Bisbee daily review., 1910-09-04
PROFESSOR DOUGLAS WRITES ON SAFETY
 OF MINING INVESTMENTS M MEXICO

territory is more than enough cause Ito excite uneasiness and even dread
 Such apprehension is certainly not unreasonable or groundless. As a iconsequence, the distinct object of our international policy has neces- ,sarily always been, in the first place. to grow by natural expansion, to for ltify our national organisms. and then to seek from the dkher side of the At iantic support which alone can be efficacious by creating, acclimatizing and strengthening European inter- ests and elements. Unfortunately. the unjustifiable French interven- tions. obliging us to sustain a war a foutrance in order to preserve our livery existence as nation, interrupt led our organic development, and not only weakened our position physi- cally, through the material sacrifices which we had to make, but morally, by creating divisions greater than had previously existed. The blood of Maximilian created an abyss be- tween Europe and Mexico His death, though it may have been the only means. sad as it was. of secur- ing internal peace, estranged the sympathies of those nations. which then exercised preponderating infiu- ence in Europe" Ga Eyolucion Mercantil DOT Pablo Macedo, page I99.)
 l The above extract probably ex- presses correctly the prevalent feel ! ing among the educated classs in tn past and ia the present. And 1t is they alone who can exert political power for though the franchise is universal, under the Constitution of 1857 and the electoral law of 1901, the vote is really cast by an elector. sl college, composed of one electof for each 800 inhabitants. and ths members cannot be supposed to know the wishes of their constituents as distinctly as those who meet to vots for the President of this country
 Universal suffrage. therefore, in
 Mexico does not voice the popular will as distinctly as it does in this Icountry; but from one motive or an- lother there is an almost universal
 and reasonable dread of offending
 this country, under the belief that Iz
 able and fall with lightning speed
 For every citizen of the United
 States who enter the republic for
 the transaction of business or to en- gage in industrial pursuits through
 some indiscretion of his own or
 through some arbitrary act of an over-zeaiouS Mexican official, may give rise to international complica- tions. These risks are grtater by far in a sparsely settled country like sexico than in a land where the pro- ! vincial g0vrnmnt is thoroughly or gauized and under strict control Of the ce tral power; and it is difficult to a.ntain perfect order and to meet out perfect justice where the officials can not possibly be men i trained for their posts
 In this rapid influx of foreign cap ital, under foreign management, the Mexican sees threfore cause for anxiety which is in itself a source of danger, and 1t can not be wondered at if their sensitiveness is increased by the memory of the original Texas difficulty, and the fact that till re- gently the border population from the Atlantic to the Pacific, possessed of irresistible energy, found vent for it sometimes in eccentric enterprises which were not suggested by the state departments. Most wars have originated in trade disputes or com mere jealousy; and so ready are ] our frontiersmen to avenge any il- jury of insult that they have not waited for declarations of war be- for taking the law into their own hands. There have been instances ,even recently where armed bands have crossed the border to forcibly maintain what thty conceived or at any rate claimed to be their rights Besides which, there are people, presumably well intentioned-north of the line who. comparing political conditions of their own country with lthose prevailing in Mexico. consider that interference in favor of their lneighbors is a duty. They do not always weigh the difference in the habits and education of the voters, which this arbitrary boundary di- ivides; and that truer liberty may coincide- with limited rather than
 with unlimited franchise during a lcertain stage of a peoples social and . political development .. It must be admitted that life and property are safe in Mexico to an eminent degree. considering the dif5 ficulty of policing sich a rugged Icountry, inhabited by a scanty and
 scattered population. Foreigners have certainly had no reason to com plain of illtreatment, nor of such ar bitrary methods being practiced .