44 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



time, therefore, that some steps should be taken to induce a different 

 and a better state of feeling ? 



But, apart from any moral or ethical view of the situation, an ex- 

 ceptional, kindly treatment of Mexico ought to be a permanent na- 

 tional policy on the part of the United States, for reasons purely of 

 self-interest, apart from any other motives. What Mexico most 

 needs and what she has never had, unless the present Administration 

 be an exception, is a stable, good government. Without such a gov- 

 ernment the large interests which citizens of the United States are 

 acquiring in Mexico are sure to be imperiled. Some eighty million 

 dollars of American capital are understood to be already represented 

 in Mexican railway constructions ; and other large investments have 

 undoubtedly been made in mining and "ranching" in the country. 

 Now, if history is to repeat itself, and there are to be further domestic 

 revolutions and intestine strife in Mexico, and these American prop- 

 erty interests or their owners are, as a consequence, to be arbitrarily 

 or unjustly treated i. e., in the way of confiscations, or forced con- 

 tributions resistance will follow ; claims for damages will be created 

 and pressed ; national intervention will be sought for, and, in the pres- 

 ent temper of the American people, will probably be granted with a 

 possible sequence of war and annexation. Certainly the last thing 

 which the United States would be likely to tolerate, would be politi- 

 cal chaos, with involved American interests, across its southern bor- 

 der. If it be said that there is no danger of this, it should be remem- 

 bered that the present President of Mexico came to his office for the 

 first time in 1876, through successful rebellion against the regularly 

 elected authorities ; during which period the Vera Cruz Railroad was 

 destroyed at different points by the revolutionists, and all travel 

 throughout the country greatly interrupted and made dangerous ; and 

 also that during the last twelve months there have been incipient 

 rebellions against the central authorities. 



But good government in Mexico is a matter not easy of attainment. 

 There can be no good government in any country without good 

 finance, and the finances of Mexico are always in an embarrassed con- 

 dition ; and this almost necessarily for a variety of reasons. In the 

 first place, as already pointed out, the extreme poverty of the masses, 

 the absence of accumulated wealth, the sluggishness of all societary 

 movements, the practical exemption of land from taxation, and the 

 adoption of a method of taxation that blights the harvest that it is 

 desired to gather, all render the collection of an adequate annual reve- 

 nue very difficult. Owing to the semi-civilized condition of its people, 

 Mexico is necessarily obliged to support an army nearly double that 

 of the United States (45,323 rank and file in 1883), to maintain any- 

 thing like a permanent government ; and the expenditure which this 

 military establishment entails absorbs about one third part of the total 

 revenue of the state, as compared with a present direct military ex- 



