The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1918-08-01
SAD CONDITIONS
| IN OLD MEXICO
Letter From Business Man Who Is
Selling Machinery IN Mexico

Mexico City, July 10.-Mr. William
Wade, Miller, 8. d.: Some few weeks
ago | received a letter from you in
curing about conditions here. No
one car realize the conditions here
without seeing them, so | will just
mention a few of the things of every
day occurrence. l am having some fun
learning to talk Spanish from q little
Spanish girl. She says l am slow to
learn, but | can order anything to eat
at the hotel, and that is the main
thing, for there are many here not so
fortunate.
I work Gbout three days each week
here, and no duck hunting as we had
last fall. How are the ducks and
chickens up there this year? Now Is
the time for you to get in your work,
as all Of the hunters have gone to
hunt Germans!
All three of my nephews have gone
into the service. Forest, the one who
was up there hunting last fall. is at
Camp Grant. Earl Is down on the
border watching the Poems, and Hugh
is in some u. s. camp.
l am in Mexico City. which has a
population of 400, 900, more or less.
so they say, but I've learned not to
believe everything / hear. The city is
situated in q valley with mountains
On all sides. They say It was once an
old lake bed. This is a beautiful
country and would be a fine place to
live with agreeable people. The eli
mate is always the same, with bright
sun, and an average thermometer of
about 80. II never gets to 100, and the
nights are cool enough to sleep under
heavy blankets. From November till
June it seldom rains, and after that it
rains every afternoon, as regular as
the clock.
Farming on Large Scale
The principal crops are era wheat
and barley. Further south they raise
sugar cane and rice. Farming is done
on a large scale. Most of the hacien-
dos, as they are called run from 5000
to 100, 900 acres. Some of it Is in the
mountains, but there is more good
land goes to waste than n would
imagine. They still cling to the an
cient methods of wooden pillow and
oxen, and cut grain with the old hand
cycle. Some have machines to do
their threshing, while others still use
the old barn floor and drive mules
over 1t.
delivered a Reeves 40 tractor
last week to Dolores Hidalgo, about
400 kilometers north of the city. II
took two days to make the trip thru
the mountains. In places we travelled
on solid rock for miles. That hacien-
do contains $4,000 acres, and one
could plow five miles straight away
with the tractor.
Starvation Wages on Farmes
They worked 600Peons on the ranch
and all the common laborers got for
a days work was two quarts of barley.
Those who did not work lived on cac-
tus leaves. | have actually seen wom-
en- and children starving. On Sunday
morning the foremen let them gather
the loose heads of grain that had
been dropped. and they were like
a bunch of sheep turned loose. You
Nortterners may think sometimes
that you are having a hare time, but
IL you could see what l have seer
down here you would quickly change
your mind.
After leaving the hacienda we stop
ped In a hotel in the little town OF
Kinkou for dinner. Whilewe were
eating people stood outside crying
with hunger. When we had about
half finished our meal they were lie,
In and quickly cleaned up everything
to eat on the table.
Expensive Living I'm City
We got in five car loads of tractors
in two weeks. but can't get them hero
as fast as we can sell them. u stay
most OF the time In Pueblo. as living
is too expensive in Mexico City. ]
have had the fever. and was laid up in
q hospital for. eight days. When first
taken I was sure sick.and forty miles
from a railroad or doctor. They have
some pretty girl nurses. but when q
fellow is plumb sick with that fever
he isn't interested in anything.
Flowers In Prefusien
There are mor flowers here thar
anywhere on earth, It seems to me
They grow wild in the fields here
better than in the cultivated gardens
in the States. One could pick Q
boquet in = few moments that woult
ear a wagon bOx. and have scarcely