The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-03-26

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principal. BETTER as Mr.. Evelyn
Hubbard puts it, ga silver debtor who
not. -
THE YELLOW MAN WITH THE
WHITE METAL.
versus
THE WHITE MAN WITH THE
YELLO W METAL.
1t was predicted by Alexander Barring,
and other conservative financiers, that
the effect on England of the demonetiza-
t1on of silver would be the ruin of her
! agriculture, the end of her manufactur-
ing monopoly, and the peril of having
her commercial and financial supremacy
pass to some other nations. These logical
results of her frantic policy were for
years postponed by the maintenance of
Tree coinage of silver in France, and the
absorption by the open mints of India of
| all the surplus silver of the Western ma
lions, and 1t was not till 1874, after
france, Germany and the United States
mad stopped silver coinage, and later,
when the Indian minis We're closed, that
the legitimate consequences of fatal
policy began to show themselves.
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favorable rates of exchange due to silver
decentralization have enabled Argentina
TO compete successfully with us in the
expectation of wheat, now cotton yarn
spinning has been transferred from Lam
cashire to India and the Straits Settle
menG, how railway enterprise and gen
eral manufactures have been timulated
by the silver currency of Mexico, and
how little Japan has sent out her chal-
lenge to western Europe and America to
undersell them in their own markets in
every branch of manufacturing produc-
ton. Now comes this wall from Dundee
in Scotland, hitherto the great center of
the production of jute goods. 1t appears
that with the silver rupee at only Is 3D.,
its present rate, the Calcutta mills can
make the same class of goods for 2 pound,
lbs. Id. per ton less than they can be
made in Dundee.
Mr. Walter Shepherd, writing from the
latter place, says, unless change is
made in our currency laws it is certain
that this trade and this town will be
wiped out"
AS an object lesson cut this extract
from the Boston transcripts correspond
ent in Mexico under date of February
25th ult
"No country in the world, except, per-
haps, Japan, has moved progressward
with larger strides during the past ten
years than Mexico, and felt so humili-
ated on account of my ignorance of this
great nation that ] called on our minis
ter, Mr.. Ransom, and apologized to him
for it. and on behalf of other equally un-
informed Bostonians. Since 1873, Is, 500
miles of railroad have. been built, and
the country now makes education COM
pulsory, and this will be plainly seen in
the next generation of Mexicans. Presi-
dent Diaz is a far seeing ruler, sagaoious.
soldierly, practical, and to him and the
able assistants he has called about him
is due the fact that Mexican dnacnes
present Although having literally aided
railroad construction. Mexioo's entire
foreign debt is today but slightly over
one hundred million dollars OF about az
large as the debt of New FORK city.
i For business, l am con yinoed after
talking with men of many interests and
numerous Americans, that Mexico offers
exceptionally fine opportunities. The
same persistence. ability and energy ex-
erted IN quiet way, adapted to the
country and it's people, will, in five or
ten years, show more than tour-fOld the
I results TO be obtained in the same time
In one of our Northern cities, and after
one becomes acclimated in business
way, opportunltie are numerous and
continually revealed. For the American,
with a definite profession, trade or pro-
jecr, or with a few thousand dollars to
invest, Mexico offers many inducements
Paper, cotton and sugar mills are usually
located on mountain streams, and get
their labor at twenty five cents per day,
and usually pay twenty five per cent.
di vidends, besides giving their officers
handsome salaries. l heard of one estab-
llshment which entirely paid for it's to-
tai cost the first year 1t was run. This
year the National Bank of Mexico paid
seventeen per cent. and the Bank, of
London and Mexico paid fourteen per
cent. Besides this both banks added
largely to their reserve funds. The Lon
don Bank has each year since 1889 paid
from fourteen to twenty per cent. besides
annually setting towards its reserve fund
the average sum Of $500, GOO Enormous
profits and fortunes have been made in
mining, and many Americans are in
charge of mines"
The Boston Herald's Mexican CORES
pondent, Mr.. Garnsey, furnishes oorrob-
rating testimony. The public ought to
be grateful that these Sound Money"
journals have not suppressed or doctored
facts SO damaging to their economic the
cries.
The English, French and German con.
sular reports from Japan,' China, India
and Mexico establish by undeniable facts
that silver standard countries, far from
suffering at this moment any commercial
crisis, see on the contrary their exports
grow daily, and their agricultural and
Industrial production develope to an
extent that is nenacing to Europe
These same consuls report that the prin-
oipal factor in the economic TRANSFORMED
ton in these silver standard countries is
the fall in the gold value Of silver.
LOW INTEREST A BAD SYMPTOM.
A most significant manifestation of
the general stagnation of business, the
falling off in the dem and for capital for
the purchase and development of lands,
for the establishment of manufacturing
plants for railroads and works of irriga-
tion for the varied enterprises, which
the rapid growth and development of a
country as full of natural wealth rs the
United States is sure to promote, is the
fact that when United States bonds of
somewhat questionable legality were
offered to the amount of $1,000 900, 900 at a
current rate of interest to the investor OF
about 81 per cent six times the amount
of capital was offered 20 purchase them
So then 80 per cent. is the market price
that capital commands this spring of
1885, with the country we'll placed on a
gold basis Taxes in the city of Port
| land are al, the rate nf mar can't M, oo1