New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-04-12

employer and compelled to discharge his obliga:
ton as In the old days; but 1t Is the common
testimony Of those who have dealings with this
class of Indian aborers that IL is absolutely neces
sary to lend them money and to keep them heavily
in debt in order to have work done with any ap-
proach to regularity and order Two Americans
who have timber grants in the mountains around
Patzcuaro, and an Italian cofee-panter living
thirty miles to the south, have explained to me
in detail their relations to the poems They make
every week deduction from the wages OF every
man employed In payment of old debts. The In
dams work barely three days week. save nothing
and never have money When their food sup
plies are exhausted or when sickness disables
them, they borrow money from their employers
with the understanding that it Is to be worked
of, week by week. A refusal to lend is equiva-
lent to discharge. An employer who fails to
lend money systematically TO poems will not have
any one working for him in coffee tract or In
the forests lie is the poems banker and must
honor their drafts at sight, looking to the future
for the collection of debts In labor.
It would be difficult TO find more worthless
class Of farm labor than is 10 be seen In such sec
lions of Michoacan as have visited. The Indian
is able to keep his family alive on 35 cents week,
and this he can earn by working one day In
III ne De Wiling W w inoic en"n
this he has q small surplus available for pulque
and gambling. Constitutionally INDECENT. he takes
| advantage of every feast day-and the calendar
seems to include fully onehalf the days of the
year-and refuses to work. A prolonged debauch
| intermediates him for labor the next day. After
| the chief fcasts he is physical wreck IL he
| earns little. he has few wants. He has shrewd,
| practical sense, and is neither quarrelsome nor
| dishonest: but he is contented with his poverty
and degradation, and has no desire to better his
| condition. This is the class of labor upon which
| Mexican landowners are dependent In sections
remote from the American border Improved
| agricultural machinery is enabling them TO dis
pense with portion Of il. but American ploughs.
harvesters, and threshingmills cannot be operated
| without poems. and there is o strong prejudice
among them against every new mechanical device.
| lie must be a very credulous traveller who cam
visit the Central States, minging with the Indian
population. whose labor is essential to the de-
velopment of rural industries. and return with h
conviction that marvellous development Of agri-
| cultural resources is possible within the next
| TWENTY-FIVE or fifty years. Even If improved
machinery can be introduced on large scale. and
the poems gradually educated and trained In indus
! trial habits as has already been done in some
| of the mining regions and in the border States.
| the land-tenure system cannot be changed with
| out o political and social revolution; nor can the
water supply be increased so as to be equal TO the
requirements of agricultural industries competing
with those of the United States
There is no class of agricultural producers in
| the United States that really needs protection
| against Mexican competition. The wealth of this
country lies in its mines, not in its fields. Next
| can wheat is an insignificant crop compared with
| that of the United States There is no surplus of
corn, rye and barley for export. Mexico imports
| more live stock for feeding its population than
it sends across the border Mexican oranges are SO
perishabe that the Florida crop does not require
to be protected against them. Tobacco and wool
are raised in inconsiderable quantities and Ameri
can interests would not suffer from the free i'm
portation of both products from this quarter.
The main agricultural staples, coffee sugar, hides
and fibres, are now received in the United States
without restriction. A reciprocity treaty grant
ing q free market for Mexican wool, oranges, to-
bacco and live stock would be highly advanta-.
geous both countries, if adequate compensations
were obtained in exchange by which American prod
ucts and manufactures could be introduced In
Mexico on more favourable terms than at present.
The silver ores are already admitted duty free.
Let the lead ores be added to the reciprocity list,
and the United States would practically open its
markets to all Mexican products agricultural and
| mineral
Whether it would be eypedent for the United
States to negotiate such treaty with Mexico de-
ponds wholly upon the extent of the concessions to
be obtained in exchange for the free market II
little is to be had little needs to be given II much
can be secured, everything can safely be offered.
Mexican resources, whether in agriculture or min
erals cannot mperil the material prosperity of the
United States. With deficient water supply, an
unprogressive agrarian system and torpid and
hopeless working population, this is not country
from which competition is to be feared in any field
of industry by the American people. Reciprocity
| can safely be made as free and generous as the
Mexican Government is prepared to accept on the
basis of equitable exchange. l. n. +.