Bureaucrats Politicians And Peasants In Mexico A Case Study In Public Policy Reprint 2019 Merilee Grindle

Bureaucrats Politicians And Peasants In Mexico A Case Study In Public Policy Reprint 2019 Merilee Grindle
Bureaucrats Politicians And Peasants In Mexico A Case Study In Public Policy Reprint 2019 Merilee Grindle
Bureaucrats Politicians And Peasants In Mexico A Case Study In Public Policy Reprint 2019 Merilee Grindle

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6. Bureaucrats, Politicians,
and Peasants in Mexico

8. Bureaucrats,
Politicians, and Peasants
in Mexico
A Case Study in Public Policy
MERILEE SERRILL GRINDLE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley • Los Angeles • London

9. University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
Copyright © 1977 by
The Regents of the University of California
ISBN 0-520-03238-1
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 76-7759
Printed in the United States of America

10. For Steven, June, and Douglas

12. Contents
List of Tables and Figures ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Glossary of Acronyms xv
Glossary of Non-English
Terms xviii
1. Introduction 1
The Bureaucracy in Mexico 2
The Study 9
The Organization 12
2. Organizational Alliances: A Theoretical
Perspective 26
Exchanges in Organizations 26
The Patron-Client Model 30
Exchange Alliances in the Mexican Bureaucracy 34
Explanations of Patron-Gient Networks 36
3. The Sexenio and Public Careers in Mexico 41
The Sexenio and Mobility in Mexico 41
vii

13. viii CONTENTS
Building a Career in Mexico 48
Building an Organization: Careers in CONASUPO 55
4. The Politics of Policy: Formulation of a Rural
Development Strategy 70
The Roots of Interest in Rural Development 71
The Evaluation, the Theory, and the Policy 83
Mobilizing Support for the Policy 90
Policy Formulation and Interpersonal Exchange 109
5. Implementation I: Responsiveness, Resources,
and Careers 111
Policy Responsiveness in BORUCONSA and DICONSA 113
Policy Implementation in the State Offices 120
6. Implementation II: Bureaucrats as Brokers 142
Problem Solving Through Personal Mediators 147
Information Brokerage 155
New Alliances for Old 158
7. Public Policy and Political Change in Mexico 164
Public Policy and the Sexenio 166
Bureaucracy and Political Development 175
Sources of Political Change in Mexico 178
Appendices 185
A. The Methodology and Conduct of the Study 185
B. The Size, Growth, and Distribution of the Public
Bureaucracy in Mexico 188
C. Recent Data on Agriculture in Mexico 192
Bibliography 195
Index 213

14. List of Tables and Figures
Text Tables
1. Objectives of CONASUPO'S Activities 14
2. Direct Purchases of Agricultural Products by
CONASUPO, 1969-1974 15
3. CONASUPO and Its Subsidiary Companies 19
4. Sources of CONASUPO'S Income for 1974 24
5. Sources of CONASUPO'S Expenditures for 1974 25
6. The Agricultural Sector in the 1975 Federal Budget 25
7. Recruitment Patterns for High and Middle Level
Officials 65
8. Average Annual Growth Rates, Mexico, 1940-1970 77
9. Industrial Origin of Gross Domestic Product,
Mexico, 1960-1973 78
10. Net Exports of Basic Agricultural Commodities,
Mexico, 1965-1971 78
11. Foreign Trade Balance, Mexico, 1964-1974 79
12. Economically Active Population, by Sectors, Mexico 80
13. Average Monthly Income Distribution, Mexico, 1970 81
14. Production of Corn and Yield of Crops by
Agricultural Zones, Mexico 84
ix

15. X LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
15. Mechanization and Average Plot Size by Agricultural
Zones, Mexico 85
16. Consumer and Corn Prices in Mexico 87
17. Average Public Sector Investment Percentages by
Presidential Period, 1925-1974 104
18. Federal Public Investment by Objective, 1970-1974 106
19. Activities of BORUCONSA, 1971-1974 115
20. Growth of Urban and Rural DICONSA Outlets 117
21. Goal Achievement in Opening Rural and Urban
DICONSA Stores 118
22. DICONSA Rural Growth and Investment 119
23. Socioeconomic Characteristics of Five States, 1970 134
24. CONASUPO Performance in Large Program States 139
25. CONASUPO Performance in Average Program States 140
Appendix Tables
B-l. Absolute Growth of the Public Administration,
1900-1969 188
B-2. Distribution of Employees of the Public
Administration in Mexico, 1969 189
B-3. Public Sector Organizations in Mexico, 1972 190
Distribution of Public Investment Expenditures
in Mexico, 1966 191
C-l. Use of Agricultural Lands in Mexico, 1960-1970 192
C-2. Gross Internal Agricultural Product at 1960 Prices 193
C-3. Private Farms and Ejidos, 1960-1970 193
C-4. Farm Size and Agricultural Production, 1950-1960 194
C-5. Federal Public Investment in Agricultural
Development, 1959-1970 194
Text Figures
1. National Staple Products Company 16
2. The Patron-Client Network 33
3. Direct Recruitment Pattern 61
4. Direct Recruitment Pattern, Extended Hierarchically 61
5. Internally Mediated Recruitment Pattern, Vertical
Alliance Only 62

16. LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES xi
6. Internally Mediated Recruitment Pattern,
Horizontal Alliance 62
7. Externally Mediated Recruitment Patterns 63
8. Career Trajectories of Directors of CONASUPO 69
9. Financial Support and Budget Growth of CONASUPO.
1969-1974 99
10. Demands on the State Representatives 130
11. Channels for Problem Solving in the Field
Coordination Program 153
Appendix Figures
B-l. The Growth of the Public Administration as a
Percentage of the Economically Active Population 189
B-2. Growth of Decentralized Agencies and State
Industries 191

18. Acknowledgments
This book is a result of ninety-seven interviews with high and middle
level public officials in Mexico. The names of these individuals, all of
whom gave courteously and openly of their time and energy to answer
my questions, cannot be listed here without violating the anonymity of
their responses. However, their generosity and helpfulness cannot go
unacknowledged; I am sincerely grateful to them for the graciousness
with which they received me and the insights they shared with me.
More specifically, I wish to express my gratitude to Licenciado
Gustavo Esteva, who enriched my appreciation of CONSUPO'S role in
rural Mexico and who provided many opportunities for me to speak
with officials within and without the agency.
His collaborators, Ingeniero Ignacio Argaez and Ingeniero Carlos
Montanez, spent many hours educating me in the realities of Mexican
agricultural development. Without this instruction, the present work
could not have been written. I am greatly in their debt for the patience
and kindness they showed me.
In addition, many of the regional coordinators of CONSUPO'S Field
Coordination Program added to my education by introducing me to
local communities and their development problems. The dedication of
these individuals and their sympathy with the problems of ejidatarios
and other rural inhabitants in Mexico impressed me greatly. To them
also I wish to express my thanks.
xiii

19. xiv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Wayne A. Cornelius of MIT provided invaluable guidance and
standards of rigorous scholarship during the preparation of this book.
Myron Weiner and Harvey Sapolsky, also of MIT, offered helpful criti-
cism and encouragement on numerous occasions while the study was in
progress. Licenciado Fernando Solana of CONASUPO enabled me to begin
the research in 1974, and José Luis Reyna of the Colegio de México pro-
vided intellectual assistance during my stay in Mexico. A good friend,
Nancy Peck Letizia, assisted in the preparation of the manuscript with
efficiency and cheerfulness. A grant from the Social Science Research
Council and the American Council of Learned Societies made the field
research financially possible. While I alone am responsible for errors in
facts or interpretations which appear here, the efforts of all these
individuals and institutions are gratefully acknowledged.
Throughout the field work and preparation of this study, Steven
Hale Grindle has been a constant source of encouragement, under-
standing, and perspective. His ready humor and unfailing patience have
contributed to the completion of this work in ways too diverse to list,
on occasions too numerous to count. I am deeply appreciative of his
willingness to share in this work.
MSG
Wellesley, Massachusetts

20. Glossary of Acronyms
ACONSA Abastecedora CONASUPO, S.A. de C.V.: CONASUPO Provision
Co., a subsidiary of CONASUPO, part of DICONSA system.
ADA Almacenes de Depósitos Agropecuarios: Agricultural Ware-
houses, a Venezuelan agency charged with storage of
supplies of agricultural products.
ANDSA Almacenes Nacionales de Depósito, S.A. de C.V.: National
Storage Warehouses Co., taken over by CONASUPO and
administered by BORUCONSA.
ARCONSA Almacenes de Ropa y Calzado CONASUPO, S.A. de C.V.:
CONASUPO Clothing and Shoe Stores, a CONASUPO subsidiary,
part of DICONSA system.
BORUCONSA Bodegas Rurales CONASUPO, S.A. de C.V.: CONASUPO Rural
Warehouse Co., a subsidiary of CONASUPO.
CECONCA Centros CONASUPO de Capacitación Campesina: CONASUPO
Peasant Training Centers, a subsidiary of CONASUPO.
CNC Confederación Nacional Campesina: National Peasants
Confederation, peasant sector of the PRI.
COCOSA Comité Coordinador del Sector Agropecuario: Agricultural
Sector Planning Committee.
CONASUPO Compañía Nacional de Subsistencias Populares, S.A. de
C.V.: National Staple Products Co.
xv

21. xvi GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS
DICONSA Distribuidora CONASUPO, S.A. de C.V.: CONASUPO Distrib-
uting Co., CONASUPO subsidiary with responsibility to over-
see the following subsidiaries of CONASUPO:
DICONSA Central
DICONSA Metropolitan
DICONSA Northwest
DICONSA North
DICONSA South
ACONSA
ARCONSA
ECA Empresa de Comercio Agrícola: Agricultural Market In-
dustry, Chilean agency charged with regulating prices of
basic consumer goods.
EPSA Empresa Peruana de Subsistencias Alimenticias: Peruvian
Food Marketing Agency.
IDEMA Instituto de Mercadeo Agropecuario: Institute for Agricul-
tural Marketing, Colombian agency charged with regulating
prices of basic consumer goods.
ICONSA Industrias CONSUPO S.A. de C.V.: CONASUPO Industries Co.,
a CONASUPO subsidiary.
INPI Instituto Nacional de Protección a la Infancia: National
Child Protection Institute.
ISI Import substituting industrialization.
LICONSA Leche Industrializado CONSUPO, S.A. de C.V.: CONASUPO
Processed Milk Co., a CONASUPO subsidiary.
MACONSA Materiales de Construcción CONASUPO, S.A. de C.V.:
CONASUPO Construction Materials Co., a CONASUPO sub-
sidiary.
MICONSA Maíz Industrializado CONASUPO, S.A. de C.V.: CONASUPO
Processed Corn Co., a subsidiary of CONASUPO.
PHI Partido Revolucionario Institucional: Ministry of Agri-
culture.
SAG Secretaría de Agricultura y Ganadería: Ministry of Agri-
culture.
SRA Secretaría de Reforma Agraria: Ministry of Agrarian Re-
form. (Until 1975, this ministry was a federal department:
DAAC, Departamento de Asuntos Agrarias y Colonización,
for simplicity, referred throughout by its current name, even
when referring to periods prior to its elevation to ministerial
rank.)

22. GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS xvii
SRH Secretaría de Recursos Hidráulicos: Ministry of Water
Resources.
SUNAB Superintendencia Nacional de Abastecimento: National
Supply Agency, Brazilian agency charged with regulating
prices of staple products.
TRICONSA Trigo Industrializado CONASUFO, S.A. de C.V.: CONASUPO
Processed Wheat Co., a subsidiary of CONASUPO.
UNAM Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México: National
Autonomous University.

