.18 to .50
.iSto
•37 to
• 25 to
.18 to .50 I
•37 to .50 I
.18 to .25 I
$0.13 to $1
.25 to
.18 to
.12 to
.18 to
.25 to
.18 to
•37 to
•37 to
.25 to
•37 to
.18 to
•37 to
.25 to
.18 to
.iSto
.25 to
.18 to
.i8to
.2510
.i8to
•37 to
.18 to
•37 to
io.25
■50
.50
.31
•50
• 5"
•75
I.OO
I.OO
•37
•7S
•25
.62 ■
•37
•25
•50
.50
• 50
.37
•75
.50
.40
•25
I.OO
' These rates are taken from the Government statistics for the year 1893. They
are expressed in Mexican currency ; in United States currency they are about one-half.
In some of the States rations of corn and bacon are furnished ; very seldom any
meat.
/iDr. IRansom's anC) /IDr. Crittenden's IReports. 515
Besides Mr. Ransom's report, another with the same purpose, made
by Mr. Thomas T. Crittenden, United States Consul-General at the
City of Mexico, dated September i, 1S96, containing important data,
was published in the same number of the Special Consular Reports of
the United States. Both reports embrace data about wages in the
factories, mines, and railroads that, while I believe they are correct as
far as they go, are not comprehensive enough, as they relate only to
certain factories and mining districts. So far as the railroads are con-
cerned, they are entirely reliable, because the railway companies are
but few, and most of them furnished directly to Mr. Ransom a correct
schedule of their wages. As they serve to show the rate of Mexican
wages, I append to this article such tabular statements sent by Mr.
Ransom as I think of interest.
Mr. Crittenden's report contains the following table of wages and
salaries paid in and about the City of Mexico on September i, 1896:
MEXICAN WAGES.
EMPLOYMENT.
Agents, railway per month .
Boiler makers per day .
Brakemen per month.
Bricklayers (native) per day.
Clerks (office) per month .
Cooks, women ' do. . .
Cooks, men do. . .
Carpenters per day .
Conductors, passenger per month.
Conductors, freight do. . .
Conductors, street-car per day.
Coachmen, private (native) per month.
Coachmen, public (native) do. . .
Division (railway) superintendents do. . .
Drivers, street-car per day.
Engineers :
I,ocomotive per month .
Stationary, with board ^ per day.
Stationary, without board •' do. . .
Engravers do. . .
Firemen, locomotive per month.
Firemen, ordinary do . . .
Furnace men per day.
Harness makers, etc do. . .
Iron workers do. . .
Jewellers do. . .
Laborers, in large cities do. . .
Laborers, in the country * do. . .
MEXICAN CUR-
RENCY.
I75-00
4.00
35.00
1. 00
40.00
6.00
25.00
1.50
100.00
100.00
•50
15.00
250.00
•50
150.
3-
5-
75-
20.
I.
2.
2,
00 -
50 -
50 -
00 -
00 -
00 -
00 -
50 -
00 -
00 -
375-
10 -
gl 50.00
8.00
75.00
1.50
200.06
12.00
75.00
4-75
160.00
200.00
1. 00
30.00
^15-00
350.00
1. 00
250.00
3-35
5.00
10.00
100.00
50.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
5.00
15
UNITED STATES
CURRENCY.
$39.00
2.08
18.20
.52
20.00
3.12
13.00
.78
52.00
52.00
.26
7.80
130.00
.26
$78.00
4.16
39.00
.78
104.00
6.24
39.00
2.37
83.20
104.00
.52
15.60
7.80
192.00
.52
78.00 - 130.00
1.82
2.60
5.20
52.00
26.00
.78
1.04
1.30
2.60
■353
.078
1.30 -
1.82 -
2.60 -
39-44 -
10.44 -
.52 -
.26 -
1.04 -
1.04 -
•192-
.052-
' And 9 cents (4.68 cents, United States) per day for rations.
' Maximum ; these depend largely on tips.
' In mines and on large plantations.
* Laborers (day) in the country, from 19 to 50 cents per day. In some instances meals arc fur-
nished, or an allowance of from lo to 15 cents a day to cover the cost of the meals. The .-iveragc
laborer will live well and in good strength on from 10 to 15 cenlj; per day, and will support his family
Ji
5i6
Xabor auD Maoes in /IDejico.
MEXICAN WAGES — CoTitimied.
