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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 20, 1902)
i -i-n J1P'ISrtSi 3 H. OMAHA COMING f Ln 1 li iim 'PAPA BILL" ROURKE IN A Uncle rwl nnuiun ioe ireaaury aeparimeni I cf bis government at Washlng- TT--t-i m pw . luu, uncie cam gave oui a ratner startling piece of news the other day, In the statement that this country, at this moment, possesses about a quarter of all tho gold that has been made up Into money In the entire world. To quote the official figures correctly, there Is now In the United States (Includ ing treasury coin and bullion) one thou sand two hundred millions of gold money, whereas the world's eutire stock of gold money is worth less than five thousand billions ($4,906,700,000, according to the latest figures). New York financiers telleva Uncle Sam's figures as to his own gold money are shy, and that in truth tha amount cf gold money in the country is close to $1,250,000,000 a billion and a quarter while all the rest of the world possesses less than $3750,000,000. Th's is a larger sum of coined gold than has ever bocn possessed by a sing'.e nation in the history of the world. Next to the United States, according to the latest reports, comes France, with $810,600,000. followed by the British empire, with $769,700,000; Russia, with $724 300,000, and Germany, with $721,300,000. So far as coined gold Is concerned, it will be ob served, the United States is In a class by Itself. The British empire Is second In the sec ond class, but Great Britain proper Is last. Its store of coined gold amounting only to $511,000,000. All other peoples are so far behind In the race as not to be eligible even for the second class. Austria-Hungary leads the third class with about $230,000,000, but even at that the great empire Is very poor la gold money, relatively as well as actually, for her gold supply amounts to less than $4.90 per capita for her popua tlon of 47,000,000 souls. Uncle Sam's chil dren have nearly $16 In gold apiece, which Is less than the citizens of the French republic, for each of whom there U a little more than $21 of gold coin a head. Ger J5C J il""1"""1"1"" Base Ball, King of Summer Snorts II Snar sl,ots Tfflkcn 011 mal,a 7 0 t II Grounds by a Staff Artist 1 'A err OLIMTSE OP WEST DLEACHER3 AND GRANDSTAND. IN AND DENVER GOING OUT. DEEP STUDT. Sam's Store of many comes third in the per capita compu tation, the figures being $12.81. Great Brit tain's being $12.34, and that of Russia, with her enormous population cf 128,300, 000 only $5.64. The per capita figure for the entire British empire is a shade under $2.20, that for India's enormous horde 61 297,000, 000 beings being only 15 cents. Here, as In most other things, the British empire exhibits the most astonishing extremes, for there are parts thereof where the per cap ita of coined gold is In great excess; in Australia, for Instance, there is $24.26 in coined money for every man, woman and child. At one time the South African re publics led this, with per capita figures of $26.34, but now Australasia is the high est. Canada's per capita is a few cents In excess of $3. But these per capita figures of coined gold should not be taken as Indicative cither of a country's actual wealth or the per capita of money in circulation. The total amount of money of all sorts in the United States is rising of $2,500,003,000, or $28 for every citizen of Uncle Sam, about double the per capita of gold. In Aus tralasia, where the gold per capita is high est, there is little money In circulation ex cept that made from the precious yellow metal; in India the great preponderance Is In sliver, and this is true In even greater degree In China, Staguei-lnir Fluorea. It is doubtful whether anyone can com prehend the meaning of figures as stupend ous as those which are needed to express the present wealth of this country in coined gold. It would take a laborer earning a dollar a day 416,666 years to earn, $1,000. 250,000, but at that he would have to have the longevity of more than 4.000 Methus elahs. If the money had to be earned by day's work It would be better to put 416, (66 laborers at It for a single year. Reduced to avoirdupois the $1,250,000,000 of gold dollars now In this country would represent 5.000,000 pounds, or 2,600 short tons of 1,000 pounds each. Packed away as .4 E t-Tmr-T 1 , rf iiiamim 11 ,1- CAPTAIN STEWART MAKES A TWO-BA 4 a 1 s CAPTAIN STEWART SCORES ON HICKEY'S DRIVE TO LEFT. Gold Mounts Above the Billion Uncle Sam packs away his gold In the treasury at Washington and in the subtreas ury, It would fill 2,500 strong boxes each 21x18x24 Inches in size, inside measurement, and containing six cubic feet. Piled up, the gold coin thus accumulated would make a heap containing 15,000 cubic feet; a bar of gold containing $1,250,000,000 worth of precious metal would be 5 feet square and 300 feet long; erected Into auriferous monu ment, it would be a highly imposing sight, and would make no mean showing beside the Washington monument Itself, albeit of about 200 feet lees altitude than that pa triotic structure. At two tons to the million it would take 2,600 