The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1894-02-15
VALUE OF SILVKR
Its Free Coinage at the Mints
Unjustly Denied.
GOLD HAS AN UNDUE ADVANTAGE
The Price or the White Metal Grad
uaIly Drops from the Day of zts
Decentralization Due to Ad-
verse Legislation and Rot to
Increased PrOductiOn-Un-
just Discrimination.

| Increased PrOductiOn-Un-
| just Discrimination.
| Many times during the discussion of
the silver question it las been asserted
that the value Of silver is regulated solely
by the cost of producing the metal. Con-
tention is made that the price Of silver
has fallen because it can be produced
more cheaply; that improved methods Of
extracting the metal from the ore, as we'll
as the great increase Of the production Of
ore, have put silver down to its present
low level. Tt has been urged that the
silver miner, therefore, in asking the gov
ernment to receive his product and to
pay for 1t more than the cost of produc-
ing it, seeks advantage at the public ex-
pense. The other day California paper
contained the following dispatch from
Los Angeles:
One Of the handsomest nuggets Of gold
eyer brought into Los Angeles was shown
here to-day by John S. Reed, a we'll
known California miner, who has been
lately prospecting in the gold district
forty miles northeast of Mojave. The
nugget weighs exactly ffty-six and one
half ounces, and is worth $98350. It IS
in appearance like a medium sized cob
blestone, and has evidently been twice
as big as it now is, for there is mark
showing where half Of it has been broken
off. Mr.. Reed unfortunately could not
find the other half.
Here was a man who, apparently, while
poking about among the rocks. picked up
practically without serious effort upon
his part, piece of gold which is declared
to be worth nearly one thousand dollars.
Where does the element of cost of pro-
duction appear in this case? This man
seems to haYe expended no more force in
obtaining the nugget than any man may
expend in taking a brickbat from the
street. 1t will, however, be urged that
this is an exceptional case; and that the
average cost Of procuring all the gold
that is procured must be considered. But
application Of this rule to silver will de-
monstrate that the present price Of silver
is far below the cost of production. That
is why the silver mines have closed. Fig
ures may be had to sustain the PROPOSE
tion that the average cost of producing
the worlds supply of silver is more than
the price Of silver would be if the metal
were at full par with gold. Evidently
price in this particular matter is deter
mined by some other influence.
The man who found the nugget re-
ferred to has the right to take it to the
mint and, without question Or interfer-
ence from anybody, to have it made into
coin upon merely nominal payment for
+ ko hnH oh rfr,
wagon loads of such nuggets, or thous-
and wagon loads, the mints would take
it all and coin it all. From 1892 to 1873.
precisely. this right was possessed also
by persons who owned silver Up to 1873
it was thought to be to the public advan-
tage that men should be encouraged to
seek for and to bring into the service of
the nation the precious metals. In 1873
the act of congress took away this right
from the owner Of silver. Was that, or
was it not, discrimination against sill
vera discrimination which must newt
ably deprive it of much of its value?
When the law was passed the silver
lollar was worth three cents more than
the gold dollar. Decline of the value of
silver began with adoption of the law,
and it has continued ever SINCE Suppose
the law denied to the man with the gold
nugget this right of coinage, Is it not
certain that the value of the lump would
be decreased? The one great function Of
gold and silver is the money function.
Both have had it since the time of Abra-
ham. The range of usefulness OF either
metal is narrow, outside of tho money
use. To forbid such use to either must
therefore necessarily be to depress the
value. This is why silver has fallen in
price and why it will continue to fall un-
less we shall have genuine and perma-
nent bi-metallism that will protect silver
equally with gold,
But the silver miners will gain some
thing from such restoration? Yes; and
bank owners gain when the government
adopts national bank laws; railroad
stockholders gain when government give
to companies the right Of eminent domain;
shipowners profit when the government
lights a harbor and opens a channel:
shipbuilders make money when the gov
erument builds navy. The important
question is whether it is worth while to
deprive the people of sound currency lest
mine owner shall declare dividend. As
the Belgian delegate to the Brussels Con.
ference said: "Should we freeze in winter
to prevent the coal miners becoming rich"
Put it in another shape: Shall we de-
prive American miners Of market for
their labor for the advantage of our
British creditors, and. impoverish all
American productive industry while we
ruin the miners? The American who be-
lleyes that his country can find profit in
drying up any of the sources of it's wealth
or discouraging any Of its honest indus
tries is man who badly needs complete
reconstruction of his economical theories
New York Press.
Ex-Governor Leslie Rec efyes an APP
| pointm ent.
The President appointed Preston H.
Leslie of Helena United States district
attorney for Montana Tue day. He was
born in Kentucky, March %, 1919. He