The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-07-23

tent OF $50 per ton. Under this vast ad.
vantage to this clase of mining, manu-.
featuring enterprises of late directed tc
the making of useful articles are spring.
ing up all over the land.
Quicksilver, the::snmost useful metal
for IN collection Of the precious metals
has accorded to it 5000 per ton as its
share OF protection. Lead, largely mined
all over our mining region, has received
much attention from the protection
standpoint and $50 worth of protection
per ton stands to its credit. Copper
largely becoming of great usefulness, has
taken protection on its tail of SO per
ton to aid and help it along in its min.
ing developments. Iron, the most use,
full OF all metals to man, has to its credit
protection valued at Sc per ton. Nickel,
extensively used as an alloy, par
ticularly with copper and zinc,
and making German silver. has
the benefit of 5000 per ton in this valu-
able principle, protection. Zlnc, useful
in many ways. gets protection for its
services valued at S35 per ton. Anti
mony, used extensively in typemaking,
comes in for it's share of SIS per ton.
aluminium, comparatively a new Access
sion to the mining family, receives in
consideration of its youthfulness the
modest sum of $500 per ton of this most
valuable principle. Arsenic does not
come IN for any share of protection.
This is perhaps owing to it's very great
usefulness among politicians as a sure
cure for their evil deeds.
I'VE come now to the considerable Of
mining for the precious metal and the
application of the great principles Of
protection thereto. Gold, the most
precious of all mining products, receives
for its share of protection the full power
OF the constitution of the land. BY the
power OF the law its coin value and its
commodity value are merged into one
n thus two values so united remains
always the same. So strongly does the
government protect this result of mining
that 1t erects mints for its coinage and
bids all the gold producers of the world
10 prlnG their product to its manufac-
tories and sEys ] will put my stamp upon
its face so that all mankind shall respect
my sovereign power, and l will give fur
ther TO your product supreme power in
all commercial and financial relations.
tor all this will charge your product
nothing.
"Silver. the next most precious of the
mining products, once enjoyed the same
constitutional protected blessing as gold
and was by lawful authority its equal in
an commercial and financial relations.
But how is 1t now? How does this great
principle OF protection affect it's prOduc-
ton? Let us see. In 1873 the most
'sealskinlike' legislation known to men
robbed it of the power conferred upon it
Nv IuW lie mint x-p1,,a Ia
from its commodity value. Its protec- |
tlon had fiown and its producers no
longer received the benefits of the law.
Its power to do service in the great world
OF finance has gone. Its helpmate for |
eighty centuries has been left alone to
pack the blessings of financial successes
and the woes OF financial disasters.
SIN 1878 partial protection came limp
ing back, but did the producers of silver
receive its benefits? No. The govern
nent says in its acts that you. tie pro-
lucers. shall have its commodity value
.niy at its lowest market price, and III
Will take its productive value. the mint
Or coin value. This kind and most be-
niticent action of our great government
has robbed the producers of this min
industry of SlOS,O00,O00 of their toll
ana aDor. Does history record a paral-
ell! Can anyone in this vast land point
% any product of industry that is thus
.reated by any civilized government? l
hink not.
I'VE, the producers of our favored
and, believing that the treatment thus
neted out by government to this class of
,ur mining industries has been and is
he greatest source of our productive
commercial and financial distress. de-
that this government cease to rob
his class of producers and that it ac.
ord to their product the same protec-
ion that under the provisions of our
constitution it accords to the gold pro-
iluct, and, further, legislation having
lone the evil we. the producers, demand
legislation speedily apply the
emedy."