Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-08-09
THE MEXICAN PEOPLE
By Frederic ]. Haskin

enty-flve to eighty per cent. of the
Mexican population. AS a matter of
fact. about forty per cent. of the pop
ulation is of mixed blood, and this
class is continually increasing. In
fact, the ultimate Mexican type which
will be evolved after the various ele-
ments have finally adjusted their re-
lations to each other, according to
the ethnologists, must be an individ-
ual of mixed blood with Indian stock
predominating.
The remaining division of the peo-
pie includes the pure Indians. Placed
! by some authorities as high in num-
bers as thirteen million out of a to-
tai of sixteen million. they constitute
at least from forty per cent to a half
of the people. Among themselves
they include great diversity of
types and tribes. One hundred and
eighty-two idioms have been identi-
fed and classified in the dialects spok-
en- in Mexico to-day. There are fifty
three distinct languages in use. The
persistence of these different dialects
in single republic is probably due
to the poor state of the means of
communication. Their presence
shows at any rate the diversity of the
Indian stock. This diversity runs
through all the characteristics of the
! tribes, whose members show all the
range of mental ability from a Benito
Juarez, the national hero who was a
pure blooded Indian, down to the
stupid and savage Apaches of Sonora.
By far the greater part of the Indian
peoples, however, are of a type not
distinguished for ability or intelli-
gence.
! These are the three great divisions of
the Mexican people. Another striking
fact that stands out is the conspicuous
absence of any considerable foreign
element. For the last FIVE years of
course, Mexico has offered few at
! fractions to immigrants, but even be-
fore the revolutionary period there
were only fifty or sixty thousand for
eigners in the whole country-a num-
ber utterly insignificant compared to
its great size and large population.
Herein consists perhaps the real weak
ness of Mexico; for all the progress
sive and successful republics of the
American continent have drawn con-
tinually on Europe for new blood.
The lack of immigration was due
to two causes-the land situation and
the state of industry. The land ques-
ton, of course, is the one over which
all the revolutions ostensibly at least,
are being fought. Nowhere else on
earth did so few men hold so much
| land as in Mexico. The whole coun-
try was in the hands of a few hun
dred owners. One man owned an es-
tate of twenty million acres-half the
size of England. And on this ac-
count, there was no possibility of
hom esteading, no chance for the i'm
migrant to acquire a farm. 1t has
been proved again and again that the
cream of emigration goes where there
is a chance to get land There is an
other type of emigrant, not quite so
desirable perhaps-the man who is
looking for work. He too had no
chance in Mexico. for there are no
manufactures to speak of, and the
agricultural work was done by peon
labor in a condition of semiserfdom.
So Mexico to-day faces the world
with one of the most homogeneous
populations on record. so far as for
eign elements are concerned. The
great bulk of that population con-
sists of the lower-class mestizo and
the pure Indian, who really mingle to
form one class. as opposed to the
| Spanish aristocracy. That class is in
Overwhelming preponderance in point
of numbers 1t forms the real Mexi-
l can people.