The Indianapolis journal., 1896-10-12

paid 81 pound of butter would be pur-
chased and kept for our exclusive uSe
NJ

paid 81 a pound of butter would be pur-
chased and kept for our exclusive use
NO PLACE FOR AMERICANS.
Your committee would caution American
workingmen against going to Mexico with
out sufficient funds to bring them back, or
to have employment secured before going
there, or they will be obliged to subsist on
cactus and the sap of the tequila plant
while doing the country. On asking an
American who was conducting prosperous
business in one of the cities which your
committee visited why it was that the for
eigners all seemed to be making money,
no matter what business they were en-
gagged in. he. with characteristic Yankee
frankness, replied: The laborer here is diff
ferent from the laborer in the States. ASre
labor is cheap and we have no brains TO
According to census taken in sf ptem-
ber 1885, Mexico has a total population OF
g. Co., 900 are Indians 600 a mixed
race of Indians and Spaniards-this is the
peon class. Together they represent about
IS per cent. of the total population of the
country and directly contribute not one cent
to the support of the government. The
the balance of its populatlon-2,o ooo O19-who
are designated as the white race and con-
sist of Spaniards, Englishmen Germans,
French, Italians and Americans.
THE mission intrusted to your committee
is a peculiar one. We were sent to study
the social and financial conditions of a far
away people. We are plain tolers. Injured
to the hard knocks of the factory and
work shop. and none are better qualified
to Investigate or to feel and sympatMhlze M
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 his
toric interest, or to have our poetic fancies
inspired by the landscape and azure skies,
or build up wasted energies in the health
full air of that southern climate, but to go
among the common people, who are Of
our own class, and study conditions from
that standpoint. Hence this epiStle does
not abound in high-sounding Dlatitudes
the sublime and beautiful of that country,
but on facts that still exist and are realy
to speak for themselves to those who VIII
go and seek as we have done; and should
they do so they will feel as we do that the
American workingman is a prince COM
pared to the workingman of Mexico. That
in this country all stand equal in social and
political life, and in that political right
they should exercise with care the faithful
discharge Of their duties, unpreJud1ced and
unbiased, by supporting such principles as
will do the greatest good to the greatest
number, irrespective of party politics or the
machinery of either party, who may maniP-
ulate conditions and measures for personal
gain to the detriment of the whole people.
''Felow-workers, aDpreciating the honor
conferred upon us, we thank the chicago
fidence reDosed in us on sending us upon
so important a mission, and believe that
we have fulfilled the duties assigned to us
free from prejudice. as in this report we
and chronicled events and conditions just
as we found them.
in conclusion we submit herewith
comparative table of the average prices of
different cities visited by us. All OF which
.aP j. MAAS
PATRICK ENRIGHT,
COMMITTEE