MEXICO TO-DAY.* MR. MARTIN, like so many other travellers, complains
of the ignorance of his countrymen about foreign countries. No doubt the charge is true, but one ought to distinguish. Englishmen know more of foreign countries than any other nation. Their failure is not on the adventurous, but on the academic side; in short, they are weak in geography. They may have visited India and Australia and be ignorant of the position of Peru and Honduras. Sir George Goldie, whom Mr. Martin quotes, reminded the Royal Geographical Society recently that the Foreign Office alone of the Civil Services of the Crown used to include geography in the entrance examina- tion, but even the Foreign Office has abolished the subject. Of course there is a reason; geography is implied in history ; no one can pass an historical test of any value without geo- graphical knowledge. Still, Mr. Martin's strictures are, we think, deserved up to a certain point. He tells us that one of the managers of swell-known bank, from whom he was getting a letter of credit, thought that Mexico was in South America. In spite of the extraordinary development of Mexico in recent years, Mr. Martin finds that Englishmen still suppose it to be a "risky place for investments" and a "dangerous country" for travel. This book, which is full of statistical information, ought to end a good many delusions.
Mr. Martin quotes Pope in apologising for his book :—
" And if the means be just, the conduct true, Applause, in spite-of trivial faults, is due."
This is really disarming; and we can only do our duty as critics, while responding to the spirit in which the quotation is proffered, by disposing of the one complaint we have to make as soon as possible, and then calling attention without a further check to the undoubted virtues of the book. The fault we find is that Mr. Martin gives us information which is quite unnecessary, and has really little or nothing to do with Mexico, and yet declares that he has been forced to omit things obviously more pertinent for want of room. In the chapter on diplomacy and diplomatists he gives tables showing the pay of Ambassadors in the European capitals. Why ? The comparison between them and the Ministers in Mexico is of the slightest importance. Again, he describes the personality of diplomatists, Consuls, and journalists,—material that will have begun to be out of date within a few months. But when he comes to the fascinating subject of the relics of the ancient civilisations in Mexico he tells us far less tbasi• we desire, and adds : "It is with keen regret that my limited amount of space, prescribed to mathe- matical limits by a bard-hearted and unsympathetic publisher, precludes me from doing more than. merely mentioning them." These are examples of a general defect.
Nevertheless, any banker who thinks that Mexico is in South America may be heartily recommended to turn to these volumes. They will greatly enlarge his outlook on the finance and commerce of the Western world:—
" Another evidence of Mexico's advancement in the high esteem of the rest of • the world was found in the anxiety evinced by European banking houses to secure the placing of the last loan for the sum of $80,000,000 gold (say .28,000,000), in November of 1904. Representatives of the houses of Bleichroder of Berlin and the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (Paris) conferred at length with the Finance Minister at Mexico City ; but the terms offered by the New York house of Speyer and Co. triumphed, and European houses were disappointed. It seems almost incredible that less than a decade before Mexico might have gone the round of the European capitals with hat in band and seductive terms in her pocket, and then would have failed to raise half a million dollars. And it was a 4. per cent. loan, sold to the under-writing syndicate at 89 per cent., with no special pledge for the payment of interest and sinking fund—terms such as any old-established European Government would have been pleased to accept."
* Mario of the Zteentioth Century. By Ferny F. Martin, P.E.0.8. 2 vols. London: Edward Arnold. [30s. net.] That speaks for the financial respectability of Mexico.. As for her moral position Mr. Martin says :— "The good offices of Mexico, in conjunction with the United States, in settling (for the time being, at any rate) the differences between Honduras and Nicaragua towards the close of last year prove conclusively the high moral standing of that country among the Latin-American peoples, who viewed with equanimity and satisfaction as emanating from Mexico what they would have regarded with suspicion and resentment as coming from the United States alone. I regard the influence which Mexico is able to wield among the turbulent small republics of South and Central America as of the utmost consequence and value, and as likely, to have far-reaching effect hereafter in settling the innumerable squabbles arising in this part of the world, such as the United States could never succeed in quelling, with or without the aid of the 'big stick."
