Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1896-10-10

est silver smelters in the two countries.
Each gives employment to about 400
men, No one will traverse the great
plant at Monterey and doubt that the
Mexican workman in the industry, rem
ders equal labor, nan for man, with tn,
American employed in the Omaha smelt'
er. At Omaha there Is little labor given
ut S1.50 a day. The wage in the various
grades of the smelter range as high as
SO a day. 1t will not place the average
too high 10 make IL 50 per day. That is
American ~money-gold. Here the com
mon labor unloads the cars and heaps the
ore by the thousands 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 and
lifts and pushes as hard as the $50
gold labor at Omaha and does it for 621l2
cents n day, Mexican silver, or 3l12
cents gold. This labor works ten hours a
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 and
iron and lime and vatious ores 10 take
out all of the silver in the smelling.
The MeXicahs who do this are paid 70
cents n day, worth 37h 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 of the bullion. This is labor that
receives 81 a day in Mexican silver, or
~ cents n day in gold. The Stag pullers
get 20 cents a day in silver. The fore
mon OF the yards, who moves about over
seeing ard directing, are paid from So
to 50 n day. They are few in number.
Still fewer are the furnace foremen of
that ripe experience which is responsible
for the results. These get 5000 a month.
the equivalent of 500 in gold.
The pay at the Omaha smelter aver
ages 50 u day, OF $500 for the 400 la
bofers. the equivalent of $1,000 in Mexi-
can money. The pay at the Monterey
smelter averages 81 a day in Mexican
money, or 800 for the 400 employees.
Here is 4 difference Of $1,000 Mexican
money or $500 gold in the daily pay
rolls. The Mexican silver shelters are
where the American shelters 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 it would require the American
smelters to pay only twice as much for
labor where now they pay four times as
much as the Mexican smelters do. The
wages paid at the shelters here com
mand the best Of Mexican labor. The
lowest rate, 62Eac, is nearly double that
PAID for ordinary common labor. 1t
brings TO the works brown men with
muscles like steel. who trot along with
900 pounds of ore in a barrow. These
Mexicans shed all clothing but sandals,
stfawhat 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 up and prepare breakfast, sim
pie as it is, before the whistle blows for
the change of shifts from night to day.
And so. an hour or two after the brown
men nave begun work. the little brown
women come stringing in with the beans
and the corn cakes and the bit of meat.
Lnborers' Wages.
At Cerralvo. in the state of Nueya
Leon, is located the Benavides smelters.
From this smelter there has been
shipped since the list of January. by OK
carts, 100000 pounds of bullion. This
Cerralyo district was a great mining CEN
ter 300 years ago. II had a 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
ernment and the coming of railroads
mining in Mexico took on new activity.
The Cerralyo district was one of the last
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 n railroad, affords one of the
best possible illustrations of the cheaper
ing of silver production in Mexico. The
manager of the smelter is Mr.. III. G. Har-
rison, who has had n good deal of en-
perience in mining and smelling. He
furnishes the actual cost Of operation
from his books and makes a comparison
with the cost of a like smelter in the
States. These are his figures:
Shelter operation In Mexico,