Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-30
|NSPECTs MEXICO
GREAT SUGAR PLANT
JudSon Davis MarveIs at Growth
of Industry in Which Ameri-
cans Are Engaged
THINKS MEN WELL TREATED
Los AngeIan Says Mexican Lab
orers He Saw Were Not Vic
tins of Brutality
THINKS MEN WELL TREATED

'"The Mexican laborer has not beer
decivilized or brutalized by the treat
ment he receives. The simple truth
is that he has never been civilized, "
says Judson Davis, of the firm OF
Davis, Kemp s. Post. Mr. Davis, with
B. H Cass, recently returned from a
trip to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
that remote part of Mexico which has
lately been subjected to much noto-
riety
AS Mr.. Cass and Mr.. Davis were
looking into the sugar and cattle bust
ness, they took a trip from Los Hor-
cones, their objective point, down the
river to the great Tabasco sugar plan
tation. Within 40 miles up and down
the river on either side of Los Hor-
cones are a dozen or more sugar plan
tations under American management
The distance to the largest the Ia
basco plantation, was three hours go
ing and nine hours returning, by Mr.
Davis reckoning. :
Unaware of the nature of the Amer
leans errand, and undoubtedly judg-
ing them to be investigators, the man.
ayers received them with courtesy
and showed the utmost solicitude that
the visitors should see things as they
really were. Contract labor is en-
ployed upon the Tabasco estate, and
the laborers work under guard and are
locked in at night; but there were nc
indications Of brutal treatment, nol
signs that the workmen were oppressed
under heavy yoke. They appeared
we'll fed, happy and as void of any
thought for the morrow as kittens.
They sleep in quarters-a huge, well
ventilated, sanitary, clean building
with wooden platforms down each side
separated by a wide space from two
similar platforms in the middle. Each
native is allotted so much space on one
of the platforms, and has his own
grass woven mat on which he lies
They rise early for work, rest several
hours during the noon heat, and work
till evening.
Fsrijoles and tortillas are their meat
and bread The company provides a
mill for grinding corn for the tortil-
las, saving the women the laborlous
grinding by hand between stones. Pro-
visions can be purchased at the COM
pany stores, or at the natives own
stand, which opened the day the Los
Angeles men visited the plantation.
METHOD OF MAKING SUGAR
In O huge sugar mill of the latest
improved type the juices are separated
from the sugar by centrifugal ma
chimes. The sugar crystals drop to the
bottom, and the liquid is caught as ii
is whirled off and carried in pipes
over to the distillery, where it is con-
verted into a high grade of alcohol.
There is a demand for this near at
hand. The little town of San Juan
Evangelista, with $500 souls, consumes
$500 barrels of this alcohol yearly-a
barrel apiece to each man, woman and
child. Yet Mr. Davis says that, Curl
ously enough, neither he nor Mr.. Cass
ever saw any one visibly intoxicated
on the isthmus
Alcohol Is more remunerative as a
by-product than molasses; yet molas-
ses is very valuable as feed for cattle.
Mr.. Davis says that the finest, sleek
est cattle he ever saw were on the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
The managers of plantations,
whether Mexican or American, have to
deal with labor conditions as they are
on the spot, and cannot order their
work to any preconceived ideal drawn
from remote localities and dissimilar
conditions. Hard as the life may APP
pear to magazine writer's, the Los An
geles travelers--one a keen business,
the other a professional man-decided
that the natives on a well-managed
plantation such as the Tabasco are on