The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-04
COMING CHANGES
 IN OLD MEXICO Period of Modernization Now Due in Neighboring
 Republic. RULE OF BUSINESS. Official Graft is Doomed in Supremacy of Upper
 Class.
RULE OF BUSINESS.

criticism of the President which seems to me to express the feeling of what may be called to-day the domi- nant class, the class in sympathy with the commercialization and moderniza- tion of Mexico, the class having a heavy stake in the new activities, and hence the class most anxious for un- broken quiet and the least possible dis turoance of the status quo. This crit icism is a complaint that the president does not during his lifetime, at once, in fact, retire from the executive office and employ his immense influence and authority in assuring an orderly and peaceful transition from his own re- gime to one that should be as much in sympathy with the new forces in the national life. The president, say these critics, has held the reins of power during a generation No one has been allowed to share his power. No one has been allowed to develop so as to be 1 recognized as his successor and the ap proved champion of his broader poli cies of national growth. By clinging to undivided power until the last, Prosi- dent Diaz is inviting hurtful, if not acutely perilous. struggle for the sue cession upon his death, He has been, so far as the realiAy of power is com cerned, aside from it's forms, an abso- lute monarch, but the great merit of hereditary government-tha is, con- ! tinuity-he Ignores.
 It is true the constitution as anend- ed now provides that upon the death of the president the vice-president shall be president. But what Is the constitution between friends, among ambitious politicians? Let the great ] president see, while as yet his influ- ence is supreme, that the new captain of the ship of stats is to be obeyed, 1 that all authority and powers neces- | sary to his command ire in his pos- l session.
 l One readily sympathizes with this de- mand. President Dlaz's absolutisni has not permitted the exercise of political | Independence or the education of po- litical intelligence He Is. therefore, as patriot in a very real sense morally bound to do what is possible to assist the nation to avoid the dangers his ab- solutism-whaleyer its merits-in- wolves. And certainly it cannot be de- nied that a successor or government | backed by the influence of Diaz and assisted by his statesmanship would have far greater chance of plotting the country safely through the trou- bled waters of transition and of sur l viving ultimately than any such suc- cessor or government taking hold after
 his death.
 No outsider, no one not deeply versed
 in the conditions and familiar with the psychology Of the Mexican upper l classes, could properly estimate the | justice of this demand. Many reasons against such an interregnum surely exist, but I speak of the criticism be- | cause it voices the desire of the new Mexicans and their allies, the foreign | investors, for a continuance of that po- litical quiet in which alone the ma
 terial progress of the country can pro l ceed.
 It is the intelligence, the energy, and
 all the resources of this class which are bent upon orderly transition. Un-
 doubtedly this class would welcome | another strong man, if he were in
 sympathy with their ends of industrial
 and commercial development and the
 encouragement of foreign investment A strong man of Chauvinistic tenden-
 cies they would oppose because Chau-
 vinism means the shutting out of Mex
 ico of foreign capital and the equally
 important and necessary factor of
 Mexican material progress, foreign ini-
 tiatiye. energy, and organizing genius. l Iii the political wisdom and fore
 sight of this class one has less eonti-
 dence than in it's business" virtues.
 As in similar class in the United
 States, but, one suspects, in a still
 greater degree in Mexico, 1t is disposed
 to confound purely business success
 and its own financial welfare with the
 prosperity and welfare of the country.
 Thus it sights such somewhat import
 ant matters as the distribution of the
 national wealth and the social and po-
 litical advancement of the whole peo-
 pie. To members of this class good
 government is that which, by whatso-
 ever means, Keeps things quiet and
 gives them a free hand to run their
 own business" A simple formula, but
 not an altogether adequate one, as we
 are. discovering painfully in our own
 land.
 What part this class will have in the
 next period of Mexican history one would be foolish to predict But 1t
 may be safely assumed that it will be
 an iportant If not, as one is inclined
 to believe, the controlling and para
 mount factor. For thirty years the class has been growing in power and
 efficiency and experience. Wealth
 practical intelligence, common, tangi' ble interests, ends and principles oi action; centralzation at the source oi political power, the capital, and what ever prestige goes, among an iInprac- tocal and contented populace, witt Identification with a period of really
 general advance, all these elements oi
 power to belong to this class. It eceu ' Ipies so 1t would seem, the strategic
 position. If the economic interpreta , ton of history had not shown a tend ency to Ego lame" when loaded witt the responsibility of explaining Latin American politics, one would lean bacl
 confidently and declare that as thu i economic development of Mexico : through it's next stage, is in the hand 5 of this class, so will it preside ove | Mexico's political future.
 But though the next period may b.
 one of political quiet and given to ma
 terial development, there are some o the incidents of President Diaz's rul : which will be lacking, happily lacking For one thing, there will be freedom l of the press and of discussion, whicl