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Show Romance of Early Gold Days ;j By Ira C. Tichenor . If A CCORDING to the official miner.logist of California, gold vr mining ii at the lowest ebb in the history of California. It 'ia declared that one appear to be traveling in the wake of a "pestilence in visiting the mining diarricta where the great industry wu founded .and from which nature ' (olden hanreat hu btrn reaped tor ' Won than seventy yean. Towns and entire counties havs been depopulated, mines are belnc allowed to fill with water and mills and reduction plants are being- abandoned. In commenting on this situation In connection with the (old mining -Industry of California, an Arlsona mining paper declares that the reason ' -lor the retrogression Is that the price of gold has not joined the upward rush of other commodity prices. The gold miner receives no more for his product today thsn he did a hundred years ago. "California, is the Golden Htate," it Is declared. "From the bowels of her mountains and the beds of her rivers has corns a large part of the " gold of this nation. The days of '4 and the wild ruth that followed the ."discovery of gold on the Pacific slope forma one of the mont thrilling snd romantic periods of our Western history. Subsequent years, though less spectacular, added to the fame of California as a gold producer. The fruit " Industry and the tourist traffic that haa been built up by advertising the balmy climate of California have established themselves securely, but they will never displace Its proud claim ss the Oolden State, that beautiful nam ..that was heralded to the ends of the earth. Therefore It is disheartening ." ;t& 'Western men to lesm of the conditions revealed by the state mineralogist. We do not believe that the decline and abandonment of this once great Industry will continue long. If gold Is to remain the standard yardstick of the nations around the globe, the time Is coming when the hills of California will reawaken with greater activity than ever and the dreams of the forty- alners snd those thst followed them will be fulfilled." This poetic and sentimental reference to "The days of old. the dsys of gold," and the prospects of a recurrence of the dream of the rorly-nThers is' all very well, but In these times of strenuous Industrial activity, high costs - and the growing necessity of financlsl growth snd stability, straight bread .'. snd butter arguments srs of greater force. r.T". Owing to the constantly Increasing demsnds throughout the world, snd 1 - at home as well, for American money makes imperative the neceaslty of ,, maintaining a steady stream of gold, and this csn be sasured only by giving 'substantial encouragement to the gold mining Induatry. If this can be done by Imposing a tax upon goods msnufactured for ornamental purposes It will be a very simple process, snd It Is confidently ' . believed that this can be done, and without In any manner Interfering with the basis of the country's ftnsncisl system and rather to Its Immense benefit. |