23. Glossary of Non-English Terms
apoyo push, help.
arquitecto architect, title for a person who has a B.A. degree in
architecture.
cabide de (Portuguese) coathanger of jobs, a term for an individual
emprego who maintains several jobs or sinecures at the same time.
cacique local
or regional strongman, often a traditional, informal
leader of Mexican communities, sometimes serving in
official capacity (see Bartra, 1975; Cornelius, 1975: Chap.
6; Friedrich, 1969; Ugalde, 1973).
camarilla
clique, faction.
campesino peasant, person from rural area.
chamba a piece of good
luck, a job.
compadre coparent (a child's godfather), ritual kin, close friend.
compadrazgo compaternity.
confianza trust, confidence.
coyote a
hoarder, exploiter, middleman, broker, go-between.
ejidatario legally recognized member of an ejido.
ejido officially recognized agrarian community, holding col-
lective title to the land.
xviii

24. GLOSSARY OF NON-ENGLISH TERMS xix
equipo,
team, little team.
equipito
Graneros The People's Granaries, rural warehouses built by CONA-
del Pueblo SUPO in late 1960s.
huesito little bone, a job or other tangible evidence of influence
gained for purely political reasons.
ingeniero engineer, title for a person who has a degree in agronomy
or engineering.
ingrejinha (Portuguese) little church, a term for a group of loyal
followers.
jefe máximo the most important leader, boss.
licenciado title for a person who has a B.A. in the humanities or
social sciences or a law degree.
municipio municipality, a geopolitical unit corresponding to a
county in the United States.
nome (Portuguese) name.
padrinos
political godfathers or patrons.
políticos
palanca lever, a term used to imply influence.
patrones patrons.
panela, (Portuguese) saucepan, little saucepan, a term for a
panelinha political clique.
políticos politicians, usually in disparaging sense.
quemado burned, a term for those who have made political errors
and who are in disfavor, at least temporarily.
sexenio six-year term of administration in Mexico.
técnicos technocrats.
tienda
"company store" found frequently on haciendas in pre-
de raya revolutionary Mexico.
trampolim (Portuguese) springboard.
trampolín
springboard.

26. 1
Introduction
This is a book about the policy process in Mexico. In the following
chapters, the evolution of a single policy is traced from the inauguration
of a new federal administration in late 1970 to mid-1975. During this
period, government leaders became interested in new policies, broad
national objectives were specified, and subsequently, numerous official
agencies established plans to achieve these goals and attempted to put
new programs into operation. This study will describe the activities of
one important federal agency as its officials created and pursued a new
policy for rural development. The manner in which priorities for national
concern are established; the mobilization of support for policy options;
the political, economic, and social factors which intervene in the reali-
zation of national goals; and the variables that influence the allocation
of public resources are among the topics which are explored in depth in
the following pages.
The scope of these concerns means that this is also a book about
bureaucracy. In Mexico, the administrative apparatus of the national
government is central to the processes of formulation and implemen-
tation of public policy. It also has a key role in the satisfaction of de-
mands made upon the political system, the management of economic
development, and the provision of social welfare benefits to the popula-
tion. Moreover, the regulatory, welfare, and entrepreneurial activities
of the centralized administration have a profound impact on the daily
lives of Mexicans; the masses of the population increasingly receive their
1

27. 2 INTRODUCTION
political experiences from contact with representatives of the national
bureaucracy rather than from party officials or local notables. In spite
of their importance, however, few scholars have examined how public
administrative bureaus are organized in Mexico, how they expand, how
they interact with other agencies, what motivates their employees, and
how operative decisions are made on a day-to-day basis. Within the
context of a single case study, the research to be reported provides a
perspective on these aspects of bureaucratic behavior in Mexico and
suggests their relevance to the study of public administration in other
Third World countries.
Because of its concern with policy and bureaucracy, this is necessarily
a book about elites. The individuals in question here are members of the
public administration; they are middle and high level officials who have
important responsibilities for establishing and achieving the goals of the
political regime. In their daily activities, these bureaucrats interact with
each other, with other members of the political and bureaucratic elite,
and with recipients of government services. The patterns of their inter-
actions provide the framework within which bargaining, negotiation,
choice, demand making, and the allocation of government resources
occur. Therefore, central to an understanding of the governing process
in Mexico is a discussion of the influences on these middle and high
level
administrators as they analyze problems, propose solutions, seek to
ensure that preferred policies receive adequate and timely financial and
political support, and oversee the distribution of goods and services to
the population.
Finally, this is a book about political life in Mexico. Profoundly
affected by the change of political and administrative leadership which
occurs every six years at the national level, political events in that coun-
try involve a subtle process of elite bargaining, coercion, and accommo-
dation within the context of presidential dominance, administrative
centralization, and
official party control. The consequences of this
system for the making and processing of demands on the government
and the resolution of conflict are vital to the maintenance of the current
regime. The following work therefore offers insight into the political
processes that have engendered a high degree of elite cohesion and mass
integration in a system often characterized by authoritarian and exploit-
ive relationships.
The Bureaucracy in Mexico
The question which unites the four themes of policy, bureaucracy, elites,
and system is a simple one: How do characteristics of the Mexican
political regime affect the functioning of a bureaucratic agency as its
officials participate in
the tasks of formulating and implementing public

28. INTRODUCTION 3
policy? The significance of this topic can best
be appreciated through a
brief consideration of the extent and power of the bureaucratic apparatus
in Mexico. The catalogue of responsibilities ascribed to the state in
Mexico—and Latin America generally—go far beyond those tradition-
ally considered functions of government in the United States and Western
Europe, and the role of the federal bureaucracy in the organization and
management of public life is accordingly more central. Governmental
activism in the definition of major national problems, constraints on
inputs into the policy formulation process, and the responsibility for
carrying out government plans are three factors which significantly
enhance the power and influence of its middle and upper echelon
officials.
The Activist State
As in other countries of Latin America, in Mexico the state has
historically been
zealous in matters concerning economic development
and the welfare of its citizens. The roots of this activism have been traced
to Spanish imperial rule, but the responsibilities of the government and
the extensiveness of its services have increased markedly since the Revo-
lution of 1910 and especially since the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas
(1934-1940).1 The Mexican federal bureaucracy is currently composed
of 18 regular ministries and departments of state, 123 decentralized
agencies, 292 public enterprises, 187 official commissions, and 160
development trusts.2 Together, the last four categories, including over
750 organizations, are responsible for a wide range of government
activities, from the exploitation of oil to the management of the nation-
ally owned airlines, from the production of steel to the provision of low
cost consumer goods at the retail level, from the stimulation of rural
industries to the administration of various cultural foundations.
With this large number of federal agencies, all of which administer
numerous programs, it is not surprising that the economic or social
rationale for the activities of some of them
is tenuous. Recently, a critic
of government involvement in business concerns pointed out that
The State participates in, among other things, six firms which manu-
facture stoves, refrigerators, and other domestic appliances, seven
which manufacture cardboard boxes, paper bags, announcement cards,
and paper forms; it manufactures, sells, and distributes desk supplies; it
owns a soft drink bottling plant, a dish factory, a bicycle manufacturing
1. Or the historical roots of bureaucratic activism in Latin America, see Hanson
(1974) and Sarfatti (1966). On Mexico, see Carrillo
Castro (1973). See Appendix B for
tabular data on the growth of the Mexican bureaucracy.
2. In contrast, the United States Government Manual, 1975-1976 lists 17 executive
offices, boards, and councils, 11 departments, 59 agencies, 6 quasi-official agencies, and
64 other boards,
committees, and commissions in the United States federal bureaucracy.

29. 4 INTRODUCTION
plant, six textile mills, an airline, fifteen holding companies whose social
objectives range from the administration of
buildings to the construc-
tion of hotels, buildings, homes, warehouses, factories, developments,
and urban housing units;
it runs a factory which produces balanced
animal feed, a television channel, eighteen firms dedicated to theater
administration, a casino, three woodworking shops, a firm which
makes synthetic rubber, another which makes doorlocks, and a luxury
housing development in the Federal District (Hinojosa, 1974: 6).
Nevertheless, it has been widely recognized that the government is also
greatly responsible for the rapid growth of the economy in the postwar
years, the increase in agricultural export production, and the generally
high rate of industrialization which the country has experienced.3 More
than a decade ago, for example, Vernon emphasized the centrality of
the government to economic development:
The Mexican government has worked itself into a position of key im-
portance in the continued economic development of Mexico. It governs
the distribution of land, water, and loans to agriculture; it mobilizes
foreign credits and rations the supply of domestic credit; it imposes
price ceilings, grants tax exemptions, supports private security issues,
and engages in scores of other activities that directly and immediately
affect the private sector (1963: 188).
Investments to stimulate economic development have accounted for an
average of 45 percent of the total expenditures of the federal budget since
1940 (Wilkie, 1967: 32-33, 1974: 211).
Similarly, the activities of the government in the provision of social
services are also extensive. The Constitution of 1917 recognized the
responsibility of the national government to sponsor the advancement
of the welfare of workers and peasants in the realms of education, health,
working conditions, and urban and rural services. Gradually, the ideo-
logical commitment of the regime to these activities has been transformed
into a series of provisions benefiting a limited but expanding sector of
the low income population. Currently, about 20 percent of the federal
budget is expended by a bewildering number of agencies and ministries
to achieve the social goals declared by the Constitution (see Economist
Intelligence Unit, 1975; Wilkie, 1974: 211).
In fact, so extensive is the role of the government in the daily life of
its citizens and so pervasive its economic presence, that Mexico can be
characterized as a "patrimonial state/' a term which has been used to
describe other Latin American polities.4 The patrimonial state is
typified
by extensive state enterprises coexisting and supportive of the private
3. See Glade and Anderson (1963), Hansen (1971: Chap. 3), Reynolds (1970), and
Shafer (1966) for descriptions of the role of the public sector in Mexican development.
4. Discussions of politics in patrimonialist systems are found in Greenfield (1972),
Pike and Stritch (1974), Purcell (1975), Roett (1972), Rudolph and Rudolph (1974), and
Schmitter (1971).

30. INTRODUCTION 5
economic sector, comprehensive responsibility for the provision of
welfare services, often provided in the absence of overt popular demands
for them, and functionally organized clientele groups dependent upon
and even formally attached to the regime in power.5 Policy making in
a patrimonial state is the exclusive prerogative of a small elite and is
characterized by limited informational inputs, behind-the-scenes bar-
gaining and accommodation, and low levels of public discussion and
debate. Not only does the government of such a state claim responsibility
for a wide range of activities; it
also tends to reserve important policy
making roles for the public administration.
The Policy Making Role
In the past, much research on bureaucracy in Mexico and elsewhere
in Latin America has taken as an implicit model the Weberian image of
a value-neutral, hierarchically organized body of rule applicators who
are responsible for carrying out the administrative functions of the
state.
As a result, several considerations of the bureaucracy have listed the
impressive number of ways in which Latin American public administra-
tions do not measure up to the norms described by Weber—those of
standardized regulations directing behavior, prescribed official duties
accruing to institutionalized positions, stable hierarchical chains of
command, security of tenure, and advancement strictly on the basis of
merit and training.4
The recognition that many Latin American bureaucracies do not
achieve the standards set by Weber, or that they do in fact conform to
these norms but with unexpected consequences for the pursuit of public
goals, has led a number of scholars to adopt the "sala" model of admin-
istration proposed by Riggs (1964). General aspects of bureaucracy in
Latin America—formalism, "price indeterminacy," personalism, lack
5. Jaguaribe (1968: 144), critical of the patrimonial nature of the Brazilian regime,
has coined the phrase "cartorial state" (translated as sinecure or paper-shuffling state) to
describe a system in which the government is pervasively and often obstructively involved
in the direction of the society and the economy. Esman has applied the concept of the
"administrative state" to Latin America: "The administrative state as an ideal type is one
in which the state is the dominant institution in society, guiding and controlling more
than it responds to societal pressures, and administrative (bureaucratic) institutions,
personnel, and values and style are more important than political and participative
organs in determining the behavior of the state and thus the course of public affairs"
(1972: 62).
6. Generally, public administrations in Latin America have been excoriated for being
overly centralized, overburdened by meaningless paper work and rules, unresponsive to
public needs, staffed by inadequately trained personnel, and inevitably corrupt. The
reasons for these inadequacies
have often been considered to be procedural and organiza-
tional, and, as such, subject to alleviation and correction by more rational command
structures and more efficient procedures of operation. See Hanson (1974), Henry (1958),
Kriesberg (1965), Pan American Union (1965), Quinn (1972). For a review article, see
Pinto (1969). For general perspectives on development administration in Third World
countries see Heady and Stokes (1962), Montgomery and Siffin (1966), Thurber and
Graham (1973), Waldo (1970).

