The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1882-10-05
Mexican Railways.

luOAlChl lhdllWdyS'
srEUULATIoNs AS TO AMERICAN RAILWAY
INTERESTS IlS orR SISTER REPUBLIC.
In the current number of HarpGrS Magazine
Mr. John Bigeow has an interesting paper eli
titled 'The Railway Invasion of Mexico" 1t
is generally known that many thousands of
miles of railway have been projected for Mex
leo by American engineers and capitalists,
some of the roads being already in process of
construction; the prospects of investors in
these enterprises are discussed by Mr.. Bigelow
from the several standponts of Mexican popu-
lation, soil and YIELD and from those of politics,
immigration and Mexican character.
AS Mexico already has foreign commerce
ranging from $4,000 900 to $50 200 900 annual
ly, there is certainly room for railroads if they
can compete in point of cost with the Mexican
mule as Il means of transportation. But it is
to the prospective increase of trade, population
and enterprise that the roads must look to their
profits. What are the chances of the desired
increase: Geographical pcculiarites seem to
limit them; for read =
The greater portion of Mexico is from five to
seven thousand feet above the level of the sea,
and is invested with an abnormally raritied at
lies along the coast, is very hot, and never free
from malignant disease. Up to the present
time no people--that is, no people that deserve
to be regarded as an active, civiizng force
has ever tlouriShed in 50 high an atmosphere as
the Mexican plateau, or i'll 50 high an average
temperature as her seaboard plains. People
born under better conditions have frequently
invaded and occupied MeNico but all have
failed to maintain themselves therein part,
perhaps. from the difficulty Of doing so in part
also. OprhnOS. bpc1nSp the nOSSpSSiOO
worth the cost.
The native population is tcrsely described: j.:
OF the l0,000,00O of people in Mexico, fully
three quarters are Indians, twO-thrdS of whom
cannot read, nor ever had an ancestor tina
could; who never slept IN a bcd Or Wore Il
stocking, and who are accustomed to live at Il
less expense per day than farm horse would
cost in any New England state
Revolution is alluded to as the form Of
gambling to which Mexican, are peculiarly
addicted, although the author admits that while
the present prosperity of the country continues
the revolutionary forces viii not be formidable;
still,
the risks Of railway property, like every
other, in case OF revolutionary disturbances
are, of course, very great 1t is always difficult,
and it has usually proved impossible, for rail
way corporations to 50 conduct in times of civil
war as to satisfy both the belligerent>, and if
the faction they offend happens to triumph, the
RAILWAYS, from their greater command of ready
money and from thyir strategic Importance,
are naturally the first victims of its rapacity
To the plea that emigration Will tend toward
Mexico when there are ample means Of trans
portation the author replies that most Of the
Mexican land on which Europeans or Ameri-
cans could live requires irrigation, which is
costly; that the railroads have no land grants
with which to attract settlers, 50
when we contrast the Inducements which
railway in Mexico offers to an cmgrant from
the old World with those which welcome him
when he lands upon our shores from either Of
great Pacific roads and their tributaries, il
is Obvious that no family or man in his senses
would double the length of his journey TO tint
Il home in Mexico.
The attitude of the MeNicans thcmselyc,
toward the railroads, if Mr. BigeIow expresses
it correctly, is quite significant.
| 1t is not to be disguised that the efforts maxi
| ing TO unite the two countries NOR" intimately
| by commercial highways though they carry
| with them peace, order and prosperity, to
| which Mexico has for centuries been stranger.
| are regarded with great mi>trtlst and suspicion:
| and could the voice of the whole nation index
| preston upon the subject we have no doubt
| that it would pronounce rather for taking uE
| every rail which has been laid between the city
| of Mexico and our frontier rather than for put
| ting another down. : There is 1t great deal
of wealth in Mexico, and the McNicanS have
great business sagacity and capacity for affairs,
| yet the temptations to embark in railway enter
| prises in Mexico. which have intoxicated many
| of the coolest heads in Wall street and Thread
needle sIrect, can hardly be said to have opened
| the purse of single Mexican. We doubt if,
| among all the railways chartered to unite McN-
| leo with the United States, and upon which AL
| ready many millions Of dollars have been cN-
| pended. S1O,O0O-it half that >um-ha> been