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AN ENORMOUS J Zfl a
AN EXPERIENCED MINER OF
MONTANA WRITES A LETTER.
Mr. K. Clark In a I,ett*r to
Central Paul Van IJervoort OItm
Some Valnablo Kpasous W hy Sliver
khoiiltt |{n I!pn»on«tlz«<l.
Butte, Mont., Dec. 18, 1895.
Hon. Paul Van Dervoort, Omaha, Neb.
Dear Sir: Agreeable to promise I
send you a few of the material facts
relative to the silver question, and
which 1 trust may throw a little more
light on the great problem of’the day—
a problem ’ many of the
eastern people a liUL iamiliar.
In 1893. when the price of
dropped lo r.9 cents per ounce, the deep
silver mines of Montana, and in fact
all mining states and territories, had
suffle.ent ore reserves opened up and
exposed to Inst from one to two years.
The great drop in silver, with Its at¬
tendant general financial crash in 1893,
so discouraged the stiver producers
that development work on the large
mines came to a standstill, and only the
reserve bodies of ore were taken out
and treated. These reserves have been
completely exhausted up to date, and
no profit accrued to the owners.
I will cite you to the Alice, Moulton
and Lexington, which were numbered
among the largest silver producing
mines of the world, and fifty other
mines In Butte alone, whose machin¬
ery is now lying Idle. There are in this,
the greatest mining camp on earth, a
few leasers working some of the best
properties, and making only a bare liv¬
ing.
In Phlllpsburg, Granite county, the
Bimetallic and Granite Mountain, two
mines which have paid several millions
of dollars In dividends, are now closed
down on account of the low price of sil¬
ver.
The Elkhorn, In Jefferson county,
which has been a divldent paying bo¬
nanza for fifteen years, recently pub¬
lished to the world the fact that it must
succumb to the Inevitable- that their
great, ore bodies were exhausted.
Look carefully over the mining field,
and see if you can find one rich produc¬
ing silver mine. The bonanzas, which
held such conspicuous places In the
mining world, are things of the past.
Today but one is left the Ontario, of
Utah, and that is being worked at a
email profit only.
It la true that there are left a few
silver mines from which the rich bod¬
ies of ore have not been all taken out.
These, however, will soon become ex¬
hausted, if steadily worked. When and
whero have any large silver mines
been found of late years? The Molly
Gibson, located In Colorado, is the only
one, and like the Alice, Moulton and
Lexington, it Is lying Idle today.
I mention these facts as evidence
jml i tulles
after or prospected for, because they
may not be found, and would not pay If
discovered. When one is found, in the
search for copper, the claim Is record¬
ed, represented, and left idle in hopes
that some day in the near future silver
will reach a paying basis.
There are, no doubt, very many small
Bilver lends yet undiscovered, and had
silver not been demonetized, there
would be today nt least thr«; thousand
of them, in the states and territories,
working steadily. These three thou¬
sand mines would give employment to
fifty thousand men.
Look carefully now for the result of
the labor and product of these fifty
thousand miners.
These men, kept steadily at work,
would cause, indirectly, the employ¬
ment of from 500,000 to 1,000,000 work¬
men In the east, simply because to open
and develop three thousand mines, vast
amounts of machinery would be re¬
quired, and the army of men engaged
in these mines would have to be fed
and clothed. To produce the machin¬
ery, clothing and food, would require
the services of a ten times greater num¬
ber of men. Again, the product of the
mines would increase the number of
wage earners who manufacture works
of art every article for which silver is
used.
Remonetize silver, and at least one
half million men In the east who are
now idle will have employment, and 1
tlrmly believe the number would be
twice one-half million. At the same
time there would be an increase in !
wages, for when the west is prosperous
high wages are always paid, and high
wages mean a more generous distrlbu
tion of money.
The gold bugs say we "are making
an overproduction of silver;" that ”it
can be produced for 25 cents per ounce
with profit.” Let us look at this matter j
intelligently.
