but it was the apathy of supreme indifference, not of despair. Now
they can go where they like, serve whom they like, and return to their
village when they like. And they use their liberty to the point of
abuse. Yet still the horizon keeps enlarging. The rate of wages
keeps moving upwards, and there is no sign that it has reached its
h"mit. The number of Mexicans whose fathers were either virtual or
/IDejican peonage. 507
actual peons, and who are now receiving a dollar a day, is constantly
increasing. It is easy to picture the satisfaction felt by a man whose boy-
hood was nurtured on the simple food of corn-cakes and beans, and who
now receives a Mexican dollar, day in and day out, except upon Sun-
day, and then as well if he is willing to work on that day.
While the Mexican laborers are deprived of most of the comforts
enjoyed by their brethren in the United States, it is the opinion of
some thoughtful Americans who have visited Mexico that they are hap-
pier, because their needs are fewer, the necessaries of life for them are
cheaper, and their employment is constant — conditions which some-
times do not exist in this country.
Mexican Peonage. — Peon in Spanish means a laborer who performs
rough work that does not require either art nor any special fitness, and
it does not give at all the idea of servitude, but under the Spanish rule
the conquerors were given the ownership of a certain territory, where
they exercised quasi-feudal rights upon the natives living there, and as
they required their services to till the land, avery mild form of servitude
was established, consisting in the landlord's providing for the needs of
his laborers ; that is, furnishing them money, in the shape of an ad-
vance for future services, whenever they had any special need in the
families, such as marriage, birth, sickness, death, etc., they, of course,
being obliged to repay their indebtedness to their employer. In some
cases this obligation passed to the descendant of the laborer, who had
to work to discharge his parent's debt. Since Mexico achieved her
independence this condition of things has changed very materially. I
never knew or heard of any case in which the descendant of a man had
to discharge with his labor the debts of his parents, and the Mexican
laws from the beginning have been directed to destroy that system, as
I will presently state. I can therefore say with perfect truth, that peon-
age, in the meaning in which it is understood in this country — that is,
a kind of slavery — never existed in Mexico, and that even the Spanish
peonage system is not now in existence, although there are some dis-
tricts which still have slight remnants of peonage, as will be seen
farther on, but the laborers suffer there no more than they do in some
other countries, as up to the end of the last century laborers Avere
everywhere, as a general rule, held in a kind of slavery or peonage.
The early history of the United States shows that even white men
were held in bondage in all the States to work out debts, and to expiate
offences, and it is only a generation back that slavery on a great scale
was abolished. There are, to-day, the " convict-camp " abuses in the
Southern States of the American Union, against which influential
journals in that section are strongly protesting. In Pennsylvania, one
reads of the poverty-stricken condition of the imported foreign miners,
who try to maintain families on fifty and sixty cents a day.
5o8 Xabor an& Maoes in /IDejico,
In all countries there are plenty of abuses; children are over-
worked, and women forced into coarse pursuits. Mexico is able to
show as good a record as any country in these matters, and a strong
public opinion is growing there against all forms of opi)ression of
human beings.
All over the civilized world men are becoming humaner in senti-
ment, the fundamental rights of men are more regarded, and the
struggle against selfish greed on the part of the minority of employers
is making good progress.
Peonage never meant a low system of wages, as is understood in the
United States. The prevailing impression in this country regarding
the Mexican peon is an erroneous one. It is supposed here that peon-
age is, as a matter of fact, sheer slavery, and that it extends throughout
the whole country. I have shown that it is not slavery, and now I
will say that it exists principally in a comparatively reduced area where
laborers are very scarce, and this fact shows that, while the system is
liable to abuse, it has some advantages for the laborer.
Meantime our peons are, not starving, and are, for the most part, a
quiet and philosophic people, enjoying their frequent respites from
toil, and complaining very little, while a patriotic Government has
their interests at heart and is planning for their welfare, and especially
for that of their children.
What follows will show how much the evils of the peonage system
in Mexico have been exaggerated, and how they all are being now radi-
cally corrected ; but before proceeding any farther, I will state what
is the condition of the Mexican farm laborer, or peon, in the different
localities of Mexico.
