OCR Text |
Show - - : : " : ' ' I - MEXICO : j ZT-FOKZia DTTEXE8TS. I J f -. ...... - w I By Frederic J. Haskin V 1 MEXIf'O CITT No ather enwntre ever depesded more on foreign capital for the develonmeat of its resources thss Mexico, sad today Europe sad 'America - are tar-aishine; tar-aishine; the major portiaa mt the fuads with which the aanierens great pro-, jeeta ars being; developed. fJivestmcBt Tbs Germaa ta Mexico is but s repe-titios repe-titios of the tirrasi throughout Oa-tnU Oa-tnU Aamira. He permits himself ta he sssiinilatsd lata the lueal civiiira. tioa.' With a special sift ta the Blatter Blat-ter of learning languages, it is aot Ions before be speaks Hpaniah as if it were sis mother tongue. He eooe adopts tha wars and customs of hie surroundings, probably marries into a Mexican family, fam-ily, or else bis ebildrea do so, and sons be is part and parcel of tie people. peo-ple. With the Kngliahmaa and tha Americas it is different. They aisis. taia s sort of .separata civilisation. Blond ia thicker tbaa water, aad the Amerieaa aad tha Knglishman ia Mexico Mex-ico set up a sort of Anglo-ttaxea eir-Uisatioa eir-Uisatioa of their owa. They kavs their colonies ib the big cities sad sever permit themselves to become aesimilat ad like tbs GermaB. One mar form soma idea of what foreiga enterprise has doae for Mexico, out sine of tha development of ita mines end the eonfltmetien of its railroads. r I IB MPXM-ai SB prac- ticallv ss safe as iaveetmeat is the I'aited tttatea, but so few people realize real-ize that act aa yet that competition is aot great sad large profits- are the result. re-sult. A dollar jadi-eiouftly jadi-eiouftly iaveeted ia Mexico will bring back another dollar ia profits. .And. yet soma is res tors sre sot - entirely satisfied satis-fied with eoa'li-tioas. by glaaciag over the list of important maoafaetnnne; establishments. The largest glycerine mill ia America, with s yearly capacity of s tboosaad tons, ia one of the holdings of tha Industrial Soap company of Lacuna. Thia corporation cor-poration dominates the cottos seed iB-dastry iB-dastry of Mexico snd was organized ia 1M3, with foreign capital bark of it. The daily ennautapttoa of cotton seed amounts to 300 tons, and tha soap department tarns eut 75.000 boxes of seventy gve posads each. The divi: denda last year amounted to 2S par cent on a capital of 3,VX1,000 gold. The Bueno Tono eigaretts factory, established es-tablished by s Freorhmas anmed Pogi-bet, Pogi-bet, and now tha largest producer of eigassUss a the world,-swlb--daily capacity af 12.000,006 cigarettes, pays a dividend of 12 per cent a year oa a capitalisation of S3,2.V),000 gold. Tha Mexirsn Nstional Packing com penv. backed by English capital, dominates dom-inates the packing industry of Mexico, nnder a concession which rune until 1H26. During that time there caa be no other abattoir built ia tha City of . A stockholder ia as Americas mine Bear Monterey recently re-cently was 1 discussing conditions ia Mexico. He observed that taxes ware terribly burdensome ia tbeae latter days, aad that the people were aot to be blamed for wanting a change. "Take our company, for instance, ' said he. "if it wars sot -for tha bnrriensome taxes assessed sgainst na wa would be able to declare dividends of nearly 100 per cent s yesrat' A fellow trsvefer Inquired In-quired what tha profits of his company had heea ia the faea of the taxes. "Oh." ha replied, "wa hare bee a clearing ia tha neighborhood of 60 per eent a vear on our investment.' The EnglisheapiUlietwastbetrat to 1 tsteat bis money tw the earn snd keeping keep-ing of the Mexicans. When tha Dtax aaministratina begaa Ita policy of ea-conraging ea-conraging the iaraatment of foreign capital in Mexico, the- American and the Britisher turned their atreama of fold upon tha undeveloped resources, he American cautiously at first, but Ihe Britisher with ronsidrrahla liberality. liber-ality. For many rears Eneiish aanital Mexico, and no live stock may Be slaughtered except br it. It also ia entitled to a rebate la :he taxes for slaughtering lire sto.'k in tha republic, repub-lic, which amounts to at least s quarter of s million dollars, gold. The company com-pany is incorporated ander the lawa of New Jersey and baa a eapitalixatioa of IIJSO.OOO gold. It owna ita own refrigerator re-frigerator car linea aad is bow exporting export-ing meat to Europe. Ita dividends are enormous and would make those of the American beef trust sppcsr a widow's mite in gomparisoa. Tka Monterey iron and steel works, organized through tha efforts of Eugene Kelly of New York, with a capitalize waa master of the eituatioa, and it - seemed thst Mexico waa to be dominat-' dominat-' ed by English capital. But as soon as ; the American capitalist waa aura the i financial ground was firm be begsn to pour in his gold is lavish quantities. His investments aad holdings have 1 grown so rapidly that the entire trade world now recognises the supremacy