become almost completely overpowered and voiceless. This was not the real Mexico any more than France of the Revolution was the real France.
Carranza had now a better opportunity of attempting to reduce the country to a condition of order. That he has The End of
Chaos.done much and is still occupied in this direction is plain from the accounts of acute observers who have recently visited Mexico. Dr. David Starr Jordan, American Minister to the Mexican Republic, stated in a recent interview that a beginning of order has been made, the worst conditions prevailing in Morelos, where Zapata is still in control, and in Chihuahua, where conditions are unsettled on account of the presence of American troops. He says—
"The Mexican Revolution, with all its crudities and brutalities, I found had a very definite purpose. Briefly, this purpose was to get rid of the mediaeval organisation left by the Spanish occupation.
"The land was divided into enormous tracts, held largely by non-residents, upon which the ordinary people, peons, were little more than slaves. Besides that, the great resources of the country had been peddled out in concessions to natives and foreigners, largely Americans, Germans, and British. The pawnbroking banker system had loaned the nation money on ruinous rates.
"Order was maintained by armed force and by the personal popularity of Porfirio Diaz. Extortion and disorder existed everywhere.
"During the various stages of the Revolution there were many atrocities. Men of the common sort became generals, supporting themselves by brigandage—a business more profitable for peons than ordinary work. Carranza came to be the representative of law and order, and as such was wisely recognised by the United States and by the South American Republics.
"At the present time the frontier city of El Paso is filled
