New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1917-06-27

talked with various Protestant mis-
sionaries and teachers from the United
States who said that under this ruling
and other. drastic laws they would be
compelled to give up their work, but
they hoped for a more liberal interpreta-
ton as their services had been most
welcome and helpful in hospital and
school work as we'll as religious instruc-
ton. The fact that a man is unfortunate
enough to be a Mexican does not neces-
sarily qualify him to be moral or mental
leader.
Peon Having Inning.
The Yucatan peon ION the sisal plan
tation is having his innings now and is
no longer overworked and underpaid.
Alvarado has declared that labor shall
be eight hours day and with high wages.
The peon now gets enough in three days
to last him the rest of the week. So he
lays off, goes to town, wears shoes, neck
tie, white suit and Panama hat, eats
white bread, drinks beer in the cantina,
smokes cigarets, listens to the band in
the Plaza, and promenades, taking up all
the walks and seats and crowding out
the wealthy aristocrats. Alas, he doesn't
improve his mind! When his money
is gone he goes back to the plantation
and works, for his owner can't fire him
without heavy fine. To get rid of him
at all he must give him long previous
notice. In the meantime the henequen
fields are unworked, weeds grow, and the
sisal plants blossom and die.
A planter told me that already the
henequen production had been reduced
thirty per cent and in two years his
plantations would be ruined and he
wanted to go to the United States to do
something worth while. Laborers are
imported from the United States and
Cuba, but are sent back because they
cannot stand the heat. Ninety per cent
of our binders Irvine comes from Yucca
tan. If that fails what will the harvest
be?
Planters Claim Robbery.
Money tables have turned. The
millionaire planter declares he is being
robbed, tho one confessed to me that it
was kind Of punishment, perhaps, for.
former avarice and cruel exactiorl.
With taxes and wages the planter re-
ceives less than 5 cents pound for his
sisal. while Alvarado's Regulator
monopoly receives more than twice as
much. In spite Of all this the planter
owner lives in palatial hacienda man
sion and houses his helpin small matched
huts. The religious act has closed the
chapels on the plantations, but schools
are open and the teachers mast instruct
the children Of the poems. ~
All political, social and financial life
in Yucatan is bound around with a sisal
string. Henequen is made into harness,
mats, sacks, and hammockg- The
hammocks are big and coarse, small and
fine and are piled up in the streets and
markets for sale The people are born,
live and die in the hammock It is the
main piece of furniture where the peon
spends and suspends his time. What a
dreamy existence for a man or woman
with few ideas and fewer clothes! .r'
Hammock is Uncertain
A hammock is poor place to carve a
statue, paint picture or write poem.
Hammock-dwellers will never write a
real Declaration of Independence, an
argument for woman suffrage or peace
treaty with another country. Perhaps
why Latin republics 'tfall out so much
with each other is because they are so
much in the hammock. Dictators and
revolutionists swing in hammocks when
the poor people would like to see them
swing by the neck.
Anything firm, logical or enduring
demands something besides monkey
vines or fshnets.
Yucatan is as fiat as billiard table,
but it's prices are as high as the Maya
pyramids. Alcohol is prohibited, but
beer sells for a dollar bottle, and during
carnival times for two dollars. I paid
twenty-five cents for an egg, thirty cents
for a pat of butter and other food in
proportion. Shoes, hats and clothing
are luxuries which are not to be INDUCED
in unless absolutely necessary.
Believe in Old Legand.
Yucatan is the home of the Maya.
and their ruins, the greatest of which
are those at Uxmal and Chichen-Itza
The ride to them in two-wheeled car
over the rock roads makes you feel lik
the surroundings. The jolts were awful