People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1896 — SILVER DOLLAR IN MEXICO. [ARTICLE]

SILVER DOLLAR IN MEXICO.

lOWA MAX, BY AFFIDAVIT, ATTACKS THE MEXICAN SILVER EXAMPLE. Special to the Chicago Record. Des Moines, lowa, Aug. 31.—J. H. Kennedy, a former resident of lowa, has attacked the statements so generally made regarding Mexico and silver by making the following affidavit before E. H. English, a notary public at Valley Junction: “I, James H. Kennedy, now a resident of the town of feinalvo in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, do solemnly swear that I am an American by birth; that I served three years in the 7th lowa during the late civil war; that I have always been a republican; that I have resided in Mexico for twenty-five years: that I speak the Spanish language as well or better than I now do the English. I have traveled through twenty-four of the twenty-seven states in Mexico in an official capacity and as interpreter for numerous syndicates, I have had access to almost all the archives of that country. I am better acquainted with the customs and usages of that country than lam of my mother country. I left Mexico on the 2d day of March, 1896, coming to this country to visit my friends, relatives and old comrades. During the last month in lowa I have heard more absurd and utterly false statements made in regard to Mexico than I ever thought could be conjured up by mortal man, all to deceive the voter. “One most heard is that you can take one American silver dollar into Mexico and get two Mexican silver dollars for it, or that you can get a 50-cent meal and throw down an American dollar and they will give you back in change a Mexican dollar. I brand this as utterly false in every respect, a lie manufactured out of whole cloth. I assert that a Mexican will not accept an American dollar, either gold, silver or paper, for any amount, but will refer you to a broker, where you can sell your silver dollars as bullion for Mexican money, then they will trade with you. The largest hotel in the City of Mexico will not accept American money under any circumstances but will invariably refer you to a broker. ‘■By paying the mintage any one can take silver bulliou to either of the mints in Mexico and get Mexican silver dollars for it, and for 250 years silver bullion has never fluctuated up or down to exceed 2 cents. “I hear it asserted that the national debt is payable in gold. I brand this as utterly false. Every dollar of the debt, $146,030,009, is and always has been payable in the lawful money of that country, and we are now paying our debt in Mexican silver dollars, the money of the contract. “I assert that Mexico in the present decade is making strides of advancement greater than any other nation on earth. Twenty-five years ago we had eighty miles of railroad, now we have nearly 8,000 miles of railroad. We are building factories on every hand. Twenty-eight years ago, w’hen the French army was driven out, the Mexican goverment was left penniless, not a dollar in the treasury. We can now pay our entire national debt any day a demand would be made for it. “I am now on my way to Mexico to spend the rest of my life. Any one can find me by addressing a letter to James H. Kennedy, Sinaloa, Mexico. “In conclusion I invite an honest and thorough investigation into the facts of my statement and I defy sucessful contradiction. lam not the owner of mining stocks and no personal interest has caused me to make this statement, but have given it by request of an old

comrade.

JAMES H. KENNEDY.”