The San Francisco call., 1903-09-23
GUATEMALA's EXPERIMENT.

lack OF sound currency and stable
~ tary system that her Government has under
taken the rash experiment of trying raise the rate
Of wages OF plantation laborers by statute with the
avowed object Of saving them in that way from the
wrong done by paying them in deprecated and still
further depreciating paper money.
OF old it was not unusual for governments to un-
dertake to fix the rate of wages and the prices Of
food by statute but of years the governments
of civilized men have understood the folly OF such
attempts, consequently the announcement that the
President OF Guatemala has undertaken to revive
the old experiment and to fix wages by govern
mental dictation something of surprise
even to those who are most accustomed to the va
garies of politics in Latin America.
A defense of the action of the President has been
recently published by way of reply to the many com
plants made by the planters of interference with the
labor market. So far as the defense consists OF a
statement of facts it to be valid, for there
can be question that the instability of the
currency and the steady decline in the purchasing
power of money has been a serious injury to the
workingmen of the country. That sort of thing al
ways happens wherever unsound and vicious
monetary system prevails. 1t would have happened
in the United States had either the greenback
or the free silver crusade been successful 1t is
therefore worth while for the American people to
give some little heed to what is happening to
the plantation workers OF Guatemala.
In the course of his defense the advocate of the
action OF the Government says: The difference in
the value of paper money and OF gold and silver has
so altered the relation OF prices to things that not
only foreign goods. which paid for in gold but
domestic articles of food and other necessities of life
have risen in value in proportion to the depreciation
of paper money of the country And it is not strange
that the price of native products should be affected
by this condition of the monetary system when it
is seen that the producers receive for them in
gold what they have to pay for goods which they
need and do not produce"
For the purpose of protecting the workers OF the
plantations against the evils resulting from system
in which the worker is paid in paper but has to buy
in gold the President DEGREES that the wages OF plan
tation hands shall be ST so a day an amount which
at the present value of Guatemala paper money is
equivalent to about ten cents in gold 1t is GER
tainly nothing extraordinary in the way of high
wages and if the decree based on anything like
a rational foundation it would not be objection
able Ample experience, however, has proven that
government cannot fix the rate of wages, nor can
it keep rredeemable paper currency at any kind
of fixed value. The decreed ST So which is worth
ten cents in gold to-day and serves the plantation
worker as of obtaining the low subsistence
that prevails among the Indians of that country may
be worth only five cents within year. The only way
in which the Government of Guatemala can effec-
lively the interests of its people in this respect
is that which has been adopted by Mexico. Let the
currency be put upon a sound basis and labor will
have no need for governmental regulation of wages
An interesting side light the situation is thrown
by report from Guatemala that 'the property
owners say they do not object to payment OF the
wages fixed by the Government for that within itself
is small matter but that the law will operate as
to increase the already large amounts they have to
pay to certain Government officials for their favors
Perhaps the President and his Ministers may have
had idea Of that effect of the law when they pro-
mugated it.