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Les diagrammes sulvants illustrent la mtthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 S 8 I u uf "T nh f 'S THE Mexican National Railway. lOlT^'lj^Hner-Sullivan Concession.! r . d88'l . / re.; mSPA ■■■'•# ; ■. ■ ' ■.'.-''' .^K .Mm^m ■■ '? '• ; .iuY" J I m mm \ I i ""»"«< ' ' " l THE [Mexican National Railway. (Palmer-Sullivan Concession. ► • — ^ — • «- 488:1 I Blbllothdque, Le S6minaire de Qu6bea, 3, rue de rUniversit^, Ou4b«G A. niTv 's«'mfssma>*^m - ■ 131- /■ "^■^., / /' / -~ 1 1 / / / / 1 7 / ^ - JlL_AW a ES I'^Tti r' R3M ID.V liB" Mil' W7" r AV \) s '•T ._. ^^.'Mf-{ ^'\ •••''•'^' 1 ^^i-^"^. K s I' 1{ (> s ' ' f^J y ./■•'jtj^i- ■XN l,- >^ 111' ' ( ^ Wi—", A/IkN"^^^ jr '^' J ■->('.. ■: rlUyj -^-N>"- iialfttn'J' ; /nnoinvi''" I --.--K ■r^ K iMi' S --' •^^c 1^^ !'\ 4ri»«im«)M>:ii tr ■^. ,v'"-^ '■■j\ Ai,l..„l li^rJi \ hr ^-^ 1^ ^ lie oi '■l'"»('R«t. A W-T aST ^"7 ;S7 JMi^'fV' ■Mimm^ts^^atrdssm. --v ' t' A^*H ^ ^ jJir ] l^AlA__.«^b/^r^-"\yv fv^w W-^L^i.K.y^ -yV^' ST" -tv \ r ••"»(•«■, ^i^r-' V\ \ % ,»*, ' "H a" IS" 17" I.'!'* %:■ MAP OF THE MF:XICAN national IWIAVAY (PALMER SULLIVAN CONCESSION) AND THE DENVI^R&RK) GRANDK lUILWAY SHOWING PROPOSED EXTENSIONS & CONNECTIONS ALSO THE RELATIVE POSITION OF MEXICO TO THE UNITED STATES ]«R1 iiff 117° 115" IW V^l ':^\J [sSiiBj^. 109° •*, » .L_. :^.^^^ lOS P"">IP(„ ttuio M N()tlf I iaNo H.HV,V«:A4>Oy; :v NX ■'■-^■^^& Mart 4 mil vi #■ / ^^ . '^^ %, \.. ^M I ^i" ! W 'Vi I^DJ" \' yi'wsTviT #7 "^ V J l^'^ ]^iiS^ ■ ^ Ji. , «5s ^•^f: «••- »<■' - ^^ ■ - - #y^*^ V. r) //• feir T /l/;v""'' vo H. 1 '■-,V ^^-: ^5S?S^ ^^''i.^^^^ ^>^ 1 _^^^i .^. ^'^ Jj: ^' ,*<".?''"l/Mite»tJan' l.i''_ iA'f -P toiLiiiMi .G U A ;T E M A 105* 103° 101° 99" 97' 93° 91° I.I.ANo HST-VIAWO/ ■'i^, \: H. \N~ ^^i rAo I '>^' M* ^V'- 1 'fc ry (u(W« V "' V7 ■"'"v, RLVNa / '■1^ .V : °/Jma v<. ^ MORE!,! "'^V. ■''"^>w^-. y '>v">5 *^i.--"- -i^ ■:s^^<« ».«^ *^* V 0 ••k«iv\ U A •"T T E MALA 103" 101* 96» tfa- 91° 89" 87° THE MEXICAN NATIONAL RAILWAY. Mexico is a confederated republic of twenty-seven (27) states, one (i) territory (Lower California) and one (i) federal district— that of Mexico. Its form of government, National and State, is fashioned after the general plan of that of the United States of America, which has proved, for this Continent, to be such a fortunate foundation for social and political stability. The Republir of Mexico comprehends a territorial area of 741,800 square miles — an area greater than that of the combined territories of France, Spain, the entire German Empire, Great Britain and Ireland. Its population in 1876 was g, 500,000, and is now something greater. It is, therefore, a little more populous than the two kingdoms of Belgium and Holland. Or, to seek another European illustration, it is nearly cMiual to the combined populations of Denmark, Sweden. Norway and Bulgaria. It is this magnificent domain (as yet, substantially, virgin as a railway field) which The Mexican National Railway is entering from the United States, and simultaneously building northward and westward from the central capital of Mexico, and at Manzanillo eastward from the Pacific Coast. The investor, al)out to place his capital in a railway enterprise in a foreign country, will naturally consider the political, physical and com- mercial features of the field. With the j>olitics of Mexico, or of the United States, or with the political relations of the two countries, the ?.Iexican National Railway has nothing to do. It suffices to call attention to the fact that the gov- ernment of Mexico is that form which has proved best and st for the rapid development and social stability of this continent. I The old popular impression that Mexico is a'^land of exceptionally chronic social disturbance and political revolutions is rapidl\- clearing away, as the life and resources of the country become better known. The public mind of the United States has already become well dis- abused of this illusion, rid Europe will soon find it as baseless as many of its familiar beliefs not long ago of the United States. There is far less social or political disturbance to-day in Mexico than there is at this moment in Ireland or in Russia, and less unrest and fear of future danger. The last Presidential election in Mv,xico was as peaceful as an}- in the United States or in France. Mexico's physical configuration and her topographical relation to the whole surface of the civilized and trading portions of the globe, make her the most inviting field of the world at this moment for railway enterprises and in\estment. It is an immense country ; more than half as large as non-Russian Europe, without a navigal)le stream, or one that ever can be made navi- gable for any practical distance. The peculiar physical configuration (an immense central upland plateau, sloping down by sharp descents — almost escarpments — to the lowlands or titrras calientex along the coast, where ripen the tropical harvests) forever precludes the future construction of any canal system. It is, and must remain, without water transporta- tion, and dependent for