hundred per cent., it has increased the manual efficiency of the rural Porto Rican immeasurably, and it seems a pity that political jealousy and shortsightedness should allow this wonderful work to pass into less com. petent hands.

CHAPTER XVI

MEXICO AFTER DIAZ

THE causes of the discontent with the present régime in Mexico are not far to seek. They are none the less real factors in the situation because they could have been foreseen or because they are for the most part unavoidable. As long as Diaz remained in power, and the capture of his stronghold was obviously the first step to be taken, the revolutionary groups presented an united front, and they seemed to be entirely in accord as to the purpose as well as to the methods of the revolution.

In the hour of victory, however, divergences of opinion appeared. In Mexico a successful revolution has always been a law unto itself, and a slightly modified form of the biblical vae victis regarded as a reasonable proposition with which even the vanquished were not inclined to quarrel. But the platform of the provisional government, installed after the resignation and flight of Diaz, which, as it existed by his favour, Madero naturally inspired, approached the task with far less drastic remedies than had been expected, and, as is now apparent in some quarters, these measures have proved far from satisfying.

Provisional administrations were hastily installed in the various States to run matters on a hand-to-mouth system until, at the October election, 1911, the people could be consulted as to their wishes. The promise

of effective suffrage, which, in Mexico at least, is regarded as manhood suffrage, was repeated, as was also the "no-re-election " legend, which had been inscribed upon so many banners. But it cannot be disguised that to a people of optimistic temperament like the Mexicans the first-fruits of the revolutionary harvest were meagre as to bulk and disappointing as to taste. Instead of the immediate restitution which the Chihuahua ranchman, who had been robbed of his estate, or the hemp grower in Yucatan, whose plantation was confiscated, had expected, the revolutionists were told that they must content themselves with a régime under which the recurrence of similar wrongs would be impossible, and, with an opportunity of getting back by due process of law what had been taken from them, by addressing themselves to the very courts which tacitly, at least, had sanctioned the robberies of which they complained.

While public attention followed closely the revolution in Portugal, owing to the interesting personalities involved, the struggle for control in Mexico passed almost unnoticed in the United States, until it entailed practically the mobilisation of our whole regular army. I hold to the opinion that the revolution had to come sooner or later, and that, as there was nothing of educational value in the Diaz régime, which had long outlived its former undoubted usefulness, the sooner it came the better for us and all others concerned. Without wishing in the least to detract from the skill Iwith which the whole Mexican situation was handled by the administration, or from Ambassador Wilson's trained diplomacy, to which we all owe a debt of gratitude, I am still of the opinion that had not the sym

pathy of our border population been overwhelmingly with the revolutionists, and had they not recognised that intervention on our part would have been the salvation of the Diaz régime, the situation would have passed out of official control and intervention become a fact. As it was, the revolution cost the lives of twenty American citizens, who were killed while following their vocations on American soil, and of at least forty other non-combatant Americans, working for their daily bread in Mexico. Our losses from the destruction of property and disturbance to business run into the millions; so it would seem to be plain that the outbreak of another revolution is a very intimate concern of ours.

Sentimentalists on both sides of the Rio Grande may regret the disappearance of the desert of Northern Mexico, which Benito Juarez, a great man in his day, sought to maintain intact with all its features of pristine inhospitality. Juarez, who was not versed in American politics, credited the desert with stopping Taylor's army after Santa Anna had fled, and in many addresses to his people he insisted upon the value of this natural and, as he thought, insurmountable barrier between a strong, masterful power and a weak one. To-day, however, the desert has vanished, and the two countries have grown very close together. The daily relations between our Southwest and the Mexican Republic are thought by many to be closer and of greater value than those which exist between many of our groups of states at home. The desert, shorn of its dangers, is traversed by railways which, in efficiency and capacity, compare favourably with many of our trunk lines. Every day the potential

wealth of the country is more clearly realised, and every day becomes more marked the southward migration of our people following the great railways and the coast lines. In fact, large districts of the country in Tamaulipas, Tehuantepec, and elsewhere have been divested of all Mexican characteristics. They are largely owned and occupied by our people, and appear to be detached portions of our country.

Even during the more acute phases of the revolution, when travel, and even residence, in Mexico was not without danger for foreigners, as well as for natives, the home-seeking excursions of American farmers and miners spying out the cheap, fertile lands, and the undeveloped treasure, hardly suffered any decrease. The revolution did not stop this migration, and the sum of our investments, estimated at one thousand millions, and the number of our citizens probably greatly exceeding the official figures of fifty thousand, are increasing every day. These are not filibusterers, these fifty thousand men, neither are they adventurers. They have done nothing to invalidate their citizenship, and they have the same right to the protection of our Government as their brothers who are seeking their fortunes in the British dominions on the north. Every year our mining schools and our agricultural colleges are sending out into the world thousands of young men, of whom a large and increasing proportion take the southward path, which leads to opportunity to-day. This is a natural movement, which cannot be controlled by officials in either Washington or Mexico.

That this movement is welcomed by the intelligent