The morning times., 1896-10-30
.sTARVE UNDER. FREE SILVER
D:plorable Condition of Labor
in Mexico.
.s-@-=
GET % CENTS PER DAY
Interest Is Paid In Gold. hut All
Receipts Are Stlver-Farm Hahhs
Forced TO Live on Corncakes, ana
They Are scarce-Silver's Real
workings.
From The Nelc York Herald.

From the Ne,c York Herald.
Mexico. Mex, via Galveston, Texas, oct.
Is, lS96.-It is greatpity that the "orh
int-Inen of the United States cannot Nislo
Mexico en- masse and see with their own
eyes the depiorable condition to whlch .eh
millions of people have been reduced
by silver currency. They wouiu see
what Il Indignantly wicked thing IL IS ioi
Bryanites to talk about the prosperity oi
Mexico ON IA silver basis. Ihey Wouiu see
an underraid, overworheu' Haii s'''i
and half naked popula;e.
Ifthe working people OF the uhiteu stats
were reduced 10 such condition they
would be driven to suicide or rcNoiutioh'
Wages are the same today as they were ten
years ago, although Jne value OF tlc com
in wnicn they are paid has fa!iei. ote''i''ii,
You can present an American uoiiaf anu
get two Mexican dollars for it TO-DAY. IN
other words, the dollar in which me
American workman is paid will buy Just
rs much today as 1T ever did, while the
dollars with which the Mexican is paid
VIII buy only one half as much.
LOW WAGES PAID.
Look a5 the wages paid in this deprecated
currency The street car company oil THIS
CITY is regarded as Il liberal employer. Con
du,turs WORK at least unlrteen hours per
day for $1.50, or 10 cents OF United
states money. Ticket sellers get one
Mexican dollar per day, anc common
laburers IA cents. This is the equivalent
OF - cents in United States money. In
the Mexican states through which l
passed agricultural laborers get 20 cents
IA dav, and am Informed on the highest
authority. that this is the average Tor the
whole country. Twenty-Five cents means
II l-2 cents OF good money for ahardday S
labor. \ the staple food of these people
is corn cakes and boiled brown beans,
imagine thefr condition nov Tat drouSht
has injured the corn crop, and the price OF
that cereal has advanced 50 that 1t re-
quires three days labor to pay Tor one
bushel.
These figures show the correctness of the
report 10 the Chicago Trades and Labor AS
semhly that the wages paid to carpenters
is 10 cents per day; bricklayers, 81 Il
cents: printers, 60 cents, and painters, TO
cents in American money.
NATIVES HAVE LlTTLEF FOOD.
President DlaZ is Il great man and ioes
what tie eau TO give rCIIcI TO the people pS
suspending the import duty on corn, but
many hard working native Is obliged 10
shorten the rations OF corn cake served 10
his lauily One needs make big discount
anuat by promoters who are trying 10 draw
capital or immigration into the country.
Even the negro cannot sustain life ln COLI
petition with the Mexican laborar. And be
IL remembered that .! The lhlEtecn millions
Of people in this country about ten millions
are natives. Nine hundred and lfty negroes
were brought here from Alabama eighteen
months ago and placed on one of the finest
sugar plantations i'll Durango. About oiie-
IL 1. al ini TsnlnIIlf
of survivors was recently shipped back tc
the United States by charity. They could
not subSist on the poor food supplied them
BKYANITE MIsREPRESENTA
BRYAN orators tell their audiences that a
| dollar IN free coinage Mexico Will buy as
much now as when 1t was worth Its
| equivalent in gold. Nothing could lie more
| false Of course, all imported goods have
been marked up by the sellers 10 the
gold basis. and many domestic products
| sell at about the same prices as ten years
ago. but think Of the fail In prices thal
has occurred in that time in all the
| countries that are on gold basis. In the
| gold countries wages have steadily risen
| while prices have declined, so that tht
| buylng power Of a days wages has
| enormously increased; whereas, In this
free coinage land the best that can bt
| said Is that a few commodities OF hatlt,
| production have declined prCpuTuonhtci1
| with the fall in silver.
| The long and short Of the matter Is tha'
the employer who ten years ago paid {
| man a silver quarter for q days labO
| now pays the same, and as the employer
| can now get silver quarters for Il J.
cents In gold, he is getting his labor fo
one-half OF what it formerly cost him
Hence the few great land owners ar'
| prosperous. Their coffee or other eX
| ported product Is sCid for gold, and L
takes only one half as much Of that gol'
| as formerly TO procure silver whcreWlii
| TO pay laborers.
| With wages cut down to starvation lin
its IL becomes profitable to cultivate land
that formerly were unavailable More stui
Is grown and sent out of the country. An
it is the lrcrr0 sed exports of the agricu
turai PREDICTS from Mexico, which silv,
orators cite as an evidence of prosperity
DO OUR CITIZENS WANT THIS?
II world be Impossible for laborerS
sustain life under such conditions in I'll
| United states. The climate alone makes
impossible here. A cotton shirt and trol
| sers, with a cheap. gawdy shawl or scrap
and a straw hat. completes the labOrer
wardrobe. Sometimes he wears leatht
sandals. but more frequently is harefou
| and such things as socks he never dreamc
| Of. For shelter the peun and family haE
an adobe hut OF one room, with an earthe
floor. If he has no family, perhaps fe
stakes stuck upright and rooted wit
thatch or branches of trees serves as
dwelling. Tie household utensils may co
sISt Of Il few c4trihtu jars ana iiuwI>, Iii
posed about the floor, and Il bit of boar
on which to roll batter for corn cakes.
is impossible to conceive of life MOI
cheaply sustained.
In cities you may find a family in posse
sion of a bedstead, a table and chair
two-all of the cheapeSt-but the above d
scripton Of the agricultural ldborrr's outl
exactly corresponds with that of Il large pr,
portion of houses into which you may pee
in the poorer quarters of the capital. VIII;
is d laborer on the street railway, with h
twenty-t wo cents day, to do? And the le