all its vast inter-state and foreign import and export trade on railway carriage. Further, Mexico is on the direct water highway between Europe and Asia. Humboldt, eighty years ago, called her "el puente del comer- cio del mundo" (the bridge of the commerce of the world). This commanding position can never be taken away from her, and will grow in strength as the world grows in wealth and peace and progress. This American continent, dividing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, bars the way to the trade currents of Europe and Asia. Right through the City of Mexico lies one of the best trans-continental railway lines that can he built or operated with safety to life and health across it. And this line is one of the great vertebral cross-roads which form the structural basis of the Mexican National Railway system. THE RESOURCES OF MEXICO. m It is the local material resources of Mexico, however, which constitute the strongest inducement and the most solid foundation for present investment. Mexico is a country of nearly ten millions of people, with large cities 6 and roads and universities and cavhedrals and developed mines and teeming harvests, and all the resources and conditions of organized civilization. She is in close proximity and political sympathy with the fifty millions more of the people of the United States, the most pros- perous and active and wealth producing and consuming people on the face of the globe at this time. With this nation she has a, coterminous boundary of i,86o miles, about to be pierced at several points with railways. Practical experiment has demonstrated in the United States that railroads built into an uninhabited territory will create habi- tation and business immediately, even if that territory is held by hostile, savage tribes, and the roads are built literally under fire and op- erated at the outset under military guard. Practical experiment has demonstrated further that such roads will sustain themselves across long stretches of comparatively desert lands, if mines or irrigable soil (the con- ditions of future wealth) be found at their termini. But this latest of American railroads (The Mexican National Railway) is building from a populous capital to great provincial cities, and to ports on the highway of the world's trade, and through settled states laden with the harvests of both the temperate and tropical zones. The City of Mexico (280,000) is larger in population than Rome (244,484), or Copenhagen (205,000), or Lisbon (253,000). San Luis Potosi (60,000) is about as large as Mayence (58,000); Pueblo (75,000) is about equal to Havre (75,000); Leon (150,000) is larger than Antwerp (125,000), or Genoa (130,000), or Venice (128,000). Siloa (38,000) is equal to Metz (38,000) ; Guanajuato (63,400) is larger than Verona (60,000) ; (madalajara (74,000) is the counterpart of Toulon (70,000); Toluca (12,000) is near Luxembourg (14,000); Colima (31,700) equals Freiborg (32,000) ; Zapotlan (22,000) is larger than Macon (16,000) ; Zacatecas (26,000) nearly equal to Coblentz (29,000) , Morelia (25,000) is larger than Heidelburg or Treves (each 22,000). On the route from the City of Mexico to Manzanillo alone, there are twenty-three important towns, aggregating (including the City of Mexico) a population of 744, 000. The little villages would swell it to nearly a million. Nearly one-half of the entire population of Mexico is tributary to this inter-oceanic line. During the freighting season six hundred donkeys and mules leave Manzanillo ever\- day, laden with goods and mer- chandise for the interior. This represents only the Pacific trade of one port. A graphic writer (an army officer during our war) who passed over this route in 1872, declared that the daily scene on the road recalled to his mind "the transportation of .qn .arrnv on the march." 6 The colossal trans-Missouri system of the United States has developed itself within fifteen years, out of an effort to reach across uninhabited plains about half a million of adventurers and unsettled miners scat- tered on what was then an unknown and far-oft' coast — California, once an outlying Mexican state. The Mexican National Railway is pushing out from their own central capital for the trade and travel of 10,000,000 of people living in comparatively close districts, and to place them in direct communication with 50,000,000 more of neighbors and friends. These io,coo,ooo of people, with their cities and states, and all the wants of civilized life, inhabit a country of unparalleled natural resources and wealth. Their catalogue reads like a modern material Arabian Nights tale of romance. ' ' This vast empire, under a careful cultivation, would alone produce all that commerce collects together from the rest of the globe. " — Huvibnldt. MINERAL RESOURCES. Mexico is best known commercially by her silver, which, up to this time, has been her chief export ; because, by reason of its great value in a small bulk, it has been the only one of her productions which could bear t'r- cost of transportation by mule and human carriage. Within her limits are found the greatest known