BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

THE AMERICAN PARTNERS OF DIAZ 263
these are found the reason for their hysterical defense
of him.
I shall briefly outline the railroad situation in Mexico,
and tell the story of the railway merger.
Today the main lines of Mexican railroads aggregate
12,500 miles. Of this mileage the Southern Pacific company
controls and will probably soon own 8,941 miles, or
nearly three-fourths of the total. These lines consist of:
The Southern Pacific in Mexico, 950 miles; the Kansas
City, Mexico and Orient, 279 miles; the Pan-American,
296 miles; the Mexican, 327 miles; the National
Railways of Mexico, 7,089 miles.
Of these the Southern Pacific is the only one that is
being operated openly as the property of the Harriman
heirs. The Orient road is operated under the presidency
of A. E. Stilwell, a Harriman ally, whose vice-president,
George H. Ross, is a director of the Chicago &
Alton road, a Harriman property with which the Orient
road has traffic agreements. Construction is still going
on on both of these roads and they are drawing from
the Diaz government about $20,000 of subsidy for every
mile built, or nearly enough to build the road.
The Pan-American railroad was recently acquired by
David H. Thompson, who is the nominal president.
Thompson was the United States ambassador to Mexico,
where he seems to have represented the Harriman
interests first and the other American interests afterwards.
After securing the roach, lie resigned the ambassadorship.
It is a pretty generally accepted fact that
Thompson was acting for Harriman in securing the road.
Harriman men are associated with him as directors of
the road. The especial purpose of Thompson's securing
the road was to incorporate it as a part of 1-larriman's