ll force and our limited equipment."

"But all Latin American work takes patience. I've made one trip down as
far as Santiago de Chile, and what is true in Mexico is, I guess, about
as true in other parts. The Roman Catholic Church has been here four
hundred years, and its biggest result is that the people who don't fear
it despise it. Latin America is called Christian, but it is a world in
which what you and I call religion simply does not count. Well, then,
that's what makes me talk about the need of persistence and patience.
The bad effects of three or four hundred years of such religion as has
been taught and practiced between the Rio Grande and Cape Horn can't be
got rid of in a hurry. Wait till Mexico has had a real chance at the
Christ of the New Testament for three hundred years, and then see!"

J.W. had yet another question to ask before he was ready to call it a
day. "If all that you say is so--and I believe it is, Mr. Tanner--why
should so many of the Mexicans hate the United States? They do, for I've
heard it spoken of a good deal lately, and I remember what was always
said when some one proposed that we should intervene to make peace and
restore order in Mexico. It would take ten years and a million men, and
all Mexico would unite to oppose us. You talk about how much the
Mexicans need us and want us. But a great many of them surely don't want
us at all."

"I know what that means," Mr. Tanner admitted. And it is true. We are
all influenced by the past. Look at the history of our dealings with
Mexico. The very ideas we fought to establish as the charter of our own
freedom we repudiated when we dealt with Mexico three quarters of a
century ago. We had every advantage, and what we wanted we took.
Certainly, we have done better by it than Mexico might have done, but I
never heard that reason given in a court of law to excuse the same sort
of transaction if it touched only private individuals. Then, in late
years big business has gone into Mexico. It has had to take big chances.
It has paid better wages than the peon could earn any other way. It has
a lot to its credit; but it has been much like big business in other
places, and, anyway, the admitted great profits have enriched the
foreigner, not the Mexican.

"Besides, Mexico is not the States. As you say, it is Latin in its
civilization, not Saxon. It does not want our sort of culture. And some
of our missionaries, both of the church and of industry, have t