31. 6 INTRODUCTION
of well-defined role structures—are cited as characteristics of societies
not yet fully institutionalized or developed (see Dal and, 1967; Denton,
1969; Gomez, 1969). The transition from traditional societies to modern
ones, according to Riggs and others, causes the bureaucracy to deviate
from Weber's model. This formulation continues to be the major theoret-
ical alternative to applications of the classical ideal type, but, like the
Weberian model, it remains wedded to the conceptualization of bureau-
cracy as an administrative and rule-applying body.7
Some scholars, however, have questioned the completeness of this
view of the bureaucracy in Mexico and Latin America. It has become
clear in a number of case studies that the functionaries of the public
administration are not simply neutral (or corrupt or particularistic or
traditional) rule applicators but are also active and interested participants
in policy formulation and rule making.' Of course, the contribution of
the public administration to policy making has been increasingly recog-
nized in many other countries and is generally attributed to the increased
complexity and functions of government in twentieth century society.9
Nevertheless, a number of conditions in Latin America make this role
especially salient.
First, because of strong traditions of presidential dominance, elected
bodies of representatives such as the national legislatures often have a
peripheral and secondary place in policy making processes. Moreover,
political parties and interest groups are frequently not the interest aggre-
gating agencies which many studies have led us to expect. Rather, they
tend to be groupings of
vertically organized, leader-follower alliances
which depend for their maintenance not on the pursuit of general policy
goals but on the particularistic application of already formulated policy
(see especially Chalmers, 1972). In other cases, military or caudillo-type
rulers have inhibited the development of broadly aggregative and policy-
oriented parties and interest groups, emphasizing instead the paternalist
and directive role of the governmental apparatus in the solution of
societal problems. Thus, by design or by default, the administrative
apparatus in Latin America often has ascribed to it almost the entire
task of defining public policy.
Indeed, in Mexico the public administration is largely isolated from
the pressure of the legislative or judicial organs of government as well
as from the programmatic and organized influences of party or interest
associations. Presidential dominance of the legislature is complete; all
7. Ilchman (1965) and
Panish (1973) provide useful critiques of Riggs.
8. This is evident in studies by Benveniste (1970), Greenberg (1970), Kaplan (1969),
Leff (1968), Purcell (1975), and Schmitter (1971).
9. See especially the articles by Eckstein, Ehrmann, Grosser, and Waltz reprinted
in Chaps. 6 and 8 of Dogan and Rose (1971). See also Chapman (1959), Mayntz and
Scharpf (1975), Suleiman (1974). On the same phenomenon in the United States, see
Lowi (1967), Mosher (1968), Rourke (1969: Part 1), Seidman (1970).

32. INTRODUCTION 7
executive proposed bills are approved by the legislature, and when not
approved unanimously—which is the case in 80 to 95 percent of the votes
in recent years—they are normally opposed by less than 5 percent of the
members (González Casanova, 1970: 19, 201). The executive also main-
tains ultimate control over the semi-public interest associations, such as
those of businessmen and industrialists.10 Additionally, the dominant
political party, the PRI (Party of the Institutionalized Revolution), is
currently considered to be a mechanism for mobilization, communica-
tion, and control in the hands of the top political elite, as opposed to the
interest aggregator and articulator it was perceived to be in earlier
conceptions.11 While it is true that high ranking party officials are in-
fluential participants in elite decision making, they do not act as inde-
pendent spokesmen for specific programmatic alternatives, supported
by ranks of committed followers.
Public policy in Mexico, therefore, does not result from pressures
exerted by mass publics, nor does it derive from party platforms or
ideology, nor from legislative consultation and compromise. Rather, it
is an end product of elite bureaucratic and political interaction which
occurs beyond the purview of the general public and the rank and file
adherents of the official party. Individuals who do regularly participate
in policy making, in addition to the President and top party leadership,
are usually identified in some way with the bureaucracy. The public
administration, then, is of key importance in the
process of designing
and articulating public policy in Mexico.
The Policy Implementing Role
A third characteristic of the bureaucracy in Mexico, in addition to
its active participation in the society and economy and its function as
policy maker, is its more traditional role of policy implementor. Of
course, numerous factors impinge on the implementation process, from
the organizational capacity to provide goods and services at the time
and place they are required to the perceptions and interests of individual
bureaucrats at the moment of making a discrete decision. Any one of a
variety of factors can be singled out as fundamental in determining
whether a policy is implemented or not. In all cases, however, activating
the various programs and instruments specified to achieve the goals of
a policy is the responsibility of bureaucratic bodies. Middle level public
administrators, bureaucrats who generally have little or no influence in
overall policy making, are, therefore, crucial to the implementation and
rule application process. Among Latin Americans themselves, the most
10. The Mexican private sector and business organizations are described and analyzed
in Purcell and Puree» (1976), Shafer (1973), and Vemon (1963).
11. This perspective is affirmed in Anderson and Cockroft (1966), Brandenburg
(1964), Hansen (1971), Tuohy (1973). For a different interpretation, see Scott (1964).

33. 8 INTRODUCTION
frequently cited reason for the failure to implement new policies is the
behavior of the public officials charged with instituting the programs.
Thus, one frequently hears of agricultural extensionists, public health
doctors, and government bank officials who will not perform their
functions unless first offered a "tip." One hears of public works which
are appropriated for the personal benefit of powerful individuals or
interests. And one hears of systematic exploitation of powerless groups
for political or economic ends. Students of Latin American politics have
regularly attributed inefficiency, corruption, partisanship, conservatism,
lack of responsiveness, and vested interests to the personnel staffing
the administrative agencies of government.12 These are all characteristics
which impede the implementation of public policy and which indicate
the importance of the administrators themselves in the policy process.
Much of the input of the rule applicators takes place far from the
vigilant eyes of the high level officials ultimately responsible for program
results. Frequently, imperfect channels of communication, defective
administrative and informational systems, and lack of awareness of local
conditions mean that bureaucrats at the operational level have great
latitude to distribute the resources they control through their official
positions. And the day-to-day demands for individualized decision
making, rule application, and resource allocation may significantly
affect whether or not the overall policy is implemented as intended;
numerous instances of rule stretching may even aggregate into a failure
to achieve national priorities and policies.
At the same time, however, the resource distribution activities of the
bureaucrats may figure centrally in the maintenance of regime stability
through the accommodation of diverse demands on the political system.
In Mexico, for example, through the timely and calculated provision of
goods and services, lower level political elites maintain their ascendance
and bind their popular followings to the regime. The bureaucratic
resources are useful to attract political support and coopt potential
opposition. Moreover, regional and local politicians, dependent upon
the largesse of the federal government, may be prevented from engaging
in independent activities. Frequently, too, resources are readily provided
to businessmen and industrialists for the purpose of encouraging eco-
nomic expansion, minimizing organized opposition, and mitigating some
of the individually felt sting of general governmental policies (see Purcell
and Purcell, 1976). In short, the implementation role of the bureaucracy
is vitally important to both the policy process and to the maintenance
of regime stability in present-day Mexico.
12. For recent examples,
see Fagen and Tuohy (1972), Hanson (1974), Johnson (1971),
Petras (1969), Scott (1966), Stinchcombe (1974).

34. INTRODUCTION 9
The Study
The political importance of the bureaucracy cannot be questioned; its
active involvement in the society and its policy functions are reason
enough to devote time and energy to a study of this institution. In the
chapters to follow, Mexico's staple commodities marketing agency,
CONASUPO (National Staple Products Company), is described and
analyzed in depth. A case study of a single bureaucratic agency is useful
because it encourages consideration of the contextual variables which
influence and constrain individual and group behavior, factors which
are frequently overlooked in less intensive but more inclusive research
on organizations.13 In addition, a case study is valuable for purely de-
scriptive purposes. While numerous books and articles on Mexico make
it one of the most thoroughly studied and documented political and
economic systems in Latin America, most investigation in the past has
been oriented toward the role of the PRI, the institution of the presidency,
or private-public sector relationships. With the important exception of
Greenberg (1970), there exist no thorough studies of how bureaucratic
institutions in Mexico function or become involved in the policy process.
A number of considerations intervened in the choice of CONASUPO as
the site for the research. It is a large federal agency with geographically
and functionally extensive activities, employing more than 8,300 indi-
viduals and operating a network of installations throughout the entire
national territory. Its annual budget in 1975 was almost five times larger
than the Ministry of Agriculture, its principal functional rival, amount-
ing to nearly 5.4 percent of the total federal budget. In terms of its polit-
ical impact, CONASUPO is of singular importance to the government
because of the magnitude and variety of resources it has to distribute.
The specific activities engaged in by CONASUPO are central to the goals of
national development. Especially since 1971, when a significant policy
reorientation occurred within the agency, the thrust of its programs has
been to achieve an increase in agricultural production, a control on
inflation, a more equitable distribution of income among the population,
and the integration of marginal sectors of the population into the
national economy. These are all policy goals which were stressed by the
Echeverría administration (1970-1976).
Moreover, because of its extensive national constituency of bene-
ficiaries, CONASUPO is an important agency in terms of its contributions
13. For example, Ames states, "Organizations possess special attributes differentiating
them from ordinary collectivities. The core of an organization lies in the common
network of social relations binding together its members. Understanding the behavior of
either individuals or the organization as a whole necessitates understanding this network"
(1973a: 4). Blau (1957) expands upon this point. Examples of research on bureaucracies
in Latin America which are more inclusive are Daland (1972), Hopkins (1967), Petras
(1969), Silva Michelena (1967).

35. 10 INTRODUCTION
to political stability. Its personnel work closely with government and
party officials to achieve the political goals of the regime, and the agency
plays a significant part in marshaling the support of large segments of
the population for the regime (see Alisky, 1974). Its marketing activities,
especially in urban areas, have often served as public evidence of the
Mexican regime's concern for its low income population. In a survey
of six low income neighborhoods in 1970, for example, over 70 percent
of the respondents had made use of the agency's network of stores (Cor-
nelius, 1973: 225-226). The relative stability of the Mexican political
system since 1940 is due in no small part to the efforts of distributive
and symbolic programs such as those carried out by CONASUPO. In reality,
CONASUPO is more important to the solution of fundamental national
problems than many regular ministries of the government. Because of
this, the agency during the Echeverría administration attracted a corps
of politically mobile individuals. Its middle and upper level adminis-
trators were all highly qualified and considered by Mexicans themselves
to exemplify the "new wave" of technically skilled public officials who
came to the fore under Echeverría. For
these reasons, the agency provides
insight into Mexican political life.
Rural development policy has been singled out from a number of
public policy areas in which CONASUPO is involved. The rural develop-
ment policy options pursued by the agency constitute the most important
change which has affected the organization since the early 1960s when
it was reorganized and expanded. Moreover, the policy reorientation
which occurred in 1971 and 1972 was the paramount objective which
was pursued by the agency's leadership under the Echeverría administra-
tion. Such an important change provides impressive opportunities for
investigating how policy support is mobilized and manipulated internally
and how impediments to policy implementation arise and are dealt with.
The rural development policy of CONASUPO is also of interest because it
coincided with a shift in the policy of agricultural development pursued
by the government in general. Therefore, it offers insights into the
broader process of sectoral policy making in
Mexico.
In this study, the public bureaucracy is conceived as an arena in
which bureaucrats seek to achieve certain personal and public goals.
These goals can be reached most efficiently by entering into implicit
exchange relationships with others. In Mexico, informal exchanges tend
to become long term commitments between individuals of different
hierarchical levels and to pyramid into networks of exchange alliances,
resembling the patron-client relationships described by anthropologists
and political scientists. An explanation of bureaucratic behavior based
on exchange processes and a model of the patron-client linkage as it is
relevant to the Mexican elite is presented in the next chapter of this
study.

