The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-10-12
Mr.. BRYAN IN MEXICO.
What He Saw and Found in the Free
Silver Country.
A WARNING TO LABOR.

asserted from every stump upon which
he stood to proclaim the manifold
hersies of the Chicago platform, that
until this country had the free and
unlimited coinage of silver at sixteen
to one there could be no prosperity for
the laboring man, the merchant, and
the farmer
With the gold standard continued,
he declared, the United States would
experience all the woes and miseries
of stagnant business depression, a
scarcity of money, and consequent
hard times.
He said that under the gold standard
wages would decline while the prices
of all the necessaries of life would in
crease. Three years of uneXampled
prosperity under the administration
of President Mckinley have completely
annihilated all the theories of the Ne
braska candidate.
The political economy of Mr.. Bryan
has not stood the test of time. 1t could
be easy to multiply examples of the
fallacy of his teaching
=. After the people had refused to ac-
cept Mr.. Bryan's theories of finances
he made trip into Mexico in order
to study the financial conditions of
that country, which has the free and
Unlimited coinage of silver. Mr..
Bryan found the republic of Mexico
fairly prosperous in spite of the dis
advantages of free silver, and dollars
worth forty eight cents He found that
Mexico's great and undeveloped re-
sources were being exploited, not by
Mexicans who had made fortunes in
their own free silver country, but by
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., Englishmen,
Germans-who were changing one gold
standard dollar into two Mexican dol
lars and using the money to develop
the kind of industries that sold their
output in gold standard countries He
found, if he looked carefully about
him, that the employers of labor in
Mexico were paying that labor in As
cent dollars, and selling their products
in gold standard countries for dollars
worth one hundred cents.
That is good thing for the manu-
facurer-the capitalist-but how does
it operate to the benefit of the people2
The late Mr.. Romero, Mexico's am
bassador to the United States, printed
the following in book, in 1898:
ebay labor in the country (Mexico)
get fom 10 to 90 cents day In some
instances ten to fifteen cents day is
allowed to cover the costs of meals
The average laborer will live we'll and
in good strength on from ten to fifteen
cents a day and will support his
family on from ten to twenty cents a
day. OF course he will have his little
patch of corn, beans, and chiles
planted near his hut, which is the
largest part of his bill of fare three
illness day, and for 800 days in the
year. Five or ten dollars per year
will clothe him, except, perhaps, his
hat, and for that he will, if he can
get the money, pay from five to twenty
dollars. "
The above quotations are Mexican
money, of which dollar is worth
forty eight cents. 1t will be seen
that the laborer actually gets from 9
to "a cents day for his labor, that
he supports his family on from five to
ten cents a day, and that two and
half to five dollars year buys all his
clothes.
Brakemen on trains in free silver
Mexico get from $50 to $50 month:
bricklayers get 81 to 81. 30 a day street
Car conductors get 90 cents to 81
day; laborers in large cities get from
30 to 65 cents day. and in the coun-
try considerably less laborers in fac
tories working eleven hours get from
80 cents to 81 a day skilled miners
get 81 to 81. 30, and unskilled miners
90 to so cents. a day; policemen are
paid $50 to $50 month stone masons
get 81 to 81. 30 day; tailors get 81 to
81. 90 day, and printers 81 and So
week.
All the above prices for labor are in
Mexican money, and are taken from
official sources of kind not to be dis
puted. These prices should be COM
pared to the wages paid in the United
States, The agricultural laborer who
speaks of the benefcent blessings of
free silver should pause to consider
the condition of the agricultural
laborer in Mexico who gets from to
"a cents day-and he should think,
at the same time, of the demand for
harvest hands in Western States where
two, three and even four dollars per
day in gold are not infrequently paid
81. so to 81 a day, in gold, should think
of the miners in free silver Mexico,
that get from so cents to $1.50 day
cents day in good money that is paid
to labor in the United States by virtue
of the success of the principles of
sound money, and the Republican,
party.
In view of the fact that Mr. Bryan
has said free silver would increase
wages while cheapening the cost of
living, it would be well to compare
the prices paid for necessaries in
Mexico in Mexican money, with prices
prevailing at the United States
gold standard money.
At Ell Paso, Texas, the American
laborer buys bacon at II cents and
ham at 15 cents pound, while across
the line in Mexico the Mexican pays
SOC ents pound for bacon and 30 cents
a pound for ham. In Ell 2aso salt sells
for little more than I cent pound
in Mexico for little less than 2 cents
pound. Molasses sells at Ell Paso for
55 cents a gallon. and in Mexico for
81. 90 a gallon. Candles sell for 81. 90
a hundred in Ell Paso, and 50. 90 a
in Mexico. Sugar selling
for 6 cents pound at Ell Paso sells
for 10 cents pound across the line in
Mexico. In Ell Paso -four is bought at
81. Is a hundred pounds, and in
Mexico at So hundred Condensed
milk is So. 90 a case in Ell Paso, and
S12 case in Mexico Canned toma-
toes are 81 case in Ell Paso and So
in Mexico. Crackers are cents
pound in Ell Paso and 30 cents in (,
Mexico. Butter is 90 cents and % !,
cents pound in Ell Paso, and rs cents !
in Mexico, ETC.. etc.
1t is scarcely possible to believe that
any sane American would deliberately
vote to Mexicanize the money and
labor of the United States-that he
would vote to cut the purchasing