“Do you mean,” asked J.W., who was seeing new questions bob up every time an earlier one was answered, “do you mean that so many missionaries could be used on productive Christian work right away?  Or is it that we ought to have a big force to prepare for the long future of our work in Mexico?” Now, J.W. was not so sure that this was an intelligent question, but he had heard that in some mission fields it was necessary to wait years for real and permanent results.

His companion saw nothing out of the way in the question.  It was part of the whole problem.  “I mean it both ways,” he said.  “What I’ve seen of our Methodist work down in these parts, particularly its schools and one wonderful hospital, makes me sure we could get big harvests of interest and success right off.  We’re doing it already, considering our relatively small 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.