When we take into consideration the
immense number of men who have been
engaged in prospecting for silver mines; j
the hundreds of “mines” which do and
never have produced; the millions of
dollars expended in the erection of
buildings, purchase and planting of ma
chinery on properties which have nev
er returned a penny of profit, or even
returned the original investment, and
with these expenditures made an hon
est comparison, it will be plainly seen
that the gold bug estimate of 25 cents
per ounce for cost of production loses
its honesty of statement, and appears
only as a ridiculous assertion, made
with deliberate intention to falsify.
I will illustrate with indisputable fig
uree how rapidly the silver production
is falling off, and more particularly
with the price at or near 67 cents per
ounce.
In 1891 the production was $75,416,500.
In 18x2 the production amounted to
$74,9S9.900.
In 1894 it 49,500,60(1
ounces.
For 1895 the actual production will
not exceed 33,00(
At this rate of decrease the produe-
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WORTH IN GOLD. fi it A wzm
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/
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100 100
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SYNDICATE o
SPLIT
GOLD DOLLAR f mm
WORTH 200 CENTS i
IN EVERYTHING
BUT ITSELf, 2®
16 /SL'jtU
Jf^S. JOB LOT
SI LVER
FOR SALE CHEAP
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figs v! v ^ —• V» v*V <3,
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A Fow of tho Advantages of the Gold Standard: Idle Silver, Idle Factories, Idle Labor, Cheap Corn and Dear
Coal.—Nation il Bimetallist.
Uoii in 1890 will be less that. 25,000,000
ounces.
Every laborer, artisan, mechanic,
farmer, merchant and professional man
In these United States should give this
subject Ills earnest thought that his
mind may more easily grasp the mon¬
etary situation with a realizing sense
of Its importance.
With our mines idle this decrease will
continue until, in a very few years, sil¬
ver will only be known as a by-product
with copper and gold, and will not
exceed, all tokl, over 15,000,000 ounces.
The demand for silver to be used in
art and manufacture may possibly act
in a certain degree as a stimulus to sil¬
ver mining industry. Without a de¬
mand of this nature byproduct, It vlll require the
..are amount or me u, ■
ply the art trade only.
With low prices where is the world’s
supply to come from? America will
have no silver to sell. This country
and Mexico have produced over one
half the silver in the world at this time.
Mexico is using the greater part of all
the silver she produces, and we can
readily see how that country makes
herself prosperous by so doing. She
pays all her help with silver at a ratio
of 16 to 1, and sells her products, aside
from silver. In gold countries, receiv
lug payment in gold. Such manner of
transacting business makes silver coun
tries prosperous, while gold countries
deterlorate commercially and flnan-
Many of the politicians of today are
coupling silver with tariff. While I
am for tariff, I am for silver first, as
being a paramount issue. Japan and
China are both silver countries. They
can as easily make or manufacture any
needed article as can the United States,
With monometallism. Japan and China
are given 75 per cent advantage to start
with. The difference between gold and
silver at present gives them 50 per
cent advantage, while the difference in
priee of labor in other countries and
ours is over 25 per cent; hence 75 per
cent is a small estimate. With their
cheap labor to contend with, how are
we to shut out their wares and prod
nets? Can we raise the tariff high
enough to do so?
This is one of the gravest questions
we have to contend with. Shall we al
; 0 w the gold bugs of England and the
United States to reduce our free-born
laboring classes to a level with the
Mongolian or enslaved coolies of Asiat
ic countries? Emphatically, No!
But how prevent it?
The simplest thing imaginable,
Throw political affiliations aside; ig
nore all party ties on this important
issue, and vote for the presidential
candidate who is known to favor the
free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16
to 1.
