A GREAT RULER.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11730, 3 November 1903, Page 4

A GREAT RULER.

The attempted assassination last week of the Mexican President attracts momentary attention to a man who would be recognised as one of the world's greatest rulers if his country were more in the foreground of modern history. The very fact that he has been nominated for a seventh term of office marks him as a man of uncommon mould. It is twenty-seven years since Porfirio Diaz grasped opportunity out of the turmoil occasioned by the insurrection lie had fostered and led, and proclaimed himself provisional President. tSince then, with the exception of one term of four years, when in accordance with the then law of the country lie had to stand aside for another man, he has governed Mexico with firmness and wisdom. Mexico is a republic, with a Constitution based on that of the United (States, but that has not prevented Diaz ruling as a benevolent despot, and exercising far more power than all but a very few of the world's monarehs can claim. As a matter pf fact Mexico received the doubtful boon of popular government generations if not centuries too soon. The political traditions of the conntry, os has been pointed out, were those cf absolutism tempered by revolutions, and Diaz, while sternly repressing all such disorders as that by which he himself gained the Presidential chair, has been too wise to cut himself adrift from the autocratic methods by which his predecessors had Governed. If these methods have been harsh and sometimes cruel, it must be renumbered tliat more than ninety per cent, of the population is of pure or mixed Indian bbod, that most of them were absolutely illiterate, and that law and order as understood in Europe were unknown. Rightly or wrongly the test of all government is its effect on the country governed. Judged by thLs standard the despotism of Diaz has been <"i unmixed good to Mexico. "The crowning glory of hi.s administration," declares an American writer, "is the establishment of •'a. respect for law and order which gives "to Mexico an enviable position among the •'most advanced nations of the world- Per- " son and property are now quite as secure "as in anv portion of the United States." {

Mexico is still a badly educated country, but it is improving ill this respect. Formerly a congeries of districts separated by local jealousies and rivalries, it has now learned to take pride in its united nationhood. The high tariffs imposed by the different States upon goods coming from other States have disappeared, and freedom of trade now obtains between all parts of the Republic, while the varying legal systems and mining laws of the States have been co-ordinated. All this has helped forward the wonderful economic development that has been one of the chief features of Mexico's history under the rule, of Diaz. Until lately no Mexican has been able to imagine anyone ousting Diaz from his seat. The idea is still unthinkable, but the great ruler grows old, and there must soon come u time when lie must hand over to another the helm of State. Who shall succeed him? That has yet to be answered. No one yet appears behind his commanding personality. Yet the circumstances of his re-nomination for election as President next year show that Mexico realises the inevitable, and is preparing for it. betimes. For the first time in tlie history of the country, he was tendered the nomination by a convention of a political party. The proceedings differed in no way from those attending the nomination of a President of the United States, except in the important particular that there was no rival convention and no opposition candidate. These were absent because as yet i.-ere is only the one party in Mexico. The time may come when other parties will arise; in the meantime the national party are determined that there shall be no military dictator nor revolution when Diaz quits t he scene ho has graced so long, and they intend to organise and educate politically the voters. They recognise that Mexico needs no better ruler than Diaz; they also recognise that the future Government of Mexico must be on true democratic lines, since Diaz is one by liimself, for whom no successor is possible.