These are some of the causes and circumstances that made the revolution of 1910-11—­not all of them, for there must be remembered in addition the Yaqui slave traffic, the contract-labor system of the great southern haciendas, and a dozen other iniquities, greater and lesser, which also contributed to precipitating the revolt.  It was fortunate that that revolt was captained by a man of Francisco Madero’s type—­a man who knew how to win the world’s sympathy for his cause and how to make his subordinates merit that sympathy by their observance of the rules of civilized warfare.

The actual armed contention of the Madero revolution was singularly brief, culminating in the capture of Ciudad Juarez, which was followed by the resignation of Diaz and Corral.  There can be no doubt that the dictatorship could have held together for a considerable time longer and that Diaz surrendered before he actually had to.  But he could probably see by this time that it was inevitable in any case, and he was willing to sacrifice his personal pride and ambition sooner than necessary to avoid bloodshed in Mexico if he could.  And also he had it upon his conscience, and it was brought home to him by the mobs outside his palace, that he was not the constitutional President of Mexico, but the tool of the betrayers of her Constitution.  That he had been shamelessly deceived and played upon by the impassable cordon of Cientificos about him is easy to judge.  His message of resignation was one to touch any heart, combining pathos with absolute dignity.

The resignation of Diaz and Corral was taken by many to signify the complete surrender of the old regime and the triumph of the revolution.  Indeed, for the moment it so appeared.  But although the Cientificos were ousted from direct political control, their wealth and power and the tremendous machinery of their domination were still to be contended with before the revolution could follow up its political success with the economic reforms which were its real object.

Madero had pledged himself primarily to the division of the lands.  He realized that only by the abolition of the landed aristocracy, and an equitable distribution among moderate holders for active development of the huge estates, held idle in great part or worked by peons, could the progress and prosperity of the nation be put upon a solid basis.  He knew exactly what the remedy was and, though a landed aristocrat himself by birth and inheritance, was not afraid of it.

As soon as he was elected to the presidency he set a committee of competent, accredited engineers to work appraising property values in the different states, and great tracts of hundreds of thousands and millions of acres, previously assessed at half as many thousands as they were worth millions, were revalued and reassessed at their true inherent value.  The haciendados raised a frightful cry.  They tried threats, intrigue, and bribery.  It was useless; the revaluation went