The National Geographic Magazine 



termini, and hence could offer no com- 

 petition with the Panama Railroad. 

 The road has now passed into the hands 

 of an experienced and responsible En- 

 glish company, which will entirely re- 

 build the road, and the federal govern- 

 ment has made contracts with it for the 

 construction of good ports of capacity 

 for the largest vessels, in which work 

 the government will expend several 

 millions of dollars. When these im- 

 provements are completed it is claimed 

 this route will be able to successfully 

 compete with the Panama Railroad for 

 much of the Isthmus traffic. 

 ""The construction of lines of telegraph 

 have not only kept pace with the rail- 

 road extension, but far exceeded it, and 

 there are now in operation 42,500 miles. 

 In addition to this the telephone system 

 is established in all the principal cities 



Hon. Ignacio Mariscal, Secretary of 

 Foreign Relations 



and towns and with their adjacent vil- 

 lages. 



PUBLIC PEACE AND ORDER 



The establishment of railroad commu- 

 nication and the ramification of the tel- 

 egraph throughout the length and 

 breadth of the country have not only 

 brought new life and activity' to the 

 commerce and industries, but they have 

 had a most salutary effect upon public 

 order. Before this new epoch it was 

 very possible not only for bandits and 

 outlaws to maintain themselves in the 

 mountain fastnesses and remote regions, 

 but for revolutions to be hatched and 

 grow into formidable proportions, owing 

 to the inability of the government to 

 concentrate troops. Now every part of 

 the Republic is within easy reach of the 

 federal authority. 



Hence, the old-time visitor to Mexico 

 on his return today is struck with the 

 everywhere-prevailing evidence of peace 

 and security to persons and property. 

 Books of travel on Mexico written 

 twenty-five years and more ago are full 

 of hair-breadth escapes from brigands, 

 assaults upon the stage coaches, kid- 

 napping of the rich for ransom, and the 

 depredations of robbers and revolution- 

 ists. The passenger trains between the 

 City of Mexico and Vera Cruz each 

 carried a car full of soldiers as an armed 

 guard, and even with that precaution 

 the male passengers usually wore side 

 arms, and a guard of soldiers was kept 

 at even' station. No man of business 

 or of importance ventured on journeys 

 outside of the cities, large towns, or ha- 

 ciendas ( plantation-houses surrounded 

 by a high stone wall) without a number 

 of friends heavily armed or a regular 

 escort. Today trains run daily in al- 

 most every state of the Republic with- 

 out any guards, assaults upon the stage 

 coaches have long ago ceased, kidnap- 

 ping is a thing of the past, robberies on 

 the highways are almost unknown, trav- 

 elers armed withpistols, rifles, and swords 



