Bisbee daily review., 1906-05-06
LABOR CONDITION IN OLD MEXICO

here is attended with more hardships and privations and requires greater patience than at home.
 There is another serious mistake in supposing that living costs less and that salaries are larger in Mexico than in the United States for the same services. Two hundred dollars a month sounds bigger than one hundred dol lars a months, but if that two hun dred dollars is paid in silver and the one hundred in gold they are exactly equivalent, according to the present rate of exchange, and it costs just as much for board and clothing and con. siderably more for the luxuries of lifC in Mexico than in the United States whether you pay in gold or silver. Ii is true that the working classes in Mexico live very much more cheaply than persons engaged in the same oc- equations in the United States, but no American workman would put up with what the Mexican workman has to en. duIe. He would not eat his food or wear his clothing, and the food and colthing which the American workman or bookkeeper or clerk or mechanic is accustomed to costs a great deal more in Mexico than it does at home
 There is an opportunity Nin Mexico for electrical, mining, mechanical, civ. il, locomotive and stationary engin. eers, and persons with a technical education are very much in demand The development of the mineral and mechanical industries is very rapid There is a great deal of railroad build. ing. Thousands of manufactures are being erected in different parts of the country; thousands of mines require engineering skill to make them pay Electric lighting and power plants are being established in every town and thus far the technical schools which the government has established have not been able to produce enougl skilled men to met the demand. Young men of the upper classes are beginning to study the applied sciences more oI les seriously; few pupils of the peon class from the public schools are ap. bearing at the doors of the technical institutions every year, but it will be long time before they are competent to meet the situation.
 There is no room here for doctors druggists, lawyers, school-teachers or other professional people. There is law school and a medical school in al most every Mexican city, and they turn out as large corps of graduates every year as similar schools in the United States. The professions arc over-crowded. The tendency of the educated Mexican is to seek a clerical position. He prefers indoor employ ment, and the applicants are so much in excess of the vacancies that the sal aries are small SteDogra Dhers are paid from S25 to S5 in silver which is equal to just half that amount in our money; bookkeepers, cashiers and men in similar positions get from S100 to $l50 silver, or half of these amounts in gold.
 Next to engineers, railway men, machinists and skilled mechanics have the best show for employment. But ordinary mechanics and workmen should not come here under any cir. cumstances. The wages of skilled mechanics are less than they are in the United States, although they seem larger, because the figures are given in silver. A locomotive engineer or machinist, for example, is paid from S6 to SS day. which means g and s4 in American money. and the high. est class of manual labor is paid $2 in silver, which is only $1 in gold
 "A Mexican, no matter what his em, ployment, either clerical, professional mechanical or ordinary labor. does not accomplish half as much in a day as the ordinary American in the same occupations. He requires time for gossip and for preliminaries. He must stop every now and then to smoke a cigarette; he is very deliberate in his movements, and of a contempla tive disposition.