Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/222

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206
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA

abling them to arrive at informed opinions. In order that participation of the majority in the government of a democracy may be effective, the masses must be educated. In the last analysis, the chance that Mexico will ever have a government that will insure the prosperity and happiness of its citizens depends upon the capacity of the majority of its people, and that means the great peon class, to receive and profit by education. Any successful effort to arrive at a correct judgment upon the causes of Mexico's failure in self-government, and of the possibility of her achieving successful government in the future must, therefore, involve a study of the two races which compose her population.

First, the investigator must appraise the character of the minority, or Latin, race which, by virtue of its practical monopoly of property and educated intelligence, has given Mexico its government in the past, and this involves a study of the history, development and moral character of that race as it exists at present.

Second, the investigator must study the history of the peon or native Indian races which compose the great majority of the inhabitants, and appraise their character and capacity for profiting by the opportunity for intellectual improvement which a chance for popular education may offer.

Inasmuch as the Latin race is the one now in