36. INTRODUCTION
11
Following the theoretical discussion, Chapter 3 places the study of
CONASUPO within the context of the Mexican political system. Because
of the extensive turnover of virtually all high and middle level personnel
which accompanies the change of political administrations, the pursuit
of career mobility is a crucial determinant of bureaucratic behavior
there. Insecurity of job tenure encourages officials to become involved
in personal alliances in order to ensure future career mobility. In CONASUPO,
the patterns of career management vividly demonstrate the existence of
informal alliances which are fostered by characteristics of the political
environment in Mexico. In the agency, it was possible to observe and
analyze the methods for obtaining employment, the means used by
office chiefs, department heads, and division managers to recruit able
and loyal subordinates, and the use of public positions to enhance the
power of the agency and of its top level administrators. These patterns
had an influence on the policy process, which is described in Chapters 4,
5, and 6.
A case study of the formulation of a rural development policy and
the mobilization of support for it is presented in Chapter 4. As indicated
previously, between 1971 and 1973, CONASUPO underwent a significant
internal reorganization and reorientation of its goals and priorities. New
emphasis was placed on the agency's impact in rural areas, and a com-
prehensive agency-wide policy for integrated rural development was
devised. The policy made demands on the loyalties, responsiveness, and
interests of all major components of the agency. This chapter demon-
strates that personal alliance structures, both within the agency and
between its high level functionaries and other political actors, were
mobilized to bring about the policy change.
In Chapters 5 and 6, the scene shifts to another aspect of the policy
process: implementation. In these chapters, the responsiveness of
officials to central policy directives is analyzed at both the national and
the state level. At the national level, the record of policy responsiveness
was affected by both career-based alliances and dependence on the
central office for the allocation of resources necessary to achieve the
goals of individual units. More important to this study, however, are
the state offices maintained by CONASUPO throughout Mexico. The state
representatives and the offices under their responsibility were the
primary units for implementation of the rural development policy at
the local level. These state offices were the immediate targets of pressures
and demands for the allocation of resources from a number of different
constituencies such as the central organization of CONASUPO, its various
subsidiaries, the state governor, and locally important political and
economic figures and interests. The need to
answer these demands meant
that frequently nationally determined policies were diluted or redefined
at the state level in order to achieve more short range problem solving

37. 12 INTRODUCTION
and conflict resolution. However, it will be shown that those states
where CONASUPO offices were staffed by individuals directly dependent
on central office leadership for continued career mobility opportunities
were the states in which most effective implementation of central prior-
ities occurred.
In Chapter 6, a second means to achieve faithful policy implementa-
tion, the Field Coordination Program, is described and analyzed. The
Field
Coordination Program was the major alternative to the state offices
for delivery of the rural development scheme to the local level. Although
the program was a small and fledgling unit within CONASUPO, the activ-
ities of its participants demonstrate important aspects of the interaction
of elites and low status actors in Mexico. It will be demonstrated that
public officials, working at the grass-roots level, acted as intermediaries
between the low income clients of the agency and the institution itself in
order to achieve more rapid and adequate delivery of services. The pro-
gram demonstrates the pervasiveness of personal alliance structures in
Mexico and the extent to which these are mobilized to solve individual
problems. It also signals the function of bureaucratic personnel when
they act as brokers between powerless groups and the government in the
presentation of demands and the channeling of information.
Finally, Chapter 7 returns to the broader subjects of the Mexican
political system and Mexican development and attempts to relate the
study to the rhythm of public life in that country and the potential for
change within the current regime. Before embarking on the study itself,
however, a brief description of the organization and function of CONASUPO
will provide a necessary orientation for the ensuing discussion.
The Organization
Article 28 of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 prohibits monopolies.
It singles out as illegal all combines, concentrations or hoarding of basic
commodities, especially if this is done for the purpose of raising con-
sumer prices. This article also
confers upon the federal executive the
right to create whatever agencies or control bodies are necessary to pro-
tect the consumer and regulate the staple products market. Currently,
CONASUPO is the organization charged with fulfilling these tasks.14 As
presently constituted, the organization has two principal functions. First,
14. CONASUPO is a decentralized federal agency. "Decentralized" refers to a measure
of financial and administrative autonomy from the central government and the laws
which regulate the activities of regular ministries of state and their employees, rather
than to internal organizational dispersal of
authority or responsibility. Thus, for example,
a decentralized agency need not acquire the approval of Congress to establish new
programs, organizational units or activities, nor need it conform strictly to the law
regulating the employment standards of federal employees. Moreover, a decentralized
agency is free from annual budgetary review by the Congress and has the right to
determine the use of the income generated by its activities. Internally, however, a

38. INTRODUCTION 13
it is responsible for the administration of a price support program for
agricultural products considered to be of importance to the nation.
Second, it is responsible for stabilizing consumer prices of these and
other products by stimulating the processing or marketing of the prod-
ucts it handles. In 1972, these two functions were codified by the
management of CONASUPO into three operating objectives to permit more
effective budgetary planning. The objectives specified and the proportion
of the agency's annual budget destined for
each are presented in Table 1.
The activities of CONASUPO to fulfill its functions are extensive and
touch upon all phases
of production and marketing processes of basic
agricultural and consumer commodities. In terms of stimulating agri-
cultural production, the agency advises the Ministry of Industry and
Commerce on the establishment of official support prices for products
such as corn, wheat, milk, beans, and rice and, subsequently, administers
the guaranteed price program by purchasing crops directly from the
farmer. Table 2 indicates the magnitude of the company's direct pur-
chases of a number of agricultural products in recent years. The agency
provides farmers with access to farm tools, fertilizers, insecticides,
improved seeds, and bank credit as well as facilitating the marketing of
their products through the operation of a network of rural receiving
centers. These warehouses frequently provide auxiliary services such as
corn shellers,
gunny sacks, and local transportation for the products. In
addition, CONASUPO engages in rural education programs directed at
increasing the political, economic, and marketing skills of peasants. The
primary target of its rural activities are farmers, especially ejidatarios,
whose annual incomes are less than 12,000pesos ($960).15 Approximately
decentralized agency may be highly centralized administratively. For an interesting study
of policy making and decentralized agencies in Colombia, see Bailey (1975). For a general
perspective on government enterprises and economic development, see Baer (1974) and
Sherwood (1970).
Most Latin American countries have marketing agencies which fulfill functions
similar to those of CONASUPO. In Brazil, the National Supply Agency (SUNAB) sets retail
food prices and attempts to coordinate a more effective national marketing system (see
Schuh, 1970). The Ministry of Food and EPSA in Peru are responsible for functions similar
to those of CONASUPO. In Chile, the Agricultural Market Industry (ECA) resembles CONASUPO
in its functions and operations (see Bennett, 1968). The Institute for Agricultural Market-
ing (IDEMA) in Colombia and several divisions of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce
in Bolivia are charged with marketing and price control functions for staple products
(see Bailey, 1975; Thirsk, 1973; Wennergren and Whitaker, 1975). Venezuela maintains
a national storage and supply agency (ADA) similar to ANDSA in Mexico. Jones (1972)
provides comparative material on Africa.
15. Ejidatarios are the legally recognized beneficiaries of the right to farm lands
belonging to an ejido, a corporately organized community of peasants. Most ejidos,
based on indigenous pre-hispanic models, were organized during the Cárdenas adminis-
tration (1934-1940). While ejido lands cannot be sold, rented, or mortgaged by
individuals, plots of land are generally cultivated individually. About 48 percent of
Mexican cropland is organized into ejidos, supplying about 35 percent of total agricultural
output. Eighty-five percent of the ejidos are oriented to subsistence farming. Over
80 percent of ejido plots are under ten hectares in size (Hansen, 1971: 61-62, 79; see also
Carlos, 1974; Chevalier, 1967; Stavenhagen, 1970).

39. 14 INTRODUCTION
TABLE 1.
Objectives of CONASDPO'S Activities
% of
Objective Annual Budget
Regulate the basic commodities market 33.77
Assure the supply and reduce or stabilize
prices, if necessary, of the national
wholesale commodity market 20.22
Assure the supply and reduce or stabilize
prices, if necessary, of the national
retail commodity market 13.55
Increase the income of poor farmers 13.67
Raise the level of production of basic
commodities produced 6.89
Raise the commercial value per unit of
commodities produced 6.62
Raise the profit margins of producers
and better their social conditions 0.16
Increase the ability of low income consumers
to acquire basic commodities 25.89
Assure the physical supply of basic com-
modities to the low income population 11.87
Offer basic commodities at retail prices
which correspond to the economic
capacity of low income consumers 14.02
(Other budgetary expenditures, administra-
tion, financial reserves, investments, etc.) 26.67
Total 100.00
Source: CONASUPO, "El presupuesto por funciones en
CONASUPO." Unpub-
lished manuscript, 1974.
94 percent of those who derive their incomes from agricultural pursuits
fall into this economic category.
CONASUPO is also involved in the processing of a number of items
considered to be of prime importance to the country. It owns and
operates milk, corn meal, and wheat flour processing plants. In its milk
plants, the company reconstitutes powdered milk and produces several
types of enriched, special formula lactic products for children and
mothers. Wheat flour is marketed under CONASUPO'S own label, and the

40. INTRODUCTION 15
TABLE 2.
Direct Purchases of Agricultural Products
by CONASUPO, 1969-1974
% of Total Annual Production Purchased
Product 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
Corn 17.8 13.8 16.3 15.1 8.3 13.8
Wheat 62.5 53.3 32.0 45.3 38.3 79.3
Beans 7.5 3.5 16.1 14.2 0.4 13.9
Sorghum 4.1 6.9 0.0 2.3 1.2 1.5
Rice 0.0 0.1 4.1 5.0 9.6 10.3
Source: CONASUPO, Gerencia Ttcnica.
agency operates bakeries which produce bread and rolls for consumers
in low income areas of large cities and for wards of government insti-
tutions. Corn meal also bears a CONASUPO label in local markets, and
tortilla dough made from it is produced and provided to tortilla bakeries.
In 1975, it purchased a large company which produced much of Mexico's
cooking oil and pasta products. Control over this company is expected
to increase significantly CONASUPO s influence on consumer prices. In
addition, the agency signs contracts with various industries, requiring
them to purchase products regulated by the agency at official prices in
return for a guaranteed supply of the commodity. On a limited scale,
the agency helps finance small construction materials industries and sells
the output to other government agencies.
Finally, CONASUPO maintains a distribution network of various kinds
of stores—ranging from tiny rural supply stations to large urban super-
markets—to bring low cost foodstuffs, clothing, and other articles to
rural and urban consumers. In 1975, there were over 2,800 retail sales
outlets supplied and operated by CONASUPO in Mexico and another 2,200
run by other agencies but supplied by the company. The most publicized
of its retail outlets are its mobile units,
large trailer trucks which visit
low income urban neighborhoods periodically to discourage local mer-
chants from charging high prices and to provide consumers with greater
access
to basic commodities. The agency also maintains wholesale
outlets for small private merchants to enable them to acquire lower cost
goods. Additionally, it enters into contracts with private commercial
establishments for the sale of commodities at regulated prices. The
consumers toward which CONASUPO directs its activities are those with
incomes of less than 2,000 pesos a month ($160), approximately 90
percent of the economically active population.

42. INTRODUCTION 17
To accomplish its overall objective of market regulation, the agency
establishes and maintains regulatory reserves of grains and seeds, and it
has exclusive authority to import and export products such as corn and
wheat. The products which CONASUPO is most interested in regulating
are corn, beans, wheat, sorghum, rice, barley, edible oils, and powdered
milk, although it also deals in a large number of other basic consumer
goods, including clothes, shoes, construction materials, farm imple-
ments, household utensils, and school supplies.
To carry out these various programs, CONASUPO is organized into a
parent company with sixteen subsidiary companies, shown in the
organization chart in Figure 1. An Advisory Council, formed of various
ministers of state and directors and subdirectors of agencies whose func-
tions are related to CONASUPO, provides overall policy direction to the
agency. The make-up of the council has changed somewhat over the
years but is currently composed of the Minister of Finance (Hacienda y
Crédito Publico) who is its president, the Ministers and Subministers
of Industry and Commerce and Agriculture, the Subminister and Credit
Director of Finance, in addition to the Director General of CONASUPO.
This council is expected to convene once a month to oversee the com-
pany's activities.
In reality, the marketing agency enjoys a considerable amount of
freedom in establishing its own policies and programs. Its relative auton-
omy is due to
several factors. Council meetings are in fact infrequently
held; there are a great number of other demands on the members' time;
they frequently lack practical knowledge about the company's operations
and organization; and they may be less politically influential than the
agency's general director. On several occasions, however, the council
has exercised veto power over projects and programs it deemed polit-
ically unwise. Moreover, some of its most politically powerful members
are presidential confidants and can be valuable allies to the agency when
they act as conduits to the President of agency plans and problems. With-
in the agency itself, plans, programs, and policies are always considered
confidential and preliminary until they are formally ratified by the
Advisory Council, even if the approval is pro forma.
The parent company is composed of a General Office, responsible
for overall coordination and control, and four subdirections or divisions,
each charged with a major functional responsibility for the system as a
whole. The Operations Division, for example, has staff responsibility
for organizing all buying, selling, transportation, storage, conservation,
distribution, importation, and exportation of agricultural products
necessary for market regulation. The Planning and Finance Division
provides short, medium, and long range planning in addition to over-
seeing financial and personnel administration of the company and, if

43. 18 INTRODUCTION
requested to do so, providing technical advice to the subsidiary com-
panies. The Subsidiary Company Division has authority to oversee the
coordination and function of these organizations, although in fact they
enjoy considerable autonomy. Finally, the State Offices Division is
responsible for managing the thirty-one state level offices of CONASUPO
dispersed throughout the
country.
The subsidiary companies of CONASUPO were established to carry
out the operative phases of the agency's activities. Currently, there are
sixteen subsidiaries, twelve of which have been created since 1970. In
1973, eight of the companies were consolidated into a distributing system
under the general management of one company, forming the DICONSA
system. There is also a trust for social services operated by CONASUPO
which is in many ways similar to the subsidiary companies but which has
more financial autonomy. The subsidiaries have their own budgets and
resources and the authority to use the income derived from their own
activities. They may also solicit outside financing. The subsidiary
companies are functionally divided into three main areas of activity:
industrial, commercial, and service. Table 3 describes briefly the official
functions of the parent company and each of the subsidiary organiza-
tions, the date of their creation, their operating capital, personnel
employed, and units operated.16
Some measure of policy and operative control over the sixteen
subsidiaries is achieved through four organizational devices. First, the
general director and the four division managers of the parent company
sit on the Advisory Council of each subsidiary, the general director
acting as its president. Second, the Subsidiary Company Division of
the parent company provides some oversight and feedback to the central
organization. The Operations Division of the parent establishes the
norms and quantities of farm products to be bought, sold, and trans-
ported by the subsidiary most involved in this regulatory process.
Finally, the State Offices Division reports on problems involving sub-
sidiary activities in the field and has some authority to correct these
problems locally. External evaluation of the agency's programs is
provided by two ministries of state which are responsible for overseeing
and controlling the financial operations of the decentralized agency.
The Ministry of National Resources has the responsibility of assessing
the use made of CONASUPO'S physical property, and the Ministry of the
Presidency has charge of conducting external audits of its financial
affairs.
16. Data in the chart should be considered approximate due to the rapid expansion of
the agency and its subsidiaries. A number of different documentary sources, all internal
CONASUPO reports, were used for obtaining the information, in addition to interview
material. In each case, I have attempted to use the most recent and reliable information
available. A glossary of acronyms appears at the beginning of this study for reference.

