Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/83

Rh will be dealt with by the average Mexican city, mistakes can be made with comparatively small harm while political experience is being gained. Through experience in self-government in the towns there may be built gradually the foundation of a new Republic of Mexico, a republic of greater stability and strength than the one that rested on economic advance alone. Whether Mexico can build such a state from its present population may be doubted even by the friends of Mexico but there can be little doubt that if it can be built, the foundation stones must be laid in the municipalities.