The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1896-07-17
WHAT FREE SILVER TEAMS.

ard They tell about it's prosperity
and how it has marched right along
in the line of progress and never felt
any hard times. There is probably
some truth in this last assertion in
the fact that things and conditions
are so much worse, there that they
could not we'll drop to a much lower
level. DR.. Frances e. Clark, presi-
dent of the Society of Christian En-
deavor, who has just recently returned
from an extended trip through Mexico
in the interest of his society writes
the New York INDEPENDENT on the con-
ditions he found there religiously and
socially, and touches slightly upon
the country from material point of
view. He says there is "no denying
the fact that Mexico. is prosperous,
considered from the point of view of
her past history" and that the MeXi-
can papers ascribe this prosperity
largely to the free coinage of silver.
He then says: .l.
But free silver, after all, does not
make terrestrial paradise in every
respect. The traveller is reminded Of
that in many ways. The Mexican
cart-wheel dollar melts away in sur
prising fashion when it comes to buy
ing what an American considers the
necessaries of life. For instance,
when the colored porter of the Pull
man buffet car brings you the bill Of
fare it almost takes away your breath
to see the prices charged for the vari-
Gus comestibles. For instance, two
boiled eggs cost thirty cents, while
three may be obtained for the moder-
ate sum of forty cents. Bread and
butter is twenty cents, cup of tea
or coffee costs the same price, while a
sandW ich may be had for no less! OF
course the eye of a BostOnian would
seek the price of the succulent and
nutritious baked bean, and he is sur
prised to find that it requires forty
cent0voS (cents) to pay for the dish for
which his municipality is famed. A
small bottle of ApolinariS water costs
fifty cents, and other things are in
proportion.
Desiring a light lunch on one oc-
casion in the City of Mexico, bought
a small package of sweet biscuit,
about half pound in all, which
might have cost fifteen cents in
America; and was surprised that
my bill amounted to eighty-seven
cents.
cit should be remarked, however,
that if one is content to live in MeXi-
can style, prices are not eXOrbitant.
A good room in the best Mexican hotels
for one or two people can be had for
from one to four dollars day (Mexi-
CAM, and board (if you Can stand the
eXecrable cooking of the country is
from one to two dollars more.
"The silver of prosperous Mexico
has not as yet found it's way to any
great extent into the pockets of the
poor people. Wages are evidently on
the highest sort of a gold basis. A
number of my friends told me that
they pay their cooks about five dollars
a month, about one-quarter the price
of such labor in the States. In the
country districts an able-bodied man
earns six dollars (MeXican) a month
(three dollars Americana and his
board: while fair days wage in city
or country for laboring man is fifty
cents (Mexican).
Nowhere are beggars more numer-
Gus, or SqualOr and wretchedness more
in evidence than in prosperous Mexico.
The railway stations are thronged
with almost naked children, holding
out grimy hands, while their pitiful
and monotonous wall "Centavos" +,
"CentaU0s", reminds one of the "Back-
sheesh," "Backsheesh," of Egypt and
Syria. Indeed the condition of the
common people seems not one whit
better than that of gthe fellahin of
Egypt or the pariahs. of India.
Sin many respects, the condition of
these widely separated ones is strik-
ingly similar. They live in the same
kind Of mud houses. They are clad
in similar fluttering, picturesque rags
except the rags OF Mexico seem a
little more ragged than those of the
East. Their feet are Shod with the
same kind of sandal, a fiat piece of
rough leather, bound on with leather
thong. There is one difference how
ever, the red feZ of Egypt and the
white turban of India, in Mexico give
way to the great Sombrero on which
every Mexican who has a spark of
selg-respect prides himself"
The picture is not pleasant one
1t is not the kind of prosperity
which the intelligent Ameri-
can wage-earner desires, yet it is the
condition of things which the Pop
anarchistic, silver recommendation 16
to declaration at Chicago, in it's full
fruitage would bring about. Mexico
compared with past conditions may
be more prosperous on her free silver
basis today than ever, but it is not
the kind nor high order of prosperity
which the United States enjoyed pre-
vious to the present hard times, and
it means virtual slavery to the masses
and ease and culture only TO the
favored few.