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REPRESSIVE ELEMENTS OF THE DIAZ MACHINE

Americans launching upon business in Mexico are usually given about the same treatment at the hands of local authorities as they have been used to at home. The readier hand for graft is more than overbalanced by the easier plucking of the special privilege plum. Sometimes an American falls into disfavor and is cautiously persecuted, but it is seldom. And if he is there to get rich quickly, as is usual, he judges the Mexican government by the aid it gives to his ambition. To him the system of Diaz is the wisest, most modern and most beneficent on the face of the earth.

To be wholly fair to Diaz and his system, I must confess that I am not judging Mexico from the viewpoint of the American investor. I am estimating it from its effects upon the mass of Mexicans generally, who, in the end, must surely determine the destiny of Mexico. From the viewpoint of the common Mexican the government is wholly the opposite of beneficent; it is a slave-driver, a thief, a murderer; it has neither justice nor mercy—nothing but exploitation.

In order to impose his rule upon an unwilling people General Diaz found it necessary not only to reward the powerful of his country and to be free and easy with the foreigner, but also to strip the people of their liberties to the point of nakedness. He took away from them all governmental powers, rights and securities and all powers