.
iBilsillilHli
THE WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
WHOLE TRUTH
ABOUT MEXICO
PRESIDENT WILSON'S RESPONSIBILITY
BY
FRANCISCO BULNES
AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY DORA SCOTT
M. BULNES BOOK COMPANY
810 BROADWAY
NEW YORK
1916
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY MARIO M. BULNES
[Printed in the United States of America]
Bancroft Ubrar&UTHOR>s BIOGRAPHY
°| 432
Francisco Bulnes, Civil and Mining Engineer, Chemist and Bacteriologist; Representative and Senator in the Mex- ican Congress for thirty years; Chairman at various times of the Senate and the House of Representatives; Member of the Commission that drew up the first plan of the Bank- ing Laws; Member of the Commission that drew up the Mining Code in 1884, and the reform of the same in 1892; Member of the Public Credit Commission; Author of the Laws for the regulation of the Public Debt in 1886; Chairman of the Commission appointed to report upon the best means to counteract the effects of the depreciation of silver; Member of the Monetary Commission in 1894; Professor of Mathematics at the National Preparatory School; Professor of Hydrography, Calculus and Political Economy at the National School of Engineers; Member of the Geographical and Statistical Society; Chairman on various occasions of the Commissions representing the De- partments of the Treasury, Fomento and Communication and Public Works in Congress; Editor-in-Chief of La Libertad; Editor of El Siglo XX, Mexico Finandero and La Prensa; Author of Agricultura, Jornales y Miserias, El Porvenir de las Naciones Latino Americanos; Treatises on Constitutional Law, Metallurgy and Fermentation, and the following critical historical works, Las Grandes Mentiras de Nuestra Historia, El Verdadero Juarez, Juarez y la Revolution de Reforma, La Guerra de Independencia.
PREFACE
The Mexican revolution has a threefold aspect at present: that of a great social drama; of a weighty international problem, and of a terrible socialistic experience for a people, whose starved, infuriated and overwrought element ob- tained a complete victory over the representative element in August, 1914.
Passion is the mainspring of every drama; and every great, international political problem sets the passion of patriotism in motion, as well as the passion to secure well- being in the future at the expense of the present. Socialism in its practical application is a compelling force, destructive of traditional civilization, especially when it champions the cause of the poor in their struggle against the rich.
The "Mexican case" has become the slogan of the two American political parties now warring for supremacy in the coming elections; and it may be said to represent the clash of two great interests, drowned in a torrent of deaf- ening and sinister language. The object of this book is to arrive at the truth, guided by one master passion, the passion for justice. It is capable of inspiring terror, of animating by hope, of ennobling by patriotism, of enlighten- ing by faith, of illuminating moral abysses by the power of its own sovereign force. My task is by no means an easy one, as it is very difficult to treat a question quite dispas- sionately, when the heart appeals against the judgment of the head.
My attitude is not one of enmity toward the Mexican revolution. Study has taught me what all men who have
vii
viii PREFACE
studied the question scientifically known; that is, that every genuine revolution is a benefit to humanity in general, as well as to the people themselves, if they can carry it to a successful issue. But when the people who revolt lack the necessary reactionary power to reconstruct their country, they perish as a nation, or cease to exist as a social body. I am not an enemy of the revolution, but I do look with horror upon its progress, because Mexico is my native land and from the final, supreme test of the revolution may result the loss of its independence, or the extermination of the race, ground to dust under the merciless hoofs of anarchy.
To every reader of this book I proffer the assurance of absolute candor, and the exposition of the truth, in so far as it is humanly possible to state it.
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS
PART FIRST
SOME PRESIDENTIAL FACTS CONCERNING SOCIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS IN MEXICO
CHAPTER PAGE
I. PRESIDENT WILSON'S ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH
LIBERTY IN MEXICO A COSTLY FIASCO . i
II. THE GREAT FIASCO OF THE MEXICAN REVO- LUTIONISTS AND PRESIDENT WILSON IN THE AGRARIAN QUESTION . . . -36
PART SECOND
THE TRUTH CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION AND ITS DEVELOPMENTS UP TO THE TIME OF PRESIDENT WILSON'S INTERVENTION
I. A BOXER REVOLUTION PROTECTED BY THE
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT . . .103
II. THE MORAL UPHEAVALS OF THE REVOLUTION 132
III. MADERISM 152
iz
x CONTENTS
PART THIRD
THE POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL INDICT- MENT OF PRESIDENT WILSON IN THE MEXICAN CASE
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES ACCEPTED
BY PRESIDENT WILSON . . . .189
II. PRESIDENT WILSON AND FIRST CHIEF CAR-
RANZA 241
III. THE COLLAPSE OF PRESIDENT WILSON'S MEX- ICAN POLICY . 281
PART FOUR
MEXICO'S PROBABLE CONDITION IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE
I. THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER . . 307
II. THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM . . -334
III. FINAL CONCLUSIONS: PRESIDENT WILSON'S
LATEST SERIOUS ERRORS . . . .360
IV. ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS . . . • 37°
PART FIRST
SOME ESSENTIAL FACTS CONCERNING SOCIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS IN MEXICO
CHAPTER I
PRESIDENT WILSON'S ATTEMPT TO ESTAB-
LISH LIBERTY IN MEXICO A COSTLY
FIASCO
THE PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE OF DECEMBER 7,
THE attentive perusal of President Wilson's message, read before the assembled Houses of Congress on December 7, 1915, produces a chilling sense of disappointment, inasmuch as that notable document contains nothing bearing upon Mexico which in the slightest degree meets the anxious expectations of the millions of individuals who, from motives noble or otherwise, watch from a dis- tance the development of the terrible and sanguinary drama now being enacted there. In this drama, the plot of which he has never understood, President Wilson has essayed to figure as one of the principal actors.
It does, however, reveal with unmistakable clearness that President Wilson's dreams of an humanitarian apostolate have been shaken, not to say dissipated, by the rude shocks of savage and criminal realities. When an intelligent man, a man of character, of great civic weight — a man who lays claim to political discernment verging on mathematical pre- cision, as does Mr. Wilson, is guilty of glaring contradic- tions when addressing himself to the world — for the world listens when the President of the United States speaks to the American people — it is because the spirit of the exalted apostle has been crushed by the annihilating force of tragic events which cannot be denied, disguised, dissimulated or justified.
President Wilson tells, us that the troubled Republic of
2 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
Mexico has, "in the radical but necessary process," been able to count upon but few sympathizing elements outside its own boundaries. As a scholarly man, Mr. Wilson can- not ignore the fact that without exception every revolution rendered necessary by circumstances is, has been and ever will be, beneficial for the people who engendered it, and for humanity in general. If the Mexican revolution was a neces- sity, there should be no hesitation or vacillation in stating that its authors have conferred great benefits upon Mexico; whereas Mr. Wilson has stated, in the aforesaid message, with strange disregard for exactness, policy and ethics: "Whether we have benefited Mexico by the course we have pursued remains to be seen." This course has been a policy of blind and decided championship of the cause of the Mex- ican revolutionists. Is there, then, no contradiction in de- claring that the Mexican revolution has been a necessity, and in expressing doubt as to whether or not in protecting this revolution a benefit has or has not been conferred upon Mexico ?
President Wilson's words do not ring true. The con- sciousness of the Latin-American nations ought to be stirred by the self-evident fact that the President of the United States seems completely to have changed his personality, to possess to-day an identity which seems to have forgotten that of yesterday, or shall we say that so great a personage has lost sight of the fact that his exalted position binds him in loyalty to words once spoken. "All the governments of America stand," says President Wilson, "so far as we are concerned, upon a footing of genuine equality and unques- tioned independence." It must have been the other Wilson then who addressed to the independent Mexican Govern- ment under General Huerta, through his personal repre- sentative, Mr. Lind, the note in which the President of the United States, in a form that might fittingly be assumed toward the Governors of Porto Rico or the Philippines, de-
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 3
mands that the Mexican Government comply immediately with the following orders:
" First — Complete cessation of hostilities; that is, an im- mediate peace, or at least a truce, in Mexico.
"Second — That President Huerta resign in favor of a President ad interim.
1 'Third — The fixing of an early date for the presidential elections.
''Fourth — That General Huerta should not be a candi- date for the presidency."
In an interview granted to a representative of The Sat- urday Evening Post, Mr. Wilson made the following state- ment: "My ideal is an orderly and righteous government in Mexico ; but my passion is for the submerged eighty-five per cent of the people of the Republic, who are now struggling toward liberty." It is difficult to understand how it is pos- sible to conceive that justice is being shown to a people struggling toward liberty — a people which believes that this liberty can exist only under an orderly and righteous gov- ernment emanating from its sovereign will — by the assump- tion on the part of the President of the United States that he possesses the right to interfere and establish an orderly and righteous government in Mexico; and if this policy of the White House is not set forth as based upon this right or power, it must be looked upon as a barefaced act of ag- gression against the independence and sovereign rights of the Mexican people.
In the same interview Mr. Wilson also stated : "Second — No personal aggrandizement by American investors or ad- venturers or capitalists, or exploitation of that country, will be permitted. Legitimate business interests that seek to de- velop rather than exploit will be encouraged." Mr. Wilson must be confusing Mexico with Porto Rico or the Philip- pines. Does he not know that the Mexican people possess the sovereign right even to allow themselves to be robbed by
4 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
the North American capitalists, or those of any other nation, and that they cannot permit the President of the United States to acquire the power to revise all the legislative acts of the Mexican Government, and to dissolve with inexorable imperial veto the laws, decrees and resolutions of this Gov- ernment, even though the White House affirm that it has the power to exercise the rights of tutelage over eighty-five per cent of the Mexican people?
Having noted some of the contradictions that the Presi- dent of the United States has permitted himself to be guilty of in regard to the "Mexican Case," it may be well to con- tinue the analysis until one essential fact is satisfactorily ex- plained and settled. If the Mexican revolution was a neces- sity, then it is an imperative duty to fix beyond the shadow of a doubt for whom the necessity existed. For Mexico? For the United States? For Europe? For humanity in general? And if this revolution was not a necessity, upon whom must the verdict of history and contemporaneous pub- lic opinion fix the guilt of high treason against humanity, and against the inalienable obligations that rest upon the chief executive of a nation?
PRESIDENT WILSON SETS HISTORY ASIDE
In the interview already spoken of, published in The Sat- urday Evening Post, the writer tells us that the President "hit the desk with that clenched fist," and said, " 'I chal- lenge you to cite to me an instance in all the history of the world where liberty was handed down from above! Lib- erty always is attained by the forces working below, under- neath, by the great movement of the people. That, leav- ened by the sense of wrong and oppression and injustice, by the ferment of human rights to be attained, brings freedom.' "
I take up the gauntlet. I accept President Wilson's chal- lenge to give him a single instance in history where liberty has been "handed down from above."
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 5
The Roman liberties were the work of an assemblage of patricians emanating from an aristocracy which counted soldiers, landed proprietors and jurists in its ranks. Almost everything in the patriotic history of Rome to which we look up to and admire — the creation of its civil laws, its legislative work, its recognition of the rights of the people and even of the slaves — was "handed down from above." Who would attribute to the "forces working below" the glories of Senatorial Rome's golden era? The triumph of the masses produced three hundred years of Caesarism.
The famous Spanish liberties declared, sustained and elu- cidated by such far-famed political monuments as the Cortes, the Fueros, the Justicia de A r agon and the Church — recog- nized as a sovereign power within the State — were not the creations of the half-clothed denizens of the sub-stratum of humanity, but of the Infantes of Spain, steeped as they were in the spirit of feudalism ; of the Ricos-homes •, crowned with the dignity of free men; of the prelates who, claiming the prerogatives granted them by the Church, imposed their authority upon the kings to curb their despotism. On the other hand, from the heart of the Spanish people — the forces working below — sprang their admiration for militarism, their veneration for the arquebus and cutlass, and that ideal of the subjugation and transformation of a people by con- quest, a conquest that left the weaker vassal, beaten and crushed, but nevertheless glorying to live subject to her overbearing lord, the military power. The Spanish populace applauded the destruction of the ancient liberties implanted by the grandees, although inevitably and in great measure they were their own, and reverted with their former blind and fervid devotion to their king and their God.
It is readily granted by all moderately well-educated people, and by every Anglo-Saxon acquainted with this his- tory of his national life, that the origin of the English lib- erties— adopted in more or less modified form by all civ-
6 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
ilized nations — is to be found in the Magna Charta of King John, a work that cannot be traced to the "forces working below," as it was forced upon this monarch by none other than the English barons. The other two great legislative monuments which incorporate the liberties of the English people are the Bill of Rights and the Petition of Rights, both emanating from the opulent industrial element and the aristocracy, still wedded to feudal ideas of liberty. It was not until 1832, when the first important reforms in the electoral laws were effected, that the English people were accorded a voice in the affairs of the nation, and by 1832 the ancient and celebrated English liberties had been per- fected and completed, nothing in their composition having emanated from "the forces working below," alone endowed, according to President Wilson, with a veritable liberty- creating potency.
The great French Revolution, initiated in 1789, is per- haps the most convincing example of the failure of the masses, not only to create the ideal liberal state, but adequately to understand and practice true liberty. Whatever of good survived the ravages of this great national struggle did not come from the political forces that brought it into being. The salient features of this movement were the revoking of the privileges of the Crown, of the nobility, of the clergy, of the judiciary, and this revocation was decreed after being learnedly and brilliantly discussed by the Constituent As- sembly. The sweeping financial, legislative and adminis- trative reforms that modified the ancient regime were the work of the Assembly of 1791. But no sooner had the sover- eign power passed into the hands of the people, than there appeared on the horizon the most frightful tyrannical ma- chine the world has ever known, the National Conven- tion, that servile instrument of the great crimes and in- credible follies of the Reign of Terror. What was the out- come of all this? The terror produced by the will of the
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 7
people permeated all ranks and classes — the great, the middle class, the lowly, the revolutionists, and even the terrorists. The people themselves ended by flinging aside their sovereign rights, seeking in Napoleon I and Louis XVIII agents who would restore to them, at least in part, their ancient institutions. These they now realized to be a necessity to their well-being, moulded as they had been by the traditions of the past which the revolution had sought to obliterate, forgetful that in the life of a people the past, the present and the embryonic future are inseparably united. The great French Revolution, launched in the name of liberty, and for the attainment of liberty, succeeded in the end in arousing in the minds of the people a veritable panic at the mere mention of their sovereign rights, and a sense of loathing for the very name of liberty itself. The nineteenth century apostles of liberty did not dare to raise their stand- ard in France until 1830, and that revolution was not at once extinguished because the wealthy bourgeoisie stepped in and snatched the reins from the hands of the socialist propagandists. This liberal regime was sustained by the industrial world, supported by that section of the aristocracy which preferred this kind of liberalism to being the victim of the sovereign will of the masses. The Revolution of 1848 restored the people to power, but when the attempt was made to put into practice the most absurd socialist doc- trines, a reaction set in, upheld by those who, although lov- ing liberty, preferred the despotism of a Caesar to being trampled upon by the rabble. From the offscourings of the Second Empire rose that volcanic eruption known as the Paris Commune, which threatened to engulf the French nation. As though to nullify this sinister manifestation of the rule of the people there came forth the order and liberty of the conservative republic, in which all Frenchmen united, wishing to save their nation from the catastrophies to which it had been exposed by the rule of the people. The French
8 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
Republic has developed gradually into a radical-socialist re- public, bearing in its womb the pulsing monster of doctrinal socialism and empirical anarchism.
Why is the United States an exception to the rule which dominates in Latin countries of incompatibility between lib- erty and democracy?
From the first, while America was still an English colony, it understood, practised and was gradually trained in the English ideal, and when it achieved its independence it came forth a really democratic people, because it possessed the real and fundamental condition of democracy, an equal — or almost equal — social condition among its citizens. Like conditions prevail in Switzerland, where the proprietary class is in the majority, and so long as this unusual condi- tion obtains, liberty and democracy can exist together, be- cause the soul of democracy is equality. But from the mo- ment that the proletarian element predominates, liberty has but a small chance. Moreover, in the Anglo-Saxon race there is faith in individualism, born of the results achieved by the common people in England, where the working-man commands the highest day wage in Europe, and in the United States, where he commands the highest in the world. That great Anglo-Saxon faith in liberty, due to the triumph of its efforts, also owes its origin to the economic elements which the Anglo-Saxon race has manipulated so as to create for its common people a situation superior to that of any other people of the world.
If President Wilson will examine the nature of liberty as exemplified by its evolution in different countries, he will find that the truly protective regime has always been built up by the aristocracy, supported by the doctrine of divine right, the right of arms and the right of the landowner; that the liberty which has been the outgrowth of what is commonly termed the "rights of man," has sprung from the industrial world, directed by the brains of capital, combined
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 9
with the old aristocratic forces which prefer to yield rather than to be annihilated; that Socialism is the ideal of the working-man of to-day, who attributes all his misfortunes precisely to this kind of liberty, as the creator of stupendous social inequalities, and who sees in the capitalist only a hugh crushing machine bent upon pulverizing him into atoms. Outside of the United States and England the working-man is not emancipated from the traditions of the past; he is a socialist or, what amounts to the same, an avowed enemy of liberty. And even in the United States there now exists a socialist party whose existence is no longer ignored, and whose unwonted demonstrations from time to time have caused the individual American to ask himself what all this may portend. In anarchy may be found the real offspring of the "forces working below," the real domain of the des- perate, the cunning, of those who can live only when steeped in hate and who, believing that all social reforms proposed with a view to making the life of the working-man happy — with all his reasonable wants gratified — must necessarily fail, have resolved to do everything in their power to de- stroy human society.
LIBERTY AND ORGANIC SERVILITY
President Wilson resolved to implant liberty in Mexico: first, without right, later, without reason, and still later, without acquainting himself with the nature and characteris- tics of the people upon whom he wished to bestow that lib- erty which he himself says "is often a fierce and intractable thing."
Mexico's economic resources may be summed up as fol- lows:
Total annual agricultural production, 350,000,000 pesos.1
This agricultural life of the nation is extensive, carried
1The value of the Mexican silver peso was approximately fifty cents gold.
io WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
on by a population scattered over a vast area, without na- tional unification or equal civilization, of diverse races and languages; one only in illiteracy, silence, barbaric trend of thought, hatred of the white race and perhaps suffering, al- though their misfortunes are by no means equal.
The annual industrial production of Mexico in 1909 was:
Sugar and the manufacture of liquors from
sugar-cane, maguey and grains 30,000,000 pesos
Tobacco 1 5,000,000
Cotton, jute and woolen materials 63,000,000
National railways 80,000,000
Street railways 1 1,000,000
Electric lighting, public and private, and motor
power 34,000,000
Soap and paper 3,000,000
Annual production of silver 75,000,000
Annual production of gold 50,000,000
Annual production of copper 32,000,000
Annual production of iron 12,000,000
Annual production of lead 4,000,000
Annual production of zinc, antimony and tin ... 3,000,000
Annual production of coal 12,000,000
Annual production of petroleum 30,000,000
Total 454,000,000 pesos
The statistical table given above represents an average during five years of General Porfirio Diaz's dictatorship, hepce the monetary unit used to compute this annual pro- duction is not paper currency but the silver peso, valued at the rating of the monetary standard of 1905, averaging, therefore, two pesos to the American dollar. Consequently, computed on this basis and classified under the two head- ings of agriculture and industries, our production, previous to the saving revolution of the much-lauded Francisco I. Madero, was:
Total annual agricultural production $175,000,000.00
Total annual industrial production 227,000,000.00
Apparently the Mexican nation possessed the necessary elements to establish a regime of liberty emanating not from the civilizing forces that work from below, which have so
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO u
captivated Mr. Wilson's imagination, butN:o the antagonism existing between two forces, the aristocratic agrarian and the industrial, controlled by capitalist sovereignty. Liberty is born of and nourished by the antagonism created by tyran- nical social forces which in the political world war upon each other, or unite to produce advantageous results for the people, whose sympathies are always with these social forces. Liberty, then, results from the peaceful impact of tyrannical forces within the limits of the community they pretend to govern.
Ostensibly Mexico should enjoy a sound industrial regime, but the conclusion to be arrived at after carefully consider- ing the true aspect of the question will unavoidably lead to the most intense disappointment.
SOCIAL ELEMENTS THAT DO NOT MAKE FOR LIBERTY
Mexico's import trade — amounting to $150,000,000 at the time to which I refer — as also her internal trade, were almost exclusively in the hands of foreigners or foreign en- terprises, whose stockholders and boards of directors were in foreign countries. The Mexican Constitution denies po- litical rights to foreigners and does not permit foreign socie- ties or companies to ban together for political purposes. The result of this measure was to nullify almost totally any bene- fit that might accrue to politics from foreign capital circu- lating in Mexico. Nevertheless, foreigners could indirectly, through lawyers protecting their interests and representing them before the Government and the people, mix in political affairs for their own benefit and that of the country. There was, however, no foreigner in Mexico so unsophisticated as to believe that the Mexican people were fit for liberty, what- ever might be the stable form of governrrWj»t^tQ whfcti they might incline. Englishmen, Frenchmen, Italians^-JaparfCs^, Americans, all those, in fact, possessed of common sense, have always ridiculed our burlesque democracies and condemned
12 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
the crimes for which they are responsible. The foreigner in Mexico who believes in our liberalism must be either lacking in sense or devoid of veracity.
The foreign element, even before the revolution of 1910, and before and during the dictatorship of General Diaz, was convinced that Mexico's best interests would be served by an iron hand, backed by an intelligent, upright, tolerant and, in so far as was possible, honest spirit. Influenced by this con- viction all foreigners living in Mexico, or having money in- vested in the country, have always supported every dictator- ship that in their estimation appeared competent or, under the circumstances, the least objectionable. One of their in- direct methods of upholding the dictatorship was not to em- ploy Mexicans who mixed in politics unless they measured up to the required standard ; that is, unless they were uncon- ditional partisans of the dictatorship. This restriction of the industrial force of the nation, which was gathered together almost exclusively under foreign management, and which was the only other serious, positive, beneficent force — one which favored a dictatorship only because of its own inabil- ity to establish liberty — removed from politics an independ- ent element which, not relying on the dictatorship for its daily bread, should have been free to fight it and establish a responsible government.
FURTHER ELEMENTS OPPOSED TO LIBERTY
Elements have existed in Mexico for the formation of an active, useful, respectable, conservative party. The prime requisite for this is an aristocratic land-owning class. Mexico has a landed aristocracy, Catholic in faith, a worshipper of traditions and a lover of liberty, confined within the limits of a centralized or federalized conservative republic. This aristocracy enthusiastically entered the political field under the protection of the Constitution of 1824, but failed of its
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 13
aim because it lacked the real elements of strength; namely, great prestige in the eyes of the nation, great wealth, a feudal soul, or at least the military spirit, with a strong following in the army, and the effective support of religion.
The most imposing national sanctuary is the Pantheon, in which repose the ashes of the dead whose immortal deeds have glorified the centuries. In countries that can lay claim to a venerable tradition the national glories are the heroic deeds of its nobility. As long as true patriots are left to these lands, even when anarchy has invaded them, the tribute of homage and gratitude will always be laid at their feet, when calm has restored to patriotism its reflective quality. Mexico cannot hold up to its white and mestizo l races glo- rious traditions, lengendary heroes, or inspiring visions of noble Crusaders and fearless conquerors of new worlds. The traditions of the Mexican Creole aristocracy are puerile. It represents the weak type which needed the firm hand of the conquerors to perpetuate its dominion. The people know well the significance of the coats of arms of their aristocracy. With the exception of the descendents of Cortes and his handful of formidable companions, the rest of the nobility merits the contempt or indifference of sane-minded people, and the hatred based on envy of the illiterate. However, although the pretensions to nobility among Mexicans may be irritating, in no instance have the culprits, the victims of foolish vanity or incorrigible petulance, deserved implacable persecution.
The great wealth of the Mexican landowners is another well-worn lie which has held undisputed sway among those who have not an accurate knowledge of the Mexican social economic problem. In due time it will be shown that the landowner's wealth was more imaginary than real, that they were burdened with innumerable difficulties and were more worthy of pity than of hate.
1 Mestizo — a person of mixed Spanish and Indian blood.
i4 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
The aristocracy was not a part of nor did its influence hold sway in the army. They committed the irreparable blunder of withdrawing their sons from the service after the fall of the Emperor Iturbide, except when it was a choice between begging or seeking a military appointment.
The Catholic clergy has always been faithful to its duty of upholding the aristocratic class as the most faithful con- server of ultra-Catholic traditions. In the northern states it has almost entirely lost its hold upon the masses, but has held it among the people living south of the 22d parallel to the frontier of Guatemala, not, however, to a degree to in- spire heroic uprisings in defense of their faith. Without effective strength the Mexican conservative element could not take an active part in the government, because only the strong are privileged to govern. The middle-class poli- ticians found a way soon after the Declaration of Independ- ence to exclude the aristocracy from party struggles. An original system was invented, simultaneously enacted through- out Spanish-America. Every revolutionist, in the same breath that he proclaimed the revolution, declared every em- ployee of the established government a traitor, even when he himself had been one — in many cases the most favored. Every traitor was condemned to die, his property having been previously confiscated for the good of the country, and not even his children escaped the branding-iron of the "patriot." With such a system in vogue, and bearing in mind that ulti- mately every revolutionist triumphed, there came a time when property owners recoiled from taking part in politics since it was equivalent to aiding in their own execution. Only those who had nothing to lose and everything to gain entered the political field. From that time politics became the chosen trade of the demagogue, the storehouse of the ill- fed, the asylum of the deluded, who, notwithstanding some merit, were dragged into this sewer, the gentlemanly high- wayman's ofHce being turned into a font of civic virtues.
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 15
After its last political venture- — the attempt to raise a throne in Mexico for the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Aus- tria— the conservative party abandoned politics, advising their sons to do the same, telling them to bear in mind the words of England's wicked king, spoken on the eve of the battle that was to dethrone him :
"And if I die, no soul shall pity me: — Nay, wherefore should they? since that I myself Find in myself no pity to myself."
The formation of a conservative party in Mexico was an impossibility. From 1824 to 1880 the only thing the aristo- crats dreamed of was the advent of the iron-handed dicta- tor who would restore peace without liberty, so that liberty might not cause the dishonor and death of the country.
INTELLECTUAL ELEMENTS CONTRIBUTING TO LIBERTY
Politics is a constantly changing and threatening prob- lem, and, like all great problems, requires a broad and thor- ough knowledge to solve it. In every country this can be accomplished only by its intellectual element. If President Wilson in his strange project to implant liberty in Mexico did not and could not count upon the organic forces of lib- erty— such as were the economic interests productive of po- litical and moral phenomena — neither could he count upon the intellectual element to favor his noble, although illogical propositions. In Mexico a truly liberal party has never existed, or even a faction, or do the genuine liberals enjoy the slightest political prestige. The genuine liberal in Mexico is the object of the aversion of the masses, of the persecution of the so-called liberals, who have guided and who still guide the destinies of the nation, and of the con- tempt of the noisy rabble that represents the people. Many noted foreign publicists have remarked this after studying our politics. In Mexico the so-called liberal is a wild beast ever seeking to devour his neighbor's liberties and to abuse
1 6 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
his own so-called liberties in order to turn them into unlimit- ed despotism. The great majority of Mexico's so-called liberals, moulded generally in the School of Jurisprudence, venerate the dogma of the "unlimited sovereignty of the people." Now, liberty is constituted by individual rights, called also "the rights of man." All government rights are an insuperable check placed upon the sovereignty of the peo- ple, and if the people hold the sovereignty individual rights should still constitute a check on this sovereignty. Before omnipotence no one has rights; consequently, before unlimit- ed sovereignty of the people liberty cannot exist. Such individualism is the Anglo-Saxon doctrine of liberty ac- cepted, applauded and taught in the United States. How is it possible that the president of a republic, wherein every citizen when there is a question of liberty possesses just as much authority as a university professor, should take seri- ously the Mexican self-styled liberals who acclaim the un- limited sovereignty of the people?
There can be no liberty in a country where the power is concentrated in the hands of those who have invented the most heinous crime, destructive of liberal principles; that is, the crime of being "an enemy of the people" — a crime that should be punished with disgrace, confiscation of property, and even death itself. It is incomprehensible that the Mexi- can people who, according to their representatives, are the authors of the famous Constitution of 1857 — f°r which so much blood has been shed, so much pain borne and so much misery spread broadcast — can grant to each individual Mexi- can the right to be its sworn enemy, and, nevertheless, admit that all its enemies merit the punishment of confiscation, tor- ture, death and the subsequent persecution of their families. No one can be a personal enemy of the people, because the people as a whole have no physical personality. An indi- vidual may be said to be the people's political enemy when he is opposed to the popular class having a voice in the gov-
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 17
ernment, or when he, justly or unjustly, censures a popular government. The Mexican Constitution recognizes the right of every individual to uphold theocracy, aristocracy, oligarchy, plutocracy or absolute despotism, which is equiva- lent to granting to every individual the right of denying the moral or intellectual aptitude of the people for self-govern- ment. Likewise, the Mexican people, in conformity with its institutive sovereign will — formally granted by the Consti- tution— gives to every individual the right to censure, justly or unjustly, the constitutional representative of the people, through whom it exercises its sovereignty. How is it possible — without characterizing this people as unjust, des- picable or demented — to accept the theory that it recognizes the right of every individual to declare himself its enemy within the limits indicated by the laws formulated by it, and that this public should yet believe itself civilized and just, when at the voice of a demagogue it tears its supposed enemy to pieces for having exercised the right granted by the Con- stitution and sanctioned by the people?
The truth is that the Mexican people has never through the Constitution of 1857 given any individual the right to be its enemy. This great liberal legislative instrument was compiled by a number of honest and patriotic thinkers who believed, when they were formulating the law, that they were interpreting the will of the people — not the real people, but an imaginary people. Their dreams, fanned into delirium by the theories of foreign writers, caused them to mislead the illiterate Mexican people, incapable of understanding the meaning of rights much less that of liberties.
There can be no justice among the peoples where this per- nicious doctrine is held, because it is incompatible with the popular claim to absolutism. There can be no science, be- cause in the ethnological classifications of the races they are divided into superior and inferior, their deformities and de- generations being noted just as though they belonged to the
1 8 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
zoological species. There can be no literature, because this reveals the cankers growing on the social body which repre- sents the people, exhibits them to excite horror, probes them so as to prognosticate the recovery or death of the people, and cauterizes them with irons, heated red-hot in the blast furnace of strict moral law. There can be no art, because without liberty the artist draws only caricatures of his in- spirations, or spurious copies of what should always remain hidden in nature. There can be no history, because false- hood plays a necessary and stupendous part in the lives of the peoples who do not admit this theory. Where this criminal "enemy of the people" doctrine is taught there ex- ists a people enslaved by adulators and accusers, who inflame its vanity and treat it practically like a domesticated beast. The Mexican liberals have never been able to understand that the establishment of a responsible government is impos- sible in a country where two political parties do not exist. These are the only means known up to the present time by which the establishment of dictatorships and the spread of anarchy can be prevented. The Mexican liberals, like those of all Latin-American nations, aim at the formation of only one political party — the liberal, needless to say — and the conservation of the power in its hands to the end of time. In general, the Mexican mind rebels against accepting as an undeniable truth that the one-party policy is pure folly, and that, even if against all laws it were possible to secure the existence of one party, the monopoly of the supreme power is the most dire of all monopolies, inasmuch as it engenders the most insupportable of all tyrannies.
That President Wilson cannot lay claim to the sym- pathies of a single one of the revolutionists in his attempt to implant liberty in Mexico is explained by the fact that what appears to be an unpardonable tyranny to the American mind, is acclaimed as the most precious form of liberty by the revolutionists and their followers.
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 19
THE SOCIAL SUBSOIL
In order to study the Mexican popular class in its politi- cal aspect it should be divided into two classes, rural and urban, the latter being further subdivided into the work- ing class — which forms an integral part of the industrial life of the country — the independent artisans and the do- mestics.
The rural class represents eighty-five per cent of the total population. The majority of this class is composed of persons whose social condition may be said to rank with that of domesticated beasts, capable of being turned by the influence of certain socialistic or anarchistic processes into roaring, untamed beasts. Don Lorenzo de Zavala, an ultra- liberal and one of the most brilliant political men that Mexico has produced, had an unusual opportunity when he was governor of the state of Mexico to make a scientific study of the Indian, as the aboriginal race predominates in that state. I call attention to the fact that Zavala was not a canon, a feudal aristocrat, a courtier, or a plutocratic Jew. Zavala was a Jacobin of the most rabid type, held in check by a knowledge of realities analyzed by his great mind. Nevertheless, he tells us that the great and noble ideal of the Indian of 1830 was to exterminate the whites, confiscate their property, expel the mestizos under pain of death, reclaim Mexico for the indigenous race, and make of ft a nation of Indians without a trace of white blood or European civilization. In a word, the Indian ideal was to faithfully reproduce the semi-theocratic empire of Montezuma, with its human sacrifices, its ferocious gods, its great lords with Asiatic visages, its cruel, implacable warriors and its inflexible laws, written on tablets of stone, as though to accentuate that progress, with its train of evils, would be conquered by brute force. In 1873 Loza-
20 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
da, the Indian chief of the Sierra de Alica, at the head of 18,000 perfectly armed and equipped men, made a des- perate attempt to restore Indian supremacy, and would have occupied and devasted the city of Guadalajara except for the check given him by General Corona in the battle of the Mojonera. The agrarian question has only been the froth of the Zapata insurrection. Fundamentally it is a caste war, destined to restore the Indian to his primitive religion, to his patria (fatherland) taken from him by the whites, to his laws violated by the Conquerors, to his wealth, real or imaginary, of which he was despoiled, and to realize vengeance's supreme ideal, to be recorded down the centuries, wiping out the heaped-up injuries of genera- tions. This is neither a fabrication nor an exaggeration. The representatives of the Zapatistas at the Aguascalientes Convention and at that of the City of Mexico during the administrations of Eulalio Gutierrez, Gonzalez Garza and Lagos Chazaro, declared clearly and firmly that what Mexico needed was to revert to the Indians, its real owners, and that no terms of agreement could ever be reached be- tween the conquered, turned into victims, and the con- querors, incapable of forgetting their rights of conquest.
The great majority of the mestizo rural class, who re- semble the Arabs in their tendencies, are adventurous and love a nomad life. As a general thing they are cowboys whose ideal of liberty spells libertinism, and who with rapidity and ease fall into the ways of brigandage. The city population, composed of artisans, is absolutely free. Direct taxes have never been imposed upon it; it does not understand the meaning of the word national treasury, and knows no oppression other than a levy for obligatory mili- tary service. It is precisely this class which believes that no voice should be raised against the will of the people. It is anti-liberal, although it thinks itself liberal, the contra- diction being explained by the nature of its political train-
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 21
ing, which has been always in the hands of the leading demagogues.
The working-class is socialist from the moment it sets its foot in the political domain, and its soul revels in that paradise of social equality outlined by the apostles of free- dom. The only working-men organized in Mexico accord- ing to modern labor laws are the workers in the cotton mills, and they were so active in asserting their rights that the Madero Administration, terrified at their attitude, granted them what Mr. Wilson does not dare to grant and what the working-class has obtained only in New Zealand — a minimum rate of wage set by the State. So great a victory, obtained without a desperate effort on the part of the Mex- ican working-class, proves that a great future lies open to Socialism in Mexico.
Throughout the Mexican popular class, except among the more civilized artisans and working-men commanding the highest day wage, the popular bandit — crowned with real or imaginary feats — is held in the greatest reverence. These brigands have taken the place of the ancient Lares, and the people, deprived of the guidance and influence of their parish priests, have fallen on their knees before the influence of the bandit, easily converted into a hero at the will of the press.
THE MEANS TO RESTORE PEACE
From this cursory glance at the framework of Mexican sociology, it will be seen that at the time the revolution of 1910 broke out there was an industrial element, backed by capital, which worked indirectly in politics, and was a de- cided partisan of the civilized and civilizing iron-bound dic- tatorship; a Catholic landed aristocracy, with servile souls and nerveless hands, ready to sell its pride of race, its religious zeal, its Iberian arrogance and its rights of con-
22 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
querors in exchange for the protection of the mailed fist which would save it from having to risk its head and its fortune in the defense of its legitimate rights and ancient privileges; a cringing liberal crowd, subservient to all the dictators by its cowardice and corruption ; a majority among the people, reactionary to the point of reverting to Aztec barbarity; a socialist working-class and an anti-social artisan and domestic class.
When President Wilson voluntarily took upon himself the role of one of the principal actors in the Mexican tragedy, he did not see what all other men of brains the world over had seen ; that is, that in Latin- American nations there are no democratic, aristocratic, theocratic or social- ist governments — all are bureaucratic. The bureaucracy, as should be the case, bows to the principle of all irrespon- sible governments — "the nation to satiate its gluttony." As it is not the producing class, which is the representative of all social, economic interests, and which should be safe- guarded with every possible moral, scientific and civic pro- tection, the office of the bureaucracy is that of the devastat- ing locust, working in its proper domain by means of heavy taxes. The ideal of all bureaucracies is that the great, voracious middle class — headed by the educated proletariat — should live tranquilly and lavishly at the expense of national and foreign capital and that of the popular classes, who were to be fooled with poisoned, sugar-coated pills, artfully prepared by the demagogues.
The English had already reduced the Latin-American political parties to two, pithily described as the "ins" and the "outs"; that is, those who are in on the rake-off and those who are not. The formula for temporary peace in countries ruled by bureaucracies amounts to socialism for the kid-gloved politician. Each one is to receive from the national treasury what he needs to satisfy his desires, even though he may do nothing to earn it, or what he does may
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 23
be done badly. General Diaz understood this. In 1880 he set aside 36,000,000 pesos to satisfy the greed of the Fed- eral, state and municipal bureaucracies; but this sum was barely sufficient to half provide for even fifteen per cent of the middle class, which lived directly or indirectly off the bureaucracy. The economic development of the country by means of foreign capital, especially American, enabled General Diaz to pacify the country by what came to be known as the great "Pan y Palo" (Bread and Rod) policy. No sooner was the voice of a malcontent raised against the Government because he had no share in the rake-off, than the dictator immediately took note of the "patriotic regenerator's" complaint, and apportioned to him his share of the spoils in proportion to his importance, and, conse- quently, his ability to upset the order of things. General Diaz, without ever having read the life of Louis XI of France, believed in that lugubrious monarch's principle of government — to draw all those toward him who were capa- ble of doing him grave injury or rendering him important services; or if the means of attraction failed, to kill them, because, forsooth, the Will of God must be fulfilled, and, incidentally, that of the king. To that astute policy, then, the Porfirian policy of "Pan y Palo" may be compared— the policy that all clever dictators have adopted from Augustus in Rome, down to Guzman Blanco in Venezuela, Porfirio Diaz in Mexico and Estrada Cabrera in Guate- mala.
General Diaz succeeded in setting aside 170,000,000 pesos annually to satisfy the voraciousness of the bureau- cracies, which sum figured in the Federal revenue budget of the states and municipalities. As the economic develop- ment of the country had created upward of 8,000 new posi- tions for the middle class in the commercial and industrial world, in banks and in connection with the railroads, seventy per cent of the middle class drew from the budget,
24 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
the balance overflowing to the employments offered by com- merce and industry.
General Diaz believed that by having virtually trans- formed the State into a socialist orphan asylum for the middle class he had secured perpetual peace for his country. He did not take into account the terrible consequences of the extraordinary system of contracts that was to spring up. This system consisted of propositions made by foreign capitalists through a native lawyer, influential in political circles, to install some important enterprise, of benefit to the public, at from double to tenfold the amount it ought legiti- mately to cost, according to expert estimate. The pro- moter— who often did not possess a red cent, but in ex- change represented an imaginary syndicate hailing from England, Chicago or Wall Street, ready to invest many millions in a country that above all needed money to de- velop its natural resources — and the lawyer had their share in the enormous profits, the remainder being divided be- tween the company that had actually invested the money and the public officials who had sold their honor. This contract system was composed of four elements: a promoter of foreign extraction, usually English and sometimes a Knight of Commerce; a company that undertook to buy the concession, binding itself to respect the terms agreed upon; the lawyer, and the public officials who were parties to the extortion.
This system is the universal, public robbing-machine in- vented expressly to exploit countries whose government is, so to speak, ornamental. In Latin-America it has met with more success than Edison's most noted electrical discoveries. The one thought of the so-called political parties or factions is graft. Accordingly, they head their programs for the progress and salvation of their country with projects for the material betterment of the land, carrying them to the
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 25
point of exhausting the public credit and dragging the last cent from the unfortunate tax payers; and at the same time making loud demands for greater educational facilities (for the schools provided certain perquisites), which if carried out would be sufficient to transform the humblest citizen into a learned doctor. The politicians reap the bene- fits of these projects for material betterment; the people have to be satisfied with the humble school. If they have nothing to eat, it matters not; if they are dying of hunger, it is all the same; the school is the panacea. The bureaucrats de- cided that the material benefits should be for them and the elevating dissertations of the pedagogues for the people.
BUREAUCRATIC PERVERSION
The contract system destroyed whatever moral sense the middle class possessed. The socialist working-men said: "We do not want the equality of the law, we want the equality of the dollar." To do them justice the modest sav- ings of the prosperous middle-class citizen served as a gauge. The bureaucrats, under the spell of the workings of this system, completely lost their heads and proclaimed the equality of all bureaucrats to be the equality of the dollar; but their standard was the Rockefeller millions.
The Mexican middle-class family is, as a rule, a centre of civic putrefaction. This grew out of the voraciousness of the bureaucracies and was afterwards increased by the appearance of the contract system. When the influence of the Catholic clergy was weakened in Mexico, the Catholic families withdrew from the conservative party, giving free entrance to the lowest bureaucratic element. If the estab- lished government was conservative, the venerable head of the family, who was a Government employee, was also a conservative; his oldest son, usually a lawyer, always appeared in the role of a moderate; the second son, in that
26 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
of an extreme liberal; the unmarried aunt was a socialist; the mother of the family was the comadre 1 of the general's aide-de-camp, who might at any moment raise the standard of revolt, and the son-in-law, who was the secretary of some working-man's society, would in any strike have killed two or three policemen, smashed shop windows and set fire to liquor and tobacco factories. Every avenue was covered, so that in any event the bureaucratic employee would never be ousted from his softly feathered nest. Whatever may be the fluctuations in politics, the upheavals among the people, the situation among the ultra-radical faction, the bureaucratic family, not only in Mexico but in all Latin- America, has found the means of drawing perpetually on this apparently inexhaustible source at the cost of carrying out a degrading program to the letter of the law. When the so-called liberal party proclaimed its absolute dominion, having previously destroyed the conservative party, it split up into individualistic bands fairly vibrating with cupid- ity. The bureaucratic element then embraced the motto of the cynical Romans: "With Caesar, if he be strong; against him, if he be weak;" and the members of the imme- diate circle of the Caesar devoted themselves to that policy of adulation that characterized them, which veiled the de- termination to betray him at the opportune moment. The women of the middle class were converted into low-grade politicians by their admission into the Government service. It has led to their aping the men when by virtue of their great moral superiority they are a privileged class, and the result is far from pleasing. In General Diaz's time the women Government employees, and those aspiring to the honor, belonged to a club called "Daughters of Carmelita,"
1 Comadre — compadre and comadre, called compadres, are the persons who stand sponsor for a child in baptism and confirma- tion. In Spanish-speaking countries a very warm personal tie binds the child's parents to their compadres.
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 27
named after the dictator's wife. When Madero triumphed they called themselves "Daughters of Dona Sara P. de Madero." Since then we have had "Daughters of Huerta's Iron Hand," "Daughters of Villa," "Daughters of Zapata," and at the present time, I have no doubt, they appear as "Daughters of Carranza." Apparently they have experi- enced no difficulty whatever in effecting this kaleidoscopic change of parental authority.
THE POISONED STREAM FROM WHICH THE POPULAR CLASSES HAVE DRUNK
Gustave le Bon, referring to Latin-American republics, wrote: "In general and fundamentally the political prob- lem of the Latin-American democracies is the problem of public thieving." Undeniably the French sociologist is justified in his statement; but this does not mean that there are not in Latin-American governments many honest, intel- ligent, energetic and sincerely patriotic men whose influence is highly beneficial. As a rule, if they do not succeed in absolutely banishing corruption, they do prevent this bureau- cratic brigandage from producing by its unbridled license a state of social anarchy. Unfortunately, it is a fact that the ideal of the middle-class family is to be part of this bureau- cracy, and that the ideal of the bureaucracy is to rob the nation and individuals whenever possible. The mother is no longer the religious matron who shed the radiance of her virtue over the home, and reared men for God, country and humanity. In these days there are mothers who urge their husbands, sons, sons-in-law and brothers to steal from their country. Sons are reared with this idea, and it is carried to the point of inculcating that this public theft is a legiti- mate necessity, that it is an art, a sign of distinction. The result of this schooling in depravity has been that the lower
28 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
classes have had this baneful example before their eyes for many years, which has destroyed the slender thread of civic virtue possessed by them at the time of the Declaration of Independence. It also threatens to destroy all personal virtue, because it goes without saying that a home which is a den of thieves cannot be the nursery of virtue and morality.
Beginning in 1824, the Mexican middle class resolved to cast out of politics all the conservative elements that had been the outgrowth of tradition; namely, the army, the clergy and the landowners. After forty or more years of this so-called fight for principles — which in reality was only a fight for government posts — although politics was divided into two parties, the liberal and the conservative, the par- tisans never changed, they simply shifted their allegiance whenever it appeared profitable. Since 1867 the bureau- cratic middle class, directed by the educated proletariat, has been the absolute owner of Mexico, the real oppressor of the people, the octopus that has sucked the vital juice of all popular labor, of foreign and national capital, and of the patience of the victims who carried the weight of this race of vipers, given unreservedly over to bureaucratic can- nibalism.
The powerful class in all Latin-American countries is to be found in the bureaucracy, but unfortunately for these countries, their bureaucracies are not, and never can be, governing classes. A government exists only where prop- erty is respected. Proletarian sovereignty, when it is abso- lute, when it is not held in check by conservative elements strong enough to protect property, causes its ruin and ulti- mate destruction. The proletarian element cannot estab- lish a government without the aid of the army, which more or less successfully manages to hold the bureaucratic ele- ment within bounds by resorting to a dictatorship. On the other hand, an army in which the proletarian element pre-
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 29
dominates gravitates toward absolute militarism, and is con- sequently dangerous. In Latin-American nations government without military support is not understood, even when this represents absolute militarism. This is the only force that can keep demagogism within bounds, and once suppressed, the latter seeing itself cut loose from all restraint, will do what it has done in Mexico — hand over the nation to every known form of brigandage.
I challenge President Wilson, the oracles that have in- spired him, the politicians who have supported him, to give a single historical example of the existence of a government sustained by the dominion of the educated proletarian or working-class without that government being absolute and despotic. It was Montesquieu who first put into words the truth that had been established by centuries of experience: "In a country where aptitude for democracy does not exist, and which does not possess a governing class, only anarchy or a dictatorship is possible."
Three Latin-American nations, Argentine, Brazil and Chile, have ceased to be ruled by strict dictatorships. The method adopted is a species of attenuated dictatorship, to which an admixture of the plutocratic-bureaucratic oligarchy has been added. They are generators of oceans of corruption by means of the contract system, so favorable for the schemes of public thieves. These nations owe their present state of freedom, combined with an increasing excess of bureaucratic cannibalism, to the aristocratic and plutocratic conservative elements, and to a popular element which defends its rights to its small property and its daily wages against the voracity and criminality of the demagogic element. In Mexico, since the influence of the Catholic clergy has declined in politics and its landed aristocracy has proved itself worthless, either as a militant or a peaceful political element, the only remain- ing conservative forces are the army, and the fact that the isolation of the illiterate rural classes puts them out of the
30 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
reach of the demagogic apostolate, which in its latest form is represented by socialism and anarchism.
PRESIDENT WILSON S BLINDNESS
Five months before his overthrow and assassination, Presi- dent Madero, in his address to the Mexican Congress in September, 1912, expressed his doubt as to the Mexican people's fitness for democracy. That worthy but artless President said : "Because if a government such as mine, which has honorably kept its. promises ; which has done every- thing for the good of the Republic that was within the reach of its understanding; which was installed by the almost unanimous vote of the Mexicans — something that had never happened before; if such a government cannot endure in Mexico, Gentlemen, we should say that the Mexican people are not fit for democracy, that we need a new dictator who, sabre in hand, shall come to silence ambitions, to suffocate all the efforts of those who do not understand that liberty can only flourish under the protection of the law." Inas- much as this government of Madero's did not endure, the deduction — according to the honest convictions of Madero himself — is that the Mexican people were not ready for a democracy but fitted only to remain under the tutelage of a dictatorship.
In another address to Congress, one month later, recom- mending the introduction of a bill for compulsory military service, President Madero said : "We agree that the first requisite for a country's advancement is peace, and it seems — if we judge by Mexico's past history — that it is more diffi- cult to preserve peace when liberty exists than when it does not. When liberty does not exist no one talks, no one ap- pears to be ambitious, no one even aspires to have an ambi- tion, because he knows it will soon be extinguished ; but now
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 31
that we have granted liberty, now that every one aspires to be governor, now that every one is free to electioneer in his own behalf, etc., it follows that if he is not supported in the elections he will take up arms."
Madero was like all revolutionists who attain to power. When he planned the revolution against General Diaz he did not believe "that the first requisite for a country's advancement is peace," but proclaimed that the country's greatest need wras liberty, and when he was at the helm of State and realized what liberty means in the hands of a people who do not know how to use it, he said : "It is more difficult to preserve peace when liberty exists than when it does not." Madero, for lack of knowledge and reflection, did not understand that peace and liberty go hand in hand only when the people possess the technical qualifications to be free, and that it takes a dictatorship to preserve peace when a people, instead of being sovereign, is easily led to be the blind and servile instrument of demagogism. Peoples can have no other form of government than that for which they are fit, and the Mexican people have clearly demon- strated their unfitness to be granted the rights of a free people.
When the fall of Madero and his subsequent assassina- tion became known in the United States an American news- paper wrote the following just arraignment: "A people is not to be feared when its sane element has overthrown a government which it had only fifteen months before installed by acclamation; when it has applauded the greatest, the most infamous, the most cynical treason recorded in history, and when it has not sufficient virility to oppose forcible con- scription and the constant outrages of the government, and to suppress disorder, pillage, sack, rape, and the burning of villages by Huertistas, revolutionists and bandits." A peo- ple that allows itself to be slapped and spat upon, to have its laws torn to shreds, its gods overthrown, its women violated,
32 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
to be robbed of its honor, its means of livelihood, even of the dry crusts which were once doled out to mendicants, is not a people capable of self-government, nor even of obtain- ing from its masterful owners the treatment accorded to slaves.
One of the revolutionists, an honest, intelligent and per- fectly sincere man, a real reformer, took up the well-known phrase of Victor Hugo: "If a man is not a republican at twenty, it is because he has no heart, and if he is one at forty, it is because he has no brains." 1
If Victor Hugo had contemplated Latin-America for five minutes after its independence, he would have said: "If a man in these countries is not a democrat at twenty, he has no heart, and the one who at forty believes in the democ- racy of the people of the country in which he lives, either lacks sense or shame, or both." From the Straits of Ma- gellan to the frontier of the United States there is not an intelligent person who will not agree that the ridicule and contempt heaped upon Latin-American democracies by for- eign sociologists are amply justified. The upper classes are admirably skeptical in these countries, and if they speak of democracy to the people it is because they need the support of the sub-popular classes to carry out their great and bare- faced policy of theft. The sub-popular classes do not know what democracy means, but they take it up because profes- sional agitators have played upon their ignorance to the ex- tent of making them believe that democracy and happiness are synonymous, and that they can easily be obtained along the road of vice and crime. Don Lorenzo de Zavala, of whom I have already spoken, knew well the noble civic aspi- rations of our large political class, so large that it embraces almost the entire middle class. Zavala wrote a gospel in the following lines: "In this country everybody wants re- ligion, order, guarantees, the aggrandizement of the coun-
1 Madero por uno de sus intimos, p. 144.
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 33
try; in other words, they ask for democracy, sovereignty of the people, liberty and justice, but what each one in reality wants is tajada (graft)." Don Lucas Alaman called Mexi- can politicians a race of vipers. Dr. Mora, a talented and honest liberal, wrote to the truly noble patrician, Don Val- entin Gomez Farias: "Take care that not an inch of the veneer that coats your followers be knocked off, because it will reveal their rascality." Don Sebastian Lerdo de Te- jada, President Juarez's talented minister, at the time of the triumph of the republican cause in 1867, ordered the sus- pension of further investigation of those suspected of trea- son to their country and to the liberal party by aiding the Empire, or receiving money in the guise of alms, because, if the investigation had been continued, it would have meant the apprehension of the entire liberal party.
Don Pedro Lamicq, one of Madero's most ardent revo- lutionary followers, full of faith in his reform program, has written with great candor: "I am not a demagogue. I do not even know if I am a democrat. I do not believe, since Madero's unfortunate experiment, that it is possible for democracy to flourish in Mexico where the uncivil and uncivic Creole — fatal inheritor of the Spaniard's covetous- ness and insubordination — rules. I ask for a dictator, but a good dictator, one who will send the politicians to their homes and the newspaper men to jail ; who will immediately take up the work of reorganization and reconstruction; who will bind up the wounds of the people and mete out justice to them. A dictator with an iron hand who will seek to win the support of the people, surrounding himself with sane and inflexible men, Creoles, mestizos and Indians. A dictator who will lose sight of his personal interests and consecrate himself to the good of the people. And note well, dear friend, that I insist on this not only now after Madero's fiasco, but that I have insisted on it ever since my pen has been free to expres my thoughts under the protection of
34 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
that liberty which I have been one of the few to know how to understand and respect." 1
The testimony of science and history; of respected, tal- ented Mexican revolutionists; of European and American sociologists; of the American Ambassador to Mexico; of almost all the Americans in Mexico, who have had opportunities of studying the Mexican people; of all rep- resentative publicists, who have justly condemned Latin- American democracies; of the crimes committed by the great majority of the triumphant leaders of 1911 ; of the American and Mexican Catholic clergy; of all the significant events emanating from the Madero revolution, obliges Mr. Wilson to follow a course worthy of his prestige as a man of moral integrity, as a university president and as the head of a political party in an individualistic democracy. But at the supreme moment, when everything that ordinarily would and could have impressed a great-minded man, urged pru- dence and justice, the President of the United States — car- ried away by academic dreams, saturated with lies collated and dispensed by his advisers for political reasons, swayed by the pernicious influence of the sirens who beset him, trafficking with the misfortunes, the gaping wounds, the blood, the frenzy and corruption of Latin-American repub- lics— resolved to implant liberty in a country where it is detested, especially by the liberals; where the only liberty that is loved is unlimited personal liberty and the destruc- tion of the liberty of others; that is to say, in a country where the only species of liberty that is understood is that of the jackal and the viper, exemplified by the exploits of the bandits, "every inch men," who have terrorized the land. The outcome has been the logical consequence of the policy. President Wilson, by recognizing a de facto gov- ernment of the ultra-despotic type, after having refused to recognize the Huerta Government because it was dictatorial, 1 Madero por uno de sus intimos, p. 146.
WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 35
has practically acknowledged that his effort to implant liberty in Mexico has been a complete failure. It is even worse. President Wilson has not recognized a de facto government but a de facto anarchy, hoping to transform it into something bearing some resemblance to a government, in order to save himself from the severe arraignment that awaits him at the hands of humanity.
CHAPTER II
THE GREAT FIASCO OF THE MEXICAN REVO- LUTIONISTS AND PRESIDENT WILSON IN THE AGRARIAN QUESTION
MARVELLOUS LANDS AND GRASPING LANDHOLDERS
SOME excuse and perhaps even some justification may be made for President Wilson's mistakes as a states- man and a sociologist in regard to the Mexican po- litical situation; but he has also failed to grasp a still greater and mort important question — the agrarian situa- tion. In Mexico this has been incorrectly styled the agrarian problem, into which the revolution has injected the ques- tion of hunger — hunger for bread, for rights, for justice, for civilization, a hunger which crushes the social and pri- vate lives of 12,000,000 human beings, who for the past four hundred years have been the victims of the insufferable exploitation of a handful of cruel aristocrats, insatiable in their greed and implacable — intrenched behind their divine rights — in their oppression of the people. Such is the revo- lutionary thesis. It is clear, then, that if through the favor shown by President Wilson to the Mexican revolutionists the miserable eighty-five per cent of this downtrodden popu- lation were to attain prosperity, President Wilson would not figure among the apostles of liberty who offer to the people the "rights of man," when their primary need is bread, meat, clothing, comfortable, hygienic homes, diversions, idyllic do- mestic scenes; but he would figure among the teachers and apostles of humanity very near to Christ Himself.
Don Luis Cabrera has rightly said : "La Revolution es la Revolution" (A revolution is a revolution), which is only
36
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 37
another way of saying what has been said before : "Pour faire une omelette il faut casser les oeufs" ; and what has been shat- tered beyond the power of belief is the unfortunate Mexican people. But apparently this tremendous work of destruc- tion, carried on with the aid of crime, war, dementia, the spirit of vengeance, the appetite for pillage and all the re- pugnant, antisocial traits of prehistoric savagery, seems to be of little consequence if in the end the indigenous race be raised — even over the terror-stricken, bleeding and agonizing remnants of the nation — to a height capable of conferring upon its country an enviable renown, the race itself flourish- ing in the maternal bosom of the "Republic of Solidarity."
The revolutionists have defined the agrarian question in the following terms, accepted by Mr. Wilson:
First — That Mexico possesses in great abundance mar- vellous agricultural lands capable of feeding, even to excess, an enormous population of one hundred million, according to some; of two hundred millions, according to others; and of even more, according to those who more closely approxi- mate in intelligence the inferior vertebrates.
Second — That these marvellous lands are not actively cultivated, owing to the fact that they are monopolized by a handful of cruel landowners who hold them undeveloped, in order to keep up the price of necessary commodities and enjoy the enormous gains obtained through the monopoly of the land, which once belonged to the Indians and which was stolen from them by the Spanish conquerors.
Such is the fundamental basis of the social upheaval which has submerged Mexico and brought it into such unenviable prominence before the nations of the world.
Before discussing the important and far-reaching prob- lems emanating from the revolutionary proposition, it is nec- essary to examine it calmly and dispassionately, and subject it to an intelligent analysis.
38 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
THE FIRST LIE
A formidable fact exists in our economic life which de- stroys the spectacular foundation of the Mexican Revolution. For more than twenty years past the fiscal statistics, published monthly and annually by the Mexican Treasury Depart- ment, show a yearly increase in the importation of corn and wheat from the United States or the Argentine. These im- portations are greater when more or less serious failures in the corn and wheat crops occur in Mexico. If the ignorant revolutionary publicist presumes to deny this fact, President Wilson may verify it by examining the export and import statistics published by the Federal Government of the United States, where in plain figures may be found the exact amount of corn and wheat exported annually to Mexico.
This proves that not even in the years when the yield of corn and wheat has been greatest in Mexico has the output been sufficient for the needs of its inhabitants, from which fact it may be deduced that Mexico has had more than twenty years' experience of the impotency of her lands to contribute enough for the support of her population.
In order to bolster up the lie of the great richness of Mexico's corn-raising lands, the revolutionists assert that this impotence is intentional, brought about by the avaricious- ness of the landholders, who, wishing to keep up the prices, cultivate only a limited area, insufficient to meet the na- tional demands.
Such an accusation is absurd, as will presently be seen. According to the agricultural statistics published by the De- partment of Fomento,1 the annual production of corn varies in the best seasons from 50,000,000 to 60,000,000 hectolitres, and if the lands w*hich produce these had the wonderful fer- tility attributed to them in 1803 by Baron Humboldt (75
1 Department for the mining, agricultural and industrial devel- opment of the country.
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 39
hectolitres per hectare) it would be necessary to cultivate only 800,000 hectares to produce 60,000,000 kilograms of corn; and as in Mexico one man is required for the culti- vation of every 5 hectares of land, it follows that if the marvellously fertile lands of 1803 existed at present, the grasping landholders would employ only 160,000 day la- borers. By what means have the remaining 1,800,000 lived, who make up the sum total of our day laborers and who are accounted for in the agricultural statistics issued by the Department of Fomento?
Is the official figure of the number of day laborers en- gaged in the cultivation of corn and wheat given by the Department incorrect, or are there actually only 160,000? If two-thirds of these laborers are heads of families, and each family consists on an average of five persons, and if there are only 160,000 day laborers engaged in the cultivation of corn, it follows that Mexico does not possess 12,000,000 poor inhabitants, but merely a laboring population of 4,000,000.
In order that 2,000,000 families may live from the prod- uct of the land set aside for corn-raising, it is indispensable that the yield be very small in order to afford an opportun- ity to employ 2,000,000 men in the maximum production of 60,000,000 hectolitres.
THE REGIME OF MISERY IN MEXICO.
In Mexico there are three distinct divisions of land : the hot lands; the temperate lands and the cold lands of the central plateau, and the semi-arid lands of the northern plateau. The majority of the Mexican population is found grouped upon the central plateau, for reasons which will later be explained. Agriculture will not flourish where water is not available, and nations, which do not command large capital for the construction of the necessary irrigation
40 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
plants in the arid regions, are driven to depend in their agricultural work upon the more or less uncertain rainfall.
In Mexico this factor plays an important part, and may be considered the key to the nation's problem of poverty and misery.
Going south from 21° north latitude to the boun- dary line of the temperate and the hot zone, the mean precipitation varies between o.m5OO and o.m75O of mean total annual precipitation. Upon entering the hot zone — except in the states of Campeche, Yucatan and a sec- tion of the state of Oaxaca — the annual precipitation in- creases, exceeding a metre in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The mean annual precipitation in the extensive section to which I refer has never been known to be less than o.m3OO in any part of its territory. Consequently, as corn and wheat require only from o.m25O and o.m3OO of precipitation, coinciding with the time of its cultivation, and as this pre- cipitation occurs in this section (from the 21° north lati- tude to the frontier of Guatemala), it would be impossible to have a single failure in the corn crops, provided, of course, that the requisite amount of rainfall were not wanting. From the 21° to 22° north latitude the mean annual pre- cipitation is from O.m45o to o.m55o; but the minimum pre- cipitation runs as low as o.m2OO, which means scant crops or complete failures.
From the 22° to 24° north latitude the mean annual pre- cipitation is from o.m25O to o.m3OO, but the maximum precip- itation rises as high as o.m5oo, and the minimum falls as low as o.mioo to o.m050. North of the 24° of north latitude the maximum precipitation is o.ra4Oo; the mean from O.mi5O to o.m2OO and the minimum o.mooo. It will be seen from the foregoing that, taking into consideration only the total annual precipitation in the southern and central pla- teaus, extensive agriculture could count infallibly on good crops, and the change to intensive agriculture could be made
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 41
when the impoverishment of the land warranted it. In the northern plateau, which is greater in area than the central and southern plateaus combined, the territory between the 2 ist and the 24th parallels might be considered, if we take into consideration only the annual precipitation, as accepta- ble agricultural land; and that between the 24th parallel and the frontier of the United States, as a very extensive tract suitable for the development of a rich timber industry in the Sierra Madre, and for extensive cattle raising on the plains.
Unfortunately, physical conditions in Mexico are such as to present grave obstacles to the progress of civilization and the improvement of the people's condition, along lines pos- sible in other countries.
. THE HIGH-WATER MARK OF THE REGIME OF MISERY
North of the 22d parallel, owing to the effect which the huge mountain ranges have had in diverting the rain clouds, immense salt plains, sparsely covered with vegetation, and great sandy deserts, devoid of every trace of plant life — lacking even the somber growth that dots the great deserts — have been formed. North of Aguascalientes we have the arid Valle del Salado, which includes a great part of the states of San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas, merging into the Bolson de Mapimi, a still more extensive desert, which em- braces the greater part of the states of Coahuila, Durango and Chihuahua. The state of Coahuila contains still another desert, the Barreal de la Paila, and the melancholy deserts of Sonora are well known, comprising, as they do, ninety-five per cent of its extensive territory. Lower California is a gigantic serpent of leaden-colored mountains, surrounded by a mournful, grayish desert, furrowed as though some huge plough had Jbeen forced through its sands.
Lower California covers the same area as England, but
42 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
its agricultural output would not sustain 60,000 souls. The state of Coahuila has an area of 165,000 square kilometers and, excepting the "Laguna" region, which is fertilized by the overflow of the river Nazas, this state does not afford in arable land even one-half of one per cent of its entire territory. The state of Chihuahua, whose territory equals that of one-half of France, possesses only 50,000 hectares of arable land, and the greater part of this is irrigated. The state of Durango, with the exception of the Valle del Suchil and the Valle de las Poanas, is either mountainous, desert or second- or fourth-rate grazing land. The greater part of the states of San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas is arid, and not even three per cent of their entire area consists of arable lands. The states to which I have referred possess an area of 984,170 square kilometers, equivalent to one-half the entire area of Mexico, a half which for the present can be qualified as entirely unfitted for agricultural purposes. This does not mean, however, that the inhabitants of these states ever cease to speak of the remarkable richness of their privi- leged soil, or that they do not teach in the public and private schools of these states a choice assortment of lies concerning the local and national resources. All these states indisputa- bly possess great potential wealth in their mines, some of them in their forests and grazing lands; but their claim to great agricultural resources is an absurdity.
The remaining portion of Mexican territory, between the 22° north latitude and the frontier of Guatemala, is ex- tremely mountainous. Baron Humboldt estimates that more than two-thirds of this territory is occupied by mountain ranges and isolated mountains, and a mere glance at an oro- graphic map of the Republic of Mexico is all that is needed to convince one that the learned Prussian's estimate is amply justified. Calculated from this basis, more than 676,000 square kilometers are mountainous and unfit for the cultiva- tion of cereal or leguminous products. A mountainous
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 43
country is one in which deep gorges, impassable ravines and great stretches of sloping lands, washed bare by the rains, must necessarily abound. It is also necessary to separate the summer stubble grazing lands from the fertile section we have been considering in order to arrive at a correct estimate of the arable lands — outside the hot zones — which sustain the great majority of the Mexican people.
In short, deducting from the Mexican territory the sec- tions occupied by the great mountain chains and their branch ranges (which are considerable), the gorges, the ravines, the sloping lands, the immense desert tracts (which have no, or scarcely no, rainfall), the extensive grazing lands and the summer stubble pasture lands of the central plateau, there remain available for the cultivation of cereal or leguminous products the 10,000,000 hectares of land, designated by the report of the Department of Fomento, and further confirmed by data furnished by agricultural corporations and political and administrative associations.
A country whose entire area consists of 200,000,000 hectares, of which only 10,000,000 can be claimed for the cultivation of products suitable for human consumption, cannot be considered an' overwhelmingly rich country, scarcely even moderately rich. A country which can count only upon five per cent of its lands to produce the elements from which its population must directly draw its life, cannot be considered otherwise than distinctly poor in this respect.
THE DEATH AGONY OF THE MEXICAN PEOPLE
A people situated as is the Mexican people, with only 10,000,000 hectares of lands capable of producing cereal or leguminous products, will be prosperous or wretched ac- cording to the efforts expended upon its arable section. In France the production is under intensive cultivation 45 hectolitres per hectare of corn, and 10,000,000 hectares of
44 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
productive land would under intensive cultivation produce 450,000,000 hectolitres of corn annually, besides at least one-fourth as much in beans, which can be raised in the same furrow with corn. Corn, combined with beans, constitutes for a people depending upon it for their sustenance, an abso- lutely healthy, hygienic and highly nutritious food. Conse- quently, the people possessing 10,000,000 hectares of arable land suitable for the production of cereal and leguminous products, can maintain a population of 90,000,000 in a region where propitious conditions exist. The Mexican people, on the other hand, numbering only 15,000,000 and possessing 10,000,000 hectares of arable land, in great part almost ex- hausted and, consequently, meagre in its yield, is nothing more than a people in the last stages of dissolution.
Baron Humboldt, in his Ensayo Politico sobre la Nueva Espaha, based upon careful and conscientious computation, assures us that in 1803 the average yield of the arable lands was 150 grains of corn for every grain sown, which repre- sents 75 hectolitres of corn harvested per hectare.
In the Bole tin Mensual de la Secretaria de Fomento, for February, 1812, published by the Mexican Government, there appears the report of the Cdmara Nacional Agricola de Leon (state of Guanajuato), rendered to the Depart- ment of Fomento, in which it is stated that the average pro- duction of the famous lands of the Bajio has fallen to 8 hectolitres per hectare. I cannot at this moment recall whether it is in No. 3 or No. 4 of the said bulletin that the average of these corn lands for the year 1910 is given, show- ing a fluctuation of from 8 to 10 hectolitres per hectare.
From these figures, which are not those of the Mexican demagogues, the subsidized newspapers, the mediocre states- men or the lay apostle devoid of learning, some idea may be formed of the miserable plight of the Mexican people in 1915. If the lands set aside for the cultivation of corn in 1803 yielded, on account of their remarkable fertility, 75 hecto-
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 45
litres per hectare, and if these same lands yielded only 8 to 10 hectolitres per hectare in 1910, it is evident that if the Mexican people continue to depend upon extensive agricul- ture for their maintenance, their total annihilation by star- vation is near at hand. This is all the more certain if we take into consideration that in 1803 the Mexican population was only 5,000,000, whereas now it is 15,000,000, three times more, indicating a serious situation for the people if the decrease in the productiveness of the land continues at the present alarming rate.
It will not be necessary for this decrease in productive- ness to reach its lowest limit to accomplish the complete an- nihilation of the Mexican people. It will suffice for the production to be reduced to 3 hectolitres per hectare to de- prive the laborer's family of the means of subsistence; and it will surely incapacitate the laborer for his work, because of the lack of proper nourishment, if the production be re- duced to 2 hectolitres per hectare.
The salvation of the Mexican people is easy in theory. It will suffice to have them pass from extensive to intensive agricultural methods, not an easy or practical achievement, and virtually an impossible one in the limited time that the alarming decrease in the productiveness of the land makes imperative.
From the foregoing data it will be seen that the Mexican agrarian problem cannot be solved by the mere distribution of lands which in a very short time will be practically worth- less. The agrarian problem consists in something far more difficult — the creation of lands for the people. The dis- tribution of the lands for the continuance of extensive agri- culture would be more harmful for the Mexican people than if they were retained by the landholders, as I shall presently show.
46 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
THE REAL PROBLEM
"The Sphinx must be answered or Thebes will die!" Science must be answered or Mexico will die! The ques- tion may be summed up as follows:
First — Can the Mexican rural population pass suddenly from the present extensive mode of cultivation, notably crude, to the intensive method, so exactly scientific?
Second — Has the Indian or the mestizo the economic, moral or intellectual qualifications to enable him to trans- form himself into a scientific farmer?
Third — Supposing the foregoing questions are satisfac- torily answered, has the Mexican laboring class time suf- ficient in which to make its own the indispensable elements which will fit it to carry to a successful finish this stupen- dous transformation?
If the Mexican revolution fails, the avowed purpose of which, according to its apologists, has been to save the Indian from hunger and uplift him, the revolutionists will deserve the execration of the entire civilized world, a fate which must be shared by Mr. Wilson, the President of the United States, who has desired to figure as an apostle in a drama the plot of which he has never understood.
Intensive agriculture by dry farming is only possible where adequate rainfall conditions prevail. In England, Germany, France and Austria-Hungary, and in parts of Italy, Spain, Russia and the United States, the rainfall is sufficiently reg- ular to permit the undertaking of intensive agriculture. In England, when fourteen per cent of the normal crop of even one section is lost, owing to some irregularity in the rainfall, it is considered a calamity, and the Germans look upon the loss of ten per cent of their crops as a serious matter.
The Mexican dry farmer is a luckless gambler, playing the lottery of alternate rain and drought year after year,
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 47
ending always in bankruptcy. He sows his corn and expects that the crop will be very good; fifty per cent of the best yield; twenty-five per cent; five per cent, or nothing! A bad season, or a disastrous one, is not an unheard-of phenomenon for the farmer. He may experience successively four, five, seven or ten bad years, or two series of bad years interrupted by one or two good ones. There are series of good seasons, but they are always shorter than the bad ones and do not occur as frequently as the latter. The Spaniards introduced the cultivation of all cereals into America, the Indian having hitherto cultivated only corn; and corn dry farming con- tinued to prevail in New Spain because the uncertain rain- fall did not permit the cultivation on a large scale of the other cereals, especially wheat.
Corn has been imposed on the Mexicans by their climate. In the fertile regions, where the population has massed, there are no years of drought, but during these years there are dry months which too frequently suffice to destroy crops. The regular rainy season occurs in Mexico during the months of June, July, August and September, although scant and irregular rains sometimes occur in March, April, May and October.
Every one versed in agricultural matters knows the "ninety-day corn," so called because it takes this length of time to bring it to maturity. In Mexico it cannot be ma- tured in this length of time except in the hot zones, because the soil cannot furnish the required amount of heat. In the temperate zones it requires one hundred and twenty days to mature the ninety-day corn, and in the cold zone, which comprises the most extensive corn-raising area, it requires the same time to mature this as it does to mature any other kind — that is, six or seven months, and it consequently in- curs the risk of being overtaken by the farmer's other sworn foe — the frost. Frosts are ruinous to the corn if they occur from the second fortnight of March onward, or early in
48 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
the month of September. They have been known to occur at any time. The one which caused the great famine of 1794, which carried off hundreds of thousands of souls, took place in August. It is the exception, however, when a frost occurs in the four months of the rainy season, and one- hundred-and-twenty-day crops rarely suffer, whereas the six- and seven-month crops are frequently lost. The most ex- tensive tracts of cultivated lands in Mexico are to be found at a great height above the sea level, and for this reason there is constant danger of losing crops by unexpected frosts.
