Barbarous Mexico

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JOHN KENNETH TURNER

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BARBAROUS MEXICO

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BARBAROUS MEXICO

BY
JOHN KENNETH TURNER

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CHICAGO

CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY

CO-OPERATIVE

Copyright 1910
By Charles H. Kerr & Company

JOHN F. HIGGINS

PRINTER AND BINDER

376-382 MONROE STREET
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS

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PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

Since the publication of the first edition of this book
less than four months ago both the prophecies which it
embodies have been fulfilled. On page 10 I say that
Mexico *'is on the verge of a revolution in favor of
democracy ;" and on page 267, that ''The United States
will intervene with an army, if necessary, to maintain
Diaz or a successor zvho would continue the special part-
nership with American capital,"

As this is written, nearly 30,000 American soldiers are
patrolHng the Mexican border and American warships
are cruising in the neighborhood of Mexican ports.
Though not a soldier may cross the line, though not a
vessel may fire a shot, this is effective intervention all the
same. The confessed purpose is to crush the revolution
by cutting off its source of supplies and by preventing
patriotic Mexicans residing in the United States from
going home to fight for the freedom of their country.

The action of President Taft in mobilizing the troops
was taken without regard for the wishes of the American
people and without due explanation to them. The action
of the troops in seizing revolutionist supplies and arrest-
ing revolutionist recruits is not only against every tradi-
tion of political liberty upon which this nation is supposed
to be based, but it is unlawful and criminal and punish-
able under the laws of the States by fine and imprison-
ment. It is not a crime against any federal or state law
to ship food, or even arms and ammunition, into Mexico
with the open intention of selling them to the revolution-
ists. It is not a crime against any federal or state law
to go from the United States into Mexico with the open
intention of joining the revolution there. Without a
formal proclamation of martial law the military author-
ities have no right to exceed the civil laws and when
they do so they are liable to fine and imprisonment for
unlawful detention.

Martial law has not been proclaimed on the border.
Every day the military authorities there are violating

6 PREFACE.

the laws. But the civil authorities are cowed, the people
are cowed, and the victims, Mexican or American, seem
to have no redress. By fiat of the executive law and
civil authority have been subverted and, as far as the
Mexican situation is concerned, the United States has
been turned into a military dictatorship as sinister and
irresponsible as that of Diaz himself.

And why has this thing been done? To maintain a
chattel slavery more cruel than ever existed in our
Southern states. To uphold a political tyranny a hundred
times more unjust than the one against which our men
of Seventy-Six revolted. If the policy of the Taft ad-
ministration be permitted to continue these purposes will
be attained. Already the revolution has received such a
set-back that, though it win in the end, many good and
brave men must die who otherwise might have lived.
The purpose of this book was to inform the American
people as to the facts about Mexico in order that they
might be prepared to prevent American intervention
against a revolution the justice of which there can be no
question.

So far "Barbarous Mexico" has failed in this purpose.
Will it fail in the end? Are the American people as en-
slaved in spirit as the Mexicans are in body ? In Mexico
the only protest possible is a protest of arms. In the
United States there is still a degree of freedom of press
and speech. Though by tricks and deceits innumerable
the rulers of America succeed in evading the will of the
majority, the majority yet may protest, and if the protest
be long enough and loud enough, it is still capable of
making those rulers tremble. Protest against the Crime
of Intervention. And should it become necessary, in
order to make the rulers heed, to raise that protest to a
threat of revolution here, so be it; the cause will be
worth while.

JOHN KENNETH TURNER.

Los Angeles, Calif., April 8, 1911.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Slaves of Yucatan 9

II. The Extermination of the Yaquis 37

III. Over the Exile Road 49

IV. The Contract Slaves of Valle Nacional. 67

V. In the Valley of Death 82

VI. The Country Peons and the City Poor. 109

VII. The Diaz System 120

VIII. Repressive Elements of the Diaz Ma-
chine 138

IX. The Crushing of Opposition Parties 160

X. The Eighth Unanimous Election of

Diaz 174

XL Four Mexican Strikes 197

XII. Critics and Corroboration 220

XIII. The Diaz-American Press Conspiracy... 237

XIV. The American Partners of Diaz 253

XV. American Persecution of the Enemies

OF Diaz 270

XVI. Diaz Himself 299

XVII. The Mexican People 324

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

facing page

Slave Mother and Child^ also Henequen Plant 20

Women Are Cheaper than Grist-Mills 20

Calling the Roll at Sunrise on a Slave Plantation 26

Scene in a Yaqui Bull Pen on the Exile Road 49

Band of Yaquis on the Exile Road 52

Type of "Enganchado/' or Plantation Slave 70

Boy Slaves on a Sugar Plantation in the Hot Lands 96

Cargadores with Baskets, Seen Everyw^here on the
Mexican Plateau 110

Midnight in Mexico City "Meson," Cheap Lodging House 116

Tv^o Groups of Waifs Sleeping in a "Meson" 118

Ready for the Execution 140

Mexican Cavalry and Mexican County Jail 144

Yaquis Hanged in Sonora, Mexican Rurales 148

A Typical Mexican Military Execution, Before and After 164

Diaz ane Taft Photographed Together at El Paso, Texas 254

Portraits of Five American Revolutionists 272

Primitive Plow; Mexico Is Backward in Modern Ma-
chinery, Not Because the Mexican Laborer Is Stupid,
but Because He Is Cheap 328

Wood Carriers, City of Mexico 334

BARBAROUS MEXICO

CHAPTER I

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN

What is Mexico?

Americans commonly characterize Mexico as "Our
Sister Republic." Most of us picture her vaguely as
a republic in reality much like our own, inhabited by
people a little different in temperament, a little poorer
and a little less advanced, but still enjoying the protec-
tion of republican laws — a free people in the sense that
we are free.

Others of us, who have seen the country through a
car window, or speculated a little in Mexican mines
or Mexican plantations, paint that country beyond the
Rio Grande as a benevolent paternalism in which a
great and good man orders all things well for his fool-
ish but adoring people.

I found Mexico to be neither of these things. The
real Mexico I found to be a country with a written
constitution and written laws in general almost as fair
and democratic as our own, but with neither constitution
nor laws in operation. Mexico is a country without
political freedom, without freedom of speech, without
a free press, without a free ballot, without a jury sys-
tem, without political parties, without any of our cher-
ished guarantees of life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. It is a land where there has been no contest

9

10 BARBAROUS MEXICO

for the office of president for more than a generation,
where the executive rules all things by means of a
standing army, where political offices are sold for a fixed
price. I found Mexico to be a land where the people
are poor because they have no rights, where peonage
is the rule for the great mass, and where actual chattel
slavery obtains for hundreds of thousands. Finally, I
found that the people do not idolize their president, that
the tide of opposition, dammed and held back as it has
been by army and secret police, is rising to a height
where it must shortly overflow that dam. Mexicans
of all classes and affiliations agree that their country
IS on the verge of a revolution in favor of democracy;
if not a revolution in the time of Diaz, for Diaz is old
and is expected soon to pass, then a revolution after
Diaz.

My special interest in political Mexico was first awak-
ened early in 1908, when I came in contact with four
Mexican revolutionists who were at that time incar-
cerated in the county jail at Los Angeles, California.
Here were four educated, intelligent Mexicans, college
men, all of them, who were being held by the United
States authorities on a charge of planning to invade a
friendly nation — Mexico— with an armed force from
American soil.

Why should intelligent men take up arms against a
republic? Why should they come to the United States
to prepare for their military maneuvers? I talked with
those Mexican prisoners. They assured me that at
one time they had peacefully agitated in their own coun-
try for a peaceful and constitutional overthrow of the
persons in control of their government.

But for that very thing, they declared, they had been
imprisoned and their property had been destroyed. Secret

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 11]

police had dogged their steps, their lives had been threat-
ened, and countless methods had been used to prevent
them from carrying on their work. Finally, hunted
as outlaws beyond the national boundaries, denied the
rights of free speech, press and assembly, denied the
right peaceably to organize to bring about political
changes, they had resorted to the only alternative —
arms. Why had they wished to overturn their govern-
ment? Because it had set aside the constitution, because
it had abolished those civic rights which all enlightened
men agree are necessary for the unfolding of a nation,
because it had dispossessed the common people of their
lands, because it had converted free laborers into serfs,
peons, and some of them even into — slaves.

"Slavery? Do you mean to tell me that there is any
real slavery left in the western hemisphere?" I scoffed.
"Bah ! You are talking like an American socialist. You
mean 'wage slavery,' or slavery to miserable conditions
of livelihood. You don't mean chattel slavery."

But those four Mexican exiles refused to give ground.
"Yes, slavery," they said, "chattel slavery. Men, women
and children bought and sold like mules — just like mules
— and like mules they belong to their masters. They are
slaves."

"Human beings bought and sold like mules in
America! And in the twentieth century. Well," I told
myself, "if it's true, I'm going to see it."

So it was that early in September, 1908, I crossed
the Rio Grande bound for my first trip through the
back yards of Old Mexico.

Upon this first trip I was accompanied by L. Gutier-
rez De Lara, a Mexican of distinguished family, whose
acquaintance I had made also in Los Angeles. De Lara
was opposed to the existing government in Mexico,

12 BARBAROUS MEXICO

which fact my critics have pointed out as evidence of
bias in my investigations. On the contrary, I did not
depend on De Lara or any other biassed source for
my information, but took every precaution to arrive
at the exact truth, and by as many different avenues
as practicable. Every essential fact which I put down
here in regard to the slavery of Mexico I saw with my
own eyes or heard with my own ears, and heard usually
from those individuals who would be most likely to
minimize their cruelties — the slave-drivers themselves.

Nevertheless, to the credit of De Lara I must say
that he gave me most important aid in gathering my
material. By his knowledge of the country and the
people, by his genius as a "mixer," and, above all,
through his personal acquaintance with valuable sources
of information all over the country — men on the inside
— I was enabled to see and hear things which are prac-
tically inaccessible to the ordinary investigator.

Slavery in Mexico! Yes, I found it. I found it first
in Yucatan. The peninsula of Yucatan is an elbow of
Central America, which shoots off in a northeasterly
direction almost half way to Florida. It belongs to
Mexico, and its area of some 80,000 square miles is
almost equally divided among the states of Yucatan and
Campeche and the territory of Quintana Roo.

The coast of Yucatan, which comprises the north-
central part of the peninsula, is about a thousand miles
directly south of New Orleans. The surface of the
state is almost solid rock, so nearly solid that it is usually
impossible to plant a tree without first blasting a hole
to receive the shoot and make a place for the roots.
Yet this naturally barren land is more densely populated
than is our own United States. More than that, within
one-fourth of the territory three- fourths of the people

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 13

live, and the density of the population runs to nearly
seventy-five per square mile.

The secret of these peculiar conditions is that the
soil and the climate of northern Yucatan happen to be
perfectly adapted to the production of that hardy species
of century plant which produces henequen, or sisal
hemp. Hence we find the city of Merida, a beautiful
modern city claiming a population of 60,000 people,
and surrounding it, supporting it, vast henequen
plantations on which the rows of gigantic green plants
extend for miles and miles. The farms are so large
that each has a little city of its own, inhabited by from
500 to 2,500 people, according to the size of the farm.
The owners of these great farms are the chief slave-
holders of Yucatan; the inhabitants of the little cities
are the slaves. The annual export of henequen from
Yucatan approximates 250,000,000 pounds. The popu-
lation of Yucatan is about three hundred thousand. The
slave-holders' club numbers 250 members, but the vast
majority of the lands and the slaves are concentrated
in the hands of fifty henequen kings. The slaves num-
ber more than one hundred thousand.

In order to secure the truth in its greatest purity from
the lips of the masters of the slaves I went among them
playing a part. Long before I put my feet upon the
white sands of Progreso, the port of Yucatan, I had
heard how visiting investigators are bought or blinded,
how, if they cannot be bought, they are wined and
dined and filled with falsehood, then taken over a route
previously prepared — fooled, in short, so completely that
they go away half believing that the slaves are not
slaves, that the hundred thousand half-starving, over-
worked, degraded bondsmen are perfectly happy and so
contented with their lot that it would be a shame indeed

14 BARBAROUS MEXICO

to yield to them the freedom and security which, in all
humanity, is the rightful share of every human being
born upon the earth.

The part which I played in Yucatan was that of an
investor with much money to sink in henequen prop-
erties, and as such I was warmly welcomed by the
henequen kings. I was rather fortunate in going to
Yucatan when I did. Until the panic of 1907 it was
a well-understood and unanimously approved policy of
the "Camara de Agricola," the planters' organization,
that foreigners should not be allowed to invade the
henequen business. This was partly because the profits
of the business were huge and the rich Yucatecos wanted
to "hog it all" for themselves, but more especially be-
cause they feared that through foreigners the story of
their misdeeds might become known to the world.

But the panic of 1907 wiped out the world's henequen
market for a time. The planters were a company of
little Rockefellers, but they needed ready cash, and they
were willing to take it from anyone who came. Hence
my imaginary money was the open sesame to their club,
and to their farms. I not only discussed every phase
of henequen production with the kings themselves, and
while they were off their guard, but I observed thousands
of slaves under their normal conditions.

Chief among the henequen kings of Yucatan is
Olegario Molina, former governor of the state and Sec-
retary of Fomento (Public Promotion) of Mexico.
Molina's holdings of lands in Yucatan and Quintana
Roo aggregate 15,000,000 acres, or 23,000 square miles
— a small kingdom in itself. The fifty kings live in
costly palaces in Merida and many of them have homes
abroad. They travel a great deal, usually they speak
several different languages, and they and their families

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 15

are a most cultivated class of people. All Merida and
all Yucatan, even all the peninsula of Yucatan, are
dependent on the fifty henequen kings. Naturally these
men are in control of the political machinery of their
state, and naturally they operate that machinery for their
own benefit. The slaves are 8,000 Yaqui Indians im-
ported from Sonora, 3,000 Chinese (Koreans), and be-
tween 100,000 and 125,000 native Mayas, who formerly
owned the lands that the henequen kings now own.

The Maya people, indeed, form about ninety-five per
cent of the population of Yucatan. Even the majority
of the fifty henequen kings are Mayas crossed with the
blood of Spain. The Mayas are Indians — and yet they
are not Indians. They are not like the Indians of the
United States, and they are called Indians only because
their homes were in the western hemisphere when the
Europeans came. The Mayas had a civilization of their
own when the Europeans "discovered" them, and it
was a civilization admittedly as high as that of the most
advanced Aztecs or the Incas of Peru.

The Mayas are a peculiar people. They look like
no other people on the face of the earth. They are not
like other Mexicans; they are not like Americans; they
are not like Chinamen; they are not like East Indians;
they are not like Turks. Yet one might very easily
imagine that fusion of all these five widely different
peoples might produce a people much like the Mayas.
They are not large in stature, but their features are
remarkably finely chiselled and their bodies give a strong
impression of elegance and grace. Their skins are
olive, their foreheads high, their faces slightly aquiline.
The women of all classes in Merida wear long, flowing
white gowns, unbound at the waist and embroidered
about the hem and perhaps also about the bust in some

16 BARBAROUS MEXICO

bright color — green, blue or purple. In the warm even-
ings a military band plays and hundreds of comely
women and girls thus alluringly attired mingle among
the fragrant flowers, the art statues and the tropical
greenery of the city plaza.

The planters do not call their chattels slaves. They call
them "people," or "laborers," especially when speaking
to strangers. But when speaking confidentially they
have said to me : "Yes, they are slaves."

But I did not accept the word slavery from the people
of Yucatan, though they were the holders of the slaves
themselves. The proof of a fact is to be found, not in
the name, but in the conditions thereof. Slavery is
the ownership of the body of a man, an ownership so
absolute that the body can be transferred to another,
an ownership that gives to the owner a right to take
the products of that body, to starve it, to chastise it at
will, to kill it with impunity. Such is slavery in the
extreme sense. Such is slavery as I found it in Yucatan.

The masters of Yucatan do not call their system
slavery; they call it enforced service for debt. "We
do not consider that we own our laborers; we consider
that they are in debt to us. And we do not consider
that we buy and sell them ; we consider that we transfer
the debt, and the man goes with the debt." This is the
way Don Enrique Camara Zavala, president of the
"Camara de Agricola de Yucatan," explained the atti-
tude of the henequen kings in the matter. "Slavery is
against the law ; we do not call it slavery," various plant-
ers assured me again and again.

But the fact that it is not service for debt is proven
by the habit of transferring the slaves from one master
to another, not on any basis of debt, but on the basis of
the market price of a man. In figuring on the purchase

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 17

of a plantation I always had to figure on paying cash
for the slaves, exactly the same as for the land, the
machinery and the cattle. Four hundred Mexican dollars
apiece was the prevailing price, and that is what the
planters usually asked me. "If you buy now you buy
at a very good time," I was told again and again. "The
panic has put the price down. One year ago the
price of each man was $1,000."

The Yaquis are transferred on exactly the same basis
as the Mayas — the market price of a slave — and yet all
people of Yucatan know that the planters pay only $65
apiece to the government for each Yaqui. I was offered
for $400 each Yaquis who had not been in the country
a month and consequently had had no opportunity of
rolling up a debt that would account for the difference
in price. Moreover, one of the planters told me: "We
don't allow the Yaquis to get in debt to us."

It would be absurd to suppose that the reason the
price was uniform was because all the slaves were equally
in debt. I probed this matter a little by inquiring into
the details of the selling transaction. "You get the
photograph and identification papers with the man," said
one, "and that's all." "You get the identification papers
and the account of the debt," said another. "We don't
keep much account of the debt," said a third, "because
it doesn't matter after you've got possession of the man."
"The man and the identification papers are enough,"
said another; "if your man runs away, the papers are
all the authorities require for you to get him back again."
"Whatever the debt, it takes the market price to get
him free again," a fifth told me.

