Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1896-08-12
SAW HOW FREE SILVER WORKS.
Though a Lifelong Democrat, He will
Not Vote for fSryan


Not Vote for Bryan.
Another well-known Hoosier Democrat
who finds he cannot conscientiously sup
port the presidential nominee on a free
silver platform is Capt. William Schrodt
of Jeffersonville, Ind, who is chief book
keeper for the firm of HARRISON Il Gath
right of this city. Capt. Schrodt has al
ways voted the Democratic ticket pre-
viously under all circumstances, but the
Populistic dose this time, he says. is en-
tirely too bitter for him to take.
Many years in the life of Capt. Schrodt
have been spent in Mexico, Central
America and South America, and he OBJ
served the free silver plan in it's actual
workings. To Il reporter for the Evening
Post he said:
81 find it impossible to support Mr..
Bryan on the platform upon which he
was nominated He may be a very bril-
liant young man, and | have no doubt
so decidedly opposite to those | hold that
l will not be able to vote for him. 1t is
we'll enough for people to talk about free
silver but when they have lived for
years in a country where they have tried
it, as l have, they will not be so ram
pant for something about which they
now know nothing. 1t has been four or
five years since | was in Mexico, but
am satisfied that there has been little
change. There were millions of paupers
then and Mexico will always have the
poor with them in large numbers.
zone advantage to impoverished faml-
lies down there was that they could
take their silver plate to the mint and
have it coined into money, but the poor
had no silver plate. Laborers there get
30 cents a day, as a general thing, but IN
some remote cases. for skilled labor, the
workmen are paid 35 cents. Their silver
dollars have plenty of silver in them
and they are heavier than those in the
United States, but they are not worth
as much. The only way to make sill
yer dollar worth dollar is to put dol
lars worth of silver in it. If this is
done one might just as we'll carry the
article about in Jumps, and not go to the
trouble of having it coined. Down in
Central America the country is flooded
with silver that is not worth its face
where it is made. The poor are ground
down and pay double prices for every
thing. while the wages are the same.
81 have been in South America, too,
where it is used, and the same state of
affairs exist there They tried it as
i'm experiment. just as is proposed here,
and it will take a couple of hundred
years for the people to recover from it.
There are several silver mines in South
America which have been closed for
want of capital to continue the work. In
fact, the value has declined so rapidly
that there is no money in having it
coined. If every resident of the United
States owned a silver mine | could see
some sense in his wanting free coin
age.'-Louisville Post.
Two Kinds of Dollars.
The Santa Fe railway has branch
from Rincon, \. NJ, to Guyamas, in old
Mexico. On both sides of the boundary
line between Mexico and the United
States this company pays its section
hands 81 a day; but the Mexicans are
paid in Mexican dollars, while the Ameri-
cans are paid in American silver. The
Mexican employee. if he crosses the line,
finds that his dollar is only worth 80
cents; but the American employee, II he
crosses the same line. finds that his dol
lar is worth twice as much as at home.
The Mexican dollar is free coinage dol
lar and is valued at the market price of
the bullion which it contains. The Amer
lean dollar is intrinsically worth less than
the Mexican, but it has the credit of the
government at its back. and its purchas-
ing power is equal to that of gold The
proposition to establish free and unlim-
tied coinage of silver here is a proposal
to MeXicaniZe our silver dollar Who is
the true friend of the silver dollar? Is
it the man who desires to ''strike down
at one fell swoop" its present purchasing
power? Or is it the man who wishes tc
preserve its purchasing power intact?
Which of these two is the friend of the
poor, the friend of the workingman?
Free coinage of silver saves the Santa
Fee road just One-quarter of the wages
due to its section hands, because it pays
1000 Americans $1,000 a day in Ameri-
can money, but pays 1000 Mexicans only
5000 in American money, while nominal
~ both are earning the same wages.
Workingmen! think of these things and
be not deceived!