many, Turkey, etc., etc., so as to see to what extent the money standard
affects the prosperity of the working classes. I think that the standard
of money has very little to do with the condition of labor. The silver
standard has nothing to do with their reward; they would earn no more,
in proportion, were the country on a gold basis. In fact, tens of thou-
sands of them would be out of employment by reason of the impossibility
of competing with the workers of gold-standard countries.
Under the operation of the gold standard farm labor received three
times as much in one part of the Union as it did in another part, as is
shown by the above-quoted publication of the Agricultural Depart-
ment, entitled, " Wages of Farm Labor of the United States." The
large proportion of the shoes sold in that country come from France. They seem
to be as good as ours, although I do not like the fit quite so well, and I usually
buy my shoes here. What seems remarkable to me is that goods of American manu-
facture sell for less in Mexico than in the United States. My wife does most of the
buying, and from her I learn that she can buy the finest silk underwear — she bought
some for me recently — for 25 per cent, less in Mexico than in this country. I under-
stand, too, that the Jaeger underwear is much cheaper there than in American cities.
I don't pretend to account for it. The goods are made in New York and they pay a
high duty, certainly not less than 25 per cent, ad valorem, in the Mexican ports of
entry.
" ' My wife gets the very finest Irish linen for fifty cents a yard in Old Mexico.
In fact, we buy everything in the clothing line, except shoes, in Mexico, in preference
to buying here, as goods are so much cheaper there.
" ' The Mexicans are very fond of jewelry, and get it very much cheaper than we
do. There are jewelry stores in the City of Mexico finer than any that I ever saw in
an American city. Last winter one of the Lucases of St. Louis — James Lucas, I be-
lieve — made a trip around the world, and finally reached the City of Mexico. His
daughter was with him. While in Paris the young woman saw a very fine gold watch,
which she wanted. The price there was $225 in American money, and her father de-
cided not to buy it. When they reached Mexico she saw an exact duplicate of the
watch she had seen in Paris, and again asked her father to buy it. They inquired the
price and found that it was $225 in Mexican money, or just half the price asked by
the Paris jeweler. Mr. Lucas offered his check for it and referred the jeweler to me.
Now, why such a piece of jewelry should be sold in Mexico for half the price asked in
Paris I don't know, nor can I explain why American-made goods should sell for less
there than in St. Louis or Kansas City, but it is a fact. The Mexicans are shrewd
buyers, for one thing, and our jobbers and merchants desire big profits. That is the
only explanation of the matter that I know.' "
)i
TTransportation in /IDejico. 531
fact that wages paid in each State were ascertained by averages, shows
that the difference between the best-paid labor and the poorest- paid
labor is still greater. That report also shows that in the United States
Caucasian farm labor receives more than three times as much as the
same labor receives in Germany, although both countries have a gold
standard and a protective tariff. Between 1816 and 1834 England had
a gold standard and the United States had a double standard, with sil-
ver as the money in common use, and laboring men were better off here
than in England. Turkey is one of the gold-standard nations, and
Japan, until recently, coined silver at a ratio almost identical to that of
the United States, and yet the progress of Japan was really remarkable.
All this shows that silver is not the cause of the low wages of Mexico.
Transportation in Mexico. — In the paper entitled " Geographical
and Statistical Notes on Mexico " (pages 9, 53, and 154), I have dwelt
upon the impediments to commerce and the consequent reduction
in proportion caused by the high cost of transportation in Mexico, be-
fore railroads were built, in consequence of the broken surface of that
country, and upon the results of such conditions which prevented any
article from being profitably exported, unless raised near the coast or
unless it had a very high price and small bulk, like precious metals,
these facts reducing the exports of Mexico practically to the precious'
metals, indigo, cochineal, and similar articles of high price and small
bulk. The final consequence of such a condition of things was, there-
fore, to reduce the production to the amount necessary for local con-
sumption, and as a consequence of this to establish different prices for
the same article, varying according to the distances it had to be trans-
ported, establishing in this manner a monopoly to the local production
for local consumption.
