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Plutarco Calles started life as a school teacher and was for 17 years a persuasive pedagog. In the exercise of his profession, he was imbued with some of that idealism that lit the soul of the late ex-President Woodrow Wilson. But in Mexico of that day he was not understood. From the position of Mayor of Fronteras, the proud Mexican aristocrats forced him. Not a public office was open to him. This drove him to the "soap-box"; and his so-called Radical speeches inflamed the workers to red-hot enthusiasm for him, his enemies to bitter hatred.
In 1911 came the Porfirio Diaz Revolution; Calles was among the first to join against Diaz. Came the fierce revolt against Francisco Madero; Calles rose from the ranks to a colonelcy. Came the Victoriana Huerta Rebellion; General Alvaro Obregon found Calles, made him a general in command of the Sonora army. From this moment, the beneficent shade of Señor Obregon hovered about him. Governor of Sonora he became, and then Cabinet Minister. And, when the snappy struggle against President Carranza began, the Sonora triumvirate— Obregon, Calles and Adolfo de la Huerta—was in being.
After the revolt, Adolfo de la Huerta became Provisional President ' until Señor Obregon was elected to that dignity. Then peace reigned for three years; and the Sonora triplets were indispensable to one another—Calles as Ministro de la GobernaciÓn (Minister of the Interior), de la Huerta as Minister of Finance. In the fourth year of this regime, the 1924 election loomed. Mexicans speculated as to whether Calles or de la Huerta would succeed President Obregon. The latter favored his right-hand man and favorite, General Calles. For a time, de la Huerta also favored him, because, as allegedly arranged, he was to become President after Calles. Then, with peculiar suddenness, de la Huerta rocked the revolutionary cradle of Mexico—the triumvirate was shattered; and, in its ruins, de la Huerta found his political grave. Only one man was left to succeed Obregon; nor did Obregon conceal his satisfaction; for the man was Calles, his friend, his protégé, his faithful comrade-in-arms.
And now, big as Señor Calles is, it is conceded that Señor Obregon is bigger. Is Plutarco Elias Calles to be, therefore, a puppet-President? The odds seem to favor it.