Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/177

Rh or where there has ceased to be a large class of property owners living on the soil they own, true republican government does not flourish. The possession of no other sort of wealth so surely stimulates respect for the rights of others and love of order and progress as does the possession of land. There is no other that makes its owner realize so clearly that the state is the guarantor of his well-being and that, by supporting it, he is working for his own advantage and for that of his community.

From this point of view there is, indeed, a land problem in Mexico. The average Mexican does not crave land ownership. He has not thought of it, because it is a privilege never enjoyed either by him or by his forbears. Giving him land alone will not create the desire to keep it. Any unguarded division scheme will soon disillusion those who foster it, because the small peasant ownership will vanish as did that created by the laws that divided up the ejidos. More than such a simple formula is needed: the creation of conditions that will give the Indian land, keep him on it, and stimulate his desires so that he will use it intelligently. Without this there will be no solution of the Mexican land problem worthy of the name. It is here that the land question shows its human side. It is more a problem involving the capacity of the population of Mexico than the division of its acres. Legislation can be adopted that will break up the big estates where that is needed for the best development of the country and legislation can help the landless to acquire land by loans of credit and the other expedients made familiar by the experience