The frosts and the irregularity of the rainfall do not per- mit the intensive cultivation or dry farming of any cereal or leguminous products in Mexico with any marked degree of success.
MEXICO ALWAYS A FAMINE-STRICKEN NATION
The irregular rainfall has been the cause of Mexico's almost chronic state of starvation, even in the days when its wonderfully fertile lands could have sustained a population fifty times greater than that which Mexico had after the Conquest, when the Colonial Government had established a civilizing tranquillity.
All honest persons who plead for pity for the Mexican Indian, who applaud the immolation of two or three mil- lions of Mexico's inhabitants on the altar dedicated to the uplift of the indigenous race, all foreign and national states- men who consider it their duty to intervene in "the Mexican question," are in honor bound to read the following lines, relative to Mexico, written by Baron Humboldt: "We have yet to examine the physical causes which almost periodically check the natural increase of the Mexican population. These are smallpox, that dread disease called matlazahuatl by the natives, and above all famine, the effects of which are felt for a long time afterwards."1
1 Humboldt, Ensayo politico sobre la Nueva Espana, Vol. I, p. 64.
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 49
Again, quoting the same author: "A third obstacle which retards the growth of the population of New Spain, and perhaps the most cruel of all, is famine"*
Baron Humboldt laid stress upon delivering the Indians from this scourge which constantly menaced them, notwith- standing their fertile lands, as he continues: "The frugality of the native Aztec is almost equal to that of the Hindoo, and the frequent famines might be obviated by the multipli- cation of articles suitable for cultivation and by directing the industry toward vegetable products more easily preserved and transported than corn and starchy products."2
Humboldt was a blind believer in the alimental properties of the banana, attributing to it nutritious qualities equal to those of wheat ; and as the cost of its production in the warm zones is very much less than that of any of the cereals, the solution of the famine problem in New Spain, according to Humboldt, was to be found in having recourse to the banana as a popular article of food. Unfortunately, chem- ical analysis, which failed to reveal the presence of proteins, and the physiological progress of humanity, have rejected it as the one and only article of food for those who wish to enjoy health and mental vigor equal to the demands of pres- ent-day civilization.
Lastly, Humboldt says: "The disproportion existing be- tween the growth of the population and the increase of the food supply through cultivation, renews the sad spectacle of famine whenever, through a great drought, or some other local cause, the corn crop fails."3
When an individual or a people accustomed to being nour- ished only by healthful, palatable and nutritious foods, such as would in every way meet the requirements of any civilized nation, see or hear that individuals or peoples eat with relish reptiles, bugs, slimy deposits from stagnant pools and things
1 Humboldt, Ensayo politico sobre la Neuva Espana, Vol. I, p. 67.
2 Idem, Vol. I, p. 310.
3 Idem, Vol. I, p. 68.
50 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
of a like nature, which as a usual thing cause disgust and nausea, it must be admitted that this perversion of the nat- ural appetite can have originated only in the torturing pangs of an acute hunger. The population that eats with relish such loathsome stuffs must have been driven to do so fre- quently from necessity. Only thus could that first inevita- ble loathing have been overcome and, by perverting the taste, changed something which must at first have been nauseating into a palatable article of food. When the possessor of ex- cellent agricultural lands found disgusting substances palata- ble as food, it proved that there must have existed some tre- mendous problem in their development which forced him to put the life-giving wheat and the revolting vermin on the same level.
The historian Clavijero says: "The Indians also made use of a slimy substance which floats on the waters of the lake, drying it in the sun and preserving it to eat in place of cheese, which it very much resembles in taste. They called it tecuitlatl, stone excretion."1
The insect which the Mexican Indians sell at the present time for bird food, and which is so loathsome in appearance, was and still is considered by them a choice delicacy.
"The small insect called axayacatl is still to be found and is the same that the Indians peddle in the streets as a bird food.
"Don Pablo de la Llave classified it under the title of ahuautlea mexicana. They caught these in such large quan- tities that they had enough for their own consumption, to feed many birds and to sell in the markets."2
"They ate anenextl, the larvae of we know not what in- sect, in the stage of metamorphosis round, four-footed, broad at the head and dark in color; the michfaili, of which we know as much as we do of the preceding one; the milpich-
1 Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. I, p. 390.
2 Orozco y Berra, Historia Antigua de Mexico, Vol. I, p. 321.
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 51
tetei, which is similar; the izcahuilli, a red worm which ap- parently has no head, having a tail at both extremities; the atopinan, dark-colored, and the oculiztac, black, but which turned white when toasted.
"They also availed themselves for food of certain loath- some animals; snakes, even the terrible rattlesnake (crosta- lus rhombifer), first cutting off the head; scorpions, from which they removed the poisonous dart; lizards, cuauhquetz- palin (Cyclura pectinata, Weig; Cyclura acantura, Gray; iguana rhinolofa, Weig), of which species they ate not only the meat but also the eggs. They ate a species of ant like those called azcamoli and the necuazactl, or honey ant, from which they sucked a sweetish fluid; locusts, chapolin, espe- cially that called acachapolin; worms which breed in the maguey, meocuilin, and those that breed in the ears of corn, etc., etc."1
By the reading of Baron Humboldt's book (the only stu- dent who ever wrote realities about Mexico), the states- man, even though he be mediocre — and for him the reading becomes a duty — will reach the conclusion that the Mexi- can people in 1803 were already a people long used to the ravages of famine, presenting the truly sad spectacle of a nation which in three centuries had barely doubled its meagre population of 2,000,000 existing at the time that the stable Colonial Government replaced the period of Conquest. And these conditions existed notwithstanding its immense territory (New Spain comprised also the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California), which afforded ample lands for cultivation and for the mainte- nance of more than 100,000,000 human beings.
As it is mainfestly impossible for a constitutionally starved people to be a rich people, the oft-reiterated state- ment of Mexico's great natural agricultural wealth, out-
1 Orozco y Berra, Historia Antigua de Mexico, Vol. Ill, p. 161.
52 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
side the warm zone, has been a lie fabricated by Mexicans, not by Baron Humboldt.
The joint action of three leading factors, the irregularity of the rains, the frosts and the impoverishment of the arable lands by centuries of extensive agriculture, has brought about an intolerable condition.
By way of illustration, let us take 1,000 hectares of land as good as some that is to be found in the Valle del Suchil and that of las Poanas in Durango, which in a good year are capable of yielding as much as 200 hectolitres of corn per hectare. The cost of working a hectare of Mexican land by the extensive method of cultivation is scarcely 20 pesos, including such items as rent, general expenses, taxes, interest on capital invested, and a good profit for the planter. This, however, is the cost of cultivation of one hectare of non-yielding crop, not including, therefore, the cost of harvesting, transportation, storage and thrashing, If a planter cultivates 1,000 hectares and has a total loss of crops for a period of ten years, he has lost 200,000 pesos. But if in the eleventh he happens to reap an excellent crop, he gets 200,000 hectolitres of corn, which, sold at 3 pesos a hectolitre, would bring him 600,000 pesos, balancing the loss of the poor years and giving him a large profit. This example proves that the planter may prosper notwith- standing the irregularity of the rains.
But when the lands are exhausted, as is the case in the district of Bajio, and the yield in favorable seasons has fallen as low as 8 hectolitres per hectare, it requires only one bad year for every two good ones to ruin the planter. This is precisely what has happened in Mexico. The con- stant decrease in the productiveness of the arable lands has created an intolerable situation for the planter and, conse- quently, also for the Indian. And if the planter, who can counterbalance these losses by reducing his expenses, by tak- ing his family to live at the plantation in order to econo-
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 53
mize, by mortgaging his property, by big loans from banks and money-lenders, finally ends in bankruptcy, how could the Indian meet the situation as an independent planter, having none of the resources of the landed proprietor? It is certain that the great majority of the eighty-five per cent of the Mexican population — that eighty-five per cent which is President Wilson's "passion" — was horribly destitute prior to the revolution of 1910. The chief cause of its misery, however, is not to be found in its want of liberty, its lack of universal suffrage, in the Cientificos, in dictator- ships, landowners, plutocrats, individuals or corporations, but in its climate. If, as Baron Humboldt has said and facts have proven, the Mexican nation was famine-stricken when it had at its disposal the most fertile lands in the world, capable of feeding a population fifty times greater than that which it had in 1600, it is offensive for men of supposed learning and culture to attribute the misery of the Mexican people exclusively to a handful of individuals who have put in an appearance only within the last gen- eration.
The solution of the Mexican problem and the salvation of its people is to be found, as I have previously said, in the substitution of the intensive method of cultivation for the extensive. But this cannot be accomplished by the sim- ple recommendations of the peevish professors of the School of Agriculture in the City of Mexico and the clamors of the self-appointed sages who are constantly doling out ad- vice upon subjects that are quite beyond the reach of their intellectual equipment.
The cost of harrowing and sowing one hectare of land in Mexico, destined for corn dry farming, does not exceed 12 pesos; and if the crop is lost there is no further expense to be incurred. A planter who owns 1,000 hectares of arable land, estimated at about 300 pesos each, would have a capital of 3,000 pesos, and the loss of his crop would
54 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
mean the loss of 12,000 pesos. But if he undertakes the intensive method, the cost of cultivation per hectare in Mexico for a non-yielding crop cannot be less than 80 pesos, and the loss of the planter who cultivated 1,000 hectares would be in a single year 80,000 pesos; and in three bad seasons out of ten, or perhaps out of five, or out of three, he would be totally ruined. Intensive agriculture, in order to be a success and to safeguard the interests of the planter, must be able to depend upon assured crops; and as in Mexico, on account of the irregularity of the rains and the frosts, such a guarantee cannot be given, it is impossible, in the face of scientific evidence and in the interests of the planter and of the Mexican people themselves, to intro- duce the intensive method of cultivation, unless the security of the crops has first been guaranteed by the installation of adequate irrigation facilities.
Irrigation alone, however, will not enable the Indian to establish intensive cultivation in Mexico. Other condi- tions must prevail, which I shall endeavor to make clear as we progress with this necessarily cursory review of our interesting but somewhat somber social problem.
THE SECOND LIE
Since the declaration of our independence, no lie has been more thoroughly exploited by agitators to enlist the sym- pathies of really high-minded persons, to whom the condi- tion of the Indian makes a genuine appeal, than that which attributes the really abject condition of the indigenous race to the criminal wickedness of the white man, above all to that of the egotistical planter, "wanton and cruel."
"The Indian" stands for the race, and when examining the life of the race, and the devious and thorny ways of its development, the condition of the majority is to be con- sidered, because only a majority is representative. It is
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unscientific, to say the least, to designate a race as unfor- tunate because this happens to be the condition of the minority.
During the Colonial regime the natives were divided into four groups: the domestic, employed as servants by the mestizos, Creoles and Spaniards, whose position enabled them to hire servants; the carriers; the plantation workers and the village dwellers, the latter divided among villages formed exclusively of Indians. The first was very small because, from the time of the Conquest to that of independ- ence, the population of the cities was fifteen per cent lower than that of the rural districts; the second was also small, because the introduction of beasts of burden by the Spaniards greatly reduced the necessity of employing the natives in this capacity; and the third was likewise small, owing to the stringent law enacted against plantation owners. This law required that when the Indians of a plantation reached a fixed number, it should automatically become a village, to which the immediately outlying territory was assigned to be held in common for the benefit of the inhabitants. The owner had not the right to reclaim his lands or to demand indemnity for their expropriation. All chroniclers and his- torians agree that the majority of the natives were con- centrated in the villages.
It is not true that the villages were established by the Conquerors or by the Colonial Government. They were founded by the Aztecs, the needs of the inhabitants being considered and the necessary amount of land assigned to each family, as well as pasturage and timber lands. The land was apportioned to the heads of families, to be held by them as sole owners during their lifetime, and in such proportion as they were able to work alone, or with the help of their sons when these reached the working age. The hills and the pasture lands were held in common. The Conquerors gave proof of their adaptability and beneficence
56 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
by respecting this Aztec organization, which was loved and revered by the Indians and which met their moral aspira- tions and economic needs. It is not true, therefore, that the Spaniards despoiled the poor Indians of their lands, for the simple reason that they did not possess them in the sense of personal ownership, to be passed on to his descendents, and their ancient regulations were scrupulously respected by the Conquerors. The despoiled were the high-caste Aztecs, the imperial family and the military and sacerdotal castes, who were the oppressors of the Indians. Three-fourths of New Spain was not under the dominion of any government, but was populated by savage hunting tribes, who, owing to the absence of cattle, had not even attained to a pastoral existence. In no land have these roaming, savage tribes ever laid claim to rights of property, nor, in fact, do they .understand them; and never has it entered the mind of sociologist, moralist, theologian, historian or jurist, ancient or modern, to consider the wild hunting tribes as the pro- prietors of the lands they occupy in common with the wild beasts of the forests. This has been the chosen work of the demagogue.
The aristocracies of the aboriginal races and of the Aztec imperial regime, which possessed a civilization in a barbaric age, suffered from the Spaniards only what they had im- posed upon other nations and tribes by the right of conquest. It is indefensible to deny the rights of conquest to the Span- iards and to grant them to the Aztecs, who had in reality exercised their prerogative of conquest much more freely and cruelly than the Spaniards. If we begin to question the rights of conquest and to assert the property rights of aboriginal races, we shall arrive at a point where we shall have logically to return the lands to the zoological species inferior to man, until we end, if we believe in the theory of evolution, in granting the rights of property to the primi- tive, microscopic vegetable organisms.
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CIVIL OPPRESSION ALSO A LIE
Inasmuch as the great majority of the aboriginal race in New Spain lived in villages, it is in these that we must seek to study their social condition, because, as I have already said, only the majority in any aggregation can repre- sent it, in whatever sense one may interpret the representa- tion.
Under the Aztec regime the Indians of the villages paid heavy tribute to the sacerdotal and military castes and also to the Crown. They were bound to military duty and to service without remuneration in certain civil positions, and to interminable campaigns in the interests of an aggressive empire, which lightly provoked and undertook bloody and exhausting wars. Their legislation, like that of all bar- barous nations, was severe and abused the right of torture and the death penalty with unheard-of atrociousness.
It is impossible to doubt, putting aside the depredations and crime of the Conquerors, and after the abolition of the "encomiendas" in the seventeenth century, that the social condition of the aboriginal race was better than that of any people in the world, except the Anglo-Saxon peoples. The introduction by the Spaniards of live stock was an inestimable benefit to the aborigines, the use of horses, mules and asses relieving the Conquerors of the inevitable necessity of employing the Indians in the exhausting capacity of beasts of burden. All tributes heretofore levied were reduced to a single moderate tax under the head of poll-tax. The Indians were free from the arduous labors of war, being exempt from military service. They also enjoyed the privi- lege of not being under the jurisdiction of the tribunal of the Inquisition; and in the celebrated code, Legislation de Indias, many benevolent dispositions appear in favor of the Indians which greatly reduced their liability to the death penalty.
58 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
So far as economic conditions were concerned, the Indians were far above all the rural populations of the world except the English colonists of North America. The Indian re- ceived from the authorities representing the village in which he was a dweller, land equivalent to seven and one-half hectares, which lie was to cultivate in the capacity of life- owner. He could pasture his individual herds in communal lands, and he also had the right to cut whatever timber he needed from the hills for firewood and building purposes. He could also obtain permission to exploit these timber lands, and was permitted to keep the proceeds of any sales he might make. In return for these privileges the Indian was expected to make certain contributions to the public fund, which all historians agree to have been insignificant, and to furnish a certain quantity of seeds.
Under such a mild, paternal organization, one which might be readily envied by the rural inhabitants of any part of the world except the colonists of North America, the Indian would have lived in a bed of roses if the climate had been other than it was.
In the abstract, agricultural lands cannot be said to be either rich or poor or to figure in the economic problem; climatic conditions will be the key-note of their fertility. For the intellectual as well as for the ignorant Mexican, it suffices that land be unusually fertile to be described as marvellously rich. Now, marvellously rich lands are those which lend themselves to continual, or almost continual, cultivation, assuring a large profit for the owner. Agri- culture, besides fertile land, demands water, heat, light, favorable winds, electricity and magnetism.
In Mexico all the favorable conditions except water are to be found; otherwise, even with a regular rainfall, the Mexican lands could not have reached the degree of exploi- tation that their fertility made possible. Agriculture draws its necessary water supply from snow that is absorbed by
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the earth; from streams that intersect the lands; from showers that gently nourish; from an average rainfall in all the months of the year; from two rainy seasons in the same territory; from a single rainy season, covering a given area of territory, at different times of the year, in different sec- tions. In Mexico the most unfavorable of all conditions prevails — one rainy season a year, short and irregular, and embracing the entire Mexican territory.
Few persons understand the moral effect that this un- favorable condition has had upon the work and the progress of the nation. The planter, be he proprietor or laborer, must have land that lends itself to cultivation during the entire farming year; that is, three hundred days, or at least three-fourths of the farming year. And when it is a ques- tion of the alimentation of human beings and of the raising of products suitable for the manufacture of fabrics for clothing, it is evident that the tiller of the soil can do so to advantage only when he can work it for the greater part of the year.
As Mexico has but one rainy season of four months the nation had inevitably to fall under the scourge of this re- stricted food production. An agriculture destined to carry a nation into the first ranks of civilization must be an agri- culture capable of producing a variety of food products. As corn, however, is almost exclusively the food of the greater part of the Mexican people, it must necessarily follow that they aim to make the most of the one short, irregular rainy season for its cultivation. And as this cultivation, what- ever may be the time it lasts in the temperate and cold lands, does not afford the owner or the laborer more than from one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty working days, it follows that the great agricultural popula- tion of Mexico, which at one time was made up exclusively of the aboriginal race, can count for its laboring class only upon one hundred and twenty working days a year at the
60 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
most, and for its proprietor class upon one hundred and twenty business days. What can this working population do to support itself, or to progress with its work, during the two-thirds of the year it is forced to be idle? Plant other products? How irrigate them? No, as I have already said, as Mexico has no snow-covered lands, no two- fold rainy season, no average rainfall during all the year, not even a long rainy season of seven or eight months, the population engaged in the corn-raising industry is obliged to suspend field work for eight months of the year, even though they may not be consecutive.
Could this agricultural population at any time have dedi- cated itself to industrial pursuits during the time it could not work in the fields? No, because Mexico is not, nor has it ever been, an industrial nation. The only industry that flourished during the Colonial epoch was the mining in- dustry, and this, according to Baron Humboldt, afforded work to only 30,000 men. Could this agricultural popula- tion have taken up extensive cattle raising? No, because in the agricultural region, properly so called, the stubble grazing lands are bad for cattle. The winds in the foot- hills, coming generally from the north and traversing the immense hot, dry deserts, gradually lose their humidity, and when they reach the central plateau, their hygrometric de- gree, already quite low, makes them act as huge evaporating machines which draw the moisture from the ground and scorch the pastures. The cattle of the central plateau are obliged to graze during eight months of the year in parched and burnt pastures of an inferior quality under which they degenerate notably, presenting a miserable, sickly appearance. On the other hand, the number of workers employed even in extensive cattle raising is very small in comparison with the number required for extensive agricul- ture.
Neither could the agricultural population, idle during
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two-thirds of the year, transform itself into merchants, con- sidering that it represents eighty-five per cent of the total population. Not being able to turn to manufacturing, cat- tle raising, commerce or even fishing — for the death-dealing climate has swept the waters of our shores clean of almost all piscine life — this unfortunate agricultural population has found itself obliged to resign itself to two calamities: live for the entire year upon the earnings of one hundred and twenty days' work, and submit to a life of idleness, fulfilling the sentence of the well-known Spanish proverb: "La ociosidad es la madre de todos los vicios" (Idleness is the mother of all vices) . It is the climate that has made the Indian lazy, apathetic, lethargic, poor and vicious.
Moreover, nature has not only heavily handicapped Mexico in the matter of rainfall and wind currents, but it has imposed still another stupendous handicap. The high central plateau is surrounded by mountains which keep it at a varying altitude of from between 2,000 and 2,200 meters above the sea level, excepting in the Bajio region, which is over 120 kilometers in length. The annual rain- fall in the central plateau is excellent, as total annual pre- cipitation, and, as I have already mentioned, meteorological observations embracing the past fifty years only note one case of minimum precipitation of 300 millimeters; the maximum is from 800 to 900 millimeters, and the mean equals those of the most fertile districts of France. From this volumin- ous quantity of water, shed upon these immense mountain ranges that surround the central plateau, mighty rivers ought to spring, which, flowing through the foot-hills and toward the north, once they had passed the Bajio, would fertilize the line of deserts from the Valle del Salado to the end of the Bolson de Mapimi. But it occurred to Mother Nature to place still another handicap upon the Mexicans — an abominable geological configuration.
As a general thing, the mountain ranges, instead of shed-
62 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
ding the water received by the watersheds which touch the foot-hills, drink it with avidity, carrying it down to great depths, and finally ejecting it upon the rugged surface of the watersheds which unite the foot-hills with the coast. As these are narrow the result is that from the sides of the huge mountain chain streams jut forth which might be utilized for motor power, but which are not available for navigation or irrigation.
As there are only three rivers in the foot-hills, the Atoyac, the Panuco and the Rio Lerma — called "Rio Grande" after it leaves the Laguna de Chapala — all for the most part insignificant in the higher lands, it is not possible to obtain irrigation or motor power, so indispensable in the agricul- tural problem, at low cost in the foot-hills.
The populations that live upon wheat and corn must grind the grain in order to convert it into flour or pulp suitable for culinary purposes. The windmill has been the saving device of farming populations, but in Mexico, for reasons well known to the real student of economics, wind- mills have not given satisfaction; the self-evident proof being that their use has not spread, although they have been known since the time of the Spanish Conquest and were for Mexican agriculturists of great and urgent neces- sity. This failure to generalize the use of the windmill has kept the aborigines wedded to the calamitous mistake of turning the mother of the family into a corn-grinding ma- chine. The process of reducing to pulp corn that has been soaked in hot water and softened in lye water, a purely me- chanical labor which at best ought not to take more than a quarter of an hour if done by a mill, consumes eight hours or more, reducing the woman to the level of a beast of burden and depriving the home of a revenue equal to one- half a day's wages. The woman grinds corn all the year and loses in the three hundred days of arduous work the equivalent of one hundred and fifty days' wages; that is to
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say, she loses more than the Indian makes in the whole year cultivating corn, which affords only one hundred and twenty working days. In the event that windmills are not used, an agricultural people can turn to motor power, not of falls, but of river currents applied to mills. These can be built on both banks of a river and along its entire length, wherever the current is sufficient to produce the power. But as Mexico lacks rivers as well, it would seem that nature has denied to this farming nation all of the power- ful assets that would assure its wTell-being and advancement. With the assured rainfall, the winter snows and other advantages common in England, France and Belgium, and in the greater part of Germany, Hungary and Poland, Mexico would have raised the aboriginal race to a consid- erable height, albeit it is — with all due respect to other opinions — an inferior race. China, peopled by an inferior race, possesses flourishing agriculture, and the condition of its enormous population is satisfactory. Mexico, with the rainfall conditions that prevail in France, would have at- tracted a large percentage of white immigrants, who by intermarriage would have modified the Mexican race, and Mexico at the present time would be a nation of 50,000,- ooo or 60,000,000 inhabitants, rich, educated, happy; its strength an ample guarantee that the United States would never attempt to dispute its sovereignty, and that no Ameri- can President would ever dare, as Mr. Wilson has dared, in the guise of a socialist apostolate, to amuse himself with its very existence and civilization. As I have demon- strated, a country, which on account of its physical condi- tions can only afford work for the majority of its inhabitants for one-third of the year, must be a poverty-stricken coun- try. The total production of the 15,000,000 Mexicans, on a general average and for a single year, is $20 per inhabit- ant; the production of a Cuban, not a model of industry, almost reaches $100 a year; the average German, the type
64 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
of the first-class workman, produces $400 a year. If Luis Cabrera, the brains of the Mexican revolution, as his friends have called him, has said: "La Revolution es la Revo- lution" (A revolution is a revolution), one may rightfully answer "La Ctencia es la Ciencia" (Science is Science). This will not be scoffed at by the revolution, and will deal the Mexican nation its death blow, unless saved by the apparition of almost supernatural Mexicans.
It is unreasonable to attribute the misery of the indige- nous race to a determinate social class, which in no sense ever constituted a government; to a group of educated men, such as the so-called Cientificos; to a handful of plutocrats, more or less piratical financiers; to a dictator of genuine merit, such as General Porfirio Diaz, or to a detestable dictator, such as General Victoriano Huerta. Mexico's greatest drawback is to be found in the unfortunate physical conditions which have created the vices, the weakness and the dejection of its people. It is regrettable that it should have occurred to a man of President Wilson's qualifications to attempt lightly to solve the problem of life or death for a nation with no more reliable data than stupid newspaper stores, the theories of wise coxcombs, the diatribes of dema- gogues, the hypocritical declamations and wild howls of the bandits and of the incompetent or mercenary American agents or consuls, paid to deceive the Sage of the White House and the American people.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE INFERIORITY OF THE INDIGENOUS RACE
Notwithstanding the drawbacks of the Mexican climate, the aboriginal race might have advanced, might even have claimed a first place among the nations of the world, if it had not been an inferior race. The wonderful Mexican lands would have yielded incalculable commercial wealth if
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the disadvantages presented by the climate — even in the cen- tral plateau — owing to the irregular rainfall, had been over- come by irrigation. Why did not the aborigines dedicate themselves after the Conquest to obtaining water for their marvellous lands? Ignorant and severe critics of the Colon- ial Government have replied with emphasis: Because the Roman Catholic clergy obliged the aborigines to devote only the strictly necessary time to agriculture; that is, the time necessary to provide themselves with food, making them de- vote the rest to building churches and convents. This view has not failed to color the opinions of even intelligent Mexi- cans and those, in fact, of all Latin-Americans. It is at the door of the Catholic Church, then, that the misery of the indigenous race is to be laid. For men of science this opin- » ion is ridiculous and worthless. In the census made by the Spanish Government in 1793; in the third volume of Dr. Mora's excellent work, Mexico y sus Revoludones ; and in the statistical note of the celebrated liberal leader, Don Mig- uel Lerdo de Tejada, the total cost of all the churches and convents is estimated at 300,000,000 pesos silver, at a time when this equaled more than 300,000,000 pesos gold. In the three centuries covered by the Colonial regime there were 90,000 working days, and it would have sufficed for 22,2OO Indians, working at a minimum wage of fifteen cents per day, to have built during that period all the churches and convents that were to be found in New Spain at the time of the Declaration of Independence. The Colonial population of 2,000,000, existing after the Conquest, and the 3,500,000 indigenous population, existing in 1803, are included in the Colonial population of 5,000,000 designated by Baron Humboldt. Therefore, during the three hundred years of the Colonial regime, there was an average of 550,000 adult Indians who were able to work. Deducting the number needed by the clergy for the construction of churches and convents, and even duplicating this number,
66 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
there remained 500,000 men who could have devoted then selves to agriculture during the three hundred days of tt farming year: to corn-raising for one hundred and twent days, and to the construction of irrigation plants during tt remaining one hundred and eighty days.
The labor of 500,000 Indians for 180 days each year fc 300 years, at twenty-five cents gold per day, represents working capital of 6,700,000,000 pesos gold. According 1 the calculations of the Department of Fomento, publishe in 1909, 1,600,000,000 pesos silver, or 800,000,000 pest gold, devoted to the development of irrigation works, woul suffice to insure a production sufficient to abundantly feed population of 25,000,000. It would have sufficed, then, 72,500 Indians had devoted 180 days a year for 300 years 1 irrigation work to have amply assured a prosperous existent to 25,000,000 Mexicans.
The fifth part of the 500,000 Indian workmen — whic was the average during the Colonial period — would ha^ sufficed to construct irrigation works which would ha^ been adequate to meet the needs of a population of 25,000 ooo, and to build churches and convents at the rate of sixl per cent more than those they built. By sending io,oc of their companions to work in the mines, shifting the gangs each week and assuming the responsibility of the support, their earnings of seventy-five cents gold per d'< (the sum paid at that time to a pickman) could have bee accumulated, thus enabling the Indians to eventually colle enough money to obtain everything necessary to undertal and successfully carry out some system of irrigation. I s; everything necessary advisedly, because they could have er ployed the best Spanish engineers, who would have charge them far less than that horde of lawyers — for the most pa scoundrels — who looked after the interests of the Indians ar who were the initiators of absurd litigations, artfully pr longed in order to despoil their unfortunate clients.
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The Indians were well aware that irrigation was the only possible means to overcome the natural deficiency of the water supply, as they had helped in the construction of many of the irrigation works, some of them very important, such as the famous dam of the Arroyo Zarco, built by the Jesuits on one of their plantations. It will be seen, then, that the failure of the aboriginal race to progress in agriculture, at the same rate that the Chinese, the Dutch and the Swiss have progressed, is due to the fact that it is an inferior race.
The Church, and also the Spanish and Creole landown- ers, built great irrigation plants on their properties. All wheat, with the exception of a very insignificant amount, that has been cultivated in Mexico from the Colonial period to the present time, has been raised by means of irrigation. And the wheat crop equals the fourth part of the corn crop.
The landowners and the friars, notwithstanding their backwardness, their love of routine, their unscientific meth- ods, their lack of interest in agriculture and their indiffer- ence to the public good, managed to irrigate a great portion of the arable lands. They did not include the corn-raising lands because the majority of the population, possessors of equally valuable lands, were engaged in corn-raising and, be- ing as free to sell their products as the Spaniard and the Creole, and able to live more abstemiously than the latter, it was not a paying investment for them to sink great sums of money in irrigation plants, when their competitors were willing to dispose of their crops at a much lower figure than they were able to quote.
It may be urged that the Indians were not properly di- rected. That is no doubt true. But upon whom was it in- cumbent to direct them? The Government? This was not the epoch in which the Spanish Government, much less the Colonial, busied itself about agricultural studies, about try- ing to instruct a population which could not read by means of pamphlets, books or newspapers. But the Colonial Gov-
68 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
ernment did do for the aborigines what it was bound to do in conformity with the political and administrative tenets of the time, and that was to leave the Indians perfectly free to administer their affairs through their village authorities. The English colonists in North America did not receive scien- tific instruction, direction or subsidies from the local or cen- tral government; they progressed under their own efforts and initiative simply because they belonged to a superior race. The Mexican Indians were not able to do this be- cause they belong, according to the decrees of natural history, ethnology, general history and sociology, to an inferior race, slow to develop and progress along the lines of civilization. In fine, the Mexican indigenous race owes its abject condi- tion to itself, and, consequently, its future is dark, inasmuch as it has blindly plunged into the abyss, tricked by false and unenlightened leaders.
THE VAMPIRES THAT PREYED ON THE ABORIGINAL RACE
It may be well now to examine how much of truth there is in the oft-repeated assertion of the rapacious exploitation of this interesting aboriginal race by the Spanish conquerors and their Creole descendents. According to the critics, his- torians, philanthropists, liberators and reformers, political poets and poets of politics, those responsible for the civil ex- ploitation of the aborigines have been the following: The Spanish plutocracy, which, during the Colonial period, en- joyed a monopoly in Mexico of the sale of merchandise of Spanish manufacture, and of foreign manufacture adapted to Spanish tastes; the clergy, regular and secular, in its most corrupt period, when the great revolution of the Protestant Reformation was hurled against it; the landhold- ers and the Creole military leaders, generally dictators. The burden of the song of the revolutionists has been that all the misfortunes of the Indians, capable of wringing tears from
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the eyes of a crocodile, can be laid at the door of their tra- ditional enemies: the plutocratic retail merchants of the Colonial period; the clergy; the landholder and the army.
In point of fact, almost none of the great Mexican for- tunes was amassed by agriculture, even though their pos- sessors were landholders, and few owe their origin to min- ing. Almost all came from the retail trade of the pluto- cratic merchants who had the monopoly of the outside com- merce of New Spain, selling their wares at an advance of five hundred per cent on the original cost. It cannot be de- nied that this class was well versed in the art of draining the pockets of the colonists and transferring their gold to their own coffers. But the truth is that all the inhabitants of New Spain, except the natives themselves, were more or less the victims of the cupidity of the plutocratic retail merchants.
There was only one way of being exploited by those who enjoyed the monopoly of outside commerce, and that was by using articles of Spanish or foreign manufacture. The In- dian's chief articles of consumption were corn, beans, pep- pers, salt and water, and as a beverage a species of rum (aguardiente) and pulque, the well-known drink extracted from the maguey. None of these articles was of either Span- ish or foreign manufacture, nor were heavy duties imposed to protect foreign manufacturers. The Indian clothed him- self in an unbleached cotton fabric (mania), and as Mex- ico from the time of the Aztecs produced cotton as an in- digenous product at a very low price — lower than in any other part of the wrorld — this was a domestic product. The Indians were always very skillful in weaving cotton stuffs at home, and Spain never forbade or restricted this labor. They wore palm hats made by the Indians; leather sandals (huaraches) made by the Indians from native hides; used stone grinding blocks (metates) chiseled by the Indians from native stone; earthen griddles (comales), made by the In- dians of the ordinary native clay; slept on straw mats
70 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
(petates) woven by the Indians from the Mexican tule plant. Their houses or huts were built of sun-baked bricks (adobes) , the doors and roofs were of Mexican wood, hewn, sawed and fashioned by the constructor himself, in which no window glass, latches, hinges, or any other articles of foreign manu- facture whatsoever were to be found. And it is well to add that there were no Colonial taxes, direct or indirect, upon any of the articles that have been mentioned or for their manufacture. This supposed exploitation of the Indian by the Spanish plutocratic retail merchant class, which in reality was bent upon getting the most out of the work and capital of the colonists, is humbug.
The accusers of the Spanish and Creoles charge the clergy with having exploited the Indians in the following manner:
First, by charging them tithes, the first-fruits of their farms and herds, and parochial perquisites consisting of fees for baptisms, confirmations, marriages and funerals.
Second, by enkindling the natural fanaticism of the Indians to induce them to expend their savings and even go in debt in order to make offerings to the Church of various articles, especially wax candles, on the patronal feast of the village or the plantation, in Holy Week, at Christmas and on the feasts of All Saints and All Souls.
I am not going to discuss the conduct of the Church from a theological, moral, canonical, humanitarian, or, in gen- eral, sociological aspect ; but I shall say that if there was any- thing reprehensible in the conduct of the Church, it was not especially directed against the Indians, nor were such wrongs especially invented to exploit them. The Catholic Church was an institution, as it continues to be, of an universal char- acter, and just as she treated the Indians has she treated the black, yellow and white races which have been subject to her. It is not possible to make a specific charge against the Church with regard to the Indians, nor to say that they suf- fered more at her hands than the Catholics of other races or
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 71
other nations. If the Indian allowed himself to be exploited by the Church he did only what all other rural peoples, what all men, if we come to that, did in the Ages of Faith. The Indian was a man and, as such, subject to the powerful re- ligious sentiment, carried to the point of fanaticism, which characterized all peoples in that period when the form of government was markedly theocratic. This question is not of individual application but essentially general, comprising all races, religions and clergies. The Aztec sacerdotal body exacted of the Indians heavier contributions and more ardu- ous labors, under pain of harsher punishment, than the Catho- lic clergy ever did.
If the Indian himself did not consider that a wrong was done him by the Church, it seems hardly necessary to take up this point. If we grant that the Indian had the capacity to become a Catholic, and as a Catholic had liberty of con- science within the Church, no one has a right to censure him if he sacrificed all he had for the Church he loved, just as we approve, applaud and extol a man who gives every- thing, even life itself, for the glory and defense of his coun- try. To the believer, country cannot come before God, and it is unethical, idiotic and incongruous to assert that the man who sacrifices everything to his God is to be censured and the one who sacrifices everything to his country is to deserve the undying homage of posterity. No one has ever held that a legitimate government does wrong in exhorting its subjects to sacrifice everything for their country, preferring its ex- altation to their own private interests. The Church, viewed from the religious standpoint, is the fatherland of the soul, and has, in the eyes of the faithful, the infallible and eternal sovereign right of exacting all manner of sacrifices, even the sacrifices of all one's earthly possessions.
The Colonial Government did not exploit, nor did it per- mit the bureaucracies to exploit, the Indian villages. For them the exchequer had neither claws nor hooks, nor confis-
72 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
cations by means of direct or indirect taxes. In fact, the Colonial exchequer was benign in its treatment of the In- dian, so benign, indeed, that even after one hundred years of independence the Indians of the state of Oaxaca, the most numerous, compact and unmixed race that exists in the coun- try, still pay the Colonial tribute with pleasure and scrupu- lous punctuality.
The critics of the Colonial regime point to the landhold- ers, or rather to the great planters in general, as the in- satiable exploiters of the natives. Without entering exten- sively into the question, I shall, however, say that the Indians subject to the plantation owners — while Mexico was still New Spain — constituted a small minority as compared to the independent Indians who resided in their villages. Con- sequently, it cannot be said that the plantation owners tyran- nized over the native race, because the majority of that race was outside their jurisdiction. The most that can be said of the planters is that during the Colonial period and during that of independence, down to 1857, they tyrannized over a minority of the natives.
THE REAL EXPLOITERS OF THE INDIANS
The implacable despoilers of the Indians were the "gov- ernors" of the Indian villages, and in this respect condi- tions have not changed up to the present time. The Colonial Government, however, was always on the alert, as we shall presently see. When there had been a series of good crops, the Indian, in order to establish an individual business, de- voted himself to raising fowls and hogs, sheep and asses; bought one or two cows and even some goats ; sold eggs, but- ter, cheese, lard, dried salt meat, sausage, cracknel and other products. The Colonial Government, seeing that he was being literally robbed by the Creoles, mestizos and even by cunning Indians, ordered that the governor of the village
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 73
should supervise all commercial transactions and approve only those which in his estimation were honest and legiti- mate. This, however, only added to the evil. The gov- ernors leagued with the unscrupulous trader, and became in the end the most pitiless of the Indian's despoilers. It should be mentioned that the governor had to be chosen from among the Indians of the village he governed; there- fore, it follows that the Indians were wantonly robbed by their own. In other words, the Indian was the despoiler of the Indian.
Aware that this infamous state of affairs existed, the Colonial Government resolved to put a check upon the na- tive governors by appointing Creole or mestizo lawyers, called "protectors of the Indians," whose duty was to watch and restrain the Indian governor. But history repeats itself. The vigilant lawyer and the astute governor combined forces, and the unfortunate Indian was literally stripped. It is evi- dent, then, that the Indian himself, in league with the Creole and the mestizo, was the greatest exploiter of the majority of the Indians and, consequently, the most expert despoiler of the indigenous race. In the year 1871, when the railroad from the City of Mexico to the port of Vera Cruz was being built, the English engineers and contractors were surprised to find that they could not hire native labor in the state of Oaxaca and in parts of that of Vera Cruz, without going first to the cacique (chief) of the village, legally known as Municipal President. This vampire contracted for one hun- dred, two hundred or more workmen at the rate of seventy- five cents gold a day. At the end of the week he received the pay for the men and gave them only one-half, so the Indian in reality received only thirty-seven and one-half cents per day. This conduct, worthy of a Turk or a Kaffir, was known to the Indians, because the construction com- pany took pains to enlighten them, even spreading broad- cast printed circulars stating that the company was paying,
74 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
and would pay, to all workmen employed by them seventy- five cents gold per day. But, notwithstanding the fact that they knew the contents of this circular, and that they had the support of this powerful company, as well as that of the local and Federal press, and the protection of an Indian President, Benito Juarez, the Indians did not disavow the authority of their caciques, but supinely allowed themselves to be mercilessly robbed. A race that submits to such out- rages, and looks upon them as acts of an authority that is to be revered and respected, is a race that promises to be as slow to yield to the advances of civilization as rocks are to the action of the ocean.
EVERY ONE AGAINST THE INDIAN
The planters have been accused of treating their Indian servants with haughtiness and disdain. It is true, but what the accusers conceal is that the bureaucrats, political and non-political, have ever accorded the same treatment to the Indian. It is only the demagogues who love, venerate, exalt and protect them in their harangues, when they think it will help to secure their votes or obtain universal applause, bringing them favorably before the public and making them feared by the Government. Even the most ragged, unwashed, vicious loafer of the cities assumes an air of su- periority and the tone of a potentate toward the unfortu- nate Indian. The best proof that all Mexico looks upon the Indian as an inferior, is that every one addresses him in the familiar form of "tu" (which expresses confidence and affec- tion when addressed to an equal, but condescension when directed toward an inferior), and that every one orders him about as though he were a slave. This attitude of imaginary superiority is not found exclusively among the Mexican Cre- oles and mestizos, but in every part of Latin-America where there are domesticated Indians. We do not have to go
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 75
further back than forty years to find the time when a popu- lation was divided into "gentes de razon" (rational beings) and Indians; and at the present time the population of mes- tizos is designated "gentes de razon," in counter distinction to the Indians.
The Indians know full well that all — Creoles, mestizos, rich and poor, honorable and dishonorable — have trampled on them in the past, are trampling on them at present, and propose to do so in the future. That is why the leaders of the movement to restore the Indian to his proper sphere, all of them full-blooded Indians, have proclaimed a caste war to the point of extermination against mestizos and whites, as did the negroes of Santo Domingo. The terrible bandit chief of the Sierra de Alica, a full-blooded Indian and the idol of the Indians of the Nayarit, in his declara- tion of December, 1873, when he took command of his army of 18,000 men, reminded them that in order that their race, the indigenous race, should recover all its dignity, all its honor, all its lands, all its wealth and fulfill the Indian ideal, it was indispensable that in the confines of all the vast Mexican territory there remain not a single living man other than the Indian. These same ideas have been revived in 1914 and 1915 by the Zapata press, and in the Convention of Aguascalienr.es and in that of the City of Mexico, by the full-blooded Indian leaders, who have told their comrades that those who propose to guide Indians should not have a drop of foreign blood in their veins. All that herd — in which, of course, there are some notable exceptions — of Creole and mestizo agitators, self-appointed saviours of the race, would be annihilated by the Indians if they obtained the ascendency, and they would richly deserve it, as it is to this venal class that the Indian owes most of his great mis- fortunes. •
76 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
THE REVOLUTIONARY LEGEND OF THE LANDHOLDERS
Various elements have contributed to the growth in the Mexican public mind of the fable of a luxurious landholding class, gross oppressors of the rural people, or, more correctly, of what has lately become the fad — the indigenous race. Among these may be counted, the voraciousness of the bureaucracy, the ignorance of the newcomers, the chagrin of the defeated, the visions of patriots and the illusions of students.
Landholders of this type existed in the early Colonial period — landholders such as the Conde del Valle de Oriza- ba, who owned seventy-seven plantations in the central pla- teau, and the Marques de San Miguel de Aguayo, who owned 1,000,000 hectares in the section which is now com- prised by the states of Durango and Coahuila. But the concentration of arable lands into great plantations has al- most entirely disappeared. The present planter's land is made up of from second- to fourth-rate grazing ground, bare mountains and stretches of arid desert. One of the Mexican planters of this latter type is the famous Don Luis Terrazas. He undoubtedly possessed 6,000,000 hectares of land in the state of Chihuahua, but only 4,000 hectares of this was arable land.
A Mexican planter, as a rule, possesses a minimum of arable land, a considerable tract of summer stubble grazing ground, some woodlands, a goodly collection of barren mountains and a great stretch of unimproved land, utterly worthless because of its inferior quality. This statement can be proved by absolutely indisputable facts. Not even ten per cent of the mountains are timbered, and the balance are either huge, naked rocks or are covered with a lifeless kind of growth that depresses rather than raises the spirits of the enterprising worker.
Those 70,000,000 hectares of worthless lands, comprising
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 77
a territory greater than the whole of France, have owners, and there are consequently in Mexico landholders whose assets equal naught. Proprietors of this description cannot be said to be a hindrance to the indigenous, or any other race, their only office being apparently to serve as targets for the shots of the agitators who constantly point them out as the rapacious plunderers of the marvellous lands belong- ing to the Mexican people.
Don Jose Lorenzo Cossio, a sincere and self-denying friend of the indigenous race, and a professed partisan of the division of land, in his treatise on rural lands in Mexico, published in 1911, says: "It is true that the people lack land, but it is false to say that it is due to the great concessions of the Colonial period.
"To demonstrate this I give, in appendix No. I, a list of some of the ancient landowners, and it can be stated that scarcely one of their descendents has at the present time any interest in them. . . .
"This dismemberment of the land has been due mainly to partial sales and testamentary successions, but there have been other causes which have influenced the subdivision on a greater scale."1
After enumerating the causes that influenced the subdi- vision of the lands that were possessed by individuals, Senor Cossio declares that the monopoly of property was re- established by the dictatorship of General Diaz. He says: "But more especially the monopolistic and property- rights- destroying policy of the Government has made pass into the hands of the few what was once enjoyed by the many."2
According to the data presented by Senor Cossio, whose treatise is entirely favorable to the revolutionary thesis, the Mexican Government from 1857 to I9°6 came into pos-
1 Jose Lorenzo Cossio, Como y por quienes se ha monopolizado la propiedad rustica de Mexico? pp. 5, 6, 7.
2 Jose Lorenzo Cossio, Folleto, p. 32.
78 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
session of 72,335,907 hectares. Of this 13,764,607 hectares were adjudicated according to the laws promulgated by Pres- ident Benito Juarez and former administrations. Senor Cossio has nothing to say about these as they were adjudi- cated to more than ten thousand claimants. He reserves his censure for the alienation by the Porfirio Diaz Govern- ment of more than 58,000,000 hectares which were distrib- uted almost gratuitously among twenty-eight of the Presi- dent's friends. With regard to this Senor Cossio has writ- ten: "It is for this reason that this law has been the one that has most profoundly affected the land problem; and it may be said that in great part it served to prepare the pres- ent revolt, because it has once more monopolized the na- tional territory, despoiling the many to enrich the few."1
Senor Cossio submits the following official data concern- ing the survey of unclaimed lands made during the dictator- ship of General Diaz.
States and territories which were surveyed Hectares
Chihuahua 14,612,366
Baja California 11,604,584
Sonora 3,216,394
Durango 789,009
Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango and Tamaulipas 5,214,306
Chihuahua and Durango 1,043,099
Chiapas 328,016
Yucatan 251,878
Tabasco 780,176
Vera Cruz 45>8s6
Sinaloa 45>98i
Puebla 73,^73
Oaxaca 60,701
San Luis Potosi 12,543
Guanajuato 5,i66
Islas del Golfo de Cortes 164,098
Total 38,247,346
1 Jose Lorenzo Cossio, Folleto, p. 34.
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 79
Rhumt
Unclaimed lands surveyed in the northern states occu- pied by extensive mountain chains, immense deserts and from second- to fourth-rate summer stubble
grazing ground, and scarcely any arable land 36,689,837
In the warm zone 1,539,800
In the temperate and cold zones I7>7°9
Total 38,247,346
The remainder of the lands surveyed up to the 58,000,- ooo hectares present the same desolate appearance. The work was suspended in 1891, and the lands surveyed later were surveyed under concessions, with the results given in the foregoing table.
Almost all the surveying has been done in the arid zone, comprising immense deserts, salt plains and gigantic moun- tains, where an insignificant minimum of workable land exists. Deducting from these surveyed lands some of the good territory of the temperate zone of the state of Chiapas, and those of the Yaquis in the state of Sonora, which occupy a small area of that state, there are not to be found in the much-talked-of 58,000,000 hectares of land snatched from the Mexican people by the covetousness of the mighty, even 15,000 hectares of lands suitable for the cultivation of cereal and leguminous products. From the year 1840 all the arable lands in the northern states had passed into the hands of the inhabitants of these states, who held them by legal titles or by that of prescription. It is true that General Diaz by his law of unclaimed lands, promulgated in favor of his friends, constituted great landholdings which were afterwards transferred by them to foreign enterprises. But these were composed of those lands which did not pro- duce food for the people and which could not be constituted into small holdings; neither could they be distributed among poor ranchers, because the summer stubble grazing ground of this section, smaller by far than the absolutely desert
8o WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
land, is under the ban of frequent and tremendous droughts which kill the cattle. To derive any profit from these, the investment of great capital would have been nec- essary in order to install hydraulic plants to overcome en- tirely, or at least in a measure, the natural deficiencies.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE LANDHOLDERS
In the central plateau, where almost all the lands adapted to the cultivation and cereal and leguminous products are to be found, there are no landholders who could, to any great extent, injure the interests of the poor class, because the plantation that exceeds 1,000 hectares of arable land is the exception. The following facts will amply bear this out.
According to the carefully prepared statistics of the De- partment of Fomento, forty per cent of the total corn pro- duction is grown in Guanajuato, Jalisco and Michoacan, the joint area of which is 173,810 square kilometers, and deducting from these the mountains, ravines, the precipitous plains, the great lakes of Chapala, Patzcuaro and Cuitzeo, there remain 50,000 square kilometers for agriculture and cattle-raising. These three states, which produce forty per cent of all the corn available for the maintenance of the Mexican nation, comprise 1,114 plantations and 9,515 ranches, according to Vol. IX, p. 495, of the General Sta- tistics of the Mexican Republic.
The area of land suitable for cultivation or cattle raising represents sixty per cent of the available 50,000 square kilo- meters of the states we have under consideration; conse- quently, each of the 1,114 plantations has an average area of 1 8 square kilometers or 1,800 hectares. And it must also be borne in mind that the summer stubble grazing ground pre- dominates over the arable land, bearing out what I have
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 81
said that it is an exception in the most fertile states of the Republic, which enjoy the most favorable rainfall conditions, to find plantations of more than 1,000 hectares. An aver- age area of 320 hectares may be approximately assigned to the 9,515 ranches located in these states. It cannot be said, then, that the situation in that part of the Republic which produces forty per cent of the corn consumed by the Mex- ican people is such as to inspire rage and to call forth an- athemas against the landholders. What has been said of the plantations of this section is true of all those to be found south of the 22d parallel of north latitude.
PRESIDENT WILSON^ DOUBLE SCALES AND MEASURES
President Wilson has thundered against the Mexican landholders, whose position has inspired his avowed parti- sanship for the revolutionists, a partisanship, however, which the President himself has not yet qualified as a hindrance or a help: "Whether we have benefited Mexico by the course we have pursued remains to be seen" (Address to Congress, December 7, 1915).
President Wilson has said through the columns of The Saturday Evening Post: "It is a curious thing that every demand for the establishment of order in Mexico takes into consideration, not order for the benefit of the people of Mex- ico, the great mass of the population, but order for the bene- fit of the old-time regime, for the aristocrats, for the vested interests, for the men who are responsible for this very con- dition of disorder. No one asks for order because order will help the masses of the people to get a portion of their rights and their land; but all demand it so that the great owners of property, the overlords, the hidalgos, the men who have exploited that rich country for their own selfish purposes, shall be able to continue their processes undis-
82 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
turbed by the protests of the people from whom their wealth and power have been obtained."1
"They want order — the old order; but I say to you that the old order is dead. It is my part, as I see it, to aid in composing those differences so far as I may be able, that the new order, which will have its foundation on human liberty and human rights shall prevail."2
If President Wilson is the implacable adversary of the landholder, why has he not proceeded against the Cuban landholder, since his voice is heard in Cuba and his counsels are respected? Why has he not trained the masked and un- masked batteries of his political policy upon Cuba, instigat- ing a social revolution in case his admonitions are not heeded, shielding it with his powerful protection to the end ? There are still to be found in Cuba many families that possess good sugar-cane lands to the extent of 50,000, 100,- ooo and even 200,000 hectares. There is no prospect that these will be diminished in size by testamentary deeds, which would subdivide them among numerous descendents, because powerful stock companies have been formed for the purpose of developing the sugar-cane industry upon a large scale. The Chaparra Sugar Company, an American corporation, possesses more than 80,000 hectares of good sugar lands. The press of Havana in December, 1915, announced the formation of an Anglo-American Company with a capital of $50,000,000, which would hereafter dedicate itself to the sugar industry in the extensive territory it had acquired.
On Monday, December 27, 1915, El Mundo, an Havana daily, stated that a Mexican named Rios had been denounced to the Cuban Department of the Interior as an inciter of the laboring classes against the capitalist, and further stated that Senor Hevia, the Secretary of the Interior, had resolved to take radical measures against the agitator. The follow-
1 The Saturday Evening Post, Vol. 186, No. 47, May 23, 1914.
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 83
ing day El Heraldo, another Cuban journal, stated that Rios had called at its editorial offices saying that he was not an agitator, but simply a Mexican painter who had come to Cuba hoping to earn an honest living, which he had not been able to do in his own country. El Heraldo, although sus- taining the Cuban Government's policy of not admitting agitators, called attention to the advisability of resorting to rigorous measures only when guilt was proved or reasonable presumption of guilt existed. Doubtless, Mr. William Gon- zalez, the United States Minister to Cuba, would have con- gratulated President Menocal upon his intelligent and pa- triotic resolution to prosecute all agitators, who, it would seem, according to White House standards, should be per- mitted to carry out their nefarious trade undisturbed in Mexico only.
I do not censure the Cuban landholder, or the monopoliz- ing American or Anglo-Saxon enterprises, and much less President Menocal, because he did what General Porfirio Diaz did with unerring judgment when he governed Mexico sanely. Even when the agitator is a son of the soil and absolute freedom of the press exists, it is the duty of the press to uphold the inviolability of law and order. There is nothing more destructive of this supreme social need than the sinister gospel of war unto death, in the name of ven- geance, between the rich and the poor; vengeance for cen- turies of suffering — an irrational revenge, because no one can prove that all the misfortunes that have come upon humanity have emanated from the aristocracy, any more than any one can reasonably deny that without this aristocracy humanity would have perished.
Neither do I censure President Wilson's conduct with regard to Cuba. What I wish to do is simply to call atten- tion to a fact which will later help me to trace and define the real psychology of the President of the United States.
84 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
ANOTHER COLOSSAL LIE
The Mexican people, foreigners, and especially President Wilson, have been given to understand that the great ma- jority of the indigenous race was deprived of its collective ownership of lands, known as municipal lands, in order that they might be distributed among the inhabitants, thereby constituting them independent property owners; but that when this had been accomplished the great landholders, al- ways greedy for the best lands, and determined to keep the Indians in a position of servility, took advantage of their simplicity and, by paying them a mere pittance — a grave of- fence according to the Civil Code — literally robbed them of their share. Nothing can be further from the truth, and nothing has been more effective in arousing the sympathy and tricking the imagination of the ignorant.
According to the statistics published by Dr. Mora in 1845, and confirmed, in 1856, by one of the most distinguished re- form thinkers, Don Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, there were at that time in Mexico 2,860 plantations and as many ranches.
The following data are to be found in Vol. IX, p. 495, of the General Statistics compiled by the Mexican Govern- ment:
Mexican Republic
Cities 196
Towns 469
Villages 5>213
Plantations 8,873
Ranches 26,607
Small ranches 2,469
Hamlets 902
Settlements 924
Small farms 164
Road stations 250
Wayside provision stations 41
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 85
The records of the Federal states show that 2,082 villages are still in existence which preserve their ancient title to the municipal lands which surround them, this violation of the law being covered by entering them as "for common dis- tribution," although they have not been touched for fifty- eight years. This demonstrates that, counting individual and collective property owners, there were 42,311 property owners in Mexico previous to the revolution of 1910. It is especially to be noted that there were 2,800 ranches in 1856, and 26,607 in 1910.
From whence was the land represented by this great in- crease in the number of ranches derived. From the un- claimed lands? In the statistics only 3,726 ranches are enumerated in the states where unclaimed lands existed pre- vious to 1856, and there is an increase of 23,000 to be ac- counted for. Were they taken from the big plantations? Some may thus have come into being, but as a general thing the plantation owners when they needed money mortgaged their properties, and in order to meet the mortgages pre- ferred to lose the whole than to subdivide it. On the other hand, as the majority of the plantation owners carried heavy mortgages, they could not sell a portion of their territory without the consent of their creditors, and this could rarely be obtained. And if the planters ever sold, voluntarily or by order of their creditors, they always sold at a high figure.
The partisans of the Indians assert that the Indian prop- erty owners sold their lands at a ridiculously low figure ; but is it possible that, if lands of equal value were put upon the market, one at a high figure by the planter and the other at a low figure by the Indian, any one could be found who would pay an excessive amount for what he could buy at a ridiculously low price?
Something still remains to be said on this subject. The planters have wrestled for centuries with the pretensions of the Indians, who constantly invaded their territories from
86 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
their neighboring villages. The planter trembled before the shyster tribe that defended the Indians, and prolonged their cases interminably by all manner of chicaneries. The plan- tation that was in litigation with an Indian village depre- ciated in value and it was almost impossible to mortgage or sell it at an acceptable figure.
The ranchman is a mestizo of the rough-rider type, gen- erally very brave and adventurous, revelling in danger, fear- ing neither Indians, lawyers, nor artifices. When the In- dians invade his premises, he receives them with a pistol, follows them with a dagger, destroys, at the head of a guer- rilla band, half of their villages, hangs the chief, pursues the Municipal President with the arm of the law, and generally terrorizes them. It is the ranchman of this type who as a general thing furnishes the material for those terrible guer- rilla fighters, and the Indian villages stand in wholesome dread of the ranchmen of the neighborhood.
Most of the ranches which go to make up the total of the increase noted have come from land purchased at a paltry sum from the Indians, not by the planters but by the ranchmen.
As a natural consequence of the laws of dismemberment of all property held in common, the Mexican Indian villages have decreased in size and importance, ranging as small ranches, hamlets and settlements in the last years of their existence.
The statistics of the Department of Fomento confirm these facts. As the villages have deteriorated or disappeared altogether, the big and little ranches have increased. We have in fact:
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 87
States and Territories Villages Ranches
Nuevo Leon 4 1,040
Aguascalientes 6 305
Colima 9 X78
Lower California, Southern District.... 19 396
Sonora 1* 664
Sinaloa 228 1,708
Chihuahua 181 1,785
Coahuila 20 500
Durango 106 780
Tamaulipas 31 1,665
San Luis Potosi 19 1,102
Zacatecas 3° 1,241
Jalisco 182 3,712
Tepic 60 654
Guanaj uato 37 2,727
Michoacan 228 3,076
Queretaro 36 308
Vera Cruz 183 762
Tabasco 54 5^8
Campeche 36 148
Chiapas 105 399
Total 1,645 23,678
The following table gives the relative proportion between the villages and ranches, in the states where the former pre- dominate :
States and Territories Villages
Oaxaca 937
Mexico 725
Puebla 609
Hidalgo 438
Guerrero 313
Yucatan 154
Tlaxcala 125
Federal District 172
Morelos 107
Total 3,580 3,047
88 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
The foregoing tables demonstrate that the decline of the Indian villages has not given rise to the increase of large landholdings, as the agitators would have us believe, but that it has brought about the development of the ranches which represent the average smaller landholdings.
Considered from this point of view, the startling assertion that the landholders appropriated for their benefit the lands which the Indians sold at a paltry sum when the Reform Revolution made them independent property owners, cannot be looked upon as anything but a lie.
GROSS MISREPRESENTATION ABOUT THE STATE OF MORELOS
Many lies concerning a despicable landholding class in the state of Morelos, whose oppressions of the inhabitants have justified this outburst of passion and vengeance, have been freely circulated, and it is my purpose, for the benefit of all honest and intelligent persons, to analyze and destroy them.
The first to be attacked is the assertion that the state of Morelos is enormously rich. This fabrication is by no means modern ; it is the perennial fruit of the tree of undying Mexi- can vanity planted in the Colonial period. The area of the state of Morelos is 7,080 square kilometers, only one-tenth of which is suitable for cultivation. Morelos might lay claim to being enormously rich if ninety per cent of its territory was arable land and the remaining ten per cent unproduc- tive. As exactly the contrary is the case, truth seems to oblige us to say that Morelos is one of the poorest, instead of one of the richest, states in the Republic. To be exact it should be said that in the state of Morelos there are certain tracts, not very extensive, like the Canada of Cuernavaca and the Valle de Tetecala and that of Amilpas, which pos- sess rich lands.
President Wilson, his confidential envoy, Mr. Lind, Mr. Bryan and other distinguished Americans, were deeply
THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 89
stirred when they heard that the state of Morelos was prac- tically owned by thirty-two planters, who richly deserved ruin and even death because of this great crime. Dividing the superficial area of the state of Morelos by thirty-two, we find that every planter would have an average of 22,000 hectares of land. There are more than thirty-two planters in the Island of Cuba owning 22,000 hectares of land; but what is a virtue in Cuba, is a crime in Mexico, which calls for the attention of the President of the United States and the consecration of his best efforts to the promotion of a social revolution that is destroying the country. There is this notable difference between being a planter in Cuba and being a planter in the state of Morelos. I have read that in Cuba with 118 square kilometers of land one can pro- duce, not as the limit, but with considerable ease, 10,000,000 tons of sugar per year, which, estimated in dollars, equals $1,000,000,000. The state of Morelos can only produce 45,000 tons of sugar, not exceeding in value $5,000,000, which, divided among the thirty-two imaginary planters who have caused President Wilson so many sleepless nights, would amount to $156,000 for each as the gross receipts per year.
However, the data which have raised Mr. Wilson's al- truism to a tension of one hundred thousand volts are false. The number of planters engaged in the cultivation of sugar- cane is forty-five; and what has been most artfully con- cealed from the honest friends of the native race is that, be- sides the plantations, there are ninety-one ranches, owned in great part by ranchmen; that is, by men of the common class, and composed of the lands which were given to the Indians at the time that the law of dismemberment of lands held in common went into effect, and which were sold by them at paltry sums. It is true that some of the Morelos planters bought lands from the Indians who voluntarily sold them, but it is also true that the majority of these
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lands passed into the hands of the ranchmen. And now, as they can no longer buy any lands from the Indians because there are none to be had, the ranchmen have initiated the revolution to get the land and water away from the planters, keeping the marrow and giving the bone to the Indian. It should be noted also, that in the rural districts of Morelos the Indians are controlled by the ranchmen, among whom there are many active revolutionary leaders, and the re- mainder are the avowed partisans of the spoliation of the planters. The state of Morelos has only 70,000 hectares of arable land, as has already been said, and of these only 12,000 are devoted to the cultivation of sugar-cane and rice: 8,000 hectares to the former and 4,000 to the latter. All the rest is devoted to corn dry farming, which, however, is not done by the planter. The land is leased, the lessees being, as a rule, ordinary common people or ranchmen.
The terms of lease are such as to make it available to all persons who understand agriculture, and the most elemen- tary economic principles. The lands in Morelos are semi- tropical, and the arable land is as a rule good and not as exhausted as the cold and temperate lands of the central plateau. For the lease by the year of a lot comprising 5 hectares for the cultivation of corn by dry farming, which on an average produces 16 hectoliters per hectare, the farmer pays, instead of money, five loads, or ten hectoliters, of corn. In the five years previous to the revolution the price of a hectoliter of corn in Morelos, still in the hands of the harvester, was 3.50 pesos silver, so that the annual lease of 5 hectares was 35 pesos silver, or 7 pesos silver per hectare.
In the region of the central plateau one hectare of good land for corn dry farming is estimated at 300 pesos silver; the price doubling in the Bajio and near the City of Mex- ico. When the Chapingo plantation, which is situated about forty kilometers from the City of Mexico, was dismem-
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bered the price set was from 400 to 600 pesos per hectare. The boundaries of the small state of Morelos join those of the Federal District, and Cuernavaca, its capital, is sixty- four kilometers from the City of Mexico. The yield of corn in the state of Morelos is double that of the Federal District, and 300 pesos per hectare for land suitable for dry farming in the state of Morelos is a low estimate. The price of a lot of 5 hectares, at the rate of 300 pesos per hectare, is 1,500 pesos silver, and the cost of the lease being 35 pesos per year, it follows that the lessee pays two and one-third per cent for land rent, a moderate amount if it is taken into consideration that the rate of interest on mortgages is six per cent, and from eight to ten per cent on bank loans.
The stubble grazing lands in Morelos were leased by the planters previous to the revolution for ridiculously small amounts.
It is self-evident from the foregoing facts that the labor- ing class in the state of Morelos is exclusively engaged in sugar-cane raising on the plantations, and previous to the revolution the day-wage was the highest paid in the whole of the Republic for agricultural work.
THE HUNGER PROBLEM IN ITS TRUE ASPECT
Why did the Indians rid themselves of the lands that were gratuitously divided among them by the laws of dis- memberment of 1856 and 1857? No one can say that the Indians were forced to do this through fear of the planters, or because they obliged them by coersive means to do so, because they possessed no power, the popular liberal party, which supported the Reform Revolution which ended in 1867 with the execution of the Archduke Maximilian of Austria on the Cerro de las Campanas, having declared all the planters traitors for recognizing the Empire. It insulted them continually, deprived them of all power, subjected
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them to the orders of liberal governors, drawn from the ranks of the people, who went out of their way to heap humiliations upon them, treating them like pariahs. It was General Porfirio Diaz who established in Mexico the great conciliatory policy which delivered the wealthy class, and more especially the landholders, from the regime of perse- cution which they had suffered under the great majority of the "liberal heroes," a persecution which Benito Juarez always reprobated, but was never able to remedy. It was not until 1885 that General Diaz manifested this concilia- tory policy in any marked degree, and by then almost all the Indian property holders had sold their lands for a pitt- ance, not to the planter, but in the great majority of cases to the ranchmen.
It has been claimed that this sale by the Indians of their lands is to be attributed to the fact that they are vicious, lacking in administrative ability and easily influenced by the clergy, who by means of tithes and contributions stripped them of the profits of their crops.
The defender of the Indian, of course, fails to mention that vampire of the common class which preys upon the In- dian precisely in the state of Morelos. Here the planter demands 10 hectoliters of corn a year as the price of lease for 5 hectares of land; whereas the ranchmen, owners of small herds raised on lands rented to them by the planter at an exceedingly low figure, charge the poor In- dian farmer 12 loads of corn for the use of a yoke of oxen for only two months of the year. As the price of one load of corn is 7 pesos, the friend of the Indian fleeces him of 84 pesos. This is paying rather high for one yoke of oxen for two months. The Indian undoubtedly is vicious, a poor administrator, but not to the point of parting with his land — the thing he most cherishes — and selling it for a paltry sum, if conditions are such that he can till it to advantage. The Indians of Xochimilco, Iztacalco and other points, the
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owners of the floating islands in the lakes of the Federal District known as the chinampas, although they are vicious, poor administrators and can be said to be still under the in- fluence of the clergy because they have never ceased to be devoted Catholics, have nevertheless held for centuries the monopoly of the vegetable trade of the City of Mexico. Even the consignments from the surrounding states, ren- dered necessary by the growth of the city, have not been able to compete with them.
In the Federal District itself there are numerous Indians who are owners of lands which were once the beds of lakes. These lands possess considerable fertility and enjoy the most favorable rain conditions to be found anywhere in the Re- public. These Indians have not disposed of their lands and would repulse with horror any offer to buy them at any price. In the states of Jalisco, Michoacan, Guanajuato, Vera Cruz and Tabasco, independent Indian property own- ers are still to be found. They are devoted to the cultiva- tion of their land, although without doubt, owing to their moral and intellectual deficiencies, they do not derive the profit from them that they otherwise might.
If the Mexican lands held by the inhuman landowners are so marvellously fertile, and if in addition the planter exploits the Indian by robbing him of his land and, conse- quently, of his means of livelihood, the Mexican planter ought to find himself perpetually in the position of a Croesus, with the credit of a Jewish plutocrat in the American and European banking world. Exactly the contrary is true. In general, the Mexican planter is of the type of dyspeptic whose digestion has been ruined by worry, and who is bur- dened with mortgages drawing ten, twelve and even eighteen per cent. The vision of poverty and a hut, more in keep- ing with his actual position than the fictitious palace that fervid imagination has conjured up, hovers over him. The agitators, instead of making a thorough study of the problem
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until they reached the absolute truth concerning the planters and the laborers, decided to destroy the prestige of the land- owners by saying that they were a set of imbeciles who allow themselves to be robbed to a scandalous degree by their overseers, and that they were guilty of the crime of burying national agriculture in the decaying shroud of routine.
This is a demagogic diatribe, pure and simple, accepted by people possessed of reason but devoid of intelligence. The planters of Yucatan were poor as long as they confined themselves to the cultivation of products unsuitable to the conditions surrounding them; but once they discovered that their climate and lands lent themselves admirably to the cul- tivation of the henequen (sisal-hemp), they bent all their energies in that direction and have become the richest planters in the Republic, notwithstanding the fact that in the peninsula the ordinary regime is observed, overseers and their retinue, honest or otherwise, holding sway. The plant- ers of Morelos belonged for a long time to the "poor rich" fraternity, bearing the stigma of never having gotten out of the rut, because they were using the methods introduced by Hernan Cortes in their sugar refineries. The truth is that without railroads the bringing of machinery from Vera Cruz to Cuernavaca was too expensive, and the con- servative spirit of the planter still clung to the Colonial period. The introduction of railroads into Mexico fired his progressive spirit to such a degree that, before the revolt of 1910, the cultivation of sugar-cane, as well as the manu- facture of sugar, had reached the degree of perfection found in the most progressive sugar plantations of Cuba; and the planters became really rich, notwithstanding the fact that they were absentee landlords, leaving their plantations in the hands of overseers, who managed or mismanaged, as the case might be.
The Mexican mortgage banks and banks of issue knew
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well that the only plantation owners who were rich and free, or comparatively free, of the burden of mortgages were those who possessed adequate irrigation facilities. Dry corn farming has proved ruinous in the long run to the Mexican farmer, and will eventually prove ruinous in the short run as well.
When the Spanish King, Charles IV, decreed the aliena- tion of the property of the hospitals, asylums, confraterni- ties, charitable establishments, lay guardianships, houses of mercy and foundling asylums, existing in New Spain, it was discovered that the planters in general were completely ruined, because the total amount of their indebtedness to the Church, held in mortgages, was more than the total value of the plantations. In virtue of the exposition of these facts, made to the King by the Vice-Regal Government, the de- crees of the royal mandate of the igth of September, 1798, were never carried into effect. The laws of June, 1856, and the subsequent Reform Code, which decreed the dis- memberment of Church property, relieved almost all the planters of the burden of these ecclesiastical mortgages, leav- ing their properties free. Fifty years later we find ninety per cent of the Mexican planters owing more than fifty per cent of the value of their plantations to the mortgage hold- ers, and about twenty to twenty-five per cent to the banks of issue.
Taking into consideration the various undeniable facts I have presented, which, even in this isolated setting, prove beyond the possibility of doubt that in Mexico dry farming is a ruinous rather than a prosperous course, the conclusion must be deduced in the realm of politics or out of it, with the aid of bullets or without them, through President Wil- son's intervention or without it, that agriculture in the hands of the indigenous race will be as disastrous as it has been in the hands of the planter, because the causes of this disastrous failure are climatological phenomena, such as
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irregular rainfall, frosts and a constantly increasing unpro- ductiveness of the lands, exhausted by years of extensive cul- tivation.
President Wilson and American thinkers who are inter- ested in Mexican affairs on account of American capital in- vested in that country do not seem to know that the much- talked-of division of lands is by no means an unheard-of thing, a new discovery, but a fact that was once accom- plished and which resulted in the most complete and dis- couraging fiasco.
If almost all the independent Indian property owners sold their lands for a paltry sum, it was because they could not stand the repeated disasters that attend dry farming in Mexico — disasters due to absolutely natural causes quite in- dependent of politics. The planter engaged in dry farm- ing may reduce his expenses, forego all profits and the inter- est on his capital; he may live upon borrowed money, piling up debts at an enormous rate of interest which will finally reduce him to poverty. The poor Indian, however, notwith- standing the fact that he may own his land, cannot reduce his expenses, because the product of the land even in good years is not enough to enable him and his family to live otherwise than in the very meagre way in which they actu- ally live.
INEVITABLE CONCLUSIONS
The problem of feeding the people in Mexico and of neu- tralizing the terrible ravages of hunger had, up to 1910, only one rational solution — irrigation. It was the only means of saving and enriching the people, as irrigation would have considerably increased the extent of the arable lands. It would have given security to the crops raised in those sections where the fertility of the land permits of ex- tensive agriculture, and, above all, reclaimed that great por-
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tion of the arable land which is almost depleted, by permit- ting the introduction of the intensive method of agriculture.
Unfortunately for Mexico, Senor Limantour, noted for his undoubtedly upright, well-balanced financial negotia- tions, failed to recognize Mexico's need in this respect. The situation had been well known to men of science since 1899, when the national credit reached a height indicating the possibility of undertaking irrigation of the country on a large scale. The Department of Fomento, which is respon- sible for the economic progress of the country, was directed from 1880 to 1907 by deluded persons — honest and other- wise— or by very honorable persons without initiative or a real understanding of the vital needs of the country.
