The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1896-04-02
JUDGE CLARK'S LETTERS.
His Articles on Mexico are Compli-
mented by a Mexican Paper.

mented by a Mexican Paper.
lCity of Mexico Mexican Herald.
One of the brightest Americans who
has recently visited this county is
Justice Walter Clark of the Supreme
Bench of North Carolina. He came
here already believer in the use of
silver as money, and strong and out
spoken bimetallist and naturally was
gratihed to find in the prosperity of
the Mexican Republic living conflr-
nation of his theories. At the border
he found that he received for his
American money nearly two dollars
in silver for one sanctioned and issued
BY the Government of the United
States, and the next most marvellous
thing was his discovering that the
Mexican dollar does, inside Of Mexico,
quite the same amount of work as the
gold dollar does in the United States.
Justice Clark says, in an article re-
Gently published in the arena: "That
silver in fact has not deprecated in the
least may be seen right here in Mexico,
and throughout the fifty millions of
people living on this hemisphere, south
of the Rio Grande, in all which coun
tries the silver dollar will pay as much
taxes, as much public and private in
debtedness, as much railway freight
and passenger fare, as it ever did, and
where consequently, farm produce
and land will bring the same prices
they formerly did. The standard OF
value not having been artifcially en-
HANGED, fixed charges, as debts and
taxes, are not enhanced, and the same
amount of produce and labor will pay
them
Justice Clark then goes Oh to show
that the loss to the people ofthe South
ern States, last year, by the demone'i-
cation of silver was, on cotton alone,
S21o,ooo,ooo. And the Northwestern
wheat growers were mulcted in the
same proportion. But in Mexico he
found the agricultural interest thriving,
as is testified to by the continually
expanding local traffic of our railways.
This is the true test of internal pros
perity. Mexico, had it been financially
managed as has been the case with the
United States, would be to-day, one
of the poorest and most wretched
countries on the face of the earth.
Imagine General Diaz's government in
1884, for example, having decided to
adopt the gold standard! The country
could have borne the strain then for
the great fall in silver had not come;
but, few years after, the tension
would have been enormous and every
thing would have suffered. Our man
ufactories would have been annihilated,
hundreds Of new factories would never
have been built; our tropical agricul-
ture, now extending itself at a marvel
Gus pace, would have remained small
and relatively insignificant. In a
word, Mexico would have been a
ruined country.
Outside of our two cities, such as
the City of Mexico, Monterey, ETC.,
where the demand for houses conse-
quent on an unanticipated growth, has
sent rents up rapidly, the cost of living
has not materially advanced. 1t is
true that with the penetration OF the
railways TO all parts of the country
there has been diffused a spirit of
progress, desire for more luxurious
house furnishings, for costler clothing,
etc., and this has added not to the es-
sential cost of living but to the cost OF
living more moderately, SO to say.
But every one familiar with this coun-
try knows that one may still make
the sil>er dollar of 1896 go quite as
far as the dollar of 1876. Imported
goods have risen, it is true, in proper
ton to exchange, but our mills are
enabling frugal people to dispense
with foreign wooden and cotton tex
tiles. Mexican print cloths are both
tasteful and durable, and our woolens
are most creditable to the manufactu-
rers. Articles such as coffee, in active
demand outside, have risen in price
because they command gold abroad.
But CAREFUL investigation, such as
that made some time ago by the care
full and intelligent consular represen
tative of Great Britain at. this capital
shows that the Mexican dollar practi.
cally does the same work to-day as
formerly.
As the MesicAn Herald has been
continually pointing out the silver dol
lar, efficient at home in paying every
due, rents, taxes, servants wages, the
food supply, physicians fees, cost o
travel, eic.-is at the foundation O
tina, remarkable prosperity which at.
tracts the attention Of such intelligent
observers as Justice Clark
Our home industries: protected by q
gold premium of nearly ninety pei
cent. are thriving; their dividends fiji
foreign manufacturers with envy. Thi:
question, SO vastly intricate and so in
teresting to all of US, is not to be ex
hausted in few articles. We shall re-
cur to it, not with view TO convert
ing the people of the United States tc
a belief ID silver money, but to answer
the objections raised here at home b,
those who have not scientificall,
studied The effects of the monetar,
system Of this country. As the Her
all said few days ago, it is not fol
the present interest of Mexico that tht
United States should abandon the
gold basis. That huge market to. thu
north of us is paying out coffee, tcbac
CO, henequen and other planters nearl,
ninety per cent. premium, affordins
them the most stimulating bount,
known TO commercial history. Gu,