Middletown transcript., 1898-07-23
which is not possessed in gold standard
Silver Robs the Toiler.

| tainment Of Mr.. Bryan on the occasion
! "a combination CT French capitalists
1 has been formed for the purpose of man
ufEcturing shoes and leather goods for
| sale i'll Europe, calculating to realize a
substantial profit from the employment
! Of cheap Mexican labor upon silver
| basis and selling their product for gold. :"
VIII the workingmen of the United
States t.lsa notice of the fact that
"cheap labor and "silver basis are
terms which persistently go together
here. and cheap labor would necessarily
accompany silver basis wherever the
latter was established?
The adoption of free coinage of silver
il the United States would not repro
duce in our country all the conditions in
existence in Mexico today, but it would
create there che currency valuation in
which to pay for labor and another in
which to count cost and secure profits.
In The Mexican Financier of January
occurs this sentence:
Here, then is a definite statement by very
conservative man, whose addresses on oriental
matters we have often quoted, to the effect
that India, like Mexico, is profiting Industrial
ly by the combination of silver and cheaply
paid labor
1t will be noticed that the quotation
"profting industrially, which Mexico
is said to be experiencing, does not pre-
tend to include the maker and producer
of this profit, but classes it as an ele-
ment a. % worthy of consideration
as the "conL.-1;,t to1 Of silver" by which
labor here is made cheaper by half than
it otherwise would be. The working
men of the United States have been and
are Eeing urged to assist in securing the
adoption of the free coinage of silver in
order to secure for themselves somo
promised advantage or alleged profit,
while it is well understood fact con-
stantly commented Oh here in Mexico,
that labor is the one commodity first
and most depressed through free silver.
Viewed from any practical and applica-
BILE point of observation, it is not even
imaginable that the free and unlimited
coinage of silver in the United States
could have any other effect save that Of
making the rich richer and the poor
poorer, as it has done and is doing in
Mexico.
Distress of the Laborer.
had many times heard it asserted
before coming to Mexico that the ma
tives Of this country were worthless as
laborers, that they had no desire to earn
better wages and that they would not
work steadily no matter what eompen-
sation was given or promised them. In
part only this is true, and it is given
such truth as they are now enduring,
the free coinage of silver being lead
ing factor in their present distress. But
was told by the managers of the iron
mines at Durango and of the silver
mines at Zacatecas that very many Of
their Mexican employees were as steady
and reliable as are the workmen of any
other country. Some of them have been
employed at these mines for many
years, and their labor has secured for
the mine owners, most of whom are res
idents of Europe, the almost fabulous
fortunes which these mines have yield
ed. Possibly it may ease the conscience
of these millionaire mine owners to in
sist and to have their assertions accept
ed that their payment of starvation
wages in a currency worth less than
half its face value is justified because of
the fact that their faithful laborers
could not appreciate better wages or
better currency conditions.
At the great Guggenheim silver smell
ter at Aguas Calientes found several
hundred native Mexicans at work, that
great industry being entirely conducted
with their labor, directed by five or six
German and American department. fore
men. Native workmen conducted the
castings and endured the fierce heat of
the smelling fires. They separated the
ores upon their receipt from the mines,
according to quality or desirability for
the several furnaces They handled the
precious product of the smelter in all its
stages from crude ore to silver bars and
attended to its preparation for ship
ment. And for these services the Mex
ican workmen at this smelter receive
from 25 to A cents day in a currency
worth less than 10 and % cents in the
country in which their employers live
luxuriously.
Practically all the industries of the
City of Mexico are conducted with ma
tive labor Native Mexicans are con-
ductors and street car drivers, they put |
up the electric light wiring and attend
to the lamps, they do nearly all the
building and have charge of municipal
of the cities and the soldiers of the re-
public. Indeed the president of Mexico
today is himself an illustration of the
possibilities of the native Mexican
when assisted by opportunity and ia
voring circumstances. 1t is most as
suredly not true that conditions here,
which are especially favorable to cap
ital and wealth by reason of Mexico'a
currency system, so exist because the
native laborers of the country would
not assist in upholding improvement
and do not desire to have it otherwise.
They are the victims of system and of
conditions which serve to allow them
but a miserable existence, and they
have no choice but to accept the unfor-
tunate allowance.
During my sojourn here have talk
ed with American railroad engineers
and conductors whose "runs'' in some
instances extend out of Mexico to El
Paso or San Antonio, and have found
not one of them favorable to the free
coinage of silver in the United States.
AS was truly said by conductor on
the Mexican Central railroad whom !
talked with on my way to this city,
The American workingmen who arc
now favorable to free silver would be
its bitterest opponents if they could fore
see, as am sure can, its injurious ef-
sects upon labor in the United States.
PERRY E. POWERS
City of Mexico.