Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-04-05
NOT so BADLY OFF.
Silver State That Is Doing Very Well
 na It Ia.

Silver State That Is Doing Very Well as It Is.
 You might naturally think, from the talk you hear about the hotels in Mon tana, that the state is pretty nearly ruined by the refusal of congress to buy silver at 120 cents an ounce, when It is worth only 63 cents in the markets of the world, and coin it into legal tender dollars. Nearly every man you meet tells you that times are terribly hard, and that the only remedy is the free coinage of silver. You will con. clude that the silver mining industry must be in q very bad way Take DO mans word for this, however, but drop into the office of Capt. Mills, the state commissioner, who collects the statis. tics, and ask him to give you the figures for the production of precious metals | In Montana for 1895. You will learn that Montana produced in that year b22, 8S6, ,992 worth of silver, and that this total has only once been exceeded In the history of the state Two of the big silver mines, the Granite Mountain and the Bi-Metallie, are shut down, but
 
 opened of late and are making money You will conclude that silver mining is by no means a prostrate industry here. On the contrary, it is very much alive During 1895 Montana produced of gold. S4,327, ,040; of copper, $21, 114,869; ot lead, S754,35 The total metal J yieid aggregated in money value, according to Capt Mills statistics, $49, ,0S3 ,261 Add to this about $12, 100000 for the range cattle shipments, about $2, ,500,0 ,00C for wool and sheep shipped east, about B1 100000 for coal mined, and then esti mate the value of the farm products oi the rich valleys, and you reach a. sur. prising total of actual wealth produced ln single year by population of only 100000 souls.
 You will very naturally suppose thai the wages of labor employed in mines have been greatly reduced since the de. cline in silver began, but here you are mistaken. The old rate of $3.50 day is everywhere firmly maintained in the mines. The product has declined 1T value one-half, but the men who take put the ore get just as much as ever With his $3.50 miner can buy more o1 the main necessaries of living than he could with $5 ten years ago. Yet the mine owners are able to pay these higf wages and to make a fair profit. How many industries east of the Rocky mountains could now live if they had te pay the same wages they paid in the old 
 md the highest output of any year ex. ,ept one are facts that tell the story o1 the condition of silver mining in Mon. tana, and make grotesque the current talk about the ruin of the chief industry of the state.
 If you present these statistics to the free silver men who talk with you 1T the hotels and on the trains they vii. gall you a goldbug and will suspect that you are an emissary from Wal street, but they are all good fellows and you need not quarrel with them \ little chat and perhaps a cocktail ol two will bring from them the statement that much of the silver produced 1T Montana is a. by-product of the great copper mines and that the rest is from exceptionally good mines. Now" they will say, ''if we had free coinage at 1G to 1, hundreds of poor veins would be opened that cannot now be worked at ;,ll, many more laborers would be em. ployed, the towns would grow, the mer. chants would prosper and everybody would make money You reply that it would also be a fine thing for the wheat country, where you live, if con. gress would buy all the wheat at a dol. lar bushel, and a fine thing for the iron country if congress would pay S10 a ton for the iron ore. Then youl friends begin on the "crime of 1873, and repeat familiar phrases iron "Coin's Financial School" and if you are wise you will suggest another drinl and switch the conversation off on the opportunities for immigration and tho investment of capital now afforded by Montana.-E. V. Smalley, ill Chicago Times-Herald.
 Popular Verdict to Be Rendered.