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President Diaz's Railway Policy. President Diaz deserves a great 

 deal of credit for his efforts to promote in Mexico, material improve- 

 ments, and especially in railroad building. When he came into power, 

 in 1877, public opinion was very much divided as to the policy of 

 allowing citizens of the United States to develop the resources of the 

 country by building railroads, working mines, etc. Our experience of 

 what took place in consequence of the liberal grants given by Mexico 

 to Texan colonists made many fear that a repetition of that liberal 

 policy might endanger the future of the country by giving a foothold 

 in it to citizens of the United States who might afterward, if circum- 

 stances favored them, attempt to repeat the case of Texas. President 

 Lerdo de Tejada seemed to share such fears judging by his policy in 

 this regard. But President Diaz, as a broad-minded and patriotic 

 statesman, believed that the best interest of the country required its 

 material development, and that it would not be advisible to discrimi- 

 nate against citizens of the United States, as that country was more 

 interested than any other, on account of its contiguity to Mexico, 

 in developing the resources of our country by building an extensive 

 system of railways, and would, therefore, be more ready than any 

 other to assist in building them. He trusted, at the same time, that 

 when the resources of the country should be more fully developed, it 

 would become so strong as to be beyond reach of the temptation by 

 foreign states or individuals. The results of the work done in Mexico 

 so far show that General Diaz acted wisely, and proved himself equal 

 to the task before him. 



Many in Mexico, and myself among the number, thought that, as 

 the railroads were such lucrative enterprises, especially in a country 

 endowed with so many natural elements of wealth as Mexico, it would 

 not be judicious to give their promoters any pecuniary assistance, in 

 the shape of subsidies or otherwise, the more so as the finances of the 

 country were then in a critical condition, and it would not be wise to 

 increase its burdens by large pecuniary subsidies in aid of private en- 

 terprises. My opinion in this case was based mainly on what I had 

 seen in the United States, namely : that long lines of railways are built 

 in this country without any pecuniary assistance from the Govern- 

 ment, and that when the Government subsidized any one line it be- 

 came a source of great dissatisfaction and very unpleasant questions, 

 which are yet unsettled. We feared also that such large subsidies as 

 were asked by the railway promoters would amount in the end to so 

 large a sum as to make it impossible for Mexico to pay it, discrediting 

 the country. But in this case General Diaz's view seems to have been 

 the right one, in so far as that it afforded a great inducement for the 

 immediate building of large trunk lines of railways, which, without 

 subsidy, might have been delayed for several years. He thought it 