EMPLOYMENT.
MEXICAN CUR-
RENCY.
UNITED STATES
CURRENCY.
Laborers in factories (lo to li hours). per day. .
Laborers, skilled (lo to ii hours) do. . . .
Mechanics do. . . .
Machinists (shop) do. . . .
Miners, skilled do. . . .
Miners, ordinary do. . . .
Maids, house per month . .
$0.50 - $1.00
1.50 - 2.00
3.50 - 5.00
3.50 - 5.00
1. 00 - 1.50
.50 - .80
4.00 - 7.00
50.00 - 150.00
2.00 - 2.50
6.00 - 8.00
7.00 - 8.00
8.00 - 11.00
10.00 - 12.00
30.00 - 50.00
1.50
3.50 - 4.00
2.25 - 3.50
1. 00 - 1.50
.37 - .50
150.00 - 175.00
1. 00 - 1.25
5.00 - 12.00
1-35 - I-50
1.75 - 2.50
$0.26 - $0.52
.78 - 1.04
1.82 - 2.60
1.82 - 2.60
.52 - .78
.26 - .416
2.08 - 3.64
26.00 - 78.00
1.04 - 1.30
3.12 - 4.16
3.64 - 4.16
4-i6 - 5-72
5.20 - 6.24
13.60 - 26.00
.78
Operators, telegraph do. . . .
Plumbers :
Native per day . .
American do. . . .
Printers :
Native per week. .
Pressmen do ... .
Compositors do. . . .
Policemen per month . .
Switchmen per day . .
Blacksmiths do. . . .
Gold- and silver-smiths do. . . .
Seamstresses do. . . .
Train masters per month. .
Tailors :
Rejiaiiers per day. .
1.82 - 2.34
1. 17 - 1.82
.52 - .78
.29 - .26
73.00 - 91.00
•52 - .65
2.60 - 6.24
.71 - .78
.91
Coat makers per coat . .
Vest makers per vest . .
Pantaloonists per pair. .
Low Wages in Mexico. — A great deal has been written about the
low scale of wages prevailing in Mexico. The laborer in that country
has been held up to his brethren in the United States as an object of
great pity and commiseration, and his condition has been depicted in
most realistic colors. He has been compared with the well-fed, well-
clothed, and well-housed workmen of this Republic, and the comparison
was not made to appear greatly to his advantage. Wages in Mexico
are certainly very low, although, fortunately, they are rising; but
biased persons from this country who visit Mexico and remaira there
only a few days, unacquainted with the language, the people, and the
conditions of the country, completely misunderstand the case, and are
apt to come to general conclusions from some special instance that may
come to their notice, and return to the United States supposing that
on from 10 to 20 cents per day. Of course he will have his little patch of corn, beans, and chUes
planted near his hut, which is the largest part of his " bill of fare" three times a day, and for three
hundred and si.xty-five days in the year. Five to ten dollars per year will clothe him, except, perhaps,
his hat, and for that, he will, if he can get the money, pay from $5 to $20. As to wages paid for farm
labor, it is well to add that a large part of the farming in this country is done on shares ; almost the
entire corn crop of Me.xico — and it is one of the largest and most important— is raised by the " peons "
on shares. The landowner furnishes everything, including a house to live in, and for this receives
one-half of the crop. Others of the poorer class who are employed directly by the owner receive, be-
sides their daily wages, a small plot of ground and a certain number of hours each, week to cultivate it.
%o\v Maaes in /l!>crico. 517
they know all about the subject, and make incorrect and ungrounded
statements about the laboring classes in Mexico.'
Farther on I will show the difference in the cost of life between Mex-
ico and the United States, and, as a consequence of the same, how much
more can be obtained in Mexico by a smaller amount of wages than in
the United States. Those who work in Mexico live fairly well accord-
ing to the value of their services and the necessaries of life. Those who
are out of employment find existence much more tolerable in tropical
Mexico than in this country, where fires and warm clothing are for the
greater part of the year indispensable. Both in Mexico and the United
States the very poor are wretched. But, from a hygienic point of view,
the Mexican laborer's adobe hut is no more squalid and unwholesome
than the swarming tenements and sweat-shops of New York City.
