to examine the books of the "Contract and Finance Company" in order to ascertain the actual cost of the construction work upon which the government subsidies had been drawn it was found that they had all been destroyed.
The fact is that there can be no comparison between the care shown for the interests of the Mexican Government in the handling of aid to railroad construction and the utter lack of care exhibited by our own Government under similar circumstances.
In order to justify their dishonest invasion of the rights of foreigners who made investments in Mexico previous to and during the Diaz period, the Carrancistas have assumed the attitude that foreigners who financed the construction of railroads, either by buying the bonds of the nation issued to secure the cash subsidies granted or by supplying the additional cost committed a great wrong against their country. Certainly no one will undertake to argue that the railroads are not a valuable economic asset to the country. Even under the wretched and dishonest management that they have had at the hands of the Carrancista government, they have contributed greatly to the welfare of Mexico. It is very certain that unless these roads had been constructed by foreign capital they would not have been built at all, for the government was unable to pay the subsidies save by
