Show THE AFTERMATH OF THE PITTMAN BILL by letson balliet avas the lit pitman wil really a 1 benefit silver was in san r francisco and 1371 in new york when the bill was introduced introduce d that reduced it to to 1 sin an ounce and held it abere for four years vears while refilling the war cl chest iest Is the aft aftermath erina tit diore expensive to the silver milver mining industry stiv as a whole than tile he benefit Iene fit given gien to to a 1 few letson mining minin engineer and industrial economist says tite the hill bill was a mistake lint it H is iq evident tal that it lie ike figures eliat abat the industry win will not perish if american brains devote energies to meeting the conditions with efficiencies instead of bemoaning tile the fact that the charity n as lie he terms it has ceased I 1 have been asked man many y times by people in the big cities how does silver mining meet the conditions following the ending of the pittman bill how does silver mining Z look now etc and I 1 have been asked by people of the silver min mining ing districts how does it look to investors abid people remote from the mines to all of these questions my answer is the same and it may serve as a food for thought to repeat it the law of ages is written to those that hath shall be given and to those that hath gotshall not shall be taken away even that which they hath this law has never been more clearly ex amplified than in the results of the Pitt mian bril the big producing mines that had silver billion to sell and could produce silver were given a bonus of 35 cents per ounce for their silver such producers were ere thereby given a war profit or a a war price for their pru product duct notwithstanding the increased costs of material labor etc most of these producers could have continued and would have continued to produce silver with an increased struggle 69 ae for economy and less strenuously in other words most of the silver mines did not absolutely need the bonus to keep alive like the man receiving alms many of them thought they needed it and that they get along without it but if they had not had it they would have struggled through canada and mexico and other countries struggled through but the man w who ho has lived easy and extravagantly on liberty alms finds it difficult to come back and earn his own living 6 the causes that led to that bill its merits and demerits are not under discussion now that is all past history we are f face ace to face with the aftermath of a condition that has ceased to exist the result of the silver bill is what concerns us at this time in lily humble opinion the pitman bill was a mistake and a detriment to the ile silver mining industry for several reasons first it stimulated almost every big mine that could produce silver ore to gut the mine and produce all that was possible while the war profit was obtainable second because it 11 stimulated strenuous production and lot 01 efficient chent mining like many other industries the cost was lot considered si dered so long as the war price of the alie commodity was obtainable third 1 l elrd it t killed ed prospecting for silver and new develop ent because every man who was appealed to for funds to barva develop a new mine alne realized that the price P was only y a tempo tay price which would be ended by the time a new mine could leh bebroudt beant into a state of production it was like starting a anut sta n d on a fairground fair r ground when the fair would end before estand stand would be ready for business the pittman man bin bill gutted eted many of the producing nunes mines killed of df r g killed development ant and promotions and left many our ou m aies in with foreign mines ms here sa poor shape to compete tion efficiency 10 and economy had been necessary and in addi that on to tn a 11 ii that it created the impression in the minds of many 0 nus sil 1 ver mining g is is an industry that cannot live without a who benefited the sm shelters smelters elters and owners of producing mines benefited primarily y secondly the mining camp merchants reaped a harvest through increased prices and a a good trade with the miners miners employed in the strenuous effort to produce for there was in an increased number of miners employed in the producing mines with a more than offsetting decrease in employees of new MAN mines and developing properties that would normally have come into production to take the place of the depleted and in in some instances gutted y properties thirdly the miners enjoyed a doubtful or at best a temporary benefit in the increased wages paid to them thein by the big mines in a feverish effort for production this benefit was eventually lost to the miners by the increased prices charged 6 for necessities of life who paid manifestly this bonus directly or indirectly was taken from the people by taxation for although the butcher the baker the t grocer the railroads the power companies and the phone companies paid their taxes they collected the money from those who buy clothing za food etc they have any business if they didn dian t make enough to pay their taxes but that argument is threadbare and the vital question ischo is WHO IS PAYING TG NOW it 0 nr paying the fiddler the 11 1 gutted butted 1 1 mines are reducing b their payrolls maintaining only a few developers to push their workings into new territory but it will be some time before the idle prospects will be able to finance and begin development to employ the men dropper from the payrolls of strenuous producers hence the miners themselves must lose much of their time and the mining camp merchants lose much of the trade they might have had from new development healthy reaction at hand on a hot day in in summer when the thermometer reaches the highest temperature we naturally expect the next day to be cooler and after the coldest day we expect the temperature pera ture to rise rise and so there is a reaction after every peak and depression already interest is beginning 1 to center in mining and although the mercantile business is is in in depression and miners are fewer on the big producers there is a healthy feeling toward financing and reopening the idle prospects that the pittman bill closed down the reaction is slowly starting upward and while it takes time to finance equip and get idle prospects under motion it ali appears pears reasonable that the mining reaction will create a wider range 6 in new properties than ever before the bonus principle the bonus principle is wrong in its conception the biggest mine mine operators admit it though all would take it if they could get it but it seems beyond reason to expect any war bonus will again be applied to industries the question now arises that if silver does not get another r bentt and I 1 predict it will not are we in the united states so lacking in ability brains efficiency or whatever you wish to call it that we cannot produce silver in corn competition petition with mexico canada and south america labor and efficiency I 1 know the price of labor has gone up but with mod ern equipment and efficient methods the cost of labor is less many do not know the difference between PRICE and COST of labor many a boss tries to deceive himself and his board of directors into thinking lie he is an efficient boss kv by taking it out of the pay of his workers instead of saving it out of his efficiencies its an old saying that a poor wor workman kman finds fault with his tools and its just as true that a poor boss lays the blame on his workmen if one boss supplies a man with a shovel and another supplied a man with a teaspoon and each was required to dig a ditch ten feet long the two men might be equally efficient and strong personally but the man with the more efficient shovel would do the most ef effice int work why damn the man with a teaspoon when its the boss fault twenty two and one half men with a shovel equal one horsepower fifty cents an hour for 22 men makes horsepower cost 1125 per hp hour while electric power costs say ac per horsepower horse I power ower hour who is inefficient if you pay 1125 for any number of things you can do for ac efficiency does not come in in at the bottom it filters down from the top and workmen are no more efficient than the boss and no more efficient than they have a chance to b be e with the tools and conditions furnished the pittman bill was vas a charity to owners of big mines mines who need it who would resent it as a slam upon their ability to live without alms it was a charity denied to the coming mines that needed it to put them in shape to furnish metal when the gutting depleted the already producing mines |