of Amerieaa rspitai in Mexico. Its railroads ars for tha moat part built with money fnrnished bv Wall afreet. American capital. Jts agricultural lands are being exploited by American companies, com-panies, its timber resources are being developed by Amerieaa mills. The United Mates consul general to Mexico, Arnold -Mhanklin, baa bees making a careful investigation of American interests ia the country, snd be estimstes tha holdings st fully s billion dollars. In his opinion there are at least K.,000 Americans residing in tha republic, the majority of whom have greater or smaller investments in Mexican property, . Amerieaa business men have invaded every field. Where once their activities were limited to railroad building and mineral development, develop-ment, today one may aee them operating operat-ing hotels ruaniag department stores, selling Mexican curios, publishing sewspapera, onndiieting automobile agencies, and vertirrpating" in every other Jias.ot business., to be .found ia. Mexico, One encounters Americans ia tba moat unexpected .. places. When the tourist goes aut to Haa Aagol, the flower garden of Mexico, and ta tha famous Man Angel inn. which once waa the concent of tha Carmelite monks, he finds the innkeeper to be a gentleman who acknowledges Mia-aouri Mia-aouri aa his aative state. Here oae may Klay billiarda upon the magnificent tale ta-le that ones graced the palace of Maximillisa. In Merico fit v there is tioa of $3,000,000 gold, is now turning out $.1,000,000 worth of froa ssd hteel s yesr. Tha Nstional railway lines of Mexico have placed with it a contract for 20.0O0 tens of steel rails. Heretofore Hereto-fore practically all tbs railroad iron need in- Mexico has coma from the United Slates. The National linea will consume 80,000 tons a year ia repairs and construction during tha next sir years, and tha Monterey smelters will snonly it. On every hand one finds industrisl Mexico, thriving because the foreigner is here.' That he is making large profits prof-its ia disclosed by tba dividend figures, which certainly average IS per eent, taking ao account of tha amounta set Lover for exteasioao- aad anrplna. But the foreigners giro employment to the natives in every position they can fill, and the wages paid ara much higher than where there sre ao factories. Ordinarily the wage earner ia eoBtent with hia 'lot, because tha days of real suffering snd hardship, sre stilt too fresh in his memory to permit him to complain .of present conditio na. Occasionally Oc-casionally tba socialist and tba walking walk-ing delegate pay their visits to tha industrial in-dustrial centers and tha satiafied work- i n r. M.aM r4 vaftvtaw kMMM the MA. ital oppressed industrial slaee of today. The Mexican working maa'a mind generally thinks right when not influenced, in-fluenced, but it is very susceptible to the 'preachments of tha walking delegate. dele-gate. The arrival of this gentlemsa in an industrial community ia tba signal sig-nal for trouble, and it usually winds bp bv the government taking a hand aad shooting the leaders. 1b tha main, foreign capital gets on well with labor, and guarded by lawa that afford it ample protection it maltipliea ia a way that makes Mexico a most attractive attrac-tive spot for the foreigner wba wishes to i a vest mosey where it is at sncs safe snd highly productive. . s Tomorrow MEXICO. V. Mineral Wealth. s small skyscraper witk great gilt letters let-ters at the top announcing it to be "Edificio Roosevelt." It houses tha famous ' curio place called "Axtee ijend,.".xrhieh is conducted by sa Amer-' icant A few blocks awar ia a quaint little" place known as 'Ths Original Hole in tba Wall." -Ita proprietor is an Irishman from Ihiblin, who stayed in the United Mates long enough to become ib American citisen. Hera one may buy anything from "a nice, well behaved, d reused flea from our owa ' ? Isolation, sonar," to a little god of he Tolteca, an idol of tha Asters, a jewel ease of the conquest, or a hand cannon nf Iturbide 'a day. K very where one sees evidences of the supremacy of American trade intereeta.' American engiaee. Americas cars and American rails are nerd on its rail-road rail-road Amerieaa automohitee and Amerieaa carriages are ia geaeral evidence evi-dence oa ita atreetai Amerieaa clothea and dry goods are for sale in ita shops; Amerirao meats snd canned goods ara displayed ia ita markets. Whatever may be said about the failure of the American exporter to get hia share of biisiacea in other parts of Latia-America, Latia-America, it caa sot be charged against him la Mexico. Kvery British eoasul in the country appeala to his home ex- Kirters to emulate the Amerieaa ia exico. No one understands just why Knglnnd allowed her former trade supremacy su-premacy here to decline natil aha bow holds second place, but that haa happened. hap-pened. Indeed. John Bull, while still holding hold-ing second plnce, has allowed Germaay In step in and bid for thst position. |