for the working of placers; and in Alaska difficulties due to
litigation over the oil-flotation process of recovering gold from its
ores. As a result of all these conditions, many of the smaller mines
were closed down, others continued operations only by curtailing
exploration and by mining solely the richest and most accessible ore
bodies, and there was a general discouragement and lack of inducement to
engage in gold mining.

The gold situation has become a matter of great concern to the various
governments, since national financial stability and the confidence of
the public in the national credit are based largely upon the acquirement
of an adequate gold reserve. Both in England and in the United States,
committees of experts have been appointed to make exhaustive
investigations and present recommendations for measures to stimulate
production. The report of the joint committee from the United States
Bureau of Mines and Geological Survey gives a comprehensive review of
the conditions in the gold-mining industry.[34]

During the war there was vigorous demand by gold miners both in the
United States and South Africa for a bonus on gold. These demands
received serious consideration on the part of the governments, but were
denied on the general ground of the doubtful adequacy of such a measure
to meet the situation, and the danger of upsetting the gold standard of
value. In the United States, for instance, a bonus of $10 per ounce was
asked for. It did not appear likely that this could increase the annual
production from the United States by more than 10 per cent, in face of
the physical conditions being met in gold mining. The bonus would have
had to be paid on all the gold mined, which would make the increment of
production very expensive; to secure an added production of ten million
dollars would have cost in the neighborhood of forty millions. Ten
millions is only one-third of 1 per cent of the gold reserve already
held by this country, and it would obviously have taken a long time for
this small increase in annual production to make itself felt in the size
of the gold reserves.

Since the war gold has gone to a considerable premium in England, due to
the action of the British government in establishing a "free"
market,--that is, abandoning the restriction that gold marketed in
London should be offered to the government or the Bank of England at the
fixed statutory price for monetary purposes. With the pound sterli