MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
215
While this book reflects the bitterness of feeling, disgust and despair that may be natural in a patriot witnessing the frightful ruin wrought by the evil ambitions of some popular leaders and, therefore, may appear extreme in some of its statements, there can be no doubt that the intelligence and opportunity for knowledge which its author possessed make him an authority upon conditions in Mexico and give special value to his appraisal of the human element as it is reflected in the government of that unhappy country. Bulnes, in explaining the causes which have led to Mexico's utter failure in self-government, says:
"Unfortunately, it is a fact that the ideal of the middle-class family is to be part of this bureaucracy and that the ideal of the bureaucracy is to rob the union and individuals whenever possible. The mother is no longer the just matron who shed the radiance of her virtue over the home and reared men for God, country and humanity. In these days there are mothers who urge their husbands, sons, sons-in-law, and brothers to steal from their country. Sons are reared with this idea and it is carried to the point of inculcating that this public theft is a legitimate necessity, that it is an art, a sign of distinction. The result of this schooling in depravity has been that the lower classes have had this baneful example before their eyes for many years, which has destroyed the slender thread of civic virtue possessed by them at the time of the declaration of independence. It also threatens to
