The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1896-09-12
MORE ABOUT MEXICO.


day and some laborers demand on
dollar day"
MORE ABOUT MEXICO.
Some of the Reasons Why Wages are Low
in That Country.
Walter F. Jackson, of Otsego, Nortl
Carolina, contributed the following tt
the New York World, in which he
shows some OF the reasons for low
wages and high living in silver Mexico
"Of all the papers ever read fiu6
The World not only the best but the
most liberal and just. Sill in its issue
of July %, it published under the head
of THE Shorter Catechism' some
statements regarding Mexico that may
prove misleading TO those who know
nothing of the conditions obtaining in
that country.
"Of course, the World cannot be
| ignorant of the fact that the laboring
class of our sister republic is densely
ignorant; that not more than third
of the entire people can either read or
| write.
"Conklin, whose Guide to Mexico
furnishes me with the foregoing facts,
says further that high wages will
tend to attract German and British
miners to Mexico. All of which goes
to show-does it not?-that ignorance
and incapacity land is there not also a
generous supply of laziness?) are at the
bottom of the low wages received by
the working classes of Mexico for their
labor. Besides, is labor organized
there as it is with us? Have the peo-
pie sufficient intelligence and spirit to
demand their rights? One never hears
of collisions between capital and labor
there. Give US the same people that
Mexico has-an exclusive Spanish
aristocracy ruling, with Indians, mez-
andstizos, mulattoes, zambos and ne
groes serving, how would our country
compare with theirs them?
Nevertheless, if the latest reports
from Mexico are to be believed, she is
now in more prosperous condition
than ever before in her history while
we, the great mass of the American
people, are daily growing poorer and
more wretched. Now, what is pro-
ducing these results-a silver standard
there and gold standard here?
"You speak of the high cost of living
there. Sugar, at 19 cents a pound, is
pretty steep in sober truth, but the
Mexican farmer, according to recent
report made by Judge Walter Clark,
of the supreme court of North Caro-
lima, receives 13 cents for his cotton
and 81 for his wheat-the latter price
accounting doubtless for the higher
cost of flour. And as for the sugar. L
shouldn't wonder if that were con-
trolled by trust. For it must be ad-
mitted that Mexico's tariff laws-un-
less they have been greatly modified
since 1SS5-are exceedingly favorable
to the growth of that hideous product
of our boasted modern civilization.
In conclusion, since you have favored
us with a comparison of Mexico, a sill
yer country, with the United States,
I've no doubt that many of your read
ers would be glad to see Spain or Por-
tugal or Italy, gold countries, COM
pared with Mexico. If the percentage
of ignorance, wretcheaHess and beg
gary is not alarmingly high in those
if the great majority of
their people, living on bunch of
grapes and an onion with bread, but
no meat, do not live at less expense
than farm horse in New England
and not so we'll, then American
in those countries have
given free run to fancy and drawn the
long bow with vengeance"