Conflicting as some of these answers are, they all
tend to show one thing, that the debt counts for nothing
after the debtor passes into the hands of the planter.

18 BARBAROUS MEXICO

Whatever the debt, it takes the market price to get the
debtor free again!

Even then, I thought, it would not be so bad if the
servant had an opportunity of working out the price
and buying back his freedom. Even some of our negro
slaves before the Civil War were permitted — by excep-
tionally lenient masters — to do that.

But I found that such was not the custom. "You
need have no fear in purchasing this plantation," said
one planter to me, "of the laborers being able to buy
their freedom and leave you. They can never do that."

The only man in the country whom I heard of as
having ever permitted a slave to buy his freedom was
a professional man of Merida, an architect. "I bought
a laborer for $1,000," he explained to me. "He was
a good man and helped me a lot about my office. After
I got to liking him I credited him with so much wages
per week. After eight years I owed him the full $1,000,
so I let him go. But they never do that on the planta-
tions— ^never."

Thus I learned that the debt feature of the enforced
service does not alleviate the hardships of the slave by
making it easier for him to free himself, neither does
it aifect the conditions of his sale or his complete sub-
jection to his master. On the other hand, I found that
the one particular in which this debt element does
play an actual part in the destiny of the unfortunate
of Yucatan militates against him instead of operating in
his favor. For it is by means of debt that the Yucatan
slave-driver gets possession of the free laborers of his
realm to replenish the overworked and underfed, the
overbeaten, the dying slaves of his plantation.

How are the slaves recruited? Don Joaquin Peon
informed me that the Maya slaves die oflf faster than

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 19

they are born, and Don Enrique Camara Zavala told
me that two-thirds of the Yaquis die during the first year
of their residence in the country. Hence the problem
of recruiting the slaves seemed to me a very serious one.
Of course, the Yaquis were coming in at the rate of
500 per month, yet I hardly thought that influx would
be sufficient to equal the tide of life that was going out
by death. I was right in that surmise, so I was informed,
but I was also informed that the problem of recruits
was not so difficult, after all.

"It is very easy," one planter told me. "All that is
necessary is that you get some free laborer in debt to
you, and then you have him. Yes, we are always get-
ting new laborers in that way."

The amount of the debt does not matter, so long as
It IS a debt, and the little transaction is arranged by men
who combine the functions of money lender and slave
broker. Some of them have offices in Merida and they
get the free laborers, clerks and the poorer class of
people generally into debt just as professional loan sharks
of America get clerks, mechanics and office men into
debt — by playing on their needs and tempting them.
Were these American clerks, mechanics and office men
residents of Yucatan, instead of being merely hounded
by a loan shark, they would be sold into slavery for all
time, they and their children and their children's chil-
dren, on to the third and fourth generation, and even
farther, on to such a time as some political change puts
a stop to the conditions of slavery altogether in Mexico.

These money-lending slave brokers of Merida do not
hang out signs and announce to the world that they have
slaves to sell. They do their business quietly, as people
who are comparatively safe in their occupation, but as
people who do not wish to endanger their business by

20 BARBAROUS MEXICO

too great publicity — like police-protected gambling
houses in an American city, for example. These slave
sharks were mentioned to me by the henequen kings
themselves, cautiously by them, as a rule. Other old
residents of Yucatan explained their methods in detail.
I was curious to visit one of these brokers and talk with
him about purchasing a lot of slaves, but I was advised
against it and was told that they would not talk to a
foreigner until the latter had established himself in the
community and otherwise proved his good faith.

These men buy and sell slaves. And the planters buy
and sell slaves. I was offered slaves in lots of one up
by the planters. I was told that I could buy a man or
a woman, a boy or a girl, or a thousand of any of them,
to do with them exactly as I wished, that the police
would protect me in my possession of those, my fellow
beings. Slaves are not only used on the henequen plan-
tations, but in the city, as personal servants, as laborers,
as household drudges, as prostitutes. How many of
these persons there are in the city of Merida I do not
know, though I heard many stories of the absolute power
exercised over them. Certainly the number is several
thousand.

So we see that the debt element in Yucatan not only
does not palliate the condition of the slave, but rather
makes it harder. It increases his extremity, for while
it does not help him to climb out of his pit, it reaches
out its tentacles and drags down his brother, too. The
portion of the people of Yucatan who are born free
possess no "inalienable right" to their freedom. They
are free only by virtue of their being prosperous. Let
a family, however virtuous, however worthy, however
cultivated, fall into misfortune, let the parents fall into
debt and be unable to pay the debt, and the whole family

SLAVE MOTIIKK AND CUILU; ALSO IIENEQUEN PLANT

WOMEN ARE CHEAPER THAN GRIST-MILLS

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 21

is liable to pass into the hands of a henequen planter.
Through debt, the dying slaves of the farms are replaced
by the unsuccessful wage-workers of the cities.

Why do the henequen kings call their system enforced
service for debt instead of by its right name? Prob-
ably for two reasons — because the system is the out-
growth of a milder system of actual service for debt,
and because of the prejudice against the word slavery,
both among Mexicans and foreigners. Service for debt
in a milder form than is found in Yucatan exists all over
Mexico and is called peonage. Under this system, police
authorities everywhere recognize the right of an em-
ployer to take the body of a laborer who is in debt to
him, and to compel the laborer to work out the debt.
Of course, once the employer can compel the laborer
to work, he can compel him to work at his own terms,
and that means that he can work him on such terms as
will never permit the laborer to extricate himself from
his debt.

Such is peonage as it exists throughout all Mexico.
In the last analysis it is slavery, but the employers con-
trol the police, and the fictional distinction is kept up
all the same. Slavery is peonage carried to its greatest
possible extreme, and the reason we find the extreme
in Yucatan is that, while in some other sections of Mex-
ico a fraction of the ruling interests are opposed to
peonage and consequently exert a modifying influence
upon it, in Yucatan all the ruling interests are in hene-
quen. The cheaper the worker the higher the profits
for all. The peon becomes a chattel slave.

The henequen kings of Yucatan seek to excuse their
system of slavery by denominating it enforced service
for debt. "Slavery is against the law," they say. "It
is against the constitution." When a thing is abolished

22 BARBAROUS MEXICO

by your constitution it works more smoothly if called
by another name, but the fact is, service for debt is
just as unconstitutional in Mexico as chattel slavery.
The plea of the henequen king of keeping within the
law is entirely without foundation. A comparison of
the following two clauses from the Mexican constitu-
tion will show that the two systems are in the same
class.

"Article I, Section 1. In the Republic all are born
free. Slaves who set foot upon the national territory
recover, by that act alone, their liberty, and have a right
to the protection of the laws."

"Article V, Section 1 (Amendment). No one shall
be compelled to do personal work without just compen-
sation and without his full consent. The state shall
not permit any contract, covenant or agreement to be
carried out having for its object the abridgment, loss
or irrevocable sacrifice of the liberty of a man, whether
by reason of labor, education or religious vows. * ♦ ♦
Nor shall any compact be tolerated in which a man
agrees to his proscription or exile."

So the slave business in Yucatan, whatever name may
be applied to it, is still unconstitutional. On the other
hand, if the policy of the present government is to be
taken as the law of the land, the slave business of
Mexico is legal. In that sense the henequen kings "obey
the law." Whether they are righteous in doing so I
will leave to hair-splitters in morality. Whatever the
decision may be, right or wrong, it does not change, for
better or for worse, the pitiful misery in which I found
the hemp laborers of Yucatan.

The slaves of Yucatan get no money. They are half
starved. They are worked almost to death. They are
beaten. A large percentage of them are locked up every

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 23

night in a house resembHng a jail. If they are sick
they must still work, and if they are so sick that it is
impossible for them to work, they are seldom permitted
the services of a physician. The women are compelled
to marry, compelled to marry men of their own planta-
tion only, and sometimes are compelled to marry certain
men not of their choice. There are no schools for the
children. Indeed, the entire lives of these people are
ordered at the whim of a master, and if the master
wishes to kill them, he may do so with impunity. I
heard numerous stories of slaves being beaten to death,
but I never heard of an instance in which the murderer
was punished, or even arrested. The police, the public
prosecutors and the judges know exactly what is ex-
pected of them, for the men who appoint them are the
planters themselves. The jefes politicos, the rulers of
the political districts corresponding to our counties, who
are as truly czars of the districts as Diaz is the Czar of
all Mexico, are invariably either henequen planters or
employes of henequen planters.

The first mention of corporal punishment for the
slaves was made to me by one of the members of the
Camara, a large, portly fellow with the bearing of an
opera singer and a white diamond shining at me like
a sun from his slab-like shirt front. He told a story,
and as he told it he laughed. I laughed, too, but in a
little different way. I could not help feeling that the story
was made to order to fit strangers.

"Oh, yes, we have to punish them," said the fat king
of henequen. "We even are compelled to whip the
house servants of the city. It is their nature; they de-
mand it. A friend of mine, a very mild man, had a
woman servant who was always wishing to serve some-
body else. My friend finally sold the woman, and some

24 BARBAROUS MEXICO

months later he met her on the street and asked her
how she liked her new master. 'Finely/ she answered,
'finely. You see, my master is a very rough man and
he beats me nearly every day !' "

The philosophy of beating was made very clear to me
by Don Felipe G. Canton, secretary of the Camara.

*'It is necessary to whip them — oh, yes, very neces-
sary," he told me, with a smile, "for there is no other
way to make them do what you wish. What other
means is there of enforcing the discipline of the farm?
If we did not whip them they would do nothing."

I could make no reply. I could think of no ground
upon which to assail Don Felipe^s logic. For what,
pray, can be done to a chattel slave to make him work
but to beat him? With the wage worker you have the
fear of discharge or the reduction of wages to hold over
his head and make him toe the mark, but the chattel
slave would welcome discharge, and as to reducing his
food supply, you don't dare to do that or you kill him
outright. At least, that is the case in Yucatan.

One of the first sights we saw on a henequen planta-
tion was the beating of a slave — a formal beating before
the assembled toilers of the ranch early in the morning
just after the daily roll call. The slave was taken on
the back of a huge Chinaman and given fifteen lashes
across the bare back with a heavy, wet rope, lashes so
lustily delivered that the blood ran down the victim's
body. This method of beating is an ancient one in
Yucatan and is the customary one on all the plantations
for boys and all except the heaviest men. Women are
required to kneel to be beaten, as sometimes are men
of great weight. Men and women are beaten in the fields
as well as at the morning roll call. Each foreman, or
capataz, carries a heavy cane with which he punches

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 25

and prods and whacks the slaves at will. I do not
remember visiting a single field in which I did not see
some of this punching and prodding and whacking
going on.

I saw no punishments worse than beating in Yucatan,
but I heard of them. I was told of men being strung
up by their fingers or toes to be beaten, of their being
thrust into black dungeon-like holes, of water being
dropped on the hand until the victim screamed, of the
extremity of female punishment being found in some
outrage to the sense of the modesty in the woman. I
saw black holes and everywhere I saw the jail dormi-
tories, armed guards and night guards who patrolled
the outskirts of the farm settlements while the slaves
slept. I heard also of planters who took special delight
in personally superintending the beating of their chat-
tels. For example, speaking of one of the richest plant-
ers in Yucatan, a professional man of Merida said to
me:

"A favorite pastime of was to sit on his,

horse and watch the 'cleaning up* (the punishment) of.,
his slaves. He would strike a match to light his cigar.
At the first puff of smoke the first stroke of the wet
rope would fall on the bare back of the victim. He
would smoke on, leisurely, contentedly, as the blows fell,
one after another. When the entertainment finally palled
on him he would throw away his cigar and the man
with the rope would stop, for the end of the cigar was
the signal for the end of the beating."

The great plantations of Yucatan are reached by pri-
vate mule car lines built and operated specially for the
business of the henequen kings. The first plantation
that we visited was typical. Situated fifteen miles west
of Merida, it contains thirty-six square miles of land,

26 BARBAROUS MEXICO

one-fourth of it in henequen, part of the rest in pasture
and a part unreclaimed. In the center of the plantation
is the farm settlement, consisting of a grass-grown patio,
or yard, surrounding which are the main farm buildings,
the store, the factory, the house of the administrador, or
general manager; the house of the mayordomo primero,
or superintendent; the houses of the mayordomos sec-
undos, or overseers, and the little chapel. Behind these
are the corrals, the drying yard, the stable, the jail
dormitory. Finally, surrounding all are the rows of
one-room huts set in little patches of ground, in which
reside the married slaves and their families.

Here we found fifteen hundred slaves and about thirty
bosses of various degrees. Thirty of the slaves were
Koreans, about two hundred were Yaquis and the rest
were Mayas. The Maya slaves, to my eyes, differed
from the free Mayas I had seen in the city principally
in their clothing and their general unkempt and over-
worked appearance. Certainly they were of the same
clay. Their clothing was poor and ragged, yet generally
clean. The women wore calico, the men the thin, un-
bleached cotton shirt and trousers of the tropics, the
trousers being often rolled to the knees. Their hats
were of coarse straw or grass, their feet always bare.

Seven hundred of the slaves are able-bodied men, the
rest women and children. Three hundred and eighty
of the men are married and live with their families in
the one-room huts. These huts are set in little patches
of ground 144 feet square, which, rocky and barren as
they are, are cultivated to some small purpose by the
women and children. In addition to the product of
their barren garden patch each family receives daily
credit at the plantation store for twenty-five centavos,
or twelve and one-half cents' worth of merchandise.

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 27

No money is paid; it is all in credit, and this same sys-
tem prevails on about one-half the plantations. The other
half merely deal out rations. It amounts to the same
thing, but some of the planters stick to the money
credit system merely in order to keep up the pretense
of paying wages. I priced some of the goods at the
store — corn, beans, salt, peppers, clothing and blankets
was about all there was — and found that the prices were
high. I could not understand how a family could live
on twelve and one-half cents* worth of it each day, a
hard-working family, especially.

The slaves rise from their beds when the big bell
in the patio rings at 3:45 o'clock in the morning, and
their work begins as soon thereafter as they can get
to it. Their work in the fields ends when it is too dark
to see, and about the yards it sometimes extends until
long into the night.

The principal labor of the plantation is harvesting
the henequen leaves and cleaning the weeds from be-
tween the plants. Each slave is given a certain number
of leaves to cut or plants to clean, and it is the policy
of the planter to make the stint so hard that the slave
is compelled to call out his wife and children to help
him. Thus nearly all the women and children of the
plantation spend a part of the day in the field. The
unmarried women spend all the day in the field, and
when a boy reaches the age of twelve he is considered
to be a man and is given a stint of his own to do. Sun-
days the slaves do not work for the master. They spend
their time in their patches, rest or visit. Sunday is
the day on which the youths and maidens meet and plan
to marry. Sometimes they are even permitted to go off
the farm and meet the slaves of their neighbor, but never
are they permitted to marry the people of other planta-

28 BARBAROUS MEXICO

tions, for this would necessitate the purchase of either
the wife or the husband by one or the other of the two
owners, and that would involve too much trouble.

Such are the conditions in general that prevail on
all the plantations of Yucatan.

We spent two days and two nights on the plantation
called San Antonio Yaxche and became thoroughly
acquainted with its system and its people.

Not only do not the owners of the great henequen
farms of Yucatan live on their farms, but neither do
the managers. Like the owners, the managers have
their homes and their offices in Merida, and visit the
plantations only from two to half a dozen times a month.
The mayordomo primero is ordinarily the supreme ruler
of the plantation, but when the manager, or admin-
istrador, heaves in sight, the mayordomo primero be-
comes a very insignificant personage indeed.

At least that was the case on San Antonio Yaxche.
The big mayordomo was compelled to bow and scrape
before the boss just as were the lesser foremen, and
at meal time Manuel Rios, the administrador, I and my
companion — the latter, much to the disgust of Rios, who
looked upon him as an underling — dined alone in state
while the mayordomo hovered in the background, ready
to fly away instantly to do our bidding. At the first
meal — and it was the best I had in all Mexico — I felt
strongly impelled to invite Mister Mayordomo to sit
down and have something. I did not do it, and after-
wards I was glad that I did not, for before I left the
ranch I realized what an awful breach of etiquette I
would have been guilty of.

In the fields we found gangs of men and boys, some
gangs hoeing the weeds from between the gigantic
plants and some sawing off the big leaves with machetes.

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 29

The harvest of the leaves goes on unceasing all the
twelve months of the year, and during the cycle every
plant on the farm is gone over four times. Twelve
leaves are usually clipped, the twelve largest, the thirty
smallest being left to mature for another three months.
The workman chops off the leaf at its root, trims the
sharp briars off the two edges, trims the spear-like tip,
counts the leaves 1-eft on the plant, counts the leaves
he is cutting, piles his leaves into bundles, and finally
carries the bundles to the end of his row, where they
are carted away on a movable-track mule-car line.

I found the ground uneven and rocky, a punishment
for the feet, the henequen leaves thorny and treach-
erous and the air thick, hot and choking, though the
season was considered a cool one. The ragged, bare-
footed harvesters worked steadily, carefully and with
the speed of better paid laborers who work "by the
piece." They were working *'by the piece," too, the
reward being immunity from the lash. Here and there
among them I saw tired-looking women and children,
sometimes little girls as young as eight or ten. Two
thousand leaves a day is the usual stint on San Antonio
Yaxche. On other plantations I was told that it is
sometimes as high as three thousand.

