, 1898-10-20

scented the Omaha district in the lower
house Of congress. The following in
terview with Mr.. McShane appeared in
the Washington Post of February 8,
1898:
II will not deny that there is a kind
Of prosperity in evidence in the Re-
public OF Mexico. 1t is of this sort:
The government is largely back of it
Diaz administration it is mainly due.
The government subsidies breweries,
railroads, industrial plants and aids in
every way to build up the material re-
sources of the country. Money is used
with a liberal hand and as a conse-
quence there is great activity and much
apparent prosperity. The fact that
Mexico is on the silver basis does not
figure; it can't help being on that kind
of a 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 a monetary system which Is
not only in disrepute among the lead
ing nations of the world, but which is
about to be discarded by countries like
Japan, Brazil. and some of the small
er Spanish-American governments that
were formerly on a silver basis. The
masses in Mexico are in a worse con-
dition thar ! trust will ever befall our
laboring population. This | can explain
by referring to matters that have come
under my personal observation.
when the Sherman purchasing act
was in force some seven years ago,
silver was worth $1.21, and & United
States dollar was worth in Mexico 100
cents in Mexican money. The dollar of
the two countries were 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 approxi-
matcly $4,000 a month to meet the pay
roll. The money to ANGEL this expense
was shipped from Omaha. and it vas
exchanged for $4,000 in Mexican coin.
We operate 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 today? We
still hire 300 men and give them exactly
the same scale of wages that obtained
prior to the slump in silver caused by
the repeal Of the purchasing clause Of
the Sherman Gc:. Cur pay roll still ag-
gregates $1,000 a month. To meet this
We have shipped us a like sum of Unit
ed States money. and here is where the
pc mt of difference comes III. Instead
of exchanging that amount at our bank
for it, nominal equivalent. we get for it
not 10000. but 1922, 900 of Mexican
money.
1--WE have here made a clear gain OF
$4,000. Our employees still render us
100 cents worth Of work, for which they
used to get 100 cents, and do yet, as far
as the lame goes. but in reality they
receive less han half of what should
be theirs. seeing that the Mexican coin
in which they are paid has shrunk t O
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 As
cents. 1t would still be so if he could
tender a dollar as good as that given
him for his labor at the time of the re-
| spoke of simply comes out of the la
Dor of the country. and when the toll
ing class of any nation is forced to such
a condition. it is stretching a point to
call the people prosperous.
IF the fair and right thing were lone
by these Woodworking miners, their
wages would be doubled. The man that
now gets 81 a day is justly entitled to
81, but labor will bring only what price
is fixed in market, like any commodity.
and employers are not yet far enough
advanced in philanthropy to v%oluntari-
ly give more than the customary rate.
S the talk about prosperity in
Mexico. in so far as it applies to the
vast body of its citizens-the common
peoples a myth. If there is pros
perity at all, it is not due to the silver
standard. but in spite of it."
l. THE FREE COINAGE OF GOLD .
= AND SILVER INTO PRIMARY =
y AND REDEMPTION MONEY AT