St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1898-09-14

thereby invites capital dNsiring to take
advantage Of such conditions was prob
ably the determining factor in the prob
lem as 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's
statement that the conditions perpetual
ed by the free coinage Of silver are ZEN
tirely satisfactory to the people OF Mex
ico' is at all justified we give the fol-
lowing quotation from an editorial pub
lished in The Mexican Herald, the lead
ing daily paper Of Mexico, a 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 1t 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 as civilization When these chill
dren become men, they will not work, as their
fathers have, for small wage and be content.
There is no possibility Of installing
the meaning of this declaration or OF
denying it's 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 in
1878, and he refers to yard of cloth
which could have been bought with a
Mexican dollar in 1878, now increased
in price to 81. 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
protitably 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 it's
producers at $1.03, his illustration be-
comes mere childish play upon words
with evident desire to deceive
He says that wages are higher on an
average in Mexico than ever before and
still rising. I have a Mexican publica-
ton 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 rs 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 II and , cents in
American currency. was told at the
Zacatecas mines and at the Aguas Cali
entes smelter and at La Aurora wool.
en- 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
ton with their European rivals. HI
could have further said, had he beef
we'll informed on the subject, tina
American protected productions have
invaded Europe itself, recently increas
ing our exports in that line to total
never before attained, and that, too
without the aid of the almost prohibi
tive nonrevenue producing wall
keep out foreign competition" which
; Mr.. Bryan approvingly refers to as ON
result of free coinage in Mexico. HI
says that Mexican exporters have
, great advantage over competitors living
in gold standard countries. They mos
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 b,
the Mexican producer who sells for sill
yer, nor by the Mexican laborer VIII
works for silver, but is monopolized b.
the exporter who sells for gold and wit
it buys silver, as he would tobacco, a
its lowest market price and doles it GU
to the laborer and small producer.
Mr.. Bryan says he found American
in Mexico who stay there. There ar
probably not dozen Americans engag
ed in any form of common labor in al
of Mexico. They would starve to deaf
on the wages paid and could not equa
Mexican laborer in performing the Ia
Dor expected of them or in enduring tn
many privations necessarily incident
the lives of the working class in thi
land of the free and unlimited coinag
Of silver at the ratio of 10 to l..
And this is the land and these are tn
conditions ~ this is the system oil
servation ~ which from palace ca
window and information of which gair
ed from eulogistic banquet speeche
"more than ever convinced" Mr.. w. .
Bryan that the free coinage of silve
should be adopted by the American pee
pie. PERRY f. POWERS
City of Mexico.