AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 447 



penditure on the part of the United States, of not more than one 

 tenth of its annual receipts.* 



In a certain sense this large expenditure on the part of Mexico is 

 for the direct benefit of the United States ; for, if Mexico did not 

 maintain reasonable peace and order throughout its great territory, the 

 United States, having regard simply to its own peace and interests, 

 would have to do it through military rule, on certainly so much of 

 Mexico as is contiguous to the Federal dominions. 



There can be no doubt, further, that there is a powerful party in 

 Mexico the old social leaders, and what considers itself the best so- 

 ciety of the country embracing the Church, the notables, and persons 

 of wealth and ancient lineage allied with Spain which is not at all in 

 sympathy with the younger and progressive element of the nation, and 

 sullenly opposes the introduction of railroads, and dislikes the United 

 States. And this party would, if it could, dominate the policy of the 

 country in all political and commercial questions. In proof and illus- 

 tration of this, note the following extract from a recent article in the 

 " Voz de Mejico " (" Voice of Mexico "), an able Catholic daily pub- 

 lished in the city of Mexico, against the policy of admitting American 

 capitalists into the republic : 



"We combat," it says, "the policy of liberalism, which, greedy of material 

 prosperity, and dazzled by the brilliancy of North American progress, opens free- 

 ly the doors of our frontier to the capital of our neighbors. We do not oppose 

 material progress, but we rather desire that it should come by natural steps, in 

 proportion as the peace and public guarantees re-establish confidence and en- 

 courage the development of the country's own resources. Without foreign capi- 

 tal and without foreign labor, nothing or very little shall we be able to do, but 

 we ought to refrain from calling in our neighbors, whose tendencies toward ab- 

 sorption are well known, in order that they shall decorate luxuriously our house 

 and then install themselves in it definitely, relegating to us the departments of 

 servitude. Prudent patriotism and good sense advise, therefore, that the co- 

 operation of the Americans be dispensed with, although it be at the cost of ma- 

 terial progress." 



On the other hand, the present Government of Mexico seems to be 

 cultivating and encouraging every effort, that may serve to strengthen 

 society against the possibility of any conservative reaction. 



Thus, the attitude of the Government toward the various Protes- 

 tant sects, which are earnestly striving to gain a foothold in Mexico and 

 extend their special theological views among its people, is well illus- 

 trated by the following answer which was returned some time since 

 by the Governor of one of the important States of Mexico to a Prot- 

 estant clergyman, who had made application for military protection 

 for his church, against a threatened mob : 



* The maximum military force of the United States allowed under existing laws is 

 2,155 commissioned officers and 25,000 enlisted men. The estimated cost of the military 

 establishment of the United States for the current fiscal year, 1886-'87, exclusive of ex- 

 penditures for public works, is $25,680,495. 