silver deposits of the world. "Guanajuato, Real del Monte, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi and other of her mining localities have yielded, within the range of statistical data, over three thousand millions of dollars." Her silver mines, in- indifferently worked from the time of Cortez, are far richer than' the gold and silver ranges of the United States, which have made the mlllic aires of California and Nevada, and created prosperous states like Colorado. " More than five-ninths of the $9,700,000,000 in the world have come from Mexico." But this is her least source of wealth. Hon. John VV. Foster, Minis- ter Plenipotentiary of the United States, in a recent official paper declares that Mexico, in her coffee alone, "possesses a far greater source of wealth and prosperity than in the products of silver. " AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES . However glittering and desirable and substantial the golden harvest of the precious metals, the agricultural products of the soil have, in the end, alwa.vs been found to be the most lucrative, as well as the healthiest. form of national wealth, and that most conducive to the general pros- perity of the people. . It is in this direction that Mexico has been expressly favored by Providence. * Her physical conformation (a great plateau in the centre, 6.000 to 8,000 feet above the sea, with its periphery of lowland coast on either side) gives her a temperate and tropical climate in the same range of latitude, and, consequently, also the harvests of the temperate and of the tropical zones almost within touch, and absolutely in sight of each other. In this she has advantages and a wealth beyond that of the United States. Mexico produces abundantly the corn and wheat and barley and fruits ; the pines and oaks and other timber ; the hides and wool ; horses, mules, hogs and cattle ; the sugar and rice, figs and oranges and cotton and tobacco, rum and molasses, and other semi-tropical products of the United States ; but she goes farther, and adds whole classes of purely tropical products, which are her monopoly, as against the United States and Europe. Coffee, indigo, cocoa-nuts, c^coa, caoutchouc, the india- rubber tree, vanilla, Chili, cochineal, mahogany, rosewood, ebony, lemons, limes, pine-apples, jalap (Xalapa), drugs, salts, vegetable waxes, medicinal gums, cinchona bark, aniseed, spices, mexal. pulque, agave (the fibre of which, many manufacturers claim, will produce a revolution in the paper trade), sisal hemp, manilla, madder, ramie, hennequen, and many kinds of vegetable dyes, nute:, oils of commerce and for the table, fine cabinet woods, and small tropical fruits almost unknown to us. In brief, as a graphic writer sums up, the agricultural products of Me.xico are "every variety known to the temperate, as well as to the torrid zone. "f We return to the mineral wealth of Mexico for a moment, to announce some recent and gratifying discoveries on the line of the Mexican National roads. The mine'-al treasures of Mexico are fabulous. "There is not a mineral known, except cryolite, that is not found within her borders." Copper, gypsum, iron, zinc, plumbago, tin, sulphur, lead, quicksilver, alabaster, guano, fertilizing marls, saltpetre, marbles, porphyries and * "Those who only know the iiit.erioi- of the Spanish colonie.- from the vague and uncertain nolions hitherto pubhshed, will have some difficulty iu believing tha' the principal sources of the Mexican riches are by no means the mines, but agriculture. * * * The Ijest cultivated fields of Mexico recall to the traveler the beautiful plains of France." — Humboldt, about 1S02. t " There hardly exists a plant on the face of the globe which is not capable of tieing cultivated in some part of New Spain [Mexico]." — Humboldt, 1802. 8 rare varieties of building and precious stones abound from Monterev to (Johma in endless but undeveloped stores. Within this year the engineers of the Company, while locating routes have discovered valuable and excellent bodies of coal and iron ore on the lines of the railway. Large beds of coal have been opened near Laredo and others on the Manzanillo line. Excellent coal abound<. m the State of Michoacan, in the neighborhood of the road The economic value to the enterprise of these rich deposits, so advantageously placed and so opportunely found, can hardly be overestimated I WORK DONE. The Mexican National Railway is built in pursuance of a decree of the C bngress of the Republic of Mexico, generally known as the " Palmer- Sullivan C "oncession," executed on or about the 13th day of September 1880, for the construction in I^Iexico of the following lines of railroad' with corresponding telegraphs, namely : ' I. " From Mexico City to the Pacific Ocean at the port of Manzanillo or between that port and Navidad, passing through Toluca, Maravatio' Acambaro, Morelia, Zamora, La Piedad, and thence to the Pacific fol' lowing the line that may prove most favorable for the mutual interests of the Company and of the nation. " n. " From Mexico to the northern frontier, this line taking its de- parture from