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About The Sumpter miner. (Sumpter, Or.) 1899-1905 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 1905)
I X ,,7r, --! - Wednesday, February 8 190$ THE SUMPTER MINER RAPID GROWTH IN SECURITIES SILVER MAINLY A BY-PRODUCT The most cooapiououa fact in the financial development of the past quarter of a century has been tbe growth of tbe "trusteeship of wealth," through tbe oreattou of stocks and bonds. This procesB la still going on. In tbe past four years there has been ueraly 27,000 incorporations in New i'ork, New Jersey, Delaware aud Maine, and iu one year in New York atone tbe in corporations involved a capitaliza tion of over 8700,000,000. Now tbe convernion of all forms of business into stock companies and tbe wholesale oreation of uew HBOuritles are faots of stupendous im portance, but it h very easy indeed to put a. false contsruction upon them. In-1 868 it was estimated that tbe par value of tbe stocks and bonds listed in tbe New York stock ex change amounted to 83,000,000,0 JO. Today the total Ib over 818,000,000, 000 Comparing 1001 with 1808, there has been au increase in stock exchange securities of 000 per cent. In the same time the deposits in all banks of the United States bavo in oreaond about 400 per ceut, (bo population 110 per cent, the wealth 2.M per ceut, money in circulation 24 8 per ceut, and the Inland trade of the oouutry 210 per cent, bank clearings in New York 140 pei ceut, nud foreign commeroe 200 per ceut. It will be observed bow much greater tins been tbe growth of stock ex change securities than tbo money, the deposits, the wealth, tbe com meroe, tbe growth of population of the country. Now, this gives some idoa of the extraordinary oonversluu of all forms of business into corporations. Uusi uesH by individuals and partnerships is rapidly disappearing. Business by compauies is takiug its place. Tbe ownership of theie compMuieH is represented by stools and bonds. This condition gives rise to many new problems, many of them very serious. It has given rim to many iv. 1b, with some of which the country is now grappling. Wealth Is widely diffused, but tbe control of wealth is, through tbe management of cor porations, railway and industrial and banking, concentrating into a com paratively small number. One of tbe evils connected with this development has been the evil cf over capitalization and tbe mar kiting of securities at iuflated prioor. Hut all suub changes ai this iuvolve problems aud result iu evils. It do oft not follow, however, that be ouuue tbe output of securities baa growu more rapidly than tbe increase iu money that there if- auytbing alarming or fundameutnllc defective iu uuy suab condition. Moreover, most of the evils which have devel oped from this chang ire already iu a fiiir way to a.ijustmuut, and the proposal to put the great corpora tions under a system of government publicity au supervision will amply secure tbe people. Meauwbile, an attempt to frighieu the investors of tbe country by a lot of statistics ou which a false ooustructoin Is put will f;i. ' It will fail for the reason that se curities are mainly held by people who know tbe abiurdity of the figures put out to scare them, and for tbe reason that they Uso know tbe char acter and purpose of those who make tbe figures. Wall Street Journal. Silver was first discovered iu Colo rado iu tbe year 1864, on MuClellan mouutuin, Cloar Creek couuty. Much prospecting and considerable devel- i opmout work was prosecuted iu aud J around Ueorgetowu iu 1865-1866. Tbe territory at that time possessed no means of treating silver ores. A few attempts were made to reduce the ores by crude smeltiug furnaces. Iu 1868 abloridizlng aud amalgamation mills were erected and improvements were attempted in tbe smelters. Nothing very satisfactory was accom plished until the erection of the Argo works near Black Hawk in the early 'seventies, by the late Senator N. P. Hill. Tbe total production of silver from tbe Colorado mines prior to 1870 was uot more than 81,000,000, Including the silver alloyed with tbe quartz and placer aold It is stated that Messrs. Gar rett aud Martiue produced the first silver brick made iu Culorado. From 1873 to 1804 tbo commercial value of tbo silver produuod by Colorado exceeded the value of the gold output. The cost of produlcng silver per ounce iu the United States at the preseut time is almost impossible of statemeut. Pruotically all of the silver tuiuod today is, in tho language of oue of tbe largest operators iu tbo state of Colorado, a bv nroduot. Even lu 1887 lota tbau one-half of the silver produced in tbe United States was produced by miues classifiable as silver tniue-j. In that year tbe director of tbo mint addressed enquiries for outputs aud costs of production. Tbe replies elicited tho facts that 17,605,387 ounces were produced by silver mines out of a tutal produotiou of 41,260, 000 ounces, showing that less than 43 per ceut was produood by silver mines. The coat of produotiou at 150 silvor mlues was 52.4 cents au ounce. Three years later, 1800, private enquirios brought out the faot that less tbau oue-tblrd of tbe total output was produced by silver mines proper. Today we question If there are a dozen important mlues which aould keep running from tbe revenues derived from tbe silver con tained in tbe ores. We have become so used to the enormous output of silver from tbe mines of tbo United States that we are prone to forget that tbe indus try is of very modern origin. For example, iu 1807 tbe output of silver from all tbe silver iniuca of tbe United States amounted to the insignificant sum of 800,000. Evuu in 1860, the year aftei tbe disoovery of tbe Cotnttoak, tho output was ouly 8100,000. liut thereafter, tbe output went up by leaps and bounds, culminating in an output of 982, 101,000 (ooluage value) in 1802. Auother sui prise to many people will be tbe preseul enormous output of silver. We are apt to tbiuk of tbe years 1880-1885 as the ora of great silver production anl prosperity, aud of tbe present timo as a period in which silver mining is of little importance. As a matter of faot, tbe number of ounces of silver pro duced in 1003 was nearly twice as great as iu tbe year of 1880. The value of tbe metal per ounce was, of course, very different; yet tho com mercial values of tbe outputs were about tbe same. Popular ideas ou mining subjects are worth very little. Mining Review. Tourist Cars East Many experienced travelers prefer tourist sleeping cars for t h r transcontinental ' journey. The Chicago, Milwaukee ficJSt. Paul Railway can a: range for your trip east in tourist cars, offer you choice of routes and save . you money. H. S. ROWE General ZM 134 Third St., Portland, Ore. BLUE BIRD BUCK HORN VALLEY QUEEN BLACK BUTTE Are the greatest moneymakiog stocks oa tbe mark t today. Investigate them. Write for annual reports and prospectuses WHEELER & CO., BANKERS Dept. 60 32 Broadway. New York. Sole agents for above companies. Denver and Rio Grande Railway HOIFORST.LOUISANDTHEWORLD'SFAIR WILL YOU BE THERE? Q Nature's Art Gallery of the Rockies in addition to the l3CC Attractions at St. LouU. This can only be done by going or returning via the "SCENIC LINE OF THE WORLD." U NRIVALED SCENIC ATTRACTIONS NEQUALED DINING CAR SERVICE NSURPASSED IN EFFORTS TO PLEASE Write for Illuitratcd Booklet of Colorado's FamousSighu and Resorts W. C. McBRIDE, GeneralJAgentJ J24 Third Street PORTLAND OR-GON