West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1897-02-04

been made by the mining IF silver
and gold The slme my ne sHl
Of the produc ion Of OIL. While =
few men have antsse1 great for
tunes in the production OF silver,
gold and oil. Thousands have
wasted fortunes. an lives Of tori,
in "prospeUtfng." and in the en-
bud abandoned workings" wor; b
less machinery, and ''dry wells"
ms trophies Of their failures. We
only hear of the successful opera
tors; but little reflection little
effort to arrive at the truth-wlll
enable us to- Look at this question
with more intelligence aud more
fairness. Whatever is slid Of silver
in this connection, applies with
equal force 10 gold. II costs mt
least as much again, and often Eve
or ten times AS much, to produce
an ounce of silver or gold under
some conditions, us under others.
Take the c,so of ''quartz" mines
and "placer" mines; the one In
volving heavy and very costly ma
chinery, the other comparatively
inexpensive machinery, and wherein
water is made to do the work Of
very costly appliances and dear
labor, while the placer yield is usu
ally much the larger.
Apply the gold man's argument
to these facts. Is the Eagle made
from the gold from the quartz mine
worth more than that coined fro
the "dust" of the placer mine ? Or
is the Etgle from the placer worth
less than ten dollars If there is
any difference. which one shall be
taken az the standard ? The one
whose material represents the Least,
or the greatest labor cost ? Ii you,
my friend, whether Democrat or
Republican,, were to find a man en-
gagged in trying to adjust and regu
late our gold money upon such a
theory, would you not at once set
him down for fool or crank /? Now
does not the same reasoning apply
to silver? the cost Of producing
silver varies the same as gold, but
not perhaps in the same degree,
because silver is never found
"free," as the gold is in placer
mines. But the cost of producing
silver is usually greater than that
of producing gold. 1t requires
heavier and costlier machinery.
But ''goldie" will answer that
"6ullioD is worth only So cents in
London" cit is impossible to
make 100 cents worth of money out
of 50 cents worth of bullion"
England is to day using. and pro-
posing to coin $5,00O,000 more of
subsidiary coin, out Of this self
same SO cent bullion. And this
silver money is being used, and the
additional So, 900, 900 is to be used, ,
along side of, and at par with. her
gold and Bank of England notes.
How can she do it?
Take another illustration We
are told that, because bullion is
selling in London for SO cents an
ounce, therefore dollar coined
out of it can be worth only SO cents.
Now the price spoken of, is the
commercial price; the price of silver,
not for money uses, but for its use
IN the arts. Then this price Is La
BILE to huctuation the same as that
of copper, lead, zinc etc. Silver
might become worth 100 cts an
ounce in the market. Could we
then afford to coin a few dollars,
while it remained at that price ?
Or suppose--which is possible
that the bullion price should run
up to $3.50 per ounce. Would our
silver dollar then be worth $3.50?
What nonsense The commercial
value Of silver, and the 'cost Of
production" have nothing in the
world to do with silver as money.
The only problem in the case Is, is
there danger of silver being pro-
duced in such abundance as to ex-
coed the wants Of civilization ? Or,
in other words, is there danger,
that under free coinage, more sill
yer money would be coined than
the civilized world could absorb
History, science, and experience,
all unite in saying that there is no
possibility Of danger from this