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198 unevenly distributed among the people that there at all times existed a smouldering discontent which was bound some time to result in revolt. It did so result when in November, 1910, Madero began his revolution against the man who, for so many years, had been president in name, and dictator in fact. Age had so weakened the strong man's control of affairs that, as the result of some months of activity on the part of the revolutionists, he, in 1911, resigned from the presidency and abandoned his country.

When Diaz surrendered the office of president and left the country the interest had been paid so promptly upon the national indebtedness for more than a quarter of a century that Mexico's credit was equal to that of any nation in the world. During the last few years of the Diaz administration, 36,500,000 pesos from the public revenues had been devoted to the building of great harbours and other public works, and at the date of his abdication more than 75,000,000 pesos were in the national treasury. The Mexican railroads, including those in which the government owned the stock control, were paying interest on their bonds and dividends to stockholders. Owing to the development of railroads and other public service enterprises, mining, agriculture, and manufacturing, largely by foreign capital, hundreds of thousands of Mexican labourers of the peon class were