BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

118 BARBAROUS MEXICO
siml)le matter to require the proprietors to set apart a
portion of the space exclusively for women. But this the
authorities have not the decency to do.
Miserable as are the ,ncsoncs, the 25,000 homeless
Mexicans who spend their nights there are fortunate compared
to the thousands of others who, when the shadows
fall upon them, find that they cannot produce the three
centavos to pay for a grass mat and a spot on a bare
floor. Every night there is a hegira of these thousands
from the city's streets. Carrying what pitiful belongings
they have, if they have any belongings, moving along
hand in hand, if they are a family together, husband and
wife, or merely friends drawn closer together by their
poverty; they travel for miles, out of the city to the open
roads and fields, the great stock farms belonging to men
high up in the councils of the government. Here they huddle
about on the ground, shivering in the cold, for few
nights in that altitude are not so cold that covering is not
sorely needed. In the morning they travel back to the
heart of the city, there to pit their feeble strength against
the Powers that are conspiring to prevent them from
earning a living; there, after vain and discouraging struggles,
at last to fall into the net of the "labor agent," who
is on the lookout for slaves for his wealthy clients, the
planters of the lowland states.
Mexico contains 767,000 square miles. Acre for acre,
it is as rich as, if not richer than the United States. It
has fine harbors on both coasts. It is approximately as
near the world's markets as are we. There is no natural
or geographical reason why its people should not be as
prosperous and happy as any in the world. In point of
years it is an older country than ours. Jt is not overpopulated.
With a population of 15.000.000. it has
eighteen souls to the square mile, which is slightly less