Don Olegario Molina assumed control of the Depart- ment of Fomento in 1908, and was thoroughly alive to the stupendous obligations which his position imposed upon him, and set about energetically to try to carry them out. He began by removing certain abuses which laws regarding un- claimed lands had produced, and by taking up the study of the national lands which were under the control of his de- partment, and which were destined for national and foreign colonization. He understood that the salvation of the nation depended upon not losing a single drop of available water, obtained either through precipitation or from rivers, lakes, ponds or wells to be found on Government lands. He worked until he obtained constitutional reform which cen- tralized, under Federal control, all the water rights which were not held under incontestable titles. He initiated and by means of previous free discussion obtained the approba- tion by the Federal Congress of the water laws which would enable the Government to undertake without delay the irri- gation of the country. He obtained an appropriation of 600,000 pesos to defray the cost of engaging a commission of engineers who were to select the sections to which prefer- ence should be given in the irrigation plan, and to point out
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the best means of carrying it out. In 1908 Secretary of the Treasury, Limantour, founded the financial institution known as Caja de Prestamos para la Agricultura y Fomento de la Irrigndon (Loan Fund for Agricultural Work and the Development of Irrigation), with a Mexican capital of 10,000,000 pesos silver, and obtained, besides, a loan of 50,000,000 pesos silver with Government guarantees. The firm of Pearson & Son was engaged by the Department of Fomento to study the conditions in the vicinity of the river Nazas, which is the source of the fertility of the "Laguna" district, and which has made possible the cotton growing of this region. A loan was granted to the Sautena Company for the irrigation of 40,000 hectares of good land, on condi- tion, however, that not less than 15,000 hectares, equipped with good irrigation facilities, were to be turned over to the Federal Government for the formation of small agricul- tural land holdings. The Department of Fomento granted Senor Cuesta Gallardo a concession to drain part of Lake Chapala, which would make possible the cultivation of a great area of notably fertile lands. Under the dictatorship of General Diaz, 3,000,000 pesos in cash was loaned to Don Lorenzo Gonzalez Trevino, uncle of ex-President Francisco Madero, to enable him to complete the extensive irrigation plants he had under construction on his properties in the state of Coahuila.
I give these facts to prove that in the two years previous to the revolution, from 1908 to 1910, the dictatorship authorized the appropriation of the large sum of 90,000,000 pesos silver, or $45,000,000, to further irrigating enter- prises. This amply proves that the irrigation work contem- plated by Don Olegario Molina, the Secretary of Fomento, was serious, well planned, definitely decided and energetic- ally launched.
This proves that the dictatorship of Diaz, notwithstand- ing its great deficiencies, had taken up in behalf of the
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nation the work that a scientific study of the Mexican eco- nomical problem pointed out to be necessary. This prob- lem is unknown to the revolutionary men of the old regime who now want to pass for men of the new era, and to the really new men who look with ambitious eyes to the su- preme power without first having proved themselves capable of wielding it.
In 1910 the revolution for "the redemption of the peo- ple" had not seen the light of day, but the revolution to rebuild the shattered ambitions of the younger generation and those of the older generation, anxious to pose as belong- ing to the former, was then put into operation. This era of political personalism gave rise to the great social revolu- tion which is tearing Mexico to shreds, and in which the President of the United States, Mr. Woodrow Wilson, fig- ures as one of the leading actors.
What has been the work of this saving, and according to President Wilson, necessary revolution? In order that no one may attribute my reply to anger, rancor, partial or abso- lute blindness, or preconception that savors of the sociolog- ical clinic, I shall quote directly the three leading personages who have figured in the Mexican revolution: The First Chief, Don Venustiano Carranza, the ex-military genius, Don Francisco Villa, and the President of the United States, Mr. Woodrow Wilson.
In December, 1915, through the most loyal section of the Carranza press, the First Chief has been quoted as saying in an address delivered at Monterey or Laredo: "Have faith and patience." Faith is usually recommended to those who do not believe or who doubt; patience to those who suffer.
We are to believe, then, from the impression given by Senor Carranza himself, that the Mexican people who are such ardent partisans of the revolution, have suffered even to the point of demoralization after eighteen months of that revolution's triumph?
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The ex-' 'military genius," Don Francisco Villa, in his last manifesto, addressed to the remainder of his followers and to the world, says that the great majority of the chiefs of his army have been nothing more than highwaymen, who took up arms with no other idea than loot.
President Wilson, in as dignified a document as his Mes- sage to the Congress of the United States, says that it can- not yet be determined whether or not his policy has bene- fited Mexico; that he hopes for the "rebirth" of the nation; and that the revolution he befriended, in so far as he was able, has found few sympathizers outside Mexican territory. In this view no one can concur, because up to the present time no one has been able to prove that in Mexican territory and in the hearts of the majority of the Mexican people there is to be found an overwhelming sympathy for a revo- lution that has brought them to such a pitiable state of misery and suffering. If President Wilson expects the "re- birth" of the Mexican nation, it means that for the present it is submerged and that the revolution has been the cause of the submersion.
If the supreme object of the revolution has been to solve the agrarian problem by the partition of lands, its advo- cates, whom I have just named, are not proposing anything new. The dictatorship had this in view, with the marked difference that the dictatorial Government knew that before distributing land among the people it was necessary to make it productive by means of irrigation. The revolution, with its avowed contempt and hatred for everything that repre- sents culture, education and science, will fail in its attempt to save the people from hunger by putting them in posses- sion of exhausted, unproductive lands. The end will be death — death from inanition, sorrow, desperation and hatred against those whose duty it was to have considered the ques- tion scientifically before drawing them into a vortex from
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which, perhaps, they may never extricate themselves as a free and independent people.
President Wilson doubtless believed that the Mexican revolution was necessary because the time had come when, in his opinion, it was expedient that the land should be turned over to the Mexican people, to be cultivated by them on their own account. But as these valuable lands did not exist, as I have proved, the revolution was not necessary. Even granting for the sake of argument that the lands existed, such a revolution was not necessary, because the planters never questioned the right of the Federal Govern- ment to enforce the constitutional article which gives it the right to condemn private property for public utility, the owner having been previously indemnified. Never has the conservative press, or any planter as representative or sena- tor, or in any capacity whatsoever, ever questioned in any public speech or writing, that the formation of small land- holding was not of public utility, even if to accomplish this it were necessary to lay hands on the large holdings, pro- vided always that it were done according to terms prescribed by the Federal Constitution, which are those that hold good in all civilized nations in similar cases. The planters, there- fore, had given ample proof that they did not intend to im- pede, much less openly oppose, the progressive step. When the construction of railroads began to be actively taken up, the condemnation of certain private tracts was necessary for the proper development of the lines. This met with no opposition whatsoever from the landowners, although some of them made exorbitant indemnity claims. Congress then passed a carefully considered law, covering the question of expropriated lands, fixing equitable terms that would be acceptable to both the railroads and the planters. The law was accepted without appreciable resistance, and Mexico constructed twenty thousand kilometers of railroads on terms acceptable to both planters and railway companies.
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If the landholders of Mexico have never in any way shown the slightest opposition to the formation of the small landholdings, why has this revolution been, so to speak, dedi- cated to them with diabolical hate? Let us grant for the sake of argument that they had made up their mind to resist the division of their lands once they had been irrigated, although the dictatorial Government did not give pecuniary assistance for the irrigation of private property if the owners did not promise by public deeds to cede an important part of the irrigated lands for the formation of small holdings. Supposing, as I have said, that the planters had decided with- out giving any outward sign — because they certainly never gave outward sign of any such intention — of preventing by political and even revolutionary means the formation of small landholdings through legal expropriation of the large holdings, it is not sensible, just, fitting, or heroic for a peo- ple wishing to acquire lands which they need, and which they wish to hold under conditions governing civilized nations, to rise with a well-defined program of extermina- tion, breathing an infernal hate, against an absolutely legiti- mate property-owning class before that class has refused in a clear and definite manner to satisfy the popular demand.
Until President Wilson gives the American public, the 'Mexican public and the rest of the world a proof, or even half a proof, that the Mexican landowners were the enemies of the movement to improve the condition of the people by the formation of small landholdings, he has no right, based upon ethics or science, or upon the most elementary notions of civilization, to state before so eminently, world-wide re- spected an assemblage as the Congress of the United States that the tremendous, sanguinary Mexican revolution, fairly wading in anarchy, was necessary.
PART SECOND
THE TRUTH CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION AND ITS DE- VELOPMENT UP TO THE TIME OF PRESIDENT WILSON'S INTER- VENTION
•
CHAPTER I
A BOXER REVOLUTION PROTECTED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
A CHALLENGE TO LATIN-AMERICA AND THE SOCIOLOGISTS OF THE WORLD
IN its origin the Mexican revolution had a markedly Boxer character and was directed principally against the influence, prestige and interests of the United States. This is a fact, new to some, perhaps, which I am going to prove.
No one, not even those who have had only a superficial understanding of the Mexican revolution, or a single one of the inhabitants of Mexico capable of holding an opinion about public affairs, can ignore the fact that the origin of the revolt that dethroned the dictator, General Porfirio Diaz, was hatred of the Cientificos, revealed in the universal, pro- phetic cry, "Mueran los cientificos!" (Death to the Cientif- icos!) Even today, 1915, for the popular Mexican imagi- nation dentifico means the sworn enemy of the people, more criminal than the parricide, the murderer of innocent chil- dren, or the traitor.
In a few words I shall say who the Cientificos were. No government can exist, even under a democratic or dictatorial regime, without a governing aristocracy, always intellectual. In the eighteen last years of the dictatorship of General Porfirio Diaz, the Cientificos represented this governing aris- tocracy, and were attacked like all aristocracies that have ever formed a part of ultra-personal governments.
I make haste to calm the uneasiness of any of my readers
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who may fear a wearisome analysis of the much- talked -of dictatorship of General Diaz. I have no intention of doing anything of the kind; my exposition will be synthetical and short. It will consist simply in the exposition of certain un- deniable and convincing facts which will destroy the theories and enthusiasms of those who have approved and applauded the overthrow of the long-lived Mexican tyrant.
MEMORANDUM CONCERNING THE NATIONAL CREDIT
In February, 1893, Sefior Jose Ives Limantour was ap- pointed Secretary of the Treasury and Public Credit, and in October of that same year the Cientificos rose to power, choosing Sefior Limantour for their leader. At that time the national treasury was bankrupt and the six per cent Federal foreign bonds were quoted in London at sixty per cent of their face value. On January I, 1910, Mexico's foreign debt, the interest on which had been reduced from six to five per cent by the refund of 1899, was quoted above par. Taking advantage of the high credit Mexico then en- joyed, Sefior Limantour went to Europe in 1910 with the object of again refunding, which would reduce the interest on the debt to four per cent. He succeeded in thus con- verting one-half of it, but it was impossible to complete the transaction because Madero's so-called redemptory revolu- tion had burst forth.
I challenge Latin-America to produce a single example of a Hispanic- American nation that has ever succeeded in hav- ing its national debt quoted at par with an annual interest of four per cent. Expecting to be impugned if my data are not correct, I assert that no Latin-American administration has ever been able to place its country in the same rank of credit as that enjoyed by Mexico under the financial regime of the Cientificos.
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FIRST MEMORANDUM ON BUREAUCRATIC CANNIBALISM
In the eighteen years that Senor Limantour was at the helm of financial affairs in Mexico, he negotiated the fol- lowing Government loans: In 1893 he negotiated in Europe a Government loan of £3,000,000 sterling, or $15,- 000,000; refunded in 1899 when an important loan of £20,- 000,000 sterling was affected through the firm of Bleich- roeder & Company of Berlin. From 1902 onward he issued five series of five per cent silver bonds, each series re- deemable at 20,000,000 pesos silver, or a total in gold of $50,000,000. In 1904 he negotiated with the New York house of J. Pierpont Morgan a loan of $40,000,000. The total amount of the loans negotiated by Senor Limantour during his eighteen years of tenure of office reached $105,- 000,000.
The voraciousness of Latin-American bureaucracies, which I have called cannibalism, is well known; they swallow European loans of millions, which are to them what a morsel of pate de foie gras would be to an insatiable glutton.
I challenge Latin-America to tell me which of the nations that come under this designation, having the credit that Mexico had in Europe and the United States, has limited itself to negotiating Government loans at the rate of $6.25 per inhabitant, in the long period of eighteen years. Pro- visionally, I take it upon myself to answer, none.
These bureaucracies constitute the real and direful oppres- sion of the unfortunate Latin-American peoples who, more than liberty, need honest government, and to be relieved of the horde of public officials which preys upon them. It bodes ill for the future of these nations that each of these bureaucracies is increasing yearly the national expense budget; that they are responsible for deficits more or less large; and that to shield themselves they float foreign loans,
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or take from the taxes what ought to be devoted to the ma- terial improvement of the country.
In 1894, under the regime of the Cientificos, besides the outlay for the national debt, and the army and navy, there remained for the bureaucracy 20,000,000 pesos annually. In 1910, the year the Madero revolution broke out, notwith- standing the development of the country, the Federal bureau- cracy received 70,000,000 pesos, so that in seventeen years there was an increase of 40,000,000 pesos to meet the legiti- mate expenses of the Government, and for the insatiable bu- reaucratic cannibalism which existed notwithstanding Sefior Limantour's constant war against it. This war finally ended by making him the most unpopular man in Mexico, as he would have been in all Latin-American countries if he had been the minister of finance. General Diaz, clever politician that he was, knew that it was impossible to govern Latin- Americans without a certain amount of "palm oil," and, not- withstanding his appreciation of Sefior Limantour's high ideals, found himself obliged, in order to preserve peace, to make concessions.
As he was a clever politician General Diaz never denied a "slice," a "bottle," a "demijohn," or a "wild boar served with mayonnaise"; but when the hour came to fulfill his seductive promises he always said that Senor Limantour op- posed their fulfillment and that, as he could not suddenly dismiss an official who had rendered such valuable services to his administration, his friends, his very dear friends, his ever-faithful friends, ought to grant him a little time in which to replace him. The result of this astute political method was that General Diaz's popularity began to wane, and Senor Limantour's to disappear altogether.
But to return to figures. The increase in the expense budget of 40,000,000 pesos silver in eighteen years corre- sponds to an arithmetical progression which in round figures equals 2,300,000 pesos silver per annum.
A BOXER REVOLUTION 107
In 1911, after seventeen years, the Federal receipts, which in 1894 amounted to 45,000,000, increased to 112,000,000 pesos. This increase amounted to 67,000,000 pesos, corre- sponding to an arithmetical progression which equals 4,200,- ooo pesos per annum.
We have then:
Progressive increase per year in expenses.. 2,300,000 pesos silver Progressive increase in Federal receipts
per year 4,200,000 pesos silver
This constant increase of the Federal receipts over the expenditures enabled the dictatorship under General Diaz to establish a treasury fund which reached a maximum in coin of 84,000,000 pesos silver.
I challenge Latin-America to tell me in which of the na- tions that come under this designation is to be found the remarkable phenomenon of a nation in which the receipts have considerably exceeded the expenditures.
I reply unhesitatingly that this phenomenon, outside of Mexico, and in the space of one hundred years, has occurred once only — in the island of Cuba when the administration of its affairs was in the hands of that true patriot Senor Tomas Estrada Palma. But this ideal condition in Cuba lasted only four years, whereas in Mexico, under an admin- istration of supposed thieves — as President Wilson believes — it lasted without interruption for sixteen years.
THIRD MEMORANDUM CONCERNING BUREAUCRATIC CANNIBALISM
More than three hundred governments have been over- thrown in the Latin-American countries since they attained their independence. All of them left empty treasuries, and the majority left the nation utterly devoid of credit at home and abroad. The only exception of which I know is the one already mentioned of the Cuban President who, when he vacated the presidential chair, left $27,000,000, which un-
io8 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
doubtedly greatly influenced the avalanche of "democratic principles" that overwhelmed him. In Mexico, when Gen- eral Diaz resigned, Senor Limantour handed over to the new Secretary of the Treasury, Senor Ernesto Madero, uncle of the "Saviour of his Country," 72,000,000 pesos silver in coin, deposited in the National Treasury, in the National Bank of Mexico, and in the most powerful banks of New York, London, Paris and Germany.
I can safely say that, outside the case of Cuba already mentioned, no overthrown Latin-American Government has ever left in its national treasury the amount left by the so- called thieving dictatorship of General Diaz in the Mexican treasury.
MEMORANDUM ON ONE OF THE MOST SERIOUS ACCUSATIONS BROUGHT AGAINST THE DIAZ DICTATORSHIP
Senor Jose N. Macias, a revolutionary Maderista writer, charges the dictatorship with having raised the national debt as high as 300,000,000 pesos silver, or $150,000,000, thus laying a heavy burden on the Mexican people for a great many years.
Apparently Senor Macias does not know his subject. The total amount of the national debt at the time of General Diaz's resignation was, not 300,000,000, but 458,000,000 pesos silver.
But the accuser, it would seem, is entirely unaware of the use to which these 458,000,000 pesos silver were put, and it will be my pleasure to inform him in a few words, and in such a manner as will render impossible any impugning of my statement.
In 1824 the Mexican nation contracted a debt in London of 32,000,000 pesos silver, and at the same time another was laid upon it by claims made by foreign governments in the name of their respective subjects. These debts, once they were consolidated, were classified as, the English Debt, the Spanish
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Debt, the Padre Moran Debt, and the United States Debt, the latter being represented by the well-known Carvajal bonds. With the exception of the United States debt the total of these debts amounted in 1851 to 50,000,000 pesos gold. When Diaz assumed the reins of government in 1877 he found that his country was dishonored before the world because of its failure to liquidate these legitimate claims which it had bound itself in honor to meet. In 1885 the total amount of the Mexican foreign debt, including unpaid interest, was 100,000,000 pesos, and the Secretary of the Treasury, Senor Manuel Dublan, through various transactions, was able in 1888 to consolidate the Mexican foreign debt into six per cent bonds, representing a nominal value of £10,500,000 sterling or 52,500,000 Mexican pesos gold.
The Mexican national debt was enormous, and Senor Dublan devoted all his energies to it. By means of various transactions with the creditors he was able to make a very advantageous settlement for the country, reducing the debt to 53,000,000 pesos silver, or $26,500,000.
When silver depreciated so low as to be worth in gold half, or even less than half, its value, the Mexican debt of .52,500,000 pesos gold existing in 1888 was converted into a debt of 105,000,000 pesos silver which, added to the 53,- 000,000 pesos silver, amount of the previous debt, equals a total of 158,000,000 pesos silver, corresponding to the na- tional debt previous to the dictatorship of General Diaz, and which had been contracted in great part after 1824. Consequently, the dictatorship of General Diaz can be held accountable for the distribution of 300,000,000 pesos silver only, an amount which at his retirement remained in the nature of a national debt.
A fact which no one can doubt or deny is that during the dictatorship of General Diaz twenty thousand kilometers of railways were constructed in Mexico, subsidized by the Gov-
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ernment to the amount of 170,000,000 pesos silver, or $80,- 000,000, an average of $4,250 per kilometer.
Mexico has a superficial area of 2,000,000 square kilo- meters, and had a population of 10,000,000 at the time the railways began to be developed by American capital. The population in 1910 had increased to 15,000,000, but of this only 3,000,000 were sufficiently civilized to increase the in- come of the railroads by their use of them. Before the exploitation of the petroleum wells, which was taken up on a large scale in 1908, fuel for railway motive power was very expensive. I ask all men versed in railway matters to say whether — taking into consideration the unfavorable con- ditions that existed in Mexico — it is a reprehensible or a praiseworthy act for a Government to construct twenty thousand kilometers of railway for the benefit of its country, assigning an average subsidy of $4,250 per kilometer?
The Tehuantepec Railroad, with its magnificent artificial ports of Puerto Mexico and Salina Cruz, cost 115,000,000 pesos silver. This estimate does not take into account the capital squandered by mismanagement and dishonesty before Pearson & Son took the work in hand, and before the advent of Sefior Limantour and the Cientificos, with the Secretary of the Treasury at their head. The Tehuantepec Railroad is not a fairy story, the creation of the ingenious newspaper man; it is a fact known to the world as a work of merit, and well worth 115,000,000 pesos silver or $57,500,000.
The construction work at the port of Vera Cruz, which cost 33,000,000 pesos silver, is also well known to the world. One of the most important works undertaken by the dictator- ship was the draining of the Valley of Mexico, an admirable and most successful work which cost 14,000,000 pesos silver. The City of Mexico owes everything to the dictatorship of General Diaz. Floods formerly inundated the city every year during the rainy season, plagues scourged it, and most unsanitary conditions prevailed, owing to the scarcity of
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water for the greater part of the year. Under the dictator- ship a splendid system of sewers was built; water was brought from the springs of Xochimilco, and distributed according to the most scientific modern methods; streets were well paved and good pavements were laid. All this cost only 26,000,000 pesos or $13,000,000.
Under the same regime splendid buildings were erected in the City of Mexico. Among these may be mentioned the Opera House, not yet completed, which would have com- peted in magnificence with the Grand Opera of Paris; the Law Courts building, also in course of construction; the Post Office building, undoubtedly one of the finest buildings in the world ; the General Hospital ; the Insane Asylum ; the Department of Railways building, classic and refined in its style of architecture ; the monument commemorating the cen- tennial of Mexico's independence, which has been praised by many foreign artists. Besides the sums devoted to luxurious buildings destined for political and administrative purposes, several million pesos were devoted to the construction of training-schools for teachers. Adding to these expenditures the amounts paid as indemnification for property condemned for these various public edifices, the total amount is 50,- 000,000 pesos.
Besides the construction work at Vera Cruz, some indis- pensable improvements were made at the port of Manzanillo on the Pacific, and at that of Tampico on the Atlantic, amounting in all to 11,000,000 pesos.
Without taking into consideration works of minor impor- tance which were carried out under the dictatorship, it has been amply proved that the enormous sum of 419,000,000 pesos silver was distributed in works that were well worth while, so much so that neither the demagogic press nor revo- lutionary writers have dared to censure them.
I challenge all Latin-America, continental as well as in- sular, to point out to me a single case in which one of the
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nations composing this group has spent in public works an amount greater than the total face value of the loans nego- tiated by the Government. It is to be clearly understood that I refer to the face value of these loans, as none of them was acquired at par; consequently, the cost of the work greatly exceeds the real amount received from the loans.
I assert that there is no Hispanic-American nation that can produce a case similar to the one I have outlined.
CONTINUATION OF CHALLENGES TO LATIN-AMERICA AND THE SOCIOLOGISTS OF THE WORLD
By January I, 1910, the revolution, ostensibly based upon hatred of the Cientificos, had taken form in the minds of the people. The conspirators, excepting a few anti- reelectionists, such as Madero, had long been covertly con- spiring against the dictatorship, continuing to receive salaries and favors from the hands of the generous Caesar, but un- willing to attack their patron openly until they saw him about to fall.
On January i, 1910, the following names appeared on the list of high officials in the dictatorial Government:
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Senor Ignacio Mariscal; Secretary of the Interior, Senor Ramon Corral; Secretary of Justice, Senor Justino Fernandez; Secretary of Public Instruction, Senor Justo Sierra; Secretary of Fomento, Senor Olegario Molina; Secretary of Public Works, Senor Leandro Fernandez; Secretary of War and Navy, General Manuel Gonzales Cosio; Secretary of the Treasury, Senor Jose Ives Limantour.
I cannot recollect ever to have seen the name of any one of these, except that of the Secretary of the Treasury, Jose Ives Limantour, mentioned as a thief in any of the revolu- tionary publications, and, as I have already sufficiently proved what kind of a thief the man was who arranged the na-
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tional debt, and who negotiated foreign loans, it is not nec- essary to make further comment. I challenge the banking world of New York, London, Germany, Paris and Holland, accustomed to dealing with Latin-American financiers who wish to place loans on behalf of their governments, with offers of a rake-off for either side, to say that Senor Liman- tour was not one of the most upright — perhaps the most upright — of all the Latin- American financiers whom they have known. All financiers know that in government trans- actions involving hundreds of millions of dollars it is a com- paratively easy thing to manipulate them so as to get pos- session of several for one's self. It is absurd to say that a man who could with impunity have pocketed ten or twenty millions, or even more, should demean himself by stooping to grab two or three million dollars, not by peculation, but by extortion.
But I make all manner of concessions. I admit that Li- mantour may have been a scoundrel, exceedingly clever at the game of advancing his private interests at the expense of the nation; nevertheless, lucky might the Latin-American nation have considered herself which had Limantour for her Secretary of the Treasury.
I challenge all Latin-America and all the sociologists of the world to tell me if seven out of eight of a government's secretaries are considered upright even by the opposition, only one being classified as a thief — a thief whose operations have always benefited his country — does such a government merit to be universally execrated for its dishonesty?
The dictatorship has been accused of putting a band of thieves at the head of the state governments.
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LIST OF THE GOVERNORS OF THE STATES
Aguascalientes Alejandro Vazquez del Mercado Civil Carapeche
Coahuila Jesus del Valle Civil
Colima Alamillo Civil
Chiapas R. Rabasa Civil
Chihuahua Jose M. Sanchez Civil
Durango Esteban Fernandez Civil
Guanajauto Joaquin Obregon Gonzalez Civil
Guerrero Damian Flores Civil
Hidalgo Pedro L. Rodriguez Civil
Jalisco Miguel Ahumada Serai-Military
Mexico Fernando Gonzalez Military
Michoacan Aristeo Mercado Civil
Morelos Pablo Escandon Serai-Military
Nuevo Leon General Mier Military
Oaxaca Emilio Pimentel Civil
Puebla Mucio Martinez Military
Queretaro Francisco G. Cosio Civil San Luis Potosi Jose Maria Espinosa y Cuevas Civil
Sinaloa Diego Redo Civil
Sonora F. Cubillas Civil
Tabasco Policarpo Valenzuela Civil
Tamaulipas Juan Castello Civil
Tlaxcala Prospero Cahuantzi Military
Vera Cruz Teodoro A. Dehesa Civil
Yucatan Munoz Aristegui Civil
Zacatecas Ortiz de Zarate Civil
Outside of Mexico this list will not have much signifi- cance, except in the relative value of the civil and military elements that compose it. A glance will convince one that General Diaz governed through the civil rather than the military branch, as there are three military governors and two semi-military as against twenty-two civilians.
As regards probity, there were eighteen governors who fulfilled their charge honorably, and nine who were scoundrels.
Caius Licinius Verres, the famous Sicilian pretor, repro- bated by Cicero, said that if one were a pro-consul or a
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pretor it was necessary to steal three fortunes from the na- tion: one to pay the sponsors who had obtained the lucra- tive position; another to bribe the judges when the dis- pleasure of a censor or a tribune brought one into the law courts; and a third to be devoted to the family. In Latin- America there exist even more ramifications than in the Rome of Cicero, because the pro-consul or pretor finds him- self obliged regularly to appropriate six fortunes: three for the purposes Verres has assigned, the fourth to support the illegitimate family, the fifth to carry on a scandalous pros- titution, and the sixth for any unforeseen case. I am forced to repeat the words of Le Bon, which I have quoted before: "In Latin-America the political problem, fundamentally and in general, is a problem of public thieving." I should, how- ever, say that the nine dishonest governors were not the cause of disturbance. In order to keep their posts they were obliged to maintain a good administration, paying all their employees and creditors punctually. At the first indication of disorder General Diaz dismissed them.
If Mexico was a country of rotten politicians, I challenge Latin-America and all the sociologists of the world to say whether it is not a prodigy, worthy of being registered in letters of light, that two-thirds of the pro-consuls of the arrogant Caesar were honest and only one- third rascals?
The accusation of injustice has been brought against the courts of the Diaz dictatorship. The accusation is merited. However, the tribunals depending on the will of the Caesar injured only the rich — the class hated by the revolutionists — with their unjust sentences. The revolutionists, there- fore, should have rejoiced that the dictatorship laid a heavy hand on those whom they never ceased to proclaim the oppressors of the people. The middle class, the real owner of the country and the director of its destinies at that time, was outside the range of the evils brought about by the workings of coerced tribunals, because being the political
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class par excellence the judges, the secretaries, the President himself, feared them. The bureaucrats, as a rule, were plebeians who spent more than they earned, and who con- sequently made it a business to pile up debts, the unfortu- nate creditors generally losing their suits if the cases came to law, as the debtors controlled the press and possessed the power to intimidate and cow them.
The popular class, both rural and urban, was absolutely proletarian, and only the middle-class merchants and the property-owning class, representing a small minority, had cause to complain against the autocratic methods of the courts.
I challenge all Latin- America to tell me if in the great majority of the Hispanic- American nations the courts are not venal even where no dictatorship exists, and similar, or even worse, than the Porfirian courts, in the countries ruled by dictators.
THE REAL CRIME OF THE DIAZ DICTATORSHIP
Universal life is preserved by the renewal of the ele- ments of each organism at different periods. Individual life is the constant, although not simultaneous, renewal of the organic tissues. Without renewal there is decay, and decay leads to the grave. General Diaz's ideal was the petrifica- tion of the State. He had permitted himself to be led into the irreparable error of fearing any change in the personnel of his immediate political entourage, and in that of the civil branches as well. The consequence was that society, seeing that a death's-head had taken the place of the living man, was shaken out of its usual tranquil mode of life, and began making mental excursions into the revolutionary dream- realm, paving the way for the creation of the reality.
In 1910 General Diaz was eighty years old. Of the eight Cabinet members, two were past eighty and the youngest was fifty-five. Of twenty state governors, two
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were past eighty, six past seventy, seventeen past sixty and the youngest was forty-six. The Senate was an asylum for gouty decrepits, and the House of Representatives, which ought to have vibrated with youthful vigor and activity, was composed of a host of veterans, relieved by a group of patriarchs. One of the newspapers called the Government offices the "Pyramids of Egypt, joined to the Pyramids of Teotihuacan," because of the number of mummies they con- tained. Such an administration could not be called pro- gressive, not even conservative; it was a home for the aged, with a standing account at the druggists. The younger gen- eration was justified in wanting to expel the hordes of fos- sils which had fastened upon the public posts as the trilobites of old upon the rocks.
Two causes may be assigned for the total degeneration of a dictator: too great age and too long tenure of office. The latter, as is well known, corrupts and hardens, all the more actively the nearer it approaches absolutism. General Diaz had exercised the supreme power uninterruptedly for twenty- five years; General Reyes had been the undisputed and des- potic ruler of Nuevo Leon for twenty-three years, and Senor Limantour had been the absolute dictator of the economic and financial policy of the country for eighteen years. Fol- lowing the inexorable laws of sociology, all three had out- lived their usefulness in the political world, and could not be anything but a drawback to their country, however worthy they might be personally.
Strength is not proof against that insidious form of moral poison which gradually enervates the mind of the man who believes himself to be infallible. The most characteristic trait of such a man is the loss of proportion, of sentiment, of sensation, and even of reality itself. He ends by trying to govern an imaginary world with beings of flesh and bone.
"The Emperor (Napoleon I) is all system, all illusion, as it is impossible not to be when one is all imagination.
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Whosoever has wished to follow his evolution will have noted that he ended by seeing an imaginary England, an imaginary finance, an imaginary nobility and above all an imaginary France, and in these latter days an imaginary Congress (referring to the International Congress convoked by the opposing powers)." *
General Diaz ended by living in an imaginary world, in- cluding the view of his own personality and that of Madero, as we shall see.
A sociological principle of a dictatorial regime is that when the dictator, who above all must be practical, is not intellectual he hates the intellectuals who serve him, even when they do it with the greatest care, loyalty and to the advantage of his dictatorship.
A practical, theoretical dictator who knows his business will permit neither friend nor foe, neither person nor cor- poration, to express an opinion about his government unless it be to praise and extol it. General Diaz, in the dis- tressing period of his mental decadence — due to age and to the incessant weight of affairs of State — not only permitted his enemies to attack his administration with violence and venom, but he authorized, even incited, his friends, pref- erably the most discriminating, to pick flaws in his work, to point out the failures, lapses, even infamies that stood out like putrefying ulcers, so long as they were laid at the door of the Cientificos, who were his subordinates, and for whose actions he was responsible, whatever the form of govern- ment might be. General Diaz's supreme delight — a delight that surpassed all human and divine delights — was to hear the Cientificos calumniated, and to realize that, as public opinion gradually accepted the dictum of his friends, which transformed Senor Limantour and his colleagues into mon- sters, it thundered back replies charged with hate that shook the nerves of even the most complacent. Prat, p. 94.
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General Diaz was obsessed with the idea that he was a necessity, that the nation trembled at the thought of losing such a man. It was necessary, therefore, to inculcate in the minds of the Mexican people that except through General Diaz, president in perpetuity, there could be no salvation for the country, because all things outside of him were vile, despicable and fatal to the public good.
This obsession, as a rule, characterizes all dictators. But when they are sound of mind they order the campaign of defamation against their former friends only a few hours before they kick them into the street to be jeered at by the furious rabble, which applauds the justice of their Caesar. But when such a campaign is carried on for eight long years against the most distinguished men of his administration, without kicking them out — on the contrary, decreeing, as General Diaz had decreed with regard to the Cientificos, that they should succeed to the supreme power, then the dictator sounds the last note of the gamut, and the people, however low and servile they may be, will rise up to execrate and dethrone him. When a dictator has taken the absurd step of authorizing and applauding a course which brands his subordinates as malefactors responsible for the vice, misery and degradation which have led the people to the brink of an inevitable grave, he must be demented to believe that they can be made to believe at the same time what the fawning sycopants of the despot would have them believe ; that is, that his work is a marvel, that he has pro- cured the happiness of the Mexican people and raised the nation to the height of the most civilized nations of the world. In a strange poem written by a Pole, the poet asks himself this fearful question: "What would happen if God were to lose His mind?" In 1908 intelligent Mexicans asked themselves: "What will happen to poor Mexico now that its omnipotent head has lost his mind?" And the
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answer was the victory of another lunatic, Francisco I. Madero.
It was General Diaz himself who brought about that only one trend of thought and speech should prevail — that of blackening the Cientificos. This he obtained through the columns of the legitimate press, the false opposition press, the Government press, the Masonic lodges, the pulpits of the Mexican Protestant ministers, the normal schools, the poor schools, city and rural, the speeches in club houses, the seditious harangues in the public squares, and the discourses in the House of Representatives. The result was that the public, accepting all these facts at their face value, came to the following unanswerable conclusion: If the Cientificos are a set of unscrupulous thieves, why does General Diaz retain them in the most important posts? Either General Diaz is the real leader of these abominable scoundrels who are drawing their country into the quagmire, selling it piece- meal to foreigners, especially Americans, or General Diaz is a doting old Creton, the slave of the Cientificos who use him as a tool for national pillage. Be the case as it may, it is high time the Mexican people take the supreme power from General Diaz.
It was not the much-lauded Madero who prepared the revolution against General Diaz, but General Diaz him- self, with his absurd policy of allowing the officers of his administration to be grossly calumniated for a period of eight years. Francisco I. Madero did not prepare any- thing. He simply stepped in audaciously to reap the fruits of' a crop he had not even planted. He found it cut and stacked by none other than General Diaz himself.
The Cientificos, then, represented an insatiable band of public thieves. They were not armed thieves; neither did they deal in peculations, falsifications or counterfeiting. Their enemies exposed their methods. According to these they consisted in protecting dishonest foreign enterprises,
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the avowed purpose of which was to plunder the Mexican people; these mighty enterprises being dominated by the arrogant American magnates and trusts. It is clear that if the Cientificos were thieves who stole from the Mexican people as the agents of foreigners — above all Americans and American companies — the hatred of the Cientificos naturally included the American colony in Mexico and the United States Government, and prepared the way for the moral, and later, the material rupture with the United States.
CHARGES AGAINST THE DIAZ ADMINISTRATION
I am going to give a list of the charges which the real revolutionists, led by General Bernardo Reyes, prepared for the consideration of the Mexican people.
I should like, however, to say that I do not hold myself responsible for the accuracy of these charges. For the pres- ent, I neither approve nor contest; I limit myself to saying that some are false; others simply absurd; others grossly exaggerated; others demonstrate a wrong interpretation from lack of proper understanding; some are true.
Charges against the Diaz Administration:
First — Having sold half of Lower California for a mere pittance to Mr. Louis Huller, of German extraction and a naturalized American citizen, who passed it on to an American colonizing enterprise. El Nacional, a newspaper with a wide circulation, started the campaign, causing great alarm. It held that Lower California would follow the fate of Texas from the moment that the same methods of turpitude and treason were employed against the Mexican people.
Second — The Government was accused of having given its consent to changes effected in the Mining Code, includ- ing the clause which assigns to the owner of the land the
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coal deposits that may be found upon it, for no other rea- son than that of enriching the grantees of unclaimed lands in the state of Coahuila, who had acquired the Sabina lands for an insignificant sum with a view to selling them to the American multi-millionaire, Huntington.
Third — Having sold, for next to nothing, 3,000,000 hec- tares of excellent lands in the state of Chihuahua to two favorites of the Mexican Government, that they might resell to Mr. Hearst, the celebrated millionaire, who con- stantly conspired against the integrity of Mexican territory so as to bring about armed intervention.
Fourth — Granting concessions to foreign companies to exploit the oil lands, among which companies the American predominated. Granting them also exemption from export duties on the crude or refined product, thereby depriving the Mexican people of the only means at their command to derive anything from the exploitation of their great national wealth.
Fifth — Notwithstanding the fact that the most scandal- ous of all the oil concessions was that granted by the dicta- torship to Lord Cowdray (consequently in favor of English capital), it was well received by the patriots, until the press began agitating the matter, saying that Lord Cowdray was intimately associated with ex-President Taft's Administra- tion, as his brother, Henry W. Taft, and George W. Wick- ersham, Attorney General in the Taft Cabinet, were direc- tors in the company organized and presided over by Lord Cowdray.
Sixth — Having permitted the Guggenheims to monopolize almost completely the important metallurgic industry upon which the progress of mining in the country depended. The Guggenheims controlled the smelting plants of Monterey, San Luis Potosi, Aguascalientes and Velardena in Durango, and were trying to get a foothold in Pachuca & Real Del Monte, thereby forcing the retirement of all the companies
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that had sunk a great amount of capital in smelters and mining ventures.
Seventh — The granting to Colonel Greene, an American citizen, of enormous concessions in the copper lands of the state of Sonora, upon which he had established the famous Cananea plant, where the four thousand employees were treated like slaves, and with such inhumanity that there was an uprising among them, with the result that armed men from the United States passed into Mexican territory to protect the American oppressors. The national press stigmatized Governor Izabel of Sonora as a traitor to his country for not having ejected the insolent intruders by force of arms.
Eighth — Having permitted the United States Ambas- sador, Mr. Thompson, to enter the business field in Mexico, something that would not have been tolerated in any other country, and having granted him personal concessions by means of which he organized The United States Banking Company and The Pan-American Railroad.
Ninth — The permission given by General Diaz to the United States Ambassador, Mr. Powell Clayton, to appear every afternoon at the National Palace with a list of recom- mendations for private American affairs, in order that they might be approved immediately by the administrative and judicial authorities in favor of the interested parties, even when the requests constituted an infamous injustice to the rights of the Mexican people.
Tenth — The arrangement by the law office of the noted Cientifico, Senor Joaquin Casasus, of the scandalous con- cessions in the rubber lands granted to the American multi- millionaires, John Rockefeller and Nelson Aldrich, which caused the ruin of a great number of poor towns in the state of Durango.
Eleventh — The verbal arrangement between Senor Li- mantour, the leader of the Cientificos, and Mr. Mallet-
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Prevost, lawyer of the Tlahualilo Company, of an agree- ment which ruined the river-bank-dwellers, both great and small, of the Nazas River in the cotton region of the "Laguna," who were for the most part Mexicans; and, moreover, the grant of several millions indemnity to the Tlahualilo Company for damages caused by it to the river- bank-dwellers of the Nazas through a colonization contract, which had lapsed under the provision of the law because of non-fulfillment, and which was null, besides, because it was unconstitutional, as Senor Limantour had acted without the necessary faculties, because it did not come within the province of the Treasury Department to settle matters of this nature. The American Ambassador, Mr. Henry Lane Wilson, was the chief protector of the Tlahualilo enter- prise to exploit Mexico, and went so far as to make the absurd statement that when there was even a single Ameri- can stockholder in a stock company, organized with stocks to the bearer, incorporated under Mexican laws, even if his share were only one cent, it gave the United States Govern- ment the right to make a claim against the Mexican Gov- ernment under the title of rights of aliens.
Even after the Secretary of Fomento, Senor Olegario Molina, disavowed the Limantour-Mallet-Prevost agree- ment, the inhabitants of the "Laguna" region, when they became aware that the Cientificos protected the enterprises that were working their ruin in order to please the United States Ambassador, assumed a revolutionary attitude, breath- ing hate against the Cientificos and all foreigners who sought to steal their water and lands — a hatred that later vented it- self in the assassination of three hundred Chinamen and sev- eral Spaniards in Torreon, with the expulsion of the latter and the confiscation of their property.
Twelfth — Having sold for an almost nominal sum, 50,- 000,000 hectares of marvellously fertile lands to twenty- eight favorites, who made poor bargains with the foreign
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companies to whom they sold them, mostly Americans, as it was the latter's ambition to buy up the country by bits and finally realize the boasted pacific conquest.
Thirteenth — Having despoiled the Yaquis, brave and in- domitable as the Araucanians, of their magnificent lands to hand them over to thieving bureaucrats, who wanted them merely to sell to American investors.
The spoliation of the Yaquis brought upon Mexico a bloody struggle of twenty years, which has served at the same time as a school of depravity for the Federal judges, the majority of whom dragged it out indefinitely in order to benefit pecuniarily by the frauds.
Fourteenth — Having despoiled various towns in the state of Mexico of their magnificent wooded hills in order to favor an American and Senor Jose Sanchez Ramos, a Spaniard, proprietors of the paper factories of San Rafael and Anexas. Further favor was shown these two favorites of the dictator by allowing them to fix the rate of tariff at both the mari- time and frontier custom houses so as totally to exclude paper for newspapers, and, in great part, all other paper from the national market.
Fifteenth — Having conceived the gigantic operation that gave the Mexican Government control of the great railroad system, with no purpose in view other than that of permit- ting the banking house of Scherer-Limantour, in combina- tion with American railroad magnates, to buy secretly and at a low figure the stocks of the Mexican Central, the National, the International, the Pan-American and other railroads, to sell them later at a great advance to the Mex- ican Government, thus consummating a piratical financial stroke against Mexico and the holders of Mexican railroad stocks.
Sixteenth — Consenting, after the Mexican Government had obtained control of the American branches and fused all into one great company called Lineas Nacionales, to the
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appointment by Senor Limantour of an American, Mr. Brown, to the important post of General Manager, and to the assignment of all the important posts, especially those drawing large salaries, to Americans. The revolutionary press proclaimed as one of the great principles of popular restitution the "Mexicanization" of the railroads, which meant expulsion of all non-Mexican officials and employees.
Seventeenth — The unceasing efforts of Senor Limantour, finally crowned with success, to place the oldest Mexican mining company, the Compania de Minos de Pachuca y Real del Monte, in the hands of an American company organized in Boston, and to having followed the same course with the Santa Gertrudis concern. Although both com- panies were obliged to keep the native working-men, they could dismiss all the Mexican employees, especially the high-salaried ones.
A storm of indignation broke loose in the Mexican mining world against the Cientificos for having consented, for the sake of brokerage fees and enormous gratuities, to drain the nation of its capital by making it over to outsiders.
Eighteenth — The grant by Senor Limantour of a mo- noply to the house of Mosler, Bowen & Cook to supply all office furniture to Government offices, as well as to Govern- ment schools, and to supply permanently all desk requisites for Government offices.
Nineteenth — The abandonment by Senor Limantour of his patriotic resolution not to place any of the foreign loans with New York banks, as he had given these banks a share in the conversion of the loans of 1899, and had placed the entire loan of 1904, amounting to $40,000,000, with the New York house of J. Pierpont Morgan.
Twentieth — The complete prostitution of the judicial sys- tem, which dictated that in case a foreigner was in litigation with a Mexican the case had to be decided in favor of the foreigner, whether he were right or wrong, without making
A BOXER REVOLUTION 127
the Mexican pay the costs; but if the foreigner were an American, his Mexican opponent was obliged to pay the costs of the suit.
Twenty-first — Having been guilty of the servile and trai- torous act of lending Magdalena Bay to the United States.
Twenty-second — Having shown great vacillation about fortifying the ports on the Tehuantepec Railroad.
Twenty-third — Having rejected, in order not to displease the United States, the honorable propositions of eminently respectable Japanese houses to establish Japanese colonies in various parts of the country, particularly on the Pacific Coast and in Lower California.
Twenty-fourth — Having neglected with culpable weak- ness to pursue the Chamizal question to the end, which would have put the Mexican people in the possession of the territory upon which the city of El Paso is built, stolen from them by the Yankees.
Twenty-fifth — Having passed an immigration law in 1908 against the Japanese and Chinese, dictated by the United States State Department, whose chief object was to prevent the Chinese from getting into the United States across the extensive Mexican frontier.
Twenty-sixth — Having followed so degrading a policy toward the United States that any American, however insig- nificant or knavish he might be, felt privileged to repeat with haughtiness Saint Paul's famous words when sentence was passed upon him, "Civis romanus sum."
La Voz del Pueblo, a clandestine newspaper which never- theless circulated freely in the City of Mexico with the per- mission of the chief of police, General Felix Diaz, the dicta- tor's nephew, said that the Mexican nation was not the creation of General Porfirio Diaz and the Cientificos, but simply the mistress of the United States.
When it became known in Mexico in 1910, that a Mex- ican named Ramirez (I think that was the victim's name)
ia8 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
had been lynched in Texas, the revolutionary party organ- ized a mass meeting, and from Ramirez they passed to Diaz and the Cientificos, execrating them for the cowardly, trai- torous policy by which they had robbed their country to benefit the United States. In the riots that followed, the agitators incited the people to set fire to the editorial office of El Impartial, the Government organ, and if the staff had not made a resolute effort to defend itself, obliging the police to perform their duty, the fire would undoubtedly have consumed the building and all the occupants would have perished. This riot was carried out with the consent of General Felix Diaz who, goaded by his ambition, had betrayed his uncle and benefactor.
Dr. Lara Pardo, one of Mexico's most distinguished writers, at present in New York, in his notable book, De Porfirio Diaz a Francisco I. Madero, has written: "Mex- ico, says a popular adage, is the foreigner's mother and the Mexican's stepmother." This phrase, which not only became a byword in Mexico but was quoted by foreign writers, sums up in a few words the financial, administrative, interior and exterior policy of General Diaz. And nothing can bet- ter explain why, while from the outside decorations rained in upon Diaz, as well as his sons, nephews, relatives and lackeys, and he was extolled as the greatest man Latin- America had ever produced, in his own country, and by his own people, outside the enchanted circle that the adulation of his favorites had created around him, he was cursed, and the people waited with impatience the day when death should snatch from him the supreme power, or some man, it mat- tered not who, should rise up and dash him from those heights where he seemed to be lost in the clouds. . . . Only the meanest kind of a Colonial government has as its only end the illimitable, reckless, headlong, disorganized exploitation of the national resources to further foreign interests at the expense, or perhaps total destruction of
A BOXER REVOLUTION 129
national progress. To this unfortunate class belonged the government of General Diaz. This political masterpiece never achieved anything but the facilitation of the inordinate exploitation of the national resources for the benefit of for- eigners, and the bridling or total extermination of national advancement. The bureaucrats who supported the admin- istration alone derived any benefit from it." *
Senor Rogelio Fernandez Giiell, a serious-minded man and a dispassionate writer, late director of the National Library of the City of Mexico and a partisan of Maderism, says: "The foreign element, which had profited so greatly during the dictatorship of Diaz, looked askance at Madero's reform tendencies. Mexico during the last years of the Porfirian Government had been transformed into an enor- mous market to which people of all nationalities flocked to make their fortunes, until it became a land of adventurers, without country, religion, or family, whose god was gold and who, like the gipsies, pitched their tents on the spot which Mercury designated as propitious. Briefly, the Paseo de la Reforma and the beautiful "colonias" (the new residential suburbs) were filled with palaces where these self-made magnates lived in oriental sumptuousness. The monopoliza- tion of mines and lands was so wanton that it was no longer possible to find a piece of land as big as the palm of one's hand that did not belong to some American, German or Spanish capitalist. Everything was auctioned or sold, and the sons of the soil begged at the doors of the palaces of the foreign Croesuses." 2
Senor Jose N. Macias, an unqualified Carrancista, in an interview in 1915 with Senor Fernandez Cabrera, the editor of El Heraldo de Cuba and a distinguished writer, said: "It cannot be denied (the prosperity of Mexico under the
1 Lara Pardo, De Porfirio Diaz a Francisco I. Madero, p. n.
2 R. Fernandez Giiell, Episodios de la Revolution Mexicana, p. 186.
130 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
dictatorship of Diaz), but it was a delusive greatness, the greatness of foreign capitalists who oppressed the country in order to multiply their resources with almost biblical prodigality. . . ." 1
Senor Roberto V. Pesqueira, Senor Carranza's confidential agent at Washington, said in an interview with Senor Fer- nandez Cabrera: "Everyone is aware that the republic of Mexico has been the field of exploitation for conscience- less traders, who by means of money prostituted the Gov- ernment to their own vile ends, obtaining concessions and sinecures displeasing and irritating to the popular mind and feeling. These foreign pirates found ready collaborators in the moneyed and conservative classes, which preferred the preservation and increase of their millions to the prog- ress and honor of the country and the name of the race." 2
I have given the long list of charges against the adminis- tration of General Diaz, collated by General Reyes — who shielded himself behind the flattery with which he attempted to blind the dictator — and by his followers. The latter tried for eight years by every possible means to arouse the popular class with the idea of intimidating General Diaz and compelling him to name General Reyes as his successor. As nothing excites the popular mind as much as the appeal to patriotism, and as from the viewpoint of Mexican history the United States appears as the implacable enemy of the Mexican people, every agitator unfurls the anti-foreign ban- ner because the popular class, whether barbarous or semi- barbarous, is organically anti-foreign. In Mexico the suc- cess of any agitator is assured if he turns the torrent of his eloquence against the United States as Mexico's natural enemy, and against the Spaniards, because of their cruelty toward the native race and their aversion for the "liberties" of the Mexican people in which they do not believe.
1 M. Fernandez Cabrera, Mi viaje a Mexico, pp. an, 212.
2 Idem, p. 254.
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Neither for that matter do any other strangers, or any of the reasonable and prudent people of the country.
It is not easy to understand how a Mexican revolution animated by the Boxer spirit, particularly strong against the United States, could have enlisted the sympathies of the American people and the decided protection of its Govern- ment. How is this phenomenon to be explained? Further on I shall give my impressions upon this point.
CHAPTER II
THE MORAL UPHEAVALS OF THE REVOLUTION
THE QUARTET OF DEGENERATES
MADERO'S easy triumph over General Diaz is ex- plained by the action of a quartet of degenerates. Degenerate is used here in the sense of degenera- tion ; the transformation of an upright man into a scoundrel, or the conversion of an extraordinarily gifted man into an imbecile, or the occurrence of both simultaneously.
Senor Limantour was the autocratic chief of the Cien- tifico group, or, more properly speaking, of five persons of this group, because the rest, possessing enlightened skep- ticism, took as much account of the policy of the Cientificos as they did of the idle gossip of the court of Alfonso XIII. Senor Limantour proved his moral degeneracy by his pa- triotic doctrine of the rigid enforcement of court coercion in order to protect the interests of foreign companies and prevent the depreciation in European markets of the stocks of any foreign company doing business in Mexico.
He also proved his degeneracy by believing that a man of Senor Corral's type, detested by the people and the army, and without other support than the intellectual power
132
THE MORAL UPHEAVALS 133
of four persons, who, however, were resolved not to com- promise themselves too deeply, or to risk their skin or their millions, could serve as the motive power to accomplish a social and political prodigy unknown to history (carry the election in the face of well-known unpopularity), and de- clared to be impossible by experts and practical theorists. If even six cells had remained intact in Sefior Limantour's brain, it would have occurred to him to retire permanently in 1910, taking his friends with him.
General Reyes, transformed into a "military genius" by the press, was the pretender to the throne — ever present in dictatorial Latin-American countries — who confides in the power that lies behind the sabre. He proved his ab- solute degeneracy by this extraordinary fact. After plan- ning the political ruin of General Diaz for eight years, with perversity as well as cleverness, when the hour of assured triumph arrived, ushered in by the revolutionary events which took place on July 26, 1909, at Guadalajara, cour- age forsook the mighty warrior and he sought clemency at the hands of General Diaz, who had feared him for eight years. These two men, Diaz and Reyes, had stood in mor- tal dread of each other for a long time, and had calmly let the country fall into the hands of the Maderistas, not through fear of Madero, but through fear of each other.
Senor Ramon Corral proved his complete degeneracy by his incapacity to see that the hatred borne him by the peo- ple and the army made his rise to power an impossibility, especially as General Diaz through egotism did not try to pave the way in civil circles. The majority in the Senate, in the House, among the state governors, almost all the mem- bers of the Supreme Court and all politicians, were his enemies. This being the state of things it would have be- hooved Don Ramon Corral, multi-millionaire, to take up his permanent residence on the Island of Corfu and devote himself to the consoling study of the Greek classics.
134 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
General Diaz, of course, led this group of degenerates. The principal acts marking his degeneration, and greatly contributing to the ruin of Mexico, were:
First — Having given an impetus, for the sake of villify- ing the Cientificos, to that war unto death waged by the lowest political elements in the country against his admin- istration— undoubtedly the least corrupt and most brilliant, from a financial point of view, in all Latin-America — and earning for it the condemnation of the people, who char- acterized it as a cesspool dangerous to the national health.
Second — Having resolved, after carrying his campaign of vilification against the Cientificos to a successful issue, that Don Ramon Corral — the most detested politician in the en- tire Republic — should succeed as their representative to the dictatorship, with all its machinery of oppression, degrada- tion and injustice.
Third — Having failed, after outraging public opinion without regard to class or color — because the candidacy of Sefior Corral was looked upon with horror by all, from the highest aristocrat to the meanest "pelado" — to organize a great national army that would have been able to drown in blood the uprising that was everywhere foreshadowed. Instead of following the course prompted by reason (when popularity wanes power must be held at the point of the bayonet), he persisted in maintaining an armed force one- fourth the size of that which would have been required in times of peace to keep down any popular uprising of the guerrilla type. The size of the armed force, including both Federal and state troops, needed to preserve peace, even when the Government could count upon public support, was well known in Mexico.
Fourth — Having refused, even after the revolution had burst forth, to take the proper means to defend himself, and to spend as much money as was necessary to raise in four
THE MORAL UPHEAVALS 135
months a force of thirty or forty thousand Rurales,1 a feat that could easily have been accomplished, and reenforced these with thirty or forty thousand Federal troops. It may be added that General Diaz had two and one-half years, from the middle of 1908 to the close of 1910, in which to prepare for the revolution that threatened him if he car- ried out his resolution of imposing Sefior Corral upon the unwilling people. He, moreover, had 74,000,000 pesos sil- ver reserve fund in the Treasury, and sufficient credit in Europe and the United States to have acquired two hun- dred, three hundred, or more millions, with which to have bought politicians, to have done away with revolutionists and to have dominated the situation in true despotic style.
Mexicans, as well as foreigners, have never been able to explain this whim of General Diaz's to make Senor Corral Vice-President. It was not a whim; it was sheer folly, and all real folly of a pathological nature can be ex- plained on the basis that he who commits it is insane, the degeneration being a more or less serious state of mental derangement. General Diaz sought to make Senor Corral Vice-President simply because he was the most detested man in the country, owing to the fact that the press — applauded and sustained by General Diaz — had not left him a shred of reputation. Owing to the unbounded egotism that takes possession of the mind of a dictator in the last stages of degeneration, General Diaz thought it absolutely necessary that he should continue in power not- withstanding the unpopularity which overwhelmed him, and which was tearing down the barricades of adulation that were thrown up by his partisans to shield him. Every Caesar who has reached the pinnacle of tyranny is pursued by the shadow of his own greatness and the spectre of the popular hatred. General Diaz thought that if he appointed
1 Rurales — mounted police who kept order in the country districts.
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to the vice-presidency an honorable, intelligent, likable man — and many such were to be found in Mexico — the public, which had believed in him as the only man capable of domi- nating the situation, would say: " 'The man who has made a nation' is no longer necessary; he is eighty years old; he is worn out; he ought to resign and retire to private life." General Diaz selected Ramon Corral so that the na- tion might exclaim: "Diaz a thousand times rather than Corral." This is mental derangement pure and simple.
The unfortunate Mexican public found itself in 1908 in the hands of four such degenerates. Degeneration of this sort can be easily explained. Autocratic political power corrupts and hardens. Sefior Limantour had been the finan- cial autocrat for eighteen years; General Reyes had domi- nated the states of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila for twenty- three years; Senor Corral had been the autocrat of the state of Sonora, exercising his power through the firm of Torres, Corral, Izabel & Company, for twenty-six years, and General Diaz had been the autocrat of the nation for thirty years. The sociological aspect of these men was that of extinct moral and deranged mental forces. Mexico was lost!
The blame, however, is not to be laid on them alone. There was another degenerate, the middle class, which had been the undisputed owner of the land since 1867; the ab- solute political arbiter of the power and destinies of the Caesars, and the supreme controller of the army, which was always at its beck and call, as our national history proves. Why did this class, which detested the dictatorship, which manifested contempt for it, which felt itself humiliated by it, tolerate the Diaz dictatorship for thirty-three years? With this exception, in all Latin-America in the space of one hundred years, the longest dictatorial regime on rec- ord is that of Sefior Jose Manuel Rosas in the Argentine, which lasted twenty-three years.
THE MORAL UPHEAVALS 137
The cause of this deplorable and cursed phenomenon was that all the bureaucratic vices had infiltrated to the middle- class stratum and completely corrupted it. The hour had come when a pigmy with the point of its diminutive boot could overthrow the colossus, apparently of bronze, which rested majestically on its crumbling pedestal. It was the hour prepared by fate for Francisco I. Madero.
THE IMPLACABLE AGENTS OF DESTRUCTION
Once the die had been cast by the triumphant election of Senor Corral, effected by means of stuffed ballot boxes, the public realized that it could still wait a while. Corral could not assume the power during General Diaz's life- time, and even though the dictator was eighty years old he might easily live three, four or even the six years of the allotted presidential term.
But this delay did not suit General Reyes. He and Gen- eral Diaz disagreed, and he was relieved of the portfolio of War and sent back as governor to Nuevo Leon. General Diaz then made Limantour promise never to leave him be- cause now more than ever he needed the support of all his loyal friends. General Reyes, who had retired to Nuevo Leon fuming with rage, was not one to forget a wrong; he also knew how to wreak revenge, not in the measure of the offense given, but in the measure of the hate to be satisfied. Another proof of General Diaz's degeneracy was that he did not do in 1902 what he did in 1909 — send Reyes out of the country, obliging him to remain abroad under sur- veillance, threatened with the fate of the Emperor Iturbide if he set foot on Mexican soil.
General Reyes, knowing the wholesome fear General Diaz had for public opinion with its power to overthrow dicta- tors once it reaches the fusion point, planned what was prac-
1 38 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
tically an assault on the prestige of the dictator in the pub- lic mind. To set this in motion he cleverly organized upon a military footing a dangerous corps of agitators.
Students may be transformed into excellent agitators and very dangerous ones, because they enjoy a certain amount of immunity. It is very seldom that a government would be willing, except under extreme provocation, to stand a group of students before a firing squad, or to have them done away with secretly. General Reyes' son, Rodolfo Reyes, sought and easily obtained the Chair of Constitutional Law at the national School of Jurisprudence, with a view to con- verting it into a hot-bed of Reyism. From the moment the scheme was launched the younger Reyes devoted himself to the task of corrupting the youths of the nation who were subject to corruption, offering them public posts and en- thusing them with this attractive program: "The country for the young; they are the only force that can save it, because they are noble and virtuous!"
The youth of Latin-America is at once noisy and stupid. In society, in conformity with the laws of nature, there ex- ists a minority for the young people, a minority for the aged people and a majority for adults. In the state the same ought to hold good: a minority for youths and old men and a majority for adults. Youth, along with its other deficiencies, is possessed of the absurd belief that the world ought to be governed by college students or professional men still in the infantile state of their intellectual devel- opment. This explains why the youth of all Latin-Amer- ica will at the polls declare a man of twenty-five acceptable for office; declares him senile at thirty and a mummy at forty. The proper governing age, according to them, is be- tween fourteen and twenty-five. It is needless to say that the success attained by Rodolfo Reyes in his attempt to enlist their enthusiastic support for his father's prospective
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presidential campaign was immense, and therein the youth showed their degeneracy.
In Mexico Free Masonry has never been the respectable corporation that it is in other nations. Since 1824 the in- centive to join its ranks has been to obtain Government posts. All the high public officials became Masons in order to court popularity, and were obliged to give the preference to Masons in the assignment of Government po- sitions. They also sought under cover of their association to transgress laws, especially in the line of peculations, without incurring the corresponding penalty. The Masonic program was: "The country to satiate the gluttony of the Masons!"
Descending from this level, already quite low, Masonry went still lower until it reached the point of having its dignitaries act as private detectives for General Diaz, do- ing all the dirty work that is part of a Caesarian system. Nothing disparaged Masonry in Mexico more than this. In 1885 a point was reached when it was considered an in- sult for a decent person to be pointed out as a Mason. Gen- eral Reyes determined to make the most of Masonry to attract the lower classes — urban and rural — the radical, the patriotic, and the ultra-patriotic, all believers in democracy and easily led because their powers of credulity are inex- haustible.
Representative Mexican society manifests toward foreign Protestant ministers all the consideration they deserve; but its contempt for the Mexican Protestant ministers is su- preme. And it is not because they are not Catholics; rep- resentative Mexican society has opened its doors to liberals who are not Catholics. When an educated person forsakes Catholicism in Mexico, he drifts into deism, rationalism, positivism, atheism, or indifferentism. Consequently, when a Mexican of the middle class becomes a Protestant minister, society looks upon him as a hungry beggar unable to earn
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his living in a more fitting way than by exploiting relig- ion; or as a knave who, before being dragged into jail as a pickpocket or a swindler, tries this as a last resort to keep his social standing. In representative Mexican society, which comprises a great part of the three principal social classes, the wife of a Mexican Protestant minister is looked upon as a sacrilegious concubine, and is not received anywhere. The Mexican Protestant ministers, feeling themselves despised by society, reply with hatred and vow revenge. The prin- cipal form of vengeance is, first and foremost, to attack per- sonal property rights, or in other words, to attack the rich, or those who on account of their high salaries and honora- ria can be considered rich, and, in general, all those who are not to be found in the lowest stratum of society. The Reyistas with their usual cunning won the Mexican Protestant ministers, offering them the friendship and pro- tection of General Reyes.
The dictatorship established a Normal School to train teachers for the primary, grammar and high school grades. The Normal School students were obliged to study sev- eral years and obtained as a recompense miserable salaries as school teachers, and the relentless disdain of society, good and bad. It refused to give the school teacher, trained in the Normal School, the same social rank granted to a law- yer, doctor, engineer, clergyman or broker of good stand- ing. The general public, and in this is comprised the best society, including the intellectuals, see in the schoolmaster the comic and inoffensive dominie of the Spanish one-act farce. And when a schoolmaster is introduced as a grad- uate of the Normal School, that is, as a man who has stud- ied several years to obtain an honorable title, the following remark is usually heard: "This poor man must be exceed- ingly stupid to have burned the midnight oil studying so many years to obtain a salary little more, or even less, than that of a street-car conductor."
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The Normal School teachers naturally resented this atti- tude and declared themselves the enemies of society; that is, radical reformers of the rotten social system, which, accord- ing to them, can only be remedied by socialism or anarchism.
General Diaz's motto, "No politics, all government," robbed serious political newspaper articles of their impor- tance, because all being of necessity partisans of the Gov- ernment and busy paying court to their master, no one deigned to read them, and the newspapers confined them- selves merely to news items. The most influential persons, therefore, in the newspaper world were the reporters. Among these were to be found many estimable and hon- orable persons, but the majority bore the reputation of be- longing to one of the most corrupt of all the fraternities. The reporter, of course, knew the public sentiment and felt the scorn manifested toward him on account of his generally dishonest and shameful conduct. This being the case, he also took his place in the ranks of the declared enemies of society, enlisting under the red banner of socialism and anarchism; two culminating points where a declared enemy of the ancient order of things can accomplish only ruin and destruction.
The defenders of the criminal class before popular juries constituted another fraternity to be feared. These criminal advocates turned the courts into schools of oratory in order to increase their prestige in the eyes of the dictatorship and in those of the opposing attorneys. The Latin advocate has two favorite pleas: First, momentary insanity or a heredity taint. The culprit's father or some of his ancestors were dipsomaniacs, lunatics, maniacs, epileptics, and hysterical tendencies manifested themselves in the female line; there- fore, according to modern ethical doctrines, responsibility did not exist. Second, the theories of Jean Jacques Rousseau : all men are born pure, virtuous, upright; it is society which
142 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
oppresses them, robs them, reduces them to extremest misery and finally kills them through neglect and disregard for their suffering. Consequently, it is not the accused who is the as- sassin; it is society, and it is society which ought to be sent to the gallows. The accused ought to be acquitted at once, and the Government would be benefited by granting him an annuity and assigning him a retreat to which he could retire to study undisturbed the problems for social reform.
The lower bureaucracy always detested the higher; and in a dictatorship such as that of General Diaz, where the veterans had converted the Government offices into asylums, hospitals and even luxurious sanatoria, the hatred of the lower bureaucracies for the higher had assumed unheard-of proportions. The lower bureaucracy was not socialistic, but it wanted a new order of things through the intervention of any national liberator, it mattered not who, so long as the lower bureaucracy was actually relieved of the host of de- crepits that weighed it down.
Feminism has penetrated into Mexico as an auxiliary dis- turbing force. It is well known that in Latin countries it is only the unattractive women, despairing widows, and indigent spinsters, when they are susceptible to hysterical emotions, who consecrate themselves to the social cause. A woman, well or only moderately well educated, gifted with great or medium talents, poor, unattractive, old, or merely soured, is a great social peril if her energies are not diverted into religious and charitable channels. These re- forming women are the generators of a hatred against society more dangerous than that fulminated by a Barcelona anar- chist. In Mexico there are beautiful, handsome, delicate and admirable women, but they are in the minority. In gen- eral, as is the case everywhere, the unattractive and indigent predominate, and as the dictatorship did much toward edu- cating them, it armed an implacable and stupendous host of adversaries.
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The different battalions of this terrible army of agitators operated, according to the statutes of their institution, in the following manner:
The proletarian student body, an imposing fraternity in Latin-America, instead of aspiring to march in the foreranks of the army of scientific progress, believes that it ought to be the vanguard of the most advanced ideas, be they what they may, true or false. Consequently, the student body chooses to affiliate itself with socialists and anarchists. It believes that it is its duty to espouse the cause of patriotism, and as patriotism in Latin-America means a rabid anti-foreign senti- ment, it is obliged to assume a Boxer attitude. It holds that it is the duty of youth to sacrifice itself for its ideals, and fol- lowing this precept it is always to be found at the head of riots and in all popular anti-social demonstrations.
The Masons according to the Mexican rite are bound to propagate anti-militarism, anti-Catholicism, anti-despotism and anti-anarchism.
The Mexican Protestant ministers, fulfilling their duties according to the general trend of ideas, must work against Catholicism and for the spiritual and temporal good of the people; and they have discovered that the temporal good of the people, composed almost entirely of proletarians, can only be obtained by the extermination of the landowners.
The teachers, trained in the Normal Schools, are preachers of the doctrine:' "Society can be regenerated only through the school." This means that they are the regenerators and that the reins of government should be handed over to them so that the measures outlined by the proletarian school for the solution of the Mexican "social question" — the enrich- ment of the poor from the purse of the rich — may be carried out.
The defenders of the poor in the criminal courts are bound, with the "social question" in view, to defend them
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even more strenuously, and the defense always calls for the spoliation of the rich in favor of the poor.
The lower bureaucracy always had a grievance because of the deplorable state of the public service, owing to the lack of change both among the old and the middle-aged em- ployees who had fastened themselves like leeches upon the best Government posts. If the "social question," as it is presented by the press, could be solved by collective social- ism, the Government posts would undoubtedly grow in im- portance by increasing the number of employees, because then even domestic positions would have to be held by Gov- ernment employees.
The journalistic class — represented by the reporters — can- not have ideals, because they occupy the position of chefs, obliged to prepare the dishes craved by the palate of the master of the day.
Mexican feminists are intelligent and, therefore, do not want the ballot; They know that it is a farce in the hands of the men, and that it would only be made a thousand times worse if women participated. Mexican feminism is inter- ested in the "social question" because it has outlined a more serious program, the monopolization of all the Government offices, basing their ambition on the fact that men are being needed in Mexico to work the rich mines, till the marvellous warm lands, run the splendid factories of our nascent in- dustries, speed the locomotives of our railroads, man the merchant marine to be established and the navy to be built, and, above all, develop the indispensable aviation corps which is the ever-open, far-seeing eye of the army. Mexican feminism is interested in the social question be- cause it has far-reaching reforms to propose, not yet given to the world; the time is not yet ripe.
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PRESIDENT WILSON AND THE NOBILITY OF THE PEOPLE'S
IDEALS
Needless to say, the professed ideals of the group of agi- tators are lies; the cloak that conceals their real ideals.
The first great lie is their claim to patriotism. Mexican history has proved that in our political class there have been individuals who have shone for their exalted patriotism, and have been admired for their bravery and their disregard for personal safety and their disinterestedness as to personal gain. But the patriotism of the majority has been what the author of Notes on the War Between Mexico and the United States has called it — vociferous clamor. The po- litical class in general did not display anything but coward- ice, egotism, prostituted patriotism and excellent dispositions to betray its country once a week, or once a day, if necessary in the war against the United States in April, 1914, any more than in the war against the Spanish expedition of Bar- radas in 1828; in the Texan war against the American settlers in 1836; in the war against the French in 1838; in the war against the Americans in 1847, and in the war against the French in 1862 and the years that followed.
Foppa, the Argentenian journalist, perceiving this canker growing on our social body, says: "And the Yankee . . . the Yankee they loathe. Generals are still alive who remem- ber 1847; but, notwithstanding this loathing, they do not hesitate to seek constantly the support, the munitions, the funds, the friendship and the protection of the Yankees. . . . They are revolutionists, they say ; they are Mexicans, say I."
The anti-foreign spirit has mortally wounded the hearts of our agitators without ennobling their patriotism.
When General Forey entered the capital in June, 1862, the bureaucratic class flocked around him seeking positions with the same enthusiasm they had manifested toward Santa
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Ana, Miramon and Juarez. When Maximilian established himself as Emperor of Mexico, Juarez was forsaken and remained almost alone at El Paso. In Mexico only a few heroic men upheld him. The aristocratic class has shown patriotism only when it has been a question of fighting Americans. It was the aristocrats who brought the French to Mexico, and at the present time they must acknowledge, whether they relish it or not, that the only thing they crave is a sabre, national or foreign, which will guarantee the security of life and property.
Patriotism, sincere and energetic, tenacious and admirable, exists in the majority of the common popular class, the lower urban class, and in a very restricted section of the political class. With regard to the Indians it is difficult to say, because they received the Archduke Maximilian with extraordinary enthusiasm and with the mystic attitude they might have assumed toward a promised Messiah.
The truth is that the main ideal of the agitators, and of all who hated the Cientificos, was vengeance. The army sought to take vengeance on all civilians, because they wanted to throw off the unsupportable yoke of militarism which they had borne for one hundred years. It wished to take ven- geance on the Cientificos, because Limantour did not let it steal promiscuously, something they had been accustomed to do since the birth of the Mexican nation. It wanted, more- over, to take vengeance on the Cientificos, because they op- posed the extension of militarism, which was eager to realize the maxim: "The government of the people, by the army and for the army."
The planters wanted to take vengeance on the Cientificos, because, with the promulgation of the banking laws of 1908, their virtual robbing of the banks ceased.
Illegitimate commerce, which was extensive, wanted to take vengeance on the Cientificos, because Limentour had re-
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lentlessly persecuted smuggling and had raised the morale of the administration to a standard that reduced this form of fraud against the state to a tolerable minimum. Legitimate commerce wanted to take vengeance on the Cientificos be- cause they controlled the banks, and undertook unfair and ill-advised operations.
The working-men wanted to take vengeance on the Cien- tificos, because Limantour had energetically opposed the Government's placing itself before the world in the light of favoring the anti-economic measure of fixing a minimum wage, which threatened to be the ruin of capital.
The cotton weavers wanted to take vengeance on the Cien- tificos, because they opposed the raising of the protective rate of tariff to a degree where protection would be extortion.
The Masons wanted to take vengeance on the Cientificos, because not one of them would ever join the society. They violently resented that the secret societies should pretend to govern, and they opposed the defrauding of the national treasury by granting lucrative positions and business oppor- tunities to the Masonic chiefs.
The Mexican Protestant ministers wanted to take ven- geance on the Cientificos, because Limantour — not on ac- count of their Protestantism, but because they bore the reputation of being rascals — had never given them places in the public administrative offices, which they attempted to secure in every imaginable way, so as to be able to steal in whatever manner they could devise.
The school teachers wanted to take vengeance on the Cien- tificos, because Limantour opposed the increase of their sal- aries, and the appropriation of five or six million pesos an- nually for rural schools.
The newspaper men wanted to take vengeance on the Cientificos, because Limantour would never employ them, even when they frequently offered their services for a set price, and because he refused to subsidize newspapers.
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The feminist element wanted to take vengeance on Li- mantour, because he had closed the door of the Treasury Department to women.
These were the main points, and they worked with sav- age energy to create the present appalling political and social upheaval. The following facts were patent: All Mex- icans believed Mexico to be the richest country in the world ; the middle class had suffered inordinately from hunger, from the time of the Declaration of Independence up to the Diaz administration; the public revenues had quintupled; the public receipts each year exceeded the disbursements; the reserve fund in the Treasury amounted to 84,00x3,000 pesos ; Mexican credit ranked high in European and American markets. If during the eighty years of Mexico's national life the middle class, striving to live entirely off the govern- ment and enrich itself thereby, had not been able to steal, when it became an established fact that there was much to steal, the lust for personal gain by means of defrauding the bureaucracy rose to fever heat.
On the other hand, to a Latin-American of the middle class the greatest offense that can be offered him — greater than taking his wife from him, violating his daughter, or disfiguring his face with sulphuric acid — is to have one of his friends amass a fortune. This is not to be endured. The heart of the one to whom this affront has been offered is consumed by a white-heat envy, molten lead coursing through his veins instead of blood.
If the wealth has been acquired by means of defrauding the public, which in our decadent social system does not constitute a stigma, then envy is capable of transforming the injured one from a lamb into a lion, from a weakling into an athlete, from an arrant coward into a legendary hero, from a self-seeking egotist into a sublime patriot, so long as it gives him an opportunity to take vengeance on his former
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friend, and at the same time to defraud his country for his own benefit, even to the point of surpassing the rapacity of the first offender.
The members of the bureaucratic middle class were in- telligent enough to be able to judge to what point the Cien- tificos were culpable, and to gauge the exact measure of Profirian corruption ; but, as they were the victims of that de- testable vice of envy, which blinds reason and corrupts the heart, they accepted as mathematically proved facts the asser- tions of the agitators to the effect that the Cientificos formed a political party, and that every member of that party was receiving not less than 1,000,000 pesos per month or per year, as the case might be, for his share of the work of the association. The effect of this belief was deplorable. In all the homes of bureaucrats, mothers, aunts, wives, sons and daughters, servants and friends advised the head of the house to "do business" with the Government; if he were an em- ployee, even more so. "Doing business" with the govern- ment meant, of course, stealing. It was advised to take everything on contract, from laying fifty thousand kilometers of railroad to removing the trash from public offices, all to be manipulated so as to redound to the personal benefit of the contractor. If it was not possible to obtain contracts, the judges ought to sell sentences; the court secretaries, the papers bearing on the case; the clerks, the public trust; the chiefs of departments, the office furnishings, the hospital sup- plies, the prison food, the arms and ammunition of arsenals; they should rob the troops of their pay; impose fines upon all; sell justice under every form; sell police vigilance, whole- sale and retail; steal even the inkstands, pencils, paper, type- writers and typewriter ribbons — in a word, everything that could be taken ought to be taken, however low and un- ethical the means employed to accomplish it might be.
It was even noised about the streets, in the cafes, in the theatres, in church sacristies, in public and private gather-
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ings, at the funeral obsequies of friends. "Steal or you will be condemned ; steal or you will be an unworthy father, un- worthy son, unworthy husband, unworthy citizen, unworthy friend, unworthy man and even an unworthy beast," was the universal cry. The passion for stealing was so ingrained that it became the life and soul, the warm, coursing blood, the master passion of the nation. The revolution, without the revolutionists or the bureaucratic class — itself so bare- facedly revolutionary — being aware of it, had already found its immortal principles: "Vengeance and pillage."
Vengeance was vowed, above all, against the Cientificos, because as a whole they were, first and foremost, men of superior calibre. The fool tolerates, admires or loves the su- perior man; the mediocre intelligence detests him more than the insolent aristocrat, more than the egotistical, prostituted man of wealth, more than its own misery, more than all its mortal enemies put together. The hatred of the mediocre intellectual class for the superior men knew no bounds. It was characterized by a bestial ferocity which can only be qualified as that which springs from a mediocre ambition that has been thwarted. Needless to say the "social ques- tion" was the "personal question" so far as the agitators were concerned. The proletarian "I," vicious and insig- nificant, would rapidly be converted into the multi-million- aire "I," transformed by adulation into a respectable per- sonage. Such was the problem that the educated, intelligent contingent had to solve at the cost of the civilization and life of the Mexican people.
Unfortunately for Mexico, and, perhaps, for the United States, out of the 1,600,000,000 beings who inhabit the globe, there was one, President Wilson, capable of believing in the "most noble ideals of the Mexican people," which in reality were nothing more than the infamous ideals of a band of kid-gloved, frock-coated thieves. President Wilson was touched by these "most noble ideals,"
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and, forgetting that he had been placed in his exalted posi- tion to procure, within the limits of his legitimate field of action, the welfare and prosperity of the people of the United States, turned away from his duty to put himself at the head of the Mexican revolution in company of persons who can in no wise add to his prestige.
CHAPTER III MADERISM
THE MORE THAN SHAMEFUL FALL OF THE COLOSSUS
IT may be urged that in all civilized countries there exist agitators of the anti-social type as capable of harm and as much to be feared as those who operate in Mexico. It is true, but the Mexican people are not yet civilized, espe- cially from the middle class downward. Civilized nations possess sufficient popular, traditional, intellectual and moral conservative elements to allow them to grant liberties to the classes that aspire to reform the social order. Even so, nations as civilized as France have found themselves in dan- ger of being submerged. Dictatorships are necessary in countries where, as is the case in Mexico, there is no other traditional, conservative element but the Church, with still a considerable remnant of influence; the army, which once corrupted has no influence for good, and the immobility of the rural masses because of their illiteracy, which prevents agitators from putting themselves into contact with them. Mexico's misfortune was that it should have occurred to General Diaz during the years of his degeneracy to con- trive to destroy all the powerful repressive and governing elements that a dictatorship should possess, and to hand over his person, his government and society to the infernal power of agitators to whom more liberties were allowed than in the most civilized free countries.
The famous Creelman conference took place in 1907,
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and after that — in fact, because of it — General Diaz gave permission for everything to be freely and indiscriminately attacked: Social order, natural order, divine order, every- thing which up to then had been respectable and respected, except his person, which was no longer respected, and which could lay no claim to being respected. Everything could be proclaimed and upheld: Jacobinism, scoundrelism, social- ism, anarchism, criminalism, bestialism, so long as "reelec- tionism" were admitted and tolerated. General Diaz never took into account that the three years' preparatory campaign against the peace and civilization of Mexico, 1908 to 1910, had pulverized the foundations of the dictatorship.
Opposite General Diaz stood that other abnormal degen- erate, General Reyes, the leader of a crusade aimed at the very heart of his country. As a society or as a nation it was doomed to perish, since it was at the mercy of such a mad, insane policy. Reyes did not consider that he was undermining the foundations of the building he wished to inhabit ; neither did his son, the leader of the agitation, stop to consider that it was his father's grave he was digging, either as a man or as a politician, but in any event the grave of the Mexican people.
The army could have saved the situation had it not also utterly degenerated. This was proved by its failure to over- throw General Diaz in 1902, as was its manifest duty. In Latin-America the army has a double salutary office: First, to end quickly by means of force anarchistic tendencies that are destroying the country. Second, to put an end to dicta- torships which, once degenerated, ought to be inexorably de- stroyed in order to prevent two evils: those proceeding from a decadent dictatorship, and the inevitable social anarchy that would result if the army did not at the proper moment overthrow the dictator, thus making room for another who would assume the power. He would always be better than the overthrown dictator, because nothing can be more harm-
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ful to a nation than to be at the mercy of a man in the last stages of cerebral derangement.
General Reyes proved his degeneracy in July, 1909. After the people of Guadalajara, including all classes of society, had risen against the dictatorship, the nation acclaimed him as its savior; the younger element of the army bowed to him; the conservatives accepted him as the "man of iron," and even the partisans of democracy upheld him, as the phrase of the demagogue Camilo Arriaga attests: "Any one but Diaz, even Reyes." Nevertheless, the much- lauded governor of Nuevo Leon failed to put himself at the head of the movement which was backed by all society, their support originating in great part in the eight years' Reyista campaign against General Diaz. At this crucial moment Reyes abandoned his post, bowed to the orders of the dic- tator, submitted to being sent into exile, and to the be- trayal of his friends. The revolution, which already had the moral and physical support of the nation, was left with- out a leader, cast out into the open, to be marshalled into order and led into action by the first one who happened to come along. It mattered not who this might be, provided he possessed what the army lacked, courage and audacity. It was Francisco Madero who casually passed by and pos- sessed himself of the revolution, or more properly speaking, the revolution possessed itself of him, for never at the time, or afterwards, did Madero comprehend the revolution.
The revolution began in Chihuahua and was organized by Senor Abraham Gonzalez, who in my presence concurred in what was generally known in Mexico — that he initiated the revolution, not out of hatred for Diaz, but through hatred of the Terrazas family, represented by the govern- ment of Don Enrique Creel. Dr. Campa, in his work on the revolution in Chihuahua, has proved what every resi- dent of Chihuahua says, that Pascual Orozco threw himself into the revolution because of hatred of Governor Creel,
MADERISM 155
who was the protector of the Chavez family. It was one of the principal families of the town of Santa Isabel, and was hated by Orozco. The brilliant Chihuahua leader, Salido, took up arms because of hatred of the Terrazas family, who were the protectors of Zea, the mayor of Cuidad Guerrero, whom Salido cordially hated. Jose M. Maytorena organized the revolution in Sonora because of personal hatred of Don Ramon Corral. In Sinaloa the revo- lution headed by Juan Banderas was inspired by hatred of the Redo family. In the "Laguna" region in the states of Durango and Caohuila, the leaders who fomented the revo- lution did so out of hatred of the Carzagalanista circle, which had obtained control there. In Morelos, Zapata had taken up arms because of personal hatred of the mayor of Yautepec, who had forcibly obliged him to serve in the Federal army. With the exception of Madero, we find nothing patriotic, nothing civilized, nothing elevated in the motives that actuated the revolutionary leaders of 1910, who were not bandits. Everything was hatred because of injured interests or wounded self love, or offenses of a personal nature.
I have pointed out that notwithstanding the fact that General Diaz possessed formidable means by which he could have smothered the revolution so openly flaunted in his face in 1908, he offered but feeble resistance to Madero, leading to his own fall and to what has proved to be the destruction of civilization in Mexico.
WHO TRIUMPHED IN THE MADERO REVOLUTION OF
After the convention of Ciudad Juarez, which put the power indirectly into the hands of Madero, the Maderista press announced that the people had triumphed. This was not a fact. A people can only be said to triumph when it is capable of self-government; otherwise the one who tri-
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umphs is its tacit or actual representative. In Latin-America this, without exception, is the disloyal leader, the tyrant who calmly says: "Step down, that I may step up." The only benefit derived by a servile people from a revolution is a change of despots, never a new form of government.
In 1911 the material victory had been won by the leaders of the popular or sub-popular class, some of them reputable persons, others bandits. Among these may be mentioned Pascual Orozco, Villa, Urbina, Rodriguez, Amado Macias, Triana, Banderas, Iturbe, Calles, Alvarado, Cabral, Candido Navarro, the Zapatas, Salgado, Figueroa, Zamudio, and many others of lesser importance. A Venezuelan President, speaking of our burlesque democracies, said that in dicta- torial Latin-America the only serious feature about them is that by right of might they belong to the strong.
In Mexico, so far as the revolution is concerned, this bit- ter truth has been realized. The winner of the victory is the master of the situation, and Mexico had fallen from the feeble, tremulous grasp of General Diaz under the hoofs of the horses of ranchmen, cowboys and bandits in the north, and in the south into the clutches of a barbarous or semi-savage horde. Fortunately for the Mexican public the revolutionary press, with its illimitable power of suggestion over the minds of a credulous people, aiming to obliterate General Diaz's formidable personality, managed to pass Madero off as the saving hero, transforming him into a veritable idol in the eyes of the people. This crusade of fanaticism was carried to such a point that it was impossible to create among the masses, rural or urban, an enthusiasm for any deserving revolutionary leader equal to that felt for the defied figure of Madero. He was the only jEon of the gnostics of Mex- ican democracy. The work of the press was bound to be ephemeral. Every revolutionary press that has forged an idol is fated to be the one to demolish it, and the counter- feited portrait of Madero as a Herculean reformer was
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destined to be shortly annihilated by the same press that had created him the superior of all other Mexican public men.
The triumph of Madero revealed the nation's misleading position. The Federal army, although it fought with brav- ery and discipline in 1910 and 1911, was routed and hu- miliated. Notwithstanding its reduced numbers, it might have conquered Madero and put an end to the revolution in Chihuahua. Its failure to do so proves its inefficiency, and in this light its failure must be attributed to its advanced state of degeneration.
The second fact is more significant and more deplorable. In our famous War of Reform, bloody and destructive in the extreme, the liberal leaders were almost all professional men of the middle class. Their only contribution to the existing national army was raw recruits and mobs. They suffered terrible defeats with fortitude, and carried on the struggle heroically until they were able to organize armies and to dominate reactionaries, justly acquiring fame for their bravery, intrepidity, constancy and resistance in an utterly exhausting campaign of three years, fought in the midst of want and misery. Their names deserve to be men- tioned: Generalisimo Santos Degollado; Generales Ignacio de la Llave, Pedro Ogazon, Miguel Blanco, Esteban Coro- nado, Juan Zuazua, Maunel Doblado and Generalisimo J. Gonzalez Ortega, who by a series of brilliant victories won the cause for the liberal party. To the names of these pa- triots, all of whom were lawyers, should be added those of Manuel Gutierrez Zamora, a merchant, and Santiago Vidaurri, a Government bureaucrat. Such were the great fighters of our immortal three years' war.
In the Madero revolution we do not find a single lawyer converted into a hero by military feats, or as the leader of any important or unimportant detachment. One or two young attorneys were to be found attached to the person of
158 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
Madero, carefully hugging the rear, and the only profes- sionals engaged in the struggle, Hay, Gonzalez Garza and Fuentes D., never held important commands. The lawyer, Jose Maytorena, and the engineer, Manuel Sonilla, watched the bull-fight from behind the fence in the capacity of civil- ians. From a sociological point of view this proves that the middle class, with a few exceptions, was lost to shame or bravery — or to both — and, consequently, was no longer en- titled to the right to govern. The governing class should possess strength enough to be the fighting class, or to trans- form itself into it should occasion demand. A people is truly sovereign only when it knows how to discharge mili- tary duties, taking up arms for the defense of its legitimate rights according to ethical principles, which are nothing more than the principles of true militarism. The Madero revolu- tion revealed the deplorable fact that the middle class had lost control of the country, and that it must henceforth belong to those who possessed the greatest military strength. If Mexico fell into the hands of two hundred thousand bandits, it was not because of the decrees of moral law, the law of civilization or constitutional law, but of the natural law, which, all theories of jurists to the contrary notwith- standing, gives dominion to the strong over the weak. Since the triumph of the Madero revolution the educated middle- class man, honest or dishonest, is destined to live as a courtier, a bawd, a lackey, or as the private secretary of the leading bandit chief of the popular or sub-popular class, who cannot feel anything but well-merited contempt for them. No one noticed the change wrought by the Madero revo- lution. The real revolutionists who had spent eight years in working out their plans and preparing their campaign, and those who had recently joined the ranks, expected that Madero would endorse their great principles, "vengeance and pillage" — vengeance against the Cientificos, even to picking their bones with the greedy rapacity of vultures.
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MADERO THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONIST
When Madero triumphed, the student body expected that the Government would be handed over to them in virtue of their prerogative as the enlightened youth of the nation. 'Madero, however, resolved to govern with the help of use- ful, patriotic persons, whether young, middle-aged or old.
The Mexican Masons approached Madero, but he drew away with repugnance. He was a spiritist, although his family was sincerely Catholic. Among the male members of the family were to be found liberals of the advanced type, who professed the most profound contempt for the Masonic fraternity, whose history in Mexico has been de- grading and shameful.
Neither did the Mexican Protestant ministers meet with a warm reception. Madero advised them, since the law of the land forbade clergymen of any denomination whatsoever to enter the political field, to devote themselves to their spiritual functions; and told them that, if in order to seek political offices they should cast aside their clerical garb and office, they would declare themselves unprincipled rascals whose only object could be exploitation for personal benefit. The criminal lawyers noted from the first that Madero received them coldly, and in a toast "The Apostle," as Madero was called, was heard to say that these very advo- cates were society's most dangerous enemies. For the femin- ists, seekers of Government employment, Madero had no use. He never hesitated to proclaim his dislike for intriguing po- litical women. In an absolute and final manner Madero an- nounced that he would not subsidize newspapers to eulogize him, neither would he buy up newspapers. The Nueva Era was established with private capital. The state bureau- cracies, which at the last moment betrayed the dictator in order to pounce upon the Federal posts, were slighted by
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Madero, who expressed his determination to keep in office all the honest and capable employees of his predecessor's administration. The members of the lower bureaucracy, which had aspired to cast out the higher, were advised to maintain an attitude of circumspection and respect toward their superiors under pain of dismissal.
Great was the disappointment everywhere with regard to the vengeance every one had expected to wreak on the Cientificos. It appeared that Senor Limantour, before being made Secretary of the Treasury, had been attorney for the Madero family when "the Apostle's" grandfather, Senor Evaristo Madero, a highly gifted man who amassed a great fortune, had been its head. The Maderos thought very, highly of Senor Limantour, understood the worth of his financial policy and moralistic campaign, and Senor Ernesto QVIadero, who succeeded Limantour in the Treasury Depart- ment, determined to preserve the personnel of the department and the financial and administrative methods of his prede- cessor. The Maderos had always looked with disfavor upon the calumnies that had been circulated by the enemies of the Cientificos without, however, losing sight of the fact that there were two or three who had a good deal to answer for. The new Secretary of the Treasury judged rightly that it was not possible to govern without the decided sup- port of the national and foreign capitalist, especially in a country that urgently needed foreign capital to develop it. The demand of the genuine revolutionist was that Madero should govern with the help of the mob and the kid-gloved rascals. But all the working elements of the revolution soon felt that in Maderism, as it had unfolded itself, it would be impossible for them to prosper or even live. Madero was noble, generous, civilized, worthy to hold the place he occupied because he repulsed with horror all rancor, all recourse to vengeance or rascality as helps to government. It is not true that the Cientificos started the revolt against
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Madero with the purpose of overthrowing him. On the con- trary, they were always grateful to him and never conspired against his government. I speak of the true Cientificos, who dissolved in 1911, each one at liberty to do what he might think best. The element that overthrew Madero was the military, led by General Reyes and General Felix Diaz, both of whom hated the Cientificos. In the event of their triumph the Cientificos could have expected nothing but the most incessant and implacable vengeance, ending in their annihilation. It is stupidity or absolute want of good faith to believe that the Cientificos could have supported the insurrection against Madero in order to raise Reyes to power.
From the first days of his great victories and before assuming the presidency, Madero had tranquilized society, alarmed by the triumph of the rabble, assuring them that they had nothing to fear, as he was determined to respect all the personal guarantees granted by the Federal Consti- tution of 1857, tne reestablishment of which he had pro- claimed. The socialists, anarchists and reformers, who based their projects upon modifications or utter destruction of the social regime, which rests upon the inviolability of private property, were white with rage against Madero and de- nounced him as a traitor to the principles of the revolution.
Public stealing, the other revolutionary ideal, was not countenanced by Madero. The truth must be told. Ma- dero was an upright President a:cd did what he could, within the limited range of his political and administrative knowl- edge, to abolish public stealing.
Fifteen days after his triumph Madero was already dis- liked or hated in all revolutionary circles, proving that the actual ideals of the revolutionists were contrary to the prin- ciples they professed: honesty, kindness and justice.
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THE ONLY ROAD OPEN TO MADERO
Before assuming the reins of government in October, 1911, Senor Madero asked my opinion of his administrative pro- gram. I shall transcribe faithfully my reply, vouching for the absolute truthfulness of my words.
"Senor Madero, you are not, nor can you ever be, the spirit of the revolution because, judging by your noble con- duct and your civilized principles, you are in reality the spirit of the counter-revolution. The political problem is as follows: You cannot possibly govern with the revolutionary element, composed of rough but honest ranchmen, profes- sional bandits and demagogic agitators, leaders of the re- stricted civil revolutionary circle. You cannot fall back upon a dictatorship, because it takes time above all to es- tablish one; neither would the people who have supported you so nobly because they loathed the dictatorship of Gen- eral Diaz, ever permit you to fasten upon them what they have striven with all their strength to cast off. In Latin- America a dictatorship cannot be openly and brazenly estab- lished. All dictators have attained their object by means of patience, dissimulation, perfidy, political assassination and corruption — means you are incapable of adopting, for which I congratulate you. But even if you possessed the qualities of a born dictator, you would lack time, for remember that it took General Diaz eight years, and not a month, to es- tablish his dictatorship, the first years of his government bearing no semblance to a dictatorship.
"I do not believe that you can establish a democratic gov- ernment, because the chief element is lacking, a democratic public; but I do believe that you could essay the establish- ment of a government along parliamentary lines, such as that of Chile, Argentine or Brazil. This attempt is impos- sible without taking the Catholics into account to form a Catholic party, deficient, but still a party.
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"It is absurd for Mexican liberals, so enamored of the parliamentary form, to talk of launching it with only one political party. This talk of one political party is an ab- surdity. Every political party that aims at destroying its opponent in order to be supreme, degenerates, becomes cor- rupt, divides into personal factions and presents a truly repellant aspect, as the liberal party has done and is doing. Without a party opposed to the liberal party, to act as a balance, all attempts to float a parliamentary form of gov- ernment are crass stupidity.
"The Catholics have also been revolutionists because they did not want the dictatorship of General Diaz and gave you their moral support. This is proved by the fact that the newspaper that most virulently attacked the dictator was the Catholic newspaper, El Pah. The revolutionary ideal of vengeance and pillage was not theirs; neither did they wish to reestablish the Inquisition and the reactionary government of Ferdinand VII. They are educated and intelligent; they accept the Constitution and the separation of Church and State, because in the present rotten condition of politics, it would be highly undesirable for the Catholic clergy, who have for so many years been patriotic and virtuous, to submit to having the Government appoint bu- reaucratic bishops, impregnated with the bureaucratic spirit, capable of dragging the Church into that filthy mire. The Catholic clergy has no end in view but that of introducing religious instruction into the schools, and would be satisfied even if this instruction were not to be made obligatory, simply left to the will of the parents, provided at their ex- pense or that of the religious lay associations. You are well aware that I do not belong to the Catholic party; but it seems to me intolerable that merely in order to support the principle of the lay school we should be obliged to submit to the folly of trying to establish a parliamentary form of government with an exclusive faction, misnamed the liberal,
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which would lead to anarchy, and ultimately to a dictator- ship. The alternative that is offered to all reasonable Mexi- cans is the ignominious yoke of a dictatorship, or the intro- duction of free religious instruction in the public schools. It is more worthy, more humane, more patriotic to favor the acceptance of religious teaching in the public schools, not offered by the Government, but won by the Catholics in free parliamentary debate.
"The first thing you should do is radically to reform the Constitution, in order to eliminate the revolutionary pre- cept that turns the House of Representatives into a ferocious, anarchistic convention, possessing the right to accept any ac- cusation whatsoever against the President of the Republic, passing sentence upon him in half an hour and depriving him of office by a simple majority of votes. Amend the Constitution in this respect, copying that of the United States, which has been adopted with modifications by Chile, Argentine and Brazil, laying down the rule that the House of Representatives can only by a two-thirds majority de- clare that there is cause for impeaching the President, and that the body to try him shall be the Senate, which cannot declare him guilty except by a two-thirds majority vote of those who are present.
"Once the Constitution has been reformed so that the Chief Executive is not in reality the slave of an anarchistic convention, assure absolute freedom in the elections, if the Catholic clergy in a strictly legal manner; that is, working as individuals and not as a corporation, will undertake to organize, discipline and direct a Catholic party, and work for a program that will have your approbation and that of all sane, intelligent and liberal persons.
"Your electoral policy should be confined merely to keep- ing the equilibrium in the Lower House between the Catho- lic party and that which might be formed from the coalition of the more serious elements among the liberals and the
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demagogues. The second amendment of the Constitution should be that the senators and the judges of the Supreme Federal Court, instead of being elected by popular vote, should be named by the Senate, with the approval of the Executive as well as that of the judges of the Court. As you can count at present upon a majority in the Senate, you can create the new one with an honorable, intelligent, pa- triotic personnel, one that carries weight in the eyes of the public. Having these things in your favor, you can launch your parliamentary scheme, which, however, may end in disaster, as the Jacobin bureaucratic faction will naturally resent the granting of Government positions and sinecures by Catholic cabinet members, although it may be within their legitimate province, and they will attempt to destroy the system that has taken from them the monopoly of Gov- ernment positions. On the other hand, the army is the traditional enemy of civilian presidents and the friend of mili- tarism; but at the same time it must be taken into con- sideration that even though the Indian soldiers are Catholics they will fight for or against Catholicism with equal re- pugnance or enthusiasm. Moreover, the officers are nearly all anti-Catholic and members of the middle class, which aspires to hold despotic sway over the country. You see, therefore, that there are three roads open to you: The first, the absurd one of trying to organize a dictatorship with only your family to support you; the second, accepting as pos- sible the formation of a government with ranchmen, cow- boys, bandits and demagogues to assist you; the third, the establishment of a parliamentary government, which lays claim to probabilities of success, or at least of preserving the semblance of government that would be indispensable for the ultimate declaration of a dictatorship if that should become necessary."
Seiior Madero took up my ideas with enthusiasm and of- fered to carry them out. Three days later I entered the
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House of Representatives just as they were about to take up the discussion of a projected law to prevent the Catho- lics from organizing the Catholic party. I addressed the House, taking as my theme the necessity of the existence of the Catholic party for the establishment in Mexico of a responsible government. I talked at some length, my words producing an effect, as the dropping of the projected law proved. The Catholic party was formed, and undoubtedly worked for the good of the country.
THE BANEFUL INFLUENCE OF GUSTAVO MADERO
One month after my speech in the House of Representa- tives Senor Gustavo Madero, who was dining at my house, said in presence of Senor Melgarejo that he was convinced that General Diaz was amply justified when he said, as he was leaving the country in June, 1911: "The new men will soon be convinced that the only way to rule the Mexi- can people is the way I have ruled them." I said to Senor Gustavo Madero that in all probability General Diaz was right, but that even if he were right, he had governed the country by means of a dictatorship that it had taken eight years, with the loyal support of General Manuel Gonzalez, to establish. I further said that I did not pretend to say that eight years was the set time for the establishment of a dictatorship in Latin-America, but that I did know that it could not be done in eight months, or in sixteen, or in twen- ty-four, and that he was attempting to create his brother a dictator before he was a president, and that, what was even worse, he was employing the repugnant, irritating methods that had driven the people to give their support to any meas- ure that would insure the overthrow of the dictator. Senor Madero, then basking in the sunshine of prosperity and adulation, called me a pessimist, and followed the road he had mapped out until, loathed by all, he fell into the hands of assassins on the fateful night of February 18, 1913.
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I believe that ft was the influence of Senor Gustavo Ma- dero that was the chief cause of the political and personal ruin of his brother. President Madero was always hon- est in the matter of the management of public funds and of not permitting Government frauds; but he was undoubt- edly disloyal, not against the revolution, but against his own ideals, which had been held out as the panacea for all Mex- ico's troubles.
Senor Madero permitted the Catholic party to be or- ganized, and no sooner was it organized than he tried, un- der the cloak of its prestige, to force the candidacy of Senor Jose Maria Pino Suarez for the vice-presidency. The Catho- lic party declined to be coerced and put forward as its can- didate the ex-president, Senor Francisco L. de la Barra, who had earned the good will and applause of all during his term of president ad interim. Senor Gustavo Madero, ill advised and aiming to punish the Catholic party, stirred up a popular demonstration hostile to de la Barra, to the Catholics, to the rich, to the aristocracy — in a word, a demagogic demonstration of the vilest nature.
The Catholic party entered the elections of 1912 in ab- solutely good faith, as it had done the elections for state governors. In these it had demonstrated its power. It carried the elections in the states of Jalisco, Mexico, Quere- taro and Zacatecas, and would have won except for the introduction of official pressure, which violated the free- dom of the vote, in the states of Guanajuato, Michoacan and Puebla. In the state of Oaxaca, except for the pres- tige of the name of Juarez, which descended to his son, the Catholic party would have won in the elections for gov- ernor. It was amply proved that the Catholic party pos- sessed the force to elect its candidates in the richest and most densely populated states of the Republic. In the Fed- eral elections of 1912, except for enormous official pressure, the Catholics would have obtained the majority in the
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House of Representatives, and at least one-third representa- tion in the Senate.
The course followed by Senor Gustavo Madero, as well as by his brother Francisco, was indeed despicable. Of the one hundred seats in the House of Representatives fairly won by the Catholics, the censoring board, having recourse to the most barefaced frauds, nullified more than forty of the electoral college votes. The Catholics then held sixty places when they appeared before the electoral college of the Lower House, and here, in the most shameful, dirty, illegal and despotic manner, the majority of their votes were dis- credited and thrown out, leaving them only twenty-three. The same tactics were followed with the Independents, with the ultimate result that the Catholic and Independent rep- resentation, combined, was reduced to forty-two out of a total of two hundred and thirty-three.
Senor Gustavo Madero, counting always upon the sup- port of his brother, intervened in the elections of San Luis Potosi and Aguascalientes to place in office personal friends who had been rejected by the people of both states. He also intervened in the elections of Vera Cruz, the gross viola- tion of electoral freedom causing a veritable scandal. To prevent the triumph of the Catholic candidate in Puebla, it was necessary for the Madero faction to join hands with the discredited party headed by General Mucio Matinez, one of the pro-consuls of the overthrown dictatorship. In Yucatan every low trick was resorted to to defeat Senor Delio Moreno Canton in order to install Senor Jose M. Pino Suarez's brother-in-law as Governor. In the states of Chiapas, Sinaloa, Oaxaca, Mexico, Jalisco, Tlaxcala and Tamaulipas election frauds also took place equal to those practised in the palmy days of the Porfirian dictatorship.
In 1893 the Cientificos obtained the vote of the House of Representatives for an amendment of the Constitution which
MADERISM 169
would guarantee the independence of the judiciary. The bill was sent to the Senate, where it was held up by Gen- eral Diaz. He did not reject it, because he did not want to offend the Cientificos. When Madero was made presi- dent the senators, who under the old regime belonged to the Cientificos, once more introduced the measure of con- stitutional amendment with regard to the independence of the judiciary, and it was ignominiously rejected by presi- dential decree.
This clearly proves that the hidden project of the Ma- deristas had been to keep the judiciary under their thumb, just as had been done by the Diaz dictatorship.
It is true that Sefior Madero granted complete freedom to the press, but it is also true that he attempted to throttle it to the point of asphyxiation. The undeniable proof of this is the fact that the Department of the Interior intro- duced a bill in the House of Representatives, aiming to cur- tail the privileges of the press, signed by Senor Jesus Flores Magon, the Secretary of the Interior. When Sefior Flores Magon resigned the portfolio of the Interior, he explained his anti-liberal conduct to the public by saying that he had been compelled to sign the much-censured measure in order to save the press and the persons connected with it from a campaign against them proposed by Sefior Jose M. Pino Suarez, the Secretary of Public Instruction, which would have been more harmful to them.
It is undeniable that Gustavo Madero was guilty of the unpardonable fault of not wanting to give public account of the 700,000 pesos he received from the Federal Treasury to defray the expenses incurred by the revolution. It is also undeniable that he undertook the promotion of numerous business undertakings submitted to him by persons who did not stand well in the public estimation.
The most censurable feature of Gustavo Madero's ad- ministration, however, was the organization of the "Porra,"
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an association of demagogues enlisted for the purpose of ter- rorizing society and the enemies of the Government, replac- ing the fear of bayonets with the terror of mobs. Ruffians were hired at seventy-five cents per head to simulate a grievance, collect a crowd and march through the streets, and, in the name of the aggrieved populace, they not only damaged property but endangered life. It would have been censurable enough and entirely unwarranted by the situa- tion, in view of his social station, his excellent training, his good sentiments and his position as the President's brother, had Gustavo Madero actually transformed himself into the Mexican Marat; but it is simply astounding that he should have been willing to appear in the role of a sham Marat. This gained for him only the intense hatred of the people, and explains why his foul murder was looked upon with indifference, if not actual approval, by the public.
It is also undeniable that the Madero Government proved itself impotent to restore peace. From the revolt of Zapata in August, 1911, to the fall of Madero in 1913, there was not a single day of peace, life and property being in constant danger.
By railing at the army, during the revolution and after its triumph, and accusing it of treason, cowardice and vileness for not having turned against Diaz and relieved the nation of the burden of his dictatorship, President Madero had incurred its ill-will and hatred.
Neither President Madero nor his honest followers had any right to censure the defection of Huerta, because the doctrine of "the Apostle" was that every military man was obliged to judge the Government's conduct, and, if he found it unpatriotic, to transfer his allegiance unhesitatingly in order to save the country. Huerta could have said to Madero: "I have acted toward you as you wanted me to act toward General Diaz."
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THE TRUE INWARDNESS OF MADERISM
I have exposed the principal errors and faults of the ad- ministration of President Madero. Were they serious enough to have justified an uprising?
On April 2, 1911, I introduced a measure in the House of Representatives for non-reelection of President and Vice- President, and in the expository section I said that I did not believe in the Mexican people's fitness for democracy, neither, on the other hand, did I believe in their absolute lack of capacity to progress in a political sense. I explained that the liberal Latin-American politicians, on account of their Jacobin theories and tendencies, were guilty of the incon- ceivable stupidity of believing that a people that had lived for thirty years under the yoke of an harmonious dictator- ship such as that of General Diaz (because if it had not been harmonious it could not have endured for thirty years) could perform a virtual acrobatic feat and pass from a despotic system of government to the correct parliamentary form existing- in England, or to the federal democracy of the United States. As I was a believer in evolution, I thought Mexico ought to aim, as it was evolving from a rigid dic- tatorship, at establishing a form of government similar to that of Chile, Argentine or Brazil, so-called democracies, in which real political parties do not exist, where the elec- tions are repulsively fraudulent, owing to the bribery of electors, and where scandalously corrupt bureaucracies dom- inate. In these nations two practical principles are upheld, non-reelection and freedom of the press. The Mexicans ought to make a trial of liberty, combined with corrupt democracy, upheld by freedom of the press and non-reelection. If success crowned the effort, they should adopt a govern- ment similar to that of these nations, accepting as unavoid- able its inherent abuses. If the trial ended in failure, there was no alternative but to go back to the dictatorship, under
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the condition that if the dictator did not keep up with the advance of civilization, he should be overthrown, and this policy continued until the right man was found.
I have repeated my words, spoken publicly before the House of Representatives, in order to establish what in my mind is the criterion by which the Madero administration is to be judged. Dupuy has said: "A revolution to be legiti- mate must establish something better than what it over- throws."
I have said that in 1910 of the twenty-seven governors the great majority were useless, or almost useless, old men. The list of governors under the Madero administration, as it appeared on January I, 1913, was composed of seven gov- ernors who were between fifty and sixty years of age; one was sixty-two, nineteen were between thirty and fifty. There was not one under thirty. Twenty-two were entirely new men; five belonged to the old regime, but were men noted for their fitness and uprightness. With regard to age and personnel the revolution, then, effected a wholesome change. Of the twenty-seven governors appointed by Ma- dero, nineteen had irreproachable reputations ; eight were out and out scoundrels. In 1910, under General Diaz, eighteen were upright and nine were rascals. Of the eight unworthy governors of the Madero regime, six were imposed by pres- sure brought to bear by Gustavo Madero, and two were elected by free vote. Therefore, in this electoral test, essayed in the name of liberty, notwithstanding the fact that the avowed principles of the initiators of the revolution, not of Madero's following, were "vengeance and pillage," and not- withstanding the deficiencies of the electoral system due to the incapacity of the people, the lack of real political parties and the want of practice, out of twenty-one governors not imposed by the Government, nineteen who were independ- ent of Gustavo Madero's coercion were successfully elected.
The secretaries of the various departments under Madero
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were all men of talent. The honesty of six was unjustly impugned, and two were attacked without proof of their guilt being established by their enemies. In the time of Gen- eral Diaz, of the eight departmental secretaries, four were accused of dishonesty, proof, however, not being brought forward to substantiate the allegation.
The Supreme Federal Court in the time of General Diaz was servile in its docility to the decrees of higher authority even when it was a question of an unjust sentence. Not- withstanding the fact that Madero rejected the Senate's measure to free the judiciary from the control of the Chief Executive, there is no record of President Madero, his brother Gustavo, or any official or person of high rank hav- ing made use of this prerogative in regard to affairs of a private or personal nature. In political affairs President Madero ineffectually brought pressure to bear on the Su- preme Federal Court in the case of General Felix Diaz, who had been captured at Vera Cruz, court-martialed and sen- tenced to death. From4i882 to 1911, when it recovered its independence and honor in so far as it was able, the Supreme Federal Court was the instrument for all the vile, dirty work of the Chief Executive.
This tribunal took special pains to despatch quickly and correctly, and according to the rules of favoritism, all the business of the dictatorship it had on hand at the time of General Diaz's downfall. It should be noted that from the fall of General Diaz to that of Madero there was justice in Mexico. This alone would be sufficient reason for applaud- ing a revolution, especially as the watchword of its progeni- tors had been "vengeance and pillage."
The Catholic party, as I have said, was deprived of its electoral votes, outraged by hostile demonstrations on the part of the people, and the broken promises of the President, given before and after his triumph. In General Diaz's time the Catholics were forbidden to organize political parties
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and also to found political newspapers for the furtherance of their cause. They were admitted into the two Houses of Congress, the Judiciary, the Diplomatic and Administrative service as the unconditional subjects of the dictatorship, bound strictly by the Porfirian precept, "No politics, all Government," which was only another way of saying, "No personal rights, all obedience." This is a variant of the motto of Charles III of Spain, held up to the colonists of the Indies, "Obey and be silent." Notwithstanding the disloy- alty of "the Apostle" toward the Catholics, thanks to the freedom they enjoyed under his rule, they managed to or- ganize their party, although in a somewhat deficient man- ner. Twenty-three of their number obtained seats in the House of Representatives. Some of these were good orators who made their voices reach to the utmost confines of the Republic, righting for the triumph of their principles, their heads held high in the consciousness of their restored rights. Their situation was vastly superior to that which for thirty- three years they had endured under the dictatorship of Gen- eral Diaz.
It is true that President Madero introduced a bill into the lower house directed against the freedom of the press. But when he was confronted by the violent attitude of the press and of public opinion, he withdrew the unpopular measure. After submitting for thirty-three years to the yoke of a Government-censured press, the public wanted to reap the benefits of a free press, however unworthy of freedom it might be.
The Lower House after the elections of 1912 bore more semblance to a ward club than to a respectable legislative body. Good speeches, however, were heard, crude polemics introduced, wrongs openly discussed ; all of these being signs of life grateful to the ear after the oppressive silence of thirty years. This body, although the Government held an overwhelming majority, was not subservient, neither did it
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present the appearance of a pack of donkeys peacefully doz- ing after a comfortable meal. Gustavo Madero's porra (mob) parliament, except for a few worn-out and discarded specimens of the dictatorial regime, resembled a drove of spirited ponies, noble despite their viciousness. Notwith- standing its crudeness, this attempt at free parliamentary ex- pression was a step forward as compared with the degrada- tion imposed by the Porfirian methods.
MADERISM MIGHT HAVE PACIFIED THE COUNTRY
Undoubtedly the government of President Madero was very far from representing a democracy; but on the other hand it was just as far from representing the dictatorship of General Diaz, either in its flourishing or decadent stage.
Of the leading principles of the governments of the South American Republics, non-reelection and the freedom of the press, the latter appeared already to have been realized, and the former in all probability soon would be. In political circles it was feared that Gustavo Madero, supported by his family and official influence, would succeed his brother in the presidency. Even if such had been the case it would always have been a step forward, because no two men, even if they are brothers, would give the same or even a similar form of government. This was exemplified in the time of the dictatorship by the government of the broth- ers Diez Gutierrez in the state of San Luis Potosi, and that of the three Cravioto brothers in the state of Hidalgo. It was also more than probable that no member of the Madero family would have succeeded Gustavo Madero.
From the preceding facts, stated with absolute impartial- ity, it will be seen that the Madero Government fulfilled the Dupuy condition; it gave something better than that which it overthrew. The dreadful feature of this regime was the want of peace, so essential as the fundamental basis of gov-
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ernment and society. Without peace the brink of the abyss is soon reached, and the mere fact that a Government is im- potent to restore peace is enough to justify a revolution.
Why was President Madero unable to pacify the coun- try and prevent the revolutionary movements of Zapata, Orozco, Vazquez Gomez, Felix Diaz and Reyes? All these disturbances could in my estimation have been avoided if the Madero administration had been able to count upon pol- iticians of high calibre. Zapata issued his Plan de Ayala on November 25, 1911, and, as I remarked in my article in El PaiSj this plan is worthy of study and approbation, with the exception of one absurd clause: "The claimant is to be put in possession of the disputed property, rural or urban, from the moment he makes his claim, unless the dis- possessed has proved his claim to it before a revolutionary tribunal."
The Plan de Ayala required that the planters, having re- ceived indemnity, should hand over one-third of their arable land to the villages or to the poor. The planters of Morelos developed only one-fifth of the arable land in the cultivation of sugar-cane and rice, and could, therefore, without hurting their own interest in the slightest, meet the requirements of the Plan de Ayala, always provided, of course, that the absurd clause referring to disputed titles was omitted. In Part First I have stated that the distribution of land in gen- eral is not feasible, because the greatest portion of it is in the temperate and cold zones, and cannot be advantageously cultivated without the installation of irrigation plants. It is precisely in Morelos that the land might be advanta- geously distributed for the following reason: The climate is semi-tropical, and the land not completely exhausted, as it is still capable of producing from 16 to 20 hectoliters of corn per hectare. It is not exposed to frosts because of i<$ situation, and the rainfall is less irregular and more abunda it than in other sections. The state of Morelos is one of the
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few states in the Republic in which the distribution of land might be undertaken at once with great possibilities of a suc- cessful issue.
Zapata demanded that the Federal forces should not put foot in the state of Morelos, and that the elections should be entirely free. It is evident that the acceptance of the first condition was humiliating for the Government and the Mex- ican nation ; but political situations sometimes present humil- iating circumstances that must be met with courage and pa- triotism. In La Prensa, in the capacity of editor, I upheld Zapata's demands and insisted upon the necessity of some- times bowing to the inevitable, citing several examples. For instance, the conduct of the notably patriotic governor of Jalisco, Sefior Pedro Ogazon, who signed a compact with the bandit Manuel Lozada, chief of the Sierra de Alica, and owner of the territory of Tepic, recognizing the absolute sovereignty of Lozada in the confines of Tepic. Also Juarez's conduct in recognizing the absolute sovereignty of General Santiago Vidaurri, governor of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila; of General Servando Canales, governor of Ta- maulipas; and that of Generals Terrazas, Pesqueira, Vega, Alvarez and Mendez, the respective chiefs of the states of Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa, Guerrero and Sierra de Puebla. In 1869, after the struggle in the state of Tamaulipas, as bloody and savage as that of Zapata, in which the Federal forces fought those led by Braulio Vargas and other bandit chiefs in revolt against the legitimate governor of the state, Jose de la Garza, the President obliged Garza to satisfy the demands of the bandits by resigning.
I may be quite mistaken, but it is my conviction that if Zapata's demands, with the exception of the one absurd clause already noted, had been granted at the time, Zapata would have submitted ; or perhaps it would be more exact to say that the Government would have submitted. But at any rate it would have been an honorable submission, be-
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cause a deed of justice or of intelligent patriotic policy cannot be anything but an honor to the one who executes it.
The first revolt of Reyes could have been prevented by not permitting him to return in 1911. This, however, was not a serious mistake, because when General Reyes raised the standard of revolt in December, 1911, he found that he stood alone, or, more properly speaking, disillusioned, for he saw the country no longer wanted him and that he was as unpopular, if not more so, than the Cientificos.
As Orozco was the "military genius" of the Madero rev- olution, following historic precedents he had to rebel against Madero and demand the presidency. Madero, who in the days of his popularity was irresistible and could have anni- hilated any rival, should have settled the Orozco problem definitely. Instead of giving him only 50,000 pesos when he asked for 100,000, the amount that was given without any justification to Jose M. Maytorena, "the Apostle" should have given the "military genius" 500,000 pesos, on condition that he take himself off to Europe for two years for the pur- pose of educating himself in order to receive the post of Di- vision General or Grand Marshal of the Mexican army. This might not have pleased the Federal chiefs, but this dis- pleasure could not have occasioned any serious trouble, as was proved when Huerta irregularly raised Orozco, Cara- veo, Cheche Campos, Campa and others to the rank of gen- erals.
With regard to General Reyes and Felix Diaz, their in- ordinate ambition, their indomitable spirit of intrigue, their endless conspiracies, their decision to take the presidency by storm were well known. Reyes and Felix Diaz never would have overthrown Benito Juarez or Porfirio Diaz in their heyday, because they would have found it very difficult to carry out the first revolt; and a second would have been impossible, because dead men cannot revolt. Madero cap- tured Reyes and Diaz knowing, as he publicly acknowledged,
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that they were conspiring against him. Nevertheless he scorned them. The ruler who scorns not only danger, but the greatest danger that threatens in countries where the stable government is constantly endangered by the military power, is not fit to rule.
REGICIDE AND ANARCHY ADDED TO THE REVOLUTIONARY PROGRAM
Senor Ernesto Fernandez Arteaga told me that many years ago when Madero was still quite young and with no thought of becoming a revolutionist, while visiting the house of his father, Senor Ramon Fernandez, a highly educated and intelligent man, he proposed to Dr. Fernandez's sons that they consult the spirits by means of the famous plan- chette. One of the questions asked evoked the answer that Francisco Madero would one day be the President of the Mexican Republic. Madero was greatly flattered by this prognostication and took it quite seriously, much to the amusement of Dr. Fernandez, who advised him to regard with well-merited contempt all spiritistic revelations. Ma- dero replied that under no circumstances would he disregard the supreme decisions of the high science of spiritism. From the day of the casting of this horoscope, so fateful for his country, Madero many times reminded his friend, Senor Fernandez Arteaga, of the spiritistic prophecy that he (Madero) would one day be the president of Mexico.
Madero, then, was of the illumined, with the aggravating circumstance that he was also of the predestined. His am- bition, therefore, was fired by the belief in the sacredness, the supernaturalness, the inevitableness of his cause. Under these circumstances he could not be a statesman or, what amounts to the same, a man who as circumstances unfold themselves can adapt himself to them, showing mercy or cruelty, pliability or inflexibility. The predestined one is guided unerringly, by the hand of God or the hand of Fate, and omnipotence cannot fail. The predestined one feels strong
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enough to despise all manner of obstacles that may cross his pathway, to look upon everything human, great or small, as infinitesimal, unworthy of care or thought. Obeying the laws of this condition of mind, Madero was bound to de- spise or to be indifferent to all the Mexican intellectuals, and to be resolved to govern only with the aid of the in- telligence of the supernatural beings who guided him. I have proved that the Madero Government, except for its inability to preserve peace, was superior to that of Diaz, and should have been aided in restoring peace, not overthrown. The Madero Government was demolished by the efforts of the intellectuals, who sought to place it before the nation as the worst Government Mexico had had since the Dec- laration of Independence. This destruction of Madero's prestige in the eyes of the nation was the great and memora- ble revenge of the intellectuals for the "illumined Apostle's" contempt for them.
Senor Fernandez Giiell, ex-director of the Mexican Na- tional Library in the City of Mexico, a frantic partisan of Madero, and the author of an apologetic book dedicated to "the admired martyr," says: "At the time of the up- rising in Vera Cruz, the Federal Government relied entirely upon the loyalty of the army.
"All the glory of the revolutionary leader had vanished like a cloud. Surrounded by Cientificos, far from the masses, the Apostle appeared before the public on official occasions only, and the people of Mexico watched him with profound indifference as he rode down the Avenida de San Francisco on February 5th in an open carriage, between two files of soldiers, followed by the Diplomatic Corps, a squadron of the Presidential Guard, the Chapultepec Cadets and a divi- sion of artillery.
"Salvos no longer greeted him; neither did gratitude or enthusiasm rain down flowers on his noble brow."1
1 R. Fernandez Giiell, Eptsodios de la Revolution Mexicana, p. 185.
MADERISM iS
Senor Fernandez Giiell states what every one in Mexico knew to be a fact, that by October, 1912, less than a year after he had assumed the presidency, Madero was completely disparaged in the eyes of all classes of society, from the highest to the lowest.
Senor Jose N. Macias, an ex-representative of the Diaz regime, an gex-Maderista, and now a fervent admirer of Carranza, by whom he has been named director of the School of Jurisprudence in the City of Mexico, says, re- ferring to the fall of Madero: "A president elected for five years, overthrown in fifteen months, has no one to blame but himself. The cause is this, and history, if it is unbiased, will proclaim it: he did not know how to uphold himself." 1
THE ATTITUDE OF THE INTELLECTUALS WAS MALEVOLENT
The intellectuals cannot be blamed for having opposed President Madero's Government, because it is not possible to have a responsible, representative government without op- position. A government without opposition is a despotic government. Moral law cites many principles for the guid- ance of patriotic government opposition, but these have not found acceptance among the politicians of any nation. Poli- tics is the most engrossing of all occupations, the one that becomes a veritable passion, that exalts, that blinds, one that, in the opinion of medical experts, is capable of turning men into wild beasts. On the other hand, in countries where the government practically never changes except through revo- lutions, opposition, the object of which is change, would prove ridiculous, inoffensive and ineffectual, if its principal aim were not the overthrow of the government by the only means known to history — a revolution.
1 Fernandez Cabrera, Mi Viaje a Mexico, p. 218.
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The theorem of May is well known : "The power of the press can be balanced only by the power of the press." In other words, the opposition press should work against the government press. This is only possible in countries where two distinct political parties exist, and where the opinions of the newspapers representing both sides carry equal weight with the people. In Latin-America, and especially in coun- tries ruled by dictators, the people, as a whole, condemn the existence of a government press. They hate and despise it, and reject its opinions as productive of revolutionary sen- timents.
No Mexican Government can defend itself against an op- position press except by silencing it; not by radical means, but by corruption or by buying up all newspapers. These do not appear as Government organs, but independent or opposing, cultivating the species of opposition set forth in moral law books. This difficult problem, in countries where government intervention is a drawback rather than a help, can be solved only by silencing the journalists, or making them subservient by means of bribes. In Spain this fund appears in the secret expense account under the heading, "Reptile Fund." In Mexico, from the time of the Declaration of Independence, all the governments, conserv- ative, liberal and dictatorial, including that of Juarez, pro- vided for their own protection, and to insure peace for the country, a substantial "reptile fund." General Diaz used to say: "Give a dog a bone and he will neither bite nor bark."
Cases of journalists and newspaper owners in Latin- America who cannot be bought could be cited, but they are the exception. Generally speaking, they belong to the seri- ous, non-seditious class, because they are supported by com- mercial advertisements and plutocratic interests which are intelligently conservative and opposed to revolutions.
The Madero Government was signalized by incom-
MADERISM 183
petency; but freedom of the press as it now exists would have been in itself sufficient to compass its ruin, even if it had been the most perfect government in the history of the political world.
The intellectuals should not be blamed for opposing the Madero Government, because the opposition had in view the conquest of the supreme power. It is true that this policy is condemned by moral law and public ethics, but it is the inexorable law of politics everywhere. All opposi- tion has for its object the conquest of the supreme power, making use of the means demanded by the situation. Ac- cording to a rigorous moral standard, then, the methods of all politicians are unethical, excepting in a few rare instances, which in Latin-America are the exception and not the rule. The great fault to be found with the intellectuals who accomplished the downfall of Madero is that their work was destructive, not constructive.
In the Senate the leading intellectuals of the opposi- tion were Senores Manuel Calero, Gumersindo Enriquez, Francisco Leon de la Barr, J. Flores Magon and Guillermo Obregon. Three gave open expression to their views; two had recourse to clever political evasions. These five men did not belong to any political party, faction or coterie, neither were they united among themselves. They represented an alliance of individual forces formed for the sole purpose of overthrowing Madero, but having a horror of acting as a useful political organ.
In the House of Representatives, which possesses the ad- vantage of exercising the same influence over the public mind as a great national theatre, the floor was held by the famous quartet, Senores Querido Moheno, Jose M. Lozano, Francisco Olaguibel and Nemasio Garcia Naranjo. They were veteran politicians and veritable powers by reason of their oratorical force. Being fine tacticians, they never lost an opportunity of surprising their weaker antagonists, who,
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with the exception of Cabrera, laid themselves open to ridi- cule eVery time they attempted to speak or introduce a bill, their humiliation being the humiliation of the Government they represented. When free speech is allowed in the House, the Chief Executive, if he does not govern with alternating political parties, should endeavor to be represented by the best politicians and the best orators. This can be easily ac- complished by selecting for the Cabinet those who have dis- tinguished themselves as orators or politicians; and when, through enmity or personal dislike, objection is made to their participation, the Government should work in the elections to seat in the Lower House men who are able to represent it brilliantly and capably. If this cannot be done, in Latin- America recourse can be had to the usual practice of dis- crediting the electoral votes of candidates antagonistic to the Government. Gustavo Madero made a veritable holocaust of the votes of more than fifty undesirable candidates, and approved those of Lozano, Olaguibel and Garcia Naranjo.
The attitude of the Catholic party in the Lower House in 1912 and 1913 was censurable. They attempted to assume an independent attitude, something that may be done by individuals, but not by political parties, because the very reason of their being is to represent and fight for party prin- ciples. Where there are political parties, independent mem- bers always exist who by their very anxiety to preserve their independence cut themselves off from all parties. A political party's duty in the time of battle is to preserve a militant, resolute and loyal attitude.
The Catholic party in 1912 and 1913 did not do its duty. On behalf of religion, it was its duty to oppose the anti- religious revolution in the north; on behalf of society, it was its duty to be conservative, especially as the Zapatistas in the south and the revolutionists in the north were attack- ing the rights of property ; and on behalf of the Government, it was its duty to uphold it, because, not being able to lay
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claim to the power of governing in the case of Madero's overthrow, it was its duty to prevent anarchy. Its place was at the side of Madero, but instead of meeting its obli- gation, it followed a vacillating policy that contributed greatly to the downfall of the Government.
The quartet in the House of Representatives marched united, though unconsciously, toward an abyss. This quad- rilateral group did not go hand in hand with the pentagonal group in the Senate or with the angle formed by the League for Social Defense, founded by Sefiores Jorge Vera Estanol and Alberto Garcia Granados.
Close observation confirmed the suspicion that a certain undefined political affinity existed between members of a group that might be called the ex-secretarial party, com- posed of ex-Secretaries Calero, Flores Magon, Garcia Grana- dos, Vera Estanol and ex-President de la Barra. This pentagonal group of ex-secretaries, as well as the quadri- lateral group of the Lower House, tore down without building up. They lost, instead of gaining popularity, be- cause society with its conservative instinct saw that if the incompetency of Madero was leading the country they knew not where, the cleverness of these men was leading it to anarchy. They did not take the trouble to organize a party, or even a faction, or to raise up the "man of iron" who would dominate the situation. Their program was to tear down — tear down first and last, until not a shred of prestige, authority or force should be left to the state.
This work of demolition on the part of the intellectual parliamentarians was inspired by contempt. The work of demolition inspired by hate was done by the press — not by the representative press but the yellow press, represented by El Pals, El Mariana, El Herald o. La Tribuna and a host of unimportant comic papers of the coarser type. Some stooped so low as to represent the President's wife as a dog, always close to her husband's side.
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Senor Fernandez Giiell, a confirmed Maderista, wrote, referring to the tactics pursued by Sanchez Santos, the edi- tor of El Pats, against Gustavo Madero, whom he nicknamed "Ojo parado" (Dead eye), because of a physical defect: "Sanchez Santos persecuted him with implacable rage, even beyond the grave. He is responsible for his tragic end, be- cause the cruel and bloody epithets which he directed against him, and which awakened the fury of his murderers, quivered like poisoned arrows in the inanimate body of the unhappy Gustavo." i
He also said: "Senor Madero holds as a governmental principle that the 'press can only be fought with the press,' but the mendacious audacity of the editors of Multicolor reached such a point that the President, taking into consid- eration that they were foreigners, resolved to have recourse to the Thirty-third Article of the Mexican Constitution and expel them from the country." 2
Those who read these newspapers, whose flaming words were intended to electrify the masses and arouse their basest passions, whose route of circulation was marked by a fiery trail, whose incendiary opinions were everywhere discussed, will be my witnesses that the doctrine preached by this anarchistic press was regicide.
It mattered little to such a press that Zapata was a ban- dit, he must be eulogized, his crimes must be ennobled, his exploits made to dazzle and his personality deified in the eyes of the masses. The same course was followed with Inez Salazar, Campa, Pablo Lavin and also with Cheche Campos, who was acclaimed as one of the greatest reform- ers the world had ever seen because he laid waste the entire state of Durango, boasting that he had applied the torch
1 R. Fernandez Giiell, Episodios de la Re<voluci6n Mexicana, p. 170.
2 Idem, p. 144
MADERISM 187
with his own hand to seventy-four plantations. All these monsters were declared to be good, capable of governing, the true democrats for whom the country had been sighing, the enlightened guides who were to conduct the people along the road of duty and constitutionalism. Madero alone was evil. He was a reptile which, according to the advice of El Heraldo, ought to be stepped upon. He should be over- thrown, said La Tribuna; cast out at once, said El Mariana. It was a savage campaign in the interests of regicide.
The revolution had added two more great principles to its code, and any honest, intelligent man could read on its unfurled banner: "Vengeance, pillage, regicide, anarchy!"
It was known in Mexico that the Morelos campaign was a school of disloyalty, cowardice, pillage, disorganization and brigandage for the army. It was even believed that, as in times past, it would desert at the voice of a leader, al- though it had proved when Felix Diaz revolted at Vera Cruz that it would not accept him for its leader. It had also proved that General Reyes no longer appealed to it, that he did not inspire it with enthusiasm or respect, and that it would not at his command desert its chief. It was believed that this loyalty was accidental; that it was due to the lack of a leader, whom the press was either un- willing or unable to supply in its efforts to overthrow Ma- dero. Realizing their unpopularity, Reyes, Diaz and Mon- dragon understood that it would be impossible for them to launch a revolution outside the capital. Reyes and Diaz felt that they would be scorned by the public and the army, as had already been the case, and Mondragon knew that he was unpopular in both civil and military circles. There was only one means by which these leaders — more unpopular than the unpopular Madero himself — could overthrow him, and that was recourse to a coup de main. This does not require popularity but only iniquity, and perhaps cowardice, to effect. The coup de main of an unpopular leader against
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an unpopular ruler necessitates the assassination of the latter. Otherwise he will attempt to reestablish himself, supported by the people, who are horrified at the triumph of the un- scrupulous aspirant. The murder of Madero and Pino Suarez was the first of the perfectly logical necessities that confronted the ambitious generals, resolved to triumph at any cost. On the other hand, as this regicide seemed to be demanded as a social measure by the degenerates, voiced in sinister tones by all Madero's enemies in the press, it fell to the lot of the politically depraved leaders to create an opinion in favor of a government of regicides, forgetting, as history has proved, that regicide is punished with death, even though society benefits by the crime.
The last touch of perfidy was added to the coup of Feb- ruary 9, 1913, by the complicity in the plot of the stu- dents of the preparatory military school. Never in Mex- ico's worst days, in her darkest hours of iniquity, had it come to pass that children and youths had been led along the murky ways of treason and taught to soak their supposedly innocent hands in blood — the blood which flowed in the most detestable regicide in the history of Latin-America. When unformed youths lend themselves to the most horrible of all social crimes through cupidity, ambition or any other mo- tive, the symptoms of a corroding social moral leprosy are evident. The day of reckoning cannot be far off.
The anarchic state of Madero's Government, the im- potence of the Mexican intelligence to measure accurately the unspeakable condition of the country, the inability of the national corpse to feel any patriotic sentiments, the utter oblivion to all the duties of civilization, betokened the arrival of the hour. The death-knell had sounded, and it was time for the "man of iron" to arise, to spill blood — much blood, the blood of miscreants, not that of innocent people, not that of Madero. Madero was not evil; his only defect was his mania, and even that was harmless.
PART THIRD
THE POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL INDICT- MENT OF PRESIDENT WILSON IN THE MEXICAN CASE
CHAPTER I
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES AC- CEPTED BY PRESIDENT WILSON
THE FAILURE OF THE "dVIS ROMANUS SUM" CLAIM
A FEW days after General Huerta rose to power on the stepping-stones of infamous deed and slain men, and overrode the aspirations of the conservative classes, of property interests, and of sublime sentiments, and the hopes of law and order expressed by natives and foreigners in Mexico, Mr. Wilson, with the prestige that his office and the greatness of his country conferred on him, stepped out as the arbiter of the affairs of the Mexican Government and those of other Latin nations in the New World.
The wave of indignation that surged over the American people, as well as other civilized and even barbarous nations, at the news of the assassination of the President and Vice- President of Mexico enveloped Mr. Wilson as he took his seat in the presidential chair. The horror manifested throughout the world at the stupendous crime of Mexican militarism proves that nations are bound together by invisi- ble currents of morality and good fellowship as well as by the steel cables with which science has bound them together in reality, and that this union is drawing mankind closer and closer together. Mr. Wilson, interpreting the senti- ments of one hundred millions of his compatriots, not as a statesman but as a plain American citizen, carried into the
189
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international political arena a current of false sentiment. According to the law that governs the mutual friendship and interests of sovereign nations enjoying freedom and in- dependence, personality is represented by the State, and this cannot be a murderer or a thief, or even appear in the role of a delinquent. To Mr. Wilson, under the rules pre- scribed by international law, Huerta did not exist; Mexico alone existed, and only the Mexicans were competent to pass judgment upon the official or private conduct of their Executive as the basis for political action. As the President of the United States, Mr. Wilson had the right to judge and condemn Huerta's crime privately, never to act upon it in his official capacity, unless Huerta's action bore directly or indirectly on the interests of the America people.
Mr. Wilson's denunciations of Huerta, high-minded but indiscreet, revealed also the astounding basis of his new policy toward the Latin-American nations. He stepped forth as the declared enemy of the "almighty dollar policy" which had caused so much hatred and ill-will against the United States Government in all Latin-American countries. The press of these countries acclaimed him. Here, at last, was the just man, not the mercenary man of the cursed "almighty dollar policy." He was the twentieth-century reincarnation of Benjamin Franklin, perfuming with his benevolence and virtue the foreign policy of the United States, everywhere considered pestiferous in so far as its relations with weak Latin-American nations were con- cerned. Mr. Woodrow Wilson must be gifted with rare imagination, because he instantly linked Huerta's detestable crimes with the Hebraic crimes perpetrated in the campaign of the almighty dollar. This dollar-campaign could not pos- sibly be carried on without the aid of the corrupt Latin- American rulers; and the alliance of the moneyed Creole and mestizo elements and the moneyed Anglo-Saxon inter- ests was indispensable. Mr. Wilson, looking through cast-
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 191
iron lenses, was gifted with clear vision with regard to the Mexican situation. Huerta was simply the bloody and ferocious agent of the landowners, who had kept eighty-five per cent of the Mexican people in misery, and of the per- verted Creoles, in infamous alliance with the magnates of Wall Street, sustaining their plutocratic state through the sweat of the brow of a wretched people. The Huerta case was nothing more than the horrible, unethical case of the almighty dollar.
Mr. Wilson's proclamation of his future policy was ap- plauded far and wide. The Frankfort Gazette on April 6, 1914, said, referring to Mr. Wilson: "This idealist's place is in the political world, and we might well consider ourselves fortunate if we had at the head of the German Government an idealist of such strong will and progressive tendencies as Mr. Wilson."
Without entering into a discussion of the aspirations for Germany here expressed by The Frankfort Gazette, I am sure that the idealist it wished to have at the head of the German Government would be a German idealist, thor- oughly acquainted with every department of German life, from whom none of its secrets would be withheld. I can- not believe that The Frankfort Gazette wished to put a French, Spanish, Russian, Brazilian or Japanese idealist at the head of the German Government. The Mexicans, even admitting the possibility of an idealistic government, cannot wish that this idealist should be an estimable President of the United States.
Mr. Hamilton Fyfe in his interesting book has written a great truth. "Both President Wilson and Mr. Bryan have replied to repeated representations from Americans in Mex- ico that their policy does not cover the protection of Ameri- can business interests. In August they went so far as to advise all Americans in disturbed areas to leave the country. That advice was endorsed by the mass of American people,
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who said: 'They went there of their own accord. They took a risk and they must put up with the consequences/ a vivid illustration of the weakness of national spirit in the United States."1
Such a startling declaration puts an end to all interna- tional law, to the binding force of treaties, to the Consti- tution of the United States, and even to civilization's en- nobling influence.
Until the advent of Mr. Wilson the claim to protection of the American citizen in Mexico, as in all Latin-America, and we might even say all over the world, was the "Civis romanus sum" of the twentieth century. It was known that the United States Government was intractable, as the English Government had always been, especially under the ministry of Lord Palmerston, when it came to making the slightest concession with regard to the rights of its citizens in foreign countries. It mattered not if that citizen were a working- man or a beggar, the Stars and Stripes protected the sons of Washington with equal impartiality.
Since the promulgation of Mr. Wilson's incomprehensible policy a marked indifference has been noted in Latin-Ameri- can countries with regard to the fulfillment of obligations in this regard, which were known by heart by people and Government alike. In Mexico, especially at the present time, there is no difference between the status of an American citizen and that of a Chinaman, whom the rabble drags around by the cue, utterly indifferent as to what the Em- peror Yuan-Shi-Kai may think or say. There can be no doubt that Mr. Wilson, because of his leaning to the ideal of universal democracy, has decided to do away with the "Civis romanus sum" attitude of the American citizen, and has been applauded by the fifty or more million Latin- Americans who for one hundred years have felt humiliated by this irritating international privilege. 1 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, pp. 132, 133.
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PORFIRIO DIAZ'S DOCTRINE REGARDING MEN OF AFFAIRS
At first sight Mr. Wilson's doctrine of non-support of American claims against Latin-American countries emanat- ing from business sources, appears just and an act of repara- tion to countries that have been so arrantly offended by the "almighty dollar policy." Closely examined, this doc- trine is seen to be highly prejudicial to all the nations it aims to protect, above all to Mexico.
Mexico is unquestionably a rich country, but this wealth cannot be developed without the assistance of immense for- eign capital. It is one thing to graze large herds in the fertile plains of Argentine and Uruguay; to sow wheat in the rich Pampa soil; to build railroads on smooth plains; to carry on commerce with the greatest navigable rivers of the world at one's command; but it is quite another thing to work mines at a depth of from 800 to 1,000 meters; to drive petroleum wells of more or less the same depth; to build railroads in a mountainous country; to carry on commerce without rivers; to be obliged, in order to cultivate virgin lands, to undertake the installation of very costly irrigation plants; and to be furthermore obliged, in order to feed a starving population, to invest untold millions to restore to exhausted lands the marvellous fertility they formerly pos- sessed. Mexico, without the help of an extensive foreign capital, has before her only certain extinction by anarchy. This would have happened in 1880, if American capital had not flowed into the country and saved the nation from the fate that awaited it.
This point established, it is necessary to consider care- fully the following: In the memorable debate which took place in December, 1893, for the Constitutional amend- ment which should place the judiciary on an independ- ent footing, Senor Justo Sierra and I were the strongest speakers in favor of the measure. It passed the House, but
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General Diaz prevented our salutary reform project from being discussed in the Senate. As the dictator had solemnly promised that he would leave Congress perfectly free in this matter, and would abide by its decision whatever it might be, his final action greatly incensed us. Knowing this, he called a meeting which Senores Rosendo Pineda, Joaquin Casasus, Justo Sierra and I attended. General Diaz said: "I owe you an explanation. I am convinced that I have been able to govern successfully, to preserve peace and to secure some progress for Mexico, because I have availed myself of the help of foreign capital. Its rep- resentatives have many enemies in the country, and their worst enemies are to be found in our courts, because they are venal, or because they have a misconceived notion of patriotism. Innumerable judges have come to tell me that, owing to their intense patriotism, they find it impossible to pass sentence in favor of foreigners or of foreign companies, when these are contending against Mexican interests. I have received complaints from the United States Ambassador of the demands made upon foreign companies by judges, clerks, lawyers, pettifoggers, newspaper men, state governors and their favorites; all this mass of depraved traffickers bent on getting money out of every concern they know to be rich enough to make worth while, a sentence rendered in their favor.
"After trying for eight years by every possible means at my command to put an end to this deplorable state of affairs, I have come to the conclusion that the only way that lies open to me is the one I have adopted. Whenever an im- portant lawsuit comes up in the courts in which the interests of a foreign company are concerned, I put it into the hands of honorable and distinguished lawyers, perhaps the most competent and intelligent in Mexico, such as Senores Ignacio Luis Vallarta, Luis Mendez, Emilio Velazco, Emilio Pardo, Manuel Inda and Rafael Donde. These
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 195
gentlemen, without forming a special commission, in groups of two or three — or more, if necessary — review the judicial proceedings of the lower court while the appeal in the higher court is still pending. If the judges of the Courts of First Instance, which I have left perfectly free, and the Court of Appeal, which I have also left free to pass sentence, give an unjust verdict according to the opinion of my consulting lawyers, I empower my friends in the Supreme Court to use my name in order that justice may be done, if they see that the Supreme Court is going to give an unjust verdict.
"I am convinced that if foreign capitalists do not find in Mexico assured guarantees that they will he protected against the machinations of a certain element, they will flee, and with them the peace and well-being of the country."
We accepted General Diaz's explanation, convinced that, in the event that Mexico in the natural evolution of its political life should enter into the broader highways of a free government, the first thing capitalists would do would be to withdraw from the country, if they were not sure of being energetically upheld by their home governments, ac- cording to the usages of international law and the stipula- tions of treaties.
Neither the foreign working-man, nor the foreign colo- nists, the foreign professional man, nor the foreign capital- ist has absolute confidence even to-day in Latin-American courts. In Latin-American countries which are under the law of dictatorships, they trust only dictators of the stamp of General Diaz, not on that account, however, ceasing to avail themselves of the protection of international law and treaty rights. Under the ordinary dictators, or the dema- gogues who take their place when anarchy reigns, the courts inspire terror instead of confidence, as the instigators of nefarious practices rather than of justice.
Patriotism is differently interpreted. My interpretation is that since it is clear that without the support of foreign
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capital Mexico would have been ruined even if there had been no revolution, patriotism demands that foreign capital should have support under international law and treaty rights. Mr. Wilson's doctrine of denying support to all claims emanating from business interests makes this impos- sible. Every Latin-American nation which desires and needs to develop its national resources quickly by means of foreign capital ought to have a government which encour- ages clean business. It ought to be ready to open its doors and give all manner of guarantees, compatible with its dignity, and with its own rights clearly established, to every business man who offers to place his capital at the disposi- tion of the country upon a legitimate business footing. If Mr. Wilson's doctrine consisted in refusing to support American claims in illegitimate business transactions, his policy would be laudable as well as scientific. But to pro- claim that his administration will not support any claim emanating from business interests is equivalent to saying: "I forbid all American capitalists to invest money in Mex- ico under pain of denying them the protection of interna- tional law and treaty rights."
I believe I have demonstrated that the Wilson doctrine is as prejudicial to Mexico as to the United States.
PRESIDENT WILSON FANS THE BOXER SENTIMENT
This Wilson doctrine was enthusiastically taken up by the revolutionary press and writers, who redoubled the fury of their bugle call, summoning all to take up arms in the Boxer revolution. The nefarious revolutionary gospel of the day was: "So true is it that the Yankee capitalists are nothing more than a crafty set of thieves preying upon the Mexican people, that even Mr. Wilson, their President, has announced that they need not count upon the support of their Government for anything. And being the great Wil- son, the immortal Wilson, the epic Wilson, all justice and
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truth, inflamed with liberty and charity, he could not have denied a rightful claim to the Yankee capitalists; conse- quently, his determination not to support them is equivalent to denouncing them before the world as financial pirates and corruptors of Latin-American governments, worthy of punishment instead of protection. People raise a statue to Wilson, and crown it with flowers at least four times a year at the change of the seasons !" x
I censure the "almighty dollar policy" as an honest man, but not as a Mexican, because in Mexico there has been no such policy. Its existence has been invented by demagogic agitators and pretentious and small-minded students.
Foreign capital, as a whole, invested in Mexico, accord- ing to the figures of the Mexican official statistics, is as follows :
Railways constructed with foreign capital 600,000,000 pesos
Foreign capital invested in mines 587,000,000 "
Metallurgic works and cyanidation plants 70,000,000 "
Development of petroleum 200,000,000 "
Necaxa works, electric lighting and electric
motor power 100,000,000 "
Invested in banks 76,000,000 "
Textile industries 35,000,000 "
Electric companies furnishing lighting and
motor power throughout the Republic 32,000,000 "
Loaned to the Caja de Prestamos for the pro- motion of agricultural and irrigation works 50,000,000 "
Federal public debt 485,000,000 "
State public debt 7,000,000 "
Invested in foreign commerce 476,000,000 "
Total 2,691,000,000 pesos
I am not taking into account the foreign capital invested in extensive cattle-raising in Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango and Coahuila; in the rubber industry in these same states
1 Argumento de Proclam* revolucionrio, Durango, Agosto de W3-
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and in those of Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi ; in the timber lands of Chihuahua; in the sugar-cane plantations in Vera Cruz, the territory of Tepic and the Isthmus of Tehuan- tepec; or, lastly, the coffee plantations and the rubber tree nurseries in the states of Chiapas, Vera Cruz and Oaxaca.
I ask, Has this or any part of it contributed to the ruin of Mexico? Have the 600,000,000 pesos invested in rail- roads been employed to rob the Mexican people? It has been said that Mexico has given an average of $4,250 gold per kilometer for railroad construction in a depopulated country where only twenty per cent of the people require transportation. Mr. Wilson knows that the Mexican Gov- ernment, in order to avert the failure of the great railway lines, gave in exchange for the control of these the guarantee of an annual four per cent dividend on a smaller capital than that actually invested. Is this what is called robbing the Mexican people, and does it warrant Mr. Wilson in de- nouncing the foreign stockholders to the world as a set of knaves ?
In the mining world the foreign capital is estimated at 587,000,000 pesos, which, plus the capital invested in the metallurgic works, equals 657,000,000 pesos. Those ac- quainted with mining affairs know that in mining, taken as a whole, the net profit is not more than fifteen per cent on the gross product. Taking this figure as a basis, a net profit of 26,000,000 pesos is obtained, which on a capital of 657,- 000,000 pesos, leaves an annual profit of barely four per cent on the capital invested. In 1877, before the investment of foreign capital on a large scale in Mexican mines, only 22,000 workmen were employed in the mining industry; 114,000 men were employed at a good daily wage in 1910. This is the so-called ruin that foreign capital has produced in Mexico. The Necaxa concession was not injurious to the country, because the only favor conceded was exemption from the ruinous taxes that might have been imposed. The
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Necaxa motor power is utilized by various electric light and electric power plants, especially at El Oro, a mining town where 15,000 men were employed.
The foreign capital invested in Government bonds can- not have robbed the nation, because the bonds were bought almost at par, notwithstanding the fact that the annual in- terest is only from four to five per cent. The extensive for- eign capital invested in trade operates upon exactly the same basis as the national capital, without special privileges or con- cessions; therefore, it is ridiculous, if they are on an equal footing, to say that in this respect the Mexican people are being robbed. It is only when we come to the petroleum concessions that a wrong can be said to have been done to the Mexican people. In these concessions exemption from export duty was granted, and, as by its very nature almost all of it is exported, and as its production does not require a large force, the people derived very little benefit from the exploitation of this portion of their national wealth. But this concession was unconstitutional and could have been revoked from the moment that the Government that granted it was overthrown. All difficulties could have been com- promised, and a new contract drawn up by which the petro- leum companies would have been obliged to pay an equitable tax.
I do not think it necessary to continue the analysis of these specific charges. Those I have particularly noted will suffice for Mr. Wilson's consideration and that of the American public. It seems sufficient to me to close the review of the legitimate business enterprises operating in Mexico at the time the revolution broke out by inviting the revolutionary writers to show in what way the enterprises I have men- tioned have been guilty of defrauding the Mexican people. I, moreover, defy the whole world to show me where, out- side the cases I have mentioned, they can point out real or probable cases of injustice toward the Mexican people.
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It is undeniable that during the administration of Gen- eral Diaz there were shady business transactions of greater or lesser gravity; but they were not allied with foreign en- terprises, nor were they disadvantageous to the country. The dirty business transactions may be narrowed down to seven Spaniards who took to Mexico no other capital than their determination to build up fortunes by any and all possible means. These men were friends of President Manuel Gon- zalez and of President Porfirio Diaz. I know of only three Americans who have amassed great fortunes in Mexico. One possessed no capital at all; the other two had small amounts to invest. I do not mention their names because it is not my intention in writing this book to cause any one trouble out of proportion to his responsibilities. I am writing to defend my country by stating facts, not to laud my friends, or to take revenge on my enemies or molest neutrals.
It is not, however, to be taken for granted that because seven Spaniards were favorites of the dictator and managed to amass fortunes illegitimately, that the Spanish colony in Mexico, numbering about forty thousand, almost all hon- orable, useful, hard-working and estimable for many reasons, should be hated, persecuted, declared criminal and deserv- ing of extermination; any more than the useful, hard-work- ing American colony, the promoters of civilization, numbering about forty thousand, should be execrated. The Span- iards were the creators of fortunes for the Mexican families; without them Mexico would certainly have been a nation of bureaucrats, of unfortunate employees of private or foreign concerns, of working-men, day-laborers, beggars and pick- pockets.
For the successful working out of the "almighty dollar policy," the concurrence of the American financier of the piratical type and the corrupt Mexican public official is needed. President Wilson apparently does not know that
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Senor Limantour, who for eighteen years was the absolute dictator of Mexico's financial policy, was the avowed enemy of American monopolies, and consistently opposed to per- mitting American capital, however beneficial its effects, from getting the upper hand in the country, because gold is always a power, and can sway in the political field.
The American writer, Mr. Edward I. Bell, who has studied Mexican affairs at first-hand, says: "The Pearson concession was a move approved by Limantour to prevent Standard Oil domination. . . . The Waters-Pierce Oil Company, then a subsidiary of the Standard Oil, had held a monopoly of the trade of Mexico and at the time of the con- cession was engaged in bringing in oil from the United States and selling twenty-liter cans of good illuminating grade at $3.59 Mexican money, a price equivalent to thirty-five Amer- ican cents a gallon.
"If there was one thing that Limantour objected to more than monopoly in general, it was American monop- oly. . . .Ml
When the Mexican Government undertook to drain the City of Mexico and Vera Cruz, it turned down many Amer- ican bids and awarded the contracts to a French company, and to the house of Pearson & Son, of London. Many other American propositions for all kinds of public improve- ments were submitted, and resulted in the award to the Pearson company of contracts valued at 170,000,000 pesos. The drainage contracts, before the work passed into the hands of the Pearson company, had Jpeen in charge of an English company, Read & Campbell. The installing of a water plant to supply the City of Mexico with water, and also the erection of all the public buildings that beautify the city, costing in the neighborhood of 50,000,000 pesos, were carried out under the direction of the Government, only Mexican, French and Italian engineers, architects and work-
1 Edward I. Bell, The Political Shame of Mexico^ p. 126.
202 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
men being employed. Limantour had no grudge against Americans, as is clear from the fact that he approved all the concessions requested by Ambassador Thompson ; that of the Mexican Southern Pacific Railroad, solicited by Mr. Harri- man, and the monopoly of office and school supplies granted to Mosler, Bowen & Cook.
Limantour sought to keep the balance between European and American capital. He was absolutely incorruptible, and his designs in this respect, undoubtedly founded upon pa- triotic motives, are to be applauded.
What has been said will suffice to show that foreign enter- prises in Mexico, more than one-half of which represented American interests, have operated almost without exception honestly, legitimately and thoroughly, and that they have not only conferred benefits upon the Mexican people, but that they saved them from extinction in 1877. At this time the Government and all intelligent leaders, seeing them- selves without the support of foreign capital, had lost faith in the future of Mexico.
Mr. Wilson's policy of sustaining the false accusations made against foreign capital in Mexico unquestionably served to stimulate the Boxer sentiment. This has been the right arm of the revolution, as Sefior Carranza has confessed in his interview with Senor Aldo Baroni, published in the Diario de la Marina of Havana.
THE MONROE DOCTRINE A WAR DOCTRINE
As the "Mexican case" is closely bound up in the Monroe Doctrine, and as this is complex and confused — as are all doctrines that are extraordinarily elastic — I feel obliged to explain it as I understand it in order to make my argument absolutely clear.
The basis of the Monroe Doctrine is the immutable pro- hibition of the acquirement by any foreign powrer of territory
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 203
on the American continents or in American waters. To for- bid any nation to acquire territory in America is equivalent to forbidding that nation to make war upon any of the American nations. The rights of war are: Total or partial possession of the conquered territory; temporary occupation of the conquered territory, which may extend over a long period of time-; occupation of the territory as a guarantee for the payment of indemnity or the fulfillment of obligations stipulated in the treaty of peace; occupation of the territory in order to collect the war indemnity, or to press the meeting of public debt obligations, when the debtor is tardy, or for any other reason declines to meet this or other claims. In times of peace a power has the right to occupy territory in a foreign country in order to protect the lives or interests of its subjects, threatened with annihilation. Some interna- tional law writers have held that a power has the right to punish the crimes committed by rebellious subjects of a for- eign nation against its subjects, if the Government of this nation is impotent to suppress disorder and punish its own rebellious subjects. In order that this punishment may be administered, the temporary occupation of a part of the of- fending nation's territory is unavoidable.
From the foregoing it will be seen that the Monroe Doc- trine restricts the sovereignty of all foreign nations; and later it will be seen that it restricts the sovereignty of all American nations, except the United States.
Why have the European nations accepted this manifest restriction of their sovereignty? Because all the nations that have accepted the Monroe Doctrine, in order to preserve their dignity without having to go to war with the United States, have tacitly recognized a protectorate exercised by the United States Government over all the Latin-American nations. But the foreign Powers cannot abjure their rights to sovereignty in this respect without the protector assuming the responsibility before these Powers for the offenses com-
204 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
mitted by the nations over which the protectorate is exer- cised. The Monroe Doctrine obliges the United States to answer for the conduct of these nations to the point of giving absolute satisfaction to the European Powers which recog- nize the Monroe Doctrine, or of incurring the risk of having them declare war against the United States when the satis- faction is not considered adequate. This proves that the Monroe Doctrine is a probable war doctrine even with the nations that tacitly or expressly recognize it. The Monroe Doctrine was the gauntlet thrown down to Spain and the nations composing the Holy Alliance, Prussia, Austria and Russia, which they could not take up because they were not naval powers at the time they were challenged. Moreover, the Monroe Doctrine was supported by England, the first naval power of the world, which assured the tranquil ex- istence of the doctrine so long as England and the United States were at peace. It may be said that the Monroe Doc- trine has been sustained for more than eighty years by an alliance between these two nations. Nevertheless, in the Venezuelan case, when the United States took a firm stand against England, the alliance was on the point of being broken, but the difficulty was surmounted.
The European Powers have tacitly or expressly recognized the protectorate imposed by the United States over Latin- American nations because they could not go to war with England and the United States to recover their rights as military powers, either to undertake conquests or to declare war according to international law and the treaties emanat- ing from it. It is clear that should the European Powers, either through necessity or ambition, make up their minds to go to war, they will not feel obliged to respect the pro- hibition imposed by the United States, but will override the Monroe Doctrine just as soon as they find themselves in a position to do so. The Monroe Doctrine, then, may prove a war doctrine with the European Powers or Japan at a
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 205
time it is not yet possible to fix. Germany has publicly de- clared that she does not recognize, nor will she ever rec- ognize, the Monroe Doctrine; and it is practically certain that if the European war had not taken up her attention, she would, because of her great interest in Brazil and her designs in Nicaragua, have declared war against the United States if she could have secured the neutrality of England. If Germany crushes the power of England in the present war, she will, with a reconstructed navy, attack the United States, not only for the purpose of destroying the Monroe Doctrine, but for the purpose of breaking a rival power. Rome would not have stood the rival power of Carthage in the twentieth century any more than she stood it two thou- sand and seventy- two years ago. The cause of the Allies is the cause of the United States, and explains the unprece- dented interest and support given on supposedly neutral ground to Germany's enemies.
Even if the Allies triumph, the Monroe Doctrine will still be in peril. England has submitted as gracefully as pos- sible to the attitude of the United States because she wished to keep Canada. But England, once triumphant, will come to recognize that the war with Germany has transformed her into what she never dreamed of being — a great military power in the world, capable of raising four million men, officered and well trained, with an enormous train of artil- lery, all this backed by a flourishing home industry capable of keeping such a colossal force thoroughly equipped.
It might be that triumphant France and Italy would at- tempt to put an end to the Monroe Doctrine; and in that case an alliance for the purpose of getting possession of Nic- aragua, or obtaining concessions with regard to the Canal, whether or not the Nicaraguian Government were willing, could bring the Monroe Doctrine into conflict. I consider it very doubtful whether the triumphant European Powers will consent to the United States possessing absolute control
206 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
of the waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific. These considerations prove that, now more than ever, the Monroe Doctrine is a war doctrine.
Wilson's doctrine is diametrically opposed to the Monroe Doctrine, in virtue of which the United States assumes be- fore Europe and Japan, if the latter recognizes the doctrine, responsibility for the actions of the Latin-American nations, even when this responsibility is grave and might lead to war. The United States, therefore, in assuming this responsibility, accepts unconditionally the rights of the European Powers to exact from the Latin-American nations the fulfillment of the precepts laid down by international law and treaty stip- ulations. As in both these laws the rights of all nations to support the claims of their respective subjects, whether they emanate from business interests or not, are expressly stated, it is inconceivable that Europe will submit to the Wilson doc- trine of non-protection by the American Government of claims emanating from business interests.
The conflict between these doctrines might lead to three things: War between Europe and the United States; the un- conditional surrender of the Monroe Doctrine; the incredi- bly humiliating action on the part of the American President of giving protection to foreign claims from whatever source they might spring, even to taking up arms in their defense, after denying the same protection to American citizens under similar circumstances. I cannot believe that the American people would go to war with Mexico, or any other Latin- American nation, to protect the interests of European sub- jects, when, rather than go to war, they have permitted their own countrymen to remain unprotected. \
After the lapse of a year, Mr. Wilson understood that his "debutante" political doctrine was untenable, as, in lay- ing down his program to The Saturday Evening Post rep- resentative, he said: "Second — No personal aggrandizement by American investors or adventurers or capitalists, or ex-
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 207
ploitation of that country, will be permitted. Legitimate business interests that seek to develop rather than exploit will be encouraged."
This declaration deserves to be applauded, but the Wilson doctrine as first promulgated caused considerable damage to both American and Mexican business interests.
THE PROBLEM
Should President Wilson have recognized the Huerta Government in March, 1913?
Let us examine the situation as it appeared in the eyes of the world. On one side wras General Huerta, usurper, trai- tor, assassin and the representative of the ancient and anti- patriotic privileged classes, composed of debauched Creoles, greedy landowners, holding back land indispensable for the maintenance of the people, and dishonest plutocrats, all ene- mies of the people, opposed to its moral and material 4i^t- terment. On the other side was Senor Venustiano Car- ranza, a Constitutionalist, a great and radical reformer, loyal, just and a distributor of lands to the people.
Guided by appearances, it was not possible to vacillate. Every support should be given to Carranza; every means used to defeat Huerta.
Let us see what the actual situation was.
THE FIRST LIE: THE USURPATION OF HUERTA
I have said that in all countries called free, except Eng- land, two political constitutions hold sway, the written and the unwritten. The first is the work of politicians; the sec- ond is the outgrowth of social usage. In Latin-America the political constitutions have been the result of the more or less
208 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
unreal visions that incessantly dangle before the imagina- tion of patriots and the creators of theoretic democracies.
Theories cannot be applied to nations; they are eminently practical, not theoretical. Life is a fact, not a theory.
In countries where dictatorships are the rule, the political constitution is simply ornamental, and, consequently, the president emanating from such a constitution is simply a constitutional president of the ornamental type (a real presi- dent such as Madero, but unfit to govern), or a dictator of the proportions of General Porfirio Diaz,. As has been said, the unwritten constitution of a people emanates from its racial traits, its history, its economic organism, its territory, its education, its real needs, sufferings and aspirations, and the influence of foreign nations — in short, from social usage. In Mexico the law prescribed by social usage was the change of government by violence and treason, without recourse to assassination. Therefore Madero was the real usurper who had violated the inexorable law — which was a law notwith- standing its atrociousness — by appearing as the constitutional president in a country where no one was interested in living up to the written constitution, and where he gave new and flagrant examples of its violation. The simple fact that a president has been legally elected is not enough to make him respected. He must combine legality of conduct, and this President Madero did not do. It is not true that the coup of February 9, 1913, destroyed a democracy. A demo- cratic government is a government founded on public opin- ion, and when such a government loses its support, it has virtually been overthrown. The Nueva Era, the semi-offi- cial organ of the Madero administration, said editorially in December, 1912: "It really requires great moral courage to confess one's self a Maderista."
It may be well to repeat here the sentence previously quoted from the writings of Senor Fernandez Giiell, who up to the present day has remained one of Madero's firm ad-
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 209
herents: "At the time of the uprising at Vera Cruz (Oc- tober 10, 1912) the Federal Government rested solely on the loyalty of the army." l
This clearly indicates that from October 10, 1912, Ma- dero was a despot, intrenched behind a row of bayonets.
Why was this despotism tolerated? Because the democ- racy did not exist. If it had existed, the loyal faction in the House of Representatives would have risen to perform its manifest duty. But as we already know, the majority in the House was unconditionally at the disposal of Gustavo Madero, the President's brother. How was it possible, un- less he assumed the role of Cain, that President Madero could be indicted and found guilty? Clearly it was purely a family affair, and the only way to overthrow the despot was to overthrow the whole family. In Latin-American countries, and in all countries ruled by dictators, it is the duty of the army to overthrow the despot.
As has already been mentioned, in countries ruled by dic- tatorships, from the days of ancient Rome down to the lat- est upheaval in Haiti, which overthrew the President, the army acts as a salutary power. It exterminates anarchy, when this begins to degenerate from political into social anarchy ; and overthrows dictators, when their beneficent or tolerable rule degenerates into a harmful and morally ener- vating despotism. It must not be overlooked that all tyranny is progressive. The Caesar begins by signing with horror the first death sentence against a bandit, and ends by wish- ing that the human race had only one head so that he might decapitate it at a blow. The right to rebel is the inherent right of all democratic and servile peoples. If rebellion be the means of saving the country from death, servile peoples have as much right to have recourse to it as do those ruled by democracies. Real democracy is a modern institution,
1 R. Fernandez Guell, Episodios de la Revolution Mexicana, p. 185.
210 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
and humanity would not now exist if the peoples had not thrown off the tyrannical yoke by means of militarism, orien- tal seraglio conspiracies or regicide. The latter method is repugnant to all right-minded persons, and is certainly the most unethical of all, as militarism is the least offensive.
Undoubtedly militarism is unethical and open to the con- demnation of all ultra-idealists ; but considering society in the light of an organism, we may draw an analogy from pa- thology, which gives us so many examples of diseases that act one upon the other to produce beneficial effects upon the pa- tient. A consuming fever is sometimes nature's device for throwing off an infection, just as the cough that accom- panies certain diseases is always a salutary symptom, if not the actual means of effecting an absolute cure. In Latin- American nations, which are passing through the critical stage of their dictatorial life, militarism is the salutary func- tion that restores them to partial or complete health.
From what has been said it will be seen that Madero, in February, 1913, was an usurper, loudly condemned by pub- lic opinion. As there was no democratic system through wThich the President could be called to account, the people in their servile capacity were quite within their rights in appealing to a revolution. As they were servile, as is proved by their incapacity to grasp democracy, they had the right to use the means within their power to induce the defection of the army and compel it to fulfil its obligations — not con- stitutional, but sociological — of overthrowing the President of the Republic. And, finally, it is to be deduced from the preceding that Huerta was the real President of Mexico, the sociological President, imposed by the law of social usage, the real constitutional President emanating from the unwritten Constitution, representative of the needs of the people. From this it is also to be deduced that President Wilson as a moralist may rank with Telemachus, impreg- nated with the doctrine of Fenelon ; but as a sociologist, and
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 211
as President of the United States, he has belittled himself by his policy of non-recognition of Latin-American Govern- ments founded upon treason and violence, driving the United States to the absurd political measure of having to sever diplo- matic relations with most of the Latin-American and all ot the oriental nations. Very recently, February 28, 1916, the news was flashed across the water that the heir-apparent of Turkey, young Yussouf Izzadin, in my opinion quite as estimable as Madero, had been assassinated by order of the chief of the Turkish Government, and no one is so far aware that Mr. Wilson has severed diplomatic relations with Tur- key. Similarly, when the President of Peru was removed by violence from the presidential chair, Mr. Wilson, at that time already President of the United States, experienced no difficulty in recognizing the usurper. Notwithstanding the fact that the entire world is awrare of the handiwork of the Chinese political juggler, Yuan-Shi-Kai, accused of not one but several secret murders, Mr. Wilson holds out his hand to him, after having effusively pressed Pancho Villa's — still red with the blood of Benton — through his representa- tive, General Hugh L. Scott, Chief of Staff. The sig- nificance of this spectacle was further enhanced by the aston- ishment of the world upon seeing a full-fledged general of the United States Army treating with Villa, as power to power, placing the notorious Mexican brigand on the same footing as General Joffre or Marshals Hindenburg or Mac- kensen. This cannot have been a matter of pride to the American people, its Navy or its Army. Mr. Wilson owes it to Carranza that he did not recognize Villa.
THE SECOND LIE I THE WICKEDNESS OF THE CREOLE CLASS
Through constant hammering President Wilson has been brought to believe that a conspiracy exists among the Cre- oles to get the mastery of the people, and once more to
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establish the Colonial system; and that to accomplish this end they have turned the army against the mestizo repre- sentatives of liberty, science and justice and of everything that was great in Mexico.
Let us examine the truth of this assertion.
The colonel of the Nineteenth Battalion, who turned trai- tor to Madero and took possession of the plaza of Vera Cruz on October 10, 1912, to hand it over to General Felix Diaz, was Diaz Ordaz, a mestizo, as was also Felix Diaz. The three generals, Reyes, Diaz and Mondragon, who carried out the coup against Madero, were all mestizos. The instigators of Madero's murder were Generals Diaz and Mondragon, already mentioned, General Huerta, an In- dian, General Blanquet, a mestizo, according to some, a zambo (mixture of Indian and negro), according to others, and Celso Acosta, General Felix Diaz's "guiding star," a mestizo. The actual assassins were Cardenas and Pimienta, both mestizos. The secretaries responsible for having coun- selled or approved the murder, or for not having resigned as soon as it occurred, were Rodolfo Reyes, Secretary of Jus- tice, a mestizo; General Mondragon, Secretary of War, al- ready mentioned ; Alberto Garcia Granados, Secretary of the Interior, a mestizo, according to some, a quadroon or octaroon, according to others; David de la Fuente, Secretary of Public Works, a mestizo; Manuel Garza Aldape, Secre- tary of Agriculture, a mestizo; Jorge Vera Estanol, Secre- tary of Public Instruction, a mestizo. Out of nine Cabinet Ministers, only three were Creoles: Senor Toribio Esquivel Obregon, Secretary of the Treasury; Senor Francisco Leon de la Barra, Secretary of Foreign Relations, and Senor Al- berto Robles Gil, Secretary of Fomento.
General Huerta's intimate friend, who led the troops that captured Madero in the National Palace on October 18, 1913, and who killed Senor Marcos Hernandez, Madero's cousin, was Enrique Cepeda, a full-blooded Indian, accord-
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 213
ing to some, a zambo, according to others. Cepeda was also guilty of the murder of Hernandez, a colonel of Rurales, in the Belen prison. Those pointed out as instigators of the gruesome policy of "disappearance" were Colonel Quiroz, a mestizo ; General Blanquet, already mentioned ; Dr. Urrutia, Secretary of the Interior, a mestizo; Senor Manuel Garza Aldape, already mentioned; and the Under-Secretary of the Interior, also a mestizo. General Camarena, accused of the murder of Senior Abraham Gonzalez, Governor of Chihua- hua, was a mestizo. I do not know the origin of the ob- jectionable Cecilio Ocon. In view of the preceding, can the Creoles be held responsible for the different murders that occurred at the time of Huerta, and for the overthrow of Madero and the destruction of "Democracy"?
It is clearly demonstrated, then, that the overthrow of Madero, his murder and the policy of political assassinations that followed, was not the work of Creoles but of Indians, zambos and mestizos.
THE THIRD LIE I THE CONSPIRACY OF THE CIENTIFICOS
I think it advisable at this point to recall the fact that in 1912 the Cientificos no longer existed as a group, faction or party. I have said that the Cientificos represented a group of intellectuals, never exceeding fifteen in number, organized with the idea of reforming the dictatorship, making it as liberal and just as possible, and unquestionably expecting to be named the successors of the dictatorial power. In the beginning the Cientificos held meetings in which political and economic questions were discussed and resolutions voted upon and carried by a majority. After 1899 these meet- ings were discontinued, and the politically active Cientificos were reduced to a group of officials represented by Senores Jose Limantour, Roberto Nunez, Pablo Macedo, Joaquin Casasus and Rosendo Pineda. As has already been said, these five men, gifted with great talent and learning, were guilty
2i4 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
of political blunders that not even five Australian bushmen would have committed had they been directing the policy of the British Empire. In the face of a policy so disparaging to the prestige of the Cientificos, the dictatorship and the Mexican people, the other Cientificos withdrew from the group, not announcing their withdrawal publicly in order to avoid bringing upon themselves the undesirable soubriquet of political mountebanks, more especially as conditions could not be bettered. Outside the restricted group mentioned, General Reyes was the only other aspirant to the power. He was almost assured of triumph as he had a following among the older element in the army, the support of the younger and that of all agitators, who with equal facility manufacture heroes and destroy reputations.
Senor Moheno, in his interesting book, Adonde vamos a dar? (Where Are We Going to End?), published in 1906, said, referring to the exclusiveness of this small political group, that they followed the "this car full" policy; and I, modifying the phrase, said that a car was far too spacious a vehicle for Senor Limantour's policy — that it should be named the policy of the "landau complet" Among the Cientificos who did not belong to this "landau complet" group, and who were excluded as any ordinary individual might have been, were to be found several professional men, possessors of extremely modest incomes; the remainder — representing the majority — were poor men who lived upon their meagre salaries, which were quite out of proportion to the services they rendered the dictatorship by their brains and education.
The Cientificos, who were outside the political group, knew that if the latter triumphed they would remain in the obscure posts to which they had been relegated, and that if General Reyes triumphed, they would get what had been so loudly promised them by the Reyista press — persecution, con- fiscation of their property, death itself.
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 215
When Madero triumphed in 1911, he was well disposed toward all, and the non-political Cientificos, relieved of their burden, breathed freely. They rejoiced at his triumph, toasted the Madero cause in private, and felt relieved to see their country delivered from the hands of Reyes and the Cientificos who had expected to fall heir to the dictatorship.
In 1912, of the five Cientificos who composed the politi- cal group — in which Senor Ramon Corral, as Vice-President of the Republic, had been included — only three remained, Senor Ramon Corral and Senor Roberto Nunez having died in Paris. Of these, Senores Pineda, Macedo and Casasus remained in the City of Mexico. Senor Pineda was poor and devoted all his time to his profession. Senores Macedo and Casasus, both enormously rich, had retired permanently to private life. They were surfeited and disillusioned. The inevitable disaster that threatened the country was plainly visible to them and weighed them down. It must not, how- ever, be inferred from this that, so far as business relations were concerned, they were not on excellent terms with the Madero family, especially with Senor Ernesto Madero, the Secretary of the Treasury, who transacted business not of a political nature through their firms.
It may be said that the combination formed by Senores Moheno, Olaguibel, Lozano and Garcia Narnajo was a Cientifico combination. It could not have been. In the first place, when Madero triumphed, the Cientificos had dis- banded ; and in the second, Senor Moheno never was a Cientifico. Senores Olaguibel and Garcia Narnajo were ad- herents of Senor Corral's, having been won over by Senor Pineda in 1909. Senor Limantour had determined not to support Corral, even if he won, because he had decided to retire to private life as soon as General Diaz would permit him to do so. I appeal to the members of the Madero fam- ily to vouch for the exactness of this statement. The Cien- tificos cannot be held responsible for the actions of some of
216 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
their number after they had disbanded, and Senores Ola- guibel, Lozano and Garcia Narnajo did not even constitute a majority of the ex-Cientifico group, but a reduced minor- ity, which can never be a representative force without the consent and authority of the majority.
I have gone into this rather extensively, because in sev- eral books, among them that of Mr. Edward I. Bell, it has been stated that the revolt at Vera Cruz, headed by Felix Diaz, was financed by the Cientificos. The great majority of the Cientificos were poor and had no money to devote to this purpose, and it is absurd to suppose that the wealthy Cientificos, who were enjoying the favor of Madero, their lives and property amply protected, would have furnished money to put those in power who for eight years had re- viled, calumniated, disparaged, persecuted and held them up to the hatred and contempt of the people.
The Cientificos disappeared with General Diaz; but for political ends they have not been permitted to die. Later on, in its proper place, I shall say more regarding this.
THE FOURTH LIE I MADERO's OVERTHROW BY THE REACTIONISTS
The first book published against Madero which caused a sensation was Madero sin mascara (Madero Unmasked). Its author, Senor Aguilar, was antagonistic to the dictator- ship and to the Cientificos. He was a partisan of Madero, at his side from the beginning of his revolt to the defeat at Casas Grandes on March 6, 1911. The second book dis- paraging to Madero w^as written by , Senor Toribio Esquivel Obregon. He was an avowed enemy of the dictatorship and of the Cientificos, a frankly open anti-reelectionist, so powerful in his party that he was chosen speaker in the Anti-reelection Convention of 1910, against the candidacy of Senor Francisco Vazquez Gomez for vice-president.
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 217
The third publication against Madero was a pamphlet writ- ten by Senor Jorge Vera Estanol. Vera Estanol had been appointed Secretary of Public Instruction by General Diaz at the time when, working in accord with Senor Limantour, his chief of staff, who was responsible for their conduct, he decided to throw the Cientificos overboard. The fourth book, ruinous to the popularity of Madero, was written by Senor Roque Estrada. He was Madero's ex-private secre- tary, his companion in prison at San Luis Potosi, who fled with him and remained his constant companion and helper in all his revolutionary schemes hatched in the United States, until the moment that Madero put foot on Mexican soil February 14, 1911. Senor Estrada is at present Senor Venustiano Carranza's Secretary of Justice.
What did Madero most harm were the articles written by Dr. Francisco Vazquez Gomez, published in the City of Mexico press. Vazquez Gomez, who had been a candi- date for the vice-presidency in 1910, named by the Anti- reelection Convention, was Madero's private agent in Wash- ington from February, 1911, to the triumph of the revolu- tion, and was forced upon President de la Barra by Madero as Secretary of Public Instruction. His brother, Emilio Vazquez Gomez, was the author of Zapata's Plan de Ayala. Dr. Vazquez Gomez made revelations which pulled Madero off his pedestal in the eyes of the people. Some of these revelations cast serious doubts upon the probity of the Madero family, and even upon that of "the Apostle" him- self. These papers, more than anything else, irreparably damaged his popularity.
In the House of Representatives those responsible for the overthrow of Madero were Senor Querido Moheno, who never was a Cientifico ; Senores Lozano, Olaguibel and Garcia Narnajo, who were, properly speaking, followers of Pineda, a partisan of Corral's; Senores Trejo and Lerdo de Tejada, opponents of the dictatorship and of the Cientificos
218 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
during General Diaz's time; Senores Aquiles Elorduy and Armando Ostos, who were always enemies of the dictator- ship and of the Cientificos; Senor Juan Sarabia, a rabid agitator and an avowed enemy of the dictatorship and of the Cientificos, who had been persecuted, incarcerated in the San Juan de Ulua fortress, without charges being pre- ferred against him, and came very near being executed; and Senor Pedro Galicia Rodriguez, one of the most popular political leaders with the lower classes in the City of Mex- ico, having tremendous influence in the labor unions, an old enemy of the dictatorship and of the Cientificos, and a man of avowed socialistic principles, uncompromisingly and incor- ruptibly carried out.
In the Senate the war for Madero's political extermina- tion was carried on by Senor Manuel Calero, a friend of General Diaz's and an enemy of the Cientificos; Senor Fran- cisco Leon de la Barra, ex-partisan of the dictatorship and ex-President of the Republic, appointed by the revolutionists with the approval of Senor Limantour, a former friend of Madero and a neutral in regard to the Cientificos; Senor Gumesindo Enriquez, ex-partisan of Presidents Gonzalez and Diaz, and vigorous enemy of the Cientificos; Senor J. Flores Magon, ex-Secretary of the Interior, former enemy of the dictatorship and of the Cientificos, and an ardent partisan of the revolution; and, lastly, Senor Guillermo Obregon, a strong adherent of Dehesa, and consequently one of the most intense enemies of the Cientificos.
In the states the propaganda against Madero was carried on in the same way. In the state of Morelos Senor Otilio Montano, a normal school teacher, a Zapatista general and one of Emiliano Zapata's counsellors, was as bitter an op- ponent of Madero as he had been of the dictatorship and of the Cientificos. Senor Palafox, one of President Eulalio Gutierrez's secretaries, imposed by Zapata, was also one of the leaders of the anti-Madero campaign in Morelos. In
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 219
the state of Chihuahua, Sefior Silvestre Terrazas, who had been relentlessly opposed to the dictatorship and the Cientificos, and was a supporter of the Vazquez faction, was Madero's implacable assailant. Senor Braulio Hernandez also operated in this state. He adopted the motto "Lands and Justice," hoping to incite the populace in Chihuahua to revolt against Madero. He was Governor Abraham Gonzalez's ex-secretary and had been appointed by Madero. He had upheld Governor Gonzalez throughout all the period of the revolution in Chihuahua. In Yucatan the edi- tors of La Revista de Merida, Senores Carlos T. Menendez and Delio Morena Canton, carried on the anti-Madero cam- paign. They had always been avowed enemies of the Cien- tificos, and were, moreover, anti-reelectionists. Senor Moreno Canton was the anti-reelectionist candidate for governor of the state of Yucatan.
In the City of Mexico the newspaper campaign was scan- dalous. El Pais, El Mariana, La Tribuna, El Heraldo, El Diario, and El Multicolor led the way. El Pais was un- doubtedly the worst, as it had Trinidad Sanchez Santos, the leading newspaper agitator of this hemisphere, and without doubt of the entire world, for its editor-in-chief. Sanchez Santos annihilated a political party, a faction, an individual with a word, usually of ridicule or infamy. Senor Rogelio Fernandez Giiell, at that time a Maderista, now a Car- ranzista, truthfully said: "It was Sanchez Santos who carried the already lifeless body of Gustavo Madero to the scaffold"; and I add: It was Sanchez Santos who riddled the lifeless body of Francisco Madero with bullets. Sanchez Santos was always antagonistic to the Cientificos, and dur- ing the last years of General Diaz's dictatorship was its sworn enemy. Except for El Pals the revolution of Novem- ber, 1910, in Chihuahua would have been ended in ten or twelve days by the surrender of the rebels. The insurgents in the state of Chihuahua did not believe that without other
220 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
support they could stand out against the dictatorship, which in the eyes of the nation possessed formidable means of put- ting down the revolution, and was capable of dominating an uprising all over the country. Madero prepared his revo- lution as a schoolboy might prepare a baseball contest with a rival team. He ordered that at six p. m. on November 20, 1910, the inhabitants in every part of the Republic should rise up in arms against the dictatorship. That they were not armed or trained or properly officered, or in any way protected from being immediately exterminated as rebels and traitors, if General Diaz had not been in his dotage, did not seem to enter into his calculations.
Madero had prepared for almost all his followers the tragedy that overtook the forces of Aquiles Serdan at Puebla. The Chihuahua insurgents had been led to believe that the uprising would be simultaneous all over the coun- try. Great was their surprise, therefore, to find ten days after they took up arms that, with the exception of Serdan, who had met his death, they alone were in revolt against a Government possessed apparently of inexhaustible resources with which to crush them. Senor Abraham Gonzalez him- self told me that the demoralization had been complete, and would have led to immediate surrender if a copy of El Pais had not been received just at that time, announcing impor- tant uprisings all over the country, and saying that still other revolutionists were preparing to take the field in less than a month. All this, of course, was pure fabrication as later events proved. But the fact remains that Sanchez Santos saved the revolution in Chihuahua, because the leaders, waiting for the promised uprisings, saw the impo- tence of the Caesar to oppose them, and time proved to them that they could gain ground, not by force of arms, but simply by letting the Government continue its stupid and listless policy.
There is no doubt, preposterous as ft may seem, that
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Sanchez Santos saved the revolution and afterwards upheld it, even dissipating the panic of the plutocratic partisans of the Government who advised him to make overtures of peace at the time when only Chihuahua was in revolt. With the same force that Sanchez Santos saved, upheld and helped to spread the revolution, he ignobly attacked Madero and all his administration, to the point of making it odious and contemptuous. This is a fact to which the whole Mexican nation can bear witness. Sanchez Santos was always — as only he knew how to be — the cruel, implacable and irresist- ible enemy of the Cientificos.
El Heraldo's weapon was cynicism. It held the Govern- ment up to the gaze of the public as something that deserved just as much consideration as a mouse that one chases out of its hole with a broom. This newspaper was directed by Senor Ricardo Contreras, a native of Guatemala and an irre- concilable enemy of Senor Manuel Estrada Cabrera, Presi- dent of Guatemala. La Tribuna was disputatious and sedi- tious to a degree, and exaggerated Madero's errors to the point of converting them into crimes. Its diatribes influenced the masses, who recoiled with horror, flinging maledictions at the "lunatic of Parras," who had dragged his country into a veritable hell. El Mariana was edited by J. Rabago, the most venomous of the journalists who was universally feared for the keenness of his satire. Senor Olaguibel, a representa- tive in the House, was leagued with him in the campaign. Rabago had been an uncompromising Porfirista. El Diario del Hogar published incendiary articles written by the fero- cious socialists, Antonio Diaz Soto y Gama and Camilo Arriaga, both confirmed enemies of the dictatorship and of the Cientificos. Senor Barrios, another socialist who had fought in the Madero revolution, spoke so vehemently against the President and threatened to resort to such sedi- tious measures that it was necessary to arrest and imprison him. Lastly, a Spaniard named Mario Victoria, who di-
222 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
rected and edited El Multicolor, a paper devoted to vile caricatures, utterly destructive of the respect a civilized peo- ple ought to have for its Chief Executive, even though he may be worthy of censure and punishment.
Summing up, then, almost all those responsible for the demolition of the Madero Government were revolutionists of anti-Porfirian origin. Among those who were not de- clared enemies of the Cientificos were to be found only Senores Lozano, Olaguibel and Garcia Naranjo. Is it cred- ible, I ask, that this campaign to destroy Madero's moral and civic prestige — a campaign which had resorted to cal- umny and outrage to reduce him to nothingness, which Senor Fernandez Giiell said had left him with only the sup- port of the army — could have been directed by the Cien- tificos, the Porfiristas, the clericals, and all that wicked crowd of landowners, which seems to inhabit and to have taken up permanent abode in President Wilson's mind? The Mex- ican revolution was prepared by General Reyes, inspired by an insatiable greed for revenge ; it was launched by Madero, without realization of its consequences, and like all revolu- tions it fulfilled its high mission by engulfing him.
THE FIFTH LIE: THE CONSPIRACY OF THE LANDOWNERS
President Wilson said in the columns of The Saturday Evening Post: "They want order — the old order; but I say to you that the old order is dead. It is my part, as I see it, to aid in composing those differences so far as I may be able, that the new order, which will have its foundation in human liberty and human rights, shall prevail."
I am obliged by the exigencies of the situation to repeat what I have already said to the honorable President of the United States. I admit that the Mexican landowners ask for the restoration of their former rights and properties. May I ask why Mr. Wilson does not measure them with the
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 223
same yard-stick or weigh them in the same scales that he measures and weighs the Cuban landowners? Why is it that what is good for Cuba is prejudicial for Mexico? Why are there two standards of justice, one applied to Cuba, the other to Mexico? Why does not President Wilson de- clare that "the old order is dead" forever in Cuba? Why, to conclude, has a nation of fifteen million inhabitants been handed over, in supposed defense of this agrarian right, to a horde of savage bandits who have reduced it to an incon- ceivable state of misery and desolation, when in Cuba the most insignificant agitation on this score is severely pun- ished? In the southern part of the United States tremen- dous tracts of land are owned by powerful trusts. Wherein lies the difference, when it comes to monopolies, between the American magnate and the Mexican Creole? In conclusion, I should like to call to President Wilson's attention the fact that the President of the United States has not been recog- nized by even a fraction of the Mexican people as endowed with the right to assume the role of protector of the Mex- ican nation.
In Part First I have established by means of irrefutable proofs that the Mexican landowners at the present time cannot prove a great obstacle to the progress of the Mex- ican people. In order to convince all Mexicans, as well as foreigners, who have interested themselves in the welfare of the Mexican people, whom they believe to have been ham- pered by the unjust usurpation of their land, I am going to settle, once and for all, this question of the recovery for the people of lands unjustly taken from them, by citing incontestable facts.
Since 1867 the liberal faction has held complete suprem- acy over the conservative faction, which relied in its struggle on its traditional supporters, the clergy, the army and the landowners. But from the day that the supremacy of the liberals was verified to the present time (March I, 1916),
224 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
no one outside their own group has been a supporter of the landowner's cause in Mexico. I invite the revolu- tionists to present to Mr. Wilson and the American people any document whatsoever which defends the principle of landownership. In these forty-nine years no newspaper- man, parliamentary orator, university professor, priest, pulpit orator, soap-box orator, mercenary politician or writer in Mexico, has ever written or spoken a single word in favor of the principle of landownership.
This principle was not supported by the dictatorship. I have a rooted objection to stating facts that cannot be substantiated, and I shall, therefore, fully verify this state- ment. In 1886, when the great depreciation in the value of silver caused universal alarm among the people, who be- lieved that the decline of silver meant the ruin of the coun- try, the House of Representatives appointed a commission to make a detailed study of the situation. I was appointed chairman of the committee, and the law of 1886 was the outcome of its deliberations. In the preamble the commis- sioners stated that the remedy proposed was' far from being considered radical; that it was simply offered as a palliative. The real remedy lay in abandoning mining and taking up agriculture; and in order to assure the success of this experi- ment it was necessary to establish small landholdings. To accomplish this it was advised to proceed at once with the distribution of the land. The Secretary of Fomento, Gen- eral Carlos Pacheco, ordered that a further study of the question be made by the persons most competent to render a decision in the matter. Their unanimous verdict was that the salvation of the nation lay in agriculture through the medium of small landholdings, and that the Mexicans would have to resign themselves to give up mining, since the good of the country demanded it.
Why were these recommendations not carried into effect? Because there was no money with which to indemnify the
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 225
rightful owners of the lands, and it had never been proposed to take the land forcibly from them. Mexico was really in a state of bankruptcy until 1894. But from that time until 1899 it was in a position to take up the agrarian question. I have previously stated, with absolute candor, that Senor Limantour made the fatal mistake of not taking up the ques- tion of irrigation until 1908; and I have also stated that from that date the dictatorship had under consideration sev- eral irrigation projects, knowing that without irrigation nothing but failure would result from the distribution of the land, as I have demonstrated in Part First.
But suppose the landowners had resolved to oppose this partition. How could they have done so? By means of buying up politicians and newspapers? Ninety per cent of the landowners had their properties mortgaged at about fifty per cent more than they were worth, besides twenty-five per cent in bank loans. The proof that they made no attempt to defend themselves by buying up newspapers and writers is to be found in the fact that in forty-nine years not even the most stupid or mercenary writer has ever come forward in defense of their cause.
The landowners cannot count upon the support of the clergy, because they are as much opposed to the policy as the most sincere revolutionist himself. They cannot count upon the army, because the chief officers and enlisted men are all enemies of the system. They cannot count upon the rev- olutionary leaders, because not one of them is a landowner. They cannot count upon the educated element, because it has always fought the system. They cannot even count upon themselves, because more than half of the so-called wealthy landowners have desired to get rid of the lands that have impoverished instead of enriching them. The cause of a handful of men, without revolutionary inclinations, timid and spiritless, who can count upon no support whatever in a nation of 15,000,000 inhabitants, where every one, in fact, is
226 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
their enemy, can hardly be said to be a cause at all. It is, consequently, very far from the truth to say that it is this hatred for the landowner alone that has caused a six years' civil war, which has destroyed and will continue to destroy the country.
THE SIXTH LIE: THE CONSPIRACY OF THE CLERGY
According to the Mexican Constitution complete separa- tion of Church and State exists in Mexico. The Constitu- tion does not recognize the Church as a moral entity. The Government is atheistic; it ignores the existence of religion, and looks upon the clergymen of all denominations as Mex- ican citizens if they fulfil the conditions required of every citizen by the Constitution. Clergymen of all denominations are forbidden to run for office, but are not debarred from holding Government administrative positions by appoint- ment. Outside this prohibition the clergymen of all denom- inations enjoy all the civil and political rights granted to all citizens by the laws of the land.
Political rights are active and passive, and as the clergy- men of all denominations may lay claim to both, it follows that every Catholic priest, whether regular or secular, canon or bishop, may take part in politics in general, and in the elections as an individual, there being no difference between him and any other citizen. The only disqualification is the one I have already mentioned of not being permitted to fan for office.
In view of this it is illegal, absurd and irrational, not to say perverse, to blame the Catholic clergy when in their capacity of private individuals they exercise the rights granted them by the Constitution. I shall not enter here into a discussion as to whether or not these rights exert a good or a bad influence, as it is outside the scope of this book. But as they are granted by law, so long as they are
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 227
not rescinded, they exist and are to be respected. The best proof of the insincerity of the accusers of the Catholic clergy, who intentionally confuse personal with corporation rights, is the fact that many Mexican Protestant ministers have ex- ercised political rights and have violated the Constitution by running for office, and even succeeded in having themselves elected representatives, senators and governors. Scnor Nico- las Islas y Bustamente, a lawyer, was a Protestant bishop, and advanced his candidacy for the Senate without having renounced his ministerial office. It was only when he was elected that he renounced the episcopacy to take his seat in the Senate. There have been Mexican Protestant ministers who have renounced their ministerial calling to run for the House of Representatives, and after the expiration of their first term, having collected their salary, have gone back to the ministry when they failed to be reelected to the House. As no proof has ever been established that the Mexican Catholic clergy has, as a body or corporation, ever mixed in politics, all charges brought against it, whether true or false, are absolutely null. The revolutionists in their efforts to prove that the Catholic clergy has conspired against the Constitution, commit the incredible blunder of citing as a proof the exercise of the right to mix in political affairs as private individuals that every clergyman has the privilege of availing himself of under the decrees of the Constitution.
THE SEVENTH LIE I THE GREAT POPULAR ASPIRATIONS
The revolutionists impressed upon Mr. Wilson the neces- sity of putting an end to the Huerta Government, as the usurper was the greatest obstacle to the fulfillment of the people's aspirations — the possession of the land monopolized by the landowners.
In Part First I have proved that the northern states, Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Coahuila and the northern part of Tamaulipas, do not possess lands suitable
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for agriculture, that their greatest source of wealth lies first in their mines, and secondly in their forests and grazing lands. I have proved that the amount of arable land is in- significant; that the day wage in the north was high, and that the poorer class gave little or no thought to the distri- bution of lands. I shall proceed to confirm these statements.
The leading Mexican Socialists, Senores Ricardo and Enrique Flores Magon, who are well known in the United States, took Chihuahua for their principal field of action. Other socialist advocates of the distribution of lands, among them the socialist poet, Praxedis Guerrero, worked energetically for the cause in Chihuahua. Before Madero launched his revolution, guerrilla bands calling themselves Magonistas, had been in revolt, but had not succeeded in ac- complishing much in the three months they had been active. It is evident that if the masses in Chihuahua had been enthu- siastic for the distribution of lands, they would have joined the Magonistas in 1910, and not the Maderistas, because the latter, neither in Chihuahua nor out of it, had ever held out the distribution of lands as an inducement. They were not upholders of socialist tenets and their first object was to get rid of the Magonista revolutionary bands.
Senor Braulio Hernandez, an ex-schoolmaster and ex-sec- retary of the Abraham Gonzalez administration in Chihua- hua, took as his motto "Lands and Justice," in an attempt to recruit adherents for the Vazquez Gomez campaign, which in 1913 was in the last stages of dissolution. Seeing that no one paid any attention to him, he offered to give lands gratuitously, without the beneficiaries being held in any way responsible. Still no one was enthusiastic, and he offered to exempt all the owners of small landholdings from Federal, state and municipal taxes. And even so the Vazquez Gomez cause was not sustained!
Every one knows that at the present time Senor Venusti- ano Carranza is taken up with the Oaxaca campaign. The
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 229
state of Oaxaca has a population of 1,200,000 inhabitants, almost all of them full-blooded Indians, organized in vil- lages having municipal rights, who neither possess nor desire to possess lands individually Seeing in the revolution noth- ing but a program of systematic pillage and looting, they have taken up arms to defend their property. The repre- sentatives from Oaxaca wearied of reiterating in the House that their state was not Maderista, that it never had been, and never would be, in sympathy with the revolution.
The state of Vera Cruz has a population of 1,400,000 in- habitants and, after Yucatan, is the most flourishing state in the Republic. In this state, in Cordoba, Coatepec and Huatusco, there are more individual Indian landowners than in any other state. These lands are rich and excellent coffee is raised upon them. This state produces as good tobacco as that grown in Cuba, also vanilla, sugar, rubber, and high- grade cattle. The richest petroleum fields in Mexico are also situated there. It is the leading manufacturing center and, after the City of Mexico, the most important commer- cial center. A flourishing state such as this, where want is unknown, where the day wage is high, where money is easily earned, is not a revolutionary center, especially when it sees that in practice all the revolution accomplishes is to ruin everything it touches. If Vera Cruz has in great measure escaped the pillage and destruction that has elsewhere pre- vailed, it is due to the fact that the Carranzista leader, Senor Candido Aguilar, is not a barbarian but a man of civilized instincts. He was born in Cordoba and loves his native place as well as all the state, and has been assiduous in pro- tecting it from the ravages of the revolution. Woe betide Vera Cruz if Aguilar is taken from her !
The states of Yucatan, Chiapas, Jalisco, Guanajuato, part of the states of San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas, all of Quere- taro, almost all of Michoacan, all of Guerrero, the greater part of Hidalgo and the sierra of Puebla, did not join the
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Madero revolution because of expectation of grants of land. Neither before nor afterwards was any such inducement offered.
The indifference of the majority of the rural classes to the agrarian question may be explained in the following man- ner. The villages where the land is held in common under municipal government, still quite numerous, have always fought against breaking up this system and subdividing the land into individual holdings. Those who do not live under this regime have from practical experience learned a fact that Mr. Wilson, and all Americans who for any reason whatsoever are interested in the Mexican question, ought to know. It is this. If the rainfall in Mexico were regular, and the crops therefore assured, it would be more profitable for the Indian and mestizo farmers to own their own land than to work that of another on a co-partnership basis. But, taking into consideration the direful consequences of the irregular rainfall, as I have explained them in Part First, it is better to work on the co-partnership basis than to be an individual landowner. The reason is not difficult to find. If the co-part- ner's crops fail or are very poor, the planter — the cruel land- owner of whom we have heard so much — looks out for him and his family that they may not starve to death. Whatever is advanced to him is charged to his account — an account he will never pay, and one which will never be exacted of him. Let us take a co-partner in the state of Guanajuato as an example. He receives, let us say, five hectares of arable land from the planter, the seed, the plough, the yoke of oxen and whatever else he may need. If the crop is har- vested, half goes to the planter and half to the co-partner; the feed of the oxen during the time he has had them, the value of the seed, at cost price and one-half of the cost of harvesting, transportation and husking, being discounted from the co-partner's share. As the farmers know that in the cold and temperate zones it is far more profitable to be
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a co-partner than a proprietor, they naturally do not mani- fest great enthusiasm for the much-discussed distribution of lands. In the state of Morelos it is different, because, as I have already explained, it is in the hot zone and it is more profitable to be a proprietor there than a co-partner. I have also explained that in Morelos the lands set apart for the cultivation of rice and sugar-cane were about one-fifth of the total arable land, and that the rest was leased by the planters to the ranchmen, usually belonging to the lower class, who employed the Indians to work for them. The struggle in Morelos in reality consists in obliging the planters to sell or lease the lands to the Indian day-laborers, and not to the ranchmen.
Outside the states of Morelos, Mexico, the southern part of Puebla, Tlaxcala and a very restricted portion of Hidalgo, San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas, the popular rural classes have not the least desire for the distribution of the land. If, to- gether with this, we take into consideration that no one in Mexico, from 1867 to the present day, has ever opposed the distribution of the land — if done under the terms of the Constitution and the lawful rights of the owners protected — it would appear that the revolution has been superfluous, to say the least. The planters decline to be robbed, and in this they are supported by all Mexicans who are not bandits. The situation would be identical in the United States if there were question of subdividing lands that had been taken from their rightful owners at the point of the bayonet. All this clearly demonstrates that a revolution was not necessary to solve the question of the distribution of the Mexican lands. It did not call for a drop of blood; for the sacrifice of even the most insignificant life; nor for even the slightest incon- venience to any one. Much less did it require that the Pres- ident of the United States should compromise his fair name, that of his Government and the peace and tranquillity of the American people.
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THE EIGHTH LIE: HUERTA^S OPPOSITION TO PROGRESS AND
REFORM
General Huerta's enemies sought and succeeded in pre- senting him to the world as the avowed enemy of the re- demption of the Mexican people by the distribution of land. This is the most cynical lie of which the political revolu- tionists— the purveyors of lies worthy of the illiterate lower classes — have been guilty. In March, 1913, one month after General Huerta had assumed the power, Senor Toribio Esquivel Obregon, his Secretary of the Treasury, introduced a bill in the House of Representatives, asking in the Pres- ident's name for an appropriation of several million pesos to be used to buy lands for the purpose of distributing them among the poor farmers. The record of the bill may be found in the Diario Oficial de los Estados Unidos Mexi- canos, in the Diario de los Debates de la Cdmara de Diputa- dos, in the files of the House of Representatives, in the ar- chives of the Treasury Department, in the files of the state Legislatures, and in all the leading newspapers of the day published in the City of Mexico. It is impossible to deny that in 1913 General Huerta initiated what Senor Carranza is at present thinking of doing — buying lands from the planters to be divided among the poor farmers or villagers, with the idea of dowering them with municipal rights. Mr. Wilson and the American people ought to be convinced, in view of the fact I have just stated, how deceived they have been by the barefaced assertion of the revolutionary politicians that two parties are struggling in Mexico; one desiring to redeem the people by giving them land; the other wishing to starve them to death by keeping them subject to the landowners. Later, when speaking of these revolutionists as reformers, I shall return to the subject once more.
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THE INJUSTICE OF PRESIDENT WILSON TOWARD THE FEDERAL ARMY
The defection of the Federal army which overthrew Ma- dero has caused President Wilson great and deep-seated con- sternation. From the moral point of view nothing could be more reprehensible than this defection of the Federal forces; from the sociological point of view nothing was more logical. In politics everything is allowable that comes under the juris- diction of human law, which is as inflexible as the law gov- erning the planetary system. It is not necessary to be as learned a man as Mr. Wilson to understand that an army made up almost entirely of socialists cannot be forced to be loyal to aristocrats and plutocrats who, according to social- ist doctrines, have robbed the people. It would be just as impossible to expect the nobles who fought in the battle of Agincourt to be loyal to the Barcelona anarchists, the Rus- sian nihilists or the French liberators. The army is an arm belonging to the social class of which its personnel is com- posed. If the army is composed exclusively of Catholics, it is absolute folly to believe that this army could ever cham- pion Protestantism or Mohammedanism. It is necessary, in order to have a strictly national army, that it be composed of representatives of all social classes, and in such proportion that class interest shall never come in conflict with national, government or other class interests.
Mr. Wilson does not know what the Mexican army is, or what it has been, since the War of Independence down to 1910. The Indian race, with insignificant exceptions, forms the largest contingent of the national forces. Since the War of Independence it has been evident that the Indians, who had risen under the leadership of Cura Hidalgo, being con- vinced that the only thought of the Creoles was to exploit them instead of the Spaniards, showed great indifference to-
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ward a cause that did not interest them, and fought as brave- ly in the ranks of the loyalists as in that of the insurgents. It was quite a usual thing for the victorious leader to trans- fer to his ranks the prisoners he had just captured from his vanquished foe, and it has been known that Indians who in the morning had fought against the Spaniards, were to be found in the afternoon fighting in the Spanish ranks against their own brothers. The same phenomenon was observed during the Reform War between Catholics and non-Cath- olics. In this the Indians, notwithstanding the fact that they were Catholics, won the anti-Catholic cause, fighting in its ranks. In the War of Intervention against the French, the Indians fought indifferently either in the Mexican or in the French ranks — a fact that is explained by the absolute passivity of the Indian, which renders him such a fit subject for military discipline. The Indian can never be the soldier of the present day, an autonomous soldier; he, how- ever, is the most perfect example of the automatic soldier. This explanation should serve to convince the people that previous to 1910 the soul that vivified the Mexican army was its officered body, and as all its members belonged to the middle class, the army had to be loyal to the middle class only, its natural owner.
In 1910 seventy per cent of the middle class was bureau- cratic ; consequently, the master of the army was the bureau- cracy that General Diaz had founded and that was, there- fore, Porfirista.
Senor Francisco Madero triumphed, and notwithstanding the fact that he was not acceptable to the army because he was a civilian, and because he had villified it so outrageously, the army apparently decided to support him loyally. But this loyalty was feigned. The army's real loyalty was for its master, the bureaucratic class, and as Madero, following counsels of his uncle, Ernesto Madero, and his cousin, Rafael Hernandez, declared that he would respect the rights of the
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 235
bureaucrats, leaving them in their various public posts, the bureaucrats ordered the army to support Madero.
Zapata raised the standard of revolt in the south. He was the idol of the Indians of Morelos and the leader of masses who hated the whites and the mestizos, and who clamored for the destruction of the Porfirian bureaucratic system that Madero had protected. Naturally, the middle class, forced to defend its prerogatives, appealed to its own, and once more we find the Mexican army loyally defending Madero against Zapata's hordes.
Orozco raised the standard of revolt in the north. He was the representative of the popular and sub-popular classes, bent upon overthrowing not only Madero but the entire Porfirian bureaucratic system — that is, snatching the su- preme power which it had wielded since 1867, from the hands of the middle class. Once more, as was quite natural, the army supported Madero.
But Senor Luis Cabrera, the leader of the Maderista ma- jority in the House of Representatives, had sounded his well- known warning: "La Revolucion es la Revolucion," which, interpreted by him, meant that all the host of public em- ployees in Federal and state departments, dating from the dictatorship, should be turned out. The bureaucracy pricked up its ears. It saw that Senor Pino Suarez, the Vice-Presi- dent and the sub-chief of the Porra, the group of agitators that had been organized by Gustavo Madero, of which I have already spoken, held the same views as Senor Cabrera, and that, notwithstanding the protection of President Ma- dero, the employees of the Department of Public Instruction, which was under the direction of Senor Pino Suarez, were being dismissed. The bureaucracy knew that until Septem- ber, 1912, when the majority was carried by the Maderistas, its protectors had been Ernesto Madero, Rafael Hernandez and the House of Representatives. This majority declared itself a "reform majority," by which they meant a reform of
236 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
the public service, which, according to them, ought to pass to the sub-popular leaders and the state bureaucrats. The majority, headed by Senores Pino Suarez and Cabrera and the Secretaries of the Treasury and the Interior, both par- tisans of the conservative policy, declared war to the knife. Suddenly the official press took up the cudgels for Gustavo Madero, who was made to appear the enemy instead of the originator of the Porra. The bureaucracy saw that they had arrayed against them the invincible force of the radical mob element. It was then that the powerful bureaucratic class, representing seventy per cent of the middle class, turned to the army, its natural protector, and carefully prepared it for the attack upon Madero and the Porra. A man of Mr. Wil- son's learning should not attempt in politics to measure with the strict rule of Christian morality. Never in the history of the world has it been known that a social political body, finding itself threatened with extinction, has not, in order to save itself, appealed to every means within its reach, ethical or unethical. Mr. Wilson will find ample proof of this in Germany's submarine policy, surely far more unethical than the defection of an army to save one class of society, threat- ened with extermination by another class, incapable of mercy. Before finishing with this subject I shall recall to Mr. Wil- son's mind, and to that of all Americans, that the famous American War of Secession opened with the treason of the South, and the defection of that portion of the Federal army which sympathized with them. For the North this defection was a detestable act of treason; for the South it was a sub- lime act of patriotism, an act of loyalty to the Southern cause. This act has been glorified in the South; statues have been erected to the men who in 1861 were branded as traitors; streets, public squares and popular buildings have been named for them to immortalize their memory.
The defection of the Mexican Federal army in February, 1913, was not a mere act of disloyalty, but the fulfillment
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 237
of an inexorable duty. Military discipline stood face to face with a century-old discipline which stood for the supremacy of the educated over the illiterate. The Mexican middle class, notwithstanding its deficiencies, its weaknesses and its vices, has rights because of its merits to represent Mexican civilization. The defection of a great part of the American Federal army to the Southern cause was an act of loyalty to the class to which it belonged, although this class upheld the principle of slavery.
Senores Pino Suarez and Cabrera, on account of their Marat tendencies, were Madero's worst enemies and more than any one else responsible for the fall of their chief. Pino Suarez paid with his life for his political errors. Cabrera has been more fortunate; he is making his country pay for them.
THE REAL HUERTA
Similar social conditions must necessarily produce similar forms of government. I am going to draw an analogy be- tween the social conditions that produced Napoleon and those that produce our Spanish-American dictators of the Huerta type, basing it upon Taine's study of Napoleon I : "Morals and manners there (Corsica) adapted themselves to each other through an unfailing connection. The moral law, indeed, is such because similar customs prevailed in all coun- tries and at all times where the police is powerless, where justice cannot be obtained, where public interests are in the hands of whoever can lay hold of them, where private war- fare is pitiless and not repressed, where every man goes armed, where every sort of weapon is fair, and where dis- simulation, fraud, and trickery, as well as gun or poniard, are allowed, which was the case in Corsica in the eighteenth century, as in Italy in the fifteenth century — 'In this coun- try,' report the French Commissioners, 'the people have no
238 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
idea of principle in the abstract,' nor of social interest or justice. 'Justice does not exist; one hundred and thirty as- sassinations have occurred in two years. The institution of juries has deprived the country of all means of punishing crime; never do the strongest proofs, the clearest evidences, lead a jury composed of men of the same party, or of the same family as the accused, to convict him; and if the ac- cused is of the opposite party, the juries likewise acquit him, so as not to incur the risk of revenge, 'slow perhaps but al- ways sure.' 'Public spirit is unknown.' There is no social body, except 'any number of small parties inimical to each other. . . . All the leaders have the same end in view, that of getting money no matter by what means, and their first care is to surround themselves with creatures entirely de- voted to them and to whom they give all the offices. The elections are held under arms, and all with violence. The victorious party uses its authority to avenge itself of that which is beaten, and multiplies vexations and outrages. The leaders form aristocratic leagues with each other and mu- tually tolerate abuses. They impose no assessment or col- lection (of taxes) to curry favor with the electors through party spirit and relationships. Customs-duties serve simply to compensate friends and relatives. . . .' "
"Accordingly, at the outbreak of the Revolution, on revisit- ing Corsica, he (Napoleon) takes life at once as he finds it there, a combat with any sort of weapon, and, on this small arena, he acts unscrupulously, going farther than anybody. If he respects justice and law, it is only in words, and even here ironically; in his eyes, law is a term of the code, justice a book term, while might makes right.
"A second blow of the coining-press gives another im- pression of the same stamp on this character, already so de- cided, while French anarchy forces maxims into the mind of the young man, already traced in the child's mind by Cor- sican anarchy; the lessons of things provided by a society go-
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 239
ing to pieces are the same as those of a society which is not yet formed. His sharp eyes at a very early period see through the flourish of theory and the parade of phrases; they detect the real foundation of the Revolution, namely, the sovereignty of unbridled passion and the conquest of the majority by the minority; conquering and conquered, a choice must be made between these two extreme conditions; there is no middle course. After the Qth of Thermidor, the last veils are torn away, and the instinct of license and dom- ination, the ambitions of individuals, fully display them- selves; there is no concern for public interests or for the rights of the people; it is clear that the rulers form a band, that France is their prey, and that they intend to hold on to it for and against everybody, by every possible means, in- cluding bayonets. Under this civil regime, a clean sweep of the broom at the center makes it necessary to be on the side of numbers. . . ."
". . . All this is understood between the general and his army from the first, and after one year's experience, the understanding is perfect. One moral is derived from their common acts, vague in the army, precise in the general ; what the army only half sees, he sees clearly; if he urges his com- rades on, it is because they follow their own inclination. He simply has the start of them, and quicker makes up his mind that the world is a great banquet, free to the first-comer, but at which, to be well served, one must have long arms, be the first to get helped, and let the rest take what is left."1
Huerta was not specifically perverse, he was simply un- moral. The specifically perverse person is like the dipso- maniac; the latter cannot live without alcohol; the former has not conception of life but that of doing harm to his fel- low beings.
An unmoral man does not take into account whether his
iTaine, The Modern Regime (Holt, New York, 1890), Vol. I, p. 49, sqq.
240 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
actions are good or bad; his conduct is directed by the pas- sion that dominates him. If this exacts fifty years of sub- lime acts of virtue, he performs them and dies leaving a rep- utation for great sanctity. If it exacts fifty years of crimes, he commits them without emotion or preoccupation. The majority of dictators are unmoral, and as, according to ^Eschylus, the gods preside over justice even though they love it, a dictator who is not perverse is willing to give his coun- try every benefit and advantage so long as it does not clash with his ambition. This explains why ftuerta was willing to grant all manner of benefits to the Mexican people. He knew that public opinion is a great power in upholding a government, and he also knew that the wealthy classes were practically useless, so far as their support was concerned, when they were not inclined to give their money or their blood.
CHAPTER II
PRESIDENT WILSON AND FIRST CHIEF CARRANZA
CONSTITUTIONALISM IN ITS REALITY
WHEN Constitutionalism first made its appearance was it in reality Constitutionalism? The State of Sonora was the first to refuse allegiance to the Government which sprang from the coup of February 18, 1913. The real reason for this attitude is fully explained and well attested by Mr. Edward I. Bell, an American writer, who says :
"General Huerta, on February i8th, telegraphed to the Governor of Sonora that he held Madero prisoner. Two days later he telegraphed again, announcing his elevation to the provisional presidency and demanding instant ac- ceptance of the new order. To refuse meant war with the consequent loss to many important American interests in that State, and with this in mind Louis Hostetter, United States Consul at Hermosillo, the Capital of Sonora, used his strong personal influence to induce the State Govern- ment to yield to Huerta's demand. He succeeded in this, when the assassination of Madero and Pino Suarez aroused resentment and overthrew the agreement.
"At this stage Mr. Hostetter received a telegram from Ambassador Wilson, directing him to do everything in his power to induce Sonora to accept Huerta as President, and telling the Consul that the majority of the Mexican States had already done so. Hostetter at once applied himself with increased vigor, and made such progress with the au-
241
242 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
thorities that they requested a list from the Ambassador of the States which he positively knew had accepted Huerta, promising that if this list showed an actual majority, Sonora would not hold out against the new ruling. The Consul telegraphed this request with its assurances in the full be- lief that he had accomplished that which the Ambassador had requested him to do; that the list would be immediately forthcoming and that all would be well.
"Receiving no reply, Consul Hostetter telegraphed again, urging the necessity for detailed information. Still there was no answer, whereupon the officials of Sonora declared themselves unwilling to wait for a trap to be sprung which would find them unprepared. The State Congress or Legis- lature than framed a resolution refusing allegiance to Huerta and also voted a leave of absence to Governor Maytorena, who was believed to be too complacent toward the attempt of Huerta to reduce the State to a dependency of an abso- lute military dictatorship. Governor Maytorena departed for California, and Rafael Pesqueira was made acting Gov- ernor in his stead.
"But Consul Hostetter did not give up his efforts to pre- serve the peace of the State. For several days he labored with the officials, and finally the Legislature passed a reso- lution which the Consul telegraphed to the Ambassador. It provided that if Huerta would guarantee to Sonora State rights, withdraw the few Federal troops then stationed there, and permit the State to elect its own officials, a commission would be sent to Mexico City to arrange details. The Leg- islature was strongly influenced toward caution in these ne- gotiations by the fate which had overtaken Governor Gon- zalez of Chihuahua, whose acceptance of Huerta had not been forwarded so promptly as was desired." 1
Mr. Bell's account proves that Sonera's failure to recog- nize Huerta was not due to his usurpation of the national
1 Edward I. Bell, The Political Shame of Mexico, pp. 332, 333.
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 243
supremacy, for which the ruling powers did not give a rap, as they had consented to recognize the usurper if he promised to respect the sovereignty of Sonora. What interested them was to preserve their power in the State of Sonora, and to proclaim local constitutionalism and the inviolability of State democracy.
On February 18, 1913, Senor Venustiano Carranza, then governor of Coahuila, received the following telegram from Huerta: "Authorized by the Senate, I have assumed the Executive Power, the President and his Cabinet being held prisoners."
Senor Carranza protested against Huerta's illegal action, and with the consent of the Legislature issued a manifesto declaring that he would offer armed resistance, urging all the governors to follow his example.
It is probable that Carranza was influenced to agree to the conference with General Blazquez, who came to Sal- tillo from Monterey to see him, by the fact that all the gov- ernors, with the exception of the provisional governor of Sonora, had submitted unconditionally to Huerta. General Huerta commissioned Senor Rafael Ramos Arizpe, an inti- mate friend of Senor Carranza, to use his influence to ob- tain his friend's submission. Senor Ramos Arizpe accepted the commission, and made known through the columns of El Impartial that Senor Carranza had expressed his willing- ness to discuss the question of his submission to General Huerta with Senor Ramos Arizpe and Senor Eliseo Ar- redondo, who would come at once to the capital from Sal- tillo for this purpose. In due time he arrived and the negotiations were under wray when the news was received of the proclamation of the Plan de Guadalupe by the governor of Coahuila and the State troops. This unexpected turn on Carranza's part was attributed to the fact that he had heard of the assassination of Abraham Gonzalez, governor of Chi- huahua, notwithstanding the fact that he had submitted to
244 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
Huerta. The policy of assassination that was then being followed was a serious drawback to the pacification of the country.
It seems indispensable for the development of my plan that I portray Don Venustiano Carranza as he appears to me.
Physical characteristics: He produces a favorable impres- sion, resembling in appearance a Spanish diplomat at the Al- gesiras Conference; weight, probably 80 kilos; military weight, o; political weight, unknown; moral weight, aver- age, although threatened with ruin by symptoms of a well- developed ambition ; voice, mellow and unruffled ; character, quiet, serene, tenacious, coldly calculating, rancorous, al- though balanced to a certain extent by prudence; cautious, although liable to eruptions; sensibility to adulation, 99°. 35 centigrade; deficient in knowledge of the social forces actu- ally at war, and above all in knowledge of human nature.
Career: An ardent admirer of General Bernardo Reyes, for twenty-three years the tyrant of Nuevo Leon and Coa- huila, and a man obsessed by militarism. General Reyes obtained the official election of Senor Carranza as senator from his State to the Federal Senate, where he remained a great many years without manifesting any policy other than that of inflexible, unconditional adherence to the dictator. During his long senatorial career Senor Carranza simply vegetated; in other words, he was a nonentity, whose politi- cal progress was as noiseless as that of a rubber-tired ve- hicle. In 1908 he was accepted as assistant governor of Coahuila at the recommendation of General Reyes, who vouched with his head for Senor Carranza's absolute loyalty. The rupture between the dictator and General Reyes in 1909 destroyed the combination and Senor Cardenas replaced Senor Carranza as governor of Coahuila. When the Ma- dero revolution broke out, Senor Carranza appeared at the opportune moment to reap his generous share in the spoils of war. In this revolution Senor Carranza was not a com-
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 245
batant, a diplomat or an adviser, but simply one of those fortunate individuals who are carried forward on the crest of the wave at the moment when a revolution is dispensing favors with a lavish hand. When Madero triumphed, Senor Carranza replaced the Porfirian governor, Senor Valle. He carefully laid the foundation for his campaign without being troubled by rival candidates, withdrawing during the elections in feigned deference to the principle of non-reelec- tion. Huerta's coup found him installed as the governor of Coahuila without having received the praise or the censure of the independent press.
Hamilton Fyfe in his interesting book has written with independence and a critical spirit what he observed in Mex- ico during the Carranza revolution. He says: "All the foreign colony here and many Mexicans are convinced that Carranza was preparing to rebel against Madero. He had supported the Maderista movement, but is said to have been dissatisfied and restless after its success." 1
"They allege that for months Carranza had been draw- ing large sums of money from the National Treasury for the purpose of paying troops. It might be that he foresaw the anti-Madero outbreak and was preparing to support his chief. That view obtains no credence in Saltillo. The be- lief there is, among the people who knew and watched him, that he would have declared war against Madero, just as General Orozco, another Maderista leader, had done." 2
An American newpaper announced that Senor Carranza, together with the leader, Cuajardo, had already planned the revolt against Madero, but was forestalled by Huerta.
This is not certain. Time alone will determine the ver- dict that history is to hand down to posterity. In any case, in March, 1913, Don Venustiano Carranza, as a revolu- tionary leader, was an undetermined quantity.
1 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, p. 77.
2 Idem, pp. 77, 78.
246 WHOLE *TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
Senor Jose N. Macias, one of the apologists for the con- ditions that Carranza's policies have brought about, has said, referring to the Plan de Guadalupe with which Carranza inaugurated his revolutionary career: "As is quite evident, these articles contain nothing of a political nature; this has occasioned very bitter censure. . . ." *
Theoretically, and in a country where dictatorships are unknown, the Plan de Guadalupe would be a strictly po- litical document. Nevertheless, Macias is right. In Mex- ico the proclamation of the reestablishment of the Constitu- tion has no political bearing. No one will be stirred thereby ; no one will be moved in his frenzy to pull his hair out by the roots, nay, not even to sacrifice a single hair. The Mex- ican people have lost faith in promises to make them happy and prosperous by the enforcement of the Constitution. It is like promising them forty days and forty nights of contin- ual showers of diamonds and gold. Documents of this kind are looked upon as ridiculous, their executors losing in the eyes of the people their claim to recognition as reputable leaders.
