Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/133

Rh it. He is not conscious of great wrongs nor disposed to question the fitness of things as they are.

Nominally all labor in Mexico has been free during the entire life of the republic, but the desire of employers to secure a lever by which the Indian could be induced to work brought the continuance of a system inherited from colonial times which, while not legally slavery, had to a large degree the economic effects of a slavery system.

In this as in many other matters of public policy political theory outran practice. The constitution of 1857 under which the republic continued to live until the adoption of that of 1917 provided that "nobody should be obliged to render personal service without proper compensation and his full consent," and prohibited laws that sought to recognize contracts involving the "loss or irreparable sacrifice of the freedom of man through work, education, or religious vows." These clauses were considered to abolish the prevailing peonage system. On September 25, 1873, the rule was made to read: "The State cannot allow the fulfillment of any agreement, contract, or covenant which may, in any manner impair, destroy, or irrevocably sacrifice man's liberty either through work, education, or religious vows.

Neither clause brought a change in fact. Local efforts to make the law square with practice did not