Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1896-08-20
tcoNrrEUEp.]
FREE SlLVER'S EVILS
Startling Evidences I'm Colon
bia Of the White Metals
Undesirability.
COST OF LIVING DOUBLE.
United States Minister MoKin-
ney's Great Object Lesson.
THE FACTS ARE UEDIHPUTEn
COST OF LIVING DOUBLE.
THE FACTS ARE UEDIsPUTEp

Il In shown That While Wages Have In
creased Fifty Per Cent, Provisions and
the Necessities of Life Have Gone Up
About Two Hundred Per Cent.-How
Does This Help the Man who Works
for q Living1
The following letter, which eloquently
shows the evils Of free silver, has been re-
ceived from Luther r. Mckinney, United
States Minister to Bogota:
BosoTA, June 17.-As the money ques-
tion seems to be the important question In
the present political contest In the United
States, I thought It might be Of interest
to know what effect silver Legislation has
had upon the people of Colombia
Twenty years ago, In 1875, gold and silver
were coined In the mints Of Colombia,
both being a legal tender for all debts,
and at that time, owing to the scarcity Of
over gold Of about per cent.
About 1880 gold was at premium, be-
cause the imports exceeded the exports,
and as the balance had to be paid In gold
1t required a small premium to get the
gold for the purpose. Up TO 1885 the gov
ernment continued to coin gold and silver,
and at that time gold was at premium
over silver OF about 90 per cent
In 1885 congress passed q law that made
paper money legal tender for all debts,
the paper to be payable in gold or silver
at the option of this government, this
being an attempt to make silver at par
with gold.
Gold 100 Per Cent. Premium.
This was an impossibility, for at once
the gold all went out Of the country and
the government was on silver basis, in
spite of its efforts by legislation TO keep
gold and silver at a parity. From that
time to this there has been no gold In cir
culation In Colombia
The effect of this was TO raise the pre-
MUM on gold from 20 per cent. In 1885 to
100 per cent. In 1905.
At the present time. June IL, exchange
on New York is 40, the price Of exchange
depending wholly upon the number OF
drafts upon the market and the demand
for them As the coffee crop is being
shipped at this time and the merchants
for certain reasons are not importing
largely, the price of exchange is low.
In the department of Panama paper
money is not used, silver being the only
medium of circulation, the result being
that silver in the other departments has
entirely gone out Of circulation, and paper
is the only money used.
II one goes to market In Bogota and Of
fers silver for his dinner IL is refused As
exchange Is lower In Panama than In other
parts Of the country speculstors buy all
the silver they can find vt a premium Of
from s TO 10 per cent. and send 10 10 Pana-
ma and make profit. Now, to show the
effect Of this upon the people Of Colombia
1 will give facts that are well authent1-
Gated.
Prices Soar Upward.
In 1885, when gold was at premium OF
20 per cent, wages of workingmen on the
plains of Bogota were forty cents day,
and In the hot country sixty cents day.
At the present time wages are sixty and
ninety cents respectively, an advance OF
80 per cent. All provisions have increased
in cost about 200 per cent, Meats at that
time were selling for from twelve to If
teen cents per pound. At the present time
they sell for forty and fifty cents
House rents have increased from 100 60
200 per cent. Small tenemenrs, such as
poor people occupy. could be had in 1885
for % a month; now the same tenements
bring $s. In 1884 and 1885 the Protestant
minister Of Bogota occupied q houss for
which he paid so q month; at the present
time the same house brings 300 month
Mean Quality OF Goods
In 1885 table board could be had At the
best hotels for 81 day; now It is - day,
and the proprietors all say there is much
less money In the business than when they
received 81. Wearing apparel has not in
creased in price In proportion to pro-
visions, but this is because the people are
too poor to buy the goods they were In the
habit of wearing before, and the msr-
chants have placed upon the market the
poorest quality Of goods made in Europe
for the market The reason that msr-