Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1898-02-19

Itotiou oIIu taIIu. WucI6 TUG SO1O
price has fallen one-half the Mexican
price Is about the same that it was in
1873.
On the other hand, those who export
from Mexico have great advantage
over competitors living in gold standard
countries. For instance, q coffee raiser
in Mexico because of the rise in ex.
change has Jared much better than the
planter who has cultivated coffee on q
gold basis and who had found his in.
come diminishing while his debts and
fixed charges refused to fall. One of the
gold men Of my own state has laid aside
his political scrurles sufficiently to in
vest in large tract Of land near Tam
pico, upon which he is planting the
coffee berry. He is not the only Ameri-
can citizen who is seeking in Mexico
the prosperity for which he voted in the
United States.
Large Importations Of Raw Materials.
The cotton mills Of Mexico now con-
Eume more cotton than Mexico pro-
duces, but the acreage is increasing. If,
as some expect, theytind it possible to
produce upon Mexican soil all the cot.
ton needed by their mills, the Mexicans
will become dangerous competitors of
the gold standard countries. At present
they are handicapped by having to i'm.
port SO large proportion of their raw
material. In reply to the argument that
Is sometimes made-namely, that we
can protect our manufacturers by still
higher duties-I contend that we can
only do so by increasing the disadvan.
tage under which American farmers
now labor. The lot of our farmer is
hard enough when the price of what he
buys falls in the same proportion as the
price of his own product, because even
then his taxes, debts and other fixed
charges do not fall. If, however, we
maintain the price of manufactured
goods by high tariff, the burdens of
the farmer will be SO increased as to
make his ultimate bankruptcy certain.
l might mention in this connection
that l found many of our protected
manufacturers selling their wares in
Mexico in competition with their Euro
pean rivals At one store found lamps
and lamp chimneys made in Missouri,
hammers and shovels made in Philadel-
phia, cutlery made in Massachusetts,,
also Yale locks; Disston saws, and hinges
made in the United States. California
wines and canned fruits and Chicago
canned meats find market in Mexico.
At Guanajuato is a theater, recently
completed, the structural iron of which
came from the United States. At sever.
al places l saw electrical apparatus of
American construction. In many in.
stances an additional discount is given
by American manufacturers upon ex.
ported goods.
Eleyenth.-That wages ore not only
higher on an average than ever before,
but still rising. Progress or retrogres-
sion can DO determined only by compar.
ing the present with the past. The con-
dition of the laboring classes in Mexico
can be improved, but it is fact that
they are in better condition than they
were n.lS73, when the Mexican dollar
was worth more than our gold dollar,
and believe that their condition is
much better today than it would have
been If Mexico had adopted the gold
standard when the United States did.
1t Is not fair to compare the wages in
one country with the wages in another
country without first making allowance
for differences in efficiency, differences
in climatic conditions, differences in
habits, etc.
Differences That Cannot Ec Ignored.
Even within tho boundaries of our
own country there are differences too
great to be ignored. During President
Harrison's administration Secretary
Rusk issued document entitled
Wages of Farm Labor In the United
States" REPORT No. 4, year 1892. Page
l6 Of this report contains . table show
ing that in 1892 the average wages for
farm labor without boardD was $I2.5O
per month in South Carolina, $13. 30 in
North Carolina, $3.50 in Georgia and
sl3.15 in Alabama, while in California
the wages paid were S36. so and in the
state of Washington $3.50, the average
for all the states for that year being
sIS.60. For farm labor with board the
wages varied from IS. 40 to S25 and
averaged sl2.5a.
The report says that white farm labor
in the United States received $3.50 per
annum; that the same labor received
about $50 in Great Britain and 500 in
Germany. refer to this report because
1t was issued by Republican authority
and shows that under the operation Of
the same financial system and the same
tariff system farm labor received three
times as much in one part Of the Union
as 1t did in another part. When it is
remembered that the wages paid in
each state were ascertained by averages,
it will be seen that the difference be-
tween the best paid labor and the poor
est paid labor is still greater. The re.
port also shows that in the United
States Caucasian farm labor receives
more than three times as much as the
same labor receives in Germany, al
though both countries have gold stand
ard and a protective tariff. Between
1916 and 1884 England had o gold
standard and the United States had q
double standard, with silver as the
money in common use, and yet laboring
men were better OF here than in Eng.