| Show MEXICO AND MONEY CHICAGO oct ll 11 the committee of the trade and labor assembly sent to mexico by that organization to investigate the condition of the laboring classes of that country has re turned to chicago and submitted its iti report at the ir of the assembly this afternoon the report was ado adopted by an almost uv vote it say ye in part the first stop made by your committee was at el paso tex where we investigated the wages paid and the conditions of the american Ameil can laborers from that point we crossed to the city of juares but two miles from el paso at that place a complete changement change chang emet met the eye everything ae a mexican air and we realized that the time had arrived when the real duties of our mission began we took observations of the people as to their heir mode of living social condi uon wages paid and price of commodities and were surprised at the con treat as compared with conditions we left felt in el ei paso the two peoples as to the habits tastes customs and modes of life are such that a comparison is unnatural life to Is regarded from very different standpoint as they live under differ ont ent conditions condition insomuch inasmuch as the mexican laborer is apparently contented with the four bare bar walls of his ten toot foot fanare adobe but bat with nothing la in side aide but the tb ground to sleep ona shawl or blanket to cover or wrap himself up in a dish ot of hortillas tortillas tor tillas corn pancakes and frijoles fri jales basup for blip bis frugal moal meal and in a large jarge number of oase comes a little pig a dog and a chicken or two wo of we be gamecock game cock cook order sharing his bis scant meant quarter while the american laborer across the line has au ah the comforts comfort of home and aad many of the luxuries of life wages wage in the skilled and steady mechanics moo bantes always foreigners are very low on rall roalo on en ia tit I 1 v e rt r A merican american on haflenger aral trains a receive per mouth month while the firemen mexicans receive per day freight engineers Ameri americans cant r er month firemen mexican to per day passenger conductors american per month brakemen mexican per day freight conductors american per month brake men mexican 57 to 63 68 per mouth month pullman conductors 80 per month american money and the porters 28 per mi nth american money with 5 per month extra for being able to talk spanish the national soldiers regular army of mexico called ru ralee rales and who are all ex receive 1 per day la in a broom factory near the depot at jimenez the men are paid 50 cents women and children 25 to 37 per day in the cotton mills seed aeed oil mills and soap factories at torreon men are paid 47 to 50 cenap wc aimen men and children 25 cents per day A cardador caro ador public carrier ban baa a rate of cents per hour boor but you can hire him for from 25 to 87 cents centa per day at leon where nearly all the leather goods gooda in mexico are manufactured the be peon gets his hie leather cut tor for for shoes or other goods gooda to be made by him and takes taken the material to his but where abe whole family assist him bam the some BB an to io the sweatshops sweat shops of chicago for making shobal aboe he receives 1 and up wa rasper per dozen pairs pain oa tb abe other eother goods he receives 87 to 50 centa per day for his labor working BB as long as aa daylight lasts last averaging twelve to fourteen hours boura per day house servants servant male or female receive 8 to 5 per month and board themselves in or near cities peona live in adobe houses and pay a rental of 8 9 a year for the ground that the hot but stands on when leaving this tor for another location all improvements the peon has made go to the landlord or owner ow nor of the landa land who pays pay no co taxes whatever on the land the chief article of drew dress of the mexican is his bis sombrero often costing coating as much on ea 85 which la Is bought on the I 1 plan while the he balance of his hie clothing would make a crazy quilt turn green with envy owing to its variety cf colon colors and assortment of patches making it a herd bord problem to solve as aa to which to la the original garment and which the patch no stock lags ingo are worn by either sex aex and only about one third wear sandal alandale aan dale which are made from a piece of sole leather anu and tied to the foot with straps trapa these sandals cost from 12 to 20 cents per pair the average cost of the lecessi essi ties of life for a peon family of five la in 25 cents a day and clothing for the same costs 20 per year the day daya 96 work in mexico runs from ton ten to fourteen boump hourc and workmen who take lake work to their homes work an aa many bourage hours as they plead the mexican laborer laborers a work as an compared with the american laborer except carri carriera oar rien erp who bear enormous burdens burdena on their backs all day without fatigue the haciendas or plantation are owned by the be very rich and cover an area of from ton ten to one b undred hundred square miles farming and agricultural implements clements ts are very primitive the plough Is ie a crooked stick or beam beams and scratches the ground to a depth of three or four inches this plough lie ie drawn by two oxen and the harness Is in a broad strap or rope pawing passing over the forehead instead of the shoulders shoulder of the oxen planting to is done by poking a bole into the ground with a stick dropping into it and the seed to la covered by the peon in stepping from bole to hole bole on these immense traice of lands land the nat natives iveLe or peons geons have lived for cent centuries urlee and are tc c buy all their necessities of life at the s landaw land ernets neis track tore store on the hacienda the peon gets gete from IS 18 to 60 50 cents per day for hie bit work and a hut but to live in it if he be builds it himself the peon gets geta no money except on feast days and for religious offerings offering this form of slavery has baa been forbidden by law for a number oi of years year but two thirds of the peons geons do not know it as they can neither read nor write and their masters take good care not to teach them this thin fao fac Organ organized tsou labor to ie unknown here is ia considered a great blessing but the country today that has the best beat system of trade organization and the greater number of union men per capita of its population in the foremost in wealth progression and happiness of its ite people the cry to la raised raided that there are no poor in mexico but that to ia no indication of the absence of poverty as aa your committee can fully testify without rear of contradict im jn BB as the vica of the wood mendicant I 1 cant supplicating ng rings ring in our ears ear all through abe country in ID the cities of zacatecas Zacate cas nod and ouan juato with populations of anu and respectively we failed to got get butter and potatoes on the tables of the best hotels on inquiry we were informed that it if we paid 1 a p a und nd for butter it would be purchased and kept for our exclusive use your commission would caution american workman against going to mexico without sufficient lands funds to bring them back or to have employment secured acu ecu red before going there or hey will be obliged to subsist on bac tug and the sap of the tequila equila plant while doing the coutry cu on asking an Amei Ame ioan iloan who was wag conducting a prosperous business to in one of the cities which your commission visited why it was that the for signers elgner sall MI seemed to oe be making money no matter what business they engaged in be with characteristic yankee frankness replied the laborer here is in different from the he laborer in the be states here labor is cheap and we have no brains to contend with ilabe the mission in trusted to your corn com mission to is a pecullar puo pu uliar cullar one we were ent boot to study the social and financial conditions of a faraway tar away people we are plain toi lers inured to the hard knocks of the factory and work workshop hop and none are better qualified to 1 laves ves or to feel and sympathize with the workers of another country than men from our ranks ranke we edid idid did not go loaded with credentials to be entertained by the people of the better classes nor yet as scholars to describe the monuments of historic interest or to have our oar poetic fancies inspired by the landscape and azure skies or build up wasted wanted energies in the healthful air of that southern clime but bui to go among the common pe pie who are of 1 our own elms elass and study conditions from that standpoint hence this epistle does not abound to in high sound ing platitudes on the sublime and beautiful of that country but in facts facia that still exist and are ready to speak for themselves to those who will go and seek as aa we have bave done and shurld they do no ao they will feel as we do that the american wor klegman to is a prince compared oom pared to the workingmen of mex oo co in this country all stand equal in social and political life and in that po lotical right they should exercise with care the faithful discharge of their duties and unbiased by supporting I 1 such as will do the greatest good to the greatest number irrespective of party politics or the machinery of either party who may manipulate conditions and mea fur pers personal oual gala gain to the dearl ment of the whole people PATRIC ENRIGHT P J MAAS committee |