Take John Sherman from 1S73 to the
present time for example, with Grover
Cleveland and John G. Carlisle as aux
iliaries. and see where they, with their
monometallist proclivities and teach
ings, and administrative acts, have
placed us. In the mining states and ter
ritories we see deserted towns, idle
machinery, desolate houses, poverty,
starvation, misery, misery, misery, and
a terrible increase in the crime which
follows and is the outcome of want and
suffering,
Railroads, too. are mostly in the
hands of receivers, and trains are run
ning short-handed with crews working
at pitifully low wages,
Farmers are in a still worse condi
tion. For all they sell they receive
less than the cost of production, and
apparently do not know the cause. A
few days since I met a farmer in
Omaha. Neb. He told me corn in the
country was worth but 12)4 cents per
bushel. That farmers were selling their
icgs at so low a figure thev had to do
without meat at home. That they were
compelled to do this to procure the nec¬
essaries more essential to life, and also
to pay their taxes. I regret to learn
that this slate of affairs exists to a
great extent in all the agricultural
states.
In some of the states farmers are
burning corn because they have no
money to buy coal, or they find corn so
much cheaper, as fuel.
I ask in all honesty. Are such things
necessary in a land so naturally blessed
as our own America? So rich in its
millions of resouces?
Is there no remedy?
I answer, Yes! By the ballot. At the
coming presidential election vote for a
candidate who is a pronounced'' sllver
Ite, who favors the free coir”' *»f sil
ver Ltui a , aab ot ^ id
who will not betray yourpni Sdence
after his election.
It will require several yeai t* a place
us on the prosperous footin we en¬
joyed twenty years ago. eo[st
There are but few in the who
realize the great importance of this
silver question or understand it in its
entirety; who appreciate the fset that
W e have but just passed through the
greatest silver producing era the world
has known for four thousand years. It
j a the third of its kind, and covers a
space of thirty-five years, or since the
discovery of the famous Coms.ock in
Nevada. With most of the silver near
ly worked out history is liable to re¬
peat itself, and may not favor as with
another such production for a th usand
or even five thousand years,
Allowing silver is remonetizei at 16
to 1, the production will ineresse but
slowly. The reason is that th< .rreater
number of old mines are worked out,
and there is but little hopes of finding
new ones of their past magnitude,
People in tho east, generally, have
but little knowledge of the silver mines
in the Rocky mountains; know nothing
whatever of their workings; are ignor
ant of how silver is produced, where
it comes from, how it got there, or why
it should become exhausted.
I have personally examined very
many mines on the Pacific slope, and in
the interior, and have reliable informa
tton from other mines as to their pres
ent condition and wealth. I can say
truthfully that the number of silver
mines showing good ore below the
1.000 foot level will not equal the num
ber of fingers on one’s hands; and fur
ther, I may say that I am familiar
with many mines throughout Montana.
Idaho, Utah, Nevada and Colorado,
which do not show good paying ore be
low the 600 or 700 foot levels,
Copper mines are not referred to.
They are different. The copper mines
of Butte, for instance, improve with
depth, and some of them are nearly or
quite 1,700 feet deep. They produce,
however, but little silver. Seven million
ounces per annum will cover all the
by-product from copper and lead in
Montana at the present time. Silver
produced in this way is very expensive,
as it must necessarily go through sev
oral treatments before it gets into fine
bars. With silver at a low figure it
does not more than pay for treatment
when it is produced with copper,
I could give a thousand more res¬
sons why this country should have
free silver coinage at a ratio of 16 to 1,
but my letter has grown longer than I
at first intended it should be.
The things mentioned are matters of
history, some of them unwritten, it is
true, but nevertheless truths that will
remain with us forever.
With every wish for your success in
the great cause you have so nobiv es
poused, I have the honor to be, very
truly veors.
JOSEPH K. CLAJRK.
-
Banks of issue are a violation of the
:rfferson doctrine.
ALLEN’S RESOLUTION.
Detailed Vote of Its Passage by the
Senate.
Washington, Special: The adoption
of Senator Allen’s motion for the free
coinage of silver at 16 to 1 in view
of the expected war over Venezuela
passed by a vote of 36 to 24.
The following is the vote:
For Silver.
Allen, Mantle,
Bacon, Mitchell (Ore.),
Baker, Morg
Bate, Nelson,
Berry, Pasco,
Blackburn, Peffer,
Butler, Perkins,
Call, Pritchard, Pettigrew,
Carter, I.
