The Forrest City times., 1893-07-21
Effects of fUnco,.litionai R.,,,

me silver mining states and terri tories em.
 a oiaeing IVo1'ooO square miles Of continent with -'Vo"'oe' Americans inhabitinS them, depend
 pecuhiarlly upon silver mining for their pros perlty That industry is the very heart from "hich nearly every other industry receives sup. port Agriculture will not thrive without arti- lciai Irrigation; It's mines of coal iron, stone ana clay, while magnificent. are worked with such dear labor and are so remote from other local markets that their movement would be- feeble and their operation disastrous without
 the stimulus the mining industry affords
 lt supports our foundries operates our machine shops, supplies our railroads
 Wlth frelghts, stimulates travel, keeps bright me nres of the smelters and sends customers
 to the shops of our merchants It has invoked Tn the valleys and upon mountain sides magnif- lcent cities and thrifty towns and villages Great manufactories of paper, cotton leather lron steel and clays distribute their finished products and support thousands of prosperous and happy families. But because agriculture Is so limited in area-confined to narrow strips along our few and scanty streams-our labor so high and its handiwork so remote from other
 than the local markets, the coal is mined the coke is burned, the rail is rolled the grain is grown, the fruit IS gathered, in the main for the 1 owners and workers in silver mines and smelters, ana the proprietors and workmen of ! the industries and callings are dependent upon them.
 Iuie Army or Labor.
 The reduction of the price of silver to about 70 cents has shut down go per cent of the sil.
 yer mines of the country, and the smelters
 must soon follow their example There are in Colorado today 1900 idle miners who know not where to turn if work is not resumed There will soon be added to this idle army of labor 4,0jO men from the smelters. The stone quarrieS are nearly all shut down, the railway companies are laying of train crews by
 fOQnlrp@ n1l olIt of orders, the farmers and fruit growers will be barely paid for the cost of saving their crops,
 the merchants are countermanding their or ders, the travelling men for eastern houses seek almost in vain for customers.
 This IS no exaggeraton. The destruction of , the silver industry will de"astate the country as if swept by cyclone, reaching from the British possessions 10 the Mexican border line. This sorrowful picture of Colorado with
 its mining industry destroyed but represents
 the condition of the other mining states and territories with the same calamity upon them. Lead and Gold Dependent. "If the silver mines shall remain closed ono. half Of the American output of lead must be lost The great bulk of the iea3 product is
 taken from silver-bearihg ores IL requires the one metal supplemented by the other to re
 munerate the lead-siyer miner.
 Not less than 55 per cent of the gold prod uct of the country depends upon the main ttnance or lnt SlINeT luuuStFy lut placer ot creek washings, the earliest and most pro
 life source of our gold supply, gre practically exhausted.
 Those who contend for the sold single stand ard willfuly mislead you as to the cost of pro ducing silver. We say to you in the most sol emn and truthful manner that reliable statis
 ties prove that, including but legitimate items in the account. the silver of Colorado costs bv the time it is on the marke. not less than sl.H an ounce. Like gold. some silver is produced for much less than its market value, but the average cost of silver is fully the highest price 1t ever brought in the market
 Question of Paying Creditors. "All of the mining states and territorles are debtor class. Stop and consider, men of the east how many millions of your money are in vested with us. The funds of estates of widows and orphans have been loaned on our lands and have built our edifices. Colorado has been favorite field for such investments. Have the people of any state ever proved more punctili ous in prompt repayment: The legislature has
 enacted laws cruel to it's own people, and un
 rivaled in liberality to the creditors that no | man might shirk or escape repayment Of the borrowed dollar. There are held throughout the east hundreds of millions of dollars in rail road stocks and bonds in municipal securities, in trusts and mortgages the payment Of the greatest body of which depends upon the pros perity of the silver mining country.
 
 commercial and financial integrity. No calami ty can induce us to repudiate one dollar of an honest debt All of our assets are at the will oi our creditors for their reimbursement But II by bad congressional legislation, 1T through congress you shall wipe out the great industry | of the section around which all others cluster for yigor and profit, the values Of our proper 1 ties will shrink our business will be destroyed our towns and cities will be largely depopulated and the railroads traversing the western half of the continent will be sent into bankruptcy Certainly in the face of such unmerited lnhlc ton you cannot blame us If we are mus ue prived of all ability to meet our oohgatlohs- You may, it is true, take the country III pay
 ment but after you get it what will you do with ity c..
 But though you may do all In your power
 whe ther in ignorance or through selhsh greed to destroy us, we will not submit 10 the destiny of poverty without a struggle we shaa sec1 to open up new markets and build up our silver industry along new lines and with new ana more sympathetic neighbors. Colorado has a,1ed with her vote to build the tarin wall De- tween this country and Mexico and the sllVer' proeucing and using republics or the southern continent As Senator Teller, one or the staunchest supporters of this exclusive policy s".Ia rad hut two years ago in the United States s.n,,e if was not in Colorados interest to vote for such isolation, but Colorado thinking more of her sister states than herself, haa pa ,r,otically sacrificed her own in their interest
 Special Appeal to the south.
 ",ro th. south Colorado appeals wlth more soulfelt words Two years ago you feared "i'n
 sinking hearts and paling lips the enactment or the law that threatened to deprive you ol seii government and to turn your election poo'hs over 10 the tender mercy Of federal pasohets on election day To save you from the oulrases oi the federal force bill Colorado's two senator's renublicans, dehed the edicts of their party eaucuses and defeated what was to you .he certain humiliation and the horrors ot suolec .,, e, tho aiectoral will of your former sIa'sS