in fact its complement, the Texcoco-Huehuetoca canal-wherein any person in Mexico who has a day's work to deposit in behalf of the Government, may put it in security in the said work of public necessity, and receive Treasury money in payment, or rather in acknowledgment therefor. Wherein or in what manner could any one be injured by such a step? Are the honest, toiling millions, who do not have a gold ring, a silver chain, or a pair of pants, to deposit, but who do have labor in its crude form to lay away, to go forever unrecognized and uncared for by those clothed with leadership? Since labor is the basis of all capital, the only source of all necessities, comforts, and luxuries, is it not also the only true basis for the money of a free people? The Treasury money paid for labor received upon a work of public necessity has a perfect basis, and is redeemed every time it pays a tax, or is exchanged for an article or a service at par. To say that such a money would fall below par is to be ignorant of history-there is no instance where the Treasury money of a revenue-sustained government, based upon labor and received for all public dues, ever depreciated. When the Government pays out Treasury money for services on a work of public necessity, and receives that Treasury money at par for public dues, service for service has been exchanged, equivalents have been rendered, justice has been maintained, and a perfect money has been created. The merchant or farmer who would refuse to receive such money at par for his commodities, would be wofully a stranger to fair dealing-would be a traitor to republican institutions, and could only persist in such refusal to his own pecuniary loss, to his own self-degradation. It is said, that to incorporate Treasury money in Mexico, is a difficult operation. Let such be admitted-every step in the interest of truth and science has been inaugurated with difficulties. Statesmen will simply inquire if the proposed step be right. That to issue Treasury money based upon labor is right, there can be no doubt, for it is just the opposite of that " pot-metal" system of payments, which has been based upon dead wealth, and which has universally been associated with every degradation of mankind and weakness of Government. To assist Mexico to inaugurate said payments, your commissioners have associated themselves, and they are backed by the moral influence of two million of lib erty-determined men in the United States. May it not be policy on the part of Mexico to cultivate the friendship of a political party of progress and of so great a future? " It is only a question of a year or two, at most, when not only American republics, but European monarchies, will, from the force of circumstances, be compelled to throw off their old "pot-metal system of payments, and to adopt the Treasury money system, based upon labor employed in public construction; and it is hoped that Mexico may take the lead, and not the rear. Victor Hugo says: "Sometimes those who are most deceived are those who ought to be least. Forty five years ago, in the tribune of the Chamber of Deputies, a distinguished man, M. Thiers, declared that the railroad would be a plaything for Paris and St. Germain. Another distinguished man, an authority in science, Mr. Pouillet, declared that the electric telegraph would be an amusing addition to cabinets of curiosities. These playthings have changed the world." Treasury money based upon labor employed on works of public necessity is going to change the world more and better than the railroad and telegraph combined. Treasury money is the promised "Messiah”—its coming will be the harbinger of glad tidings to mankind-its successful inauguration will herald "peace on earth, and good will to men." Let it here, also, be stated, that there is no instance in history where those in authority ever advanced determinedly in the interest of their whole people, but that the best citizens gathered to their support, and but that generations remembered them with gratitude. Herewith is appended (marked Appendix No. 4) a letter predicting the anarchy which must certainly come to a people who permit corporations to control public utilities. Respectfully, A. K. Owen. APPENDIX NO. 1. The Texcoco-Huehuetoca canal or ditch may be opened so as to drain the valley of Mexico, and to protect the Federal District permanently from inundations, at a cost of about $4,000,000 in Treasury money. The cost of its appurtenances will depend entirely upon the class and extent of the labors ordered by the Secretary of Public Works. The direct benefits to the Mexican Government, by the opening of said canal, will be the recovery of about 57,600 acres of land now covered with water. These lands will be taken from the lake basins in about the following proportions: Texcoco. Cristobal. Xaltocan Zumpango. Xochimilco. Chalco Sq. Miles. Sq. Miles. Sq. Miles. Acres. Acres. .78.00-30.00=48. = ×640=30,720 X 640 1,280 ...18.72-12.72= 6.00 X 640= 3,840 41.66―31.66=10.00 × 640= 6 400 The United States sells its public lands, even in the far West, for $2.50 per acre. These lands under the new order of affairs, in the vicinage of the Federal capital, and in the midst of a population of 800,000, should bring, at ready sales, on an average of $5 per acre. Acres. 57,600 x $5... ..