,C"' '. 1 ’ f>v, t
w
Clark, Stewart,
Cockrell, Teller,
Dubois, Tillman,
Gibson, Vest,
Harris, - Voorhees,
Jones (Ark.), Walthall,
Jones (Nev.), Warren,
Kyle, Wilson—36.
Against Silver.
Allison, Martin,
Brice, Mills,
Burrows, Mitchell (Wis.),
Caffery, Morrill,
Cameron, Platt,
Chandler, Proctor,
Gallinger, Quay,
Gorman, Sewell,
Hale, Sherman,
Hawley, Smith,
Lodge, Thurston,
McMillan, Wetmore—24.
Political Freedom.
In the United States senate, March
4, 1881, in reply to the attack made by
Senator Hill, of Georgia, on Senator Ma
hone, of Virginia, because Mahone had
“left the Democratic party,” United*
States Senator John A. Logan said:
“I was a Democrat once, too, and I
had a right to change my opinions, and
I did change them. The man who will
not change his opinions when he is
honestly convinced that he was in error
is a man who Is not entitled to the
respect of men;” and then, turning to
Senator Hill, he added: “If a man hap¬
pens to differ with you, tyranny of poli¬
tical opinion in your section of the
country is such that you undertake to
lash him upon the world and try to
expose him to the gaze of the public as
a man unfaithful to his trust. We have
no such tyranny of opinion in the coun¬
try where I live; and it will be better
for your section when such notions are
driven to the shades and retired from
the action of your people.”
Yet, in the face of these brave words,
a Kansas Republican legislature
changed the name of St. John county to
Logan, for the sole reason that ex-Gov
ernor St. John had “left the party.”—
Agitator.
War Proclaimed.
War was proclaimed in August, 1894,
against protection and governmental
favoritism in the tariff; a fight to the
bitter end.
Mr. Cleveland proclaimed it
He also announced his own enlist¬
ment as a private in the army of at¬
tack. We quote his energetic words of
August 28. 1894:
“I take my place with the rank and
file of the democratic party who believe
in tariff reform and know what it is
and refuse to accept the result embod¬
ied in this bill as the close of the war.”
This volunteer took his place in the
ranks, but where is he now? He has
run away!
Has he sent a substitute? If so.
who is* that substitute? Has he fled
also?—New York Sun.
If the voters of this generation had
the spirit of the men of 1776 there
would be a shaking up of old dry
among the politieiuas of today.
PATERNALISM.
THE GOVERNMENT PATERNAL¬
ISTIC TO SOLDIERS.
Givlng to Trusts, Banks. Syndicates and
Corporations the Rankest Kind of
Paternalism and Dangreis to the Peo
pie’s Liberties.
The Helena, Montana, News.
Cleveland in his message says he is
opposed to paternalism, He seems to
think that the principals of paternalism
should not be introduced into govern¬
ment. It is true that he does not define
paternalism, and we are somewhat at
a loss to know what he means, but it is
evident that he thinks the government
should do nothing for the people that
they can do for themselves, Our idea
of government is quite different, Gov
ernment is for the benefit of the peo
pie, and when government can do any
thing for the people better than the
people can do for themselves, the peo¬
ple ought to have the government do it.
For instance, the government carries the
mail for the people; it does it far bet¬
ter than private individuals or corpora¬
tions could possibly do. The same can
be said of the public schools; the state
is educating the youth better than their
parents could, that is, more people are
learning to read and cypher than would
be possible under any other system.
