The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1896-07-18
ADEBASED CURRENCY
Guatemala, With Free Silver,
Overrun With Milli0naires.
BUT THE PEOPLE ARE DESTITUTE
]. =. Chiibcrg Returns From Central
Amersca With Few startling
and Warning Facts.

lie EEee SILVER theory - n rr3SflcS IN
Guatemala. Central America, and J. F.
Chilherg, Of this city, who has just come
from there. has s.s42 IN Guatemala silver
dollars which he wishes 10 sell AT 80 cents
each As agent OF the Puget Sound a.
Central America Steamship line, he had
many opportunities OF noting the Inter-
changeah,e valre OF money from the
United States and Guatemala. On the sill
Yer basis. His observations would be i'm
possible 10 controvert by the free silver
advocate. az they are OF existing facts
Everything has increased about two
fold in the country except the prices paid
for labor. The clerk. bookkeeper and day
iaborer receive the same wages IN de-
based currency as before the adoption or
free silver. Where a few years ago the
bank clerk receiving $50 a month could
live in the best hotel IN the country for
SO. he is now compelled TO pay 500 and
receives but the same salary. l paid s2la
a month for room and board for two per-
sons, but IL worked no particular hard
ship on me as / was paid IN American
gold and would simply buy SEQ In native
silver money with SOS in gold. ami 1t was
really the same as paying sio5 for lodging
and board. The bank clerk receiving at
par the silver money OF his country had
10 pay twice as much 10 live as !. simply
because he was native OF free silver
country.
Everything there IS governed by the
prices in foreign markets. The poor peo-
pie live almost entirely on corn. ground
and made into tortillas and little fruit
picked of the trees. Corn can be imported
al cost Of cents pound in silver. con-
sequently the poor people must pay cents
for their corn, - hardly enough for con-
sumption is grown in the country. II the
money were received at par by the native
selling the corn. they would have to pay
but IL cents. The poor people are de-
prived OF all luxuries. not only those I'M
ported but also those grown In their own
country. for. as said before, the foreign
market sets the standard of prices.
Take the coffee OF the country The
natives have TO pay 10 cents a pound for
their own coffee. while In the United
States IL sells for 20 cents a pound. Tho
common iaborer on the coffee plantation
gets from 7s cents TO 81 day. just as he
did before free silver was tried in the
country. The coffee produced by their
labor ia shipped TO some outside market
and paid for in gold. The owner of the
plantation takes the gold and buys native
money, giving hut 80 cents of his gold for
every silver dollar. He then pays off his
laborsrs In silver money. making 100 per
cent. on his money beside the regular
profit on his coffee. Miilionaires are thick
In Guatemala, they thrive and prosper
very bad and getting worse all the time.
Cold really exists In the country only
as an article of merchandise. and Is not
m circulation. The price OF silver fuc-
tua;es constantly, and a man with an
amount OF native money never knows ex-
actiy what he Is worth. Why, during the
thirty days was in Guatemala. silver
dropped In value - cents on the dollar.
The current money corresponding TO our
dollar is sole or peso, and II contains
more silver than our dollars do now.
though IL is less in value than the Mex
lean dollar, which is coined on ratio OF
1s TO !.
Another thing tina. has considerable in
fiuence on values IN the country Is the
heavy taxation. The government has
heavy national debt. and as IL pays the
interest now in silver. 1t has TO increase
its revenue by taxation. A sum for in
terest was paid out just before left and
they had to pay SOS In silver for every
$f0e due In goli.'
Mr.. Chilberg expects the steamer Transit
10 arrive here from Cofnox today. There
is a sample of crude India rubber aboard
weighing 800 or 400 pounds. which viii be
shipped east. He thought II strange that
coffee importers here did not import d.
rectiy from Central America. instead OF
purchasing In San Francisco. They
could save one cent per pound by bring
ing the coffee In direct he said. "The
Eastern market also could be supplied
from this point quicker and cheaper than
by going across the isthmus and around
by the Atlantic coast
satisfactory arrangements have been
made for discharging the ship at San Jose
de Guatemala. and on this last voyage we
were only delayed eight days, two OF
which were holidays. The unloading OF
vessels is now In. the hands OF COM
pany controlled by Qua tenalan merchants.
and called the Agencias Martina Limi-
tada Company. II is managed by Col.
John Lyon. an American, who thoroughly
understands his business"