Middletown transcript., 1898-07-23
WAGES OF THE TOILER.
Mexican Labor the Poorest Paid
on This Continent.
CHEAP oURRBNoY's SURE EFFECT.

CHEAP OURRENOY's SURE EFFECT.
Free Coinage Causes q Loss to the Work
man of Half the Value of His Earnings.
Rich Profit at Expense of Poor-Theory
and Practice COntrasted.
TThis series of letters is the result Of per-
sonal visit to Mexico made by the writer
early in 1898 as special representative of the
Michigan Republican Newspaper Association
to investigate the monetary system of that
country.]
During the last national campaign in
the United States and in the several
state campaigns of last fall persistent
efforts were made on behalf Of the ad-
vocates of the free coinage of silver to
persuade the workingmen of our coun-
try-those who dispose of their labor by
the day or week or month-that especial
advantage would be secured to them
through the currency change asked for.
1t was urged to them that through free
coinage more money would be circulat-
ed and wages would be increased and
that all the injury predicted to occur to
other interests and other classes would
directly result in advancing the inter-
ests of the workingman. To the farmers
ii 4hof fy.oo oil lryoT- Id
pei higher prices for their products, it
would enable them to pay their debts in
a cheaper currency, and it would give
them unusual and hitherto unpossessed
advantages over all other producing in
terests Banks and corporations were
denounced, and it was made to appear
that the operation of the free coinage Of
silver would in some way injuriously
affect these institutions to the advan-
tage of the classes sought to be arrayed
against them.
The greater producers and large en-
ployers of labor were included in the
list of interests against which appeals
were made and prejudice created, and
1t was made to appear that SO peculiar
and so discriminating would be the op-
Grafton of law providing for the free
and unlimited coinage of silver at the
ratio of 16 to l that while the small
producers would be benefited the great
producing corporations and iron kings
and lumber barons, as they chose to
term them, would have their profits
limited and lessened, and that while
the income of the employer Of labor
would be curtailed through free silver
system the wages of his employees
would be promptly increased.
If it is thought by any reader of this
review of free coinage assertions that it
is in the least degree exaggerated or
overdrawn, permit me to call his atten-
tion to the leading and more especially
to the closing features Of the campaign
of 1896 in behalf of the free coinage Of
silver. Is it not true that denunciation
of banks and corporations formed the
principal theme of free silver orators
and free silver editors? Was it not urg-
ed by professional labor agitators before
labor organizations and to laboring men
whenever addressed that the adoption
of free coinage would bestow upon them
advantages over their employers which
they had not before possessed?
Labor and Wages In Mexico.
One of the important purposes of my
visit to Mexico, where the free and un-
limited coinage of silver is now and has
been in operation since the mint was
first established in 1887, was to learn if
possible by observation and inquiry rel
ative to the practical effects of that sys-
tenn what grounds existed for appeals
to workingmen in behalf of such
change in the currency laws of the
United States and what reasons existed
in fact for any expectation that work
ingmen and small producers would be
benefited rather than injured through
such a change.
I shall not seek to create prejudice
against the coinage system of Mexico
through mere presentation of the fact
that the men and women who are the
daily toilers here are the poorest paid
laborers on this continent if not in any
civilized section of the entire globe.
But / desire to state just here that to
the continuance of the free and unlimit-
ed coinage of silver by Mexico is due
the loss to the workingmen of this coun-
try of more than half the value of their
daily earnings.
Had Mexico coined its own silver and
upheld its value through establishing
and maintaining the redemption priv
ilege, as has been done by almost every
civilized nation on the globe, the Mex
ican laborer could purchase today more
than double the quantity of food or
clothing his wages will now command.
This burden of loss by reason of adher-
ence on the part of Mexico to none
tary standard which is as completely |
thing of the past as the brass candle |
stick or the tallow dip has fallen almost |
on the shoulders of the laborers
of Mexico, and it is being borne by them
today. The government of Mexico,
which is a government of and for the |
influential and we'll to do absolutely, |
finds means of profting through the free
coinage of silver. Capitalists and cor
porations and banks find means of in
creasing their profits through this pol
icy, but the unfortunate from whom all |
their extra profits come, the losers from
whom all others are gaining, are the Ia
boring men and their women and chill
dren. Nor is this result of the free coin
age of silver at all UNIQUE or peculiar to |
Mexico. 1t is true Of every other free
coinage country, and it would be true
in the United States if such system
were adopted there. 1t could no more be
prevented in kind if not in degree than
the Mississippi river can be prevented
from continuing its course to the gulf
Or the night and day interrupted in
their succession. 1t is not even sought
10 be denied in Mexico that the cur
rency system of the country gives the
sapitalist an advantage over the laborer