The henequen leaves, once cut, are carted to a large
building in the midst of the farm settlement, where
they are hoisted in an elevator and sent tumbling down
a long chute and into the stripping machine. Here
hungry steel teeth tear the tough, thick leaves to pieces,
and the result is two products — a green powder, which
is refuse, and long strands of greenish, hair-like fibre,
which is henequen. The fibre is sent on a tramway to
the drying yard, where it turns the color of the sun.
Then it is trammed back, pressed into bales, and a few

30 BARBAROUS MEXICO

days or weeks later the observer will see it at Progreso,
the port of Yucatan, twenty-five miles north of Merida,
being loaded into a steamship flying the British flag.
The United States buys nearly all the henequen of
Yucatan, our cordage trust, an alleged concern of Stand-
ard Oil, absorbing more than half of the entire product.

Eight centavos per pound was the 1908 price received
for sisal hemp in the bale. One slave dealer told me
that the production cost no more than one.

About the machinery we found many small boys
working. In the drying yard we found boys and men.
All of the latter impressed me with their listless move-
ments and their haggard, feverish faces. This was ex-
plained by the foreman in charge. "When the men are
sick we let them work here," he said — "on half pay!"

Such was the men's hospital. The hospital for the
women we discovered in a basement of one of the main
buildings. It was simply a row of windowless, earthen-
floor rooms, half-dungeons, in each of which lay one
woman on a bare board, without a blanket to soften it.

More than three hundred of the able-bodied slaves
spend the nights in a large structure of stone and mortar,
surrounded by a solid wall twelve feet high, which is
topped with the sharp edges of thousands of broken
glass bottles. To this inclosure there is but one door,
and at it stands a guard armed with a club, a sword
and a pistol. These are the quarters of the unmarried
men of the plantation, Mayas, Yaquis and Chinese;
also of the "half-timers," slaves whom the plantation
uses only about half of the year, married men, some
of them, whose families live in little settlements border-
ing on the farm.

These "half-timers" are found on only about one-
third of the plantations, and they are a class which has

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 31

been created entirely for the convenience of the masters.
They become "full-timers" at the option of the masters,
and are then permitted to keep their families on the
plantations. They are compelled to work longer than
half the year if they are wanted, and during the time
when they are not working they are not permitted to
go away on a hunt for other work. Generally their
year's labor is divided into two sections, three months
in the spring and three in the fall, and during that period
they cannot go to visit their families. They are always
kept in jail at night, they are fed by the farm, and their
credit of twelve and one-half cents per day is kept back
and doled out to their families a little at a time to pre-
vent starvation.

A moment's figuring will show that the yearly credit
for a half-timer who works six months is $22.50, and
this is all — absolutely all — that the family of the half-
time slave has to live on each year.

Inside the large, one-room building within the stone
wall at San Antonio Yaxche we found, swinging so
close that they touched one another, more than three
hundred rope hammocks. This was the sleeping place
of the half-timers and the unmarried full-timers. We
entered the enclosure just at dusk, as the toilers, wiping
the sweat from their foreheads, came filing in. Behind
the dormitory we found half a dozen women working
over some crude, open-air stoves. Like half-starved
wolves the ragged workers ringed about the simple
kitchen, grimy hands went out to receive their meed of
supper, and standing there the miserable creatures ate.

I sampled the supper of the slaves. That is, I sam-
pled a part of it with my tongue, and the rest, which
my nostrils warned me not to sample with my tongue,
I sampled with my nostrils. The meal consisted of two

32 BARBAROUS MEXICO

large corn tortillas, the bread of the poor of Mexico,
a cup of boiled beans, unflavored, and a bowl of fish —
putrid, stinking fish, fish that reeked with an odor that
stuck in my system for days. How could they ever eat
it? Ah, well, to vary a weary, unending row of meals
consisting of only beans and tortillas a time must come
when the most refined palate will water to the touch of
something different, though that something is fish which
offends the heavens with its rottenness.

"Beans, tortillas, fish!" I suppose that they can at
least keep alive on it," I told myself, "provided they do
no worse at the other two meals." "By the way," I
turned to the adminstrador, who was showing us about,
"what do they get at the other two meals?"

"The other two meals?" The administrador was
puzzled. "The other two meals ? Why, there aren't any
others. This is the only meal they have!"

Beans, tortillas, fish, once a day, and a dozen hours
under the hottest sun that ever shone!

"But, no," the administrador corrected himself. "They
do get something else, something very fine, too, some-
thing that they can carry to the field with them and eat
when they wish. Here is one now."

At this he picked up from one of the tables of the
women a something about the size of his two small fists,
and handed it to me, triumphantly. I took the round,
soggy mass in my fingers, pinched, smelled and tasted
it. It proved to be corn dough, half fermented and
patted into a ball. This, then, was the other two meals,
the rest^ of the substance besides beans, tortillas and
decayed fish which sustained the toilers throughout the
long day. I turned to a young Maya who was carefully
picking a fish bone.

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 33

"Which would you rather be," I asked of him, "a
half-timer or a full-timer?"

"A full-timer," he replied, promptly, and then in a
lower tone: "They work us until we are ready to fall,
then they throw us away to get strong again. If they
worked the full-timers like they work us they would
die."

"We come to work gladly," said another young Maya,
"because we're starved to it. But before the end of the
first week we want to run away. That is why they
lock us up at night."

"Why don't you run away when you're free to do it ?"
I asked. "When they turn you out, I mean?"

The administrador had stepped away to scold a wom-
an. "It's no use," answered the man earnestly. "They
always get us. Everybody is against us and there is
no place to hide."

"They keep our faces on photographs," said another.
"They always get us and give us a cleaning-up (beat-
ing) besides. When we're here we want to run away,
but when they turn us out we know that it's no use."

I was afterwards to learn how admirably the Yucatan
country is adapted to preventing the escape of run-
aways. No fruits or eatable herbs grow wild in that
rocky land. There are no springs and no place where
a person can dig a well without a rock drill and dyna-
mite. So every runaway in time finds his way to a
plantation or to the city, and at either place he is caught
and held for identification. A free laborer who does
not carry papers to prove that he is free is always liable
to be locked up and put to much trouble to prove that
he is not a runaway slave.

Yucatan has been compared to Russians Siberia. "Si-
beria," Mexican political refugees have told me, "is hell

34 BARBAROUS MEXICO

frozen over; Yucatan is hell aflame." But I did not see
many points in common between the two countries.
True, the Yaquis are exiles in a sense, and political
exiles at that, but they are also slaves. The political
exiles of Russia are not slaves. According to Kennan,
they are permitted to take their families with them, to
choose their own abode, to live their own life, and are
often given a small monthly stipend on which to live. I
could not imagine Siberia as being as bad as Yucatan.

The Yucatan slave gets no hour for lunch, as does
the American ranch hand. He goes to the field in the
morning twilight, eating his lump of sour dough on the
way. He picks up his machete and attacks the first
thorny leaf as soon as it is light enough to see the thorns
and he never lays down that machete until the twilight
of the evening. Two thousand of the big green leaves
a day is his "stint," and besides cutting, trimming and
piling them, he must count them, and he must count the
number of leaves on each plant and be sure that he does
not count too many nor too few. Each plant is sup-
posed to grow just 36 new leaves a year. Twelve of
these, the 12 largest, are cut every four months, but
whatever the number cut just 30 leaves must be left
after the clipping. If the slave leaves 31 or 29 he is
beaten, if he fails to cut his 2,000 he is beaten, if he
trims his leaves raggedly he is beaten, if he is late at
roll-call he is beaten. And he is beaten for any other
little shortcoming that any of the bosses may imagine
that he detects in his character or in his make-up. Si-
beria? To my mind Siberia is a foundling asylum com-
pared to Yucatan.

Over and over again I have compared in my mind
the condition of the slaves of Yucatan with what I
have read of the slaves of our southern states before

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 35

the Civil War. And always the result has been in favor
of the black man. Our slaves of the South were almost
always well fed, as a rule they were not overworked, on
many plantations they were rarely beaten, it was usual to
give them a little spending money now and then and to
allow them to leave the plantation at least once a week.
Like the slaves of Yucatan they were cattle of the ranch,
but, unlike the former, they were treated as well as cat-
tle. In the South before the War there were not so
many plantations where the negroes died faster than
they were born. The lives of our black slaves were not
so hard but that they could laugh, sometimes — and sing.
But the slaves of Yucatan do not sing !

I shall never forget my last day in Merida. Merida
is probably the cleanest and most beautiful little city in all
Mexico. It might even challenge comparison in its white
prettiness with any other in the world. The municipality
has expended vast sums on paving, on parks and on
public buildings, and over and above this the henequen
kings not long since made up a rich purse for improve-
ments extraordinary. My last afternoon and evening
in Yucatan I spent riding and walking about the wealthy
residence section of Merida. Americans might expect
to find nothing of art and architecture down on this
rocky Central American peninsula, but Merida has its
million dollar palaces like New York, and it has miles of
them set in miraculous gardens.

Wonderful Mexican palaces! Wonderful Mexican
gardens! A wonderful fairyland conjured out of
slavery — slavery of Mayas, and of Yaquis. Among the
Yucatan slaves there are ten Mayas to one Yaqui, but
of the two the story of the Yaquis appealed to me the
more. The Mayas are dying in their own land and
with their own people. The Yaquis are exiles. They

36 BARBAROUS MEXICO

are dying in a strange land, they are dying faster, and
they are dying alone, away from their families, for
every Yaqui family sent to Yucatan is broken up on the
way. Husbands and wives are torn apart and babes are
taken from their mothers' breasts.

CHAPTER 11

THE EXTERMINATION OF THE YAQUIS

My real purpose in journeying to Yucatan was to find
out what became of the Yaqui Indians of Sonora. In
common with thousands of other Americans who have
lived for years in our Southwest and near the border
line of Mexico, I knew something of the sufferings of the
Yaquis in their native state, of the means which had
been taken to stir them to revolt, of the confiscation of
their lands, of the methods of extermination employed by
the army, of the indignation voiced by the decent ele-
ment of Sonora, finally of President Diaz's sweeping
order of deportation.

I knew that the order of deportation was being car-
ried out, that hundreds of families were being gathered
up monthly and sent away into exile. But what fate
was awaiting them there at the end of that exile road?
The answer was always vague, indefinite, unsatisfactory.
Even well-informed Mexicans of their country's metrop-
olis could not tell me. After the Yaqui exiles sailed
from the port of Veracruz the curtain dropped upon
them. I went to Yucatan in order to witness, if possi-
ble, the final act in the life drama of the Yaqui nation.
And I witnessed it.

The Yaquis are being exterminated and exterminated
fast. There is no room for controversy as to that; the
only controversy relates to whether or not the Yaquis
deserve to be exterminated. It is undoubtedly true that
a portion of their number have persistently refused to
accept the destiny that the government has marked out
for them. On the other hand, there are those who

Z1

38 BARBAROUS MEXICO

assert that the Yaquis are as worthy as other Mexicans
and deserve as much consideration at the hands of their
rulers.

The extermination of the Yaquis began in war; its
finish is being accomplished in deportation and slavery.

The Yaquis are called Indians. Like the Mayas of
Yucatan, they are Indians and yet they are not Indians.
In the United States we would not call them Indians,
for they are workers. As far back as their history can
be traced they have never been savages. They have
been an agricultural people. They tilled the soil, dis-
covered and developed mines, constructed systems of
irrigation, built adobe towns, maintained public schools,
had an organized government and their own mint. When
the Spanish missionaries came among them they were
in possession of practically the whole of that vast ter-
ritory south of Arizona which today comprises the state
of Sonora.

"They are the best workers in Sonora," Colonel Fran-
cisco B. Cruz, the very man who has charge of their
deportation to Yucatan, and of whom I will have more
to say later, told me. *'One Yaqui laborer is worth
two ordinary Americans and three ordinary Mexicans,"
E. F. Trout, a Sonora mine foreman told me. "They
are the strongest, soberest and most reliable people in
Mexico," another one told me. "The government is
taking our best workmen away from us and destroying
the prosperity of the state," said another. "The govern-
ment says it wants to open up the Yaqui country for
settlers," S. R. DeLong, secretary of the Arizona His-
torical Society and an old resident of Sonora, told me,
"but it is my opinion that the Yaquis themselves are the
best settlers that can possible be found."

Such expressions are heard very frequently in Sonora,

THE EXTERMINATION OF THE YAQUIS 39

in the border states and in border publications. The
Yaqui certainly has an admirable physical development.
During my journeys in Mexico I learned to pick him out
at a glance, by his broad shoulders, his deep chest, his
sinewy legs, his rugged face. The typical Yaqui is al-
most a giant, the race a race of athletes. Perhaps that
is just the reason why he has not bent his head in sub-
mission to the will of the masters of Mexico.

American mine-owners and railroad men of Sonora
are repeatedly complaining against the deportation of
the Yaquis, and it is because they are such good work-
men. Another matter which I have heard much re-
marked about by border Americans is the regard of the
so-called renegade, or fighting Yaquis, for the property
of Americans and other foreigners. When the Yaquis
first took up arms against the present government some
twenty-five years ago they did so because of a definite
grievance. Usually they fought on the defensive.
Driven to the mountains, they have been compelled at
times to sally forth and plunder for their stomachs*
sake. But for many years it was known to all men that
they seldom attacked Americans or any people but
Mexicans. And for a long time they never committed
any depredations on railroads or railroad property,
which in Sonora has always been American.

The origin of the Yaqui troubles is generally attrib-
uted to a plot on the part of a number of politicians, the
purpose being to get possession of the rich lands in
Southern Sonora which the Yaquis had held for hun-
dreds of years. For twenty-four years past the only
governors Sonora has had have been Ramon Corral,
now Diaz*s vice-president, Rafael Yzabal and Luis
Torres. These three have rotated in office, as it were,
for more than a generation. As no popular elections

40 BARBAROUS MEXICO

were held at all, these three friends had absolutely no
one to answer to except President Diaz, and their au-
thority in Sonora has been practically absolute.

The Yaquis seem to have had a pretty good title to
their lands when Corral, Yzabal and Torres came upon
the scene. At the time of the Spanish conquest they
were a nation of from one to two hundred thousand peo-
ple, supposed by some authorities to have been offshoots
from the Aztecs. The Spanish were never able to sub-
due them completely, and after two hundred and fifty
troublous years a peace was entered into whereby the
Yaquis gave up a part of their territory and, as ac-
knowledgment of their rightful ownership of the rest
of it, the King of Spain gave them a patent signed by
his own hand. This was nearly one hundred and fifty
years ago, but the royal patent was honored by every
ruler and chief executive of Mexico down to Diaz. Dur-
ing all that time the Yaquis were at peace with the world.
Their reputation as a naturally peaceful nation was
established. It remained for the government of Diaz to
stir them into war.

During these years of peace the Yaquis became part
and parcel of the Mexican nation. They lived like other
Mexicans. They had their own personal farms, their
own homes, and they paid taxes on their property like
other Mexicans. During the war against Maximilian
they sent soldiers to help Mexico, and many of them
distinguished themselves by brilliant service.

But the Yaquis were goaded into war. The men at
the head of the government of Sonora wanted the Yaqui
lands. Moreover, they saw an opportunity for graft in
bringing a large body of soldiers into the state. So they
harassed the Yaquis. They sent bogus surveyors through
the Yaqui valley to mark out the land and tell the peo-

THE EXTERMINATION OF THE YAQUIS 41

pie that the government had decided to give it to for-
eigners. They confiscated $80,000 in a bank belonging
to Chief Cajeme. Finally, they sent armed men to arrest
Cajeme, and when the latter could not find him they
set fire to his house and to those of his neighbors, and
assaulted the women of the village, even Cajeme's wife
not being respected. Finally, the victims were goaded
into war.

Since that day twenty-five years ago the Mexican gov-
ernment has maintained an army almost perpetually in
the field against the Yaquis, an army ranging in num-
bers from 2,000 to 6,000 men. Thousands of soldiers
and tens of thousands of Yaquis have been killed in bat-
tle and many hundreds of the latter have been executed
after being taken prisoners. After a few years Chief
Cajeme was captured and publicly executed in the pres-
ence of a large body of his people who had been taken
prisoner with him. Tetabiate, another Yaqui, was
promptly elected to Cajeme's place, and the fight went
on. Finally, in 1894, at one fell swoop, as it were, the
ground was literally taken from under the feet of the
rebels. By act of the federal government the best of
their lands were taken from them and handed over to
one man, General Lorenzo Torres, who is at this writing
chief of the army in Sonora, then second in command.

The government is credited with having been guilty
of the most horrible atrocities. Two examples are cited
by Santa de Cabora, a Mexican writer, as follows:

"On May 17, 1892, General Otero, of the Mexican army,
ordered the imprisonment of the Yaquis, men, women and
children, in the town of Navajoa, and hung so many of these
people that the supply of rope in the town was exhausted, it
being necessary to use each rope five or six times."

"A colonel in the army, Antonio Rincon, in July, of 1892,
took two hundred Yaauis» men* women and children, pcisoneis.

42 BARBAROUS MEXICO

and carried them in the gunboat El Democrata and dropped
them in the ocean between the mouth of the Yaqui river and
the seaport of Guaymas, all of them perishing."

A report was circulated along our Mexican border
that an incident similar to the last mentioned happened
in February, 1908. Colonel Francisco B. Cruz, who
was in charge of the exiles and who claims to have been
on board of the gunboat and witnessed the incident, de-
clared to me, however, that this report was not true.
The Yaquis were drowned, he declared, but not by the
authorities, and, since at that time the government was
not killing any Yaquis whom it could catch and sell, I
accept the version of Colonel Cruz as the correct one.

"Suicide — nothing but suicide," asseverated the Colo-
nel. "Those Indians wanted to cheat me out of my com-
mission money and so they threw their children into the
sea and jumped in after them. I was on board myself
and saw it all. I heard a loud cry, and looking, saw
some of the crew running to the starboard side of the
vessel. I saw the Yaquis in the water. Then there was
a cry from the port side and I saw the Yaquis jumping
overboard on that side. We lowered boats, but it was
no use ; they all went down before we got to them."

