Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1895-01-10
HERE TO ENCOURAGE TRADE
An AGENT OF THE MEXICAN RE-
PUBLIC COMES TO KANSAS CITY.
lie Is studying the Resources OF This
Country aud Seeking to Establish
Closer Commercial Relations
Between the Countries,

r, r. Serrano. the official agricultural
and commercial agent Of the Mexican re-
public in the United States, who has de-
cided TO make Kansas City his headquar-
ters. was visited by a journal reporter yes
terday afternoon in his rooms In the Tenn
pie block. Mr.. serrano is an appointee of
President Diaz, his business being to en-
courage closer trade relations between this
country and his own. He is graduate Of
st. Nincent's college, Los Angeles. Cal,
and Is we'll acquainted with the geography
and business centers OF the United States.
He said:
'I have Travelled from one end of your
country to the other. making study of
your manufactures methods of agriculture,
business enterprises and natural resources
have been from san Francisco to Boston,
from Boston to Minnesota, from Mime
sofa to Colorado. from Colorado to New
orleans and from New orleans to Utah.
II am to keep our country well informed
on the subject of your products and at the
same time keep prominently before you
the valuable products of Mexico The
most important benefit We shall derive
from the United States will be the whole
sale shipment to Mexico of farming uten-
sils and implements and machinery of all
sorts, particularly mining machinery. /
have made Kansas city my headquarters
because this place is the center of the
distribution of farm implements and agents
Tor all the manufacturers of machinery
may be met here. Then, too / find Kan
sas City great general distributing point
Everyone who goes to Mexico knows Kan
sas City, and everyone who comes up from
Mexico stops here. The Mexican govern-
ment could search the United States over
and not find a better distributing center
in its trade with this country than this
city. l have written the minister of agri-
culture in Mexico City, under whom | am
working. OF the Importance of Kansas CITY,
ana he has written me that I have done
wisely. Now for the products of Mexico
Whlch are very many as you know and may
easily be shipped into the United States
We are Just beginning to learn about the
fruit business there by which | mean the
raising of fruits and the methods of pack
ing them, When we have come on little
further the fruit business with the United
states VIII he very large. Mexican oranges
are superior to any in the world Before
long we shah rival California in the wine
industry
1T is not so very long ago that thou
sands OF the choicest vines in that state
We're shipped into Mexico by the car load
and many of them literally given to the
people under the direction of President
Diaz so that the farmers may begin to
know how to raise grapes and care for
them. Then there are our choice coffee
and tobacco, which are unexcelled the
world over. | might mention that the
coffee plantations are almost all the prop
critics of Americans who are finding out
what a quantity of money there is in the
business our sugar we are shipping to
New Orleans and San Francisco We
nave great rice plantations also. Mexico
is very rich in varieties of wood and wood
tibers suitable for many purposes For
instance, we are growing rubber trees for
purposes of trade and also chnchona
trees. Why, even the tutti frutti chew
ing gum you see advertised comes from
Mexico. 1T is the gum of certain kind
of tree. / used to chew it when l was q
boy. Some New Yorker bright enough
to see he could make money out of it, and
he is Then there are our mineral re-
sources. which are very great 1t is to
your advantage that we have no found
ries or smeters, for all our ores shipped
TO San Francisco, Denver and Kansas
City to be smelted. We are just discov-
ering that we have in our country very
rich deposits of marble, as fine as you
have; whole mountains of it in several
places.
No account OF Mexico would be worth
anything without some mention of Presi-
dent DiaZ. | had a long interview with
him before / came here and he was very
much interested in what | had to tell of
the United States, Though Ga years of age,
he is as active and enterprisng man
of 30. He is the greatest man in Mexico,
and, as told him when saw him, the prog
ress of Mexico for the present at least de-
pends on his continuing in the presidential
chair If he should retire the United
States and Europe would be inclined to be
distrustful of Mexico. II was he who had
railroads built in Mexico in the face of the
opposition of the whole country. Every
one was afraid of the Gringos. He is far
moro considerate of foreigners than OF
MeXicans even, for he knows that for
eigners are building Mexico up financially,
commercially and every other way, and he
is wise enough to encouraged them"