Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/81

Rh in a country better developed might have been made important sources of revenue. They were not in Mexico.

The most important link between state and municipal governments and the chief means by which the former came to control the latter was the jefe politico, the political chief, appointed in each municipality by the governor and responsible to him alone. In some cases, as in Morelos, these officers came to be formally recognized as the presidents of the municipal councils. In their hands rested the execution both of the general law and of regulations passed by the municipal councils. They were thus Janus-faced officers who had duties in two directions but who in practice could be held responsible only by the state functionaries.

Their double position and the very wide and largely unwritten powers which they came to exercise made them one of the chief reliances of the Diaz system of actual government. An able and benevolent official could do much to assure order, contentment, and progress in his district. Unfortunately a bad one who, through the inertia of the higher officials or corrupt influences could count on the support of the state and national military forces, might become an oppressor very difficult to call to account or remove.

In the later years of the Diaz régime the jefes politicos became the subject of widespread criticism. How great the abuses came to be it is hard to determine. That there were many instances of wrongdoing sheltered by these officials is beyond doubt. They seem to have been in some districts the chief stay of the peonage