Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1898-09-01
A Nebraska Man Explains Mexico's
Brand of Prosperity.
From the Washington Post.

Brand of Prosperity.
From the Washington Post.
II will not deny that there is a kind
Of prosperity in evidence in the Republic
of Mexico" said John \. McShane, of
Omaha, at the Arlington. Mr. McShane
is at the head of large mining concern
that has been engaged ia silver produc-
ton in the Mexican State OF chihuahua
for the past ten years.
1T is of this sort The Government
is largely back of it, and to the paternal
fostering Of the Diaz Administration it
is mainly due. The Government sub
sidizes brewerics, railroads, industrial
plants and aids in every way to build up
the material resources of the country.
Money is used with liberal hand, and
as a consequence there is much activity
and great apparent prosperity. The fact
that Mexico is on a silver basis does not
figure; it cant help being on that kind of
Il basis, but | should be sorry to see the
United States resort to any such policy.
Ten years of experience in that
country has forever set me against the
adoption Of monetary system which is
not only in disrcpute among the leading
nations of the world, but which is about
to be discarded by countries like japan,
Brazil and some of the smaller Spanish
American Governments that were form
crly on a silver basis The masses in
Mexico are in a worse condition than |
trust will ever bciall our aboring popu-
lation. This | can explain by referring
to matters that have come under my per-
sonal observation.
when the Sherman purchasing act
was in force, some six years ago, silver
was worth Sl2l, and a | nited States
dollar was worth in Mexico 100 cents in
Mexican money. The dollars of the two
countries were on 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 paw roll.
The money to cancel this expense was
shipped from Omaha, and it was ex-
changed for $4,000 of Mexican coin.
We operated general merchandise stores
the time ] speak Of, sold to our Mexican
employees bacon for 20 cents pound
"What are the conditions to-day We
still hire 800 men and give them exactly
the same scale of wages that they OBJ
tained prior to the slump in silver caused
by the repeal of the purchasing clause OF
the Sherman act. Our pay roll still
aggregates $4,000 a month. 70 meet
this we have shipped us like sum Of
nitcd States money; and there 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 $4,000 but $4,000 of Mexican
money, We have here madca clear gain
OF $4,000. Our employees still render
Us 100 cents worth Of work, for which
they used to oct 100 cents, and do yet as
far as the name goes, but in reality they
receive less than half of what should be
theirs, seeing that the Mexican coin in
which they are paid has shrunk to less
than half OF its 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 a pound; the price is now 10
cents 1t would still be so if he could
tender dollar as good as that given him
for his labor at the time of the repeal of
the Sherman law. The $4,000 spoke
of simply comes out of the labor Of the
country, and when the toiling class of
any nation is forced to such condition
it is stretching point to call the people
prosperous. If the fair and right thing
were done by these hard working miners
their wages would be doubled. The
man that now gets two dollars day is
justly entitled 81, but labor will bring
onl y what price is fixed in market, like
any commodity, and employers are not
yet far enough advanced in philanthropy
to voluntarily give more than the Gus
tomary rate.
80 the talk about the prosperity Of
Mexico in 50 far as it applies to the vast
body of its ctizens-the common peo-
ple-is a myth. If there is prosperity
at all it is not due to the silver standard
but in spite Of it.