Chester Lloyd Jones

“ Is exemption from taxation for a certain period, or the grant of public land, as reward for establishing a colony, introducing a new industry, or undertaking a public improvement a special privilege not to be endured? Is freedom to import the materials for constructing a manufacturing plant or a railroad never to be given because it is a special privilege? ”

“ A nation whose foreign policy is characterized by a firm insistence on respect for its citizens' rights never sacrifices the respect of other nations—even the respect of those against whom the action is taken. A national policy that insists upon the prompt and generous fulfillment of international duty in the protection of foreigners and in payment for damages done them is one that will do more to make America respected among the other nations of the New World than will one whose chief feature is the exchange of courtesies in which hard facts are glossed. ”

“ Mexicans in the United States hardly fare better. If they are of Spanish ancestry, that fact is emphasized and any prejudice against them disappears—they are then Europeans. If they are not, they suffer the same discrimination as other mixed blood or non-European peoples. The same unyielding prejudice follows the American settler in Mexico. He is proud to remain a foreigner, and he looks with disfavor on any alliance of his sons or daughters with any Mexican not of pure European ancestry. ”

“ Commerce is the lifeblood of governments. Without it public revenues and public works are impossible. Through all of Mexico's history as a colony and through much of her independent existence this truism was not appreciated. Through practically the entire colonial period the mother country sought to stifle the economic development of the great region to which it had given its name, or at least to confine it to such narrow, prescribed channels that no commerce could develop proportionate to the great latent possibilities of the territory. ”

“ Admirable as are the intellectual qualities of the upper-class Mexican, he has not yet developed a spirit of cooperation and forbearance which leads him to comply with constitutional standards in the choice of public officials even by the small class to which he belongs. He has not shown a willingness to give obedience to the standards that the opinion thus narrowly determined demands. Unfortunately for Mexico her political life has seldom indeed risen above a camarilla stage and the ruling camarilla has seldom been strong enough to control the man who for the moment was at its head. ”

“ Americans of the border states of Mexico also seldom identify themselves with the local life. They keep their American citizenship; they may be engaged in the exploitation of mines, lumber, or other natural resources, but they are representative of a "foreign interest." Even though they become landowners, they continue to look upon themselves as foreigners and to be looked upon as foreigners by the native population.
It is common to hear Americans speak of the United States as the melting pot. They are proud of the adaptability of the American. ”

“ As the period of reconstruction progresses, Mexican affairs will again assume importance not only in American international policy but in that of all the great powers. There must be created within the republic a government that can establish order, that will respect individual rights, put the great resources of the nation again at the service of those living within its borders, and enable it to contribute its due share to the maintenance of the family of nations. To make that possible all true friends of Mexico and all true friends of the United States must strive. ”

“ In spite of the importance of this growth it must not be overlooked that the most significant, and for the republic the most important, developments in her export trade in the last generation have been in other hues. No nation whose prosperity depends on a few products is ever on a sound economic basis. Exhaustion of resources, bad growing seasons, and bad market conditions always have possibilities of national disaster for such a state. A nation is secure only when by the variety of its products it can escape the difficulties that may at any time attend the production of a few of them. ”

“ There is no one element which, in the relations of the two more important republics of North America, is sufficient, if emphasized, to bring the good understanding that should exist between them. Nor can the good understanding be brought through official action only. The people of both countries must forget certain of their prejudices. The stronger nation must feel the call to help the weaker through both private and public initiative. It must help raise Mexico to a condition, social and economic, in which it can help itself. ”

“ In whatever part of the country that is under discussion the laborer is, as a rule, an Indian laborer. He is the fulcrum of Mexican society. As one of the most thorough of Mexican students says, "Amidst the most terrible sufferings and crushed by all sorts of hardship the indigenous population is sustaining us, socially speaking: it carries on the agricultural labor throughout the Republic, works the mines, and effectuates all hard and heavy toils." "Our subordination to the indigenes is so patent that our actual existence depends exclusively on them." ”

“ They are obsessed by the belief that the United States wants to annex Mexico. They are confident that only the favorable opportunity is lacking. It would astonish them to know how small a part of the people of the United States have any but the vaguest of ideas about the republic and its people and how few of even these would consider annexation a thing to be desired. Those Mexicans who believe that an advance southward will be made as soon as an excuse can be found cannot know the history of their own country. ”

“ The war with the United States brought to those interested in colonization a conflict of feeling. They felt that colonization was responsible for the national disaster, which ended with the loss of about half of Mexico's territory, yet they continued to believe that only by colonization could the republic which "found itself spread abroad in an immense territory divided by high mountains, by great rivers, and deserts, which could not be crossed," hold itself together. ”

“ The destruction wrought by the armies of various leadership that for the past decade have been keeping Mexican public life in a turmoil, and the destruction due to the actions of the governments themselves, especially in interfering with the operation of railroads and banks, the property of foreign interests, will be the basis of a host of claims that will probably amount to at least as much as the outstanding public debt. When peace comes to Mexico, the national obligations to others than its own citizens will thus have grown out of all proportion to those carried before the Civil War. ”

