To comprehend the labor conditions of a country, a consideration of the national characteristics, especially in their relation to labor efficiency, must of necessity be regarded as preliminary. In no country is this more true than in Mexico, where practically all the conditions of labor differ from those prevailing in the United States and western Europe, and where the existing conditions can not be understood without a knowledge of the character of the country and of the economic nature and industrial characteristics of the laboring population. It is necessary to know the conditions under which the work is performed and, above all, to obtain the racial and national equation of the workers before the statistics of employment or those of remuneration are presented.

POPULATION.

The total population of Mexico has more than doubled during the last one hundred years. In 1795 there were in the country, according to a census made by the Viceroy Revillagigedo, 5,200,000 inhabitants; in 1810, according to Don Fernando Navarro y Noriega, 6,122,354; in 1824, according to the estimate of Mr. Poinsett, the American minister, 6,500,000, while the Government census returns showed the population to be 7,044,140 in 1839, 7,853,395 in 1854, 8,743,614 in 1869, 9,384,193 in 1878, 10,791,685 in 1886, 12,632,427 in 1895, and 13,545,462 («) in

a Preliminary figures, subject to future correction.

1

1900. The population in each State in 1895 and 1900 and the increase or decrease are shown in the following table:

POPULATION OF MEXICO AT THE CENSUSES OF 1895 AND 1900. (a)

a Censo de 1900.

México, 1901.

Resultado del censo de habitantes que se verificó el 28 de Octubre de 1900.

b Preliminary figures, subject to future correction.

According to Señor Romero (a) the true population in 1895 was not less than 15,000,000. He attributes the incompleteness of the returns to the imperfect machinery for taking the census and the evasion of many Indians, who feared that the census was a premonition of increased taxes and military drafts. The broken character of the country and the imperfect means of communication also lend credibility to the opinion that the census returns are considerably below the true population.

Of this population the greater number live in what may be said to be a temperate if not a cold climate. The greater part of Mexico consists of a high plateau rising from the Rio Grande to the City of Mexico and situated between two ranges of mountains. This central plateau, despite its tropical and subtropical location, is comparatively cool, owing to its great elevation, and it is on this plateau that the Mexican population is chiefly massed, about 75 per cent of the people living here. All the States in this region have a considerable density a Matias Romero, Geographical and Statistical Notes on Mexico, page 89. New York and London, 1898.

of population, but the greatest number reside in the southern part of the plateau. Of the remaining population about two-thirds live on the slopes of the plateau, in what is called the temperate zone, while the hot lands of the coast, with an elevation of less than 3,000 feet, are but thinly populated. This preponderance of the population on the plateau, which has prevailed since even before the conquest, has been vitally important in the industrial history of Mexico.

The economic effect of the preponderance of Indian blood in the population of Mexico can more clearly be discerned after the discussion upon the characteristics of the Indian. In her racial constitution, however, Mexico differs very greatly from Anglo-America-that is, the United States and Canada-and from various nations of Latin America. While the North American Indians have been swept away or driven back into reservations, those of Mexico and South America have shown greater vitality, and have, with the possible exception of those of Argentina, survived in large numbers and still make up a considerable element in the population. The mixture of the races has gone on rapidly in the Andean regions and "may even be regarded as completed in all the more populous districts of Venezuela and Colombia, in certain parts of Peru, in north and central Chile, as well as in Uruguay and along the banks of the Plata River,”(a) although along the eastern slopes of the Cordilleras and in the Amazonian forests, as in a great many of the remoter parts of Mexico, the Indian type has kept its purity. Going from west to east, along the seaboard of South America, the Negro type and the mixed Negro-Caucasian and NegroIndian type increases, and even predominates in the Brazilian provinces which jut out toward the African Continent. In Mexico, however, this race is so feebly represented that it may be practically disregarded. It was the opinion of Baron Humboldt, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, that the Indians would increase at the expense of the other elements of the Mexican population; but this development has not taken place, at all events not in a strictly literal sense. In 1810 the population, according to the census made in 1810 by Don Fernando Navarro y Noriega, and which appears in Humboldt's Political Essay on New Spain, amounted to 6,122,354, of which 1,107,367 (including 9,439 secular and regular ecclesiastics and nuns) were American and European Spaniards (Spaniards and creoles), 3,676,281 Indians, and 1,338,706 persons of mixed blood. In other words the white population formed 18 per cent, the Indians 60 per cent, and the mixed races 22 per cent of the total number of inhabitants. According to the census of 1875, however, the total population was 9,495,157, of which the whites numbered 1,899,031, or 20 per cent; the native Indians, 3,513,208, or 37 per cent, and the mixed races, 4,082,918, a Élisée Reclus, The Earth and its Inhabitants. South America, Volume I, page 42. New York, 1894.

or 43 per cent. According to this comparison, therefore, the white race had increased 791,664, and the mixed race 2,744,212, while the Indians of pure blood had actually decreased to the extent of 163,073 members. (a)

There have been many reasons assigned for the apparent decrease, both absolute and relative, in the number of Indians. It has been stated with truth that the Indians, despite their early marriages and the fact that they are very prolific, are subject to an exceedingly high rate of mortality, owing to malnutrition, insufficient shelter, lack of suitable medical attendance, drunkenness, and vulnerability, through carelessness, to smallpox and other diseases. That these conditions exist is undoubted, the mortality, especially of infants, being very high among the poorer classes. The Indian population appears to be diminishing also by intermarriage with the whites and the half-breeds, thus becoming merged in the great mixed mestizo or European-Indian race, which is becoming more and more the dominant factor in Mexican life. Viewing the question of race from this standpoint, it will be seen that from 1810 to 1875 the proportion of whites had increased from 18 to 20 per cent of the population, while that of mixed and native Indian races had decreased only from 82 to 80 per cent, although absolutely increasing 51 per cent during that period.

