Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/270

252 the public good has been accepted generally both in and out of Mexico and in Mexico such grants have been enjoyed by both Mexicans and foreigners alike. If such be the privileges, which the government is to bring to an end, and if the policy is to apply only to future developments, foreign capital may be disappointed, but there can be no valid cause of complaint.

But, if Mexico is free to encourage or discourage foreign capital that might enter the country to develop property within it by granting or withholding the special privileges above mentioned, she is not free to adopt any attitude she may wish toward foreign interests already established within her borders. Mexico is not free to denationalize at will the foreign capital which, at her invitation, has crossed her boundaries. She can not captiously modify the contracts which she has herself permitted and encouraged and she can not arbitrarily denationalize her resident foreigners.