BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

338
BARBAROUS MEXICO
But is Mexico ready for democracy? Does she not
need to be ruled by a despot for awhile longer, until such
a time as she shall have developed capacity for democracy?
I repeat this absurd question only because it is so
common. The only reasonable reply is that of Macaulay,
that capacity for democracy can ony increase with
experience with the problems of democracy. Mexico is
as ready for democracy as a country can be which has
no democracy whatsoever. There is i o chance of Mexico
having complete democracy at this time. These
things come only gradually, and there is 110 danger whatsoever
of her suddenly getting more democracy than is
good for her. Who will say that Mexico should not
at OflCC have just a little democracy, enough, say, to deliver
her people from the mire of slavery and peonage?
Assuredly Mexico is behind us in the march of progress,
behind us in the conquests of democracy. But, in
considering her, be just and consider what the luck of
history gave us in comparison to what it gave the Mexican.
We were lucky enough not to have the rule of
Spain imposed upon us for 300 years. We were lucky
enough to escape the clutch of the Catholic church at
our throats in our infancy. Finally, we were lucky
enough not to be caught in our weakne ss at the end of
a foreign war, caught by one of our own generals, who,
in the guise of president of our republic, quietly and
cunningly, with the cunning of a genius and the remorselessness
of an assassin, built up a repressive machine
such as no modern nation has ever been called
upon to break. We were lucky enough to escape the
reign of Porlirio Diaz.
Thus, whichever way we turn, we come finally back
to the fact that the immediate cause of all the ills, the
shortcomings, the vices of Mexico is the system of Diaz.