Ted Leinhart
speaker
251 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 3 Aug
Ted Leinhart’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
few however of what would ordinarily be called practical men hope for any violent change in the political functions of this mass of the people it is not that diaz has ruled badly but that he has ruled too long they want changes in the cabinet new governors and heffes more autonomy a series of intelligent oligarchies rather than one hard and fast autocracy
diaz was a fighter who came to the top because he was strong enough to fight his way there he has held the nation together and made it granting everything that he has done for his country one would still not be likely to endow him with any advanced humanitarianism or progressive statesmanship as these terms would be understood in modern england for instance
these old governors are friends of his they fought with him in his time of stress and naturally he has stood by them so it is not strange that the world beyond chapultepec has moved a bit beyond him mexico during his administration is vastly changed railroads machinery newspapers the very schools which he started have had their effect the present generation reads and thinks a little
sitting in the patio of my hotel one morning i showed a picture postcard of a group of border insurrectos to the young mexican proprietor he examined it with interest of course he said we're all insurrectos in a way he pointed up to a balcony where a withered old gentleman
governor of one of the states leaned on the railing dreamily smoking the inevitable cigarette you see him he said well he has been governor up there for i don't know maybe twenty or thirty years we young men feel we could do just as well as he is doing we think we ought to have a chance just how profound this feeling may be how much it is inspired by a genuine desire to accept the responsibilities of government
a casual visitor to mexico would scarcely pretend to say but this young man appeared to be a clean capable intelligent representative of what one might call young mexico the class to which his country must and one would assume should look for its present help and this indeed from the mexican's point of view seems to be the really important aspect of the present unrest as it is the hardest about which to get any definite information
out of all this complex mixture of socialism big business mere brigandage and so on how much can be sifted as the genuine protest of a growing middle class insurrectos have no real leader these revolutions in mere tyranny are common enough
one could easily restrict oneself to northern sweatshops and certain aspects of life in our southern states and write a barbarous america quite as true harrowing and unfair as some of the things written recently about mexico
revolutions of the central american variety are stale enough the really significant thing is whether the present disturbance reflects a definite step forward whether a class has grown up here which given a little more chance to govern itself will know how to use the chance no one knows just what the insurrectos want least of all themselves
they are too disorganized too heterogeneous they have no one man about whom to rally no definite programme of reform nobody takes madero very seriously although the vivas have been given in his name he comes himself of one of the wealthy old feudal families he is a spiritualist a vegetarian a dreamer and in general about as likely a man to lead a revolt of the people
as young Mr. Hyde, who went down in the insurance investigation, would be to lead an insurgent band of Kansas farmers.
Nevertheless, the movement has already brought significant changes, changes which, had they been made sooner, might have staved off the present dissatisfaction.
The other day the governor of Puebla, one of the most notorious of the state chiefs, suddenly decided that he desired arrest from the long service which he had given to his country.
the present governor of chihuahua was put in to placate the people's irritation at having put over them a young relative of mr creel similar changes have taken place elsewhere and many more are rumoured mr limantour's frankness
when mr limantour in his paris interview a few weeks ago and later in new york stated that something must be done to reform the abuses in the municipalities and means devised to break up the enormous estates and give the people a chance at the idle land well-informed men here said that it was the most significant announcement that had been made in twenty-five years
when it is recalled that mr creel one of mr limantour's colleagues in the cabinet is the owner or at least a member of the family which owns one of these enormous estates mr limantour's frankness can be judged the breaking up of these vast domains is generally regarded as the one thing which more than any other would help conditions to-day
the lands of these estates are almost untaxed so that if the owner can make enough to permit him to live at ease in the capital or paris or some other pleasant place out of a part of his holdings it is much simpler to leave the rest untouched and there it lies wasted and unproductive with the bulk of the people landless and frightfully poor it is urged that taxation would force the big haciendados to break up their holdings
the transition from their hands into the hands of the people who really need the land presents many difficulties not the least of which is the state of feudal dependence in which the people themselves have become accustomed to live but at least a start would be made a start toward a class of small proprietors who would stand on their own feet and think for themselves
At no time have the Insurrectos shown themselves very dangerous in the open field.
Orozco and his men might easily have taken Juarez, but they foozled away their opportunity in the hills.
Showing 41–60 of 251 · page 3 of 13
← Previous
Next →