Alma record., 1913-02-20

and General Felix Daz. are remark.
able men.
The one n dreamer and idealist. the
other a brilliant, dashing fighter, they
are interesting types of patriots. Pres
ident Madero has always been called
the dreamer His idealism and the
pleasing personality he has were ct
fective In rousing his country TO tin
rebellion which overthrow DiaZ, but
the qualities Of idealism were not Of
the sort required to rule the country
In peace, as the recent outbreak proves.
His rule has been for two years and Is
generally believed to have been incom-
petent.
General DiaZ, forty-four years old. is
q nephew of that iron dictator Por-
firio Diaz. The younger man is said
to have all the traits Of his famed IN
Gle, with a few additional qualities fit
ting him to leadership. He is said
among other things. to possess n
charmed life, just as his uncle has.
Both have been under fire many times,
their escapes from bullets fired point
blank and from other perilous predic-
aments being parallel.
General DiaZ escaped from prison
several times besides the recent oc-
casion when his followers stormed the
prison and rescued him.
Rise of Madero.
When Mexico's iron man, Porfirio
Diaz, turned a deaf ear to the rum
blings of discomfort and set himself
up for the presidency once more, after
having been virtually dictator for
twenty-six years, few were courageous
enough to interpose themselves be-
tween the dictator and his ambition.
The bravest Of the few was young
man who had won merit as a mathe-
matician, poet, philosopher and au-
thor; who had been planter and a
winemaker; who had all his life been
q dreamer an idealist.
Early In 1910 this young man, whose
name was Francisco Indalecia Made
70, raised his voice so loudly that all
Mexico listened. The quiet scholar
dared more than the soldier enemies
Of the dictator.
He took his life in his hands and an
nounced he was a candidate for the
presidency. So certain were President
Diaz and his adherents Of their hold
upon the government that they re-
garded young Madero as crack brain
ed but harmless agitator.
Charged With Insanity.
The Mexican people were told that
the Madero family was tainted with
insanity and that Francisco possessed
the delusion that the soul Of Father
Hidalgo. the liberator of Mexico, had
entered his body.
The world learned differently within
two years, when the aged Diaz fed
from his country, took ship for Europe
and heard as he went the cannon
booming salutes for the triumphant
Madero, provisional president of Mex
leo.
Madero was born Oct 4, 1878, on the
Hacienda del Rosario, In the state OF
Coahuila, In northern Mexico. His
family was one of the richest and
greatest landholders In the country.
possessing plantations and industrial
interests estimated to be worth at
least S60,0O0,O00
Young Madero was sent abroad to
study. He was first a student at a
college at Versailles, France. Later he
took courses at the commercial high
school In Paris in 1892 and 1898. The
next year he was a student in the Uni
versity Of California, where he studied
English literature and agriculture. He
made special study of rubber and cot
ton planting. fitting himself for the
task Of looking after some 100000
acres composed mostly of rubber and
cotton plantations.
Dream of Liberty.
When he returned to his home he set
tied down to be a planter, but the
dream Of freeing the poems and of lift
ing them from virtual slavery obsess-
ed him.
BY writing and speeches he tried to
instill in the labOrlng Mexican a sense
of justice, of equality, of liberty and
of self respect. Quietly, though con
stantly spied on by the secret agents
of the Diaz government, young Madero
strove to stir the natives of the north
ern states to resist the tyrannies of
the Diaz regime.
The abuses that Madero preached
against were principally the maladmin-
istration Of Diaz, the heavy taxes, the
cruelty practiced on the defenseless
peasantry by the federal tax collectors,
the throttling of the press, the greed
of Diaz's followers, who were making
millionalres of themselves at the ex-
pense Of the people, and the never end.
ing dictatorship that Diaz had clamped
upon the country.