CHAPTER II
The Mexican problem can be studied better at Tampico than elsewhere in Mexico. Here the civilization and business forces of Europe and America have opened the jungle and the prairie, tapped the greatest oil basin in the world, harnessed it, piped it to the Gulf coast, and here light and enlightenment, work and wages, invite human development. Here is the American boom town of Mexico, grown to fifty thousand population, with asphalt-paved streets, business blocks, markets, and parks.
Here in turn the warring factions of Mexico fight for the privilege of protecting and taxing the developing properties about Tampico. Here the new order meets the old. The native Mexican, more than two-thirds the population of the country, gladly accepts the extended helping hand. The Anglo-Saxon, the European and the American, are welcome throughout Mexico. "Gringo" is only a border term.
What, then, is the Mexican problem?
