New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-08-14
MEXICO.
EMMY OF sPANIsH-AMERiCAN TRAITS
AT THEIR BEST.


Bros - -,
60. tow nares Of this book arouse an al
Ih' ro,Iable feeling OF evaporation al
no'. '.hor.s pertness and complacency. lie Is
be .ou NC nleasant things about Mexico
pnap' .,;,c n the ignorance and bad faith
VIM uho have unfavorably described the
,r,rv But in q little while resentment p"
gun and we warn the reader not to be de-
.'-,ad by Mr. Lummis's irritating %eai Ho'''
.uouine him faithfully In his narrative All
s,,e O, all the little filings, in spite OF 'he au-
",,s ouaint exaggerations-as WITNESS his ou'
ITS on the magnificent art OF MeNico-'h's
'.orv ~ the making OF a powerful ana prosper
-. c.ate is absorbing The average cohceP'oh
.ruexico is OF a tropical land IN when the IN
,.,uonts are either degraded by poverty ana
-o,oanliness or drunk with bad wine ana worse
,,,os Mr. Iummis reminds us that there IS
onderful range OF climate In the country;
Az, q has been and still Is extraordinarily
.oh. that the typical Mexican is much more
49,. ord industrious individual than we imag-
~ and that for twenty years Mexican politics
49, ,oon in the hands OF benevolent dictator
,s entitled TO be called one of the worlds
~,oo, men. Certainly the Mexico ruled by
por6rio Diaz is an amazingly happy land.
The President did much to create 1t. Mr..
,,mmis contends that also the native and Span
tab blood of the country has been at the bottom
~ tbe nations phenomenal progress. The brain
.b,rIs with the facts he piles up in TINS DOCK.
uexico had hospitals as well as churches three
centuries ago She had aqueducts, bridges ana
.,her useful public works. She managed her
mines bonestly-and here Mr. Lummis looks
.srance AT our stock market-and AS for the
.rmcbsir historians who talk about the slavery
~ tho Indian laborers they are all wrong.
uprnboldt at the beginning Of the century,
notod that the Indian laborer In Mexico was
moor hut free that his condition was preferable
n that Of the peasantry in a large part OF
Northern Europe; and to-day, adds Mr.. Lum-
mis- the Indians are educated as citizens; they
are sometimes scholars. sometimes great en-
rneers sometimes even. Presidents. ITO grasp
INST how much this means Of contrast between
the methods OF the noble Saxon and the brutal
spaniard" says our author. I'VE need only fancy
onrselves electng Tecumsch or Red Cloud or
Osceola 70 be President OF the United States.
We must not take such CONGRATULATIONS 100
seriously. for. after ALL they do not affect one
way or another the n ain point OF the book That
main point is expressed in the statement that
Mexico is enlightened and progressive and that
Porfrio Diaz s at the helm.
The famous dictator is Individually a patriot.
His career has been one long story OF brave
self-sacrifce for the good OF his country. he
reached the Presidency after long struggles
and once there. ne proceeded to exercise pa
ternal SUPERVISION of every thing In Mexico, but
no man can say that ne has done TINS ior MS
ANN oayar,age Modern water-works to re-
place the fine old Spanish aqueducts modern
beverage 10 replace the street SINKS oil centuries
modern lighting modern transit, modern heaHh
DEPARTMENTS: public buildings better than our
average towns OF the like population thlnk
they can afford: splendid prisons. markets
hospitals asylums training schools -these are
some of the things the 'despot.sm OF Diaz
Is planting through the length and breadth
of the country" OF course some one has had
70 pay for all this, and the some one u.s. 10
certain extent. the people; but DiaZ has had
clever hnanciers and administrators at his ell
how and they have aided him in the difficult
task Of STRENGTHENING out the nations damaged
credit without burdening the population with
taYes Indeed he seems TO have reduced the
burden "In five years he had more than dou-
bled the national revenues. and not by exactions.
IN, bv putting the public business on civil
service basis Roads. bridges. lighthouses
wharves. public buildings. began TO rise as taxes
went down The national credit was raised
from the dead" We would Ike to be told 1T
Tie more In detail just how this was accom-
plshed bu, MI Lummis is perhaps not to be
blamed for summarizing In book so briei az
this one and We take his word for II that Pres
ident Diaz has had popular policy In econom-
les as In everything else. little hght Is
thrown on the subject by the statement that