Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/579

Rh equals of anybody in culture, patriotism, and human virtues, while the lower classes, although seemingly degraded, are as law-abiding, intelligent and gentle as any people could be under similar circumstances. I know of what I speak when I say that these people, high and low, have fought harder and suffered more for the establishment and maintenance of republican institutions than the much exalted founders of our own republic ever dreamt of doing. Being forced, ever since they first asserted their independence, to defend it against invaders and conspirators, these people have not had the opportunity to pay that attention to the interior development of republican institutions which in the United States has taken a natural course, excepting the forcible removal of the curse of slavery, which, by a little good judgment by both sides, might have been brought about in a quiet and peaceable manner. Indeed, the Mexican people, as such, are entitled to the highest respect on our part. But the trouble has been, and is to-day, that people come here from the United States expecting to make fortunes in a day, and believing that everybody has to receive them as superior beings, and very often act in a highly offensive manner. There are such people now here, right here in Mexico, who misrepresent the American character, and in their talks to visitors misrepresent Mexico in a scandalous manner. I am glad to know that The Two Republics accepts it as a duty to neutralize the harm such people are doing."

On being asked if he considered it safe for Americans to make investments in Mexico, he said:

"I do indeed, and have proven it by my own acts. The Mexican Government is ever ready to encourage American enterprise, and has quite often got the worst of its bargains. It has been led to promise support to enterprises beyond its power of fulfillment. And this makes me think of the charge that Mexican officials are corrupt and are bleeding American investors. It is quite possible that concessions have been bought, and that some Mexican officials have betrayed their trusts; but that is as much the fault of the investors, familiar with the crooked ways of legislatures, both State and national, in