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Show 4 INTER-MOUNTAI- N are all directly traced to carelessness or indifference in handling explosives, and in returning to the face without taking proper precautions to prevent accidents from overhead rock that had been loosened by the blasts. The report shows earnest work throughout on the part of the Commissioner and his assistants, and the necessary reforms to further insure safety in undergronnd mining, are unsparingly pointed out to both mine managers and the MINING REVIEW. much money had been spent here in developing mines as in South Africa? The truth is that, occupying the first place in the world as a gold producer, the mines of the United States have been developed by money actually taken out of the ground itself, and this has been a retarding condition. Utah alone shows a number of instances where our big mines are held by the men who discovered them and were at the time of disminers themselves. covery without means, but who, by putting everything that came out of the holes for years, back into the ground, have brought CONDITION OF THE UNION PACIFIC. them up to their productive positions. The process has been sucGen. Wade Hampton, commissioner of railroads, in his annual cessful but it was tedious, and through the indifference of Amerto the much attention report that has just been submitted, devotes ican capital to mining enterprises the development of Utahs conis Pacific. The of the Union following physical condition mineral resources is twenty-fiv- e years behind. In Europe capital densed from the report: has been not only willing but eager to go into the mines of the I was gratified to note a substantial improvement in the condiTransvaal and the rapid and perfect development of the mines been almost rails have tion of the roadbed on the main lines. Iron there has been the wonder of the mining world. Yet with all in use for rails steel many years these entirely superceded. The light advantages the Transvaal must accord first place to the are Wooden of rails heavier are being replaced by bridges grade. United States as a gold producer, and our position has been looked are and culverts to Ditches iron. carefully giving way attained without the aid of capital. The deduction is that a counafter, and the ballasting greatly improved. More attention seems that can establish and maintain such a record unaided by captry the has been heretofore to be paid to neatness and appearance than ital would certainly pay handsome returns to money that would be the whole has case. The addition of crushed slag greatly improved put into these enterprises. been have division Kansas On the great improvements roadway. made in the way of the construction of additional sidings and the A DUTY ON SILVER. The proposition to place a duty on silver when the new tariff is enlargement of stockyards. The companys contracts are favorable. The railway company receives 50 per cent of the gross earnbeing framed is a beautiful piece of simplicity. It may be that there are some men in both houses of Congress who are opposed ings of the Pacific Express company. to bimetallism who would be magnanimous enough to support such THE ADVANCE IN POWDER. a measure in the interest of the silver miners, but these would be The proposition made by the California Powder company to its shocked at the opposition that would come from the Wesrudely cease the competition rivals in the manuiacture of explosives to tern Senators and Congressmen. It is safe to say that every Westthat has been in force the past six years and advance the price of ern state would such a measure and the owners of silver oppose powder, should not be considered such a hard blow to the mining mines would be leaders in the opposition. The suggestion is so enterprises. It is true that its effect will be to advance the price puerile and so outrageous that it is probably a canard, but if such of explosives, how much can not be said, but on the other hand, it a movement has been seriously considered it shows that its authors has - will insure that miner. The competition greater safety to the are grounded in their belief that the demand from the West for so reduced the cost of powder has been keen and bitter, and has the restoration of silver is based on mire selfishness. That is whv been a dangerous contest in which, sooner or later, the elements of would be shocked when the West woul I scorn their generthey safety would have been sacrificed. Unskilled labor and impure ous protection, and the shock might loosen a few scales so that they can be had for less money than skilled labor and would from their eyes. It would be possible then for the drop pure materials, and it is these that enter the most extensively into East to see that the efforts made by the people of this region to the manufacture of American powder. It is not even suggested have silver as money are in the interests of humanity, recognized that the cost of manufacturing has yet been reduced in this manand can have no more selfishness behind them than they have sener, but it is a fact that the cost price and the market price have ctionalism. The West did not receive the clause of the purchase been so near each other that there is no profit for the manufacturSherman act with open arms, but was sulky over that supposedly with maintained been have not ers. Such a condition could long will not accept a duty on silver, but will opgift. They generous safety. It is recognized that age is the only agent that would give pose suen a measure with all the energy and all the power they evidence of inferior materials in powder, as it produces decomposican bring against it. comtion when any but the. purest ingredients are used, and the That the offer to protect the metal by a sliding tariff duty is not panies might have soon taken the chances, in the anticipation that conceived with the intention of advancing the price is in evidence the infeiior stock would be consumed before decomposition would from the fact that the United States is not a consumer and imset in. Instead of being considered a calamity, the prospective adof silver, but a pro lucer and exporter of the metal. There porter vance should be welcomed, and as it will probably be a small one, is no home market for the product of the silver mines and the only is in it should be accepted cheerfully. Absolute safety economy foreign silver that comes to us is that which comes from Mexico explosives. Low prices do not always signify economy. in the lead ores shipped to American smelters. How would a duty advance the price in the face of n imports. As well attempt to GOLD PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. advance the pi ice on corn, which we produce in abundance, b When Mr. Charles Butters, the eminent mining engineer arrived plac ng a high protective tariff on the grain. in in the in New York from South Africa, he stated an interview The advocates of bimetallism want no nostrums administered New York Herald that No such amount of capital has ever been which will leave the body in vore condition than when it cominvested in mining in Australia or i:i the United States, or in fact menced operations. Their cause is the cause of humanity, amidithe interest of humanity they will see that no efforts to further any where else, as has been invested in the Transvaal, and later on scredit silver will be successful. What they will contend for l,at first he says that The United States holds place as a gold prosilver be recognized as money. To create cheap money, h (,u ducer. A comparison of the two statements natuially lead one to please, so that the farmer can buy a dollar with half the (juantit) ask; What position would mining occupy in the United States had of produce that he now pays for it. nitro-glyceri- the chances been equal, and as ne 111 , |