When one speaks of wages in the United States he always refers to
wages in the Northern and Western States, which are the highest paid in
this country and in theworld, but not to the largest section of this country
where wages are comparatively small, especially those paid to the negroes
in the South. It is true that the latter enjoy advantages that the North-
ern laborers do not : a more benign climate and the privilege of
cultivating a small plot of ground where they can obtain vegetables,
fruits, corn, etc., and raise some domestic animals, and find easy and
cheap shelter, which contributes, of course, to reduce the expense of
the necessaries of life; but the Mexican laborers are very much in the
same condition with a great many decided advantages over the Southern
negroes, in so far as the climate is concerned, and if the wages and the
' One instance of this is the case of Mr. Theodore Knaufl, who is a student of
sociology and recently visited Mexico, and in December, i8g6, delivered a lecture at
the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, under the joint auspices of that Institute and
the Young Men's Christian Association of that city, upon the conditions of Mexico as
he thought he found them, in which, at the outset, he declares " that of the 12,500,000
people composing the population of Mexico, at least 8,000,000 have never slept in a bed
or worn stockings. They are forced to live at a less expense per diem than it takes to
keep the meanest American farm-horse. Millions of Mexicans have never worn any-
thing but a single garment, called a ' sarappe,' which is roughly described as a sack with
a hole in the top, through which tlie wearer protrudes his head. This garment," con-
tinues Mr. Knauff, " forms at the same time the Mexican's coat, hat, and even his bed.
The feet are usually bare or clothed in domestic sandals. Tlie women wear a kind of
cotton shawl over their heads and shoulders, called a ' rebozo.' The Mexican farm
laborers' conditions are inferior to those of the late slaves of our Southern States. Their
huts have but one opening, no windows, and dirt floors. When wishing to go to bed,
they simply unroll their mats, and, without removing their clothing, lie down and go to
sleep. The laborer has a certain wage and is given time and place to build himself a
house. If he does not build it he has nothing with which to cover his head. The houses
are built by the people who live in them. Some of the houses are mud-roofed and
others roofed by palms or banana leaves."
Anybody familiar with Mexico knows that this statement has as many mistakes as
lines.
5i8 Xabor an& Macjes in /IDejico.
condition of living and happiness between the two classes are com-
pared, I do not think that any material advantage to the latter would be
found. Their social condition is, of course, infinitely better in Mexico
because there they can rise to the highest position in the country. The
condition of some of the working classes in this country is not as satis-
factory as it might be. The recent clothing strike in New York City has
shown beyond all denial that the pay of certain classes of workmen
engaged in the making of clothing has been as follows: Tailors, from
$3 to $5 '^ week; children's jacket-makers, about $3 a week; knee-
pants makers, $5 a week; vest-makers, $4 a week. In other words,
these people have been receiving from thirty-three to eighty-three
cents per day.
Recently, there has been a tendency to reduce the compensation
of working girls in the great shops of the big towns. I understand that
in New York the wages of $3 a week is now considered quite enough,
and a working girl could hardly afford to live there on $3 a week.
The Mexican laborer is receiving wages quite equal in amount to
those received by his poorly paid unfortunate brethren in this country,
but his wages are far more powerful than theirs in the purchasing of those
necessaries which go to make up his life. With his 374- cents per day,
he can live, according to his notions, in comparative comfort; with
their 37^ cents per day, it is not possible to live with comfort in this
country. His climate is also mild and delightful ; he needs not the fuel
and the clothing which are necessary to the New York workmen.
It is not possible in every country to pay high wages to the laborers.
Even in this great country, where laborers are better paid than any-
where else, and where they have sometimes been called princes — and
they deserve that name, if compared with others — wages are sometimes
quite low.
To ensure for the workingman of Mexico higher wages many things
have to be accomplished. He has first to be technically trained, to be
made more intelligent by education, to unlearn his habits of dawdling
and procrastination, in a word, to put more conscience into his work.
There are mechanics there who are getting good pay because they have
learned the lesson of the times; they are diligent and efficient. Foreign
mechanics are well paid in Mexico when they are engaged by respon-
sible concerns. In some lines of endeavor, wages are very good there
as compared with the cost of subsistence.
Mexico is a southern land with a benign climate, a winterless lana,
a land of easy habits, and its masses are not yet inclined to put forth
the exertion necessary to gain high wages.
