Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1898-09-01

for the privilege of practicing their
profession in addition 10 all other forms
of taxation they must meet architects,
/ $l5 per month; ministers of every
creed, $40 per month; retail grocers,
81, 400 per year in this city and district
lumber yards, 81 200 per year; cloth
ing stores, 5000 per year; hotels,
So, 400, and so on through list which
includes every form of business and ev-
cry line of occupation and industry,
All these eXactions, be it remember
ed, are in addition TO the usual taxes on
real estate, live stock and such like pos
sessions For instance, in addition to
the stamp requirements and other taxes
bakers are compelled to pay tax of $2i
per year for each oven they make use of
or possess and butchers are taxed $3. 80
per head for all cattle slaughtered and
! 81 per head for hogs and sheep. These
facts Indicate how it is made possible
for the government of Mexico to bestow
such subsidies as are announced in The
/ Mexican Herald, mot to exceed So,
| 600, 900" TO the Mexican Southern rail
way, limited, and to reimburse the ma
tional treasury for the enormous losses
and grave concern" heretofore alluded
to through depreciation and fluctuation
in the value of its free coinage cur
rency, but they afford no explanation as
to the merits Mr.. Bryan could have found
in the system here which leads him to
urge its adoption in the United States.
1t cannot be questioned or denied that
the same loss i'll revenue, the same fiuc-
tuation in value, the same unusual re-
quirements relative to meeting largely
increased national expenses, and the
same loss to laborers and farmers us are
now being experienced in Mexico would
accompany the free coinage of silver in
the United States should the misfortune
of its adoption ever be inflicted upon
our country.
Wages and Their Purchasing Power.
The wages paid for common labor
range from as low as 20 cents per day
for full grown men TO 81, 80 and 20
cents, the latter rate being paid only in
cases Of temporary need at points dis
tant from the haunts Of the laborers,
for the novels they inhabit for u few
hours during the nighttime cannot be
called homes. The wages Of native tai
lOrs, printers, painters clerks and such
like better occupations rarely exceed 81
per day, the highest in any of the fore
going occupations of which l have
learned being $3.50 per day, and these
wages are all paid i'll dollars worth at
the present time A ~ cents
At the grocery stores i'll this city, al
most under the shadow Of the national
mint, Mexican dollars the only money
Of the laborer and farmer and toiler for
wages in any capacity, must be OK
changed for the neceSsaries Of life at
such prices as the following: Sugar 10
TO ii cents per pound for the cheap
dark, native production and % cents
per pound for American or German sug-
ar; potatoes, cents per pound; butter
80 to 80 cents per pound, the latter
price for American butter and the for
mer for the native unsalted quality;
salt, IA cents per pound; beans, 6 TO 20
cents per pound; lard, "a cents green
coffee, A cents; tea, from $1.50 to
81. so per pound; kerosene oil, 80 to so
cents per gallon; vinegar, $l.G0 per
gallon; baking powder, $l.75 per
pound and so ON through the list
These prices conclusively prove that the
free coinage Mexican dollar is but A
cent representative even in the home of
its adoption and under the flag whose
stamp it bears The so called "wall of
protection" created by free coinage in
Mexico, so favorably alluded to by Mr..
Bryan and other advocates of it's crea-
ton in the United States is not only
devoid of the best features of the Amer
lean protective tariff system, which Mr..
Bryan and most of his fellow partisans
have always opposed, but it exacts most
from articles not produced here and vio-
lates every important principle of a
healthful, home favoring tariff system
Recently in the congress of the United
States Mr.. Bailey of Texas in the course
of IL speech i'll behalf of the free coinage
of silver made this declarations:
We are ready to meet you on this issue-the
issue that the money which is good enough for
the idlers who spend il, that the money which
is good enough for the poor is good enough for
the rich, that the money the laborer receives
for his toll and the merchant for his wares is
good enough for the bondhoder. and, by the
Eternal, he shall be compelled to take It'll
The present financial policy of the
United States secures and maintains
precisely the conditions Mr. Bailey de-
mands, but such conditions would not
exist one hour after the election of q
free coinage congress and free coinage
president The money the laborer re-
ceives for his toll and the farmer for his
produce is as good in our country today
as the money of the bondholder and the
rich, but it is not so in Mexico. The
free coinage of silver here has created
one money for the laborer and the farm
er and another for the bondhulder, the
capitalist and the very rich, and through
it the strong and the rich are always
the gamers. The effort being made for
the adoption Of this class favoring, la
Dor Expressing policy in the United
States creates the very issue Mr. Bailey
so enthusiastically prcclaims, but the pol.
icy he favors would establish the evil
and the injury TO which he refers in a
country where now it does not exist
| Practical acquaintance with the results