The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1896-10-10
IN A SILVER COUNTRY
Condition Of the Laborer and
Business in a Land Where
Free Coinage Exists
WHAT THE MExICANS SAY.
A Representative Of the St Louis
Globe Democrat Tells What
He Saw.

point to Mexico as an 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 hattcriPI
TO the country, were denied by the sil-
yer advocates and branded as lies. The
silvcritcs stoutly maintained that IL la
Dor was as well employed here rs In
Mexico the great question of what to do
with the poor would he solved as there
would be no-poor. They claimed 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 il never had before,
and all on account of the free coinage
of silver.
The St. Louis Globe Democrat wish.
Ing to be just in the matter. decided
TO send Il 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 Il more dangerous menace to COM
merce between nations than this fluctua-
tom of exchange between countries on
different standards. Outside OF few
mnney-Changcrs ut coast ports, business
men of the states hardly notice from
week to week the variations in exchange
between their country and Europe. But
in the business relations between the
United States and Mexico the changing
difference between the standards is
matter of hourly concern.
Whats exchange today?' goes with
every mornings salutation between mer-
chants in Monterey.
"Silvcr's up or "silvers down Is the
commercial news of first importance.
The shrcwd representative of San
Antonio Crcx.l jobhing house on his way
back 10 the states from his midsummer
round of the cities of Mexico said:
Heres a variation of DC between the
gold standard of the states and the silver
standard OF Mexico within two weeks
How is man going TO sell goods or do
any business between the countries when
he has got to make allowances for such
fluctuations. When sell a bill of goods
TO 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 10y one of those violent
fluctuations before the day of settlement
comes. The merchant has got to mark
the retail prices on margin sufficient
10 protect him against possible change.
And so American goods must he sold in
Mexico ut two margins above legitimate
profits in order To protect the American
jobbcr and the Mexican storckeeper
against these rapid UP and down move
mcnts of the standards. The condition
Is simply rninuus to trade. People will
not buy when prices are raised ON them.
My house may make Il tremendous profit
or barely save itself in sale of goods on
six months time That isn't the way to
do business. You might as well have n
Chinese wall between two countries as
these fluctuations. And this is what we
Will have on vastly greater scale IL
the United States goes TO n silver stand
ard AMI Great Britain and the European
nations continue the gold standard. |
know what this thing of two standards
means between Mexico and the States,
and don't want to see it in our trade
with Great Britain and Europe"
a Dollars Worth OF Labor.
a dollar worth 80 cents commands the
same labor in Mexico now that n dollar
worth n dollar did ten or twenty years
ago. Right there is the cornerstone on
which prosperity in this silver country is
building. That is what makes it now
profitable to work mines with ores worth
81 and SIS. Mexican money. ton. That
condition of labor brings the cost of min
ton That kind of labor built and
operates the cables, which take the place
of thousands of burro trains, at Il frac-
ton Of the cost for like construction and
operation in the States. Cables have re-
ducCd the cost of conveying ore from tho
mime to the railroad. two miles down the
mountain, to 20 cents and 80 cents a ton.
This labor enables railroads to haul ores
ut from 30 cents to 81 n ton. 1t figures
in the cost of the transportation of the
coke from the gulf and the coal from the
border. And. finally. il enables the
smcltcrs to make an unpreCcdcntcdly low
rate of 81 ton for treatment of ore.
At every step. from the first blow of
the pick In the mine to the landing of the
base bullion into mods at the furnace.
this hNity of wages on the basis of a
dollar deprecated to one-half its value is
What matters it If silver goes down If il
commands just as much labor as ever
and If the lead in the bullion can still
be sold for gold? The smeltcrs of Mexi.
co buy ore from the mine owners and
pay Mexican dollar an ounce for th,
silver they get out of it. They paid this
several years ago, when silver was worth
more than it is now. They still pay il
Recently. under the importation of com
petition, while silver was dropping So
rapidly in the United States, some ol
the smcltcrs of Mexico advanced IN,
price they allowed the mine owners foI
silver. They are now paying under som,
contracts S1.06 in Mexican money foi
every ounce of silver found in the ore.
Today the brick-making plant a few
miles out of Monterey, on the Mineral
railroad, is shipping 100000 paving brick
to San Antonio, in Texas. II does this
and pays the ad valorem duty of % PEI
cent, which the Wilson tariff levics or
brick importations. The contract fo,
this brick shipment was obtained al
San Antonio because this company mn,
in the lowest and best of twcnty-cicht
bids. The Monterey company enjoys
the possession of excellent clay. but thu,
isn't what enables IL to send brick 10 the
United States at profit. Ii outbid the
twenty seven American brick-makinp
companies because IL sells brick fol
American money. worth 100 cents in
gold. and hires good labor for Mexican
money. worth 30 cents in gold. This
company is paving three miles of Monte.
roy streets with brick. displacing the
cobblestoncs az time immcmorini II
put down block Of the brick paving as
an object lesson. and the governor, Gen.
Bernardo Reyes, with n keen perception