Chapter III: The Madero Revolution, Its Aims and Failures

In the summer of 1908, when the writer was in Mexico he had heard that a man called F. I. Madero was writing a book, in which he discussed the advisability of contesting the seventh presidential election of General Diaz. The book was supposed to have been written in collaboration with a journalist who later was rewarded with the Governorship of Chiapas.

“The Presidential Question of 1910,” the title of the book, had about ninety thousand words of written matter, and began with the War of Independence down to General Diaz’s régime when he tried to analyze the future political conduct of Diaz.

Of the interview of General Diaz in _Pearson’s Magazine_ of 1908, he said: “We judge a study of his declarations to Creelman useless, as we do not believe they are sincere, for they are in manifest contradiction with his past acts, as General Diaz has always made promises which were never kept, from the Plan of la Noria down to the last one.”

Although few intelligent Mexicans took General Diaz at his word, they nevertheless caught him for the first time in a flagrant political “faux pas” for not having denied the interview. They saw a chance to take him at his own words and start the work of organizing an agitation of the political conscience of Mexico.

Madero’s book was a powerful factor in this propaganda, which was followed by a national organization of political clubs and speechmaking by a few daring young men of the middle class. This fearless, open propaganda copied the campaigning methods of the United States and Madero was the head of the movement.

At first, Diaz, his political supporters and even the foreigners laughed at their rash, foolish crusade which they thought would soon be crushed and destroyed.

The Diaz clique, the cientificos and the old supporters of the czar, men like General Reyes, General Naranjo, General Trevino, General Izabal, General Torres, General Terrazas, Gen. Mucio Martinez, T. Dehesa, R. Corral, J. Y. Limantour, E. Creel, Gen. G. Cosio, O. Molina would all have liked to be president, but they were too much in awe of the power of the old man in Chapultepec. Their political work was all done underground, they were all getting ready for the moment when General Diaz should step down gripped by the hand of death. None of them imagined that any Mexican, no matter how daring, could shake the foundation of the Diaz throne without the help of the middle class of Mexico. When the old guard observed the impunity of the Madero propaganda they guessed that it was going to be a repetition of the events in the presidential elections of 1903-04 when Diaz allowed his foolish enemies to come out in the open and then destroyed them wholesale and in detail.

The great strength of Madero consisted in his peaceful methods of propaganda and his constant advice to Mexicans to be patient under the persecutions of the government agents. He advised them to suffer even imprisonment and death so as to awaken the interest of the majority who would soon follow their example.

Madero was assisted in his campaign by his brother Gustavo and a young lawyer Roque Estrada, and was accompanied everywhere by his wife, even in jail. Roque Estrada wrote about the evolution of the Madero revolution and divided it into four parts:

1. The Awakening of the Mexican political soul.

2. The Concentration of the revolutionary propaganda.

3. The Destruction of the Diaz régime.

4. The Reconstruction of the new government.[5]

The campaign continued under difficulties, when the supporters of Diaz awakened to the fact that Madero was growing popular. Then on the 6th of June, 1910, came the news of his arrest.

It must be added that one of the reasons for the indifference of the authorities to the Madero propaganda was the firm conviction that F. I. Madero was a fool, an idiot, who was being used by powerful enemies to initiate a counter campaign against Diaz. A second reason was the fact that Madero belonged to a wealthy and politically influential family of which the head, Don Evaristo, had been Governor of Coahuila during General Gonzalez’ term (1880-84). Moreover, the Maderos had financial connections in New York, Paris and London.

Besides the head of the family, every member of the Madero clan had disowned Francisco I. Madero’s political activities with the exception of his wife and Don Gustavo. It was a repetition of the story of Joseph in the Old Testament: F. I. Madero like Joseph was sold out by this brother’s family. There was a radical wing in the Madero movement headed by Gustavo Madero which believed that all the peaceful methods of agitation were useless and that the only successful method of overthrowing the dictator was to be effected in the same way by which he had come into power--by revolution.

F. I. Madero insisted on peaceful methods, so Gustavo without informing his brother went to Paris ostensibly to organize a Mexican Railway of the Centre. As soon as he cashed the first instalment of the moneys for the construction ($375,000)[6] he used it to buy arms and ammunition for the revolution which was certain to burst out in a few months.

In San Luis Potosí, October 5th, 1910, Don F. I. Madero, who by this time had become convinced of the futility of peaceful propaganda, wrote the famous Plan. A few days later he was advised that there was an order for his arrest which would be followed by the application of the “Ley Fuga.” Disguised as a common laborer he fled into the United States on October 7th, and went to San Antonio. Some New York papers had long accounts of his flight and plans, sent by their correspondents but the news was not published.

The Plan of San Luis Potosí was a direct challenge to Porfirio Diaz, and it used almost the same slogan which General Diaz had written on the Plan de la Noria against Juarez and later his Plan de Tuxtepec and Palo Blanco which was: “Effective suffrage and no re-election.”

A great deal has been published about the great promises of land reform and distribution of great estates by F. I. Madero and which he could or would not fulfil.

