Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/178

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MEXICO AND ITS RECONSTRUCTION

of other countries; but the economic impulse cannot be created by fiat. It can be fostered by building up around the people a complex of social conditions that emphasizes the desire to enjoy the best that the community offers. The love of family, the property sense, emulation of the economic success of others, the desire for influence in the community and for the applause of his fellows, pride in morality, public and private, these and an indefinite number of similar impulses must rouse the common citizen of Mexico, if the "land problem" is to be attacked with any real success. Whether a norm can be found depends more on the capacity of the Mexican people than upon that of its leaders. These latter can contribute to shape the conditions that may bring success, but all their efforts will be in vain unless the peon, and especially the Indian peon, shows capacity to become a citizen in fact as well as in name. He must forsake the economic, social, and civic childhood in which he has lived and take on the rights and responsibilities of manhood.