174 The National Geographic Magazine 



would listen to his retirement, and so 

 the prohibiting amendment was stricken 

 out of the constitution, and Diaz was 

 again chosen president ; and he has again 

 and again been reelected without any 

 open protest, and for a quarter of a cen- 

 tury he has been the untrammeled ruler 

 of Mexico. Every one conversant with 

 the history of that country concedes 

 that he is the best ruler it has had since 

 the independence. He has given it 

 peace, order, and the reign of law. It 

 has risen phoenix-like from the ashes of 

 anarchy and commercial death, and the 

 praises of Diaz as an administrator and 

 a patriot are sounded at home and 

 abroad. 



But what becomes of the principles of 

 republican government ? Diaz, through 

 his strength of character and wise gov- 

 ernment, has been the supreme ruler, 

 although acting through the channels 

 of constitutional authority and repre- 

 sentative institutions. This example 

 may raise the doubt whether republic- 

 anism in its extreme form is adapted to 

 these countries, or whether some limita- 

 tions should not be placed upon it. The 

 present is probably Diaz' last term, as 

 he is now past seventy, and I believe he 

 is sincere in his expressed desire to re- 

 tire to private life. The test of repub- 

 lican government will come when his 

 successors are to be chosen. Not the 

 first, but probably the second term will 

 test the ability of the Mexicans to choose 

 their rulers in peace and observe repub- 

 lican practices. Mexico, like its south- 

 ern neighbors, has not yet fully proven 

 its capacit}^ to consistently follow these 

 practices and to peacefully and by con- 

 stitutional methods transmit the execu- 

 tive power from one ruler to another. 



How far the people of these countries 

 are fitted to carry on republican and 

 representative government in our sense 

 opens up a topic which cannot be pur- 

 sued in this paper; but I offer a few 

 suggestions by way of explanation of 

 the apparent failure in many of them. 



First, the great mass of their popula- 

 tions are ignorant and uneducated; in 

 many of the countries they do not even 

 read and write the official language of 

 their government, and as a rule take no 

 part in the elections. They, however, 

 compose in the main the armies of the 

 government and the revolutions. Sec- 

 ond, the people of these countries, both 

 the educated and the uneducated, had 

 no experience in self-government before 

 their independence. In this respect the 

 British-American colonies had a great 

 advantage over them, and we should be 

 charitable in our criticism of them. 

 The misfortune is, however, that they 

 have had ver)- little practice in genuine 

 republican government since their inde- 

 pendence. The}^ understand the force 

 of the bullet much more than the ballot. 

 The result has been the rule of the dic- 

 tator or usurper more often than that 

 of the real representative of the people. 

 The intelligent men, the best citizens, 

 and the propertj^-holders deplore the 

 revolutions, and they are exerting them- 

 selves to put an end to these practices, 

 and their good work is apparent in some 

 of the countries, and I think the general 

 tendency is toward orderly and consti- 

 tutional government. 



This subject has a special interest for 

 the people of the United States : 



First. It raises the question how far 

 it is the duty of our Government to in- 

 terpose respecting an American republic, 

 which has fallen into anarchy, against , 

 the encroachments of European powers 

 whose subjects have suffered outrages 

 at the hands of the local militar)- powers ? 

 I fully sympathize with the Cleveland 

 administration in its action on the Vehe- 

 zuelan boundary question, but many 

 Americans thought it would have been 

 better for the interests directly concerned 

 if all the territory in dispute had fallen 

 under British sovereignty'. 



Second. We are often embarrassed as 

 a nation by these frequent revolutions. 

 I have noted how near we came to war 



