The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-03
MEXICAN SILVER MINING.
Wages of Miners Paid in silver Mon
ey at the Rate of 371k Cents in
Cold

ey at the Rate of 371k Cents in
Gold.
Correspondence of the Globe-Democrat
Monterey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, Aug. o.
Day and night the silver flows in gilt
tering suffering streams from the long
row of furnaces in the great Guggenheim
smelling works of Monterey. Into the tops
of the ten furnaces is fed the enormous
amount of 10000 tons of ore monthly. This
is a thousand car loads or more, hum
dred railroad trains of average length
From this 10000 tons of ore is smelted 3O0,-
900 ounces of silver. A thousand ounces
of silver daily is a moderate estimate OF
the Yield of this single plant to-day. Mon
terey has another smelter, second only 20
the Guggenheim plant, which is the most
extensive on the continent The other
smelter has six furnaces. 1t was built
by local capital mainly, with shares OF
$1,000. Those share are worth to-day In
Monterey $500.
1t is an i'll wind that blows nobody
good. The 5O-cent dollar has made Monte
rev. When Joaquin Maiz, one Of the lead
ing merchants of the city, used to tell his
fellow citizens that they would live to see
great wealth come out of the mountains
which looked down upon them, they
laughed at him, and advised him not to
spend the profits of a legitimate busi-
ness upon schemes to make Monterey
mining center. There was silver in the
mountains Everybody knew that. But 1t
was silver of that low grade which had
never before entered into the calculations
of Mexico's mineral wealth. Mr.. Maiz
and a few others kept on sinking their
money in seeking for veins which would
Justify the long journey to the shelters
of the United States Passing by great
bodies of mineral too poor to bear trans
portation charges, the believers in Monte
rey's mining future found now and then
small quantities of richer ore and shipped
it. That was a time when silver was
worth 81 % an ounce, or nearly as much
There was just enough in the business
to encourage this cropping after bonan>
zas which were never found. The wise
men of Monterey found many occasions to
repeat their croakings to Joaquin Maiz.
one day in the administration of BenJa-
min Harrison, his secretary of the treasu-
~, William Window, made new ruling
on the admission of ores combining silver
and lead. The effect was to apply the
American duty on lead ores of lesser value
in that mineral than had prevailed under
the preceding ruling.
Down in Monterey the infant mining IN
dustry gasped. and seemed about to die.
The Window ruling meant all the small
margin OF profit upon which these few
mines had been operating in desultory
fashion. It erected at the Rio Grande
against the low-grade ores of this region
a barrier that was impossible. The solid
conservative men of Monterey predicted
that JOAQUIN Maiz would throw away no
more good money on these great masses
of yellow dirt at San Pedro which he
mistakenly called silver mine.
One of those restless spirits, with gift
for the detection of hidden opportunities
came to Monterey. He studied the ques-
tions of the fuel supply. why don't you
build a smelter and reduce your own ores!
he suggested.
he went among the business men of Mon
terev and infused great expectations Joa-
outn Maiz took hold of the project and
became one Of the foremost in IT, smell
ter was built First efforts in new field
OF experimental enterprise are rarely sue
cessfil Monterey's first smelter paved the
Uav nv demonstration of the mistakes TO
bs avoided in later efforts. 1t stands idle.
Rut into the yards of the other two plants
the cars tr,rndle all day, bringing ores
nv the train. The fires in the sixteen fur-
naces 20 out only for repairs. The streams
of silver flow increasingly. They are
streams OF Mexican silver, good TO make
5O-cent dollars, but the industry is booming
in Monterey.
"'rhe silver mine owners of Monterey
would be greatly gratifed to see Mr.. Bryan
restore silver TO Sl.29 an ounce" was sug-
gested to Mr.. Joaquin Maiz. "On the con-
trary," replied the owner of San Pedro
quickly, and with decided emphasis IF
we got 1929 an ounce, II would be SlD In
Mexican money Mexican money would
be the same as American money, and both
the same in gold. Under present con-
ditions, suppose we got only IS cents an
ounce in American money for our silver.
That American money IL worth 100 per
cent. more than Mexican money. In other
words, the 65 cents an ounce in American
money or gold for our silver is worth
double that in Mexican money. So you
see we would get no more per ounce in
Mexican money II silver was worth $i29.
Now the main value to our Monterey
ores does not come from silver, but from
lead. II l have lead in my silver ore run
ming 25 per cent, that will be 800 pounds
Of lead to the ton Of ore. At cents that