The San Francisco call., 1909-02-22
Americans in Mexico Are
Pleased With Diaz Rule
Benevolent Despotism Makes Government
Stable and Capital Secure

public education and public works.
Through his hands pass the in
Vulnerable concessions; his the favors
to grant. All capital asks is stability
Diaz was the strong ruler who guar
anteed it. Self-interest makes every
foreign resident a Diaz man. Every
promoter of any great industry well
comes single head rather than many
heads to deal with. Thus all outsiders
support the despotism.
But American capital does not have
everything its own way. Foreign capi-
tai is set against it. When the specter
OF mergerizing Hartman appeared
on the Rio Grande, Diaz did a piece
OF mergerizing on his own account by
which Mexico became the borrower of
the capital invested and thus the owner
OF the railroads. He is a friend of the
united States because that is the best
way be a friend of Mexico.
Moderation is a feature of his po-
lltical career in dealing with all except
lhe man who takes up arms against
MIN and with the church, whose prop
erty he confiscated by the millions,
whose brotherhoods were prescribed,
whose priests may not even now ap-
pear In the streets in their vestments,
and the destruction of the temporal
power OF Rome was coincident with his
pollcy in welcoming the American rail-
~SNO anu the american dollar.
The landed classes, old families of
spanish extraction, to whom he is a lib
eral parvenu, have been kept to his side
py the market for their products which
ne has made and by the fear of a law
taxing land ever before their eyes,
though land remains to this day tax
Tree. As for the Indians, they We're all
Dlaz men by consanguinity. 1t was
enough for them that one of their blood
sat In Montezuma's place.
KNOWN AS AN easy BOssv
In many respects Diaz is an ..easy
poss Though he is all political parties
the ms and the outs and congress,
he is no stage despot who orders this
ana that thing done in open authority.
one seeking an Office. a favorable judg-
ment IN the courts, the overruling of
the action of any governor of a state a
prlVllege In the development of re-
sources, has learned to go to DiaZ for
what he wants. Diaz's o. X. in Mexico
is what the o. K. of Archbold is in the
standard oil company and Murphy's in
Iammany hall. Oppose him, and your
polltical career is finished. Serve him.
and he may make you a governor.
Ihere is no censorship of the press.
put criticfse Diaz vitality and the editor
Will feel his power, directly or Indirect
~ He is kind" to the press with sub
sioies. One OF the two American papers
published in the capital has it's month
ly allowance from the government-the
only government subsidized American
paper in the world.
LONELY FIGURE Is MASTER
lonely figure in one sense. with
no real intimates, this veteran works
10 hours a day, looking over every de-
tan OF his paternalistic country
through which you travel without a
passport as safely and as comforta bly
as In the United States. Any talk of
revolution or of political change in his
time is waste of breath. He is the
complete master. If his hands are old
they are used to driving, and the steeds
are no longer fractions.
After his 80 years of service Diaz
sees his country with q standing army
of 26,O00 men; with trade amounting to
5O,000,O00 annually; exporting more
than S6O,000,000 Of gold and silver bull
lion year; with $1,000 miles of rail-
ways, growing towns, electric lighted
and paved; over $10e 000, 600 spent on
public works in the last Is years and
schools generally established. The
gringo's invasion comes over the steel
rails with capital and a hundred mil
lion dollars worth of manufactured
goods every year. But conditions ex-
ist, as we shall see, which may produce
havoc when Diaz is gone