High Wages to Skilled Laborers. — Everybody admits, even those
who most harshly disparage Mexico because of her silver standard,
that railway engineers, conductors, and in fact all skilled laborers, re-
IKIlbp /IDcjican Xabor is Cbeap. 519
ceive in Mexico higher wages than such laborers receive in the United
States under a gold basis, that is, that the wages of such men in silver
are more than its equivalent in gold at the corresponding price of silver;
while the native unskilled labor is paid a very low price, a price con-
siderably lower than similar labor is paid in this country. This fact
proves very conclusively, in my opinion, that labor, independently of
the demand, which is one of the principal factors to regulate its value,
has a fixed price; that is, that the more it can produce the higher is the
price it can obtain. A company, for instance, finds that it is very
profitable to establish in Mexico cotton or woollen mills, smelters, or
any other similar plant, and as there are not experts in Mexico to
establish the plant and work it, it has to send for them either to the
United States or to Europe; and the expert, of course, would not go
to Mexico unless he expected to receive something more than he can
get at home, and, naturally, in money having the same value. If the
expert gets $4 a day in gold in the United States or England, he would
certainly not go to Mexico to receive $4 in silver, which would be
equivalent, at the present price of silver, to less than $2 in gold, so
losing more than fifty per cent, of his present wages; but he would
demand at least from $8 to $10 in silver, which is more than he re-
ceives at home, and the company starting the plant has necessarily to
pay those wages or it would be unable to carry on its business. This
explains why experts and skilled laborers get higher wages in Mexico
than in the United States, while the unskilled laborers, for reasons
already stated, get a great deal less.
Skilled labor in Mexico commands, of course, the same or higher
price as in the old countries, and it is paid in its equivalent in silver, and
it is paid much better than in Italy, Spain, and Turkey, and about as
well as in England, all of which are old countries. Of course, no work-
ingman in Mexico can get, or can expect, such wages as are paid in
Homestead, Bethlehem, and Pittsburg ; namely, $10, $15, and $25
per diem, for the simple reason that in Mexico no such establishments
exist as the Carnegie Works, and, therefore, no opening for the
specialties referred to.
IV/iy Mexican Labor is Cheap. — The question of wages is undoubt-
edly settled by fixed laws, but these laws are so complex and affected by
so many factors that there is a very wide difference of opinion about
their true nature. Undoubtedly the amount and quality of the work
produced by the wage-earner in a given time is one of the principal
factors regulating wages ; but when a country is isolated by the
condition of its civilization, by tariff barriers, by very high cost of
transportation, or by other causes, preventing it from receiving the
manufactures of the commercial nations which compete in the world's
markets, wages may be affected by different principles, like the cost
520 Xabor an& Ma^es in /IDejico.
of living and others. The isolation of Mexico during several cen-
turies, and the want of cheap and easy means of communication,
prevented the development of agriculture, trade, and industries and
made many communities self-supporting; that is, they had to raise
the necessary articles of food for their own maintenance, and some-
times to weave the cotton and woollen goods required for clothing.
This isolation, of course, prevented the development of the natural re-
sources of the country and kept wages necessarily very low; because
the demand for its products being very limited — just enough to supply
the needs of a small community — and the supply very great, the price
of labor had necessarily to be very low. The question of wages is set-
tled by natural laws, and there is a natural level for them. In isolated
districts, not subject to the general law governing wages, as most of
Mexico was before the railway era, the rule is that in a cheap country,
where the necessaries of life are but little, wages are comparatively
low, while in a dear country wages have to be proportionately high, be-
cause in any case a man has to earn enough to sustain life. When a
laborer can satisfy his needs by working little he has no inducement to
go beyond that; but when to support himself and his family, he needs to
exert himself as much as he can then he has to produce a comparatively
large amount of commodities to earn higher wages. The laborer's wants
not only depend, in such isolated districts, upon the natural conditions
of the country, but also on the degree of civilization which the people
have reached. Of course, competition in manufactures which go to
international markets controls wages in commercial and manufacturing
countries. These considerations explain why wages in Mexico are so
low, as compared with wages in the United States, and it suffices to
say that, now that our railways are built and the country has entered
on the path of prosperity, as the old conditions are changing, wages are
increasing and tend to increase considerably.
It must be borne in mind that the climatic influences in both
countries are so different that their respective inhabitants, and espe-
cially the wage-earning classes, cannot be judged by the same standard.
