size of about 140 acres, most of which are tilled by the
owners themselves, a population that varies greatly, of course, in its
thrift and efficiency, but most of which is well housed, in houses they
themselves own, well clad, well fed, and a population that trains
practically all its children in schools maintained by public taxation."
It was some such vision as this that Page hoped to see realized
ultimately in Mexico. And some such development as this would make
Mexico a democracy. It was his difficulty in making the British see the
Mexican problem in this light that persuaded him that, in this
comprehensive meaning of the word, the democratic ideal had made an
inappreciable progress in Europe--and even in Great Britain itself.

II

These letters are printed somewhat out of their chronological order
because they picture definitely the two opposing viewpoints of Great
Britain and the United States on Mexico and Latin-America generally.
Here, then, was the sharp issue drawn between the Old World and the
New--on one side the dreary conception of outlying countries as fields
to be exploited for the benefit of "investors," successful
revolutionists to be recognized in so far as they promoted such ends,
and no consideration to be shown to the victims of their rapacity; and
the new American idea, the idea which had been made reality in Cuba and
the Philippines, that the enlightened and successful nations stood
something in the position of trustees to such unfortunate lands and that
it was their duty to lead them along the slow pathway of progress and
democracy. So far the Wilsonian principle could be joyfully supported by
the Ambassador. Page disagreed with the President, however, in that he
accepted the logical consequences of this programme. His formula of
"shooting people into self-government," which had so entertained the
British Foreign Secretary, was a characteristically breezy description
of the alternative that Page, in the last resort, was ready to adopt,
but which President Wilson and Secretary Bryan persistently refused to
consider. Page was just as insistent as the Washington Administration
that Huerta should resign and that Great Britain should assist the
United States in accomplishing his dethronement, and that the Mexican
people should have a real opportunity of setting up for themselves. He
was not enough of an "idealist," however, to believe that the Mexicans,
without the assistance of their powerful nei