Merchandise could not be transported from one place to another
at any distance in Mexico without increasing the cost very largely.
Sugar, for instance, which in some localities was produced at the cost
of one cent a pound, was sold in others at twenty-five cents a pound.
Such a condition of things reduced the consumption and consequently
the production within very narrow limits, and very often a year's
abundant crops was a calamity to the farmers, as the abundance of
products without an increase of consumption caused a great fall in
prices. Under such circumstances the wages paid to the field laborers
had necessarily to be low; and although they now begin to improve
with the greater demand for labor brought about by the construction
of railroads, and the consequent development of the country's natural
resources, they are yet far from being what is to be desired, and what
I am sure they will be before long.
Even now, when Mexico had, on October 31, 1897, in operation
6j73i-3o miles of railways, and when the depreciation in the value of
532
Xabor ant) TKIlaGcs in /IDejico.
silver has established a bounty of over one hundred per cent, on the
exportation of commodities, the proportion during the fiscal year ended
June 30, 1896, was $64,838,596 of precious metals, and $40,178,306 of
commodities, the precious metals amounting to sixty-one per cent, of
the total exports, and the total amount exported from Mexico during
the last fiscal year ended June 30, 1897, was $111,346,494.
Cost of Living in Afexico. — It is time now to speak of the prices of
Mexican commodities and to compare them with such as are produced
here. Our Department of Public Works has been for some time col-
lecting data concerning the prices of agricultural products in Mexico,
and during the visit I made to the capital of the Republic, in 1891, I
obtained a resume oi such data, which I give below, reducing the weights
and measures used in Mexico to the same standard as those used in this
country, and stating the price of each article in each country.
It has been very difficult to make this table, for the complete ac-
curacy of which I cannot vouch, notwithstanding that I have used
much care and availed myself of all the means within my reach to
make it as complete as possible; but the difificulty of obtaining the
average price of certain articles in both countries is very great, and
also the reduction to a common standard of the weights and measures
'used in each. So far as commodities in the United States are con-
cerned, I have taken as the basis for fixing their price the data con-
tained in No. 12 of the Statistical Abstract of the United States for the
year 1889, prepared by the Bureau of Statistics, under the direction of
the Secretary of the Treasury, and sent by him to the House of Repre-
sentatives on the 4th of December of the same year. In regard to such
commodities as were not embraced in that document, I have used the
data contained in the thirty-second annual report of the Chamber of
Commerce of the City of New York for the fiscal year 1889-90, and in
the report of the Produce Exchange of New York for the same period,
and such other data as I have been able to obtain from reliable sources.
PRICES OF WEARING APPAREL IN 1896.
Flannel (54 inches wide) per vara '
Gingham (26 inches wide) do. . .
Ordinary cassimere (52 inches wide) do. . .
Prints and calicoes (33 inches wide) do. . .
Complete suit of woollen clothes, the cheapest
Bleaching blouses . .
Pantaloons, cheap
Woollen hats ,
Straw hats
MEXICAN
CURRENCY.
60.20 to
1.50 to
fr.oo
.25
1-75
.i8|
10.00
1.50
1.50
25.00
• 50
UNITED STATES
CURRENCY.
$0. ID to
.77 to
fO.51
•13
.90
.10
5.10
• 77
• 77
12.75
.26
Vara equals 33 inches.
Cost of Xiving in /iDejico.
533
AVERAGE PRICES OF COMMODITIES IN MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES
IN 1891.
ARTICLES.
PRICES IN MEXICO.
PRICES I.N THE UNITED STATES.
Bacon
Beeves
Coal
50c. per lb.
8c. per lb. gross weight.
$16 per ton.
22c. per lb.
2c. per lb.
to^c. per yard.
igc. per lb.
5c. per lb.
50c. per lb.
9c. per lb. gross weight.
$32 per ton.
18c. per lb.
I2c. per lb.
14c. per lb.
lie. per lb.
15c. per lb.
8|c. per yard.
7c. per lb.
