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Page:Mexico's dilemma.djvu/165

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THE FUTURE
137

travelled in Mexico recently that the people and the government of that country cannot grow in intelligence and economic strength without the co-operation of foreigners. Mexico needs foreign help the same as every young nation, and every nation which has gone through a period of unrest, needs foreign assistance. The Mexican problem is to make the Mexican authorities understand that foreigners want to help Mexico.

The first need of the Mexican people to-day is education. Of the population which is estimated at fifteen million only about two million, according to recent estimates, can read and write. Ignorance is at the bottom of banditry. Ignorance is what enables unscrupulous men to rob the people of land and wages. Ignorance is what keeps the peons dressed in rags.

Mexico needs a public school system from one end of the country to the other, and in establishing such a system it should be understood by Mexico that substantial progress can be expected only by calling foreign educators to Mexico to superintend the work. Mexico needs great educational directors, such as the state superintendents of public instruction in some of our states. Mexico needs men like the Presidents of our great universities to help her build up an educational system.

Mexico needs an educational system that will begin not only with the children but with the men and women of to-day. They, too, must be taught to read and write and think. Mexico needs tech-