El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-04-26

the neighbOrhOod were in debt slav-
cry to the owners Of the estates about,
and he promises Of the foreigners fell
fiat
At last the Americans brougbt In
several bushels of new Mexican dol
lars, and laid them in great piles on
the table in the rude building which
formed their plantation office. They
Ihen called IN the poems and showed
them the money, saying that the a
brought II there TO pay off their debts
Tor them and also that they had
bushels of other dollars TO pay them
wages as well. They offered to nav
the debts of the poems provided the
would drop their present employers
and work for them, and the wages
they proposed were higher than the
poems had ever had in the past.
The sight Of the money worked
wonders. The poems came over in a
body n were instructed by the
americans 10 get papers, showing their
eNact Indebtedness. They did SO and
the Americans then went with them
u their old employers and saw that
Lhey were Legally freed The men
were n able to contract, and their
contracts were registered with the
officials of the district so that they
became legally bound to their Ameri-
Peonage stm in Force,
Nominally there is nov no slavery in
MeyicO, but really this form of debt
slavery is still in existence The rich
N1N1NE owl EA6 nave pLdELlEdl4N con-
trOled the jefe-pOliticOs or local Of
ficials, who can force the men TO 90
into the army, and IL is through them
that they have kept the indians at
work.
During the administration Of Diaz
It was the same with the factories, the
1~efe-ponticos aiding in keeping the
men on the Job. The wiping out OF
this great labor forcing machine is
one Of the questions agitated by the
refOrmers of Mexico today. and it is
h hope Of the most advanced that il
may be accomplished. The system has
been complete and wide reaching, and
az sorts of methods have been en-
ployed to keep the poems in debt.
Nearly every big estate has its store,
where the indian laborers can run
bills Of credit. and the same has been
true Of the factories M in the mines.
The peOn is naturally thriftless. He
is like a child, and he viii borrow all
that he al This is especially so at
the times of weddings and funerals.
A man will mortgage his future in
order to have a big wedding outfit,
and when deaths occur there is more
debt on account Of the funerals. 1t
is now over 40 years since ona OF
debt slavery was abolished by law, but
that law is a dead letter in many parts
OF the republic. There are back dis
Urlcts, such as mahogany camps from
which now and then come stories of
1cgging, and there is undoubtedly
forced labor on certain Of the big
haciendas.
Millions Who Cannot Read.
Indeed, it is hard to describe the
conditions Of the Mexican masses.
There are here about Is, 200, 900 men,
women and children, and Of these mora
than three fourths are indians. of as
pure blood as that which flowed
through the veins Of the Aztecs. There
are several millions OF a mixed breed.
and some hundreds Of thousands who
have. come down direct from the
Spaniards.
OF the indians there are something
1900, 600 who can neither read
nor write. There have been a num-
Der of laws making education free and
compulsory, but they nave been hon
Ored in the breach rather than in the
observance, and today there are some
thing like 1900 schools for a popula-
ton of about one sixth that Of the
United States, and the school popula-
is not n tW~enty-fifth that OF
Right here at the Mexican cap
ttal you can find the public letter
writer on the streets, as in India, and
there is one such scribe near the
cathedral who has a typewriter and
takes down dictatiOn from the indians
by tapping the keys.
Aztec schools.
This condition seems all the worse
we remember the advanced civ
of the Aztecs at the time Cor
teZ came. They had their own records
and picture writing and they lived far
better than they DO now. Mexico City
then had 12O, 600 stone houses and
MoutezUma had other rich cities and
villages in his possession. He a
the country better garrisoned than il
is today and he kept better order. He
had a system Of postal stations, and
courier service was such that re-
OF letter carriers brought dis
patches from COrteZ at Vera Cruz over
the mountains to the capital and back,
a distance of about 400 miles. in a lit
tie more than a week. Fresh fish
to MOnteZuma's table within "a hours
from the time they were caught.
The indians of that day wore clothes
Of rover cotton, and they We're far
better clad than they are now. The
women had skirts and petticOats of
different lengths, and these were of
fine texture and prettily embroidered.
The people made beautiful toys and
were skilfUl in metals. making hatch