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THE EIGHTH UNANIMOUS ELECTION OF DIAZ

In order that the reader may entirely appreciate the fact that the political reign of terror established by Diaz thirty-four years ago continues in full bloom to the present day I shall devote this chapter to a record of the presidential campaign, so called, which ended June 26, 1910, with the eighth "unanimous election" of President Diaz.

To the end that the authenticity of this record may be beyond question, I have excluded from it all information that has come to me by means of rumor, gossip, letters and personal reports—everything except what has already been printed in newspapers as common news. In hardly an instance, moreover, was one of these newspapers opposed to the regime of General Diaz; nearly all were favorable to him. Therefore, if there are any errors in these reports, it is safe to assume that the truth has been minimized rather than overstated. It is safe to assume, also, that since the newspapers from which the reports were taken are published in Mexico where they are under the censorship of the police, that numerous other incidents of a similar, as well as of a worse, character, occurred which were never permitted to appear in print.

Before proceeding to these records I may be pardoned for restating the fact that President Diaz has held his position at the head of the Mexican government for more than a generation. In the latter part of 1876, nearly thirty-four years ago, heading a personal revolution, he led an army into the Mexican capital and