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Show PLIGHT OF BOLD MIfiSIS SERIOUS Engineering and Mining Journal Expresses Views in Editorial. In virw of the fact that western gohl miners and western congre-ismen are today to-day hokling a conference in Washington relative to devising some means to afford af-ford the mirjers of the yellow metal relief, re-lief, the following editorial from the Engineering En-gineering and Mining Journal will be of general interest: , , 'The present plight of the gold miners tins been the subject of much discussion. They get the same number of dollars for an ounce of their product that they used lo but their dollars will buy only about half as much labor and material; in other words, their operating costs have risen enormously. Some publicists have argued that gold Is non-essential, that the gold mines ought to be shut down, so as to release their men for the mining. of copper, cop-per, lead and other metals directly needed. Others, including ourselves, have argued to the contrary. The secretary of the treasury has now expressed the view of the administration on this subject in a letter to the Alaskan delegate in congress, con-gress, as follows: T beg to acknowledge receipt pf your letter of June 1, in relation to the present conditions surrounding the production of gold in Alaska. I fully appreciate that, with the rising cost of raw material and labor and with a. fixed value for their output, the gold miners of I he world are facing- difficult diffi-cult conditions. I should be sorry, however, If for this reason there were any relaxation in the effort to produce gold At no time has this country so much required the largest possible production of gold as at present. Next to food and ammunition, gold Is one of the most-needed war essentials essen-tials In order to place the enormous amount of government bonds required to finance our war expenditures, a large credit structure will inevitably bo erected on our gold reserves, and It is necessarv that those reserves, which are the foundation of the structure, struc-ture, shall be maintained on the broadest possible basis. The United States and its associates in the war are heavy purchasers of raw materials and other commodities for the war In many neutral countries coun-tries nnd our war requirements make it impossible for us to pay our bills in those neutral countries as we have been in the habit of paying them 111 times of peace, viz.. through the shipment ship-ment of manufactured goods and commodities com-modities which those countries are eager to buy from us. This means that a certain amount of debt to those countries must be paid for in credits or in gold. This brief statement win, I nope, maJte clear to your constituents the great necessity that exists for the maintenance of gold production at the maximum point. The man or the community that maintains or increases in-creases Us production of gold in the face of difficulties and discouragement is performing a patriotic service which deserves recognition no less than the more obvious, but not less useful, services that are more lp the public eye. "We shall not take the time and space to elaborate upon our indorsement of the soundness of Mr. McAdoo's views respecting re-specting this matter. Let us rather direct di-rect attention to what may be done to ameliorate the present adversity of the gold miners. They must bow to the operation op-eration of immutable economic laws. But is It too much to ask that they be exempted ex-empted from all federal taxation? We think not. We hope that this important matter mav receive adequate attention in the course of framinrr the new tax legislation legis-lation that is now going on in congress. |