The true northerner., 1898-08-17


"a pence. the figure for the current year. The
difficulties with which the government has TO
cope when every fall of penny per ounce in
silver adds Si,l62,lT To the nations fixed
| charges are too apparent to need explanation,
and. although there was a cheerful tone in the
last message of President Diaz to congress with
regard TO silver it would be rash to predict
that its price may not further recede uns:, the
Mexican dollars are not even worth 23 pence.
The above information suggests why
it was a matter of grave concern, which
was given careful consideration before
the conclusion was reached that Mexico
should continue TO stand by silver. The
fact that the free coinage of silver re-
duces by half the price Of labor and
thereby invites capital desiring TO take
advantage of such conditions was prob
ably the determining factor in the prob
lem Us to whether or not Mexico should
stand by silver
Labor Conditions.
In order, however, that there shall be
no question as TO whether Mr.. Bryan
statement that the conditions perpetual
ed by the free coinage of silver are zen
tirely satisfactory TO the people of Mex
lowing quotation from an editorial pub
lished in The Mexican Herald, the lead
ing daily paper of Mexico, paper ex-
tremely friendly TO Mr.. Bryan and, as
will be noted, an advocate of the con-
tinuance of his peculiar financial policy
in Mexico for time at least. In an is
sue of the last week in February, some
time after the visit of Mr.. Bryan to
Mexico and after the publication of his
views as to affairs here, The Herald
said:
Meantime Mexico will push forward, aided
by her cheap money and the consequent pro-
lection of the gold premium, which acts as
bounty. But the time will come when il will
be desirable that our money shall be made
good money abroad. Labor conditions here
will slowly change, and the children of the
peon educated in the public schools, will de-
velop those wants which are at the basis of
what We know "a civilization. When these chill
dren become men, they will not work as their
fathers have, for a small wage and be content.
There is no possibility of mistaking
the meaning of this declaration or Of
denying its justification. The free coin
age of silver in Mexico with its attend
ant results can exist only until those
wants are developed which are at the
basis of civilization. The children ed
ucated in the public schools will not
endure the effects of free silver as their
fathers have endured them.
Mr.. Bryan says the Mexican dollar
will buy almost as much as it would i'll
1878, and he refers TO yard OF cloth
which could have been bought with
Mexican dollar in 1878, now increased
in price TO S2. 10, with transportation
and tariff added, as an illustration of
the bad effects Of the monetary standard
of the outside world rather than that
of Mexico. But with the silver in which
this cloth price is to be paid now being
profitably produced for from 30 TO 40
cents per ounce measured by the same
gold standard of value as is the cloth,
whereas in 1878 silver was held by its
producers at Sl.O3, his illustration be-
comes mere childish Slay upon words
with evident desire TO deceive
He says that wages are higher on an
average in Mexico than ever before and
still rising. l have a Mexican publica-
tion before me which quotes from an
official report addressed to the Belgian
department of foreign affairs TO the
effect that labor in the most profitable
investing and producing districts of
Mexico rarely exceeds % centavos per
workingman per day" and Mr.. Bryan
knows that the rate of wages which is
rarely exceeded is usually above the av-
erage. Twenty five centavos per day is
worth between III and IL cents in
American currency. l was told at the
Zacatecas mines and at the Aguas Cali
entes smelter and at La Aurora wool
Ell factory in the same city, and the
same information has been many times
repeated in the City of Mexico, that
wages for the same line of employment
had not increased in Mexico during the
past ten years
Americans In Mexico.
Mr.. Bryan says he found the produc-
tions of our protected manufacturers ev-
erywhere in Mexico, selling in competi-
tion with their European rivals. He
could have further said, had he been
well informed OH the subject, that
American protected productions have
invaded Europe itself, recently increas-
ing our exports in that line to totals
never before attained, and that, too,
without the aid of the almost prohibi-
tive nonrevenue producing wall TO
keep out foreign competition" which
Mr.. Bryan approvingly refers to as one
result of free coinage in Mexico. He
says that Mexican exporters have
great advantage over competitors living
in gold standard countries. They most
assuredly have and that great advan-
tage is the cheap labor they secure as
direct result of the free coinage of sill
ver 1t is an advantage not shared by
the Mexican producer who sells for sill
yer, nor by the Mexican laborer who
works for silver, but is monopolized by
the exporter who sells for gold and with
it buys silver, as he would tobacco, at
its lowest market price and doles it out
to the laborer and small producer.
Mr. Bryan says he found Americans
in Mexico who stay there. There are
probably not dozen Americans engag-
= II