Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-01-22
AN ENORMOUS LOSS.
AN EXPERIENCED MINER OF
MONTANA WRITES A LETTER.
Mr. Joseph X. Clark In q Letter to
General Paul Van Dervoort Gives
Some Valuable Reasons Why Silver
should he Remonetized.
Butte. Mont Dec. 18 1Se5

L
send you a few of the material facts
relative to the silver question, and
which trust may throw little more
light on the great problem of the day
problem with which many of the
eastern people are not familiar.
In 1893, when the price of silver
dropped to SO cents per ounce, the deep
silver mines of Montana, and in fact
all mining states and territories, had
sumcient ore reserves opened up and
exposed to last from one to two years
The great drop in silver, with it's at
tendant general financial crash In 1893
so discouraged the silver producers
that development work on the large
mines came to standstill and only the
reserve bodies of ore were taken out
and treated. These reserves have been
completely exhausted up to date, and
no profit accrued to the owners.
VIII cite you to the Alice, Moulton
and Lexington, which were numbered
among the largest silver producing
mines OF the world, and fifty other
mines in Butte alone, whose machin-
cry Is now lying idle. There are in this,
tne greatest mining camp on earth, a
iew leasers working some of the best
properties, and making only a bare liv-
ing.
In Philipsburg. Granite county, the
bimetallic and Granite Mountain, two
mines which have paid several millions
OF dollars in dividends, are now closed
down on account Of the low price of sill
yer.
Inc Elkhorn, in Jefferson county
which has been a divident paying bo-
nanza for fifteen years, recently pub
hsned to the world the fact that it must
succumb to the inevitable-that their
great ore bodies were exhausted.
Look carefully over the mining field
and see If you can find one rich produc-
lRg silver mine. The bonanzas, which
heid such conspicuous places in the
mining world, are things of the past
Today but one is left-the Ontario, of
Utah, and that is being worked at a
small profit only
1t is true that there are left a few
silver mines from which the rich bod
les OF ore have not been all taken out.
These, however, will soon become ex-
hausted, II steadily worked. When and
where have any large silver mines
been found Of late years? The Molly
Gibson, located in Colorado, is the only
one, and like the Alice, Moulton and
Lexington, it is lying idle today.
l mention these facts as evidence
that silver mines are not being sought
after or prospected for, because they
may not be found, and would not pay if
discovered. When one is found, in the
search for copper, the claim is record
ed, represented, and left idle in hopes
that some day in the near future silver
will reach paying basis.
There are, no doubt, very many small
silver leads yet undiscovered, and had
silver not been demonetized, there
would be today at least three thousand
of them, in the states and territories,
working steadily. These three thou
sand mines would give employment to
fifty thousand men.
Look carefully now for the result of
the labor and product of these fifty
thousand miners.
These men, kept steadily at work,
would cause, indirectly, the employ
ment of from 100000 to 100000 work
men in the east, simply because to open
and develop three thousand mines, vast
amounts of machinery would be re-
Quired, and the army of men engaged
in these mines would have to be fed
and clothed. To produce the machin-
cry, clothing and food, would require
the services of a ten times greater num-
ber o. men. Again, the product of the
mines would increase the number of
wage earners who manufacture works
OF art-every article for which silver is
used.
RemonetiZe silver, and at least one
half million men in the east who are
now idle will have employment, and 1
firmly believe the number would be
twice one-half million. At the same
time there would be an increase in
wagea, for when the west is prosperous
high wages are always paid, and high
wages mean a more generous distribu-
ton of money.
The gold bugs say we "are making
an overproduction of silver" that "it
can De produced for % cents per ounce
with profit" Let us look at this matter
intelligently.
When we take into consideration the
immense number of men who have been
engaged in prospecting for silver mines;
the hundreds of mines" which do and
never have produced; the millions of
dollars expended in the erection of
buildings, purchase and planting of ma
chinery on properties which have new
er returned penny of profit, or even
returned the original investment, and
with these expenditures made an hon
est comparison, it will be plainly seen
that the gold bug estimate of % cents
per ounce for cost of production loses
its honesty of statement, and appears
only as a ridiculous assertion, made
with deliberate intention to falsify
will illustrate with indisputable fig
ures how rapidly the silver production
is falling off, and more particularly
with the price at or near 81 cents per
ounce.
In 1891 the production was SIS. .416. 500.
In 1882 the production amounted to
s74, $3.50 800.
In 1894 it dropped to 4S.5OO.OO
ounces.
For 1895 the actual production will
not exceed $4,000. 900 ounces.
At this rate Of decrease the produc-