veloped the most intolerable conditions. Thirty-two men are reported to have "owned" practically the entire area.[1]
That the large estate system was not a wholesome element in the life of the republic the government of Diaz had recognized. The reports by the Department of Fomento protested against it. The economists of the country, while recognizing that there were certain regions that could prosper only under extensive cultivation and that certain crops could not, under the conditions obtaining, be profitably cultivated on a basis of peasant ownership of land, were in general agreement that some change must come.[2] But their beliefs did not take form in action.
Unwillingness to attack the problem has not characterized the revolutionary reformers. The abolition of latifundismo has been a prominent part of their program. The end toward which they have declared their intention to work is one that meets general approval. The reasoning and the methods adopted, however, do not show that there has yet been worked out a land policy from which permanent improvement may be expected.
The central idea in the radical discussion of land problems during the revolution has been that the native popu-
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