“ Those who wish a resumption of orderly development in Mexico cannot overlook the part that foreign commerce played in the old régime in placing the country on its feet, giving work to the people, and resources to the government to carry out the progressive measures it supported. They should not forget to what degree that commerce was made possible through the United States market and the enterprise of Americans who came to the republic with their capital. ”

“ Broadly considered the firm insistence on such a standard is not a policy lacking in friendliness for Mexico. To fail to insist on such treatment for foreigners would be to encourage the creation of conditions in Mexico that would bring with them a serious menace to its independence. At bottom, of course, the protection of the lives of its citizens is one of the first duties of every state, a duty that does not cease at the boundary. ”

“ One cannot study the political history of Mexico without reaching the conviction that the political leaders have not faced the facts with which they have had to deal. There has never been a determined and united effort to raise the people to that status in which true enthusiasm and ability for self-government is born. The better educated have made sporadic efforts to do so but those efforts have broken down almost as soon as made. Great advance has occurred in economic lines through the cooperation of the foreigner. ”

“ The criticisms of the government in the opposition papers were often lurid. Mexican journalism is nothing if not colorful. But active repressive measures were unnecessary as a rule because there was no active opposition. Peace had come, a peace that, laying its strong hand upon the people, took away from them the right of self-government, which they had used only to abuse it. Peace had come to bring to the country the longed for economic development that might make Mexico one of the leading countries of the New World. ”

“ The standards of hours, wages, and living conditions enjoyed by laborers in other lands were pictured in glowing colors. The Mexican workman could enjoy the same blessings if he would but reach out his hands.
That there were abuses in the industrial life of Mexico, even though it was but little developed, is beyond dispute. The quickest way to bring remedy to wrongs of which any class is conscious is, of course, for that class to put pressure on those responsible and this the industrial workers were assured was their opportunity. ”

“ The political inertia of the local population in the great majority of municipalities is a heavy handicap. Centralization is such a well established tradition, acquiescence in a government imposed from above has gone on so long, that it will be difficult to arouse the cities and towns into a vigorous life. A steady and uniform advance in municipal government is too much to expect.
No one who walks through the streets of a Mexican town off the line of the great trunk railroads can be enthusiastic as to the prospects of success of real local government in the immediate future. ”

“ But, if Mexico is free to encourage or discourage foreign capital that might enter the country to develop property within it by granting or withholding the special privileges above mentioned, she is not free to adopt any attitude she may wish toward foreign interests already established within her borders. Mexico is not free to denationalize at will the foreign capital which, at her invitation, has crossed her boundaries. She can not captiously modify the contracts which she has herself permitted and encouraged and she can not arbitrarily denationalize her resident foreigners. ”

“ The working man feels himself a part of the community and occupies a traditional position within it. He is not conscious of great wrongs nor disposed to question the fitness of things as they are.
Nominally all labor in Mexico has been free during the entire life of the republic, but the desire of employers to secure a lever by which the Indian could be induced to work brought the continuance of a system inherited from colonial times which, while not legally slavery, had to a large degree the economic effects of a slavery system. ”

“ The possession of no other sort of wealth so surely stimulates respect for the rights of others and love of order and progress as does the possession of land. There is no other that makes its owner realize so clearly that the state is the guarantor of his well-being and that, by supporting it, he is working for his own advantage and for that of his community.
From this point of view there is, indeed, a land problem in Mexico. The average Mexican does not crave land ownership. ”

“ The steps it may be necessary to take to assure order, and to impress upon the local government its duty to maintain it, may offend the susceptibilities of those in control in Mexico. In the past America has been frightened too often by such possibilities. There has developed a pallid Pan-Americanism, which has led the United States too often to refuse to do anything for fear of offending a Latin American country, even though by inaction its own just interests were caused to suffer. If that is the price that must be paid for Latin American friendship, it is not worth the price. ”

“ Is a special privilege, as that word is used in discussions of Mexican affairs, one which refers to an exclusive right to certain property? That can hardly be, for upon the basis of individual and corporate ownership of property all modern governments rest. If a privilege as to place is not in essence special and objectionable, is one giving rights not enjoyed by all, over a certain time or in regard to certain property, a special and objectionable privilege? ”

“ No feature of Mexican public life shows more clearly the lack of real self-government in the republic than the condition of the cities and towns during the Diaz régime. It is almost axiomatic that where a vigorous local public life is found there is good soil for the growth of self-governing institutions, the foundation upon which a strong and effective public opinion and public authority may be raised. Mexico has never enjoyed that blessing. ”

“ Government as an expression of general public opinion, as a factor in the citizen's life because it was a part of him and he of it, that sort of government did not exist. It was not a spontaneous outgrowth of the national character but something imposed from above by a group, whose control was justified by the acquiescence of a people that had no public opinion organized for determining upon whose shoulders the responsibility of governing should rest. A true republican government could not come into existence, it was argued, by the fiat of a constitution. ”

“ It is the occupation which, in the development of nations, has given the first great impulse toward respect for the rights of one's fellowman, and toward a desire for order. It is the occupation in which individual initiative and industry first received impetus. ”