BALANCE. Total amount of the products... Profits at the end of the third year $710,000 400,000 $310,000 If You will see that in these computations I have considerably diminished the prices of the soda, in proportion of its production. The crystallized soda is worth to-day $4 per carga, the calcined soda for the glass works $15 per carga, and the salt varies between $0.70 and $0.88 an ar.... the yellow salt for the mines is sold at $0.45 per ar., and the white salt at $0.55, any competition from the salt of San Luis and Vera Cruz will be made impossible. It is really painful to see that the government, which has such enormous riches at the gates of Mexico, remains tributary for these products to the other States of the Republic, and pays no attention to such a plentiful income that a manufactory, established on this scale, would give. The facility for the production, the abundance of the prime materials, and an easy and assured sale of the products, are advantages offered to capital which will not be found in any other industry. There is another consideration which must be noticed: our country is unfortunately troubled very often by revolutions, and then the merchandise of the other industries are exposed to be embargoed or carried away by the "pronunciados;" but as the products of this manufactory have a small value in relation with their bulk, it is rather difficult to transport them, and they do not tempt those who want speedily and easily large quantities of money. vance. The large fortunes which have been made in a few years by the owners of the "Salinas del Peoñn," in San Luis, can be a proof of what I adThe enormous profits left by those Salinas, prove evidently and without contest the excellency of these undertakings. If the government would apply to this business a capital of $350,000 or $400,000, in a short time a rent of at least $400,000 to $500,000 would be its reward; because it is extraordinary how in this concern, the products may be duplicated with nearly the same expenses; and I hesitate not to affirm this fact, as my long practice in this business has proved it to me sufficiently. I remain, dear sir, yours very truly, William Hay, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the School of Mines and Engineers, Mexico. APPENDIX NO. 3. Office of Wing & Evans, 92 William street, New York, 4 November, 1875. Agents for the New Castle Chemical Works Co., limited. (Late C. Allhusen & Sons, New Castle on Tyne. WM. HAY, ESQ., MEXICO. DEAR SIR: We have this day seen some samples of your products. The crystals of soda look well, and if packed in good style will bring 1% cents per pound in gold in ship. Buyer to pay custom duty. The calcined soda is not clean. It requires to be white and ground. If you send in this way, it could bring 2% cents per pound if testing 57 per cent of alkali. Buyer paying duty. We could use 100 tons per month of each, if quality and style of packing is good. Your observation about the calcined soda is right, but it is not for want of cleanness, but only because the calcination has not been driven far enough so as to destroy completely the last particles of charcoal proceeding from the vegetable and animal matters contained in the water of the lake, from which the soda is extracted. You tell me that this soda is worth 2% cents per pound if testing 57 per cent. of alkali; but as it contains 88 to 90 per cer cent., I suppose that its value may rise to at least 32 cents per pound in ship; buyer paying duty. I am not able now to take engagements for any quantity of calcined soda, because my salt works have not yet been established on a scale fit for working for exportation; but I hope that a favorable change may put me in position to offer you soon my calcined soda in the condition you want it for sale. I am, dear sirs, Yours very truly, Wm. Hay. APPENDIX NO. 4. Hon. GEORGE P. MARSH, who for many years has been United States Minister to Italy, in his Man and Nature, or Physical Geography as Moulded by Human Action, published in 1864, makes the following remarks: "I shall harm no honest man by endeavoring, as I have often done elsewhere, to excite the attention of thinking and conscientious men to the dangers which threaten the great moral and even political interests of Christendom, from the unscrupulousness of the private associations that now control the monetary affairs, and regulate the transit of persons and property, in almost every civilized country. More than one American State is literally governed by unprincipled corporations, which not only defy the legislative power, but have, too often, corrupted even the administration of justice. Similar evils have become almost equally rife in England, and on the Continent; and I believe the decay of commercial morality, and I fear of the sense of all higher obligations than those of a pecuniary nature, on both sides of the Atlantic, is to be ascribed more to the influence of joint-stock banks and manufacturing and railway companies, to the workings, in short, of what is called the principle of associated action,' than to any other one cause of demoralization. "The apophthegm, 'the world is governed too much,' though unhappily too truly spoken of many countries and perhaps, in some aspects, true of all—has done much mischief where it has been too unconditionally accepted as a political axiom. The popular apprehension of being overgoverned, and, I am afraid, more emphatically the fear of being overtaxed, has had much to do with the general abandonment of certain governmental duties by the ruling powers of most modern states. It is theoretically the duty of government to provide all those public facilities of intercommunication and commerce, which are essential to the prosperity of civilized commonwealths, but which individual means are inadequate to furnish, and for the due administration of which individual guarantees are insufficient. Hence public roads, canals, railroads, postal communications, the circulating medium of exchange, whether metallic or representative, armies, navies, being all