The Dickinson press., 1896-10-10
IN A SILVER COUNTRY
Condition of the Laborer and
Business in a Land Where
Free Coinage Exists
WHAT THE MExIcANS SAY.

WHAT THE MEXlCANS SAY.
A Representative Of the St Louis
Globe Democrat Tells What
He Saw.
Since the frec-silver people began to
point to Mexico as IN ideal country
where the free coinage of silver had
made everyone happy, contented and pros
porous, there has been much written by
men who had lived there and others.
The reports. which were not flattering
to the country, were denied by the sill
yer advocates and branded as lies. The
silverites stoutly maintained that If Ia
Dor was as we'll employed here as in
Mexico the great question of what to do
with the poor would be solved as there
would be no poor. They c!aimed that
In that country there was no Wall street;
that food, clothing and the necessities
of life were cheaper; that the nation
was prospecting as it ever had before,
and al IN account of the free coinage
of silver.
The st. Louis Globe Democrat, wish
ing to be just in the matter, decided
to send a representative there who would
report what he saw and learned, with
out regard as to how the reports would
affect the political situation. The man
was one on whom the paper could de-
pend to tell the truth.
Extracts from some of the letters
which throw some light on the subject
of free silver and its effects are printed
below:
Prices Depend on Foreign Exchange.
Pirates on the high seas could hard
ly be u more dangerous menace to COM
merce between nations than this fuctua-
ton of exchange between countries on
different standards. Outside of a few
money-changcrs at coast ports, business
men of the states hardly notice from
week to week the variations in exchange
between their country and Europe. But
United States and Mexico the changing
difference between the standards is q
matter Of hourly concern.
whats exchange toduy?" goes with
every mornings salutatiOn between MGR
chants in Monterey.
"Silvcr's up" or 'silver's down" is the
commercial news of first Importance.
ihe suaSWu representative OF Il san
Antonio (Tex.) jobbing house on his way
back to the states from his midsummer
round of the cities of Mexico said:
Here's q variation of DC between the
gold standard of the states and the silver
standard of Mexico within two weeks.
How is a man going to sell goods or do
any, business between the countries when
fluctuations. When l sell a bill of goods
to a Mexican merchant on six months
time I've got to figure the prices high
enough to save my house in the event
that silver drops by one of those violent
fluctuations before the day of settlement
comes. The merchant has got to mark
to protect him against possible change.
And so American goods must be sold in
Mexico at two margins above legitimate
profits in order to protect the American
5obber and the Mexican storekecpcr
against these rapid up and down move
m!ents Of the standards. The condition
=. simply ruinous to trade. People will
not buy when prices are raised on them.
My house may make a tremendous profit
OF barely save itself in a sale of goods on
six months time. That isn't the way to
DO business. You might as we'll have a
Chinese wall between two countries as
these fluctuations. And this is what we
the United States goes to a silver rl stand.
ard and Great Britain and the European
nations continue the gold standard. I
know what this thing of two standards
means betweens Mexico and the States,
and I don't want to see it in our trade
with Great Britain and Europe"
A Dollars Worth Of Labor.
A dollar worth so cents commands the
same labor in Mexico now that a dollar
worth e dollar did ten or twenty years
which prosperity in this silver country is
building. That is what makes it now
profitable to work mines with ores worth
~ and ~, Mexican money, a ton. That
condition of labor brings the cost of min
Ing and carrying out the ore down to 81
a tor. That kind of labor built and
operates the cables, which take the place
ton Of the cost for like construction and
operation in the States. Cables have re-
duced the cost of conveying ore from the
min to the railroad, two miles down the
mountain, to 20 cents and 30 cents a ton.
This labor enables railroads to haul ores
at from 81 cents to 81 a ton. 1t figures
IN the cost of the transportation Of the
coke from the gulf and the coal from the
border. And, finally, it enables the
smefters to make an unprecedcntedly low
rate of 81 a ton for treatment Of orc.
It every step, from the first blow Of
the pick in the mine to the landing of the
base bullion into molds ut the furnace,
dollar deprecated to one-half its value is
the chief factor which insures the profit.
What matters it if silver goes down IF +
commands just as much labor as ever.
n If the lead in the bullion can still
be sold for gold? The smelters of Mexi.
co Duy ore from the mine owners, and
pay q Mexican dollar an ounce for the
silver they get out of it. They paid this
several years ago, when silver was worth
more than it is now. They still nav Il
Recently, under the importation Of com
petition. while silver was dropping 50
rapidly in the United States, some of
price they allowed the min owners for
silver. They are now paying under some
contracts $1.06 in Mexican money for
every ounce of silver found in the orc
Today the brickrmaking plant a few
miles u of Monterey, on the Mineral
railroad,. is shipping 100000 paving brick
t San Antonio; in Texas. 1t does this
cent, which the Wilson tariff aqif G ley 10 per @n
brick importations. The contract for
this brick shipment was obtained ~
San Antonio because this mt
IN the lowest and best of twenty.eirht
bids. The Monterey company eniovs
the possession Of excellent clay, but thnt
isn't what enables it to send brick to the
United States at a profit. It outbid The
tw~entyseven American brick-makine
companies because it sells brick for
American money, worth 100 cents in
gold, and hires good labor for Mexican
money, worth so cents in gold. This
company u paving three miles Of Monte.
reg. streets with brick, d~isplscine tSe
cobblestones OF time immemoriai. IN
out down q block Of the brick paving a.
m object lesson, and the governor. Cen
Bernardo Reyes, with a keen perception
for . good thing, ordered three miles Of
re sane to begin with. The brick man.
EaTqs and laid BY the same will cost IN
Mexican money . little less than tho