Barbarous Mexico.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVI, Issue 1, 5 July 1911, Page 37

Barbarous Mexico.

If Mexico is half as bad as she is painted by Mr. J. K. Turner in his book -Barbarous Mexico. An Indictment of a Cruel and Corrupt System,” she is covered with the leprosy of a slavery worse than that of San Thome or Peru and should be regarded as unclean by all the free peoples of the world. Under the ouise of contract labour and convict servitude, a bondage which is maintained by the whip of the overseer and the rille of the sentinel holds thousands of unhappy wretches under its heel, and the fear of its conning bangs like a spectre over the poor and the unemployed. Mr. Turner has travelled widely through Mexico, and under the disguise of a possible purchaser of land he was able to see much that is denied to the ordinary investigator. In Yucatan, which he visited first, the -great hemp estates are in the hands of wealthy planters, and the men, women, and children who cultivate the soil are nothing short of purchased slaves. The old system by which a man could sell his own person to pay off his debts, with all its attendant evils, still exists in Mexico, and the functions of moneylender and slave broker are often carried out by the same individual. The terms arranged are such as make it impossible for the majority of the bondment to work out their liberty, and the conditions under which they labour are so hard and cruel that as a rule they find freedom only in death. Bad as this system of debt slavery or “peonage” is, ' t'he treatment of the Yaqui Indians and of the convict labourers of A allo Naeional is infinitely worse. The Yaquis, after a stubborn resistance, have been conquered by the Mexican Government, and are now deported and sold for slaves in Yucatan. Husbands, wifes, and children are torn from each other's arms, the women tin the land of exile arc compelled to mate with Chinamen, and at the smallest sign of insubordination the lash of the overseer is wielded with relentless vigour. Here is a picture which Mr. Turner gives us of the tragedy of such an existence: — “His name was Angelo Echavarria, he was 20 years old and a native of Tampico. Six months previously he had been offered wages on a farm at two pesos a day, and had accepted, but only to be sold as a slave to the proprietor of a certain plantation. At the end of three months he began to break down under the inhuman treatment he received, and at four months a foreman broke a sword over his back. When he regained consciousness after the beating he had coughed up a part of a lung. After that he was beaten more frequently because he was unable to work as well, and several times he fell in a faint in the field. At last he was set' free, but when he asked for the wages that he thought were his, he was told that he was in debt to the ranch! He came to the town and complained to the Presidente, but was given no satisfaction. Now, too weak to start' to walk home, he was coughing his life away and begging for subsistence. In all my life T have never seen a living creature so emaciated as Angelo Echavarria. yet only three days previously he had been working all day in the hot sun!” Valle Nicional, which Mr. Turner not inappropriately calls “The Valley of Death,” is the district to which all'convicts are sent, and here they are hired out by the State to private owners, who

treat them as so many head of cattle. Guarded by armed sentries during the day, the convict slaves are herded at dusk, men, women, and children together, into great dormitories, from behind whose boiled doors cries and groans arise in vain to heaven. To supply tin* demand for labour in Valle National two systems are resorted to. The Jepes Politicos, or mayors of Mexican towns, get 45 to 50 dollars for every convivt slave they van despatch, and vast sums are amassed by these officials, whose interest it becomes to forward as many prisoners as possible. But this is only a part of the nefarious trallic. The enganchadors, or labour agents, by various deceptions induce many of the poor and unemployed to sign away their liberty, and start for this land of death from which no man returns. Where this does not succeed actual kidnapping is employed. For purposes of mutual gain the “Jepes Politicos” and labour agents play into one another's hands, and the protection of the State is lent to strengthen the bonds imposed by the kidnapper and the usurer. The Jepes Politicos of some of the largest cities in southern Mexico, so I was told by ‘labour agents,’ as well as by others whose veravity in the matter I have no reason to question, pay each an annual rental of 10.0(H) dollars for their posts. 'The oilice would be worth no sinh amount were it not for the spoils of the slave trade and other little grafts which, are indulged in by the holder. Lesser Jepes pay their Governors lessen- amounts. They send their victims over the road in gangs of from ten to a hundred, or even more. They

get a special Government rate from the railroads, send along Government salaried rurales to guard them; hence the selling price of 45 to 50 dollars per slave is nearly all clear protit. But only 10 per vent of the slaves are sent directly to Valle Xavional by lhe Jepes Politicos. There is no basis in law whatsoever for the proceeding, and lhe Jepes Politicos prefer to Work ill conjunct ion with labour agents. There is also no basis in law for lhe methods employed by the labour agents, but the partnership is protitable. The otlicials are enabled to hide Ixdiind the labour agents, and the labour agents are en a bled to work under the protection of the ollicials, and absolutely without fear of criminal prosecution. From attacking the abuses rampant in Mexican life the author proceeds to attack the system. He lays the blame of lit at the door of President Diaz and his immediate entourage. Diaz's rule in Mexico has been an absolute despotism, under which the democratic institutions established by Juarez were robbed of all their force, and during his regime slavery and contract labour were revived on a more merciless basis than they had rested upon, even under the Spanish dons. Mr. "Turner’s revelations, for all their horror, bear the stamp of truth. No one but an eye-witness could describe with such a realistic pen the* Hoggings whic h he witnessed, tin* parched lips and emaciated features of boy and girl workers under the burning sun, and tin* groans and sobs that echo through the* charnel houses where the slaves an* lodged at night. I’he whole system bears tin* foul taint of an oppression that feeds and

battens on t'he graft and corruption with which Mexico is infected; and now that its rottenness has been laid bare to the bone, a •challenge to deliver the captives is ’aid at tin* door of all Christian na t ions.