DBQ - Mexican Modernization Program (1880-1910)

Document 1

The railroad tracks had arrived! The two ribbons of steel that began at the eastern edge of Mexico City and extended eastward to Texcoco were destined to continue east, to Puebla, and beyond, until reaching the waves of the Gulf of Mexico. The ribbons of steel were like a gold ring symbolizing a marriage, a marriage uniting the high valley of Mexico with European civilization on the other side waves and with the prosperous future that Mexico deserves. 
The arrival of the railroad was Texcoco’s first intimation of what the future holds in store. This is what moved the city’s people to rejoice upon hearing the whistle of the locomotive that brought the first train from Mexico City. Interestingly, the entrepreneurs who are carrying out the construction of the rail line are Spanish. If the first arrival of the Spanish in Texcoco brought missionaries of Christianity, this second Spanish mission brings a gospel of Science and nineteenth-century civilization.

Document 2

A fact which no one can doubt or deny is that during the dictatorship of General Diaz twenty thousand kilometers of railways were constructed in Mexico. The construction work at the port of Vera Cruz, is also well known to the world. Under the dictatorship a splendid system of sewers was built; water was brought from the springs of Xochimilco, and distributed according to the most scientific modern methods; streets were well paved and good pavements were laid.

Under the same regime splendid buildings were erected in the City of Mexico. Among these may be mentioned the Opera House, not yet completed, which would have competed in magnificence with the Grand Opera of Paris; the Law Courts building, also in course of construction; the Post Office building, undoubtedly one of the finest buildings in the world; the General Hospital; the Insane Asylum; the Department of Railways building, classic and refined in its style of architecture; the monument commemorating the centennial of Mexico’s independence, which has been praised by many foreign artists. Besides the sums devoted to luxurious buildings destined for political and administrative purposes, several million pesos were devoted to the construction of training-schools for teachers.

Document 4

1.	Working people declare a strike.

2.	The workers will labor only under the following conditions:

5

i.	The firing of Luis the overseer.

ii.	Minimum wage for a worker will be five pesos for an eight-hour workday.

iii.	The Cananea Consolidated Copper Co., throughout its entire work force, will employ 75% Mexicans and 25% foreigners, for the former have the same aptitude as the latter.

iv.	All Mexicans employed to work by this company will have the right to promotions as long as they are qualified.

10

Mexican workers: A government elected by the people so that it guides them and satisfies their needs in as much as possible: Mexico does not have this.

Furthermore: A government that is made up of ambitious men who tire the patience of the people with their criminally self-interested activities, elected by the worst of them in order to help them get rich Mexico does not need this.

People, rise up and go forward. Learn what it seems that you have forgotten. Gather together and discuss your rights. Demand the respect that is owed you.

15

Each Mexican who is mistreated by foreigners is worth the same or more than them, if he unites with his brothers and demands his rights.

Document 5

The Executive branch of government is not, nor can it be indifferent to the evils afflicting the working class of the Republic: if their wages are inadequate, if their needs are many, if it is impossible for them to save money, if they lack employment, the first one to regret this and fully concern himself is the President. However, there are private ills that, while clamoring for all kinds of sympathy, fall largely beyond administrative action; such is the case of those that afflict the class you so honorably represent.

The Government has the law as its norm and justice as its aspiration. Given the institution that govern us, it is unfeasible to restrict freedom of hiring or to intervene directly in the improvement of basic working conditions. No legal document authorizes this, nor do any economic interests oblige the Government to dictate salaries, or prices, or working hours.
Our institutions, founded on the high principles freedom and regard for property, ban the Government from meddling directly in labor-management relations and will not allow any action whatsoever other than enforcing each party’s legitimate and recognized rights. The Government can only contribute to improving labor conditions by indirect means such as keeping the peace, the promotion of industry, and the investment of both national and foreign capital in native elements of the country’s wealth, and thus ensure national credit.

Document 6

The slavery and peonage of Mexico, the poverty and illiteracy, the general prostration of the people, are due, in my humble judgment, to the financial and political organization that at present rules that country—in a word, to what I shall call the “system” of General Porfino Diaz.
I say the “system of Diaz” rather than Diaz personally because, though he is the keystone of the arch, though he is the government of Mexico more completely than is any other individual the government of any large country on the planet, yet no one man can stand alone in his iniquity. Diaz is the central prop of the slavery, but there are other props without which the system could not continue upright for a single day. For example, there is the collection of commercial interests which profit by the Diaz system of slavery and autocracy, and which puts no insignificant part of its tremendous powers to holding the central prop upright in exchange for the special privileges that it receives. Not the least among these commercial interests are American, which, I blush to say, are quite as aggressive defenders of the Diaz citadel as any. These American interests undoubtedly form the determining force in the continuation of Mexican slavery. Thus does Mexican slavery come home to us in the full sense of the term. For the horrors of Yucatan and Valle Nacional, Diaz is to blame, but so are we; we are to blame insofar as governmental powers over which we are conceded to have some control are employed under our very eyes for the perpetuation of a regime of which slavery and peonage are an integral part.

Document  7

Is there equality in our country? No.

5

The capitalist, the priest and the senior official, whether civilian or military, are not treated in Mexico like the humble worker or any other member of the village.

Employees drag a life of humiliation and misery. Privileges and charters into force have plagued us in a kind of useless and vicious, we can call the drones of the social whole.

Are there individual freedoms in our country? No.

10

Say that these unfortunates who faint in the estates under the whip of the overseer and exploited in the company stores; those unfortunates who are transported to the National Valle, Yucatan, and other places and sometimes not represent more value than ten or twenty pesos.

Does trade thrive in our country?

Yes, it thrives for two or three wealthy millionaires and generally foreigners.

15

Encomendero [large landowners] thrives, prospers the moneylender.

These titans’ monopolies go unchecked and are driving up the prices of basic necessities and driving down wages of those who make these items.

With this corrupt administration, the banker, the railroad owner, the contractor, those representing shipping companies, etc., are favored and privileged, enjoying champagne consumed in conjunction with a corrupt government official, improvising outrageous fortunes at the expense of tears and sweat of the people.