The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-03-14

store keepers, whether they are paid in |
silver dollars or in checks. In either case
they Immediately expend their wages for
the various commodities they need-cloth-
ing, food, furniture, ETC., so that these lat
ter constitute their real wages, and would
be just as acceptable if there were no
checks or silver dollars in the transaction.
But the miners would have no use for the
checks or the silver dollars unless they
could get these commodities for them.
The real wages of the miner and of every
other person are the things he consumes;
and the size of the check that is given to
him as receipt for the work he has per
formed, makes not an iota of difference to
his wages. When gold and silver were less
abundant than they are now, the coins
(checks) made of these metals were smaller
than at present, but were just as valuable,
for they commanded the goods then as
now. The talk, then, that mining has sup
piled to Utah the necessary metal out of
which money is made and that unless it
had done so there would be no wages paid,
is simply the lowest depth OF economic stu
pidity.
the metal dug from Utah mines is bodily
sent away, and the little that ever gets
back here comes through the commercial
transactions we make. A single $4,000
could be made to pay the wages of the On
tario employees over and over again for
any number Of times, and no doubt does so
in actual practice If we could follow each
coin or check, for the real wages are the
things consumed.
A miner receives $3.50 IN coin or check
for his days labor; spends it in ASCHHEIM's
store for clothes, furniture ETC.; the store
keeper sends the money east for the
clothes and other articles, and the reason
we get any of it back is that we ship vari-
Gus products east in order to get it.
| But suppose the owners of the products
live in San Francisco, as the mine owners
do. Then the pay for the products we send
will not come back here, but will go to San
Francisco to be spent, just as the pay for
the silver does
| E Thus, the only part of the wages of
miners that furnishes money! to Utah, is
that portion of miners wages which is
spent for home products, certainly not
more than one fourth of their wages. Yet
a paper here maintains that unless this
one fourth of the wages paid Ito s per cent.
of our working population (the miners)
were thus circulated, then ''there would be
just about one employed where there are
ten now, and they would be getting 81 or
Sl.25 day instead of what they are getting
nown
The reader is invited to observe this
point closely, for upon it the whole question
hinges. That part OF the wages of the
miners which is spent on home products is
practically the only part of the money cir
culated in Utah by the great Ontario mine,
the dividends being spent abroad, the
silver sent abroad, and perhaps three
fourths of the supplies of the miners, In
Guiding clothing, furniture, smoking to-
bacco, etc, all come from abroad.
Out of the remaining fourth of the wages
of the miners, tie mining organ declares,
the other "a per cent. of our working popu-
lation is supported!
The exact words of the mining organ
are:
Our contemporary seems entirely unable to
distinguish between the product which sets
everything humming [silverI ard another pro-
duct agricultural produceI half OF which, after
IL grows falls back to rot on the ground.
The reason things have changed is due to the
mines alone and absolutely, and hence what we
said was true; it is the leading industry. it is
the industry VIII CHI vitaliZes all the other in
dustries of this territory and makes business
profitable
The reasoning that affects to prove that
! silver is more valuable than food because
the former does not rot, would also prove
that broken glass or granite rock is moro
valuable than food.
The advent of the railroad was the be-
ginning OF our prosperity, without which
the mines would have been worth little
even to the San Francisco stockholders
Since the time when active commerce be-
came possible, all the Industries of Utah
have been viteliZe9. The share of mining
in the credit of the present prosperity is
precisely the amount represented by
what 1t expends in Utah, and by it's record
of permanent towns built up in Utah The
census shows that this first amount is one
sixth as great as that of agriculture, and in
persons represents just per cent. OF the
working population. The record of per-
manent improvements is somewhat familiar
to all
-...1zsn.z..-<y1H,-S-@
Houten's Cocoa = Largest sale in the
world.