BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

CHAPTER XVII
THE MEXICAN PEOPLE
Since, in the last analysis, all apologies for the Diaz
system of economic slavery and political autocracy have
their roots in assertions of ethnological inferiority on
the part of the Mexican people, it would seem wise to
end this book with an examination of the character of
Mexicans and a discussion of the arguments upon which
Americans are wont to defend a system in Mexico such
as they would not for a moment excuse in any other
country.
Every defense of Diaz is an attack upon the Mexican
people. It must he so, since there is no other conceivable
defense of despotism except that the people are
so weak or so wicked that they cannot be trusted to take
care of themselves.
The gist of the defense is that the Mexican must be
ruled from above because he "is not fit for democracy,"
that he must be enslaved for the sake of "progress,"
since he would do nothing for himself or the world were
he not compelled to do it through fear of the whip or
acute starvation, that he must be enslaved because he
knows nothing better than slavery and that he is happy
in slavery, anyhow. All of which, in the end, resolve
themselves into the simple proposition that because he
is down he ought to be kept down. Incurable laziness,
childish superstition, wanton improvidence, con stitu -
tional stupidity, immovable conservatism, impenetrable
ignorance, an uncontrollable propensity for theft,
drunkenness and cowardice are some of the vices at-
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