The exact wording of that famous Article 3d of the Plan has either been forgotten or misinterpreted. We reproduce the Article:

_Article 3d_: “As a result of the abuses of the lands, numerous small proprietors, mostly Indians, have been despoiled of their lands by common consent of the ministry of Fomento or by the decisions of the Mexican courts. In justice to the old proprietors, they should be given back lands which have been taken away from them in such an arbitrary manner. The decisions of the Ministry of Fomento and of the courts will be subject to revision and it will be demanded of those who acted in such immoral fashion, to return the land to their original owners, besides paying them an indemnity. Only in case that the lands should have passed to a third party before the publication of this plan, will the original owners receive an indemnity from those whose spoliation benefitted them.”[7]

Thus it will be seen that the Plan of San Luis Potosí aimed first of all to destroy the régime which had made the land robbery possible.

After the capture of Juarez the whole Diaz Government was practically destroyed as a political force and the Reconstruction would have been easy with a new government. But the reactionary forces were at work to arrest the impetus of the revolution. Limantour came back from Paris and prepared the way to an entrance of the reactionaries by threatening to arrest Gustavo Madero for the misappropriation of money to the use of the revolution.

Madero’s father and brother had to accept his conditions and went post haste to confer with F. I. Madero at the border. Limantour’s conditions were the cessation of hostilities and a constitutional transfer of the presidential power on the shoulder of the clerical L. de la Barra. Limantour’s clever, strategic movement arrested the radical impulse, put a few Maderistas in the Cabinet, and others in the Governorship, but the inexperience of the new men and the conscious inertia of ministers, like Ernesto Madero, Secretary of Finance and Rafael Hernandez, Secretary of Fomento, checked all effective attempts at reforms. The two radical brothers, the Vasquez Gomez, were eliminated. Limantour went back to Paris to watch from a distance and to direct the tactics of the policy of inertia.

Meanwhile plots were hatched against the life of Madero. One almost succeeded at this time. While L. de la Barra was provisional President they sent F. I. Madero to confer with Zapata who agreed to meet him on condition that no federal troops should accompany Madero in Cuautla. General Huerta, who was in charge of the federal troops in Morelos broke the promise, and attacked Cuautla in hopes that Zapata would kill Madero for his supposed treachery. The common sense of Zapata saved Madero’s life.

The first conspiracy against Madero happened when he was in Juarez and the cientificos had plotted his destruction by inciting the suspicious anger of men like Orozco and Villa against him. But Madero’s bravery saved him again. The cientifico plotters were said to be T. E. Obregon, F. Carbajal and Oscar Braniff. T. E. Obregon later became a member of Huerta’s cabinet and Carbajal the provisional president following the flight of General Huerta. As soon as Madero was elected the cientificos captured Orozco with money and started him as the head of a counter revolution before the President had been seated a month. Then they pushed General Reyes and later Felix Diaz and Vasquez Gomez to revolt against Madero.

These movements although they failed, were kept up so as to show the world the incompetence and lack of popularity of the Madero régime. Zapata started on the war path incited by the cruelties of the federal generals and all over the country rich haciendados (ranchers) gave money to guerrilla leaders to keep up the anarchy and by attacks on American property and American citizens to invite American intervention.

Twice the Taft régime attempted or threatened an invasion of Mexico and once they almost succeeded. The failure was due to the exposé of the little plot which resulted in the resignation of Dickinson, then Secretary of War.[8]

It must be remembered that the Attorney General under Taft was a lawyer who had been a personal representative of Diaz in the United States, and among some of the lawyers who had been his partners was a brother of the President of the United States. All were interested in Mexico financially and politically.

The threats of invasion by the Taft régime had a disastrous effect on the reorganization of the new government. Madero was surrounded by enemies at home and abroad. The army, the cientificos and the clericals were plotting at home. The Mexican Ambassador Calero had formed an alliance with the American Ambassador, hoping to step into the presidency as L. de la Barra had done. Calero went so far as to telegraph to some French bankers who were negotiating a loan to Madero, to stop until further orders; the further orders were supposed to come from the new government which Calero hoped to head.

But meanwhile there should not come any financial assistance to Madero. In Congress men like F. Bulnes, Q. Moheno, J. M. Lozano headed the opposition which interfered with any plans of reform, by cutting off all financial help. Madero was just beginning to reap the fruit of his policy of conciliation.

With few exceptions all the old Diaz appointments in the courts, in the States, in the consular and diplomatic service were kept in their places, and as a result the old methods were kept in vogue. All the army officers who had ruthlessly fought the revolutionists were left in their positions and the rebel chiefs were dismissed with thanks.

With the new interests created by the Madero ascension to power there sprang up a hungry crowd of office seekers and a neo-cientifico régime headed by Ernesto Madero and Rafael Hernandez. It would not be supposed even as a fantastic flight of a poetical imagination that the neo-cientificos would sincerely attempt a reform of the government. E. Madero is reported as having said that the financial system left by Limantour worked like a Swiss watch. The only reform to men of great interests can be achieved in their favor, not against them.

Zapata could only be induced to stop his rebellious activity by a solution of the agrarian problem in Morelos. The Cabinet Minister under Madero only incited the exasperation by sending men of Huerta’s stamp in their midst.

It can be safely asserted that all the government officials in Mexico were inimical to reforms beginning with the Madero clan (excepting F. I. and Gustavo Madero), down to the lowest officials. The men who had fought for the revolution watched in disgust and dismay the disintegration of the revolutionary ideals.