ing much higher wages in their service than they had ever before received. Persons and property were as safe in Mexico as on any other portion of the American Continent. The old warfare between Mexican bandits and American citizens along the border, that had existed practically without interruption from 1821 when Mexico gained her independence to the accession of Diaz to the presidency in 1876, had ceased for so long that none but the oldest inhabitants on the frontier could recall the time when the Texas rangers had been organized for the purpose of dealing with Mexican raids across the border.
But, notwithstanding the fact that the administration of President Diaz had produced great development along many lines, and that a much greater degree of prosperity and comfort existed among a considerable portion of the working classes than ever before, there can be no doubt that a large majority of the labourers in the service of the great land owners were inadequately paid, as they had been since the native population was assigned to the vast estates into which the country had been divided by the Spanish conquerors. Nor can there be any doubt that the welfare of the peons, descendants of the aboriginal inhabitants, constituting 80 per cent. of the population was not looked after as humanity and a proper conception of the duties of a government to its people re-
