The Minneapolis journal., 1903-04-10
Mexico's Currency. ! q

states that the general opinion Is that
the country has, in a large measure, ad-
justed itself to the lower level Of silver
and a return of prosperity is looked for
if the railways were relieved Of the, dtsad-
vantages of deprecated currency. There
will be no relief from such disadvantages
unless steps are taken to place Mexico
on the gold standard or to irnpart stability
to the silver currency by limiting the
coinage and output. .z-
Last year President Diaz and his finance
minister. Linantour, held conferences
with leading fnanciers in the subject of
adopting the gold standard, and it has
been announced that progress was making
to the adoption of arrangements. to ac-
complish this. Enrique Cree1, the most
distinguished f1nancier in Mexico, has pub
lished pamphlet strongly advocating the
gold standard, which has received the ap-
proval Of President Diaz; but the recent
failures of big importing houses in
Mexico has led the advocates of the re +
! tention Of the silver standard to use the
incident as an argument against the adop.
tion of the gold standard, they declaring
that the mere talk of changing the stand
ard ldisturbs business. a. |; +%E5 =, = 20 ~ J
AS matter of fact the business fall
ures resulted from thesrecent great :depre-;
citation of silver, the. result of .incessant
fluctuations and uncertainty. of values in:
the silver r-using countries. During the
last few months silver has sagged so that
it took nearly three dollars of Mexican
money to buy one American gold dollar at
one time.4 The decline of silver, notably
during the last ten years, has affected
. most seriously. the silver-using countries
like Mexico and China, which do a con-
siderable: business p with outside ma
tions. Ten years ago the Mexican dollar
was worth two thirds Of an American dol
lar. In 1894 it declined to Sc cents; in
1895 it took something over two Mexican
dollars to make one American dollar. It's
value rose slightly until 1900, when it de-
clined; rallied again in 1901, and then took
the down grade, slumping to 81 cents. In
Mexico the fluctuations of silver have been
somewhat of a benefit to the exporters of
that country, who sell their products
abroad for gold and pay their expenses
chiefly in deprecated silver. The con-
trary effect is produced upon the import
ing houses, who have to buy for gold and
sell for slumped silver,
The remedy for Mexicos trouble would
, be found, not In being satisfied with ad-
justing business to the low level of sill.
yer, for that will do no good, for fuctua-
tions cannot be prevented in that way
Readjustment Of business every day is not
a very profitable process for, most people
it was not found profitable in the Philip,
IDines, but the last congress very @sensibly
adopted coinage law for the archipelago
which brings the silver coins into a fixed
relation with gold, by limiting the supply
of such coins so that it will always equal
and more than equal, the demand at q
fixed price. The experience of the world
has shown that, If the supply is much
greater than the demand, no law, from
whatever source it may be promulgated
can bolster up the price. Bryan still de-
nies the validity of the worlds experience
) and declares that the bullion value Of q
silver coin may be made whatever the
mint, by order of congress, may STAMP
, upon it.. 49,:
In 1897 Japan adopted the gold standard
: and experienced no great Inconvenience
doing so. At the time the monetary stu
S alton there was much like that Of Mexico
S at present. Mexico and China are now
the only countries in the world Of any
great Importance doing business on the
silver basis. Both have experienced the
alleged great blessings Of ttcheap money
and have suffered enough to make then
anxious to get on firm financial ground.
! If both factions of the republican party
I in Iowa are satisfied that Senator Ali