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49. 24 INTRODUCTION
Its resources come from a number of sources which are relatively
assured, allowing the agency a stable base from which to plan and
program its various activities. Table 4 presents the proportional sources
of the projected income budget for 1974. Table 5 shows the principal
projected expenditures for the same year.
Part of its income derives from
an endowment of 4 billion pesos ($320 million) conferred upon the
agency by the government. It
receives an income from its own operations
each year and also acquires an
annual subsidy from the federal govern-
ment. Finally, it receives operating money from outside financing.
CONASUPO'S total annual budget in 1970 was about 5 billion pesos ($400
million). In 1973 it was about 8.5 billion pesos, and by 1974, because
of the agency's importance to the government's anti-inflation policy,
it had a budget of 18.3 billion pesos ($1,464 million). In 1975, the agency
was scheduled to receive far more money than any other federal organi-
zation within the agricultural sector (see Table 6). Its projected budget
for 1976 was 35 billion pesos ($2,800 million).
It
is clear from this overview that CONASUPO is a large and complex
federal agency in Mexico. Within the framework of the formal organiza-
tion just described it participates in a variety of activities and distributes
a
multitude of public resources to various clientele groups. As with all
organizations, however, more than its formal structure is required to
explain its operations. Important aspects of its informal structure such
as its system of incentives and unwritten norms are discussed in the
following chapter.
TABLE 4.
Sources of CONASUPO'S Income for 1974
Source
% of
Total Income
CONASUPO resources
Operations
Income from endowment
71.80
1.04
External resources
Federal government subsidy
Loans
Other
7.50
18.39
1.27
Source: CONASUPO, "El presupuesto por (unciones
en CONASUPO." Unpublished manuscript, 1974.
Preliminary

50. INTRODUCTION
TABLE 5.
Sources of CONASUPO'S Expenditures for 1974*
% of Total
Source Expenditures
Operations
Commercial purchases 64.52%
Production and service costs 0.97
Marketing costs 7.85 73.34
Administration 3.36
Debt retirement and interest 18.53
Reserves 0.60
Other 0.34
Capital expenditures 3.83
Source: CONASUPO, "El presupuesto por funciones en CONASUPO."
Unpublished manuscript, 1974.
'Preliminary
TABLE 6.
The Agricultural Sector in the 1975 Federal Budget
Organization
Federal
Priman/
Sector
Budget (%)
% of
Total
Federal
Budget
CONASUPO 26.9 5.38
Ministry of Water Resources 18.5 3.70
Mexican Fish Products Co. 7.1 1.42
Ministry of Agriculture 5.5 1.10
Mexican Coffee Institute 3.6 0.72
Ministry of Agrarian Reform 1.5 0.30
Mexican Forest Products Co. 0.4 0.80
Other agencies, industries and trusts 36.5 7.30
Totals 100.0 20.72
Source: CONASUPO. Gaceta, No. 16 (January 15, 1975).

51. 2
Organizational Alliances:
A Theoretical Perspective
Exchanges in Organizations
A lot depends on the personality of the person heading up the local
office of CONASUPO.
What we have to make the peasants realize is that CONASUPO is a
system and they must work within this system. There are certain
procedures which have to be followed.
Very often we are limited in the reforms we can make by outside
constraints.1
Organizations are composed of individuals who have values, expec-
tations, and patterns of behavior, who communicate with others, and
who attempt to realize a variety of personal goals. At the same time,
however, organizations have stable and enduring structures which
determine formal authority rankings, hinder or encourage coordination
and the accomplishment of responsibilities, and generally influence the
extent to which members are free to behave in accordance with their
own values or expectations or to interact with other individuals. In a
broader sense, the organization is influenced by the history, the culture,
and the political and economic conditions of the society in which it
functions. In turn, the organization may have an impact on the wider
social, political, or economic environment. Therefore, individual, or-
ganizational, and environmental factors may all influence the behavior
of people in organizations such as public bureaucracies. Consequently,
a theoretical perspective which provides a framework to evaluate these
diverse elements is essential for a satisfactory analysis of policy making
and administration in a bureaucratic agency.2
1. These epigraphs and other quotations are from interviews conducted in Mexico in
1974 and 1975, unless otherwise attributed.
2. A helpful critique of major traditions in organizational research is found in
Mouzelis (1967; see also Blau and Scott, 1962). A persistent difficulty in both classical
bureaucracy theory (Weber, Marx, Michels) and organization theory (Taylor, Fayol,
Gulick, Urwick, Roethlisberger and Dickson, Mayo, Simon) has been to integrate these
three levels of variables into a general theory of organizational behavior. For a variety
of examples of factors which influence bureaucratic behavior, see Anderson and
Anderson (1970).
26

52. ORGANIZATIONAL ALLIANCES 27
One such framework is exchange theory. This perspective focuses
on the processes by which actors enter into alliances with others in the
pursuit of certain goals. Interpersonal alliances based on exchange
relationships link organizational members to each other and to others
in the environment. They tend
to develop into networks which influence
the behavior of individuals and of the organization as a whole.1 Either
formally constituted or informally evolved, the networks process
information, coercion, control, legitimacy, authority, compliance, and
performance, directly affecting the nature of organizational output and
directly influenced by the structural characteristics of the institution.
In general terms, exchange theory posits that rewards, either expected
or experienced, motivate human interaction.4 Exchange has been broad-
ly defined to include any voluntary association of mutual influence
between individuals in face-to-face encounter (see Blau, 1964; Homans,
1961). Exchange theorists such as Blau and Homans use small group
research to demonstrate that individuals in social interaction are moti-
vated by expectations of reward and calculations of cost. In their work,
these theorists consciously introduce economic perspectives to the
analysis of social interaction, using such concepts as cost, benefit,
marginal utility, supply and demand, resources, investment, and credit.
These are extrapolated to social environments where they are broadened
to include, not rewards and costs calculated as money, but benefits and
punishments such as approval, esteem, prestige, legitimacy, power,
coercion, and control.
While Blau and others deal principally within the broad context
of
social life, some modifications can be introduced to make
exchange
theory useful for analyzing organizations.5 For example, exchange
processes in an organization may be much more consciously entered into
and manipulated than in society in general. In the work of Blau and
Homans, exchange is considered to be initially motivated by primitive
(given) psychological or social needs. According to Blau, for instance,
human beings are motivated to seek social acceptance and approval for
a variety of psychological reasons; they are willing to offer inducements
in the form of certain kinds of behavior in order to be rewarded with
the approval of others (1964: Chap. 2).
3. Bensman and Vidich (1962), Blau (1955), and Dalton (1959) are examples of studies
which analyze interpersonal networks and their effects on
organizational behavior.
4. Important contributions to the development of exchange theory in sociology are
Adams (1965), Blau (1957, 1964), Homans (1958, 1961), Thibaut and Kelley (1959).
Useful reviews and critiques of exchange theory are found in Heath (1971) and Waldinari
(1972).
5. Variations
of the basic propositions of exchange theory have been applied to
organizations in some previous work. See especially Blau (1955) and Whyte (1969). Most
recently, exchange processes have proved useful in analyzing specifically political
organizations (see Cleaves, 1974; Ilchman and Uphoff, 1969).

53. 28 ORGANIZATIONAL ALLIANCES
Organizations, however, are more deliberately designed than society
as a whole; they have specific purposes, certain tasks are assigned to
given roles within them, and the individuals who assume these positions
are expected to accomplish—or at least attempt to accomplish—the
assigned tasks. Moreover,
because individuals elect to become part of
an organization, the reasons for deciding to join are likely to be more
conscious than an ephemeral search for esteem, prestige, or the approval
of one's fellows. Therefore, the conscious goal seeking of individual
actors in an organization becomes more central to the discussion than
when speaking of society-wide processes in which the desire for accept-
ance, approval, esteem, and status may be more subliminal motivations
to behavior.
In addition, the range of resources useful as rewards and punishments
in exchange relationships in organizations may be different from that in
general social exchange. In an organizational setting, specifically insti-
tutional resources such as material and financial goods, as well as formal
role resources like authority, access, and
decision making responsibility,
may all become subject to exchange processes. Of course, the social
resources of status, obligation, friendship, and esteem remain important
in linking individuals within the organization and others in the environ-
ment. Political resources such as influence, support, votes, patronage,
power, and coercion are also valuable to organization members engaging
in internal and external
exchanges.
With these modifications, a theory of organizational behavior based
on exchange processes may be briefly outlined. To begin with, organiza-
tions offer incentives to individuals in exchange for contributions which
advance the interests of the organization or its leadership. In order to
acquire the incentives offered them, actors must accomplish certain
explicit tasks in their roles as organization members.6 However, re-
sources, which are controlled by other organization members or
by
individuals outside the organization, are necessary to accomplish these
tasks. To acquire them with efficiency and regularity, organization
members may enter into exchange relationships with others inside and
outside the organization. They reciprocate by furnishing to others the
resources they have under their command. The structure of formal
6. The concept of incentives in organizational behavior was first explored by Barnard
in The Functions of the Executive (1938) and was later used as a basis for differentiating
types of organizations in an influential essay by Clark and Wilson (1961; see also
Simon, 1957). It
is important to note that some behavior in organizations is motivated
by things other than the inducements offered by the organizational leadership. For
example, efficient performance might be motivated by professional ideals, political
convictions, or psychological needs which do not figure in the incentive system of the
organization. However, such motivations tend to be individual aberrations; in general,
organization-relevant performance is maintained through organizationally provided
incentives.

