The advocate. [volume], May 20, 1896, Image 1

About The advocate. [volume] (Topeka, Kan.) 1894-1897

Image provided by: Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, KS

VOL. YIIL, NO. 21.
TOPEKA, KANSAS, MAY 20, 1896.
$1.00 A YEAR
MEXICO'S MONEY.
A Statement of Economic Conditions In a
Bimetallic Country.
A great many people are interested in
the working of the bimetallic standard
in Mexico. Some time ago Congressman
Newlanda of Nevada addressed a letter
to Alexander R. Shepherd requesting
his views on the economic conditions of
Mexico. Mr.. Shepherd was for many
years a prominent politician, and later
1 a successful Washington business man.
Of late years he has spent a great deal
of time in Mexico and is well acquainted
with the situation in that country. His
reply was as follows and indicates that
that country is more prosperous than
the United States is. He says:
"In response to your request to give
you a view of the economic conditions of
Mexico, as I have found them, while its
financial policy has rested on a silver
basis, I beg leave to say that it will give
me great pleasure to comply with it.
"I have been a resident of Mexico since
1880. When I first went there the ratio
between silver and gold was 15 to 1.
The first exchange I bought was at the
rate of 15 per cent, in coin silver on a
New York draft Since then, owing to
the demonetization of silver, many
changes have occurred in the rata of ex
change. During the famine, which
existed the whole period from 1889 to
1803,- when two-thirds of all the grain
used for focd in Mexico was bought from
the United States, the ratio of exchange
ranged from CO to 05 per cent., and at
times went as high as 100.
"Notwithstanding this Mexico met all
her obligations, paid all her interest, and
suffered lees than any other country.
The present condition of the silver market
is leading the Mexican people to do their
own manufacturing.
"As an instance, of this I may cite
Chihuahua as an example. An iron
foundry and machine shop was estab
lished there some time ago with $00,000
capital, for the purpose of manufacturing
the, mining and other machinery for
which there was a large and growing de
mand in that vicinity, and which was
formerly supplied by the United States.
The success of this venture may be
realized when it is known that the capi
tal stock was increased to 3300,000, and
that the company secured a contract re
cently for a large amount of machinery
in competition with the firm of Frazier&
Chalmers and other large concerns in
this country. Cheap clothing, all of
which was formerly purchased in the
United States and Europe, is now manu
factured in Mexico. At Chihuahua a
canning establishment, with a capital of
$1,500,000, is now being organized for the
purpose of preserving meat and fruits,
and a large brewery, with a capital of
$200,000, is being put In operation. A
woolen factory, with $200,000 capital, was
started and was enlarged last season to
meet the increased demands upon it.
Smelters at Chihuahua cow treat the
Mexican ores that were formerly sent
across the border at heavy expense,
Numerous other enterprises have been
established and are in contemplation, all
having the effect of giving remunerative
employment to Mexican artisans and
laborers, and, what is equally as im
portant, serving to keep Mexican money
in Mexico, for the fruit of all these forms
of industry represents the life necessities
for which Mexico has hitherto been de
pendent on this country and Europe.
"The conditions in Chihuahua are
truer of the more advanced portions of
Mexico, and the development is steady
and remarkable throughout In the
northwest part of Mexico a railroad will
be built within the next year, running
from El Paso to a point south of Corral
itas, a distance of 250 miles, opening up
a country rich in mines and agricultural
resources. The $5,000,000 capital for the
undertaking has been subscribed by New
York parties.
"The conditions of the people have
improved correlatively with the develop
ment of the country. The district of
El Fuerte, which furnishes the part of
the mountains in which mines are lo
cated, has doubled in population in the
past fifteen years and its productive
capacity correspondingly increased.
Formerly the peon system of labor, which
pervaded all Mexico, was the rule in
El Fuerte. Now the scarcity of work
men is so great that almost everything
is produced on shares, and it is almost
impossible to raise a crop unless the
workmen are interested in it.
"Another instance may be recited
showing the wonrieful progress of north
west Mexico. When the Mexican
Central railroad was first opened it was
thought that the northern part of it
would be unremunerative. The opening
of mines and the development of agri
culture along this portion, however, has
made it one of the most profitable sec
tions of the world.
"Shortly before my departure I was
conversing with a very intelligent Mexi
can bfinker. He declared that he wanted
the difference between silver and gold
to be maintained, as it enabled the Mex
icans to keep their money in their own
country. Other Mexican financiers with
whom I have talked hold the same
views. There have been but two or
three bank failures in Mexico since I
have resided there. The Mexican banks
are required to keep one-third of their
circulation in silver dollars in their
vaults. The system in Mexico allows
the miner to send his silver to the gov
ernment depositories and receive silver
dollars in return for it in any part of the
country where there is an assay office,
the government tax and coal being about
i per cent
"Perhaps the best sign of the stability
of Mexico under a sliver policy may be
found in the fact that Mexican 5 per
cent bonds stand at 93 in London.
"I trust this necessarily hurried re
