The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-06-10

According TO the advance sheet OF
the Engineering and Mining journal ;
statistical supplement of The Mineral
Industry. the net value of all mineral
products of the United States during
1894 was $40, So, 99G, and during 1888
$500, SS7. Jos
To make a fair comparison between
the two years, the quantities of the
several articles produced should be OK
amined. II is impossible, of course, to
give any total in quantities when so
MANY materials and different units OF
measure are taken into considerable
The only total that can be given is
that of values and the decrease in this
amount IS in most cases very much
greater than the falling off in actual
quantities produced. The year 1894 will!
long be remembered as one of low pri-
ces, and in almost every industry val
ues were brought down to point low
er than had ever before been known.
1t was a repetition of the experience of
former panic periods, only intensified
in our own case by the general dis
trust provoked by the condition OF the
currency. 1t seems to be an unaVolda-
bic result of the concentration of capt.
tai and the continual improvement In
process which characterizes the pres
ent age, that production should IN
crease in a greater ratio than consump-
ton, and that at greater or less inter
walls there should be a period when
halt must be called until the demand
can again increase to the level OF the
supply: and 1894 being one of those pc
RODS the producers suffered according
ly.
States was maintained at q much high
er level than had generally been eX-
rected or than had been predicted by
many persons who should be well &C
xllIainted with the industry. In 1893 the
production was 60,50O,OOO ounces, de-
crease of 45O0.000 ounces from 1892,
svhen il reached its highest level. The
low price with which 1894 opened and
ihe' withdrawal OF the artificial demand
hreated by the Sherman law led many
f)erSOnS to believe that the reductlon
Fvould approximate the amount Of the
Eoyernnent purchases under that law,
Br "a. O000, 600 ounces. which would have
Eeen equivalent to practically wlplng
Aut the industry. The actual decrease
Ia 1894 was only 10654,0O0 ounces, or
tskout IS per cent. The reduction still
s1ayes the United States the greatest
silver producer in the world, and the
industry is, and doubtless will con-
kinue TO be, a most important one.
PerhapS the most notable feature of
the year is the increase in the output
of gold From time to time through
ont 1894 the diversion of capital and
labor from silver TO gold mining has
been noted. Not only have many new
gold discoveries been recorded. but in
many cases also old mines which had
been abandoned because they would
not nav with the waSteful and defec-
five methods of early days, have been
n nf nm
der better and more careful meth
DDS. The full effect of this re-
vfvaI. however will not be felt
until 1895. and the increase in
the gold output has somewhat disap-
nointed the general expectancy, al
though hardly that of careful observ-
ers. The total output of gold in the
limited States last year was S39, ISL coo.
an increase of Sc. SOC. 900 over 1893, and
az Sc. 764. 900 over 1892. In gold output
Australia has also shown consid-
cradle gain, and runs the UnTted
states quite closely this year, While
4be phenomenal increase from the
-rransvaal mines has also made South
Africa a close competitor for the first
rank as a producer Of the yellow
metal.
with regard TO the comparison of
value. ii will perhaps be well to take
few instances from the ldDie- 1Hus'
-zyl1iIe our total production of copper
showed an increase of 26,250, 900
.,o,,nds. the estimated value at the
s,iace of production was lower by ST.,
$40 900 in 1894 than in 1898. Again,
The productoin of zinc decreased only
90 ions. or about per cent, while
me value reported was less by about
81 .0e0, 00c or 1915 per cent. The de-
zcr.sase in the production of pig iron
was 600 tons, or SIS per cent, while
.he decrease in vasue was 81, 900 000
ar nearly "a per cent; many similar
instances might be taken 70 show that
the total reduction in value of the