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Show PRICES AND GOLD PRODUCTION. A correspondent of the Springfield Republican calls tho attention of that paper to "a fairly appalling confirmation confirma-tion by Thomnr- A- Edison of the fears I expressed in your golumiiR last August Au-gust ns to the continued Increase In the world's annunl gold production " He regards this as a financial problem of first Importance and, of course, It Is, thounh tho Republican obeervos that It is less threatening than It was three or four yearB ago. Bo that as It may, it Is threatening enough. Tho I fact that gold production was scarcely scarce-ly greater in 1910 than In 1909 cannot can-not bo considered altogether reaB8ur ing. As Byron AV. Holt of New York has lately urged, oven If tho world's output of tho metil wore to remain stationary, "It is probable that commodity com-modity prices would continue to rise for at least Ave year. The" Mississippi Mississip-pi rivor does not ceaso to rise when the rain ceases to Increase. It continues contin-ues to rise even after tho rain has coases to fall." The total production for 1910 Is variously vari-ously estimated at from 5-J55.9S4.82S upward. Moody's magazine puts It In excess of $100,000,000. and tho Engi necring and Mining Journal at more than $168,000,000. Whichever of those estimates Is taken, It represents a gain over 1909. and. thereforo, over any previous year In history. The production pro-duction of the metal is still proceeding proceed-ing In unexampled volume. To say that it Is not going forward by leaps and bounds, at u ratio as groat as that of a fow years ago, is to afford the distressed consumer scane encouragement. encourage-ment. He has been hoping for lower prices; he has 6een with pleasure a slight decline in the cost of somo Important Im-portant commodities; hut If the excavation exca-vation of gold Is to continue even In the volume of tho last few years, a serious factor in tho maintenance of high prices will still he operative. In the United States there was a lessened production last year, owing chiefly to what may bo a- permanent docllno In tho Nome and Fairbanks districts of AlaBfca. Tho census returns hear eloquent testimony to the diminished dim-inished returns from tho seashore deposits de-posits of the Soward peninsula. Australia Aus-tralia reports a falling off. and the greatest gold region of tho world. South Africa Is only slightly nhcad of its previous yoor's record. Nobody can sav whether 1911 will witness a decrease or nn lucreaso In these several sev-eral quarters of the globe. Lalwr troubles, which may bo considered a temporary influence, are largely responsible re-sponsible for the slackening In the Transvaal; vet, on the other hand, tho mining there is naturally uncertain nt the extreme depths now being worked work-ed Against the exhaustion of old fields must, of course, bo set the dls-coverv dls-coverv of new. Mexico Is coming to tho front: Nevada largely Increased Its production In 1910 Russian dopos-Its dopos-Its newlv found are proving fruitful. Little can be affirmed as to tho future fu-ture of the world's production as a whole. Meanwhile, with the economic menace men-ace before us for It cannot bo otherwise other-wise consldored from the householder's household-er's point of view it becomes more thaii ever the duty of the United States govornmeut to counteract the upward tendency of prices so rar as lies In It power. The passage of the. Canadian reciprocity bill by congress Is Imporatlvoly remanded to this ond. Providence. R. I. Journal. |