Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/21

Rh conspicuous feature of revolutionary activities, therefore, affected but little the daily life of the common people because they produced all the food they needed; and the population being very much less than it now is, starvation, or even hunger, did not often result from these frequent disturbances.

The outstanding achievement of Diaz in the thirty-four years that he guided the destinies of the nation was a tremendous development of public service works, such as railroads, street railways, telephone and telegraph systems, gas works and manufacturing industries of various kinds, mining and smelting. The result was a marked change in the economic life of the country. Under the stimulus of ample employment and wages very much higher than ever before known, the population quite doubled during the Diaz period, much of the increase being concentrated in the cities which had become the centres of industry. Instead of the great majority of the population raising its own food, therefore, hundreds of thousands of laborers were engaged in activities that produced no food at all for themselves and their families. When the Carrancistas destroyed the nation's public service and industrial enterprises this great working population was reduced to idleness; and being without resources was forced to submit to starvation or