Page:Appleton's Guide to Mexico.djvu/169

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
MISCELLANEOUS.
141

or manufacturing will do well to lease property for long terms, instead of purchasing it.

In 1881 the value of city property was $109,684,376 52
And that of rural property was 181,873,994 04
————————
Total $351,558,370 56

Americans in Northern Mexico, especially in Chihuahua, have been charged with a want of due respect for the local authorities. They have invested largely in mines and ranches, and are unwilling to be controlled by the laws of the country. On August 1, 1883, a dispatch from Paso del Norte to a New York journal disclosed a new scheme for the acquisition of a part of Mexico by the United States. The plan is as follows: When Congress meets next winter, the Americans in Chihuahua, said to number ten thousand, are to “pronounce" a dissolution of the relations of that State with Mexico, establish a local State government, and apply for admission to the United States. This scheme is discredited by those who are in a position to know the facts. It is to be hoped that every honest man in the United States, and, above all, that our Government, will sternly oppose this or any other scheme for despoiling our neighbors of their territory.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES.

Capital may be advantageously invested in Mexico as follows:

1. In cattle and sheep ranches.
2. In water companies for irrigation.
3. In the manufacture of paper. (There are but three or four kinds of paper made in Mexico. Nearly all the white paper is imported.)
4. In woolen and cotton mills.