Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/183

Rh convinced that the border was in great danger of advancing southward with the rail heads. There was a firmly rooted suspicion that the United States had an ulterior interest in every move taken by its people involving Mexico. It was a part of the general fear of the foreigner, of the belief that the only safety for the weak lay in playing off the strong against each other. Railway building in itself, it was recognized, was desirable but railways to the northern border would destroy the natural defenses of the republic. Although the bills introduced into Congress included provisions to the effect that the property of the railroads could never be made the subject of international claims, the fear of closer neighborhood with the United States was so great that the projects met repeated defeat.

Contrary to popular opinion in the United States even Diaz did not see, from the beginning, the importance of railway development for his country. At least he was not above playing upon the popular prejudice against the foreigner to the disadvantage of his political enemies. In his "plan" dated at Palo Blanco, March 21, 1876, he charges the Lerdo government with having delivered the country over to an English company by the grant of a concession to the Vera Cruz railroad. He declared that it had been agreed to transfer the English debt to the United States "which is equivalent to selling the country to the neighboring nation." Such projects "rob us of our future and sell us to foreigners."