The mild climate of Mexico, for instance, does not require all the pro-
visions for winter and the corresponding increased expense for that
season that are needed in this latitude. Almost all over that country,
excepting in the most northern States, the difference in the seasons is
so slight that we do not need to change our style of clothing from
winter to summer. We do not need to heat our houses, not even in
the City of Mexico, which is nearly 8000 feet above the level of the sea
and located in what we call the cold region; and, therefore, we do not
have the expenses unavoidable in a northern climate where houses
have to be heated during the winter. The benignity of the Mexican
climate renders unnecessary expensive houses for the poor people, that
W,oth ot /IDejican anb Bmerican Xaborers. 521
is, houses which can be hermetically closed in winter to keep them
warm; on the contrary, in the temperate and hot climates, what is de-
sirable is to keep the houses cool. Building materials, namely, adobe,
which is unburnt brick of very large size, is very cheap, and all this
contributes to make living in Mexico much cheaper than in the United
States. In a great many localities in Mexico even shoes are not in-
dispensable, and may be considered as an article of convenience or
luxury, not a necessity. So far as food is concerned, nature has pro-
vided, too, an abundant supply of fruits, a fertile soil, which in some
localities yields as many as four crops a year; and the maintenance of
a family is, as compared with the same needs in the United States, ex-
ceedingly cheap. Therefore, what would be considered as starvation
wages in this country would supply a working family in Mexico with
all the necessaries and even with some of the luxuries of life; and
these natural conditions cannot be altered or changed by legislation,
or by any artificial means.
I consider the assumption that the tendency of wages in Mexico is
to become lower as a very mistaken one. The contrary assumption is
the correct one. Wages in Mexico could not be any lower than they
are, and in every kind of work there is a marked tendency to in-
crease, and I know by personal experience that an increase, and a very
decided one, has taken place during the past fifteen years.
Differejice i?i Amount of Work Accomplished by Mexican and Ameri-
can IVorhnen. — It is a fact that wages in Mexico are far lower in many
instances than those paid for the same industries in the United States,
although sometimes, that is, in the case of skilled laborers, they are as
high or higher; but this ought not to appear strange when it is con-
sidered that this country pays probably the highest wages in the world;
not even the foremost manufacturing nations of Europe, as England,
France, Germany, and Belgium, being equal in this regard. Yet while
it is true that labor in European countries is not so well remunerated
as in the United States, it must be taken into account that the same
amount of labor produces there less than here. I am assured by com-
petent persons that a bank-bill printer, for instance, does not print in
England more than looo sheets per week, while the average work
done by the American workman is 6000 sheets per week; and it is
stated in the Journal des Economistes that a French weaver can take
care of only four looms, a Belgian of five, an English weaver of six,
and one from this country of eight, while a Mexican weaver cannot
attend to more than two looms. But the actual production during a
given working time is in Mexico far less than in the United States, or
even in Europe.
The day's work of a Mexican laborer, very likely, represents in many
cases only one-fourth of what is accomplished during the same time by
522 Xabor anD Matics in /IDejico.
a laborer in the United States. A Mexican laborer working from ten
to eleven hours a day, for instance, accomplishes less work, or pro-
duces l.'ss, than a European or an American laborer in seven or nine
hours, and in some instances the disproportion is as great as one to
five. I have been assured that a Mexican bricklayer in eleven hours'
work does not lay more than 500 bricks, while a bricklayer in the
United States lays 2500 in nine hours. Mr. Enrique Creel, of Chi-
huahua, a prominent Mexican gentleman, of American parentage,
stated in an interview published by the Denver, Colorado, News, of
October 25, 1896, that a St. Louis contractor, who was executing a
large contract for the Mexican Government, told him that a Mexican
bricklayer could lay, on an average, 500 bricks daily, while an American
bricklayer is able to lay 5000 daily. Under such conditions the high
wages of $3 a day paid in the United States are no higher than the wages
of 50 cents paid in Mexico, so far as the product of labor is concerned.
The principal causes for this difference in working capacity are, in
my opinion, the following: (i) the Mexican laborer is not so well fed
as his fellow-laborer in this country; (2) he generally works until he
is exhausted, and his work is not, therefore, so productive; (3) he is
not, on the whole, so well educated as the average laborer in the
United States; (4) he has fewer wants to satisfy, and therefore less in-
ducement to work. Perhaps there is, in addition to these causes, at
least in some localities, another, a climatic influence, the enervating
character of the tropical climate and the high altitude above the level
of the sea, and the consequent lower atmospheric pressure at which a
large portion of the population of Mexico is located. I am inclined to