Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1897-09-01
DOWN GOES SILVER.
The Mine Owner. OF the West Arc
Greatly Disturbed.

Greatly Disturbed.
| The decline in the price OF silver.
which IA by no means at an end. may
have an effect on the production of that
metal in the United States. The output
ia this country in lso5 was 46,333. 900
ounces. In 1896. when the price was
little higher than in 1895, the output
rose TO 56,Ooo,0OO ounces, and. I'm addi-
ton the smelters and refiuers obtained
100000 ounces from foreign ores and
bullion, chiefly from Mexico and Brit
ish Columbia. So the total quantity of
silver marketed by the United States
was so.25o.0O ounces. That was about
equal To the total product of the world
in iSS6.
decrease of 20 per cent. in the price
of silver must have an immediate effect
on those mines which have been barely
| paying expenses. There are many such.
which have been putting silver on the
market and getting for II just about
enough to cover the cost OF production.
/ There are other mines. I'm Arizona and
/ elsewhere, which were closed years ago
| becauSc silver was so cheap il did not
| pay TO work them.
! But, on the other hand. the opening
| OF new railroad makes il profitable TO
reopen old mines or open new mines.
! The railroad reduces the cost OF trans
| portation Of fuel and other supplies and
Of ores. Thus IL reduces the cost OF pro-
duction of silver at the mines which
come within its sphere Of influence"
Take AWAY the existing railroads in the
silver mining states and silver would
cease TO be produced there
To considerable extent i'm this coun-
try silver is merely by-product, gold,
lead or copper being the important
product, and the silver merely an in
cident There are Montana mines which
were worked once for silver with cop
per rs the by-product. The reverse is
the case now. So long as the price of
copper keeps mp fall in that Of silver is
immaterinl. One smelter says:
II have figured out that with lead at
! N6O and silver at h5iS cents IL Is Just about
| as profitable 60 the miner as when lead was
1926 and silver 65 cents"
Ii may be said, therefore, that there
| is good deal OF silver which is pro
duced for nothing. The Australian
miners, whose output is about 20, 600, 0Ol
ounces year, state that IL they get 25
cents an ounce for silver they can make
money. The richer mines i'm the United
! States and the richer and more acces-
siblc Mexican mines can probably do
the same thing.
So IL is not certain that the slump in
silver, which is going to- sell for less
than 80 cents an ounce before long. will
reduce materially the American output.
though it will reduce the profits of the
mine owners. At 90 cents an ounce the
| 6d,OOO,oOO ounces of American silver pro-
duced last year would bring S25,-
333,3O0 or Sl2. 500. 900 less than they
brought on the basis of last years
prices.
So the mine owners i'm the west are
greatly disturbed. Some of them, they
see, must go out of business, Just ms the
owners of some iron ore beds have done
They expect that there will he a "sur.
vival OF the fttest." One of them states:
| 81 am OF the opinion that silver Will con.
! unue TO go down until there Is n marked
! decrease In the production In some part.
| OF the world, and II remains to he seen
| which silver-producing countries will give
| way FIRST"
But while il is not altogether agree
able from one point of view TO see any
important American production sill
yer Is almost as important as copper
though much less so than pig iron o.
iecline in price. yet il is u great com
fort that the value of the dollar is not
declining at the same time and playing
havoc with business. MeNrcans are in
distress. not so much because silver
bullion has fallen in price. but because
their monetary standard * based on
silver and goes down with IL.
Had Bryan won last November. and
this country been put on the silver
monometallic basis, the drop in The
price Of silver during the last ten days
would have disarrangrd everything.
buyers and sellers would have been at
their wits end. The purchasing power.
of wages would have suddenly shrunIt
some more. Everybody would have
been i'm state OF cxciteun nj nwaitiu,.
! ihc next London quotation OF silver bull
| lion tU find out how much the American
| dollar wds worth. But, az the standard
~ g1lG, onl few care whether. silver
! goes up oi down Chicago tribune.