Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1896-08-24
FoR woRkINcMeN.
one who Knows Tells Of wages In Free
Silver Countries.

Silver Countries.
Hon. s. l.. Gracey, formerly United
States consul at Foochow, China, writes
as follows:
"When l went to China in 1890 the
Mexican silver dollar was the common
currency in use by the natives in their
dealings with foreigners, and were
worth SO cents in gold. After the change
of the value of the rupee in India. which
degraded silver in the east, the value of
the Mexican dollar rapidly declined and
in less than year the Mexican dollar
was only,63 cents, and in '9S it fell to 81
cents. and since then has maintained an
average of about 81 cents or 53 cents
'The price of all foreign goods was
Immediately affected and was very soon
doubled All native products were also
advanced, but not to the same extent.
Native labor continued at the old price.
We paid our help just the same number
of dollars per month in '94 with the
same silver dollars we bought for SO
cents of gold that we did in 80, when
we paid 9S cents for them.lo-
1.-The natives will not work for for
eigners as cheaply as they do for con-
tractors of their own country, and we
had to pay the high wBges Cd of $4
Mexican per month, or abont IA cents
per day, which on o gold basis was
about s cents, and they found them.
selves in everything. Native contract.
ors could obtain the same class of labor.
ers for from $1.50 to 50 Mexican per
month, and for the best skilled labor,
mechanics, citizens, ETC., not more than
SO, which, at the present value of the
Mexican dollar in gold in that country,
is about $l1O to $l.60 per month, or
from 1 to cents per day in gold.
my son spent last winter in southern
Mexico, and he tells me that laborers
on the coffee plantations there are
usually paid about go cents a day in
Mexican silver. This would be much
better than the wages of Asiatic labor
ers in their countries, for in China there
is no Sunday. and men work from new
moon to new moon, and from 10 to -
hours day and call it a month.
Il recently met gentleman in Bos
ton, who was here to secure four or five
American citizens as superintendents
for departments in watch factory he
has established at Osaka in Japan, and
he asserted that he could obtain the best
classes of native skilled laborers for
work in his factory at 20 cents per day
Mexican, labor which in this country
commands 81. 80 to So per day, gold.
What can American workingmen
be thinking about when they indorse a
proposition to pay them in silver dollars
worth only So cents, when all the world
except countries like China, India,
Japan, Mexico, etc., which are on a
silver basis is maintaining 100 cent
dollar as the medium of payment to all
wage earners?
"Do they desire to cut the purchasing
power one. half? This would inevitably
be the result if we in the United States
should adopt the silver fallacy promul-
gated at Chicago.
"The question now before the Ameri-
can people. clearly presented by the two
parties at st. Louis and Chicago, is not
one of bimetallism, but simply a choice
between gold as standard of value and
silver as standard. The markets of
the world fix the values of these metals,
and we alone can not demand with any
degree of reason that in those markets
the silver produced in this country shall
command 100 cents for 16 ounces, when
all the rest of the nations will sell in
the same market all the silver the pur.
chasers will take at 33 ounces for gold
dollar. Let us have bimetallism at a
fair and just parity of value, and we
are all one as to the white and yellow
metals as lawful currency.
"Wage earners of all classes, whether
by brain or Drawn. should pause and
carefully consider what will befall them
before they invite the conditions of
China, India and Japan to become
effective in the United States''