Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-02-25
OUR HORRIBLE CONDITION.

The financial editor of the Virginia
UniO" has got the blues-got EN- bad.
The poverty of this people affects him
seriously; it has struck IN; he is mort
bund; he is ga case of the cholera" Our
perjury he FIRST attributed to the currency.
Coin was not to be had, and he erayed
greenbacks. The greenback business did
not seem to take, and he went in, for a
day or two, for q National Bank. That
remedy he now abandons in despair, and
pronounces the case chronic; in fact it is
incurable. 1t Is the country and its re-
sources that are at fault. Taking, for his
text, the proposition that " Gold and silver
mines are not the best wealth of the coun-
try" he breaches therefrom a sermon that
sets US waverins between emigration and
suicide. With the hard fact staring US in
> the face, that with the people of this State
it is duck or no supper" silver mines
or nothing, this raven, this bird of evil
omen, croaks to us like this:
alt (silyer mining) is not so desirable 4
source of wealth to 4 nation as the produc-
ton of iron or coal, or OF cotton, wheat and
many other agricultural staples, because It
does not afford employment and Sustenanee
10 so many persons as dothese other produc-
tons. Gold and silver, after they are once
produced and coined, cease to employ the
labor of man. Iron, on the contrary, after It
is produced, gives employment to many more
persons in its manufacture and use for the
varied purposes Of civilized nations, than IN
its production, and is therefore proportion
ally more valuable as source OF wealth TO
nation. Hence, the nation which produces
both iron and gold Of equal exchangeable
value, possesses a greater source Of wealth IN
its iron than in its gold. The more the pur-
suits Of people are varied BY the production
of different staple articles of commerce, the
more numerous are its sources OF wealth, and
the greater its degree of prosperity. Reduce
the commercial staples Of any country and
its prosperity and wealth are reduced. Those
nations who have the feweSt and least profit
able productions have the feweSt sources Of
national wealth. In the Pacific mineral re-
gions almost the sole products consist OF gold
and silver. They are the staples produced
for exchange with other countries, and are OF
less eNchangeable value than would be pro-
duced by the same labor employed in the
production OF a variety OF other staples. In
proportion as Il greater number of our inhabi-
tants are employed IN the production Of other
staples, whether 1t be iron, coal, petroleum,
wheat, wool, or other articles OF consumption
or export, will be our growth in wealth.
Etc, and so forth, and so on in that
strain does this Ezekiel go on to the end
of his article, filling our souls with unut-
terable wo. With nothing but silver
mines for a dependence, State is "gone
in" Nevada has nothing but silver min
ing, ergo Nevada is gone in commu-
nifty" Horrible thought. Is it true:
Perhaps so. Then why, in the name of all
the Gods at once, did this man, knowing
well the nakedness of the land, knowing
that save and except silver, this land had
ne'er &" staple" why did he leave land
flowing with milk and honey, and iron,
and wheat, and wool, and come over here
to perch himself on our barren crags and
boot at our misery and our poverty: The
wretch, shows US no glimmer of hope; he
merely tells US that iron is Independence
and wool is wealth, and petroleum is
plenty, and coal is cash; but he knows
that we have neither iron, coal, petroleum
nor wool. He shows Us our nakedness
and leaves US shivering. He points out
our utter wretchedneSs, but shows us no
remedy but suicide or emigration. Wo
IS We.