that to the Pacific, at a point between Maravatio and Morelia, and passing through the cities of San Luis Potosi, Saltillo and Monterey, arriving at the northern frontier at Laredo, or between that point and Eagle Pass. " III. Other lines since added by additional concessions : From Matamoras to Monterey via Mier. From Zacatecas to San Luis Potosi. and from Zacatecas to Lagos, mak ng in all a system of over 2,000 miles. The work of actual construction began in the fall of 1880, and has since been pushed with vigor and energy. Twenty-five parties of engineers are now in the field, in Mexico at work on the several .sections in progress and locating new lines. At Laredo connection will be made with the Gulf Coast of the United States by means of the Texas Mexican Railway, one hundred and thirty miles of which are now completed westward from C orpus C'hristi, and the remaining fifty miles to Laredo will be finished in June. Another line is building down from San Antonio, and expects to reach Laredo this autumn. This will put The Mexican National Railway in direct communication at Laredo with the railway system of the United States. Within the Republic of Mexico the work of actual construction is now going on as follows : From Laredo southward toward Monterey ; from Zacetecas south- eastward toward ban Luis Potosi; from Manzanillo eastward toward the (."ity of Mexico ; from the C ity of Mexico on the main line north and west to Morelia and San Luis Potosi. On the main trunk line the work is being pushed simultaneously in three sections : {a.) ist. Section from City of Mexico to Toluca ; (6.) 2d. Section from Toluca to Acambaro, Celaya and Salamanca. (i.) 3d. Section from Acambaro to Morelia and Patzcuaro. Thousands of laborers are at work on these three sections. These men, native Mexicans, receive three reals (about ^7^ cents or two francs) per day, and do fair service. Sixty-five thousand tons of steel rails have been contracted for and part of them already delivered in the City ot Mexico. Two hundred locomotive engines and four thousand freight cars are also ordered, and some of them delivered. It is proposed to complete the line from Laredo to Monterey by the close of this year, and from Monterey to San Luis Potosi by the close of next year, at which time it will meet the line from the City of Mexico which is intended to be laid northward to San Luis Potosi by that time. There is no doubt the entire lines of the road, westward to the Pacific and northward to the United States, forming together a really national Mexican system of railway, will be completed long within the limits fixed by the concession. Working from half a dozen directions, with wages at about one-fifth of what is paid in the United States (Westr em Territories), and in a country where there is no winter and no snow, work can be pushed with marvelous rapidity, once a full organization is effected and the forces on the field. 10 THE MEXICAX NATIONA L RAILWAY BONT)^ JZt^ '" '''' construction of the roads above mentioned, aggregatm,^ somethmg over. .000 miles, The Mexican National Raiivv yfomly have authorized an issue of their first mortgage bonds ' ^ da3 oflnrir'Z '" f ' ^«--'"-'- ^^ «^ooo : beardate the first da) o April i8bi, and interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum payable semi-annually on the first days of October and ApdHn each year ; payable, principal and interest, in United States gold coin at the company's office in New Vork. They are issued under a First Mortgage or Trust Deed of the Railway Company on its lines, and property appurtenant thereto, at the ralof ' no exceeding «ao 000 per mile, with the right in the trustees to authorize after completion of any division, a further issue thereupon, for bettermen !' .rnproven.ent, equipment, or other necessary or beneficial obasa; their discretion, of not exceeding 5,000 per mile of completed oad About $10,000,000 of these bonds have alread^ been disposed of Under the tn,st above quoted the issue of bonds cannot exceed $.5 000 per mile at which rate the interest which the road must earn to meet S annual bonded charges would be 81.250 per mile This is a moderate amount compared with the average income earnimr capacity per mile of the railroads of the United States ^ In 1879 the entire railroad mileage of the United States was 84.23, miles and the net earnine-s «2in mfi t,. -;,^ ■ . ^^ mile of $2,6:0. »^^9.9i6,724. showing a net earning per JLl^^ fTT. ■^''''^"'' ^'''^"-^' '^"^^ ^' ^^^" ^^ ^he average of the milways of the United States it will not only earn enough to me t 3^t,t|.mterestonits bonds, but |t, 36c per mile besides .r^ The net earnings of the Denver .t Rio Grande Railway for 1880 on 1^ZTZ^T^' "''''''' '"""«^ ^^^ y^^' '' ^^° -i'es, ;vere »i 710,461.80. being a net earning per mile of I3 718 Shoula The Mexican National Railway do .s wdl .3' this road at the other and uninhabited end of th. plateau, it will not onlv naeet its bonded interest, but yield a surplus of $2,468 per mile to apply to di dendson its stock-a sum almo< double the highest int re t charge ^^S'^::":^ ^'r "^^ ^^^^ ^^' ^ ^^ ^93.85, on an average mileage ^^i s:^^^;!;::^:;:"^ - ^^^ ^"""^' ^^-^-^ pe-i.e of ,4.537. .6 But another illustration may still be found in a wider comparison. 