54. ORGANIZATIONAL ALLIANCES 29
organizations means that control over resources is usually distributed
hierarchically; internal exchanges therefore generally flow vertically
between superior and subordinate rather than horizontally among peers.
Exchanges in the external environment tend to be both vertical and
horizontal.
In the pursuit of various goals, bureaucrats use the resources they
control as tools for bargaining to elicit the behavior they desire from
others. The resources needed to accomplish their goals are varied.
Gen-
erally, they can be divided according to whether they are directly or
indirectly instrumental to the achievement of specific tasks or goals.
In the first category are resources such as financial and material support,
information, authority, and decision making responsibility. Indirect
resources are goods and services which can be manipulated to acquire
other resources which are necessary to the individual in his assigned
role. The bureaucrat may seek to acquire access to influential individ-
uals, status, the obligation of his superiors and subordinates, and
political support, all of which can be "cashed in" at an opportune
moment to achieve job-related functions and goals.
Exchanges vary depending upon what goods and services are per-
ceived appropriate for bargaining. In an organization, there is a virtually
unlimited supply of potential goods and services available for exchange.
Even formally constituted rules and regulations may be the objects of
bargaining between superiors and subordinates (see Blau, 1955: 169-
170). It is apparent, however, that in different situations or cultural and
political settings, some resources are implicitly or explicitly excluded
from bargaining and exchanges. For example, in a bureaucratic system
in which jobs are strictly distributed through a civil service system which
regulates hiring, promotion, and firing, jobs are generally not available
as resources in a bargaining situation between superior and subordinate
(see, for example, Crozier, 1964: 46-50, 70-71). In Mexico, on the other
hand, where most white collar bureaucratic positions are classified as
"confidence" posts at the disposal of bureaucratic chiefs, the job is an
important resource which the superior has to offer to the subordinate
in exchange for his diligent work, his loyalty, or his information. The
goods and services available for exchange may also
vary over time
within the same environment.
Additionally, exchanges vary because of differences in the value
accorded to goods and services. Resources may be more or less scarce
or difficult to acquire because of the hierarchical position of the indi-
vidual, the responsibilities of the organization, the structure of the
external environment, or the cultural milieu in which the organization
exists. Access to influential superiors, for instance, may be more impor-
tant to a low level administrator who lacks authority to act on any
important matter than to a higher level bureaucrat who has been assigned

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56. her hoof on the sand. Inachus recognized it, and discovering that his
daughter, whom he had long sought in vain, was hidden under this
disguise, mourned over her, and, embracing her white neck,
exclaimed, “Alas! my daughter, it would have been a less grief to
have lost you altogether!” While he thus lamented, Argus, observing,
came and drove her away, and took his seat on a high bank, from
whence he could see all around in every direction.
Jupiter was troubled at beholding the sufferings of his mistress,
and calling Mercury told him to go and despatch Argus. Mercury
made haste, put his winged slippers on his feet, and cap on his
head, took his sleep-producing wand, and leaped down from the
heavenly towers to the earth. There he laid aside his wings, and
kept only his wand, with which he presented himself as a shepherd
driving his flock. As he strolled on he blew upon his pipes. These
were what are called the Syrinx or Pandean pipes. Argus listened
with delight, for he had never seen the instrument before. “Young
man,” said he, “come and take a seat by me on this stone. There is
no better place for your flocks to graze in than hereabouts, and here
is a pleasant shade such as shepherds love.” Mercury sat down,
talked, and told stories till it grew late, and played upon his pipes his
most soothing strains, hoping to lull the watchful eyes to sleep, but
all in vain; for Argus still contrived to keep some of his eyes open
though he shut the rest.
Among other stories, Mercury told him how the instrument on
which he played was invented. “There was a certain nymph, whose
name was Syrinx, who was much beloved by the satyrs and spirits of
the wood; but she would have none of them, but was a faithful
worshipper of Diana, and followed the chase. You would have
thought it was Diana herself, had you seen her in her hunting dress,
only that her bow was of horn and Diana’s of silver. One day, as she
was returning from the chase, Pan met her, told her just this, and
added more of the same sort. She ran away, without stopping to
hear his compliments, and he pursued till she came to the bank of
the river, where he overtook her, and she had only time to call for
help on her friends the water nymphs. They heard and consented.
Pan threw his arms around what he supposed to be the form of the

57. nymph, and found he embraced only a tuft of reeds! As he breathed
a sigh, the air sounded through the reeds, and produced a plaintive
melody. The god, charmed with the novelty and with the sweetness
of the music, said, ‘Thus, then, at least, you shall be mine.’ And he
took some of the reeds, and placing them together, of unequal
lengths, side by side, made an instrument which he called Syrinx, in
honor of the nymph.” Before Mercury had finished his story he saw
Argus’s eyes all asleep. As his head nodded forward on his breast,
Mercury with one stroke cut his neck through, and tumbled his head
down the rocks. O hapless Argus! the light of your hundred eyes is
quenched at once! Juno took them and put them as ornaments on
the tail of her peacock, where they remain to this day.
But the vengeance of Juno was not yet satiated. She sent a
gadfly to torment Io, who fled over the whole world from its pursuit.
She swam through the Ionian sea, which derived its name from her,
then roamed over the plains of Illyria, ascended Mount Hæmus, and
crossed the Thracian strait, thence named the Bosphorus (cow-ford),
rambled on through Scythia, and the country of the Cimmerians, and
arrived at last on the banks of the Nile. At length Jupiter interceded
for her, and upon his promising not to pay her any more attentions
Juno consented to restore her to her form. It was curious to see her
gradually recover her former self. The coarse hairs fell from her
body, her horns shrank up, her eyes grew narrower, her mouth
shorter; hands and fingers came instead of hoofs to her forefeet; in
fine there was nothing left of the heifer, except her beauty. At first
she was afraid to speak, for fear she should low, but gradually she
recovered her confidence and was restored to her father and sisters.
In a poem dedicated to Leigh Hunt, by Keats, the following
allusion to the story of Pan and Syrinx occurs:

58. “So did he feel who pulled the bough aside,
That we might look into a forest wide,
  .      .      .      .      .      .      .
Telling us how fair trembling Syrinx fled
Arcadian Pan, with such a fearful dread.
Poor nymph—poor Pan—how he did weep to find
Nought but a lovely sighing of the wind
Along the reedy stream; a half-heard strain,
Full of sweet desolation, balmy pain.”
CALLISTO
Callisto was another maiden who excited the jealousy of Juno,
and the goddess changed her into a bear. “I will take away,” said
she, “that beauty with which you have captivated my husband.”
Down fell Callisto on her hands and knees; she tried to stretch out
her arms in supplication—they were already beginning to be covered
with black hair. Her hands grew rounded, became armed with
crooked claws, and served for feet; her mouth, which Jove used to
praise for its beauty, became a horrid pair of jaws; her voice, which
if unchanged would have moved the heart to pity, became a growl,
more fit to inspire terror. Yet her former disposition remained, and
with continual groaning, she bemoaned her fate, and stood upright
as well as she could, lifting up her paws to beg for mercy, and felt
that Jove was unkind, though she could not tell him so. Ah, how
often, afraid to stay in the woods all night alone, she wandered
about the neighborhood of her former haunts; how often, frightened
by the dogs, did she, so lately a huntress, fly in terror from the
hunters! Often she fled from the wild beasts, forgetting that she was
now a wild beast herself; and, bear as she was, was afraid of the
bears.
One day a youth espied her as he was hunting. She saw him and
recognized him as her own son, now grown a young man. She
stopped and felt inclined to embrace him. As she was about to
approach, he, alarmed, raised his hunting spear, and was on the
point of transfixing her, when Jupiter, beholding, arrested the crime,

59. and snatching away both of them, placed them in the heavens as
the Great and Little Bear.
Juno was in a rage to see her rival so set in honor, and hastened
to ancient Tethys and Oceanus, the powers of ocean, and in answer
to their inquiries thus told the cause of her coming: “Do you ask why
I, the queen of the gods, have left the heavenly plains and sought
your depths? Learn that I am supplanted in heaven—my place is
given to another. You will hardly believe me; but look when night
darkens the world, and you shall see the two of whom I have so
much reason to complain exalted to the heavens, in that part where
the circle is the smallest, in the neighborhood of the pole. Why
should any one hereafter tremble at the thought of offending Juno,
when such rewards are the consequence of my displeasure? See
what I have been able to effect! I forbade her to wear the human
form—she is placed among the stars! So do my punishments result—
such is the extent of my power! Better that she should have
resumed her former shape, as I permitted Io to do. Perhaps he
means to marry her, and put me away! But you, my foster-parents, if
you feel for me, and see with displeasure this unworthy treatment of
me, show it, I beseech you, by forbidding this guilty couple from
coming into your waters.” The powers of the ocean assented, and
consequently the two constellations of the Great and Little Bear
move round and round in heaven, but never sink, as the other stars
do, beneath the ocean.
Milton alludes to the fact that the constellation of the Bear never
sets, when he says:
“Let my lamp at midnight hour
Be seen in some high lonely tower,
Where I may oft outwatch the Bear,” etc.
And Prometheus, in J. R. Lowell’s poem, says:

60. “One after one the stars have risen and set,
Sparkling upon the hoar frost of my chain;
The Bear that prowled all night about the fold
Of the North-star, hath shrunk into his den,
Scared by the blithesome footsteps of the Dawn.”
The last star in the tail of the Little Bear is the Pole-star, called
also the Cynosure. Milton says:
“Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures
While the landscape round it measures.
  .      .      .      .      .      .      .
Towers and battlements it sees
Bosomed high in tufted trees,
Where perhaps some beauty lies
The Cynosure of neighboring eyes.”
The reference here is both to the Pole-star as the guide of
mariners, and to the magnetic attraction of the North. He calls it also
the “Star of Arcady,” because Callisto’s boy was named Arcas, and
they lived in Arcadia. In “Comus,” the brother, benighted in the
woods, says:
“. . . Some gentle taper!
Though a rush candle, from the wicker hole
Of some clay habitation, visit us
With thy long levelled rule of streaming light,
And thou shalt be our star of Arcady,
Or Tyrian Cynosure.”
DIANA AND ACTÆON
Thus in two instances we have seen Juno’s severity to her rivals;
now let us learn how a virgin goddess punished an invader of her
privacy.
It was midday, and the sun stood equally distant from either
goal, when young Actæon, son of King Cadmus, thus addressed the
youths who with him were hunting the stag in the mountains:

61. “Friends, our nets and our weapons are wet with the blood of our
victims; we have had sport enough for one day, and to-morrow we
can renew our labors. Now, while Phœbus parches the earth, let us
put by our implements and indulge ourselves with rest.”
There was a valley thick enclosed with cypresses and pines,
sacred to the huntress queen, Diana. In the extremity of the valley
was a cave, not adorned with art, but nature had counterfeited art in
its construction, for she had turned the arch of its roof with stones
as delicately fitted as if by the hand of man. A fountain burst out
from one side, whose open basin was bounded by a grassy rim.
Here the goddess of the woods used to come when weary with
hunting and lave her virgin limbs in the sparkling water.
One day, having repaired thither with her nymphs, she handed
her javelin, her quiver, and her bow to one, her robe to another,
while a third unbound the sandals from her feet. Then Crocale, the
most skilful of them, arranged her hair, and Nephele, Hyale, and the
rest drew water in capacious urns. While the goddess was thus
employed in the labors of the toilet, behold Actæon, having quitted
his companions, and rambling without any especial object, came to
the place, led thither by his destiny. As he presented himself at the
entrance of the cave, the nymphs, seeing a man, screamed and
rushed towards the goddess to hide her with their bodies. But she
was taller than the rest and overtopped them all by a head. Such a
color as tinges the clouds at sunset or at dawn came over the
countenance of Diana thus taken by surprise. Surrounded as she
was by her nymphs, she yet turned half away, and sought with a
sudden impulse for her arrows. As they were not at hand, she
dashed the water into the face of the intruder, adding these words:
“Now go and tell, if you can, that you have seen Diana
unapparelled.” Immediately a pair of branching stag’s horns grew out
of his head, his neck gained in length, his ears grew sharp-pointed,
his hands became feet, his arms long legs, his body was covered
with a hairy spotted hide. Fear took the place of his former boldness,
and the hero fled. He could not but admire his own speed; but when
he saw his horns in the water, “Ah, wretched me!” he would have
said, but no sound followed the effort. He groaned, and tears flowed

62. down the face which had taken the place of his own. Yet his
consciousness remained. What shall he do?—go home to seek the
palace, or lie hid in the woods? The latter he was afraid, the former
he was ashamed, to do. While he hesitated the dogs saw him. First
Melampus, a Spartan dog, gave the signal with his bark, then
Pamphagus, Dorceus, Lelaps, Theron, Nape, Tigris, and all the rest,
rushed after him swifter than the wind. Over rocks and cliffs,
through mountain gorges that seemed impracticable, he fled and
they followed. Where he had often chased the stag and cheered on
his pack, his pack now chased him, cheered on by his huntsmen. He
longed to cry out, “I am Actæon; recognize your master!” but the
words came not at his will. The air resounded with the bark of the
dogs. Presently one fastened on his back, another seized his
shoulder. While they held their master, the rest of the pack came up
and buried their teeth in his flesh. He groaned,—not in a human
voice, yet certainly not in a stag’s,—and falling on his knees, raised
his eyes, and would have raised his arms in supplication, if he had
had them. His friends and fellow-huntsmen cheered on the dogs,
and looked everywhere for Actæon, calling on him to join the sport.
At the sound of his name he turned his head, and heard them regret
that he should be away. He earnestly wished he was. He would have
been well pleased to see the exploits of his dogs, but to feel them
was too much. They were all around him, rending and tearing; and it
was not till they had torn his life out that the anger of Diana was
satisfied.
In Shelley’s poem “Adonais” is the following allusion to the story
of Actæon:

