INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS
From the earliest history of the Republic, the energies of the Chilenos have been devoted largely to agricultural and horticultural pursuits, stock raising and mining. The conditions of soil and climate, and the natural resources of the country have encouraged the people to interest themselves in those lines rather than in industrial occupations. The result is that there are few large manufacturing interests in the country. The majority of the more important manufactured articles are imported. There are, however, various small industrial institutions, most of which are closely related to the agricultural and mining interests. The methods employed are more or less primitive, as is frequently the case where a low value is placed upon labor.
Practically all of the manufacturing interests in Chile are operated by foreigners and controlled by foreign capital. This may be attributed to the fact that the Chilenos do not possess the taste for industrial pursuits. Another cause is the irresponsibility of laborers and mechanics. The average Chilean workman has no sense of responsibility. If given a task to perform, he cannot be made to understand that any importance attaches to the time when it is to be completed. Individually and collectively, the workmen are afflicted with the “mañana” disease. This condition has existedfrom the time of the earliest history of the country and continues to be one of the serious drags upon industrial and commercial progress. If remonstrated with for indifference to his employer’s interests or his procrastination of time, the workman will declare his willingness to leave his position. To discharge him does not improve the situation, as the man employed in his stead will entertain similar ideas as to his rights and duties. He cannot be encouraged by kindness, or even an increase of wages to change his habits. He is without ambition, and does not expect to improve his condition. It is useless to manifest any sympathy for him, he does not want it. He is satisfied, and will not accept innovations. That which was good enough for his father and grandfather, is satisfactory to him. He believes that he was born to his station in life, and he sticks to it stupidly and stolidly. Another drawback to the manufacturing business is the fact that the Chilean workman or mechanic seldom learns his trade properly, and takes no pains to improve himself or his condition.
In Chile a lad is put to work in a shop, and in a few weeks or months he tires of the job, and tries something else. After a time he tires again and tries another trade. And so he goes on changing until the time arrives when he should be a competent journeyman tradesman, and he goes forth a jack of all trades and master of none. The Chilean workman has his good qualities, however, as well as his faults. If properly encouraged he will render excellent service as a laborer. He does not work intelligently, and where skill is required he is unsatisfactory. Inured to a life of toil, hardship anddeprivation, he does not hesitate to engage in any kind of labor, no matter how menial or trying. He has wonderful endurance, and can subsist upon the plainest food, in limited quantities, while performing tasks requiring the greatest exertion. In handling heavy freight or cargo he has few equals. He has great strength in his arms, back and legs, and the enormous weights he can carry is cause for comment among those who witness his feats of strength. A roto will trot along the street carrying a box or bale of merchandise upon his back that weighs three or four hundred pounds, and is apparently not distressed with the burden. It is at labor where strength and endurance count that he is valuable as a workman.
Organization among the working classes in Chile is in the formative stage; yet even in its incipiency, unionism has proved itself to be a dangerous political element and a serious menace to society. The working classes are not sufficiently educated to appreciate the responsibilities, or to enable them to direct with intelligence and judgment, an organized force. The roto has little idea, and no appreciation of obligation to his employer, to society, or to the State; no regard for his word and little for the law. He is illiterate, intemperate and superstitious. He is not lazy, but improvident, and works because necessity prompts it, rather than for the purpose of bettering his condition. He can neither be persuaded nor forced to understand the importance of reporting for duty at a fixed hour for a given number of days in the week. He is independent and clannish, and has an exaggerated idea of his republican citizenship. His hatred of foreignworkmen is intense, and he will not stop short of murder, if that be necessary, to prevent the “gringo” from coming into competition with him. He is an apt pupil in the ethics of trades unions, in so far as it applies to his side of the question. He believes that the province of the union is to force shorter hours and more pay, without giving in turn good and steady service. He has yet to learn the commercial value of truth; the beneficial effects to himself of personal industry, of rendering an honest day’s labor for his wage. He must learn the good result of applying new methods to his work, and also lessons of economy and providence. In short, he must join the onmarching procession of industrial and commercial development before he is qualified and competent to assert his authority and make demands as an organized force. A dangerous phase of the labor union problem is the fact that when encouraged by clever leaders and enforced by numbers, the Roto Chileno is not slow to resort to violence.
The most serious charge made against labor organizations in Chile, and one that is well founded is, that they do not seek to elevate the standard of excellence among their members, or to better their individual condition. Neither do they encourage temperance, and obedience to law, or protection to society.
Grape culture and the manufacture of its products constitutes one of the principal industrial interests of Chile. In this, as in other industries, there are no statistics available on which to basesatisfactory calculations concerning the acreage, production of wine, “aguardiente” and “chicha,” manufactured annually. It is estimated that there are now about 20,000 acres of producing vineyards, and the acreage is being annually augmented. The soil is especially adapted to grape culture. Vines thrive and produce well both on the dry hill lands and in the irrigated sections. The grape vine was introduced in Chile by the Spaniards during colonial times, but the cultivation of it has become a national and profitable industry only in recent years. There is already a large export trade in wine, which is annually increasing. On the large estates the French method is employed in the manufacture of wine, and most of the distilleries are in charge of expert wine-men from France.
There are few more interesting sights than that of a large estate devoted to vineyards. The vines, planted in even rows, are carefully wired and trimmed and gracefully festooned. On the terraces of the hill farms the vari-tinted foliage presents an artistic appearance, particularly so when from the vines are suspended millions of amber and purple clusters ready for the vintage.
The grapes are picked from the vines by women and children, and placed in baskets. Two-wheeled ox carts, equipped with large tanks made of animal skins, are used for conveying the grapes to the winery. The first process consists of passing the fruit through a machine that mangles the grapes but does not crush the seeds. From these machines the pulp and juice fall into fermenting vats. If red wine is to be made the liquid and stems are left to ferment together; if white wine or chicha, the liquidis drawn off through a strainer. The method of fermenting, bottling, seasoning, etc., is the same as that employed in large wineries in other countries.
