The Coconino weekly sun., 1896-10-08
Condition of the Laborer and Business in a Land Where
 Free Coinage Exists
WHAT THE MEXlCANS SAY,
4 Representative of the St Louis GIope-Democrat Tells What
 He Saw.

 where the free coinage of silver had made everyone happy, contented and pros porous, there has been much written by tncn who had lived there and others. The reports, which were not flattering io the country, were denied by the sill yer advocates and branded as lies. The siivcritcs stoutly maintained that if la Sor was as well employed here as in Mexico the great question of what to do with the poor would be solved us there would be no poor. They claimed that in that country there was no Wall street; 9hat food, clothing and the necessities of life were cheaper; that the nation was prospcring as il 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 50 send representative there who would report what he saw 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.
 
 1y he d more dangerous menace to com anCTce between nations than this iluctua- ton of exchange between countries on different standards. Outside of a few mOncy-chaGgcrs at coast ports, Sus,ness men of the states hardly notice from Trrk 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 Il snattCr of hourly concern.
 Whats exchange today?" goes with every mornings salutation between mcr- chants in Monterey.
 "SilVcT's up or "silver'S down is the commercial news of first importance.
 The Shrewd representative of a San Antonio CreXD jobbing house on his way back to the states from his midsummer EOund of thc cities of Mexico said
 Here's variation of 9c between the gold standard Of the states and the silver standard of Mexico within two weeks. HGw is a man going 10 sell goods or do any business between the countries when he has got to make allowances for such fluctuations. When I sell bill of goods Ito q Mexican merchant on six months dime I've got to figure the prices high enough tO save my house in the event that silver drops by one of those violent fUctUatiOns before the day of settlement comes. The merchant has got to mark the retail prices on q margin sufficient to protect him against possible change. And so American goods must be sold in Mexico at two margins above legitimate profits in order to protect the American jobber and the Mexican storekccper -aEainst these rapid lp and down move ments of the standards. The condition as simply ruinOus to trade. People will not buy when prices are raised on them. My house may make q tremendous profit Iara in l.. nFf Ill .NT1 six months time. That isn't the way to do business. You might as well have a Chinese wall between two countries as these fluctuations. And this is what we wni have on vastly greater scale if the United States goes to a silver stand ard and Great Britain and the European nations continue the gold standard. l know wba. this thing of two standards GtaeShs between Mexico and the States, and l don't want to see it in our trade gith Great Britain and Europe"
 A Dollars Worth of Labor.
 X dollar worth 90 cents commands the same labor in Mexico now that dollar worth dollar did ten or twenty years nsya. Right there is the cornerstone on building. That is what makes it now profitable to work mines with ores worth .ST and SS, Mexican money, n ton. That condition of labor brings the cost of min. ing and carrying out the ore down to Sl a ton. That kind of labor built and operates the cables, which take the place of thousands of burro trains, at frac asion of the cost for like construction and operation in the States. Cables have re .qduced the cost of conveying ore from tho mine to the railroad, two miles down the mountain, to 20 cents and 30 cents q ton This labor enables railroads to haul ores at from 90 cents to S1 ton. It figures in the cost of the transportation of tho coke from the gulf and the coal from thu border. And, finally, it enables thu smelters to make an unprecedentedly low rate of S4 ton for treatment of ore At every step, from the first blow oi the pick in the mine to the landing of tho this fXity of wages on the basis of q dollar depreciated to one-half it's value is the chief factor which nsures the profit What matters it if silver goes down if il commands just as much labor as ever and if the lead in the bullion can stil de sold for gold? The smelters of Mexi 60 buy ore from the mine owners, ant pay a Mexican dollar an ounce for tn, silver they get out of it. They paid thi, several years ago, when silver was wortf 7more than it is now. They still pay it Recently, under the importation of com capidly in the United States, some o fllc smclters of Mexico advanced thu J,ricc they allowed the mine owners fol rfsiiver They are now paying under som, contracts S1OG in Mexican money fol every ounce of silver found in the ore.
 Today the brck-making plant few miles out of Monterey, on the Minera railroad, is shipping 1G0,000 paving bricl do San Antonio. in Texas. It does thi, and pays the ad valorem duty of 9 pei cent, which the Wilson tariff levies or a1rick importations. The contract fol 75bis brick shipment was obtained a San Antonio because this company pu in the lowest and best of twenty-eigh bids. The Monterey company enjoy the possession of excellent clay, but tha isn't what enables it to send brick to tn, United States at profit It outbid th' -4wenty seven American brick-makin, companies because it sells brick fo American money, worth 100 cents il gold, and hires good labor for Mexican .anoney, worth 90 cents in gold. Thi company is paving three miles of Monte rey streets with brick. displacing tn spobblestones of time immemorial. r.,f 5owp n hlock of the brick having n