The Indianapolis journal., 1896-10-12


attempted to escape and were shot This
method of dispensing justice acts as an OBJ
tect lesson to the remaining prisoners a,d9 40
is a system which has purified Mexico OF
crime and criminals. The other pickpock-
cts may be set free or ordered sent TO an
other town at a later day.
''The libel and SANDER laws or mexico
are very severe. If a person libeis or sian
ders another either by mouth or pen, on
complaint being made TO any policeman the
guilty person is arrested and lodged IN jail
until he has proved the charge made by
mouth or pen.
"All business in Mexico is transacted on
strictly cash basis. no credits are given
or allowed to any one or for any purpose
whatever. commercial paper and promise
to pay are unknown, and If merchant has
stock of goods. he It large or small eyo
business failures have occurred in that
country for years.
The compulsory school law works ad-
mirably; it requires children between the
ages of seven and fifteen years to attend
the public schools ten months of the year.
Statistics of Mexico show that where ten
years ago IS per cent. of it's people could
not read or write now 66 per cent. can.
Another admirable feature of Mexican bus
iress life is that all places of business are
closed daily from l to clock at noon to
while stools and chairs are provided in ali
stores for the use of both the clerks and
the customers.
no FIXED PRICES.
1.-THE worst feature of Mexican business
life is that no fixed price is put on any
as to the exact quality of the goods to be
purchased. If the buyer offers one-haIf or
one-third of the price originally asked for
the article can generally be bought. Wages
are paid every Wednesday and Saturday.
Every town or city in Mexico has from
one to a dozen public parks, which are
kept up by the government, in which semi
and tri-weekly concerts are given by gov
ernment bands On Sunday mornings, in
the City of Mexico, military bands play in
the principal public park for three hours
commencing at 10 o'clock. During the first
hour and half the peCn is privileged to
promenade in the park and listen to the
music, after which time he is ordered out
by the police to make room for the So
called better classes who then appear on
dress parade until the close of the concert
AT each entrance to the promenades police
stand guard to drive away the unfortunate
native should he hover too near This man
hesitation of social inequality your commit
tee considers wrong to those who are the
real wealth producers of the country who
mines and carry loads as beasts of burden
and IN consideration of this should be per-
mitted to occupy higher plane in the
social arrangement of Mexico.
All mercantile business in Mexico is
taxed to per cent. of actual sales. A
set of books must be kept of receipts and
expenditures. which are examined by the
tax collector as often as that worthy comes
around, who fixes the amount of taxes to
amount of taxes paid on the books
Amy advertisement announcement in
stores, windows, houses or public places
must have a 2-cent revenue stamp affixed
to permit its display. Even the gambling
houses and lotteries are taxed one-third of
their business.
Although but one-fourth of the natives
OF Mexico are married, no divorces or sep
arations aT occur; They are a very affection
gree are polite almost to fault. In their
domestic relations they are happy-no fam
takes the place of the green-eved Is nonetey ey
that has wrecked so many homes of the
so-called better classes in America. Aged
couples manifest much affection for each
other. 1t is common to see them walk the
streets with hands joined and acting with
mittee was told that the reason the ma
tives do not go through the marriage cere-
mony was that it cost too much: still. the
civil fee for the poorer class is but 81. IS for
the judge and registration fee, while for
the better class the cost is from $40 to $40.
The church fee is much higher. Theschurch
does not recognize civil marriage and the
state does not recognize a church marriage
On inquiring what was necessary for a
peon to take unto himself a wife and go to
housekeeping we were told: "A picture of
hidalgo, a bunch of chilli peppers and an
almuda of maize (twenty-four pounds of
CORN. AS a consequence these people live
together like cattle more than like human
beings. and it is but five years ago that a
law was passed in the City of Mexico COM
pelling men to wear pants. the breech-
cloth previously took the place of that nee
The haciendas (or plantations) are owned
by the very rich, and cover an area of
from ten to one hundred square miles.
Farming and agricultural implements are
very primitive. The p1ow - a crooked stick
or beam, and scratches the ground to a
depth OF three or four inches. This ''plow''
is drawn by two oxen, and the harness is a
broad strap or rope passing over the fore
head instead of the shoulders of the oxen
Planting is done by poking hole into the
ground with a stick dropping the corn into
1t, and the seed is covered by the peon
IfN1r
tracts of land the natives or poems have
lived for centuries, and are forced to buy
qand owner's) truck store On the hacien-
da the peon gets from Is to % cents per
day for his work and hut to live in, if he
builds himself.
GETS NO MONEY.
'"The peon gets no money. The only
money he gets is on feast days and for re-
ligious offerings. By this system the peon
is always in debt to the haciendado. Gen.
GRAFTON after generation of poems live on
the same hacienda and always under the
same conditions. This form of slavery has
been forbidden by law for a number of
years, but two-thrds of the poems do not
know it, as they can neither read nor write
and their masters take good care not to
teach them this fact. The peon cannot
leave the hacienda while owing the ha-
ciendado any money, and Mr.. Haciendado
SeeS " II tIldl NneIl setting up accounts
there is balance due him. which
keeps the peon perpetually in his service
and his debt. This relic of the baronial
system has made the haciendado lord and
master of every man, woman and beast
within the bounds of his extensive pos
sessions
After three hundred years of isms Mex
leo is now emerging from arrested de-
velopment and has a good future before
it. Under this republican form of govern
ment, which in fact is military despotism,
the great masses of the working people
have little social and absolutely no poIiti-
cal standing. The machinery of the gov
ernment, in its legislative functions, can
and does exercise an unbriGled sway with
impunity. Organized labor is unknown
here, which is considered great blessing.
But that country to-day that has the best
system of trade organizations and the
of its population is the foremost in wealth,
progression and the happiness of the peo-
pie. The true test of ciyiliza ton and great
ness of a nation depends on the intellectual
and moral worth of its working classes.
All laws inscribed on the statute books of
nations bearing the welfare of the toiier
have had their germs planted in the soil
of trades unions and by them quickened
into life in presentable forms for adoption,
and that country which has done the most
on these lines stands at the head of civili-
zation
The cry is raised that there are no poor
houses in Mexico but that is no indication
of the absence of poverty, as your commit
tee can fully testify without fear of con-
tradiction as the voice of the mendicant
supplicating aims rang Ill our ears all