7c. per lb.
gc. per 11). gross weight.
2IC. per lb.
15c. per lb.
24c. per lb.
3c. per lb.
$16 a cask of 20.0787 galls.,
or 80c. per gall. ; 36c. per
gall, in bond.
20c. per lb.
45 per lb. gross weight.
$3.18 per ton.
igc. per lb.
|c. per lb., or 43c. per bushel of 56
lbs.
3jc. per yard.
IOC per lb.
i^c. per lb., or $2.75 per bbl. of ig6
lbs.
i8c. per lb.
3|c. per lb. gross weight.
|ig per ton.
8^c. per lb.
7c. per lb.
8^c. per lb.
5|c. per lb.
5c. per lb.
G^c. per yard.
5c. per lb.
4c. per lb.
5c. per lb. gross weight.
5c. per lb.
4f c. per lb.
6^c. per lb.
ifc. per lb., or 83c. per bushel of 60
lbs.
Coffee
Corn
Cotton prints. ..
Cottons
Flour
Ham
Hogs (alive). ...
Iron, pig
Lard
Meats :
Beef
Mutton
Pork
Paper, printing.
Prints
Rice
Salt
Sheep
Suerar
Tallow
Tobacco
Wheat
Whiskey
RETAIL PRICES OF FOOD PRODUCTS IN THE CITY OF MEXICO.
I r
Y)
ARTICLES.
^
Jerked beef per pound.
Salt fish do
Salt pork .do
Hams, native do
Hams, imported do
Eggs per dozen.
Flour, native per pound .
Flour, American do
Wheat per bushel.
Corn do
Corn meal, American per pound .
Beans, American do
Beans, Mexican do
Butter, native do
Butter, American do
Sugar, native (uncut) do
MEXICAN
CURRENCY.
$0.65
•45
$0.32 to .40
• 33
.55
.25
.07
•15
1.50 to 1.80
I 00 to 1.40
• 15
.og
.07
•35 to .50
.60 to .75
.08 to .10
UNITED STATES
CURRENCY.
$0.16^ 10
.76 to
.51 to
.18 to
.31 to
.04I to
33
•23
.21
.I7i
.28
• I3f
•03
.08
.gi
•71
.08
•04i
•03f
.2(1
•37i
.05
i
534
Xabor anD Mages in ^ejico.
RETAIL PRICES OF FOOD PRODUCTS IN THE CITY OF MEXICO. — Continued.
Sugar, native (cut) per pound. .
Sugar, American (refined) do
Molasses, native per gallon. .
Maple sirup do
Dripped sirup, imported do
Salt (table) per pound . .
Coarse salt do
Pepper (black) do
Tea, choice .... do
Coffee, raw do
Coffee, roasted and ground do
Kerosene oil, good per gallon . .
MEXICAN
CURRENCY.
^.70 to
1.25 to
go. 14
•25
1. 00
4.00
8.00
.08
.03
.50
.80
.68
.60
.40
UNITED STATES
CURRENCY.
$o.35J
•27
$o.07i
• 13
.51
2.04
4.08
.04^
.01^
o .40I
1.28
.21
• 31
• 34i
Mr. Ransom's report on money and prices in Mexico, to which I
have already alluded, contains a statement of prices in Mexico, and, al-
though I cannot vouch for their correctness, I think it proper to give
them here. IVIr. Ransom's statements are the following:
RETAIL PRICES OF FOOD PRODUCTS CONSUMED IN MEXICO AND
EXPORTED IN 1896.
ARTICLES.
Jerked beef per pound. .
Fresh beef (cities) do
Fresh beef (ranch) do
Fresh pork do
Salt pork do
Native hams do
Flour do
Corn :
Usually do
Now do
Native beans do
Native butter do
Native cheese do
Native soap (laundry) do
Native sugar (white) do
Native sugar (brown) do
Coffee (raw) do
Irish potatoes do
Rice do
Lard do
Kerosene oil per gallon . .
Tea (common) per pound. .
Tea (good and choice) do
Molasses (ordinary) per gallon . .
