AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 27 



seen at West Point. The army maintained by Mexico is larger than 

 that of the United States, and the rank and file seem to be possessed 

 of all the physical qualities essential for the making of good soldiers. 

 But it is upon the patriotism and intelligence of the officers in com- 

 mand of the army that the immediate future and prosperity of Mexico 

 is dependent. The single fact, however, that the present Government 

 and the most intelligent and influential people of Mexico have recog- 

 nized the necessity of educating the masses of the people, and that 

 probably the best that can be done under existing circumstances is 

 being done, certainly constitutes the most hopeful and encouraging 

 augury for the future of the republic. 



The Government and Social Forces of Mexico. As might be 

 expected from the existing conditions, the Government of Mexico 

 both Federal and State although nominally constitutional and demo- 

 cratic, is not, and from the very nature of things can not be, other than 

 personal, and is often in the highest degree arbitrary and despotic ; 

 in short, a military despotism under the form of a republic. For ex- 

 ample, under date of February 15, 1886, the telegraph reports that the 

 people of Coahuila are rejoicing over the fact that, after a term of a 

 year and a half of military rule, the civil authorities are to resume 

 control of the local government ; but to this is added the following 

 significant statement : " The policy of the civil government, however, 

 will probably be identical with that pursued by the military, as the 

 Governor-elect is a strong supporter of the Administration, and will 

 accede to all the demands of the Federal Government." 



No such thing as a popular assemblage, to discuss public questions 

 of any kind, ever takes place in Mexico ; and when, in the fall of 1884, 

 a young member of the national Congress from Vera Cruz Diaz 

 Miron ventured to oppose a scandalous proposition of the then Presi- 

 dent, Gonzales, for the readjustment of the claims of the English hold- 

 ers of the national bonds, he felt it necessary to preface his speech on 

 the floor of the House of Representatives with words to the effect 

 that he fully recognized that, in opposing the Administration, he 

 probably forfeited all chance for future political preferment, even if 

 he did not at once endanger his personal freedom. And such, proba- 

 bly, would have been to him the result, had not the students of the 

 city of Mexico made the cause of Miron their own, and by organizing 

 and assuming the aggressive, forced the Government to abandon their 

 position. 



Although there are plenty of newsjmpers in Mexico some sixteen 

 " dailies " in the city of Mexico alone they have, as might be ex- 

 pected, but comparatively few readers, and apparently exist for some 

 other purpose than that of reporting the " news." Only one journal 

 in the country " El Monitor Republicano " a daily published in the 

 city of Mexico, and representing the Liberal Opposition, claims a cir- 

 culation as great as thirty-five hundred ; and probably next to this in 