11 The entire railroad mileage for 1879 of the Pacific States (mining, but comparatively sparsely settled communities) and of the Pacific railways leading to them across the plains, was 5, 129 miles ; the net earnings of these roads for the same year were $20,278,400, showing a net earning per mile of $3,953. Should the Mexican National Railway do as well as these new roads to the north of it, it would earn, after meeting its interest charges, 82,703 per mile for dividends. MINING AND RAILWAYS . » These figures prove what desirable fields mining territories are for railway investment or operation. There is, indeed, no occupation which, for the numbers engaged, induces more transportation, a familiar fact to railway projectors and managers. California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona are territories almost exclu- sively devoted to mining : but none of them, nor all of them together, equal Mexico in the promise of her mineral wealth. 'I'hey are, however, almost devoid of any population, save those classes engaged in mining. Mexico has its experienced and laborious mining population, and in addition whole classes engaged in industrial, com- mercial and 'gricultural occupations. The entire population of these Pacific States, quoted above, is as follows : Arizona, California. Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Total. 40,441 864,686 62,265 174,767 143,906 75,120 1,361,185 Assuming that every man, woman and child in these States is em- ployed in mining, there could be in Mexico an equal number engaged in this kind of labor, and eight and one-half millions left over for other and diversified industries. It is this distribution of diverse industries and distinct classes . 1 population interdependent on each other, which makes a desirable rail- way field. A railroad earns money just in proportion as one part of its line lacks that which other parts can supply. This is wonderfully the situation of Mexico. Her miners in the rock> ranges must be {q^ from I 12 her wheat fields and fertile valleys ; thev must bo clad from her city mach centres ..plan,, p,a.e;:m ^ ^'ZZt :Z'"' '°"' "' "" .pecial procluiof .he hrgheHand;/"'" """" "" '"= '°"'' ">= Tf/£ MARKET OF MKxrrn Change o? cars c^rea^rn^orSV"" ^'^ ^"^"' ^^"^^' ^^'^^^^^^ Mexico. "fe J ""^ 30th, 1 88o. of some of the staple productions of 'I'hese imports came from all over the worlrl • h„f ht • • nearest neighbor with mnr ^""^^^^^ ^^^^Id , but as Mexico is our to New York and nil • "' •"'" ^^"^'^""'^^^ion from her capital union" timlsh wdir """ ""^^ ' ^^'' ^^^^^^^^ ^^^" ^ -«'-« ume— she will be our natural market to buy in. Su-rar, Coffee, Crude india rubber ) ,, and gutta-percha, l ' ' Molasses, Tobacco, Indigo, Gums. Rice, Cocvja, Cochineal, galls, lbs. lbs., 1,731,405,439 446,850,727 16,826,099 38,008,930 10,411,757 2,625,240 17,842,086 5^943,609 7,403,643 1,364,285 Total value often articles. • ( value, $74,717,935 60,360,769 y. 606,239 ^,705,243 ^" 7,315,898 2,752,900 2,444,302 1,316,132 1,306,239 890,168 $169,415,825 13 To the.e add bullion, matt. Vdes, hemp, olives, oils, grasses. dru« dyes bark.., chemicals, sulphur, fine woods and many smaller articles ar^ In rr t:''°'^'"'"'"^"°"' '" the immense quantities ,iven ahove, and all these ivTex.co can supply. We are her nearest consumer, he power of production is equal to our demand, and once a continuous railway is running from the • ity of Mexico to Sr. Louis, all that, and much more, will How out of Mexico into our borders ; and the reiurn- ing trams will carry back mining machinery and implements of all kinds wagons and carriages from the great pmirie manufactories, plows shovels axes, nails, coo'.ing stoves, grates, ranges, general hardwarei fine cutlery mills for sug. ■ cotton and wool factories, brick-mak.ug machines, household utensils, watch.s, clocks, boots and shoes ready-made clothing, glass-ware, tools of all kinds, our vast range of agricultural machines, bar iron, rails, steel, fire-arms, furniture, pipe ordnance stores, organs, melodeons, sewing machines, blooded breeds of horses and cattle, books, paper and stationer,-, wire fencing, tubing petroleum, spirits, hams, tallow, dried fish, oysters and fruits of the North, manufactured woolen, cotton and leather goods, printing presses ink, type, scientific instruments, harness, gas fixtures, telephones, and the thousands of inventions and manufectures of smaller articles which make up the comfort and luxury of our own substantial life. MEXrcaS NATIVE CAPACITY-HER U7/.r. The power of Mexico to produce all we can consume is unquestioned A fresh, young, undeveloped land like our ovn, her resources are prac- tically exhaustless and limitless as ours. The fruitfnlness of the only halt-tilled tropical soils of Mexico is some- thing unknown to us who dwell in northern climates, and almost beyond the range of our colder imaginations. Coffee in the southern part of Mexico grows wild. The natives do not even gather in this free crop. They cannot export it chiefly for want of roads, and for their own use they prefer chocolate. The export to the United States has increased three-fold in seven years, without any stimu- lus from the exterior. Cnrn (maize) in Mexico yields two crops a year ; each crop sixty bushels to the acre. The average yield in all the United States is twelve bushels to the acre ; in the iresh Western territories, t\\enty-four to thirty-five bushels. Rice.