Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1886-01-23

He Explains why Different Con-
ditiOns Call for Different Poll


silver speech before the House Of Rep
resentalives Jan. I2lh. asks the follow
ing question: Why should we follow
the example of Great Britain and Ger
many on the silver question: Both of
these are great creditor nations; their
people are holding large quantities of
the interest bearing securities of other
countries-Great Britain TO the extent
of S3,25o, 900 900, and Germany to the
extent OF 81, 900, 900, 900. The United
States is debtor nation TO the extent
Of $I,S43,7I3,7I5, as shown by the
public debt statement for December
1885. The public debt of the States,
Territories, counties, townships, towns,
cities, boroughs, villages, and school
districts of the United States was in
1880 $I,II7,5S5,54 as shown by the
United States census. The railroads Of,
the United States in 1880 were indebted
to the amount Of S5,658,eI4,I58. These
three classes Of Indebtedness amounted
in the aggregate, at that time, to 49,
62o, and the two last items
have no doubt been considerably in
creased since 1880. This does not in
clude the private Indebtedness of the
country, and | have not the means of
stating what that is, but it is probably
as great in the aggregate as the public
Indebtedness. Now, by following the
example OF Great Britain and Germany
on the silver question we should aid
them in about doubling the value of the
Ss,25o, 900, 900 of securities they to.
gether hold on foreign countries, as
compared with the labor and property
out of which these securities are to be
paid. And we should about double the
amount of labor and property which
would be required to pay the $500
2I3,4Io Of our public Indebtedness as
well as OF all private Indebtedness. A
comparatively few bondholders, bank
ers, and money lenders in this country
would be benefited by such folly, while
the vast mass Of the people would be
injured and Impoverished by it.
We ought not to follow their example
because such course would injure the
world at large while doing a great
wrong to our own people. We ought
not to follow their example for another
important reason: Great Britain is not
a silver producing country, and Ger
many produces very little. The report
of the Director of the Mint, recently
laid before us, shows the worlds pro-
duct of silver for 1883 to have been
sIIs,I47,S7S. OF this sum it shows
that the United States produced s48,
500, 900 which is more than AZ per cent.
Of the worlds product for that year.
We are asked, therefore, to sacrifice
the silver interests of the greatest silver
producing country in the world. Be.
sides this, Mr.. Williams, a gentleman
connected with the Geological Bureau,
who prepared the volume now being
published on the mineral resources Of
the United States for 1883 and 1884,
states, that the lowest estimate which
can be placed on the capitalized value
OF our silver mines and works, it would
not be below 500, 600, ooo. And he
adds that "the census accounts for no
less than $4,000, 600 invested in the
reservoirs, fumes. bitches, ETC., of the
hydraulic mines alone, and it has been
claimed that these figures are far short
OF the truth"
After reviewing the question and
showing the difficulty of obtaining ex-
act information, he says:
While, therefore, it is impossible to
reach even an approximate estimate as
to the actual investment in silver min
ing, we know it to be a large amount.
perhaps $500, 900, 900, perhaps $780,
ooo, 900, possibly more, but certainly in
excess of 500, 900, 900.
He also estimates that there may be
about 1870, 900 persons engaged in silver
mining in this country, and about $780,
900 supported by silver mining. Towns
and cities have been built up to meet
the necessities of our silver, mining in
terests, and railroads and wagon roads
constructed for the same purpose. And
they are large consumers of clothing,