The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1902-03-27
OUR GOLD AND SILVER.
shown by Omcial Estimates to Play
Relatively Small Part in Adding
to the Nations Wealth.

Because gold and silver are used for
measuring as money the values OF
other national products, people are
prone to consider their production as
perhaps the most important of the
mineral outputs of our country. In
certain sense this is true. But com.
parison of some of our mineral Indus
tries as set forth by the United States
geological survey in the Mineral Re-
sources of the United States, 190O,
shows how small part, relatively, the
two precious metals play in adding to
our national wealth, says the st.
Louis Globe-Democrat.
Round numbers alone being used for
convenience sake. it is found that the
gold product was worth $79,O00,O00,
and that the commercial value OF the
silver product was about $36,O0O,OOO,
though the coming value was $74 ,OO0,-
| O0O AS metals, then, the gold and sill
YER were worth Sis, 900; as money
they were worth S153, 100000. Now the
copper produced in 1900 was valued at
| sos ,OOO,O 900, though the price decreased
| a cent and half pound. as compared
| with 1899; the lead was valued at over
| 5000, 900, though the condition of the
| industry was not good; zinc was pro-
| duced to the value of over S10,00o,0O0,
| though it declined % per cent. in value
| as compared with 1899. The copper,
| lead and zinc products were worth
more as metals, by S16,00O,000, than
our gold and silver. as metals, in 1900,
| than the combined values of the
| production of abrasive materials,
such as grindstones, garnets, and so
on: of chemical materials, such as
| gypsum, phosphate rock, and others;
of pigments, such as metallic paint,
white lead. and so on; and of the mis-
cellaneous metallic products, the
whole aggregate amounted to about
| $50, 100000, shows that they were
! worth less. as metals or metallic
products. than the gold by about $27,-
100000. and more than the silver, as a
metal, by s16,0o0,oo0.
Further. the comparison of gold and
! silver with the structural materials
| produced--that is, with $4S.000,000 of
building stone. S96,OOO.O00 worth of
clay products, and $13.OOO,0OO of ce-
| ments: 100000 in all-shows that
| the structural materials exceeded the
gold and silver in value by $40, 100000.
if the commercial value of silver is
taken at it's coming value of S74,0O0,-
900.
Applied now to the great metallic
basis of our civilization, iron and its
products. the comparison becomes
still more striking. Iron ore was
produced to within less than 50 .000, 600
of the value of the gold; and pig iron
was produced to value of nearly
$1O7,O0O.OOo in excess of the coming
value of both gold and silver combined
But the comparison of the gold and sill
yer output with the output of the min
eral fuels, coal. petroleum and natural
gas, is the most striking of all: for the
combined gold and silver value is ex,
ceeded by the high sum of $4,000, 900
or s406, 100000 as against $153, 0OG, 900
These comparisons are the more in.
teresting in view of the statement OF
the director of the mint, that "two
thirds Of the output of silver in the
United States is obtained as by
product from mines which would be
operated no matter what the price oil
silver might be-" and that in the Grip
pie Creek district the reserves (o1
gold) in sight are enormous"
Another popular prepossession that
receives scant courtesy at the hands
of the reports is in regard to tin. Be
sides the terse statement under the
tabular summary, "Tin-Quantity-
None" tin is only mentioned twice il
the volume: once under the iron and
steel statistics, when the production
of tin plates and terne plates to the
amount of 1866 long tons is noted
and again brief description is give1
of the Occurrence of Stream Tin il
the York Region, Alaska the Yorl
region lying west of Cape Nome. We
produced no tin in this country il
1900
a The Jewish TOrah.
OF the objects used in the Jewish