Old in years, Diaz has ever been young in spirit. Those nostrils quiver and dilate as he speaks, those deep-set eyes seem to penetrate his listener’s soul. In personality this short, thick-set Mexican appears a giant of physical strength, while his broad brows denote the thinker. He is a youthful veteran.
Two months ago (Sept., 1910) this great President assisted at two celebrations. He stood on the balcony of the Municipal Palace and rang the bell that clanged forth the centenary of the Independence of Mexico. Only two months ago he kept his eightieth birthday. Last night I had the pleasure of sitting next Lord Strathcona, one of the most remarkable men of his age, and some ten years older than General Diaz; but then those ten years count for nought in a hardy Scotsman when pitted against a man of Southern climes. Longevity is an asset of the North. Diaz is of the South, and that he should still be strong and vigorous and able to pull the ropes of public affairs after fourscore years is a remarkable achievement for any man, and the more remarkable for a man with Indian blood in his veins. Not only that, but one must remember Diaz had an extraordinarily hard life until a few years ago.
His father was a little innkeeper in a little town in Southern Mexico. He died of cholera when the boy was only three years old. There were five other children. The mother’s daily struggle to provide food and clothing for them was great. Diaz went to the village school. At fourteen he joined the Roman Catholic seminary with the intention of entering the Church. It was his mother’s dearest wish. Education in those early days was free in Mexico where even military students pay no fees to-day, and education is on a high standard generally.
A LIFE OF ADVENTURE
Then the boy earned a small sum by teaching, which he spent in acquiring Latin grammar, logic, and philosophy. He found the tenets of the Church unacceptable. Mexico was at that time seething with revolution. Troops were continually passing through Oaxaca. The youth used to slip off in the evening to join the camp fires and listen to tales of valour and strife that made the blood tingle in his veins. The call of the bugle fired his soul. One has only to look at the man to see he was a born soldier beneath the guise of the politician of to-day. His life is one long story of romance and adventure, of serious difficulties ably overcome.
In the course of fifty-five years there had been sixty-eight dictators, presidents, and rulers in Mexico. This all ended in 1876, when General Diaz, then but a rough soldier, rode up to the City of Mexico at the head of the revolutionary army and declared himself President.
With the exception of four years he has reigned ever since. He fought hand to hand for Mexico and liberty. He saw the overthrow of the Church. He lived to see his beloved country rise from the lowest to one of the highest rungs of the world’s ladder. It is impossible here even to hint at the narrow escapes from death he had as a soldier, to mention the strange and sad story of the Emperor Maxmilian and his misguided and beautiful wife Carlotta. It is not possible to dwell on the courtly manners and charming grace of the elder Diaz as compared with the rough soldier of sixty years ago. One cannot even mention his ideally happy home life, his love of sport, or his interest in science and the great questions of this great world. Diaz can only be summed up here as a man of many parts and many interests.
AN ERA OF PROSPERITY
What have been the results of General Diaz’s long administrations? That terrible poverty which sapped the life’s blood from the country during three-fourths of last century has turned to affluence. Peace is the outcome of revolution. The country, jibed and jeered at abroad, now holds a position among the leading nations. Lawlessness has given place to wise jurisdiction. The Mexicans are better governed, they can afford to pay the taxes imposed for the benefits they receive, and are yet more wealthy. Instead of money pouring out to repay old debts, foreign capital is pouring into the country, so secure has Mexican credit become in the world’s markets.
More important than all, Diaz has taught the Mexicans the benefit of lasting peace, has set before them an ideal of honest public life which will survive him as a great monument to a great man. Diaz made modern Mexico. Roughly dividing his life into three parts, hunger and struggle were dominant in the earlier years. During the next span he was helping to make history in one of the wildest and most beautiful countries of God’s earth. The latter part of his strenuous life he has devoted to a desk and diplomacy, has thrown aside the soldier’s cloak for the frock-coat and tall hat of civilisation.