"Every soldier who kills a Yaqui," an army physician
who served two years with the troops against the Yaquis
and whom I met in Mexico City, told me, "is paid a re-
ward of one hundred dollars. To prove his feat the
soldier must show the ears of his victim. 'Bring in the
ears/ is the standing order of the officers. Often I
have seen a company of soldiers drawn up in a square
and one of their number receiving one hundred dollars
for a pair of ears.

"Sometimes small squads of the Indians are cap-
tured, and when I was with the army it was customary

THE EXTERMINATION OF THE YAQUIS 43

to offer the men freedom and money to lead the troops
over the secret mountain trails to the fastnesses of their
friends. The alternative was the rope, yet I never knew
of one of these captives turning traitor. *Give me the
rope,' they would cry, and I have seen such a man run,
put the rope round his own neck and demand that it be
tightened quickly, that he might not again be subjected
to so base an insult.'*

I have before me a letter signed by G. G. Lelevier, a
former member of the Mexican Liberal Party and editor
of one of their papers in the United States. Lelevier is
said to have afterwards gone over to the cause of the
government. Commenting on a photograph showing a
lot of Yaquis hanging from a tree in Sonora, the let-
ter says:

"This picture resembles very much another one that
was taken at the Yaqui river when General Angel Mar-
tinez was in command of the Mexican army of occu-
pation. It was the custom of this general to hang men be-
cause they could not tell him where the insurrecto Yaquis
were at the time, and he went so far as to lasso the
women of the Yaquis and to hang them also. It went
on so until the chief of the geographical commission re-
ported the facts to the City of Mexico and threatened to
resign if the practice continued. Then this monster of a
general was removed.

"But later on Governor Rafael Ysabal — it must have
been in 1902 — made a raid on Tiburon Island where
some peaceful Yaquis had taken refuge, and then and
there ordered the Seri Indians to bring to him the
right hand of every Yaqui there, with the alternative of
the Seris themselves being exterminated. Doctor Boido
took a snapshot with a kodak, and you could see in it
the governor laughing at the sight of a bunch of hands

44 BARBAROUS MEXICO

that had been brought to him and that were dangling
from the end of a cane. This picture was even pub-
lished in derision of the exploits of Governor Ysabal
in the newspaper El Imparcial, of Mexico City."

In 1898 the government troops were armed for the
first time with the improved Mauser rifle, and in that
year they met and wiped out an army of Yaquis at
Mazacoba, the killed numbering more than 1,000. This
ended warfare on anything like an equal footing. There
were no more large battles; the Yaqui warriors were
merely hunted. Thousands of the Indians surrendered.
Their leaders were executed, and they and their fami-
lies were granted a new territory to the north, to which
they journeyed as to a promised land. But it proved to
be a barren desert, entirely waterless and one of the
most uninhabitable spots in all America. Hence the
peaceful Yaquis moved to other sections of the state,
some of them becoming wage-workers in the mines,
others finding employment on the railroads, and still
others becoming peons on the farms. Then and there
this portion of the Yaqui nation lost its identity and
became merged with the peoples about it. But it is
these Yaquis, the peaceful ones, who are sought out and
deported to Yucatan.

A few Yaquis, perhaps four or five thousand, refused
to give up the battle for their lands. The found inac-
cessible peaks and established a stronghold high up in
the Bacetete mountains, which border upon their former
home. Here flow never-ceasing springs of cold water.
Here, on the almost perpendicular cliffs, they built their
little homes, planted their corn, raised their families and
sang, sometimes, of the fertile valleys which once were
theirs. The army of several thousand soldiers still
hunted them. The soldiers could not reach those moun-

THE EXTERMINATION OF THE YAQUIS 45

tain heights, but they could wait for the Indians in the
gorges and shoot them as they came down in search of
meat, of clothes, and of other comforts which they
yearned to add to their existence.

Many small bands of these so-called renegades have
been killed. Others have been captured and executed.
Rumors of peace have traveled the rounds only to prove
untrue a little later. Peace conferences with the gov-
ernment have been held, but have failed because the
"renegades" could secure no guarantee that they would
not be either executed or deported after they laid down
their arms. In January, 1909, the report was officially
sent out by Governor Torres that Chief Bule and sev-
eral hundred of his warriors had surrendered on con-
ditions. But later troubles showed this announcement
to have been premature. There are at least a few hun-
dred Yaquis among those Bacetete crags. They refuse
to surrender. They are outlaws. They are cut off from
the world. They have no connection with the peaceful
element of their nation that is scattered all over the state
of Sonora. Yet the existence of this handful of "rene-
gades" is the only excuse the Mexican government has
for gathering up peaceful Mexican families and deport-
ing them — at the rate of 500 per month !

Why should a lot of women and children and old men
be made to suffer because some of their fourth cousins
are fighting away off there in the hills ? The army physi-
cian with whom I talked in Mexico City answered the
question in very energetic terms.

"The reason?" he said. "There is no reason. It is
only an excuse. The excuse is that the workers con-
tribute to the support of the fighters. If it is true, it
is true only in an infinitesimal minority of cases, for the
vast majority of the Yaquis are entirely out of touch

46 BARBAROUS MEXICO

with the fighters. There may be a few guilty parties,
but absolutely no attempt is made to find them out.
For what a handful of patriotic Yaquis may possibly be
doing tens of thousand are made to suffer and die. It
is as if a whole town were put to the torch because one
of its inhabitants had stolen a horse.'*

The deportation of Yaquis to Yucatan and other slave
sections of Mexico began to assume noticeable propor-
tions about 1905. It was carried out on a small scale
at first, then on a larger one.

Finally, in the spring of 1908, a despatch was pub-
lished in American and Mexican newspapers saying that
President Diaz had issued a sweeping order decreeing
that every Yaqui, wherever found, men women and chil-
dren, should be gathered up by the War Department
and deported to Yucatan.

During my journeys in Mexico I inquired many times
as to the authenticity of this despatch, and the story was
confirmed. It was confirmed by men in the public de-
partments of Mexico City. It was confirmed by Colo-
nel Cruz, chief deporter of Yaquis. And it is certain
that such an order, wherever it may have come from,
was carried out. Yaqui workingmen were taken daily
from mines, railroads and farms, old workingmen who
never owned a rifle in their lives, women, children, babes,
the old and the young, the weak and the strong. Guarded
by soldiers and rurales they traveled together over the
exile road. And there are others besides Yaquis who
traveled over that road. Pimas and Opatas, other In-
dians, Mexicans, and any dark people found who were
poor and unable to protect themselves were taken, tagged
as Yaquis, and sent away to the land of henequen. What
becomes of them there? That is what I went to Yuca-
tan to find out.

THE EXTERMINATION OF THE YAQUIS 47

The secret that lies at the roots of the whole Yaqui
affair was revealed to me and the whole matter summed
up in a few words by Colonel Francisco B. Cruz of the
Mexican army, in one of the most remarkable interviews
which I obtained during my entire trip to Mexico.

For the past four years this officer has been in immedi-
ate charge of transporting all the Yaqui exiles to Yuca-
tan. I was fortunate enough to take passage on the
same steamer with him returning from Progreso to
Veracruz. He is a stout, comfortable, talkative old cam-
paigner of about sixty years. The steamship people put
us in the same stateroom, and, as the colonel had some
government passes which he hoped to sell me, we were
soon on the most confidential terms.

'Tn the past three and one-half years," he told me, *T
have delivered just fifteen thousand seven hundred Ya-
quis in Yucatan — delivered, mind you, for you must re-
member that the government never allows me enough ex-
pense money to feed them properly, and from ten to
twenty per cent die on the journey.

"These Yaquis," he said, "sell in Yucatan for $65
apiece — men, women and children. Who gets the money ?
Well, $10 goes to me for my services. The rest is turned
over to the Secretary of War. This, however, is only
a drop in the bucket, for I know this to be a fact, that
every foot of land, every building, every cow, every
burro, everything left behind by the Yaquis when they
are carried away by the soldiers, is appropriated for the
private use of authorities of the state of Sonora."

So according to this man, who has himself made at
least $157,000 out of the business, the Yaquis are de-
ported for the money there is in it — first, the money
from the appropriation of their property, second, the
money from the sale of their bodies. He declared to me

48 BARBAROUS MEXICO

that the deportations would never stop until the last
possible dollar had been squeezed out of the business.
The company of officials who have rotated in office in
Sonora for the past twenty-five years would see to that,
he said.

These little confidences of the colonel were given me
merely as bits of interesting gossip to a harmless for-
eigner. He had no notion of exposing the officials and
citizens whose names he mentioned. He expressed no
objection whatever to the system, rather gloried in it.

"In the past six months," the fat colonel told me, "I
have handled three thousand Yaquis — five hundred a
month. That's the capacity of the government boats
between Guaymas and San Bias, but I hope to see it in-
creased before the end of the year. I have just been
given orders to hurry 1,500 more to Yucatan as quickly
as I can get them there. Ah, yes, I ought to have a com-
fortable little fortune for myself before this thing is
over, for there are at least 100,000 more Yaquis to come !

"One hundred thousand more to come!" he repeated
at my exclamation. "Yes, one hundred thousand, if
one. Of course, theyVe not all really Yaquis, but — "

And President Diaz's chief deporter of Sonora work-
ing-people lolling there upon the deck of the freight
steamer passed me a smile which was illuminating, ex-
ceedingly illuminating — ^yes, terribly illuminating!

CHAPTER III

OVER THE EXILE ROAD

Yaquis traveling to Yucatan, after arriving at the port
of Guaymas, Sonora, embark on a government war ves-
sel for the port of San Bias. After a journey of four
or five days they are disembarked and are driven by foot
over some of the roughest mountains in Mexico, from
San Bias to Tepic and from Tepic to San Marcos. As
the crow flies the distance is little more than one hun-
dred miles; as the road winds it is twice as far, and re-
quires from fifteen to twenty days to travel. "Bull pens,"
or concentration camps, are provided all along the route,
and stops are made at the principal cities. All families
are broken up on the way, the chief points at which this
is done being Guaymas, San Marcos, Guadalajara and
Mexico City. From San Marcos the unfortunates are
carried by train over the Mexican Central Railway to
Mexico City and from Mexico City over the Interna-
tional Railway to Veracruz. Here they are bundled into
one of the freight steamers of the "National" company,
and in from two to five days are disembarked at Pro-
greso and turned over to the waiting consignees.

On the road to Yucatan the companion of my jour-
neys, L. Gutierrez DeLara, and I, saw gangs of Yaqui
exiles, saw them in the "bull pen" in the midst of the
army barracks in Mexico City ; finally we joined a party
of them at Veracruz and traveled with them on ship
from Veracruz to Progreso.

There were 104 of them shoved into the unclean hole
astern of the freight steamer Sinaloa, on which we em-
barked. We thought it might be difficult to obtain the

50 BARBAROUS MEXICO

Opportunity to visit this unclean hole, but, luckily, we
were mistaken. The guard bent readily to friendly
words, and before the ship was well under way my
companion and I were seated on boxes in the hold with
a group of exiles gathered about us, some of them, to-
bacco-famished, pulling furiously at the cigarettes which
we had passed among them, others silently munching the
bananas, apples and oranges which we had brought.

There were two old men past fifty, one of them small,
active, sharp-featured, talkative, dressed in American
overalls, jumper, shoes and slouch hat, with the face
and manner of a man bred to civilization ; the other, tall,
silent, impassive, wrapped to the chin in a gay colored
blanket, the one comfort he had snatched from his few
belongings as the soldiers were leading him away. There
was a magnificent specimen of an athlete under thirty,
with a wizened baby girl of two held in the crook of one
arm, an aggressive-faced woman of forty against whom
was closely pressed a girl of ten shivering and shaking
in the grasp of a malarial attack, two overgrown boys
who squatted together in the background and grinned
half foolishly at our questions, bedraggled women,
nearly half of them with babies, and an astonishingly
large number of little chubby-faced, bare-legged boys
and girls who played uncomprehendingly about the floor
or stared at us from a distance out of their big solemn
black eyes.

"Revolutionists?" I asked of the man in overalls and
jumper.

"No; workingmen."

"Yaquis?"

"Yes, one Yaqui," pointing to his friend in the blanket.
"The rest are Pimas and Opatas."

OVER THE EXILE ROAD 51

"Then why are you here?"

"Ah, we are all Yaquis to General Torres. It makes
no difference to him. You are dark. You dress in my
clothes and you will be a Yaqui — to him. He makes no
investigation, asks no questions — only takes you."

"Where are you from ?" I asked of the old man.

"Most of us are from Ures. They took us in the
night and carried us away without allowing us to make
up bundles of our belongings."

"I am from Horcasitas," spoke up the young athlete
with the babe on his arm. "I was plowing in the field
when they came, and they did not give me time to un-
hitch my oxen."

"Where is the mother of your baby?" I inquired cu-
riously of the young father.

"Dead in San Marcos," he replied, closing his teeth
tight. "That three weeks' tramp over the mountains
killed her. They have allowed me to keep the little
one — so far."

"Did any of you make resistance when the soldiers
came to take you?" I asked.

"No," snswered the old man from Ures. "We went
quietly; we did not try to run away." Then with a
smile : "The officers found more trouble in looking after
their men, their privates, to prevent them from running
away, from deserting, than they did with us.

"We were one hundred and fifty- three at the start, we
of Ures," went on the old man. "Farm laborers, all of
us. We worked for small farmers, poor men, men with
not more than half a dozen families each in their em-
ploy. One day a government agent visited the neighbor-
hood and ordered the bosses to give an account of all
their laborers. The bosses obeyed, but they did not
know what it meant until a few days later, when the

52 BARBAROUS MEXICO

soldiers came. Then they knew, and they saw ruin
coming to them as well as to us. They begged the offi-
cers, saying: 'This is my peon. He is a good man. He
has been with me for twenty years. I need him for the
harvest.' "

"It is true," broke in the woman with the ague-
stricken child. "We were with Carlos Romo for twenty-
two years. The night we were taken we were seven;
now we are two."

"And we were with Eugenio Morales for sixteen
years," spoke another woman.

"Yes," went on the spokesman, "our bosses followed
us, begging, but it was no use. Some of them followed
us all the way to Hermosillo. There was Manuel Gan-
dara, and Jose Juan Lopez, and Franco Tallez, and Eu-
genio Morales and the Romo brothers, Jose and Carlos.
You will find them there now and they will tell you that
what we say is true. They followed us, but it was no
use. They had to go back and call vainly at our empty
houses for laborers. We were stolen — and they were
robbed !

"They died on the way like starving cattle," went on
the old man from Ures. "When one fell ill he never
got well again. One woman was deathly sick at the
start. She begged to be left behind, but they wouldn't
leave her. She was the first to fall — it happened on the
train between Hermosillo and Guaymas.

"But the crudest part of the trail was between San
Bias and San Marcos. Those women with babies! It
was awful! They dropped down in the dust again and
again.^ Two never got up again, and we buried them
ourselves there beside the road."

"There were burros in San Bias," interrupted a
woman, "and mules and horses. Oh, why didn't they

OVER THE EXILE ROAD 53

let US ride? But our men were good. When the little
legs of the ninos were weary our men carried them on
their backs. And when the three women who were far
gone in pregnancy could walk no more our men made
stretchers of twigs and carried them, taking turns. Yes,
our men were good, but now they are gone. We do
not see them any more!"

"The soldiers had to tear me away from my husband/*
said another, "and when I cried out they only laughed.
The next night a soldier came and tried to take hold of
me, but I pulled off my shoes and beat him with them.
Yes, the soldiers bothered the women often, especially
that week we starved in Mexico City, but always the
women fought them back."

"I have a sister in Yucatan," said a young woman un-
der twenty. "Two years ago they carried her away.
As soon as we arrive I shall try to find her. We will
keep each other company, now that they have taken
my husband from me. Tell me, is it so terribly hot in
Yucatan as they say it is? I do not like hot weather,
yet if they will only let me live with my sister I will not
mind."

"To whom do all these bright little tads, these mu-
chachos, all of the same size, belong?" I inquired.

"Quien sahef' answered an old woman. "Their
parents are gone, just as are our babes. They take our
children from us and give us the children of strangers.
And when we begin to love the new ones, they take
them away, too. Do you see that woman huddled over
there with her face in her hands? They took her four
little boys at Guadalajara and left her nothing. Myself?
Yes, they took my husband. For more than thirty years
we had never been parted for a single night. But that
made no difference ; he is gone. Yet perhaps I am lucky ;

54 BARBAROUS MEXICO

I still have my daughter. Do you think, though, that
we may meet our husbands again in Yucatan?"

As we breasted the Veracruz lighthouse, the shoulder
of a Norther heaved itself against the side of the vessel,
the ocean streamed in at the lower portholes and the
quarters of the unhappy exiles were flooded with water.
They fled for the deck, but here were met by flying
sheets of rain, which drove them back again. Between
the flooded hold and the flooded poop the exiles spent
the night, and when, early the next morning, as we drove
into the Coatzacoalcos river, I strolled aft again, I saw
them lying about the deck, all of them drenched and
shivering, some of them writhing in the throes of acute
seasickness.

We steamed thirty miles up the Coatzacoalcos river,
then anchored to the shore and spent a day loading jun-
gle bulls for the tough beef market of New Orleans.
Two hundred ordinary cattle may be coaxed through a
hole in the side of a ship in the space of two hours, but
these bulls were as wild as wolves, and each had to be
half butchered before he would consent to walk in the
straight and narrow way. Once inside, and ranged along
the two sides of the vessel, they fought, trampled each
other, bawled as loud as steam whistles, and in a num-
ber of instances broke their head ropes and smashed
through the flimsy railing which had been erected to
prevent them from over-running other portions of the
lower deck. In a bare space at the stern of the vessel,
surrounded on three sides by plunging, bawling bulls,
were the quarters of the "Yaquis." It was stay there
and run the risk of being trampled, or choose the un-
sheltered deck. For the remaining four days of the
journey, one of which we spent waiting for the Norther
to pass, the "Yaquis" chose the deck.