Wheat :
Per busliel
Generally
MEXICAN
CURRENCY.
^0.12 to
.12 to
.15 to
.25 to
.40 to
.06 to
.07 to
.25 to
.08 to
.08 to
.04 to
.35 to
.03 to
.08 to
.20 to
.60 to
1.50 to
50.20
•25
.06
•25
•45
â– 55
.10
.01^
.04
.14
â– 50
•55
.15
• 15
.08
.45
.07
.10
.26
• 75
.50
2.00
1. 00
1.50
1.80
UNITED STATES
CURRENCY.
$0.07
.07
.08
•13
to $0.1 2
to .13
•03i-
to
to
.20 to
.03^ to
.031 to
.13 to
.05 to
•04ito
.02|tO
.18 to
.oif to
.04-1^ to
.II to
.31 to
.76 to
• 13
•23
.28
.04^
.ooj-
.02^
.OS
.26
.28
.08
.08
.04
•23
•03i
.05
• 13
• 35
.26
1.02
• 57
.76
.91
Mr. Crittenden's statement is the following:
Cost ot Xtpina in flDejico.
535
PRICES.
WHOLES.\LE AND RETAIL PRICES OF ARTICLES.
[Where wholesale price is not given, the retail prices can he reckoned on from 15 to
40 per cent, higher.]
MEXICAN
CURRENCY.
UNITED STATES
CURRENCY.
Corned beef
Jerked beef per pound. .
Salted fish do
Salted pork do
Ham :
American do
American , wholesale do
Mexican do
Mexican, wholesale do
Eggs per dozen . .
Flour :
American per pound . .
Mexican do
Wheat per bushel. .
Corn (high on account of short crop) do
Corn meal, American per pound. .
Beans :
American per pound. .
Mexican (frijoles) do
Butter :
American creamery do
Mexican, unsalted do
Sugar :
Foreign do
Mexican, uncut do
Mexican, cut do
Mcilasses, ordinary per gallon. .
Sirup, maple do
Sirup, imported do
Salt :
Table per pound. .
Coarse do
Pepper do
Tea do
Coffee, green, retail do
Coffee, ground, retail do
Coffee, wholesale do
Kerosene per gallon . .
Gasoline do
Not used.
$0.65
•45
$0.32- .40
.55
.42
.35
.27
•25
•15
.07
1.50- 1.80
1.50- 1.80
•15
.09
.07
$0.34
•235
.166- .208
.286
.218
.192
.74
•13
.78 -
.078
.036
• 936
• 936
.078
.50-
•35-
.oS-
• 75
.50
• 25
.10
.14
1. 00
4.00
8.00
.10
• 03
.70- .So
1.25- 2.50
.40
â– 50
.19- .31
.56- .66
â– 37
.26 -
.192-
.042-
.047
.036
• 39
.26
.13
•051
.073
• 52
2.08
4.16
.052
.016
.364- .418
.65 - 1.306
.20
.26
.099- .161
.291- .343
.192
PRICES OF MEXICAN MANUFACTURES.
WHOLKSALK.
RETAIL.
ARTICLF.S.
Mexican
United States
Mexican
United States
Currency.
Currency.
Currency.
Currency.
Flannel, 54 inches wide
. .per vara' . .
$0.75
$0-39
$1.00
$0.52
Ginghams, 25 inches wide. . .
....do
$0.18- .20
$0.09 - .104
$o,ao- .25
$0,104- .13
Cassimeres, 52 inches wide..
do
1.25- 1.50
.65 - .78
'•75
.91
Prints, 33 inches wide
....do
.15- .16
.078- .483
.19
.094
Prints, 27 inches wide
do
.11- .uj
•"^57- -058
•'3
.067
Sheetings, 66 inches wide. . .
do
.23- .30
.145- .156
•32
.166
Shirting, 26 inches wide. . . .
do
.07- .11
.036- .057
.08- .13
.042- .067
' The vara is 33 inches.
536
Xabor aiiD Maaes in /IDcjico.
