The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1897-03-13
PROSPEROUS MEXICO.
The Model Administration of President
w. II. MORTON,
Pres. l.. A. Seminary.

The Model Administration of Presiden
Diaz.
Mexico is a republic in c~hancery; fres
as we are, but less licensed; happy, safe
prosperous under the system whereby
we administer our homes; and proud o.
the remarkable man who has done what
no other ruler of modern times has ever
dreamed of being able to do, and who
still keeps a quiet. steady fist In the
waistband of the youngster he Aax
taught to walk,
WitAip ten years the prigands of Mex
icp have been simply wiped out. 1t has
been-to such as know the geographical
obstacles marvellous achievement,
and the political difficulties were as
great, First, whatsoever brigard was
caught, and Diaz has a way of catching
stood just long enough In front of an
adobe wall for the firing party to crook
the right forefinger. There were no
hung juries pardon governors. Sec
ond, the same hAnd-so hrm and swift
to ~justice-kpew how to open an al
formative door. Nowadays the bandit
needs not. There is something else fer
him to do; and he finds 1t not only sa-
lubFiQns, but more to his taste, to take
q part in the development of the patria
he was proud Of even when he was her
curse. He would rather upbuild than
tear down, II he has a chance, even If
there were no "Porfirio" aud no rurales.
do not know anything In history
which fairly parallels these 20 years
in Mexico. No other man has taken q
comparatively dead weight of poppIaz
ton and 90 pplifted and Transformed
it. The wonder is all the more because
to this day every other colony Of Spain
in the new world lookst to be the worse
on for the ipdePencia7 Whatever we
may say Of the theory of self-goyern-
ment, in practice not one of them was
ever so miserably viceroyed or cap
tain generated as it has been presi-
deneed fopr-ffths Of the time since 1891.
Very much the same was true of Mexico
until recently. Ithas had patriotic rulers
sometimes; but hat they were at last
sorry rulers the very roster Of them
shows. Four presidents in a year Is
hardly an index of prosperity,
It is not far To Femembey when there
was not a railroad in Mexico, and when
other material conditions were in pro-
portion. The actual Mexico has 40 rail-
roads, with nearly 1000 miles of track,
and everything that that implies. Its
transportation facilities are practically
as good as those of our western states;
and thesinvestment is far more profita-
Bile. 1t is netted with telegraph lines
with the cheapest tariffs in America),
dotted with post offices, schools, cost
tr huslA4..a a. .,phIf, l,.tOaao I'D
public beneicence. 1t is freer than it
was ever before-with free schools, free
speech, free press. Iii happier than ever
befere,snd more prpsperousth than yer IN
the b~opanzadays of the magnificent sil.
yer kings of Zacatecas and Guanajpato.
There are degrees. of course, by local
variation of impulse or of opportunity;
but there Is progress eVerywhere-ms-
terial intellectual, moral.
II the Visible prosperity of Mexico, In
the face of certain of its circumstances.
shall seem e~nignlatio to sane people
whose sane views are based on radically
unlike surroundings, yet only ignorance
can deny the fact. Mexico is admirably
prosperous, in spite of seven years
drought, in spite of the CARA revolu-
ton (kindled in the United States, in
ways Il for reasons o complicated
to be reviewed herc); in spite of a IA
tional debt contracted when exchange
was at from eight to sixteen, N being
paid with exchange at from IS to lO2;
in spite even of cheap money, 1t has
been = miracle OF statesmanship, but
D miracle which win never be repeated
O dissimilar land.-Chnries F. Lum.
mis-, in Haruer's Magazine..