OUR NEIGHBOR, MEXICO 



505 



Numerous private banks are 

 scattered throughout the coun- 

 try, and the failure of several 

 in late years has brought such 

 drastic penalties upon the guilty 

 parties as to discourage irre- 

 sponsible enterprises. 



The national debt of Mexico 

 amounts to 218 million dollars. 

 A part, bearing 5 per cent in- 

 terest, has been quoted at par ; 

 the balance, paying 3 per cent, 

 commands 70 to 75 cents on the 

 dollar. Some of the 5 per cent 

 bonds have been lately replaced 

 by others yielding 4 per 1 cent. 



The government is also re- 

 sponsible for the bonds covering 

 the railroad merger, by which 

 Mexico controls the leading 

 transportation systems, and for 

 a mortgage bank operating under 

 charter, which has for its func- 

 tion financing irrigation and agri- 

 cultural development. 



In the capital there is also a 

 chartered bank, "Hipotecario," 

 which loans money on improved 

 properties at 9 per cent and 

 issues against these 6 per cent 

 bonds, the mortgages being auto- 

 matically satisfied at the expira- 

 tion of 25 years — a method some- 

 what akin to American building 

 and loan associations. 



PRESIDENT DIAZ 



Since our own Centennial, in 

 1876, Mexico has been peaceful 

 and progressive ; transportation, 

 commerce, industries, and education have 

 advanced. From a nation on the verge 

 of bankruptcy it has risen to one whose 

 credit is excellent, and all well-wishers 

 of the country hope that the many evi- 

 dences of progress, for which the execu- 

 tion if not the initiative are credited to 

 General Porfirio Diaz, will not be re- 

 tarded by protracted internal dissensions 

 or by extraneous complications. 



Unfortunately many of those who 

 write of the Mexican President portray 

 him either as an angel or a devil. The 



CAPTAIN OP MEXICANO WARRIORS (SEE P. 502 ) 



struggles of an orphaned Mixtecan boy 

 and the subsequent life of a soldier are 

 not apt to develop shoulder-blades into 

 angel wings, especially where much of 

 this life was spent in guerrilla warfare in 

 rugged mountain country, accompanied 

 by great hardship and privation. Nei- 

 ther are the recollections of capture, im- 

 prisonments, escapes, wounds, and tor- 

 ture calculated to soften ; but these ex- 

 periences have molded a character bold, 

 decisive, dominant, which, exercised for 

 the good of his country, means progress. 



