conditions and were wholly dependent on the will of the landowner, and while slavery had been abolished in the forties “the rural worker was still without defences against the landowner and was a willing instrument in the hands of political leaders.” As noted by another study, wire fences cut down the need for hands, with excess hands asked or forced to leave. They were dragooned into the army or drifted in rural slums known as peblos de ratas (rat towns). Measures to mitigate the problems of Uruguayan society would be undertaken during the course of what became known as the Batlle era. Batlle era, 1903–33 José Batlle y Ordóñez, President from 1903 to 1907 and again from 1911 to 1915, set the pattern for Uruguay's modern political development and dominated the political scene until his death in 1929. Batlle was opposed to the coparticipation agreement because he considered division of departments among the parties to be undemocratic. The Blancos feared loss of their power if a proportional election system was introduced and started their last revolt in 1904, which ended with the Colorado victory at the Battle of Masoller. Previously elected to the Senate in 1898, Batlle became President of the Senate a year later and thus, according to one study, "second-ranking elective official in the country, until a coalition of conservative Colorados and Blancos expelled him from the post in 1900. He continued his organizational and ideological efforts within the party, however, with much success, so that in 1903 he finally became the President of the Republic. The country's highest post allowed him nearly full control of public policy and the opportunity to forward his broad program of social and economic reform." After victory over the Blancos, Batlle introduced widespread political, social, and economic reforms, such as a welfare program, government participation in many facets of the economy, and a new constitution. Between 1904 and 1916, according one study, "the triumphant sector of the Colorado Party, Batllism, emphasized social programs and what the philosopher Carlos Vaz Ferreira (1915) denominated pobrismo (focus on poverty), constructing a state that was intended to be the "shield of the weak" (Perelli 1985)." According to one study, Batlle ratified his war victory "with the 1905 electoral victory which put his supporters into the legislature and his lieutenants in control of the party organization all over Uruguay. Having secured his position, he was ready for