—'' One single sowing of rice will yield successively two large I 14 crofw without the slightest additional hhor."—Biirnarne year for maturing the first crop, after which two crops can be obtained in fifteen months. The cane once started, will continue to yield twenty years prolifically without replant- ing. " — U. S, Comul Hiyl. Farm lubor costs almost nothing — little t)eyond the keep of the laborer — say about twenty to thirty cents a day. The soil o[ Mexico, cultivated for unknown ages — for the .\ztecs were as thorough farmers as we, and the country, five hundred years ago, sup- ported a larger population than it has now — requires no manuring. The volcanic ridges of 'he hills are stored with potashes and other rich chemi- cal substances, and the cimtinuous gentle rains wash these down into the valleys. Irrigation performs the same service, as the streams from which the acii/uids are led uxke their rise in the mountains. In either case the replenishing of the soil is automatic, and costs nothing. Water-pawtr. — To work up her raw .naterial, Mexico has abundant water-nower with which to drive factories, mills and forges. The very reasons which close the streams to navigation — sharp descents and rapid flow — give them the force and limpid purity so desirable in manufactur- ing water-power. These streams start in the mountain peaks forever wrapped in clouds — hence an unfailing source and a uniform flow. They run under Wi^m suns 'he year round. Hence there is no freezing, as is sometimes the case in New f^ngland and Minnesota. BUT WILL THE MEXICANS WORK .^ Sixteen thousand of them are now hard at work on The Mexican Na- tional Railway line, grading, digging, blasting, hauling, at 37 cents a day. This fcict should be a conclusive answer to the question; but the de- lusion is so very general that the IMexican is inco.rigibly lazy, endowed only with the energies oi idleness, that it is worth looking into this mat- ter a moment. The average Mexican does not work now, because he can get no re- sults out of his bhor. His generous soil yields support for the indi- vidual with little exertion, and why should he toil for anything beyond his own food, when for want of roads he can do nothing with a surplus .? Why should the owner oi a rich hacienda stack his estates with hogsheads 15 of sugar or bags of coffee, when, by reason of a primitive and costly system of transportation, he cannot get them out of his own country? Why gather the wild coffee or the tropical bananas, when neither would be of any value to the planter beyond what he could consume on his own plantation ? As a matter of fact, the Mexican works well enough when there is any reason why he should work at all, or any solid remuneration for labor. There are numerou? cotton factories now in Mexico, and American ma- chinery of all kinds is going rapidly into the Republic on the strength of the approach of the railways. Products are, in fact, even now massed and stored up, awaiting the opening of the roads. Tliere are twelve iron works in the City of Mexico, and forty reduction works in the little StaiC of Mexico. Leon, a town of 150.000 inhabitants, is the Manchester of Mexico— the whole population busy at manufacturing, only they uork mostly with iheir hands, and not with steam and machinery as we do. The .\/.tecs, by universal testimony.were a hard-working, thrifty, econom- ical people. Three-fourths of the pres.:nt population are uf A/tec descent. The non-Aztec or modern civilization of Mexico is a Spanish one, and thus comes in this inspect under the head oi' the Latin family of nations. The Latin people are very industrious, although, as their industry is not of the same form and appearance as ours, we do not appreciate it. The Latins are not as restless, or " enterprising," as we put it. as our north- ern races ; but they are far more patient and laborious. They do not dare the seas and foreign lands to find a theatre for the exercise of their energies and ambition, but exhaust far more closely than we all the pos- sibilities of their own field. France is the land of small eo .nomies and steady labor. There is not a more mdustrious class o( its population in all New York than the Italians. Yet the popular prejudice and mis- information of the cc)untry religiously believes all Frenchmen to be frivolous, trifling and extravagant, and all Italians to be - gabonds. The popular estimate of tl.e Mexican character is no nearer the truth. In point of fact, the Mexican is patient, docile, laborious, industrious. He will work when there is any work to do that is paid for, and will rise with his opportunities. MEXICO AS A NATION. Similarly much misconception