The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1895-09-21
DEGRADATION or LABOR.
An Example of the Di~e Effects of the
Cheap Silver Dollar.

4
full and competent observer, must be
making deep impression upon work.
| ingmen who have been told that free
silver coinage would advance wages
and bring on new era of prosperity
in the United States 1t has not been
asserted that free silver has had this
effect in the republic of Mexico, but it
is asserted that its failure is due to the
fact that there is no skilled labor in
that country.
] Those who have visited Mexico know
| tains skilled labor. 1t possesses excel
lent artisans who use the woods, clays
and metals with fine effect in domestic
arts and crafts. Although the labor is
skilled, it is starved. As these letters
show, and as everyone knows who has
lived any length of time across the
border on the south, the most expert
| carpenter mason, cabinetmaker, JONI
err, saddler, silversmith or other toiler
in the higher crafts never rises above
the desperately lowly state in which
he is born. Unlike the American jour
neyman in the trades, he never acquires
a home, He lives on the tortilla and
frijole. His wife and children are clad
in single garment of domestic cotton;
shoeless, with no covering for the head
but the manta, that is also a cloak.
The Judgment of the fsmily is mud
house, with no furniture, with no
place for fire; and, even in the cold,
wet season, with no fire except the
scraps of wood stolen or picked up on
the edge of town.
There is wealth, nevertheless, in
| Mexico There are beautiful houses,
churches, public and private buildings,
designed, constructed and decorated
by native skill. Land and mines con-
stitute the chief source of wealth, and
these are a twin monopoly. The land
lord and mine owner of Mexico is the
despot of the country; his only rival
the thrifty national or state politician.
There is plenty of cheap money in
Mexico. There are eleven minis. They
are kept fairly busy making wealth
exclusively for the mine owners. The
greater part of the silver coinage isex-
ported, most of it going to China. The
government charges nearly AZ per
cent. for seigniorage, and the ratio to
gold, which is coined in small quanti-
ties and below standard fineness, is
16 81 to /. The silver standard is we'll
maintained and paper currency based
on IL is, kept at par. Abundant as is
the annual output of the silver mines,
it does labor no good.
Although Mexico proved too strong
an exporter of silver coin to China for
American competition, Representative
D6olittle, of the state of Washington,
went to the national capital with
fresh suggestion that we go again into
the dubious business of coming Ameri-
can silver for the orientals. Mr.. Doc
little thinks we should make chop"
dollars. The chopdollar, Mr.. Doolittle
says, should contain as much silver as
the plain American dollar, and have
the American eagle on one side and the
Japanese chop on the other" He is
confident that these newfangled dol
lars, although not be redeemable in
gold, will purchase in japan twice as
much as gold dollar will buy in the
United States.
There is nothing novel in this latest
vagary of free silver. Congress pro-
vided in 1873 for coinage of trade dol
lars for the east, The dollar was
slightly more valuable intrinsically
than the Mexican dollar. which it was
expected to supplant. Although not
intended to circulate in the United
States, the fact that the trade dollar
was made legal tender to the amount
of IS so influenced the market that, in
the hope of driving it to its destina-
ton, the legal tender quality was alb
rogated in 1876, and free coinage Of
trade dollars was left to the discretion
of the secretary of the treasury. The
enterprise was a total failure. The
cheaper Mexican dollar continued to
be chopped" The trade dollar coin
age was stopped in 1873 The total
amount coined reached S35 ,965, 9o4.
They were finally reduced to bullion.
A seventh was recoined into standard
dollars, another portion going into
subsidiary coin. The ''cEop" Mr.. Doc
little speaks of is not, as he thinks, a
governmental but a private stamp put
on by eastern banSs or commercial
houses to certify to local currency
face value.
After the experience we had with the
trade dollars, and with Mexico still
minting the inferior dollar for the
oriental countries where labor is even
more miserable than in Mexico, con-
gress is not to be deluded into another
chimericaI free coinage scheme. The
chief lesson for Americans to draw
from the story of Mexico. China, Japan
aud free silver is the degradation of la
Dor. Cheap money means starved labor,
wherever it is. whether skilled or
crude. Chicago Times-Herald.
The Free Silver Disease.
This free silver craze in its develop