El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-07-10
CONDITIONS IN MEXICO ARE NOW
RAPIDLY APPROACHING NORMAL
oContinued from Page -

jefes politico and gendarmerie on their
payrolls and men possessing the temer-
ity TO complain Of wages, hours of Ia
Dor, conditions of labor or prices Of
commodities issued from company
stores were promptly hailed before the
salaried jefes and condemned to i'm
prisonTnent.
This Has Been Changed.
Under the Maderista regime it has
been promised the people that this par
ticular form Of government must cease.
While strikes are not to be encouraged,
it has been promised that the men en-
ployed must be given a voice in the
matter of arranging the terms of their
employment, including the wage there
for.
The war just ended has done as
much, perhaps, to make the Mexican
nation nation of newspaper readers
as did the war between the states to
make the people of the United States
a nation Of newspaper readers, and in
Mexico it has done more, it has aroused
those who cannot read, which means
about 70 percent Of the native popu1a-
tion, to a realizing sense of the ad-
vantage of education, and in the cities
at least there is going to be demand
for better public school facilities.
How Poems Get News.
In many railroad stations in Mexico
today it is not kn uncommon thing to find
some man who can read, reading aloud
from papers just received from train
butcher" the news Of the day to a
crowd Of poems and others who cannot
read, but who cheerfully chip in"
centavo or two each to the reader to
repay him for his papers and to recon-
pense him for the information impart-
ed. What is true. in the railway sta
tions is true in the plazas and can
tinas. II any are open, in the cities and
villages removed from the railways
and in this way the people are kept in
formed, not only of the current news
of Mexico and the world at large, but
Of what is being and has been done by
the workers Of the world to improve
their conditions.
No Violence Thus Far,
The strikes thus far have been at
tended by no violence in the district
with which the writer is familiar, and
all have been settled amicably by COM
promise and usually have been based
upon a demand for shorter hours.
When the girls employed in a Chi
huahua factory who had been work
ing for 40 cents Mex. GO cents Amer
lean moneys per day of u hours,
70 10 per day and an increase of their
wage to so cents Mex (25 cents
American money! per day an Amer
lean woman was heard TO remark that
the strikers were an ungrateful lot as
they had been kept employed during
the revolution making clothing for the
army
The fact that the employers sold the
product of the girls toll at his usual
and, perhaps, an increased profit, did
not appeal to the woman in question,
nor did it seem worthy of her consid-
GRAFTON that a girl who worked AZ
hours per day at sewing machine
might find it hard to feed, clothe and
house herself at 40 cents Mex GO
cents American money! per day.
Needs Regulation
It lis true that there may be a dis
position on the part of the common
people of Mexico to want promised re-
forms in the social and Industrial sys-
tenn of the country to be brought
about too quickly; but that is a ques-
ton which Mr.. Madero and his advisers
will have to handle and which they are
thus far giving evidence of being able
to handle.
Foreigners Welcomed.
During the period of reconstruction
or adaptation there will De more or less
trouble here and there, but there will
be no more war. There Will be even a
more generous welcome extended 10
foreign capital than has oeen extended
in the past If the observations of the
writer have been carefully made, but
it will be upon q basis whereby the
people of Mexico will benefit more and
/ the self constituted governors Of the
people less.
Mexico is about to make a heroic eff
fort to place itself upon a business
basis as other nations in its class have
done and the foreign investor who will
I go into business in Mexico upon a bust
ness basis rather than upon a basis Of
! the favor OF the powers that be need
/ feel no more apprehension than he
would were he going into business in
! the United States or in Japan.
No Cause for Alarm.
There is no cause for alarm on the
part of those who are willing to go
/ into the recently war-torn, but now
more united then ever, Mexico il they
are willing to go into it on a competi-
| tive basis and are not LOOKING for the
1 best of it in the way of concessions
from the government, including the
right to exploit the people of the coun-
! try.
While there is a feeling against many
/ Americans the writer doubts If in
/ Mexico there is an anti-American feel
/ ing. Some Americans have by their SUI
percilious treatment of the MeXicans as
a people made cocksure by their So
4 lidity with the concession granting
power at Mexico D. F., have made enc
mics in the localities in which they
operate, not only for themselves but
for Americans as a race, but this feel
! ing is not general
What Mexicans Ask.
The Mexican resents being treated
cavalierly, and those who so treat him
must expect cavalier treatment in re-
turn when opportunity to give 1t pre-
sents itself While in some quarters OF
the republic there may be found a feel
! ing that Mexico should be reserved fo1
! Mexicans that is not the rule.
Foreigners and their capital are well
] come and Mexicans as a rule will be
glad to extend the welcome, as they
realize that foreigners and particularly
Americans seem to possess the faculty
for developing mines and other prop
critics on a scale which natives would
not dare attempt, but while extending
/ that welcome resent being treated as
/ less than men.
TiEid Ones Leave
It has been said that there is and
for months has been a stream Of Amer
icapS leaving Mexico Daver m raturr