BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

CHAPTER VIII
REPRESSIVE ELEMENTS OF THE D1AZ MACHINE
Americans launching upon business in Mexico are
usually given about the same treatment at the hands of
local authorities as they have been used to at home. The
readier hand for graft is more than overbalanced by the
easier plucking of the special privilege plum. Sometimes
an American falls into disfavor and is cautiously persecuted,
but it is seldom. And if he is there to get rich
quickly, as is usual, he judges the Mexican government
by the aid it gives to his ambition. To him the system of
Diaz is the wisest, most modern and most beneficent on
the face of the earth.
To be wholly fair to Diaz and his system, I must confess
that I am not judging Mexico from the viewpoint of
the American investor. I am estimating it from its effects
upon the mass of Mexicans generally, who, in the end,
must surely determine the destiny of Mexico. From the
viewpoint of the common Mexican the government is
wholly the opposite of beneficent; it is a slave-driver, a
thief, a murderer; it has neither justice nor mercy—
nothing but exploitation.
In order to impose his rule upon an unwilling people
General Diaz found it necessary not only to reward the
powerful of his country and to be free and easy with the
foreigner, but also to strip the people of their liberties to
the point of nakedness. He took away from them all
governmental powers, rights and securities, and all powers
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