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126 of the servants on the better managed places had been born there as had their fathers. They were paid, in some cases, at a fixed rate under period contracts; in others, a daily wage according to the number of henequen leaves cut and piled—the raising of henequen being practically the single local industry. The laborers received houses, garden plots, and medical attendance free. The masters, in some cases, supplied rations of corn free; in others it was sold to the laborers at less than the market price. It appears that there was little dissatisfaction with the system in this state on the part of either the men or their employers. The state was but little stirred by the revolution when it came, in fact it took no part in the effort to overthrow the old régime. It was not until after 1914 that the revolution affected the laboring population. Even then they were roused against their employers only by insistent propaganda backed by those in control at the capital.

Chiapas, in the latter part of the Diaz régime, was still without a sufficient labor supply for its development. An American manager for one of the large plantations declares that his company and all those surrounding were so anxious to have labor available that they were willing to give a plot of land to any Indian family that would work it. Any land hunger on the part of the native could thus easily be satisfied. About 150 families were settled on the estate in this way. Generally the Indian in that region did not want a definite piece of land, he wished only to burn over a field and get one or two crops from it by planting directly in the unplowed soil. When grass and brush began to