Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1898-02-19
Writes About Business and Money in
Mexico,
IFrom our Washington Correspondents

friend Mr.. Bryan is entirely mistaken
in the conclusion at which he arrives
Considering the fact that Mr.. McShane
Is Democrat, a fellow -Nebraskiar
with Mr.. Bryan, and has practical bus
| iness experience in Mexico for about as
many years as Mr.. Bryan spent days
there in his recent trip, his conclusions
concerning matters so elaborately dis.
cussed by Mr.. Bryan on his return from
the land of the 45-cent dollar are inter.
esting. Mr.. McShane has been spending
few days here renewing his acquain.
tance with members OF Congress, and
in a conversation regarding Mr. Bryan
recent utteraGces regarding Mexican
prosperity, he said:
ut is OF this sort. The government
is largely back OF it, and to the paternal
fostering Of the Diaz administration il
is mainly due. The government subsi-
dies breweries, railroads, industrial
plants, and aids in every way to build
uD the material resources of the coun-
try. Money is used with liberal hand
and as consequence there is much
activity and great apparent prosperity.
The fact that Mexico is on a silver
basis does not figure; itcan't help being
on that kind of basis, but l should be
sorry to see the United States resort to
any such policy.
Ten years of experience in that
country has forever sat me against the
adoption of a monetary system which is
not only in disrepute among the leading
nations OF the world, but which is about
to be discarded by the countries like
Japan, Brazil, and some of the smaller
Spanish-American governments that
were formerly on silver basis. The
masses in Mexico are in worse condi-
tion than trust will ever betall our
laboring population. This 1 can ex-
plain by referring to matters that have
come under my personal observation.
when the Sherman purchasing act
was in force, some seven years ago, sill
yer was worth Sl.21, and United States
dollar was worth in Mexico 100 cents in
Mexican money. The dollars OF the two
countries we're on a parity. AT this
time we employed about 300 men in our
mines, their pay ranging from 81 to
$3.50 per day. 1t took approximately
$4,000 a month to meet the payroll.
The money to cancel this expense was
shipped from Omaha, and was exchanged
for $40, 600 OF Mexican coin. We oper-
ated general merchandise stores along
with our mining concern, and, at the
time ] speak OF, sold to our Mexican
employees bacon for 20 cents a pound.
What are the conditions to-day?
We still hire 800 men and give them
exactly the same scale of wages that
obtained prior to the slump of silver
caused by the repeal of the purchasing
clause of the Sherman act. Our pay
roll still aggregates $4,000 a month.
To meet this we have shipped us like
sum of the United States money, and
here is where the point of difference
comes in. Instead of exchanging that
amount at our bank for its nominal
equivalent we get for it not $40 900, but
S22 600 of Mexican money. We have
made clear gain of $4,000. Our en-
ployees still render us 100 cents worth
of work, for which they used to get 100
cents, and do yet as far as the name
goes, but in reality they receive less
than half of what should be theirs, see
ing that the Mexican coin in which
they are paid has shrunk to less than
half of it's former value.
''But there is more still. When the
Mexican miner goes to buy bacon he
finds that in rendering payment he can
not buy it with deprecated money for
20 cents pound; the price now is 40
cents. 1t would still be so il he could
tender dollar as good as that given
him for his labor at the time OF the re-
peal of the Sherman law. The S12, 900 |
spoke of simply comes out of the labor
of the country, and when the toiling
class OF any nation is forced to such al
condition it is stretching point to call
the people prosperous. II the fair and
right thing were done by these hard
working miners their wages would be
doubled. The man that now gets SO a.
day is justly entitled to 81, but labor
will bring only what price is fixed in
the market, like any commodity, and
employers are not yet far enough ad-
vanced in philanthropy to yoluntar-
lily give more than the customary rate.
$50 the talk about the prosperity of
Mexico in SO far as it applies to the
vast body OF the citizens-the common
people-is a myth. II there is prosper
ity at all 1t is not due to the silver
standard, but In spite OF it,"