Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 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.

go
point to Mexico as an ideal country
where the free coinage of silver had
made everyone happy, contcnted and pros
porous, there has been much written by
men who had lived there and others.
The reports, which were not fattering
to the country, were denied by the sill
yer advocates and branded as lies. The
silverites stoutly maintained that If Ia
Dor was as well employed here ms in
Mexico the great question of what TO do
with the poor would be 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 rs II never had before,
and all on account of the free coinage
of silver.
The 81. Louis Globe Democrat, wish
ing 10 he just in the matter, decided
To send II 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
~ be Il more dangerous mennce Ia COM
mcrcc between nations than this ttuctua-
ton of exchange between countries on
different standards. Outside of n few
m0ney-changers at coast ports, business
men of the states hardly notice from
week to week the variations in exchange
between their country and Europe. But
III the business relations between the
United States aud Mexico the changing
difference between the standards is a
matter of hourly concern.
Whats exchange today" goes with
every mornings salutation between mer-
chants IN Monterey.
"Silver's up" or "~silvcr's down" is the
commercial news of first importance.
The shrewd representative of a San
Antonio CTeS.) jobhing house on his way
back 10 the states from his midsummer
round of~the cities of Mexico said:
Heres a variation Of Sc between the
gold standard of the states and the silver
standard of Mexico within two weeks.
How is n man going To sell goods or do
any business between the countries when
he has got 10 make allowances for such
fluctuations, When | sell n bill of goods
to n Mexican merchant on six months
tim I've got 20 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
the retail prices on a margin sufficient
70 protect him against possible change.
And so American goods must be sold i'm
Mexico at two margins above legitimate
prohts IN order to protect the American
jobbcr and the Mexican storekeeper
against these rapid up and down move
inants 81 ia" tan'l""ds. Tho condition
Is simply rulnous TO trade. People will
not buy when prices are raised ON them.
My house may make Il tremendous profit
or barely save itself in n sale of goods Oh
six months time. That isn't the way to
do business. You might us well have d
Chinese wall between two countries as
these fluctuations And this is what we
VIII have ON q vastly greater scale if
the United States goes tn Il silver stand
ard and Great Britain and the European
nations continue the guild 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.
\ dollar worth 80 cents commands the
same labor IN Mexico now that Il dollar
worth n dollar did ten or twenty years
ago. Right there IL the cornerstone Oh
which prosperity in this silver country is
building, That is what makes it now
profitable to work mines with ores worth
81 and rs, Mexican money, a ton. That
condition of labor brings the cost of min
ing and carrying out the ore down TO 81
q ton. That kind of labor built and
operates the cables. which take the place
OF thousa nds of burro trains, mt n frac-
ton of the cost for like construction and
operation in the States. Gables have re-
duccd the cost of conveying ore from the
mine to the railroad, two miles down the
mountain, to 20 cents and 30 cents n ton.
This labor enables railroads TO haul ores
mt from 30 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
smeltcrs to make an unprecedentedly low
rate of 81 II 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 molds at the furnace,
this hNity of wages on the basis of a
dollar deprecated to One-half its value is
the chief factor which insures the profit.
What matters it if silver goes down if il
Just as much labor as ever,
and II the lead in the bullion can still
he sold for gold? The smelters of Mexi.
co buy ore from the mine owners, and
pay n 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 pay it.
Recently, under the importation of com
petition, while silver was dropping so
t"Aibil III II thlitu ENlultS. Sonic OI
the shelters Of Mexico advanced the
price they allowed the mine owners for
silver. They are now paying under some
contracts S1.06 in Mexican money for
every ounce of silver found in the ore.
Today the matchmaking plant n few
miles out of Monterey. on the Mineral
railroad, is shipping 100 900 paving brick
10 San Antonio. in Texas. Ii does this
and pays the ad valorem duty of % Der
cent, which the Wilson tariff levies on
brick importations. The contract for
this brick shipment was obtained at
San Antonio because this company put
in the lowest and best of twenty-eight
bids. The Monterey company enjoys
the possession of excellent clay, but that
isn't what enables il to send brick to the
United States at a profit. II outbid the
twenty-seven American brick-making
companies because il sells brick for
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
rey streets with brick. displacing the
cobblestones Of time immemorial. 1t
put down a block of the brick paving as
an object lesson, and the governor, Gen.
Bernardo Reyes. with a keen perception
for a good thing. ordered three miles of
the same to begin with. The brick man
ufactured on the basis of unchangina
wages and laid by the same will cost in
Mexican money a little less than the