WHOLESALE PRICES, CITY OF MEXICO, 1886 AND 1896, MEXICAN
CURRENCY.'
Olive oil
Beneseed oil.
Linseed oil .
Cotion
Rice
Sugar (uncut)
Coffee
Barley
Beans
Peas
Flour
Ham
Corn
Piloncillo . . .
Cheese
Salt
Tallow
Tobacco . . . .
Wheat
QUANTITY.
Pounds.
25
25
25
I
100
25
100
300
300
300
25
25
300
300
25
25
25
25
300
18S6.
.00 to
.18 to
6.50 to
2.17 to
14.00 to
5.00 to
7-50 to
.62 to
3.50 to
11.25 to
$5.50
3-25
2.75
• 19
7.00
2.25
11.00
3-5°
13.00
15.00
I-3I
5.50
5.50
8.00
5-25
.66
4.25
4-25
11.50
$8.00 to I
1.68 to
14.00 to
1 1. 00 to I
1. 00 to
5.00 to
8.25 to
6.00 to
.56 to
6.50 to
11.00 to I
6.00
3-50
5.00
.18
0.00
1. 81
0.00
4-5"
5.00
7.00
i.og
6.0a
7-50
8.50
6.50
.b8
3- 50
7-50
2.50
On account of its natural conditions, the cost of living in Mexico
is considerably cheaper than in the United States'; and, taking into
consideration that the Mexican dollar has not lost any of its purchasing
' Expressed in United States currency will be about one-half in i8g6, but in 1886
the Mexican dollar was valued by the United States Mint at 81.7 cents.
^ In the report that Mr. Thomas T. Crittenden, while he was U. S. Consul-Gen-
eral to the City of Mexico, sent to the New York Jotirnal, dated at the City of Mexico,
on September 4, i8g6, he stated on this subject the following, published by that paper
in its issue of September 17, 1896 :
" Cost of Livins; in Mexico. — As to the cost of living in Mexico, I find it in many
respects much cheaper than in the United States. The manner of life made possible,
and even necessary, by the climatic conditions simplifies the problem. Fuel, for in-
stance, so considerable an item of expense in the North, is an unimportant feature
here. I doubt if many families expend so much as $15 per year each for their char-
coal. The average expense for fuel for the better classes is about $1.25 per week.
The u.se of fires for heating alone is almost unknown. Meats and fatty foods of what-
ever kind, heavy woollen clothing and other items, absolutely indispensable to life and
comfort in Northern climates, are not needed here ; on the contrary, they are even
detrimental to health. In general, I find living in the City of Mexico about as reason-
able as at my home in Kansas City. There are many articles that enter into home
consumption that are much higher, especially those not grown or produced in Mexico,
but when those are considered the costs average quite well. Servants are much
cheaper, and when good ones are obtained they are as serviceable and more contented,
seldom leaving the premises and never complaining of the work. Hotel and board-
ing-house rates are about the same in Mexican money as they are in the United States
in American coin. I have heard tourists say they could get meals here as good and
cheaper than in cities in the United States."
Cost of Xiving in /IDcjtco. 537
power for domestic commodities, Mexican wages go considerably
farther than the same amount would go in the United States.
The cost of living, that is, of food, clothing, house-rent, and every-
thing else that enters into the daily life of a workingman, differs so
greatly in the two countries that the only comparison possible to make
intelligently is one between the present conditions in Mexico and
those existing ten or fifteen years ago, in the matter of the income and
the expenses representing the cost of living, and the opportunity of
earning such living. The cost of livelihood in Mexico for the working
classes has not materially increased during that time, while the wages
have increased considerably.
During the discussion which preceded the last Presidential election
Mexico was on the tapis, and the opinions expressed on the subject of
prices of commodities were of a very contradictory nature. Sometimes
the price of Mexican commodities was represented as exceedingly high,
and therefore beyond the reach of the poorer classes, and when com-
pared with similar commodities in the United States it showed the
great advantage that this country had in producing cheaply the neces-
saries of life. That reason was alleged when it was intended to show
that the silver standard in Mexico raised the price of commodities and
made the country wretchedly poor. At the same time, when commod-
ities were cheaper in Mexico than in the United States, that fact was
presented to show that labor was very badly remunerated in that
country, a result which was also attributed to the silver standard pre-
vailing there.
