BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

330 BARBAROUS MEXICO
one that the Spanili-;\iiierican character is somehow
incapable of democracy and therefore needs the strong
hand of a dictator. Since the Spanish-Americans of
Mexico have never had a fair trial at democracy, and
since those who are asserting that they are incapable of
democracy are just the ones who are trying hardest to
prevent them from having a trial at democracy. the
suspicion naturally arises that those persons have an ulterior
motive in spreading such an impression. That
motive has been pretty well elucidated in previous chapters
of this book, especially in the one on the American
partners of Diaz.
The truth of the whole malignrnent of Mexicans as
a people seems very plain. It is a defense against indefensible
conditions whereby the defenders are profiting.
It is an excuse—an excuse for hideous cruelty, a
salve to the conscience, an apology to the world, a defense
against the vengeance of eternity.
The truth is that the Mexican is a human being and
that he is subject to the same evolutionary laws of
growth as are potent in the development of any other
people. The truth is that, if the Mexican does not fully
measure up to the standard of the highest type of European,
it is because of his history, a most influential part
of which is the grinding exploitation to which he is subjected
under the present regime in Mexico. Let us go
back to the beginning and glance briefly at the Mexican
as an ethnological being and compare his abilities and
possibilities with that of the "free" American.
While nearly all persons of more than primary education
nominally accept the theor y of evolution as the correct
interpretation of life t1Ofl this planet, not so many
of us take aclvantac of it truths in estimating the people
about us. We cling, instead, to the old error of ex