has al
ready put as 11 more than a thousand
million gold dollars, coined and ready
for use. These actual gold dollars are
snugly tucked away In her mints and
treasuries. Aside from this, she has
1181,000.000. near 300 tons, in gold bul
lion ready for the coining. Then thre
Is the matter of 700.000.ou0 In coin that
Is being circulated among the people
and held by banks. Altogether, the
gold of the Nation la,crowding the two
billlon mark.
;Hd by the Tea.
Two billion dollars Is a te.rm too
large to be grasped by the Intelligence
of man. To appreciate th amount of
this gold It must be reduced to grosner
terms; It munt be translated Into the
large measures in which the bulky
things of ordinary life are handled. A
beginning may be made by stating that
S1000 In gold weighs lust J.M pounds.
Forty thousand dollars would weigh a
little over 450 pounds, and might be
carried upon the shoulder of an un
usually strong man.
So It woold rerjulre a force of oo.ouo
men. or one larger than all those en
listed in our Navy, to shoulder the
actual gold of the Nation.
All the men working on the Panama
Canal could Just about pick It up.
It would break the backs of the pop
ulace of any of our cities of 100,000
people to carry this gold a block.
The gold of the Nation would weigh
about 7.720,000 pounds. This would
make Just 128 boxcar loads of the
precious metal, for a boxcar Is supposed
to haul 60,000 pounds. To pull this
3860 tons of pure gold through the
paved streots of one of our cities It
would require about 4000 horses, and
these teams would stall If they got
onto the comparatively bad roads of
the country districts.
In fact, there is an awful lot of gold
In the United States today, and the
amounts are augmenting at such a
rate as was beyond the Imagination of
our fathers.
Such Is a sort of measure of the gold
for money that Is In the baby Nation
of the West at present. There Is not
a Nation on the earth that begins to
approximate the amount. In France
there Is a little more than half as
much, and HuMsIa has about the same
amount as France. These two nations,
taken together, would have a little
more gold than has the United States.
There are, however, no other two na
tions whose combined gold stock can
approach that of the United States.
The stores of Great Britain, Germany,
Austria and Italy combined are less
than those of the United States. The
United States Is the Croesus among na
tions. It Is rich beyond conception and
beyond compare.
IUalns; of a Golden Tide.
For the United States has been riding
upon the very crest of the great, golden
wave that has been sweeping the world
around for the past 20 years. For, In
the past 20 years, sterile lands on many
continents have been awakening from
a drowse of aeons, have been showing
their hidden charms to the venture
some spirits of many nations, and those
adventurers have been garnering the
hidden wealth. This latent gold has
found Its way Into many activities and
the whole world has found Itself pos
sessed of that fever of accomplishment
that success breeds.
For the world was poor In gold at the
middle of the nineteenth century. In
1850 there was less than $3,000,000,000
worth of gold in the whole world, and
this Included all gold plate and Jewelry.
Uncle Sam has one little mint out In
Denver that contains nearly twice as
much gold as the whole world pos
sessed 60 years ago. The world is now
producing every six years more gold
than existed In' the hands of man half
a century ago. The stimulus for gold
production was then not great, for the
nations of the world were not using It
as a basis of their circulation. The
Bank of England had a paltry 885,000.
000 in gold, while the Bank of France
had 815.000,000. Despite the fact that
these were the palmy days of the Cali
fornia gold fever, the world production
was only a little over $100,000,000 in
gold a year. In fact, with little fluctu
ation, this small yield of gold held up
. tha dawning of the golden era or
the world, to the coming of the past
score of years.
The Flood Tide In Flsru'es.
In 1890 the world produced $118,000,
000 In gold. That was the last of the
old conditions. That was the dawn
ing of the golden era. For from that
year the tide of gold has been bearing
In upon the peoples of the civilized
world In an ever-Increasing flood. By
$10,000,000, $20,000,000 and $50,000.
000 a year did the increases mount
until in seven years production had
doubled and the 21st year which has
Just closed shows a production of
nearly four times that of 1890. A table
of ever-lncrea'sing production will tell
the tale of the mounting golden tide.
