us 0eo$rapbical iRotes on 



worth while to spend large sums of money for the purpose of having 

 railways built without delay, rather than trust to the fluctuations of 

 confidence and credit in the foreign exchanges, that would enable the 

 prospective companies to obtain the funds necessary to build their 

 roads, trusting, at the same time, that the material development of the 

 country promoted by the railroads would yield revenue enough to pay 

 all the subsidies granted. Fortunately all railroad subsidies contracted 

 by Mexico have been punctually paid, and their amount forms now a 

 large item of our national debt. To pay some of them the mistake 

 was made of negotiating a sterling loan on Europe, to pay a silver 

 debt ; but even in that way the transaction is not altogether a bad 

 one. 



General Diaz's policy was to give a railway subsidy to anybody 

 asking for it without investigating the responsibility of the concern, 

 with the idea that if the road was built the country would get the 

 benefit of the same, and if it was not built nothing would be lost, as 

 there was in all grants, a clause to the effect that if no building was 

 done within a given time, the grant should by that mere fact be for- 

 feited, the forfeiture to be declared by the Administration. 



The system of subsidizing railways has a great many drawbacks, 

 but at the same time commands some decided advantages, like giving 

 the government the strict supervision over the roads who have to sub- 

 mit to it for its approval, tariffs for freights and passengers, the free 

 carrying of the mails, the duty of the company to present to the 

 government a yearly statement of its traffic, receipts, etc., and other 

 similar advantages. In all grants to subsidized railroads there is a 

 stipulation that at the end of ninety-nine years the road-bed would 

 revert to the Mexican government. 



President Diaz 's Statistics on Mexican Railways. Before I close this 

 chapter I think it will not be out of place to quote some remarks of 

 President Diaz concerning our Mexican railroads, which occur in his 

 above-mentioned report. 



" In 1875 we had 578 kilometres 285 metres of railway, in 1885 we had 5915 

 kilometres, in 1886, 6018 kilometres, in November, 1888, 7940 kilometres, in June, 

 1892, 10,233, an <l including the tramways and other local and private lines, the 

 amount was 11,067 kilometres ; in September, 1894, we had 11,100 kilometres ; in 

 April, 1896, 11,165 kilometres, and now we have 11,469 kilometres. . . . 



1 ' We stand first in railroad building of all the Latin- American countries. Dur- 

 ing the years 1877 to 1892 Mexico built more railroads than any other Latin-American 

 State, being 11,165 kilometres ; the Argentine Republic takes the second place, with 

 8108 kilometres, and Brazil the third, with 6193 kilometres, built during the years 

 mentioned. The average number of kilometres built per annum in Mexico during this 

 period was 689, the maximum having been reached in 



