The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1898-01-01
BRYAN IN MEXICO.
ELI Perkins, on Cheap Cotton and
Cheap SiIyer-Questions for bryan,

Chenp Silyer-Questionsf Tor bryan,
My trip through the southwest has
taken me through Tennessee, Texas
and across into Mexico. 1 send good
news from the manufacturing states,
better news from the wheat and corn
states, but sad news from the cotton
states.
When / asked Jefferson Crow, the
noted cotton buyer of Henderson, Tex,
what made cotton half the price of
last year, he said:
1--WE have raised too much cotton, sir.
Last year we raised 100000 bales and
| got eight cents pound for it. This
year we have raised 100000 bales and
the farmer is getting Az cents for it.
The 10,000,000-bale crop this year will
bring us $G0,0O0,000 less than the S,000,-
o0O-bale crop raised last year. We cot
ton raisers are unfortunate"
"And you can't raise cotton for 4h
cents?" l said.
mo sir. This price will bring our
farmers out in debt. Let us make a
comparison between your high-priced
northern crops and our low-priced
southern crop. One good man in the
south can make, if he has good luck,
ten bales of cotton, worth $500. Why,
ten fat hogs in Nebraska are worth
$500. IL you should ask an Illinois farm
er if he raised ten hogs he would laugh
at you and say:
"'Ten hogs, sir? Why, there are a
dozen hogs playing around the BARN
yard here and so in the cornfelds!"
"What makes four-cent cotton?" l
asked.
"Overproduction, sir. We have raised
100000 more bales than the world
wants"
Eyes" continued Mr.. Grow, 1.-THE pres
eht low price is caused by overproduc-
tion.' aided by the large importations
of cheap 12-cent and 20-cent Thibet and
Australian wool, which has been taxi
ing the place of cotton. Neytyear wool
will he )dearer and more cotton will
be used. Then we will put millions
of acres in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama
and Florida into sugar cane--not beet
sugar, but cane sugar-which we raise
here in Henderson, Alexandria and all
over the Brazos and Red river bottoms"
''What has four-cent cotton done to
the south?" l asked, for the farmer
oftener gets that price than more.
1T has turned all the cotton planters
over to free silver"
l find all the saltwater cotton states
are for free coinage. 1t is the old fall
lacy of Coin" with the poor planter,
that cotton has followed silver in the
decline. The cotton planter now is
generally poor white or an ignorant
negro, and they are easily led by the
smart demagogues. AS it looks now,
if cotton does not go up before the next
presidential election, Like wheat, meat
and iron, the cotton states will be solid
for free silver Alabama, Tennessee,
Kentucky and West Virginia, producing
northern products, like wool, hemp,
wheat and iron, will not join in the free
silver craze.
What did see in Mexico?
At L. Paso / crossed the Rio Grande
to Juarez. Our 100-cent American sill
YER is oa one side and the 40-cent Mex
lean dollar is on the other. Ny car fare
across the river was five cents. When
l gave the conductor silver dollar he
handed me back $2.15 in Mexican sill
yer and a ticket.
Mr.. Bryan will notice when he buys
American products that he pays 100 per
cent. higher for them in Mexico than, in
the states. Ham that costs him 10 cents
in I'll Paso viii cost him % cents in
Juarez. A Columbia bicycle costing
500 in FL Paso will cost 1920 in Juarez.
Does Mr. Bryan find labor advanced in
proportion?
No. Labor has not doubled as it
should. If poor Mexican peon got 80
cents a day whem Mexican silver was at
par you will see him working for about
rs cents now. Heis really getting about
so cents. He doesn't understand about
He knows he is getting more silver than
he did before, and he is happy in his ig-
norance. Neither is the Mexican farm
er getting 1870 per cent. more for his
corn and meat. This advance in Mex
lean products comes slowly, but it will
undoubtedly come when the poems
brains begin TO work.
What else will Mr.. Bryan notice?
He will notice that every Mexican
who has held silver for 20 years has lost
more than half his wealth. ii he had
$4,000 in silver then (worth $4,000 in
gold), he will have about $4,000 worth
now. / found it the same in Japan and
China and India. Yes, 1900, 100000 peo-
pie in our half-ciwlized nations, now
using debaaed silver, have lost more
than half their wealth. Has any Amer
lean, Englishman, German or French
man lost a cent through his country's
silver.
The editor of the Express, i'm San
Antonio, asked Bryan: What good
would it do the 300,o00,000 civilized peo-
pie whose silver is now as good as gold
TO 90 into a scheme to double the value
of the debased silver owned by 1,2O0,-
000, 900 of half saeages?"
"What good will it do U.S." he said, ito
our own prosperity in order
TO double the wealth of Mexico, China
and India?'
at will double the wealth of 5000
American silver mine owners" said Mr..
Bryan.
"Yes, it wouldldo that" said the Texas
editor. ut would make billionaires of
the grasping mine owners, but what
goodlwould this do the poor farmerwho