OVER THE EXILE ROAD 55

At last we arrived at Progreso. As we entered the
train for Merida we saw our friends being herded into
the second class coaches. They left us at the little sta-
tion of San Ignacio, on their way to a plantation belong-
ing to Governor Olegario Molina, and we saw them no
more.

In Yucatan I soon learned what becomes of the Yaqui
exiles. They are sent to the henequen plantations as
slaves, slaves on almost exactly the same basis as are the
100,000 Mayas whom I found on the plantations. They are
held as chattels, they are bought and sold, they receive
no wages, but are fed on beans, tortillas and putrid fish.
They are beaten, sometimes beaten to death. They are
worked from dawn until night in the hot sun beside the
Mayas. The men are locked up at night. The women
are required to marry Chinamen or Mayas. They are
hunted when they run away, and are brought back by
the police if they reach a settlement. Families, broken
up in Sonora or on the way, are never permitted to re-
unite. After they once pass into the hands of the planter
the government cares no more for them, takes no more
account of them. The government has received its
money, and the fate of the Yaquis is in the hands of
the planter.

I saw many Yaquis in Yucatan. I talked with them.
I saw them beaten. One of the first things that I saw
on a Yucatan plantation was the beating of a Yaqui.
His name was Rosanta Bajeca.

The act, though not intentionally so, perhaps, was the-
atrically staged. It was at 3 :45 o'clock in the morning,
just after roll-call of the slaves. The slave gang was
drawn up in front of the plantation store, the fitful rays
of the lanterns sputtering high on the store front play-
ing uncertainly over their dusky faces and dirty white

56 BARBAROUS MEXICO

forms. There were seven hundred of them. Now and
then a brighter lantern beam shot all the way to the tow-
ering tropical trees, which, standing shoulder to shoulder,
walled in the grass-grown patio. Under the hanging
lanterns and facing the ragged band stood the adminis-
trador, or general manager, the mayordomo primero, or
superintendent, and the lesser bosses, the mayordomos
secundos, the majacol and the capataces.

**Rosanta Bajeca!'*

The name, squeaked out by the voice of the adminis-
trador, brought from the crowd a young Yaqui, medium-
sized, sinewy-bodied, clean-featured, with well-formed
head erect on square shoulders, bony jaw fixed, dark,
deep set eyes darting rapidly from one side to another
of the circle which surrounded him, like a tiger forced
out of the jungle and into the midst of the huntsmen.

"Off with your shirt!" rasped the administrador, and
at the words superintendent and foremen rmged closer
about him. One reached for the garment, but the Yaqui
fended the hand, then with the quickness of a cat,
dodged a cane which swished at his bare head from the
opposite direction. For one instant — no more — with the
hate of his eyes he held the circle at bay, then with a
movement of consent he waved them back, and with a
single jerk drew the shirt over his head and bared his
muscular bronze body, scarred and discolored from pre-
vious beatings, for the whip. Submissive but dignified
he stood there, for all the world like a captive Indian
chief of a hundred years ago, contemptuously awaiting
the torture of his enemies.

Listlessly the waiting slaves looked on. A regiment
of toil, they stood half a dozen deep, with soiled calico
trousers reaching half way to the ankles or rolled to the
knees, shirts of the same material with many gaping

OVER THE EXILE ROAD 57

mouths showing the bare bronze skin beneath, bare legs,
bare feet, battered grass hats held deferentially in the
hands — a tatterdemalion lot, shaking the sleep from their
eyes, blinking at the flickering lanterns. Three races
there were, the sharp-visaged, lofty-browed Maya, abo-
rigine of Yucatan, the tall, arrow-backed Chinaman and
the swarthy, broad-fisted Yaqui from Sonora.

At a third command of the administrador there
stepped from the host of waiting slaves a giant Chinese.
Crouching, he grasped the wrists of the silent Yaqui.
The next moment he was standing straight with the
Yaqui on his back in the manner of a tired child being
carried by one of its elders.

Not one of that throng who did not know what was
coming, yet not until a capatas reached for a bucket
hanging high on the store front did there come a ten-
sion of nerves among those seven hundred men. The
whipper extraordinary, known as a majocol, a deep-
chested, hairy brute, bent over the bucket and soused
his hands deep into the water within. Withdrawing
them, he held high for inspection four dripping ropes,
each three feet long. The thick writhing things in the
dim lamplight seemed like four bloated snakes, and at
sight of them the tired backs of the ragged seven hun-
dred straightened with a jerk and an involuntary gasp
rippled over the assemblage. Laggard slumber, though
unsated, dropped from their eyes. At last all were
awake, wide awake.

The ropes were of native henequen braided tight and
thick and heavy for the particular purpose in hand
Water-soaked, to give them more weight and cutting
power, they were admirably fitted for the work of
"cleaning up," the term whereby corporal punishment
is known on the plantations of Yucatan.

58 BARBAROUS MEXICO

The hairy majocol selected one of the four, tossed
back the remaining three, the pail was carried away and
the giant Chinaman squared off with the naked body of
the victim to the gaze of his fellow bondsmen. The
drama was an old one to them, so old that their eyes
must have ached many times at the sight, yet for them
it could never lose its fascination. Each knew that his
own time was coming, if it had not already come, and
not one possessed the physical power to turn his back
upon the spectacle.

Deliberately the majocol measured his distance, then
as deliberately raised his arm high and brought it swiftly
down again; the bloated snake swished through the air
and fell with a spat across the glistening bronze shoul-
ders of the Yaqui !

The administrador, a small, nervous man of many ges-
tures, nodded his approval and glanced at his watch, the
mayordomo, big, stolid, grinned slowly, the half dozen
capataces leaned forward a little more obliquely in their
eagerness, the regiment of slaves swayed bodily as by
some invisible force, and a second gasp, painful and
sharp like the bursting air from a severed windpipe,
escaped them.

Every eye was riveted tight upon that scene in the
uncertain dimness of the early morning — the giant Chi-
naman, bending slightly forward now, the naked body
upon his shoulders, the long, uneven, livid welt that
marked the visit of the wet rope, the deliberate, the ago-
nizingly deliberate majocol, the administrador, watch in
hand, nodding endorsement, the grinning mayordomo,
the absorbed capataces.

All held their breath for the second blow. I held my
breath with the rest, held it for ages, until I thought
the rope would never fall. Not until I saw the finger

OVER THE EXILE ROAD 59

signal of the administrador did I know that the blows
were delivered by the watch and not until it was all over
did I know that, in order to multiply the torture, six
seconds were allowed to intervene between each stroke.

The second blow fell, and the third, and the fourth.
I counted the blows as they fell, ages apart. At the
fourth the strong brown skin broke and little pin-heads
of crimson pushed themselves out, burst, and started
downward in thin tricklets. At the sixth the glistening
back lost its rigidity and fell to quivering like a jelly-
fish. At the ninth a low whine somewhere in the depths
of that Yaqui, found its devious way outward and into
the open. Oh, that whine! I hear it now, a hard, hard
whine, as if indurated to diamond hardness by drilling
its way to the air through a soul of adamant.

At last the spats ceased — there were fifteen — the ad-
ministrador, with a final nod, put away his watch, the
giant Chinaman released his grip on the brown wrists
and the Yaqui tumbled in a limp heap to the ground.
He lay there for a moment, his face in his arms, his
quivering, bleeding flesh to the sky, then a foreman
stepped forward and put a foot roughly against his
hip.

The Yaqui lifted his head, disclosing to the light a
pair of glazed eyes and a face twisted with pain. A mo-
ment later he rose to his feet and staggered forward to
join his fellow bondsmen. In that moment the spell of
breathless silence on the seven hundred snapped, the
ranks moved in agitation and there rose a hum of low
speech from every section of the crowd. The special
"cleaning up" of the morning was over. Five minutes
later the day's work on the farm had begun.

Naturally I made inquiries about Rosanta Bajeca to
find out what crime he had committed to merit fifteen

60 BARBAROUS MEXICO

lashes of the wet rope. I ascertained that he had been
only a month in Yucatan, and but three days before had
been put in the field with a harvesting gang to cut and
trim the great leaves of the henequen plant. Two thou-
sand a day was the regular stint for each slave, and
Bajeca had been given three days in which to acquire
the dexterity necessary to harvest the required number
of leaves. He had failed. Hence the flogging. There
had been no other fault.

"It's a wonder," I remarked to a capatas, "that this
Yaqui did not tear himself from the back of the China-
man. It's a wonder he did not fight. He seems like a
brave man ; he has the look of a fighter.'*

The capataz chuckled.

"One month ago he was a fighter," was the reply,
"but a Yaqui learns many things in a month in Yucatan.
Still, there was a time when we thought this dog would
never learn. Now and then they come to us that way;
they never learn; they're never worth the money that's
paid for them."

"Tell me about this one," I urged.

"He fought; that's all. The day he came he was put
to work loading bundles of leaves onto the elevator
which leads to the cleaning machine. The mayordomo —
yes, the mayordomo primero — happened along and
punched the fellow in the stomach with his cane. A
half minute later a dozen of us were struggling to pull
that Yaqui wolf away from the throat of the mayordomo.
We starved him for a day and then dragged him out for
a cleaning up. But he fought with his fingers and with
his teeth until a capatas laid him out with the blunt
edge of a machete. After that he tasted the rope daily
for a while, but every day for no less than a week the
fool fought crazily on until he kissed the earth under

OVER THE EXILE ROAD 61

the weight of a club. But our majocol never faltered.
That majocol is a genius. He conquered the wolf. He
wielded the rope until the stubborn one surrendered, un-
til that same Yaqui came crawling, whimpering, on hands
and knees and licked with his naked tongue the hand of
the man who had beaten him!"

During my travels in Yucatan I was repeatedly
struck with the extremely human character of the peo-
ple whom the Mexican government calls Yaquis. The
Yaquis are Indians, they are not white, yet when one
converses with them in a language mutually understood
one is struck with the likenesses of the mental processes
of White and Brown. I was early convinced that the
Yaqui and I were more alike in mind than in color. I
became convinced, too, that the family attachments of
the Yaqui mean quite as much to the Yaqui as the fam-
ily attachments of the American mean to the American.
Conjugal fidelity is the cardinal virtue of the Yaqui
home and it seems to be so not because of any tribal
superstition of past times or because of any teachings
of priests, but because of a constitutional tenderness
sweetened more and more with the passing of the years,
for the one with whom he had shared the meat and the
shelter and the labor of life, the joys and sorrows of
existence.

Over and over again I saw this exemplified on the ex-
ile road and in Yucatan. The Yaqui woman feels as
keenly the brutal snatching away of her babe as would
the cultivated American woman. The heart-strings of
the Yaqui wife are no more proof against a violent and
unwished- for separation from her husband than would
be the heart-strings of the refined mistress of a beauti-
ful American home.

The Mexican government forbids divorce and re-

62 BARBAROUS MEXICO

marriage within its domain, but for the henequen plant-
ers of Yucatan all things are possible. To a Yaqui
woman a native of Asia is no less repugnant than he is
to an American woman, yet one of the first barbarities
the henequen planter imposes upon the Yaqui slave
woman, freshly robbed of the lawful husband of her
bosom, is to compel her to marry a Chinaman and live
with him!

"We do that," explained one of the planters to me,
"in order to make the Chinamen better satisfied and less
inclined to run away. And besides we know that every
new babe born on the place will some day be worth any-
where from $500 to $1,000 cashT

The cultivated white woman, you say, would die of
the shame and the horror of such conditions. But so
does the brown woman of Sonora. No less a personage
than Don Enrique Camara Zavala, president of the
"Camara de Agricola de Yucatan," and a millionaire
planter himself, told me:

"If the Yaquis last out the first year they generally
get along all right and make good workers, but the
trouble is, at least two-thirds of them die off in the first
tzvelve months!"

On the ranch of one of the most famous henequen
kings we found about two hundred Yaquis. One-third
of these were men, who were quartered with a large
body of Mayas and Chinamen. Entirely apart from
these, and housed in a row of new one-room huts, each
set in a tiny patch of uncultivated land, we discovered
the Yaqui women and children.

We found them squatting around on their bare floors
or nursing an open-air fire and a kettle just outside the
back door. We found no men among them, Yaquis or

OVER THE EXILE ROAD 63

Chinamen, for they had arrived only one month before —
all of them — f rom Sonora.

In one house we found as many as fourteen inmates.
There was a woman past fifty with the strength of an
Indian chief in her face and with words which went to
the mark like an arrow to a target. There was a com-
fortable, home-like woman with a broad, pock-marked
face, pleasant words and eyes which kindled with
friendliness despite her troubles. There were two woman
who watched their fire and listened only. There was a
girl of fifteen, a bride of four months, but now alone,
a wonderfully comely girl with big eyes and soft mouth,
who sat with her back against the wall and smiled and
smiled — until she cried. There was a sick woman who
lay on the floor and groaned feebly but never looked up,
and there were eight children.

*'Last week we were fifteen," said the home-like
woman, "but one has already gone. They never get
well." She reached over and gently stroked the hair of
the sister who lay on the floor.

"Were you all married?" I asked.

"All," nodded the old woman with the face of a chief.

"And where are they now ?"

"Quien sahef" And she searched our eyes deep for
the motive of our questions.

"I am a Papago," reassured De Lara. "We are friends."

"You are not working," I remarked. "What are you
doing?"

"Starving," said the old woman.

"We get that once a week — for all of us," explained
the home-like one, nodding at three small chunks of raw
beef — less than a five-cent stew in the United States —
which had just been brought from the plantation store.

64 BARBAROUS MEXICO

"Besides that we get only corn and black beans and not
half enough of either of them."

"We are like hogs; we are fed on corn," put in the
old woman. "In Sonora we made our tortillas of wheat."

"How long will they starve you?" I asked.

"Until we marry Chinamen," flashed the old woman,
unexpectedly.

"Yes," confirmed the home-like one. "Twice they have
brought the Chinamen before us, lined them up, and
said: 'Choose a man.' Twice."

"And why didn't you choose?"

This question several of the women answered in cho-
rus. In words and wry faces they expressed their ab-
horrence of the Chinamen, and with tremulous earnest-
ness assured us that they had not yet forgotten their
own husbands.

"I begged them," said the old woman, "to let me off.
I told them I was too old, that it was no use, that I was
a woman no longer, but they said I must choose, too.
They will not let me off; they say I will have to choose
with the rest."

"Twice they have lined us up," reiterated the home-
like one, "and said we must choose. But we wouldn't
choose. One woman chose, but when she saw the rest
hang back she pushed the man away from her. They
threatened us with the rope, but still we hung back.
They will give us but one more chance, they say. Then
if we do not choose, they will choose for us. And if we
do not consent we will be put in the field and worked and
whipped like the men."

"And get twelve centavos a day (six cents American)
to live on," said the old woman. "Twelve centavos a
day with food at the store twice as dear as in Sonora!"

"Next Sunday morning they will make us choose," re-

OVER THE EXILE ROAO 65

peated the home-like woman. "And if we don't choose — "

''Last Sunday they beat that sister there," said the old
woman. "She swore she'd never choose, and they beat
her just like they beat the men. Come, Refugio, show
them your back."

But the woman at the fire shrank away and hung her
head in mortification.

"No, no," she protested, then after a moment she mut-
tered: "When the Yaqui men are beaten they die of
shame, but the women can stand to be beaten ; they can-
not die."

"It's true," nodded the old woman, "the men die of
shame sometimes — and sometimes they die of their own
will."

When we turned the talk to Sonora and to the long
journey the voices of the women began to falter. They
were from Pilares de Teras, where are situated the mines
of Colonel Garcia. The soldiers had come in the day-
time while the people were in the field picking the ripe
corn from the stalks. They had been taken from their
harvest labor and compelled to walk all the way to Her-
mosillo, a three weeks' tramp.

The Yaqui love for the one who suckled them is
strong, and several of the younger women recounted the
details of the parting from the mother. Then we spoke
of their husbands again, but they held their tears until
I asked the question : "How would you like to go back
with me to your homes in Sonora?"

That opened the flood-gates. The tears started first
down the plump cheeks of the cheery, home-like woman,
then the others broke in, one at a time, and at last the
listening children on the floor were blubbering dolefully
with their elders. Weeping, the unhappy exiles lost their
last modicum of reserve. They begged us please to take

^ BARBAROUS MEXICO

them back to Sonora or to find their husbands for them.
The old woman implored us to get word to her boss,
Leonardo Aguirre, and would not be content until I had
penned his name in my note-book. The bashful woman
at the fire, aching for some comforting, hopeful words,
parted her dress at the top and gave us a glimpse of the
red marks of the lash upon her back.

I looked into the face of my companion; the tears
were trickling down his cheeks. As for me, I did not
cry. I am ashamed now that I did not cry !

Such is the life of the Yaqui nation in its last chapter.
When I looked upon those miserable creatures there I
said:. "There can be nothing worse than this." But
when I saw Valle Nacional I said: "This is worse than
Yucatan."

CHAPTER IV

THE CONTRACT SLAVES OF VALLE NACIONAL

Valle Nacional is undoubtedly the worst slave hole in
Mexico. Probably it is the worst in the world. When
I visited Valle Nacional I expected to find it milder than
Yucatan. I found it more pitiless.

In Yucatan the Maya slaves die off faster than they
are born and two-thirds of the Yaqui slaves are killed
during the first year after their importation into the
country. In Valle Nacional all of the slaves, all but a
very few — perhaps five per cent — pass back to earth
within a space of seven or eight months.