It Is given below:
World's
nroductlon
of gold. Year.
S11S.S4S. 70011901. . .
13O,rt50.0l0l902. ..
14.M.5o0il0o3...
l."i7,4!4.SOOlt04. . .
lKl.lii.OOOjlKOi. ..
ltlfl.404,1001908. ..
1MJ.O00IUO7. . .
237, 304. 80011908. ..
2NH.N79.7OOI1909. . .
3oa.724.10)ll910. ..
254.5"l!.300il9U. ..
So has the volume of the world out
put been mounting ever higher every
year, and so is it still mounting. It
will be but two or three years before
the world is producing $500,000,000 In
gold each twelvemonth. This means
965 tons of gold. A decade hence the
world will be producing each year 1000
tons of gold. And the end will not
have yet come.
Where the Gold Goes.
But this 1000 tons of gold that Is
being produced every year. Where Is
it going? The1 answer is that -it is
going into the 'treasure-houses of the
nations. It was about 20 years ago
that the great nations of the world be
gan adopting gold as the basis of their
currency. Since that time practically
all the great nations of the world have
gone upon the gold basis. They needed
Tar.
18U0. .
ISitI . .
1S02. .
18!3. .
1WM. .
1895. .
18lfl. .
1897. .
IR',18. .
1899. .
1!H)0
World's
production
of KOld.
$20.99L',nlO
298.048,800
325.527,200
347.150.700
S80.2s8.700
4Ul.073.W0
410.550.3CM)
442.646.200
454.422.900
404.7u3.9o0
4fl.000,000
great stores of gold that might be held
In lieu of certificates of credit issued
against it. The treasure vaults of all
the world were opened to gold and gold
responded at Just the right moment
and has been pouring unceasingly into
them.
So has it recently come to pass that
here and there the world around have
been concentrated great amounts of
gold. The United States has vastly
more gold than any other nation, but
this is split up among a dozen mints
and treasuries In such a way that this
nation may not claim the greatest
amount of gold under a single roof.
This distinction belongs to France and
to Russia, which nations have about
equal amounts of gold. The Bank of
France and the Bank of Russia are the
greatest single treasure-houses on
earth. There Is about $600,000,000 In
each of them, and concentrated under
a single roof In each case. In these
treasuries there is stacked up some 150
tons of gold in each case. It would
take a man with a good wagon and
team something like two years to
transport this money a dozen blocks as
wheat might be hauled from one gran
ary to another.
Great Treasare-Honsem.
. After these two great banks there Is
more gold in the mint at Denver than
at any other one place in the world. In
the new treasure-house of that moun
tain city there was on the first day of
the present year $437,000,000 in gold.
Most of this gold was at San Francisco
at the time of the disaster. Had the
mint at San Francisco dropped into a
crack in the earth at that time more
than $300,000,000 in gold would have
been lost. But this greatest treasure
of Uncle Same remained lntacti After
ward it was decided that Denver was a
safer city, not only from the earth
quake standpoint, but because of Its
Immunity to attack in time of war. The
wealth of the Denver mint would be
no small treasure to be captured by
a. nation with which the United States
was at war.
Uncle Sam found himself Bo weighted
down with his wealth at San Francisco
that It was no mean task to transport
it to Denver, 1000 miles away. In fact,
there were 680 tons of this gold to be
moved. This would make up Just one
nice little freight train of 20 nicely
loaded boxcars. But Uncle Sam was
unaccustomed to shuttling solid freight
trains loaded with gold from one part ,
of the country to another, so he decided
to let this transportation business out
to an express company. He found one
that could give an irbnclad - bond for
about a carload of gold and allowed
this company to take the money
through in piecemeeu, which it finally
did.
Gold Stored Like Grain.
In the Denve mint there are twin
tiers of vaults that are made as for
bidding and Immune to attack as It Is
possible to Diild. There as some 30 of
these vault. In 11 of them there are
sealed $3lr.u00,000 each. When the
money is once checked in, these vaults
are sealed In such a way as to make ac
cess to their contents possible only
through the most elaborate ceremony.
Other vaults have smaller amounts.
