The Detroit times., 1915-07-16
PORFIRIO DIAZ
~ Or. FRANK CRANE
Copyright. 1915. BY Frank Cransl

POrfirio Diaz is dead. AT the age OF
IS he died lonely old man in exile. he
was for years the dictator Of Mexico. He
lived long enough to show how hollow 10
the strong man theory in government.
He was the embodiment OF the Carlyle
notion of what to do for people. He was
the Gaming, cunning, king man." Car
lyle was wrong on the question OF de-
mocracy, with all the wrongness OF q
runaway locomotive.
His plan of government leads directly
to such q smash-up as we now see In
Europe.
The people of the European nations
have had little to say about national bus
mess. Affairs have been managed for
them by able and secretive statesmen,
only high-born hands have held the helm
of state. And now look at them!
1t is always the way. In America we
have already found out that the heredi-
tary noble is a joke. We have also to
discover that all varieties of strong men,
including heroes. popular idols, big stick
ers, and SO on, are deceptive shortcuts
to efficiency
There is no progress but the advance
Of the whole people. A nation can per-
manently retain no ground but that oc-
cupied by its lowest members. Our ma
tional wisdom is that Of our most ignor-
ant, our real riches the riches of the
poorest. All class intelligence, class
wealth, class art. class progress. by and
by crumble and disappear.
So Athens, Rome, Venice, Florence,
toppled because their glory was erected
upon the shoulders of human misery.
The strong man is usually an express
sion of reactionary violence. His strength
is the fictitious power of inertia. He
becomes a hero because he appeals to
the vast, dull force of laissez-faire.
Napoleonism was the reaction from
the French Revolution. The latter was
full of saving ideas; the former was as
unintelligent as whit Of grapeshot:
After Porfrio Diaz-chaos. His
boasted efficiency dissolved into anarchy.
His legacy to Mexico was like the legacy
of Louis Magnificent to France-wlde
ruin.
The strong man is dam to progress.
The artificial backwater lake he forms
is full of the blood-suckers Of autocracy.
, The rich concessionaire naturally strokes
the hand that feeds him. The religlonist
and the educator praise him because ne
feeds their institutions. and they mea-
sure success by endowmentS. AL place
holders are in his chorus.
But the dam always breaks. The &C
cumulated human misery and injustice
finally burst through. Then the wise
ones talk of the dangerous masses. They
cannot see that the only danger is not
trusting them.
A revolution is humanity seeking its
level
If Mexico gets out of her present woes
nv means of some man on horseback IL
will all have to be fought over again:
Every Napoleon is a postponement OF
progress. =,
If by some miracle she shall find
basis of equity, freedom and fairness 10
the last peon, and build her new gowsgnr
ment upon that, it will last.
II out of the European struggle shall
come the overthrow of cars and kalsers,
and all that graduated system OF caste
and tyranny they stand for, it Will De
we'll with the world.
But il the same old stupid autocracies
are to 90 on after the cessation OF host1l-
| tiles. then the whole affair will have been
one of those mad, useless paroxysms IN
which humanity sometimes INDUCES.
Some day it, too. will have to be fought
over again. And again and again until
the people rule.
It makes little difference who governs
people so long as they do not govern
themselves.