Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1896-10-16

stffe poems do not know it, as
rney can neither read nor write. and their
masters take good care not to teach them
this fact
| organized labor is unknown here
| which is considered a great blessing. But
the country today that has the best sys-
tenn OF trade organization and the greater
number of union men per capita of lis
| population is the foremost in wealth, nro-
gression and the happiness of it's people.
The cry Is raised that there are no ueor
in Mexico, but that Is no indication of the
absence OF poverty, as your committee
| can fully testify without fear of contra
diction as the voice of the mendicant
supplicating almost rang in our ears all
through the country. In the cities of "a
catecas and Guanajuato, with a popula-
tlon OF 10000 and 10000, respectively we
lalled to get butter and potatoes on the
tables OF the best hotels. On inquiry, we
were Informed that If we paid 81 a pound
for butter, it would be purchased and
kept for our exclusive use.
Your commission would caution Amer
lean workmen against going to Mexico
without sufficient funds TO bring them
back or to have employment secured be
Tore going there, or they will be Obliged
to subsist on cactus and the sap of the
taquila plant while doing the country. On
asking an American who was conducting
a prosperous business in one of the cities
winch your commission visited why II
was that the foreigners all seemed to be
making money, no matter what business
they were engaged in, he, with charac
teristic Yankee frankness, replied: The
laborer here Is different from the lai5rel
from the states. Here labor is Cheap
and we have no brains to contend with.
THE mission intrusted to your com
mission is a peculiar one. We were Sent
to study the social and financial condi
ton of far-away people. We are plain
toilers, Injured to the hard knocks of the
factory and workshop, and none are bet
ter qualified to investigate or to feel and
sympathize with the workers of another
country than men from our ranks. We
did not go loaded with credentials, to be
entertained by the people of the better
classes, or yet as scholars, to describe
the monuments of historic interest, OF
to have our poetic fancies inspired by the
landscape and azure skies. building III
energies in the healthful air of that
southern cline, but to go among the com
mon people, who are of our own class
and study conditions from that stand
point. Hence this epistle does not
abound in high-soundirre platitudes or
the sublime and beautiful of that coun-
try, but on the facts that still exist and
are ready to speak for themselves 10
those who will go and seek as we have
done. Should they do so, they will feel
as we do that the American working
man is prince compared with the work
ingmen of Mexico. in this country all
stand equal in social and political life
and that political right they should ex-
ercise care in the faithful discharge Of
their duties, unprecedented and unbiased
by supporting such principles as will do
the greatest good to the greatest mum
Der, irrespective of party politics or the
machinery of either party, who may ma
nipulate conditions and measures for per
sonal gain to the detriment of the whole
people.
"P. J. MAS,
PATRICK ENRIGHT,
Committee.