Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/411

Rh The Congress and people of Mexico are now discussing schemes for inducing immigration from Europe and the United States. There are some fanatics who oppose all immigration, and in order to keep the country and all its institutions exclusively Mexican, are willing to see the present state of things continue indefinitely; but these are few in number, and not very influential. The mass of the educated and thinking men admit the necessity of great changes in the condition of the country, and look to a liberal immigration as one of the most important, and, in fact, indispensable measures for the regeneration of Mexico. It seems to be the prevailing impression that the general system of internal improvements which has been projected and is now being slowly carried out, will result in the end, in drawing into the country a great immigration.

In this I fear that Mexico will be in some measure disappointed. My reasons are these: First, the incessant revolutions and wars of fifty years have created the impression that there is no stability in the institutions of Mexico, no guarantees for the safety of life or property, and no security for the future; and even now, when we see a tolerably strong government and a state of comparative peace, people abroad cannot believe that either will last. Secondly, that the inducements to common labor, unbacked by capital, are so much stronger in the United States, where there is yet an unlimited extent of virgin soil, that the tide will almost inevitably turn that way. Wages for common labor in the United States range from one dollar and a half per day in the East, to two dollars and a half, or even four or five dollars in California. In Mexico the average is from twenty-five to fifty cents at the utmost, and there