matters or on entire subjects, or it passed, with only a show of discussion, the drafted legislative measures submitted to it by the President.
The exercise of these wide powers by the executive did not originate with Diaz; it did not end with his fall. By decree even such fundamental matters as tariffs and other forms of taxation were decided upon by the dictator and the same method has been followed by his successors. Congress abdicated to President Diaz the power to issue in his discretion bonds against the credit of the state.[1] By his authority a controlling interest in railway lines was acquired, Congress merely giving its assent after all the details were arranged. In a word, the powers of Congress had never been recognized as of the nature and extent that the constitution outlined. They had not atrophied, for they had never truly developed.
The Congress, in fact, was never independent either in personnel or in powers.[2] It was a body composed largely of persons who did not live in the districts they represented, a gathering of carefully selected men often of decided oratorical powers, a dignified body in which true clash of opinion occurred only on such matters as were indifferent to the executive.[3] Some, at the time
- ↑ A similar power was conferred upon President Carranza.
- ↑ The constitution is considered by many to have contemplated legislative ascendancy. See R. Garcia Granadas, La Consttucion de 1857 y las leyes de reforma en Mexico, passim.
- ↑ A description of the way in which opposition sentiment was controlled early in the old régime is found in the Nation, vol. 41, p. 894, November 12, 1885. See also T. Esquivel Obregón, op. cit., passim.
