Show silver question in the december number of the mining congress journal W mont ferry president ot of the silver king coalition mines company writes as follows within the last lew few years a good deal ol of investigation has been made by those interested intel ested ot of the fro bo called silver question with a view of debei mining not only t the h e present but the future status ot of the white metal slid and the practical effect of this his status upon silver mining operations these investigations have resulted in i the he accumulation of a vast amount of information which while not act entirely convincing Is nevertheless of great importance not only to the silver mining industry but to other and larger interests as well it should be remembered that silver bliver Is not a mere commodity it Is as well a money metal used by hundreds of millions ot of people from time immemorial therefore There Ther toro eforo the same methods ot of investigation argument and conclusion that apply to commodities will not work when applied to silver furthermore tile the tact fact that silver Is practically indestructible adds an additional complication to the subject having the foregoing in mind it Is obvious that a consideration ot of this pe perplexing question leads the investigator ir nto into fields where angels fear to tread these brief comments will be confined to the situation in which the silver miner finds himself in the present days of it low market price for his silver and high costs of production in the production of the metal the silver miner as such finds himself less important than used to be the case bowl now ho he produces about one third of the annual production of sliver silver while copper miners produce another third and the various arlous combinations of lead zinc miners account for the remainder the copper miner and the lead and zinc anc miner produce silver more or less as i byproduct by P product and may it if they choose harge charge all of their costs against the base metals regarding their receipts from the sale of silver as velvet on the other hand the silver miner must charge all of it his expenses to sliver silver alone and at ane present market tor for his product he Is indeed facing a serious situation it does not seem likely that any material increase in the market price of the white whit c metal can be anticipated in the imin immediate eulate future on the other hand it does not appear to be probable that I 1 any material maternal mat erfal reduction in price need be I 1 feared alms last opinion Is expressed with hesitation A number of i ed blo blows havo have fallen on silver within the aalt last two or three years ana it Is of course possible that other unexpected blows may follow silver has withstood the these a blows in a manner that Is little short of being marvelous and me market ha hag s stabilized itself in a comparatively short time it Is not to feel that the present market price will prevail in the immediate future with a tendency toward a higher level the sits aits and industries are consuming more and more silver an intelligent and persistent effort is being made to in cr creaso L me that consumption but silver after all 11 Is essentially a money metal and 60 per cent of its annual production finds its way into the channels of business as money both primary and subsidiary it Is after all the hope and belief that more mor 0 r silver liver will be used as money that ca causes es many to believe in the future of the white metal economists and financiers of international reputation have expressed a conviction that the economic b burden u aden upon gold was becoming unbearable ab le and that some time in the not too distant future an international conference would give this matter serious consideration 0 n bl BI Is dead at least Isider tor for the present but it Is entirely probable abl that tha ir sliver ver may be called upon to 1 play 1 I an honorable part in the financial systems of civilization |