Hellraisers Journal: The Cananea Massacre: “The Czar Outdone…Capitalism’s Shame in Old Mexico”

Tuesday July 3, 1906
From Appeal to Reason: George Shoaf on Cananea Strike, Part III

Part 3 of 3 from the Appeal of June 30th:

THE CZAR OUTDONE
—–

Fusilade of Bullets Meets the Humble
Petition of Mexican Workingmen.
—–
CAPITALISM’S SHAME IN OLD MEXICO.
—–
Canaea Riots Not a Revolution
But Simply a Strike of
Under-Paid Labor.
—–
BY GEO. H. SHOAF, Staff Correspondent.

Cause of the Strike.

Cananea has a population of 25,000 and since, under a Mexican law, three-fifths of the men employed there must be Mexicans, that nationality predominates. More than 5,000 miners and smeltermen are employed in Cananea. American miners receive an average of $3.50 in gold, while the Mexicans only get $3 per day, Mexican money, the equivalent of $1.50 or less in gold. A law of Sonora requires that before the wages of Mexican workmen may be raised a permit must be obtained from the governor of the state. Some time ago that governor, doubtless because of his “friendly relations” with the American capitalists, deliberately and arbitrarily reduced the wages of the Mexican miners one-fourth. That in itself was sufficient to provoke the Mexicans to strike.

But aside from this, discontent had been brewing among the peons for months. They were rebellious at the thought of being compelled to work harder than the American miners and receive less than half what the Americans received. It may be that this rebellious spirt was fostered by some of the Western Federation men who had drifted down into that section, but it is a cinch that the strike was not caused by any agitation on the part of either Socialists of Federation men. Mere agitation will not precipitate the Mexican laborers to drastic action of any sort. Only conditions more intolerable than death itself will ever awaken that nationality and cause it to strike back at the red-handed pirates who have submerged the Mexican working class in slavery at the point of the bayonet. That this condition has been reached is evident from the fact that the Mexicans, here and there throughout the country, are arising and striking back.

Leaders Jailed and Shot.

After the repulse administered by Greene and his hirelings the Mexican miners returned to work. Troops were hurried to the scene, most of the ring-leaders among the petitioners were jailed and shot, and all American miners known to carry union cards were ordered to leave the camp. Today peace prevails throughout La Cananea-peace purchased literally at the price of chains and slavery. The Mexicans are driven to their work by the whip-lash of hunger. The mines are guarded by soldiers and the first malcontent who dares to raise a voice of protest is shot down in his tracks. And these are the conditions under which most of the gold, silver and copper mines are operate today in Mexico.

What are the Mexican working classes to do? By law they are prevented from organizing themselves into trade unions. They have neither money nor opportunity to purchase arms and ammunition for a really successful rebellion. The government is leagued with the capitalist mine-owners to carry forward the infamous exploitation of the workers-and such a thing as overthrowing the existing regime by means of the ballot is absolutely out of the question.

At their recent convention the Western Federation of Miners passed resolutions of sympathy and encouragement for the unfortunate peons who struck for freedom. It were useless to send men down to Mexico to attempt to organize them. The organizers would be promptly jailed and possibly shot.

Such is the situation with the peon classes of Mexico at the present time. They are virtually slaves to the coldest-hearted band of bloodthirsty buccaneers that ever sank the dagger of assassination into the vitals of unsuspecting innocence. The daughter of a Roman emperor driving her chariot over the prostrate form of her murdered father does not present a picture of fiendish cruelty one-half as terrible to contemplate as the infinite outrages perpetrated upon the peon miners by American capitalists in Mexico. The Independence explosion in Cripple Creek, the assassination of ex-Governor Steunenberg of Idaho, the arrest and kidnaping of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone, and scores of other deeds similar to these-all instigated and committed by wealthy mine-owners-in the Rocky Mountains of the West, are crimes of capitalism bad enough, but they cannot begin to compare to the infamies enacted daily “across the Rio Grande.”

The Interests Dominate Mexico.

“American plutocracy must certainly have full sway in Mexico,” is the thought that will perhaps come to the mind of the reader upon a perusal of these lines. Well, it has, and no mistake! Some persons have inferred that the Cananea affair is merely an incident precipitated by capitalists to plunge the United States into a war with Mexico. The result of the war would be the seizure and annexation of that country to the United States. I think this is a mistaken inference. Mexico could not be more thoroughly controlled and dominated by “the interests” than she is today. Were her territory annexed to this country there would come one of two things-either the laws preventing the organization of labor wold be repealed, or else an attempt would be made to extend the power of those laws over the entire domain of the two republics. It is not likely that the capitalists will try the latter course in this country for some time to come.

Wall street and Standard Oil are very well satisfied with the Mexican situation as it now exists. They have it “well in hand.” All that they ask is to be let alone. The Mexican peons are still inclined to attend church and swear by the flag of their government-and both of these institutions are handled direct from the capitalistic citadels in New York and London. Some day the giant of American labor is going to arise and shake himself, and with the shaking will follow a tumbling and crashing of the damnable system responsible for his enslavement. Some day this great sleeping giant is going to stand erect so that his stature, cleaving the sky, will be the only form visible on the planet. Some day the red flag of Socialism is going to float triumphant over every industrial center in this country, from Maine to California. When that day arrives it will be possible to free the working classes of Mexico. Until then every strike and every uprising will merely repeat the history of La Cananea.

—–

[Emphasis added.]

SOURCE
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-June 30, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66994223

IMAGE
Cananea Miners under arrest af crushing of strike of June 1906
http://cananea.mex.tl/1017480_Huelga-de-1906.html

See also:
Barbarous Mexico
-by John Kenneth Turner
C. H. Kerr, 1911
https://books.google.com/books?id=-7VmAAAAMAAJ
-on Cananea Strike
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=-7VmAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA213