The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-10-24
WHY SILVER DECLINED.
II Has Been in Direct R.ponss to the
In reduction Of Improved
Methods Of Mining.
From Letter by G. wilfred Pearce in tn,
New York Sum-

From a Letter by G. wilfred Pearce in the
New York Sun.
The annual consumption of silver in
the United States during this year will
amount to q sum $1,000, 900 in excess Of
the gross value of all the silver coined
in the world fifty years ago. In 1876 re-
fined silver cost the makers of silver
and plated ware Sl.20 per ounce. At
that time the best mines in the country
We're plodding along with artiquated
machinery, and We're far from lines of
railways. The cost of conveying ma
chinery and food from the east to the
west was greater than the present cost
OF sending freight from Halifax, n. S..
all rail to San Francisco, Cal, thence
by water to Melbourne. Australia, and
by rail to Ballarat. Twenty years ago
the mining of silver was hurt by pro-
moters who worked the foreign invcs-
tors with false reports of the condition
of mines, and who worked exclusively
as stock -jobbing schemers. They cared
nothing about running mines as legiti-
mate Industries. conducted by educated
mining engineers familiar with the pro-
grcsS of inventors in the making of inn
proved machinery for producing large
quantities of metal at low cost
In 1850 the bottom dropped out of
mining speculations. and the foreign
and domestic investors would not in
vest save in gilt-edged and well-man-
aged mines, of which there We're hun
dreds run on business principles. Then
the engineers began to equip the mines
with rock drills instead of hand Jump
ers" pounded with sledge hammers
steam hoists instead of rope windlasses.
air eXhausts, miniature railways instead
of mules, and miles of light mine rail-
way were built to run to and from the
trunk and local railways which We're
built all over the west in the prosper
Gus decade from 1880 to 1890 AS a mat
ter of course the cost of producing sill
YER was lessened, and the mine owners
wisely gave the makers of silverware
the benefit of the reduction in cost in
order to stimulate the demand for large
quantities of silver
BETTER METHODS USED.
The makers of plated ware from 1875
to 1880 had been adopting the deposition
of silver by electric dynamos in place
of the liquid batteries which had been
In use since the time when close plat
ing-silver applied to hard metals with
a soldering iron-became obsolete. The
superior finish and economy of dynamo
plating drove batteries out of use in
factories. and the falling prices Of silver
made 1t possible for makers to reduce
the price of silver-plated ware, so that
makers of britannia, spelter, and bur-
nished copper and brass wares installed
plating plants, and then silver-plated
wares were sold for the prices former
ly asked for unplated wares. All the
while the makers of mining machinery
were adding improvements and making
1t possible for miners to produce silver,
copper, lead. building stone, and coal at
prices shading downward every year.
1t began to be the case that silver
mines equipped with proper machinery
turned out products ut prices ranging
from thirty to sixty-flve per cent. be-
low the cost of production in mines
working by antiquated methods. 1t
was as impossible for the mine with old
methods to compete with new as for a
man with hand cart to compete with
steam railroads In carrying cotton bales
for the South to New England. Still,
improvement of machinery and build
ing of railroads went on, and silver
came to a figure which induced the
makers of silver-plated ware to put in
presses, tools, and machines for maxi
ing solid silverware for domestic and
foreign trade.
The great increase in the output of
silver and silver-plated ware in the
United States in ten years Is a triumph
of industrial development without par
allel in the world. Since 1890 the total
annual output in that line of manufac-
ture has been octupled. An army Of
highly paid and intellectual artisans Of
both sexes has been added to our in
dustrial enterprises, and the exporta-
tion Of the products Is going on to every
country in the world. There are more
men and women making silver and
plated wares in the United States today
than were employed in all the gold
and silver mines Of America, Australia
and Africa twenty years ago.