The New Mexico 



Hon. Jose Y. Lamantour, Secretary of 

 Finance 



(a common practice in the past) are 

 rarely seen, and only in the remote and 

 mountainous districts. The use of large 

 bodies of soldiers to preserve peace and 

 order has been supplanted by indi- 

 vidual gens d'armes or policemen. Be- 

 sides the visitor's own observations of 

 security and peace, the old residents of 

 Mexico will tell him that in this respect 

 the country has undergone a complete 

 transformation. 



I think it may be safely asserted that 

 life and property are as fully protected 

 in Mexico as in the United States. It 

 would be idle to say that murder, rob- 

 bery, and disorder do not occur in Mex- 

 ico, for that would be to assert that the 

 passions of man have changed; but it is 

 perfectly correct to say that today out- 

 lawry is of rare occurrence, and that in 



few countries of the world is better pro- 

 tection afforded to persons and property. 

 In the past twenty years the telegraph 

 lines have more than tripled in extent 

 and in number of offices, and now at 

 midnight there comes up to the national 

 palace in the City of Mexico, from every 

 near and remote town in the Republic, 

 the message, "No hay novedad." It 

 is like the cry of the mediaeval night 

 watchman, "All's well," that assured 

 the citizen of peace and security. 



The primary cause of this state of 

 civil order has been the maintenance of 

 a government of peace and of a contin- 

 uous regime. Much had been done 

 under Juarez to remove the causes of 

 the revolutions, and under Lerdo a con- 

 siderable advance had been made in 

 civil government; but since the advent 

 of General Porfirio Diaz to power, in 

 1876, there has been no foreign war and 

 no serious disturbance of an internal 

 character, the only exception being the 

 outbreak of certain semi-independent 

 Indian tribes. In the previous fifty 

 years of the existence of the Repub- 

 lic, there had been as many presidents, 

 the majority of whom owed their exist- 

 ence to revolutionary movements. The 

 wretched story of Mexican history of 

 that period is too familiar to be repeated 

 here. 



OTHER LATIN-AMERICAN REPUBLICS 



The blessings which the era of peace 

 and order attending the administration 

 of President Diaz has brought to the 

 country and the significance of the 

 achievement will be better understood 

 by a very brief reference to the other 

 Latin-American states of the hemi- 

 sphere during this same period. Every 

 one of the five states of Central Amer- 

 ica has suffered from revolutionary 

 movements and violent changes of gov- 

 ernment, and at times they have en- 

 gaged in war with each other. Colom- 

 bia has been torn by political dissensions, 