The one man who is the symbol, and in a very considerable sense the cause, of all this remarkable progress is notoriously the venerable President of the Republic, General Porfirio
Diaz. The Mexicans long since came to the conclusion that Porfirio Diaz was indispensable, and they have elected him again and again to be their President. He will probably end his life in harness. It is often said that when this long Presidency is over the Republic will begin to go backwards, if it does not collapse. Mr. Martin dismisses this fear as abso- lutely baseless. Mexico, he says, is no longer in any need of a defender, nor is she now dependent upon her architect. "He has built too soundly and permanently for that." We suppose that a Presidency which is continually renewed in the person of one man, although it is theoretically terminable after a regular period, brings its own small Nemesis ; foreigners are practically invited to think that the only explanation of the irregular renewals is that the country would perish without them. In the case of Mexico it seems worth while, however, to defy this not very discomforting Nemesis.
Of the Republics of the West which are Spanish in origin, Mexico suffers less than any from the inherited blight of obscurantism and. cruel bigotry. Of course she endured such ferocitiee from the Spaniards as provoked elsewhere the immortal denunciations of the good Las Casas, but to-day hardly a stain of the tyranny remains. The religious Orders have been expelled, and the Roman Church, which paid the penalty of their excesses, was disestablished thirty years ago. Education, which is free, is also secular. Nevertheless, the influence of the Roman Church on the peasantry of Mexico is wonderfully strong, and no country has more churches. The virtually complete obedience of the common people to the Church must have deceived the Pope as to the chance of getting the Church re-established. At all events, in 1904 he sent a delegate to open negotiations ; but even the creation of a Mexican Cardinal did not make President Diaz weaken a jot in his resistance to the claim.
Mexico City, standing at a height of over seven thousand. feet, has an ideal climate, and yet the death-rate reaches the formidable total of forty per thousand. The author attributes this to the insanitary habits of the poorer people. The Superior Board of Health is making efforts at reform, and a decided improvement may, be thinks, be expected. The Mexicans remind one of the French in their family cohesion and dutifulness. The social customs of the capital are all copied from Europe down to "five o'clock tea," though wine generally seems to take the place of tea. The following passage gives a suggestion of the aspirations of Mexico City :—
" Undoubtedly the most magnificent of all the edifices in Mexico City, already becoming a 'city of palaces,' will be the new Legislative building, the foundations of which are now approaching completion. The cost will be $20,000,000 (say £ 2,000,000), and, when finished, the structure will put entirely in the shade the Palace of Justice in Brussels, the Capitol at Washington, or the Government Buildings on the Champs Elysees at Paris, all notable and beautiful edifices, to which the new Legislative Palace at Mexico City will bear some resemblance. The architectural style will be Renaissance, the French idea prevailing, namely a Gothic skeleton with classic details; while the ornamentation is to be exceptionally elaborate and costly. Probably the original estimate of $20,000,000 may expand. into $25,000,000, and even more, before the work is out of hand. But 'Modern Mexico' can well afford it."
As to the commercial information which occupies the greater part of the book, we can do no more than call attention to it. One warning, however, is worth repeating. "There is reason to believe," says the author, "that attempts will be made shortly to trade upon the credulity of British investors
in regard to the rubber-growing districts of Mexico, and in
relation to this I would warn my readers earnestly against relying in the slightest degree upon the glowing prospectuses and reports Of the many rubber estates established and producing in Mexico to-day, scarcely a dozen among them are paying a profit." That is a wise warning, and inay be applied to other things than rubber. It does not at all follow, because Mexico is rich and prosperous, and the Govern- ment, as far as human judgment can pronounce, stable, that every Mexican investment, from railways to docks, is likely to prove profitable. The prosperity of the Republic and the justifiable confidence felt by business men in sound Mexican concerns are pretty sure to be traded on by those who have worthless goods to offer. The Britishinvestor should there- fore be most careful to get. good advice before he puts money into Mexican stocks. He must not plunge anywhere and anyhow because he is told, and :rightly_told, that Mexico is a coming country.
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