The Democratic Advocate

As showing that a defective or poorly adjusted monetary system may operate to the disadvantage of a people and prevent their making the best progress materially and industrially may be cited the case of the Mexican farmers. A sixteen inch crossing plow of American make costs in the neighborhood of $10 in this country. After the freight charges are added, the import tax paid and its value expressed in terms of a Mexican silver currency, which is inflated nearly 100 per cent, it retails, adding a profit to the dealer, at better than $30. Naturally this seems a high price and, with the natural conservatism of the Mexican agriculturist, serves to make him content to scratch the ground with the fluted iron stick which has been in use for centuries. He thinks he can't afford to buy modern machinery and so continues in the same old rut.