Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1903-09-28
AMERIcANIzINo OF MEXICO.
Peaceful Expansion at Work in the
Southern Republic.

Under the influence OF American
capital and ideas the Mexican people,
says Eugene p. Lyle, jr., in the Worlds
Work. are ''leaping from the ten,h
century into the twentieth" MeXfco's
1S,500,O0O inhabitants are growing
thousand years in as many weeks"
Seven thousand land barons own
nearly the whole territory of the re-
public, and the poems have been their
serfs. BY the side of this system OF
feudalism is an investment of 500,000.-
600 American dollars, with life and
progress in its train. The peon earns
Is cents a day, and is always in debt
10 his patron, who holds him perma-
nently by this obligation and transfers
him along with it when he sells his
estate. But the Americans have come
in with their railroads, farms, smelters
and vast farming operations, and have
been bidding up the price of labor.
They pay 20 cents, a dollar, and more.
! The peOn pays off his debts and be-
comes a man. The government offers
free education to his children, from
the alphabet TO the highest degree, and
expects soon to make schooling COM
pulsory.
Trade with the United States in
| creases even when general commerce
declines. In 1902 we sold TO the
/ MeXicans about a third more than all
the rest of the world combined, and
bought from them four times as much
as they sold to all other nations.
Mexico is held back by the uncer-
tain value of her silver money. Trade
is a gamble. Even the bootblack has
TO raise the price of his shine when
silver goes down. Wages are the only
thing that does not rise. Capital must
figure on a margin of at least so per
cent. a year, and even then it often
| loses money.
In spite of these drawbacks Ameti
can capital is pouring in. Kansas City
alone has sent 100000 within the
past five years. Seventy per cent. OF
all the American money invested IN
the country has gone into railroads.
The Mexican Central alone has aD-
sOrbed s159,O0O.00O; the National,
S1O7 100000. Eighty per cent. of all
the railroad capital of Mexico is Amer
lean. There are now over 1900 miles
of rails in the country, and the
amount is steadily increasing.
Americans own all the important
systems but three and are heavy
stockholders in these. They have
recently bought the National from the
British. and the Gulf line from the Bel
gians. They furnish the operating
officers, the conductors and engineers
and sometimes the rest Of the train
crews.
The old Mexican mines are being
rejuvenated by American methods.
Americans are improving the great
ranches and developing the manufact-
ure of cotton faster than it can be
grown at home, so that some Of the
material has to be imported from the
United States.
Americans have started factories OF
all kinds. They have build great irri-
cation dams and canals.
The MeXicans are eagerly adopting
American ways. They have the Amer
lean circus; they use typewriters more
generally than the Parisians; they
have a wireless telegraph system
across the Gulf of California. And
they hope that when Diaz is gone they
will be able to show us that they are
able to elect a new president without
a revolution.