The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-08-21
silver Money end wages.

Silver money onu wages.
The free silver advocates occasionally
claim that silver Is the money of civil
ization. Now here are the "a countries
using the gold standard of values:
United Kingdom, France, Germany,
Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Greece,
Spain, Portugal, Roumania, Servia,
Austria Hungary, Netherlands, Can
ada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Tur-
key, Australia, Egypt, Cuba, Haiti,
Bulgaria aud the United States. And
here are the eight countries using the
silver standard: Mexico, Russia, Cen
trail American states, South American
states, Japan, India, China and Straits
settlements.
Now which represents the best civil
ization, the "a gold standard or the
eight silver standard countries?
With reference to wages in two of
the silver. countries, the Hon. S. Z.
Gracey, formerly consul to Foo Chew,
China, gives the following account of
the conditions existing in China and
Mexico:
"When l went to China in 1890 the
Mexican silver dollar was the common
currency in use by the natives in their
dealingswith foreigners and were worth
90 cents in gold. After the change of the
value of the rupee in India the value
of the Mexican dollar rapidly declined,
and in less than a year the Mexican
dollar was only GO cents, and in '03 it
fell to SO cents, and since then has
maintained an average of 81 cents or
SO cents.
1.-THE price of all foreign goods was
Immediately affected and was soon
doubled. All native products were
also advanced, but not to the same ex-
tent. Native labor continued at the
old price. We paid our help just the
same number of dollars per month in
'94 with the same silver dollars we
bought for SO cents of gold, that we
did in go when we paid 80 cents for
them.
"The natives will not work for for
eigners as cheaply as they do for con-
tractors of their own country, and we
had to pay the high wages of 81 Mexi-
can per month, or about IA cents per
day, which on gold basis was about
s cents, and they found themselves in
everything. Native contractors could
obtain the same class of laborers for
from $1.50 TO SO Mexican per month,
and for the best skilled labor, mechan-
les, citizens, etc., not more than SO,
which at the present value of the Mex
lean dollar in gold in that country is
about $l.1O to SLIGO per month, or from
4 cents to 6 cents per day in gold.
"My son spent last winter in south
ern Mexico, and he tells me that la
borers on the coffee plantations there
are usually paid about 20 cents per day
in Mexican silver. This would be
much better than the wages of Asiatic
Ilaborers in their country, for in China
there is no Sunday, and men work
from new moon to new moon, and
from 10 to IL hours a day and call it a
month.
81 recently met a gentleman in Bos-
ton, who was here to secure four or
five American citizens as superintend-
ents for departments in a watch factory
he has established at Osaka, in Japan,
and he asserted that he could obtain
the best classes of native skilled Ia
borers for work in his factory at 20
cents per day Mexican, labor which in
this country commands $3.50 to SO per
day gold.
"What can our American working
men be thinking about when they
crowd Faneuil hall and shout them
selves hoarse over proposition to pay
them in silver dollars worth only SO
cents, when all the world except coun-
tries like China. India, Japan, Mexico,
ETC., which are on silver basis, is
maintaining u 10O-cent dollar as the
medium of payment to all wage earn
ers?"