Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 272, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1910 — MUCH GOLD IS LOST [ARTICLE]

MUCH GOLD IS LOST

Large Amount of Last Year’s Production Disappears. More Than 1,300 Tone of Precious Metal Minced Last Year, According to British Home Office— American Miners Expert London. —More than 1,300 tons of gold were mined last year, according to the British homo office. Much of this precious metal has already vanished as completely as though it had never been taken from the ground. What becomes of all the gold is one of the perpetual mysteries which no government ever has been able to ■ solve. Enormous amounts are supposed to be hidden, or burled, In the {various countries. Iluch of the gold jturned Into jewelry is practically lost 'to general observation. The rich and ithe noble put away their most precjious gems for state occasions. They jare scarcely ever seen by the public. ;The gold used In decorating the paljaces of« the world Is virtually lost to the general view. Even the gold taimen by the banks and bankers as their coin reserves Is often hidden In vaults ‘for years. The gold mined last year Is valued at $450,000,000. The British empire supplied 60 per cent, of the output. Of ■this proportion, one-third came from the Transvaal and 15 per cent, from Australia. The United States gold .mines turned out 22 per cent, of the total production. The civilized nations of the World are now burning iip about a billion tons of coal a year, says the’ British home office. More than a million tons In addition is wasted in the operation of mining, so that the store of “black diamonds” is being used at a rate which may bring about the extinction of the visible supply in the present century. The United States is still the greatest coal produced—her mines contributing one-third of the total supply. Great Britain Is next and Germany is third. Then come, in order, the Aus-tro-Hungarian empire, France, Russia and Belgium. Almost three million (Persons are engaged in mining coal, which Is as many as are engaged in all other kinds of mining and quarrying. More than a million coal miners work in Great Britain. In iron, as In coal, the United ’States Is still ahead of all the rest of the world as a producer, with an output of 16,000,000 to 26,000,000 tons a year. The German empire stands second. Great Britain third and Spain fourth, with 4,500,000 tons. America leads, too, In the highest .proportion of loss of life from accidents In mines and quarries—3.42 a thousand persons employed. The lowest rate Is in France, 0.95 a thousand employees. It is a curious fact that while Great Britain mines only twothirds as much coal as the United States 206,000,-000 tons, as against 877,000,000 tons—there are 972.000 coal miners In Great Britain and onlv 690 000 In the United States. Turning now to wheat, the incoming crop In the North and South American continent is estimated by tDornbusch at 120,500,000 quarters; that for Europe at 242,600,000 quarters; Asia at 53,000,000 quarters; (Africa at 6,550,000 quarters, and Australia at 10,000,000 quarters—a grand

total of 432,800,000 quarters. This is 20,000,000 quarters less than the crop of the year before. The United States now grows 82,000,000 quarters, slightly more than the Russian empire, and almost twice as much as India. In the North and South American continent Argentina is second as a wheat producer, and Canada is third. In Europe, France is the second largest wheat producer, with 34,000,000 quarters; Hungary is third, and Italy fourth. Norway grows only 50,000 quarters, but there, as in all the high countries of the north, the people eat oats, rye and buckwheat. Sweden, though in Norway’s latitude, grows 830,000 quarters. Turkey in Asia grows 4,000,000 quarters, and Japan 2,750,000 quarters. Algeria (4,000,000 quarters) grows nearly three times as much wheat as Egypt. Germany, Roumanla. Bulgaria, Argentina and India all are going to have bumper wheat crops. The United States wheat crop will be 10,000,000 quarters shy of last year, it is estimated.