Iron County register., 1900-06-14
The Cause of Free Silver.
MERELY A GAMBLERS CHANCE
There IL NO aeif=sieasfHttaa TeH-
asaey whatever Abeat fIe PFe-
aaetien OF ae1d,

/
A writer In the Review of Reviews
has estimated the expenses incurred by
/ the klondfke miners during 1897 and
1908 at $75 000. 900, certainly Il very con-
servative estimate. Yet this amount ex-
/ ceeds by more tban $50, ,0O0,U 900 the value
Of I'LL the gold TINT has been brought
| out of the Klondike. IL we add to it
an average of two dollars per day for
one year dhe writer well said that
''they would refuse in a civilized, coun-
| try to do the work they did do" at four
dollars per day. for each miner who
| gave up year of his life in this enter
prise, we have the sum of S150,0O0,0 600,
and yet the gold which the Klondike
has yielded would not purchase one
sixth of this amount.
If these facts were true of almost
any other industry people would turn
away to other pursuits. But the knowl-
edge of these facts does not drive peo-
+ pie out of gold mining. Gold mining
! is venture of so speculative charac-
| ter as to take it almost wholly out of
the category of ordinary industries. In
almost no other enterprise does even
the most sanguine expect to make very
much more than the average of those
| who continue in the business unless he
! enjoys some very exceptional advan-
tage, such as discriminating freight
rates, for example. But the gold miner
| is not dismayed by the fact, which he
fully realizes, that the average return
| is a heavy net loss; he knows of a very
few cases where princely fortunes have
been made by men who had no excep-
tiona1 advantages, but exceptional
luck, and every miner hopes to be the
one in thousand who gains wealth
! from the mines. Still the gambling goes
On. The miner keeps on till his last
| cent is gone, and then reluctantly goes
! to some other employment for little
! while till he can save enough to get a
new outfit-once in awhile he makes
| ''strike" which prolongs the agony
! little and tides him over few months
more than usual. The rich ranchman
steadily sinks all the profits of his
ranch in mining ventures. the clerk
| pinches the spending of his meager sal
ary that he may venture little in the
mines. Occasionally he gets back more
than he has put in, and this encourages
him to venture more, and usually lose
! it all.
The experience of the Klondike mines
has not been exceptional in this re-
spect. 1t is only a repetition of Cali
fornia, of Australia and of what has
been for the last generation going on
in the Rocky mountains.
Our industries must year by year
sustain themselves, as rule, or per-
ish. But gold mining is a parasite in
| oustry. It consumes what itself pro-
duces, and in addition feeds on the sur
plus of staple industries. We're this
not true we should, of course, find that
the impetus to gold mining would be
greatly increased whenever prices were
very low ii. e., when gold appreciates),
and that it would languish when prices
rise. But it does nothing of the sort.
Increased production of gold is almost
purely accidental. 1t is quite as likely
to decline when prices are low, and to
rise when prices are high, as the re-
verse. General prices, for example, in
1878 were nearly double those of 1893.
yet the gold produced in 1898 was bare
ly one-third more than in the former
year. On the other hand, from 1896 to
per cent, the output of the gold mines
of the world also increased more than
40 per cent. But this does not estab-
lish any rule either in the opposite di
rection. because there is no rule by
which production of gold can be fore
cast.
The practical application of this
fact is not far to seek. There is no
self-regulating tendency whatever
about the production of gold, and
those are reckoning on wholly un-
certain data who suppose that the
recent gold discoveries have effective
ly settled any monetary question.
The gold production of 1900 seems
likely to be the greatest in the worlds
history. Whether the production of
1901 will be still larger, perhaps
twice as large, or only half as great, |
is question upon which only blind |
guesses can be made. All experience |
of the past tends to show the use
lessness OF predictions.
There is one fact which seems to
obscure the minds of many persons
on this point. That is, that new
processes now enable much more
gold to be extracted from given mines
than formerly, or, to be more exact, |
make it possible to utilize ores of
lower grade. But moments clear
reflection makes it evident that this |
consideration influences only the alb
solute amount of the metal and not |
the relative quantity in successive |
periods. While we may expect that
more gold will be obtained in the
next ten years than would have been
procured without these processes, |
there is nothing about these processes
which tends in the least to limit fiuc |
tuations. Whether more or less gold
will be obtained depends still on
causes which are almost wholly accf- |
dental, and there is every reason to |
suppose that fluctuations in gold pro-
duction will be as violent, as erratic, |
and as unexpected in character in |
the future as they have been in the |
past.-H. H. Swain. Ph. D.. in Money.
Wanted-An Americon System.
Instead of a system which would |
chain our nation to the gold standard |
and compel it to participate in all the
disturbances which come to European |
nations, we demand an American finan- |
cial system, made by the American peo-
L L Il.