This independent movement, this breaking away from former conditions
had its origin in the revolution of 1891, which inaugurated new and
worse relations between capital and labor. The uprising gave the
Roto Chileno an opportunity to unmask and to manifest his natural
characteristics. Not at first upon a strike plan, but in secret
combination against those who employ labor; to shield each other in
infractions of the law; to organize a class into a union of criminals
that includes in its depredations every act in the category of crime.
An undeclared war is waged, unexpressed antagonism, and unspoken
enmity have been inducted into being. The policy of weak submission,
in which they so long acquiesced, is gradually but surely changing to
one of open defiance. Generations of smoldering hatred burst forth in
the flame of strife and revolution, and the growth and menacing hostile
attitude of labor and capital to-day is the outgrowth of that movement.
These labor troubles, felt first in the populous centers, are gradually
finding their way to the farms and haciendas, and it is easy to predict
the changed condition that will result within a few years; conditions
that will reach the other extreme. There is no class of people so
tyrannical, so unreasonable and dictatorial, as the ignorant, the poor
and oppressed, when once they hold the balance of power. The Roto
Chilenos, as an organized force, would be a desperate, dangerous class,
a menace to society and good government. Let us hope that the distance
between these extremes will be narrowed, that capital will be given
the protection and encouragement to which it is entitled, and upon
which its existence depends, and at the same time labor will be given
the best remuneration, the broadest field and the amplest opportunity
possible. This is a problem that should concern the politicians and
statesmen of Chile. The time has passed when the working class will
submit to intolerance and oppression, and the fact that conditions are
changing, even in a country where the common people cling tenaciously
to tradition and usage, must be recognized. The sons and daughters of
farmers go to the cities and take service with foreigners. When they
return to their country homes they take with them manners and ideas
acquired from a different people--transplanted customs from another
world. And so, slowly, backward and forward among the people passes
the shuttle of changing methods, weaving into the fabric of life
new and strange conditions. These influences are making themselves
felt in many ways. In the typical Chilean village one sometimes sees
among the thatched roof adobe huts, a house with some pretensions to
ornamentation. Instead of an earthen floor, and the patio occupied by
fowls and animals, there is a brick or tile floor, and the walls are
ornamented with pictures. The poncho, which was formerly universally
worn by the men, has been almost entirely discarded in the cities, and
generally so in the villages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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