Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-06-08
THE SISTER REPUBLIC.
How Mexicans are Said TO Regard and
Receive Mining Men from the United

How Mexicans are Said TO Regard and
Receive Mining Men from the United
States.
The mining laws of Mexico, says
MonclOva letter Of the 18th inst. to the
Chicago Times, are the most liberal and
practical Of the world. They are stand
ing offers to the muscle and brain Of other
countries, an invitation to come andreap,
promise of wealth in proper ton to labor,
and a guarantee of protection to any
miner who Will take advantage of their
kindly aid. But the aYarice of leading
Mexicans, the men who hold the sword
in this military despotism, joined to the
craft of interested outsiders, has turned
the laws into trap for foreign capital and
deadfall for honest labor; has barred
the Mexican nation from all the splendid
benefits it would have otherwise derived
from its subterranean treasure, and
turned these wise embOdiments of mining
justice into danger to the government.
When a practical miner comes here to
investigate a mine with the intention, if
it prove valuable, of working it, he is
told that the mine belongs by right OF
force to Senores ". or Y. or Il. These
men have denounced the mine in years
gone by; never had any intention of
working it, and never will. Their claim
has absolutely nothing in it beyond
vigorous example of the cheeky acquisi-
tiYeness Of dOns. Yet they are rich and
powerful, hand and glOve.w the most
cOmmandant, bosom friends of the pro-
vincial Governor, free-handed with the
peoples money, and possessing hidden in
the brush of their gigantic haciendas
force Of men sufficient to vindicate their
equivOcal claim against all corners.
There is one thing these fellows never
fear-having their claim jumped. The
rapid Winchesters of their stock hands
are always sufficient to stand off the
most inquisitive party Of mining tourists.
Whatever the pluck of American pros
pectOrs, they have never the needful
strength.
a mine, UneH, being denounced by one
of these local Fra DiayOlOs, he looks
around for a mining engineer-and finds
him. The engineer has never seen a
mine, knows nothing whatever about one,
and doesn't want to; his mouth is his for
tune. He takes a cursory survey of the
property, sizes up the wealth and pOliti-
cal strength of his principal, realizes that
he is power in the land, and, backed by
his influence and spurred by the hope of
future reward, uses unscrupul0usly all
the means placed within his reach and at
tracts Eastern capital to the mythical
bonanza of his grandee hacker as mOlasses
does flies. OF course the money never
sees the mine proper. An infnitesimal
portion of it is spent in questionable
improvements, consisting generally in
slight scariticatiOn of the soil in the
neighbOrhOOd OF the lead; the remainder
is divided between the expert and his Az
tee pal.
In view of the frequent repetition Of the
above, no more mines are developed, and
in spite Of railroads there is no progress
in the land. And yet there is scarcely
foot in this mountain region that fails to
contribute its quota to the buried mass of
bullion. Is this sort Of thing to continue?
L don't know. We are surrounded by
vast possibilities. Somuch could be done
for US at so little cost! But the swarthy
sons of destiny who hold the reins do not
like Americans, and are as tough and un-
impressiOnable as one of their own tor
tillas. We do not look for aid from Next
co herself. We expect her to stay just
where she is, only eXerting herself to
thrust alien strength and talent from her
shores, and we will not be disappointed.
You gringas should help us out. For
why? Because if mining here were run
as it should be, the wages of the poor
would rise from 4 bits to 81 day; the
railroads would pay, bringing down from
the North corn, flour and tools, and ex-
changing them for ore and bullion; the
price of land would be doubled, and all
farming products would find a market.
The loss, therefore, is the same to both
nations, and both should unite to put an
end to this universal and deadening alb
sOrptiOn Of mines.
But there is vet another and more seri-
Gus phase of the matter. The Mexican
mining laws are an offer, nay bonus, to
the world to come and labor. In thou
sands of instances this offer has been ac-
cepted. The moment a miner sets foot
across the dividing river, led by these
laws, a contract was virtually entered
into between him and the government by
which he was guaranteed justice and
protection. He never got it. In all the
thousands of instances of men who have
come to the Mexican mines tnere IS not
one to-day who can say he had a fair
showing. And on all the frontier, wher-
ever these men cOngregate, they tell you
iii answer to your inquiry: at is useless
to stake a mine in Mexico unless backed
by fifty rifles. We are waiting our time,
when it comes we shall play for eYen."
That is dangerous state of affairs. And
there are men of long experience on the
frontier, practical miners all, well ac-
Quainted with the country, in fact, half
Mexican in their thorough knowledge of
the language and people. There are
boomers here, professional creators of
mining eXcltementS. Let them start one.
Let one more craze like the Sierra Mo
jada of three years ago sweep over this
country, now that the railroads are partly
finished, and twenty thousand of the best,
and strongest, and brayest of the South
and West would pour in, mad for gold,
armed to the teeth, and with nerve to
back them in any demand. The Mexican
Government does not love these brawny
children of her driving neighbor. Talk
to a Mexican Of anneXation-one of the
genuine, penniless, patriotic sort-and he
will look up with an invocation, and
down with an imprecation, and except as
a result of a mining invasion. no reason
able American now thinks of it. But it
unnld he n nnnd country To own.