of the state until Corral was made
vice-president, when Torres and Izabal took turn about until the death
of the latter shortly before the Madero revolution. In every state
there was either one perpetual governor or a combine of them.

Thus in each state a small group of men were the absolute masters
politically, economically, and industrially. They made and unmade the
laws at their pleasure. For instance, Terrazas imposed a prohibitory
tax upon cattle which forced the small owners to dispose of their
stock, which he, being the only purchaser, bought at his own price,
after which he repealed the law. They adjusted taxation to suit
themselves, assessing their own huge estates at figures nothing short
of ridiculous, while levying heavily upon the small farmer, and
especially upon enterprise and improvements. They practised peonage,
though peonage is contrary to the Constitution of the Republic, to the
Federal laws, and, in many cases, to the laws of the separate states as
well. They drew public salaries for perverting the government to their
private benefit and enrichment; and as the dictator grew older and
surrendered to his satellites more and more of his once absolute power,
the conditions became so intolerable, and the tyranny and greed of the
Cientificos so shameless and unbridled (infinitely more so in the
southern than in the northern states), that it would have been a
reversal of the history of the world if there had been no revolution.

In 1910 the aged Diaz declared his intention of resigning. Perhaps he
even intended to keep that promise when he made it; but if so, the
Cientificos, who knew that his prestige and the love of the nation for
him were their only shield, induced him to think better of it. The
strongest of the opposing parties was the Anti-reelectionist party. It
embodied the best elements and the best ideals of the country and from
the first was the one of which the Diaz regime was most afraid.

Now by its very name this party was pledged to no reelection, and yet
it so far compromised with the regime as to nominate Diaz for
President, only repudiating Corral, who was odious to the entire
nation. However, the Cientificos saw that this was to be the entering
wedge, and they promptly prepared to crush the new political faction.
Anti-reelectionists were arrested right and left; their newspapers were
suppressed, the presses wrecked, and the editors thrown into prison.
But the party's blood was up. It