Curious customs—The abuse of concessions—Flagrant examples—Prospects for foreigners in Mexico—President Diaz—Mr. Denny’s Life-story.

One of the curious customs in Mexico is the blessing of animals on the 17th of January, the feast of Saint Anthony. On this day at the Merced (Mercy) Church of this city, from four o’clock in the afternoon till dark, the people bring all their animals to be sprinkled with holy water and blessed by the priest. All the animals are highly decorated (I have seen dogs painted all the colours of the rainbow and covered with ribbons for this occasion), and every kind, horses, chickens, goats, pigs, cats, cows, all are brought to the street in front of the church, when the priest comes out and walks down the line, sprinkling them. In some matters Mexico keeps abreast of the times, and possibly is ahead of India and even England. For instance, a dirigible balloon was brought here from the States and run by an American, who could handle it perfectly, going wherever he wished and sailing or swooping at will. It was brought by a 274Mexican tobacco firm to advertise their cigarettes! I doubt if India or England has yet begun to advertise with dirigibles. It was also, incidentally, a godsend to the rateros, pickpockets and thieves, who reaped a harvest while every one was gaping at the heavens.

One of the things which militate against the growth and prosperity of the country is the custom of granting concessions for every imaginable purpose. When these concessions are asked for by people who intend to invest money in the country and develop a new industry it is bad enough, but the trouble is that many of these concessions are obtained by concession hunters who have barely enough money to put up as the necessary guarantee. These people, hearing of the possibility of some company starting a new industry here, immediately ask for a concession covering the industry, put up the few hundreds or thousands necessary to secure the concession, and then sell out at an enormous profit to the prospective manufacturer. These holdup methods do not always succeed, however, as in the following case. The men at the head of our concern contemplated putting up gas plants in most of the big cities of the republic to supply light and power and heat, and to consume part of the immense production of oil from their field—gas here and in 275California being now made from oil instead of coal. A lawyer here, hearing of this, asked for the gas concession for this city, put up the $1500 asked as a guarantee, and was granted the concession. With this in his pocket he went to Los Angeles and tried to sell it to our company, who, however, only laughed at him, told him to go ahead and put up his plant, and that they would sell him oil when he was ready. In the meantime they had secured the concession for Mexico City. After this rebuff he tried to get other people to take up the concession, and only after much expense and two years’ time succeeded in getting people who would buy his concession and build the plant which is now in operation in Guadalajara. Some of these concessions are a robbery of the community at large. One granted to a dynamite concern gives them the sole right to manufacture this article, so vital to the mining industry of the country. To protect them, a duty of $90 per ton was placed on the import of the foreign dynamite, but the concession states that, if the company cannot manufacture sufficient to meet the demand, they may import free of duty the balance necessary. The outcome of this is that the company manufactures enough to protect their concession and import all they need, and the entire industry is in their hands. Another concession 276granted to a young Mexican of this city was ostensibly for irrigation of waste lands, and it reads in part as follows: He is allowed to take all the water he needs from Lake Chapala to irrigate these federal lands (some 400,000 acres), and is paid by the government $5 for each acre so irrigated. He is allowed to build hydro-electric works on the canal, and transmit and sell power wherever he likes; it is estimated that he can generate 50,000 horse-power on the works he has installed, and was first a competitor, and later, combined with the light and power company of the city. Then comes this small, innocent-looking clause: the land round the borders of Lake Chapala, between the present high-water mark and whatever point he succeeds in lowering the lake to, is given to him.

Just imagine a strip from 10 to 50, possibly 100, feet wide round the border of a lake that has about 130 miles, more or less, of border! Besides, he cut every landholder off from a water-front. One wealthy hacendado, realising what it meant to his ranch, paid him $500,000 not to touch his borders. A German company offered him $2,500,000 in cash for the bare concession.

Foreigners, as a rule, are fairly welcome in this country, as they bring in money and start new industries. The upper class and the labourers appreciate this, but 277the middle class and the skilled mechanics do not, as the latter are crowded out. The Mexican railroad men some time ago agitated for a law which would practically prohibit Americans working at this business, as at that time there were very few Mexicans holding responsible positions on the railroads of the country—few indeed got to be engineers or conductors. When they could not get their law passed they started anti-foreign agitations all over th............