The largest portion of the Mexican population is located on the
mountains, central table-lands, and other high regions, which enjoy a
cold and healthful climate on account of their elevation above the
sea. Only the products of the cold zone can grow there, and
these were formerly cultivated on a limited scale, solely for local con-
sumption, as the high cost of transportation prevented their being
carried to any distance. In this region labor is abundant, and until
recent years it exceeded the demand; consequently, wages were low,
and the peonage system only existed to a small extent; because of the
number of working hands being greater than the demand, the laborers
were exposed to disadvantages that fortunately are now beginning to
disappear, as prosperity of the country increases the demand for
labor.
The temperate region embraces the land situated at from three to
five thousand feet above the level of the sea, and it is sparsely popu-
lated; but it yields valuable products, such as coffee, sugar, and other
tropical fruits. It is very difficult to find in this region the necessary
/IDejicaii iPeonaae. 509
hands to till the land on a large scale. For these reasons, and, above
all, because of the high cost of transportation, tropical products could
not be grown before the railways were built, except in a few places favor-
ably located, and then in a limited quantity. This explains why some
of these products commanded a higher price in some localities of the
country where they are produced than in foreign markets, to which
they are transported from great distances. Sugar, for instance, which
is retailed in New York at 4^ cents a pound, costs in the City of
Mexico from 12 to 18 cents, and it is not so well refined as the article
sold here, although it probably has for that reason a greater amount
of saccharine matter.
The hot region, which embraces the coast on both oceans and the
low valleys situated in the interior of the country, is very sparsely in-
habited; labor is therefore very scarce, and wages are higher here than
in any other region. While in the high and cold regions wages were
often 12^ cents a day and rations, on the coast they are sometimes $1
a day. The inhabitants of the cold and temperate regions do not like
to descend to the warm zone, because they are exposed to maladies
prevailing there, such as yellow fever and intermittent and remittent
fevers, and because they are terribly annoyed by mosquitoes, and they
can hardly endure the heat. If at any time they do go down there, it
is only to remain a few days. It has been thought that as the lowlands
are the most fertile and rich, and are almost uninhabited, they could
be cultivated only by means of negro or Asiatic labor; and this idea
has induced some Mexican planters to try Chinese immigration, as
Article II. of our Constitution grants to all men the right freely to enter
and leave Mexico.
The laborers living in the warm lands have, on account of the
smallness of their number, advantages which are not shared by their
fellow-laborers inhabiting the higher regions. The first of these ad-
vantages is, as I have already stated, larger wages; the second is that
they can obtain advances, in reasonable amounts, for any needs they
may have, as marriages, births, sickness, or death in their families,
since the small amount of their wages does not allow them to econo-
mize for such emergencies, and these advances are willingly made by
their employers and set to the account of future services, without in-
terest or security.
Unfortunately, the very advantages which the laborers living in the
hot lands of Mexico enjoy, and the smallness of their numbers, which
I have just mentioned, are sometimes the causes of great abuses on the
part of some employers, of which the laborer is the victim on account
of his ignorance and complete destitution, on the one hand, and the
influence and wealth of his employer on the other.
I speak of this subject from personal experience, because, having
5IO Xabor an& XlClades in /IDesico,
spent several years as a planter in the District of Soconusco, State
of Chiapas, where these conditions prevail, I saw the practical work-
ings of the peonage system. It was not possible to obtain there a
laborer, either as a domestic or a field hand, without first paying the
debt of from one to five hundred dollars that he had contracted with
his former employer; so that it is easy to understand what an expendi-
ture of money was required before a large number of hands could be
obtained. Lapse of time increases the debt instead of diminishing it,
since the laborer asks each week, as a rule, for more than the amount
of his wages. Whenever the hands are displeased with their work —
either because they quarrel among themselves, because their employer
does not treat them well, because they do not get all the money ad-
vances they ask, or for any other reason — they have entire freedom to
offer their services to anybody else, who willingly pays their debt, as
everybody is always in need of help; but often, and especially when
the employer does not live permanently in the country, as was my case
when I was in Soconusco, laborers whose debts reach a considerable
sum conceal themselves, fly to another district where they are not
known, or in some other manner evade the payment of their indebted-
ness; with the result that it is a total loss to their employer. The same
is the case when the indebted laborer dies or becomes disabled for
work.
