St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-11-06
THE MEXICAN BOOM.
The Great Country Being
Rapidly Gridironed With
Railways.
Seven Roads Have Been Pro-
.jected to the Pacific
Ocean.
The Work Of the Interna-
tional Company, of Hart
ford.
Link by Link the Railroad
Chain Stretches
Out.

equally remarkable development Is TAX
ing place, though, necessarily, Oh more
restricted scale. The Mexican boom
has arrived, and capitalists in New
York and London, in Berlin, Paris
and Amsterdam, who have been
waiting to see the result of the presi-
dental election here, are now satisfied
to go ahead and push their plans to
their fullest extent. The president an
nounced in his message to congress the
other day that. as the result of the new
law regarding the taking I'D of mineral
lands, $50, 100000 had recently been in
vested here. The railway system of the
country has now reached 1850 miles.
and the telegraph system, under control
of the Federal government, II. l60mlleS.
And railway
AND TELEGRAPH CONSTRUCTION
is going straight on. The National Rail-
way company will this month complete
its main line, reaching from Laredo on
Christi, to this city. The Interoceanic
Railway company, which is building
from Vera Cruz to this city, and which
eventually will run its line through to
Acapueco on the Pacific coast, has its
money secured in London for the East
ern division of it's line from here
to the Gulf of Mexico, and has
to-day more than S2,0O0,000 in cash on
deposit here, with the rest of the money
pledged by rich London banking houses.
Engineers are now at work surveying
the OaXaca & Pacific railway. from
Puebla to the Pacific ocean, passing
through the city and state of OaXaca.
The contract has been given for the
Tehuantepec railway (not the ship rail-
way), and this is in the hands of an
English company. A group of New
York and LONDON people are going to
build the new railway in Chiapas,
from point where navigation
is possible on the Grijalva river
down to the excellent part of Tonala
on the Pacific: Col Villada, who has
an excellent concession for narrow
gauge railway from Zamora in the state
of Michocan down to the port of Zihua-
tenejo on the Pacific, is treating, he
tells me, with one of the richest bank
ing houses in Europe for the transfer
tional Construction company has in
hand the building of. line to the Paci-
tic ocean in the state of Colima, and the
Tehauntepec ship railway scheme is
still alive. All of these lines are either
essentially like the interOceanic railway
OF the Tehunantepec railway,
STRICTLY INTEROCEANIC LINES,
or else communicate with other lines
reaching the gulf of Mexico. 1t is
highly probable that every one of them
will be built within the next five years.
some of them year or two sooner.
Nor is this all. A number of shOrt-line
railways, feeders to bigger lines, are
being surveyed. Probably dozen very
lively railway projects, some under sur
vey, are being pushed forward here at
the present time. The coal fields of the
state of COahuila, the Laguna cotton
country, and the Sierre Mojada mining
district are to be connected by a rail
way built by Europeans. A railway
connecting Ensenada in Lower Cali
fornia with San Diego in the state of
California is to he built with English
money. A short line is to run from
Cordoba on the Vera Cruz railway
down to the rich and fertile valley of
Papaloapam river, and one of the finest
countries for sugar, tobacco and cotton
on the globe, country where three
crops a year are common. The
time has at last come here
when trunk line construction is
complete, and spurs and feeders are be-
ing built This will enhance the value
Of every bit of Mexican railway stock
held in Boston or New York. Mexico
is rich in resources, and remarkably
rich agriculturally. The soundest and
clearest headed railway men here are
those who most believe in the resources
of the country. On the line of the Cen
trails branch to Tampico are valleys of
incredible fertility. TO tell the simple
truth about them would be to appear an
eXaggerator. Already
THE GUADALAJARA BRANCH
is justifying its construction. 1t was
very we'll and very economically built,
and runs through country where the
soil is black with richness. Investors in
Mexican Central securities need only to
hold on few years to- find that they
have gained heavily i'll the appreciation
of their stocks. This line is making its
big earning not on foreign freighting,
but on the remark able increase in local
business. This is the healthiest sign
one can point to of the moderniZatiOn of
Mexico. The development of this bust
ness has been slow in coming, but it has
come. Talking yesterday with ID. B.
Robinson, formerly general manager of
the Central, he spoke of the Gaudalajara
road as certain to become very re-
munerative. Practically the line was
nearly built on the Subvention.
Thus, link by link, the railway sys-
TEN of Mexico is being formed. In ten
years time there will he 10000 miles of
railway here, and the narrow gauge
roads, like the National and Inter
oceanic, will have been converted into
standard gauge lines. To fully open
up every desirable region of the repub-
lie railway system of 10000 miles is
estimated to be necessary, and this is
not by any means an eXtrayagant calcu-
lation when the vast extent of the coun-
try is taken into consideration.
AS | have more than once pointed
out, Mexico is being modernized by the
railways. People who used to de-
nounce them are now those who would
stand out most strenuously against an
anti-railway policy, Men who were
six years ago Gland poor
NOW FIND THEIR ESTATES VALUABLE,
and as there is practically no land tax
which touches unoccupied soil, they
can we'll afford to hold Oh to their prop
erty.
We have here this week the chief
officials of the International Company
OF MeoicO, a corporation organized I'M
der Connecticut law, and having its
headquarters in Hartford, with bust
ness offices in New York. The party
consists of Edgar L. Welles, eldest son
of Hon. Gideon Welles, Lincoln's secre-
tary of the navy; General Counsel Ham
eFsley, os who aSo was was the chief chief law
when he took this Office; Vice
President Durham; Treasurer Arnold,
Chief Engineer Scott. George G..
Sumner of Hartford, and clerks and in
terpreters. The party came here in a
private car, and are staying at the San
Carlos hotel. Yesterday afternoon
met them at banquet given in their
honor by Louis Huller, at his mag
nifcent residence at Tacubaya, one
of the most spacious and attractive
residences and estates OH this
continent, which cost its original
owner round half million dol
lars. Mr.. Huller is man