NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12769, 10 February 1910, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

United States and Mexico. . ' President Taf t lias crossed tho Rio .Grande at El Paso, the. American Swrder towa in Texas, on the . left bank of tho river, and stood in the Mexican town of Juarez. A timehonoured tradition prescribed that no President should leave the country while in office. Now that President Taft has shattered this tradition, everyone sees that there is no ground for it. There is dio more reason. why the chief of the American Republic should be debarred from visiting his neighbours than European Sovereigns or Presidents should be from visiting one another. It may well be asked, why should not an American President visit Europe or Central or South America, if reasons call ihim thither. That President Taft should pay this first visit to Mexico was fit and proper. Except Canada, Mexico is the only country adjacent to the United States. With no other can it have such close foreign relations. And the relations between them are now excellent. Without asserting that the two nations Jiave a warm affection for one another, it may be said that only on the frontier is there any illfeeling between them. Low-class Americans term their Mexican neighbours "greasers," while the Jatter in turn call tho Americans "gringo," a name said to have been first used during the war of 1846 by Mexicans who heard' American sailors singing "Green Grow the Rushes, O," "gringo" being the nearest approach they could get in mockery to the correct words.' After that war a strong antiAmerican feeling existed for some years, but this was changed in tho sixties, when the United States interfered to prevent Napoleon the Third from maintaining Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico. The independence of Mexico was saved by America, and it was inevitable, that something like gratitude should replace the former ill-feeling. A large trade exists between the two countries, the United States having something like 800---000,000, dollars invested in Mexico in mines,, railways, and forests. The meeting of .President Taft and Porfirio Diaz, who has been President of Mexico for over thirty years, may be regarded as formally sealing the friendship between the two republics. In that respect it can be considered a landmark in American history. Judicial Methods in Antwerp. At Antwerp commercial litigation is dealt with exclusively by the socalled Tribunal de Commerce, whose judges are chosen from among the leading business men of the citj\ The Court is split up into a number of auxiliary chambers, which hear cases of special classes. For instance, a grain merchant complaining about some inequality, in the grain trade does not go before a Court whoso presiding officer is a steel merchant or a dry-goods merchant. He goes into a tribunal at whoso head presides a great grain merchant, familiar with every detail of the business. His evidenco is handled quickly, with knowledge, and with a much better grade of justice than it could get in a Court that must learn the business from the ground up in the course of a single hearing. There are 17 of these auxiliary Courts, and their history shows almost uniform satisfaction with their methods and work. The Courts almost invariably begin with an attempt to conciliate the litigants, and an immense' amount of litigation is. prevented in this way. Any merchant who is more than 25 years old and has carried on his business in a reputable manner for five years is eligible for a judgeship. The judges hold office for two years, and are elected by the vote of merchants and traders who enjoy municipal voting privileges, and who pay at least four dollars a year to the Government as I a license tax. This whole system is one of the monuments to the ability of the Antwerp Chamber of Commerce —