exists as to the character and standing of Mexico as a nation. Fixed and traditional error assumes her to 16 1^ ' be hopelessly impoverished and bankrupt—" a people out of whom no good can come." As a matter of fact, comparative statistics show that to-day, under all her disadvantages a'-d want of development, she stands ver}- respectably in the family of nations. We speak here purely in figures compiled from the official census and financial statement of each country. The national debt of Mexico, distributed in proportion to her population who must pay it, is $42.63 per head ; of the United States $52.56; of France, $127-53; of Italy, $71.9-^; of Great Britain, $114.62. The population of Mexico, as distributed over the soil, is 12.18 per- sons to the square mile. (This is calculated on a population of but nine and one-fourth millions.) The population of the entire United States is 13.91 to the square mile ; of Norway 14.78 ; of Sweden 25.90. She is therefore, for a new country, very fairly settled, and the districts of her densest population are those through which the Mexican National Railway runs. Her combined exports and imports for the last attainable year were $60,700,000, just about equal again to those of Norway, $61,000,000; or to those of Japan, $60,872,000; or of Portugal $64,500,000 ; and nearly one-half of those of her mother countr}-, Spain, $142,000,000; or of hardy 'and industrious Sweden, $148,400,000. Her annual revenue, inefficiently collected, was, by the latest return, $17,811,125. Some statisticians say it averages for the last decade about $19,000,000. The latest returned annual revenue of Denmark was $1 1,900,000 ; of Switzerland, $9,100,000 ; of Norway, $14,364,000— all under that of Mexico. The revenue of Portugal was 833,000,000, only twice that of Mexico. But this revenue is already increasing rapidly, as the nation feels the vivifying glow of the advancing railways. The customs duties at the port of Vera Cruz, for instance, for February, 1881, were three tim„es as large as those for February, 1880. But these figures, it must be borne in mind, tell the story of a land without railways. Up to this year there has been less than 400 miles of railway in all Mexico. These exports were made without any railroads to gather up and carry out the products of the country ; and these imports were procured without any railway system to bring them in or distribute them. The land stood isolated and apart from the rest of the continent, everywhere else bound together and veined by the iron rail. These revenues were collected over a. vast territory, where, for want of ^i"' " 17 ready and systematic cominunication, the hand of the Government is weak and often powerless. HOW RAILWA YS BUILD UP A ST A TE. It is the evidence of fact that railways not only increase business largely and immediately, by sui)plying readily and cheaply the wants o( the existing population ; but they multiply population, and population in turn creates business. The practical demonstration of this within twenty years in the history of the western territories of the United Stales — territories which in large part are not essentially dilTerent frorr' much of Mexico, of which some of them, like California and Colorado, were once a part — is some- thing marvelous. The following States and territories of the United States — Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, Dakota and Utah- -were in i860 young communities, without railways and without much population ; and what population there was cut off from communication with the world for want of iron roads— the modern highway. We prepare from the census and Poor's Railroad Manual two tables which, read side by side, show the direct and immediate influence of the railway in creating population under the conditions of our time and continent. Population. Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, Dakota, Utah, Total, ;86o. 107,306 172,023 28,841 34,277 4,837 40,273 1870. 3^H,399 439.706 122,993 39,864 14,181 86,786 1880. 995,966 780,806 452,433 194,649 135,180 143,906 387.457 1,067,929 2,702,940 The population advances in direct ratio with the increase in railway mileage. In i S60, the year of the f^rsl census quoted, there was prob- ably not a mile of railway in anyof these States ; but for want of abso- 18 lutely authentic figures at hand, covering that year, we begin with 1864. Miles ol' railway built. 1S64. 1870. 