The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-08-02
MEXICO NOT ANTI-AMERICAN
REPORTS PROBABLY AROSE
 FROM LABOR MOVEMENT.


 jeans, but Others are Not, and There
 is No Distinction--Diaz Keeping the
 Peace.
 Rumors of an anti-American move ment in Mexico have been drifting across the border into Texas for seve- ral months and have been telegraphed thence to American industrial oenters. New York has recently received dis patches via Fl Paso that have de- scrlbed the situation as serious and have pictured American corporations l as hiring hundreds of detectives for lself-proteetion.
 The leading concerns in this city in- terested in Mexican manufacturing and mining were almost a unit yester- 1 day in declaring the rumors to be false. A representative of the Greene Consolidated Copper company said that the men who started and spread the rumors had Interior motives not unconnected with stock jobbing.
 At the Guggenheim Exploration con- lpany's office 1t was said that there was no foundation of fact in the reports that there was an anti-American agi- tation An official of the Mexican Exploration and Development compa- ny said that It's persistent efforts to lind any strictly anti-American senti- ment had been without result; there was an agitation by the laborers for higher wages which has caused some 1 trouble.
 l.. c, Simonds, associate editor of the Mexican Herald, who arrived here several days ago directly from the City lof Mexico and who is thoroughly fa- mtllar with the situation, said:
 There is absolutely no foundation for the stories that are being ciroula- ted in the press of the United States in Iregard to an anti-foreign or anti- American movement on the part of the working classes in Mexico. 4 high off, fioial of one of the American owned railways in Mexico assured me that these stories originated from a dis charged employe of that corporation.
 Americans In Mexico are protected in their lives and property and are as lsafe there as they would be if travel ing or residing in Great Britain or IGermany. The Mexican authorities afford every safeguard for both the cit izen and foreigner. and Americans who have friends or relatives residing in Mexico need not be under the slight :. est apprehension as to their safety.
 Indeed, these stories in regard to an anti-foreign attitude of the Mexi-
 can population would be simply laughed at by Americans In Mexico, were 1t not realized that they are cal
 culated to do some harm among the
 large class of readers who, while knowing in a general way that Mexi- co is well governed at present, do not realize the perfect order and stability
 that now prevail there. under the strong and righteous administration of ] President Diaz.
 What is true, and what may have
 given rise to the mendacious stories in
 question, is that labor is organizing in
 Mexico on a greater scale than ever
 before. But there is nothing anti-for- l eign and still less anti-American in
 this movement It was bound to come Z sooner or later as an inevitable conse- { lquence of the growing industrial devel- } opment of the country. Labor unions l or gulds have exsted in Mexico fo1
 years past, but their object hitherto < has been purely fraternal or philan- l thropic Now the working class ir ) Mexico, owing to the establishment oi lnew industries has become so numer. : lous that these unions have taken on 2 lnew cast and have adopted as part ot D their programme the cooperation ot I all such associa tions for the defence O ! the rights of labor. This is an entirely . new departure in Mexico, and as tht ! working classes are throwing them selves into it with an enthusiasm char
 acteristic of the Latin race the govern
 ment has thought proper to take stepi
 to the end that 1t may not lead to ex ', cesses or disorderly demonstrations O < any kind. :.
 At Drizaba, which is the center o
 the cotton spinning and weaving in . dustry of Mexico, where over fifteel 5 thousand worlxinen are employed il
 the mills, an incipient strike for high
 CT wages recently occurred and the au = thorities took measures to prevent an, " riotous acts on the part of the strikers i The cotton mills of Orizaba are owne is exclusively by Frenchmen and Span u iards. On the other hand the railways 'S the large smelling plants and som o other industrial concerns are oWne j. by Americans, and in general it ma !" be said that considerable proportio
 of the industries of Mexico are owned
 operated and managed by foreigners
 so that 1t is extremely easy for i'll in
 tentioned persons to distort this move a ment of Mexican labor, of which
 Ihave spoken, for fuller protection C l. it's rights, by representing 1t as D movement aimed against foreigners l. But 1t is not, for the movement t. question is equally perceptible in tn in case of manufacturing concerns owne
 and operated by MeXioans' of whic 4. there are number.
 al "The authorities do not object to tn al association of Mexican labor for tn
 protection of It's legitimate interests l. they rather encourage it. But the
 are fully resolved to maintain order 2
 all costs and they take steps to tha n end whenever there seems to be an ~ danger of it being disturbed as re 1u suit of discontent among the opera m tives of large industrial concerns" ' ne New York Sun.
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