view will eive vou an idea of the condi
tions in Mexico, and regret that my
early departure prevents a. more com
plete and detailed statement" ,
LEEDY FOR GOVERNOR.
A Tribute to the SenaUr's Ability, Integrity
and Fidelity to the PopnlUt Canse,
The candidacy of Senator J. W. Leedy
of Coffey county for Governor is being
urged with a considerable degree of
earneetness and persistency. The Senator
has many warm influential friends over
the State who would be glad to see him
elected Governor of the State. It is
especially gratifying to see the Senator's
friends making their fight without abus
ing other candidates and their friends.
The following from the Yates Center
Advocate will give the reader an op
portunity to judge as to how his candi
dacy is regarded in the vicnity of his
home. The Advocate, says:
"The time draws near when the die
cussion of the fitness and availability of
a gubernatorial candidate for the Popu
list party will be in order. The Adm
cate thus far has refrained from urging
the candidacy of any particular one of
the hundred or more loyal, brainy, broad-
gauged men of the People s party of this
State who would bring to the guberna
torial chair that honesty, that broad,
comprehensive statesmanship, that
loyalty to the interests of the people, and
that sense of State pride, which has been
so conspicuously absent during the whole
of the present administration, and which
Kansas so badly needs at present The
Advocate is not the 'organ' of any man,
but the exponent of Populism as we
understand the meaning and interpreta
tion of the Omaha platform. It urges
party harmony and party success, rather
than the individual aggrandizement or
political ambitions of any one man or
faction. We believe that the coming
ticket should be made up of men who
will dispel to the gresteet degree the
jealousies and embittered feelings which
usually follow the conventions of any
party; men who are able to meet the
opposition in the forum of debate, or in
planning the fight and mapping out a
successful campaign; men whose personal
and political character are above re
proach, and whofee names are a synonym
of honesty, ability and Populism. Among
the many of our party who come up to
the full and complete measure of ourideal
candidate, Woodson county will name
Senator John W. Leedy of Coffey county,
and will follow him to honorable defeat
or glorious victory. His plain, blunt
way of dealing with men and measures,
his rugged honesty and inflexibility
would be to the average Kansan as bread
to the starving when given in place of
Morrill's duplicity and double dealing,
and Morrill's pusillanimity in politics, and
weak, vacillating policy. Senator Leedy's
freedom from mixing in factional dis
turbances, and his ever willingness to
champion the cause of his party, his
clean, manly and able fight on the floor
of the Senate for the interest of the
whole people for a reasonable control by
the State of the corporations, his in
vincible leadership as demonstrated in
his four years Senatorial service, make
him, in our judgment, the most available
and posribty the best equipped man in"
the par' y at this time to lead the fight
to successful issue in Kansas this year.
Woodson pledges a majority in November
to Hon. John W. Leedy."
Colorado Republicans.
The Republican convention to elect
delegates to the National convention
was held at Pueblo last week. The
finance plank adopted is as follows:
"We declare that the free coinage of
eilver and gold at the ratio of 1G to 1 is,
for the time now being, of paramount
and controlling importance, and the
most pressing question connected with
our political duty and action. The doc
trine of bimetallism has never been de
nied by any National Republican
convention, but often asserted, and they
who now deny it are false to the party,
and not we who still maintain it In
ternational bimetallism can only be
achieved through national bimetallism
adopd by the United States. To the
maintenance of tbis principle, as well as
to the restoration of silver as a money
metal to the full standard of the con
stitution, we, us Republicans, pledge
our most arduous and persistent efforts."
Senator Teller was elected to head the
delegation by the following resolution
which was enthusiastically adopted:
"That the delegates nelected by the
convention are hereby instructed to act
in harmony with the views of the Hon.
Henry M. Teller as to the course to be
pursued by the Colorado delegation In
the National convention, and that Sena
tor Teller is hereby selected as a dele
gate and appointed to lend the delega
tion at the St. Louis convention."
This action was taken with a full
knowledge of the fact that the Senator
had made the following declaration:
The State convention should act with
the full knowledge that I do not intend
to support a candidate on a gold plat
form, or on a platform of doubtful con
struction. If this course puts me out of
sympathy with the Republican senti
ment of the State, as a portion of the
press alleges it will, I accpt that result
with its logical conoequences in prefer
ence to an abandonment of principles and
stultification of my record, made, as I
conceive, under the instruction of every
Republican State convention held in
Colorado during the last twelve years."
Senator Wolcott, who places Republi
canism before silver, received no atten
tion from the convention and the
resolutions do not mention him.
Martin Reverted.
The United States Supreme court
handed down a decision In the Kansas
mortgage redemption case May 18.
The court overrules the Kansas court
and in effect holds that the law does
not apply In the foreclosure of mort
gages wmcn were executed prior to the
enactment of the law.
Th e Methodist conference retired Bish
ops Foster and Bowman.