The San Francisco call., 1909-02-22
Continued from Page L

tory. who is law unto himself, even
as Mexico is a law unto herself.
As an exemplar OF republican institu-
tions he has. abstractIy. about as much
standing as the ameer Of Afghanistan.
If you are to judge him by what he has
accomplished he is mikado and a
group of elder statesmen rolled into
one. The history of modern Mexico is
his history. Whoever would study pres
ent conditions must first study his sys-
tenn, whose fault is not so much in its
results but as in its dependence on him.
APOLOGY FOR DELAY
With the exception of one term Diaz
has been president for 80 years. By law
he had to retire at the end of his first
term. in 1850. Under the regime OF
Manuel Gonzalez, who took Diazs place,
profigacy, graft and folly We're tenn
pered only by the personal whims of the
ruler. The contrast between good and
bed despotism was ruinously shown. All
Mexico called for the return of Diaz in
1884, when he changed the constitution
so as 10 permit a president to succeed
himself. But it was a mistake, he now
| admits. to have waited on any such
formality- Yes. the father of his peo-
PIE. who knows that he knows what is
best for them, was untrue to his duty
and his destiny on this occasion. He
has duly apologized for his remissness
long ago
That adventurous, fierce captain Of
raw. militia, whose prestige in the war
with the French brought him to the
presidency, found disorgarf1zed state
exhausted by war, revolution, section
alism- eXtortion and the reign of Maxi
milan; with its currency debased its
treasury empty, its bonds repudiated;
with only 20 per cent of its people able
to read and write, and its commerce
insignificant He was big enough to
foresee the approach of the commercial
age and to understand that without
peace and stability, capital, the most
t1mid Of visitors, will not enter strange
places. And this was his policy: Order
and the development of industries.
USES THIEVES TO CATCH THIEVES
Peace he made ruthlessly; capital he
welcomed generously. To clear the
country Of brigands he set brigand to
catch brigand. He made a national
constabulary out of a lot of bad men,
who knew the haunts and habits Of
their kind. They had their choice of
being the hunted in rags or the well
paid hunter, with a good pony, a saddle
Of carved leather ribbed with silver
and a glorious original Merry Widow
hat embroidered in gold.
Let an outrage occur anywhere in
Mexico and the rurales, staggering
like the cadets of Gascony. appeared in
the JOY and full cry of hounds on the
scent Their personnel still belongs
to the class born with temperaments
I contemptuously above real labor,
which would be raising mischief If
they We're not employed in bagging
mischief makers. Thus Diaz, man of
the soil, who had learned his cut
throats by sharing blankets with them
in his campaigns, succeeded easily
where the French army had failed.
Many times in his 80 years reign
petty revolutions, without spreading
far. have raised their heads in different
parts of the country. heard one old
resident estimate that the execution of
80, 600 men stood to DiaZ's account. Such
is his power that a score Of malcontents
may be shot without anybody except
their neighbors being the wiser.
On one occasion when he was asked
by wire what disposition to make of a
ckrtain revolutionist who had been cap
tured, his prompt. unexpurgated an
swer. am told. was. Kill him while he
! is hot" And perhaps an hour later he
was at a reception, bending in Castilian
dignity TO receive-a bouquet from q
party of school children. Yes, he is a
self made ruler of a medieval and ori-
entail type in the days of railroads. tele-
graphs and electric cars, who rides in a
French automobile and organizes irriga-
tion projects and bids the foreigner
turn the waterfalls into light for his
palace.
PLOTTER WON By DIPLOMACY
He himself prevented the man who
shot at him on one of his tours from
being killed on the spot by his suite and
had the would be assassin brought to
Chapultepec.
Now. why did you want to XIII me?''
Don Porifrio asked, softly. Did I ever
do you any personal wrong? Have I
/ taken your land or ruined your busi-
/ ness or interfered in your family affairs
or prosecuted you in any way?"
Under this gentle questioning the tool
OF the plot told who had employed him.
The prominent politician implicated was
invited to dinner at Chapultepec and
Diaz narrated the story of the mans
confession up to the point where the
J guest could see that his host knew all.
1 Ihis was the only punishment that it
Pleased the master of life and death in
Mexico to mete out at the time AS the
prominent politician drove home that
/ night he must have done some hard
thinking. Thereafter, of course. he was
a conspicuously loyal Diaz man.
OWN TRIBE HARDEST TO sUBDuE
Probably Don Porfrio has had to kill
relatively more of the people of his own
tribe, the fighting, vigorous, bartering.
/ bathing Oaxacans of the south. than of
any other The old convention of a
prophet not without honor save in his
| own country is not reversed even for
/ him. 1t was all very well for that Por-
firio Diaz to play the king to the In
dams of the plateau, but he need not
try 10 overload the Oaxacans. They
knew when he hadn't a peso to his
name; they had seen his mother spank
him. But he also knew them, and at
the expense of a large proportion of
their male population they learned the
lesson that the rest of Mexico had
/ learned more cheaply.
The unhappy Yaquis are the last ex-
piring flame of opposition One way
and another they have kept up a scat
tered guerrilla warfare. BY patches
they have been sent to what is nm