Now, if the government can carry our
mails so successfully, why cannot it
carry our freights? Is there any dif¬
ference in principle between carrying
a letter and carrying a heavier pack¬
age? If the government can conduct
our postoffices so satisfactory, why can¬
not It conduct our telegraph offices as
satisfactory to the people? And why
not our telephone lines? We pay mil¬
lions every year for freight, for tele¬
grams and for telephone service more
than it ought to cost us. At the same
time we are building up colossal for¬
tunes which are used to control politi¬
cal parties and corrupt the people, that
the fellows may continue their plunder¬
ing methods. Is it not time the people
were taking thought to stop these meth¬
ods that have enabled the plutocrats to
plunder them? Of course the plutocrats
will oppose any such move, It is to
their interest to oppose everything of
that sort. Whoever heard of any one
who enjoyed an income without work¬
ing for it, who was willing to give it
up? Hundreds of years ago the gov¬
ernment of England gave pensions to
persons for their votes or influence or
some good they were supposed to have
done the state, and made the pensions
perpetual, descending to their heirs to
the latest generation. Did these heirs,
who lived snugly off pensions paid by
their fellow-citizens, for which they
rendered no service whatever, and for
which no service has been rendered for
hundreds of years, willingly give up
their pensions? Not at all. In many
instances the government bought their
peiWuiis A>r- ar Ima? atct, AiV never
has one of them been patriotic eno%ffi,
of manifested self-respect enough to
say, “I have not earned this money; it
is not mine; I bestow it on the state.”
Privilege and favoritism never let go
what they get possession of, no matter
how unjustly they hold it, or how un¬
fair to others may be their possession.
The government, so far as the army
is concerned, is a rankly paternal one.
It clothes, feeds, pensions and buries its
soldiers. It provides supplies for its
officers, which they may purchase at
an advance of 10 per cent over the
cost price, not including freight. It
provides butcher shops where they can
purchase meats, etc., on the same terms.
The president of the United States, by
virtue of being commander-in-chief of
the army, Is entitled to the privilege
of purchasing army stores, provisions,
groceries, butcher meats, etc,, and every
president uses that privilege. Nearly
everything that is furnisheu tile White
House comes .from the quartermaster
or commissary department of the army.
Yet we And the same president, who
uses the supplies the army furnishes in
his own house, a privilege denied to
any other civil officer or citizen, is op¬
posed to paternalism. He has a privi¬
lege that saves him a heap of money
every year, but he is not willing that
it should be shared by his fellow-citi
zen. It is not paternalism for him to
have such a privilege, but it would be
the grossest paternalism for any other
citizen to have such privilege. If the
government can furnish hay, grain,
flour, provisions, groceries, butcher
meats, kerosene, harness, horses, mules,
cattle, whisky, brandy, wine and beer
to men connected with the army to
better advantage than the users could
procure them of private parties, why
could it not furnish the same things to
citizens? Let Mr. Cleveland and his
anti-paternalistic supporters answer
this before condemning paternalism.
The government does more for the
soldier. It takes his money and keeps
it as safely as savings bank could and
pays him interest upon it. Why can
it not do the same thing for the peo¬
ple? It receives deposits from the sol¬
diers and there is no loss: why can it
not receive deposits from the citizens?
Will some anti-paternalist explain?
It is all right for favored persons to re¬
ceive privileges from government, but
all wrong for others to do so. The
fat hog is to be cared for; the lean must
‘root or die.”
But the government does other acts
of paternalism. Each senator and mem¬
ber of congress gets $125 a vear in ad
dition to his salary for stationery, etc.
Many of them draw this allowance in
money and then bunco the government
out of the stationery they use by steal
ing from the allowance made to com
mittees. and in other “wavs that are
dark.” Both the senate and the house
of representatives have stores where
members can purchase stationery and
almost everything else. After exhaus;
ing their $125 allowance they get as
much more as they please, and it is
taken out of their salaries when final
settlement is made. Why should the
congress provide stores where congress¬
men can purchase at cost what they
need, and refuse the eime privilege to
other office-holders and ordinary citi
zens? Can the opponents of paternal
ism tell us? No; and no one will at
t em pt t h e task; but they will yell loud
an( j long against paternalism, just the
same. If all had the same privilege,
then the privilege which the army and
congressmen enjoy would not be a
privilege, and there would be
“Naething to ken them by
Fra ony unregenerate heathen
Like you and I.”
Paternalism! Paternalism!! Paternal¬
ism!!! is yelled and yelled until our
ears are deafened, when the people
want thg government to help them; but
when it is helping the office-holdeV, or
the army officer, or-the contractor, or
worse still, the banker, bondholder and
all-around thief, then the men who do
the yelling are as mum as oysters. It
is time the people were to do a little
yelling for themselves,
THE LATEST GOLD PLOT.
