Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-07-01
ANARCHY IN MEXICO
Returned Charleston Man Tells of Con-
ditions in Distressed Republic.


Turbulence of conditions Ia steadily
running foreign enterprise In Mexico,
according to Julian L. Wells, of No.
Water street, Charleston, who has re-
turned home after five years spent IN
the land to the south. Mr.. Wells left
Mexico on account Of the impractical
bility Of continuing his work there, and
he will not return until things have
become quiet. This, in the opinion OF
the foreigners In Mexico, he said. will
never occur until some nation inter-
feres in the affairs Of the Republic.
Mr.. Wells will spend the summer, at
least, in Charleston.
Mr.. Wells, who is a son or Mr.. and
Mrs. Edwin L. Wells, and who has q
great many friends in this city who
have greeted him warmly, has been in
Mexico twice. The first time he stay
ed three years and on the last trip five
years. He is a mining and construc-
ton engineer and In the past few years
has been doing more especially con-
tract work for big corporations. These
corporations are all foreign, controlled
by citizens Of the United States or
England or Germany, and they have
done some big work in Mexico. Many
of them, however, have been forced to
suspend operations because Of the
lawless conditions which surrounded
them and on the same boat on which
Mr.. Wells left Vera Cruz for the states,
there were fifty other homeward-
bound men who had been working on
the same project as he. They had
waited until finishing a certain piece
of construction and then they had tax
en- passage for home as soon as they
could.
Many Foreigners Depart.
During the years Mr.. Wells has
spent in Mexico he has worked all
over the northern and south-centrai
portions of the country, and. in fact,
in nearly every part Of the republic,
except the extreme south. And Mexi-
co is a large place. Most people In the
United States know that Mexico Is
some place where the bandits in the
dime novels always run away to, where
tamales come from and where the ma
tives always appear to be killing each
other; but few Of them know, as Mr..
Wells pointed out, that the boundary
between Mexico and the United States
is 1900 miles long and that 1t is about
a thousand miles from the border to
Mexico City, the capital, and that one
can draw a line two thousand miles
long across the country without hav-
ing the ends of It get wet In the ocean.
But with all It's $4,000 square miles
of territory 1t has only about as many
people as New York and Ohio togeth-
er, something near fourteen millions.
Everybody who can get out is do
ing go" said Mr.. Wells. He said there
were some foreigners who felt, that
they could not give up their business
In Mexico and that these were In
quandary. Their lives are really In
danger, he said. and the requests by
citizens Of the United States for in
reference from this country have been
founded on good causes. Most OF the
women, however, have been sent back
home, although Mr.. Wells said that In
the larger cities, there were still quite
a number of European and "Ameri-
can" women to be seen. un Mexico
one speaks only of citizens Of the
United States as Americans.)
United States Blamed.
On the subject Of interference Mr.
Wells had some interesting views
which he stated. He said that many
of the Europeans felt a sort Of griev-
ance toward this country for not do
ing anything to stop the riotous con-
ditions in Mexico. Europeans appeal
to their own countries to do something
and the reply Is that the United States
won't allow them to. From the stand
point of the foreigner in this country,
the position Of the United States ap-
pears to be that she will not let any
other nation interfere in Mexico and
she won't interfere herself.
Asked whether he thought the Unit
ed States was holding off from doing
in Mexico in order that its
forces might not be dissipated in the
event Of trouble from the far east,
Mr.. Wells said than an invasion Of
Mexico would be the very best thing
for the country from this standpoint.
He said that If this country would
send an army of a hundred thousand
men through a campaign of invasion
in Mexico, 1t would form an army Of
veterans which would be a bulwark
for the nation for the next twenty-five
years. There would be hundred
thousand men who had seen actual
campaigning and campaigning Of the
toughest sort and these men would
furnish a mighty nucleus for volun-
teer army in the case OF a more i'm
portant struggle.
Mexicans are Unreliable.
Mr.. Wells said that foreigners In
Mexico never work for Mexicans II
they can help it, This is not from any
principle of prejudice, but for business
reasons, as the Mexicans are far less
reliable in their business dealings
than are the American and German
and English and other foreign corpor-
ations that have taken hold Of much
of the most important work in the
country. AS to the business opportu-
mites for a man in Mexico in normal
times, he said that it was bad coun-
try for the small man, but that there
were big opportunities for the small
man who workdd in connection with a
big corporation. The reason for this
is the great system Of graft. The rake
off must be paid for franchises and
things Of the sort is too steep for a
man with small capital. He will be
continually pestered by petty local Of
ficials, where he carries on his work
But the big corporations pay their
fees, have friends at court to look af-
.er their interests and when he OF
.ome one else, doing job for such
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