Therefore, whatever might be the result of a comparison of prices
between the two countries, it always was unfavorable to Mexico. If
commodities were cheaper there than in the United States it showed
that labor was very badly remunerated, and it was presented as the
cause of the so-called pauper or peon labor prevailing there. If, on
the contrary, commodities were there higher than in the United States,
that was supposed to be the result of the silver standard, which made
everything higher and reduced considerably the purchasing power of
the low wages of Mexican laborers. This very fact shows the fallacy
of such doctrines. Such comparisons are not fair, because some
commodities which are comparatively cheap here and could not be
easily obtained in Mexico had to be imported from the United States,
paying for them in gold, besides heavy import duties, and that made
them, of course, exceedingly high there; while other commodities
which were easily raised in Mexico were considerably lower than they
could be obtained in this country, and that reasoning did not prove,
therefore, what it was intended to show.
Several comparisons have been recently made in this regard between
Mexico and the United States that are very disparaging to the former,
538 Xabor aub Maoes in /IDejlco.
but, as I have just stated, domestic commodities in Mexico have not
increased in price since the depreciation of silver, excepting those that,
like coffee, have their price regulated in foreign markets, but which
are not very much used by the poorer classes. So far as foreign com-
modities are concerned, of course they have almost duplicated their
value, because they have to be paid in gold.
Report of Labor Asseful'/y. — The labor question in Mexico was so
earnestly agitated during the last Presidential election in the United
States that the Chicago Trade and Labor Assembly, desiring reliable
information on the subject, sent to Mexico a special committee of two,
Mr. Paul J. Maas, who organized the American Confederation of Labor,
and Mr. Patrick Enright, of the Executive Board of the Moulders'
Union, for the purpose of examining the question on the spot, and that
committee presented a report on October lo, 1896,* which was widely
circulated in this country, and taken as a conclusive proof of the bad
results of the silver standard in Mexico, so far as the laboring classes
Avere concerned. That report, however, failed to present the question
in a proper light, for the reason that the gentlemen who made it did not
know enough of Mexico to fully comprehend what they saw, and they
did not remain long enough there for that purpose.
The report of these gentlemen shows their good faith and their
' I quote the following extract from that report, which shows how much the gen-
tlemen who made it misunderstood Mexico:
" Wages in Mexico, except to skilled and steady mechanics — always foreigners —
are very low. On railroads engineers (Americans) on passenger trains receive $210
per month, while the firemen (Mexicans) receive $1.85 per day ; freight engineers
(Americans), $250 per month; firemen (Mexicans), $1.50 to $1.75 per day ; passenger
conductors (Americans), $160 per month ; brakemen (Mexicans), $1.50 per day ; freight
conductors (Americans), $200 per month ; brakemen (Mexicans), $57 to $63 per month ;
Pullman conductors, $So per month (American money), and the porters, $38 per
month (American money), with $5 per month extra for being able to talk Spanish.
The national soldiers (or regular army) of Mexico, called rurales, and who are all ex-
bandits, receive $r per day. In a broom factory near the depot at Jimenez the men
are paid 50 cents, and women and children 25 to 37^ cents per day. In the cotton
mills, cotton-seed oil mills, and soap factory at Torreon men are paid 37^ to 50 cents,
and women and children 25 cents per day. A cargador (public carrier) has a rate of
125 cents per hour, but you can hire him for from 25 to 37^ cents per day.
" At Leon, where nearly all the leather goods in Mexico are manufactured, the
peon gets his leather cut for shoes, harness, or other goods to be made by him, and
takes the material to his hut, where the whole family assists him, the same as in the
sweatshops of Chicago. For making shoes he receives $1 and upward per dozen