Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-06-26
THE AMERICAN IN MEXICO.
A Good Country for Foreigners to ID.
business In.

Good Country for Foreigners to Do
Dusinesa In.
Charles Dudley Warner in Harper's Magazine
With bountiful nature and a popula-
ton acoustic med to work for pay that would
only support them in conditions of squalor
it can be seen why the citizen of the United
States. who is always looking for q place
to 'invest his capitar' (n1eaning often only
his Wits, finds Mexico attractive. So long
as wages ale low, and the peon is content
to live as he does, and the American dollar
can be changed into two Mexican dollars
for the purchase of land or the pay Of la
Dor, the prospect seems a dazzling one for
the adventurer. The government invites
Investments by the most liberal concessions
ana encourages in every way the building
of railways and the development of pro.
ductive lands. l doubt If there Is another
country where foreigners are so much en-
courdged end so we'll protected by the au-
thorities as in Mexico And this invita- ton
government is administered in it's present
spirit, until the Mexicans are educated and
have learned to live better and to demand
adequate wages. Meantime the govern
ment, while holding out inducements to
foreign carital is multiplying its schools
both for common and industrial education,
and adopting our new educational methods
from the colleges down to the kindcrgar-
lean Sc es IN opportunity for making a for
tune. 1t would sound strange in England
and it begins to be rare in the. United
States, to hear Of fortunes made by agri-
culture. But cases of 1t are said to be
common here. 1 was told that in the lit
tie, clean, healthful, delightful city OF
Guadalajara Q25,OOO there are forty-seven
millirnaires (no one Of them worth more
made their money from the product OF
their haciendas. Many of them are from
the lower ranks, and began with no CAPT.
tai a few years ago.
Some of these lucky people are foreign
ers who have married Mexican women and
adopted the manners Of the country.
could fill this paper with instances l have
heard of, of foreigners who game here pen
positions of trust and ownership in banks,
railways and plantations. But these stories
are CO mon the world over. These profit
able haciendas, where sugar coffee and
cereals are grown, both the old and the
new, are really feudal prfncipalfties in ex-
tent and in authority. In the Rcenter of a
tract of tens of thousands Of acres, only a
small proportion of which is cultivated, is
the owners residence. If he is a Mexican
(and comparatively few as yet are owned
by foreigners) there is q church with a
tall Spfre or tower near th6thouSe-a land
mark for every dusty visitors store, and.
grouped around, the mud novels of the
poems. who are the feudal dependents. The
hacienda residence may be surrounded by
a high adobe wall and Yithin are the vari-
Gus offices, courts, with tropical trees.
plants and flowers and fountains. The
large and poor population of this domain
are absolutely dependent upon the proprie-
tor. Their dwellings, are wretched, even
for this climate;, their wardrobe would
make rag market in any ghetto, and
they are apt to be in debt to the proprietor.
who gives them their wages in store pay,
at handsome profit. And, yet so far as l
can see. Ii is a contented and cheerful popu-
lation. both in country and city. There is
an air of leisure everywhere; church festi-
walls and holidays are ffequent; every one
has his sesta in the middle Of the day; in
small cities the shops close from II to 3:
the tramways take a rest then also, and
there is no appearance chat laborers are
driven in their, tasks. sYou cannot hurry
anything or anybody. For tomorrow" is
always coming. 1t will thus be seen that
1t is a good country for the laboring men.
who can wear anything that will hold to-
gether, eat anything that cent will buy
sleep on a mat on the ground wrapped in
his serape, and who has not been taught
that If he has piece Of silver worth so
cents it is his right to take 1t to the mint
and have 1t coined into dollar.