The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-09
RINER AT s 81. M.
THE FUTURE OF SILVER,

THE FUTURE OF SILVER.
The conditions that have prevailed
in the bullion market Of late, and not
some impossible action of England as
a member of bimetallic conference,
have most to do with the future Of
silver. The effort of the Republican
press to construe England's postpone
ment of this question until October
into a hint that the Indian minis may
be reOpened to the free coinage of
silver is a poor attempt to disguise
an utter failure. England does not
propose to take any other attitude than
that which she has consistently as
sumed in the past in conferences of
this kind; and as to the reopening of
the Indian minis, at least on any
terms that American representatives
to a conference would listen to for d
minute, it is as absurd on the face of
1t as to say that a man would take
30 cents for something when he could
get 81. The reason for closing the In
dian minis was the steady decline in
value of the rupee and the progressive
shrinkage, not only of all private IN
comes, but Of Indian revenue from
this source. Since they were closed
silver has gone down and down, unit!
now it stands between So and Sc cents
per ounce. The best expert opinion
declares that it will go still lower. Mr..
Preston, director of the mint says that
1t is his honest opinion that, within
six months, silver will fall to 40 cents
an ounce. There are many who believe
that it will not stop short of 25 cents.
In the face Of such a situation. it is
simply idle to discuss the question at
all with any man who believes that
Great Britain would even consider the
reopening of her Indian minis to free
coinage.
There are two very interesting fea-
lures of this great fall in silver at 2
time when the general trend of all
prices is upward, and when the most
notable increase is in the price of
Wheat-that commodity which the free
silver men have declared was tied to
the price Of silver by an indissolubla
bond. 1t has taken place at a time when
the business Of mining silver was at
It's lowest ebb. Little or no capital has
been put into silver mines for several
years past. The price of the metal and
its uncertain future have made tha
working of low grade ores improbable
Capital hasS gone, on a very Iarea
scale. into gold mining, into prospect
ing for deposits like those at Ragged
Top and the Klondyke and the mines in
Southern California. 1t has eractad
great establishments for treating low
grade gold ores by the cyanide of no.
tassium process. Silver production az
an independent industry, except whore
already carried on and where the oro
deposit is very rich, has come almost
to standstill. Yet the annual outnut
is sufficient to keep the market de-
pressed. Nearly all of the silver bul.
lion now being placed upon the market
10 d ny -pTOuucI II consists OF silver
that has been separated from gold and
lead ores. Silver is generally found in
combination with both Of these met
ais. and those who are mining for lead
y Or for gold separate the silver and take
1t as clean profit for whatever it NAV
bring. 1t is obvious, with such a con-
dltion Of affairs, that no improvement
In price can be hoped for. Not merely
the opinion of the people, but the whole
course of the mining industry seems
TO hight against the possible rehabili-
tat1on OF silver in the worlds rr1ari,ets
another interesting feature is the in
direct disproof Of the quantitativa
theory Of money. The argument that
prices depend upon the quantity of
money in circulation is still current
among the semi-educated. Indeed
even sound economists have generally
held that the relative production of the
precious metals had much to do with