The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-10

The Governments Silver a Load for
100000 Men.
How Bullion Is Bought-Some Inter
esting Facts About the Precious
Metals-The Process at the mints.
From the washington Star,

From the Washington Star.
Uncle Sam is carrying a heavy load of
silver just now Being dead weight,
the stock of the metal now on his hands
would burden 100000 able-bodied men.
Sustaining 100 pounds each and marching
six feet apart, they would stretch in a
single file $50 miles, or as far as from
Baltimore to Boston. Stacking their
freight in a single heap, they would find
that its total bulk was $4,000 cubic feet.
Transported by rail it would require
thirty trains of twenty-five cars each,
each car taking twenty tons.
Nevertheless, the treasury has kept on
buying more of this precious substance.
Every month, Obeying the Sherman law,
1t has been acquiring 100000 ounces.
This quantityis just about equal to the
total silver product of the United States.
| BY such obligatory purchases tits claimed
that the government has lost $40, 600, 900
since the legal enactment above referred
to went into force, The sum represents
the difference in money between what it
has paid for the metal and what the
latter is worth to-day.
HOW THE SILVER WAS BOUGHT.
On three days in each week the direc-
tor of the mint received bids from dealers
in bullion who wished to sell the commod-
ity to Uncle Sam. Offers had to be sent
IN before o'clock p. m. They came by
telegraph-nearly all of them between
1890 and l o'clock, because the silver
| merchants wished to take advantage of
the latest quotations. The kilograms
were recorded in a book, and those bids
were accepted which seeded reasonable.
Aovices as to the state of the mar
ket reach the treasury every day
! from New York and London. The
| dealers are allowed five days to deliver
the metal at the minis On deliver
ing 1t the seller gets more than a moiety
Of his pay at once in the shape of check
signed BY the superintendent of the mint.
he collects the balance as soon as the
exact value of the stuff has been ascer-
tained. 1t should be understood that the
mines sell their ore to the smelling and
refining works; the latter sell the metal
in bricks to the dealers in bullion, who
dispose of them at the best price they can
get. What they cannot sell to Uncle Sam
they dispose of in London, which is the
worlds market for silver.
BULLION AT THE MINIS.
The treasury at Washington never
handles any bullion. All of it is kept at
the mlnJs. Int the great coin factory on
Chestnut street, Philadelphia, is now
stored Sl01, 600 5000 in silver bricks.
Uncle Sam owns at present almost exactly
S500,O00,O 600 worth of this metal OF this
mass of value 1915, 900 600 is in standard
silver dollars and subsidiary coins, the
/ balance being bullion. YET only IS, 700,
| 900 silver dollars are to-day in circulation
more than five times as many being locked
up in the government vaults unused
They take up lot of room. One million
OF them will occupy space of $50 cubic
feet. Oddly enough, a box containing
only $50 cubic feet will hold 81 ZOO. 900
in quarters or dimes because they pack so
much better.
Silver sold by the bullion dealers to the
mints is reduced to absolute purity by a
chemical process. 1t is first Dissolved in
nitric acid in great tank. Salt water is
put in, and that causes the precious
metal to fall to the bottom, where it
looks like so much plaster of paris. The
base metals that were mixed with it re-
main in solution and are thrown away.
But the silver has taken up from the salt
an element called chlOrium, making it
chloride of silver. This must be got rid
of. So the metal is shoveled into an
other tank containing a solution of zinc.
which absorbs the chlOrium and leaves
the silver perfectly pure. The latter now
has the appearance of fine gravel. 1t is
next pressed into cakes and dried in an
oven, after which it is ready to be
melted for making coins.
A MYSTERY.
Nobody has ever been able to explain
what becomes of all the silver and gold
produced in the world. The total loss of
both these substances from shipwreck.
fire, and wear and tear has been reckoned
at 81, 600 per annum. The entire
amount of silver now in possession of man
kind is only equal to what has been pro-
duced during the last eighty years. What
| has been the fate of the vast balauce2
The white treasures of past centuries
where are they. 1t is an unSolved mys-
terry. At the beginning of the Christian
era the precious metals in the Roman en-
pire amounted to 81 ,640, 600, OOO This
store shrunk so rapidly during subse-
| quent centuries that at the date OF the
| discovery of America the stock of silver
and gold money in Europe did not exceed
one-tenth of the sum mentioned.
The depleted currency of the old world
was made full again by supplies from the
new. To-day America furnishes nearly
all of the silver used by the inha bitants
of the globe. The great source of supply
is what biologists term the Cordilleran
system, embracing the Rocky mountain
region, the Mexican plateau and the An
dean chain of South America. In fact.
the metal is not produced to any i'm
pOrtant extent anywhere else In 1892
the United States yielded SIS ZOO, 900
worth of it and Mexico $4,000, 900. It is
among the foremost of American products.
For that reason, among others, silver ad-
vOcates claim that we ought to uphold it
in the worlds markets at all hazards.
Silver coin undergoes a loss in weight
due to wear and tear of circulation. il
falls on Uncle Sam and amounts to about
per cent. The life" of standard dol
lar rolling through the channels of trade
is only fifteen or twenty years, while
quarter does not last half as long, and a
dime is even more rapidly perishable.
But, whereas only production of one-half
of l per cent. is allowed on gold. no limit
is set set by the treasury against silver
pieces. The latter are accepted at face
value so long as the mint stamp on them
is visible. This rule Of course, does not
apply if they have been purposelv
punched, mutilated otherwise or
'sWeated."
CURRENT TOKENS.
The gold coins of the United States.
you see, are the peoples money, Uncle
sam issues them at its own expense, the
yellow metal in them being worth their