The Arizona sentinel., 1885-07-04
Mexican Railroad Methods.

cySlCm lutO m0AlCO udS IdlSeQ LII . expectation of an increase in trade
 between the two countries which
 will turn into American commer. ical channels the traffic heretofore largely monopolized by European countries. Under former con. ditions it was difficult for us to compete by the ocean route with
 England; Germany and France, but close and rapid communica- tion by rail, with the unity of in. terests naturally resulting, was expected to overcome that diffi- culty and give us substantial business advantages. We have already discovered that before we can fully reap the benefit of rail. road communication, some modi- fication of Mexican official, legal and business methods will be necessary, There is much dffer- ent between the way of doing things in Mexico and the United States as between the heavy gait of an ox-team and the flight uf an express train. We are accustomed to carry on affairs at railroad speed, making all other consider ations give way to the exigencies of prompt and rapid dispatch of business. The Mexicans, barely overcoming the inertia born of climate. race and habits, are con- tent to move slowly in the paths worn by their fathers, and all their legislative administrative measures adapted to their mode of progress. Not only have new wants to be created among people of almost primitive habits, but new processes for supplying those wants must be grafted upon their business system, involving a reconstruction of old established methods.
 The Mexicans have in herited from their ancestry a jealous and obstructive commercial policy. It has continually been displayed in the vexatious customs exactions enforced at their seaports and in the delays, seizures and confsca- tions to which foreign vessels have been subjected, on account of the slightest informality in the papers. With the beginning of trade by rail the increase of in- tercourse has tended to Intensity that kind of annoyance, and a recent legislative enactment caps the climax of obstruction. The inspection of freight at from tier custom houses has been slow enough, as every merchant in the Mexican trade can testify; but by the new law search stations are established at various interior points along the line of the Mexi- can railroads, where all goods must thoroughly be overhauled a second, and perhaps, third time. The result may be imagined. At these so>called "fxed stations" the side tracks are blocked by de- layed trains, and the station houses become scenes of the ut most confusion. For the railways to transact their business, and at the same time comply with the law is a physical impossibility. in the running of freight trains is destroyed; fast freight cannot be taken with any of dispatch, and slow freight involves question of in- definite delay. Shippers are liable to heavy losses on account of the detention of goods in transit, and no scheme could be devised better to destroy the business of the roads. The object of the law is, of course, to prevent smuggling, but, in establishing this rigid system of search at in terior stations it loses sight of the real points to be guarded, the lords of the Rio Grande. The contraband trade is carried on, not over the railway, but by | numerous pack-trains. which l cross the river at every fordable | noint and strike into the interior free from molestation. If the law i is continued in force, importers will be compelled to withdraw