The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1896-10-10

| est silver shelters In the two countries;
Each gives employment to about 4VV
men. No one Mill traverse the great
plant Mt Monterey aud doubt that tne
dcrs equal labor, man for man, with the
American employed In the Omaha smeit-
er. At Omaha there Ii little labor given
ut $1.5O day. The wages In the various
grades of the smeltcr range as high as
50 day. II will not place the average
too high to make il 81 per day. That Is
American money-gold. Here the com
mon labor unloads the cars and heaps the
ore by the thousand of tons In the YARDS.
This same labor loads the ore into the
little iron tramcars and wheels II under
the sheds. where the more skilled work
men do the mixing of the ores In great
beds. This common labor shovels anu
gold labor Mt Omaha and does 1t for WI
cents a day Mexican silver. or 3l1a
cents gold. This labor works ten hours
day for that price. Then there
Is the twelve hours labor, so divided
to keep the smelter running night ana
day. Here something besides muscle en-
tiers 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 ana
iron and lime and various ores to lake
out all of the silver in the smelling
The Mexicans who do this are paid 20
cents day, worth 31H 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 to
draw OFF the bullion. This is labor that
receives 81 day in Mexican silver. or
90 cents day in gold. The Stag pullers
get 20 cents day in silver. The fore
men of the yards, who moves about over
seeing and directing, are paid from So
to 50 day. They are few in number.
Still fewer are the furnace foremen Of
for the results. These get 5000 a month,
the equivalent of 500 in gold.
The pay Mt the Omaha smelter aver
ages 81 a day. or $500 for the 100 Ia
borers, the equivalent of $1,000 in Next
can money. The pay at the Monterey
smelter averages 81 day in Mexican
money, or $500 for the 400 employees.
Here is difference of $1,000 Mexican
money or 5000 gold in the daily pay
rolls. The Mexican silver smelters are
said to be making $40 in Mexican money
where the American sWelters are profit
ing 81 in 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 1t would require the American
smelters to pay only twice as much for
labor where now they pay four times as
much as the Mexican smclters do. The
wages paid at the smclters here COM
mand the best of Mexican labor The
lowest rate, 62lac, is nearly double that
paid for ordinary common labor. 1t
brings TO the works brown men with
300 pounds of ore in n barrow. These
MeNicans 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 TO
work before breakfast. You can teach
Mexican labor to smelt ores to perfection
but you can not teach the Mexican wom-
an to get M and prepare breakfast. sim
pie ms II Is, before the whistle blows for
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 shelters.
shipped since the 1st of January. by OK
carts. 100000 pounds of bullion. This
Ccrralvo district was a great mining CEN
ter 300 years ago. 1t had government
mint. and turned out quantities of coin
during two centuries under Spanish do
minion. When the revolutionary period
set in 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 In ST
TO feel the spirit of revival. The rail
roads passed by and left this ancient
town in the interior. Three years ago
American enterprise found this long
neglected district. a smelter was built.
The highly successful operation of this
plant for the past three years ninety
miles from railroad. affords one of the
best possible illustrations of the chcapen-
ing of silver production in Mexico. The
manager of the smclter is Mr.. II. 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 comparison
with the cost Of n like smeter in the
States. These are his figures:
Smelter operation In Mexico.