Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-04-11
st. Louis Republican.

A contemporary says: "TO continue
coming 4121 grain dollars can not fail to
have the effect at no distant day of es
tablishing a single silver standard. There
is, of course, no certainty that 450 grains
of silver will continue 10 be for a series
of years the exact equivalent of 25 s
grains of gold, but, on the other hand,
there is not the remOtest probability that
4121 grains of silver will agGin come to
be of equal value with 25.S grains of
gold. The United States can get all the
gold it needs for use as money, and the
wisest course is to stop the coinage of
silver dollars and to use silver only for
a subsidiary currency"
The men who clamoY for the demone-
tization of silver surely do not consider
the effects upon the Western portion of
the United States of their fatuous policy.
The decentralization of silver by the
United States, following in the wake of
England and Germany, and forcing
France to follow us, means its final
elimination from the money of CONNER
cial nations and its reduction to the state
of the base metals. Its uses in the arts
would not hold it above the rank of the
CuCIOdCuulEDIS
Western commercial customs with the
advance of the military and political
power upon the Asiatics will then daily
lower its value and restrict its uses in the
East, and these facts imply so universal a
depreciation as to close the mines of this
country at least. What does this bodethe
Western portion of the QnionP What is
there in Colorado, its mining interests
subtracteds fhe most enthusiastic friend
of the Centennial State will not claim
that its present population could be sus.
tanned there without its mines, or even
one half of its present population. What
do COlorado's mines produceS Inround
numbers it may be said the yield of the
precious metals is SIC, 1000, 900. Of this.
$13,000,0 900 is silver and So, 900, 900 gold.
There IS also a large amount of lead
mined in conjunction with the silver.
But small portion of this gold and none
of the lead would be produced ii silver
mining should be rendered unproftable
The construction of railroads, and even
their maintenance after they have been
built, would cease. Machine shops.
manufactures, and tie thousand inter
lacing industries which have attract
ed capital and population and built
up towns and cities, would vanish in
Colorado as they have to some extent
done in Nevada already in consequence
of the partial failure of the silver mines
OF that State. Nine-tenths of the mining
interests of New Mexico and Arizona
would perish under the blight. The
tens OF millions of dollars expended in
constructing railroads, for which there
is no earthly use apart from the mines.
would be as eHectually lost as if dumped
into the sea. Nevada would sink into
immediate and hopeless insolvency;
Montana, Idaho and Utah would each
feel the breath of desolation. American
capital, now being profusely sown in
Chihuahua, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi,
and other Mexican silver producing
States, like the seed which fell in
stony places, would bring forth fruit
which would perish under the influence
of this blighted un-American policy.
Those who know how important are the
mining interests in the Western States
and Territories we have named, and how
little else. indeed, there is in them that
is attractive and profitable. will appre-
ciate more fully the force of the cIrcum-
stances when their attention is called to
the following figures, which show the
relative, almost Overshadowing, import.
ance of the silver interests in that Quarter
of the Union. We quote from the most
reliable data, showing the product of
the precious metals in the States and
Territories named for the fiscal wear
1880: