Arizona republican., 1903-05-17
rIexico's Opportunity.

The Mexican Herald thus advises the acceptance of an opportunity for finan- cial reform:
 By another of its wonderful light ming change acts the peso has added to itself about IS percent more gold value during the last two weeks. We now have in sight the 50-cent dollar, the prayed-ior and wept-over; not to keep, but strictly on the principle of now you have it and now you don't In a short time the breath of sDecula- tion may blow the other way and then the poor peso will bob downwards as screnely as it now floats the risen tide.
 Such sudden changes as those of to- day and six months ago are crippling to commerce, industry and investments. They put everything on a gambling A fortnight ago those who had ac- counts to pay abroad were in mourning because of the high exchange in which they would have to pay. Today those
  are uneasy, because they know that their purchases can be duplicated by competitors at IS per cent less than they themselves paid. The only way they can come out even is to make the consumer pay the freight, which he does most cheerfully whichever way the exchange goes. The factories. the exporter and the miner of other metals than silver. have had the ground under their feet shaken by an earthquake on account of the rise. It is not that the present level of the peso is injurious to them if they could only have prepared for it. It is the suddenness and the un- expectedness of the change that has caught them.
 Cotton print factories are stocked up with cotton bought under high ex- change. The exporter who bought products tc send abroad is in a very bad way. He has to meet the diff ference in exchange out of his own pocket. The miner who has been open ing up a promising property that just about pays expenses while he is prepar- that instead of coming out even he is going to lose IS per cent as he goes. Just as there is no business that lacks intimate touch at some point with for eign markets. so there is no business that is not disordered, and the profit or loss made dependent upon the unknown course of the speculation in silver ir the world markets rather than upon its own good management.
 No country can make good progress upon such a shaky basis. There is no incentive to vigorous and expensive ad- Yancement when the whole result hangs upon the toss of someone else's dice The risk, too, of sudden disaster is i'm minent. especially since the currents of money into and out of the country fol- low the fluctuations of the exchange and plentifulness or tightness of money can result from factors entirely outside of the business situation here. The times are past when the solidity of credit in this country run no risk of being shattered by these unforeseeable and sudden ebbings and howings of the money tide.
 This is a glorious opportunity to step off from the floating equilibrium of an unstable peso onto the solid rock of the 50-cent dollar. It is most Drovidential in view of the far-sighted efforts the government has been making to get on this platform that it's task should have been so simplifled and made easy. The stabilization can now be effected with out any disturbance or displacement of any sort, and to the immense advantage of all interests alike. A fair and even exchange is no robbery to anyone; but an exchange that returns different values every day for the same thing "gets" the whole country going and coming"