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Image provided by: Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, KS
Newspaper Page Text
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.