Middletown transcript., 1898-08-06

addition to the stamp requirement ev-
cry line of business is compelled to pay
for the privilege of existence all it can
possibly bear, from $500 per month by
the largest stores to from 10 to 80 cents
per day by the old woman who brings a
basket of vegetables from her little gar
den to sell on the street. Doctors and
lawyers and dentists pay $40 per month
for the privilege of practicing their
profession in addition to all other forms
of taxation they must meet; architects,
$15 per month; ministers of every
creed, $40 per month; retail grooers,
90, 400 per year in this city and district
lumber yards, 81, 200 per year; cloth
ing stores, 5000 per year; hotels,
So, 400, and SO on through list which
includes every form Of business and ey-
cry line of occupation and industry.
All these exactions, be it remember
ed, are in addition to the usual taxes on
real estate, live stock and such like pos
sessions. For instance, in addition to
the stamp requirements and other taxes
bakers are compelled to pay a tax Of $24
per year for each oven they make use of
or possess and butchers are taxed SS. DO
per head for all cattle slaughtered and
81 per head for hogs and sheep. These
facts indicate how it is made possible
for the government Of Mexico to bestow
such subsidies as are announced in The
Mexican Herald, "Not to exceed $6,
900, OO0' to the Mexican Southern rail-
way, limited, and to reimburse the ma
tional treasury for the enormous losses
and ''grave concern" heretofore alluded
to through depreciation and fluctuation
in the value of its free coinage cur
rency, but they afford no explanation as
to the merits Mr.. Bryan could have found
in the system here which leads him TO
urge its adoption in the United States.
It cannot be questioned or denied that
the same loss in revenue, the same huc-
tuation in value, the same unusual re-
uuirements relative to meeting largely
increased national expenses, and the
same loss to laborers and farmers as are
now being experienced in Mexico would
accompany the free coinage of silver in
the United States should the misfortune
of its adoption ever be inflicted upon
our country.
Wages and Their Purchasing Power.
The wages paid for common labor
range from as low as 90 cents per day
for full grown men to 81, so and &c
cents, the latter rate being paid only II
cases Of temporary need at points dis.
tant from the haunts Of the laborers,
for the novels they inhabit for few
hours during the nighttime cannot be
called homes. The wages of native tai
lors, printers, painters, clerks and such
like better occupations rarely exceed 81
per day, the highest in any Of the fore
going occupations of which I have
learned being $1.5Q per day, and these
wages are all paid in dollars worth a
the present time AK cents.
At the grocery stores in this city, al
most under the shadow Of the nationa
mint, Mexican dollars, the only money
Of the laborer and farmer and toiler fol
wages in any capacity, must be ex
changed for tho necessaries Of life a
such prices as the following: Sugar, Il
to IA cents per pound for the cheap
| dark, native production and 20 cent
Der pound for American or German sug
ar; potatoes, cents per pound; butter
so to 80 cents per pound, the lattel
price for American butter and the for
mer for the native unsalted quality
salt, IA cents per pound; beans, s to q
cents per pound; lard, "a cents; greer
| coffee, A cents; tea, from $3.50 t.
| So. 80 per pound; kerosene oil, DO to 81
cents per gallon; vinegar, SLIGO pc
| gallon; baking powder, SLID pc
pound, and SO on through the list
These prices conclusively prove that tn
free coinage Mexican dollar is but 4.
cent representative even in the home o
it's adoption and under the flag who's
stamp it bears. The so called 'tWall O
protection created by free coinage il
Mexico, SO favorably alluded to by Mr.
Bryan and other advocates Of its ,crea
tion in the United States is not onl.
devoid Of the best features of the Amer
ican protective tariff system, which Mr.
Bryan and most Of his fellow partisan
have always opposed, but it exacts mos
from articles not produced here and VIC
lates every important principle of
healthful, home favoring tariff system
Recently in the congress of the Unitet
States Mr.. Bailey Of Texas in the cours
of speech i'll behalf of the free coinag
| - IL l.. = i
We are ready 10 meet you on this issue-th
issue that the money which Is good enough 70
the idlers who spend it, that the money whic
is good enough for the poor is good enough fo
the rich, that the money the laborer receive
for his toll and the merchant for his wares
| good enough for the bondholder, and, by th
Eternal, he shall be compelled to take It'll
The present financial policy Of tn
United States secures and maintain
precisely the conditions Mr.. Bailey de
mands, but such conditions would nc
exist one hour after the election of
free coinage congress and free coinag
president. The money the laborer re
ceives for his toll and the farmer for hi
produce is as good in our country toda
as the money of the bondholder and th
t1Cu, UuG IL 10 AO1 SO Ill meA1COs LII
free coinage of silver here has create
one money for the laborer and the farm
er and another for the bondholder, th
capitalist and the very rich, and throug
it the strong and the rich are alway
the gamers The effort being made fc
the adoption of this class favoring, IL
Dor expressing policy in the Unite
States creates the very issue Mr.. Bale
SO bombastically proclaims, but the po
icy he favors would establish the eyt
and the injury to which he refers in
country where now it does not exist
Practical acquaintance with the result
Of free coinage of silver gives force
the assertion that every laboring ma
should seek to prevent its adoption i
our country, every farmer should see
to prevent it, every toiler for wages i
any line should seek to prevent it, thu
every instinct of favor for the weak an
equal opportunity for all demands il
prevention, and, to better apply th
Texas statesman's declaration, "by til
Eternal it should be prevented.
PERRY F. POWERS.
n