OCR Text |
Show INTER-MOUNTA- MINING REVIEW. IN MINING REVIEW INTER-MOUNTA- IN And which completely performed its mission is what is termed favorable silvei legislation. The devil, we mean the one employed in the rooms of the American Banker, could not have gotten up a poorer argument, if.the American Banker is honest, and the devil himself could not have inspired a better one if that journals purpose is as dishonest as it to be. Western Mining Record. Devoted to tlie Minins and Smeltin'? Interests of the Inter Mountain West. 1VBLISIIED Weekly By MILLER & IIYSLOP, 2(Xi S.West Temple. ALEX. IIYSLOP, Editor and Manager. " : ; Dooly Building. ap-pea- " TERMS: (Payable in Advance,) one Year Months Three Months l.oo siX To 50 .... foreign countries except Mexico and Canada, $3 per year, postage prepaid. Entered at th? Salt Lake City Postoffice as second-clas- s matter. San Francisco Office: 64 and 65 Merchants Exchange, where this paper is Advertising contracts can be made with Chicago Office: 76t Monadnock Building. kept on file. Salt 3 E. C. Dake, Agent. Lake City, Utah, Oct. 8, 1896. SILVER LEGISLATION The American Banker, which, as its name would indicate, is a support of the money power that is dominating the nation very much to the nation's detriment, asks why, if favorable legislation would raise the price of silver, the Sherman act did not have that Then it proceeds that under the stimulus of that act : effect. staunch The price went to an average of $1.04 in 1890. But this price was not long maintained. Despite the immense absorption of silver by the Treasury under this act, the pries of silver suffered an unchecked decline after this upward movement. In 1892 it had fallen to 87 cents. The purpose of the American Banker in putting out such an argument against the silver cause is, perhaps, just as well served as it would have been had there been any analogy between favorable silver legis-tio- n and the Sherman act. No one interested in the silver side of the question ever supported the Sherman act on the grounds that it was favorable legislation. No one opposed its repeal on the grounds that it was favorable to silver. The Sherman act was an atrocity concfinancial not for the purpose of favoring silver but further discrediting it by making it appear to the uninformed public that the government was buying silver for no other purpose but to furnish a market for the output of the silver mines. It is needless to say that its object was accomplished, and to the obloquy that attaches to Sherman for the crime of 73 has to be added the conception of the Sherman act. The act was never regarded as favorable by those supposedly selfish men, the silver mine owners, nor by the bulk of the western people who, while they may not be up to the three-ba- ll financiering of Wall street, are thoroughly educated in what constitutes money. It was predicted on every hand that silver would not be benefitted or its production stimulated by the purchasing clause, and they were utterly surprised when a few months later the price advanced, the cause of which they were ignorant of at the time. Later events proved how true had been their prophecies that the price could not be maintained by such legislation. Tne government was buying the bullion but it was putting it to no use, was not coining it md rehabilitating it with the power of money. The reaction came in decisive form the following year, and silver commanded a price that was set solely by the demands. During the continuance of the purchasing clause the whole nation, east and west, became afflicted by a uioral nausea at the purchasing and piling up of silver by the government and no use being made of it. The mettle needed the stamp of toe government to make it money and. that was witheld, and the silver was not more securely removed from the uses of man in its native fastnesses from which it was obtained than it was in the possession of the government, and the government continuing to purchase what it did not intend to use created such an opposition to the silver question that the uninformed people of the east are many of them even yet This is what was wanted jtugered at the bare mention of the question. those who desired to enhance the value of money by reducing its quantity, and this is what the American Banker refers to as favorable Nation, Legislation that was calculated to discredit silver, and eived by John Sherman, for the express purpose of . rs The only legislation that will advance the price of silver is such as will make it money having all the attributes of money. This will advance it beyond the power of any other agency to keep it down, and until this is granted it will keep its present low figures as will also every product of the field, the factory or the mine. THE BINGHAM GOLD BELT. Bingham, the Old Reliable is to be congratulated on the consummation of the big deal whereby the Highland Boy in Carr Fork, and nine adjoining claims have passed to a syndicate of which Samuel Newhouse, of Colorado, is at the head. The Highland Boy group is located on the very widest part Gf that immense zone of oxidized iron, containing gold in good quantities, that extends from Butterfield can- yon on the south to where the Cquirrh range loses itself in the bosom of the lake. On if are located the Stewart No. 1 and Stewart No. 2 mines both of .which have pounded on the ores of the belt since 1879, and have realeased hundreds of thousands of dollars fiom their hiding places in the mountain. It is not believed among the experienced miners at Bingham that the true depth of the gold belt, where the Highland Boy and the Stewart mines are located, has yet been demonstrated. It is known that the workings of the Stewarts can be more easily reckoned in miles than in feet, but limits have not yet been defined, and the only knowledge that is possessed is that the ore exceeds in width any ore body ever uncovered in Utah. Its average values too have been remarkably high. The Stewart mills for years rarely handling oies of a lesser value than $20 per ton, but their plants were free milling and the percentage of loss was high. The Highland Boy and the Stewarts have taken out ores of remarkable richness, running high in gold, that have been sent direct to the smelter, and inasmuch as the workings so far have been near the surface it may be safely assumed that as greater depth is attained the values will increase. Mr. Thomas Weir of this city, who while in charge of the A. Y. and Minnie mines at Leadville and the Granite Mountain, built up for himself an enviable reputation as a mine manager, will have active control of.the energetic campaign of development that the purchasers have decided upon for the Highland Boy. A working tunnel 7oo feet long is to be driven into the'ore bodies and will tap the vein at a depth of 500 feet. Just what combination of processes will be used in treating the ores has not been decided upon in its details, but as the ores are in part free milling a combination plant comprehending the cyanide process is probable. The success of the enterprise will mean more for Bingham than at first sight appears. It will be equal to the opeding up of a new district rich in minerals, for the belt has been traced over many miles every foot of which has been prospected and assayed and the values determined, and if the Highland Boy purchasers shall hit upon a method that will save the values the Bingham gold belt will be attracting as much attention as that of Mercur or Cripple Creek. WHAT MAKES GOOD TIMES ? Under the above caption the New York Financial Record , one of the very few pronounced silver papers of that gold bug center, in its issue of September 23rd, was the following : The Treasury report of our imports and exports for August, and for the eight months of 1S95 and 1896, showing a reversal in balance of trade, gives opportunity to emphasize the point that it is a question of fair prices or low prices for products that make good times or hard times. That is all there is in it When producers make money everybody mikes money. It is good times. When producers make no money, no one, except the few who live on disaster, can prosper. It is hard times. For August, 1S95, our domestic exports were S54,S21,159, against imports |