here. And they must give us interest on it, too. And they must pay for the clothing that we give them—and the tobacco, and anything else."
This is exactly the attitude of every one of the tobacco planters of Valle Nacional. For clothing, and tobacco, and "anything else," they charge ten prices. It is no exaggeration. Senor Rodriguez, proprietor of the farm "Santa Fe," for example, showed me a pair of unbleached cotton pajama-like things that the slaves use for pantaloons. His price, he said, was three dollars a pair. A few days later I found the same thing in Veracruz at thirty cents.
Trousers at $3, shirts the same price—suits of clothes so flimsy that they wear out and drop off in three weeks' time. Eight suits in six months at $6 is $48. Add $45, the price of the slave; add $5, the advance fee; add $2 for discounts, and there's the $90 wages of the six months gone.
Such is keeping books to keep the slave a slave. On the other hand, when you figure up the cost of the slave to yourself, it is quite different. "Purchase price, food, clothes, wages—everything," Senor Rodriguez told me, "costs from $60 to $70 per man for the first six months of service."
Add your purchase price, advance fee and suits at cost, 60 cents each, and we discover that between $5 and $15 are left for both food and wages for each six months. It all goes for food—beans and tortillas.
Yes, there is another constant item of expense that the masters must pay—the burial fee in the Valle Nacional cemetery. It is $1.50. I say this is a constant item of expense because practically all the slaves die and are supposed to be buried. The only exception to the rule occurs when, in order to save the $1.50, the