Before the Madero revolution there were many believers in democracy to be found in the popular classes, but since the Madero fiasco no propositions to establish democracy have had a market value in the country. They have all been exported to Washington in the hope of finding a market for them there. The Plan de Guadalupe amounted to less than nothing. The Mexican people looked upon it with absolute disdain.
A RACE UTTERLY UNSUITED TO DEMOCRACY
The Plan de Guadalupe should have been shelved, care- fully labelled "The Fiasco." Mr. Wilson, however, im- prudently took it upon himself to keep it alive. Senor Pedro
1 M. Fernandez Cabrera, Mi viaje a Mexico, p. 235.
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 247
Lamicq, a Maderista partisan, has said : "Even at the risk of ruffling the feelings of the extreme patriots, this sad truth must be confessed : The United States will demolish or over- throw, should it be proposed to it, any government that may be established in Mexico." l
From this morbid belief, which has existed among the ma- jority in Mexico for many years, an untenable revolutionary policy has evolved. Since 1910 the revolutionists have pro- claimed that, inasmuch as the United States Government was hostile to General Diaz, the dictator, actuated by pa- triotic motives, and to prevent being deposed by the White House, should have resigned in favor of Madero. Accord- ing to this preposterous doctrine every Mexican president is obliged to put the Mexican Government, its society and its civilization into the hands of the first revolutionist, maniac or bandit, who may present himself, if it pleases the Presi- dent of the United States to say: "This Government does not suit me." He does not even have to raise his voice. It will suffice for him to permit — contrary to all the laws of neutrality — two or three scheming politicians or highway- men to hold revolutionary conclaves in San Antonio or El Paso, demonstrating to the Mexican people that the Presi- dent of the United States is with them because he does not fulfill his positive obligation of denying them right to plot revolutions in neutral territory. The present revolution in particular has served to prescribe, according to revolutionary concepts, the most glorious way of betraying the fatherland. President Wilson was aware of this preposterous doctrine, which handed Mexican sovereignty over to him to do with it as he saw fit; and the idealist Wilson took advantage of the opportunity to essay laboratory experiments of his senti- mental theories upon 15,000,000 human beings. Accord- ing to the experimenter, they ought to embrace a superior form of government like that of the United States, be-
1 Pedro Lamicq, Madero Intimo, p. 43.
248 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
cause, forsooth, he is convinced, as he says in the columns of The Saturday Evening Post, that all the people are fit for a democratic form of government if only they are properly guided, even if this guide be the chief of a foreign nation.
President Wilson has caused me some sleepless nights. I have been unable to fathom how a man of his erudition, whose field is sociology and not fiction, has failed to be im- pressed by the fact that not one of the sixteen Latin-Ameri- can nations has been able in the course of one hundred years to establish a democratic form of government, notwithstand- ing that they have had as guides men eminent for their talent, their virtue, their learning, their civism, their activ- ity, and a zeal for their country's welfare which has carried them to the sublimest heights of patriotism and self-abnega- tion. These men devoted themselves to trying to transform their countrymen into democrats, without obtaining anything beyond what the laws of social usage dictate in accordance with the inexorable laws of evolution. President Wilson should know that in Mexico the height of skepticism has been reached with regard to liberty and democracy. This truth has been learned after traversing a long and tortuous road, strewn with blood, crimes, infamies, heroic deeds, hallucina- tions, inconceivable depths of depravity, crushed ideals and suicidal tendencies, born of desperation. Those of us who know what Mexico really is have not learned it by sojourn- ing in Minnesota or New Jersey, or in the Boston library. We have learned it from grim realities, pushing us along, shaking us by the collar as though we were miserable pig- mies, mercilessly treading us under foot, until the tremen- dous lesson of sociological truth has been forced upon us.
Has Mr. Wilson never heard what Bolivar said? "In America there is no faith. Treaties are paper; Constitu- tions, books; elections, combats; liberty, anarchy, and life a torment."
It may be said that Bolivar spoke these words a century
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 249
ago, that undoubtedly we have progressed greatly since then. Senor Fulgencio Palavicini, at present Secretary of Public Instruction in Senor Carranza's Cabinet, in a letter of con- gratulation written to Senor Fernandez Cabrera, the poet whose lays have glorified the Carrancista cause, says: "Let your bugle vibrate with the music of Tyrtaean screeds; let your pen unceasingly reassert that the period of gestation has been dark, difficult and painful, but that rla patria is formed, that Mexico is about to be born." x
This letter was written about the middle of 1915. Ac- cording to Don Venustiano's secretary Mexico, engendered by the revolution, was about to be born then. If Mexico was about to be born in 1915, it means that in 1913 it was in the foetal state and that the Plan de Guadalupe was pro- claimed to recover the political rights of an unborn entity! And for this arrant folly the Mexican nation has been deso- lated, President Wilson giving his support to the destruction.
Senor Palavicini, whose statements have annihilated the revolutionary thesis, says to Senor Fernandez Cabrera : "Our problem, the great Mexican national problem, is to civilize two-thirds of the native population, which is not a part of the real common life of the nation, which is separated from the national conscience, and which is exclusively represented by the active, intelligent direction of one-third of the popu- lation." 2
While President Wilson in his much-applauded Indianap- olis address was informing the American people and the Latin-American nations that the Mexican people had been redeemed, that they were masters of their own destinies, and that he expected that the liberty they had won would be well used for the benefit of the eighty-five per cent formerly op- pressed, but since the fall of Huerta, free and sovereign ; the irrepressible Palavicini was placing the President of the
1 M. Fernandez Cabrera, Mi viaje a Mexico, p. 280.
2 Idem, p. 282.
250 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
United States in rather an embarrassing situation by declar- ing that two-thirds of the Mexican people were not a part of the common life of the nation, that they were separated from the national conscience, and that two-thirds were ex- clusively represented by the one-third cultured portion of the nation. A startling contrast ! It does not enhance President Wilson's reputation for scholarship. But the reformer Pala- vicini does not escape Senor Fernandez Cabrera. He takes him by the ear and holds him up to the gaze of the Mexican people, when Senor Palavicini, referring to the native popula- tion, calls them "an unredeemable herd of pariahs." 1
This semi-official assertion puts the finishing touch upon Mr. Wilson as the idealistic improviser of democracies. This assertion of Carranza's Secretary of Public Instruction com- pletely discredits the Indianapolis discourse in so far as the supposed redemption of the unfortunate eighty-five per cent is concerned. Mr. Hamilton Fyfe sides with the secretary, after having reached his conclusions concerning the Mexican social and political situation from personal observation. Mr. Fyfe says: "It is true that the Constitutionalist leaders say that they are defending the Republican idea, the democratic, as opposed to the despotic form of government. But they have no real faith in democracy. The United States officer in command of the frontier detachment at Laredo was vis- ited by a deputation of insurrectos from across the border. He listened to them politely, then he said: 'But if, as you say, you have an overwhelming majority of the people with you, why do not you take part in the Presidential election, return your candidate, and have him recognized by the United States?' They looked at one another doubtfully. 'Ah, Senor,' they answered, 'we never thought of that.' " 2
That American officer understood the Mexican problem much better than the White House, with all its corps of
1 M. Fernandez Cabrera, Mi viaje a Mexico, p. 171.
2 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, p. 64.
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 251
specialists devoted to the solution of great political problems. Mr. Fyfe adds: "The truth is that they realize, even the most radical among them, that Mexico cannot govern her- self as the United Kingdom and the United States do for a very long time to come." * And the English writer con- cludes by saying: "Yet this young Captain, when we dis- cussed possible candidates whom the Constitutionalists might put forward for the Presidency, clenched his fist and bring- ing it down upon his knee said, 'We must have an energetic man. That is what Mexico needs!' An energetic man! And that eloquent gesture with the clenched fist! Democ- racy was all right in theory, but he knew as well as anybody else that in practice it would not work." :
The distinguished Cuban, Senor Marquez Sterling, sent Senor M. Fernandez Cabrera to Mexico to study conditions there, and as a result of this study Senor Fernandez Cabrera has described Don Venustiano Carranza as the representa- tive of the "redemptory rebellion," of "brilliant patriotism," and of the "crystalline purity of the national ideals." The same writer has characterized Senor Carranza as the "man of the hour."
There can be no doubt that the conclusions drawn by this writer upon the Mexican revolution are very favorable to Senor Carranza, but they do not redound to the author's reputation. In point of fact, Senor Fernandez Cabrera found, when he made a practical study of the Indian who was driving him from Ometusco to Apam, that this repre- sentative of the indigenous race had "a pointed, dolicho- cephalic head, low receding forehead, obtuse facial angle of 38 degrees, obtained only by stretching the compass, opaque, yellow skin, weak shrunken shoulders, small ears, restlessly active like those of a hare, and an absence of gestures. Ergo, of an inferior race." 3
1 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, p. 64.
2 Idem, pp. 64, 65.
8 M. Fernandez Cabrera, Mi viaje a Mexico, p. 51.
252 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
After the physical examination, the observer passes on to the moral, and concludes with these words:
"Woeful condition denoting a miserable state of igno- rance, amorphous and deprived of all power of action — an absolute state of human irrationability." x
It is possible that Don Venustiano Carranza represents the ideals of this inferior race — very inferior, since it bor- ders on irrationality — as the successor of the venerable Fray Bartolome de las Casas. One thing is certain, unless Senor Carranza is able to transform himself into the Emperor Cuauhtemoc, it will be impossible for him to represent the political ideals of the Indians. In either case the Consti- tutionalism represented by Senor Carranza proves to be an idle fiction. We do not find in history, or in any of the logical deductions that may be drawn from it, that an in- ferior race can live under the regime of a superior govern- ment.
Another writer who visited Mexico in 1913 tells us, speaking of the Mexican popular urban class: "The 'pelao' 2 is lazy, a drunkard and unmoral. In the haunts where he sleeps, in the pulque taverns where he lives, in the streets he traverses, the pulsing sway of the mob is felt as nowhere else, the sway of that ignorant herd that kills or dies with equal equanimity, that is as easily led into bondage as to heroic deeds. The air is ladened with misery and pain, intensified because no complaint or protest is to be heard. All evince the resignation of dumb beasts, relieved by the maudlin gaiety that accompanies the reunions around the card table, the highest spiritual manifestation in the life of the Mexican popular classes.
"The Indian, as a type, seems less contemptible — perhaps because there is less pretence to civilization — than the
1 M. Fernandez Cabrera, Mi viaje a Mexico, pp. 170, 171.
2 Pelado — called "pelao" by the lower classes, is a low-bred member of the common people.
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 253
'pelao,' who is a genuine cross between the Indian and the European." I
The same writer tersely sums up the position of the In- dian when he says: "In a country where crime is sanctioned as a political means, where individual personal rights have been and are unknown, in a country where half a million men possess the right of life and death over thirteen million, I do not say men because the unfortunate Mexican Indians are not in reality men. . . ." 2
The Argentenian journalist has found in the midst of all these human elements upon which the revolutionists are striving to build the highest form of government — a democ- racy, the moral note that characterized the Mexican mind in June, 1913: "Everybody wants to take vengeance on everybody else." He might have added, referring to the politicians, everybody wants to rob everybody else.
Hamilton Fyfe, who personally studied the Mexican In- dians in their political life, says: "Most of the present voters are Indians, incapable of voting intelligently. If they vote at all, they vote as their employers direct; or they say naively that they would like to vote for the candidate who will win; or they stupidly ask the polling officials (all active politicians) to tell them what to do." 3
Mr. Fyfe unerringly points out President Wilson's mis- taken views: "But the discrepancy between their profes- sions and their avowed policy shows how far the mentality of Mexico is distant from that of Europe and the United States, and how impossible it is to apply to it, as President Wilson persists in doing, the same tests and the same stand- ards which obtain in countries where the idea of self-govern- ment is a plan of mature growth." 4
1 Tito L. Foppa, La Tragedia Mexlcana, p. 52.
2 Idem, p. 134.
3 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, pp. 18, 142.
4 Idem, pp. 18, 142.
254 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
I think it opportune to repeat here the quotation from Victor Hugo which I gave in Part First, applying it to Latin- America : "If a man is not a democrat at twenty, he has no heart, and the one who is a democrat at forty, either lacks sense or shame, or both." The Plan de Guadalupe, proclaimed in March, 1913, could not be anything in the eyes of the people, whether they were serious or frivolous, virtuous or depraved, but braggadocio, or a simple courtesy or delicate attention, so to speak, shown to the public. In Spanish countries a polite formula is used by gentlemen when addressing ladies: "Beso a usted los pies, Senora" (Madam, I kiss your feet) ; but neither does he actually kiss her feet, or is there any one who believes that he intends to do so.
To proclaim the reestablishment of the Constitution in dictatorial Latin-American nations is equivalent to proclaim- ing the "Step down that I may step up" principle, saying with a polite bow to the public, "I kiss your feet," or what amounts to the same, "Long live the decorative Consti- tution!"
It was an Argentenian thinker, if I remember correctly, who said: "It is impossible to have liberty in Spanish- America, so long as we have liberators."
PRESIDENT WILSON'S FIRST THRUST
In view of the preposterous revolutionary doctrine spoken of in the preceding section, President Wilson's refusal to recognize General Huerta as President of Mexico was equivalent to declaring war unto death against the Mexican Government, and was an insolent act of aggression against the sovereignty of Mexico. As I have already said, and as all Latin-Americans (and one may say the whole world) know, when the United States Government shows hostility in any form toward a Latin-American government, because this may have refused to comply with its demands, this hos-
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 255
tility means the eventual overthrow of that government. This may be accomplished directly by intervention on the part of the United States Government, or indirectly by pro- tecting a counter-revolution against the government that has defied it.
President Wilson's first sentiments of hostility toward President Huerta were aroused by the impression wrought by foul deeds upon a noble nature. The murders perpe- trated by the representatives of Mexican militarism had awakened a note of sympathy in the hearts of honest people the world over, and the odium and contempt of the civilized world was heaped upon Huerta in lieu of the place on the scaffold to which it would have condemned him. Mr. Ham- ilton Fyfe points to Senora Madero, the President's wife, as the supreme influence that moulded President Wilson's views. He says: "It is said that President Wilson was strongly influenced in this direction by the appeal which Senora Madero made to him. At all events the quarrel now began, in effect, a trial of strength between the two men." x
If, as Mr. Fyfe and other writers have asserted, it is true that Senora Madero asked President Wilson for justice against her husband's murderers, or for non-recognition of Huerta, knowing that non-recognition was equivalent to a declaration of war against Mexico, it would have been bet- ter to have left justice in the hands of the Almighty than to buy it at the price of Mexico's destruction. The ruin of Madero's assassin had inevitably to be the ruin of the fatherland and the sacrifice of the innocent. If the non- recognition of Huerta was due to the pressure brought to bear by the Madero family, then history will have to attest that if Madero in life brought many misfortunes upon his country and spilt much blood in its name, his death has brought upon it many more misfortunes.
President Wilson's idealistic, political policy followed
1 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, p. 132.
256 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
upon his emotional resolution not to recognize President Huerta. His arguments were diametrically opposed to all the facts I have given to prove that Mexico is not fitted for a democratic form of government. Without a doubt Presi- dent Wilson thought that Madero had been freely elected president of Mexico. Consequently, it was amply proved that in Mexico it was possible to have governments estab- lished by popular vote, and he, therefore, commanded and decreed that Huerta should retire and allow the Mexican people absolute freedom in the election of a president, as had been the case when Madero was elected.
It is possible for a president to be freely elected in Mex- ico; but a real statesman would not attempt to establish any given form of government upon a possibility. It is possible to win a lottery prize of $100,000; but only a lunatic would arrange the life of every individual upon the possibility of his winning such a prize. The history of Mexico demon- strates that any citizen may be freely elected by the people if it pleases the president in power to permit it. But if this functionary, in order to retain the power or to transmit it to a favorite, denies the right of free election, then the only possible alternative is a revolution. The election of Madero was no exception to the rule. He was freely elected when the Madero family was the one actually wielding the power. De la Barra had assumed the presidency with the under- standing that the Madero family, which possessed all the elements of power, should be the actual governing factor. Every one in Mexico was aware of this. To establish a real democracy it is necessary for the people to be in a posi- tion to vote freely, whether or not the president wishes it.
It is not necessary to go deeply into this. Mr. Wilson proved by recognizing the President of Peru, who later than Huerta assumed the power at the point of the bayonet, that his idealistic views were subject to eclipses when it was not a question of Huerta.
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 257
Events, have proved that it was never President Wilson's intention- to -resort to armed intervention to overthrow
*-*
Huerta. His program was to protect the revolutionists in so rfar as it wa,s possible,; if only, they would overthrow Huer^a. Huerta's position in February, 1913, was; formid-! able. He had at his command 60,060 soldiers, and possessed the facilities to increase the force to 200,000 or more. He had at his disposal- all the Federal revenues which at that time were at a 'maximum. He had' the support of all the states except part of Sonora and an insignificant section of the s.tate of Cokhuila. He could count upon the nation's credit to the extent of raising 200,000,000, or 300,000,000 pesos by a single loan. :, If this failed there remained the op- portunity, as yet unabused, of issuing paper money in suf- ficient quantity to support his army of 200,000 men for at least two years. He had in his favor the indifference of the Indians, except the Zapatistas, and the adherfence of the aristocratic and middle classes, the clergy, the business men, almost all the intellectuals, and the urban and rural lower class. Since the Madero fiasco the latter wanted peace, well-paid work and prosperity. He had the support of the Diplomatic Corps (including the American Ambassador),, which had recommended him to their respective Govern-^ ments .as the only man capable of bringing peace to , the country. In this opinion all the foreign colonies concurred. Carranza, on the other hand, after his declaration of war against Huerta in February, 1913, counted only upon the support of a restricted section of the isolated state of Sonora, which had an armed force of only 2,000 state troops, with no artillery to back them, and three hundred Rurales of the Coahuila state forces. The latter had degenerated into rov- ing bands, somewhat demoralized, although they were not very hotly pursued. Carranza lacked money, arms, ammuni- tion, credit, the support of men of influence, political ability and the qualities of leadership. Without the backing of
258 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
President Wilson his end would have been that of a refugee in the United States, or a corpse dangling to the nearest tree or lamp-post.
Carranza could triumph only by means of a long, cruel, bloody civil war, anti-social and utterly destructive of prop- erty, more terrible in its character and extent than the United States War of Secession.
If President Wilson's horror of Huerta sprang from a noble motive, it cannot be said that his method of punishing a murderer by dragging 15,000,000 human beings into an exceptionally horrible war was equally noble. It amounts to murdering a nation to take revenge on one evil-doer.
It is curious that President Wilson should have felt so much repugnance and contempt for the Mexican conserva- tive classes, which approved Huerta's coup, although not his murders. WTio form these conservative classes? All those who do not want to fall under the despotic rule of even the city rabble, much less that of the rural populace, whose unbridled license reaches a point of inconceivable bestiality. Madero having failed, the power had to fall into the hands of the rural popular class, which had obtained it in 1910; and every one, even if he were not a planter, an aristocrat, a reactionary, a cleric, a military man or a Cien- tifico, but simply a civilized being, had the natural and pa- triotic right to range himself, even at the cost of displeasing the President of the United States, against the social catas- trophe that threatened Mexico. This catastrophe did not mean simply the collapse of a wretched murderer, a rotten bureaucracy, an ignoble past, a government, ancient laws, and legitimate social interests, but the collapse of Mexican civilization itself, dating from the days of the Toltecs down to those of Porfirio Diaz.
Such was the prospect held out to Mexican society in 1911 after the taking of Sombrerete by Moya, Torreon by Adame Macias, Cuautla by Zapata, the Fabrica de Cova-
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 259
donga by Zamudio, and the perpetration of other excesses throughout the Republic. The fact remains that all revolu- tions launched with undisciplined troops, in the name of the people, or under any other pretext, have been accom- panied by these savage excesses. What terrorized Mexican society, however, was the fact that this savagery had been converted into a doctrine of retributive justice, which pro- posed to make the extermination of the higher classes the starting point of the new era of happiness for the popular classes.
It is not necessary to enter here into a discussion as to whether or not the popular classes had reason to meditate a vengeance that would be epoch-making even in the annals of the most celebrated reigns of terror. But what I shall sustain, and I think justly, is that neither Mr. Wilson nor any other person can deny the right of defense against extermination to one or various social classes. The right of defense has not emanated from the temple of the gods, from imposing capitols, from councils illuminated from on high, from universities or law courts, or from the sovereign will of the people. The right of defense springs from the organic world, that is to say, from everything that has life. This right to existence is sacred to all beings, from the smallest insect that flies in the air to the wild beasts that inhabit the forests; from the tiniest plant cell to the mighty tree, which challenges time and commands the veneration of generations.
To deny the right of defense to any class of society is absurd. The Mexican conservative classes were quite right in sanctioning Huerta's triumph, notwithstanding the mur- ders that attended it, if they believed that Huerta was ca- pable of saving the country. The world has approved the cowardly assassination of Holofernes by Judith, because by this means she saved her country. History has set the seal of its approval upon the reign of the Emperor Augustus,
260 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO •
who put an end to the anarchy that was devastating Rome, notwithstanding the fact that in order to reach the supreme power he committed more crimes than Huerta. Christian- ity has glorified the Emperor Constantine, who was far more criminal than Huerta ever -thought of being. France re- spects the memory of Louis- XI as the founder of the great French1 nation, notwithstanding the-' 'fact that as an assassin he could have given lessons to Huerta. England reveres the memory of Cromwell as one of the foundation stones of her greatness, despite his cruelty. The world has accepted Napoleon's despotic rule, which put an end to Jacobin 'anarchy, as a force beneficial to humanity, although he deerged tile death of the Due d'Erighien. The Mexican people* at- one time recognized that they were greatly in- debted to 'General Diaz, an& that it was their duty to sup- port him,'' despite the fact that he had decreed 'the horrible assassinations of June 25, 1879, at Vera Cruz, by means of the famous telegram directed to General Mier y Teran: "Strike while the iron is hot." ,..,'"'
I do not think the assassination of Madero and Pino Sua- rez was a necessity, but even granting that it was a wanton act- of- cruelty, if society, threatened' with extermination by trie; populace, believed that the only man capable of saving it was^General ' Huerta, it had the right to rely upon the sword 'i of r?this terrible soldier, just as a shipwrecked man, lashecl about by the waves, would not hesitate to grasp the first arm that was stretched out to rescue him even if it were that of the most criminal man in the world. It is the work of anarchy to convert even miscreants into heroes, if they succeed in dominating it.
Once Mr. Wilson had decided to destroy Huerta, having first brought the tremendous moral power of the United States to bear upon the situation, he took his "moral ho- witzer," loaded it with the corresponding moral projectile— non-recognition of Huerta — and sat down to await with the
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 261
utmost unconcern the wave of fear that would sweep over the Mexican Government and the Mexican people, bringing about the downfall of Huerta, and removing the cause of displeasure to the honorable President of the United States.
THE PLAN OF IMPLACABLE REVENGE
The Plan of Guadalupe, which may aptly be styled "The Fiasco," because it utterly failed of its purpose, was pro- claimed by Senor Carranza on March 19, 1913. The state of Sonora did not follow Carranza at this time. On the 2Oth of the preceding month, it had on its own initiative, and assuming all risks, refused allegiance to Huerta. Senor Carranza carried a portion of the Coahuila state troops with him and some of his employees, and managed to raise about three hundred men. They were soon defeated, reduc- ing the Carrancista force to one hundred fugitives, who would have surrendered except for the omnipotent Mr. Wilson's menacing attitude.
The reply to Senor Carranza's appeal to the state govern- ors was the meek attitude of these practical politicians who, with two or three exceptions, were determined to submit to Huerta's despotism, however oppressive it might be. It took the Federal Congress only eleven minutes to transform itself from a loyal Maderista to a still more loyal Huertista body. In the House of Representatives, which was supposed to be the genuine representative of the people, infamy touched its lowest depths when not a single representative of the Ma- derista majority questioned the Executive regarding the crime committed at dawn of that same day, when their brother deputy, Senor Gustavo Madero, the President's brother and the leader of the majority, had been infamously assassinated by the triumphant representatives of militarism. The plan to establish militarism was agreed upon at the American Em- bassy, the conference being presided over and influenced by
262 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
Mr. Henry Lane Wilson. With the exception of five, the cowardly majority came forward to sanction Madero's fall and to endeavor with inimitable ignominy to whitewash Huerta, putting a semblance of legality upon his title of Con- stitutional President ad interim of the Mexican Republic. After the sensational murders of Madero, Pino Suarez and Abraham Gonzalez, which filled the civilized and even the semi-civilized world with horror, this majority — the cream of the new men the nation so much needed — put itself un- conditionally at Huerta's disposal. These men came and went in Huerta's ante-chambers, asked for orders and re- ceived commands, and were not above receiving gratuities, thereby adding to their depravity. It was owing to them that the tyrant was able to have laws passed conveying his sovereign will, and to get support for the interminable intrigues that were suggested to him, which have placed him in the foreranks of the worst Roman Caesars, Italian con- dottieres and Latin-American liberators. But no sooner did Villa take Torreon in September, 1913, and the revolution in the north began to take on the appearance of an inevitable triumph, than this sordid majority thought the time had come to betray Huerta, as it had betrayed Madero, in order to curry favor with the offended leaders — Villa and Carranza — and by a second treason wipe out the first.
This despicable ex-Maderista majority then assumed an independent attitude, that is, anti-Huertista. This did not meet with the tyrant's approval, and he ordered the dissolu- tion of the obnoxious body. This had suddenly been trans- formed into a righteously and patriotically indignant as- semblage, demanding satisfaction for the assassination of Senator Belisario Dominquez, after not having dared to raise its voice in protest against a succession of assassinations: Ma- dero, his brother Gustavo, Pino Suarez, Abraham Gonzalez, the representatives Pastolin, Serafiio Rendon, Federico Gurrion, and the journalist Solon Argiiello, and many other
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 263
persons who were deserving only of consideration and respect for asserting their political rights.
The situation for Carranza was serious from the mo- ment that the political parties, as well as the factions, had their leading men in the Cabinet and the two houses of Con- gress. It is safe to say that with the treason of the Fed- eral Congress, the Judiciary, the Supreme Court and the governors of twenty-three states, all the Maderista follow- ing had gone over to Huerta, and that when Carranza pro- claimed the reestablishment of the Constitution he did it without other support than that of a few insignificant, irregu- lar military men, and without other civil head than his own, and that of the prudent although inexperienced Senor Eliseo Arredondo.
The failure of President Wilson's moral projectile to make even a dent in the moral armor plate of Mexican sovereignty served to emphasize the significance of the failure of Con- stitutionalism, labelling it as a ridiculous political measure, disparaging to the moral supremacy of the United States in the eyes of the Mexican public.
Desperation inspired Senor Carranza to appeal to a remedy as stupid as it was unworthy of a politician, and es- pecially of a Mexican. He revived the law of January 20, 1862, which had been publicly repudiated in New York in 1864 by its author, Senor Manuel Doblado. He then said that it was a dishonor to him and that he had compiled it in a state of mind bordering on mental derangement, brought on by the increasing number of treasons and desertions in the Mexican army as the French advanced upon Puebla.
To form some idea of the cruelty and injustice of this law it is only necessary to consider that, notwithstanding the fact that it was promulgated to punish the black crime of treason, its author confessed that he had exceeded his pro- gram, not in justice, because he himself never thought the law just, but in terror, which he thought necessary to instill
264 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
into the minds of the people at a time when Mexico seemed to be crumbling to pieces through panic and treason.
Where was the political acumen of the Carrancista party in April, 1913, when it decided to revive a law which was morally discountenanced, and which had been condemned without appeal and without exception in the nation's his- tory? There has never been a liberal, patriotic Mexican historian who has not condemned this law even when ap- plied to traitors. Where, then, was the political acumen of these men who decided to apply, in a civil constitutionalist war, penal precepts applicable only to traitors!
When the Catholic League, presided over by the Due de Guise, decreed the massacre of the Huguenots on the mem- orable Eve of Saint Bartholomew, the assassins followed the moral and logical law of the times — the heretic must die by fire and the sword. Guise and Torquemada, following the political tenets of their age, are respectable in compari- son with Carranza who, in the twentieth century, unfurls the banner of Constitutionalism under the protection of a law that would drag every Mexican citizen who does not agree with him to the block.
The Constitutionalism proclaimed by the Plan de Guada- lupe was the establishment of democracy, that is, the sov- ereignty of the people. If the people are sovereign, how is it possible for a citizen to say to them: "Either you will follow me or I shall kill you, confiscating all your property to swell my own possessions." The people have the inherent right to rebel and, consequently, an equal right not to do so. A democratic republic cannot harbor a citizen, even though he be named Venustiano Carranza, endowed with the right to compel a people to rebel. Not only did Senor Carranza not have the right to threaten the people, whom he professed to look upon as sovereign, but he did not have the right to threaten the most humble citizen of the Repub- lic. Even the people do not possess this right. The right
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 265
'not to rebel, even if the Government violates the Constitu- tion a million times, is a sacred, > personal right.
Senor Carranza and his limited circle never could under- stand that a Huertista could < be a legitimate Constitution- alist. In point o'i fact, according to the Constitution pro- claimed by Carranza and his picayune followers, the House of Representatives enjoys the privilege of legal infallibility, there being: no '.appeal from the 'designation by this body of any special person as President of the Republic, and it was this very body that had declared Huerta the Constitutional President of the Republic ad mterlm.
It is true that the action of the House of Representatives in this respect was detestable, worthy of contempt and exe- cration. But for the Constitution there are no corrupt legislatures; legally their actions are clean and sound, what- ever they may be. The House of Representatives, like all constitutional power, is absolutely irresponsible before the law, whatever may be the laws, decrees or agreements it may formulate. The representatives are responsible before the House for official offenses, but they are absolutely irrespon- sible according to the Constitution for whatever they may say on the floor of the House, and for their votes, whatever their import may be.
If a legislature prostitutes its sacred rights and legislates according to its perverted instincts, the people have the right to rebel against it, or, as I have said, not to rebel if they see fit. In any case the Mexican citizen is not obliged to rebel even if the entire populace has risen in rebellion. Senor Carranza's assumed right to oblige all Mexicans to follow him is nothing short of absurd in the eyes of hon- est, intelligent persons. Even supposing that Huerta had not represented a de jure government, no one can deny that in March, 1913, he represented a de facto government, inasmuch as he ruled a nation of 15,000,000 inhabitants, with the exception of perhaps 400,000. Every individual is obliged
266 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
to recognize a de facto government. If he does not care to fulfill this obligation he is at liberty to rebel, running the risk of being punished according to the laws of this government. If de facto governments had not the right to punish infringements of their laws, there never would have been any Latin-American governments, because they are nothing but de facto governments from the moment that they originate from military coups or official elections.
Mr. Fyfe is a good observer and perceives with unerring eye how scandalously the Mexicans abuse the term treason: "Each side calls the other side 'traitors,' and the only course to take with a 'traitor' — that is, a man who differs from your views — is to shoot him." *•
In an interview between Mr. Fyfe and Senor Carranza the following conversation took place :
* 'We Constitutionalists refuse to recognize any president who may be returned at the fraudulent election. We shall execute anybody who does recognize him.'
" 'I beg your pardon,' I said. 'Would you kindly repeat your last statement? I thought I must have misunder- stood it.'
' 'We shall,' the General said calmly and as if he were making a perfectly natural remark, 'execute any one who recognizes a president unconstitutionally elected and directly or indirectly guilty of participation in the murder of Ma- dero.' " 2
Fyfe adds: "Some two months after my visit, General Carranza was interviewed by a Major Archer-Shee, a Brit- ish Member of Parliament, and being told that this remark of his had had a bad effect, he denied having made it. I bear him no malice for this. I expected that he would deny it, if ever he were told how strangely it sounded in English and American ears." 3
1 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, p. 18.
2 Idem, p. 17.
3 Idem, p. 17.
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 267
How advantageous it would have been if Senor Carranza had looked upon Mexican society with the same respect he looked upon the English Parliamentary member, Major Archer-Shee, so that he might have repealed a law, the in- voking of which was a discredit to him, and will forever remain a stain upon the civilization of Mexico.
Senor Fernandez Giiell generously contributes to our sociology a sample of our abominable mental political atti- tude. Senor Carranza's decree reviving the horrible law of January 20, 1862, proves that the First Chief of the Con- stitutionalist army has been liberty's worst enemy in Mexico. Nevertheless, Senor Fernandez Giiell calls Senor Carranza "the old and robust oak of liberty." When an ex-director of the National Library of the City of Mexico confuses ter- ror with liberty, it means that the Mexican nation is lost in the hands of reformers who do not pretend to restore lib- erty, but to introduce the barbarities that characterized the most atrocious period of the Roman Empire. Senor Fer- nandez Giiell is much more felicitous when he announces to the world that Senor Carranza shed "una lagrima de bronce" (a molten tear) upon Madero's grave. It is fitting that a man who revived a law of terror should be converted, when he melts into tears, into a munition factory.
THE FALSE APOSTLE
The most plausible exposition I have come across of Senor Carranza's dominant reform idea is to be found in Mr. Fyfe's book. Speaking to the correspondent of The London Times, Mr. Fyfe said, referring to the revolution: "It has its roots in social causes. The land, which was formerly divided among the mass of the people, has been seized by a few. The owners of it compel those who are working for them to buy the necessities of life from them alone. They lay a burden of debt upon the poor people, and as they owe
268 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO tl
them money they cannot get away. If they try to go away, they can be brought back. They can be put in prison." 1-
This explanation, however, is untenable.
Senor Carranza did not emerge from a Mexican Bastile where he had been incarcerated for forty years on account of his reform ideas. Senor Carranza was for many years a senator in the Federal Congress under the Diaz dictator- ship, and could have introduced a reform bill embracing the land, question, the company stores and the abuses practised by landowners and proprietors against debtors, especially as the Constitution forbids any manner of punishment for debt. Senor Carranza's bill might or might not have been taken up for consideration by the; dictatorship. In all probability it .would have been well received; /considering what I have already said about the ; recommendations Senor Carlos Paeheco had made, through the , Department of Fomento, to the President, advising the, formation of small landholdings. I have also called attention to the fact that the law of 1886 advised the division of the land to raise the standard of agri- culture, and thus "institute, a .radical means to combat the effects of the depreciation of silver. In my book, El por- venir de las naciones latino-americanas ante la politico de los Estados Unidos (The Future of the American Nations in View of the Policy of the United States), published in 1899, I proved that Mexico would never attain permanent prosperity without the establishment of small landholdings, and that to accomplish this the Government should proceed at once to construct large irrigation plants. After the pub- lication of my book, the Department of Fomento published treatises on the subject, insisting that irrigation was necessary to make possible -the distribution of the land without bring- ing about a disaster- — the death of the people by starvation; During the dictatorship, Senor Carranza, the reformer, was either not a reformer or an absolutely inactive one.
1 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, p. 16.
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 269
Senor Carranza took possession of the government of the state of Coahuila in June, 1911, and kept it until March 19, 1913. According to the Constitution, the states have the right to introduce constitutional reform bills into the Federal Congress. Why did not Senor Carranza during the period of his governorship introduce bills through the state legislature to be laid before the Federal Congress, outlining the reforms needed to save the country? Why did not the senators and representatives from Coahuila, if they really professed reform principles, avail themselves of the privilege granted them by the Constitution of introducing into Con- gress any bill they might see fit to bring about reforms? Why did the Carrancista press in the state of Coahuila never take up these questions of reform when it was per- fectly free to do so? Why did not the journalist, Senor Ignacio Herrerias, to whom Don Venustiano Carranza paid two hundred pesos monthly to eulogize him in the City of (Mexico newspapers, ever open the reform campaign in the columns of La Prensa, where I had installed him as editor- in-chief ?
Emiliano Zapata issued the Plan de Ayala on November 25, 1911. This embodied the distribution of lands and the waging of war against the landowning system, with the hope of arousing popular feeling, not only in Morelos but all over the country. He has upheld his plan for more than four years by fire and blood, resisting the blandishments of three administrations. Why did not Don Venustiano Car- ranza, the governor of Coahuila, who professed the same reform principles, join forces with him and oblige Madero to grant the saving reforms demanded by the popular class?
It is shocking that the great reformer, Don Venustiano Carranza, a state governor, one of the most prominent mem- bers of the Maderista faction, who possessed the right and influence to make himself heard, and who was bound to speak from the moment that Zapata issued his proclamation — at
270 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
the time when his influence would have been decisive, with- out shedding a drop of blood, without sacrificing a dollar, without the slightest resistance from the landowner — should have remained as indifferent to the agrarian question as though the subject under discussion were some regulation concerning the seal fisheries in Greenland. But no sooner was he deprived of his governorship by Huerta's triumph, than he set to work to organize a tremendous civil war in order to establish reforms he might have obtained during Madero's administration if he had been a real and disinter- ested reformer.
The question has a still graver aspect. I have spoken of the bill presented to Congress in President Huerta's name in March, 1913, by Sefior Toribio Esquivel Obregon, ask- ing it to authorize the appropriation of several million pesos to buy lands from the planters, to be divided at the Govern- ment's expense among the poor. From the moment of the introduction of this bill it was Senor Carranza's place, if patriotism alone influenced him, to have notified Huerta that he would remain under arms until the law he had in- troduced in favor of the poor had been approved. But as Senor Carranza was as much interested in reforms as he was in the whereabouts of the inhabitants of the planet Jupiter, he enkindled instead the most atrocious civil war that Amer- ica has ever known. The real principle involved was the "Step down, that I may step up" principle, of which I have already spoken. President Wilson did not seem able to see that the agrarian question could not possibly be the funda- mental cause of the war, as both Huerta and Carranza had included the distribution of the lands as part of their pro- grams, but that the real motive was Huerta's desire to con- tinue as dictator, and Carranza's to attain the dictatorship. In Mexico, even among people of the most ordinary intelli- gence, it is well known that the social question has never been the true political motive underlying the revolution. It has
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 271
been used as a cloak for the ambition of two men who have deluged Mexico with blood: Huerta, at the head of soldiery; Carranza, at the head of the demagogues.
THE TRUE ANTI-SOCIAL FORCES OF THE REVOLUTION
Senor Carranza's law of terror failed completely. Seeing himself without the support of any of the men of prestige, the First Chief had recourse to the most influential man out- side the former Madero faction, Dr. Francisco Vasquez Go- mez. Dr. Vasquez Gomez replied in a letter published in the United States on June 6, 1913, that he could not sup- port the Plan de Guadalupe because he was a man of fixed principles and not inclined to support personal causes, as the one he had proclaimed under the misnomer of Plan de Gua- dalupe unquestionably was.
The revolution was composed of three elements: The de- termination of the state of Sonora, or rather of the men who had lately obtained the headway there, to preserve its sov- ereignty and independence at any cost; the Villa faction, which represented the Madero family and which sought, with President Wilson's support, to restore it to power ; and Senor Don Venustiano Carranza, loyal and incorruptible partisan of the interests and ambitions of Senor Don Car- ranza Venustiano.
The proceedings of these three factions, all of them an- tagonistic to the only one having real principles — that of Zapata — were ignoble, anti-social and consequently un- patriotic. Demagogism, with its deformed and poisoned mentality, charged itself with the mission of interpreting the real principles of the revolution.
It is well known that the ruling passion of barbarous peoples is hate. When these peoples fight for religion, they are dominated by hatred of the heretic. When they fight
272 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
for liberty, they are impelled by hatred of those who govern them. When they fight for their country, they are urged by hatred of the alien. When they fight for the welfare of the disinherited, they are really impelled by hatred of the rich. When they fight for socialism, they are violently incited by the social, economic, intellectual, physical and moral in- equalities they see about them. Hatred is the propelling force of the barbarian soul. The revolutionists of 1913, be- ing the product of the demagogic schools, knew well what course to pursue, and they proceeded to spread their propa- ganda of hatred among the people.
As we already know, the Cientificos no longer existed in 1913. Of the rich men who formed the political group upon whom responsibility might fall — political, never crim- inal, however — only four remained. All were past fifty years of age, rich, enjoying a high social position, of pacific tendencies and surrounded by an impregnable wall of skep- ticism, capable of withstanding the fire of human or super- human batteries of ambition. The demagogues had devoted eight years to a campaign of vilification against these men, creating against them in the minds of the people a hatred verging on the infernal. The opportunity was not to be lost. Before these fires of hate became extinct it was necessary to impress upon the minds of the people, upon that of President Wilson, the American people and the whole world, that this formidable Cientifico party existed in Mexico, bent upon ex- ploiting the unfortunate Mexican people — already in the lowest state of misery by exploitation — to the point of com- plete extermination.
It will be remembered that the agitators, wishing to cast as much odium as possible upon General Diaz's administra- tion, had stirred up the Boxer feeling among the people. But as Mr. Wilson, the protector of the revolution, was the President of the Americans it was better, as Orestes Pereira explained at Durango in July, 1913, to leave the gringos (a
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 273
name given to Americans) alone for the time being and turn their attention to the destruction of the English, the Chinese, and above all the Spaniards, commonly known as gachupines.
The creation of this fictitious party had its advantages, as all that was necessary was to class every one as rich Cien- tificos or as sympathizers of the Cientificos to be able to rob them unmolested, making President Wilson, the American people and the Spanish-American Republics, believe that they, the representatives of the revolution, were punishing a band of iniquitous politicians who justly deserved it. These men had robbed the virtuous Mexican people of all their wealth, and justice demanded that all their ill-gotten goods should be taken from them and restored to the people. There can be no doubt that this artful manoeuvre on the part of a set of ruffians produced a tremendous effect in the United States, and caused a particular smile of self-satisfaction to light up Mr. Wilson's puritanical countenance.
Notwithstanding religious dogmas, altruistic doctrines, the enchanting, romantic spirit of charity, and the cross currents of many interests, it is undeniable that up to the present day the white race is a privileged race. I do not know, nor do I seek to know, when or how the prestige of the Caucasian race will be destroyed. It will not be an easy task, as it is artistic, and more or less heir to classic Hellenistic aspira- tions. The world is not yet sufficiently virtuous or ascetic to give the same place in the social scale to the black, com- pelled as yet to be satisfied simply with equal civil rights, as to the fair white representative of Athenian graces.
Beauty is the creator of rights, perhaps immutable, the creator of that state of depression felt by colored races, which gives rise to a sentiment of the most refined odium. This bursts into flame whenever it meets with sufficient re- sistence to ignite it, and is a powerful lever in fomenting and developing revolutions in countries inhabited by the privi- leged white race and by a race, humbled because of its color.
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The Mexican revolutionists made the most of this great force, holding up to the natives the iniquity of the whites, who had exploited them for four hundred years.
When the Mexican Constitutent Congress discussed the Federal electoral law in 1856, Senor Ignacio Ramirez, an implacable reformer and a talented, high-minded politician, impugned the indirect electoral system, basing his objection upon the fact that there is no real vote of the people except when the election is direct, and that all really free countries had recognized this fact in their electoral laws. The com- mission which sustained the opposite opinion frankly replied that the indirect election was necessary, because if the direct vote were granted to the people, it would be the parish priests, the chapters, the bishops, and the guardians and priors of convents who would name the representatives, sen- ators, magistrates, aldermen and the president of the Repub- lic, and that the granting of the direct vote to the illiterate, fanatically Catholic people, would be signing the death war- rant of the glorious democratic revolution proclaimed at Ayutla. Senor Ramirez replied that democracies cannot be farces; that all governments based upon the opposition's plan were either corrupt or tyrannical, or both; that if the Mexican people were not fitted for democracy, a Constitu- tion adapted to their capabilities should be drafted ; and that if the direct vote were not granted to the people nothing but a fraud would result from the indirect vote, leaving the people condemned to the rule of political charlatans, because any one guilty of such a fraud could not be anything but a knave.
The delegates decided in favor of the indirect vote, ex- cusing themselves by saying that it was better to educate the people in democratic principles from the start, and that in no wise could this be better accomplished than by the in- direct electoral vote.
Senor Ramirez's prophecy was verified. When the Ma-
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 275
dero revolution triumphed, all honest persons who believed in good faith that the Mexican people were now ready for democracy, resolved that the direct vote should triumph. The demagogic corporation, knowing that the masses, cut loose from the influence of the clergy, can be molded to their views — as happens everywhere when the voter is un- worthy of the vote — energetically supported the reform of the electoral law, aiming at having the elections of 1912 carried out in conformity with the strict rules of the direct popular vote. The result was a surprise to honest liberals and to the demagogic herd. They believed that after forty-nine years of an anti-Catholic policy, an atheistic press, and obligatory lay schools, the popular masses had been almost totally emancipated from the tutelage of the clergy. The elections of 1912 proved that the clergy pos- sessed the power to organize a real, disciplined political party, and to carry the Federal and local elections in almost all the states. If the Catholics did not have a complete tri- umph in the elections of 1912, it was owing to pressure brought to bear by the Maderista Government, and the frauds practised by the Porra against the Catholics. The situation was clear to all.
In order to make democracy with the free vote possible in Mexico, it is necessary for the Catholics to be a perma- nent political factor because they are in the majority and are strong enough to organize legislative bodies, and to pre- vent any other powerful, well-disciplined political body from obtaining a complete triumph in the parliamentary field. What the Mexican Catholics lack is the power to rise up in arms and assert their rights when the liberal minority nullifies their honestly won triumphs by means of frauds and violence. This lack of assertive power is due to the fact that the Indians and mestizos of the rural districts, who vote with the Catholic party, do not go to the polls pistol in hand as their opponents are ready to do. Owing to that
276 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
stony passivity, of which I have already spoken, they will vote for or against Catholicism, just as they will fight for or against it, if superior authority brings pressure to bear upon them.
The politicians know that they cannot be the controlling power in a real, or even in a corrupt democracy, so long as the majority of the Mexicans are Catholics, and this explains their anxiety to destroy Catholicity among the popular classes by any and every possible means. As the lay schools did not accomplish this, the revolutionists have had recourse to another species of anti-Catholic education of the masses carried on by desecrating churches, breaking images, outrag- ing nuns, expelling and assassinating priests, closing churches, and even by prohibiting private worship. From this also springs the cry for more lay schools. To the reformer "re- generation of the people by the school" means getting con- trol of the conscience of the popular class by driving Catho- licity out.
This accounts for the hatred of the political revolutionists for Catholicism, and their care to encourage the bandits of the north to commit all kinds of outrages against the clergy and the Catholics in that section.
Having organized this campaign of hate, not against Huerta — because he was an old man and by that time utterly devoid of social prestige — but against other menacing forces, the agitators proceeded to stir the populace through another channel.
If the Plan de Guadalupe had made the distribution of lands its watchword, it would have been coldly received in the north, where something more enticing had to be held out.
Any vague, undefined, mysterious promise is a great mo- tive force among illiterate, practically uncivilized peoples, composed in great majority of inferior races, and the Mex- ican people were virtually hypnotized with high-sounding promises. "This revolution is being fought for the poor."
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 277
"Once the revolution triumphs the poor will never know suf- fering again." "The reforms which the revolution is secretly planning will lead the poor to unlimited prosperity." "The revolution must necessarily be the source of unbounded ben- efits for the poor." "The world will be amazed to see the reforms that the Mexican revolution will institute exclu- sively in favor of the poor." "The poor the world over will envy the poor in Mexico, when the revolution is crowned with triumph." This string of absurdities produced magic effects in the mind of the populace. They hailed with joy the destruction of their country, of the restricted liberties which up to then they had enjoyed, of their meagre posses- sions, of their work, of the virtue of their wives and daught- ers, and of all the traditions that tempered the sordiness of •their lives and cast a halo of tenderness over their homes, notwithstanding their poverty and misery.
THE CRIMINAL BAND OF PRIVATE SECRETARIES
The revolution never formulated its program by means of a logical, well-drawn-up document, characterized by serious political purpose. Senor Carranza has not been the "mili- tary genius" of the revolution, its thinker or its reformer; neither has he been the instigator of the revolutionary propa- ganda I mentioned. He has not grasped it even now, and never will. Senor Carranza has never seen any of the powerful machines, expelling the foul gases of hatred and cupidity, designed by the revolutionists. Never has he put foot in this "garage" to ride forth into chaos at the rate of one hundred miles an hour in one of these high-powered machines. For Senor Carranza, as for Mr. Wilson and Mr. Bryan and Messrs. Bayard Hale, Lind and House, all the outrages committed by the revolutionists are trifles, pecca- dillos, excusable excesses; even criminal actions are urgent
278 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
and indispensable, and the inevitable consequences of war. These gentlemen do not seem to see that in previous Mex- ican revolutions, as in all other revolutions, the outrages have been the work of the lower elements, condemned by the higher as excesses worthy of punishment ; whereas the fright- ful thing about the present revolution is that these crimes have been raised to the standard of a dogma. Unlawful trans- gressions have become a principle ; the violation of women, a right; the martyrdom of the innocent, a punishment; the spoliation of the peaceful proprietor, the vindication of the people ; the massacre of the foreigners, undue excitement, pro- vided, always, they are not Americans; and the enrichment of the chiefs by public and private theft, is nothing, and should not be considered as anything but the reward of their eminent services in having given freedom to the people.
The real revolutionary program is anonymous. It has been composed by the rabble, not the low, street rabble, but the proletarian, educated rabble, vicious, cowardly, envious, dishonest, and debauched. This rabble is composed of shyster lawyers, penniless students, with outstanding debts at all the saloons and cheap eating-houses; unkempt petti- foggers, with a summons out against them for swindling and forgery; mediocre, provincial journalists; discredited Mexican Masons, looking for bread and loot; Mexican Protestant ministers, well versed in the Bible of vice; school teachers, the product of the Normal School, glutted with envy and rancor; in short, of all that invidious, lettered horde which General Porfirio Diaz, instead of smothering or scattering, protected, strengthened and raised up to the point of becom- ing a menace to him, and which he allowed General Reyes to snatch from him at the end to help further the ambitions of the ever-active governor of Nuevo Leon.
I desire to state that I am referring only to those who acted in the capacity of private secretaries to leading bandits, because among the private secretaries of the rude, honest guer-
PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 279
rilleros (leaders of guerrilla bands) or of insignificant ban- dits, there have been and still are private secretaries who can lay claim to some merit, and who have prevented, so far as was possible, unjust persecutions, flagrant abuses and the submersion of civilization.
The "private secretary" becomes the bandit's monitor. He introduces him to the gay life of the city, the latest cocktail, orgies a la mode, and intrigues with the demi-mondaines of the stage. He initiates him into the mysteries of the social question; of political spoliation; of the landowning system; of confiscation of the Cientificos' property, for his own bene- fit, not that of the people; of assassination, premediated or unpremediated, personally or through an agent; of the re- ligious question; of the pornographic question; of the neces- sity of regenerating the people by means of the school; of assassination, in the name of liberty, of all those who are par- tisans of the Cientificos. He fosters his ambition to the point of making him aspire to a governorship or to the presi- dency itself. He explains to him how theft may be success- fully carried on by means of force, forgery, falsified inven- tories, violence and kidnapping. He steals from him when he is asleep or intoxicated, and transforms himself into his treasurer, his administrator, his counsellor, his tutor, and into any species of thing that gives him an opportunity to ex- ploit his uncouth master with veritable Hebraic cupidity. The private secretary is the evil genius of the bandit. He is cowardly, vicious and criminal, and infects with his very presence. The bandit may be brave, generous, a diamond in the rough, a rude creature with a great heart, the potential- ities of a patriot, the germ of a real reformer, a savage sus- ceptible of mental development. The private secretary de- stroys every particle of natural goodness there may be in him, as his dismal role is to extinguish the real light of liberty, to throw the mantle of chaos over his country, burrowing into her heart like an invisible worm. By dint of catering to his
280 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
basest passions the private secretary becomes the bandit's absolute master.
I have said that in countries where the supreme power has been won by force, the peace that follows is a degradation. When those who triumph are the bandits of the popular and sub-popular classes, the masters of their victories are the pri- vate secretaries, and, consequently, they are the true masters of the situation — masters of Sefior Don Venustiano Car- ranza, masters of President Wilson's will, of Mr. Bryan's conscience and of the impressions of the American public with regard to Mexico's savage drama.
CHAPTER III
THE COLLAPSE OF PRESIDENT WILSON'S MEXICAN POLICY
THE GREAT PLAN TO REDEEM THE EIGHTY-FIVE PER CENT
IN virtue of the august Monroe Doctrine the United States Government figures in the role of the all-pow- erful proxy oi the European Governments, with faculties to act in questions relating to Latin-American na- tions, questions that might even involve the respective nations in war. Never has a loyal proxy been known to protect those who have threatened the lives and interests of his con- stituents; nevertheless, Mr. Wilson has protected the Mexi- can bandits, who have openly and shamelessly attacked foreigners, especially Spaniards. Never has a civilized man been known to countenance religious persecution in the twen- tieth century, and, as the Chief Executive of one of the most powerful nations of the world, to consent to outrages that wound the sensibilities of 300,000,000 Catholics, especially as 15,000,000 of these are citizens of the country over which he rules, and are deserving of more than ordinary consid- eration, and of not being affronted by seeing their official head giving aid to a set of bandits who have been guilty of the most revolting persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico. Never has the president of a nation of 85,000,000 whites, privileged to make felt their superiority over 12,000,- ooo blacks, been known to encourage a caste war which
281
282 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
has for its object the extermination of the white race in another country. Never has the president of an individualis- tic democracy, which upholds the doctrine of the inviolabil- ity of private property, been known to encourage, in a nation bordering upon its own territory, the development of anti- social doctrines and actions which may result in serious damage to his own country. Never has a reputable govern- ment been known to avail itself of means altogether un- worthy of its position to prevent a government like that of Mexico from negotiating and placing loans in Europe, when a state of war did not exist between the two nations, espe- cially as representative Mexican society hoped by means of these loans to enable the government to establish peace and guarantee the security to which they were entitled. Never has a politician of the most pronounced puritanical type, after having pledged his honor before the world to respect a nation's sovereignty, been known to send a note such as that which President Wilson sent to the Huerta Govern- ment, commanding the President to suspend hostilities at once, to renounce the presidency, to arrange immediately for an election, and under no condition to enter the political field as a candidate. Never has a government, after having reached the point of applying moral force to a weaker nation to intimidate it, been known to decide, when the weaker nation rejected with dignity the affront to its sov- ereignty, to lower itself by offering, because it is an uncon- ditional pacifist, to obtain pecuniary aid for the outraged government if it will only yield and avoid a declaration of war. Mr. Fyfe says, with an ironical smile that ought to wound the amour propre of the President of the United States: "The general feeling in Mexico City, especially after the President's Message to Congress, in which he blandly ignores the United States, was, if I may adopt a metaphor from 'poker,' that Washington's 'bluff had been called,' and that it had nothing in its hand. So far as can be seen at
THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 283
present, then, Mr. Wilson's desire 'to triumph as the friend of Mexico' has done good to nobody, excepting the revo- lutionists, whom it has encouraged. To fight for a prin- ciple is magnificent, but it is not politics." 1
When General Huerta rejected President Wilson's per- emptory orders, a great wave of applause swept over Mex- ico, Latin-America, Europe and Japan, giving Huerta a prestige as a ruler that he holds to this day. No one ex- pected that the pigmy, harassed by internal enemies, by the contempt of public opinion, by the gloomy looks of the ter- rorized community, beaten down by everything that unset- tles, weakens and crushes, would say to the omnipotent President of the United States: "I shall not obey. I shall abide by international law, and for the present I rely upon the moral power of justice." As his policy was what it was, peace at any price, cost what it might, President Wilson had received a disconcerting check. Huerta was original, ex- traordinary, a species without zoological classification. It was his undoing that he did not, defying President Wilson, resolve to fight, even with the certainty of assured defeat. Huerta was not frightened by the American army. He al- ways said to his ministers: "The Americans have no army and never will have one. They make a commercial busi- ness of war, and as they look with horror upon commercial transactions that are not paying investments, no great en- thusiasm can be aroused for a war against Mexico. At the most, Wilson will send one hundred thousand recruits against me, whom I shall tear to pieces with fifty thousand men, without having to raise the half -million men at my dis- posal." His ministers were never able to convince Huerta that the Americans could vanquish him.
In the first diplomatic encounter between President Wil- son and President Huerta, the latter unquestionably won the victory, the American Government losing considerable moral
1 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, p. 137.
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prestige in the eyes of the Mexicans, the Latin-Americans and the whole world. President Wilson had had recourse, as Hamilton Fyfe says, to a political game of poker, and the failure of his first "bluff" did not dismay him. He tried a second, exceedingly prejudicial to the interests of the flourishing American colony which was peacefully pursuing its legitimate business in Mexico, enjoying the good-will of all. President Wilson, in order to make Huerta believe that he had made up his mind to impose his will by force of arms, issued a peremptory order to all Americans to leave Mexico at once, although at that time they could count upon the determined and efficacious protection of Huerta, who still controlled the greater part of the country. The Mexicans took for granted that President Wilson was going to declare war against them at once and looked upon all Americans as their enemies, the popular classes being especially inflamed against them. As Mr. Wilson had no intention whatever of going to war with Mexico, it was a mistake, not to call it by a stronger name, to sacrifice the prosperity of the American colony and its cordial relations with the Mexicans in a second "bluff" to make Huerta lay down his hand. Who is to indemnify the Americans for the injury done to their property and business, and for the loss of positions or work as employees? No American Government can exact reparation of Mexico for damages brought upon its citizens by their own President. This being the case, the irreparable losses suffered by the American colony must weigh upon the conscience of the honorable President of the United States. Consequent upon the revolutionists' determination to make the wholesale pillage of the nation and the confiscation of immovable property of all kinds the practical, fundamental principle of the revolution, designating any one who had any- thing to steal a Cientifico, the country was divided politically into Cientificos and bandits, although this had never been Senor Carranza's intention. He had often declared that he
THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 285
was resolved that his revolution should have a moral effect first and an economic one afterwards, a high principle that has been realized by the free play of all kinds of crime. It looks as though the morality of this revolution will be evi- dent when the last revolutionist — and perhaps also the last Mexican — shall have ceased to exist.
This program of pillage and loot was carried forward with zeal and enthusiasm. The revolutionary chiefs stole for their personal benefit plantations, houses, mines, railroads, cattle, shops of all kinds, jewelry, furniture, art objects, relics from museums and libraries, the paraphernalia of laboratories — in a word, everything that had a commercial value. But as there was no market in Mexico for valuables of any kind, chiefly because the purchaser of any articles of value was liable in his turn to be the victim of the very pirate from whom he had bought them, a foreign market had to be found for all these ill-gotten goods. This was not easy to find, as all civilized governments adhere to a moral code that does not permit the establishment within their bound- aries of great markets for the loot of the world. He who knowingly buys stolen goods is a party to the theft. The world, therefore, has looked with amazement and disap- proval upon Mr. Wilson's extraordinary policy of protec- tion for the Mexican thieves and their American accomplices who have bought the loot collected in Mexico. No one ever dreamed that the time would come when the world would see a President of the United States making possible by his incomprehensible policy the general spoliation of a nation in favor of the lowest, vilest element of its population. Mr. Wilson, feeling that the responsibility for himself and his administration was too great, finally took steps to put a stop to the disgraceful trafficking that had overlapped the border into the United States, and that offended the views of all right-minded Americans. Mr. Wilson, however, did not institute measures to put a stop to the conversion of
286 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
American territory into a trading ground for thieves until Huerta had already fallen.
We come at last to the unwarranted invasion of Mexico by the American forces when7~aHeran engagement, Vera Cruz was occupied. This invasion, the result of an inop- portune ultimatum, was a real political crime. It had no other object than that of protecting Villa's attack in the north by obliging Huerta to divert his forces to the east, and of preventing the German boat Ipiranga from unloading at Vera Cruz the arms and ammunition she was bringing over to Huerta. Huerta understood the move, was naturally irritated by it, and resolved to unite all his forces on the fron- tier, abandon the struggle with Villa and invade the United States, no matter what the consequences might be. Huerta's idea was to let American bayonets put the Mexican bandits in power, and, devoting himself to guerrilla warfare, oblige Mr. Wilson to put aside his masquerading and go to the bottom of things. When Mr. Wilson saw that events were not developing according to the formulas prescribed by Princeton University, that a cruel and implacable war be- tween Mexico and the United States seemed inevitable, and that his alliance with the Mexican bandits would be of no value to him, as, first and last, they would fight against him for their country, he had recourse to the mediation comedy suggested by the diplomatists of the leading South Ameri- can Republics: Argentine, Chile and Brazil. Mexico was not slow to understand the import of this move, and felt a sense of contempt for the Latin-American nations which were giving their support to the farce invented by Mr. Bryan. The world took note of the fact that it required two months to settle the insignificant Mexican question, when it had taken only three days to arrange the treaty of peace between Russia and Japan. But it was necessary to mark time in order to give the revolutionists an opportunity to annihilate Huerta.
THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 287
How can so many mistakes committed by a talented and intelligent man be explained? From the first, by the un- pardonable weakness of allowing himself to be carried away by the impulse of horror against Huerta as a perfidious assassin when there were duties of State superior, not to personal rights, but to exquisite sentimental impressions. Mr. Wilson saw through the eyes of the demagogues. He was obsessed by the array of lies they had woven into a revolutionary thesis, and saw alongside the United States a Mexico unlike what it actually was. In his eyes it was very like or identical with New Spain with its landowning encomenderos, its grasping merchants, its powerful clerical body, its despotic rulers, and with a population, depending upon agriculture for its living, as miserable as that of Russia in the middle of the eighteenth century. Mr. Wilson at once formulated a decidedly rococo political program to be applied to Mexico. It included the following propositions:
First — To overthrow Huerta.
Second — To maintain inviolable the unwritten principle of international law that no Mexican government could exist that did not have the approbation of the President of the United States.
Third — To establish a definitive Constitutional govern- ment.
Fourth — To see that this government should be of the free, individualistic, democratic type.
Fifth — To put the downtrodden eighty-five per cent in possession of the marvellously fertile arable lands, of the wonderful natural pasture lands, where herds of the highest grade cattle could be raised, and of the virgin forests, rich in precious woods, suitable for cabinet-work, building and fuel. The country possessed all these riches in abundance and they were locked in the iron coffers of the cruel, tyranni- cal landowners, or, more correctly, in those of the Cien- tificos.
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The "insigne doctor apostol Mr. Wilson," as the revolu- tionists call President Wilson, equals in determination the German General Staff, and, consequently, acted in true German fashion, calculating what it would cost — to Mexico, of course — to redeem it according to the Wilson system.
The "apostolic" calculation was:
Lives sacrificed by firearms or the dagger 300,000
Lives sacrificed through small-pox and typhus,
first count 200,000
Lives sacrificed through other diseases of an
unusual nature 100,000
Lives sacrificed by starvation. As many as may be necessary
Women outraged 100,000 per day
Americans assassinated 160
Americans killed at Vera Cruz 17
Massacre of all foreigners not Americans
As many as may be necessary
Expulsion of foreigners of all classes As many as possible
Destruction of Mexican property 1,000,000,000 pesos
Probable amount of foreign claims 1,000,000,000 "
For the reconstruction and equipping of rail- roads 150,000,000 "
Probable railway debt from destruction of
roadbeds and rolling stock 150,000,000 "
Minimum issue of paper money by the revolu- tionists 500,000,000 "
Minimum issue of paper money by the banks.. 150,000,000 " Gold and silver coin taken out of the country. . 160,000,000 "
Increase of the public debt 240,000,000 tl
Moral suffering of the population from two
years of the keenest terror. . .As much as they can possibly bear Probable continuation of anarchy in March,
1916 Open account
It cannot be denied that the estimate of the cost of re- deeming the eighty-five per cent is rather high, and perhaps it would have been better, in the interests of morality, justice, humanity, and the credit of the United States Govern- ment, not to have redeemed them at this particular time,
THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 289
but to have waited for more opportune circumstances to have indicated the proper moment. However, if there were no other way of redeeming a nation of 15,000,000 inhabit- ants than at the tremendous cost Mr. Wilson accepts so calmly, just as the German General Staff accepts calmly the tearing to pieces of eight or ten million Germans by artillery fire, it is necessary to be resigned to the great sacri- fices, because, however great they may be, they are always of less consequence than the prodigiously magnificent results to be attained. To transform a people suffering from the effects of seven hundred years of slavery, illiteracy, physi- cal, moral and intellectual misery in two years or less, fol- lowing a plan noted for its disregard of all scientific laws, is nothing short of performing the greatest of miracles.
THE MEXICAN PEOPLE THE VICTIMS OF AN ASIATIC WAR
On August 14, 1914, Senor Venustiano Carranza made his triumphant entry into the City of Mexico, "cast in the mould of immortality," as his admirer, Senor Fernandez Giiell has expressed it, quite a fitting state in which to shed that celebrated "molten tear" upon Madero's grave.
That day must be a memorable one for President Wilson, because it indicated that the season for reaping the harvest of his idealistic sowing was at hand.
When Senor Francisco Madero made his triumphal entry into the City of Mexico on June 17, 1911, whatever the principles shielded by his victorious banner might be, there can be no doubt that it was a national triumph, as the fol- lowing table will prove:
29o WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
LIST OF PROVISIONAL GOVERNORS APPOINTED AFTER THE TRIUMPH OF THE MADERO REVOLUTION
Aguascalientes
Campeche
Coahuila
Colima
Chiapas
Chihuahua
Durango
Guanajuato
Guerrero
Hidalgo
Jalisco
Mexico
Michoacan
Morelos
Nuevo Leon
Oaxaca
Puebla
Queretaro
San Luis Potosi
Sinaloa
Sonora
Tabasco
Tamaulipas
Vera Cruz
Yucatan
Zacatecas
Alberto Fuentes Urbano Espinosa Venustiano Carranza Miguel Garcia Topete Reynaldo Gordillo Leon Abraham Gonzalez Luis Alfonso Trejo Juan B. Castelazo Francisco Figueroa Jesus Silva
David Gutierrez Allende Rafael Hidalgo Miguel Silva Juan N. Carrion Leobardo Chapa Heliodoro Diaz Quintas Rafael P. Canete Jose Antonio Septien Rafael Cepeda Celso paxiola Rojo Carlos E. Randall Manuel Mestro Ghigliaza Espiridion Lara Leon Aillaud Jose M. Pino Suarez Guadalupe Gonzalez
Native of Campeche Native of Coahuila Native of Colima Native of Chiapas Native of Chihuahua Native of Durango Native of Guanajuato Native of Guerrero Native of Hidalgo Native of Jalisco Native of Mexico Native of Michoacan Native of Morelos Native of Nuevo Leon Native of Oaxaca Native of Puebla Native of Queretaro Native of Coahuila Native of Sinaloa Native of Sonora Native of Tabasco Native of Tamaulipas Native of Vera Cruz Native of Yucatan Native of Zacatecas
From the foregoing table it will be seen that whatever else the Madero triumph signified, it represented a brilliant national triumph. Each state was represented by one of its own sons, fulfilling an aspiration that had long been felt. In Aguascalientes and San Luis Potosi alone do we find outsiders, and here Madero broke his promise. A nation is a civil organism, and as all the provisional governors were civilians, another great national aspiration had been realized. All classes unanimously rejected the military tyranny, think- ing themselves fit for a democratic form of government.
Let us see what the Carrancista revolution, misnamed Constitutional, offers at its triumph on August I, 1913. I am going to lay particular stress upon the conquest of the
THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 291
Mexicans of the central states, because those of the south have not even yet been conquered by the northerners. GOVERNORS OF THE CONQUERED NORTHERN STATES IN SEPTEMBER, 1914
Native of Chihuahua Native of Sonora Native of Durango Native of Sinaloa Native of Coahuila
Chihuahua General Avila
Sonora General Jose Maytorena
Duranpo General Arrieta
Sinaloa General Iturbe
Coahuila Lawyer Jesus Acuna
Nuevo Leon General Antonio Villarreal Native of Nuevo Leon
Tamaulipas General Luis Caballero Native of Tamaulipas
In the foregoing list it will be noted that with one ex- ception all the governors are military men and the sons of the respective states they govern. The exception is Senor Acuna, and it may be remarked in passing that his name appears in this list as Senor Venustiano Carranza's personal representative, Senor Carranza proposing to be the Chief Executive of the nation, as well as the governor of his own state.
Let us see how the central and southern states are repre- sented.
GOVERNORS OF THE CONQUERED CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN STATES
Aguascalientes
Guanajuato
Jalisco
Mexico
Michoacan
Oaxaca
Puebla
San Luis Potosi
Tlaxcala
Vera Cruz
Zacatecas
Chiapas
Campeche
Tabasco
Yucatan
Morelos
Guerrero
SEPTEMBER, 1914 General X General Garza General Dieguez General Murgia General G. Sanchez General Davila General F. Coss General E. Gutierrez General X General C. Aguilar General P. Natera Under control of J. Carranza Under control of J. Carranza Under control of J. Carranza Under control of J. Carranza Southern State Southern State
Northerner
Northerner
Northerner
Northerner
Northerner
Northerner
Northerner
Native of Zacatecas
Northerner
Native of Vera Cruz
Native of Zacatecas
Northerner
Northerner
Northerner
Northerner
Zapatista
Zapatista
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It will be noted in the foregoing list that Morelos and Guerrero, both southern states, had not been conquered by the northerners. Senor Candido Aguilar and Senor Panfilo Natera were created military governors of their respective states, because both had been allies of the northern revolution. There can be no doubt, then, that Carranza's triumph was in no sense of the word a national, democratic triumph, but simply the triumph of the northerners who had suddenly flung themselves against the men of the central states who were unable to resist them, notwithstanding the fact that they counted for support upon a population of 12,000,000. The Zapatistas can lay claim to this glory; they have valiantly resisted the attacks of the northerners.
The conquest of the southerners by the northerners smacked of the classic barbarity that characterized the con- quests of three thousand years ago, although upon a much lower scale. In those memorable days of primitive simplicity, the rude and hungry pastoral people bore down upon the rich husbandman class, unable to defend themselves because of their effeminacy and voluptuousness. The conqueror set fire to the temples of his conquered foe, dethroned his idols and stole the sacred vessels; the soldiery violated the priestesses; the great chiefs, after decapitating the high priests and the cowardly aristocrats, took possession of all the movable and immovable property of the conquered, reducing them to the most abject state of slavery. Only the chiefs of higher rank, who were to form the new aristocracy, shared in the division of the booty. The greater portion of the conquered slaves were sold or kept to satiate the rapacity of their conquerors.
It is safe to say that the Mexican revolution up to Octo- ber, 1915, was not socialistic, anarchistic, constitutionalistic, or anything that has ever been seen in modern times; but a conquest which placed a yoke of barbaric Asiatic slavery upon the great majority of the Mexican people. It was somewhat modified by the influence of the times and by its
THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 293
proximity to the United States, which necessarily made the northerners more or less circumspect in following too closely the historic and prehistoric methods they aimed at. The program was formulated by the demagogues for their per- sonal benefit; the revolution has given it a historic setting.
THE FIRST IMPORTANT POLITICAL PROBLEM
Conquest affects the conquered territory in three ways: First, the establishment of a colonial government; second, that of a protectorate; third, the possession of the territory by the conquerors, who form a governing aristocracy. The last was the form taken by the Norman Conquest, and was the one accepted in Mexico by the northern conquerors in 1914 — in idea only — however, because in form it has had all the repulsive features of a prehistoric conquest.
When President Wilson announced to the world in his Indianapolis speech, with all the pageantry of his carefully chosen words, with the pride of a statesman and the emotion of an illumined apostle, that the Mexican people had con- quered liberty, facts, those intractable witnesses which can- not always be silenced, and which cannot possibly be hidden when they are the outcome of the acts of a community, an- nounced on their side to the world that the so-called conquest of liberty, which President Wilson proclaimed so loudly, was nothing more than the galling conquest of the great majority of the Mexican people by the northerners. Almost all of these men, judged by twentieth-century standards, were infamous bandits; heroes, only, if judged by the moral standards of three thousand years ago. A truly edifying picture does President Wilson's humanitarian work in Mex- ico present!
Mr. Wilson's program included liberty. These twentieth- century conquerors could have accepted a liberal regime even though they were Mexican northern bandits, but they chose
294 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
instead a keen-edged military regime, one that did not even resemble that of Sesostris or Shalmaneser. They must have patterned their government upon that existing some cen- turies before even Assyrian civilization, as they announced that civilians would have no political rights whatever. Everything was to be vested in the military: the right to govern; the right to discuss public questions; the right to be recompensed for having stolen with a high hand; the right to be considered a Mexican citizen ; the right to be con- sidered a man. Nothing, absolutely nothing, of civil rights.
In the time of Shalmaneser the conquered were obliged to accept the religion of the conquerors; but as the Constitu- tionalists had no religion, the conquered, in order to quiet their conscience and still the yearnings of religious senti- ment, were to devote themselves to the worship of the First Chief, of Villa and even of Obregon. Catholicism was pro- hibited because it was an anti-Constitutionalist religion or, more properly speaking, that of the Cientificos.
There were to be no civil magistrates, judges, aldermen, mayors, select men, or policemen. No press was to be tolerated except that which devoted itself exclusively to swinging censers before the altars of the saving heroes of the poor. No sealed letters could be exchanged; no telegram or written communication could pass uncensored. No one could under pain of death be an enemy of the revolution, by enemy being understood any one who did not fall down and worship at the shrine of these fearful bandits. Follow- ing the new revolutionary tenets, the military man should be legislator, judge, alderman, mayor, priest, policeman, school teacher, notable patriot, supreme hero, robber-in-chief and idol to be worshiped. As theft was the sole vivifying principle of the revolution, it was not permitted to steal even from a pickpocket, because stealing was the special privilege of the "saviors of the poor"; and it behooved all to do away with the little they had in order that, being abso-
THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 295
lutely poor, they might share in the benefits of the redeemed.
