Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1898-02-17
WASHINGTON LETTER.
The silver situation In Mexico-Ex-Con-
gresham Mcshane, "a Democrats
Opinion of IL.
WASHINGTON, ID. c., Feb. II, 9S

friends and associates who have had
practical business experience in Mex
leo do not agree with the glowing pie
ture which he brought back from that
country, nor do they agree with his
theory that the free coinage of silver
is responsible for whatever of apparent
or real prosperity exists there. Ex-
Congressman McShane, who formerly
represented the Omaha, Nebraska, dis
trict In Congress, but who now has
spends much of his time there, says
that his friend Mr.. Bryan is entirely
mistaken in the conclusion at which
he arrives. Considering the fact that
Mr.. McShane is "a Democrat, fellow
Nebraskan with Mr.. Bryan, aud has
had practical business experience in
Mexico for about as many years as Mr..
Bryan spent days there in his recent
trip, his conclusions concerning mat
ters so elaborately discussed by Mr.
Bryan on his return from the land OF
McShane has been spending "a few
days here renewing his acquaintance
with members of Congress, and in a
conversation regarding Mr.. Bryan 5
utterances regarding Mexican pros
perity, he said:
1T is OF this sort: The government
is largely back OF it, and TO the pater-
nal fostering of the Diaz administra-
tion ii is mainly due. The government
subsidies breweries, railroads, indus
trial plants, and aids in every way TO
build up the material resources of the
country. Money is used with liberal
hand, and as consequence there is
much activity and great apparent pros
perity. The fact that Mexico is on
silver basis does not figure; it can't
help being on that kind of basis, but
| should be sorry to see the United
States resort to any such policy.
'Ten years of experience in that
country has forever set me against the
adoption OF a monetary system which
is not only In disrepute among the
leading nations OF the world, but which
is about to be discarded by countries
like Japan, Brazil, and some OF the
smaller Spanish American govern
ments that were formerly on a silver
basis. The masses in Mexico are in a
worse condition than | trust will ever
befall our laboring population. This |
can explain by referring to matters
that have come under my personal OBJ
servation.
when the Sherman purchasing act
was in force, some seven years ago,
silver was worth $l.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 300
men in our mines, their pay ranging
from 81 to $3.50 per day. 1t took APP
proximately Sl00 month TO meet
the payroll. The money to cancel
this expense was shipped from Omaha,
and it was exchanged for $4,000 OF
Mexican coin. We operated general
merchandise stores along with our
mining concern, and at the time
speak of, sold to our Mexican EN-
ployees bacon for 20 cents a pound.
"What are the conditions today? We
still hire 800 men and give them exact
ly the same scale of wages obtained
prior to the slump in silver caused by
the repeal of the purchasing clause of
the Sherman act. Our pay roll still
aggregates $4,000 month. To meet
this we have shipped US like sum OF
United States money, and here is
where the point of difference comes in.
Instead OF exchanging that amount at
our bank for its nominal equivalent we
get for it not $4,000, but S22, 600 Of
Mexican money. We have here made
p clear gain of Sl2 600. Our employees
still render US 100 cents worth of work
for which they used to get 100 cents,
aud do yet as far as the name goes,
but in reality they receive less than
half OF what should be theirs, seeing
that the Mexican coin in which they
are paid has shrunk To less than half
OF its former value.
but there is more still. When the
Mexican miner goes TO buy bacon he
finds that in rendering payment he
cannot buy il with deprecated money
for 20 cents a pound; the price now is
40 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 re-
peal of the sherman law. The $4,000
] spoke Of simply comes out OF the labor
Of the country, and when the toiling
class Of any nation is forced TO such a
condition it is stretching point to call
the people prosperous. II the fair and
right thing were done by these hard
working miners their wages would be
doubled. The man that now gets 81 "a
day is justly entitled to "a, but labor
will bring only what price is fixed in