These are the practical results of the peonage system, so far as my
experience goes, although I do not deny that it is liable to great abuse
on the part of the employers, who are favored in a few cases by the
tolerance of the local authorities and by the ignorance and poverty of
the laborers.
There are some places — especially in the States of Tabasco and
Campeche, where mahogany, cedar, ebony and dyewoods are cut in
uninhabited spots, which change as the wood is exhausted — where the
employer assum.es, in the absence of any magistrate or other authority,
and generally through an overseer, for he himself seldom remains at
such places, all the powers of government. Of course, opportunities
for doing injustice are very much increased, in view of the fact that
there an employer is hardly ever called to account for abuse of
authority. In most of these cases the employer is obliged to set up,
for the convenience of his laborers — as I have heard, though I have no
personal knowledge in the matter — a store where they can provide
themselves, there being no other near by, with provisions, groceries,
and such dry-goods as they may need in the ordinary course of life,
paying for them with the scrip issued to them by the employer over
his signature in settlement of their wages. It is easy to see how greatly
this system is liable to abuse, since the laborer has to purchase at the
store of his employer everything he wants, and at such prices as the
/JOejican peonage, 511
owner may think fit to charge, thus losing all the benefits of compe-
tition."
But the peonage system has no legal existence in Mexico, because
Article V. of our Constitution of 1857, enacted for the purpose of
abolishing it, provides that " nobody should be obliged to render per-
sonal service without proper compensation and his full consent," and
forbids the issuance of any law to authorize any contract which might
have for its object the " loss or irreparable sacrifice of the freedom of
man through work, education, or religious vows." This article was
amended on the 25th of September, 1873, chiefly with a view of pro-
hibiting the taking of religious vows in Mexico, and also of making it
more explicit, and it reads now, so far as work is concerned, as follows:
" The state cannot allow the fulfilment of any agreement, contract, or
covenant which may, in any manner, impair, destroy, or irrevocably sac-
rifice man's liberty, either through work, education, or religious vows."
Whatever abuses might have been committed under the peonage
system in Mexico in former years when laborers were abundant and occu-
pation scarce, and the laborers were ignorant and destitute, they have
either disappeared altogether or been very materially reduced with the
changing conditions of the country, as labor is now in great demand,
so much so that in very many places the demand exceeds the supply.
The laborers began to be educated with the restoration of peace. The
local authorities vie with each other to enforce the laws which guar-
antee the personal rights of every inhabitant of the country.
Rate of Agricultural Mexican Wages. — The broken surface of Mex-
ico gives us all the climates of the world, frequently at very short dis-
tances from each other, and enables us to produce the fruits of all the
zones, while placing at our disposal, at the same time, an immense hy-,
' It seems that something similar to this is done in the United States, as is shown
by the following extract from Gen. Rush C. Hawkins's article, entitled " Brutality and
Avarice Triumphant," published in the June, 1S96, number of the N'orth American
Review, page 660 :
" One of the most facile means in the hands of avarice for cheating the poor and
helpless is the 'corporation and contractor's' store. It is usually owned by corpora-
tions whose employees are the only patrons, and the rule is to sell the poorest possible
quality of supplies at the highest price obtainable. In many instances employees are
given to understand that they are expected to trade at the company and contract stores,
or, failing to do so, will be discharged. This oppressive method of cheating is not
confined to any particular part of the country, but prevails, with varying degrees of
malignancy, wherever under one management, either corporate, partnership, or indi-
vidual, any considerable number of employees are assembled together. Since the
close of the Civil War many thousands of ignorant blacks have been made the victims
of this common and heartless swindle, which has absorbed their scant earnings. At
the end of each month, year in and year out, it has proved to their untrained minds
an astonishing fact that the longer and the harder they worked the more they got in
debt to their employers."
I
512 Xabor an^ Maoes in /IDejico.
draulic power, of which for the j)resent we hardly avail ourselves. But,
on the other hand, this condition of things made transportation very-
expensive, and rendered the interchange of products exceedingly diffi-
cult. The obstacles to communication between the various sections
of the country, and the diversity of conditions existing in each, cause
a great difference in the wages paid in different localities.
