THE PROGRESS OF MEXICO.
IT is stated in the American newspapers that, for the first time in his long term of office, President Diaz of Mexico is about to make a prolonged tour through the United States, that he will visit Washington, where he will be officially received by the President, and. that during his absence, for which special leave of the Mexican. Congress has been granted, a Vice-President has been. appointed. to discharge the duties of the Executive. That President Diaz will be warmly welcomed in the United. States goes without saying. Time was, in the old days of slavery and. the ascendency of the South, when it was contended that " manifest destiny" demanded the absorp- tion of both Cuba and. Mexico into the Union. That Mexico would have been so absorbed if that had been the sole alternative to European aggression is fairly certain, but it is the Union that would have suffered. Fortu- nately, as we think, for both countries, a very remarkable man in the person of President Juarez, whose career is the most exciting and romantic of any public man of our century save Garibaldi, was able to rescue Mexico from the anarchy into which it had been plunged, and to lay the foundations of a stable and progressive Republic. And, as good luck would have it, a successor has been found to Juarez in the person of Porfirio Diaz, who has built up on the founda- tions of Juarez a superstructure worthy of far greater attention than it is accustomed to receive in this country. The result, so far as the United. States are concerned, has been to transform entirely the rElations of the two Republics. So long as the danger of an absolutely priest-ruled Empire threatened North America, it was impossible for the United States to look calmly on ; and at the close of the Civil War, when the Union had a. million of men in arms, intervention in Mexico was a natural policy. Even some years later, Mexican turbulence and border raids into Texas seemed to invite a "spirited foreign policy" at Washington. But the strong govern- ment of President Diaz has changed all that ; and Americans, who find their internal affairs sufficiently complex and comprehensive, and who at present want no additional territory, are on the friendliest terms with a sister Republic which has emerged from the rut of South and Central American States to a position of progress, dignity, and prosperity.
The Mexican Republic under President Diaz has been thus described by an American observer who has traversed every part of it :—" She is no longer old Mexico, the romantic hag whose wrinkles and tatters we have found so grotesque. While we have been achieving a material development, she has wrought the political and social miracle of the century She has acquired not only a government which governs, but one which knows how to govern,—and contemporaneously a people which has learned how to be ruled." This testimony seems to be justified by the facts. The first duty of a government is to secure order and justice, to make the path of the honest citizen clear, and to suppress and punish crime. This has been steadily undertaken and successfully done by the administration of President Diaz. A generation ago scarcely a road in Mexico was safe from the bandido, who robbed and murdered with impunity. Even in the heart of towns the traveller was not safe, and in the open country it was impossible to travel for the brigandage. Mexico, in fact, was on the level almost of Asiatic Turkey. To-day great railways, connected with the American trunk lines, traverse the country, thousands of tourists from the United States make the spring excursions to Mexico to enjoy a bracing climate and a life more picturesque in incident and colour than more northern climes afford, and travel in every part is—by the admis- sion of Americans—more secure than in some of the South-Western States and Territories of the Union. The bandido has been completely wiped out, and this has been done well within a generation. This has been affected by two means,—by the sternest justice and by the development of resources by which honest work has been offered as an alternative to dishonest adventure. As the author to whom we have referred says (with an evident eye to the occasional weaknesses of American Judges and juries) : "Whatsoever brigand was caught —and Diaz has a way of catching—stood just long enough in front of an adobe wall for the firing party to crook the right forefinger." No sentimentalism has been allowed to stand in the way of that which was so urgently needed,—viz., vigorous and thorough reform. The first duty of the Government (without the discharge of which the State sinks into a mere agglomeration of individuals), the enforcement of order and justice, was secured, and is now a commonplace in Mexico.
