Daily Kennebec journal., 1896-10-13

alton of Sl29 an ounce. His reasoning
was that of a sound business man and
it throws a good deal of light on the
reasons why silver mine owners in this
country would be glad TO see free
coinage adopted. even II it did not ap-
preciate silver bullion one cent above
the present market price. and wherein
the profit Of silver nonometallisnl lies
for the silver producer. without regard
to what the commercial value Of the
silver itself may be.
The silver mine owners of Monterey y
would he greatly gratitied to see Mr..
Bryan restore silver TO SIZE an ounce,
was suggested to Senor Maz. 'Dn the
contrary" replied the owner of the San
Pedro mine, with great emphasis, If
We bought 81. 20 an ounce ii would be Sl.29
in Mexican money. Mexican money
would be the same as American money.
and both the same as gold. Under
present conditions suppose we got only
g. cents an ounce in American money
for our silver. That American money
is worth 100 per cent. more than Mexi-
can 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 if silver was worth
$1.29. Now the main value to our
Monterey ores does not come from the
silver but from the lead. II | have
lead in my silver ore running - per
cent. that Will be 500 pounds of lead
to the ton of ore. At three cents that
t1..lI art n it,t ba -ptf tot.
That is, SIS in gold. which is $50 in
Mexican money. Now. there is another
thing, and that is this: when gold was
about even with Mexican money. or
when there was l.,,e difference, we
paid our labor at the mines IS cents
day. The amount was about equivalent
to 20 cents day in American money.
Today we pay these same miners 20
cents day in Mexican money, which
is now equivalent to about 371a cents a
day in gold. This 31h cents in gold
yields the mine owner the same amount
of labor which was produced for him
when the IS cents in Mexican money
was worth 10 cents in gold
This shows why the silver mine own
erS are so anxious for this country to
Mexicanize its currency. even although
the result may not advance the COM
mercial price of silver bullion one cent.
There is the great Anaconda mine of
utte.which in addition to being either
the second or the third largest silver
producer in the world. is also one of
the greatest copper producers. Large
blocks of its stock are held abroad but
several million dollars worth are the
porperty of the Hearsts, who own the
great Bryan papers. the New York
journal and the San Francisco En-
aminer.
The Anaconda mines pay their min
ers 50 per day. At that rate with the
present price of silver at 65as cents per
ounce, it will take 4.61 ounces of silver
to pay a days wages. Under free
coinage. when silver can be taken to
the mint and exchanged for silver dol
lars at the rate of 81 30 in coined money
for each ounce, it will take but 2.s2
ounces to pay a days wages. and this
Whethef silver goes to par or remains
at us present bullion value. In other
words, the mine will make an addition
al profit over what it does at presen; OF
= ~ ounces of silver for each man en-
ployed, and will have that additional
proht, no matter how much silver NAV
depreciate. In addition the price Of the |
copper they produce will be as high as |
IT is at present in gold dollars.and prob I,
ably twice as high in silver dollars.
This is a stake worth playing for. |
ana young Mr.. Hearst, as one of the |
owners of this great silver and copper |
mine, has good reasons to be putting in |
his best licks for Bryan, free silver and |
chance to defraud the working miners |
and other wage -earners Of the country. |