Only a “Stage Play” to Secure More
Ponds and Taxes.
The final move in the latest gold plot
has been made. The president’s third
message represents the danger that
“threatens” us of losing an adequate
gold reserve and requests that congress
do not adjourn until it shall have passed
remedial financial legislation. *
Mr. Cleveland desires to fasten more
firmly upon this country the rule of
gold monometallism. His motive in
this determination need not be specula¬
ted upon in this discussion. The friends
of free silver, however, see a double
meaning in each step which the presi¬
dent has taken since congress met.
His general message was Mr. Cleve¬
land’s first card. He pointed out that
financial legislation was needed. He
referred to the alleged absurdity of the
silver craze, dismissing the claims of
free coinage without argument. All
his talk was of gold, and his message
was plainly a suggestion for another
bond issue.
For some inscrutable reason Mr. Car¬
lisle’s supplement to the president’s
message was delayed. Was this a piay
for effect? Mr. Carlise came out boldly
and said what Mr. Cleveland had hint¬
ed. Bonds, bonds, gold and bonds wa3
the burden of his song.
Then the “war message” was sprung.
The hallowed shade of Monroe was
called up and set to the ignoble task
of tail-twisting for political effect. The
ever-ready patriotism of the American
people was roused, perhaps to a point
upon which Mr. Cleveland had not
calculated. There was much “war
talk” and securities in Wail street took
a great slump under the hammer of
Lombard stret. The Rothschilds con¬
ferred with other barons of London in
one of those ostensibly “secret” meet¬
ings. Immediately the representatives
in Wall street of British money lenders
announced tjjieir AvJb'.dAW'j, of with¬
drawing several millions of gold from
the treasury.
On the gold basis things looked a lit¬
tle squally. While the country was in
the throes of excitement, and those who
fall down before the gold fetich were
anxiously watching the fading reserve,
came the president’s third message ad¬
vocating prompt action by congress to
maintain the gold reserve. Close upon
its heels followed the inspired story
that a deep, dark British plot has been
hatched to rob us of our credit through
the reduction of our much-talked-of
reserve. Then it was given out from
the cabinet that the president favors
the issuance of a billion dollars of gold
bonds. England could never drain
such a reserve as that—never! never!
She could not, but the burden of a colos¬
sal debt would have been fastened on
us.
Will congress respond to the Grover
ian command? Not if the vote in the
senate on the coinage resolution and
the sentiments of senators be any indi¬
cation. There is a remedy and the sen¬
ate has seen it and consented to exam¬
ine it. It is the free coinage of gold
and silver. The passage of a free coin¬
age law by the United States would cre¬
ate more real consternation in England
than a declaration of war.—St. Louis
Chronicle.
A Great Scheme.
Cleveland promised the Rothschild
gang of speculators that he would prove
to them that the American people were
the most obedient and most devoted lot
of slaves that ever lived.
That American securities based on
the life and the blood of American citi¬
zens were the best investments in the
world.
That one little word would fire the
American heart with every inspiration
of patriotic honor and that he could
make fools of ten million American vot¬
ers with a message just prepared on
purpose to depress the values of Amer¬
ican securities and at the same time
give additional evidence of their value
to investors.
The result has been all that he prom¬
ised—all that any one could ask.
There is no longer any doubt that
the average American would rejoice at
the opportunity to starve while helping
to pay the interest on bonds and mort¬
gages held by British speculators.
It was a grand scheme to create a
panic and depress prices by alarming
the small holders while those who un¬
derstood the trick were assured of the
val * e of these securities ... and took them
ail in at low figures.
Cleveland, under the pretense of an
official patriotic act, made not less than
$300,000,000 in one week for the worst
enemies to America that there are on
earth.—Express.
Don’t let the war talk side-track the
currency question. We can whip Eng
land s soldiers with our guns and her
capitalists with our votes all at the
same time. _