CHAPTER VIII
THE "EFFECTIVOS" IN MEXICO
Neither oil, mineral wealth, nor concentrated land ownership has been responsible for the break-up in Mexico. Outside capital and outside engineers built first-class steel railroads throughout Mexico, opening up her natural resources to the world. Talent enough in Mexico has been developed to operate them with fair efficiency when the rifle bullets are not ringing over the rails.
All attempts to give land on shares or in fee simple to natives who would cultivate it have been failures. The mineral resources have developed a fine middle-type Mexican labor, competent to run stationary engines and do second grade engineering work. But the Mexicans will not work well under their own countrymen. Whether it is native jealousy or desire to learn from the Anglo-Saxon race, or whether it is that innate recognition, universal over the world, of superior leadership, one cannot as yet clearly declare.
