CHAPTER XX
THE TROUBLESOME BORDER
When one American speaks to another of "the border," there is no doubt what border is meant. When the frontier problem is under discussion, it is always the Mexican frontier. There is no Canadian border in the sense in which there is a Mexican border; on that side there is a boundary line, but it has no problems. As an artificial barrier to free passage of trade it is troublesome to individuals on both sides of the line and looked upon as a necessary nuisance. It is not an imaginary wall separating two clashing sets of national interests, a protection against the aggressions of a suspected neighbor before whose courts a man from beyond the boundary is not de facto equal before the law.
Why is it that our southern boundary has been and is a problem, a "frontier" with all the sinister connotations of the word, while our northern boundary is not? The answer touches many of the reasons for the lack of good understanding between America and its southern neighbor.
The ill-feeling along the frontier is partly explained by history; it is the survival of the hate aroused by the Mexican War, but this is, at most, only the capstone of a group of elements, the one that claims first attention and lives longest in the memory, without being the most fundamental. Educated Mexicans still avoid reference
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