63.   “ ’Midst others of less note came one frail form,
  A phantom among men: companionless
  As the last cloud of an expiring storm,
  Whose thunder is its knell; he, as I guess,
  Had gazed on Nature’s naked loveliness,
  Actæon-like, and now he fled astray
  With feeble steps o’er the world’s wilderness;
  And his own Thoughts, along that rugged way,
Pursued like raging hounds their father and their prey.”
Stanza 31.
The allusion is probably to Shelley himself.
LATONA AND THE RUSTICS
Some thought the goddess in this instance more severe than was
just, while others praised her conduct as strictly consistent with her
virgin dignity. As usual, the recent event brought older ones to mind,
and one of the bystanders told this story: “Some countrymen of
Lycia once insulted the goddess Latona, but not with impunity. When
I was young, my father, who had grown too old for active labors,
sent me to Lycia to drive thence some choice oxen, and there I saw
the very pond and marsh where the wonder happened. Near by
stood an ancient altar, black with the smoke of sacrifice and almost
buried among the reeds. I inquired whose altar it might be, whether
of Faunus or the Naiads, or some god of the neighboring mountain,
and one of the country people replied, ‘No mountain or river god
possesses this altar, but she whom royal Juno in her jealousy drove
from land to land, denying her any spot of earth whereon to rear her
twins.’ Bearing in her arms the infant deities, Latona reached this
land, weary with her burden and parched with thirst. By chance she
espied on the bottom of the valley this pond of clear water, where
the country people were at work gathering willows and osiers. The
goddess approached, and kneeling on the bank would have slaked
her thirst in the cool stream, but the rustics forbade her. ‘Why do
you refuse me water?’ said she; ‘water is free to all. Nature allows
no one to claim as property the sunshine, the air, or the water. I

64. come to take my share of the common blessing. Yet I ask it of you
as a favor. I have no intention of washing my limbs in it, weary
though they be, but only to quench my thirst. My mouth is so dry
that I can hardly speak. A draught of water would be nectar to me;
it would revive me, and I would own myself indebted to you for life
itself. Let these infants move your pity, who stretch out their little
arms as if to plead for me;’ and the children, as it happened, were
stretching out their arms.
“Who would not have been moved with these gentle words of the
goddess? But these clowns persisted in their rudeness; they even
added jeers and threats of violence if she did not leave the place.
Nor was this all. They waded into the pond and stirred up the mud
with their feet, so as to make the water unfit to drink. Latona was so
angry that she ceased to mind her thirst. She no longer supplicated
the clowns, but lifting her hands to heaven exclaimed, ‘May they
never quit that pool, but pass their lives there!’ And it came to pass
accordingly. They now live in the water, sometimes totally
submerged, then raising their heads above the surface or swimming
upon it. Sometimes they come out upon the bank, but soon leap
back again into the water. They still use their base voices in railing,
and though they have the water all to themselves, are not ashamed
to croak in the midst of it. Their voices are harsh, their throats
bloated, their mouths have become stretched by constant railing,
their necks have shrunk up and disappeared, and their heads are
joined to their bodies. Their backs are green, their disproportioned
bellies white, and in short they are now frogs, and dwell in the slimy
pool.”
This story explains the allusion in one of Milton’s sonnets, “On
the detraction which followed upon his writing certain treatises.”

65. “I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs
  By the known laws of ancient liberty,
  When straight a barbarous noise environs me
Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes and dogs.
As when those hinds that were transformed to frogs
  Railed at Latona’s twin-born progeny,
  Which after held the sun and moon in fee.”
The persecution which Latona experienced from Juno is alluded
to in the story. The tradition was that the future mother of Apollo
and Diana, flying from the wrath of Juno, besought all the islands of
the Ægean to afford her a place of rest, but all feared too much the
potent queen of heaven to assist her rival. Delos alone consented to
become the birthplace of the future deities. Delos was then a
floating island; but when Latona arrived there, Jupiter fastened it
with adamantine chains to the bottom of the sea, that it might be a
secure resting-place for his beloved. Byron alludes to Delos in his
“Don Juan”:
“The isles of Greece! the isles of Greece!
  Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
  Where Delos rose and Phœbus sprung!”
————

66. CHAPTER V
PHAËTON
Phaëtçn was the son of Apollo and the nymph Clymene. One day
a schoolfellow laughed at the idea of his being the son of the god,
and Phaëton went in rage and shame and reported it to his mother.
“If,” said he, “I am indeed of heavenly birth, give me, mother, some
proof of it, and establish my claim to the honor.” Clymene stretched
forth her hands towards the skies, and said, “I call to witness the
Sun which looks down upon us, that I have told you the truth. If I
speak falsely, let this be the last time I behold his light. But it needs
not much labor to go and inquire for yourself; the land whence the
Sun rises lies next to ours. Go and demand of him whether he will
own you as a son.” Phaëton heard with delight. He travelled to India,
which lies directly in the regions of sunrise; and, full of hope and
pride, approached the goal whence his parent begins his course.
The palace of the Sun stood reared aloft on columns, glittering
with gold and precious stones, while polished ivory formed the
ceilings, and silver the doors. The workmanship surpassed the
material;
[7]
for upon the walls Vulcan had represented earth, sea,
and skies, with their inhabitants. In the sea were the nymphs, some
sporting in the waves, some riding on the backs of fishes, while
others sat upon the rocks and dried their sea-green hair. Their faces
were not all alike, nor yet unlike,—but such as sisters’ ought to be.
[8]
The earth had its towns and forests and rivers and rustic divinities.
Over all was carved the likeness of the glorious heaven; and on the
silver doors the twelve signs of the zodiac, six on each side.
Clymene’s son advanced up the steep ascent, and entered the
halls of his disputed father. He approached the paternal presence,
but stopped at a distance, for the light was more than he could bear.
Phœbus, arrayed in a purple vesture, sat on a throne, which
glittered as with diamonds. On his right hand and his left stood the

67. Day, the Month, and the Year, and, at regular intervals, the Hours.
Spring stood with her head crowned with flowers, and Summer, with
garment cast aside, and a garland formed of spears of ripened grain,
and Autumn, with his feet stained with grape-juice, and icy Winter,
with his hair stiffened with hoar frost. Surrounded by these
attendants, the Sun, with the eye that sees everything, beheld the
youth dazzled with the novelty and splendor of the scene, and
inquired the purpose of his errand. The youth replied, “O light of the
boundless world, Phœbus, my father,—if you permit me to use that
name,—give me some proof, I beseech you, by which I may be
known as yours.” He ceased; and his father, laying aside the beams
that shone all around his head, bade him approach, and embracing
him, said, “My son, you deserve not to be disowned, and I confirm
what your mother has told you. To put an end to your doubts, ask
what you will, the gift shall be yours. I call to witness that dreadful
lake, which I never saw, but which we gods swear by in our most
solemn engagements.” Phaëton immediately asked to be permitted
for one day to drive the chariot of the sun. The father repented of
his promise; thrice and four times he shook his radiant head in
warning. “I have spoken rashly,” said he; “this only request I would
fain deny. I beg you to withdraw it. It is not a safe boon, nor one,
my Phaëton, suited to your youth and strength. Your lot is mortal,
and you ask what is beyond a mortal’s power. In your ignorance you
aspire to do that which not even the gods themselves may do. None
but myself may drive the flaming car of day. Not even Jupiter, whose
terrible right arm hurls the thunderbolts. The first part of the way is
steep, and such as the horses when fresh in the morning can hardly
climb; the middle is high up in the heavens, whence I myself can
scarcely, without alarm, look down and behold the earth and sea
stretched beneath me. The last part of the road descends rapidly,
and requires most careful driving. Tethys, who is waiting to receive
me, often trembles for me lest I should fall headlong. Add to all this,
the heaven is all the time turning round and carrying the stars with
it. I have to be perpetually on my guard lest that movement, which
sweeps everything else along, should hurry me also away. Suppose I
should lend you the chariot, what would you do? Could you keep

68. your course while the sphere was revolving under you? Perhaps you
think that there are forests and cities, the abodes of gods, and
palaces and temples on the way. On the contrary, the road is
through the midst of frightful monsters. You pass by the horns of the
Bull, in front of the Archer, and near the Lion’s jaws, and where the
Scorpion stretches its arms in one direction and the Crab in another.
Nor will you find it easy to guide those horses, with their breasts full
of fire that they breathe forth from their mouths and nostrils. I can
scarcely govern them myself, when they are unruly and resist the
reins. Beware, my son, lest I be the donor of a fatal gift; recall your
request while yet you may. Do you ask me for a proof that you are
sprung from my blood? I give you a proof in my fears for you. Look
at my face—I would that you could look into my breast, you would
there see all a father’s anxiety. Finally,” he continued, “look round
the world and choose whatever you will of what earth or sea
contains most precious—ask it and fear no refusal. This only I pray
you not to urge. It is not honor, but destruction you seek. Why do
you hang round my neck and still entreat me? You shall have it if
you persist,—the oath is sworn and must be kept,—but I beg you to
choose more wisely.”
He ended; but the youth rejected all admonition and held to his
demand. So, having resisted as long as he could, Phœbus at last led
the way to where stood the lofty chariot.
It was of gold, the gift of Vulcan; the axle was of gold, the pole
and wheels of gold, the spokes of silver. Along the seat were rows of
chrysolites and diamonds which reflected all around the brightness
of the sun. While the daring youth gazed in admiration, the early
Dawn threw open the purple doors of the east, and showed the
pathway strewn with roses. The stars withdrew, marshalled by the
Day-star, which last of all retired also. The father, when he saw the
earth beginning to glow, and the Moon preparing to retire, ordered
the Hours to harness up the horses. They obeyed, and led forth from
the lofty stalls the steeds full fed with ambrosia, and attached the
reins. Then the father bathed the face of his son with a powerful
unguent, and made him capable of enduring the brightness of the
flame. He set the rays on his head, and, with a foreboding sigh, said,

69. “If, my son, you will in this at least heed my advice, spare the whip
and hold tight the reins. They go fast enough of their own accord;
the labor is to hold them in. You are not to take the straight road
directly between the five circles, but turn off to the left. Keep within
the limit of the middle zone, and avoid the northern and the
southern alike. You will see the marks of the wheels, and they will
serve to guide you. And, that the skies and the earth may each
receive their due share of heat, go not too high, or you will burn the
heavenly dwellings, nor too low, or you will set the earth on fire; the
middle course is safest and best.
[9]
And now I leave you to your
chance, which I hope will plan better for you than you have done for
yourself. Night is passing out of the western gates and we can delay
no longer. Take the reins; but if at last your heart fails you, and you
will benefit by my advice, stay where you are in safety, and suffer
me to light and warm the earth.” The agile youth sprang into the
chariot, stood erect, and grasped the reins with delight, pouring out
thanks to his reluctant parent.
Meanwhile the horses fill the air with their snortings and fiery
breath, and stamp the ground impatient. Now the bars are let down,
and the boundless plain of the universe lies open before them. They
dart forward and cleave the opposing clouds, and outrun the
morning breezes which started from the same eastern goal. The
steeds soon perceived that the load they drew was lighter than
usual; and as a ship without ballast is tossed hither and thither on
the sea, so the chariot, without its accustomed weight, was dashed
about as if empty. They rush headlong and leave the travelled road.
He is alarmed, and knows not how to guide them; nor, if he knew,
has he the power. Then, for the first time, the Great and Little Bear
were scorched with heat, and would fain, if it were possible, have
plunged into the water; and the Serpent which lies coiled up round
the north pole, torpid and harmless, grew warm, and with warmth
felt its rage revive. Boötes, they say, fled away, though encumbered
with his plough, and all unused to rapid motion.
When hapless Phaëton looked down upon the earth, now
spreading in vast extent beneath him, he grew pale and his knees