Finally there Is about $100,000,000 In
gold bullion stored away at this treas
ure house, for Uncle Sam Is not now
coining all his gold. Altogether the
wealth of the Denver treasure-house Is
greater than that of any other store
(Concluded on Page 7.)
BDOTBSO WAS OEM
Y0O CQOLD flW 5fi0T
.000,0
ANVTrtlNfe PBOM AOAMEL
OREGON 5.
00
YEA&S
AGO
TO A MASTODON.
1
A
'i
vroao-r J 000.&00
Nature s Record Book Tells Secrets of Wonder
ful Dragon Ages When Oregon Was Inhabited by
Huge Hideous Creatures Great Camels Used to
Browse From the Tops of Trees. Coat-Like Horses
Roamed at Large, While Mastodons Were Abun
dant.
Y ,
WVmWM J W lit- r.- i f--";-:-. ;t-Ar::a. m
IF Adam could have lived about $0,000
rrnturles before he did anJ could
have got hold of plenty of ammuni
tion and a supply of high-power rifles,
what a fine line of hunting he could
have h-id In Oregon!
U we are to believe what palaeontolo
gists tll us. be could have fixed up a
blind in almost any portion of Ore
gon s then tropical forest and In a
short time could have nipped off a col
lection of animals that would have
made Noahs aggregation turn pink
wtn envy.
2-.ua vaa forest primeval, a ver
itable dragon land. Inhabited by strange
and hideous creatures. Long-necked
camel-gt-affes browsed on the top
branches of curious trees, huge mas
todons battled with ponderous dlno
saurus. strange monster ground-sloths,
prong-horned antelopes, giant dogs, saber-toothed
tigers, huge bison, shaggy
llamas, four-toed horses and short
limbed rhlnocerl meandered through
the thickets, and each one of a myriad
of other different kinds of strange crea
tures played Its respective parts In a
curious world.
Uu was unknown or at least na
ture's wonderful museum has no rec
ord of his existence In his present
r-m He was not endowed with au
thority over the fishes of the sea and
museum for the delight, education and
pleasure of ages to come.
Down from these curious times na-
t... niiiiiii her record book. Its
01 me sea ana . mm " ...... .
.w. cf the air. So the animals leaves spreading over n. ....,
lived their lives unmolested except by holding the primeval secrets in ine
their own kind. For million, of year. bond, of rock. It is necessary on y to
Ih'y .tTugg ed under the law of the enter quarries, railroad rock citings
survival of the fittest; battling with or go under cliff, at the .ea.ld. to cou
th, mode, and habit, of their day and "J J?" po8slble to tell that
finally, sinking down to the oozy bed. But : now P
of the sea or the primeval lakes or the ! an ",m,al "VUred by comparison
tlons. The uniformity of nature in all
ages is taken for granted. There is no
reason to believe the elements were
different then from now. If erosion,
denudation or accumulation of rock de
posits were different In those ages, the
records are incorrect, but if nature
was the same then as now it is pos
sible to tell within a few thousand
years when a certain animal the
petrified bones of which are handed
down to the present age lived.
Take for example, the work of W. C.
Knight in 1883 in the well-known fos-
sillferous area at Bates-Hole, Wyo.,
where there Is a vast depression pro
duced by erosion. On its slopes grow
pine trees that have recorded the rate
or erosion here for about 300 years.
As the material was worn away their
roots became more and more exposed.
The oldest of the trees stand on slopes,
their trunks elevated three or four
feet. On the average It was found that
trees 300 years old had about three
feet of rock removed from their roots.
According to this, 100 years are re
quired to remove one foot of surface.
Three miles have been eroded on either
i side, and at the rate of one foot per
century, i.oai.uuu s
elapsed since the process began. Bones
of animals handed down from the age
of mammals are found far below this,
showing that the dragon age here was,
a long time prior to a million and a ,
half years ago.
Fossil ages can be determined, also,
by the stratified rock. The rate at
which rock is built by nature at pres
ent is taken as a basis. By counting
the strata above the bones which are
found. It Is possible to determine ap
tConcluded on Page 7.