The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-03
THE REAL CRIMINALS,

| Richard Guenther who served two
terms in congress from a Wisconsin
district, who is extensively interested
In silver mines in Mexico, and who is
stumping for sound money this year.
says that ''the crime Of '73" was not
committed in congress by the "demone-
tization" act, but by the Pacific rail-
way acts and their results. 1t Is the
railways and not the dropping Of the
standard dollar in 1873. that has caused
the fall in the price of silver. This is
| a novel view, and we are bound to
ADMIT that Mr. Guenther makes very
strong case in the argument he pre-
sents in the Milwaukee Sentinel. Not
only does he account for the present
ratio, but he insists that the same
cause will produce a ratio of fifty or
more TO one when the Pan-American
railway shall have run its line along
the Andes and made profitable the
working of the old silver mines of that
range.
Profit in the production Of silver is
merely a matter Of cost in getting the
ore from the mine to the smelter. In
this 1t differs materially from gold. All
| that Is needed for the reduction of
| rree-milling gold ore is the erection
OF stamp mill which can be carried
IN parts to the neighborhood of the
mine and set in operation. Then the
| reduced ore is treated by the quick
silver, chlorination or cyanide process
ana the gold is extracted at or near
the mine. To carry the gold out is
| comparatively cheap. With the silver
miner the case is very different. He
must get his ore to the smelter Thai
cannot be erected at or near the mine
because the materials for smelling are
never or very rarely found together.
There must be lead ores and limestone
and water and fuel, coal or wood. To
assemble all this material the smeIter
must be at some point where the rails
reach out to the distant localities
where the materials are found. This
obliges the silver miner to transport
| his ore to the smeiter instead of car
rying out the refined product as does
the gold miner.
He illustrates with an example. Two
| mines, one gold the other silver. are
| adjoining and $50 miles away from q
railway. The silver mine produces f1f-
ty ounces of silver to the ton, and may
carry $12 worth Of gold with it. It's
value is about $35 a ton. The gold
mine brings the stamp mill near the
dump. The cost of mining each is
about So ton and Of reducing the
| gold ore SIS, although it costs 81 in some
places. The value of the ore is about
$40 ton, leaving a profit of $40. and
on ten-ton output a day a profit of
500. The silver miner has put ont a.
ton at the same cost. He has to carry
1t to the smelter at the railway at a
cost, at the very lowest, of 20 cents
a ton for each mile. He pays IS a ton
for smelling, IS for mining and $50 for
transportation. He gets a product
worth $35 at cost of $43 and loses
money. Now, let a railway be run up
into the mines. If the smelter follows
the silver miner saves the cost of trans
portation by team or mule-back. The
gold miner gets but little additional
benefit, but it makes all the difference
to the silver miner that there is be-
tween profit and dead loss. If the
smelter does not follow he pays about
81 hundred to have his ore carried to
the smelter. His ton of ore costs him
smelted $25 and is worth $685.
/ Following the construction of the
Pacific roads came the building Of
branches into the mining regions. The
discovery of new mines was followed
| by branch railways to them. Down in
Mexico 1t has made possible the work.
| ing of mines abandoned long ago be-
cause of the cost of getting ore to the
| shelters, not because they were worked
out. The inevitable result has been
to make profitable silver mines that.
without them, with the old method of
| transport, could not be worked save at
| a loss. This in turn has immensely in
creased the supply of silver, and, under
the immutable law of supply and de-
nand- the price has fallen. Diminished