This statement is almost unbelievable. I would not
have believed it; possibly not even after I had seen the
whole process of working them and beating them and
starving them to death, were it not the fact that the
masters themselves told me that it was true. And there
are fifteen thousand of these Valle Nacional slaves —
fifteen thousand new ones every year!

"By the sixth or seventh month they begin to die off
like flies at the first winter frost, and after that they're
not worth keeping. The cheapest thing to do is to let
them die ; there are plenty more where they came from."

Word for word, this is a statement made to me by
Antonio Pla, general manager of one-third the tobacco
lands in Valle Nacional.

"1 have been here for more than five years and every
month I see hundreds and sometimes thousands of men,
women and children start over the road to the valley, but
I never see them come back. Of every hundred who go
over the road not more than one ever sees this town

67

68 BARBAROUS MEXICO

again." This assertion was made to me by a station
agent of the Veracruz al Pacifico railroad.

"There are no survivors of Valle Nacional — no real
ones/' a government engineer who has charge of the
improvement of certain harbors told me. "Now and
then one gets out of the valley and gets beyond El Hule.
He staggers and begs his way along the weary road to-
ward Cordoba, but he never gets back where he came
from. Those people come out of the valley walking
corpses, they travel on a little way and then they fall."

This man's work has carried him much into Valle
Niacional and he knows more of the country, probably,
than does any Mexican not directly interested in the
slave trade.

"They die ; they all die. The bosses never let them go
until they're dying."

Thus declared one of the police officers of the town
of Valle Nacional, which is situated in the center of the
valley and is supported by it.

And everywhere over and over again I was told the
same thing. Even Manuel Lagunas, president e (mayor)
of Valle Nacional, protector of the planters and a slave
owner himself, said it. Miguel Vidal, secretary of the
municipality, said it. The bosses themselves said it. The
Indian dwellers of the mountain sides said it. The slaves
said it. And when I had seen, as well as heard, I was
convinced that it was the truth.

The slaves of Valle Nacional are not Indians, as are
the slaves of Yucatan. They are Mexicans. Some are
skilled artizans. Others are artists. The majority of
them are common laborers. As a whole, except for their
rags, their bruises, their squalor and their despair, they
are a very fair representation of the Mexican people.
They are not criminals. Not more than ten per cent were

THE CONTRACT SLAVES OF VALLE NACIONAL 69

even charged with any crime. The rest of them are
peaceful, law-abiding citizens. Yet not one came to the
valley of his own free will, not one would not leave the
valley on an instant's notice if he or she could get away.

Do not entertain the idea that Mexican slavery is con-
fined to Yucatan and Valle Nacional. Conditions simi-
lar to those of Valle Nacional are the rule in many sec-
tions of Diaz-land, and especially in the states south of
the capital. I cite Valle Nacional because it is most no-
torious as a region of slaves, and because, as I have al-
ready suggested, it presents just a little bit the worst ex-
ample of chattel slavery that I know of.

The secret of the extreme conditions of Valle Nacional
is mainly geographical. Valle Nacional is a deep gorge
from two to five miles wide and twenty miles long
tucked away among almost impassable mountains in the
extreme northwestern corner of the state of Oaxaca.
Its mouth is fifty miles up the Papaloapan river from El
Hule, the nearest railroad station, yet it is through El
Hule that every human being passes in going to or com-
ing from the valley. There is no other practical route
in, no other one out. The magnificent tropical moun-
tains which wall in the valley are covered with an im-
penetrable jungle made still more impassable by jaguars,
pumas and gigantic snakes. Moreover, there is no wagon
road to Valle Nacional ; only a river and a bridle path —
a bridle path which carries one now through the jungle,
now along precipitous cliffs where the rider must dis-
mount and crawl, leading his horse behind him, now
across the deep, swirling current of the river. It takes
a strong swimmer to cross this river at high water, yet
a pedestrian must swim it more than once in order to
get out of Valle Nacional.

The equestrian must cross it five times— four times in

70 BARBAROUS MEXICO

a canoe alongside which his mount swims laboriously,
once by fording, a long and difficult route over which
large rocks must be avoided and deep holes kept away
from. The valley itself is as flat as a floor, clear of all
rank growth, and down its gentle slope winds the Papa-
loapan river. The valley, the river and its rim form one
of the most beautiful sights it has ever been my lot to
look upon.

Valle Kacional is three days' journey from Cordoba,
two from El Hule. Stray travelers sometimes get as far
as Tuztepec, the chief city of the political district, but
no one goes on to Valle Nacional who has not business
there. It is a tobacco country, the most noted in Mex-
ico, and the production is carried on by about thirty large
plantations owned and operated almost exclusively by
Spaniards. Between El Hule and the head of the valley-
are four towns, Tuztepec, Chiltepec, Jacatepec and Valle
Nacional, all situated on the banks of the river, all pro-
vided with policemen to hunt runaway slaves, not one
of whom can get out of the valley without passing the
towns. Tuztepec, the largest, is provided with ten po-
licemen and eleven rurales (mounted country police).
Besides, every runaway slave brings a reward of $10
to the man or policeman who catches and returns him
to his owner.

Thus it will be understood how much the geograph-
ical isolation of Valle Nacional accounts for its being
just a little worse than most other slave districts of
Mexico. Combined with this may be mentioned the
complete understanding that is had with the government
and the nearness to a practically inexhaustible labor
market.

Just as in Yucatan, the slavery of Valle Nacional is
merely peonage, or labor for debt, carried to the extreme,

TYPE OF ENGANCHADO OR PLANTATION SLAVE

THE CONTRACT SLAVES OF VALLE NACIONAL 71

although outwardly it takes a slightly different form —
that of contract labor.

The origin of the conditions of Valle Nacional was
undoubtedly contract labor. The planters needed la-
borers. They went to the expense of importing labor-
ers with the understanding that the laborers would stay
with their jobs for a given time. Some laborers tried
to jump their contracts and the planters used force to
compel them to stay. The advance money and the cost
of transportation was looked upon as a debt which the
laborer could be compelled to work out. From this it
was only a step to so ordering the conditions of labor
that the laborer could under no circumstances ever hope
to get free. In time Valle Nacional became a word of
horror with the working people of all Mexico. They re-
fused to go there for any price. So the planters felt
compelled to tell them they were going to take them
somewhere else. From this it was only a step to play-
ing the workman false all round, to formulating a con-
tract not to be carried out, but to help get the laborer
into the toils. Finally, from this it was only a step to
forming a business partnership with the government,
whereby the police power should be put into the hands
of the planters to help them carry on a traffic in slaves.

The planters do not call their slaves slaves. They
call them contract laborers. I call them slaves because
the moment they enter Valle Nacional they become the
personal property of the planter and there is no law or
government to protect them.

In the first place the planter buys his slave for a given
sum. Then he works him at will, feeds or starves him
to suit himself, places armed guards over him day and
night, beats him, pays him no money, kills him, and the
laborer has no recourse. Call it by another name if it

72 BARBAROUS MEXICO

pleases you. I call it slavery only because I do not
know of a name that will fit the conditions better.

I have said that no laborer sent to Valle Nacional to
become a slave travels the road of his own free will.
There are just two ways employed to get them there.
They are sent over the road either by a jefe politico or
by a "labor agent" working in conjunction with a jefe
politico or other officials of the government.

A jefe politico is a civil officer who rules political
districts corresponding to our counties. He is appointed
by the president or by the governor of his state and is
also mayor, or presidente, of the principal town or city
in his district. In turn he usually appoints the mayors of
the towns under him, as well as all other officers of im-
portance. He has no one to answer to except his gov-
ernor— ^unless the national president feels like interfering
— and altogether is quite a little Czar in his domain.

The methods employed by the jefe politico working
alone are very simple. Instead of sending petty prison-
ers to terms in jail he sells them into slavery in Valle
Nacional. And as he pockets the money himself, he
naturally arrests as many persons as he can. This method
is followed more or less by the jefes politicos of all the
leading cities of southern Mexico.

The jefe politico of each of the four largest cities
in southern Mexico, so I was told by Manuel La-
gunas, by "labor agents," as well as by others whose
veracity in the matter I have no reason to question
— pays an annual rental of $10,000 per year for
his office. The office would be worth no such amount
were it not for the spoils of the slave trade and other lit-
tle grafts which are indulged in by the holder. Lesser
jefes pay their governors lesser amounts. They send
their victims over the road in gangs of from ten to one

THE CONTRACT SLAVES OF VALLE NACIONAL 73

hundred or even more. They get a special government
rate from the railroads, send along government-salaried
rurales to guard them; hence the selling price of $45 to
$50 per slave is nearly all clear profit.

But only ten per cent, of the slaves are sent directly to
Valle Nacional by the jefes politicos. There is no basis
in law whatsoever for the proceeding, and the jefes politi-
cos prefer to work in conjunction with "labor agents."
There is also no basis in law for the methods employed
by the "labor agents," but the partnership is profitable.
The officials are enabled to hide behind the *'labor
agents" and the "labor agents" are enabled to work under
the protection of the officials and absolutely without fear
of criminal prosecution.

In this partnership of the government and the labor
agent — ^popularly known as an enganchador (snarer) —
the function of the labor agent is to snare the laborer,
the function of the government to stand behind him, help
him, protect him, give him low transportation rates and
free guard service, and finally, to take a share of the
profits.

The methods employed by the labor agent in snaring
the laborer are many and various. One is to open an em-
ployment office and advertise for workers who are to be
given high wages, a comfortable home and plenty of
freedom somewhere in the south of Mexico. Free trans-
portation is offered. These inducements always cause
a certain number to take the bait, especially men with
families who want to move with their families to a more
prosperous clime. The husband and father is given an
advance fee of $5 and the whole family is locked up
in a room as securely barred as a jail.

After a day or two, as they are joined by others, they
come to have misgivings. Perhaps they ask to be let

74 BARBAROUS MEXICO

out, and then they find that they are indeed prisoners.
They are told that they are in debt and will be held until
they work out their debt. A few days later the door
opens and they file out. They find that rurales are all
about them. They are marched through a back street
to a railroad station, where they are put upon the train.
They try to get away, but it is no use ; they are prisoners.
In a few days they are in Valle Nacional.

Usually the laborer caught in this way is taken through
the formality of signing a contract. He is told that he
is to get a good home, good food, and one, two or three
dollars a day wages for a period of six months or a year.
A printed paper is shoved under his nose and the engan-
chandor rapidly points out several alluring sentences
written thereon. A pen is put quickly into his hand and
he is told to sign in a hurry. The five dollars advance
fee is given him to clinch the bargain and put him in debt
to the agent. He is usually given a chance to spend this,
or a part of it, usually for clothing or other necessaries
in order that he may be unable to pay it back when he
discovers that he has been trapped. The blanks on the
printed contract — fixing the wages, etc. — are usually
filled out afterwards by the labor agent or the consignee.

In Mexico City and other large centers of population
there are permanently maintained places called casas de
los enganchadores (houses of the snarers). They are
regularly known to the police and to large slave buyers
of the hot lands. Yet they are nothing more nor less
than private jails into which are enticed laborers, who
are held there against their will until such time as they
are sent away in gangs guarded by the police powers of
the government.

A third method employed by the labor agent is out-
right kidnapping. I have heard of many cases of the

THE CONTRACT SLAVES OF VALLE NACIONAL 75

kidnapping of women and of men. Hundreds of half-
drunken men are picked up about the pulque shops of
Mexico City every season, put under lock and key, and
later hurried off to Valle Nacional. Children, also, are
regularly kidnapped for the Valle Nacional trade. The
official records of Mexico City say that during the year
ending September 1, 1908, 360 little boys between the
ages of six and twelve disappeared on the streets. Some
of these have later been located in Valle Nacional.

During my first Mexican trip El Imparcial, a leading
daily newspaper of Mexico, printed a story of a boy of
seven who had disappeared while his mother was looking
into the windows of a pawn shop. A frantic search failed
to locate him; he was an only child, and as a result of
sorrow the father drank himself to death in a few days*
time, while the mother went insane and also died. Three
months later, the boy, ragged and footsore, struggled
up the steps and knocked at the door that had been his
parents'. He had been kidnapped and sold to a tobacco
planter. But he had attained the well-nigh impossible.
With a boy of nine, he had eluded the plantation guards,
and, by reason of their small size, the two had escaped
observation, and, by stealing a canoe, had reached El
Hule. By slow stages, begging their food on the way,
the baby tramps had reached home.

The typical life story of a labor agent I heard in
Cordoba on my way to the valley. It was told me first
by a negro contractor from New Orleans, who had
been in the country for about fifteen years. It was told
me again by the landlord of my hotel. Later, it was
confirmed by several tobacco planters in the valley. The
story is this:

Four years ago Daniel T , an unsuccessful Span-
ish adventurer, arrived, penniless, in Cordoba. In a few

76 BARBAROUS MEXICO

days he was having trouble with his landlord over the
non-payment of rent. But he had learned a thing or
two in those few days, and he set about to take advan-
tage of his knowledge. He went for a stroll about the
streets and, coming upon a farm laborer, thus addressed
him:

"Would you care to earn dos reales (25 centavos)
very easily, my man?"

Of course the man cared, and in a few minutes he
was on his way to the Spaniard's room carrying a "mes-
sage." The wily fellow took another route, arrived first,
met the messenger at the door, took him by the neck,
and, dragging him inside, gagged and bound him and
left him on the floor while he went out to hunt up a
labor agent. That night the adventurer sold his prisoner
for $20, paid his rent, and immediately began laying
plans for repeating the operation on a larger scale.

The incident marked the entrance of this man into
the business of "labor contracting." In a few months
he had made his bargain with the political powers of
Mexico City, of Veracruz, of Oaxaca, of Tuztepec and

other places. Today he is El Senor Daniel T . I

saw his home, a palatial mansion with the sign of three
cocks above the door. He uses a private seal and is
said to be worth $100,000, all acquired as a "labor agent."

The prevailing price in 1908 for men was $45 each,
women and children half price. In 1907, before the
panic, it was $60 per man. All slaves entering the valley
must wait over at Tuztepec, where Rodolpho Pardo, the
jefe politico of the district, counts them and exacts a toll
of ten per cent of the purchase price, which he puts into
his own pocket.

The open partnership of the government in the slave
traffic must necessarily have some excuse. The excuse

THE CONTRACT SLAVES OF VALLE NACIONAL 17

is the debt, the $5 advance fee usually paid by the labor
agent to the laborer. It is unconstitutional, but it serves.
The presidente of Valle Nacional told me, "There is not
a police official in all southern Mexico who will not
recognize that advance fee as a debt Mid acknowledge
your right to take the body of the laborer where you
will.''

When the victim arrives in the valley of tobacco he
learns that the promises of the labor agent were made
merely to entrap him. Moreover, he learns also that
the contract — if he has been lucky enough to get a peep
at that instrument — was made exactly for the same pur-
pose. As the promises of the labor agent belie the
provisions of the contract, so the contract belies the
actual facts. The contract usually states that the laborer
agrees to sell himself for a period of six months, but
no laborer with energy left in his body is by any chance
set free in six months. The contract usually states that the
employer is bound to furnish medical treatment for the
laborers; the fact is that there is not a single physician
for all the slaves of Valle Nacional. Finally, the con-
tract usually binds the employer to pay the men fifty
centavos (25 cents American) per day as wages, and the
women three pesos a month ($1.50 American), but I
was never able to find one who ever received one copper
centavo from his master — never anything beyond the
advance fee paid by the labor agent.

The bosses themselves boasted to me — several of them
— that they never paid any money to their slaves. Yet
they never called their system slavery. They claimed
to "keep books" on their slaves and juggle the accounts
in such a way as to keep them always in debt. "Yes,
the wages are fifty centavos a day," they would say,
"but they must pay us back what we give to bring them

78 BARBAROUS MEXICO

here. And they must give us interest on it, too. And
they must pay for the clothing that we give them — and
the tobacco, and anything else."

This is exactly the attitude of every one of the to-
bacco planters of Valle Nacional. For clothing, and
tobacco, and "anything else," they charge ten prices. It
is no exaggeration. Senor Rodriguez, proprietor of the
farm "Santa Fe," for example, showed me a pair of
unbleached cotton pa jama-like things that the slaves
use for pantaloons. His price, he said, was three dollars
a pair. A few days later I found the same thing in
Veracruz at thirty cents.

Trousers at $3, shirts the same price — suits of clothes
so flimsy that they wear out and drop off in three weeks'
time. Eight suits in six months at $6 is $48. Add $45,
the price of the slave; add $5, the advance fee; add $2
for discounts, and there's the $90 wages of the six months
gone.

Such is keeping books to keep the slave a slave. On
the other hand, when you figure up the cost of the slave
to yourself, it is quite different. "Purchase price, food,
clothes, wages — everything," Senor Rodriguez told me,
"costs from $60 to $70 per man for the first six months
of service."

Add your purchase price, advance fee and suits at
cost, 60 cents each, and we discover that between $5 and
$15 are left for both food and wages for each six months.
It all goes for food — beans and tortillas.

Yes, there is another constant item of expense that
the masters must pay — the burial fee in the Valle
Nacional cemetery. It is $1.50. I say this is a constant
item of expense because practically all the slaves die
and are supposed to be buried. The only exception to
the rule occurs when, in order to save the $1.50, the

THE CONTRACT SLAVES OF VALLE NACIONAL 79

masters bury their slaves themselves or throw them to
the alligators of the neighboring swamps.

Every slave is guarded night and day. At night he
is locked up in a dormitory resembling a jail. In addi-
tion to its slaves, each and every plantation has its
mandador, or superintendent, its cabos, who combine
the function of overseer and guard; and several free
laborers to run the errands of the ranch and help round
up the runaways in case of a slave stampede.

