People heard about the peonage system in Mexico, about the great power of Porfirio Diaz, about the abuses of this power, but it was not realized how vital, how deep, how intimate the solution of the political problems was to the Mexicans themselves. To foreigners the Mexican problem was only interesting in so far as it affected their interests,--no more. After all the cruelties perpetrated by the Diaz-Huerta régimes, I have heard intelligent Americans exclaim that the Mexicans needed a strong man like Huerta, and that Diaz after all had brought railroads, schools, higher wages, money, improvements and progress. It makes one almost despair of human intelligence to hear such superficial prattle, but it proves the axiom of Joseph Pulitzer to be very profound and that Porfirio Diaz had used it to its fullest extent. Known by few people, Porfirio Diaz used for years a secret fund amounting to millions solely for the purpose of advertising to the world that Diaz was the creator of modern Mexico, that “peace” and “progress” were his two watchwords, with which he had put Mexico on a permanent basis of greatness. Many small newspapers near the border as far as San Antonio were paid as much as $5,000 a year to speak in good terms about Diaz and never to mention any trouble or agitation which might be started along the border by anarchists who might call themselves Mexican revolutionists. Great newspaper proprietors in the United States were given concessions, others were offered special inducements to publish special Mexican numbers, which brought from $25,000 to $30,000 worth of advertising; well-known individuals, such as judges, congressmen and senators, were invited in an indirect way to visit Mexico, were received like princes, fêted, dined and were offered mining or other concessions as one gives cigars to a guest after dinner. When the concessions were not needed or available, Don Porfirio took particular care to impress his famous visitor with a set of well chosen phrases most apt to impress him favorably as to his greatness, his patriotism and his democracy. One incident, which was related to me, illustrates the Machiavellian talent of Diaz. A nationally famous librarian paid his visit to General Diaz, who received him very graciously. No concessions were asked or wanted and the President did not mention the great battles he had fought, which were unknown to the gentle librarian, but he spoke at great length of the extensive school system in vogue since his ascension to the presidency, and ended the conversation by declaring: “It is my greatest ambition to be known as the great schoolmaster of Mexico.” The phrase impressed the scholar and many people heard the phrase, and many newspapers repeated it until everybody believed it.