Governor Goodwin Knight Speech

As usual, I was looking in my mother Marion Deaver’s files to find a column. Every time I think I have run out, I find some other nugget that my mother wrote.

This time I stumbled on to a speech given by California Governor Goodwin J. Knight, whom my mother affectionately referred to as “Goody Knight”, although I am sure not to his face.

I glanced at the top and saw that it was a speech by the Governor and I thought it was the one given by him when he dedicated the Oroville Dam, which my mother attended. I thought such a speech would be good, given the drought situation from which we are currently suffering.

However. as I sat down and actually read the thing, I discovered that it was a speech given by the Governor to the Western Mining Council, May 4, 1958, at a luncheon in Rosamond, Calif.

His speech was to lend his support and to work with Congress to ensure that minerals would be supported and to decrease the amount of foreign minerals imported from other countries.

My mother had written notes in the borders, and when I flipped one of the pages I found a sentence which she wrote on the back.

Apparently she had gotten bored with the speech, which included four pages of local mining history (which all present surely already knew), and wrote her lead to the story.

She said that miners, campaigning for years for an increase in the price of gold, which would allow them to re-open the mines. (The price of gold at that time was still $35 an ounce, and did not make opening the mines profitable.)

She added that in 1958 the mining council had adopted a resolution to Congress, urging them to boost the price of gold to $100 an ounce from the current price of $35.

Such an increase in 1958 would have allowed for the opening of 3,000 California mines, the resolution said, and employ up to 100,000 men.

In his speech the Governor said that he, “As member of a gold mining family of the west, and as Chief Executive of a state whose history is built on the mining industry, I am keenly aware of the serious difficulties facing the mining industry today.”

He added that he was also aware of the ”serious international problems facing the Congress and the Administration in connection with exports and imports of minerals, and the difficulties of encountered in maintaining an adequate trade balance, between our domestic producers of minerals, and the friendly nations whom we are helping to become more self sufficient.” (Sound familiar?)

Governor Knight added that, “It is my belief that if the price of American gold had been maintained in strict relationship to its price in the world market, we would be in a much more favorable economic position than we are today.”

And, as I mentioned above, he was in favor of working to raise the price of gold.

“It is high time we ceased penalizing the American Gold Miner for his industry, ingenuity, and faith in our economic system. All he asks for is a fair shake; he certainly has earned it; I will do everything possible to see he gets it.”

The price of gold did not go up during his lifetime. In 1972 the price went up to $38 and in 1973 to $43. In 1980 the boom hit and the price of gold shot to $850 per ounce.

The prices have fluctuated since then depending on national and world economics and other factors, but November 1, 2014 the price of gold was listed as a little over $1,200 per ounce.

This has allowed the construction phase of the Golden Queen to continue south of Mojave. The mine should begin some production after January 2015.

Over the years, I have climbed to the top of Soledad Mountain with my brother Bill, covered search and rescue efforts for people who ignored the “keep out” signs, watched it burn, from both inside and outside, and toured some of the inside with my Mom and Dad with the Kern- Antelope Historical Society.

And now – another era begins.