The jails are large barn-like buildings, constructed
strongly of young trees set upright and wired together
with many strands of barbed wire fencing. The win-
dows are iron barred, the floors dirt. There is no fur-
niture except sometimes long, rude benches which serve
as beds. The mattresses are thin grass mats. In such
a hole sleep all the slaves, men, women and children,
the number ranging, according to the size of the planta-
tion, from seventy to four hundred.

They are packed in like sardines in a box, crowded
together like cattle in a freight car. You can figure it
out for yourself. On the ranch "Santa Fe" the dormi-
tory measures 75 by 18 feet, and it accommodates 150.
On the ranch "La Sepultura," the dormitory is 40 by
15 feet, and it accommodates 70. On the ranch "San
Cristobal," the dormitory is 100 by 50 feet, and it
accommodates 350. On the ranch "San Juan del Rio," the
dormitory is 80 by 90, and it accommodates 400. From
nine to eighteen square feet for each person to lie down
in — so runs the space. And on not a single ranch did
I find a separate dormitory for the women or the chil-
dren. Women of modesty and virtue are sent to Valle
Nacional every week and are shoved into a sleeping
room with scores and even hundreds of others, most

80 BARBAROUS MEXICO

of them men, the door is locked on them and they ar*
left to the mercy of the men.

Often honest, hard-working Mexicans are taken into
Valle Nacional with their wives and children. If the
wife is attractive in appearance she goes to the planter
or to one or more of the bosses. The children see theil
mother being taken away and they know what is to
become of her. The husband knows it, but if he makes
objection he is answered with a club. Time and time
again I have been told that this was so, by masters, by
slaves, by officials. And the women who are thrust into
the sardine box must take care of themselves.

One-fifth of the slave^ of Valle Nacional are women ;
one-third are boys under fifteen. The boys work in
the fields with the men. They cost less, they last well,
and at some parts of the work, such as planting the
tobacco, they are more active and hence more useful.
Boys as young as six sometimes are seen in the field
planting tobacco. Women are worked in the field, too,
especially during the harvest time, but their chief work
is as household drudges. They serve the master and
the mistress, if there is a mistress, and they grind the
corn and cook the food of the male slaves. In every
slave house I visited I found from three to a dozen
women grinding corn. It is all done by hand with two
pieces of stone called a metate. The flat stone is placed
on the floor, the woman kneels beside it, bends almost
double and works the stone roller up and down. The
movement is something like that of a woman washing
clothes, but it is much harder. I asked the presidente
of Valle Nacional why the planters did not purchase
cheap mills for grinding the corn, or why they did not
combine and buy a mill among them, instead of breaking

THE CONTRACT SLAVES OF VALLE NACIONAL 81

several hundred backs yearly in the work. "Women are
cheaper than machines," was the reply.

In Valle Nacional the slaves seemed to me to work
all the time. I saw them working in the morning twi-
light. I saw them working in the evening twilight. I
saw them working far into the night. "If we could use
the water power of the Papaloapan to light our farms
we could work our farms all night," Manuel Lagunas
told me, and I believe he would have done it. The rising
hour on the farms is generally 4 o'clock in the morning.
Sometimes it is earlier. On all but three or four of
the thirty farms the slaves work every day in the year —
until they fall. At San Juan del Rio, one of the largest,
they have a half holiday every Sunday. I happened to
be at San Juan del Rio on a Sunday afternoon. That
half holiday! What a grim joke! The slaves spent it
in jail, locked up to keep them from running away !
. And they fall very fast. They are beaten, and that
helps. They are starved, and that helps. They are
given no hope, and that helps. They die in anywhere
from one month to a year, the time of greatest mortality
being between the sixth and eighth month. Like the
cotton planters of our South before the war, the tobacco
planters seem to have their business figured down to a
fine point. It was a well-established business maxim of
our cotton planters that the greatest amount of profit
could be wrung from the body of a negro slave by
working him to death in seven years and then buying
another one. The Valle Nacional slave holder has dis-
covered that it is cheaper to buy a slave for $45 and
work and starve him to death in seven months, and then
spend $45 for a fresh slave, than it is to give the first
slave better food, work him less sorely and stretch out his
life and his toiling hours over a longer period of time.

CHAPTER V

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH

I visited Valle Nacional in the latter part of 1908,
spending a week in the region and stopping at all the
larger plantations. I passed three nights at various plan-
tation houses and four more at one or another of the
towns. As in Yucatan, I visited the country in the guise
of a probable purchaser of plantations.

As in Yucatan, I succeeded in convincing authorities
and planters that I had several million dollars behind me
just aching to be invested. Consequently, I put them
as completely off their guard as it would be possible
to do. As in Yucatan, I was able to secure my informa-
tion, not only from what I saw of and heard from the
slaves, but from the mouths of the masters themselves.
Indeed, I was more fortunate than I was in Yucatan.
I chummed with bosses and police so successfully that
they never once became suspicious, and for months some
of them were doubtless looking for me to drop in any
fine day with a few million in my pocket, prepared to
buy them out at double the value of their property.

The nearer we approached Valle Nacional the greater
horror of the place we found among the people.
None had been there, but all had heard rumors, some
had seen survivors, and the sight of those walking corpses
had confirmed the rumors. As we got off the train at
Cordoba, we saw crossing the platform a procession of
fourteen men, two in front and two behind with rifles,
ten with their arms bound behind them with ropes, their

82

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 83

heads down. Some were ragged, some well dressed, and
several had small bundles on their shoulders.

"On their way to the valley !" I whispered. My com-
panion nodded, and the next moment the procession
disappeared through a narrow gateway on the opposite
side of the street, the entrance to a most conveniently
situated "bull pen" for the accommodation over night
of the exiles.

After supper I mingled with the crowds in the lead-
ing hotels of the town, and was aggressive enough in my
role of investor to secure letters of introduction from
a wealthy Spaniard to several slave holders of the valley.

"You'd better call on the jefe politico at Tuztepec as
soon as you get there," advised the Spaniard. "He's a
friend of mine. Just show him my signature and he'll
pass you along, all right."

When I arrived at Tuztepec I took the advice of the
Senor and to my good fortune, for the jefe politico,
Rodolpho Pardo, not only passed me along, but gave
me a personal letter to each of his subordinates along
the road, the presidentes of Chiltepec, Jacatepec and
Valle Nacional, instructing them to neglect their official
business, if necessary, but to attend to my wants. Thus
it was during my first days in the Valley of Death I
was the guest of the presidente, and on the nights which I
spent in the town a special police escort was appointed
to see that I came to no harm.

In Cordoba, a negro building contractor, an intelligent
fellow, who had sojourned in Mexico for fifteen years,
said to me:

"The days of slavery ain't over yet. No, sir, they
ain't over. I've been here a long time and I've got a
little property. I know I'm pretty safe, but sometimes
I get scared myself — ^yes, sir, I get scared, you bet!"

84 BARBAROUS MEXICO

Early next morning as I was dressing I glanced out
of my window and saw a man walking down the middle
of the street with one end of a riata around his neck
and a horseman riding behind at the other end of the
riata.

"Where's that man going?" I inquired of the servant.
"Going to be hanged?"

"Oh, no, only going to jail," answered the servant.
"It's the easiest way to take them, you know. In a day
or two," he added, "that man will be on his way to
Valle Nacional. Everybody arrested here goes to Valle
Nacional — everybody except the rich."

"I wonder if that same gang we saw last night will
be going down on the train today," my companion, De
Lara, said, as we made for the depot.

He did not wonder long, for we had hardly found
seats when we saw the ten slaves and their rurale guards
filing into the second-class coach adjoining. Three of
the prisoners were well dressed and had unusually intel-
ligent faces; the others were of the ordinary type of
city or farm laborers. Two of the former were bright
boys under twenty, one of whom burst into tears as the
train pulled slowly out of Cordoba toward the dreaded
valley.

Down into the tropics we slid, into the jungle, into
the dampness and perfume of the lowlands, known as
the hot country. We flew down a mountain, then skirted
the rim of a gash-like gorge, looking down upon coffee
plantations, upon groves of bananas, rubber and sugar
cane, then into a land where it rains every day except
in mid- winter. It was not hot — not real hot, like Yuma
— ^but the passengers perspired with the sky.

We watched the exiles curiously, and at the first
opportunity we made advances to the chief of the rurale

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 85

squad. At Tierra Blanca we stopped for dinner and, as
the meal the rurales purchased for their charges con-
sisted only of tortillas and chili, we bought a few extras
for them, then sat and watched them eat. Gradually
we drew the exiles into conversation, carefully nursing
the good will of their guards at the same time, and pres-
ently we had the story of each.

The prisoners were all from Pachuca, capital of the
state of Hidalgo, and, unlike the vast majority of Valle
Nacional slaves, they were being sent over the road
directly by the jefe politico of that district. The par-
ticular system of this particular jefe was explained to
us two days later by Espiridion Sanchez, a corporal of
rurales, as follows:

"The jefe poUtico of Pachuca has a contract with
Candido Fernandez, owner of the tobacco plantation
'San Cristobal la Vega,' whereby he agrees to deliver 500
able-bodied laborers a year for fifty pesos each. The
jefe gets special nominal government rates on the rail-
roads, his guards are paid for by the government, so
the four days' trip from Pachuca costs him only three
pesos and a half per man. This leaves him forty-six
and one-half pesos. Out of it he must pay something
to his governor, Pedro L. Rodriguez, and something to
the jefe politico at Tuztepec. But even then his profits
are very large.

"How does he get his men? He picks them up on
the street and puts them in jail. Sometimes he charges
them with some crime, real or imaginary, but in either
case the man is never tried. He is held in jail until
there are enough others to make up a gang, and then
all are sent here. Why, men who may be safely sent
to Valle Nacional are getting so scarce in Pachuca that
the jefe has even been known to take young boys out of

86 BARBAROUS MEXICO

school and send them here just for the sake of the fifty
pesos'/'

Of our ten friends from Pachuca, all had been arrested
and put in jail, but not one had been taken before a
judge. Two had been charged with owing money that
they could not pay, one had been arrested when drunk,
another had been drunk and had discharged a firearm
into the air, the fifth had shouted too loudly on Inde-
pendence Day, September 16th, another had attempted
rape, the seventh had had a mild-mannered quarrel with
another boy over the sale of a five-cent ring, two had
been musicians in the army and had left one company
and joined another without permission, and the tenth
had been a clerk of rurales and had been sold for pay-
ing a friendly visit to the previous two while they were
in jail serving out their sentence for desertion.

When we smiled our incredulity at the tale of the tenth
prisoner and asked the chief rurale pointblank if it was
true, he astonished us with his reply. Nodding his
grizzled head he said in a low voice :

"It is true. Tomorrow may be my time. It is always
the poor that suffer."

We would have looked upon the stories of these men
as "fairy tales," but all of them were confirmed by one
or the other of the guards. The case of the musicians
interested us most. The older carried the forehead of
a university professor. He was a cornet player and his
name was Amado Godaniz. The younger was a boy of
but eighteen, the boy who cried, a basso player named
Felipe Gomez.

"They are sending us to our death — to our death,"
muttered Godaniz. "We will never get out of that hole
alive." And all along the route, wherever we met him,
he said the same thing, repeating over and over again:

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 87

"They are sending us to our death — to our death !" And
always at the words the soft-faced, cringing boy of eight-
een at his side would cry silently.

At El Hule, The Gateway to the Mexican Hell, we
parted from our unfortunate friends for a time. As we
left the railroad depot to board our launch in the river,
we saw the ten, strung out in single file, one mounted
rurale in front and one behind, disappear in the jungle
toward Tuztepec. Four hours later, as we approached
the district metropolis in the thickening twilight, we saw
them again. They had beaten the launch in the journey
up the river, had crossed in a canoe, and now stood rest-
ing for a moment on a sandy bank, silhouetted against
the sky.

Rodolpho Pardo, the jefe politico, whom we visited
after supper, proved to be a slender, polished man of
forty, smooth-shaven, with eyes which searched our
bodies like steel probes at first. But the thought of fresh
millions to be invested where he might levy his toll upon
them sweetened him as we became acquainted, and when
we shook his cold, moist hand good-bye, we had won all
that we had asked for. Don Rodolpho even called in the
chief of police and instructed him to find us good horses
for our journey.

Early the following morning found us on the jungle
trail. During the forenoon we encountered several other
travelers, and we lost no opportunity to question them.

"Run away? Yes; they try to — sometimes," said one
native, a Mexican cattleman. "But too many are against
them. The only escape is down river. They must cross
many times and they must pass Jacatepec, Chiltepec,
Tuzetpec and El Hule. And they must hide from
every one on the road, for a reward of ten pesos is paid
for every runaway captured. We don't love the system,

88 BARBAROUS MEXICO

but ten pesos is a lot of money, and no one would let
it go by. Besides, if one doesn't get it another will, and
even though the runaway should get out of the valley,
when he reaches Cordoba he finds the enganchador
Tresgallo, waiting there to send him back/*

"One time," another native told us, "I saw a man
leaning against a tree beside the trail. As I rode up
I spoke to him, but he did not move. His arm was
doubled against the tree trunk and his eyes seemed to be
studying the ground. I touched his shoulder and found
that he was stiff — dead. He had been turned out to die
and had walked so far. How do I know he was not a
runaway ? Ah, Senor, I knew. You would have known,
too, had you seen his swollen feet and the bones of his
face — almost bare. No man who looks like that could
run away!"

Just at nightfall we rode into Jacatepec, and there
we found the slave gang ahead of us. They had started
first and had kept ahead, walking the twenty-four miles
of muddy trail, though some of them were soft from
jail confinement. They were sprawled out on a patch
of green beside the detention house.

The white linen collar of Amado Godaniz was gone
now. The pair of fine shoes, nearly new, which he wore
on the train, were on the ground beside him, heavy with
mud and water. His bare feet were small, as white as
a woman's and as tender, and both showed bruises and
scratches. Since that evening at Jacatepec I have often
thought of Amado Godaniz and have wondered — ^with a
shiver — how those tender white feet fared among the
tropical flies of Valle Nacional. "They are sending us
to our death — to our death!" The news that Amado
Godaniz were alive today would surprise me. That night
he seemed to realize that he would never need those fine

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 89

shoes again, and before I went to bed I heard him trying
to sell them to a passer-by for twenty-five cents.

Wherever we stopped we induced people, by careless
questions, to talk about the valley. I wanted to make no
mistake. I wanted to hear the opinion of everybody. I
did not know what might be denied us farther on. And
always the story was the same — slavery and men and
women beaten to death.

We arose at five the next morning and missed our
breakfast in order to follow the slave gang over the
road to Valle Nacional. At first the chief of the two
riirales, a clean, handsome young Mexican, looked
askance at our presence, but before we were half way
there he was talking pleasantly. He was a Tuztepec rurale
and was making his living out of the system, yet he
was against it.

"It*s the Spanish who beat our people to death," He
said bitterly. "All the tobacco planters are Spanish, all
but one or two."

The rurale chief gave us the names of two Spaniards,
partners, Juan Pereda and Juan Robles, who had become
rich on Valle Nacional tobacco and had sold out and
gone back to spend the rest of their days in Spain. After
they were gone, said he, the new owner, in looking over
the place, ran upon a swamp in which he found hundreds
of human skeletons. The toilers whom Pereda and
Robles had starved and beaten to death they had been
too miserly to bury.

Nobody ever thought of having a planter arrested for
murdering his slaves, the rurale told us. To this rule he
mentioned two exceptions; one, the case of a foreman
who had shot three slaves ; the other, a case in which an
American figured and in which the American ambassador
took action. In the first case the planter had disapproved

90 BARBAROUS MEXICO

the killing because he needed the slaves, so he himself
had secured the arrest of the foreman. As to the other
case:

"In past years they used to pick up a derelict Ameri-
can once in awhile and ship him down here," said my
informant, "but the trouble this particular one kicked up
has resulted in Americans being barred altogether. This
American was sent to 'San Cristobal,' the farm of Can-
dido Fernandez. At this plantation it was the custom to
kill a steer every two weeks to provide meat for the
family and the foremen; the only meat the slaves ever
got was the head and entrails. One Sunday, while help-
ing butcher a steer, the hunger of the American slave
got the better of him, and he seized some of the entrails
and ate them raw. The next day he died and a few
weeks later an escaped slave called on the American
ambassador in Mexico City, gave him the name and home
address of the American, and told him the man had been
beaten to death. The ambassador secured the arrest of
the planter Fernandez and it cost him a lot of money to
get out of jail."

Our trip was a very beautiful one, if very rough. At
one point we climbed along the precipitous side of a
magnificent mountain, allowing our horses to pick their
way over the rocks behind us. At another we waited
while the slaves took off their clothing, piled them in
bundles on their heads and waded across a creek; then
we followed on our horses. At many points I yearned
mightily for a camera, yet I knew if I had it that it
would get me into trouble.

Picture merely that procession as it wound in single
file around the side of a hill, the tropical green above
broken now and then by a ridge of gigantic grey rocks,
below a level meadow and a little farther on the curving,

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 91

feminine lines of that lovely river, the Papaloapan. Pic-
ture those ten slaves, six with the regulation high straw
hat of the plebeian Mexican, four with felts, all bare-
footed now except the boy musician, who is sure to throw
away his shoes before the end of the journey, half of
them bare-handed, imagining that the masters will fur-
nish them blankets or extra clothing, the other half with
small bundles of bright-colored blankets on their backs;
finally, the mounted and uniformed rurales, one in front
and one behind; and the American travelers at the
extreme rear.

Soon we began to see gangs of men, from twenty to
one hundred, at work in the fields preparing the ground
for the tobacco planting. The men were the color of the
ground, and it struck me as strange that they moved
incessantly while the ground was still. Here and there
among the moving shapes stood others — ^these seemed
different; they really looked like men — with long, lithe
canes in their hands and sometimes swords and pistols
in their belts. We knew then that we had reached Valle
Nacional.

