1910,
when Jose Batlle, the able, resolute, and radical-minded head of the
Colorados, announced that he would be a candidate for the presidency.
As he had held the office before and had never ceased to wield a strong
personal influence over the administration of his successor, the
Blancos decided that now was the time to attempt once more to oust
their opponents from the control which they had monopolized for half a
century. Accusing the Government of an unconstitutional centralization
of power in the executive, of preventing free elections, and of
crippling the pastoral industries of the country, they started a revolt,
which ran a brief course. Batlle proved himself equal to the situation
and quickly suppressed the insurrection. Though he did make a wide use
of his authority, the President refrained from indulging in political
persecution and allowed the press all the liberty it desired in so far
as was consistent with the law. It was under his direction that Uruguay
entered upon a remarkable series of experiments in the nationalization
of business enterprises. Further, more or less at the suggestion of
Battle, a new constitution was ratified by popular vote in 1917. It
provided for a division of the executive power between the President
and a National Council of Administration, forbade the election of
administrative and military officials to the Congress, granted to that
body a considerable increase of power, and enlarged the facilities for
local self-government. In addition, it established the principle of
minority representation and of secrecy of the ballot, permitted the
Congress to extend the right of suffrage to women, and dissolved the
union between Church and State. If the terms of the new instrument are
faithfully observed, the old struggle between Blancos and Colorados will
have been brought definitely to a close.

Paraguay lapsed after 1898 into the earlier sins of Spanish America.
Upon a comparatively placid presidential regime followed a series
of barrack uprisings or attacks by Congress on the executive. The
constitution became a farce. No longer, to be sure, an abode of Arcadian
seclusion as in colonial times, or a sort of territorial cobweb from the
center of which a spiderlike Francia hung motionless or darted upon his
hapless prey, or even a battle ground on which fanatical warriors might
fight and die at the behest of a savage Lopez, Paraguay now took on
the aspect of an arena in which petty politica