The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1898-02-24
Our Washington Letter.

Some OF MT. Bryan Democratic 1flenuS
and associates who have had practical
business experience in Mexico do not
agree with the glowing picture which he
brought back from that country, nor do
they agree with his theory that the free
coinage of silver is responsible for what
ever of apparent or real prosperity exists
there Ex- Congressman McShane, who
formerly represented the Omaha, Ne
braska, district in Congress, but who now
has large mining interests in Mexico
and spends much of his time there, says
that his friend Nh Bryan is entirely mis-
taken in the conclusion at which he ar
rives. Considering the fact that Mr.. Nc
Shane is a Democrat, a fellow Nebraskan
with Mr.. Bryan, and has had practical
business experience ia Mexico for about
as many years as Mr.. Bryan spent days
there in his recent trip, his conclusions
concerning matters so deliberately discuss
land of the 45- cent dollar are interesting.
Mr.. McShane has been spending a few
days here renewing his acquaintance with
members of Congress, and in conversation
regarding Mr.. Bryan's recent utterances
regarding Mexican prosperity he said:
sit is of this sort The government is
fostering of the Diaz administration it is
mainly due. The government subsidies
breweries, railroads, industrial plants,
and aids in every way to build up the
material resources Of the country. Money
is used with a liberal hand and rs d con-
sequence there is much activity and great
apparent prosperity. The fact that Mex
leo is on a silver basis does not figure it
can'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 coun-
try has forever set me against the adop-
ton of a monetary system which is not
only in dispute among the leading nations
of the world, but which is about to be dis
carded by countries like Japan, Brazil,
and some of the smaller Spanish American
governments that were formerly on a
silver basis. The masses in Mexico are in
a worse condition than l trust will ever
befall our laboring population, This l
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 S1.2l, and a United States
dollar was worth in Mexico 100 cents in
Mexican money. The dollars of the two
countries were ON a parity. At this time
we employed about 800 men in our mines,
their pay ranging from 81 to - so per
day. 1t took approximately SO, 900 a
month to meet the payroll. The money
to cancel this expense was shipped from
Omaha, and it was exchanged for SO, 900
of Mexican coin We operated general
merchandise stores along with our min
ing concern, and at 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 obtained
prior to the slump in silver caused by the
repeal of the purchasing clause of the
Sherman act. Our payroll still aggre-
have shipped us like sum of United
States money, and here is where the point
of difference comes in. Instead of ex-
changing that amount at our bank for its
nominal equivalent we get for it not So
600, but S22, 900 of Mexican money We
have here made clear gain of S12,O
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 name
goes, butin reality they receive less than
half of what should be theirs. seeing
that the Mexican coin in whic 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 cannot buy
it with deprecated money for 20 cents
pound; the price now is As 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 S12, 600 spoke of simply comes out
of the labor of the country, and when the
toilng class OF any nation is forced to such
a condition it is stretching point to call
the people prosperous. If the fair and
right thing were done by these hard work
ing miners their wages would be doubled.
The man that now gets 81 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 advanced in philanthropy to
voluntarily 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 its citzens-the common people
is myth. If there is prosperity at all it
is not due to the silver standard, but in
spite of it,
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