Carrying firearms—The business of Mexico—Its management by
foreigners—Real-estate and mining booms—Foreign capital—Imports and
exports.
I spoke of carrying pistols; I am not in favour of it, but when working
a large body of men, as we do here, and of the class of these people, I
think it wise, as the very fact that you are known to have one will
often keep you out of trouble. For the people are treacherous, and you
can never tell at what moment some man with whom you have had trouble
will decide to take his revenge, generally when he has you at a
disadvantage. Here is an instance from the _Mexican Herald_: "George T.
Jennings, superintendent for the Pacific Lumber Company, was shot and
instantly killed by a Mexican workman at one of the company’s camps in
the Culiacan district of the state of Michoacan on 19th March.... The
shooting was done by a workman just discharged.... A second telegram
states that the murderer has been captured, seriously wounded." Probably
Mr. Jennings managed to shoot as he fell.
They do not understand fair play, but think a man who does not take all
the advantage he can get is a fool. Even in affairs of honour some of
them will take all they can get, though the following is an exceptional
case: Some time ago Burns, an American, had a quarrel with Martinez, a
Mexican, son of a wealthy _hacendado_ (ranchman) of Guadalajara. Burns
was manager for a mining company at Ayutla, a town near here, and young
Martinez had charge of his father’s ranch at that place. They were in
love with the same girl, quarrelled over her one evening, and decided to
fight a duel. They were both armed, and agreed to walk together to a
secluded place on some side-street and shoot it out. On the way
Martinez, who was walking a little behind the other, drew his pistol and
shot Burns twice in the back, and then fled; Burns, though badly
wounded, turned and emptied his pistol at the fleeing man without
effect. This was Burns’ dying statement. Martinez lay out in the hills
for a few days, then came in and gave himself up as soon as he heard
that Burns was dead. His family moved heaven and earth, and he is now
out a free man. Yet this is the second man he has killed by shooting in
the back, as it became known later.
Though we overstepped our rights in defending our work, it is nothing to
the way the _gente fino_ treat the peon class. I was once after duck
near here, on a ranch where I had a permit to shoot. At the lake there
was a Mexican of the peon class shooting mud-hens, and unconsciously
aiding us as he kept the ducks moving. The owner of the ranch and his
foreman happened to come riding by, and asked if the peon was of our
party; when we said “no” the owner told the foreman to run him off. The
foreman rode up to the man and ordered him off, telling him to run;
then, as he was not going fast enough, he rode over the man, knocking
him down. The poor fellow picked himself up and fled for his life, but
in Texas that foreman would have been a poor insurance risk. Mexicans of
the lower class, in spite of their poverty, are great spendthrifts. We
have a man who has been with us four years. He started at 45 cents per
day, and has worked up to $2.75 per day, which he has been getting now
for over two years. I asked him one day if he had any money saved up. He
replied, "I have $10." I asked him why he did not lay by $1 per day,
which he could easily do, having no one but himself and one sister to
support, and that he would have nearly $400 at interest by the end of
the year. He replied, "If I had $400 all at one time I would go crazy."
Mexicans control very little of the business of their own country except
that of agriculture. The mining is nearly all in the hands of English
and American companies, with a few mines in the hands of other
foreigners, notably the French. The street railways and electric power
and light companies are also in the hands of Canadians, Englishmen, and
Americans, except one belonging to a Chinese company. What is called in
the States the drygoods (clothing, &c.) business is almost entirely in
the hands of Frenchmen, as also are nearly all the cotton mills. The
hardware business, including that of agricultural implements, the
foundries and the machine shops are nearly all in the hands of Germans,
with a sprinkling of Americans and Spaniards. The Spaniards run most of
the small stores, and you generally find Spaniards as managers of the
big ranches, so that the Mexican cuts a very small figure in the
industry of his own country. They own, of course, most of the land, fill
all the government offices, and for the rest are the clerks and
labourers of the country; and this is what makes them dislike the
foreigner who comes into their country to take all the good things which
they consider as their own, though they will not make use of them
themselves, and will not invest their money in new undertakings; but
when a business is sure, then they want it all for themselves, and howl
that the foreigner is stealing their country.
All real-estate and mining booms are handled by Americans, who are, I
suppose, the greatest boomers on earth. But when the bottom drops out of
the boom, as often happens, you rarely see the wily American holding the
sack, for he generally manages to unload on the natives whom he has
succeeded in getting all stirred up. The latter hold on too long and get
caught—like the southerner whose slave before the war had tried to buy
his freedom with some money he had saved up, but as he was a good man
his master was loth to part with him. Then the war broke out, and as it
approached its end the master changed his mind. He sent for the slave
and said, “Sam, you remember you asked to buy your freedom some time
ago. I have been thinking the matter over, and I have come to the
conclusion that I did not act right by you. You have been such a good
and faithful servant that I have decided to accede to your request.” The
nigger scratched his head, rubbed one leg with the other, and finally
said, "Massa, I did want to buy myself, but Ah been studying erbout it
lately too, an Ah come to de clusion dat niggah prop’ty am not good
investment just at present."
