5. MANUFACTURES. Mexico is a manu facturing country in the very primitive sense of the word; for literally the greater part of her manufactured products are made either wholly by hand, by individual tradesmen each working on his own account, or in small shops where the machinery used is employed simply to aid the cunning of the hand. The field for manufactures of all kinds is most promising, since it offers raw material in great abundance, efficient, intelligent labor and a very consider able home market, with a still larger one in Central and South America.
Manual training has been introduced into the schools of Mexico and several arts and trades colleges are turning out skilled mechanics in all lines of industrial work. Wages are low, much lower even than in Europe, and the native workman in the factories already established throughout the country gives his employer little or no trouble.
Cotton.— In 1912, the last normal year since the outbreak of the revolutionary war that overthrew the autocratic Diaz regime, there were 148 cotton mills in the republic. Of these the largest and most modern were in Puebla, Orizaba and Mexico City. In these factories 32,000 workmen were employed to operate 62,000 spindles and 27,000 looms. The cotton goods they produced during the year were valued at over $50,000,000; and included sheetings, tickings, lining, drills, shirtings, per cales, quilts, napkins, table-cloths, woolen-cotton goods, knitted garments and fleece-lined under wear. The Mimeo cotton factory, Puebla, em ployed, in the same year, about 2,000 hands and is capitalized at $6,000,000; the Compaffia In dustrial de Orizaba owns four cotton mills, has 4,000 looms and 10 printing machines in com mission, is capitalized at $15,000,000 and em ploys 6,000 mill-hands. The San Antonio Abad, with an invested capital of $3,500,000, also operates four mills, three in the state of Mexico and one in Mexico City. El Porvenir y Anexas, at Villa Santiago, Nuevo Leon, is capitalized at $2,000,000, and the Veracruzana, of Santa Rosa, in the state of Vera Cruz, near Orizaba, at $3,500,000.
Woolen There are a number of woolen factories in Mexico; but they are of less importance than the cotton mills, for the reason that the great mass of the lower classes wear cotton garments, thus creating a strong and constant demand) for the latter goods. There are woolen mills in Durango; Aguas calientes, Guanajuato, Hidalgo and Puebla; hut the most important establishment is near Tlalne pantla, in the state of Mexico and not far from the federal capital. The woolens made in the republic include suitings, kerseymeres, car pets, blankets, rugs and knit goods. The city of Saltillo, Coahuila, is noted for its handsome serapes (native blankets), for which there is a constantly increasing demand. These serapes, which are made on primitive Indian looms are exceedingly well woven, of fine texture, brilliant colors and pleasing designs. The San Ildefonso factory at Tlalnepantla, with a capital of one and one-half million dollars, is one of the most successful manufacturing enterprises in Mexico and its goods are to be found on sale through out the republic.
Silk.— Few countries have the natural ad vantages for raising and manufacturing silk possessed by Mexico. Throughout the greater part of the republic both white and black mul berries grow luxuriantly and require practically no care even in those regions less favorable to their cultivation. So even is the climate in most parts of the country that silk worms can be grown out of doors practically all the year round; and they require but a small part of the care they must necessarily receive in Labor in Mexico is cheap and the masses of the people, once accustomed to cocoon raising and the cultivation of the mulberry tree, might be expected to thrive at the business as their ancestors did in all the industries, before Euro peans came to disturb the current of their na tional life. The Indian is industrious when he works on his own account.