The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-11
RIENZI THOMAS.
 Teacher of Voice and Piano. 3o3 N GOLDTHWAITE STREET
AMERIcANzING MEXICO.
Peaceful Expansion at Work in the
 Southern Republic.

Under the influence of American capital and Ideas the Mexican people. says Eugene P. Isyle. Jr.. in the September Worlds Work. f1eaping from the tenth century into the twentieth" Mexco's 3. soc, 900 inhabitants are growing a thousand years in many weeks."
 Seven thousand land barons own nearly the whole territory of the republic and the peons have been their serfs. By the side of this sys- tenn of feudalsm is an investment of 500 ooo- GOO American dollars, with life and progress sn-its train. The peon earns IS cents day, and is always in debt to his patron, who holds him permanently by this obligation and trans zers him along with it when he sells his es- tate. But the Americans have come in with *heir railroads. farms. smeters and vast farm Ing operations. and have been bidding up the price of labor They pay 75 cents dollar and more The peon pays of his debts and becomes man. The Government offers free education to his children. from the alphabet to the highest degree. and expects soon to make schooling compulsory.
 Trade with United States increases even when general commerce declines. In leoI-o2 we nold to the Mexicans about third more than all the rest of the world combined. and bought from them four times much as they sold to all other nations.
 Mexico is held back by the uncertain 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 30 per cent. a sear. and even then it often loses money
 Tn spite of these drawbacks American capital is pouring in. Kansas City alone has sent ESQ 900 900 within the past five years. Sev- anty per cent. of all the American money n- vested in the country has gone into railroads. srbe Mexican Central alone has absorbed s 5e, = rOo. 900; the National. SIo7. 500, ooo Eighty Ter cent of all the railroad capital of Mexico ss American. There are now over l 1000 miles af raiIIs 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 che British, and the Gulf line from the Bel zaans They furnish the operating officers. the conductors and engineers and sometimes the rast of the train crews.
 The old Mexican mines are being re1uvenated g,,r, American methods. Americans are improv- snx the great ranches and developing the man s,f@cf,,re of cotton faster than it can be grown as home so that some of the material has ao be imported from the United States
 Americans have started factories of all kinds rhey have built great irrigation dams and nanais
 The Mexicans are eagerly adopting American mays. They have the American circus; they s,sa typewriters more generally than the Pa v4aians: they nave a wireless telegraph sys- lem across the Gulf of California And they Mowe that when Diaz is gone they will be able ao show us that they are able. like ourselves sn elsct c AsN President without revolution.