The Department of Public Works of the Mexican Government
has been for some time past collecting data regarding the wages paid
to field laborers, and during one of my visits in 189 1, to the City of
Mexico, I obtained a summary of such data. It is very difficult to
present it in a complete and correct form, because there are several
systems of wages. In some places a fixed amount is paid for one day's
work; in others, again, besides the wages, rations are given,' consist-
ing of a certain quantity of grain, sufficient for the subsistence of the
laborer and his family; the quality and quantity of these rations vary,
as well as their value, for grain has different prices in the various
localities; and all these causes render it very difficult to make an
entirely accurate re'surne of the official data.
The most complete that I was able to prepare, during my visit to
Mexico in 1 891, is the following, which embraces the maximum and
minimum field wages paid in the different States of the Mexican Con-
federation, in cents and per day:
■ This assertion is confirmed by the following statement from Mr. Ransom's
(U. S. Minister to Mexico) report on Prices and Labor in Mexico, of September 26,
1896, published in vol. xiii., part i, page 117, of Special Consular Reports, on Money
and Prices of Foreign Countries :
" A large portion of the farming in Mexico is carried on under the ' share system.'
The Government reports show that, in many instances, rations of corn are furnished
to the hired laborer ; in some cases we find that he is allowed a small amount per day
for his board in addition to wages ; again, he is furnished by the landlord with a
small piece of land to cultivate for his own benefit."
These views are confirmed by a report on the condition of Mexico, dated at its
capital city, on September 4, 1896, from Governor Thomas T. Crittenden, then Consul-
General of the United States in the City of Mexico, and published by the Journal of
New York, in its issue of September 17, 1896:
" The wages paid laborers and artisans are largely improved. Formerly work-
men, particularly agricultural laborers, were paid in 'kind' ; now they are paid in
money. In the case of farm laborers, it is the custom of the country for the employer,
in addition to the regular wages, to allow the laborer the use of a certain acreage to
raise his own food. In many of the agricultural districts, instead of employing labor
directly, the owners of haciendas follow what is known in the United States as tht
share system of cultivating their land. Those who were formerly practically serfs now
receive half the crop they raise. Corn is the great staple of the country.
" In considering the labor and wage question it should be borne in mind that the
American skilled workman possesses on the average a much higher degree of skill in
his trade than the Mexican employed in a similar vocation. The American skilled
workman also performs much more work in a day than the workman in this country.
IRate ot Hccicultural Mages in ^ejico.
513
DAILY WAGES PAID TO FIELD HANDS IN MEXICO IN 1S9I.
Aguascalientes
Lower California (T).
Chiapas
Chihuahua
Coahuila
Colima
Durango
Federal District
Guanajuato
Guerrero
Hidalgo
Jalisco
M exico
Michoacan
Morelos
Nuevo Leon ,
Oaxaca
Puebla
Queretaro
San Luis Potosi
Sonora
Tabasco
Tamaulipas
Tepic (T)
Tlaxcala
Veracruz
Yucatan
Zacatecas
Average in the whole country.
Minimum. Ma
ximum. Av
erage. '
Cts.
Cts.
Cts.
$o.i8| $0
i8f $0
i8|
50
50
50
25
75
50
i8f
25
2I| —
3ii
»75
53i
25
37i
3ii
25
75
50
3ii
37h
34|
i8|
3ii
25
i8|
50
24I
12^
37i
25
i8f
50
34f
I2i
37i
25
I5i-
75
45i
25
75
50
I8f
iSf
i8f
i8f
50
34l
i8f
50
34I
18J
371
28|
i8|
25
22J
30 I
00
65
37^
50
43l
25
50
374
25
50
37i
25
50
37i
25
62^
431
25
37i
3ii
x8f
50
34f
233-
50
36 -
Before giving an account of the causes of the diversity of wages
paid in Mexico for field work, and showing why these wages are so
low, it is opportune to say that it is not in Mexico only that such diver-
sity of wages exists, for something similar is the case in this country.
According to information published by the Wisconsin Labor Bureau,
in i8gi, a common laborer in Atlanta earns 7^ cents per hour, while
the same laborer in Galveston, also a Southern city, earns 25 cents per
hour, or three times as much.
