The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1941-09-25
The Cherry Tree
Where We Hutched Out
The Truth
. MEXICANS SPEAK SPANISH
o BETTER THAN SPANIARDS
o COGNAC PRICES RISE
Q DISTURBING NATIVES

When you tell some persons you are
going to Mexico, or have been to
Mexico, they ask:
"Do they really wear those big
hats?"
The answer is: Yes. Not all Mexi-
cans wear them, but thousands do.
The Getty folks" the educated men,
do not. But the country people, and
many city workers, do wear them
and carry small things around the
big rolling brim.
There is no such thing as one uni
form Mexico. There are many Mexi-
COS. Mexico City is something apart
from all the rest of Mexico.
A big revue, "Alma America" now
running at the Bellas Artes, the mag
niicent national theater, would be a
credit on Broadway.
Over the great stretch from Mexico
City to the border are Indians who
wear no shoes, live in thatched reed
huts, or in 'dobe huts. There are many
Indians who do not speak Spanish.
X X X
Dried meats hang in front of open
faced butcher" shops and there are
many odors denoting many things to
which people in the United States are
not accustomed.
Cattle and hogs run loose on the
streets, as they do in Florida and
Georgia-and there are many, many
goats.
The mountain scenery between
Mexico City and Laredo is arresting
magnificent And again between
Mexico City and either Orozaba or
Vera Cruz.
Perhaps the best Spanish in all
Latin America is spoken in Central
Mexico. Also several pure Indian lam
guages are spoken.
And fine colonial architecture still
dominates Mexico City, although a
great deal of ultra modern architec-
ture is bounding in. There is much
building in Mexico City, but this is
now being cramped by shortages of
materials, principally steel.
X X x
One thing that is disturbing many
MeXicans is the rising price Of cognac.
By the case now four letter is 40
pesos a bottle, or roughly $S, which
IS a lot of money in Mexico-or any
place.
Some Americans are planning to
try to tinker with the Mexican cur
rency, but Mexican authorities want
oIr folks to keep hands off. They say
that to change the rate of exchange
would produce depression in Mexico.
Mexican money is plenty sound.
But prices are rising and the tourist
doesn't get the advantage of two
years ago. The rate is from 4SO to
4.%5 pesos to the dollar.
If you try to buy with a peso on
the American side Of the Rio Grande,
except right at the border, it will be
showed back at you. But the dollar
goes almost anywhere in Mexico.
Mexican merchants seem, in this re-
spect, to have more sense, or cour-
teSy, than Americans.
Maybe there ought to be something
about the Rockefeller Committee.
Well, | met one nice young chap who
is all up to his ears in a sports pro-
gram. That is nice, but of second or
third rate Importance. One doesn't
hear much about the Rockefeller Com
mittee, but | got an earful of what it
ought to do.
And there's the U. S. Metals Re-
serve, which is supposed to buy GER
tain metals, including mercury, in
Mexico. 1t has buying office in
Mexico City.
But MeXicans say the U. S. office
buys only from the big producers or
the big jobbers. The little fellow with
a few TASKS is told to go sell it to one
Of the big houses. Uncle Sam doesn't
care to bother with small stuff.
But every little man knows that
this practice puts some profit in the
hands Of some big company and that
he can never hope to get for himself
as much per flask as the big pro-
ducer gets.
Somehow the little chap generally
seems to get trimming somewhere.
There will be one or two more of
these columns, for there are many
things yet to be written about Mexico,
| its pCOple and it's ecOnomV-CMW