294
MEXICO AND ITS RECONSTRUCTION
Thirty-one years ago conditions In Mexico were such that in few places could a man be reasonably sure of his life, if there was the slightest cause for it to be taken. At that time the country was filled with banditti . . . and little thought was given by the masses to anything other than unfriendly strife. . . . The national finances, in 1876, were at the lowest possible ebb and even at the late date of 1902 the total revenue of the Republic was only $66,147,048, while the revenue for the fiscal year just closed was $113,000,000, leaving a surplus of near $20,000,000 beyond all national requirements. . . . The more than 30 years since 1876 have brought revolution after revolution in Mexico, but not revolutions of the old kind. The revolutions of the past 30 years have been those of mind and of commercial industry. . . . Thirty years ago there were practically no Americans in Mexico, and the few that were here, with now and then an exception, were here because they could not stay at home, and there was no American capital invested in the Republic. To-day what a different condition we find. . ., There are in the Republic of Mexico something like 40,000 Americans, and the majority of them are honest and industrious people who would be a credit to any country. Their sphere of action covers practically every known occupation.
Secretary Elihu Root, the guest of honor at a banquet given by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, carried the statement further. He said: [1]
I suppose that the true object which should be held before every statesman is to deal with the questions of the present so that the spirit in which they are solved will commend itself to the generations of the future. . . . The Government of Mexico has attained that high standard of statesmanship to an extraordinary degree. It certainly has done so in Its relations with the Government of the United States, and, as a result of the
- ↑ Ibid., p. 867.
