The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-10-21
Wages in Mexico.

GeOrge Feed Williams told me YER
monters, during his brief Invasion OF
the state, glowing tale Of the pros
perity of Mexico and the happiness of
Mexcans, particularly the Mexican la
borer-ell the product of the silver
standard in the land of the Aztecs.
The popocratic contemporary at the
capitol took up the story, and the sum-
mer air was laden with recitals of the
Arcadian peace and rleuty that existed
south of the Rio Grande. Facts as to
the real condition of peasantry
reared on tortilas, washed down by
pulque, and figures as to the price, in
this latter-day Arcadia, of those ar
ticles that constitute the commonest
necessities of civilized beings began to
appear in the newspapers, and the pic
lures of the thrift and plumpness of the
Greaser's life began to lose their roseate
tints and his life its romance. Even
Chicago, where the prophet of anarchy
and reputation sways the minds of
1.-THE toiiug Masses" doubted. They
took a practical way to settle their
doubts. The Trade and Labor AS
semby of that city sent two of its
members to Mexico to investigate the
condition of the laboring classes of that
country.
That committee has returned and re-
Gently submitted its report. Its mem
bers "did not go loaded with creden-
tials, to be entertained by the better
classes, or to have their poetic fancies
stirred by the landscape and azure
Skies" but they went "to go among
the common people, who are of our
own class, and study conditions from
that standpoint" They find that in
industrial operations, in the running of
railways, in all the pursuits Of trade
and commerce, the places requiring
skilled labor are filed by foreigners;
that Mexican laborers are "the hewers
Of wood aud drawers of water" in all
the operations Of business, on the rail-
ways, in the mines, in the shops, on
the plantations. The skilled laborer is
well paid; the Mexican gets the wages
of helf.civilzed peoTle. A freight en-
Rineer (American) is paid $3.50 a
month; his fireman (Mexican) 81 80 to
S1,75 day. This comparison is an
example of many others cited. OF
wages in general, the committee says:
" In broom factory near the depot at
Jimine the men are paid so cents, and
women and children % to 371 cents per day.
In the cotton mills, cotton-seed oil mills,
and soap factory at Toreon men are paid
37l to so cents, and women and children %
cents per day. A carcador (public carrier)
has rate OF 121 cents per hour, but you can
hire him for from 25 to 371 cents per day.
At Leon, where nearly all the leather goods
in Mexico are manufactured, the peon gets
his leather cut for shoes, harness, or other
goods to be made by him and takes the ma
teral to his hut, where his whole family as
sists him, the same as in the sweat-shops of
Chicago. For making shoes he receives 81
anu upward per uOZen pairs; on tne other
leather goods he receives 37h to 80 cents per
day for his labors, working as long as day
light lasts, averaging twelve to fourteen
hours per day. Common laborers can be
hired for eighteen to fifty cents per day.
House servants, male or female, receive
SO to So per month and board themselves"
The report is filled with similar facts
about the actual pay and condition of
the working classes. Agricultural i'm
plements are of the primitive kind
the crooked stick, or beam, for the
plow, the sharpened stick for planting.
The farm laborer is paid from eighteen
to twenty-five cents a day for his work
and hut to live inf he builds it him
self. There may be no poor-houses in
Mexico, as the silver orators declare,
but the country is full of beggars. In
comparison with his Mexican brother,
the committee finds "the American
workingman a prince"