Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1896-10-12
LABOR IN MEXICO.
Continued from First Page.


year.
''The days work in Mexico runs from
ten to fourteen hours. The bakers work
twenty hours, and workmen who take
work to their homes work as many hours
as they please. The Mexican 1aborer works
easy. compared with the American laborer.
except the ore carrier. who bears enormous
burdens ON his back all day without mani
Testing fatigue.
The question Of shorter hours to Mexico
IS a long way off, for a country in which
labor is so cheap and plentiful that 1t is
orered as an inducement to bring foreign
capital in and its toilers will be compelled
10 work as many hours as they are
physically able. and thanks to organized
iaoor or the American workingman would
pe IN the same condition to-day as his
Mexican brother.
The haclendas (or plantations) are
o"heo py the very rich, and cover an
area or from ten to 100 square miles.
Farming and agricultural implements are
very primitive. The plow is a crooked
stieh OF Deam, and scratches the ground
10 a depth of three or four inches. This
'plow' Is drawn by two oxen, and the har-
ness IS broad strap or rope passing. over
tne iorehead instead of the shoulders of
the oxen. Planting is done by poking a
mole into the ground with a stick, drop
ping the corn into 1t, and the seed is COW
efeu oy the peon In stepping from hole to
mole. On these immense tracts of lands,
9he natives or poems have lived for CEN
turtles. and are forced to buy all their
necessities Of life at the haciendados' Qand
ownerso truck store. On the hacienda. the
peon gets from Is to 50 cents per day for
his work. and a hut to live in, II he builds
1t himself. The peon gets no money ex-
cept on feast days and for religious offer
ings. BY this system he Is always in debt
6oa 4. fAr 0f fsIu
has been forbidden by law for a number of
years. but two-thirds of the poems do not
Know 1t, as they can neither read nor
write, and their masters take good care
not to teach them this fact
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 greatest
number of union men per capita of its
population is the foremost in wealth, pro-
gression and the happiness Of its people.
The cry Is raised that there are no poor
houses in Mexico, but that is no indication
or the absence OF poverty, as your commits
sion can fully testify without fear of con-
tradiction, as the voice of the mendicant
suppicating aims rang in our ears all
through the country.
In the cities of Zacatecas and GUIANA
juato. with populations of 10000 and 10000
respectively, We failed to get butter and
On inquiry We were informed that II we
paid 81 a pound for butter 1t would be
purchased and kept for our exclusive use.
Your commission would caution Ameri-
can workingmen against going to Mexico
without sufficient funds to bring them
back. or to have employment secured be-
fore going there, or they will be obliged
to subsist on cactus and the sap of the
tequila plant while doing the country.
ION asking an American who was con-
Quoting a prosperous business in one OF
the cities which your commission visited,
why it was that the foreigners all seemed
to be making money, no matter what busi-
ness they were engaged in. he, with char
acteristic Yankee frankness. replied: The
laborer here Is different from the laborer
in the States. Here labor Is cheap and we
have no brains to contend with
1.-THE mission intrusted to your commit-
tee is a peculiar one. We were sent to
STUDY the social and financial conditions
of a faraway people. We are plain toilers
Injured to the hard knocks OF the factory
and workshop. and none are better Quali-
fled to investigate or to feel and sympa-
thize with the workers of another country
than men from our ranks. We did not go
loaded with credentials, to be entertained
by the people Of the better classes. nor yet
as scholars to describe the mopuments of
historic interest. or to have our poetic
fancies inspired by the landscape and
azure skies. or build up wasted energies
in the healthful air Of that Southern cline.
but to go among the common people, who
arc OK our own class. and study conditions
from that standpoint. Hence this epistle
does not abound in high sounding plati-
tudes on the sublime and beautiful of that
country, but on facts that still exist and
are ready to speak for themselves to those
who will go and seek as We have done;
and should they do so they will feel as
We do, that the American workingman is
a prince compared to the workingman OF
Mexico; that in this country all stand
equal in social and political life, and in
that political right they should exercise
with care the faithful discharge OF their
duties, unprejudiced and unbiased, by sup
porting such principles as will do the
greatest good to the greatest number, ir-
respective of party politics or the machin-
cry Of either party, who may manipulate
conditions and measures for personal gain
20 the detriment of the whole people.
"P. ]. MAAS.
PATRICK ENRIGHT,
COMMITTEE"
The report was adopted by an almost
unanimous vote. only two members speak
ing in opposition to it.
The delegates claimed in submitting their
report that they carried out their mission
in an unbiased and non-partisan manner,
and they simply pictured the low state
of the working classes as It was, without
reference to political questions. There were
many CALCULATIONS Of establishment at the
pitiable pictures presented. and the motion
to adopt the report called forth but little
debate.
,ss.a, sn,A AH-,.,~ ~.AsA-