The Division of Statistics of the Department of Agriculture of the
United States issued, in 1892, a report (Miscellaneous Series, Report
No. 4) on the '* Wages of Farm Labor in the United States. Re-
' The averages in this table are not properly made, because they are obtained by
adding the minimum and maximum wages and dividing the result by two, and that
does not give the true average. To secure an average rate, each rate should be multi-
plied by the number of persons receiving it, then the total number receiving all rates
should be divided into the aggregate amount, as shown by the multiplication. The
total average in the preceding table was obtained by adding all rates in each column
and dividing by the number of rates, which gives only an arithmetical mean and not an
average, but not having the data necessary to make a true average, I only did what I could.
5U
Xabor anD Maoes in /iDejico.
suit of nine statistical investigations, from 1866 to 1892, with exten-
sive inquiries concerning wages from 1840 to 1865," which contains
(page 16) a tabular statement showing that in 1892 the average wages
for farm labor, without board, was $12.50 per month in South Carolina,
$13.30 in North Carolina, $13.50 in Georgia, and $13.75 in Alabama,
while in California the wages paid were $36.50 and in the State of
Washington $37.50, the average for all the States for that year being
$18.60. For farm labor, with board, the wages varied from $8.40 to
$25, and averaged* $12.54.
Mr. Ransom's and Mr. Crittenden' s Reports oji Wages. — On Septem-
ber 26, 1896, Mr. Matthew M. Ransom, United States Minister at the
City of Mexico, sent to the State Department a report on the currency,
prices, and condition of labor in that country, which was published in
the Special Consular Report (vol. xiii., part i) on Money and Prices
in Foreign Countries, and to which he appended a statement of
wages paid to men for agricultural labor in 1893, stating that the rates
were taken from the Government statistics for that year, and that they
were expressed in Mexican currency. As that statement is a little
more comprehensive than mine and somewhat later, and although it is
not complete and cannot, I think, be taken as entirely correct, because
it would be exceedingly difficult to make an altogether reliable state-
ment, I consider it a fair one and insert it here:
WAGES PER DAY OF AGRICULTURAL LABOR IN 1893 MEN.'
Aguascalientes...
Campeche
Mexico
Guerrero
Hidalgo
Jalisco
Michoacan
Sonora
Tabasco
Coahuila
Colima
Tainaulipas
Chihuahua
Durango
Guanajuato
Nuevo Leon
Oaxaca
Puebla
Veracruz
Yucatan
Zacatecas
Federal District.
San Luis Potosi..
Morelos
Major-
domos.
0.25 to
.50 to
•37 to
•75 to
•37 to
•37 to
.50 to
.62 to
•75 to
.50 to
$0.37
1.50
1. 00
1. 00
1. 00
1. 00
2.00
1.00
1. 00
•75
1.00
•50
.50 to
•37 to
•75 to
.50 to
.50 to
.50 to
1. 00 to
•37 to
1. 00 to
.50 to
1.00 to
1. 00
1. 00
1.00
1. 00
1.00
1.25
1.25
•75
1.50
•83
2.00
Overseers.
Herders.
$0.25 to $0.37
.25 to .31
.2510 .50
•so
.18 to .50
.2510 .50
.25 to .50
.50 to 1.75
•50 to .75
•37 to .50
$0.13 to $0.20
.25 to .75
.18 to
•37 to
.18 to
.25 to
I .25 to
I -3710
1 .25 to
I .3710
•50
•50
•50
•50
•50
1 .00
•50
•50
Shepherds.
$0.18 to
$0.25
•25
.18 to
.5010
.31 to
•37 to
.25 to I.OO
.37 to .50
■37 to .50
.37 to I.OO
.25 to I.OO
.50
.40
.50
.18 to
.50 to
.31 to
• 25 to
.25 to
•25*0
•37 to
.5010
•25 to
•25
•75
.50
•37
•75
• 50
.60
I.OO
•75
•75
•50
.20
.50
.18 to
.2510
.18 to
•37 to
.2510
• 25 to
•31
•50
•37
I.OO
•50
•25
•37
.25 to
.i8to
.18 to
.18 to
•37 to
.25 to
•37 to
•37 to
.18 to
•31
I.OO
•50
•50
•50
.20
Pulque
Hands.
Peons.
$0.28 to $0.37
•37
•37