The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1918-02-21


famous mines of Potosi yielded i'm
mense treasures that went to deck
queens and courtesans, to enrich cath
edrals, to support tyranny and pay the
bills of war.
Mexico a Treasure House.
Mexico is one of the very greatest
of the worlds treasure houses of sill
YER but the chaos of the past seven
years has heavily cut down Mexico's
contributions. In the state of Chihua-
hua and in Sonora, there are vast
areas of silver territory, Some years
ago Mexico produced half of the
worlds annual silver supply. Central
America has a famous silver mine,
the Rosario at San Juancito, Hon.
duras. In thirty five years it has
turned out $21,000,000 of the metal.
The United States and Canada have
rich, large silver areas In this coun-
try Nevada still holds the greatest
production, and now that silver is be-
coming increasingly desirable there is
talk of reopening many of the aband-
oned mines on the Comstock lode.
This marvellous deposit has produced
about $750,0O0,000 in silver and 1t
played an immense part in rehabilitat-
ing the finances of the United States
after the civil war. That Renaissance
is interesting in the light of present
events, for there are many experts OF
finance who say silver must be the
financial rehabilitation agency when
this war is done and the cyclopean
accounts are adjusted.
Famous more lately are the Tonopah
mines of Nevada, which revived for a
time the lively traditions of the min
ing camps of the old west Washing
ton and Idaho, principally in the
Occur d'Alene district, have paying sill
yer mines. Colorado and Utah pro-
duced at times in the past vast guam
titles of silver. And 1t must not be
forgotten that silver has been obtained
in large quantities in the mining of
copper metal for which the queen
possesses curious affinity, The
great Anaconda copper mines in 1916
produced more than $6,000,000 worth of
silver, a by-product of the copper min
ing all velvet" as the phrase goes.
In Canada the more important mines
are located in Ontorio, and the words
Nipissing and Cobalt stand now for
utter richness.
All Production Lessened.
But for a variety of causes all pro-
duction has decreased at the very
hour that demand has increased, a
situation which raises silver to an al
titude of governmental and individual
regard such as it never before oc-
cupied in history, for the reckonings
of Caesar and Charlemagne cannot
be considered, since they were made
in the days when all the world and
the best silver mines lay east of the
ocean of Atlantics.
The Chinese republic is establishing
itself upon a silver basis as part OF
it's financial reconstruction and is
coming a vast amount of metal Last
spring the advance in the market
price of silver-it climbed to S1.16 "
record price in New York was SC
aluring that large quantities of Chin
csc silver coins were melted into bull
lion and sold in that shape. Mexican
dollars were worth less in Mexico
city than they were in New York, q
miraculous development, Since this
time all the bullion has had to be
rebought, India and other countries OF
the silver adoring Orient are so in
satiable in their demands.
Europe Takes Much of II.
Within the last eighteen months
European countries have consume
for coinage to pay soldiers and sellers
of supplies, who could not expect gold
but who frowned upon bank paper
All the countries at war and neutrals
too have hidden their gold and have
mounted soldiers over it. Try to gel
500 worth of gold coin at your bank
and see how you fare. Great Britain's
coinage of silver is said to be fourteen
times as great as it was before the
British believed that German promises
were better than the usual pie crust
All of the British minis are working
day and night and have been COM
PEELED to decline orders from the coll
onies.
We know how greatly the coinage OF
silver has increased in our mints, and
know too that half forgotten minis,
famous in the days of the old silvered
west, in the days that Mark Twain
wrote about, have resuscitated their
creaking machinery. Scandinavia,
especially Sweden. is buying silver
freely and no doubt much of this
metal finds it way into Germany
In all the European countries, es-
pecially in Great Britain, France and
Italy, the silver treasure is decreasing
rapidly. South American republics
are purchasing for their own use in
stead of being sellers as formerly.
The era of prosperity which began
about 1900 and was symbolized by
every mans ambition to own gold
watch and every woman's. to possess
real--not plated-silver toilet articles