The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-09

tioH gwen Ny eA-SongfeSSinan AlcnarQ
Guenther, of wisconsin, for the de-
crease in the market value of silver
and refer again to some features of IL
as being worthy OF consideration in
connection with any discussion Of the
monetary use of that metal. That 1e-
duction in the cost OF production in
evitably finds expression N a CORE
spending reduction of price is !. fact
too well established to need more than
statement. Our farmers can find it in
their own experience. Even those yo-
cations whose products are capable If
oeing controlled as to quantity and
price find it impossible to escape the
operation of this law. Another usual
eHect Is to increase the quantity Pro-
ouced A farmer can now cultivate a
quarter section with less manual lchor
Than his grandfather cultivated rorty
acres. The consequence IS larger farms
and greater production.
In the previous article we commented
on the immense impetus to the rro6uc-
tlon of silver caused by the .ons+rue-
ton OF railways into silver-yielding re-
sions. Mr.. Guenther showed the f1isad-
'ahtages the silver miner labored i'm
uei DIS compared with the miner of
s"o' IN having to transport his ere to
Inc smelter in order to get from II tba
small percentage Of valuable nroduct
rms cost, some 20 cents a ton for cooh
''iiie u transportation, was either re-
moved or materially lessened when the
runway came to take the place ef Tho
mule or to permit the smeIter IN ha
erected near the mine. The eao+,..o
MS account to which we low -ish to
call attention is the sayi"s the 1aiI-
ways nave caused m what woe mora
waste OF effort and nonay before their
ADVENT. An average ton of ~iI1,ar o,,o
carries fifty ounces of si11,or ,,.,,. :.
60 'he carriage from the mines to
'le smelter of 1897 pounds of sheer
waste except the possible lead or GOLD
contained in the ore, at a cost of Oh
cents ton mile. Nor is this all T,
order to reduce the silver Owe -,
Ills demands the bring
ing TO the smelter of lead ore which
may contain 300 pounds of lead 70 H.
'on' leaving 100 pounds of waste 70 10
carried, and for the transnor+ of ,,-h.o1.
'ne 'AVer must pay. Thus to get fftv
ounces OF silver over 5000 pounds of
waste material must be mfned a
transported at heavy cost To tho
smelter. TIC
IL can be readily seen that on1,, ~
--enes' SILVER mines could bear this
enormous loss. The product Of Low,
grade mines would be eaten I'D in tho
mere cost Of freightage The ou+n,,t
was thus limited to these mines D..
"hen the railway tapped the roi,os
'u' the cost of carriage down to a dol
iar or TWO a hundred pounds. ,mmo5t-
a'eiy the cost of production was "a
yucca and the profitable u,or1iro -
less productive mines became nossih1a
Inc erect on production u,os i
ateiS leH. The railway development in
'he mountains began in the last hale
u the decade of 1860 Up to that time
the output of our mines newer avooo5
cd zoO tons. By 1870 it had Increased -
0oV tons, rising by leaps and bounds
until by 1892 it exceeded 1000 tons
railways pierced the interior Of Nav
ico' ana there the same effect 10 sae,
the output of $40 tons in 1870 reacbine
l'e6a tons in 1894. This is solelv dne -
me construction Of railways diminish
ing the cost Of production and maxine
profitable mines that could be worked
only at loss without them. They arc
the demonetizers. The condition before
the railway era would be exactly mar
aileied If no threshing machines were
in use and the farmers had to carry
their grain In the straw hundreds ne
miles to some central point where #
could be threshed and cleaned. The
carriage Of the waste straw would eat
up the value of the grain. The railway
mas been to the mine precisely what
the thresher has been to the farm.