New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-10-07
DANGER IN FREE SILVER.
ITS DISADVANTAGES ILLUSTRATED BY
THE CONDITION OF MEXICO.
WAGES LOWER AND COST OF LIVING
HIGHER BECAUSE OF FLUCTUATING
VALUE OF THE WHITE METAL

e. Paso. Tex. Oct 6 (speciaD.-when Mr. Bryan
was candidate for the Presidency four years ago
he asserted repeatedly that the laboring man. the
merchant and the farmer would never prosper until
the United States enacted Law for the free and
unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio Of Is to
He declared that the gold standard meant low
wages and high prices, and that II II not dis
carded the United States would experience all the
woes and miseries Of depressed and stagnant bust
ness. ideness. hard times and starvation. In spite
OF the direful forebodinRs of Mr., Bryan sound
money continued the money Of the country.
and instead Of the distress Mr. Bryan pictured
there have been three years OF unexamped pros
perity under the Administration OF President Nc
Kinley. There have been and there are still daily
demonstrations of the faliacy and shallowness Of
Mr.. Bryan's political economy.
After Mt. Bryan had been repudated at the polls
he made a trip to the republic Of Mexico in order
TO observe and study the conditions existing there
under the free coinage OF silver. He found Mexico
fairly prosperous in spite Of the disadvantages OF
free silver and dollars worth As cents. He found
that the latent wealth Of Mexico was being devel-
oped-fhat the great undeveloped resources Of the
country yielding to the application of indus
try and capital. regardless of the drawbacks OF
cheapened currency He found that American,
English and German capitalists were coming into
the republic, exchanging one gold standard dollar
FOR two Mexican dollars, and using the Mexican
money TO produce objects that find their markets
In gold standard countries. He found, IL he
careful TO observe conditions that the employers
lars worth IS cents. while they selling the
products Of labor TO gold standard countries for
dollars worth 100 cents. For the employer. that
appeared undoubtedly q very satisfactory circum-
stance 1t and is a good thing for the
facturer and the capitalist but how does It operate
upon the laboring classes Of the country?
Mr.. Romero, former Ambassador from Mexico
TO the United States printed the following state
ment in book published in 1898:
Day laborers in the country Giexico) get from 10
to 80 cents day In some instances 10 to % cents
q n
average laborer viii live we'll from 10 TO Is
io to % cents day. Of Course he viii have his
little patch Of corn beans and ches planted near
three times a day and for $50 DAYS in the year.
persspr his bst and for that he viii If he can
get the money. pay from s. 10 so
Since the laborer in the country gets from 10 to
90 cents day in Mexican money. it will be seen
that he actually receives from TO "a cents day.
and that he supports his family from to 10
cents day while his clothing amounts to yearly
expenditure of from 81 90 to s. But the laborers in
the country are not the only class Of wage earners
in Mexico to whom paid that would
scarcely settle the house rent and fuel account of
the laborers in the United States.
Brakemen trains in Mexico get from SS5 TO SIS
q month; bricklayers get from 81 to 81 80 a day;
streetcar conductors get from 50 cents to 81 day;
laborers in large cities get from IS cents day
and in the country considerably Iess laborers in
factories. working eleven hours daily, get from 50
cents TO 81 day; skilled miners get from 81 TO 81 50
day; unskied miners receive from 30 to so cents
day; policemen get from $50 to $50 month: stone
masons get from 81 to 81 80 a day. tailors get from
81 TO 81 50 day, and printers 81 and s. a week
THE BLESSINGS OF FREE SILVER"
The figures quoted above are in Mexican money,
or dollars worth IS each and are from relia-
bic official sources. These prices should be conn
pared with the wages prevailing in similar situa-
tons and for like work in the United States
when the agricultural lahorer speaks of the be-
nehcent blessings of the free and unlimited coinage
Of silver, his attention should e called to the con-
dition OF the agricultural laborer in Mexico who
gets from 10 "a cents day. The negro laborer
on the sugar plantation in Louisiana gets 60 cents
Gay IN gold for nine months, and 81 20 a day for
three months, during the grinding eason IN
ADDITION, he has comfortable home medical at
tention provided free and has a piece Of ground
ana ume 10 produce his own garden, which is al
most ehurely sufficient for his support The farm,
laborer in the Western States-tn Dakota low
Kansas. Nebraska, Minnesota-who receives good
wages IN i0-cent dollars and as much In ono da,,
curing the harvest season as the Mexican agri-
cultural laborer gets III month is not likely IN h
attracted by free silver prospect and 4s cent dot
st ~ Eiudad Juarez, just the Rio Grande
from 8 10 s. day IN Me&idsn rs emPl2ye6 at
ne carpenter is paid 50 gay in gold There is
me same ratio OF difference in almost every trade
or gaming. The American miner earning from 81 "a
by the CHANCES 9' o hefy Se fSeitsd to
ssl id miners get from 30 81 so day in
~, any one VINO has been in Mexico viii admit that
on than the laboring man in the southern repTbiic
His social and physical status is far superiop ~
tnst OF the Mexican. He is well paid well clothed
Mexico must oe content with simple diet Of corn
meal ano oeans, with scanty clothing, and a hut
10 shelter him built by his own hands W
leo laborer receiving one-hfth Of the wages paid
az homestead. Bethlehem and Pttsburg viz $40
go ana so day. II is only fair to remark that
mere rs difference in the working CAPACITY Of The
american and Mexican labOrer, but then that
IN thelr respective Being poorly maid
leSicsn IS consequently poorly fed and that limits
ms capacity. An American miner getting So a day
II gold does not perform six times much work
as the Mexican miner who receives so cents IN
Mexican money yet that is the difference in their
compensation. " 'i'S''
There practically no difference in the scalA %
wages IN Mexico now from ten or fifteen wears ago
when Mexican dollar had slightly less purchss'
ing power than an American dollar. While the
Mexican dollar has lost about half its value wa yes
nave heen by no means doubled. But the nerec-
Earles or life have been increased in price
The supporters of the Kansas City and Chicae o
platforms have maintained that free silver would
increase wages while eheapening the cost of liv-
for the NECESSITIES Of life in Mexico with Mexican
money, and IN the United States with American
money.
At II Paso Tex, the American laborer huvs
bacon at II cents and ham at Is cents Mound
while across the line in Mexico the Mexican DaVs
80 cents pound for bacon and IS cents Mound
Tor ham In FL PaSo salt sells for a little more
than i cent pound. in Mexico for a little less
than cents. Molasses sells at FL Paso for 55
cents a gallon, and in Mexico for 81 20 Candles
sell for four cents apiece in FL Paso and cents in
Mexico sugar selling for s cents pound in
Fl Paso sells for Is cents in Mexico. In FL Paso
-four Is bought at y Is hundred pounds: in Mex
leo at s. Z5 Condensed milk is s. 50 a case in Eel
Paso and Slz in Mexico Canned tomatoes are 81 a
case In Fl Paso; IL Mexico they s. a case.