nal finance has been placed upon a firm and
satisfactory basis; to him are owing the extraordinary public works
which have completed the vast system of drainage of the Valley of
Mexico, initiated nearly three centuries ago; by him the Republic has
been covered by a network of primary and secondary public schools
rivalling those of the most advanced European countries. One of the
most beneficent of the President's recent acts has been the
rehabilitation in 1905 of the Mexican silver currency, by which a
fairly stable standard exchange value is secured for the national
coinage; the silver dollar fluctuating now within very narrow limits,
the normal value being one half of a United States dollar.

The constructive work of this really great man, indeed, is as yet
difficult to appraise. It covers nearly every branch of national
activity, and it is only by comparison with a past state of affairs
that anything like an adequate idea of the progress effected can be
formed. In 1876 the population of the Republic was 9,300,000; it is now
about 19,000,000. The increase in the length of railways constructed in
the same period is equally remarkable, rising from 367 miles in 1876 to
15,000 miles in 1908. The railways hitherto have been mainly built by
English and United States capitalists, and are in a great measure still
managed by English-speaking officers; but the important Transatlantic
line, which connects the port of Coatzacoalcos on the Atlantic side
with Salina Cruz on the Pacific, is a national undertaking carried out
under contract by a great English contracting firm. The future of this
Tehuantepec railway promises to be of the highest importance as
connecting Europe and America with the Far East. The geographical
situation of the line is more central than that of Panama, ensuring,
for instance, a saving of nearly a thousand miles between Liverpool and
Yokohama. The railway itself across the isthmus is under two hundred
miles in length, and the ports on both sides are capacious enough to
deal with the greatest ships afloat.

The railways running from the United States into the interior of Mexico
and the capital convey passengers thither in less than five days from
New York. They have naturally brought much Anglo-Saxon American
influence into the country, and until recent years this would have
offered some danger of the nation becoming an English-speaking land, as
its former States, Texas and California, have done. The new n