Page:Margaret Shipman - Mexico's Struggle Towards Democracy (1927).pdf/44

 25,000 was wholly inadequate for the task. In his message to Congress, April 1911, he promised division of rural estates, reform of the courts, etc., but was soon after requested by the cientificos to resign. Madero came into power, June, 1911, with very little bloodshed, not because he had formulated a program to meet the situation, but because he dared take the leadership in breaking a dictatorship that had become intolerable to both the middle class and the masses.

Under Madero's leadership no reforms were made. His official appointees included some of the old cientificos, but his cabinet consisted principally of members of the Madero family, wealthy land owners, also interested in smelting and banking, who blocked all attempts at land reform. President Madero suggested legislation, authorizing the establishment of a fund to purchase land for distribution. A few concessions were revoked, but others were granted.

In a few months nearly all the groups that had supported Madero were against him. The counter revolutionists were led by General Reyes in the name of Felix Diaz, backed by the Pearson Syndicate. The opposition of the masses was led by the Zapata brothers, whose proposal to reconstitute the ejido system, formulated in 1910, had been ignored. Zapatism spread rapidly. By the end of Madero's regime it dominated not only Morelos, but five or six of the neighboring states and the federal district and Zapata with his following of ragged and hungry peons had almost reached Mexico City.

In the north, the Yaqui Indians, enraged at Madero's failure to return their land and by his