The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1898-03-31
FUTURE OF SILVER.
A Friend and Believer In hat Metal Can
Only Discern a Gloomy Outlook for 1t.

A Friend and believer In that Metal Can
Only Discern a Gloomy Outlook for 1t.
Denver Post: William Guggenheln.of
Mexico. a member OF the Philadelphia
Smelling and Refining Company. re-
turned last evening from the southern
republic. Although a friend and believ-
er in silver, Mr. GuggenheIm a dis
Germ only 4 gloomy future for the white
metal. and holds out but little encour-
agemeut to It's producers.
In an interview on the subject this
morning he said:
The future OF silver Is apparently
not a favorable one so far as an ad-
vance in Its commercial value Is con-
cerned. Mexico Is, by Its physical adj
vantages, enabled to continue the silver
standard to It's W benefit, but the
natural tendency of other silver using
countries that do not produce the. metal
largely Is TO adopt the gold standard. 1
have been asked whether insthe event
of war, which. II 1t can be avoided hon.
orably, ought to be prevented. would
silver increase in commercial value.
IT am hardly inclined to believe that
such a desirable result would follow. It
Is probable that any conflict with Spain
would be of short duration and OF a ma
val character, which would not call for
such an expenditure that the financial
situation would be strained II, howev-
er. the struggle should prove a pro-
louged one, the government would be
likely to issue coin bonds, payable eth
er IN gold or silver. I can hardly see
that free coinage would result even IL
the country should become engaged in
n prolonged war. The visible supply Of
silver Is OF. such an amount that i'm
mense quantities would have 10 be
used before any a%ppreciable increase In
its commercial value would result.
In Mexico. however, an extraordi-
nary condition exists. The country Is
being opened up by strong inducements
held ont 20 foreign capital: railroads
are bringing the advantages OF the
country TO the surface. and a wise
government aids these conditions. To
my mind the recent slight advance in
the price OF silver, is due to exports OF
the metal to that country. The balance
OF trade between Mexico and other
countries is largely in favor of the
southern republic, and has been so for
an. extraordinarily long time. and this
causes foreign bills OF exchange to sell
at n discount. The coinage tax, express
age and incidental charges OF shipping
silver from foreign countries to Mexico
for coinage, equals about six and one
half per cent. 81 that the seller OF for
eiEn exchange finds It q lesser loss by
one-half per cent to ship silver to Mex
leo for coinage, instead OF selling his
foreign exchange.
The natural result of this Is to re-
lieve the foreign market Of silver, there
by slightly raising Its price and at the
same time relieving the Mexican mar
ket OF the surplus OF foreign exchange.
This practically brings the Mexican
dollar on a parity with silver-that ia
making the Mexican dollar correspond
TO Its bullion value. The disparity In
exchange acts indirectly as a tax on the
exports OF Mexico, and as the govern
ment Is inclined to consider the export
er's interests, II is likely that when
the Mexican congress convenos In April
favorable legislation will be enacted.
By this Is meant the removal OF the
present tax on foreign silver when pre-
scented to the Mexican government for
coinage. The result Will be that where
foreign exchange Is selling at a dis
count, the discount can be controlled at
least to the limits OF taxes for coinage
and cost OF exprcssagc. Mexico ia hard
ly likely to adopt; the gold standard at
any time.
Her situation Is largely different
from that OF India. Mexico Is a great
producer OF silver and therefore inter-
ested In seeing its use extended rs
widely as possible. In addition wages
are extremely low and have to be paid
In hard coin, go silver Is the natural
coinage metal. Another feature is. that
although Mexico would rather see a
high price for silver, on account of Its
heavy production still there is n re-
deeming point in the decline in value In
the falling offiof Imports OF merchant
disc and the encouragement to home
Industries.
Speaking generally" concluded MI.
Guggenheim. "thc increasingly large
production OF gold Is against an I'D
vance in the price Of silver, as the new
production OF the yellow metal tends