The San Francisco call., 1909-02-23
MFxICOALAND
OF PROMISE TO
ALERT AMERICAN
Frederick Palmer Writes of the
Vast Opportunities for Pro-
gressive Yankees
Finds Friction and Other Lack
OF Social intercourse Between
Natives and "GringOes"
Why the English Get the Cow
eminent Contracts Away
From Our Nation
By Frederick Palmer

p khe growth Of American interests in
Mexico was inevitable A country on
? our border. with an area of $4,000
square miles, three times that of Texas
and 3 times that Of Illinois. with
population Of $4,000. 900. manufacturing
little for itself connected with US by
tsYo great trunk lines Of railroad. and
. on the threshold of development, is
bound TO be market for our goods
and field for our activities.
Our neighbor is rich in resources and
we have the men and the capital which
?. she lacks TO develop them. So far do
. 7Te dominate the arteries of traffic that
II YOU did not look out of the car win
dow at the adobe huts and the faces at
the first station after crossing the Rio
Srande you might stiIl imag gine your
self in the United States
The sleeper which you board in St
Louis runs through TO Mexico City. At
every stage an American engineer is
at the throttle and an American con
ductor gives the orders. Your fellow
passengers, mostly Americans return
ing from vacation, are mining engi-
neers, capitalists, promoters, ranch
owners, contractors, managers and
clerks in mining ard railroad corpora
uons, with some foremen and mechan-
ics-the officers. commissioned and non
commissioned. Of industrial aristocracy.
The Mexican peon furnishes the man
uaI labor. which they direct in behalf
Of the ssoO.OOo.0oO capital invested.
AMERICANS OF ALL CLASSES
Whether il is the man with the NOV
ing picture show or the New York cap
italist inspecting his smelling plant,
: the proSpector who tramps the noun
tains and comes into town unshaved.
footsore. and dusty, with some samples
OF rock in his pocket. or the mine man
ager who directs q great Organization, /
the type is clear on the background of
-swarthy Indians and cactus fringed /
trails, where you must know a little
Spanish in order TO ask the way or get
q bite Of food.
Across that other border line-that
Of Canada-the American merges. In
Mexico YOU think Of the Canadians as
Americans A Canadian who was for
'merly engineer on one Of the railways
Is a leading banker in Mexico City and
his son is at Yale. The Mexico light
and power company. one OF the great
est foreign corporations, with immense
concessions for harnessing the water
power which lies between the highlands
and the swift descent TO the sea in the
southern and narrower portions. is Ca
madam in capital and management
Nine out Of 10. if not 19 out Of 20.
Americans in Mexico are from the mid
die west. That great region of the
plains extending into Canada sent
southwark the men who built, who or
.ganized. who man and who run the
railroads Of Mexico and in their train
followed others of varied occupations.
OUR NATIONALITY STRONGEST
We speak Of English 'insularity" In
Mexico you md American continent
alism." Long residence south Of the
Rio Grande leaves the American more
American than the German is German
or the Englishman Is English. How
ever well he talks Spanish, he is
man Of his own community AT some
mine far away in the mountains the
engineers speak pleasantly in passing
= TO the cOmandante. but with this
and business relations intercourse
ends
At chihuahua. TOrreOn and Monte
rey are American colonies that live
their own life as much as the foreign
. colonies in the treaty ports of China
Every American who is in Mexico is
there to make money, including the
Aformons. who may claim another
cause that of marital or religious free
-doin. But the Mormon, too, is largely
American in his beaverish instincts.
I4e has shown how irrigation and good
farming viii make luxuriant fields in
the desert. To his work we must turn,
rather than to the great ranch owners,
it, -.fN = ,1e1.
sources. unmindful by the listless
peon- which is more permanent than
that Of the mines.
The Mexican still plows with a stick
lie asks his black beans and the corn
out Of which he makes his tortfllas
(corncakes) Of the soil The agricuI-
turaI possibilities Of a land whose
mountain systems change the climate
every few longitudinal miles, which
has regions without rain and regions
where IT pours, which grows rubber
and wheat a hundred miles apart
=. await the farmer, either immigrant or
Mexican, when he viii learn while as
yet, few except the capitalist and his
captains, adjutants and sergeants have
p. come from abroad.
INTEREST IN BIG AFFAIRS
In railroads. mines and cattle ranch
ing lie the great American interests
We 90 for the loaves and do not mind
the EE4tADH- AOGBn the government
has taken over the railroads. Ameri-
cans hold all the managerial and most
Of the important clerical positions be-
cause no Mexicans are trained to take
the places. Thus far Diaz and Liman-
tour have in nowise interfered with the
mana cement on effective business lines
What would happen II Mexico should
have another such regime as that of
Gonzalez who was president in the
fnterregnum while Diaz was out2-
when political dependents ask that
these lucrative Offices shall be turned
over to them when the graft system
accepted as a part Of public life is
applied TO the corporations2
French and British as well as Ameri-
can capital is engaged in mining; and
Il is not always easy TO trace the hold
fngs home in these days OF interna-
tionaI finance. But the engineers are
usually American. as they are in South
Africa and Australia. Their efficiency
and fame have travelled as far as that
OF American dentists. Their cosmo-
politanism is the product of distant
trails and Isolated camps; serene, clear /
eyed men. on the Job all day. con- |