Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-10-10
In A SILVER COUNTRY
Condition of the Laborer and
Business in Land Where
Free Coinage Exists
WHAT THE MExICANS SAY.
A Representative of the St Louis
GIobe-Democrat Tells What
He Saw.

made everyone happy, contented and pros
porous, there has been much written by
men who had lived there and others.
The reports, which were not fattering
to the country, were denied by the sill
yer advocates and branded as lies The
silverites stoutly maintained that if Ia
Dor was as well employed here as in
Mexico the great question of what to do
with the poor would be solved as there
would be no poor They claimed that
in that country there was no Wall street;
that food, clothing and the necessities
of life were cheaper; that the nation
was prospecting as 1t never had before,
and all ON account of the free coinage
of silver.
The st. Louis Globe Democrat wish
ing to be just in the matter. decided
to send representative there who would
report what he and learned, with
out regard as TO how the reports would
affect the political situation. The man
was one on whom the paper could de-
pend to tell the truth.
Extracts from some of the letters
which throw some light on the subject
of free silver and its effects are printed
below:
Prices Depend on Foreign Exchange
Pirates on the high seas could hard
ly be a more dangerous menace to COM
merce between nations than this fiuctua-
ton of exchange between countries on
different standards. Outside of few
money-changers at coast ports, business
men of the states hardly notice from
week to week the variations in exchange
between their country and Europe But
in the business relations between the
United States and Mexico the changing
difference between the standards is i
matter of hourly concern.
Whats exchange today?" goes with
every mornings salutation between mer-
chants in Monterey.
'.Silver's up or .'siIver's down. is the
commercial news of first Importance.
The shrewd representative of San
Antonio CTeX) jobbins house his way
back 10 the states from his midsummer
round of the cities of Mexico said:
Here's a variation of DC between the
gold standard of the states and the silver
standard Of Mexico within two weeks.
How is a man going to sell goods do
any business between the countries when
he has got to make allowances for such
fluctuations. When l sell bill of goods
to a Mexican merchant on six. months
time I've got to figure the prices high
enough TO save my house in the event
that silver drops by of those violent
fluctuations before the day of settlement
comes The merchant has got to mark
the retail prices on n margin sufficient
to protect him against possible change.
And so American goods must be sold in
Mexico at two margins above legitimate
5obber and the Mexican ,storekeeper
against these rapid uD and down move
ments of the standards. The condition
is simply ruinous to trade. People will
not buy when prices are raised on them.
My house may make Il tremendous profit
or barely save itself in sale of goods
six months time. That isn't the way to
do business. You might as well have a
Chinese wall between two countries
these fluctuations. And this is what we
Will have on vastly greater scale If
the United States goes to n silver stand
ard and Great Britain and the European
nations continue the gold standard. l
know what this thing of two standards
means between -,1exico and the States,
and L don't want to see it in our trade
with Great Britain and Europe
A Dollars Worth of Labor.
A dollar worth 80 cents commands the
same labor in Mexico now that dollar
worth a dollar did ten twenty years
ago. Right there is the cornerstone on
which prosperity in this silver country is
building. That is what makes it now
profitable to work mines with ores worth
81 and So. Mexican money, ton. That
condition of labor brings the cost of min
ing and carrying out the ore down to 81
TON That kind of labor built and
operates the cables. which take the place
of thousands of burro trains. at n frac-
ton of the cost for like construction and
operation in the States. Gables have re-
duced the cost of conveying ore from the
mine to the railroad. two miles down the
mountain. to 20 cents and 30 cents ton.
This labor enables railroads to haul ores
at from 90 cents to 81 a ton. 1t figures
in the cost of the transOorta ton of the
coke from the gulf and the coal from the
border And. finally. it enables the
smelters to make an unprecedentedly low
rate of 81 ton for treatment of ore
At every step. from the first blow of
the pick in the mine to the landing of the
base bullion into molds at the furnace
this fxity of wages on the basis of a
dollar deprecated to one-half its value is
the chief factor which insures the profit
What matters it if silver goes down if it
commands just as much labor ever.
and if the lead in the bullion can still
be sold for gold? The smelters of Next
co buy ore from the mine owners and
pay n Mexican dollar an ounce for the
silver they get out of it They paid this
several years ago. when silver was worth
more than it is now. They still pay it,
Recently, under the importation of com
petition. while silver was dropping so
rapidly in the United States. some of
the smeIters of Mexico advanced the
silver They are now paying under some
contracts S1-O6 in Mexican money for
every ounce of silver found in the ore.
Today the brick-making plant few
miles out of Monterey. on the Mineral
railroad. is shipping 100000 having bricE
and pays the ad valorem duty of % per
cent. which the Wilson tariff levies ON
brick importations. The contract for
this brick shipment was obtained nj
San Antonio because this company NM
in the lowest and best of twenty-eight
the possession of excellent clay. but that
isn't what enables it to send brick to the
United States ct Il profit. 1t outbid the
twentySeven American brick-rnakip-
companies because it sells brick for
American money, worth 100 cents in
gold. and hires good labor for Mexican
money worth 90 cents in gold This
company is paving three miles of Monte
rev streets with brick. dispiacinr the
cobblestones of time immemorial 1t
nut down n block of the brick paving ms
an object lesson. and the governor. Gen
Bernardo Reyes. with a keen perception
for good thing. ordered three miles of
Tho co mo m hor:p with Tho hr;cl 49,,