Evening star., 1902-02-21
MEXICAN INDUSTRIES
Development Began About
Twenty Years Ago.
SYSTEM OF RAILWAYS
PLANNING FOR TRANsCoNTINEN
TAI TRADE.
Cities That Show Unusual Activity
Increasing Trade With the
United States.
SYSTEM OF RAILWAYS
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

her sleeping riches one may only guess and
guess wrongly. l should say it was year
since the centuries Of sloth were shaken off
and the new industrial era begun. That
would be the judgment of a stranger formed
on the spot. This judgment would not be
correct, for those who have been here say
that the beginning goes back twenty years,
and that the era Of the new Mexico itself
opened ten years ago.
The activity is not feverish. Even the
promoter who is everywhere is fairly con-
servative individual. He is not gaining a
fortune in a day. He is making money by
directing capital to fields where fortunes
are being made gradually and sensibly.
Never having been in Mexico before,
have to confess an ignorance, which, per-
haps, is not creditable, Of what the neigh
Dor Of the United States south of the Rio
Grande has been doing and is doing. The
trade is growing closer and closer between
the two countries. and the United States
is furnishing the bulk OF the articles coa-
sumed In Mexico
Iron Manufactures and Machinery.
Iron and steel manufactures and ma
chinery are first, but there Is also a steady
increase In carriages and wagons, in hard
ware, and in similar articles. AS fast as
the United States gets greater share OF
Mexco's trade it follows that she will be
able and willing to put larger share OF
capital into developing the resources OF the
country Not all of this increased COM
merce is due the closer union through
railway lines, cause the statistics show
that the commerce OF the gulf ports also
has increased very largely.
An American railway president told me
that Mexico was still just 20 years behind
the United States in its railway system He
meant by this that the country was slow
rather in it's traffic management and oper-
ating department than in the building or
new lines Of communication. He thought
that there should be more consultations and
more Capitalization. That Is what the rail-
way president always thinks when he Is
taking in somebody else's line instead OF
having his own swallowed up Possibly 1t
is true that there should be more consolida-
the various syndicates and capitalists can
fight that out among themselves. The mar
row gauge lines which come In from the
north are going to be made standard
gauge, and that may be one sign OF pro-
gress. The narrow gauges running out
from Mexico toward the south, which are
controlled by English capital, probably will
be longer in making these changes
For Transcontinental Trade.
fact which has most impressed me re-
garding the railways Is the number OF
routes by which Mexico is seeking to open
up pathways from the Gulf Of Mexico
across to the Pacific ocean. She is plan
ming for transcontinental trade regardless
of the prospective isthmian canal.
Both the national government and the
various state governments have been very
liberal in their subsidies and other forms OF
aiding railway enterprise, but now they
are becoming more conservative. The Mex
ican government itself has spent great sums
on the railroad across the Tehuantepec
ISthmus, where 1t was once the dream or
James 3. Eads to have ship railway
The difficulties Of construction there In the
nr,6o hor hnn a IYYAN
the enterprise, but after the expenditure OF
vast sums 1t is claimed that a substantial
and enduring Tehuantepec railway Is near
ing completion.
After making various concessions to en-
terprising parties to build south from the
Tehuantepec to the Guatemala line the gov
ernment is now hopeful that the project
will be carried out successfully, and that
at the border it will meet the extension
which Guatemala promises and which will
form one Central American link IN ex-Sen-
ator Henry G. Davis, project OF the Pan
or not. within two or three years the net
work Of Mexican railway systems will be
complete from the Rio Grande to the Guate-
malan border and from the Gulf Of Mexico
to the Pacific.
Public harbor improvements are part Of
the plan for encouraging railway building
At Manzanillo, on the Pacific coast, the
works are very extensive. and the Ameri-
can contractors are carrying them through
rapidly. At Vera Cruz the improvements In
the harbor which presented so many engi-
neering difficulties are also well advanced.
On the Pacific side of Tehuantepec there
will have to be some marvels Of marine en-
gineering before that open roadway can be
made harbOr Of commerce, but this Is de-
clared to be practicable and certain to be
done when the railway is placed on a solid
basis for traffic. hear much talk now Of
the development of tropical agriculture
which is following railway extensions In
southern Mexico.
American Banking Methods.
Another evidence Of the Industrial ac-
tivity and commercial growth which the
visitor notes is the approach toward the
banking methods Of the United States.
Mexico has two or three fnanciers who are
both bold and conservative and they have
given a great impetus to the modernizing
Of banking methods, but generally the Mex
lean banks, as well as those controlled by
European capital, are too slow for this
epoch Of development, and their conserva-
tism has given room for financial institu-
tions OF a more progressive character.
These seem to be equally solid. The
growth Of loan and trust companies Is the
best sign OF this approach to the fnancier-
ing methods which now obtain in the
United States.
These are merely general statements and
relate chiefly to the growth of foreign, and
especially American. capital in Mexico. But
there are home industries which are essen
progress. and which q tariff, highly pro-
tective in its operation, though not called
by that name, encourages The use Of
silver. which pays the wages for goods that
are manufactured to be sold in the markets
Of other countries for gold, IL an additional
protection.
The cotton industry Is the chief one. It
has progressed too rapidly and Ia undergo
Ing period OF depression. but not Of such
depression as has been seen In the United
States. The mills In Queretaro and other
points In northern Mexico are doing fairly
well A year or 50 ago the banks found
that so much Of their capital was loaned on
these cotton mill enterprises that they be-
gan to draw In. The interest rate was
raised and other methods Of disoourag1ng
overproduotion were adopted. No panic
followed. but dull times came In the cotton
industry, and still continue.
An Exposition at Pueblo.
got the best idea OF Industrial Mexico
one day in q run out to Pueblo, which dis
psltes with Guadalajara the right to be
called the second city In point Of population
and commerce and industry after Mexico.
Each Of them has a full 100000 OF inhab-
itants, and each has exceptional claims to
enterprise. At Pueblo they were holding
an exposition OF the agricultural ana manu-
factured products Of the state OF the same
name. ] spent half day in the exposition
49, - q