The Portland daily press., 1897-12-24
WHAT BRYAN SEES IN TEXAS AND
MEXICO.
Eli Perkins on Cheap Cotton and Cheap
Silver.


Henderson, Tex, Dec. 17.-My trip
through the Southwest has taken me
through Tennessee, Texas and across in
to Mexico. | send good news from the
wheat and corn States. but sad news from
the cotton States.
When I asked Jefferson Crow, the noted
cotton buyer of Henderson, Tex, what
made cotton half the price Of last year, he
said:
We have raised too much cotton, sir.
Last year we raised 100000 bales and
got cents pound for it. This year we
have raised 10, COO 600 bales and the farmer
is getting 1-2 cents for 1t. The lO, OCo,-
000 bale crop this year will bring us $780,
600, 900 less than the 5000, 900 bale crop
raised last year. We cotton raisers are
unfortunate. -
And you can't raise cotton for 41.2
cents" I said.
No, sir. This price will bring our
farmers out in debt. Let me make com
parison between your high-priced North
ern crops and our low-priced Southern
crop. One good man in the South can
make, if he has good luck, ten bales OF
cotton worth $500. Why, ten fat hogs IN
Nebraska are worth 5000. II you should
ask an Illinois farmer if he raised ten
hogs he would laugh at you and say:
Ten hogs, sir9 Why, there are doz-
en- hogs playing around the barnyard here
and there are fifty in the oornfields!
Whist NAKED foar-cent oottonp" l
asked.
"Over-production, sir. We have
raised 1000, 900 bales more than the world
wants. -
but cotton was still lower in 1894, . I
suggested.
Yes, it was over so bale lower then,
and that makes the planters mad, for
they can't make Mckinley scapegoat.
Cleveland got it down to lower prices in
'94 by his VenezueIa message threatening
war with England and her spinners. If
Mckinley had gotten up war scare with
Spain we might have had three-cent cot
ton Yes,' continued Mr.. Grow, "the
present low price 10 caused by overpro-
duction, aided by the large importations
Of cheap twelve-cent and twenty cent
Thibet and Australian wool, which has
been taking the place of cotton. Next
year wool Will be dearer and more cotton
win be used Then we will put millions
of acres In Louisiana, Texas, Alabama
and Florida Into cane sugar-not beet
sugar, h4t cane sugar-whseh we raise
here in Henderson, Alexandria, and all
| 0yAr tha Rra1os and Pod piuaS hot ~
what has Accent cotton done to the
South" I asked, for the farmer oftener
gets that price than more
"It has turned all the cotton planters
over TO free silver
find all the salt water cotton States
are for free coinage. 1t is the old fallacy
OF Coin" with the poor planter, that
cotton has followed silver in the decline.
| The cotton planter now Is generally a
poor white or an ignorant negro, and
they are easily led BY the smart dema-
gogues. AS it looks now, if cotton does
not go up before the next Presidential
election, like wheat, meet and iron. the
| cotton States will be SOLID for free silver
Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and West
| Virginia, producing Northern products,
like wool, hemp, wheat and iron, will not
join in the free silver craze.
What did l see in Mexico?
| AT Ell Paso crossed the Rio Grande to
Juarez. Our 10C-cent American silv r
is on one side and the 40.cent Mexican
the river was FIVE cents. When / gave the
conductor silver dollar he handed me
back s2.15 in Mexican silver and a
ticket!
Mr.. Bryan will notice when he buys
American products that he pays 100 per
cent higher for them in Mexico than in
the States. Ham that costs him IL cents
xx,sn an6 II xan
800 in FL Paso win cost ss26 in Juarez
Does Mr.. Bryan find labor advanced in
proportion?
No. Labor has not doubled as it should
If poor Mexican peon got 90 cents a day
when Mexican silver was at par you will
| see him working for about rs cents now.
doesn't understand money. He knows he
is getting more silver than he did before,
and he is happy in his ignorance. Nei
Their is the Mexican farmer getting 100
per cent. more for his corn and meat.
This advance in Mexican products comes
slowly, but 1t will undoubtedly come
when the poems brains begin to work.
He will notice that every Mexican who
has held silver for twenty years has lost
more than half his wealth. If he had
SIC, 600 in silver then (worth $1,000 in
gold) he will have about 81 200 worth
now. I found it the Same in Japan and
China and India. Yes, 1900, Oo0, 600 peo-
Die in our half civilized nations, now
using debased silver, have lost more than
half of their wealth. Has any American,
Engli shman. German or Frenchman lost
cent through his oountry's silver?
The editor of the Express in San An
tonic asked Bryan: What good would it
do the 500, 00o,o D0 civilized people whose
silver is now as good as gold to go into a
scheme to double the value of the debased
silver owned by 1 200, 900, 600 of half saw
ages?
1sWhat good will it do US, he said, ito
leonard our'Own prosperity in order to