The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-03-09

nts
He controls some ten thousand brave war-
riors, and forms an integral part Of the repub- |
lio. Guerrero is the seat OF power OF the /
Alvarez family, who obey and disobey the |
central authority and collect taxes as best suits
their financial condition and ideas. Yucatau, /
a vast Indian county, is constant source of
trouble, and ever fruitful point Of local pro-
nunciumientos. In Mexico we find certain
points held like those of the middle ages in
Europe, by some robber ohieftain, who laughs
at the general government. AS an instance,
we cite the Laguneros, under Gonzale Her
rera, who have often desolated Southeast Chi
huahua, Southwest Coahuils, and even threat.
ened, in 1867, the populous city OF Ssltillo.
Throughou the country we fnd that bad gov
eminent has absolutely driven naturally
honest people to wholesale plunder and DESC
lation. The one-sixteenth part Spanish blood
Of Mexico is a mixture productive of the most
undesirable results, and has in reality been
barrier to the civilization of the naturally
talented Mexican Indian.
We have spoken OF the Constitution Of 1857
as an admirable document. Practice, how
ever, proves that 1t is not adapted to the con-
dt,ion OF the Mexican people as We find them.
1t does not fit them, and az q mass they cannot
understand what it means. Even the aoknOw-
lodged rulers directly disObey its provisions,
as witness the Vera Cruz and Mexico Railway
concession lately given, the unalleviated peon
estates, and the intense State rights rule which
marks every provincial government. The
Constitution abosbes internal custom houses,
and yet that system is still continued to the
entire ignoring of its effects on trade and the
tendency to crush out every effort at internal
improvement Mexico should export the
products of her magnificent soil, and yet
her exports are scarcely an ounce.
She depends entirely upon her silver mines.
These are suffering terribly under the
weight of a taxation that almost pro-
hibits their working. In the time Of the
viceroys the mines paid royal fifth; to-day,
before the silver reaches market, 1t has paid
in numerous classified taxes from twenty three
to twenty five per cent. on the gross product
of a mine. The result is plain. II capitalists
invest one hundred thousand dollars ia a mine
and take out one hundred and twenty thou
sand, they pay thirty thousand dollars taxes,
and therefore lose ten thousand in the invest
mept. In any other country the same mine
would pay well. This is an example of the
way Mexico crusbes the only industry she
che oses to rely upon. Still another misfor-
tune for that land whose geographical position
is the finest on the globe-she Is as yet in
tensely feudal. This is the element that
most prominently stands in the way of her
progress and civilization. The lands of Mexico
are in the hands of few great holders who
have their baronial residences and, to all
intents and purposes, their feudal retainers.
They pay no direct taxes upon their estates,
and therefore can constantly add to their own
landed wealth, while at the same time they
increase the poverty and misery of the poor
people who are forced to live on these estates.
These feudal lords generally have little
stomach for the education and improvement
of the masses. When some clear headed and
philapthropic individual makes an attempt to
better the condition of these serfs, a raid of q
few hundred desperadoes breaks up the
| establishment and the effort disappears, while
| he who makes it Is consigned to poverty, as
| instance the fate of General Miguel Blanoo,
| in Tamaulipas, in 1866.
The exterior finances of Mexico are scarcely
better than the interior. Without mention
ing her ninety five millions Of European in
debtedness, she has never made reasonable
effort to reimburse those citizens of the
! United States who, from pure sympathy for
her cause, furnished her munitions of war
during the struggle against the empire and
took her bonds in full payment. These bonds
are now scarcely worth ten cents on the dollar,
and the coupons due are not yet paid. This
is one among the many cases Of what may be
termed Mexican gratitude.
Thus we have pictured in part the condition
of Mexico. 'Tis q sad one, but it is an i'm.
provement over the days when Spain ruled
there. Improved however much 1t may be,
it is undoubted that it will take many, very
| many years IOr the country 10 move IN tnat
unison with us which the times imperatively
demand. Does she populate her frontier
Does she move under the same impulse that
we dor Does she, as contiguous territory,
help the development of Texas, New Mexico,
and Arizona One-third part of United States
territory may be said to depend for its pro-
gress upon the development OF Mexico; there
fore we repeat that Mexico stands in our way,
We cannot give her time to join after her own
fashion in the great march; for the law Of
progress is inexOrable, and the weaker and
lesser civilization must 60 down before the
greater. We sympathize with her, for her up
ward struggle has been noble, and she has
accomplished very much, and more in the
same time than most OF the European ma
tions; but she cannot advance with sufficient
rapidity now to meet the demands of her geo
graphical position, and must give way to the
people that are better able to prepare her fol
her future. The world and modern progress
demand that we should take control of her
and we must do it. With her we must com
mence a military colonial system, gradually
eradicatiug the existing evils, and finally
when properly prepared, admit her to the
benefits of the Union.