Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/227

Rh arm of industry have not paralyzed it. A study of the Mexican tariff, with the phenomenon of trade increasing in spite of it, justifies the high expectations which sanguine Mexicans hold of the industrial future of their country. They say that this mode of raising national revenue must in time be remedied. They point out that remedial changes have already taken place. It was formerly the practice of the States to collect toll on everything passing their borders, no matter what national taxes had already been paid. This interstate impost was prohibited a few years ago by Congress; but some of the States continued to enforce it, on the ground of necessity. It has been abolished by constitutional amendment.

The diminution of the national debt to a total of about one hundred and fifty million dollars, and the reduction of the number of civil servants, with a reduction also of the salaries of those retained, have put the national finances upon a safer and more hope-inspiring basis. The reduction of the tariff, both domestic and foreign, has followed quickly upon these happy achievements of the Diaz administration. The following articles are now on the free list at the custom-