MEXICAN ELECTIONS
49
claimed correct, and the meeting adjourned. At the third meeting, a Deputy for that District and a Senator for the State were chosen, by unanimous vote, together with a substitute for each. The fourth meeting brought out the vote for President and Vice President. Diaz was unanimously chosen, after which a telegram of congratulations was sent to him, and felicitations were exchanged with the Governor of the State during an informal recess; then Corral was voted upon for Vice President, receiving 50 of the total of 66 votes, the rest being a few scattering expressions of individual choice. At the last meeting the two justices of the Supreme Court. . . received formal approbation. Thus, five days, with sessions of an hour or less each, were consumed in the process.
By this time repression of public discussion in the spoken word or in the newspapers had almost disappeared.[1] The dictator in the latter part of his régime is said to have welcomed criticism so long as it did not touch himself. Whether this was done from desire to promote the development of true parties, which might later become responsible agents for carrying on the government, or as a means to provide a safety valve for increasing public opinion is not clear. There was, however, no group of thinkers that announced a platform of real reform. The opposition press was no more constructive in policy than that which supported the gov-
- ↑ The control over the casting and counting of votes, however, was not lessened and extreme measures were taken when an election threatened to become more than a formality. See an interesting discussion of widespread arrests and other corrupt practices employed to control the Diaz-Madero election, in Dolores Butterfield, "The Situation in Mexico," North American Review, vol. 196 p. 649, November, 1913.
