The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1896-09-30
OUR SILVER CRAZE.
RESULT OF A CONSPIRACY OF MINE
OWNERS TO FORCE UP THE
PRICE OF SILVER.

gan Devising Schemes to Increase Their
Fortunes at the Peoples Expense Bland
and Sherman Act Schemes and Their
ResuIts-Free Coinage the Latest and
Worst Scheme.
Perhaps the two men most responsible
for the 'silver question" which has
disturbed our finances for many years
and is responsible for the industrial de-
preston since 1898, are the two senators
from Observation-Disclosures M. Stewart and
John p. Jones. Strange to say, both of
these most ardent friends Of silver were
its most deadly enemies when the great
"crime of '73" was committed against
silver Read these quotations from their
speeches in the senate:
The question will never be settled until you
determine the simple question whether the
| laboring man is entitled to gold dollar If he
earns 1t, or whether you are going to cheat
| him with something else. That is the upshot
| of the whole thing.-Senator William M. Stew
| art Of Nevada, June ~ 1874.
| Do not let us try to deceive the American
| people. Do not let us try to mike them believe
| by some hocus pocus of legislation that we can
| give them something of real value, we can give
tho universal standard OF NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
| william NJ. Stewart of Nevada, juno IL, 1874.
/ believe the sooner we come down to pure
| ly gold standard the better 1t will be for the
country. Did any country ever accumulate
wealth, achieve greatness or attain high civil.
lzation without standard of value? And
what but gold could be that Standard
Gold Is so exact n measure of human effort
that when IL Is exclusively used as money 1t
teaches the very habit Of honesty senator
John P. Jones of Nevada, April l, 1874.
These two men participated i'll the
"crime of '73" and with their votes
helped to "strike silver down" Have
they since repented for their crime and
been doing all possible to atone for it2
| This would be charitable way of view
ing their conversion, but the facts appear
to point to very different explanation.
We quote the following from recent
article in the New York Tribune by the
| Hon. David A. Wells as throwing light
on this subject;
The explanation i'll the case of Mr..
Jones and his business associates does
not seem to he attended with any diff
Guilty. They had become largely inter
ested in the mineral resources of their
state, especially silver mining, and were
reported to have accumulated great
wealth from their investments. As u
shrewd business man, he naturally look
ed out sharply for his business interests.
He carly saw what others failed so
promptly to see, that tho production of
silver in the world-and especially in
the United States-through improved
methods of mining, refining and trans
portation of ores, was rapidly increas-
ing. He doubtless foresaw what the
world now knows, that tho world IS
product of silver, which was O /, 600. 600
ounces in 1878, would become 1865, 000.-
| 900 ounces in 1895; that its market
value of$1.30 per ounce in 1878 Creek
oned i'll gold would dwindle to 65 cents
in 1895.
What it now costs to produce silver
no one accurately knows. The cele-
brated Broken Hill mines Of Aus
tralia yielded last year-1895-over
10, 900, 600 ounces of silver Mt total re-
ported cost Of about 40 cents per ounce,
and good authorities report that some Of
the American mines turn out millions
of ounces at the present time at an
equally low figure. With such an aspect
of tho future, it did not require any
great measure of business sagacity on
the part of Mr.. Jones and his silver
mining associates to foresee that this
prospective great increase in tho produc-
ton of silver would impair its market
or bullion value and diminish the
profits of mining, and that something
must be done to avert such contin-
gency. AS the world had then, as it has
now, sufficient supply Of all tho silver
| it needed in the arts or as an instru-
mentality of exchange, any attempt to
make its use more extensive did not
seem feasible.
They accordingly hit upon the follow.
| ing ingenious plan: That the treasury Of
the United States should be required to
buy 20 much of the surplus produced by
the mines of Mr.. Jones and his associ-
| ates as would tend to maintain the
price of silver, and consequently their
enormous profits, or at least prevent any
further decline in them. They therefore
induced congress to require the govern
ment to buy at least ST. 600, 900 worth
Of silver bullion each and every month,
the total production of all the silver
mines in the United States being at
that time about SO, 900, 600 per month.
The government consequently ut once
made market for about two-t thirds OF
| all the product of this industry, and I'M
der this act the treasury did buy 1878,
1856, 900.
This device to keep up the price of
silver did not, however, work as its
originators expected it would at the
time it was put into operation and for
tho reason that the worlds annual out
put at the time Of its cnactment-name-
| ", 70, 476, 900 ounces, with an average
value of 1852 per ounce-had reached
| 1870, 213, 600 ounces per annum i'll 1889,
while its price had fallen to .03 per
ounce The device was accordingly re-
constructed, and in 1890 the United
States treasury was required to buy
| $500, 900 ounces per month. and under
this law. which was repealed in 1893,
the government purchased 1863, CAT, 082
fine ounces Of silver at cost Of
1856, $50, 600 In virtue of these two
acts the United States treasury pur-
chased 400, 9S4. $50 fine ounces Of silver
at an expenditure of $508. 093, 974. and
Of this large amount 1913, 900, 900 re-
manned in the vaults of tho treasury on
the LIST of September, 1896
The above two devices for the benefit
Of the millionaire mine owners having
completely failed. they have now de-
vised third, more subtle and ingen-
ious. which has captiyated and beguiled
no small part of the American people
namely, the so called free coinage OF
silver, with the legal tender attachment.
1t is difficult, therefore, in the face
of such undisputable facts, to resist tho
conclusion that this whole silver agita-
ton, which, as before shown, is not
manifesting itself in any like degree in
! nnr' - 49, " 40 -