Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1896-10-08
Condition Of the Laborer and
Business in a Land Where
Free Coinage Exists.
WHAT THE MEXICANS SAY.
A Representative of the ST. Louis
GIobe-Democrat Tells What
He Saw.

WurIN tue IfPe coinage OIL SILVER HUI
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 flattering
to the country, were denied by the sill
Yer advocates and branded as lies. The
silycrites stoutly maintained that if la
Dor was as we'll 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 rs it never had before,
of silver.
The st. Louis Globe Democrat, wish
ing to be just in the matter, decided
to send a 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 enc 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 it's effects are printed
below:
Prices Depend on Foreign Exchange.
Pirates on the high seas could hard
ly be 4 more dangerous menace to COM
mercc between nations than this fluctua-
ton of exchange between countries on
different standards. Outside of a 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 q
matter of hourly concern.
whats exchange today?' goes with
every mornings salutation between mer-,
chants in Monterey.
''Silver's up or ''silver's down. is the
commercial news of first Importance.
The shrewd representative of San
Antonio (TeN) jobbing house on his way
back 10 the states from his midsummer
round Of the cities of Mexico said:
Here's a variation of Sc between the
gold standard Of the states and the silver
standard OF Mexico within two weeks.
How is q man going to sell goods or do
any business between the countries when
he mas got to make allowances for such
f1'lctuat ions. When / sell bill Of goods
to Mexican merchant on six months
time I've, got to figure the prices high
enough. 20 save my house in the event
that silver drops by one Of those violent
fluctuations before the day Of settlement
comes. The merchant has got to mark
the retail prices OH a 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
Jobter and the Mexican storekeeper
against these rapid uD and down move
mcnts Of the standards. The condition
is simply rulnous to trade. People will
not buy when prices are raised on then
My house may make tremendous profit
or barely save itself in a sale of goods on
six months time That isn't the way to
do business. You might as we'll have
Chinese wall between two countries as
these fluctuations. And this is what we
will have on 4 vastly greater scale if
the United States goes to silver stand
ard and Great Britain and the European
nations continue the gold standard. [
know what this thing Of two standards
means between Mexico and the States.
and I don't want to see it in our trade
with Great Britain and Europe"
A Dollars Worth of Labor.
a dollar worth so cents commands the
same labor in Mexico now that dollar
worth a dollar did ten or 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, a ton. That
tOllu1ClOu VI ldDOI DlluSS Lue COSI VI
ing and carrying out the ore down to 81
a ton. That kind Of labor built and
operates the cables, which take the place
of thousands of burro trains, at 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 80 cents ton.
This labor enables railroads to haul ores
at from 50 cents to 81 a ton. It>fgures
in the cost of the transportation 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
base bullion into molds at the furnace,
this fxity of wages on the basis of a
dollar deprecated to one-half it's value is
the chief factor which insures the profit.
What matters it if silver goes down if it
commands just as much labor as ever.
and il the lead in the. bullion can still
be sold for gold? The Shelters of Mexi-
pay 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 smelters Of Mexico advanced the
price they allowed the mine owners for
silver. They are now paying under some
contracts $1.O6 in Mexican money for
every ounce of silver found in the ore.s
Today the brick-making plant few
miles out Of Monterey, on the Mineral
railroad, is shipping 16O, 900 paving brick
to San Antonio, in Texas. 1t does this
and pays the ad valorem duty Of 25 per
cent. which the Wilson tariff levies on
brick importations. The contract for
this brick shipment was obtained at
San Antonio because this company put
in the lowest and best of twenty eight
bids. The Monterey company enjoys
the possession of excellent clay, but that
isn't what enables it to send brick to the
United States at a profit. It Outbid the
twenty-seven American brick-making
companies because it sells brick for
American money, worth 100 cents in
gold, and hires good labor for Mexican
money, worth SO cents in gold. This
company is paving three miles of Monte
rey streets with brick, displacing the
cobblestones of time immemoriai. #
put down block of the brick paving AZ
an object lesson, and the governor. Gen,
Bernardo Reyes, with keen perceptions
for a good thing snrdoro1 +hroo -, :l..,5,.c