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DISLIKE OF AMERICANS.

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never have experienced anything of kindness or favors from the United States; and they do not forget that she has taken from them, unjustly as they think, full half of their original territory.^[1]

↑ The following extract from "The Two Republics," a daily journal published in the city of Mexico, under date of June 16, 1886, illustrates the discussion of this matter from the liberal point of view: "If the professed hatred of foreigners on general principles is a sentiment which has disappeared almost entirely among the intelligent classes of the country, there still exists to-day another feeling which also disguises itself under the mask of patriotism and which is strongest among some of the most intelligent people of the republic. This feeling is no other than that of fear. And not fear of foreigners in general, least of all of Europeans (for fiasco of the French intervention has done much to allay the fears entertained formerly in this country of European powers), but fear only of our Northern neighbors, and, associated with it, opposition to everything identified with American interests. A certain political party in Mexico especially distinguishes itself by the fear with which the Yankee inspires it. The conservative press, as one of the arms of the opposition to liberal governments, writes daily the most bitter criticisms against them, for having opened the ports of the country to the enterprise and the capital of the Americans. If one were to credit this press, the present President and his immediate successor should be convicted of high-treason, on account of the policy they have observed toward railroads. "There is nothing to justify this fear, for which there is absolutely no reason. On the other hand our daily experience is demonstrating the contrary. . . . "It is a well-established fact that neither the Mexican nor the European merchant has anything to fear from his American rival, and our own national experience proves conclusively that this fear of the Yankee is nothing but a bugbear, a groundless prejudice, which greatly injures the material development of this country. This fear serves no other purpose than to keep large capitals from our soil, which employed in Mexican enterprises would give an impulse and new life to agriculture, to mining, and to a multitude of industries which could be developed in our country, and, besides being irreconcilable to our national pride, also make us appear in the eyes of our next neighbors as a cowardly people which doubts its own vitality, the manliness of its sons, and which seeks safety in the recourse of all weaklings against danger, namely, in flight, instead of fighting danger bravely; and in this flight we greatly damage our economic interests, besides obstructing the development of the country. "Even commerce, to which so much fear regarding our neighbors is attributed, should only see a reason for congratulation if American capital comes to this country to impart life and activity to our market, which is almost stagnant for lack of circulation of money. And if, notwithstanding the lessons of the past, the pessimists should be right, and the American enterprise were not entirely free from danger to us, why in the world have we not confidence enough in ourselves to face such danger, instead of running away from it? To close the door to the elements of natural progress, which might offer themselves, only for a feeling of fear which is as unfounded as it is needless, and almost childish, would be the same as if a man should abstain from food, for fear of producing an indigestion."

[1] The following extract from "The Two Republics," a daily journal published in the city of Mexico, under date of June 16, 1886, illustrates the discussion of this matter from the liberal point of view: "If the professed hatred of foreigners on general principles is a sentiment which has disappeared almost entirely among the intelligent classes of the country, there still exists to-day another feeling which also disguises itself under the mask of patriotism and which is strongest among some of the most intelligent people of the republic. This feeling is no other than that of fear. And not fear of foreigners in general, least of all of Europeans (for fiasco of the French intervention has done much to allay the fears entertained formerly in this country of European powers), but fear only of our Northern neighbors, and, associated with it, opposition to everything identified with American interests. A certain political party in Mexico especially distinguishes itself by the fear with which the Yankee inspires it. The conservative press, as one of the arms of the opposition to liberal governments, writes daily the most bitter criticisms against them, for having opened the ports of the country to the enterprise and the capital of the Americans. If one were to credit this press, the present President and his immediate successor should be convicted of high-treason, on account of the policy they have observed toward railroads. "There is nothing to justify this fear, for which there is absolutely no reason. On the other hand our daily experience is demonstrating the contrary. . . . "It is a well-established fact that neither the Mexican nor the European merchant has anything to fear from his American rival, and our own national experience proves conclusively that this fear of the Yankee is nothing but a bugbear, a groundless prejudice, which greatly injures the material development of this country. This fear serves no other purpose than to keep large capitals from our soil, which employed in Mexican enterprises would give an impulse and new life to agriculture, to mining, and to a multitude of industries which could be developed in our country, and, besides being irreconcilable to our national pride, also make us appear in the eyes of our next neighbors as a cowardly people which doubts its own vitality, the manliness of its sons, and which seeks safety in the recourse of all weaklings against danger, namely, in flight, instead of fighting danger bravely; and in this flight we greatly damage our economic interests, besides obstructing the development of the country. "Even commerce, to which so much fear regarding our neighbors is attributed, should only see a reason for congratulation if American capital comes to this country to impart life and activity to our market, which is almost stagnant for lack of circulation of money. And if, notwithstanding the lessons of the past, the pessimists should be right, and the American enterprise were not entirely free from danger to us, why in the world have we not confidence enough in ourselves to face such danger, instead of running away from it? To close the door to the elements of natural progress, which might offer themselves, only for a feeling of fear which is as unfounded as it is needless, and almost childish, would be the same as if a man should abstain from food, for fear of producing an indigestion."

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