The Philipsburg mail., 1899-02-17
EXPANSION AND BlMETALLISM
NEW POSSESSIONS WILL INCREASE
THE VALUE OF SILVER.
Rimetallism VIII Become Necessity by
Extension of Our Commerce in
Far Eastern Countries.

The Denver Mining Reporter takes
up the mining outlook and the pros
pectiye increase in the value of silver.
together with the necessity for bimet-
allism which will rapidly become ap-
pazena through the increase of our
trade with the Philippines and other
eastern countries. 1t says:
In sympathy with the general rise
in the price Of the commercial metals.
silver may be expected to advance in
price. The shipments of silver OF the
East; that is. to British India, the
Straits Settlements, China and Japan,
were never larger than now. While
Chill is reported as having repented,
this early of the precipitated action in
attempting, upon the advice of Bel
gium, to establish for her people the
single gold standard.
Evidently the knowing ones see, or
at least anticipate, an increase in the
market price Of silver, for the inquiry
for good silver lead mines is much
more than it was even sixty days ago.
and we hear of examinations being
made at various points, from British
Columbia to Mexico, of mines whose
leading value is silver and lead, III
which gold is no important factor.
There is an old-time maxim to the
effect that "it is good time to sell
when everybody waists to buy; and a
good time to buy when everybody
wants to SELL" The Mining Reporter
is not prepared to say that silver lead
mines are being sought for because all
such mines are for sale, but it does say
that every such mine. where the ores
will barely pay for the cost Of extrac-
ton, freight and treatment, should be
opened and worked by the owner or
owners.
This gold craze will, like other epi.
denies, surely pass. The history OF
the world and the experiences Of the
ages do not Justify one in the belief
that it can be kept up to the recent
increasing rate. But whether the pro
duction of gold shall increase or shall
diminish the fact remains that the
world must have silver, not only fol
use in the arts, sciences and manufac'
lures, but for money, and that the de
mand for the monetary use OF silver Il
more imperative than is the demanc
for gold. If the United States is tt
extend her commerce to the Orient; Il
she is to place her manufactures II
the markets of silver using peoples; i
she proposes to compete with England
France and Germany for the product
! of India and Cathay, she has no alter
: native other than to do it by supplying
r those peoples with the money. OF thel
choice, that is Of silver. And sh'
5 must obtain that silver from the pro
3 duct of the mines of her own people
: And it is entirely possible that tn
. fact is being realized that the benefit
to be acquired by the extension Q
t American commerce with the Philip
: pines, and with Asia China and tn
t Islands of the Seas, must be done upo
a silver, and not upon a gold basis
f The continuing prosperity of Mexico
Q the importance Of her trade to tn
: manufacturers and merchants OF tn
United States the magnitude OF ne
trade, based as it is upon the sllvt
:. standard, should be most convincln
a object lesson to the statesmen OF tt
T. United States that commerce demant
y for it's best results not gold, not sl!ve
If but both; and that by such use OF 90,
/. the United States would at once tai
It's place as the commanding power
le the commerce of the world