Page:The Mexican Problem (1917).djvu/50

12 Mexico. Mexico is too large a territory to be handled by legislative enactment from one city. Diaz himself never really ruled the whole of it. Mexico is largely composed of territories misnamed states. In these distant territories, of late, especially in the north, revolutions start and get under way before they can be reached or dealt with by the central authorities.

A just and lawful government should be established in the heart of Mexico with insured safe connection with the seacoast. From this, groups of states can be knitted in and distant parts should be treated as Mexican territory until its people can be educated and trusted with local self-government and show capacity to deal with the larger problems of nationality.

At the present time the larger part of the good people of Mexico are children who want to be in debt and at the same time care-free. They want to work laughing. If they cannot laugh as they work, fighting is the next best thing. They have no other understanding of a revolution than that it is a sporty lark. They are exactly in the stage of the American country boy who on attending a new school must first find out who among the