Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1896-09-25
MEXICAN DOLLAR.
IT is JUST WHAT DEMOCRATS
WANT.
tt Takes Two OF Them to Purchase nm
American Silver Dollar--At the same
Time Prices for Labor There Are
Very Low A Fair Illustration.

| Ono Is an American silver dollar,
the other is a Mexican silver dollar,
and the river is the Rio Grande. These
two dollars are Of unequal weight,
The Mexican being somewhat heavier
than the American, and it is therefore
rot strange that their purchasing pow
sr should undergo change when they
trade places, the Yankee coin crossing
The boundary stream into Mexicano
moving in the opposite direction into
The United States.
But the change is not what might be
expected by one who based his under
standing of money upon the populist
theory of finance. The American silver
dollar the lighter of the two, when it
crosses the Rio Grande, by the act Of
transition has its purchasing power in
creased 100 per cent 1t enters Mexico
10 find itself worth two Mexican dol
Ears in buying labor and all the prod
ucts of labor. In competition with it
the Mexican dollar instantly falls to
he level of our 50-cent piece, and the
American woman, doing bit of shop
ping in the city of Chihuahua, for in
stance, may go out any day with five
silver dollars of the United States, pur-
chase five dollars worth of goods and
bring them home with her, together
with five Mexican dollars in change.
On the other hand, the Mexican sill
yer dollar, the heavier coin of the two
when it crosses the Rio Grande into
the United States, loses its money
status altogether. 1t passes for only
90 cents, and even then it is accepted
chiefly as favor to the person who
offers it. Mexixcans are eager to re-
ceive the American dollar at a pre-
MUM Of 100 per cent, but Americans
don't want the Mexican dollar, even
at discount of so per cent, although
the latter exceeds the former in ac-
tual bullion value. This is the strik
ing parallel drawn by New York
contemporary.
There is a reason for this amazing
discrepancy in the relative value OF
the two coins Where does it lie? Ger.
tainly not in natural conditions, be-
cause soil, climate, mineral and agri-
cultural resources are identical on
both sides Of the Rio Grande. Not in
the commercial value Of silver bullion
either, for that commodity sells for
about the same price from day to day
in the cities of Mexico, Denver, New
York and London.
os -,
the difference between the financial
systems of the United States and Next
co. We have an enormous volume OF
coin maintained by legislation at an
actual parity with gold. The mos5
ignorant toiler in Mexico knows that
one Of our dollars is worth two of Ills
own. Ours is a system Of practical
bimetallism, with steadily increasing
use of silver Mexico. on the other
hand, under a theoretical bimetallic
standard, has been forced down to a
single silver basis by the rllinous pres
sure of free coinage, Her gold has
vanished and her silver coin, as meas
ured by the actual bimetallic standard
Of neighboring nation, loses so per
cent of its purchasing power in cross
ing the boundary line and entering the
territory of a sister republic.
Mexico and the toiling masses who
create her wealth are victims of a
financial system which has been re-
pudiated by mankind. And their con-
ditions, their dependence upon the
outer world, which exacts gold for
what they buy beyond their own
boundaries, and the distrust and dis
honor to which their money is sub
jected when it crosses the border and
enters a friendly nation, all rise up to
warn us against the adoption of the
free coinage policy in the United
States Bay City tMich.) Tribune.