Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1896-10-16
IN A SILVER COUNTRY
Condition Of the Laborer and
i Business in Land Where
Free Coinage Exists
WHAT THE MExICANs SAY.
A Representative Of the St Louis
Gio5o-Democrat Tells What
He Saw.

He saw.
since the free-silver people began to
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 We're not iattering
to the country, were denied by the sill
yer advocates and branded as lies. The
silverites stoutly maintained that if la
Dor was us well employed here as in
Mexico the great question of what to do
with the poor would be solved as there
would he no poor. They c!.imed that
In thai country there was no Wall street;
that food. clothing and the necessities
of life We're cheaper; that the nation
was prospecting as it never had before,
and all on account of the free coillage
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 csuld de-
pend ro 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 II more dangerous menace to conf
ncrce between nations than this ilnctua-
ton of exchange between countries OH
different standards. Outside of Il few
moncy-clangers at coast ports. business
men of Tho 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 and Mexico the changing
difference between the standards is a
matter of hourly concern.
whats exchange totlny:" 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 slrewd representative of a San
Antonio treS.l jobbing house on his way
back 10. the states from his midsummer
fonnl of the cities of Mexico said:
Here's variation of 9c between the
gold standard of the states and the silver
standard of Mexico within two weeks.
How is Il man going to sell goods or do
any business between the countries when
he has got to make allowances for such
fuctuations. When ! sell Il hill 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 by one of those violent
fluctuations before the day of settlement
comes. The merchant has got to mark
the retail prices on margin sufficient
to protect him against possible change.
ANA so American goods must he sold in
Mexico at two margins above legitimate
prohts in order to protect the American
1obber and the Mexican ,storckceper
ments of the standards. The condition
Is simply ruinous to trade. People will
not buy when prices are raised on them.
My house may make Il tremendous profit
or barely save itself i'm 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 rs
these fluctuations. And this is what we
Will have on vastly greater scale if
the United States goes to Il silver stand.
ard and Great Britain and the European
nations continue the gold standard.
know what this thing of two standards
means between Mexico and the States
and l don't want to sec it i'll our trade
With Great Britain and Europe"
a Dollars Worth of Labor.
dollar worth 30 cents commands the
same labor in Mexico now that dollar
worth Il dollar did ten or twenty year.
ago. Right there is the cornerstone OF
which prosperity in this silver country i.
building. That is what makes it now
profitable to work mines with ores wortl
- and IS. Mexican money. ton. Tha
condition of labor brings the cost of min
ing and carrying out the ore down to 81
ton. That kind of labor built ant
operates the cahles. which take the plac,
OF thousands of burro trains, at frac
ton of the cost for like construction an,
duccd the cost of conveying ore from til,
mine to the railroad, two miles down til,
mountain, to 20 cents and 80 cents ton
This labor enables railroads to haul ore
at from 80 cents to 81 IL ton. 1t tgure
coke from the gulf and the coal from til,
border. And. finally, it enables til,
slneltcrs to make an unprecedentedly Low
rate of 81 II ton for treatment Of ore
At every step. from the first blow o
the pick IN the mine to the landing of tin
base bullion into molds ut the furnace
this fiMity of wages on the basis of
dollar deprecated to onc-half it's value i
the chief factor which insurcs the profit
What matters it if silver goes down if i
and if the lead in the bullion can still
be sold for gold? The smeltcrs of AIeXi
co buy orc from the mine owners, an,
pay a Mexican dollar an ounce for tin
silver they get out of it. They paid thi
moro than it is now. They still pay ii
Recently, under the importation OF com
petition. while silver was droppinc 81
rapidly in the United States. some o
the smeltcrs of Mexico advanced TIN
price they allowed the mine owners fo
silver. They are now paying under som
contracts S1.oG in Mexican money fo
every ounce of silver found in the ore.
Today the brick-making plant fcv
miles out of Monterey. on the alinrrn
railroad. is shipping 100000 paving bricl
to San Antonio. in Texas Ii does th
aud pays the nd yalorcm duty of ~ pe
cent. which the Wilson tariff lcvirs ol
brick importations. The contract fo
this brick shipment was Obtained NJ
San Antonio because this company M
In the lowest aud best of twenty-cirh
bids. The Monterey company enjoy,
the possession of excellent clay. but M tha
isn't what enables it to send brick to III,
twenty-seven American brick. maxim: