The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-03
A Misleading Claim.

On the basis OF statements made be-
fore the United States industrial COM
mission at Salt Lake city, many claims
are being put forth that silver mining
as an industry is in an unusually -four
ishing condition. These claims or state
ments, in our judgment, rest upon an
insufficient basis and need some qualif-
cation.
1t will be conceded without argument
that the improvements In mining meth
DDS and reduction processes apply to
silver as we'll as to other minerals; but
it does not follow by any means that
they have been sufficient to offset the
drop in price from ninety cents to fifty
eight or sixty, as is frequently stated.
In every case cited in support Of the
claim that we have seen, the mine was
not strictly and exclusively silver
mine'' and the presence of lead, copper
or gold along with the silver has been
the main source Of profit. 1t is very
difficult matter to-day to work at q
profit any mine which produces exc1u-
sively silver.
In illustration Of this point the Stand
ard has heretofore referred to the cases
of the Lexington and Alice mines in the
Butte district These are as distinctive
ly silver, perhaps as can be round in
Montana, barring the Granite and one
or two others in the neighborhood of
Philipsburg. These mines produce the
small amount Of an ounce Of gold to 100
ounces of silver, and yet it has been
shown that without this gold by-pro-
duct neither mine could have run at
profit for a single day since the break
in the price Of silver which followed the
closing of the Indian mint and the re-
peal of our Sherman law"
OF course silver ores might be found
so rich that they would yield profit at
much less than sixty cents an ounce
just as copper lodges might run so high
as to pay great dividends with the metal
quoted at six or eight cents. But such
cases are rare, and we must deal with
average conditions.
Take the case Of the Granite and BIZ
metallic in Granite county. Those mines
have three immense mills, two of one
hundred stamps each and one Of eighty
There is an abundance of ore to run all
three OF the mills with silver at so or 30
cents, but with the price at so or less
only the richer ore can be worked and
but one of the hundred-stamp mills
can be supplied. The other two are idle,
and perhaps three-quarters Of a million
dollars invested in them is yielding
nothing and dwindling away, as the
The fact that the money power has
not succeeded in entirely destroying the
value of silver furnishes no reason why
the producers of the metal should rest
satisfied with existing conditions.
Silver mining is only very small
part Of the silver question, which in its
larger sense is one of money supply
affecting the interests Of every industry
in the land. But the welfare of the
producing miner is a part however
small, and the interests Of those sturdy
pioneers who have laid the foundations
OF all these mountain states. who have
risked everything for their upbuildine
and development. should never be los,
sight of for a moment. And in this as
pect of the question it is not merely the
miner who should be considered, for the
welfare of whole communities is bound
I'D in that of the men who delve and
dig in the regions of eternal night
There is nothing that will better please
the gold power of the world than for
the silver miners to imbibe the notion
that they are better off now than they
ever were before,