And the landholdings, the great landholdings, what of them? The greatest among them passed into the hands of the Constitutionalist chiefs, to be enjoyed with the rights of absolute ownership. What had constituted the great offense against the poor had become the great plum of the conquest ! All the personal property of the wealthy was appropriated by the Constitutionalists. Handsome residences, automo- biles, jewelry, furniture, money, clothes, everything pos- sessed by the aristocrats, and even those who were not aristo- crats, was taken by the revolutionists. The Constitutionalist revolution was a renovating revolution, and the renovation was admirable. The rural peon was transformed into a bandit; the bandit into a general; the general into a multi- millionaire; the multi-millionaire into an aristocrat of the type of a prehistoric tribe, poorly accommodated to modern times. Eight days after the Constitutionalist army entered the City of Mexico the new aristocracy had been formed, such distinguished titles as that of Prince of Con- stitutionalism, Duke of the Stolen Automobile, Marquis of the Agrarian Question, Count of the Indigenous Race, Baron of Free Assassination, Knight of the Idiotic Press, shining prominently among them. Such was the equality, liberty, fraternity, democracy, virtue, distribution of lands offered to the poor, to Mr. Wilson, to the American peo- ple and to the Latin-American republics.
Europe was never taken in, and, as Mr. Wilson knows, was never in sympathy with a revolution that was not lib- eral or socialistic, or even anarchistic, but simply unvarnished brigandage. Mr. Wilson was under the impression that what he was upholding was a revolution backed by moral principles, which was destined to correct the corruption of the Porfirian regime. What he actually upheld was what Mr. Fuller, his distinguished special envoy, sent to Mexico in September, 1914, reported to him: "No Government
296 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
exists there, not even militarism, nor is any effort being made to do anything to improve the condition of the poor. All traces of civilization having vanished; what exists is a defenseless and humiliated society at the mercy of two hun- dred thousand bandits." Mr. Fuller's report, and those submitted to President Wilson by the Diplomatic Corps in Washington and the Brazilian Minister in Mexico, ad- dressed to Mr. Bryan, all in the same tenor, obliged Presi- dent Wilson to decline to recognize as a government this anarchical imbroglio, the grandiose result of an idealistic theory of redemption.
In August, 1914, President Wilson's triumph was com- plete. Huerta had fallen ; the decent landowners had fallen, to be replaced by bandits; the Cientificos, who existed only in President Wilson's imagination and in the perverse will of those who were making game of their name, had fallen; Catholicism had fallen, as well as courts, law, justice, national prosperity, respect for the foreigner and for the moral power of the United States. Zapata had proclaimed the restoration of the ancient Aztec regime and radical socialism, and was the only patriotic bandit, as he had never asked Mr. Wilson's protection in exchange for slices of national sovereignty. Villa had appeared as the Mahdi of the Soudan, with his insane program of unlimited plunder and assassination, of arbitrariness and despotism, a beast or a maniac, spreading fire and destruction in his pathway. Carranza had appeared as the reactionist against Porfirism. Everything was for himself, exclusively for himself. The revolution, the bandits, the budding statesmen, the Porra, the intellectual offscourings, the public degradation, the political corruption, the oppressed people — everything be- longed to him, and was to be immediately put into action to inaugurate another thirty years' dictatorship, modelled after the most approved pattern of 1910, with an open road to ignominy along the triumphal highway of theft. The
THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 297
revolution is to be understood only in its relation to theft, and when there is no longer anything to steal the revolution will die, leaving no provision in its will for a moribund peo- ple, bereft, in the process of redemption, of every vestige of civilization.
A period of humiliation has been ushered in for President Wilson since the complete triumph of this Constitutionalism, characterized by unbridled license. His humiliation con- sists in the justly wounded pride of the United States, theo- retically the worshipper of his omnipotence, which was based solely upon the powerful arsenals of his moral force. This moral force Mr. Wilson has squandered in the "bluffs," so absolutely indispensable in his game of political poker. The apostolic President believed that in procuring victory for the Mexican liberators, the White House would have their assistance in carrying out its experiments, enabling it to turn Mexico into a great laboratory for the working out of all sane and insane idealistic theories. But to his great surprise their one object seemed to be to relieve every one of the weight of all movable and immovable property, of all moral and intellectual advantages. The Princeton professor was convinced before long that his proteges were nothing more than rebellious subjects; and the President of the United States, understanding his responsibilities before the world, and especially before the upright and well mean- ing portion of the American people, in appearing as the accomplice of bandits given over to the task of transforming a once thriving nation into a material and moral dung- heap, urgently recommended that the northerners should proclaim at once a general and far-reaching amnesty. The reply was that, instead of Constitutionalism, a regime of pre- historic government had been inaugurated without other laws than the will of the chief of each band, the country having been divided into bands, nominally under the juris- diction of different supreme authorities. Mr. Wilson then
298 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
abandoned his humanitarian projects and assumed a luke- warm neutrality before the appalling spectacle of the an- archy reigning in Mexico. Following the cruel advice of various newspapers, he resolved to leave the Mexicans to fight it out among themselves — with arms furnished by the United States — until the incorrigibles either saved them- selves or were exterminated, consigned to the grave with opprobrium and destined to oblivion as a pernicious race worthy of its doom. Without a doubt it was good advice. Let nature take its course. Let anarchy, the representative of all the vital and morbid forces of the organism, have full play. But Mr. Wilson was as implacable as a German sub- marine in the presence of an unarmed ocean liner. In this he was influenced by his hatred of the imaginary Cientificos ; of the imaginary cruel landowners; of the imaginary enemies of the eighty-five per cent; of the Mexican cultured classes, who refused to submit to his idealistic theories; of the pa- triots, who resented his interference in Mexican politics; of the imaginary foreigners, who robbed the poor during the Diaz dictatorship; of all the middle classes, who refused to conform to the revolution; of all the capitalists, who did not favor the program of being robbed of all their posses- sions; of everything in Mexico that had a conservative aspect, that represented the prestige of the past or a senti- ment of tenderness or veneration for an ideal not exactly in keeping with that set down by the President of the United States for the Mexican people.
He rejected the happy idea that the state of anarchy exist- ing in Mexico should be settled by giving full reign to all the social forces: sinister, elevating, civilizing, infernal, re- pulsive or sublime.
He rejected the scientific principle that anarchy itself should work against anarchy and, that failing, have recourse to armed intervention. The Mexican people would have asked for it as suppliants, because the unnatural impulse to
THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 199
suicide can never take hold of a whole nation. They never would have asked for it directly, however; they would have allowed their silent resignation or agonizing gasp to speak for them.
President Wilson tenaciously opposed the Mexicans avail- ing themselves of the last resource held out to them to fight as a national unit for their deliverance, before being driven to accept the protectorate of the United States. This, how- ever, would not have been imposed without a heroic struggle to defend their national honor, and to leave to them the consciousness of having done their duty before being over- taken by disaster. He refused to grant what the Mexican people had a right to demand — their regeneration through exclusively national elements, united for a supreme, final effort. This failing, anarchy could swallow them up, or their nation could cease to exist, but they would be spared the contempt of the world and that of their conquerors.
Huerta appeared in El Paso for the final stand, ready to return to his country in arms and ammunition the wealth he had stolen, offering his life, which justice would perhaps have accepted. At that moment President Wilson, tramp- ling all laws under foot, had him arrested, cast into prison and held there until death claimed him for its own. Pascual Orozco and other leaders were hounded by American rangers when they were nothing more than inoffensive politi- cal refugees, fleeing from courts which were wont to judge trumped-up charges by codes of strict justice. It is evident that even if Huerta had penetrated into Mexican territory with revolutionary intentions, he could not possibly have re- covered the supreme power. Nevertheless, his revolution would have served a useful purpose, because it would have drawn the persecuted popular class to its ranks, as well as the younger element of the Federal army and the better class civilians, who had every right to cross the frontier to reconquer their country, snatched from them by the bandits,
300 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
led by Villa, Carranza, Zapata and the Convention, pro- tected by the President of the United States.
The state of Oaxaca has 1,300,000 inhabitants, almost all of them full-blooded Indians. They are industrious, honest, brave, attached to their traditions, having no interest in the distribution of lands because their property is held in com- mon, and their ancestors for generations back have tilled the same soil. These Indians have never been revolutionists. They love liberty and Catholicism and their native state, have always obeyed the laws, and are an estimable national group which has always been remarkable for its patriotism. In 1910 Oaxaca was not Porfirista, and it has never been Felicista. It is true Felix Diaz has a following in Oaxaca, but it is very insignificent. They set their face energetically and valiantly against the revolution's program of pillage; they resolved not to allow themselves to be trampled upon, their property destroyed, their religion besmirched, them- selves placed in bondage. This community deserved to be commended by President Wilson as really worthy of protec- tion. Nevertheless, what does the grandee of the White House do but prevent them from buying arms and ammuni- tion with their own money in the United States — the only market open to them — not to start an insurrection, be it re- membered, but to defend their lives and property against the Carrancista hordes that were descending on them, bent upon spreading devastation broadcast here as they had done else- where. President Wilson does not wish the conflict between the bandits to become complicated ; he wishes, evidently, that the duel between Villa and Carranza shall have only one result — the triumph of brigandage against society.
In the states of Vera Cruz, Michoacan and Guanajuato there have been counter-revolutionary movements, organized by the landowners, ranchmen, small property owners, those who farmed on the co-partnership basis, and Catholics of all classes and conditions who still have the spirit to defend their
THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 301
faith. If the Catholics of the United States had been as in- famously treated as the Mexican Catholics have been, they would have taken up arms and fought with their bishops and priests at their head, making themselves respected by their enemies and winning universal applause. When the Mexi- can Catholics have attempted to make use of a right no civ- ilized man can deny them, President Wilson has given orders that these "rebels" be not permitted to buy arms and ammunition in the United States.
The principle of self-preservation exists and always will exist in the popular masses, as it exists in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, notwithstanding all the real and unreal forces that may be brought to bear against it. When this giant stirs, it shakes off the shackles and a reaction favorable to a normal life asserts itself, sweeping all reforms clean of everything but what in the light of truth and justice can be considered real progress.
Of all the social classes the popular class is the most con- servative, although to the eyes of incautious politicians it may appear extremely sensitive to progressive suggestions. Ignorance and sentiment tend to make men live in the past. Habits of mind and heart formed generation by generation cannot be lightly cast off, and that new mode of life chiselled out of the purely progressive material is an unfortunate fic- tion of politicians, who attempt to make a credulous public accept at their face value the absurdities they call social re- forms. In man all development is gradual. His existence embraces the past, or perhaps it would be more correct to say that the past embraces him, and all new theories advanced by men, even if they be reformers, are almost all unreal dreams and visions. Industrial progress goes by leaps and bounds, from oil lamps to incandescent lights in sixty years. Each step in moral progress takes at least a century and measures at the most one centimeter. The secret of politics lies in knowing how to wait. The masses easily take the bit
302 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
between their teeth and bolt from the control of their former masters, but always turn to them to be saved when they feel the ground giving way under their feet and a yawning abyss opening to receive them.
For some months past the majority of the Mexican pop- ular classes has evinced excellent dispositions to cease the conflict and return, like bruised lambs, to the sheep-fold. They want to reenkindle their hearth fires, to give repose to their weary spirits, to resume the habits of life handed down by their ancestors, to gather anew round the altars of their patron saints and their miraculous Virgins, to listen to the paternal voice of their spiritual fathers, and to feel the soothing influence of human sensations evoked by consoling voices which will sooth their sufferings, awaken sacred mem- ories, and revive the faith and hope that criminal ambition has all but killed. This healthful and reconstructive social reaction — reconstructive because reaction is never complete if it does not add something to the sum of progress — has not been possible in Mexico because Mr. Wilson, always im- placable, has vowed upon the altar of his animosity that the Mexican ex-governing classes must perish, or be satisfied to live in slavery under the tyrannical yoke of the northern con- querors. Only the bandits may have arms and ammunition !
In return for all this paternal solicitude, what did the Mexican revolutionists do during the struggle between Za- pata and Villa against Carranza? Humiliate Mr. Wilson, slight him, crush his moral power, ridicule his magisterial attitude, insult the American flag, assassinate Americans, outrage American women, martyr their children, fire their properties, spit upon the people's rights and treat all for- eigners in Mexico as though they were devoid of rights. The
THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 303
press in the United States began to see through the mist and to scrutinize the Mexican liberators in the light of fuller knowledge. It found that they were nothing but bandits having a semi-military organization, corrupted to the very core by a set of educated but unscientific knaves, with a sur- plus of unprincipled schemes.
Uncomfortable days were in store for Mr. Wilson. Dr. William Bayard Hale, President Wilson's ex-confidential agent in Mexico, published an article authorized by the White House in The World's Work, in which some startling declarations were made. He says: "The American forces will be withdrawn (from Vera Cruz) just as soon as con- stitutional order has been restored." In order to keep this promise President Wilson handed Vera Cruz over in No- vember, 1914, to Don Venustiano Carranza. He was a fugi- tive from justice, who had taken refuge at Vera Cruz and who, in order to get possession of the town, had threatened an attack by the Constitutionalist forces under General Aguilar. The latter, in order to give weight to the First Chief's pretensions, issued orders to open fire on the Amer- ican outposts. In view of this attitude on the part of Senor Carranza, President Wilson decreed the immediate with- drawal of the American forces, which was carried out at the point of Constitutionalist rifles, General Funston taking in his knapsack everything he ought to have except the salute to the American flag, which was what had ostensibly brought him to Vera Cruz.
It occurred to Senor Carranza in one of his virulent at- tacks of hate to imitate a monstrous Roman Caesar in his vengeance against the City of Mexico, which had manifested its abhorrence for Constitutionalism. The First Chief is not capable of understanding how perfectly natural it was for the capital of Mexico, the center of its civilization, to look with horror upon the filthy, unkempt hordes, steeped in all kinds of crime, which swooped down upon it. As Senor
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Carranza does not possess the creative faculty it is not pos- sible for him ever to possess the real governing power.
To carry out his atrocious scheme of vengeance against the City of Mexico, Senor Carranza determined to starve its half-million inhabitants, by robbing them of all their provi- sions, and shipping them to Vera Cruz. The capital was be- ing besieged by the Zapatistas, and in order to prevent the evacuation of the city by its inhabitants the First Chief for- bade the running of trains for the accommodation of the people. There were twelve thousand foreigners in Mexico at that time, including women and children, two thousand of whom were Americans. It would have been a serious situa- tion for Mr. Wilson, the omnipotent representative of the European Powers in virtue of the Monroe Doctrine, to have presented to the world the corpses of twelve thousand of their subjects committed to his care, murdered or starved to death.
The Brazilian Minister, charged with looking out for the interests of the United States Government in the City of Mexico, worked courageously, heroically, with self-abne- gation and intelligence, as he had to deal with a mob that showed as much international respect for the United States and its President as it did for a disarmed group of the much-hated landowners. The Socialist Pinzon, haranguing the crowds that shouted at the doors of the Jockey Club, con- verted into the Temple of the Industrial Workers of the World, the afternoon that the altars of the church of Santa Brigida were desecrated, said : "Boys, you all know now of how much use the 'gringo Wilson' can be to us, because he is nothing more than a Cientifico." And the excited mob yelled with delirious excitement: "Death to the Cientifico Wilson."
It can easily be understood why during those dreadful days the cable announced each morning: "Anxiety in Wash- ington"; "Insomnia in Washington"; "Panic in Washing-
THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 305
ton"; "Profound Unrest in Washington." And in Europe, notwithstanding the war, disquiet also manifested itself when it was seen that comfortable slumber robes were being made out of the cloth of the imposing Monroe Doctrine, by Za- pata, Villa, Carranza, Gutierrez and the rest, all proteges of the White House. The Zapatistas saved the City of Mex- ico and made themselves popular.
The Naco incident was another humiliation for the Unit- ed States Government. It did not dare to give the order "Fire!" notwithstanding the fact that it had threatened to exterminate Hill and Maytorena if they did not stop firing shells into Douglas. After forty-seven Americans had been sacrificed, some dead, some wounded and some injured, the White House played its trump card by sending General Scott to parley with the belligerents, convincing them — some say by means more persuasive than words — of the necessity of comporting themselves with more respect and circumspec- tion toward the United States Government, which they had already sufficiently outraged.
At last President Wilson decided to break with Mexican anarchy in favor of the revolutionists by the new method of extinguishing a fire by deluging it with gasoline. When I take up the Columbus incident for consideration I shall con- clude my observations of the greatest of President Wilson's errors — recognizing as a de facto government one whose acts have proved it to be a de facto anarchy.
PART FOUR
MEXICO'S PROBABLE CONDITION IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE
CHAPTER I THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER
THE FURIOUS ASSAULT OF FAMINE
IN Part First I have proved that the so-called agrarian problem, which of itself offers no difficulty and ought not to cause the shedding of one drop of blood, is dom- inated by the problem of hunger, a problem that cannot be solved by the favorite law of terror with which the revo- lution attempts to solve all problems whatever their import may be.
I stated, supported by ample evidence, that in 1803 the average yield of corn obtained by dry farming in the cold and temperate zones was seventy-five hectoliters per hectare. I also proved that this average had decreased in one hundred years to nine hectoliters per hectare. When this decreases to three hectoliters per hectare, it will be impossible for the man depending upon agriculture for his living, to continue to provide for his family even upon the present meagre scale. And if we take into consideration the frequent losses of crops, it will only require a decrease to four and one-half hectoliters per hectare to bring about a critical state of hun- ger among the people. To my mind this problem may be summed up in the question, How long will it be before the lands of the cold and temperate zones will reach the stage of unproductiveness that will render their cultivation eco- nomically impossible? When I spoke before of this serious situation I said that, once the production fell below the pres- ent nine hectoliters per hectare, it would be a question of from only fifteen to twenty years before an acute stage of famine would exist.
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308 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
The Diaz administration understood this economic situa- tion. It has always been ignored by the revolutionists. They turned their attention to the tillers of the soil with no other thought in mind than that of inciting them to revolt in order to bring about a great social revolution which would further their own selfish personal interests.
The problem of hunger caused by the exhaustion of the lands of the cold and temperate zones, given over almost exclusively to corn dry farming, has one solution only, the substitution of the intensive for the extensive method of cul- tivation. The former has to be done entirely by irrigation. From scientific estimates it has been computed that with from $700,000,000 to $800,000,000 gold, honestly spent in irri- gation plants, a sufficient quantity of land could be irrigated in fifteen years to produce enough food at a reasonable price to feed a population of 20,000,000 inhabitants, and do away with the frequent famines that are such drawbacks to the progress and well-being of the nation.
The present revolution has cost the unfortunate Mexican people up to date, March 15, 1913, approximately:
Destruction of Mexican property 1,000,000,000 pesos
Probable amount of foreign claims 1,000,000,000
For the reconstruction and equipping of rail- roads 150,000,000
Probable railway debt from destruction of
roadbeds and rolling stock 150,000,000
Minimum issue of paper money by the revo- lutionists 500,000,000
Minimum issue of paper money by the banks.. 150,000,000
Gold and silver coin taken out of the country.. 160,000,000
Increase of the public debt 240,000,000
Left -by the dictator, General Porfirio Diaz, in
the National Treasury 62,000,000
Total 3,412,000,000 pesos
It will be seen from this that the glorious revolution, carried on especially for the benefit of the poor, has cost the Mexican people double the amount in gold that it would
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 309
have cost to have irrigated the land and to have thus pre- vented the famine that may eventually send the majority of them to the grave. I proved that the Diaz administration was prepared in 1908 to spend 90,000,000 pesos for irriga- tion. The work was suspended and contracts nullified by the revolution of 1910. Madero planned a work of liberty and succeeded in overthrowing the dictatorship by means of a campaign of hatred. This was the inevitable result in a coun- try where the people were unfit for liberty. This same hatred for the Government caused the fall of Madero. It was subsequently transferred to Huerta, and is now being displayed toward Carranza.
The "regenerating" cyclone had made the country lose six years, from 1910 to 1916, which might have been de- voted uninterruptedly to carrying out the plans for irriga- tion which the dictatorship had under consideration. Even if the work of irrigation were begun at once, the probabili- ties are that it would take from nine to fourteen years to stay the famine crisis which the nation is now facing. It will be necessary first to put an end to the present state of anarchy. How soon this will be cannot be determined, but in any event it will not be soon, as I shall explain later on.
Mexico must have many million pesos of foreign capital before she can proceed with the necessary irrigation work, and to accomplish this even on a small scale it will be abso- lutely necessary for her to reestablish her public and private credit, completely lost by the revolution's direful program of vengeance, theft and demolition. If the total Mexican pub- lic debt could be estimated at this moment it would be nec- essary for the Government to set aside at least seventy-five per cent of its annual revenues to meet it, corresponding to the maximum revenues collected before this much-lauded re- demptory revolution. As anarchy is likely to continue its redeeming work, it is almost certain that with one year more of this excellent, fructifying redemption, the Mexican
3io WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
Government will be obliged to set aside a sum equivalent to its entire revenue in its most prosperous times to meet the public debt.
Taking into consideration probabilities, or we might say, facts, it will not be possible for Mexico to obtain an annual loan of $100,000,000 gold to enable it to carry out in ten years its irrigation plans This, of course, could be obtained only under the express and absolute condition that a stable and responsible government would be guaranteed. Such a government does not exist in Mexico now; the country is simply in the hands of a band of insatiable thieves. As it is impossible to reform the Mexican public administration with- out the extermination of the bandits — something that can be brought about only by a great moral revolution — it can be predicted with certainty almost that the majority of the in- habitants of the cold and temperate lands will be reduced to a state of abject misery or exterminated by the inexorable scourge of famine. It will be difficult for the dying, and for the minority of the Mexican people who may escape de- struction, to look with sentiments of gratitude and admira- tion upon President Wilson and his advisers for the effica- cious protection given by them to the bandits. The latter were the first to submerge civilization in Mexico and to at- tempt to exterminate the majority of her inhabitants.
THE IMMEDIATE DANGER OF FAMINE
It goes without saying that the revolutionary financiers do not know the real effect of paper money upon a community. Government paper money is a forced loan made to the pub- lic, without interest and practically without set time for re- demption. The distribution of this forced loan does not work with equity for all classes of society. The issue of paper money has very little effect on the capitalist, except that of enabling him to amass wealth with scandalous rapid-
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 311
ity; but it imposes upon the already oppressed poor one of the most abominable forms of usury. The landowners pro- tect themselves against its ravages by raising the price of their products, not only as high as may be necessary to pro- tect their interests, but also high enough to enable them to realize enormous profits, as I shall demonstrate.
Mexican money has passed through the following changes:
Value of Mexican Dates Peso in Gold
May 24, 1911, fall of Diaz $0.4748
February 19, 1913, fall of Madero .4726
July 15, 1914, fall of Huerta, paper money, bank
issue -2938
October n, 1915, recognition of Carranza, Carran-
cista paper money .0700
March 7, 1916 -0255
This table amply demonstrates the potential power of the revolution to bring the country to the point of disaster. It also indicates the incompetence of the Carrancista financiers.
As we have said, the issue of paper money by the state is in reality a forced loan without interest and without time for redemption, and when the paper money depreciates the loss falls exclusively upon the wage-earning community, that is, upon the poor, who must live from the proceeds of their work. Owing to the exigencies of the revolution more than 1 50,000,000 pesos bank paper money had been issued in Mex- ico, and a minimum of 500,000,000 pesos Carrancista paper money. This figure was given by the First Chief himself. The total of the paper money recognized amounts to 650,- 000,000 pesos. The effects of the depreciation of this has fallen almost exclusively upon the poor. Without doubt this revolution has been carried out for their benefit, to the grim accompaniment of hunger, tears, sighs and official schools !
3i2 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
A comparison of the salaries and day wages of the Por- firian dictatorship with those of the glorious period of re- demption gives the following:
Day Wages and Salaries Day Wages and Salaries
Wage Earners Before the Revolution , Computed in Gold in
Computed in Gold March, 1916
Peon in the cold and temperate
zone, day wage $0.185 $0.0630
Skilled workman 1.125 .1140
Mason in Mexico .75 .1020
Employee, Federal Government,
daily average salary 2.50 «i275
State Government employee, aver- age daily wage 1.25 .1657
Private employee, daily average
salary 1.50 -1698
I have computed the daily earnings of the private em- ployees at $0.1698, because their salaries have been doubled on account of the depreciation of the paper money. The Government has doubled the salaries of the school teachers all over the country, the other employees receiving an in- crease of twenty per cent in the City of Mexico only. Even taking these increases into account, and even if all salaries were doubled, the original salaries and day wages have been so enormously reduced by the depreciation of the currency that all wage earners have practically been reduced to the lowest stages of misery. Let us see what salaries and day wages amount to, computed in corn, which now, more than ever, represents the exclusive, or almost exclusive, article of food. In the first half of March, 1916, the average price of a hectoliter of corn in the most densely populated part of the Republic was 80 pesos Carrancista paper money
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 313
SALARIES AND DAY WAGES COMPUTED IN CORN AT 80 PESOS PER HECTOLITER
Wage Earners Before Ike Redemptory After the Rcdemplory
Revolution Revolution
Peon in the temperate and cold
zone, daily wage 9,248 grammes 3,150 grammes
Skilled workman, daily wage.. 42,188 4>275
Mason in Mexico City 28,125 3*825
Federal Government employee,
average daily wage 93>75o 4.782
State Government employee,
average daily wage 46,875 5,738
Private employee, average daily
wage 56,250 2,869
The foregoing table proves that this revolution for the poor has been a scourge, not a redemption. A family of five, which can live on four daily adult rations, is obliged to sub- sist in a semi-acute state of hunger upon not more than two thousand grammes of corn a day. The Mexican people are very near the semi-acute state of hunger, which can only be endured for a few months; and they are even near the acute state, which kills in a few days. To reach this, thereby com- pleting the work of redemption, all that will be necessary will be one year of poor crops, or that the disproportion be- tween the depreciation of the paper money and the increase in salaries and day wages continue on the same scale, or, more properly speaking, that the actual salaries and day wages continue to decrease at the present alarming rate.
It is not possible at this time to estimate the corn crop gathered in December, 1915, because, although the price of a hectoliter, estimated in gold, is more or less what it was previous to the revolution, when the crop was good, the planter cannot, in case the crops have been only medium or bad, keep the grain stored for fear of its being stolen, and, consequently, sells it as soon as possible. Not until July next shall we know if in the last half of the present year a state of absolute famine will exist in Mexico.
3H WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
NEW DEVICES TO ANNIHILATE THE POOR
After bringing the working classes to the brink of the grave by the reduction in salaries and wages caused by the depreciated currency, the revolutionists issued an order — with a view to ameliorating their condition — in virtue of which all tenants were relieved of the obligation of paying rent when this was below one hundred pesos a month. This order has ruined all small property owners throughout Mex- ico. Those who depended entirely upon their rents for their livelihood are in some cases face to face with absolute star- vation.
It is not possible to fight against plutocracies, and the rich in general, if one cannot count upon men in the Government service whose honesty is beyond question. Otherwise, the rich can easily buy up corrupt officials, making the unfortu- nate public stand the additional cost. The farmers are in league with the Constitutionalist officers, who permit them to raise the price of corn as high as possible, compelling the poor to pay far more than they ever paid during the dictator- ship, which never permitted excessive prices to be demanded for articles of prime necessity. The Constitutionalist sub- ordinate chiefs and officers have confiscated all freight cars, classifying them as dwellings, which are to be used for mil- itary purposes only. A merchant may obtain cars for the transportation of merchandise only by paying the exorbitant sum of five, ten or fifteen thousand pesos paper for each car, an expense that is charged to the consumer.
The revolutionary Government forbids the exportation of grain, cattle, breeding stock, hides, and cotton. But here, too, the Constitutionalist chiefs are in league with the ex- porters, and unblushingly permit them to evade the law, thereby increasing their revenues at the expense of the un- fortunate poor. The Constitutionalist chiefs, with a few rare exceptions, have gone into the field of illegitimate business,
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 315
besides having openly helped themselves to public funds and to every sort of movable and immovable private property they could lay their hands upon. This truly inestimable service of robbing the poor, carried to an extreme never known before, is perfectly logical, because a revolution that has made theft its doctrine, its incentive, its passion, its legislative work, its administrative method, its supreme ideal, its one and only thought, could hardly have produced real statesmen. Its of- ficials are a set of grafters, pure and simple, and public opin- ion stands aghast in the presence of a situation such as that disclosed by this stupendous collection of grafters and crooks of all classes, sizes, races and professions, who pose as a gov- erning body. It has reached a point when to be a revolution- ist is synonymous with being a thief, and even though an oc- casional honest man may be found in the ranks of these so- called reformers, they must be either crazy or strangely dull not to realize that they have lost, or are fast losing, their reputation.
Never have the poor of any nation been so wantonly robbed as have been the Mexicans by their so-called saviors. It passes belief that this work of moral and economic de- struction should have had for its chief protector a President of the United States.
THE PARTITION OF LAND A FIASCO
The responsibility of the Mexican revolutionists and their protectors is immense. Those who have brought about pres- ent conditions in Mexico feel an overwhelming political weight, not that they care about the verdict of history, the judgment of abstract justice, the protests of victims, or the moral and material desolation of their country; but because they know that public opinion, both national and foreign, pos- sesses the suggestive power to implant terror in the heart of armies, demoralize the agents of crime and tyranny, and give
3i6 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
to reactionary movements the strength to conquer. Closely pressed by the searching inquiries of the civilized world, which demands to know by what right such an astounding crime as the destruction of a nation of fifteen millions inhab- itants has been committed, the responsible ones, after much deliberation, decided to give to the world the wonderful se- crets of that revolution, which has had for its component parts vengeance against those who declined to allow them- selves to be robbed, and public and private theft.
We know that the ostensible object of the revolution was the distribution of land among the poor, the destruction of foreign influence in Mexico, the extermination of obscur- antism, and the initiation of various reforms. The agrarian plan is supported by persons who appear to be in good faith, and among these I find four engineers and one professor, constituted into an agrarian commission, who are the authors of a pamphlet entitled A donde vamosf (Where Are We Going?). After reading the pamphlet, I feel obliged to ratify the opinion I have several times expressed, that it is the learned rather than the ignorant who have done Mexico the most harm by attempting to combine their learning and their politics. The authors of the pamphlet I have men- tioned have committed an error common to all mediocre scientists; that is, giving too superficial consideration to seri- ous public and private questions.
In this pamphlet New Zealand is, as usual, brought for- ward as an example of the methods that may be adopted for the partition of land, but the writers have not taken the trouble to study the conditions that prevail in New Zealand. In that country there are magnificent lands, with a climate in every way favorable for the cultivation of grain; there are lands in sections where the rainfall is irregular which are not suitable for the cultivation of cereals, but which afford excellent natural pasture; and there are lands which are not suitable on account of climatic conditions for either
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 317
agriculture or cattle-raising. The perusal of the reports of the various technical and economical commissions, which have directed the New Zealand Government in the distri- bution of the land, leaves no doubt that these commissions advised the Government to distribute only such arable land as had a suitable climate. It never occurred to them to sug- gest that land suitable only for summer pasture should be distributed for purposes of cultivation. Moreover, the lands distributed were virgin, or almost entirely so. It is only necessary for some of our sages who write so learnedly about New Zealand to decide to reform conditions in Mexico for them to reveal their ignorance of actual conditions there. I have made it very clear in Part First that in the Republic of Mexico there are no arable virgin lands in the cold and temperate zones with good climatic conditions. On the contrary, those that possess the best climatic conditions are not suitable for the formation of small landholdings, and are, moreover, almost if not entirely exhausted. For this reason the planters have ceased to cultivate them.
The agricultural conditions in New Zealand and Mexico being very different, it is absurd to try to apply to Mexico rules that have worked successfully in New Zealand. Owing to lack of scientific knowledge on the part of our sages, a frantic state of enthusiasm for the execution of im- possible reforms in favor of the poor has been created. This exists, however, not among the popular rural classes, who know more about the land question than the learned engi- neers and agriculturists, but among the urban popular, sub- popular and middle classes, and in President Wilson's mind and in that of the American public. It is true that in Yuca- tan the land suitable for the cultivation of henequen could be advantageously distributed ; but this area is an insignifi- cant proportion compared to the total of the cold and tem- perate lands. The revolution has presented the agrarian question as a national problem, not one restricted to
3i8 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
Yucatan. The tropical arable lands of Morelos would also be subject to advantageous subdivision, and there must be others similar to these in the Republic. But if the benefit of distribution does not embrace the great majority of the popular rural classes, who are the needy ones, the only con- clusion to be drawn is that the revolution is worthy of con- demnation only, for having brought the unfortunate Mex- ican nation to its present plight of moral and economic misery without offering any adequate recompense for the sacrifices exacted. The distribution of lands has been the concoction of unscientific sages, uneducated visionaries and unpatriotic knaves.
Senor Cabrera has attempted to solve the agrarian ques- tion by reinstating the towns in their original rights over the lands formerly controlled by the municipality. Appar- ently under his plan it is of no consequence whether the lands belong to the planters, to the villages or to the poor farmers. But if, as we now know, the great majority of the lands in the cold and temperate zones are no longer of any value as great, medium or small landholdings, it is nothing short of the most shocking perversity, stupidity or ignorance to inaugurate tremendously destructive conflicts in order to establish the ownership of something that is abso- lutely worthless. I have stated and proved that in case these arable lands, with a climate suitable for the advantageous establishment of small landholdings, had existed, the distri- bution would have been carried out without the shedding of blood, because the few opposers would not even have had recourse to argument, knowing that they could not count upon an appreciable support to oppose the real social and governmental will.
What has been the practical result of this great revolu- tionary promise after twenty months' triumph of the revo- lution? Failure! The law of January 6, 1915, issued by the First Chief, decreeing the reestablishment cf the munici-
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 319
pal ownership of land, is not the fulfillment of this promise, but the making of a new one — also to be broken — because in order to divide the lands it will be necessary for the Con- stitutionalist chiefs to return the lands they have stolen. If the First Chief exacts this they will declare him a traitor to the real and sacred principles of the revolution — public and private pillage — and will either kill him or depose him from his high office. The distribution of lands, that fair promise which has been the fountainhead of this torrent of tragedies, crimes and shamelessness, has been set aside until such time as the First Chief, being transformed into a states- man, will know what he should do — and this will never come to pass.
THE PATRIOTIC ANTI-FOREIGN WAR A FIASCO
The culminating lie — the merciless exploitation of the Mexican people by the cupidity of foreign capitalists — swallowed with all its garnishings by President Wilson, caused him to say to Mr. Samuel G. Ely the on May 23, 1914, in the interview in The Saturday Evening Post from which I have already quoted: "Second — No personal ag- grandizement by American investors or adventures or cap- italists, or exploitation of that country, will be permitted." When he uttered these imposing words President Wilson forgot that for a whole year he had protected the mercenary band of Americans who, in company with the most atrocious of the Mexican bandits, had established in unmolested tran- quillity on United States territory a great market for the disposal of the loot collected all over the downtrodden, blood-stained Republic of Mexico.
I do not know of any greater, more barefaced, more de- grading theft perpetrated against the Mexican people by foreigners than the one I have just mentioned. The revo- lutionists have been '.the great protectors of foreign thieves
320 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
and continue to be so. I have stated, amply substantiating my statement, that during the Porfirian dictatorship almost all the great foreign capital invested in Mexico operated for the good of the people, delivering them from the overwhelm- ing misery that had kept them semi-savage and in a state of anarchy. The assertion that foreign capital, especially American capital, was the vampire that had sucked the blood of the Aztec people to the point of inebriation, was the lie that fomented the Boxer feeling which transformed the heart of the revolution into that of a hyena. It served, as Senor Carranza declared to Senor Aldo Baroni, as an unworthy party weapon for the desperate Constitutionalists when they saw that the public had no use for the Constitution, or for those who proclaimed it.
Immediately after the recognition of this government as a de facto government, Senor Carranza proceeded to keep his promise of preserving the Mexican people independent of foreign capital, which had caused such grave damages to the fatherland, by sending Senor Luis Cabrera, Secretary of the Treasury of the de facto Government, to New York to negotiate a loan of $250,000,000 (for the affairs of state and the needs of the First Chief's friends) with the much- despised foreign banking corporations. The terms proposed were most humiliating and if they had been accepted, Mex- ico would have been placed in very much the same financial position as Egypt. Notwithstanding Senor Cabrera's read- iness to accept stipulated conditions, no matter how hum- bling they might be to the dignity of his country, the bankers explained, as the public knows from the New York press, that the First Chief did not possess the power to contract foreign loans of any kind in the name of the Mexican nation, that the title de facto of itself implied a government of short duration, one that, at best, was destined to exist only until a constitutional form of government could be estab- lished.
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 321
Undaunted by Senor Cabrera's failure, Senor Antonio Manero appeared in the United States to try to negotiate a loan of $50,000,000. This no doubt further impressed the Mexican people with their enviable independence of foreign capital. From the American press we know the result of this transaction. The bankers stipulated as the first condi- tion that all custom house receipts were to be handed over to them, guarantees for the fulfillment of the contract being given by the United States Government, as has been the case in Haiti. The American press announced that Senor Manero accepted the conditions, and the holocaust was pre- vented only because the bankers saw, when the situation was more carefully studied, that the Mexican customs receipts would not equal for a long time to come even the sum neces- sary to cover the obligations solemnly contracted toward the holders of foreign government bonds, and this respon- sibility was recognized as indisputably legitimate by the Constitutionalist Government. Still undaunted, the de facto Government sent Senor Palavicini to New York to cooperate with the Mexican Ambassador, Senor Eliseo Arredondo, to obtain a loan of at least $10,000,000. Once more let us see what the New York press had to say. It informed the American public that the bankers had not hesi- tated to say to the Carranza representatives that it was not possible to lend a single dollar to Mexico, or to go surety for a single rifle or cartridge, as the country's bankruptcy was not only financial but moral, the Carranza Administra- tion having the wTell-established reputation of being an ad- ministration of insatiable thieves.
Everything in the matter of loans undertaken by the de facto Government has been a failure. Even the mea culpa humbly offered to American bankers upon bended knee by the leaders of the movement to make Mexico financially in- dependent of the hateful and anti-patriotic foreign capital, failed. President Wilson's recognition of the de facto Gov-
322 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
ernment did not obtain for it one single dollar, but com- pletely stultified the Constitutionalists, who were already smacking their lips over the prospective haul.
THE REGENERATION OF THE PEOPLE BY MEANS OF THE SCHOOL A FIASCO
It is an indisputable fact that the Porfirian dictatorship established eleven thousand primary lay schools. It is also undeniable that although the people had the right to revolt against the dictatorship, the manner in which the revolt was executed, the frightful means employed, the criminal character of its ideals, the manifestations of hatred against everything that stands for civilization, the savage, prehistoric nature of its political passions, prove either that the people have derived no benefit whatever from these eleven thousand schools, or that their influence has been pernicious. The Argentenian writer, Foppa, commenting upon this deplor- able phenomenon, said that the uprising of the Mexican people was preeminently an uprising against the eleven thousand schools. From the fact that after twenty-five years of school attendance the Mexican people have obtained no better results than a savage revolution, compels one to denounce the schools or the people who attended them. One would naturally cry: No more schools because they are useless, if not actually productive of pernicious results.
When a race loses completely the moral sense that has been formed by centuries of human customs and beliefs; when man unconsciously becomes the implacable enemy of his fellow men, something foreign even to the beast; when a people has lost the instinct of self-preservation, the love of the past, which is the true fatherland, and the respect it should have for the wisdom and beauty it possesses in the present; when it has lost faith in greatness, pity for human suffering, contact with the spiritual atmosphere; when it is atheistic, not because of scientific conviction, but because it
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 323
is on a level with the brutes; when it kills for the sake of killing; when it hates because it is told to do so; when it attacks because it is thrust into the combat; when not even the gratification of vice makes life dear; when everything in it is a mixture of primitiveness and degeneration, then the school must fail, as liberty, religion, democracy, civiliza- tion and patriotism have failed ; only the inexorable law of selection will not fail.
A well-informed Cuban said to me : "In Cuba the schools gain daily in efficiency and the moral sense of the people degenerates. It cannot be doubted that the demo- cratic schools in my dear Cuba are not suited to form democrats." An English pedagogue has asserted that the school which has made the English what they are, perverts the Hindoos. A German pedagogue asserts that each nation should have a system of education suited to its moral and intellectual idiosyncrasies. In Mexico the German system has been tried on the Indians of Vera Cruz; the French on those of Puebla; the American on those of Guerrero; the Italian on those of Zacatecas, and the Ferrer system on those of Chihuahua. The inevitable outcome of this method has been the brutalizing of the Indians. If pedagogy does not take primal matter into consideration, education is not sci- ence but a scourge, the destroyer of customs, of religions, of ideals, leaving the perverted understanding of the inferior race to be filled with the teaching of the incomprehensible and the abstract. This is equivalent to attempting to teach an absolutely illiterate subject arithmetic by presenting to him as an introduction Laplace's Mechanics of the Heavens. There are diverse religions, because there are diverse races, just as there are diverse political constitutions, because there are diverse peoples, and as there is a diversity in the char- acter and extent of criminality and of everything that flows from the diversity of the sub-species developed within the human species.
324 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
As we have seen, and as we shall continue to see, the rev- olutionary program has been a complete failure, without, however, affecting in any wise the progress of the revolu- tion. Although this is not the place to make a study of Mexican pedagogy, it is possible to measure the value of the popular school in Mexico by noting the decisive part taken by school teachers in the revolution. Luis Cabrera, the great intellect of Carrancism, as he has been called, is an ex- schoolmaster, as are also Antonio Villarreal, Constitutional- ist general, ex-governor of the state of Nuevo Leon and ex- president of the Convention of Aguascalientes ; Otilio Mon- tano, Zapatista general and counsellor to the bandit ; Manuel Chao, Villista general and ex-governor of Chihuahua; Brau- lio Hernandez, supporter of the Vasquez revolution and ex- Secretary of Abraham Gonzalez, governor of Chihuahua; Federico Gurrion, the great Tehuantepec agitator who at- tempted to dismember the state of Oaxaca; Figueroa, revo- lutionary leader in the state of Guerrero; Jose Obregon, brother of Alvaro Obregon; Candido Navarro, Maderista leader, who started the revolution in Guanajuato in 1911 and invaded the state of San Luis Potosi; Praxedes Guer- rero, the socialist poet and general, who led the Mago- nista movement in Chihuahua; General Carrera Torres, the most celebrated Constitutionalist leader in the state of San Luis Potosi ; Colonel David Berlanga, an orator and influen- tial agitator, and many other less important ones whose names I do not remember but who were representatives of the Maderista Congress of 1912.
Even if the schools in Mexico had been equal to the work of national regeneration, the present Government is not in a position to spend on schools even one-half what was spent under the dictatorship. In the City of Mexico and in the states o^ Vera Cruz and Yucatan there is a certain show of scholarship which easily deceives fools who mistake card- board houses for marble palaces; but in the remainder of the
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 325
states education is a farce without a trace of the nobility that should characterize it — a whitened sepulchre filled with dead men's bones. It will be a long time before Mexico, so far as education is concerned, will get back to where she was during the dictatorship of Diaz. I should call attention to the fact that neither General Diaz nor General Huerta was ever opposed to the development of public instruction; on the contrary, they furthered it as much as lay in their power, and the revolution can never lay claim to the institution of free, obligatory, lay schools as one of its achievements. If Mexican blood had to be drawn to further the cause of pub- lic education it might just as well have been done with leeches, because recourse to arms was totally unnecessary. It is a significant commentary on the intellectual equipment of the revolutionists that not one of them has thought of making the most trifling sacrifice for the furtherance of ed- ucation.
THE PROSPERITY OF THE WORKING-MAN A FIASCO
The revolution proclaimed the Socialist doctrine of a minimum wage to be fixed by the government, and the promise was fulfilled. This reform, however, has not brought about the desired effects. In Mexico the number of working-men dying of hunger because of lack of work is daily on the increase, as is also the number of those who are returning to their former masters asking for work, quite willing to forego the benefits of the government's reforms in their behalf, and to take any pay their employers may offer. Only in New Zealand has the government dared to fix a minimum rate of wage, and if the measure has not pro- duced the disasters predicted by economists, it is due to the remarkable prosperity of the English colony. There is no other country in the world which has taken upon itself the heavy responsibility of fixing by positive law the minimum
326 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
rate of the day wage. Experts are of the opinion that from an economic standpoint it is an extremely dangerous measure. As our revolutionary intellectuals belong to the mediocre professional class they act more unwisely than the fool, who, knowing himself to be a fool, seeks the advice of those better informed than himself. A positive epidemic of political stu- pidity must be raging when such a measure as the fixing of the minimum wage is adopted in a country, which is on the brink of ruin, and in imperative need of the help of foreign capital to stave off starvation, to reconstruct its shattered fortunes and to enable it to enter once more into the ways of civilization and prosperity. The surest means to drive capital out of a country, unless it is in as flourishing a condi- tion as New Zealand, is undoubtedly the fixing of the mini- mum wage by the government. Foreign and national cap- italists, who have invested money in Mexico in enterprises which cannot easily be abandoned, have been forced to re- sign themselves to the violation of a great economic prin- ciple, that of subjecting wages to the law of supply and demand. But capital is being gradually withdrawn from Mexico, and the capitalist who in other times invested his money there, creating remunerative work, is well aware to- day that the country offers the poorest of all investments.
Such a situation is disastrous for Mexican industry, and especially for the working-man. For him the only alterna- tive is to die of hunger or join the Carrancista army, to be paid the equivalent of the lowest day wage, in depreciated paper money. Even this is precarious because the nation cannot support much longer an army greater than its strength, which is constantly and rapidly diminishing.
OTHER REFORMS ALSO A FIASCO
Senor Jose N. Macias explains to us the remainder of the great reforms which are to effect the redemption of the Mexican people. These are: the freedom of municipalities;
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 327
the independence of the judiciary; the law of divorce and the working-man's compensation law.
The so-called reform granting independence to municipal- ities is nothing more than a long-discarded measure which was found stored away somewhere in the political ware- house, thrown out because of its worthlessness. In 1861 mu- nicipal government was established throughout the Republic, based upon autonomy which was almost equal to sovereignty. The result was disastrous for the great majority of the towns. The municipal presidents, treasurers, and almost all the aldermen began appropriating the municipal revenues, leaving the towns without lighting systems, without schools, without public charities, without food for prisoners, who were discharged in order to cut out this expense, without hygienic improvements of any kind or even the indispensable repairs needed to keep roads and public thoroughfares in a passable condition. The infuriated inhabitants had recourse to the central government of their respective states, petition- ing that the municipalities be deprived of their financial au- tonomy and that, with regard to receipts as well as expendi- tures, their accounts should be subject to the revision and approbation of the State Treasurer.
With regard to the taxes, only five out of the three thou- sand and more municipal treasurers escaped being denounced before the district judges as having appropriated the public funds under their control. It was not the Porfirian dictator- ship that deprived the municipalities of the right to help themselves to the public funds, but the sovereign will of the towns, publicly expressed many years before General Diaz organized his dictatorship. The failure of the free munici- palities was one of the many fiascos which have overtaken the Mexicans in their demented attempt to govern them- selves democratically.
The independence of the judiciary can only be assured — and even then not absolutely — by establishing irremovable
328 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
judgeships, so long as the incumbent's conduct is exemplary; or, at least, by making the term of the chief justice double that of the President. In 1893 the Cientificos struggled to institute constitutional reforms in favor of the irremova- bility of the Federal chief justices. The bill was held up in the Senate by General Diaz after it had passed the House, and it was Don Francisco Madero who later fought this reform, forcing the Senate to reject it in 1911, when it was proposed for discussion. It is evident, then, that it was the revolution which gave this great constitutional reform its death blow in 1911. And after such an exhibition of polit- ical depravity as this, we are told, in 1915, that it was nec- essary to destroy the nation in order to enable the revolution to impose the necessary reform in regard to the independence of the judiciary!
The divorce law will serve many purposes, other than that of conferring happiness upon the poor. It will not redeem them from their misery, neither will it alter their mode of liv- ing. According to the statistics of the Civil Register of the Federal District only nineteen out of every hundred births registered are legitimate ; and if we take into account that the higher classes represent approximately twenty per cent of the population, and that almost all the progeny of that class is legitimate, it follows that almost the entire lower class is of illegitimate origin. Since marriage, owing to lack of mo- rality among the people, is not considered necessary, a di- vorce law would appear to be more or less of a superfluity. On the other hand, in almost all the marriages contracted in Mexico the woman is a Catholic and, as a general thing, firm in adhering to the precepts of the Church which forbid divorce. Moreover, in Mexican society a divorced woman is looked upon in very much the same light as a concubine, and it will be many years before the divorce law will be the law of our social life. One must be utterly bereft of reason to imagine for a moment that the institution of the divorce law
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 329
in Mexico merits one fraction of the sacrifices the revolu- tion has inflicted upon the Mexican people.
The working-man's compensation law is not an unheard- of proposition in Mexico, nor is it being advanced now for the first time. General Bernardo Reyes framed a good law covering accidents to working-men during the dictatorship of General Diaz. In 1908, Sefior Ramon Corral, then Sec- retary of the Interior, commissioned me to draft a complete plan for him of the code governing the working-man's com- pensation law, in so far as it had any bearing upon economic questions. I accepted the task and had almost completed my work when the Madero revolution broke out. While Con- gress was in session, from September 15 to December 15, 1911, bills fairly rained in concerning the working-man's compensation law, child labor, unsanitary working condi- tions, working-men's protective associations, the establish- ment of savings banks, and all manner of laws favorable to the laboring classes that the government of the most civ- ilized industrial nations have adopted in their favor. In September, 1912, the triumph of the revolution was assured, as the Madero faction had an overwhelming majority in the House. The Catholic faction, representing the minority in the House, was in favor of the enactment of a working- man's compensation law, covering all the legitimate claims of the working class, with all the socialist concessions that have been granted to them even in the countries that are most strongly influenced by the doctrine of individualism.
Why did this overwhelming Maderista majority not pass the reforms proposed for the betterment of the condition of the working class? Sefior Ramon Prida has given the cor- rect answer. He says: "Once the representatives were in- stalled, the House took up its work, or to be more exact, in- augurated a campaign of vilification such as has never been witnessed in any other parliamentary body. During the reg- ular session; that is, from September i6th to December I5th,
330 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
nothing for the good of the country was accomplished by the House. It looked as though the representatives had come together for no other purpose than that of vilifying each other and absentees, who could not defend themselves. The chairmen who were elected during September, October, No- vember and December were absolutely impotent to keep the ultra-radicals in check. And to make matters worse, the Government, notwithstanding the unedifying spectacle pre- sented by this body of legislators, called for an extra session of Congress, which, convening in the latter part of Decem- ber, was in session until the overthrow of the Madero Gov- ernment.
"Individually there were many intelligent, educated and even truly patriotic representatives, but the collective work of the body was devoid of effects, and the isolated efforts of the few were lost in that turbulent mob which Senor Gustavo Madero tried in vain to hold in check."1
Senor Prida's words are confirmed by Senor Fernandez Giiell who, as will be remembered, was a fervid Maderista and is now an impassioned Carrancista, so much so that he assures us that Don Venustiano Carranza is "cast in the mould of immortality," and that he shed "a molten tear" upon Madero's grave. He says: "One of the first acts of the new representatives was to raise their salaries from the previous two hundred and fifty pesos monthly to five hun- dred pesos. Nothing was proposed with a view to arrang- ing the difficulties with Zapata in the south, or to solve the problem in the north. The Maderista element rested on its laurels as though contact with power had benumbed its en- ergies. Huerta himself seemed less brilliant and persuasive than upon other occasions." 2
That same revolutionary Maderista majority, which styled itself progressive, which through fear, cupidity, shameless-
1 Ramon Prida, De la Dictadura a la Anarquia, p 409.
2 Fernandez Giiell, Episodios de la Revolution Mexicana, p. 162.
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ness or its inherent capacity for treason, had sanctioned the Huerta coup, had opportunities, when it was converted into a grovelling Huerta instrument, to introduce bills, with Huerta's decided support, for the betterment of the condi- tion of the poor, and was morally obliged to pass the bill introduced into the House during the Huerta administration by Senor Toribio Esquivel Obregon, Secretary of the Treas- ury, asking in the Chief Executive's name for an appropria- tion of several million pesos to buy lands from private indi- viduals to be distributed among the poor. The solution of the agrarian question, as Senor Carranza pretended to under- stand it in 1915, was formerly initiated by General Huerta before the revolutionary House of Representatives, the ma- jorky of whose members were unworthy to represent the na- tion.
I concede that among the military and civilian revolu- tionists there are many who are in good faith, many who have worked, some who have even made sacrifices, for the realization of possible and impossible ideals. Unfortunately for the Mexican people, these representative men are not at the head of the movement; on the contrary, almost all the leaders are representatives of an old element, emanating from the cancerous core of Reyism. The revolution will have to continue until it produces great moral effects which will eliminate all this decayed political vegetation and give the new element a chance to reveal itself in all its power, pro- vided that this also be not of the same category.
THE REVOLUTION'S FINANCIAL FIASCO
The Diaz financial administration, directed by Senor Limantour, was a model of morality, method, science and results achieved. The revolution declared it a national scourge and destroyed it, only to replace it with a peculating, disordered, miserable, rapacious, inept substitute. In order
332 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
to prove the truth of this declaration it is only necessary, among other facts, to call attention to one. Every bond is- sued by the Diaz Government, of any kind whatsoever, was quoted, if it were redeemable in gold, above par in all the great markets of the world ; the paper money issued by the de facto Government is worth at present two cents gold for one hundred cents paper (Havana quotation, March 22, 1916). These data unquestionably reveal that the de facto Government will not be long in swelling the number of the victims; its pulse can no longer be felt even with the stetho- scope.
In a few words I shall present the financial status of Mexico :
Annual Expenditures
For the interest and payment of the recognized consolidated debt and the probable floating debt up to date $45,000,000 gold
Bureaucratic salaries 40,000,000 '
Estimate for army expenses at the rate of $0.50 gold per head, further estimate for chiefs, officers, equipment, not counting the graft necessary for the maintenance of the de facto Government 54,000,000 "
Indispensably need to reconstruct and main- tain railroads 10,000,000 "
Total $149,000,000 gold
I do not believe that the present Federal receipts aggre- gate $30,000,000, notwithstanding the fact that the de facto Government counts as the chief source of revenue the whole- sale robbery of the Yucatecan planters, who are obliged to deliver, under pain of confiscation and destruction of their maguey fields, one-half of the integral value of their produc- tion. The commission to regulate the price of henequen has been converted into the commission to continue the spolia- tion of the Yucatecan planters, who are the producers of the
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 333
valuable fiber. We see, then, that the basis of the Carran- cista finances, true to the principle of the glorious revolu- tion, is nothing but barefaced graft. With regard to the state finances, a complete state of bankruptcy exists in all. Each governor has faculties to dispose of all the state rev- enues as he may see fit, for the public good or for that of his own private purse. Needless to say, the good of the private purse predominates.
During the dictatorship, even when one-third of the gov- ernors were dishonest, the dictator never permitted a state of public bankruptcy to exist, and, consequently, every one marched in good order, paying employees and meeting all his obligations. Some of the states, notably Yucatan, Guana- juato, Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, Chihuahua, Queretaro and Nuevo Leon, had considerable reserve funds. To-day every- thing has disappeared ; a universal state of total bankruptcy exists, which will not be remedied for many years. Mean- while, the bureaucracies imbibe miasmic poisons, live upon typhus, and, bereft of everything but their just indignation, have nothing to look forward to but greater sufferings until they reach the final, fatal denouement.
T
CHAPTER II THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM
MACHIAVELLI AND CARRANZA
HE author of The Prince has given simple, exact
hand" administration in countries where it is needed. Machiavelli separates the people into two classes: First, the vast, peaceful, servile class which has the power to revolt, because servility does not preclude the right possessed by every being to defend himself when the need arises; second, the politicians, engrossed in their task of obtaining control of the supreme power so as to mercilessly exploit the people.
The generator of public opinion is the people, even when it is a servile people; and public opinion is always sovereign even when its influence produces a different result from that which emanates from a free people. Public opinion finally ends by terrorizing tyrants, spreading panic among their supporters, bringing about their defection, and induc- ing them to take vengeance against the man they have up- held. The "iron hand" should guard above all against arousing the odium of public opinion which, after the coup de main, is the favorite political weapon for overthrowing dictators.
The "iron hand," in order to win and keep the good opin- •ion of the masses, who justly demand that they be governed in conformity with the state of civilization they possess, should protect them against the oppression of malefactors; should respect civil rights, at least in that proportion which the people have heretofore enjoyed in conformity with their
334
THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 335
traditions; should strive to supply the people with an easy means of earning a livelihood, which can best be done by furthering the economic progress of the country, and, finally, should establish a sound financial administration and see that at least tolerable justice be meted out by the courts, especially to the lower classes. This is all that is necessary to insure for a dictator their adhesion, which is the best de- fense against sudden coups. In fact, if we go back to the Roman Empire, wrhich existed for three hundred years and which employed regicide and militarism as the means of eliminating tyrants, we shall find that seven emperors, Augustus, Tiberius, Adrian, Trajan, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius and Pertinax — the latter the only exception to the rule in point of length or reign — collectively held the power for more than half of the three hundred years of the empire's existence. These seven emperors merited the sup- port of public opinion, whereas the other thirty-eight were put out of the way by force, as a rule, by assassination.
Let us see how Carrancism stands in the light of public opinion. Instead of protecting the people against male- factors, it has given the latter its assured protection against any resistance the people might offer. The people were dis- armed and thus made the helpless victims of this criminal band. The civil rights of a people demand respect for religion and private property; the inviolability of personal liberty; the sacredness of the home ; public and private morals ; the free- dom to work, and respect for the nation's good name. Car- rancism has disregarded all these. It has been the implac- able persecutor of the Catholic religion, almost exclusively the religion of the Mexican people; it recognizes outside its own ranks no private property rights, either among the rich or among the poor; it violates all personal liberty, every one, from its point of view, being the slave of the armed bandits of the north ; it disregards public and private morals, all women being the prey of its lust; it has substituted
336 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
for the free right to work, the "free right" to be a Car- rancista soldier; it has dragged the name of Mexico in the mire, until to-day the foreign nations want the United States to intervene by force of arms, and, if necessary, wipe Mexico as a nation off the face of the map. During the latter years of the Diaz dictatorship, Mexico had attained a high place in the estimation of the nations of the world, as our Cen- tennial Celebration in 1910 proved; Carrancism has re- duced it to its present plight.
Instead of building up the resources of the country, Car- rancism has countenanced the wanton destruction of prop- erty and of the capital that made it possible for the people to provide for their own support by work. Instead of estab- lishing a sound financial administration and a tolerable ad- ministration of justice, it has based its finances upon theft, as, for example, the coercing of the henequen planters in Yucatan and the cotton planters in Torreon, the stealing of cattle on the frontier, and the spoliation of everything else worth taking in other parts of the Republic. At the pres- ent time in every newspaper article, pamphlet, book, or ad- dress relative to Mexico we find the truth — that is, that the practical principles of the Mexican revolution, implac- ably carried out, have been vengeance and theft.
As humanity progressed the "iron hand" had to progress also, and the methods that held good in Machiavelli's time do not hold good now. In Latin-America it has become a fixed principle that every dictatorship, however strict, should respect the representative democratic form, and this prin- ciple has given rise to certain passive political rights. Dur- ing the strictest Caesarian epoch of General Diaz's dictator- ship all wrere at liberty to declare themselves anti-Porfiristas, and no one was molested so long as his attitude did not take the form of an actual rebellious and seditious newspaper campaign. The most notable example of this policy is that of the historian and politician, Don Fernando Iglesias Cal-
THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 337
deron, who was General Diaz's political enemy for thirty- three years. During that time he wrote in a serious and dignified vein everything that he wished, and was never in any way punished or persecuted. Senor Iglesias Calderon exercised active political rights, and those who exercised passive rights, manifesting simply dissatisfaction, were never molested. The Diaz dictatorship never punished or perse- cuted any writer who criticized the Administration in its administrative, economic, legal or even political aspect. Senor Luis Cabrera, the most implacable of the Carrancistas, enjoyed this liberty under the dictatorship. In Mexico to- day neither the Mexican nor the foreigner is allowed the passive political right of not being an adherent of Carran- cism. He is obliged under pain of arrest, confiscation of property and even death to be a Carrancista. Not to be one is equivalent to being the revolution's enemy, and that revolution does not tolerate enemies but aims to foment the greatest amount of hatred against them and even to ex- terminate them.
The Carrancista Government is a government of terror of the most repugnant type and of the species most abhorrent to twentieth-century civilization. There is nothing new or unusual in this assertion. All humanity bears witness to it.
But under no consideration is the revolution to be de- famed. It is wise, it is reflective, it is just! The Mexican people declared tyrants the sixty- four viceroys sent by Spain ! In reality not one of them merited the title, and most of them were distinguished for their honesty and kindness. The Mexican people declared tyrants the loyal and energetic Victoria, the weak and likable Guerrero, the honest Busta- mante, the just Arista, the reasonable and moderate Juarez, the exact Lerdo de Tejada, and General Diaz, who, al- though a despot, deserved that the Mexican people should accept my estimate of his administration: "A government with a minimum of terror and a maximum of kindness."
338 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
Nevertheless, on May 24, 1911, when he took refuge in his home surrounded by some of the members of his own family, and one or two friends, who endeavored to relieve his moral and physical suffering, although the weight of his eighty years pressed heavily upon him, although the heart that throbbed in his weather-beaten breast was the same that had made him a hero in a war that stemmed a foreign invasion, although his country was indebted to him . for more bless- ings than curses, the filthy, political rabble placed itself at the head of a ferocious mob, seeking the blood of an old man whom history, notwithstanding his faults, will absolve. But the revolution is wise and just; we must bend the knee and submit to its decrees! As the people have ruth- lessly attacked eminent men, characterizing them as tyrants and tearing them to pieces without mercy, justice demands that these people should get a lesson, and be made to under- stand what real tyranny is. Diaz was overthrown. Ma- dero, kind and honorable, was also declared a tyrant. Huerta appeared, like a somber Caesar of Rome's decadent days. He was discarded and the revolution produced Car- ranza, a thousand times more tyrannical than Huerta. Carranza failing to satisfy the people, the revolution — the supreme teacher — will impose Obregon, who, in turn, will be harsher than Carranza. The revolution had destined the nation for the Caesarism of Villa, and it was what the in- surgent class deserved. The people are beginning now to know what real tyranny is, and if they survive they will know the measure of deference, respect, and kindness that should be shown to really eminent rulers. There should be changes in the administration, it is true, because power enervates, but it should not be done with infamy and dis- honor. A patriot should be removed without sacrificing patriotism. A government based upon terror is a weak government, because, sooner or later, it ends by terrorizing even the tyrant and his paid assassins. It is evident that
THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 339
this terror has already taken possession of Senor Venustiano Carranza. He cannot remain long in one place; he travels not for amusement, but to flee from himself; he is beginning to be obsessed with the thought of himself. The blood that has been spilt in his name makes him believe that his own will soon be called for; the tears of that people whom he offered to make happy may be converted from one moment to another into bullets to annihilate him; the ruins of his country curse him as they crumble to pieces, and even the echo of misfortune and pain has for him the significance of the fatal summons. His terrors have been further increased by the ominous glances of fifteen million Mexicans which say to him: "That is right! Continue also to be a traitor to your country!"
Senor Carranza's supremacy over his rivals in the pres- ent chaos and anarchy that reigns in Mexico can be easily explained. In Mexico politics are anti-patriotic, being sim- ply the ebullition of personalism. Zapata is not a likely subject for the development of personalism. He has no wealth with which to buy friends and partisans in propor- tion with what he can distribute. He is the real apostle. He despoils the rich for the benefit of the poor. He con- fiscates plantations, not to add to his own private property, but to divide and distribute them among the poor farmers, fulfilling the promises he has given. His party has no sine- cures to offer. It will not tolerate the violation of the civil rights of the people. There is morality, justice, order, rights to be respected and duties to be fulfilled. The In- dian follower of Zapata is not his slave, as Senor Palavicini is Carranza's, and as Senor Rafael Zubaran will be Obre- gon's, when the latter believes the opportune moment has come to betray his chief. Zapatism being what it is, a truly barbaric, Aztec organization, cannot attract the rotten poli- ticians of the intellectual proletariat or the Constitutionalist banditti.
340 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
Following the lead of the French Revolution, under the protection of the Villistas and the Zapatistas, a rare political entity — the Sovereign National Convention — was formed. In a country where there is no strength outside of the policy governed by personalism, this was destined to fail ignomini- ously and, as a conventional government is the most imper- sonal of all governments, it could hope to have but few partisans, and provisional ones at that.
If one of the First Chief's friends wins a battle, he gives him one, two, three or more million pesos (paper), a fine country house, valued at no less than one million dollars gold; ten or twelve town residences in the most fashionable quarter, and one hundred women, chosen from among the most beautiful and attractive of the Republic. A conven- tion expresses its appreciation by a vote of thanks, a medal, a diploma, or at most it may decree that the victor's name be inscribed in letters of gold upon the tablet in the conven- tion hall. The supreme reward is to declare the hero de- serving of his country's consideration, leaving him, however, to die of hunger or to live upon the alms of the friends who flee from him when the opposing party gets into power and brands him a traitor, meriting the opprobrium of humanity. A flatterer may hang around a convention for twenty years without even getting a letter-carrier's job out of it. Imper- sonal governments are not susceptible to the blandishments that turn the heads of personal rulers.
On the other hand, conventions, like all sovereign assem- blages, are merciless in decreeing death penalties, confisca- tion of property, and the most atrocious vengeance against the superior men of the nation, because, as all assemblages are formed from the mediocre political element, the assem- bly's enemies are the eminent men of the nation and, by a natural inference, necessarily the country's enemies as well.
Personalism does not enter much into Villa's make-up, because it is debatable whether or not he is a person. If
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he is, he is not one whose friendship can be counted upon. Studying Villa's conduct, it is evident that not one of the intellectuals who surrounded him ever had any great in- fluence over him. Villa's favorites were always the most terrible of the bandits: Fierro, Rodriquez, Urbina and Banda. In Villa's circle no one was sure of his life because not only the chief himself, but any of his favorites, had the right personally to take the life of any one who displeased him, no matter how insignificant the cause might be. Villa gave plantations, houses, jewelry, and money, but later on he would take them back to bestow them upon some new favorite. There is not a single one of Villa's favorites who really became rich and retained for any length of time a re- spected and remunerative position. Any tale carried by a busybody — and scandal mongers abound in these political coteries — was enough to cost the defenseless victim his head.
Senor Carranza, on the contrary, is an ideal exponent of personalism. He is constant to his friends, slow to give credence to talebearers, generous almost past belief in recom- pensing services, and above all in rewarding adulation. He pays his debts of gratitude at a high rate of interest, and is constant toward the faithful. In a word, and to use a Mexican expression, Carranza is what the personal politicians call "un a?niffo pare jo" (a friend on the level) ; and for politicians with great and unbridled ambition he possesses the advantage of being as manageable as an organ-grinder's monkey.
The amount expended by Senor Carranza upon his friends and partisans has been simply enormous. In seventeen months, deducting only what has been spent upon armament and munitions, and the small amount distributed among the lower bureaucracy, he has given to his friends more than 700,000,000 pesos paper, produced by his unique little money-making machine, besides $20,000,000 gold, stolen from the Yucatecan planters, $5,000,000 gold from the cot-
342 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
ton growers, and $3,000,000 gold, from the oil companies. Great herds of cattle, enormous quantities of hides, cof- fee and every kind of merchandise, houses and plantations, valued at not less than 300,000,000 pesos, and all the state and municipal revenues, have also been distributed among them, his friends being constituted absolute owners of the lives, honor and revenues of the people. I do not believe that among modern rulers, even including those of the lux- urious oriental nations, there ever has been a sultan, kalif, emperor, great lama, great chief or great Latin-American liberator who has given more wealth to his partisans than Senor Venustiano Carranza has distributed among his friends, and who at the same time has permitted them to commit as great a number of crimes and acts worthy only of irrational brutes.
It is quite evident that Senor Carranza has not assimi- lated the dictatorial method. Terror and corruption, as is well known, are the infallible and indispensable arms of all Caesarian governments. But the indispensable condition for Caesarism is a Caesar, and in the very nature of things he must be supreme. No Caesar or dictator, worthy of the name, would consent to be the lap-dog of his favorites. In modern times Cromwell and Napoleon I were generous pro- tectors of their partisans, but never consented to be bossed by them. Juarez and Diaz never had favorites and were always their own masters. The chief who permits himself to be bossed can never govern, and serves only as the instru- ment which makes the public service the mistress of the military, as well as of the frock-coated soldiery.
Senor Carranza has not understood that terror is a means applied to politicians by governments when corruption has failed to subjugate them, or when they put an unheard-of price upon their submission. He has applied terror not to the politicians of his party, but to the peaceful, honest, hard- working people, who would be satisfied with a few civil
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rights which would allow them to live as frugally or mis- erably as they have lived for centuries past.
The generosity that has created for Don Venustiano Car- ranza such a powerful party of personal adherents will lead ultimately to disorder, and the collapse will precipitate Senor Carranza and his partisans into the abyss; that is, if the latter have not already turned upon him and betrayed him in conformity with the code of honor binding politicians in general, and those of Latin-America in particular.
Without the abundant issue of paper money the revolu- tion would not have attracted to itself this immense follow- ing. However, the issue of such paper money is not an inexhaustible resource. When those who employ it do not know how to manage it and to put on the brakes in time, a complete state of bankruptcy ensues, absolutely destruc- tive of political and social order, reacting principally upon the authors of the catastrophe. The paper money has gone down as low as two cents gold for every one hundred cents paper (March 25, 1916). One short step more and Car- rancism will plunge into the dark, fathomless abyss, as a torpedoed ocean liner heaves and disappears beneath the waves.
As Senor Carranza has not been a disciplinarian, but a coddler of bandits, in order to secure at least their nominal recognition of him as their First Chief, with the waning of his material prosperity — the source of his power — he will have to flee from his own coterie in order to escape being put to death, according to the rules of the Barbary pirates: "When the captain is of no further use, he is to be hung to the top of the main mast."
A COUNTRY HONEYCOMBED BY THEFT
Taking into consideration the pharisaical nature of the de facto Government, no possible rational motive can be
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found for supposing that it can survive more than six months longer.
Putting aside the great events that bear some relation to historical precedents, and coming down to the level of home politics, the conviction of the impossibility of the perma- nancy of the Carranza dictatorship is forcibly driven home.
At present there are two great political parties in Mexico, irreconcilable and not to be dominated, so far as the fierce conflict of cupidity and baseness is concerned : first, those who have stolen much and who want to steal more ; second, those who have not had the opportunity to steal and are fairly rabid to join those sordid ranks. The latter embraces also those who have only been able to steal moderately, or those who, having stolen much, have squandered the fruits of their spoliation. The words of the French publicist, whom I have previously quoted, are realized in Mexico now as never before: "The political problem in Latin- America is fundamentally a problem of public thieving." The Mexican political problem is fundamentally, formally, absolutely, rel- atively, in its length, breadth and depth, in every respect in fact, a problem of public thieving, because the revolution has put the stamp of its approval upon it, making both public and private theft a respected, sacred, political and patriotic proceeding. In Mexico to steal is to live; not to steal is to fall into the pit dug for cowards and honest men, and the hope of stealing is implanted as deeply in the soul of the revolutionist as the hope of heaven in the Christian's soul.
The dictatorship of Senor Carranza seems to count upon but few propitious circumstances. Napoleon I defined Caesarism as "the struggle of the ambition of one against the ambition of all." The "ambition of all" has passed and is passing through a tremendous crisis in Mexico. During the Diaz dictatorship the country's problem of public thieving was, on the whole, satisfactorily solved in favor of the na- tion. There was corruption but, as I have proved, it was less
THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 345
in Mexico than in any other Latin-American country, the Diaz administration being a model in this respect.
The Reyista press aroused the envy of the middle class, especially that of the educated proletariat, and the general, accepted concept of General Diaz's Government was that it was a band of thieves, lead by Limantour. Limantour was never a thief, and many persons, Mexicans as well as foreigners, are now convinced that this is true-. He ener- getically fought and prevented almost all the dishonest schemes projected by "patriots"; he waged war unto death against the most dexterous and obstinate thieves; he ren- dered incalculable services to his country; and, nevertheless, his large estates in Mexico have been confiscated. A plot was on foot to assassinate him when Madero triumphed, and, even to-day, if he were captured he would be executed at once, the only grievance against him being that he did not permit those to steal who to-day are thirsting for gold and for vengeance against those who dared to hold back this army of Constitutionalist rapacity.
