SECTION VII-LABOR CONDITIONS - EDUCA TIONAL SYSTEM LABOR CONDITIONS By PERCY ALVIN MARTIN, Ph.D. The preparation of a satisfactory account of labor conditions. in Mexico is attended with extraordinary difficulties. The material available is fragmentary and inadequate. Until recent years no systematic effort has been made to collect labor statistics; since the establishment of a Bureau or Department of Labor under Madero the disordered conditions of the country have made the assemblying of reliable data all but impossible. Our chief sources for statistical information are the census reports of 1895 and 1910, which contain many serious gaps and reveal a number of inconsistencies. In the preparation of this chapter the writer has used, in addition to the government documents available, a number of articles and monographs1 and the testimony of a large number of Mexicans and Americans with Mexican experience who are conversant with labor conditions. The picture which will be drawn will be incomplete in many particulars; some of the conclusions reached are to be regarded as tentative. Yet an effort will be made to analyze the outstanding characteristics of Mexican Labor, to indicate the share it has had in the economic development of the country and finally to envisage the problem it must solve if it is to play its full part in the upbuilding and reconstruction of the Mexico of the future. In other chapters in The Year Book will be found full data regarding the population of Mexico and its distribution. It may merely be recalled as a preliminary to our special study that according to the census of 1910 the population of Mexico was given as 15,150,369. Various estimates have been made of the racial composition of the Mexican people; the most recent writer on the subject states that the whites constitute 1,150,000 or 8 per cent; the Mestizos 8,000,000 or 52 per cent, and the Indians 6,000,000 or 40 per cent. There is reason to believe that the proportion of the whites is somewhat too low and that of the In1A partial list of authorities consulted appears on p. 354. The writer àas personally interviewed crer one hundred suca persons. In addition he has utilized the testimony of certain witnesses before the Subcommittee of the Committee of Foreign Relations of the United States Senate investigating Mexican Affairs, Sixty-sixth Congress. First Session, 1919. erally known as the Hearings before the Fall Committee.) $1 kompson, The People of Mexico, p. 37. Ges dians too high. As the Mexican census makes no classification according to races no official statistics are available. The population in 1910 was distributed as follows: The great central plateau contained 75 per cent of the population; the tierra templada. or foothill region of moderate temperature, 15 to 18 per cent; and the tierra caliente, or torrid region 7 to 10 per cent. It follows therefore that in dealing with labor or social conditions, attention should be focused upon the situation as found on the central plateau. Characteristics of Mexican Labor: Although the characteristics of Mexican labor necessarily vary in different portions of the country, Mexican labor, both skilled and unskilled, is inefficient if judged by the standards of labor in the United States and the countries of Western Europe. The chief adverse characteristics may be summarized as indolence and apathy, improvidence and lack of ambition with a consequent willingness to accept a low standard of living, an improperly developed sense of responsibility, an addiction to routine which hinders the introduction of machinery and labor-saving devices, especially in agriculture; and finally a tendency toward dishonesty, especially manifested in petty thieving. These handicaps to labor efficiency have often been explained on ethnic grounds; certain it is that the crossing of the Spanish and Indian strains has not tended to accentuate those qualities ordinarily associated with efficient labor. Of more fundamental importance, however, are certain conditions, climatic, social, economic, which until recently at least have been more or less constant. The climate of Mexico, despite its wide variations due to differences in altitude, has in general exercised a depressing effect on labor efficiency. In the tierra caliente the handicaps common to all tropical belts are to be found; while in the plateau regions the lack of oxygen and the rarefied atmosphere make sustained exertion difficult. Of still greater moment are the economic and social causes. It has long been recognized that the excessive use of alcoholic liquors, especially pulque, has been an enormous factor in lowering the status of Mexican labor. It is noteworthy that in 1903, at the heyday of the Diaz régime, the value of corn raised in Mexico amounted to 82,169,962 pesos, while the value of alcoholic liquors produced during the same year reached a total of 28,393,213 pesos. During the Diaz period no effort was made by the government to cope with this evil; such efforts as were made to abate drunkenness were due to a number of progressive American companies who absolutely insisted that no liquor be consumed on their premises. Since 1910 spasmodic attempts, especially in Sonora and Yucatán, have been made to grapple with this problem, but the results thus far have hardly been encouraging. Closely allied to drunkenness is gambling. Both the Mexicans and the Indians are born gamblers, but the government, instead of seeking to check this vicious tendency, directly encourages it by licensing clubs, games of chance, and above all by supporting the lottery. There is perhaps no single factor more favorable to the creation of habits of general improvidence than the official exploitation of the gambling propensities of the Mexican of the poorer classes. Malnutrition and disease account in part for the low stamina of Mexican labor. While data on malnutrition are difficult to secure, there is reason to believe that large numbers of the poorer classes of the plateau regions are insufficiently nourished and occasionally are but little above the starvation line. Peons or farm hands coming to mines for work frequently have to be "fed up" before they are even reasonably efficient. In tropical Mexico, where nature is more lavish in her gifts, food is more generally abundant. It need only be remarked in passing that venereal disease, malaria, tuberculosis, typhus and almost certainly the hookworm disease have taken a frightful toll among the laboring classes of Mexico. Dr. Ellsworth Huntington in a recent study on the factor of health in Mexican character states that "Mexico may almost be called a nation of invalids. He adds that it seems conservative to say that among Mexicans as a whole there is four times as much sickness and death as among Americans. Finally, among the causes which may be singled out for the habitual inefficiency of Mexican labor, may be mentioned the faulty system of land tenure which has retarded formation of a small class of independent farmers, the demoralization of the laboring classes through successive revolutions, the lack of opportunity for industrial and primary education, and finally the decrease in the number of working days through the multiplication of religious festivals. The foregoing analysis would seem at first sight to weigh very heavily on the debit side of the balance of Mexican labor. It should be made clear, however, that the Mexican people possess a number of admirable qualities which distinctly make for labor efficiency. The Indian, and to a somewhat less extent the mestizo, possess considerable physical endurance. From his Indian forbears the typical Mexican has inherited certain artistic gifts as revealed for instance in the native arts and crafts. The development and encouragement of these aptitudes should play a large part in any rational system of education. Again, the Mexican possesses within certain limits qualities of initiative and adaptability. With care and tact he can be taught the use of new tools and become fairly expert in their use. It is thus possible to convert unskilled laborers by proper training into good mechanics, stationary engineers and even locomotive engineers. The high degree of patience and docility possessed by the average Mexican laborer facilitates this process. Finally, it should not be forgotten that the Mexican if well treated quickly devel ops a fine feeling of loyalty. The experience of many American companies, forced during the great exodus of 1914 to leave their valuable properties in charge of their Mexican employees, abundantly proves this point. Compared with that of other nationalities Mexican labor appears to fair advantage. While the testimony of employers is far from unanimous, in general it may be said that Mexicans are superior to negroes and equal to Orientals, Greeks and Italians. It is when one reaches the managerial and skilled mechanical classes that discrepancies begin to appear. The belief long persisted, especially among foreign companies operating in Mexico, that in positions requiring initiative, resourcefulness and executive ability, foreigners were to be preferred. But beginning with the last years of the Diaz régime and extending through the decade of revolutions such positions, in so far as they continued to exist, have been perforce largely filled by Mexicans; especially is this true on the railroads. While these Mexicans have not always risen to their new responsibilities, under favorable conditions they have attained a fair measure of success. It must never be forgotten, however, that in many instances this marked rise in the status of Mexican labor would hardly have been possible but for the training and opportunities offered by foreign companies. Occupations: In the census of 1910 an effort was made to classify the population of Mexico according to occupation. The methods followed were unscientific and inaccurate and the results frequently unsatisfactory and misleading. Even were the figures reliable at the time, the social and political upheaval of the last ten years would deprive them of much of their value. Yet despite these shortcomings the census returns give certain rough approximations of the kinds of employment in which the Mexican people are engaged and furnish some data for differentiating between what we may call the "laboring classes" and the "middle and upper classes." In the tables which follow only the more important occupations are listed; ordinarily those in which less than five hundred are employed are omitted.1 1 While the statistics here given are based on the official census returns of 1910 the arrangement is partly based on the admirable book of Mr. Wallace Thompson, The People of Mexico, pp. 338-341. of the institutions intervened which may have been classified under (a), and (b), publishing their decision in three issues of the Diario Oficial (Official Journal), and recording such decision in the Commercial Registry. Article 7.-The institutions of credit classified under (a) of Article 5, will be able to operate according to the terms which are afterward estab lished. Article 8.-The institutions classified under (b) of Article 5 can only make transactions leading to the collection of their assets and paying their liabilities according to the terms of this law. Article 9.-The institutions classified under (c) of Article 5 will be consigned to the proper authority for their legal liquidation. Likewise those institutions which do not come under this law will be consigned to competent authority for liquidation in accord with the terms and conditions established in Articles 2, 3, and 4. Article 10.-At any time, the Treasury Department in accord with its information and after hearing the party concerned will be able to modify the classification made regarding any of the Institutions referred to by the preceding articles. Article 11.-The Banks referred to by the present Decree will be subject in their operation to the terms of Article 28 of the Constitution, as well as to the provisions of the General Law for Institutions of Credit and the Regulations established by this law which are now in force without the old concessions therefor being applicable even for the transactions commenced before the 1st of May, 1917. CHAPTER II Article 12. The obligations in money contracted before November 30, 1916, in favor of or against the Banks classified under (a) and (b) of Article 5 will be liquidated in accord with the provisions established in the following articles. The obligations contracted after the date mentioned will be governed by the provisions of the Common Law. The date of the obligations will be determined from the date when the original obligation was contracted, and not from the dates of renewal or modifications, except when through the particular circumstances of each case, it is learned that it refers to another transaction. Article 13. The payments which may have been made or received by these Banks will be considered as flawless regardless of the money with which they were paid, except when the Courts decide on the legality of the act in case of controversy. Therefore, this Decree will only apply to the liquidation of the unpaid part of the obligations referred to. Article 14.-The obligations contracted in favor of these Banks previous to April 15, 1913, will be payable on the following terms: (a) When the principal does not exceed $2,000,000 (pesos), it must be covered in national gold at par, and in four months from the date of this Decree. (b) When the principal exceeds $2,000,000 (pesos), it must be covered in national gold, at par, in twelve months from the date of this Decree. (c) The interest due during the régime of circulation of metallic money will be payable immediately at par at the rate agreed upon; but without being capitalized. (d) The interest due during the régime of circulation of fiduciary money will be payable immediately in accord with the provision of the preceding, after reduction is made of its value to metallic paper, according to the table of equivalent values established by Article 10 of the Law of April 13, 1918. Article 15. The obligations contracted in favor of the Banks after April 15, 1913, and November 30, 1916, will be payable according to the terms of the preceding article, after reduction of its value to metallic, according to the rate of the day when contracted, and according to the |