Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/130

114 which we quote as examples of the kind of propaganda circulated by the Carrancistas. The italics appear as in the book:

 "Not a dollar of American capital has been expended anywhere or at any time in the building of Mexican railroads. They were built entirely by Mexican capital. And what is more, they were so immensely oversubsidized, that in many cases they were built solely for the sake of the subsidy, and in such a fashion as to be useless for transportation: e.g., the lines from El Paso and Laredo to Mexico City. It is true that these railroad stocks were the playthings of American speculators; and that such railroads as Mexico possesses have come into a bastard existence as a result of the cupidity and lawlessness of American promoters and stock gamblers, but this indicates the limit of America's service to Mexico in this respect

"These much-lauded railroads and government enterprises cost the nation unnumbered millions procured by the most extortionate taxation. Not a dollar of foreign capital was used in financing them. They were wrought out by the toil of the common people and financed by the money of the common people. Even so, for every million dollars expended in actual construction, at least three million dollars was wasted in bribery and embezzlement."

That part of the above quotation which says: "They were built solely for the sake of the subsidy, in such fashion as to be useless for transportation: