The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1897-08-25
SILVER GOING DOWN.
The Mine Owners of the West Are
Greatly Disturbed.


The decline in the price Of silver,
which is by no means at an end, may
have an effect on the production of that
metal in the United States. The output
in this country in 1895 was 46,333,O00
ounces. In 1896, when the price was n
little higher than in 1895, the output
rose TO $4,000, 900 ounces, and, in addi-
ton the smelters and refiners obtained
100000 ounces from foreign ores and
bullion, chiefly from Mexico and Brit
isb Columbia. So the total quantity of
silver marketed by the United States
was S9,250,00O ounces. That was about
equal to the total product of the world
in 1886.
A 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 it just about
enough to cover the cost of production.
There are other mines, in Arizona and
elsewhere, which were closed years ago
because silver was so cheap it did not
pay to work them.
of a new railroad makes it 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 it reduces the cost of pro-
duction of silver at the mines which
come within it's sphere of influence"
Take away the existing railroads in the
silver mining states and silver would
cease to be produced there.
To considerable extent in this coun-
try silver is merely n 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 as the by-product. The reverse is
the case now. So long as the price OF
copper keeps up fall in that of silver is
immaterial. One smelter says:
"I have figured out that with lead at
$3.50 and silver al 55la cents ID is just about
as profitable to the miner as when lead was
1925 and silver Go cents"
1t may be said, therefore, that there
is a good deal of silver which is pro-
duced for nothing. The Australian
miners, whose output is about 90, 100000
ounces year, state that if they get 25
cents an ounce for silver they can make
money. The richer mines in the United
States and the richer and more access
sible Mexican mines can probably do
the same thing.
So it is not certain that the slump in
silver, which is going to sell for less
than so cents an ounce before long, will
reduce materially the American output,
though it will reduce the profits of the
mine owners. At so cents an ounce the
56,000,000 ounces of American silver pro-
duced last year would bring $685.
1893, 300 or ST., 100000 less than they
brought on the basis of last years
prices.
So the mine owners in the west are
greatly disturbed. Some of them, they
see, must go out of business, just as the
owners Of some iron ore beds have done.
They expect that there will be a 'sur-
vival of the fittest." One of them states:
II am OF the opinion that silver Will con-
tinue to go down until there is a marked
decrease in the production in some parts
OF the world, and il remains to be seen
which slver-producing countries will give
way first"
But while it 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
decline in price, yet it is a great COM
fort that the value of the dollar is not
declining at the same time and playing
havoc with business. MeXicans are in
distress, not so much because silver
bullion has fallen in price, but because
their monetary standard is based on
silver and goes down with it.
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 disarranged everything.
Buyers and sellers would have been at
their wits end. The purchasing power
CT wages would have suddenly shrunk
some more. Everybody would have
been in a state of excitement awaiting
the next London quotation of silver bull
lion 10 find out how much the American
dollar was worth. But, as the standard
is gold, only a few care whether silver
goes Up or down.-Chicago Tribune.