The development of the immense resources of Mexico was the second need of the country, bound up of course with the administration of justice, and impossible without it. Our people do not realise what a great country Mexico is, as they do not realise the prodigious wealth of South and Central America generally. Mexico has an area of 767,000 square miles, and though the climate of the tierra caliente is trying to those from cold countries, the climate of the immense plateaux is mag- nificent, the mineral wealth is proverbial, and the agricul- tural regions are rich. Two-thirds of the whole silver stock of the world has come from Mexican mines. The enforcement of law has attracted capital from the United States and Great Britain, the American tourists have brought large sums of money into the country, and wealthy Mexicans, instead of going to live in Paris as absentee owners, as they used to do, prefer now to live in their own well-governed country ; at least that is the increasing tendency. Mexico is, of course, on a silver basis, and the low price of silver makes its exportation unprofitable, so that the silver remains at home, circu- lation of money is increased, and a large reserve is held an the banks. On the other hand, it must be admitted that national expenses are increased by the payment in gold of the Mexican Debt held abroad, so that the criticism on the gold standard made in the Western States raises a certain echo in Mexico. But, in the main, the prosperity is admitted to be steady. Lle being simple, wages are low from our point of view, but trade fluctuates but little. "We do not," wrote Seilor Romero, the Mexican Minister in Washington, "suffer in Mexico from one of the principal causes of the present financial dis- tress in other countries,—the low price of agricultural products. We have more stability of prices, wages, rents, &c." Nor has industry been scooped into Trusts and "combines." Festina lente has been the motto of the Diaz Administration. As regards the tariff, Mexico is theoretically for a very low tariff, but she is so closely connected with the United States that the perpetual tariff cl anges in Washington can scarcely help affect- ing her policy, and she has not considered heiself able to reduce her tariff as she would prefer to do, or as Si e. certainly would were it not for the waves of high Pi )tectionism which have swept over the United States.
Spaniah America presents itself to our imagination as the realm of revolutions and pronunciamientos, and Mexico had fifty-two Presidents, Dictators, and Emperors within fifty-nine years. But President Diaz has now been in power for nearly a quarter of a century, so that his policy has been continuously and effectively carried out. This spectacle of a man of mixed race holding by a determined will a large Republic in his hand for so many years, not for his own aggrandisement so far as one can see, but for the purpose, steadily persisted in, of bringing Mexico up to the standard of an advanced civilisation, is far more worthy of attention than it receives in England. Is this powerful ruler unanimously supported in Mexico ? it will be asked. By no means ; his chief adversaries are the Clericals or Rurales. The accusations against him are that he persecutes opinion, that he has aimed at dictator- ship, and that his fiscal policy will bring about financial disasters. The two former charges are bound up together; and regarding them, it may be at once admitted that to make ail omelette you must break eggs. President Diaz saw thirt what Mexico needed was strong personal rule to lift the- country from chaos. Worshippers of formulas would :.ondemn every step Diaz has taken ; those who look at 2olitical and social results will justify most steps.
We are not dealing, be it remembered, with a country of centuries of settled life and ordered institutions, but with a vast region which had to be reclaimed from ignorance, violence, and barbarism. Stern work was needed tp attain the end, and President Diaz did not shrink from it. He suppressed newspapers as Signor Crispi suppressed them in Italy, because they made for the disruption of a nation which was becoming compact and unified. He managed elections as M. Constans managed those of France in 1889, when, to save the Republic, it was necessary to smash Boulanger. But in what Latin country in the world are not elections " managed " ? And if they are to be managed, it is surely better that they should be managed by a competent and honest President than by a camarilla of priests, which was the alternative in Mexico. The Rurales prate about invaded liberty, but the " liberty " they ask for is liberty to destroy, or at least to risk the destruction of, the great work of modernising Mexico and lifting it from barbarism. It is safe to assert that if the Liberal Administration—call it Cmsarism if you will, though it is a misleading word—of President Diaz fell in pieces, some other strong one-man rule would be essential to rescue the State from threatened anarchy.
Spanish America has been remarkable for the produc- tion of strong men, like San Martin, Bolivar, Juarez, Diaz, and Barrios, who has just fallen a victim to assassination. It is fortunate that such is the case, for it is certain that the democratic forms established there are quite inconsis- tent with the Parliamentary system, and can only realise large and progressive social ends through the firm rule of either an armed Dictator or a strong and almost irrespon- sible President like President Diaz. Even the "illustrious American," Guzman Blanco, though on a lower level than those to whom we have referred, was not an unfit ruler for Venezuela. Some day Spanish America, so vast and rich, will emerge from her comparative seclusion, and play a great part on the world's stage. But for that part a long discipline in orderly development and social efficiency will be needed, and that will, in our judgment, be best attained through competent personal rule carrying steadily and persistently out a well-conceived policy, as President Diaz has done in Mexico.
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