Gold as presents they took greedily. When presents ceased they took it by demand, and then by robbery. They tortured Indians to learn secrets of hidden treasure, burned noble enemies alive; they fought one another. Their love of it was stronger than their loyalty to one another. When they had got it they hid it for fear of being dispossessed of it, and when they had hidden it they lost it. And then others sought for it and fought for it. Gold was most freely mingled with Spanish blood.
The story of the quest of the gold is of the primitive kind that belongs not so much to economics and politics as to the child's picture novel. No doubt it can still cause a thrill in the pirate blood of many a grown man. But the interest is now gloriously fictional. Mexico is still a land of gold, but you no longer go there like Ali Baba or Cassim, with sacks. Now, somewhere or other, you have to get that prized oro over a bank counter. There is no great difference in the result, except that you may get more gold and lose less blood than in the old days, but, oh, the difference in the manner, in the style of getting it!
It seems incongruous to think of the mining enterprises, oil concessions, and trading concerns of to-day as carrying on the tradition of the Conquistadores of Spain. Nevertheless it is so; there are armies and navies behind the trade and there is policy correlating the significance of the whole.
One of the most profitable wars in history was that of 1848 by which the United States obtained the greater part of her mineral wealth of to-day, the gold of California, the silver of Nevada, the copper of Arizona. It is true that had these vast territories remained in the control of the Mexican people they would not have been exploited to the extent that they are now. The new, stirring civilization of California could hardly have sprung into existence. Under Mexican rule there would have been no new Western Universities, but no doubt there would have been new battlefields instead. On the other hand, if the United States had taken over the vast metalliferous State of Chihuahua as well, what wealth would be coming forth of it now!
Instead of wealth starting from the State of Chihuahua, revolutions start from there. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the wealth-seeking population of the United States should feel some urge to change political turbulence into productive peace.
The whole of Mexico is a great treasure cave for those who know the words which open the door. The Mexicans clearly do not know, or they have forgotten, the word. Instead of saying "Open Sesame" they say "Open Bloodvessels," or some such impolite cacophony. They say very loudly, "Make the Foreigner Pay," and things of that sort, but it does not open the door. President Obregon has said, rather pathetically, that Mexico is capable of sustaining a population of one hundred millions instead of the poverty-stricken fifteen millions which now inhabit it. And he has pointed out the paradox that the richest country in the world has the poorest people. Mexico and Russia are somewhat alike in this respect; in both cases the lands are marvelously rich and the people incredibly poor. But if they wish to be rich there is only one way, and that is to find the means of unlocking the potential treasures of the land. To the Anglo-Saxon that seems a simple matter—quit fighting, begin working, cultivate honesty, educate the illiterate, enforce the laws. But to the Mexican that seems to be psychologically impossible.
I believe that in time the United States will finish her conquest of Mexico. The conquest is being now furthered by peaceful penetration and partially thwarted by a revolutionary government and by the powerful character of General Obregon. Whether the conquest will be consummated ultimately by force of arms depends largely on the behavior of the politicians and generals fighting amongst themselves.
The speculative mind may pause on the thought of the material grandeur of the United States when it gets Mexico fairly going. The gold of the world is largely massed at Washington even now—the rich people of the world are the Americans. America is the greatest organized unity of peoples and unity of resources—she is already capable of initiating, if she wished, a world policy which no other nation dare dream of. But with the realization of the Mexican Ophir there will no longer be any quest of El Dorado. El Dorado will be discovered and identified. El Dorado will be the North American continent from Panama to the "Unguarded Line." El Dorado will be America.