Data regarding race are no longer given in Mexican statistics, such differences having ceased to be recognized since the adoption of the Federal constitution of 1857. The mixed race, however, appears to be rapidly gaining at the expense of both the Indians and the pure whites, and intermarriage is creating a well-endowed race which is preponderatingly Indian. (b) This is an important fact, and one which makes any study of labor as well as of political and economic conditions in Mexico of especial interest to the sociologist. The history of the last few centuries has been almost entirely a relation of the doings of the

a Probably by far the greater number of persons who escaped the census were Indians of pure blood, who represent the poorest and most ignorant members of the population. This, however, was probably also the case in former enumerations.

b It is the opinion of the author, founded merely upon observation and contact, and given with due reserve, that the Indian and mixed race is very much in excess of 80 per cent of the population. It seems probable that over 90 per cent of the population have at least one-eighth Indian blood, and not incredible that over 95 per cent of the native population will have an equal or greater proportion of Indian blood, while the proportion of Mexicans having absolutely no Indian blood must be very slight indeed. This statement is made, however, without exact statistical proof, but rather as a personal impression and as an argument based upon what is known of Spanish immigration during the three centuries ending in 1821. On the other hand, according to the excellent report on Mexico made by the Bureau of the American Republics, it is stated that it appears that 22 per cent of the population are white, 31 per cent Indians, and 47 per cent mixed. The report continues, "The custom of tribal intermarriage and improper methods of caring for the young in the matter of nutriment and clothing, as well as other causes, is rapidly decreasing the Indian race."

white race, and much doubt is cast upon the ability of the colored races to maintain the severe competitive struggle of modern times. The labor problem in Mexico, however, is one which must be faced by a nation preponderatingly Indian. (a)

The present population of Mexico is almost exclusively of native birth. Of the total of 12,491,573 persons classified as present (presentes) at the census of 1895, only 51,095, or less than one-half of 1 per cent were of foreign birth. (b) Of these, moreover, 13,962, or over 27 per cent were Guatemalans, of whom 13,705, or over 98 per cent lived in the neighboring State of Chiapas, just across the Guatemalan border. There thus remained a total of 37,133 persons of foreign birth (other than Guatemalans), or less than 3 per thousand. Of these 37,133 there were 12,859, or 35 per cent, from Spain and her colonies; 11,331, or 30 per cent, from the United States of America; 3,599 from France and her colonies; 2,450 from England and her colonies; 2,155 from Germany; and 1,932 from Italy. The immigration appears, therefore, to have been too small to have exerted any considerable influence racially, although its economic effect has been very marked. Of the total foreign population of 51,095 resident in Mexico and present at the census of 1895, 14,029, or over 27 per cent, resided in Chiapas; 9,003, or 18 per cent, in the Federal District of Mexico, including the City of Mexico; 4,662 in Vera Cruz; 2,800 in Chihuahua, and the greater part of the remainder in the northern tier of States bordering on the United States. The large percentage of foreigners in Chiapas was due entirely to the large migration of Guatemalans who flock across the border. The Spaniards are distributed quite evenly over the whole country, although over one-half of them were to be found in the Federal District and the State of Vera Cruz. The Americans were to be found chiefly in the northern tier of States bordering on

a A very interesting phenomenon in the development of a racial and national consciousness appears to be the Indian cult which may perhaps be said to prevail in Mexico. There are very many members of the mixed race who claim to be much prouder of their Indian than of their Spanish ancestry, and one frequently hears prominent Mexicans deplore certain weaknesses of the national character and attribute them to the heritage from the Spaniards. A well-known Mexican author goes so far as to state that the premature death of Columbus would have been one of the greatest possible benefits to the world and especially to Latin America, while among great masses of the population Spain and everything Spanish are most cordially detested. Occasionally children are given unpronounceable Indian instead of beautiful Spanish names, and it can not for a moment be doubted that in the eyes of the great mass of the people Cuahtemoc is much more of a hero than Cortez. All this seems to be an indication of the growth of a healthy national and racial consciousness.

In the United States the percentage of foreign born in the population was in 1900, 13.71; in 1890, 14.77; in 1880, 13.32; in 1870, 14.44; in 1860, 13.16; in 1850, 9.68; in France, in 1891, there were 709,369 foreigners of European (other than French) birth, this number not including naturalized persons of French birth, while in Germany there were, in 1890, 433,254, and in 1895, 486,190 foreign-born residents.