their lives for the most part were a dull and squalid routine; protection against disease was unknown; the agricultural methods were most primitive; the larger number still spoke the native dialects which had been used in the days of Montezuma; and over good stretches of the country the old tribal regime still represented the only form of political organization.  The one encouraging feature was that these Mexican Indians, backward as they might be, were far superior to the other native tribes of the North American Continent; in ancient times, they had developed a state of society far superior to that of the traditional Redskin.  Nevertheless, it was true that the progress of Mexico in the preceding fifty years had been due almost entirely to foreign enterprise.  By 1913, about 75,000 Americans were living in Mexico as miners, engineers, merchants, and agriculturists; American investments amounted to about $1,200,000,000—­a larger sum than that of all the other foreigners combined.  Though the work of European countries, particularly Great Britain, was important, yet Mexico was practically an economic colony of the United States.  Most observers agree that these foreign activities had not only profited the foreigners, but that they had greatly benefited the Mexicans themselves.  The enterprise of Americans had disclosed enormous riches, had given hundreds of thousands employment at very high wages, had built up new Mexican towns on modern American lines, had extended the American railway system over a large part of the land, and had developed street railways, electric lighting, and other modern necessities in all sections of the Republic.  The opening up of Mexican oil resources was perhaps the most typical of these achievements, as it was certainly the most adventurous.  Americans had created this, perhaps the greatest of Mexican industries, and in 1913, these Americans owned nearly 80 per cent. of Mexican oil.  Their success had persuaded several Englishmen, the best known of whom was Lord Cowdray, to enter this same field.  The activities of the Americans and the British in oil had an historic significance which was not foreseen in 1913, but which assumed the greatest importance in the World War; for the oil drawn from these Mexican fields largely supplied the Allied fleets and thus became an important element in the defeat of the Central Powers.  In 1913, however, American and British oil operators were objects of general suspicion in both continents.  They were accused of participating too actively in Mexican politics and there were those who even held them responsible for the revolutionary condition of the country.  One picturesque legend insisted that the American oil interests looked with jealous hostility upon the great favours shown by the Diaz Administration to Lord Cowdray’s company, and that they had instigated the Madero revolution in order to put in power politicians who would be more friendly to themselves.  The inevitable complement to this interpretation of events was a prevailing suspicion that the Cowdray interests had promoted the Huerta revolt in order to turn the tables on “Standard Oil,” to make safe the “concessions” already obtained from Diaz and to obtain still more from the new Mexican dictator.