Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1896-10-10

men. No one will traverse the great
plant at Monterey and. doubt that the
Mexican workman IN the Industry, rem
ders equal labor, man fpf man. with tht
AmefieaH employed in the Omaha smelt-
er. AT Omaha there Is little labor giveL
at $50 day. The wages in the yarions
grades Of the smelter range as high as
So a day. Ii will not place the average
too high to make il 81 per day. That Is
American m~oney-gold. Here the com
mon labor unloads the cars and heaps the
ore by the thousa nds of tons In the yards.
This same labor loads the ore into the
little iron tramcars and wheels It under
the sheds, where the more skilled work
men do the mixing of the ores IN, great
beds. This common labor shoveis and
lifts and pushes as hard rs the $l.o0
gold labor at Omaha and does it for 6212
cents Il day Mexican silver. or BIZ
cents gold. This labor works ten hours a
day for that price. Then there
is the twelve hours labor, 81 divided
TO keep the smelter running night anu
day. Here something besides muscle en-
ters in. The iron barrows must be
wheeled upon the scales, and one kind
of ore follows another in, as beam after
beam tips, until the barrow is full OF
just the right proportions of lead and
iron and lime and various ores 10 take
~ an VI TIE SUNfl III III Hbiill'bks
The MeXicans who do this are paid 20
cents a day, worth 37I5 cents American
money. Then come the feeders and the
furnace men, who know just when to
dump in the barrow loads at the top
and just when to tap at the bottom 10
draw of the bullion. This is labor that
receives 81 n day in Mexican silver, or
so cents a day In gold. The Stag pullers
get 10 cents a dGS IN silver. The fore
men Of the yards, who moves about over
seeing and directing, are paid from 81
to 80 q day. They are few in number:
Sun fewer are the furnace forennen OF
that ripe experience which is responsible
Tor the results. These get $500 n month,
the equivalent of 800 in gold.
The pay at the Omaha smelter aver
ages 80 a day, or $500 for the 100 Ia.
borers, the equivalent of $1,000 in Mexi-
can money. The pay at the Monterey
smeiter averages 81 a day in Mexican
money, or $500 for the 400 employees.
Here is 4 difference Of $500 Mexican
money or $500 gold in the daily pay
rolls. The Mexican silver smelters are
said to be making $40 in Mexican money
ing RI III American MONEY. Whether
free silver in the United States would
raise the Mexican money to the Ameri-
can money or lower the American to the
Mexican it would require the American
smelters to pay only twice rs much fol
labor where now they pay -four times as
much as the Mexican smelters do. The
wages paid at the smelters here com,
mand the best of Mexican labor. The
lowest rate, 6212c, is nearly double that
paid for ordinary common labor. II
brings to the works brown men with
muscles Ike steel. who trot along with
300 pounds of ore in a barrow. Thes,
MeSicans shed all clothing but sandals
strawhat and cotton drawers as they
push and pull the ore down the incline
of the long roasting ovens. They have
only one bad habit. They will come tC
work before breakfast. You can teach
Mexican labor to smelt ores to perfection
but you can not teach the Mexican won
an to get Hp and prepare breakfast, sim
pie as IL is, before the whistle blows foI
the change Of shifts from night TO day
And so, an hour or two after the brown
men have begun work, the little brown
women come stringing in with the beans
and the corn cakes and the bit of meat.
Laborers' Wages.
At Cerralvo. in the state Of Nueya
Leon, is located the Benavides smelters.
From this smelter there has been
shipped since the LIST of JANUARY, by OK
carts, / 100000 pounds of bullion. This
district was n great mining cen
ter 300 years ago. II had n government
mint, and turned out quantities of coin
during two centuries under Spanish do
minibf, When the revolutionary period
set III mining ceased. Titles lapsed.
With the establishment of stable gov
eminent and the coming of railroads
mining in Mexico took ON new activity.
The Cerralvo district was one of the last
'teo@SfSe SRI VI tNahesRMiRitte riaS II .rs~yiSSataae IAs = rail-
American enterprise found this Ions
neglected district. A smelter was built
The highly successful operation of this
plant for the past three years, ninety
miles from a railroad. affords one of the
best possible illustrations of the cheaper.
ing of silver production in Mexico. The
manager, of the smelter is Mr.. Fl. G. Har.
rison, who has had n good deal of ex.
perience in mining and smelling. He
furnishes the actual cost of operation
from his books and makes a comparison
with the cost Of n like smelter i'm the
States. These are his figures:
Smelter operation In Mexico.
Per day In
Gta 80