Bisbee daily review., 1907-04-25
TIE PRICE OF SILVER,
Causes Which Brought About
 the Recent Rise,

Among the theories which have been advanced to account for the re- cent rise in the price of silver is the following from the Newburyport Daily News, written by a siiveTware manu- facturer.
 The Silver Purchase act of con gross of 1890, which made compulso- ry the purchase by the government of fine silver to the amount of 4,500,0 900 ounces monthly, or 54,000,00 ounces annually, caused an immediate and COT siderable advance in price.
 'Fo pay for this enormous amount of fine silver the government issued s155, 900 900 in what are called Treas ury notes Of these there now re- main in circulation but few millions, their place having been taken by sil- yer certificates as rapidly as the fine silver was coined into dollars.
 Under the stimulus of this silver purchase act the price of fine silver, which had ruled for some years at from 90 cents to near S1 an ounce, rose rapidly in the summer of 1890. reaching about s1.22 an ounce. There was strong effort to raise the price to S1.2g an ounce, at which point 1t would have been at par with gold, on a basis of Is to 1. The attempt fail ed, and the value pretty steadily de clined until a low mark of 46 cents an ounce was reached in 1902. ,-.
 Tt was the old story of the pendu- lum swinging too far. During the boom attending the attempt to reach a price of $1.29 an ounce for the white metal large stocks were hoarded for the rise.
 At the time of the repeal of the Silver Purchase act the government also had an enormous amount of sil- yer bullion on hand for which it had no use at that time. Such conditions were a menace to the silver market, and the usual consequence was an ex- tensiye fall in value.
 Now the bullion held by the govern ment has nearly all been coined; the hints have no silver they can legally use for subsidiary coins, the demand for which is urgent; the speculative stocks above mentioned have been ab- soTbed by the market, and there has appeared an unprecedented demand for silver from the Far East, India alone having purchased since January l, 1906, some S0,000,0 900 ounces more than during the same months of 1905. In passing it may be noted that silver which goes into India and China does not come back.
 While London makes the price, the factor in its determination is chiefly what is termed the Eastern market China, Japan, India. Shipments to India all go from London, but Japan gets some silver direct from Austra- lia. Exports of silver mined in the United States and Mexico, countries which produce about two-thirds of the worlds product, are to London exclu- sively. ....
 Tt is perhaps not generally under stood that a large part of the silver mied i5 a byproduct produced from ore worked for other metals-zinc, lead, copper or gold. The mines worked for silver in the States are very few since the price fell below 90 cents, because with the high price of mining labor few strictly silver min ing propositions can make a profit at the present price. It is understood that three-fourths or more of the sil- yer mired in the United States is a byproduct; but in Mexico, where labor is comparatively cheap, silver alone can he mined profitably.
 The amount of silver consumed for manufacturing in the arts is often much overestimated. We have seen figures as high as 60,000,00 ounces a year. The director of the mint esti- mates that about 10000, 600 ounces are so used in the United States. or less than one-third of the average domestic produce, the estimate being not over p per cent used in the arts as an average throughout the world"