Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/370

366 below the legal requirements, thus showing a large deficiency instead of a surplus.

The condition of Mexico is quite a factor in our foreign trade. Their imports from the United States have been much more than from any other country, coming largely of an accompaniment of our increasing investments there. We have already a thousand million dollars or more invested in Mexico. When the troubles there are over, and a government controlled by the intelligent classes and accepted by the whole people is established, we may expect a revival of trade in that section. Mexico the great Humboldt ranked as the richest portion of the world, and it must eventually become a large field for trade.

Nearly all those who know Mexico,—I have known it for many years—regarded our failure to act with most of the other nations in promptly acknowledging Huerta as a serious mistake. He was certainly far better qualified for the position of president than any of those who opposed him. He had control of 17 of the 23 states, to begin with, and with the acknowledgment of the United States could readily have established peace: we could thus have been saved all responsibility, to say nothing of our waste at Vera Cruz and on the border of ten or fifteen millions of dollars and a score of lives. We have no proof that Huerta had anything to do with murdering Madero, but, if he did, as a prominent Mexican remarked, he would be only following the custom of the country, which should not concern us.

The destruction of property is so great in Europe that we shall doubtless be called upon for large supplies, and at the close of the war a vast amount of material will be needed, which we can furnish if there is any money left to pay for it. From all this we may draw temporary profits, but, in the long run, we in common with all the world are bound to suffer from this wasteful and wicked war. We may perhaps congratulate ourselves on suffering less than any other nation. If the war continues much longer all Europe must approach bankruptcy, for its national debts before the war were already enormous. France owed over six thousand millions of dollars, Germany, five thousand millions, Russia, four thousand five hundred millions, England, three thousand five hundred millions, Austria-Hungary, two thousand millions, and Belgium, seven hundred and fifty millions. This indebtedness has already been increased by over seven thousand millions of dollars, about the estimated expense of our civil war. Our recovery after the war was rapid, only for a time interfered with by the great ’73 panic, but we disbanded our armies and stopped the expense of militarism, except for pensions, which by the way for a number of years were comparatively small. If Europe will follow our example in this they may be saved from bankruptcy and recover sooner than expected, but it is probable it will not recover its former status during the life of those here present, although it is barely possible with energy and economy