The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-07-13
relent. for it counted the cost and learned

was accepted by the bimetallists as a
pledge that the old laws should at some
future time be restored, and they now
demand, not that the Sherman law shall
be retained, but that the hostage shall be
redeemed by the re-enactment in it's stead
OF coinage laws under which the country
grew and prospered for more than three
quarters of century.
The charge that the bimetallists de-
mand that sixty cents be made dollar
Is lie. 1t was the trick of the single
standard conspirators that lessened the
value OF silver. Had gold been demon
etlZed instead of silver, retaining for sill
yer its greatest use and chiefest function,
and depriving gold of its greatest and
chlefest function, gold would not to-day
be worth IS per ounce, and the silver
value and purchasing power would be in
creased largely above the former highest
figure. What the bimetallists do ask
and all they ask. is law relating to coin
age as it was for rs years, and that the
country's greatest glory shall be restored
without additions or expunging a sylla-
bic.
If with the law re-enacted and a fair
trial had, silver shall not, without the
purchase of an ounce of metal by the
Government, resume its former relative
value with gold, the bimetallists will
cheerfully submit to any legislation ex-
perience will suggest as necessary to
make every dollar of the United States
equal in intrinsic value to every other
dollar bearing its stamp. They urge the
old law with supreme confidence, born
OF unassailable truths in history, that it
will Immediately place every coined
American dollar upon a par value both
as coin and bullion, restore bonds, weak
ened love and confidence, and set in
happy motion the wheels of all this
country's magnificent industries.
will you listen to US while we speak
IN sober earnestness of the local effects
the unconditional repeal of the silver law
will have? The silver mining States and
Territories, embracing 100000 square
miles of the continent, with 1000. 900
Americans inhabiting them, depend
pecuniarily upon silver mining for prop
erty. The industry is the very heart
from which nearly every other industry
receives support. Agriculture will not
thrive without artificial irrigation. Its
mines of coal, iron, stone and clay, while
magnificent, are worked with such dear
labor and are so remote from local
markets that their movement would be
feeble and their operation disastrous
without the stimulus the mining industry
affords. 1t supports our foundries.
operates our machine shops, supplies our
railroads with freights, stimulates travel,
keeps bright fires in smelters and sends
customers to the shops of our merchants.
1t invokes in the valleys and upon the
mountain sides magnificent cities and
thrifty towns and villages. Great manu-
facturers of paper, cotton. leather, iron,
steel and clays distribute finished prod
ucts and support thousands OF prosperous
and happy families. But because agri-
culture is so limited in area, confined to
narrow strips along our few and scantv
streams, our labor so high and handi-
work so remote from other than local
markets, coal is mined, coke burned
rail rolled, grain grown, fruit gathered,
in main for owners and workers of silver
mines and smelters, and proprietors and
workmen of industries and callings de-
pendent upon them.
The reduction in the price of silver to
about 20 cents shut down 80 per cent. of
the silver mines of the country, and the
smelters must soon follow their example.
There are in Colorado to-day Is 900 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. 900
men from the smeters. The stone quar-
ries are nearly all shut down. The rail-
way companies are laying off train crews
by the score. The foundries are nearly
all out of orders; farmers and fruit-grow-
ers will be barely paid for the cost of
saving their crops; merchants are coun-
demanding their orders, and travelling
men for Eastern houses seek almost in
vain for customers. This is no exaggera-
ton.
The destruction of the silver industry
will devastate the country as if swept by
cyclone reaching from the British DOS
sessions to the Mexican border line. This
Sorrowful picture of Colorado with her
mining industry destroyed but repre-
sents the condition of other mining States
and Territories with the same calamity
upon them. If the silver mines remain
closed half the American output of lead
must be lost. The greatest bulk of the
lead product is taken from silver-beariug
ores. 1t requires one metal supplement-
ed by the other to remunerate the lead
and silver miner. Not less than IS per
cent. of the gold product of the country
depends upon the maintenance of the sill
yer industry. Placer or creek washiugs.
the earliest and most prolific source of
our gold supply, is practically exhausted.
Those who contend for the gold single
standard willfully mislead you as to the
cost of producing silver. We say to Won
in the most solemn and truthful manner
that reliable statistics prove, including
but legitimate items in account, that the
silver of Colorado costs, by the time it is
in the market, not less than 81 20 per
ounce. Like gold, some silver is pro-
duced for much less than the market
value, but the average cost of silver is
fully up to the highest price it ever
brought in the market.
''All the mining States and Territories
are in the debtor class. Stop and con-
slider, men of the East, how many mill
ions Of your money is invested with US.
The funds of estates of widows and
orphans were loaned on our lands and
built our edifces. Colorado has been
the fsvorite field for such investments.
Have the people of any State ever proved
more punctilious in prompt REPAYMENT?
The Legislature enacted laws cruel to her
own people and unrivalled in liberaIity
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