the governors of the several States and the jefes politicos; yet it must be remembered that the Diaz régime was to all intents and purposes an autocracy purely. Governors and jefes politicos were invariably the creatures of the President, as were no less the military, rurales, and police. That he must bear a full share of the responsibility is, therefore, inevitable, and truly the responsibility is not light. A nation crushed and demoralised, its natural progress retarded, countless individuals degraded to slavery, tortured and brutally ill-treated, and this carried into the twentieth century—surely no heavier charge can be laid against a ruler.
And though from out this hotbed of misgovernment, Diaz turned a complacent face on the outside world, remaining through it all the peacemaker, the kindly ruler who had taken in hand the governing of an ungrateful people, as his clever propagandists took care to make out, yet from the Mexicans, suffering under his yoke, the mask could scarcely serve to conceal his real character. Having once alienated the sympathies of the population, he had no choice but to govern by military and repressive methods. As an autocrat, he must use the great weapon of autocracy— force. To this end, a strong and efficient army was maintained, largely recruited from among political and other offenders. Indeed, it was a common practice to draft criminals into the army instead of sending them to prison. The training was severe, and the discipline exceptionally harsh. On the whole, the soldiers were treated rather worse than convicts.
Occasionally it happened that this system defeated its own ends, as in the case of Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican bandit, whose trained band (it was practically an army) strongly supported Madero in the overthrow of the Diaz government. For some petty acts of brigandage, Zapata was compelled to pass a term of fifteen years in the Mexican Army, where, apparently, he studied military tactics to good purpose.
Naturally, Diaz frowned upon the democratic element in the Republic. Nevertheless, the "revolutionary"