1879. Kansas, 40 1,501 3'^o^ Minnesota, •57 1,092 3,008 Nebraska, 705 1,634 Colorado, 157 1,208 Dakota, f>5 400 Utah, 257 593 Total, 197 5,755 9,946 It may be urged that this great increase of population and wealth is owing to immigration, which Mexico will not receive. Partly this is so ; but while Mexico will j ihaps never receive a large northern immigration such as builds up our States, she is directly in the line of the emigration from Latin or Southern Europe, which is just beginning to come over. All migration of peoples "oUows certain lines or zones. The people of one clime or race emigrate exactly on the line of climatic and other con- ditions which suit their race and have produced it. Mexico is pre- eminently the land for the Italian, French, Portuguese and Spanish emi- gration, and will get it, when she is open and can offer equal inducements with ourselves. But even with> ut any direct increase of population, the building of railways always increas \s and produces business. Satisfying existing wants creates new ones— comfort secured, luxury follows. If this is so in an ordinary country, what will it be in a country like Mexico, with millions of people and accumulated wealth, suddeni)- opened to all the complex wants and comforts and luxuries of modern civilization.' PLEASURE TRAVEL. The moment the first Pacific line was opened to San Francisco it became a great highway of pleasure tiavel, although there was nothing to see save the natural beauties of an unopened country, and to see them one had to brave the discomforts and perils of an unsettled frontier The tourist and pleasure travel through Mexico should l)e e.iually immediate ami much greater. 19 The distance from New York to Manzanillo, via the City of Mexico, is less than that from New York to San Francisco ; and the Hne is over an equally varied scene of plain antl prairie and mountain grandeur. But Mexico, in her historic associrHons and traditions, her ruins, her foreign races, customs and language, has infinite attraction? over Cali- fornia as an objective point of pleasure travel. She is the Egypt of the New World ; full of strange monuments, whose origin is lost in the shades of antiquity ; while her picturesque towns of to-day, with their foreign costumes and bright colors and soft sunshine ; with their plash- ing fountains, their marble plazas, their old cathedrals and curious churches, their airy coiridors and spacious streets and public squares, fragrant with groves of palm and loses and blushing oleanders, recall the pleasantest scenes of Southern Europe. When Mexico can b-- entered by rail, it will be the first time that a real field for pleasure and tourist travel has been opened on this continent. And in addition to its direct attractions, it is but fair to assume that this line will divide the combined travel of the through Ficific lines of the United States. The persons who go overland to San Francisco, by the Union Pacific or Texas Pacific roads, would naturally prefer to return by another route, and they will choose that one which offers as special attractions a different people, a uifferent civilization, new customs, language, habits and manners, and a temperate climate of perpetual summer. THE MEXICAN NA TIONAL RAILWA Y— ITS FOREIGN RE LA TIONS. The future of the Mexican National Railway, however, has proportions beyond its inter-state commerce and its lucrative carrying trade between the two great republics of North America. When built, it becomes at once a most important link in the great through freight and travel lines of the w rid. The City of Mexico lies directly on the establishea ocean highways between New York and Yokohama, Hong Kong, Calcutta, Melbourne, Callao, Liverpool " do. do. do. do. do. New Orleans " do. do. do. do. do. The Mediterranean ports do. do. do. do. do. and is the focal and only point at which all these routes cross each other — ''el puenle." The City of Mexico can be made a centre of direct ex- 20 strucls water |Mssage; forcmg a lenglhy and expensive ^tfoL around He T m"" '^"'^^''''.*" of *= "readth of d,e continenT po .ri^r; ""'r' "^^''^^ l.old»asing„lar,y commanding Tw York .?^ n '^:",''''°"''' ""'' '" "'^"^""^ -" ""<= from 2can eve?be.„ T^ "T,""" '™'^'"^ 'ra„sc.on.i„e„.al route =\::Te:r.::;^:^:::SoT^rr^^ iX cost' f ,r "" ""^ """^ '" ~^' °^ ^'=*"' "^ ** -Pense The line through the City of Mexico is the golden transcontinental atne' of aH h '7'"'" '° ""= """^ "' "-^^"'> '" '"' »"* of it d " in 1 '"""f °»"'>»''"'l li"«. can he operated uniformly eve™ Mexican NatSrLi,^ ' r^^r^l'^urrCt^ ^ SL w ltd „rT ' " "°" ""'"' '"''^' construction some .60 AgaTn Te rn f r'r '""• '"" '° "■""""" f™" Manzanillo. sameTale area 1 mTiV' ' '"' ""'""'' ""'™' "'^' -'""^^^^ *= m„ h .1, Mediterranean ; and holding to the New World much the same relation which the Mediterranean docs to the O^ 31 of the world, and in an official paper, so far back as 185 1, speaking of an inter-oceanic railroad across her territory, wrote thus : " It gives her access to the markets of all nations, and makes her, in short, a central point for the commerce of modern times." Briefly, the work of this great national enterprise for Mexxo is this: It gives her command and control of herself, establishing firmly her political and commercial autonomy. It unites her, by a marriage of mutual interest, to the United States— the fellow Republic— which divides with her the continent. It brings into view and play her true relations to the commerce and trade routes of the world. In fact, the ' T'-xican National Railway lines now building are the crown and cc ^ " for Mexico of the comprehensive system of roads and public i '^'provx «ent projected and begun for her over three cen- turies ago by chaf sighted statesman, Hernando Cortez. 47 William Street, New York, June 1st, 1 88 1.