is responsible for Mexico's utter failure in her attempt at self-government.
A somewhat extensive study of the history of Mexico has impressed me with the conviction that the basis of all her trouble is racial. Mexico is inhabited by two distinct races: one the descendants of the aborigines comprising probably 80 per cent. of her total population, who furnish practically all the common labour of the country — the "hewers of wood and drawers of water" — usually denominated "peons," and who, as a class, are uneducated and non-property-holding. The other 20 per cent. of the population are the descendants of the Latin conquerors who, beginning by monopolizing all of the landed and other wealth of the country, and possessing all of its educated intelligence, have continued to hold that position of advantage, which has made them the governing race and conferred upon them, and made them responsible for, the control of the uneducated and non-property-holding 80 per cent.
The 20 per cent. of the Latin-Mexican population, includes the half-breeds or "mestizos," variously estimated as constituting a fourth to a third of the Latin element.
A democracy, in order to be successful, must represent the will of the majority. No people can effectively participate in government unless they are endowed with a cultivated intelligence en-
