Bisbee daily review., 1914-10-25
Here Is Interesting Story Relat-
 i've To Difficulties With Which
 Americans Meet Up On Their Mining Adventures In Republic

Mining Adventures In Republic
 CThc customs of the Mexicans, neighbours on the South their little pe- culariies and personalities are al- ways Interesting to the people of this , district. and especially those who are interested in Mexican property Fol lowing is an interesting and able ar- ticle by Max J. Welch on Mexican | Labor and It's PeculiaritiesH It was first published in the Mining and Scieriific Press.)
 Mexican Labor and lts Peoullariities
 The mining and manufacturing in- terests contemplating operations in Mexico when the present war, is over, are interested in the peculiarites of Mexican labor It will not be out of place to review some of the native re- ligious and social customs, in SO far are these play an important part i'm the employment cf labor
 To understand Mexico one must know something of it's geography. Upon entering Mexico from the United States, by the way of El Paso, there is a 3O-hour ride by rail, due south over a sand and castus desert Each year the cactus grows and each dry sea- son the wind blows sand against the cactus. until mountains of sand are formed hundreds of feet high. South of the desert country lies a tableland fICm 4000 to 5000 ft. above sea-level
 This tGbleland is the region of rich soil and fine climate that attracted Coitez and his Spanish followers in ] tb, fifteenth century. The country slopes down to the Pacific ocean upon
 the west and drops abruptly to the l gull upon the east. Toward the south ! it ;s mountainous. In the north-central
 part of this tableland is the city of | Aguascalientes. This city derives it's name from agua, meaning water, and | calientes, meaning not; the city being near a hot Spring. Aguascalientes is the second largest city in Mexico and
 is also an important mining and rail road center Near Aguascalientes is
 the La Gran Fundicion Central Mex.
 icana," which translated means the
 grear foundry or shelter of central
 Mexico This smelter came into ex- istence in the early eighties at a time
 when Porfirio Diaz was offering ex.
 tenslve mducement to foreign enter.
 prise. It was subsequently purchased B by the Guggenheims and later became
 .F tsf. .rt
 smeltug & Refining Company.
 When thiF shelter was first estab-
 lished it was at the request of the
 President that Mexican laborers were
 not paid more than 25c per day The reason given for this maximum wage , scale was the the farmers paid only
 this wage If the smelter paid more,
 the farmers would not be able to SC cure help in harvest time. As soon as , the novelty Of work at the smelter wore away, it became necessary to e increase inc wage scale From time
 to time the wages have gradually in ' creased until now 1t is often a close a decision whether to use crude meth
 ods and Mexican labor or use labor
 saving machinery and American say I ing machinery has been introduced , with great success Mexicans prov, I very efficient in the simple duties O ,, attending machine, though skilled {. mechanics are required to keep the :. machinery in working order
 h Responsibility is a word that is no !. in the Mexican peon's vocabulary. and
 the meaning of responsibility is not tC e be taught to him. To understand why
 requires knowing something of hi. D origin The Mexicans are a race pro a duced by crossing the old world Span ish and the American Indian Th' if early Indians were a hardy type o ? men who lived close to nature The' I. knew little of responsibility The If l teenth century Spanish were charac terised by diplomacy art and refine Q ment Now. when diplomacy is in
 iected into the Indian race, the re @ sulr is a Mexican in other words, n type that automatically shirks re
 sponsibility
 |. Tho possible use of the present typ' Of Mexican is therefore limited t routine work He must be under th' supervision of a patient and carefu s foreman. The foreigner makes th best foreman. whether he be Amer
 can. German or French. The tenden
 cy is for the foreman to become sool . a human "cussing' machine This 1 !, the case when the foreman expect
 too much from the Mexican, but thi
 is unwise and unnecessary, as 1t caI
 be shown that patient watehfulnesi
 with slight losses, is more prolitabl
 in the end To swear at a Mexican i " to win his enmity This develops hi tricky and deceptive nature in on
 instance the carpenter foreman Ina v made a template of building raftel U The Mexican carpenters had only (
 saw the rafters like the templat' n When the building was erected it d' u veloped that the Mexicans had cu
 every rafter a different length. Thi