Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-04-10
MEXICO A KEYSTONE ON THE
MAP.

~
MAP.
There are reasons why Mexico mas
wide geographical interest for other
continents remarks the St. Louis
Globe Democrat. Its longitude COW
ers almost as many degrees as that
of the United States. From it's north
western corner adjoining California,
! Mexico stretches as far east as the
meridian of Atlanta and Pensacola.
Its narrowing strip is the approach to
the isthmian territory between North
and South America. The Mexican
coast line on the two great oceans is
remarkable because it is doubled on
one side by the inland Gulf of Cali.
fornia, and on the other by the deep
concavity of the gulf. This coast line
in all is not much less than 5000 miles
long. In the southern locality of Ten
huantepec Mexico is but 14O miles
wide. and canal to include the large
river Coatzacoala was planned nearly
a century ago. Up to 1870 nineteen
different routes have been proposed
for an isthmian waterway. Among
those who wrote on this subject were
Jefferson, Pitt. Humbolt, Louis Phil
ippe, Louis Napoleon, Plus Ninth,
Everett, Marcy. Webster and Clay.
Numerous canal treaties and conces'
sions were made by Mexico and Cen.
trail American states to foreign gov
ernments, and were cleared away in
comparatively recent years.
The eyes of Europe were on Mex
leo for 400 years. Its geographical
and commercial Importance has been
thoroughly understood in the Old
World. Mexico extends from the 30th
to the 18th degree OF north latitude,
with length of 1000 miles and ex-
IRENE breadth of LOO. Its area is
less than three times that of Texas,
but its varying attitudes embrace all
climates end productions of the troo'
les and temperate zone. In mining
is riches have been known for cen
turtles, and yet their C:.n develop.
ment is yet to come. Territorially,
Mexico is ten times the size of Great
Britain and is as large as France,
Spain and Austria combined. Its trop-
ical coast is backed by the highland
district and temperate table lands, |
while peaks at perpetual snow are
not lacking. In these different ele.
vations are streams fed by exhaust !
less moisture, and the fertility of the
soil has never been seriously i'm
paired. More than half of Mexico is |
in the temperate zone. Its physical
has made the country one
of the most marked on the globe. |
These facts were impressed upon Eu-
rope early in the sixteentht century.
1t is fortunate that nothing monarch
ical fingers there when so long an ef'
fort was made to transplant royalty to
this rare region.
Mexico was land no less appre-
ciated in prehistoric times. Its early
were the most advanced
on the continent. The Aztecs = the
Toltecs whom they overpoweret both
had past of social life far in ad-
vance of savagery, and a store of
knowledge reached at that time in
few PAGES on the earth. But Mexico
has always been land of troubled
government. 1t is today in state
of serious political agitation, if not
But the country in geog.
raphy relatively to the rest of the
world is always to be considered, and
must necessarily be to the United
States, one of the paramount CONT
mental issues. What tranquil and
governed Mexico could
become is beyond the range of opti-
mistic conjectures. One thing is GER
tain. 1t is impossible for the United
States to treat the future of Mexicol
with Indifference, or to keep away
from the border as a place of observa-
ton and intimate communication.
Aeredity.