In the smaller vineyards, different methods are used; there, the primitive process of making wine by hand is still employed. The vats for holding the wine, instead of being made of cement or wood, are the skins of bullocks, removed from the animals with as little opening as possible. While green these hides are placed upon poles, hammock fashion, and filled with stones, which stretch them into the desired form, and in which position they are left to dry. When seasoned these skins form natural tubs or vats, to which the portion originally covering the tail forms a faucet, or outlet. In some instances these primitive wine producers employ the original method of crushing the grapes, by throwing them into vats, where naked men trample them, often walking neck deep in the pulpous mass. The wine is fermented in casks, and when ready for use is stored in large earthen jars, made by hand and baked in crude kilns.
There are no large manufactories for the production of vehicles. Most of the vehicles used in Chile are primitive in design, crude in construction and finish. Two-wheeled carts, which are almost universally used as transports for freight, are manufactured in all the towns and villages. Most of them are clumsy, with high wheels, heavy, rough spokes, broad, thick fellies, and wide tires. The box or frame is fastened to the axle, without springs or other means of relieving the jolting sensationproduced by the wheels passing over the rough country roads or uneven streets.
In the country, oxen are used almost exclusively for drawing carts. The pole of the cart is a piece of timber fastened firmly in the center of the axle, and extending forward a sufficient distance for the animals to be harnessed to the vehicle. The yoke by which the oxen are attached, instead of resting upon the neck of the beast, as is common in most countries, is placed upon the head just back of the horns, and fastened with strips of rawhide passed around the horns and over the forehead. This method of harnessing gives to the animal no freedom of action of the head. The frame of the cart being firmly fastened to the tongue, all the jarring sensation produced by the motion of the vehicle comes upon the head, causing great torture.
Vehicles used for transporting goods in the cities and towns are the same as those employed for similar purposes in the country, except that they are not so heavy. They are provided with shafts and are drawn by horses. One horse works between the shafts, and another is attached by a single trace, upon the left, or near side. A saddle constitutes a part of the harness of the animal on the left, on which the driver is mounted.
One of the common methods of transporting cargo in the towns and cities, is upon the backs of horses. Groceries, meat, milk, in fact all classes of freight from barrels of oil and cement to huge timbers and piles of lumber, are carried upon horses. In the country, mules are employed for the same purpose, as they are more sure footed upon the hills, and will carry heavy loads for greater distances.
Outcroppings of coal were discovered in Talcahuano, Coronel and Lota, all of which are situated upon the Gulf of Arauco, Province of Concepcion, department of Lautaro, as nearly as 1840. The first attempt to work the mines was made by Don Antonio Memparte, in the vicinity of Lota, in 1850. Two years later the property passed into the possession of Don Matais Cousino, who finally succeeded in establishing the reputation of the Lota coal for smelting, steam and domestic purposes. Later other mines were opened, and the district known as the Lota and Coronel country now produces coal in large quantities, supplying nearly all the steamships passing that way, as well as the government and corporation railways of the country. The development of the coal industry at Lota encouraged the establishment of various manufacturing industries in that locality. Among the more important industrial concerns are brick and pottery works, which were established in 1855, and a large copper smelting plant that has been in operation since 1860. Later a glass factory, the only works of the kind in Chile, was added to the industries of the place. These concerns are all operated by the Lota Company in connection with the coal mines.
The first practical teachers and pioneer miners at Lota were Scotchmen, very few of whom now survive. They were about thirty in number. Their original destination was the island of Vancouver, but owing to some difficulties that occurred on the voyage, the ship on which they were traveling put into Valparaiso, where they remained for sometime, and from where they were later engaged for the mines at Lota. There they founded what is still designated the British colony. It is now, however, British in name only, there being but few of the original colonists or their families left. The remaining few abandoned their national customs and language for the customs of the country in which they lived. To such an extent have they adapted themselves to local conditions and influences that very few of the residents at Lota bearing English names can speak the English language.
The coal from the Lota district is of a low grade, producing an unusual amount of cinders and refuse. The Arauco Company which operates mines in the same district, and which has a railroad running from Coronel to Colico, a distance of some twenty miles, is also producing coal in large quantities.
Owing to the extensive working of the great nitrate of soda deposits, mining takes first place among Chilean industries. Although producing nearly a million tons annually, coal mining has not developed sufficiently to supply the needs of the country, the importations amounting to about one and a half million tons a year. Copper is the most important of the metals mined, although gold and silver are mined in considerable quantities.
In recent years more attention has been paid to manufacturing. In 1909 there were 5,000 manufacturing establishments, large and small, with a capital of $45,000,000, and an aggregate output valued at $64,000,000. There are 960 establishments in the shoe and leather industry, 870 in food supplies,670 in metal industries, 555 in the manufacture of garments, 440 wood working industries, 210 in paper and printing and 200 in the manufacture of alcoholic beverages.
The value of imports into Chile in 1909 was approximately $95,000,000 and the export values for the same year $110,000,000. Of the total imports Great Britain supplied 32 per cent., Germany 22 per cent., and the United States 10 per cent. Of the total exports, amounting to $110,000,000, Great Britain purchased 45 per cent., Germany 24 per cent., and the United States 20 per cent. Europe and the United States bought over 90 per cent. of the exports, and furnished 80 per cent. of the imports.
Nitrate of soda constitutes about 75 per cent. of the total exports from Chile, and copper, 5 per cent. The four articles of import showing the largest values are, steel and manufactures of, coal, cotton goods and industrial machinery. Eighty-five per cent. of the imports consist of manufactured articles.