$288,000 There will be about 200 square miles of land belonging to private owners secured from periodical overflow, and given to agriculture and pasturage. This, at least, should be worth many dollars more per acre than now, and, per consequence, the Government should assess all such, at least at $2 per acre. Miles. Acres. Acres. 200 X 640 128,000 X $2= .$256,000 The soda and salt manufacture, after paying 10 per cent. royalty to the manufacturer, may be made to pay a revenue to the Government, in six years, over and above its cost and working expenses, of about $1,500,000. The value of the properties in the Federal District is about $52,000,ooo. If we estimate the city properties to be worth about two-thirds of this, or say about $34,666,000, and assess it 5 per cent., it would bring $1,733,300. This could be paid in six instalments, one every year. This would be a means of making every one take the said Treasury money, as with it could be paid said assessments at an advantage of five per cent. over gold or silver coin, and thereby would the citizens in the valley become educated to its uses and conveniences. Col. Evans, in his book on Mexico, says that some days the Government collects $1,200 on the Viga canal (12 miles long.) The tolls on the Texcoco-Huehuetoca canal and road may be estimated at $500 per day for the first six years following its completion. $500X 365×6=.. $1,095,000 The above calculations will be remarked for their modesty, but even these small amounts foot up a total of $4,872,300, which it is believed may, under the most unfavorable of circumstances, be relied upon by the Government as the revenue during the six years following the completion of the Texcoco-Huehuetoca' canal. It must be borne in mind that this added tax upon the people in the valley of Mexico will not be felt, because the money put in circulation will make all classes of business so active that merchants, tradesmen, market-women, and property owners, will have a hundred dollars to pass through their hands under the new order of affairs where they have but one dollar now. All classes of real estate will advance in demand, hence in price, with the increased price given to labor. It must, also, be kept in mind that the main ditch or outlet for the waters in the valley is the most expensive and the most difficult of the necessary improvements in the valley, and is, in fact, but the basis for those directly beneficial works which will follow at small additional outlay, and yet add great additional revenue to the Government. The more important of these are the sewerage of Mexico city; the bringing, by means of pipes, spring water to all parts of the Federal capital, and to other populations in the valley; the furnishing of water power to all classes of manufacturers; the system of acequias for conveying fresh and fertilizing waters to all sections of the agricultural and pastoral districts; the system of canals and railroads for commercial facilities to all parts of the valley and its vicinage; the laying out, or the extension, of the city of Mexico from its present suburbs on the east to the western border of the Texcoco-Huehuetoca canal, etc., etc., will bring many millions of dollars of revenue to the Mexican government, with an outlay in Treasury money of but a few millions, and that, too, within the next six years following the cutting of the said canal or outlet. It is to those works, for which the Texcoco-Huehuetoca canal is but the necessary basis, that Mexico must look for the greatest returns, directly and indirectly. The benefits which they would directly and at once give to the valley of Mexico have been estimated by those who have given years of study to the subject, at $30,000,000. Your Commissioners have not included them in their plans and estimates, simply because their mission is to make the great canal, and to assist the Treasury Department to inaugurate a system of Treasury money which, if once practically introduced, will make all necessary public improvements easy of execution. Again, it is not the purpose of your Commission to monopolize all the work of public utility in the valley of Mexico; their pleasure will be to encourage the Mexican engineers to push the above works to completion. The homes and business of the members of your Commission are many hundreds of miles away from your beautiful valley, among another people; and they come to Mexico, as is again stated with emphasis, to assist in inaugurating a scientific and true system of payments, and with no intention to interfere permanently in the affairs of the people of Mexico. APPENDIX NO. 2. THE EVOLUTION OF THE TRUE GOVERNMENT. AN ILLUSTRATION FROM THE FRENCH POST OFFICE. To the Editor of the Inquirer: In March last the French Chamber of Deputies passed a bill authorizing the post office to collect bills, accounts, drafts, etc., which the well informed and careful Paris correspondent of the London Economist describes as follows. He says: "The system has long been applied in Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany, and the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs stated, in the course of the session, that in Germany, in 1876, 2,275,000 accounts, amounting to 325 million of francs, were collected. The manner in which the business will be transacted in France is this: The tradesman or other person who has an account to collect, first purchases a special envelope, on which instructions are printed, for which 25 centimes will be charged. He encloses in it the account to be collected, and forwards it to the |