The herald., 1895-11-16
GOLD AND SILVER WAGES

Editor Herald:- lit may seom like rid
ing free horse TO death, but the mors
than kind indulgence with which you
treated recent communication If mine
encourages me tn inflict upon your read.
ers refutation of some n iserable sorhis.
tries with which one of your evening
contem poraries OF this date attempts to
challenge the demonstrably accurate
statements made by Secretary Carlisle in
one of his Kentucky speeches.
OF the secretary's statements the fifth
is the main object of attack. and it read,
as follows: There Is not silver stand
ard country in the world today where tie
laboring man receives fair pay for fair
days work. And in common with
Senator Teller and all others who attempt
to magnify the assumed benefits OF a
silver basis. this writer sets up Mexico as
q II odel for com parison with gold an lard
countries. Nitu mar purpose in view
it is good idea. Thanks 10 an infusion
of American enterprise and energy, and
to heavy American and European in
vestments, Mexico is the most prosper
Gus and progressive silver standard
country in the world IN which higher
wages pv far are paid than in any other
For purposes of comparison Mexico Is
pit.ed against Beisium. A ii of Belgium's
resources are excessively developed; IL is
the most densely populated country in
Europe, and as an inevitable consequence
the laborer has a hard time to find en-
pigment and wages are low. Mexico has
almost unlimited undeveloped resources,
vast and allurng fields for the employ
ment OF capital and labor, and there. if
anywhere, wages should have reached a
maximum. 1t would have been more in
structive and falrer to have com pared
Mexico with the United States, her near
est negk Dor. where similar institutions
and conditions prevail, rather than with
remote, monarciiical, deusely populated
and over-developed Belgium.
But the deception-or ignorance?-dId
not end there. The Man ufacturer, a de.
cidedly partisan trade Journal IS quoted
for official figures, based on consular re-
ports, and to convey the impression that
the respective wage rates are adjusted to
exchanged BILE value for American money.
Frederick Emory of the bureau of statis-
tics is quoted as saying: The rates of
wages paid IN the several countries, as
shown in the tabulaied statements, are
given in United States currency" Which
was meant to convey, ana by any persuns
of average intelligence would be under
stood to mean, that the rate, instead of
oeing expressed in francs, thalers, rou-
bles, yen, ETC., was expressed in dollars
and cents, which would require no
change in the case of Mexico.
Minister Romero. in his recent contri-
buttons to the North American Review,
and Professor Moses of our state univer-
sity, in his letters from Mexico to the
Sacramento Record Mon, concur in the
statement that our standard dollar is ex-
changeable in that country for two Next
can dollars, and Senator Teller assures
us that the latter will now pay for just as
mucn there as il wouli thirty years ago.
1t is clear that Mexican wage rates are
expressed in Mexican dollars and cents.
and ttat Belgian rates. adjusted to
gold standard, are expressed in the dol
lars and cents equivalents of Belgium
francs. And this is the way your evening
contemporary submits the com PARIS