acre.

acres. Behind it flood will be held to be spread out over 200,000 acres, with an additional 40,000 acres to be irrigated by pumping. Here will be demonHere will be demonstrated, as in other similar projects, the possibilities of an Where a man can take $705.65 in asparagus from 134 acres, and $980 from one acre of blackberries, or where 72 acres of mixed berries and melons yield net $3,200, or ten acres of oranges produce 1,800 boxes which return an average of $4 per box, it is clear that only a few will care to own more than they can well cultivate.

"Agriculture," said Governor W. J. Mills, of New Mexico, "is the hope of the Southwest, winning to us men who are worthy as citizens and successful as managers."

It is not a poor man's country in the sense that Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska were. It is the place for the man who brings enough to establish himself and can become an active factor in business life. This class is coming by every train, and it includes intelligent, enter prising farmers of every section of the Middle West. Likewise it is a young man's country. In the handsomely appointed home of the Yavapai Club at Prescott, a club-house that would be a credit to Hartford or Albany, a dozen young business men were chatting. "When I left

Harvard-" said one. "I was at Princeton,' added another. More than half were college men finding opportunities in the new country. You see few elderly men in the business houses; youthful enthusiasm is everywhere. So you expect, and find, that there are a push and a hustle characteristic of new countries. "See that addition?" exclaimed a real estate man who had left a Philadelphia law office to try fate in Phoenix. "Two years ago it was mesquite, now it's fit for a king."

All this, of course, is of material things, and you find its expression as well in Manitoba or in Florida. Of itself it does not make a State, but it furnishes the bas's for economic and social development. The Southwest has peculiar problems, such as face no other part of our Nation. Chief among them is that of the Mexican population-the politician does not say "Mexican," he refers to "our SpanishAmerican friends." There are plenty of them. In New Mexico 135,000, 41 per cent of the population, according to the Census supervisor, are Spanish-Americans. Many more have some Spanish blood. There are towns and counties wholly dominated by them in politics and business. Once the Territory was theirs, but American immigration has changed that, and to-day the "native" occupies a secondary

The

When the Constitutional Convention met, October 3, of the one hundred delegates, thirty were Mexican. All were Republicans, and added their votes to that of forty-one Americans, making seventyone Republicans to twenty-nine Democrats. In some of the precincts the ballots for the election of delegates were printed in Spanish. This was the excuse expressed by a Territorial officer: "The precincts where this was done have an almost wholly Mex an population. voters are men who cannot read or write English, though they can speak and understand it. It was simpler to print the ballots so they could read them than to take each voter into the booth and explain the wording of the ballot. With the next generation there will be no such problem. Every school in the Territory teaches English to every pupil. We have a compulsory school law. Spanish is taught only as an additional language in the high schools. All must know English; but the earlier generation will never learn it."

This Mexican population is of two classes: a large portion the laborers, the sheepmen; a smaller part men of means, shrewd business managers. Curiously, in view of the usual conception of the Mexican, he is given a good reputation by those

who know him best. "I have had twenty years' experience with him," said the manager of a one-hundred-thousand-acre ranch. "I have never found better laborers or men who would keep a contract more faithfully. They do not strike, and, treated well, they remain with you. I have bought tens of thousands of sheep of Mexican shepherds without a written contract, and never had one fail to do as he agreed-which is more than I can say for some American stock-owners. We must have laborers, and this class furnishes them. Without them it would be difficult to develop a definite place in the Southwest."

To be sure, crimes are committed, growing out of the hot tropic blood of the race, but even jurists give a fair account of the character of the people. Judge John R. McFie, who has been for eighteen years on the Federal Bench and is Chief Justice of the Territorial Supreme Court, said: "Nowhere have I found better jurors or men with a higher sense of justice than among the Mexicans. I have tried murder cases in which the defendants were Mexicans and every member of the jury of that nationality, yet have always found the verdict fairly given, and conviction has followed regularly if the testimony warranted. They are good citizens, are fair-minded, and

adhere to the Court's instructions more closely than any other jurors I have found. There are no 'smart Alecks' among them; they take their duties seriously and strive to seize the argument. Probably there are more defendants of this race than of Americans proportionately to the population, but their offenses are mostly of a minor sort. There is no race issue. They divide on public questions, as do the Americans. They are laboring people largely, not particularly progressive nor aggressive-and there is no likelihood of antagonisms nor of difficulties in the future."

A striking instance of the Mexican temperament was shown in Arizona, where a Democratic Legislature adopted an educational qualification for franchise. It was charged that this was for the purpose of disfranchising Mexican voters in one county where the Republican majority was overwhelming. It was never put in operation because the enabling act omitted any such ruling. When delegates to the Constitutional Convention were elected, the county referred to, with a large Mexican vote, to the surprise of the politicians who counted on the vote being swung solidly to the Republicans because of the Legislature's action, elected a Democratic delegate. The Mexicans voted for the man and his principles, rather than with the party. They do a small part of the town's business; their credit is good, though as a class they are unambitious. Practically all are Catholics; the priests are mostly French or Spanish.

In New Mexico the Mexican vote is in the southern counties, in Arizona in the southeastern section, both being closest to the boundary line of Mexico. It is the opinion of those well informed that the Mexican population is not increasing, rather that it is likely to decrease as ranches are broken up. Some go back to their native country, others scatter as laborers.

Yet in New Mexico, with more than one-third of the population of that blood, this class must be considered for many years. The next generation, taught in English schools and in touch with a rapidly growing American constituency, will be far different from that of pioneer times, and the line of demarcation in business

and politics will constantly become fainter. On the whole, it does not appear so much a problem as a condition, with few difficulties in its management and without injurious effect on the economic life of the new State. An intelligent Spanish-American put it: "All we ask is a chance to make a living. We do not desire to interfere with the American, nor do we propose to be degraded-just a fair chance in the State's life-that's all." Nor does it appear that the Spanish-American vote can be always dictated by one party or faction; this will add an element of uncertainty to its place when Statehood is complete.

In Arizona there is the Mormon question. Two members of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints were elected members of the Arizona Convention. Said Governor Sloan: "It has been repeatedly charged that the Mormon vote in Arizona is thirty per cent of the total; it is not more than ten per cent. The people of this sect are farmers and good citizens. They are prohibitionists and not polygamists. There is no indication that they will ever be a large factor in the State's politics. The Mexican population is not more than fifteen per cent, mostly itinerants, and likewise no important factor in politics, for the American population is increasing, while the Spanish-American stands still. We have had clean Legislatures, no scandals, and have an ambition to make this a good State for the farmer and business man alike. With our 400,000 acres now in cultivation we can support twice the present population. Eventually there will be 1,250,000 acres tilled, and every acre extraordinarily productive. We want settlers and capital, and propose to give both square treatment."

This last sentence is the key to the sentiment of the dweller in the Southwest. Men and money are needed. Irrigation enterprises cannot pay unless settlers come to till the lands. Here and there a plunger has equipped a great ranch house, making a mansion in the desert. He has lived like a king, impressing every titled visitorand then departed. Such investors are not wanted. The future will depend on the worker, the man who comes to stay. Owing to the vast distances and the waste desert lands, there can never be a network