The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-11-07
An Unwise Reply.

h great West" the Salt Lake Tribun
. makes some unwise and prejudicia
; statements. AS is well known, tn
'e Journal is an able opponent of tn
: tariff on lead. Either the miner i
!. or he is not benefited by that tariff
: But it behooves the advocates of th
r tariff, being the affirmers, to shoy
that the miners are benefited befor
becoming too sarcastic in their crit
? scism of their adversaries.
The one palpable fact is that LEAF
is lower under the tariff than i
was before. It's price has averaged
lower, according to our record, takel
exclusively from the Tribune, 70
1891, than it did in 1890. This de
cline in price may not be fairly at
trihuted to the tariff; but as th,
Tribune itself declared two week.
ago, that the prices Of nearly al
other commodities had been lowerc
because of the tariff, we must pre-
sumo that it has also had the effec
of lowering the price of lead unit
the Tribune proves the contrary. 1
is not satisfactory to assert that thu
tariff has reduced the prices of al
other commodities and raised that
of lead, especially when we have the
troublesome fact to get over thai
lead is really lower in price and
continues so, than before the tariff
was imposed.
So much for the Tribune's reason
ing. AS to its facts it is quite as
lame. Our people of the great West
it says are in great part dependent
upon lead mining for their prosper
ity." Having travelled all over the
West from Idaho to chihuahua, in
the last five years, we deny that
any part of the West is dependent
upon lead mining for it's prosperity.
Large portions Of the section are
dependent upon silver-mining, and
our silver ore extensively combined
with lead; but the ores are mined
for the silver they contain and not
for the lead.
The Tribune says again: "When
the Mexican lead was coming in,
under the rulings of the respective
secretaries of the treasury Free"
our mines were closing down one
after another, because with the
roads extended into Mexico the
transportation from the Rio Grande
to New York" was not any more
than from Salt Lake to New York.
1t is true that our mines were clos
ing down, and it is also true that
they are still closed down, notwith-
standing the tariff on lead. It is
further true that they will remain
closed down, or so many of them at
least as it does not pay the smelt-
ing trust to operate, until that tariff
supported trust is broken up. This
the Tribune should know.
"Then," says the Tribune, cit
came to be contest directly be-
tween the miners of the West, who
receive So and So 80 day, and the
poems who work in the mines of
Mexico for from % to 65 cents
day." This latter statement is a
baseless assumption and a false
pretense. Poems herd stock and
potter about ranches for a subsist-
ence. They are not worth their
board in the mines and are not
SO employed. Mining in Mexico
is done almost exclusively by Eng
lishmen, Germans, Americans and
Frenchmen, about in the order in
regard to numbers as we have emu
merated them. They employ white
men and the better class of Next
cans, men who would be grossly
lnsulted were they called poems, and |
pay about the same wages that !
are paid in Idaho and Utah. In
Lower California, three years ago,
wages were 81 day and up. No
cause is benefited by misrepresen-
tation. But if it were true that
Mexican lead ore were mined by
men who worked at 25 to IS cents
4 day, what effect would it have on
ead-mining in this country? Plain
y it would reduce the cost of ore
in Mexico to so nominal
sum that they could ship it into our
markets and pay our present tariff
md still realize handsomely by
he transaction; provided, always,
hat there existed here steady and
lctive demand for lead, which is by
10 means the case. In lead as in
I'll other commodities our contem-
,orary should learn that supply
md demand govern the selling
,rice. What the miner needs is not
! two-cent tariff on lead but the
estoration of his silver to its normal
,alue. For what does it profit the
miner if he gain two cents pound
IN his lead and lose SIS % pound
IN his silver as he is now doing?
TENNESSEE miners released lot