The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 19, July 1915 - April, 1916 Page: 104
452 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Sovthwestern Historical Quarterly
In our present state of knowledge, however, many of its conclu-
sions must be accepted simply as opinion, and some of them will
be extremely difficult, if not impossible, either to prove or disprove.
As the author sees it, Mexico began to outgrow Diaz in the
nineties, but business interests supported him because they thought
him a good policeman. In 1910 they no longer trusted his ability,
and the crash came. Many American and some Mexican business
men hoped that the inevitable confusion would lead to interven-
tion by the United States. The United States, recognizing the
fact, and not the motive, of the general opposition, made no effort
to save the Diaz regime. But Madero was an accident, due to the
unexpected strength of an almost real popular opinion and to the
mismanagement of Limantour, the strong man of the Diaz govern-
ment. "Many stories have been printed and direct charges made
that revolutionary capital to the amount of millions was furnished
by American corporations to aid Madero. The stories were fables
and the charges unfounded. There was logic behind them but no
facts." The only foreign money used in the revolution was $375,-
000, the first payment by a French company on a railroad con-
cession that Gustavo Madero controlled in Zacatecas. No impor-
tant business concern supported Madero before or after his elec-
tion. All regarded him as impractical and unsafe. But neither
they nor the active conspirators formulated any concrete plan for
preventing chaos when Madero should fall.
It is not charged that any business corporation influenced the
attitude of the United States government toward Madero, but it is
pointed out that three great companies which had reason not to
welcome the Madero ascendency were in very close touch with the
Taft administration. A corrupt connection need not have existed
and is not implied. These corporations were certainly in a position
to give information on Mexican conditions, may naturally have
offered it, by request or unasked, and it would certainly have been
unfavorable to the Madero government--a view which would not
be modified by the official reports of Ambassador Wilson. As a
result of misinformation from these or other sources, "the govern-
ment at Washington, if one may judge by its acts, has seen on
the far side of the Rio Grande nothing but a series of illusions."
Sorely hampered though he was by the blundering movements of
the United States, the nagging of Ambassador Wilson, and the104
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 19, July 1915 - April, 1916, periodical, 1916; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101067/m1/113/?rotate=270: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.