Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-01-22

compelled to do this to procure the nee
essaries more essential to life, and also
to pay their taxes. 1 regret to learn
that this state of affairs exists to
great extent in all the agricultural
states
In some of the states farmers are
burning corn because they have no
money to buy coal, or they find corn so
much cheaper, as fuel.
I ask in all honesty, Are such things
necessary in land SO naturally blessed
as our own America? So rich in its
millions of resouces?
Is there no remedy?
Ianswer, Yes! By the ballot. At the
coming presidential election vote for a
candidate who is pronounced silver
ite, who favors the free coinage of sill
yer and gold at ratio of 16 to 1, and
who will not betray your confidence
after his election.
1t will require several years to place
us on the prosperous footing we en-
joyed twenty years ago.
There are but few in the east who
realize the great Importance of this
entirety; who appreciate the fact that
we have but just passed through the
greatest silver producing era the world
has known for four thousand years. 1t
is the third of it's kind, and covers a
space of thirty-five years, or since the
discovery of the famous Comstock in
Nevada With most of the silver near
ly worked out history is liable to re-
peat itself, and may not favor us with
, another such production for thousand
or even five thousand years.
Allowing silver is remonetized at 16
to 1, the production will increase but
slowly. The reason is that the greater
number of old mines are worked out,
and there is but little hopes of finding
new ones of their past magnitude.
People in the east, generally, have
but little knowledge of the silver mines
in the Rocky mountains; know nothing
whatever of their workings; are ignor-
ant of how silver is produced, where
it comes from, how it got there, or why
1t should become exhausted
l have personally examined very
many mines on the Pacific slope, and in
the interior. and have reliable informa-
tlon from other mines as to their pres
| ent condition and wealth. / can say
truthfully that the number of silver
mines showing good ore below the
1000 foot level will not equal the num-
Der OF fingers on ones hands; and fur
ther, l may say that 1 am familiar
| with many mines throughout Montana,
Idaho, Utah, Nevada and Colorado,
which do not show good paying ore be-
low the 600 or 700 foot levels.
Copper mines are not referred to.
They are different. The copper mines
of Butte, for instance, improve with
depth, and some of them are nearly or
quite 1.7OO feet deep. They produce,
however, but little silver. Seven million
ounces per annum will cover all the
by-product from copper and lead in
Montana at the present time. Silver
| produced in this way is very expensive,
as it must necessarily go through sew
| erai treatments before it gets into fine
bars. With silver at low figure it
does not more than pay for treatment
when it is produced with copper.
| could give a thousand more rea-
sons why this country should have
free silver coinage at ratio of 16 to 1,
but my letter has grown longer than ]
at first intended it should be.
The things mentioned are matters OF
history. some of them unwritten, it is
true, but nevertheless truths that will
remain with US forever.
With every wish for your success in
the great cause you have so nobly es-
poused, have the honor to be. very
truly yeors,
JOSEPH X. CLARK.