The herald., 1897-08-26
CHAT ABOUT MEXICO
WILLIAM v. LANPHAR TELLS
INTERESTING FACTS
Mexican Gold Has Appreciated, But
the Silver Has Not Deprecated.
Prosperity Without Tariff

About four years ago the Mexican
government was cramped for funds to
pay 100000 per month indemnity money
to this country, and all the government
employees contributed ten per cent of
their salaries for one month, and the
secretary of the treasury his salary for
one year to assist the government to
meet it's obligation without borrowing
money
This fact of itself is pretty good illus
tration of the kind of material of which
the Mexican governments employees are
made, and a little more insight may be
obtained of the internal workings of that
country from the talk with William V.
Lanphar of 165 North Workman street,
this city, who says:
II have lived in the state of Sinaioa,
Mexico, for thirty-four years. My busi-
ness there is raising the mescal plant,
stock and mercantile business. l have
made during this time several visits to
this country, and have lived in this city
for the past three years, where l came
to put my children in school and give
them the advantages of society.
"I have been a careful observer of the
great change that has been going on
in the past twenty years between GOLD
and silver, the one going up in price and
the other correspondingly down, be-
cause when l first came to this country
after 1878 I found l had to pay 10 per
cent exchange on my money. The next
| time I came I paid 20 per cent, and the
M 10
Mexican dollars were worth only so cents.
| and now they are wort even less. So
I saw very soon that the banking syn
dicates of London and New York We're
getting corner on the gold of the world
and were raising the price of it as the
corner was secured.
"In Mexico gold has gone up, but silver
| has remained at the same price. For
merly gold was worth SIG per ounce, and
now it is worth s25 per ounce, while sill
yer has always been worth 81 per ounce,
and is worth the same today. The miner
brings his silver bullion to the merchant
and receives 81 per ounce in goods or
cash for it. l came from there in June
last and bought and sold silver for 81
| per ounce, the same as l did twenty five
years ago.
"I don't believe that Mexico can
be forced to the gold standard, because,
first, there is no gold in circulation in
that country; second, all business is
done on a silver basis and the country
is prospering as never before under that
| system; third, silver mining will always
pay in Mexico, as they pay their miners
in silver and receive silver in return
and lose nothing, while in the gold coun-
| tries they pay their miners in gold and
receive silver in return, losing thereby
| the exchange between the two metals
Besides, most of the silver miners in
Mexico take their silver and work a
gold mine with it. and if the gold mine
barely pays expenses they have their
exchange of the mine, and export the
gold instead of the silver.
MANY gold men say Mexico has to
pay the interest on her foreign debt with
gold and she cannot stand that. All the
government of Mexico will have to do is
to order that a certain per cent Of all
duties on goods imported from foreign
countries shall be paid in gold and she
will get the gold to pay her interest with
out disturbing the unrivaled progress of
her home industries.
"The gold men also say that the mer-
chants of Mexico will be ruined by this
heavy exchange, but it will only be a
question of the merchants changing their
commerce from imported goods to home
made goods; and Mexico is now prepared
to manufacture everything she needs
and the merchants make better profits on
homemade goods than they do on for
,eign goods; the homemade goods are
bought with silver and sold for silver,
and there is NO exchange to pay.
Mexico is a country of great natural
resources and can be self-sustaining If
she is cut off from the import trade of
other nations, and do not think the
Mexican government will be SO unwise