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Rh the new routes. Tampico, for example, had been an important source of supply in the old days for a number of the states of the central plateau but, after the railroad from Vera Cruz to Mexico was established, the trade of the table lands began to be drained off southward instead of to the Gulf port to the east.

As to railroad policy, public opinion began to divide into two camps. In one were those who saw that the new day for Mexico meant investment of large amounts of foreign capital and the extension of the American railway net southward to include the Mexican system. In the other were the conservatives, who shrank from contact with the aggressive world around them for fear there might come with the new associations influences that would threaten the independence of the disorganized fatherland.

During the period before the Diaz régime the conflict between those who wanted the building of railroads and those who did not was largely theoretical, for railroad enterprise, with the exception of the line to Vera Cruz, was practically unknown. The poverty and disorder, which had so long characterized the country, made capital still reluctant to invest. The reëstablishment of what appeared to be a lasting peace gradually dispelled this fear and capitalists in the United States began to look more favorably on Mexican railway projects, but they showed a disposition not to invest their money "unless the protection of the Government of the United States, by some treaty stipulation or other convention,