Labor.--A system of management which is a direct outgrowth of the conditions described in the foregoing section prevails on the large estates. A landed proprietor allows any farm laborer to take up as much land as he can till with the assistance of his family. He pays no rent, and the produce of the land is his own; but he has to sell his services to the landlord, whenever need for them arises, at less than one-half of the prevail ing focal rate. Thus a permanent supply of labor is secured by the landlord, and occa sional employment by the laborer, or inquilino, as he is called (Lat. inquilinus, Sp. inquilino, tenant; compare peon, day-laborer). The in quilinos are obliged to work for the landlords at the time their own little farms need attention. The evils of the system are felt by both land lord and tenant, since the inquilinos, whose own farms are perforce under-cultivated by women and children, naturally render apathetic and inefficient service on the big estates. Con tributory to the maintenance of such economic ally unsound arrangements is the character of the peasantry. There is a strong element of Indian blood (Araucanian, etc.) in the Chilean laboring classes generally; and although hardy and fairly hard-working, when well directed, they cannot easily be transferred from one place or occupation to another. They lack en terprise but have patience, when sober, and uncommon powers of endurance at all times. Professor Ross makes the assertion that the dominant class of landed proprietors in Chile was, as a whole, not averse to the per petuation of the regime of paper money, under which the peso fell far below its former value; because when the peso depreciated farm wages did not rise in equal or corresponding degree, so the cost of labor to the hacendado or land lord was reduced by a substantial amount. Chilean laboring men are beginning, however, to have clearer ideas in regard to abuse of privi lege. A general strike occurred in 1913, and a labor deputation visited the President of the Republic. The demands of the strikers included the redemption at par of the paper currency, the legal tender currency being worth only cents at the time; recognition of employers' for accidents and establishment of an eight-hour working day. The Chilean govern ment has recently adopted measures of con sideration for mothers working in factories. A special room is provided in factories where mothers may keep their children under one year of age, and may spend one hour of the worx ing day in caring for them without any loss in wage.
The shutting down of the nitrate plants in the latter half of 1914 seriously affected over 50,000 laborers in the nitrate industries. The government was obliged to transport large num bers with their families to the agricultural dis tricts where their presence served to depress the wage of the agricultural laborers. Early in 1915, the nitrate market greatly and the nitrate laborers were all returned to their own field of high wages. The employees of the manufacturing establishments of the central provinces also suffered severely in the first year of the war because the mills curtailed produc tion. The miners were little affected by un employment although employers complained of their inability to secure adequate currency for the payment of their men. The agricultural laborers suffered least of all as agriculture was little affected and the war tended to raise the agricultural products.
Mining.—The deposits of nitrate of s or Chilean saltpetre (salitre), are in Tac , Tarapaci, Antofagasta and Atacama, and thee preservation is due to the rainlessness of those northern provinces. Measured from north to south, the deposits extend about 300 miles. Less than one-fourth of the total area of the salitreras has as yet been • thoroughly investi gated; but surveys of 2,242 square miles in that region, which was once the bed of an inland sea, were followed by the publication of the statement that 244,000,000 tons remained as a supply for the future. The annual expor
tation of salitre previous to 1915 exceeded 2,000,000 tons, valued at five-sixths of the entire export trade. But the exports of nitrate in 1915 were worth $77,981,158, as compared with $111,454,397 in 1913. The development was be low normal for reasons stated under Banking and Finance. (See also ing paragraphs). In 1914 the exports of salitre fell to 40,147,463 quintals (of 101.4 pounds) ; but in 1916 it had risen to 64,781,125 quintals, or more than 3,000,000 tons, the largest in the history of the nitrate business in Chile. The revenue from the export tax on nitrates and iodine (a by-product of the extraction of nitrate from the raw ore) is more than two fifths of the entire public revenue. The exports of nitrate in 1917 were less than in 1916 owing to lack of shipping facilities to transport the stock on hand. The Chilean government, on 16 April 1917, sold at auction large trac of nitrate lands and purchases were ma y 11 companies, three of whose bids unted to more than $1,000,000 each. Only two of the cts offered were not sold.
xt in importance are copper ores, which abound in the ancient cordillera of the coast and the lower slopes of the Andes in the central and northern zones. The copper output of Chile is increasing, owing to the development of large copper properties in which North Ameri can capital is invested. Copper exports ad vanced from $10,337,351 in 1913 to $15,143,802 in 1915. During 1916 Chile exported the largest amount of copper in her history, 120,756 tons as against 113,913 tons in 1915. This increase was due to the large output of the Churquicamate and Tenicnte mines. In 1917 the copper mines of Chile were being increased, enlarged and improved. Iron mines in the Coquimbo dis trict are also being developed by American capitalists. Large quantities of gold were ob tained during the first century of the Spanish conquest by the use of unpaid native labor. In the 18th century the output of silver was-large enough to be, perhaps, misleading; for Chile is much less a land of precious metals or pre cious stones than the equatorial lands of South America; but, in addition to copper and iron, Chile has coal in various sections of the country. The principal mining centre is the coastal region south of the river Bio-bio, as far as the port of Lebu. Deposits have been found still farther south. The coal fields of the province of Arauco, it is estimated, con tain over 1,800,000,000 tons. The coal mining companies have invested in this industry over $7,500,000 and now produce over 1,000,000 tons of coal per year. The product of these mines is from 10 to 20 per cent below the standard in the United States and Great Britain. Native coal is used in the factories at Lota and Coronel; on Chilean steamers and railways. The most interesting development of coal min South America is at Lota and adjoining regions in the province of Concepcion. The territory of Magellan has no mineral resources that can be compared with those of the provinces of the north and centre of the re public. Veins of coal (lignite), not of the best quality, have for a number of years been mined at the Loreto, near Punta Arenas, and copper ores are obtained at Cutter Cove on the penin sula of Brunswick. There are washings of auriferous soils at some points in Tierra del Fuego and the Minas River; and calcareous and other salts exist. Miring is still in the initial stage in Chile. The number of work-people employed in mining in 1914 was 71,106, of whom 43,979 were engaged in nitrate of soda workings, 8,105 at coal mines and 11,142 at cop per mines. Chile possesses rich iron mines, but the absence of good coking coal has been a great to the iron industry. Plans were being made, in 1917, to use charcoal in the smelters, and Swedish and Belgian experts, familiar with the iron industry, were experi menting in Chile where good charcoal is abundant.