double teams, or 6,000 horses, to haul this unthinkable mass of coined treasure over the average roads of the country. Fixing fifty pounds as the proper load for the average man to carry any distance, it would require an army of 100,000 to pack the stuff. In ranks of twelve moving in fairly open order this army of gold-bearers would stretch over eleven or twelve miles, or about the length of Broadway on the island of Manhattan. There is little danger that the yellow specie of the great republic will be looted and carried away "by hand." What Our Coined Gold Would Buy, One thousand, two hundred and fifty mil lions of dollars would buy an enormous amount of merchandise, and would pay the expenses of no end of wars or merrymaking. A few weeks ago, before it could be fore seen that the coronation of King Edward VII. would be postponed by a royal Illness, It was estimated that the total cost of the ceremonies to government and English peo ple would be not far from $7,000,000. At that price for such Jubilations Uncle Sam's stock of coined gold would foot the bill for 179 coronations and leave soma millions over. A billion and a quarter dollars would build eighty Brooklyn bridges. It would build, equip and put in commission more than 400 great battleships. It would prob .-Vor: r:..' 4 - CLOSER VIEW OF THE BLEACHERS. SE HIT OFF GORDON. ably suffice to buy the whole British navy, providing that aggregation of marine fight ing machines could be purchased at any thing like a fair valuation. At $1,000,000 a day, the approximate cost of the civil war, the coined gold now in the country would wage a war for more than three years and four months. Comparison of the quantity of coined gold In the country with the value of some of the country's staple products Is somewhat start ling. For instance, In round numbers the output of coal, both soft and hard. In 1901 was $322,000,000, of plglron more than $250. COO.COO, of silver more than $36,000,000 of crude petroleum more than $75,000,000, of corn, wheat and oats nearly $209,000,000, of butter and cheese more than $384,000,000. Yet ths $1,250,000,000 of coined gold now la the United States would buy all these prod ucts and leave a trifling matter of $27,875, 857 as a nest egg around which to accumu late another $1,200,000,000 or so. It would build 62,600 miles of railroad at $20,000 h mile, nearly a third of all the railroad mile age now in the United States. Thnuaands of Acres of Pic. But It Is when the purchasing power o( $1,250,000,000 gold as applied to pie Is con sidered that the ordinary mind may come nearest to grappling with the real meaning of such a vast sum. Good, fair plea can be bought for 10 cents apiece, and thus the coined gold now In the country would buy 12.600.COO.OCO of pies. The square surface covered by p varies, but fifty square Inches for each would not be far out of the way, allowing for the waste room that would have to be allowed for, supposing tne pies are round. On this basis the gold coin In circulation In Uncle Sam's dominions would buy pies enough to cover at least 4,000 acres of land. How many pie bakers It would take to bake this enormous aggrega tion of toothsomenrss in one day is matter for conjecture only. Yet all this gold could be packed Into a very small space, relatively speaking. Made Into a pile forty feet square. It would be only a little mors than nine feet high, and Its weight of 6,000 tons 1 f v . s J. a V 1 :Wf : to JOE HORRIOAN, THE OMAHA MAS COT. Mark would not furnish a full cargo for any one of several of the great ocean liners now plowing the Atlantic ocean, though it would build hundreds of them. All in all, good Americans may well be proud of the magnificent showing our gold coin enables us to make before the world, yet there Is another and a more serious aspect of the situation to be con sideredan aspect, by the way, that thoughtful men are examining with mucb gravity. Will the presence of so much gold In the country produce the apparently logical result of permanently holding up the price of all things eatable by reason of Its own comparatlvey cheapness? Some economic philosophers declare that it will beyond the shadow of a doubt. In time they say there will also be a general up lifting of the scale of wages, but not until it Is settled whether the present pleni tude of the yellow metal Is pormsnrnt or not. Naturally, In the meantime, the man who works wi:i have Increased problems to meet. On the other hand, a plenitude of gold will mean lively circulation, and that will mean a continuance of the present "good times" for a considerable period to come. And, if the prophets speak wisely, the present unexampled quantity of coined gold In this country is only a forerunner of ths future. Unless all signs fall, say they, the day Is not far distant when we shall have $2,000,000,000,000 Instead cf $1,250,000, 0C0 or gold coin In our land. Had to Decide Chicago News: Two Jolly sons of Erin halted at a wayside Inn. "Phwat does the soign say. Pat?" asked one. "'Accommodation for mon an' baste,'" read the other. "Thin life go In." "Hould on." "Phwat for?" "Which av us will bo th' mon an' which th baste?"