The way real estate has jumped in this city during the last eight years
is simply astounding. Land that could be bought once for 17 cents a
square metre sold within four years for $8 per metre, though I must say
that the promoters had spent $1 per metre on improvements before they
sold. Since the revolution prices have fallen badly, but will pick up
again as soon as confidence is restored.
The day for selling and booming unimproved suburban property seems to
have passed here as well as in Los Angeles. Nowadays, if one wants to
start a new subdivision, or _colonia_, as it is called here, one has to
lay out the streets and pave them with asphalt, or something nearly as
good, put in cement side-walks, instal a complete water and sewer
system, and when that is done you are ready to sell lots; but with a
well-picked site and plenty of capital it is a most profitable
undertaking even to-day in Mexico. I have seen in Los Angeles men laying
out cement side-walks and paving the streets in the middle of an orange
orchard, the lots of which would be sold later, snapped up, and the
entire place built upon within the course of a few months. I have seen
the same thing here, all but the building, in the _Colonia Moderna_, the
land I spoke of above. The lots were nearly all sold within a year, but
the building has been slow, as most of the land was bought for still
further speculation at even higher prices. I mentioned above that
foreigners own the greater part of the industries of the country, and
the following few figures will give a clearer idea of what I mean. The
Mexican Government having no Statistical Department, it is hard to get
really accurate figures as to foreign investments in the country. The
following figures, however, are most reliable, being compiled partly by
the Canadian Bank of Commerce (for the benefit of its directors and
stockholders), and published in its annual report, and partly from other
trustworthy sources. The foreign capital (which is over seventy per
cent. of the entire capital of the country) invested in this republic is
drawn from the following sources.
British, including Canadian, $350,000,000, about 60 per cent. being
invested in railways, 15 per cent. in mining, and 25 per cent. in
agricultural and other enterprises.
The United States about $500,000,000, about 35 per cent. invested in
railways, 45 per cent. in mining, and the balance in other industries.
German, French, Austrian, Spanish, Italian, Belgian, and Dutch (in the
order named) about $150,000,000, invested largely in bank stocks, in
manufactures, and in wholesale and retail trade. The United States, of
course, leads, being such a close neighbour, but England, with the help
of Canada, has nothing to be ashamed of. Still there is a large and
profitable market for England to investigate more fully, as her exports
to this country are not in the same proportion. The last figures
available of the imports and exports of this country are, the former,
$97,428,500, and the latter, $130,028,000. Mexico produces many
minerals, and the report last year of this production shows: gold,
$22,507,477; silver, $38,555,000; copper, $10,191,500; other minerals,
$9,946,000.
Guadalajara is bound eventually to become a great manufacturing city,
owing to the cheap electrical power which can be generated from the
river close by. Up till last year 9500 horse-power was brought into the
city, and the company charged from two cents to seven cents per
kilowatt, according to the amount used, but it has been estimated that
the river can supply power up to 200,000 horse-power, and a plant has
just been completed which adds 50,000 horse-power to the 9500
horse-power we had before. Another industry which should bring great
wealth to the country is the raising of eucalyptus trees for use in
making railroad ties, mine timbers, and for furniture. In California the
Santa Fe Railroad has planted 40,000 acres with these trees, and now the
Mexican Central Railway and the Amparo Mining Company have followed
suit, and the business is also being taken up by private parties. It is
claimed that in three years a tree grown here is fit for telegraph
poles, and in five years is big enough for railroad ties. As there is no
timber in this section suitable for ties, this alone will give a good
market. The Southern Pacific Railway, which is building a road from
Mazatlan to Guadalajara, had to import the ties it needed from
California and from Japan. It is stated that eucalyptus makes a growth
of three inches in diameter and fifteen feet in height each year for the
first five years or so, and needs very little care after the first year;
an acre yields $4500 in seven years, or nearly $643 per acre per year,
and the trees can be raised on soil that is not suitable for any other
crop. Even supposing this estimate as much as threefold sanguine, still
eucalyptus is even better than strawberries (which are grown all the
year round, and sold here), though a man here who has a thirty-acre
tract, part in berries and part in alfalfa, clears $5000 net per year
off it. A man with brains, a fair amount of capital, and energy should
do well here, and the climate is the finest that I have encountered in
twenty years’ wanderings in Canada and the States, even superior to that
of California either in winter or summer. During the rainy season, which
is from about the middle of June till the end of September, the rainfall
is about thirty-five inches, but, curiously enough, during this entire
season there will not be more than half-a-dozen days in which it will
rain during the daylight hours. The days are sunshiny, bright, and
delightfully cool; then about four or five P.M. it will begin to cloud
over, and the rain will commence about seven to nine P.M., and continue
a steady downpour till sunrise, when it will clear up as if by magic.