70. shook with terror. In spite of the glare all around him, the sight of
his eyes grew dim. He wished he had never touched his father’s
horses, never learned his parentage, never prevailed in his request.
He is borne along like a vessel that flies before a tempest, when the
pilot can do no more and betakes himself to his prayers. What shall
he do? Much of the heavenly road is left behind, but more remains
before. He turns his eyes from one direction to the other; now to the
goal whence he began his course, now to the realms of sunset
which he is not destined to reach. He loses his self-command, and
knows not what to do,—whether to draw tight the reins or throw
them loose; he forgets the names of the horses. He sees with terror
the monstrous forms scattered over the surface of heaven. Here the
Scorpion extended his two great arms, with his tail and crooked
claws stretching over two signs of the zodiac. When the boy beheld
him, reeking with poison and menacing with his fangs, his courage
failed, and the reins fell from his hands. The horses, when they felt
them loose on their backs, dashed headlong, and unrestrained went
off into unknown regions of the sky, in among the stars, hurling the
chariot over pathless places, now up in high heaven, now down
almost to the earth. The moon saw with astonishment her brother’s
chariot running beneath her own. The clouds begin to smoke, and
the mountain tops take fire; the fields are parched with heat, the
plants wither, the trees with their leafy branches burn, the harvest is
ablaze! But these are small things. Great cities perished, with their
walls and towers; whole nations with their people were consumed to
ashes! The forest-clad mountains burned, Athos and Taurus and
Tmolus and Œte; Ida, once celebrated for fountains, but now all dry;
the Muses’ mountain Helicon, and Hæmus; Ætna, with fires within
and without, and Parnassus, with his two peaks, and Rhodope,
forced at last to part with his snowy crown. Her cold climate was no
protection to Scythia, Caucasus burned, and Ossa and Pindus, and,
greater than both, Olympus; the Alps high in air, and the Apennines
crowned with clouds.
Then Phaëton beheld the world on fire, and felt the heat
intolerable. The air he breathed was like the air of a furnace and full
of burning ashes, and the smoke was of a pitchy darkness. He

71. dashed forward he knew not whither. Then, it is believed, the people
of Æthiopia became black by the blood being forced so suddenly to
the surface, and the Libyan desert was dried up to the condition in
which it remains to this day. The Nymphs of the fountains, with
dishevelled hair, mourned their waters, nor were the rivers safe
beneath their banks: Tanais smoked, and Caicus, Xanthus, and
Meander; Babylonian Euphrates and Ganges, Tagus with golden
sands, and Caÿster where the swans resort. Nile fled away and hid
his head in the desert, and there it still remains concealed. Where he
used to discharge his waters through seven mouths into the sea,
there seven dry channels alone remained. The earth cracked open,
and through the chinks light broke into Tartarus, and frightened the
king of shadows and his queen. The sea shrank up. Where before
was water, it became a dry plain; and the mountains that lie beneath
the waves lifted up their heads and became islands. The fishes
sought the lowest depths, and the dolphins no longer ventured as
usual to sport on the surface. Even Nereus, and his wife Doris, with
the Nereids, their daughters, sought the deepest caves for refuge.
Thrice Neptune essayed to raise his head above the surface, and
thrice was driven back by the heat. Earth, surrounded as she was by
waters, yet with head and shoulders bare, screening her face with
her hand, looked up to heaven, and with a husky voice called on
Jupiter:
“O ruler of the gods, if I have deserved this treatment, and it is
your will that I perish with fire, why withhold your thunderbolts? Let
me at least fall by your hand. Is this the reward of my fertility, of my
obedient service? Is it for this that I have supplied herbage for
cattle, and fruits for men, and frankincense for your altars? But if I
am unworthy of regard, what has my brother Ocean done to deserve
such a fate? If neither of us can excite your pity, think, I pray you, of
your own heaven, and behold how both the poles are smoking which
sustain your palace, which must fall if they be destroyed. Atlas
faints, and scarce holds up his burden. If sea, earth, and heaven
perish, we fall into ancient Chaos. Save what yet remains to us from
the devouring flame. O, take thought for our deliverance in this
awful moment!”

72. Thus spoke Earth, and overcome with heat and thirst, could say
no more. Then Jupiter omnipotent, calling to witness all the gods,
including him who had lent the chariot, and showing them that all
was lost unless speedy remedy were applied, mounted the lofty
tower from whence he diffuses clouds over the earth, and hurls the
forked lightnings. But at that time not a cloud was to be found to
interpose for a screen to earth, nor was a shower remaining
unexhausted. He thundered, and brandishing a lightning bolt in his
right hand launched it against the charioteer, and struck him at the
same moment from his seat and from existence! Phaëton, with his
hair on fire, fell headlong, like a shooting star which marks the
heavens with its brightness as it falls, and Eridanus, the great river,
received him and cooled his burning frame. The Italian Naiads
reared a tomb for him, and inscribed these words upon the stone:

73. “Driver of Phœbus’ chariot. Phaëton,
Struck by Jove’s thunder, rests beneath this stone.
He could not rule his father’s car of fire,
Yet was it much so nobly to aspire.”
[10]
His sisters, the Heliades, as they lamented his fate, were turned
into poplar trees, on the banks of the river, and their tears, which
continued to flow, became amber as they dropped into the stream.
Milman, in his poem of “Samor,” makes the following allusion to
Phaëton’s story:
“As when the palsied universe aghast
Lay . . . mute and still,
When drove, so poets sing, the Sun-born youth
Devious through Heaven’s affrighted signs his sire’s
Ill-granted chariot. Him the Thunderer hurled
From th’ empyrean headlong to the gulf
Of the half-parched Eridanus, where weep
Even now the sister trees their amber tears
O’er Phaëton untimely dead.”
In the beautiful lines of Walter Savage Landor, descriptive of the
Sea-shell, there is an allusion to the Sun’s palace and chariot. The
water-nymph says:
“. . . I have sinuous shells of pearly hue
Within, and things that lustre have imbibed
In the sun’s palace porch, where when unyoked
His chariot wheel stands midway on the wave.
Shake one and it awakens; then apply
Its polished lip to your attentive ear,
And it remembers its august abodes,
And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there.”
—Gebir, Book I.
————

75. CHAPTER VI
MIDAS—BAUCIS AND PHILEMON
Bacchuë , on a certain occasion, found his old school-master and
foster-father, Silenus, missing. The old man had been drinking, and
in that state wandered away, and was found by some peasants, who
carried him to their king, Midas. Midas recognized him, and treated
him hospitably, entertaining him for ten days and nights with an
unceasing round of jollity. On the eleventh day he brought Silenus
back, and restored him in safety to his pupil. Whereupon Bacchus
offered Midas his choice of a reward, whatever he might wish. He
asked that whatever he might touch should be changed into gold.
Bacchus consented, though sorry that he had not made a better
choice. Midas went his way, rejoicing in his new-acquired power,
which he hastened to put to the test. He could scarce believe his
eyes when he found a twig of an oak, which he plucked from the
branch, become gold in his hand. He took up a stone; it changed to
gold. He touched a sod; it did the same. He took an apple from the
tree; you would have thought he had robbed the garden of the
Hesperides. His joy knew no bounds, and as soon as he got home,
he ordered the servants to set a splendid repast on the table. Then
he found to his dismay that whether he touched bread, it hardened
in his hand; or put a morsel to his lips, it defied his teeth. He took a
glass of wine, but it flowed down his throat like melted gold.
In consternation at the unprecedented affliction, he strove to
divest himself of his power; he hated the gift he had lately coveted.
But all in vain; starvation seemed to await him. He raised his arms,
all shining with gold, in prayer to Bacchus, begging to be delivered
from his glittering destruction. Bacchus, merciful deity, heard and
consented. “Go,” said he, “to the River Pactolus, trace the stream to
its fountain-head, there plunge your head and body in, and wash
away your fault and its punishment.” He did so, and scarce had he

76. touched the waters before the gold-creating power passed into
them, and the river-sands became changed into gold, as they remain
to this day.
Thenceforth Midas, hating wealth and splendor, dwelt in the
country, and became a worshipper of Pan, the god of the fields. On
a certain occasion Pan had the temerity to compare his music with
that of Apollo, and to challenge the god of the lyre to a trial of skill.
The challenge was accepted, and Tmolus, the mountain god, was
chosen umpire. The senior took his seat, and cleared away the trees
from his ears to listen. At a given signal Pan blew on his pipes, and
with his rustic melody gave great satisfaction to himself and his
faithful follower Midas, who happened to be present. Then Tmolus
turned his head toward the Sun-god, and all his trees turned with
him. Apollo rose, his brow wreathed with Parnassian laurel, while his
robe of Tyrian purple swept the ground. In his left hand he held the
lyre, and with his right hand struck the strings. Ravished with the
harmony, Tmolus at once awarded the victory to the god of the lyre,
and all but Midas acquiesced in the judgment. He dissented, and
questioned the justice of the award. Apollo would not suffer such a
depraved pair of ears any longer to wear the human form, but
caused them to increase in length, grow hairy, within and without,
and movable on their roots; in short, to be on the perfect pattern of
those of an ass.
Mortified enough was King Midas at this mishap; but he consoled
himself with the thought that it was possible to hide his misfortune,
which he attempted to do by means of an ample turban or head-
dress. But his hairdresser of course knew the secret. He was
charged not to mention it, and threatened with dire punishment if he
presumed to disobey. But he found it too much for his discretion to
keep such a secret; so he went out into the meadow, dug a hole in
the ground, and stooping down, whispered the story, and covered it
up. Before long a thick bed of reeds sprang up in the meadow, and
as soon as it had gained its growth, began whispering the story, and
has continued to do so, from that day to this, every time a breeze
passes over the place.

77. The story of King Midas has been told by others with some
variations. Dryden, in the “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” makes Midas’s queen
the betrayer of the secret:
“This Midas knew, and durst communicate
To none but to his wife his ears of state.”
Midas was king of Phrygia. He was the son of Gordius, a poor
countryman, who was taken by the people and made king, in
obedience to the command of the oracle, which had said that their
future king should come in a wagon. While the people were
deliberating, Gordius with his wife and son came driving his wagon
into the public square.
Gordius, being made king, dedicated his wagon to the deity of
the oracle, and tied it up in its place with a fast knot. This was the
celebrated Gordian knot, which, in after times it was said, whoever
should untie should become lord of all Asia. Many tried to untie it,
but none succeeded, till Alexander the Great, in his career of
conquest, came to Phrygia. He tried his skill with as ill success as
others, till growing impatient he drew his sword and cut the knot.
When he afterwards succeeded in subjecting all Asia to his sway,
people began to think that he had complied with the terms of the
oracle according to its true meaning.
BAUCIS AND PHILEMON
On a certain hill in Phrygia stands a linden tree and an oak,
enclosed by a low wall. Not far from the spot is a marsh, formerly
good habitable land, but now indented with pools, the resort of fen-
birds and cormorants. Once on a time Jupiter, in human shape,
visited this country, and with him his son Mercury (he of the
caduceus), without his wings. They presented themselves, as weary
travellers, at many a door, seeking rest and shelter, but found all
closed, for it was late, and the inhospitable inhabitants would not
rouse themselves to open for their reception. At last a humble
mansion received them, a small thatched cottage, where Baucis, a
pious old dame, and her husband Philemon, united when young, had

78. grown old together. Not ashamed of their poverty, they made it
endurable by moderate desires and kind dispositions. One need not
look there for master or for servant; they two were the whole
household, master and servant alike. When the two heavenly guests
crossed the humble threshold, and bowed their heads to pass under
the low door, the old man placed a seat, on which Baucis, bustling
and attentive, spread a cloth, and begged them to sit down. Then
she raked out the coals from the ashes, and kindled up a fire, fed it
with leaves and dry bark, and with her scanty breath blew it into a
flame. She brought out of a corner split sticks and dry branches,
broke them up, and placed them under the small kettle. Her
husband collected some pot-herbs in the garden, and she shred
them from the stalks, and prepared them for the pot. He reached
down with a forked stick a flitch of bacon hanging in the chimney,
cut a small piece, and put it in the pot to boil with the herbs, setting
away the rest for another time. A beechen bowl was filled with warm
water, that their guests might wash. While all was doing, they
beguiled the time with conversation.
On the bench designed for the guests was laid a cushion stuffed
with sea-weed; and a cloth, only produced on great occasions, but
ancient and coarse enough, was spread over that. The old lady, with
her apron on, with trembling hand set the table. One leg was shorter
than the rest, but a piece of slate put under restored the level. When
fixed, she rubbed the table down with some sweet-smelling herbs.
Upon it she set some of chaste Minerva’s olives, some cornel berries
preserved in vinegar, and added radishes and cheese, with eggs
lightly cooked in the ashes. All were served in earthen dishes, and
an earthenware pitcher, with wooden cups, stood beside them.
When all was ready, the stew, smoking hot, was set on the table.
Some wine, not of the oldest, was added; and for dessert, apples
and wild honey; and over and above all, friendly faces, and simple
but hearty welcome.
Now while the repast proceeded, the old folks were astonished to
see that the wine, as fast as it was poured out, renewed itself in the
pitcher, of its own accord. Struck with terror, Baucis and Philemon
recognized their heavenly guests, fell on their knees, and with

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