The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-02-16

AAeAieo 10 ropuuiic IN Cnhncotyb he~
as Nc are, but less licensed; happy,
| safe, prosperous. under the system
whereby we admin ister our homes; and
proud OF the remarkable man who has
done what no other ruler of modern times
has even dreamed Of being able 10 do
and who still keeps a quiet, steady nst
In the waistbsnd Of the youngstsr ne has
taught to walk.
Within ten years the brieands of
Mexico have been simply wiped out. 1t
has been to such as know the geographi-
csl obstacles--a marvellous achievement;
and the political difficulties were 40
great. First, whatsoever brigand was
csught..-and Diaz has way of catching
stood just long enough in sSront OF an
Adobe wall for the firing party to crook
the right forefnger. There were no hung
juries nor pardon governors. Second, the
same hand-so firm and swift to Justice
knew how to open an alternative door.
Nowadays the bandit needs not. There
10 something else for him to do; and ne
more to his taste, to take part in the
development Of the patria he was proud
Of even when he was her curse. He would
rather upbuild than tear down, IL he has
q chance, even il there were no "Por-
firio" and no rurales.
i do not know anything in history
which fairly parallels these twenty years
In Mexico. No other man has taken a
comparable dead weight of population
and SO uplifted and transformed ii.
The wonder 10 sll the more because to
this day every other colony of Spain In
the New World looks to be the worse of for
the Independence. Whatever we may say
OF the theory of government, in prac-
tice not cne OF them was ever so misera-
bly, viceroyed or captain -generslled as IL
has been presidsnted four-ffths of the
time since 1921. Very much the same
was irue of Mexico until recently. 1t has
bad patriotic rulers sometimes; put that
they were at last sorry rulers the very
roster of them shows. Four presidents
In year is hardly On index of prosperity.
1t Is not fsr to remember when there
was not railroad in Mexico, and when
other material conditions were in proper
ton. The actual Mexico has forty rail-
roads, with nearly seven thousand miles of
track, and everything thst that implies.
Its transportation facilities ere practically
~ good as those of our Western States;
and the investment is far more protitab BILE.
1t is netted with telegraph lines with
the cheapest tariffs In America) dotted
with post OH ees, schools, costly build
ings for public business and public bene-
hcence. 1t is freer than Ii was ever before
with free schools, free speech, free press.
prosperous than even in the bonanza DAYS
OF the magnificent -siiver-kipgs of
Zacatecas and Gusnsjuato. There are
degrees, Of course by local variation OF
impulse or of opportunity; but there is
progress everyw here teriaI, intellectuai
moral.
II the visible prosperity of Mexico, in
the face Of certain of its circumatsn ices,
shall seem enigmstic to sane people whose
sane views are based on radically unlike
surroundings, yet only ignorance can
deny the fact. Mexico is admirably pros
porous, in spite of seven years. drouth;
in spite Of the Cara revolution kindled
In the United States. in ways and for rea-
sons too complicated to be reviewed here:
in spite of q national dept contracted
when exchange was at from to 10, and
being paid with exchange at from S5 to
102; in spite even OF cheap money. It
has been a miracle Of ststesmsnship, bat
a miracle which will never te repeated in
a di.similar land. will try to explain,
later, how even so terrible a blow as the
depreciation of silver was to Mexico has
been turned to the advantage of q nation
which lies In the hollow OF one msn's
hsnd.-From "The Awakening of
Nation" by Charles F. Lummis, in Hsr-
pcr's Magazine for February.