The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-12-24
THE SO.CALLED SILVER DANGER.

THE SO.CALLED SILVER DANGER.
Under the above caption the MIN
ing Record IN noticing the recon-
mendahon of President Arthur that
the coinage of silver be suspended,
says:
1t would seem that the President
of the United States is unaware of at
least two important things, namely:
That the United States furnish nearly
fifty per cent of the silver extracted
annually at present from the mines
of the world, and secondly that the
yearly product of the silver mining
Industry of our people during the last
eight years has aggregated between
$34O, OOO, 900 and 1922. 600 900, or TAX
ing q mean as muyh rs Sal ,375, 900
annually. This, assuredIy handsome
sum-, is drawn, be it noted, from .
portion Of the country that but for ITS
sutterranean wealth in silver would
not be threaded as yet with railways
such rs the Atchison. Topeka and
Santa Fe Railroad, the Southern
Pacific and even the Northern Paci-
fic. Nor would the plains of Montana,
Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona
be covered with great herds OF cattle
but for the fact that these
same regions had previously been
occupied by q large, energetic and
manly population drawn thither IN
pursuit of their subterranean wealth.
We say that bis Excellency must be
unaware altogether of the extent and
value to the country of its silver
mining industry, otherwise ne
certainly could not have endorsed
the recommendation of Secretary
McCulloch to destroy that industry
by suspending the further coinage OF
silver legal tender money by our
minis. even to the petty extent of SO
cents per head yearly, when the
amount of such money in the country
does not exceed 1887 ,000, 600 which Is
but s.. 3344 per head of our population
whereas the people of France while
possessing per capita as much as
1925 in gold have additionally as
much as $l4. Is per head in silver, and
the people of Holland, while having
q gold circulation of about ten dollars
per head, have as much az $l3.64 In
silver.
The Record is the staunchest and
at the same time one of the ablest ad-
vocates of silver. Its facts and figures
are irresistible, its logic unanswer-
able and its conclusions u~nassailab le.
The few, very few. western journals
that have-we will say %ignorantly,
out of charity-espoused the cause
of monometalists, have never yet at
tempted TO refute the facts, attack
the figures, or to answer the argu-
ments of the Record.
In Congress and out of Congress
the enemies of silver have played
upon a double string: that our
lightweight" dollars will drive
out gold from the country. And
that the accumulation of silver
dollars in the treasury vaults is evil
.ence that the supply is in exec s OF
the wants of the people. Facts show
the groundlessness of the first charge
and the figures above prove
the in~correctness Of the second
If more Is wanting, the
lnans werable speech of Senator Hill
recently delivered in the United
States senate furnishes them. In his
speech Mr.. Hill shows that the war
being waged against silver was not
- much against the silver dollar as
t was a concerted attack by English
md American bondholdcrs and Ma
ional banks upon bimetalism. He
llso bodily arrayed himself against
he President of the United ST ate
md the Secretary of the Treasury.
He proved to the CONSERVATION of
the friends Of the New York banks
md the bond-holding power that if
he Secretary of the Treasury had
the laws of the country by
which he should in honesty be gov
,rned, there would not be any occas-
on for the cry that the treasury
are loaded down with silver
which nobody wants; and President
Arthur would not have any pretext
m which to recommend the iLlme-
late suspension of the coinage of
liver. His speech was unanswera-
lie. W. are sorry our limited space
prevents its entire reproduction in
'hese. columns. With such a man as
Mr.. Hill In the senate and the
Record in New York the gold bugs"
will have a hard time of it in educat-
ag the people up to the adoption of i
gold standard.