The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-07-31

and Italy run as high as $5.25 per week,
while the same wages paid In the United
States average $14. And yet with the ex-
ception of France, everyone of the coun-
tries mentioned above are tenfold more
gold countries" than the United States
was up to 1891.
The average wages paid shoemakers in
Great Britain, France, Belgium, Ger
many and Italy, was about $500 per
week, while the average wages paid in the
United States is about $14, and yet there
is not "a silver country" mentioned in
the above schedule.
The average wages paid to carpenters
In the five foreign countries mentioned
above reaches the princely sum of $3.50
per week, while that of the United States
has uniformly been an average of $12
during the last ten years.
The average wages paid to brick mas
ons in the five foreign gold standard
countries" named above, scarcely exceeds
IS per week, while it reaches nearly $14
a week in the United States. Even the
average wages of the plumber in these
five foreign gold standard" countries do
not reach IS week, in spite of the aver
age Of SIS week in the United States.
Tatlors average $4.75 week in these for
eign gold standard countries, as against
$13 a week in the United States.
A comparison of the average scale of
wages paid in New England and Great
Britain, payments being made by the
week for the following skilled labor, are
represented by the following figures:
Bootmakers in England $12; in Great Brit
ain $3.50. Carpenters $3.50, and $780,
Wheelwrights $14.25 against SIS. Cloth
ing manufacturers $1,000 against $3.50.
Glass workers Sits against $725; ma
chinists $12, against $7.25. Metal workers
$11.75 against 1925. Shipbuilders $21
against $8.25,-the larger wages referring
to New England and the lower wages to
old England.
What deduction is to be made from the
foregoing statement? Simply that the
charges which the editor of the Tribune
makes against the condition of affairs in
Mexico, is attributable to the fact that
the country is upon "silver basis" If
that were true then the converse Of the
proposition would necessarily follow that
countries upon "a gold basis should be in
condition greatly exceeding that of the
laborers Of Mexico. The statistical in
fbrmation given above absolutely dis
proves such proposition and consequent
ly disproves the charge against the "sil-
yer basis of Mexico"
The Mexican minister, speaking on
this subject says: Even though
the wages of the common laborer
such as field hands of Mexico
do not range above so cents day, and
that Of coast hands above $3.50 a day,
| nevertheless the products from these men
costs more when in the market than the
product of an American who produces five
times more. The topography of Mexico is
such that until the building of the Mex
lean Central Railroad, about fifteen years
ago, the transportation OF product from
one point to another was rendered al
most impossible.
"The condition of climate, and inabil-
| ity to exchange products, and commingle
with neighbors, have rendered the pro-
duct of the Mexican people vastly inferior
in value to that of the people of the
United States, placing such ratio in the
relation of at least one to three"
The conclusion then must inevitably
| be, to the mind of every candid man, that
the causes which have kept Mexico down
are those which relate to her climate, her
topography and her inability to transport
| her products to market, and is in no way
! chargeable to her monetary condition. In
| fact, since silver was actually demone-
| tized in the United States, as shown by
| a recent article by the Mexican minister
and printed in these columns, Mexico has
| actually improved on account of the fact
| that she is upon silver basis.
| The foregoing facts fully demonstrate
| how unfair are the arguments of every
editor who has taken up the cause of the
"gold-bugs" in the United States, and to
what resorts they are put for arguments
against the bimetallic propositions of the
| silver men of this country.
Is the fact that, by "hook or crook" the
United States continued to be upon a BIZ
metallic basis, from 1878, after the pass
age of the Bland-Allison bill, down to
1890, when the goldites began to take ad-
vantage of the law which permitted them
| to make their contracts payable In
| gold" thereby practically demonetizng
silver for all purposes, is attributable the
magnificent prosperity of this country
which intervenes between the passage Of
the Bland-Allison bill and the twelve OF
thirteen years which followed.
But we are now reaping the full benefit
of "a single gold standard" There is nc
more doubt that this country will be re-
duced to the same condition of France
Germany, Italy, Belgium and Great Brit
ain, within the next ten years, if the gold
| basis shall be as successfully maintained
in this country, as it has been in those
than that the fact shall be accomplished