Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/160

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MEXICO AND ITS RECONSTRUCTION

mands upon the employers. This kept labor conditions generally in a turmoil.

The years of the revolution, with the exception of the period of control of Huerta, are ones in which there has been a rapid growth of labor legislation. The Madero government announced itself the champion of the downtrodden, particularly of the laboring classes. The Carranza government professed even greater enthusiasm in their defense and improvement of the condition of the laborer has been at least nominally a part of the political problem of its successors. The Madero government created a Bureau of Labor, which subsequently became a Department. It intervened in a number of strikes and succeeded in getting better hours and wages for the laborers in the textile industry. No important labor legislation was passed in the latter part of the period of Madero's control, though a large number of proposals were made to Congress.

When the radicals came back under Carranza, the demand for labor legislation became insistent in both the central and the state governments. The supporters of the government included the great majority of the young radicals. The measures taken with the announced intent of helping the workers had a wide range and were often little short of fantastic in their operation. It is impossible to digest them. Examples illustrate their general trend. There were efforts to prohibit bullfights, cockfights, lotteries, the pulque trade and even all liquor production. Not all the country would follow the lead of those who wished to do away with these alleged harmful diversions, and some states,