The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1896-10-30
PAY STARVATION WAGES
DIPLORABLE CONDITION OF WORK.
INGMEN IN MEXICO.
r.borers Receive Twenty-Five Cents .
Day-Must Live On Corn Cakes an"
They Are Scarce.


men OF the United states cannot VIE"
Mexico en- masse. and see win their
own ewes the deplorable condi'ioh 10
which ten millions OF people have been
reduced by silver currency. Ihey
would see what Indignantly wicked
,nine IL Is for Bryanites TO tax ABOUT
the prosperity OF Mexico on q sh'ei
basis They would see an underpaid'
ovorworked half-starved. and hait-hahed
II the working people Of the united
States we're reduced TO such cohui''o"'
they would be driven 10 suicide or IeNo-
luton. Wages are the same To-Day as
they were ten years ago. although 'he
value Of the coin in which they arc
maid has fallen one-half. You can pre-
SEM an American dollar. and get TWO
Mexican dollars Tor 1t to-day. In oshe'
words. the dollar in which the american
workman is paid will buy just as much
to-day as ever 1t did. while the doiiar
with which the Mexican is paid Will BUY
only one-half as much.
LOW WAGES PAID.
Look at the wages paid in this de-
preciated currency. The street-car COM
pany OF this city Is regarded as I'D
cral employer. Conductors work at
least thirteen hours per day Tor one
dollar and half. or scventy-nVe cents
of limited States money. Ticket-sellers
get one Mexican dollar per day. and
common laborers forty-four cents. This
IS the equivalent of twenty-five cents
in United States money. In the Mexi-
q. tals Cd vFl
cultural laborers get twenty-five cents
a day. and / am informed on the high
est authority that this is the average
FOR the whole country. Twenty-Five
cents means twelve and half cents of
good money for a hard days labor. As
the staple food OF these people is corn
cakes and boiled brown beans, imagine
their condition now. that drought has
injured the corn crop and the price Of
that cereal has advanced so that it re-
quires three days labor to pay for one
bushel.
These figures show the correctness of
the report TO the Chicago Trades and
Labor Assembly. that the wages paid
TO carpenters IS 70 cents per day; brick
layers. 81 IL cents; printers, GO cents;
and painters o. cents in American
money.
NATIVES HAVE LITTLE FOOD.
President Diaz is a great man, and
does what he can to give relief TO the
people by suspending the import duty
on corn but many hard-working ma
tive is obliged to shorten the rations of
corn cake served 10 his, family. one
needs make a big discount on the glow
ing stories about Mexico sent afioat by
promoters. who are trying TO draw cap
ital or immigration into the country.
Even the negro cannot sustain lie IN
competition with the Mexican laborer.
And be II remembered that Of the thir-
teen millions of people in this country
about ten millions are natives. Nine
hundred and fifty negroes were brought
here from Alabama eighteen months
ago. and placed on one OF the hhest
sugar plantations in Durango Apou.
ope-half the number died and the last
remnant of survivors was receh.'S
shipped back TO the United States by
charity. They could not suDsist on inc
poor food supplied them.
BRYANITE NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
BRYAN orators tell their auditors that
n dollar in free-coinage MeXicos VIII puy
as much now as when II was worth us
eouivalent in gold. Nothing could De
more false. OF course. all imported
goods have been marked up by the sell
ers to the gold basis, and many domestic
products sell at about the same prices
as ten years ago. but think OF the ran
I'm prices that has occurred in that time
in all the countries that are on a gold
basis. In the gold countries, wages
have steadily risen, while prices have
~f,erv nf "A
DAYS wages has enormously increased;
whereas in this free-coinage land the
best that can be said is that few
commodities Of native production nave
declined proportionately with the fan
in silver.
The long and short Of the matter is
that the employer who ten years ago
paid d man a silver quarter for day 5
labor now pays the same, and as the
employer can now get silver quarters for
twelve and one-half cents in gold he is
getting his labor for one-half Of That il
formerly cost him. Hence the few great
land owners are prosperous. Their coffee
or other exported prodCct is sold for
colo, and it takes only one-hslf as much
of that gold as formerly TO procure silver
wherewith to pay laborers.
With wages cut down TO starvation lin
Its ii becomes profitable to cultivate LANDS
that formerly were unarailable. More
STUFF is grown and is sent out of the
country And it is the increased exports
Of the agricultural products from Mexico
Nh.c-l silver orators cite as an evidence
or prosperity.
DO OUR CITIZENS WANT THIS?
IT would Je impossible for laborers ia
sustain life under such conditions in the
United States. The climate alone makes
81 possible hen. 4 co~on shirt and
trousers with a cheap. gaudy shawl or
serape and a straw hat completes the
laborcrs wardrobe. Sometimes he wears
leather sandals, but more frequently is
barcfoVed, and such things as socks he
never dreamed of. For shelter the peon
and family have an adobe hut of one
room. with an earthen floor II he has
10 family. perhaps a few stakes stuck
upright and rooted with thatch or branch
IS OF trees rerves rs a dwelling. The
household utensils may consist of a few
earthen Jars and bowls. disposed about
the door, and bit OF board on which tc
.cll batter for corn cakes. II IS impos-
slble 10 conceive OF lie more cheaply sus
tanned.
In cities you may find family in pos
session OF a bedstead, table and q
chair or two-all OF the cheapest-but the
above description OF the agricultural ia
borer's OUTFIT exactly corresponds will
that q large proportion Of houses intC
which you may peep In the poorer quar-
ters OF the capital What is a laborer or
the street railway. with his twenty-five
cents a day, TO do? And the less fortu
nate tOilers es' even lower wages ans
irregular employment
EVEN THE GOVERNMENT LOSES.
On every hand Is incontestsble evidence