The morning call., 1892-04-01
A SENSIBLE MINING COMPANY.

A dispatch from Denver states that the
Aspen Consolidated Mining Company,
which is now the largest producer of silver
in Colorado, is about to shut down in con-
sequence of the low price OF silver.
This is not surprising With silver
at IS cents an ounce there is little
profit In silver-mining save in the case of
exceptionally rich ores. Ores which carry
20 to % ounces of silver to the ton cannot
be worked at a profit unless the silver is
accompanied by an unusually heavy per-
centage of lead. The great mines of Utah,
such as the Ontario and the Daily, cannot be
making much money for their owners.
The Aspen people seem to be acting with
good Judgment. Instead of joining the sill
yer cranks and worrying Congress to tax
the people at large to make their particular
industry profitable they are taking the bull
by the horns and stopping the supply.
That is the true way to bring silver up to
its old parity with gold. People forget
when they talk about the depreciation of sill
yer that it is only boutthirty-four or thirty
five years since the United States began to
produce any silver at all Before that Ii me
the minis and the arts had to rely on Mex
leo, South America and a few scattered
mines elsewhere for their silver supply.
Even twenty-five years ago, after the Com
stock began to yield silver, the total product
Of the whole county was only about 80, 000,-
0O0 ounces. Now it is over $4,000 coo. Is j.
any wonder that its value should have de-
clined2
There are not many commodities which
cannot be overprOduced. We have seen
such an oyerSupply OF cattle in Texas that
fat steer was only worth So, and such an
oversupply of corn in Illinois that it was of
little valne. When prices fall to such
levels one or two remedies must be applied
Either the volume OF consumption must be
swelled by the discovery Of new markets or
| the supply must be reduced by the diversion
| Of labor and land to other uses. In the case
| OF silver, it is difficult to largely increase
| consumption. An attempt to do so has
! been made in this country by an expansion
| of the silver coinage. but it thus far failed.
| The other remedy remains to be tried If.
| for time. the poorer silver mines are shut
| down, and the national product reduced to
something like 100000 ounces, silver
would soon creep UP, the free coinage
cranks would cease their troubling, and
even Senator Stewart would possess his
soul in peace.
In large view of national economy there
| is nothing gained by swelling the production
| Of the precious metals. Every country
which has been renowned for its gold OF
| silver product has lapsed into poverty. II
| is far better to cultivate the fields, to teach
| the soil to yield its annual increase, to lay
the plain and the forest and the sea tribu-
| tary to patient toll. We shall lose nothing
| if during the next decade the silver product
| Of the United States falls back to the
average of the decade which embraced the
war, provided that the labor and the capital
now employed in silver-mlning are devoted
to clearing the forest, draining the marsh,
irrigatng the arid plain, bridging the river
and building the railroad, so that the
country shall support population with
modest wants and with fewer millionaires
| and fewer poor.