Page:A Study of Mexico.djvu/222

212 prompted, to remorselessly trample down—in the old Anglo-Saxon spirit (and as it always has)—any weaker or inferior race, Mexicans, Indians, or Chinese, the poor fishermen of Newfoundland, or again the negro, if political sentiment in respect to the latter was not running for the time being in another direction. And it is safe to say that to-day there is not a nation or people on the face of the globe, which is brought in intimate contact with us, but fears and hates us; and that, apart from a conservation of the principle of free government, which the United States is believed to typify, would not be glad if the power of the Federal Government were by some contingency to be impaired or destroyed. Is it not time, therefore, that some steps should be taken to induce a different and a better state of feeling? But, apart from any moral or ethical view of the situation, an exceptional, kindly treatment of Mexico ought to be a permanent national policy on the part of the United States, for reasons purely of self-interest, apart from any other motives. What Mexico most needs and what she has never had, unless the present Administration be an exception, is a stable, good government. Without such a government the large interests which citizens of the United States are acquiring in Mexico are sure to be imperiled. Some eighty million