matters in which the nation at large has a vastly deeper interest than any private association can have, ought legitimately to be constructed and provided only by that which is the visible personification and embodiment of the nation, namely, its legislative head. No doubt the organization and management of these insti tutions by government are liable, as are all things human, to great abuses. The multiplication of public place-holders, which they imply, is a serious evil. But the corruption thus engendered, foul as it is, does not strike so deep as the rottenness of private corporations; and official rank, position, and duty have, in practice, proved better securities for fidelity and pecuniary integrity in the conduct of the interests in question, than the suretyships of private corporate agents, whose bondsmen so often fail or abscond before their principal is detected. "Many theoretical statesmen have thought that voluntary associations for strictly pecuniary and industrial purposes, and for the construction and control of public works, might furnish, in democratic countries, a compensation for the small and doubtful advantages, and at the same time secure an exemption from the great and certain evils, of aristocratic institutions. The example of the American States shows that private corporations, whose rule of action is the interest of the association, not the conscience of the individual-though composed of ultra democraict elements, may become most dangerous enemies to rational liberty, to the moral interests of the commonwealth, to the purity of legislation and of judicial action, and to the sacredness of private rights." Iturbide Hotel, Mexico City, Mexico, HON. TRINIDAD GARCIA, Saturday, Nov. 29, 1879. Secretary of the Treasury of the United States of Mexico. MR. SECRETARY: Governments never make reforms until they are forced to do so. Happily for civilization, Mexico is bankrupt at home and has no credit abroad; hence, Mexico, from force of circumstances, is compelled to look to her own people and to her own resources for present life and for future progress. Let it be repeated and emphasized, that this is most fortunate for Mexico; for there is no country in the world which has more natural resources or a better class of willing laborers to rely upon; and if those who stand at the helm of State to-day, but put it hard" at port" and steer away from all outside influences, entangling alliances, bank syndi cates, trade reciprocities, concessions to incorporated classes, and whirl *The remedy is plain. Every office-holder in the government, from the President down to the person who washes out the spittoons in the departments, should immediately upon accepting office, become strictly a public servant, should not be allowed to practice private business, and should be disfranchised during term of office-the direct or indirect participation in elections, national, state, or local, other than to publiciy express opinion on questions of the day, should condemn any public servant to the penitentiary. There can be no security for public interests so long as office-holders are permitted to make a business out of politics. A. K. Owen. pools of politics, for a year, the Mexican craft may be brought into calm waters and be hailed as the first to make the passage. The first step toward national independence in Mexico was the overthrow of the Spanish Inquisition; then followed the political separation from Spain; after this came the overthrow of the church abuses. The force of circumstances compelled each of these advances upon the native Mexicans; and when they massed to take it, they were met with strongly entrenched and venerated power, divine rights, and hereditary privileges. All the respectability," all the moneyed classes, all the cockneys who figured on the stage of fashion and leisure, were opposed; these classes, as classes, are always found opposing equality before the law, and the application of scientific discoveries. God Almighty, the "guadalupes" and circumstances were united, however, and one by one the strongholds of the conservatives 11* were carried. Each step gained made the next easier to take. Mexico is again forced to rise and to advance to a new position, or else be obliterated from nationalities. God has written this law: "Whosoever, whatsoever doth not grow is dead already." The next step is to give Mexico an industrial life, and this can only be done by freeing Mexico from the monetary system of England and the United States. Mexico may never hope to live as a nation in competition with Europe and the United States, so long as her industries are confined to mining and agriculture; and the diversification of home industries can never be accomplished by Mexico, so long as her money is based entirely upon the will of the twelve directors who control the bank of England. Has not two centuries of one system of finance convinced Mexico as to its merits or defects? If not, how many more long years of suffering, revolutions and degradations is it necessary for the "guadalupes" to pass through before their leaders can determine a path out of the present wilderness? Must Mexico still longer follow the dictations of the Shylocks in Threadneedle and Wall streets, tremble at the discounts of silver made by the "cannibals of Change alley," and after coining the heaviest and best silver money in the world, patiently sit and see it suffer a discount of 19 to 25 per cent. United States and English exchanges? And yet withal, the money and exchange brokers in your midst, at the command of the Jews of Europe, have the impudence to tell you, in face of these everyday facts, that 99 66 99 66 * It may here be well to state, and all history is referred to, that those who preach "conservatism" are always the law breakers, and that the "radicals," barn burners," "communists," abolitionists," never are. The people are never the revolutionary party. The government always is. Revolt never occurs until after a partially successful attempt has been made to usurp the rights of the masses. |