Morning journal and courier., 1885-07-28

1 the average Mexican Out of ten million
 1 population, should say that five per cent l is a large estimate of those who buy any i'm ported article whatever, and you may a | we'll count the population at half million | for all purposes of trade in American or Eu ropean manufactures. Four-ffth of tn Mexican people live on 10 to 20 cents day
 l and labor is abundant at twenty-f to fort. | cents day. It is easy to understand how II | such country the use of labor-saving ma
 ! chinery makes slow progress. Time is of nc value, for the rule is never to do to-day wha you can do tomorrow. There is not SC l much value placed on money for itself or fol ! what it brings as on the social and domestic ! sentiments and on gentle and polite manners and mutual consideration ! of feelings These are distinguishing traits ! of the Latin race and they are equally char acteristic of the purer blood of all Aztec civ. | ilization. The native Aztec Mexican is full ! of devotion to his family, as was notably in stanced in the building of the railroads where l the 1aborers who were hired to go to North ern Mexico from the South insisted on carry ! ing their families. The great body of these people are a patient, industrious and con tented race, and beyond their simple wants same ruts one generation after another When the railroad paid them Sl and $1.50 day they squandered half of it in pulque and lottery tickets, gave the priest generous contribution. celebrated their feast days and were content to subsist on twenty to forty cents day. This is the actual condition of ninety per cent. of the population of Mexico, so that the import trade has relation to very limited part ot the people.
 A complete revolution is now going on il the methods and channels of trade, which is fast drifting into direct dealings with us The railroads have given direct blow te TT-- n11y cheap freights from New YorI and Chicago offset the cheaper labor of Europe in manufactured goods, SC that with few exceptions we are now able te place our better manufactures in Mexico as cheaply as inferior goods from Birmingham and Hamburg. American trade in Mexico has been greatly injured by American drum ners and by class of Americans who have drifted into Mexico for desperate ventures. Mexicans have been disgusted by our bad manners and by our deceptive dealings, as we'll as by the presence of loafers and dead beats. Even intelligent Mex jeans have been accustomed to judge of view presented by these unfortunate facts because they have had no opportunity to be better informed.
 There is of course 8 valuable trade with Mexico, but mean to say that it is not what population of 10000, 900 would seem to call for With all the information we are now getting and with a commercial treaty that will open the doors to our goods, we can export to Mexico $25, 900, 900 of American manufactures, but it will never be done un- jess the Mexican government keeps good faith with the railroads, reforms it's outrageous custom house reg ulation, and comes to realize how the country is prostrated under the fatal de fusion that the higher duties are made on oil ba h1io will suit.
 What is your estimate of the Diaz govern ment and it's recent financial action2
 General Diaz is straightforward, honest man, and what they call in the West a 'broad gauge" man. The Diaz government know how it has been critically tested and
 can state this positively. Diaz's points of character are not unlike Grants. He is the
 best man in Mexico to-day, and he has about him the best blood, the ablest and most progressive and most enlightened public
 men in Mexico. If Diaz fails all government
 is lost in Mexico. But the government is
 utterly bankrupt. It is saddled with obliga-
 tions that it never was able to incur. When it contracted to pay subsidies to railroads without number it was honest and simple, minded in the undertaking, but ignorant and incompetent in financial management When finally pressed to the wall it simply u1aQ0 COnI0SSIOn aLu I6SOTI0u lO IuO Stule desperate means that a starving man would that has neither money nor friends. Just before left Mexico General Diaz said te a friend of mine, after signing the two financial decrees, that ii was either this or else 1T must take the saddle' It is not a question of several millions more or less of public debt, that complicates the outlook in Mexico, but the want of sufficient public revenue to meet the payment of any adjustment made of it's obligations, also the want of something be- sides public faith as security for any bonds into which it's debts funded. Mexico needs guardian as much as it needs money. The government needs financial capacity and solid business sense Intelligent, edu- cated and broad-minded in grasping the ories, Mexican public men fail in practical commercial knowledge and business apti- tude. l can see no possible relief for the financial distress of the government except that it's new funded bonds be guaranteed ir some such benevolent spiriS as actuated the Boston people who built the Mexican Central railroad, on condition of opening wide the doors to American trade. The whole system of public taxation and revenue must change or the financial situation is absolutely hope less.
 Is there any tendency in Mexico to consent to the purchase of Mexican territory by the United States
 Not in the least You might steal his clothes or his money, but the Mexican peo- pie will never part with an inch of territory unless they consent to come bodily into the American Union. am satisfied that this future for Mexico is thought of good deal more seriously than it ever has been. Even public men in Mexico who oppose it look forward to this event in the course of time. Any despoliation of Mexico for money would stir up the people nothing has since the war of reform against the church. No amount of financial distress would force them to it. Public opinion in Mexico means simply the opinions of about 5000 land owners, the professions, students and army officers, altogether less than % ,000 of the population. Republican government exists in form not substance. No such thing g popular assembly to discuss public questions ever takes place in Mexico. Practically it is personal government exercised under pop ular formulas. The press has only moder ate influence. It has few readers. There are sixteen daily papers in the City of Mexico and with two exceptions, the oficia paper and the Monitor Republicans whicl has l, ,500 circulation, they will not average over 800 circulation each. Mexico publishes more newspapers with fewer readers thar any nation in the world. It would be no ad vantage to the United States to possess one inch of Northern Mexico. The line of the Rio Grande would only be shifted further south and all border troubles would follow. The northern Mexican States are the worst part of the country. They are not at, tractive to immigration and are adapted only to horse and cattle raising. They are not in trinsically nor commercially valuable enough to us to pay for. All we want of Mexico is the command of it's trade. What it needs from us is the intelligent sense that will deal successfully with it's fiscal troubles, and while preserving it's political integrity also
 carry it along in the line of industrial devel-
 opment, popular education and national prog.
 Tess. LIVING MN RED