The San Francisco call., 1898-03-13
MEXICAN COINAGE AND WAGES.


 N the official account of his Mexican tour MT. Bryan says Mexico IS delightful place to visit. Travel on the main lines is safe, comfortable and cheap as in the United States
 That he did not diverge from the main lines is quite evident from his conclusions He found many people there from the gold standard countries en- gagged in business of various sorts. He does not port finding many laboring people from this country there, and the reason is obvious when he comes to discuss wages. On this subject he says that wages better than in IS73 when the Mexican silver dol lar at premium the gold dollar. From this the inference is plain that it is bad thing for labor to have silver equal shade better than gold at ratio of I6H to l..
 No one disputes that the Mexico of to-day is more prosperous than the Mexico of the past There IS no sorcery in the reason for it, and conJuring IS not necessary to discover it. Mexico was for years the scene of constant revolutions; her property was raded by rapacious chiefs who competed with each other in despoiling her industries Inc rights of person and property insecure, and, where that is the rule, prosperity is but little known begnning with the firm administration ot the great Juarez this spirit of violence and spol1atlon was gradually checked: Diaz has long conquered it entirely, and foreign capital has laid lines of transportation Prop erty being safe has some for being sought by
  progressed and her prosperity has improved MT. Bryan attributes this only to the silver stan dard but apparently the depreciation in the value of that standard Mexico silver country before Juarez and when Diaz became President, and if the mere adhesion to that standard will produce the con dtons present in Mexico they should have been there long ago.
 When he considers wages, however, he 1inches, de- caring that it is not fair to compare wages Tn one country with the wages in another country without first making allowances for differences in efficiency, differences in climatic conditions, in habits, etc. ' This then is confession that the silver standard may not be counted to favorably affect wages, which depend on quite other things. It will be seen that this squarely contradictory of his contention that the silver standard be credited with the present improved conditions in Mexico. Logic and consistency however, have no place in MT. Bryans system.
 An observer who saw Mexico at the time MT. Bryan did, but who was not guest of the Govern ment and did not confne himself to the main lines" Of travel investigated his way to quite different con cusons This gentleman Dr. Van Ness Standish, says that he found two-thrds of the people without shoes He found the laborers living in huts eight or ten feet square, with chimney the fire being on hearth in the center and the smoke ascending through hole in the thatch roof In these huts
 
 at night the peon wraps his zarepa about him and lies down i'll the to rest
 Dr. Standish at Laredo exchanged one United States dollar for $2 IS in Mexican money. A few days later he got $2 P in the same exchange. The rate of exchange is the difference between gold and silver values, and prices go Up and down with that huctuation To-day you buy article at one price, tomorrow at an- other Asking the reason, you told 'the rate of exchange governs these things" That is to say, every days price is much silver represents the actual value of the article in gold.
 He says that living is high and wages low Street laborers get 30 day. The clerk of the Amer- can Minister hired laborers on the grounds of the legation at 37 cents day.
 It true that the salaries of skilled men liberal of employment we'll paid, but Dr. Standish says this is offset by the high price of living whether measured in United States or Mexican money
 We have letter from skilled bookkeeper en- ployed in the City of Mexico asking for position in California in which he says:
 "I am not satisfied in this country and long to turn to the States. The salaries paid are liberal enough, but it takes $2 buy here what costs in the States just half that much"
 Finally, if Mir. Bryan found such superior condi- tions in Mexico there would pour into that country a great stream of immigration from here Men change locations and countries to better their ditions, and superior conditions so near hand Mexico would not lie unirnproved by our people. l An Idaho woman married just the man of her choice starting for the penitentiary for