e of a
civilization and progress, which, considering the time in which it was
compassed, was indeed marvelous.

But all this was only a shell and a semblance. The economic condition
of the Mexican lower classes was not touched--the process of
"nation-building" seemed not to include them. In the shadow of a modern
civilization stalked poverty and ignorance worthy of the Middle Ages.
And it was notorious that in the capital city itself, under the very
eyes of the central Government, was where the very worst conditions and
the most glaring extremes of poverty and wealth were to be seen. On the
one hand, splendid _paseos_ lined with magnificent palaces, where, in
their automobiles, the pleasure-seeking women of the rich displayed
their raiment worth thousands of dollars; and, on the other, streets
filled with beggars, their clothes literally dropping off them in
filthy rags, reeking with the typhus which for years has been endemic
in the City of Mexico.

Let it be said to Diaz's credit that he did try, in a measure, at first
to better those conditions. Hence the public schools which, though
inadequate for the scattered rural population, have accomplished much
in the cities. He also attempted years ago a division of the lands, but
dropped it when he saw that the great landowners were stronger than he
and that to persist might cost him the Presidency.

It was natural and inevitable that a Government in which there was
never any change or movement should stagnate and become corrupt.
Porfirio Diaz was not a President, but, in all save the name, an
absolute monarch, and inevitably there formed about his throne a cordon
of men as unpatriotic and self-interested as he may have been patriotic
and disinterested--as to a great extent he undeniably was. These men
were the Cientificos.

The term is, of course, not their own. It was applied to them by the
Anti-reelectionists, meaning that they were scientific grafters and
exploiters. The full-fledged Cientifico was at once a tremendous
landholder and high government official. To illustrate, the land of the
State of Chihuahua is almost entirely owned by the Terrazas family. In
the days of Diaz, Don Luis Terrazas was always the governor, being
further reenforced by his relative, Enrique C. Creel, high in the Diaz
ministry. In Sonora the land was held by Ramon Corral, Luis Torres, and
Rafael Izabal. These three gentlemen, who were called "The Trinity,"
used to rotate in the government