Daily globe., 1883-07-01
MEXTCO.
Physical characteristics of the Country ,cith
Reference to RGitacay Enterprise.
Hon John Rioa1o1v in uo,,,or,- Hr.,

Reference to RGilacGy Enterprise.
Hon. John Bigelow, in Harper's Magazine.l
Mexico, IN her physical proportions,
configurations and situation on the
globe, certainly offers many induce
ments to railway speculation. A terri
tory larger than the combined terrific
ries Of Great Britain, France, Spain and
the entire German empire; reaching
from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific
ocean, and forming what Humboldt
some eighty years ago termed the
bridge of the worlds commerce; bound
ed by the United States for distance
OF nearly 1000 miles; with physical
conformation which enables her soils to
yield the products of every climate and
every zone; with mineral deposits that
have already yielded more than half of
the existing stock of silver in the world,
and which are believed by some to be
still the richest on the globe; without
single competing navigable stream, or
one that can ever be made navigable to
advantage; with physical confgura-
ton which must forever preclude canal
1zatlon; with population of 100000,
or only about one and seventy one-hun-
dredths per square mile less than the
population of the United States per
square mile; with twelve cities ranging
from 25,000 to 260,OO0 inhabitants; and
with foreign commerce averaging from
$70,000,000 to $6O,OOO,OOO year, though
conducted with no better facilities of
internal transportation than the backs
of mules and some $50 miles of railway
such a country certainly possesses
some advantages for railway improve
ment that are not possessed in an equal
degree by any other nation or people.
But to all the blessings of this world
conditions more or less serious are al
ways attached. A country which en-
joys the climate and yields the products
of every zone within twenty-six de-
grees of latitude can hardly be ex-
pected to produce a homogeneous pop
ulation, or to enjoy climate altogether
favorable to the growth and longevity
of hardy and powerful race of men.
The greater portion of Mexico is
from 5000 to 1000 feet above the level
of the sea, and is invested with an alb
normally rarefed atmosphere. Most of
the remainder Of Mexico 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 deserves to be re-
garded as an active civilizing force-has
ever fourished in so high an atmos-
phere as the Mexican plateau, or in so
high an average temperature as her sea-
board plains. People born under bet
ter conditions have frequently invaded
and occupied Mexico, but all have failed
to maintain themselves therein part,
perhaps, from the difficulty of doing so;
in part, also, perhaps, because the pos
session was not worth the cost. 1t is
true that Mexico is the only country in
which Providence has made such an
experiment, but it is none the less true
that thus far the experiment has not
proved that she can ever become the
seat of ruling race.
Mexico can hardly be said to have
single good seaport, or one capable of
being made adequate to the exigencies
OF modern maritime commerce. Nor
has she a single navigable stream. In
one sense this may justly be thought
advantageous rather than preiudicial to
railway system, as it implies the abb
sence Of waterways, usually the most
formidable Of all kinds of competition,
but that IS a mistake. No highway has
yet been devised so cheap as the ocean,
yet to this day it contributes the largest
portion of their business to all the rail
way systems of the globe.
OF the 100000 of people in Mexico,
fully three-quarters are Indians, two
thirds of whom can not read, nor ever
had an ancestor that could, who never
slept in bed OF wore stocking, and
who are accustomed to live at a less ex-
pense per day than a farm horse would
cost in any New England State. These
are none Of them controlling considera-
tions, perhaps, but in studying the
natural attractions of Mexico for rail-
way enterprise they must not be lost
sight of.