The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-06

" HIS letter is devoted to the small
man in Mexico It is not for the
railroad magnate or the millionaire,
capitalist nor the skilled mining or civil
engineer who is sent down over the bor-
der with money TO burn. 1t is for the
would-be settler. who has a few hundred
or few thousand dollars and for the
man who has saved some money and
hopes to plant 1t where it will breed gold
dollars more rapidly than the rabbits of
Australia bring forth their young. To
such Mexico has been painted as an Ell
Dorado, whose treasure vaults may be
opened as easily as was tine cave of the
Forty Thieves to our old friend Ali Baba,
and also as a Garden of Eden, where you
may sow coffee cocoanuts and bananas
and then lie in the shade of the trees
until the fruit drops into your mouth.
A Warning to Investors
The truth is far different Just now,
in these days of rebellion, brigandage
and political unrest there is no chance
at all for the small man. When the
country is quiet and peace has returned
it will be different; and. as I shall
show farther on the opportunities for
large profits will probably be greater
than in the United States. Mexico is
ready for a mighty development and
there are millions of American, dollars
which will roll down over the border as
soon as our capitalists can be sure that
they will be permanently safe. One of
the consuls tells me that during the last
years of the Diaz regime new money was
coming In by the tens of thousands of
dollars day. This money was damned
back by the revolutionary troubles and 1t
only awaits stable conditions to break
forth In a tidal wave over the republic.
If this is it will pay the big man and
the little man to keep his eyes upon
Mexico.
Lost Money in Mexico
But. as 1 have suggested, lit will pay =he
small man to watch out. I nave been
looking into the results of the small in
vestments of the past Americans tell me
of thousands of our people who have put
their little savings into Mexican stock
companies, and have gotten nothing back.
This is the verdict of our consuls, of
mining engineers and of American busi-
ness men who have Travelled over the
country. The opportunities are here, but
the field has been largely exploited by
fake companies and stock jobbing syndi-
Gates. These men, by promising enor-
nous returns, have persuaded the small
man to invest what he had and to mort
gage his future for additional sums. to be
paid on monthly installments. Most of
such companies have failed, and many of
them have been fakes, pure and simple
The bona fide capitalists here are salts
fed with 10 or 10 per cent profit and
If there were many investments which
would net them 100 per cent they would
grab them. This Is so not only of mines,
but of tropical agriculture, and 1T is safe
to say that any man who promises 500
per cent profit within five or ten years is
a fraud.
Advice From Uncle Sans Agents
One of the most careful observers of the
men sent here by the government is
Charles NJ. Pepper, who was long ,or-
respondent of the chicago Tribune. In a
report to Congress he stated that no
American school teacher, clerk, day lab
orer seamstress or college professor. who
had only few hundred dollars of'savngs,
had any right to risk them in a Mexican
stock company, especially in those relating
to tropical plantations. He advised them
to take their little hordes, and throw
them into the sea and leave a record of
the place where the bubbles came up for
their grandchildren rather than to put
them into such companies with the hope
they would ever come back to them
their grandchildren.
One of our consul generals says that no
Amt rican. and especially no one with
small savings. should invest in Mexico
without a report from parties whom he
knows to be reliable. Better still would
it be for him to come here to see before
he buys. Big names do not always mean
relia bility of statement and the so-called
government concessions for the invest
lnent of capital lapse If the development
stipulated in them fails. When one buys
real estate at home lie always looks into
the title .and the same. should be done
in any foreign speculation, and especially
when the title comes from a foreigner.
The Frontier of the United States
On the other hand, Mexico is now to
take the part of our great west. It is to
be the frontier of the United States, and
with settled conditions the big estates
win gradually be divided. Many of them
will go into the hands of bona fide de-
veopment companies and will be aces
sibe to American settlers. Such will be
the Mexican part of the imperial valley
which is to have its share of the waters
CT the Colorado river for irrigation. The
lands there are as rich as the valley of
the Nile and quite equal to those now be-
ing worked in the United States.
There are also large tracts of lowlands
near the coast which will be opened to
the growing OF coffee and bananas and
other tropical fruits and there are al
ready some profitable tropical estates
operated by American syndicates. Just
before the revolutionary troubles began
American planters were coming in by the
hundreds, and settling the coast lands
near the Caribbean sea. Many had hold
inss near Tampico, others had bought
tinker lands farther SOUTH some were
prospecting for petroleum and some were
looking up rubber investments.
say there were many of these invest
ors. The term is only comparative. The
permanent American residents of Mexi-
1000, which is a small number COM
pared with the total population here,
which is about 16o00,0oo. Today thou
sands of these Americans have left. 9th
ers have stayed and sent their families
home, and still others have given up in
despair on account of the unsettled con-
ditions Indeed. 1 doubt that there are
more than 10000 or 20,00o Americanssliv-
ing in Mexico today.
Chances for Young Men
There is no opportunity for a young,
n without =