The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-12-31
FACE TO FACE WITH
THE MExICANS
THEY HAVE THEIR OWN PERSONAL
IDEAS CONCERNING CIVILIZATION
SLOW ANDE EASYGOING
The System Of Peonage Still Exists, and
The Employer Lawfully Owns The En-
pIoye he can Keep in his Debt. The
I Poems are an Ignorant Glass Of People
Chautauqua Paper By Sherlock

Chautauqud Paper By Sherlock
The truest fact as it exists today
and which evolves itself into ques
tion is; What real advantage will il
be to the Mexicans when we have
all our civilization sent down there
by the daily express trains which
are running into their couDtry?" |,
is by no means a perfect civilization
as we see it at home, and if it were
not ours perhaps we should not like
ii very we'll ourselves in all respects
The dazzling hope of being one OF
the foremost, which every American
cherishes, has hitherto blinded us
to the fact that it abandons the hind
most to the fate attending the rear
guard of other civilizations; but the
time has already come when this
hope no longer wholly avails.
Some observers of our national
free-fght have discovered of late
that not all the combatants are op
top; they notice with grave misgiv-
ing that a considerable number are
apparently ground into the mire.
and that there seems to be great
many broken bones brought away
from the rush and scrambl even by
such as escape from it with its prizes.
In its basis it does not differ from
the civilization which the Mexlcans
have now; it is more a question OF
quantity than of kind, and it is for
the Mexicans to say whether they
will have more or less. The theory
of our patriotic pride is that if they
-havesmure-ttrcy wiHhecome rich
and prosperous nation like ourselves,
thai they will develop their natural
resources, and foster their unnatural
ones. We do not stop to consider
that the people who do the hard
work of a nation. who really earn
It's living, seem by no m cans COM
Portable and happy IN proportion to
the National riches and prosperity;
and it is doubtful whether we would
be improving The condition of the
Mexican masses by int Cd ucing the
American trust, pool combine, cor
ner, and strike among them. We
have built them some railroads with
our capital; out should we be really
lnf, I lxl ~,
bestowing upon them the moral
and financial chaos that we call our
railroad system?
Perhaps we do not make it any
part of our business 10 pause for
such inquiries; but here the MeXl-
cans temperament favors his de-
his makeup tomorrow plays much
larger part than today; and If he ac-
cepts Amerlcanlsm at ali, it will be
after long delay. not to say due re-
Election. In his poor way, however,
ne does seem to make his reflections;
he sees our hurry, our bluntness. our
general gracelessness, against our
civilization. The Mexicans, If we
are to believe some writer's, are,
from highest to lowest. almost con-
scientiously well hammered; TO be
sweetly polite, and TO take time for
being so, is what their children are
taught from the first moments of in
telligence. Probably not more real
good-heartedness is embodied IN it
than in our ruder ways; but. on the
other hand, there is probably not
less; and the Mexicans are so fixed
in their belief that we are the worse
for our lack of it that they like al
most any other people better.
The first care of a shrewd Euro
pean is to guard against the chance
of being taken for an American, il
he desires even business success in
Mexico; and in society Americans
are apparently received only upon
proof of their fitness, the burden OF
which rests with them. Once &C.
cepted. however, these same excel
lent writers of Mexican social con.
ditions would persuade us that they
experience in the friendships they
form, a constancy known only to
the youth of romance among our.
selves, and in spite of the historic
grudge which the Mexlcans as a
people have against us.
Their monuments, their memories
their literature even to their school
books, bear witness that we once did
them a great wrong in the interest
of the greatest wrong; that to per.