efforts to win the sympathy of the world, dwell with much insistence upon the allegation that foreigners, particularly Americans, have exploited, to their benefit and to the injury of the country, its mineral resources, more especially gold, silver, and copper.
While it is true that considerable foreign capital, mostly American, during the past seventy-five years and particularly during the Diaz régime when law and order reigned, was invested in mining, history shows that the enterprises carried on by foreigners really resulted in taking very little from the mineral resources of the country that was available and valuable to its inhabitants.
Mexico, when conquered by the Spaniards, was enormously rich in gold and silver, and for the first three hundred years of Spanish control it contributed immense amounts of those metals to Spain. During this time, the Mexicans became excellent prospectors, and were so successful in discovering the rich deposits of gold and silver that during the last hundred years few new deposits have been found that were sufficiently rich to pay for working by the primitive methods employed by the natives. Furthermore, during the period when foreigners became interested in Mexican mining, it was impossible for Diaz, or any other head of the government, to grant any special privileges, or rights, to favoured beneficiaries, for