But the revolution is great and noble and we must once more bend the knee and kiss its hand, that blood-stained hand that is licked by a miserable and starving nation ! The revolu- tion has avenged Limantour, the dictator, his administration. It was the well-paid, well-fed, lazy bureaucratic middle class, assured of a roseate future in view of the abundant vintage to be pressed from the juicy budget, that was most indignant against the imaginary thieves. The bureaucrat of those days was the type of the lotus eater, inviolable in his blissful egotism. The bureaucrat of to-day is an emaciated, mangy spectator of universal spoliation, of veritable public and private theft, of that theft which swallows bureaucratic sal- aries and which hourly submerges the bureaucracy more and more in the terror of abject want, and brings it nearer to death by starvation. And to think that in the decadent days of the dictatorship, General Diaz should have countenanced
346 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
the protests, the hypocritical judgments, the paroxisms of outraged virtue, hysterical envy and wounded patriotism, and all that program of vilification which was carried on against the Cientificos! To-day theft is the right of the conqueror, the recompense of his crimes, the only constitutional law, and the envious, the honorable, the poor, the rich and above all the cowards, must do homage to it under pain of death. To-day mock virtue does not parade, campaigns of vilifica- tion are not inaugurated, nor do the bells of public opinion peal forth denunciations of the dishonest Cientificos. To-day one must die a cowardly death, overcome by the anaesthesia of profound abjection, or gagged by the filthy hands of ban- dits. There can be no doubt that the revolution has been justice-dealing. Against the immense imaginary theft of the dictatorship, we have the barefaced, noisy, feverish, brutal, prehistoric robbery of Constitutionalism. The calumniators of the Porfirian Administration are satisfied; the revolution has been an excellent teacher. Let us ponder its lessons !
During the Porfirian regime there was only one key to the paradise of political theft, and that was the consumma- tion of dirty business transactions by means of the contract system, the system that in Cuba is colloquially called fflos chivos" (the goats). Theft was possible only by means of extortion. To-day peculation is the bloom to be plucked from the administration, without prejudicing the normal de- velopment of the contract system. Formerly theft had pene- trated into the judiciary by means of the coercion of higher authority. To-day coercion is not needed to convert the courts into robbing machines. In all civil or penal judg- ments the judge asks which of the contending parties is a Cientifico ; that is, which has the greatest amount of portable wealth and, therefore, the greater responsibility as the people's enemy. Once this important legal point has been settled, the Cientifico is immediately condemned. Such is the Roque Estrada code. To-day all private property is under the law
THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 347
of confiscation or supervision. Everything that has any eco- nomic, moral or intellectual value is listed as subject to con- fiscation or destruction. This admirable anarchistic ma- chine, consumer of the last cent, the last honest man, the last trace of social life, is called pre-Constitutionalism, and was, it seems, invented by Senor Luis Cabrera.
The position of a dictator in the face of this pre-Constitu- tionalist machine can now be understood. This patriotic in- vention has increased ambition one hundredfold. Every bandit leader, with his following of frock-coated bandits, knows that if he triumphs he will enjoy a delicious period of pre-Constitutionalism in which he and his friends can help themselves to everything there is to take, assassinate all their personal enemies, and even their troublesome friends; and, happiness once secured, the era of Constitutionalism will dawn to consolidate all the rapine of pre-Constitutionalism and absolve from its responsibilities. Mexican politics have been renewed, reformed, intensified, strictly adapted to a chronic and mortal state of anarchy, and all this marvellous transformation is due to the invention of pre-Constitutional- ism!
ANOTHER GRAVE OBSTACLE CONFRONTING THE CARRANZA DICTATORSHIP
The intrepid and honorable Porfirista general, Senor Do- nato Guerra, with the unreserved frankness of a soldier, de- clared in September, 1872, when Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, a civilian, was raised to the presidency by process of law, that the army would never tolerate as president of Mexico any one but a military man, because the fatherland being heroic only a hero could govern it. Consequently, whether they liked it or not, the Mexican people would have to be ruled by the patriotic laws of heroism. This doctrine agrees with that of the Colombian military president, who said: "These
348 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
countries (the Latin-American nations) belong to the strong."
From 1821 to 1914 there have been only three Constitu- tionalist civilian presidents in Mexico: Benito Juarez, Se- bastian Lerdo de Tejada and Francisco I. Madero. All three had the army for their deadly enemy. Juarez died be- fore his overthrow was accomplished, but the downfall of both Lerdo de Tejada and Madero was brought about by the army. Bearing this national tradition in mind, it seems almost impossible that Senor Venustiano Carranza, who is not a military man, can hold for long the loyalty of the Constitutionalist army; all the more as this army thinks it- self more military than the German army, and, like the latter, does not understand that it could have a civilian for a Kaiser. The Constitutionalist army resents not only that a civilian should be president of the Republic, but that he should presume to be anything more than a dragoon's boot- black or a mule in the artillery train. The Constitutionalist revolution was launched especially against the extreme mil- itarism represented by General Victoriano Huerta, but, as in this redemptory revolution all the reforms conceived by the revolutionists have been fiascos, it turns out that the redemp- tion from militarism has produced a reactionary militarism bordering upon that of Attila's time. Under these condi- tions the dictatorship of a civilian of Senor Carranza's stamp is just as logical as the successful operation of an ice plant i» the sun.
Senor Carranza bears the title of General decreed by him- self and even by the revolutionary formulary, but neither military men nor civilians, so far as that is concerned, con- sider him a military man. The best proof of this assertion, which implies such grave consequences, is that Senor Car- ranza's most ardent admirers, who are trying by every pos- sible means to heighten his prestige, never speak of him as a great military hero. Quoting from his panegyrists we find
THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 349
the following: ."He is the man of the revolution" (Pala- vicini) ; "The living symbol of the aspirations of the down- trodden masses" (R. Pesqueira) ; "The prototype of the re- formers"; "The leading man of Mexico" (J. N. Macias) ; "The divine breath of the fatherland" (P. Martinez) ; "The genius that has inspired sacrifices for the fatherland" (E. Gomez Caso) ; "He is cast in the mould of immortality and shed a molten tear upon Madero's grave" (R. Fernan- dez Giiell) ; "The everlasting idol of free peoples" (R. Rivera) ; "The real arbiter of our future destinies" (Pedro Lamicq) ; "The pure fire of patriotic souls"; "Universal heir of the granite-like soul of the sublime Juarez" (C. Dominguez) ; "Great prophet"; "Great statesman who be- fore long will surprise the New World"; "Patrician soul"; "Luminous talent, and above all he is — The Man!" (Santos Chocano) ; "The vindication of rebellion"; "The brilliancy of patriotism"; "The diamond-like purity of the national ideals" (M. Fernandez Cabrera).
In all this psalter of Carrancista praises we do not find such expressions as "the flaming sword," "the thunderbolt of war," "the terror of the furies," indicating that any martial traits are included in the concept of the First Chief. Even supposing that Carranza were a general in reality, and not one simply by courtesy, he does not possess the personal mag- netism indispensable to a great leader. The country needs a dictator as great as the greatness of the misfortune that is submerging it, and it is indispensable that he should be a hero possessing the magnetic qualities of a Cromwell or a Napoleon I — such heroes, in short, as Mexico herself has produced: Morelos, Iturbide, Santa Anna, Miramon, Por- firio Diaz, and Villa among his bandit followers. Obregon has not as yet displayed his power completely to dominate the Constitutionalist army, or even the whole of the western branch, but he is the only military man at this time who has
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enough prestige among his followers to attempt the pacifica- tion of the country upon a somewhat rational basis.
No class, especially the military, can stand Senor Car- ranza as dictator or as president of the Republic because he lacks the indispensable qualities for a Mexican dictator. Every one in Mexico (except the bandits who are profiting by anarchy) wants peace; but not the peace of the Asiatic slave of three thousand years ago ; not the Carrancista peace, which is nothing but anarchy whitewashed into a de facto Government, much less the peace imposed by President Wil- son. Carranza is simply a business proposition, and a fairly good one at that, so long as the financial and economic con- ditions in the country permit of the co-existence of social life with the disorder and pillage raging everywhere.
OBREGON'S COUP
National and foreign opinion looks for the Obregon coup as an inevitable outcome in the evolution of the present an- archistic situation in Mexico. This can be predicted with almost mathematical precision from the precedents of uni- versal as well as Mexican history. General Guadalupe Vic- toria, the hero of the War of Independence, associated with General Santa Anna, revolted against the Emperor Iturbide and won the supreme power by means of a military coup. General Miguel Bravo, also a hero of the War of Independ- ence, revolted against President Victoria but without suc- cess, and another Independence hero, General Vicente Guer- rero, carried his revolt against Victoria to a successful ter- mination. General Anastasio Bustamante, in turn, ousted General Guerrero from the presidential chair by force. General Santa Anna, the "military genius," by means of a military coup overthrew President Bustamante in 1832 and again in 1841.
Santa Anna's great friend, General Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga, in his capacity of "military genius," betrayed him
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by means of a military coup, and General Gabriel Valencia retaliated by overthrowing Paredes y Arrillaga to reinstate Santa Anna, who returned from exile to assume the power in virtue of the Guadalajara coup executed in his favor. General Ignacio Comonfort, the "military genius" of the Plan de Ayutla, was loyal to President Juan Alvarez, but General Manuel Doblado, Comonfort's associate, initiated the revolt of San Luis Potosi, and President Alvarez pru- dently resigned and withdrew to his estates in the south.
General Felix Zuluaga, intimate friend of Comonfort's, betrayed him through the Tacubaya coup, and General Miguel Miramon, the brilliant "military genius," turned against Zuluaga and overthrew him. If the French had not appeared in 1862, General Gonzalez Ortega, the daz- /ling "military genius," would have started a revolt against President Benito Juarez. General Porfirio Diaz, recognized a "military genius" in 1869, launched his Plan de la Nona, and would unquestionably have overthrown Juarez if the latter had not been called to his final accounting, dying on July 1 8, 1872. As the "military genius" of the day, General Porfirio Diaz was able to carry out his coup against President Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, and by this means reached the presidency in 1876. General Bernardo Reyes, converted into the "military genius" of the day by the power of the anti-Cientifico press, prepared to revolt against Gen- eral Diaz, but his courage failed him at the critical moment and he fled, leaving the apostle, Francisco Madero, heir to the carefully prepared revolution. Pascual Orozco's flam- ing sword, or to be more exact, flaming rifle, won the victory for Madero, thereby earning the title of "military genius," and the consequent obligation of revolting against Madero. "The Apostle" was saved by Huerta's sword, and his vic- tories over Orozco proclaimed him the "military genius" of the day. Huerta, following historic precedent, betrayed Madero and permitted the latter's Reyista and Felicista en-
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emies to put him to death. The "military genius" Villa betrayed Carranza, and in the natural order of things Obre- gon will be obliged to betray his chief.
Machiavelli takes up the relations between the Caesar and the "military genius" and finds that they are incompatible with harmony. The only logical solution is the recognition of the inalienable right of the "military genius" to be the Caesar. The testimony of history constantly reminds the Caesar that if there is a "military genius" in the field he may eventually overthrow him, and perhaps put him to death. The informer — odious but indispensable to the existence of Cassarism — daily carries tales to the Caesar of the conspira- cies of the "military genius" even when no such conspiracies exist. The informer must be abundantly supplied with the very marrow of calumny, and he chooses the unfortunate "military genius" as the base of supplies, even though the lat- ter may have no personal ambitions. The historic phrase (ftu quoque Marce Brute fill mi ex Us es" attributed to Caesar, has remained the somber formula of the general evolution of Caesarian forms of government when the Caesar is not a good judge of men, and should be his parting words as he falls, stabbed through the heart by the hand of the traitor. But in Latin-America the dictator, instead of cherishing the "mil- itary genius" as a son, detests him and endeavors to reverse the order, making Brutus fall by the hand of Caesar. Ac- cording to Machiavelli, and in this he is correct, the Caesar's life is as much in danger at the hands of the "military genius" as the life of the latter is in danger at the hands of the Caesar. On the other hand, when public opinion has pronounced against the emperor it looks for a deliverer at any cost, and if at that moment there is a military hero to turn to, it proceeds to arouse his ambition, to hypnotize him, to convince him, in order to induce him to carry out the inex- orable law of nations ruled by dictators: to the victor be- long the spoils. If the "military genius" does not respond,
THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 353
he is branded a coward, unpatriotic, despicable. The Caesar, on his side, devotes himself to nullifying these efforts, to postponing the inevitable, and if possible to putting an end to the "military genius." Nothing is left to the latter but to follow historical precedent, or to end like Belisarius, the attractive hero of the Eastern Empire, a wandering beggar, blind and forgotten.
Peace in Mexico cannot be founded on the Carranza- Obregon formula, which, tested sociologically, gives a blood- and-death reaction. It is true that in Mexico we have had the example of General Sostenes Rocha, who cleaved to Pres- ident Benito Juarez with the loyalty of Agrippa for Augus- tus; but it must not be forgotten that Rocha's devotion to Juarez partook of the nature of a cult. To him Juarez was a demi-god; whereas, according to certain information that has filtered through the pompous phrases of the Carrancista press, and above all from the declarations of some of the rev- olutionary chiefs, those of a Sonora colonel in particular, it is evident that Carranza is not his subordinate's idol. Ac- cording to this colonel, Don Venustiano Carranza is only "a poor man" in General Obregon's eyes, soaked in flattery and adulation, the greater part of which has been paid for by the First Chief himself from his substantial "reptile fund."
Even in the event that Obregon caved in, as Reyes did in 1909, he would always have a successor, because one of the most formidable enemies to Senor Carranza's ambition is militarism, irreconcilable in its attitude against civilian pres- idents, and especially against a civilian who has not, as was said of President Lerdo de Tejada, the "sun for a brain."
PRESIDENT WILSON'S APOSTASY AND THE REFORMERS
In every body of men credited with great virtue there is always a certain number of hypocrites. In every body of
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unprincipled politicians, boasting of sublime humanitarian principles, there is always a certain number of sincere men, and some of them may even touch the heights of real sub- limity. In view of this fact we are obliged to accept the presence of a certain number of truly apostolic men among the revolutionists, even though they may be thieves, because it is possible to be an apostle even if one be a thief. The real apostle who is also a fanatic is dangerous, because he exer- cises a power akin to the divine over the masses, as is ex- emplified by Zapata's influence over his own race. Even though President Wilson captures and executes his ffex-buen amigo" (ex-good friend), the bandit Villa, Villism, instead of dying out with its creator, will take the form of a popular religious cult which will impregnate with fanaticism all the poor to whom the Constitutionalists have preached the dog- ma that this revolution was being fought expressly to make the poor happy. The poor have understood what they have seen; that is, that although the ostensible reason of the spo- liation of the rich was to benefit the poor, the Constitutional- ists have not lived up to their promises; what they have stolen, which includes all that the poor possessed, they have pocketed.
The unfortunate Mexican feels that he actually has been robbed by his apostles, who have lost all standing among the people. They are looked upon as the real enemies of the people, even more than the Cientificos who gave them work and paid with silver. Constitutionalism either does not give work or defrauds the working-man by paying with worthless money. Villism is a species of Vandalistic vindication of the poor against Carrancism, which has increased their misery and which laughs at their hopes, attempting to satisfy their hunger for bread and slake their thirst for justice by flaunt- ing before them Carranza's dazzling ambition to restore the decadent Porfirism of 1910. Villism may triumph and give the final death blow to Mexico, or it may always remain a
THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 355
revolutionary furnace, well-kindled or only partially slacked, ready at any moment to leap into flame.
According to the latest reports, an extreme radical faction has come into being and is ready for the struggle. It is con- vinced that as the Constitutionalists have manifested their contempt for the dictatorial form of government, Carranza has become the reform's worst enemy. They are as keen now for the distribution of the supreme power among dif- ferent Federal and state powers as they once were for the distribution of land, some going so far as to aspire to have the nation reformed and pulverized by a luminous conven- tion, dowered with a corresponding Comite de Sante Public and as many guillotines as may be necessary. Senor Car- ranza told the poet Santos Chocano that he was ready to go wherever his partisans might take him. I think this is doubt- ful, because it is to the guillotine that the partisans of the conventionist type usually take First Chiefs when they at- tempt to assume the rank of kings or presidents.
President Wilson is beginning to gather the bitter fruits of his idealism. The sincere reformers are more antagonistic to President Wilson than even the Huertistas, and it must be granted that they are amply justified. Our great revolu- tion, they say, was initiated to carry out the distribution of lands and to lift from Mexico's neck the foreign yoke, and the most humiliating example of the latter is the present Mexican Government's state of abject subjection to the tute- lage of the President of the United States.
General Alvarado, the governor of Yucatan, ordered that the Yucatecan lands producing the valuable henequen should be distributed as far as they would go, not only among the poor of the state but among all poor Mexicans. General Alvarado publicly, and over his own signature, explained that the promises made by the revolution must be kept at any cost in order to avoid bringing dishonor upon it and in- curring the charge of cowardice. The planters endeavored
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by every means to induce the governor to rescind the fatal decree, and not receiving a favorable reply they had recourse to Carranza, who upheld the governor. The planters then sent a commission to Washington which obtained from Mr. Lansing, the Secretary of State, the promise that the Alvarado decree would be nullified by Carranza. The com- mission also had a conference in the United States with Senor Luis Cabrera, the First Chief's Secretary of Treas- ury, who at the instance of Mr. Lansing, communicated by the unfaithful revolutionist Cabrera, obtained from Carranza a special decree nullifying all the sacred, socialistic, vindicat- ing work begun by General Alvarado. The First Chief placed his subordinate in a ridiculous position, but Alvarado himself has given all the world the right to call him vile and cowardly. The radical faction, in a printed sheet that lies be- fore me, accuses Mr. Wilson of having betrayed them and of inciting the Mexican people to a new revolution more bloody than the one that apparently was coming to an end. This as- sertion is based upon the fact that the Mexican people will not tolerate that, after the unheard-of sacrifices they have made to obtain the distribution of the land, Mr. Wilson should change his mind and decide to take up the cause of the landowners. I do not believe that President Wilson's action means a betrayal of the Mexican reformers. It must for the time being be looked upon simply as an inexplicable act of apostasy. Strange, indeed, must be the reason which Presi- dent Wilson will be able to give in justification of his sud- den change of ideals, ideals which have contributed to the destruction of a nation of 15,000,000 inhabitants. This holocaust had for its object the distribution of land, and when the moment arrived to fulfill the promises so sacredly pledged by the revolution, his Secretary, Mr. Lansing, forced Car- ranza to restore the old order in Yucatan.
In the incendiary sheet to which I have referred the mal- contents point to Senor Venustiano Carranza as an un-
THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 357
happy traitor to his country, basing this terrible accusation upon the following facts. In order to systematize the spo- liation of the henequen planters of one-half the value of their gross production, General Alvarado ordered the reor- ganization of the Yucatan Adjusting Company. The profits of this spoliation were to be divided between the de facto Government, the Yucatan state Government, and the in- triguing authors of this combination — a barefaced monopoly for universal spoliation. The International Harvester Com- pany, which had a contract for the entire henequen pro- duction of Yucatan, complained to President Wilson, and in order that this adroit business scheme might not fall through, General Alvarado had recourse to a characteristic- ally Carrancista measure. He obliged all the planters, under pain of confiscation of their plantations and the destruction of their maguey fields, to form a commission to go to Wash- ington to inform President Wilson that it was not true that they had been despoiled, or that the Adjusting Company was in any sense of the word a monopoly, or that their interests would continue to suffer; but that, on the contrary, they were eminently satisfied with General Alvarado's orders, which were daily adding to their capital.
The foregoing facts, which can be absolutely substantiated, prove that the governor of Yucatan recognizes President Wilson as the supreme authority in Mexican affairs, and that the revolutionist's so-called aspiration to confer real national independence on the Mexican Government has been one of the many farces proclaimed to obtain the supreme power. The malcontents conclude by saying that at this moment Mexico is being governed by the Wilson-Carranza alliance, and decide that from the moment that Mr. Wilson has con- stituted himself a supreme authority in Mexican affairs war against Carranza and the United States is indispensable, the Mexican people having the right to revolt against all Mex- ican authority which oppresses them.
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The spirit manifested by these malcontents, who are rap- idly organizing, increases the gravity of the Mexican conflict, and there can be no doubt that President Wilson's conduct is to be characterized as apostasy.
A REVOLUTION IS A REVOLUTION
The positive and justifiable basis of the revolution of 1910 against the permanent dictatorship of General Diaz was the necessity of renewing the personnel of the Government. Public opinion has aspired and still aspires to the speedy ap- pearance of capable new men. Mexico cannot hope for anything from the old men as a whole, be they Porfiristas, Felicistas, Huertistas or Carrancistas. Neither Senor Venus- tiano Carranza nor those of his circle belong to the ranks of the new men. Carrancism is an offshoot of Reyism, and is a species of bossism tainted with its most corrupt and per- nicious qualities.
The budding statesmen Carranza has held up to the pub- lic view as new men are more worn out than the Porfirian mummies that retired into their niches in August, 1914. In politics nothing ages as much as incompetency, and so far the Carrancista younger element has shown more aptitude for appropriating automobiles and other things not belonging to it, than to dazzling its contemporaries with its civic virtue and its genius for government.
Every revolution necessarily brings about a renewal, and the present Mexican revolution has attempted the daring and dangerous feat of renewing not only the political order, but the social as well. If the conquered do not react energetic- ally to undo the revolutionary program, it will exterminate them by hunger, pestilence, expatriation and sorrow. Some of the many who are overwhelmed by abjection may be saved by humbly soliciting mercy or by having their mendi- cancy relieved by official preferment.
There are many so-called new men belonging to the old
THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 359
element who with cunning cynicism and stupendous aptitude for intrigue have managed to worm themselves into high of- fices. These they do not deserve even among bandits, be- cause they have not earned them by exposing their lives, but, like all shameless politicians, have taken advantage of the un- sophisticated and inexperienced wild beasts they are guiding. Fortunately, the revolution is more implacable than the most implacable revolutionist, and inasmuch has to be merciless toward Carranza and all the men of the old stamp who pay court to him. All these incompetents — followers of the old regime traditions, but traitors to it — must be eliminated by the revolution, ending their career tragically or going into exile to enjoy the fruits of their spoliation. A revolutionist who does not possess superior traits of character becomes brutalized. He believes that a real revolution is waged ex- pressly to satisfy his personal ambitions, and when these are satisfied, or on the way to being satisfied, the revolution can be brought to a standstill, just as a powerful engine can be stopped at the will of the engineer. A revolution ends when it has fulfilled its mission. It never miscarries; it is the dreams, the projects, the turpitudes of the revolutionists which miscarry. Who represents the de facto Government at this moment? Carranza? Then the revolution has not ended. Carranza is the product of the discredited Porfirian regime and it is politically impossible, no matter what the slant, as yet unknown, the revolution may take, that this should end by raising to power one who ought to be most speedily eliminated. The appointment of General Obregon as Secretary of War signifies that Senor Venustiano Car- ranza has taken the first step toward exile or the grave.
CHAPTER III
FINAL CONCLUSIONS: PRKSIDKNT WILSON'S LATKST SKKIOUS KKKORS
'INI. ONLY SOLUTION OF Till* MI-XFCAN I'ROIJLKM IN
Shl'Th.MKKK,
Till, different propositions offered for the solution of the Mexican question have been: Kirst, according to American public opinion: Armed intervention, or to It ;,\ c tin- Mexicans absolutely free to solve the present anarchistic situation by a healthful reac- tion or by self-extermination.
Second, according to the opinion of foreigners living in Mexico: Armed intervention to establish a stable govern- ment, supported by the United States and capable of guar- anteeing peace. This is the solution upheld by the European Governments and peoples. The Latin-American republics have not expressed a general opinion on the subject.
Third, according to the Mexican patriotic criterion, which is mine: To leave the Mexicans absolutely free to solve their internal difficulties, relying solely upon na- tional elements, President Wilson relinquishing his idealistic theories and his apostolic and humanitarian efforts in behalf of the poor and downtrodden. Only in the event that anarchy attacks foreigners by a systematic, well-formulated program shall the United States intervene, and then strictly in conformity with the dictates of international law. In case anarchy cannot be brought to an end by a salutary reaction in Mexico, and the Mexican people's inability to establish a tolerable government and restore social order be
360
FINAL CONCLUSIONS 361
plainly demonstrated, then intervention could be undertaken in the name of humanity, based upon the fact that the United States Government had given complete freedom to ail the positive reactionary elements to work out the nation's salvation.
From this it will he ^erji that the rational solution of the an problem could not be other than armed interven- tion, or the absolute abstention by the President of the United States from interference in Mexico's internal affairs.
Kor military n-a :,oir,, upon which it is unnecessary to ex- patiate here, the United States cannot intervene in Mexico as easily as it has in Panama, in Nicaragua or in Haiti, be- cause it would necessitate putting the nation upon a war footing, a condition not existing at present. The solution by armed intervention requires time for preparation in order to carry it out prudently, and this could not be done in less than six months. In September, 1915, then, the immediate solution of the Mexican question for the President of the United States was to leave anarchy to operate with absolute freedom for an indefinite period, or until the United States was in a fit military position to have recourse to armed in- tervention.
But the solution I have outlined — the only feasible one at the time — did not appeal to President Wilson. Swayed by political motives, looking to the coming elections, he was anxious to put an end to anarchy in Mexico and present as one of his presidential achievements the pacification of a people who, supported by his benevolence, made great sacri- fices in order to die of hunger and to totter to their graves along the <!a/,/ling highway of liberty pointed out by him. The plan adopted by Mr. WiKon to put an end to anarchy in Mexico \va> nothing short of a great blunder. He called a me. -ting of tlie chiefs of the various factions fighting in Mexico, expecting by means of moral force — no longer pos- b\ the United States — to oblige them to sign a peace
362 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
compact and to choose a provisional president whom all would agree to obey. President Wilson's blunder consisted in continuing to close his eyes to the testimony of history, which should serve as a guide for statesmen. Never has anarchy in Latin-America, originating from strifes in which the element of personalism has existed, been solved by im- personal means. Mexican anarchy, like all anarchy reigning in countries ruled by dictators, has to be brought to an end by the appearance of a dictator created by the situation it- self, which will also take care of creating official men, or what amounts to the same, forming a governing aristocracy, which is indispensable even in the dictatorial system.
Dictators are never appointed ; they create the post ; they impose themselves upon the people; they organize their des- potism; they develop it, and govern with more or less suc- cess as the case may be. When President Wilson's plan to put an end to anarchy in Mexico by means of a conciliatory meeting failed, he decided to settle upon Sefior Venustiano Carranza as the "iron hand," because the latter had con- vinced him that he had dominated the situation from the military standpoint. At this point President Wilson was guilty of another blunder in believing that Carranza had dominated the military situation. The dominator was Gen- eral Alvaro Obregon, and as the sociological law governing dictatorial nations is, to the victor belong the spoils, Presi- dent Wilson's recognition of Carranza would have placed him in a ridiculous position if Obregon had laid claim to his rights to the Mexican presidency won by his victorious sword. In that case President Wilson would have been obliged to embroil the Mexicans in a new war by fighting Obregon, as he fought Huerta, until he overthrew him.
Even if Obregon does not claim his rights, rights that no Latin-American dictatorial country can deny him, a twen- tieth-century dictator in America must possess three qualities to bring a country out of anarchy and reconstruct it socially
FINAL CONCLUSIONS 363
and politically: He must have an "iron hand"; he must respect the representative democratic form of government; and he must have public opinion in his favor, and the de- cided support, or at least the toleration, of the conservative classes.
As has been proved, Senor Venustiano Carranza has read the law of dictators backwards, as he places the "iron hand" upon the peaceful and the honest, and caresses the bandits with a maternal tenderness. Carranza's ambition is the well-defined program of being the parasite of those who make game of his weakness, consenting to all kinds of crimes in order to win their false allegiance. The indispensable requisite of respect for the representative democratic form of government does not exist, having been replaced by the shameless proclamation of the period of pre-Constitutional- ism, reminiscent of prehistoric tyranny. With regard to the requisite of public opinion, President Wilson has com- mitted the unpardonable error of believing that in Latin- America all that is necessary to smother anarchy is to create an "iron hand," no matter who the wielder may be. The history of Latin-American nations throughout one hundred years, as well as the history of Imperial Rome and of the Italian condottiere, proves that dictators who have been hated by the whole nation, and who were without any other support than that of their miserable agents, were always weak in the extreme and were subject to being betrayed by their own followers. They were obsessed by the terror of the ever-increasing odium of the public which urged them — traitors to tyranny — to throw themselves at the mercy of the people in order to preserve the fruit of their rapine.
Neither Mr. Wilson nor the delegates of the Latin-Amer- ican Government who, in October, 1915, made up the com- mission which so degraded Mexico — placing her on the same level as Albania — recognized the fact that even though Carranza had dominated the situation from a military point
364 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
of view, the guerrilla bands had not yet been subjugated. And even if he dominated these, there still remained the economic situation (the problem of the starving nation), and the financial situation (the complete state of bank- ruptcy), which must eventually lead him in the direction toward which he is now headed. It is becoming impossible for him to pay his mercenaries and the inevitable result will be that they will pounce upon the remainder of the country's wealth, because otherwise they will starve. But even if the financial situation could be solved and dominated, pub- lic opinion still remains which, as I have so frequently said, basing my assertions on our national history, always ends by obsessing the paid assassins of the tyrant and inducing them to turn their arms against the person of the Caesar. National and foreign public opinion is against Car- rancism, and there is a counter-revolutionary movement, whether President Wilson wishes to acknowledge it or not. First, Villism, properly so-called, which embodies the popu- lar Mexican hatred for the United States and for President Wilson in particular. This hatred is manifested by the dis- position of all the bandits to kill Americans and destroy their property, not only in the state of Chihuahua but all over the country. Second, Zapatism, which represents the real aspirations of the indigenous race, brave, indomitable, resolved to triumph or to die, and which professes the same degree of hatred for the United States that the Villistas do. Third, the conservative classes, represented by all property owners, business men, manufacturers, the great bureau- cratic class which is starving to death, and the radical Jacobin lower middle class. All these various elements have the most profound hatred for President Wilson, because, being a white man, he has given his protection to a war against the whites; because, being a foreigner, he has pro- tected a war against foreigners; because, being the Presi- dent of the United States and in virtue of the Monroe Doc-
FINAL CONCLUSIONS 365
trine bound to see that the rights of foreigners who are not Americans are respected, he has protected the bandits, who are the enemies of all foreigners, presenting the only example in history of a proxy protecting the enemies of his own clients; because, being an American, that is, a believer in liberty of conscience, he has protected a frenzied war against Catholicism, waged as cruelly and bloodily as the religious wars of the sixteenth century; and, lastly, because he has protected a war of the poor against the rich, notwithstand- ing the fact that he is the President of a democratic republic in which one of the first rights of a man is to work to get rich, and the second, to be respected when he has attained this goal.
When the Civil War ended in 1865, three years after the invasion of Mexico by the French, Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, sent Napoleon III, through Mr. Bige- low, United States Minister to France, the famous note in which he was told that the United States, in view of the amplified Monroe Doctrine, could not consent to the occu- pation of Mexico by a foreign army, and that it was abso- lutely necessary that this should be withdrawn. French diplomacy called President Lincoln's attention to the fact that the Monroe Doctrine was not being violated, because the French army was not in Mexico for the purpose of acquiring territory, either definitely or temporarily, but simply to establish solidly a government freely elected by the Mexican people, who had voted for a monarchy, select- ing as their ruler the Archduke Maximilian of Austria. Mr. Seward replied that even if this were the case it did not meet the United States' approval to have a country ruled by a monarchical form of government for its next-door neighbor. As interpreted by Mr. Seward, the Monroe Doctrine was stretched to include the prohibition of the establishment of monarchies in Latin-America.
The American people and the Latin- American republics
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have the right to ask Mr. Wilson: Does the establishment, adjoining its frontier, of a socialistic, anarchistic republic, having as a fundamental principle the war of the poor against the rich, meet with the approval of the people of the United States, where a menacing Socialistic party already exists, and which is in a fair way to develop along lines ex- tremely dangerous to the stability of the American Govern- ment? Are monarchical institutions more dangerous to the well-being of the American people than anarchistic institu- tions, given over to pillage, crime and national dissolution? I believe President Wilson in the position of President of the United States is one of the most dangerous enemies of humanity.
If the conservative classes are opposed to the establish- ment of Carrancism let us see what goes on in the popular class. For eight years General Reyes carried on — secretly and in the open — a campaign against the Cientificos, trying to inflame popular sentiment against them and to disguise the war of the poor against the rich by the substitution of one word for another. The Reyista formula was: The war of the poor against the rich, who are the Cientificos. For three years after the Creelman conference, from 1908 to 1910, inclusive, the agitators all over the country who were affiliated with the Reyistas upheld the war of the poor against the Cientificos, making the people believe that they were the rich men of the nation. In the Madero elec- tions of 1912, the demagogues, in order to break the power of the Catholic party, which possessed enormous electoral strength, openly and boldly fell back upon the promise of war against the rich and the distribution of their property among the poor. The promise of the distribution of the land has been the cloak most frequently used to conceal the real cry to excite the popular mind — the war of the poor against the rich and the extermination of the latter. I have given ample proof in this book that the sinister, vivifying
FINAL CONCLUSIONS 367
principle of the revolution has really been two leading pas- sions carried to the point of dementia — vengeance and pil- lage. By means of this great promise the Mexican people became convinced that the revolution had been waged, or should be waged, for the exclusive benefit of the poor. As these people are illiterate, their boundless credulity was played upon, and they were convinced that with the division of the wealth of the rich among the poor they would be rich and, consequently, happy, because they would not have to work.
The revolution that overthrew Huerta was initiated and consummated by the men of the north, the population of this section being 2,500,000. The northerners had the active support of the states of Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi and Vera Cruz, and the moral support of the 10,000,000 inhabitants of the central states. When the northerners triumphed and obtained possession of all the Republic except the state of Oaxaca and the territory dominated by Zapata, they ordered the disarmament, under pain of death, of all the towns. No one possessing a firearm or sidearm of any description was allowed to keep it. Having accomplished the complete dis- armament, the northerners proclaimed themselves conquerors of the central states and the inhabitants became virtual slaves.
Such is the democracy President Wilson has succeeded in establishing in Mexico at the expense of its national life.
Naturally, the virile portion of this enslaved population is beginning to understand its true situation, and is resolved not to submit to the yoke imposed by the northerners. They, moreover, have seen and continue to see that the northerners have despoiled the rich of all their possessions, but have not divided them among the poor, that, on the contrary, any unfortunate poor person caught stealing is shot. The fruits of this rapine are for the conquerors, and an evident undercurrent of insurrection against their oppressors is be- ginning to be evident among the working classes; that is,
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among the eighty-five per cent which has aroused Mr. Wil- son's sympathies. Carrancism, then, has arrayed against it at present the odium of the poor, who have been deceived and placed in such a desperate plight by the rapacity of the conquerors, as well as by their inability to govern. An actual state of famine is not far off. Paper money is depre- ciating rapidly and the daily wage is not increasing, even at a rate to enable the poor to starve gradually to death.
A real statesman — and undoubtedly Mr. Wilson is not one — should have taken into consideration the fact that from a political standpoint Senor Carranza cannot be the head of the Mexican Government. All honest Maderistas hate him. Senor Carranza has carried his passion for ven- geance to the point of confiscating all Madero's property, as well as that of his brother Gustavo. For Carranza only one rule holds good : either you are a Carrancista or you are not; if not, you are to be punished by confiscation of all your property and even death itself. A politician of this sort can never govern. Implacable haters were never born to rule; they are destined to raise up an enemy to every square yard of territory they profess to rule. In October, 1915, Senor Carranza was face to face with the revolting forces — some armed, others about to be armed — of the Maderistas, the Huertistas, the Felicistas, the Villistas, the Zapatistas, the counter-reformers, the landowners, the roving bandits, the dissatisfied bandits, who will not long remain faithful to him, the Catholics, and even the clergy. And since the Columbus incident he will have against him, whether Villa is captured or not, every true patriot, taking into account that there are also patriots in the ranks of the Carrancistas. No one will forgive Carranza for having given permission for the punitive expedition undertaken by the United States which is so humiliating for Mexico and significant of a tremendous blow against her sovereignty.
Reflecting upon the facts I have just stated — all of which,
FINAL CONCLUSIONS 369
excepting the Columbus incident, existed in October, 1915 — one becomes convinced of Carranza's political impotency to establish a stable government. Nevertheless, President Wil- son decided to recognize Carranza, without feeling the slightest compassion for the Mexican people; without taking into consideration the abject state of salvery to which they had been reduced; without experiencing any sense of moral responsibility at confirming the subjugation of I2,OOO,OOO souls in the central states by the men of the north; without estimating his responsibility before the American people for his conduct, because his action could not help but provoke a fierce and inextinguishable hatred of Americans among the people whom he had helped to enslave. I am going to set forth the pitious results of this action, although they may be well known.
CHAPTER IV ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS
WHO IN REALITY IS VILLA?
IN view of the Columbus incident, the world, moved by the moral aspect of the question, has exclaimed: So long as Villa killed Mexicans and foreigners, other than Americans, so long as he indulged in brutal mutilations, so long as he destroyed public and private property, so long as he sacked and burned, and trampled civilization under foot, he was for President Wilson and his unlucky advisers a hero, a liberator, a military genius, a Napoleon, a William Tell. But it was enough for Villa to turn the smallest of his batteries against his former protectors, for the ardent admirers of yesterday to rise and brand him as a wretched bandit worthy only of death.
It is evident that the American people are not unmoral, perverse or imbecile. They are capable of the noblest pub- lic passions and as quick to respond to the electric current of public sentiment as any Latin or subjugated nation. The American people knew Villa was a bandit; but when a bandit represents a great revolutionary cause, his repugnant physical characteristics are but an atom compared with the immensity of his political character. The American peo- ple saw in Villa a Ziska struggling to redeem an enslaved people, languishing from hunger, pain and brutalizing tradi- tions, surrounded by marvellous lands, but despised and kept
370
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under by a vicious, avaricious, plutocratic landowning class. The American people have but one alternative; they must either face the unfavorable verdict of humanity and history, or agree that they considered Villa a great leader, equal to Drake, acclaimed by the British, or Herman Cortes, hon- ored as the conqueror of the New World. And no one will deny that both were as much to be admired as heroes as they were to be execrated as bandits.
Villa, in his capacity of President of the Republic of Chi- huahua, was for President Wilson a colleague ; as an apostle, his confrere ; as a redeemer of the Mexican people, an equal ; as a politician, a "buen amigo." President Wilson must take his choice. Either he must acknowledge that he con- firmed the American people's universal acclamation of Villa as a belligerent, or that as the President of the United States he has lowered his dignity to an inconceivable depth: first, by treating a bandit with the consideration due to an equal; second, by sending the Chief of Staff of the American Army to treat as power to power with a bandit; and, finally, by allowing the American soldiers, who are the social, political and legal representatives of the national honor, to honor Villa by the presentation of arms. There is only one way open for President Wilson to evade the responsibility that rests upon him for having stained his administration and his country by maintaining cordial official relations with the bandit Villa, and that is to stand up manfully for the truth (which will be the verdict of history), and confess that in the eyes of the United States Government and the American people Villa has been a glorious belligerent, a warrior of the epic type, fighting for a great revolutionary cause, en- compassing the humanitarian dreams of President Wilson.
In November, 1914, the celebrated governing Conven- tion was established with its ministers, army, administra- tive body, counsellors, diplomatists and everything that was necessary to give it a representative form, the majority of
372 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO
Mexican territory coming under its jurisdiction. Mr. Bryan entered a claim before this Convention for the killing of an American by a Zapatista soldier, and after brief negotiations the Conventional Government agreed to recognize the claim and to indemnify the widow of the deceased. When com- munication between the capital and the north was cut off, the Convention appointed Villa General-in-Chief of all the Conventional army and delegate of the Convention in the north, investing him with supreme faculties, fully as ample as those possessed by the Convention itself. Villa proceeded at once, in virtue of his exalted functions, to form an admin- istration, naming a cabinet, appointing diplomatists and counsellors, and exercised in the north an absolute govern- ment as the representative of the Conventional Government.
PAN-AMERICANISM IS A FARCE OR AN IGNOMINY
Pan-Americanism has to be either a broken reed or some- thing decidedly unpleasant and unsavory. The fundamental reason for the foundation of Pan-Americanism was the co- operation of all the nations on the American continent to guarantee .each other's independence. The note sent by President Wilson to General Huerta in August, 1913, by his representative, Mr. Lind, was a barefaced attack upon Mexican sovereignty from the moment President Wilson imperatively ordered President Huerta — recognized by all the Great Powers as President of Mexico — to cease hostili- ties at once, to renounce the presidency, to arrange for gen- eral elections and to submit to the prohibition of appearing as a presidential candidate himself. What did Pan-Ameri- canism do in the face of so flagrant a violation of Mexican sovereignty? What Michelena, the Mexican general, said of the judges of the Supreme Federal Court in 1827: "These gentlemen are in their posts to flatter the winning revolu- tionists and to sentence the losers." The Latin-American
ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 373
members of the Pan-American Union are in their posts to flatter the United States Government, because it is strong, and to sentence the weaker nations, which are related to them by ties of blood, to death or degradation.
In May, 1914, the Pan-Americans gave their support to the mediation comedy held at Niagara Falls. Their mis- sion should have been to censure the government which brusquely exacted satisfaction by arms when it was being granted by diplomatic means. Even more. The Pan- Americans countenanced the subterfuge of prolonging the negotiations in order that Huerta's overthrow might be effected, thus saving Mr. Wilson from the anger of the wounded Mexican dictator, who was resolved to invade Texas in order to convert Mr. Wilson's nicely-planned comedy into a dark tragedy.
In October, 1915, the Pan-Americans, in the fulfillment of their duty, once more proved their littleness. They were called together to decide upon the internal political problem of the Mexican nation. They treated Mexico as the Euro- pean Powers treated Albania and, albeit their Pan-Ameri- canism, acquiesced in the formation of a conciliatory com- mission which should decide which of the warring chiefs should be recognized. In other words, their role was to relieve Mr. Wilson of the disloyalty of convoking the chiefs of the various Mexican factions, so that they might name a provisional president. When all the chiefs, except the Car- rancista representatives, had answered Mr. Wilson's call, he decided to break his promises, ridicule the attitude of the attendants, frustrate their hopes and surprise them by recog- nizing Carranza. This was equivalent to imposing Car- ranza as the dictator of Mexico, because it gave the assured protection of the United States Government and the conse- quent power to snuff out all opponents of Carrancism. One must have very little knowledge of human nature not to know that in the face of Mr. Wilson's treachery Villa and
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Zapata would be inflamed with hatred and decide upon prompt vengeance — it mattered not what, so long as it were telling.
According to Senator Fall, the conduct of the Latin- American members of the Pan-American Union has been mysterious, and without a doubt it has been surprising. Be- fore the formation of the Conciliatory Commission — which might aptly be called the Treacherous Commission — they were opposed to the appointment of Carranza. They had been influenced by Duval West's report. Mr. West, a representative and highly respected gentleman, had been commissioned by President Wilson to report the true state of things in Mexico. They also took into consideration the following reports: that of the American Red Cross, which was adverse to Carranza; that of the Ministers from Brazil and Guatemala, accredited to the legitimate Mexican Gov- ernment; that of the European Diplomatic Corps stationed in Mexico; besides the information possessed by the Wash- ington Government and the various public statements made by eminent Mexicans living in the United States and which were based upon documentary evidence. These reports were supported by the declarations made before a notary public by prominent Americans who had escaped from Mexico, afraid to remain at the mercy of the mob that pretended to govern. All this weighty testimony was set aside, dis- credited for that submitted by Sefior Eliseo Arredondo, Car- ranza's agent, supported by Senor Luis Cabrera, Carranza's Secretary of the Treasury, who came to the United States resolved to exert his powers of eloquence — not as an orator, for he does not possess them — but as a diplomat, taught in some mysterious but very thorough school. And the Latin- American members of the Pan-American Union decided in favor of Carranza!
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A VERY SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL PRECEDENT
In 1862 Mr. Corwin, United States Minister to Mexico, asked President Juarez, on behalf of President Lincoln, to permit the American Federal army to cross Mexican terri- tory in order to make an attack upon the Southern army. The day after Mr. Corwin had presented this petition, the agent of the Southern Government called upon President Juarez to tell him that his Government would not tolerate the passage of Northern troops through Mexican territory. Such an action, he said, would be considered as an alliance between the Mexican and Federal Governments, and the Southerners would declare war against Mexico. President Juarez called his attention to the fact that under interna- tional law no such government as the Southern Government existed and, as Mexico had not recognized the belligerency of the Confederate States, they were nothing but rebels and the Mexican Government could not take up for considera- tion claims or petitions which could lawfully be submitted only by an established government or recognized belliger- ents. The Mexican City press, which sympathized with the Southern cause, advocated recognizing their belligerency. The Secretary of Foreign Relations was interpellated in the Federal Congress with regard to this serious question, and a heated debate was held in secret session, which, however, resulted in non-recognition of the belligerency of the South; but neither did it grant the request to allow the troops to pass through Mexican territory. Senor Manuel Doblado, a great political orator, upheld the right of the Confederates to declare war upon Mexico in case the Mexican Govern- ment should grant the desired permission, because, although according to international law the Southerners were rebels, in the sphere of reality they were belligerents, possessing the physical and moral right to act in the premises.
There were cases, said Senor Doblado, in which the real,
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the legitimate and the just were opposed to what in a legal sense is unjust, and in this case every honest man and every government worthy of the name should be on the side of justice; more so, as no law compelled the Mexican Govern- ment to an act of injustice such as that of acceding to the petition of President Lincoln's diplomatic representative. The Mexican Congress unanimously agreed that a declara- tion of war against Mexico by the South, would without any doubt be justifiable, if Juarez gave permission for the Federal army to cross Mexican territory, thereby gravely injuring the political interests of the Southerners, whom they believed to be patriots.
President Lincoln's Government later insisted upon carry- ing its point, and I do not remember whether or not Presi- dent Juarez had already given his consent to the passage of the troops when Congress conferred extraordinary — almost absolute — faculties upon him. What President Juarez might have done after Congress in secret session had denied permission for the troops to pass is of no consequence, if the Southern Governments' conduct be conceded to have been moral and just, because in reality they were belligerents, and realities take precedence over juridical fictions and over the decrees of international law when these are erroneously applied.
PRESIDENT DAVIS'S RIGHT AND THE BELLIGERENT VILLA'S
RIGHT
Undoubtedly, from a personal point of view, there is a vast difference between the honorable President of the Con- federacy and the bandit Villa; but from a political and jurid- ical point of view the situation is identical. President Davis was considered a rebel by President Lincoln, and a traitor to his country. Carranza, after having been recog- nized by President Wilson, considered Villa a rebel and a
ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 377
traitor to his country, his country in this case being identi- fied with the revolution. Jefferson Davis was President of the Confederacy. Villa was the Supreme Delegate of the Mexican National Convention, which had established a government, and he exercised the functions of President in Chihuahua in behalf of the Convention in the north. Presi- dent Davis was never recognized as a belligerent by Presi- dent Juarez; General Villa was never directly recognized as a belligerent by President Wilson, but he was expressly and indirectly recognized as such when President Wilson asked for a solemn conference with General Scott, his Chief of Staff, the bandit being honored at this time by the pres- entation of arms by the United States soldiers. Moreover, the American people acclaimed him as a belligerent, and only by sustaining this acclamation can they save themselves from the imputation of having been the admirers and protectors of a bandit who has ruthlessly destroyed a civilized nation, which was upon the most friendly terms with their own Government.
Once President Wilson had recognized Senor Carranza's government he declared himself his ally. This is proved by indisputable facts. He permitted the Carrancista troops, provisions and munitions to pass through American terri- tory in order to succor the Carrancista General Calles and his four thousand men, who were threatened with annihila- tion by Villa and his fifteen thousand troopers. In order to help Carranza, he prohibited the shipment of provisions to Mexico which might be used to feed the Villa forces; he ordered the water conduit from which the Villistas drew their supply to be closed; and, finally, he directed General Funston, in case Mexican shells fell upon American terri- tory, to open fire upon Villa. General Funston said pub- licly that shells had fallen on American territory during the first Calles and Villa encounter, but they had not returned fire because it was clearly evident that they came from
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Calles's guns, who relied upon the support of American arms to vanquish his adversary. President Wilson was Sefior Carranza's ally, and Villa — a belligerent in the sphere of reality — would have been justified, from the standpoint of equity, in declaring war against the United States, just as President Davis would have been justified in declaring war against Mexico if President Juarez had acted as President Lincoln's ally during the War of Secession.
I should be the last to deny that Villa since he first made his appearance in Mexico has been a bandit and an outlaw, but his attack upon Columbus cannot be qualified as the act of a bandit. For a force of two or three hundred men to attack a town defended by six hundred and fifty American soldiers, well equipped, well officered and well armed, can hardly be called brigandage. If a pirate in a fragile canoe were to attack an English armored cruiser in mid-ocean it could not be classed as piracy, but as the act of a reckless fighter or of a madman. Villa's motive in attacking Colum- bus was to take vengeance on Wilson and Carranza, and to bring down upon both the wrath of the American people, who had been so outrageously affronted Jby his attack. He wished especially to wreak vengeance on Carranza, who, he hoped, would be crushed by the military power of the United States. Undoubtedly Villa's action is to be classified as high treason as well as low treason; but just as a revolu- tion is a revolution, so Villa is Villa, and it is quite natural that he should have retaliated like a wild beast and not like a patriot, when he realized that he was being annihilated by the Wilson-Carranza alliance.
Villa's first impulse when he heard that President Wilson had recognized the Carranza Government was to concen- trate his forces, approximately thirty thousand men, to fling them against the American frontier towns, massacre the in- habitants and reduce the buildings to ashes. Some of his better educated and more conservative followers were able
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to dissuade him from carrying out this program, convincing him that he would gain more by surprising the Carranza troops stationed in Sonora, because the chances of routing them completely were in his favor, as Carranza was not in a position to give them any aid. The permission granted by President Wilson for Carrancista troops to cross American territory to relieve General Calles, who was hemmed in at Agua Prieta, was the culminating blow, and Villa decided to carry out his plan of vengeance by attacking Columbus.
AN IMPARTIAL EXPOSITION OF THE CASE
The Mexican question in its final stage must be examined with calmness, reasoned out intelligently and settled with justice. Patriotism when it is carried to the extreme of pas- sion is always inimical to truth, and its conclusions are re- jected in judgments that are based on learning and morality.
From the moment that Villa accomplished the attack on Columbus he ranked, in the eyes of the United States Gov- ernment and those of the American people, as a bandit, the leader of a band of bandits as infamous as himself.
I have read with regret the published statements of cul- tured Mexicans to the effect that Villa's attack cannot com- promise Mexico in the slightest degree. It is an accepted and absolutely unimpeachable principle of international law: "que toute communaute politique organisee assume la re- sponsabilite des acts des ses membres a 1'egard des autres Etats, si, sur une plainte a elle adressee, elle ne contraint pas les auteurs de 1'offense a donner satisfaction a 1'Etat lese. Un Etat ne peut exiger de reparation de la part d'un sujet d'un autre Etat qu'en s'adressant au gouvernement de la nation dont 1'offenseur est membre. S'il y a refus, 1'Etat assume la responsabilite des actes de son sujet." x
An extradition treaty was in force between Mexico and
1 H. Bonfils, Droit International, p. 651.
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the United States at the time the attack upon Columbus took place. Article IV of this treaty says: "Neither one of the contracting parties shall be obliged in virtue of this agree- ment to hand over its own citizens, but the Executive of either nation shall be endowed with the faculty of turning them over if in his opinion it be deemed expedient."
In virtue of this treaty Carranza possessed the right to refuse to hand Villa and his followers over to the United States; but he was obliged to pursue, capture and punish them in conformity with the Mexican penal laws. The United States Government had the right to set a time for Carranza to capture and punish the culprits, and if he failed to do so, for any reason whatsoever, the United States Gov- ernment had the right to declare war against Mexico in order to mete out justice with its own hand, or to decree some act of reprisal against the Mexican Government.
President Wilson acted with regard to the existing extra- dition treaty just as Germany did with regard to the treaty guaranteeing the neutrality of Belgium to which it had affixed its signature — declared it a "scrap of paper," and proceeded forcibly against Mexico. The President of the United States began by carrying out against Mexico the act of reprisal to which the American nation undoubtedly would have been entitled if the Mexican Government had not given the satisfaction demanded in the time agreed upon by both nations, or in that stipulated by the United States.
By proceeding so ruthlessly against Mexico before he was justified in doing so, President Wilson did not act in bad faith, or in a spirit of aggression against the Mexican peo- ple or their Government. On the contrary, not wishing to go to war, he aimed only at calming the popular agitation which already appeared violent enough to force the White House to declare war upon Mexico without further delay.
At dawn, on March 9, 1916, the ex-military genius, Fran- cisco Villa, attacked the town of Columbus, and the next
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day President Wilson's secretary made the following official announcement: "An adequate force will be sent at once to pursue Villa. The sole object of the expedition will be to capture him and put an end to further raids. This can and will be done with the friendly assistance of the consti- tuted Mexican authorities, and with scrupulous respect for the sovereignty of that Republic."
From this, then, it will be seen that President Wilson was responsible for the statement that the force that was to be sent into Mexican territory in pursuit of Villa would have the friendly assistance of the constituted Mexican au- thorities, and would be carried out with scrupulous respect for the sovereignty of the Mexican Republic.
Was it not rash, even to the point of temerity, for Presi- dent Wilson to give assurance that the American military expedition could count upon the friendly cooperation of the constituted Mexican authorities, when its mission was an act of reprisal that could not be considered otherwise than in the nature of an affront by the nation against whom it was being carried out?
THE PATRIOTISM OF THE CONSTITUTIONALISTS
If President Wilson has formed a low estimate of the patriotism of the Constitutionalists, undoubtedly, he cannot be said to have acted with equal rashness.
In August, 1913, President Wilson's personal representa- tive, Mr. Lind, presented an insulting note to the Mexican Government of which General Huerta was then the head. The latter was commanded by the White House to sus- pend hostilities at once, to resign the provisional presidency, to arrange for a presidential election and to refrain from taking part himself as a candidate. If in any country of recognized patriotism — take Spain for example — the Presi- dent of the United States had ordered Alfonso XIII to
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renounce the throne, to arrange for republican elections, and to refrain from taking any part in them as a candidate, even the street whelps would have protested against the insult offered, not only to the person of the king, but to the sover- eignty, independence and dignity of the Spanish nation. But when this occurred in Mexico, the Constitutionalists, both by word of mouth and in writing, publicly applauded Mr. Wilson, conferred upon him the title of "Doctor Inslgne" (Distinguished Doctor), and protector of Mexican liberties and of the revolution that was destined to save the poor. It was considered that Carranza's diplomatic agent at Wash- ington had played the part of a consummate patriot in the negotiations to further the cause of Mexican democracy.
Later events were even more deplorable. In April, 1914, without any motive to justify an invasion of Mexican terri- tory by land and sea, President Wilson decreed the Vera Cruz expedition. His sole object was to further the revolu- tionary cause by weakening Huerta's position. This invasion was approved by the pro-Yankee patriots, and even Carranza retreated from his patriotic attitude of protest when Villa threatened him if he did not accept the armed intervention of the United States. Consul Carothers made this state- ment, and it is corroborated by Mr. Bell in his book The Political Shame of Mexico.
A talented writer who is one of Senor Carranza's sincere sympathizers has written the following: "The events to which I refer took place previous to the occupation of Vera Cruz by the Yankee forces. With regard to the latter, we regret that President Wilson, notwithstanding possible good intentions (confirmed perhaps by more recent acts), should have embarked upon a mistaken, bloody and useless mission, which involves — no matter from what point of view one considers it — a humiliation for Mexico. We regret that Victoriano Huerta, once the conflict was provoked, should not have known how to find in the midst of all his
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vices a remnant of dignity and decorum which would have urged him to offer a substantial resistance. We regret that Venustiano Carranza, always blameless in his relations with the United States, always tenacious — although blinded at times — should not have maintained his dignified attitude of energetic protest which he frankly outlined in his ultimatum to President Wilson." l
No one can understand why, according to these politicians, patriotism should impose on the Mexicans the duty of shed- ding the last drop of their blood in defense of their national sovereignty and territory when an American armed force occupies a section of the state of Chihuahua; and that, when an American armed force occupied the city of Vera Cruz, with a previous heroic shedding of Mexican blood, President Wilson should be acclaimed the benefactor of Mexico and the protector of its liberties and independence. This rather startling phenomenon can be explained by the fact that politicians in almost all of the Latin-American nations take advantage of the docility and credulity of the masses over whom they tyrannize. So far as patriotic enthusiasm is concerned they can mould them at will. When an Ameri- can armed force invades a Latin-American country for the purpose of overthrowing the established government, the revolutionists, if the invading army supports their cause, preach the doctrine that nothing is more patriotic or respect- ful to national sovereignty than the intervention of the Yankees. But when these traitors get control of the supreme power they do not hesitate to declare that nothing is more reprehensible or more offensive to national honor than a Yankee invasion, when this is not undertaken to further the interests of the established government, which owes its triumph to the intervention of this very same hateful Yankee army. Senor Guzman, who is neither a reactionary, a cleri- cal, or a Cientifico, says: "When Carranza, the chief of
1 Martin Luis Guzman, La querella de Mexico, p. 69.
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the revolutionary faction, asks the United States Govern- ment to recognize him as the President of the Republic of Mexico, he does nothing but pay homage to a very old politi- cal truth recognized in Mexico; that is: No political party in Mexico possesses of itself the inherent strength to domi- nate the situation; its stability and strength depend upon the support of a foreign power. . . . The recent Huerta case is conclusive proof of this. Bloated with power, in- undated with wealth, and above all, not troubled by con- scientious scruples as to the means employed to obtain results, he, nevertheless, fell. One word from Woodrow Wilson, one "No" from the President of a foreign nation decided Huerta's fate and the destinies of Mexico. All that he needed to establish him in power was the recognition of the Yankee. Villa and Carranza had no other help." 1
Senor Guzman's observations, written in 1915, tally ex- actly with the declarations of high officials of the United States Department of State, published on June 21, 1916. They evince surprise at Carranza's conduct, which they char- acterize as rebellion, since he owes his triumph and his post as First Chief to them. The press in the United States, with- out exception, comments upon the sudden development by the Constitutionalists of such delicate patriotic susceptibilities, when heretofore, from March, 1913, to October 9, 1915, when President Wilson recognized the de facto Government — much to the surprise of the civilized world — they had done nothing but wipe up the floors of the National Capitol at Washington in their servile homage to the powers that be.
In 1 86 1, when the War of Secession broke out in the United States, France and England offered to act as media- tors between the Unionists and Secessionists. President Lincoln and his eminent Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, rejected the offer indignantly, and gave Mr. Dayton definite instructions that he was not to accept offers of mediation
1 Martin Luis Guzman, La querclla de Mexico, pp. 58, 59.
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from any foreign government, adding, that the United States Government would consider as a grave offense any meddling on the part of any foreign power in the internal affairs of the United States. M. Billault, Napoleon Third's un- accredited Minister, informed the Diplomatic Corps that Mr. Dayton had rejected all idea of mediation as contrary to the dignity and sovereignty of the American nation.
President Wilson, although he was well aware of these precedents, convoked the Conciliatory Conference, composed of the representatives of the Governments of Argentine, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia and Guatemala, putting Mexico on a level with Albania by presuming to decide which of the bandits who figured in the Mexican revolution should be accorded the distinction of being recognized as the head of a de facto government by the United States. This question of de facto governments is an offense to Mexico because under international law only the States is a person, and there are no de facto, constitutional, legal, usurping or legitimate States according to international law. The President of the United States has the right to recog- nize or not to recognize a Mexican government, but he has not the right to call its origin, its nature or its deficiencies into question. The de facto feature in these negotiations was in reality an offense which Carranza mistook for an international caress or an enviable mark of distinction. Not one of the Constitutionalist representatives invited to attend the Conference of October, 1915, refused to do so on the ground of the offense offered to the Mexican nation by the purpose of the gathering. If Sefior Carranza refused to send his representative, it was not because he thought Mexico's internal political affairs should not be aired by foreign governments, but because he did not want to face the possibility of not being selected. He, however, recog- nized the Conference because he pleaded before it his right to be recognized as the head of the de facto government,
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in virtue of the fact that he had dominated the situation from a military standpoint.
The Evening Post, in its issue of August 7, 1915, said with regard to the work of the Conference of Latin-Ameri- can representatives gathered together by the Yankee Sec- retary of State to settle the affairs of Mexico: "It seems that not one of the Latin-American diplomatists has opposed this part of the plan (the recognition of Manuel Vazquez Tagle, ex-Minister of Justice in Madero's Cabinet, for President of Mexico), even if some of the ambassadors think that a representative of the Cientifico group should be chosen for the post. They, however, were informed, so it is said, that President Wilson is opposed to the return to power of the Cientifico or conservative interests which were identified with Porfirio Diaz."
President Wilson's determination not to consent to the return to power of the Cientifico or conservative elements which were identified with the Diaz regime, was hailed by the Constitutionalists as another master stroke of Mexico's benefactor. It is evident, then, that it did not appear neces- sary at that time to the followers of Constitutionalism for the Mexicans to shed the last drop of their blood, or even an infinitesimal part, when the President of the United States was grinding Mexican sovereignty to dust with the heel of his boot. It must be remembered that notwithstanding the fact that General Funston had received orders to fire against the Mexican combatant who should, intentionally or unintentionally, fire shells into American territory, he failed to do so although the Carrancista general, Calles, continued to send projectiles across the boundary line, with the in- tention, no doubt, of egging on the American commanders to fire upon Villa. Notwithstanding the official report made by the Commander-in-Chief of the American forces at Douglas concerning the firing, General Calles was not prose- cuted as a traitor to his country, not even reprimanded. On
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the contrary, his conduct was fully approved and he was congratulated by Carranza.
In view of the facts presented, President Wilson had reason to believe that the punitive expedition against Villa could be made to fit within the limits of the elastic patriot- ism that had looked with favor upon the punitive expedition sent against Huerta in 1914.
A HEROIC STRUGGLE TO AVOID A STRUGGLE
On March 10, 1916, Senor Carranza received the note sent by the United States Government, in which President Wilson announced that in order to punish the attack on Columbus, the United States Government was resolved to pursue 'Villa and his bandit followers into Mexican territory and to exterminate them. If Carranza had acted with the patriotism exacted by Mexican law, and in compliance with public sentiment, he should have protested against the im- mediate invasion of Mexico, called the American Govern- ment's attention to the existing extradition treaty, and in- timated that if this were violated diplomatic relations be- tween Mexico and the United States would be severed until such time as the will of the Mexican people could be as- certained.
Carranza wished to avoid war, and taking into considera- tion the emphatic and somewhat heated statements constantly reiterated by the American press to the effect that the puni- tive expedition would penetrate into Mexico to put an end to Villa whether Carranza wished it or not, he decided to accept the humiliating situation, and covered his shameful condescension by proposing a reciprocal treaty with the United States, which was to permit Mexican troops to cross the frontier into American territory in pursuit of those bandits, a similar privilege to cross the frontier into Mexico to be accorded to the American troops if the Columbus at-
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tack should unfortunately be repeated at any other point along the frontier.
The diplomatic heads of the Mexican Chancery Office must have been preoccupied, as there was no element of rec- iprocity in the petition of the new treaty, as the Mexican troops were to have permission to pursue Villa into Ameri- can territory where he was not; and in exchange the Ameri- can forces could only penetrate into Mexico in case an at- tack similar to that of Columbus were repeated at any other point along the frontier.
In order to show that he did not want war and that he did not wish to embarrass Carranza, President Wilson said to him in his telegram of March I3th: " ... in order to assure peace between the two republics and to preserve order in the territory adjacemt to the border, permission is granted with pleasure for the armed forces of the de facto Mexican Government to cross the international boundary line in pur- suit of bands of armed men who may have invaded Mexico from the United States, committed depredations on Mexican territory and then escaped to the United States, with the understanding that the same privilege be granted to the United States military forces to pursue across the inter- national boundary line and into Mexican territory bands of armed men who, coming from Mexico, may have penetrated into American territory, committed depredations on Ameri- can soil and then escaped into Mexico. The United States Government understands that in view of its acceptance of this reciprocal arrangement, proposed by the de facto Government, said arrangement is considered complete and in force, and the reciprocal privileges to which it refers can consequently be exercised by either one of the Governments without the necessity of entering into any new arrangement."
This treaty of reciprocity entered into without any of the formalities exacted by international law was designed to cover the humiliation which a weak nation like Mexico re-
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ceived through the punitive expedition which, as I have already said, was an act of reprisal employed by the United States to enable it to avoid obliging Mexico to accept the alternative of war. This reciprocal treaty possessed the de- fect that for the United States the rights were effective and the obligations hypothetical, whereas, for the de facto Government the rights were hypothetical and the obligations effective.
Sefior Carranza proved himself weak in consenting to the cooperation of the Mexican military forces in the punitive expedition. The note of March I4th, addressed by the White House to Carranza, says: "It is a source of sincere satisfaction to the United States Government that the de facto Mexican Government has manifested such a cordial and friendly spirit of cooperation in the efforts of the United States authorities to apprehend and punish the band of ma- rauders. ..."
Senor Jacinto Lopez, the distinguished Central American writer, in a study relative to the situation which he pub- lished in a Cuban newspaper devoted to social sciences, says: "There was, then, a perfect understanding between the two governments just previous to the opening of the American campaign in Mexican territory against Villa. . . . The United States forces, then, were in Mexico with the sanction of the Mexican Government." Senor Lopez does not breathe the vitiated atmosphere inhaled as a general thing by all Mexicans at present, and I quote his words to establish a fact which no one can deny, that Don Venustiano Carranza openly accepted the punitive expedition, with the accompany- ing aggravating circumstance of having consented to the Constitutionalist army acting as the guide, friend, ally, and, as an El Paso newspaper said, procurer for the Amer- ican army in the violation of the fatherland.
Senor Lopez does not handle Senor Carranza quite so roughly in judging his action concerning the proposition
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made by the de facto Government to the White House with regard to the treaty of reciprocity, as he says: "It is easy to understand the object of this proposition, which is nothing more than a resort, an expedient — undoubtedly the last available one — by which the situation can be met with some semblance of decorum, and to soften as much as possible the resentment of national pride."
INDECOROUS PROCEEDINGS
Sefior Carranza quite justly estimated that the advent of the punitive expedition would naturally arouse a sentiment of indignation in the public mind that would be dangerous to the existence of the de facto Government. To obviate this catastrophe the Carrancista press announced, for the benefit of the Mexican public, that a treaty, drawn up and signed at Washington in 1882, existed between the Ameri- can and Mexican Governments which authorized Carranza to receive the punitive expedition with open arms.
This treaty referred to the pursuit of parties of savages, that is, Indians, and Villa, however much of a savage he may be in a figurative sense, cannot juridically be classed in this category. Admitting, however, for the sake of argument, that a treaty applicable to Indian raids could be made to cover an attack such as that made upon Columbus, this treaty had been extinct for twenty years. Senor Federico Gamtoa, Mexican ex-Minister to Guate- mala and Belgium and Secretary of Foreign Relations in Huerta's Cabinet, writes the following with regard to this subject in La Reforma Social: ". . . it is to be borne in mind that Article VIII of that agreement (that of 1882), entered into for a period of two years, was modified on September 2ist, of the same year (1882), and renewed on two other occasions, June 28, 1882, and October 16, 1885. The first treaty was replaced by that of June 25, 1890, which
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was renewed on November 25, 1892, and finally replaced by the agreement of June 4, 1896. This was provisional and valid only until such time as the band headed by the Apache Kid was exterminated, always with the proviso that the pursuit should not extend over a period longer than one year." It follows, then, that the de facto Government au- thorized the punitive expedition in virtue of a treaty which was in no sense applicable to the case, and which possessed the additional disadvantage of having been extinct for twenty years, and that Senor Carranza attempted with this subterfuge to fool the nation.
Fearing that the Mexican public might become aware of the trick played upon it, the Carrancista politicians resolved, in order to put an end to the punitive expedition, to have recourse to another ruse — produce Villa's corpse. This may have been any corpse, or it may have been the body of a man resembling Villa, converted into a corpse to fill the re- quirements of the occasion. When the authorized representa- tives of Carrancism gave out in Mexico, in El Paso and in Washington that the body of Villa had been found, the skepticism evinced on all sides was so great that the "manu- facturers of opportune corpses" were rather taken aback, and resolved to abandon their fraudulent scheme. The best proof that this was the invention of clever politicians is the fact that the de facto Government did not attempt to sus- tain the contention that the body of Villa had been found, as it naturally would have done if its claim could have been substantiated, as it would have solved the difficulty immediately and saved the situation.
All these facts prove the determination of the de facto Government to keep out of war at any cost. It may be by drawing up reciprocal treaties; by ingratiating itself with President Wilson; by permitting the Carrancista troops to cooperate in the punitive expedition ; by giving the impres- sion that a treaty covering the pursuit of Indian raiders
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existed, thus identifying Villa with an Apache Indian; by opportunely manufacturing a corpse, said to be the body of the ex-military genius of the revolution; by sending notes to Washington similar to that of April I2th, which closed with a mild, supplicatory clause in which President Wilson is told that the time has come to negotiate for the retire- ment of the American forces; by dispatching a so-called forcible note which instead of concluding with an ultimatum closes by informing Washington that it is merely a continua- tion of the controversy between the two governments.
President Wilson on his side has made superhuman efforts to avoid a rupture with the de facto Government, and only the pressure brought to bear upon him by the press and the influential politicians who voice the sentiments of the ma- jority of the American people, who disapprove of his policy, has had the power to bring him to the point of unsheathing his sword and challenging his former proteges, the Mex- ican revolutionists.
A DISPASSIONATE JUDGMENT OF THE CASE
What in reality is the cause of the threatened war be- tween Mexico and the United States on this I5th day of June, 1916? The punitive expedition? It is clear to the world that Senor Carranza takes this view. In the so-called forcible notes sent by the de facto Mexican Government reference is made only to the affront offered to the nation by the continued presence of the American forces in Mex- ican territory, since the Mexican Government is in a posi- tion to give the United States sufficient guarantees that its boundaries shall not again be violated by Mexican bandits.
It is true that Carranza is in a position actually to give these guarantees? Evidently not. Between May 5 and June 21, 1916, Glen Springs, Big Bent, Coleman's Ranch, the San Ignacio, San Benito (Texas) and Mercedes camps
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have been raided by bandits from across the border. The world has seen that neither the American nor the Car- rancista forces are able to prevent the accomplishment of Villa's purpose, the annihilation of Carranza by Wilson, brought about by means of repeated attacks which will in- flame the American public to the point of forcing Wilson to defend the rights and honor of the United States.
On the other hand, it is absurd to expect the United States to sacrifice its indisputable, sacred and inalienable right to protect its border upon the altar of Villista brigand- age, in order to respect Mexican sovereignty in a case in which international law gives them the right not to respect it. According to international law, whatever may be Car- ranza's reasons for not living up to his international obliga- tions, the United States has the right to declare war against Mexico or to have recourse to an act of reprisal in order to force the de facto Government to give complete satisfaction to the outraged American public.
According to international law, Mexico has the indis- putable right on her own account to reply to war with war, and not to tolerate an act of reprisal such as the sending of the punitive expedition. There is, then, a conflict of rights between the two nations, not a clash between Mexican right and the insolent and intolerable brutality of the United States.
MEDIATION
In a conflict where equal rights are at stake mediation should be resorted to as the logical and patriotic means of avoiding a devastating war. Unfortunately mediation is not possible. Villism exists and will continue to exist for some time to come. It represents, once its few intellectual and orderly elements have been nullified or separated from it, the victorious brigandage which, protected by the Presi-
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dent of the United States, was the force that actually over- threw Huerta. Villism was the real vivifying principle of the revolution of 1913. Carrancism has been the outcome of a social and political reaction among the more intelligent bandits who, at last, understood that it was not possible in 1916, in the midst of civilization, to govern according to pre- historic methods which were viewed with horror and dis- gust by civilized nations.
The trouble between Mexico and the United States is not one of the moment only; it will be continual as its origin lies in the hatred of the Villistas for the Carrancistas, and so long as the former are in the field and Carranza cannot maintain at least one hundred and fifty thousand well dis- ciplined soldiers in the north to protect the border and grad- ually exterminate the Villistas, the anti-Carrancista faction will continue to slap the colossus of the north in the face, subject him to the ridicule of the world, until it forces him to declare war or completely to sacrifice his honor.
The "mediators" should not treat with Wilson and Car- ranza, but with Villa and Carranza in an attempt to bring about a reconciliation between them. However, as there is no discipline in the Villista bands, any northern bandit with anti-Carrancista tendencies could repeat the Columbus inci- dent on his own account any time it occurs to him. The punitive expedition had for its present and future object the prevention of future raids into American territory. What can the mediators do to guarantee to the United States that there will be no further incursions into her territory? In my estimation nothing, absolutely nothing.
AN UNEXPECTED SOLUTION
The unexpected turn that affairs have taken and the prob- able solution of the situation since the last pages of this book were written (July 16, 1916), and as it goes to press,
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have been a surprise to me. According to international law and common sense war between Mexico and the United States began on June 2ist with the Carrizal fight, which resulted adversely for the Americans. The failure of the mobilization of the militia obliged President Wilson to seek peace from Carranza, which he did through his speech at the Press Club banquet. Carranza hastened to accede to the re- quest, and it appears that the peace negotiations are under way and that the discussion will be long drawn out. There can be no doubt that Mexico's triumph has been unqualified as the punitive expedition has retired from Mexican territory owing to the pressure brought to bear by Constitutionalist arms.
The solution of the "Mexican question" by means of armed intervention has been rejected, and the attitude of the American people indicates that they are resolved that under no circumstances whatsoever shall the Mexican difficulty be settled by recourse to armed intervention. Unfortunately, President Wilson, instead of laying aside the idea of con- trolling the Mexican Government, appears to be more de- termined than ever, supported by the military power of the United States, to impose his will upon the Mexican people through means which he believes will be efficacious, but which are absurd to those who know the sociology of the Mexican people.