The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-09-23

same loss 20 laborers and farmers as 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, so and 10
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 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 / have
learned being 81. 80 per day, and these
wages are all paid in dollars worth at
the present time A cents.
At the grocery stores in 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 ex-
changed for the necessaries Of life at
such prices as the following: Sugar, 10
to IA cents per pound for the cheap,
dark, native production and 30 cents
per pound for American or German sug-
ar; potatoes, 8 cents per pound; butter.
90 to 80 cents per pound, the latter
price for American butter and the for
mer for the native unsalted quality;
salt, ID cents per pounds beans, 6 to 20
cents per pound; lard, "a cents; green
coffee, "A cents; tea, from $3.50 to
SO. so per pound; kerosene oil, 55 to 80
cents per gallon; vinegar, 81. go 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 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 its 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
healthful, home favoring tariff system.
Recently in the congress Of the United
States Mr.. Bailey of Texas in the course
Of speech in behalf of the free coinags
Of silver made this declarations:
We are ready to meet you on this issue-ths
issue that the money which is good enough for
the idlers who spend 1t, 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 IL
good enough for the bondholder, 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
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 30 in Mexico. The
free coinage of silver here has created
one money for the laborer and the farm.
er and another for the Londholder, 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 depressing policy in the United
States creates the very issue Mr.. Bailey
so enthusiastically proclaims, but the pol
icy he favors would establish the evil
and the injury to which he refers in q
country where now it does not exist.
Practical acquaintance with the results
Of free coinage of silver gives force to
the assertion that every laboring man.
should seek to prevent its adoption in
our country, every farmer should seek
to prevent it, every toiler for wages in
any line should seek to prevent it, that
every instinct Of favor for the weak and
equal opportunity for all demands its
prevention, and, to better apply the
Texas statesman's declaration, "by the
N "a i