BY COUNT MAURICE DE PÉRIGNY The establishment of more intimate and cordial relations between the United States and the nations of South America must beaccompanied by a similar increase of intimacy between Mexico and the United States. Mexico is our first neighbor on the south, and while proximity ought to ally her to us, her Spanish origin brings her into a closer touch with South American peoples. Future citizens of this country who may travel to Argentina and Brazil by the Pan-American Railway of that day must first pass over Mexican soil on leaving their own country. Thus Mexico, by reason of both her national spirit and her geographical position, becomes an indispensable link with South America. In our judgment, the people of the United States are woefully provincial in their ignorance of the political, educational, and industrial achievements of Mexico. In publishing the following article The Outlook hopes to do something towards turning the attention of its readers in the direction of Mexico at this particular time, when the southern part of our hemisphere is receiving unusual consideration from the whole civilized world. The author is a member of various geographical societies and has been an extensive traveler. This particular paper is the result of four months of exploration and study in Mexico on his part. A French view of Mexico is valuable for the reasons which the author states in a letter to The Outlook: "To a Frenchman Mexico makes a strong appeal. It is a Latin country, and France, moreover, has exerted an important influence on its history. Napoleon III. wanted to build in the New World a Latin empire. The scheme was beautiful, but the United States Government was too powerful to permit its accomplishment. France was obliged to retire; she did not conquer the soil of Mexico for the Emperor of her choice; but she did peacefully conquer the Mexicans. In their ideas, their tastes, their literature, their art, French influence is strongly felt. In the schools the books of science, law, and medicine are French. Every Mexican of good birth speaks French fluently. Mexico calls France its intellectual mother and loves and admires her." It is to be hoped that some time she may regard the United States as an elder sister.-THE EDITORS. A FTER a long period of discord and anarchy, after a series of revolutions and civil wars, Mexico had at last in 1857 obtained for itself a federal constitution. In 1861 the nomination to the Republic's presidency of the patriot Juarez seemed to give to this unhappy country a solid government and the hope of entering an era of peace. Unfortunately, the finances were in an awful state; the interest on the loans, nearly all made at usurious rates, could not be paid. The Congress stopped the payment of the domestic national debt, after having done the same with the foreign debt and thereby caused the French Expedition into Mexico. But, the empire fallen, Maximilian dead, Juarez was re-elected as President, and at his death in 1872 he was succeeded by his Prime Minister, Lerdo de Tejada. Soon, however, the unfortunate country was troubled by a new revolution. General Porfirio Diaz was its leader, and the struggle began between the Lerdists and the Porfirists. Lerdo lost his control, ran off to Acapulco, and left the country in 1876. Diaz entered Mexico the 24th of November, was elected President, began an era of peace unknown before him, and at the end of his term, in 1880, retired in favor of his intimate friend, General Manuel Gonzalez. He retired to his native place, Oaxaca, as Governor, made a trip through the United States, and returned in 1884 to be elected President nearly unanimously. Since that time he has always been re-elected, and two years ago an amendment to the Constitution made the Presidential term six years instead of four. Unweary worker, firm and energetic chief, able and honest administrator, sure of the army's support, Diaz has entirely reorganized Mexico, has made it a real country. Out of a most disturbed the country, to clear the land and the city from bands of brigands, remains of the civil wars, who spread terror through the whole country. The organization of the rural guard, that of the city police in the federal district, and the energy of the President made this scourge disappear, and now, aside from a few regions where the last rebel Indians, Yaquis and Mayas, are placed, one can go everywhere through Mexico without any danger. So established on a solid basis, with a strong financial credit, the Government tried to protect the country, to make the national flag respected, and therefore to create a good military organization. peace, excepting the choice corps, the army is maintained by voluntary enlistments of men without work. Many individuals who as vagabonds would be dangerous for society are also enlisted, more or less voluntarily, and the influence of a strong discipline, with the certainty of the daily subsistence, improves naturally the morale of these soldiers. One of the most important factors of this rapid and wonderful development of Mexico was, as for all young countries, the creation of a perfect network FROM STEREOGRAPH, COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD railway across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which will be one great commercial way between the Orient and the Occident. Other harbors on the Pacific are also improved-Acapulco, Manzanillo, Mazatlan. These harbors, unfortunately, are not connected with the capital. On each of the principal lines the engineers stopped at the Sierra Mountains, rebuffed by the difficulties of the passage; but the connection of these harbors with the interior is of too vital an interest for the country not to have the Government make every effort possible to complete the proposed railways.1 Thanks to these numerous railways and also an excellent system of posts and telegraphs, the relations between the different parts of the Republic have become more intimate and I The line between Manzanillo and Guadalajara, on the main line, will be finished by the end of 1907. more cordial. The particularist spirit of the provinces, a source of perpetual anarchy, has weakened little by little and has given place to a fine feeling of solidarity. There are no more Spaniards and Indians, there are only Mexicans. The action of the central power is sure and rapid, making easier the education of the peasantry and of the peons. And so, little by little, but slowly, alas ! the Indians are giving up their dialects to speak Spanish, and are learning how to read and to write; and, thanks to the vivifying flood of primary instruction, progress is penetrating the smallest villages. But what is needed in Mexico is hand labor. The land as a whole is thinly settled, and this is a serious obstacle to the rapid development of the country. To remedy this, the Government has encouraged the increase of foreign immigration, |