The first farm at which we stopped was "San Juan del
Rio.'' Crouching beside the porch of the main building
was a sick slave. One foot was swollen to twice its nat-
ural size and a dirty bandage was wrapped clumsily about
it. "What's the matter with your foot?" I asked.
"Blood poisoning from insect bites," replied the slave.
"He'll have maggots in another day or two," a boss told
us with a grin.

As we rode away we caught our first glimpse of a
Valle Nacional slave-house, a mere jail with barred win-
dows, a group of women bending over metates, and a
guard at the door with a key.

I have said that our rurale corporal was opposed to the

92 BARBAROUS MEXICO

system, yet how perfectly he was a part of it he soon
showed. Rounding a bluff suddenly we caught sight of
a man crouching half hidden behind a tree. Our rurale
called him and he came, trembling, and trying to hide the
green oranges that he had been eating. The ensuing con-
versation went something like this :

Rurale — Where are you going?

Man — To Oaxaca.

Rurale — Where are you from?

Man — From the port of Manzanillo.

Rurale — You've come a hundred miles out of your
way. Nobody ever comes this way who doesn't have
business here. What farm did you run away from, any-
how?

Man — I didn't run away.

Rurale — Well, you fall in here.

So we took the man along. Later it was ascertained
that he had run away from "San Juan del Rio." The
rurale got the ten pesos reward.

At the plantation "San Cristobal" we left the slave
gang behind, first having the temerity to shake the hands
of the two musicians, whom we never saw again. Alone
on the road we found that the attitude of those we met
was widely different from what it had been when we
were traveling in the company of the rurales, the agents
of the state. The Spanish horsemen whom we encoun-
tered did not deign to speak to us, they stared at us
suspiciously through half closed eyes and one or two
even spoke offensively of us in our hearing. Had it not
been for the letter to the presidente in my pocket it would
doubtless have been a difficult matter to secuie admission
to the tobacco plantations of Valle Nacional.

Everywhere we saw the same thing — gangs of emaci-
ated men and boys at work clearing the ground with

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 93

machetes or ploughing the broad fields with oxen. And
everywhere we saw guards, armed with long, lithe canes,
with swords and pistols. Just before we crossed the
river for the last time to ride into the town of Valle ||'J
Nacional we spoke to an old man with a stump of a p§y

<i

wrist who was working alone near the fence.

"How did you lose your hand ?" I asked.

"A cabo (foreman) cut it off with a sword," was the R.j^
reply. j^--;

Manuel Lagunas, presidente of Valle Nacional, proved fev;
to be a very amiable fellow, and I almost liked him —
until I saw his slaves. His secretary, Miguel Vidal, was
even more amiable, and we four sat for two hours over
our late dinner, thoroughly enjoying ourselves — and talk-
ing about the country. During the entire meal a little
half-negro boy of perhaps eight years stood silent behind
the door, emerging only when his master, needing to be
waited upon, called "Negro!"

"I bought him cheap," said Vidal. "He cost me only
twenty-five pesos"

Because of its great beauty Valle Nacional was orig-
inally called "Royal Valley" by the Spaniards, but after
the Independence of Mexico it was rechristened Valle
Nacional. Thirty-five years ago the land belonged to the
Chinanteco Indians, a peaceable tribe among whom it
was divided by President Juarez. When Diaz came into
power he failed to make provision for protecting the
Chinantecos against scheming Spaniards, so in a few
years the Indians had drunk a few bottles of mescal and
the Spaniards had gobbled up every foot of their land.
The Valle Nacional Indians now secure their food from
rented patches high up on the mountain sides which are
unfit for tobacco cultivation.

Though the planters raise corn and beans, and some-

94 BARBAROUS MEXICO

times bananas or other tropical fruits, tobacco is the only
considerable product of the valley. The plantations are
usually large, there being only about thirty in the entire
district. Of this number twelve are owned by Balsa Her-
manos (Brothers), who operate a large cigar factory in
Veracruz and another in the city of Oaxaca.

After dinner we went for a stroll about town and for
a bodyguard the presidente assigned us a policeman, Juan
Hernandez. We proceeded to question the policeman.

"All the slaves are kept until they die — all," said
Hernandez. "And when they are dead the bosses do not
always take the trouble to bury them. They throw them
in the swamps where the alligators eat them. On the
plantation 'Hondura de Nanche' so many are given to the
alligators that an expression has arisen among the slaves :
Throw me to The Hungry!' There is a terrible fear
among those slaves that they will be thrown to 'The
Hungry' before they are dead and while they are yet con-
scious, as this has been done !"

Slaves who are worn out and good for nothing more,
declared the policeman, and yet who are strong enough
to cry out against being thrown to "The Hungry," are
turned out on the road without a cent, and in their rags
many of them crawl to the town to die. The Indians give
them some food and on the edge of the town there is an
old house in which the miserable creatures are permitted
to pass their last hours. This place is known as "The
House of Pity." We visited it with the policeman and
found an old woman lying on her face on the bare floor.
She did not move when we came in, nor when we spoke
to each other and finally to her, and for some time we
were not sure that she was alive. At last she groaned
feebly. It can be imagined how we felt, but we could do
nothing, so we tip-toed to the door and hurried away.

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 95

"You will find this a healthy country," the municipal
secretary told us a little later in the evening. "Don't
you notice how fat we all are ? The laborers of the plan-
tations ? Ah, yes, they die — die of malaria and consump-
tion— but it is only because they are under-fed. Tor-
tillas and beans — sour beans at that, usually, is all they
get, and besides they are beaten too much. Yes, they die,
but nobody else here ever has any sickness."

Notwithstanding the accounts of Juan Hernandez, the
policeman, the secretary assured us that most of the dead
slaves were buried. The burying is done in the town and
it costs the bosses one and one-half pesos for each burial.
By charity the town puts a little bamboo cross over each
grave. We strolled out in the moonlight and took a look
at the graveyard. And we gasped at the acres and acres
of crosses! Yes, the planters bury their dead. One
would guess by those crosses that Valle Nacional were
not a village of one thousand souls, but a city of one
hundred thousand!

On our way to our beds in the house of the Presidente
we hesitated at the sound of a weak voice hailing us. A
fit of heart-breaking coughing followed and then we saw
a human skeleton squatting beside the path. He wanted
a penny. We gave him several, then questioned him and
learned that he was one who had come to die in "The
House of Pity." It "was cruel to make him talk, but we
did it, and in his ghastly whispering voice he managed to
piece out his story between paroxysms of coughing.

His name was Angelo Echavarria, he was twenty
years old and a native of Tampico. Six months previ-
ously he had been offered wages on a farm at two pesos
2L day, and had accepted, but only to be sold as a slave
to Andres M. Rodriguez, proprietor of the plantation
"Santa Fe." At the end of three months he began to

96 BARBAROUS MEXICO

break down under the inhuman treatment he received
and at four months a foreman named Augustin broke a
sword over his back. When he regained consciousness
after the beating he had coughed up a part of a lung.
After that he was beaten more frequently because he
was unable to work as well, and several times he fell in
a faint in the field. At last he was set free, but when
he asked for the wages that he thought were his, he was
told that he was $1.50 in debt to the ranch! He came
to the town and complained to the Presidente, but was
given no satisfaction. Now too weak to start to walk
home, he was coughing his life away and begging for
subsistence at the same time. In all my life I have never
seen another living creature so emaciated as Angelo
Echavarria, yet only three days previously he had been
working all day in the hot sun !

We visited the plantation "Santa Fe" the following
day, as well as a half a dozen others. We found the
system of housing, feeding, working and guarding the
slaves alike on all.

The main dormitory at "Santa Fe" consisted of one
windowless, dirt-floor room, built of upright poles set in
the ground an inch apart and held firmly together by
strands of barbed wire fencing. It was as impregnable
as an American jail. The beds consisted of a single grass
mat each laid crosswise on a wooden bench. There were
four benches, two on each side, one above another, run-
ning lengthwise of the room. The beds were laid so
close together that they touched. The dimensions of the
room were 75 by 18 feet and in these cramped quarters
150 men, women and children slept every night. The
Valle Nacional tobacco planters have not the decency of
slave-holders of fifty years ago, for on not one of the
plantations did I find a separate dormitory for the women.

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 97

And I was repeatedly told that the women who enter-
that foul hole all become common to the men, not because
they wish to become so, but because the overseers do not
protect them from the unwelcome advances of the men !

On the "Santa Fe" ranch the mandadoVy or superin-
tendent, sleeps in a room at one end of the slave dormi-
tory and the cahos, or overseers, sleep in a room at the
other end. The single door is padlocked, but a watch-
man paces all night up and down the passageway between
the rows of shelves. Every half hour he strikes a clam-
orous gong. In answer to a question Senor Rodriguez
assured me that the gong did not disturb the sleeping
slaves, but even if it had that the rule was necessary to
prevent the watchman from going to sleep and permitting
a jail-break.

Observing the field gangs at close range, I was aston-
ished to see so many children among the laborers. At
least half were under twenty and at least one-fourth
under fourteen.

"The boys are just as good in the planting as the men,"
remarked the Presidente, who escorted us about. "They
last longer, too, and they cost only half as much. Yes,
all the planters prefer boys to men."

During my ride through fields and along the roads
that day I often wondered why some of those blood-
less, toiling creatures did not cry out to us and say:
"Help us ! For God's sake help us ! We are being mur-
dered !" Then I remembered that all men who pass this
way are like their own bosses, and in answer to a cry
they could expect nothing better than a mocking laugh,
and perhaps a blow besides.

Our second night in Valle Nacional we spent on the
Presidente's plantation. As we approached the place we
lagged behind the Presidente to observe a gang of 150

98 BARBAROUS MEXICO

men and boys planting tobacco on the adjoining farm,
"El Mirador." There were half a dozen overseers among
them and as we came near we saw them jumping here
and there among the slaves, yelling, cursing and striking
this way and that with their long, lithe canes. Whack!
Whack ! went the sticks on back, shoulders, legs and even
heads. The slaves weren't being beaten. They were only
being urged a little, possibly for our benefit.

We stopped, and the head foreman, a big black Span-
iard, stepped over to the fence and greeted us.

"Do they ever fight back?" he repeated, at my ques-
tion. "Not if they're wise. They can get all the fight
they want from me. The men that fight me don't come
to work next day. Yes, they need the stick. Better to
kill a lazy man than to feed him. Run away? Some-
times the new ones try it, but we soon tame it out of
them. And when we get 'em tamed we keep 'em here.
There never was one of these dogs who got out of here
and didn't go telling lies about us."

Should I live a thousand years I would never forget
the faces of dull despair I saw everywhere ; and I would
never forget the first night I spent on a Valle Nacional
slave farm, the farm of the Presidente. The place was
well named, "La Sepultura," though its name was given
by the Indians long before it became the sepulchre of
Mexican slaves.

"La Sepultura'* is one of the smallest farms in the
valley. The dormitory is only 40 by 15 feet and it accom-
modates 70 men and women nightly. Inside there are no
benches — nothing but the bare ground and a thin grass
mat for each sleeper. In it we found an old woman lying
sick and shivering alone. Later that night we saw it
crammed full of the miserables shivering with the cold,
for the wind was blowing a hurricane and the rain was

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 99

coming down in torrents. In a few hours the tempera-
ture must have dropped forty degrees.

One-third of the laborers here were women, one of
them a girl of twelve. That night the buildings rocked
so fearfully that the horses were taken out of the barn.
But, though a building had blown down a few weeks
previously, the slaves were not taken out of their jail.
Their jail was built just off the dining-room of the
dwelling and that night my companion and I slept in the
dining-room. I heard the jail door open and shut for a
late worker to enter and then I heard the voice of the
twelve-year-old girl pleading in terror: "Please don't
lock the door tonight — only tonight ! Please leave it so
we can be saved if the house falls !" The answer that I
heard was only a brutal laugh.

When I went to bed that night at 9:30 a gang of
slaves was still working about the barn. When I
awoke at four the slaves were receiving their beans and
tortillas in the slave kitchen. When I went to bed two of
the Presidente's kitchen drudges were hard at work.
Through the chinks in the poles which divided the two
rooms I watched them, for I could not sleep. At eleven
o'clock by my watch one disappeared. It was 12:05
before the other was gone, but in less than four hours
more I saw her again, working, working, working,
working !

Yet perhaps she fared better than did the grinders of
corn and the drawers of water, for when, with the son
of the Presidente, I visited the slave kitchen at five and
remarked on the exhausted faces of the women there,
he informed me that their rising hour was two o'clock
and that they never had time to rest during the day !

Oh, it was awful ! This boy of sixteen, manager of the
farm in his father's absence, told me with much gusto of

100 BARBAROUS MEXICO

how fiercely the women sometimes fought against the
assaults of the men and how he had at times enjoyed
peering through a crack and watching those tragic
encounters of the night ! All night we were disturbed —
mostly by the hacking, tearing coughs that came to us
through the chinks, sometimes by heart-breaking sobs.

De Lara and I did not speak about these things until
the morning, when I remarked upon his haggard face.

"I heard the sobs and the coughs and the groans," said
De Lara. "I heard the women cry, and I cried, too —
three times I cried. I do not know how I can ever laugh
and be happy again !"

While we waited for breakfast the Presidente told us
many things about the slavery and showed us a number
of knives and files which had been taken from the
slaves at various times. Like penitentiary convicts, the
slaves had somehow got possession of the tools in the
hope of cutting a way out of their prison at night and
escaping the sentries.

The Presidente told us frankly that the authorities of
Mexico City, of Veracruz, of Oaxaca, of Pachuca and of
Jalapa regularly engage in the slave traffic, usually in
combination with one or more "labor agents." He espe-
cially named the mayor of a certain well known seaport,
who was mentioned in the American newspapers as an
honored guest of President Roosevelt in 1908 and a
prominent visitor to the Republican convention at Chi-
cago. This mayor, said our Presidente, regularly
employed his city detective force as a dragnet for slaves.
He arrested all sorts of people on all sorts of pretexts
merely for the sake of the forty-five pesos apiece that
they would bring from the tobacco planters.

Our conversation that morning was interrupted by a
Spanish foreman who rode up and had a talk with the

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 101

Presidente, They spoke in low tones, but we caught
most of what they said. The foreman had killed a woman
the previous day and had come to make his peace about
it. After a consultation of ten minutes the Presidente
shook the hand of his visitor and we heard him tell the
murderer to go home and attend to his business and
think no more about the matter.

It was Sunday and we spent the entire day in the
company of Antonio Pla, probably the most remarkable
human monster in Valle Nacional. Pla is general man-
ager for Balsa Hermanos in Valle Nacional and as such
he oversees the business of twelve large plantations. He
resides on the ranch ''Hondura de Nanche," the one of
special alligator fame, where the term "Throw me to The
Hungry" originated. Pla calls his slaves ''Los Tigres"
(the tigers) and he took the greatest of pleasure in
showing us the "dens of the tigers," as well as in explain-
ing his entire system of purchase, punishment and burial.

Pla estimated that the annual movement of slaves to
Valle Nacional is 15,000 and he assured me that if the
planters killed every last one of them the authorities
would not interfere.

"Why should they?" he asked. "Don't we support
them?"

Pla, like many of the other planters, raised tobacco in
Cuba before he came to Valle Nacional, and he declared
that on account of the slave system in the latter place the
same quality of tobacco was raised in Valle Nacional
for half the price that it cost to raise it in Cuba. It was
not practical, said he, to keep the slaves more than seven
or eight months, as they became "all dried out." He
explained the various methods of whipping, the informal
slugging in the field with a cane of bejuco wood, and the
lining-up of the gangs in the morning and the admin-

102 BARBAROUS MEXICO

istration of "a, few stripes to the lazy ones as medicine
for the day.'*

' "But after awhile," declared Pla, "even the cane
doesn't do any good. There comes a time when they
just can't work any longer."

Pla told us that an agent of the government had three
months before tried to sell him 500 Yaquis for twenty
thousand pesos, but he had rejected the offer, as, though
the Yaquis last like iron, they will persist in taking long
chances in a break for liberty.

"I bought a bunch of Yaquis several years ago,'* he
said, "but most of them got away after a few months.
No, Yucatan is the only place for the Yaquis."

We found two Yaquis, however, on the farm, "Los
Mangos." They said they had been there for two years
and were the only ones left out of an original lot of
two hundred. One had been out of commission for a
few days, one of his feet being half gone— eaten off by
insects.

"I expect I'll have to kill that tiger," said Pla, in tfie
man's hearing. "He'll never be worth anything to mc
any more."

The second Yaqui we found in the field working witK a
gang. I stepped up to him and felt of his arms. They
were still muscular. He was really a magnificent speci-
men and reminded me of the story of Ben Hur. As 1
inspected him he stood erect, staring straight ahead bul
trembling slightly in every limb. The mere attitude ol
that Yaqui was to me the most conclusive evidence of the
beastliness of the system under which he was enslaved.

At "Los Mangos" a foreman let us inspect his long,
lithe cane, the beating cane, the cane of bejuco wood. II
bent like a rawhide buggy whip, but it would not break.

"The bejuco tree grows on the mountain side," ex*

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 103

plained the foreman. "See! The wood is Hke leather.
With this cane I can beat twenty men to death and yet
it will be good for twenty morel"

In the slave kitchen of the same ranch we found two
girls of seventeen, both with refined and really beautiful
faces, grinding corn. Though their boss, Pla, stood
menacingly by, each dared to tell her story briefly. One,
from Leon, State of Guanajuato, declared that the "labor
agent" had promised her fifty pesos per month and a
good home as cook in a small family, and when she
discovered that all was not right it was too late; the
rurales compelled her to come along. The other girl was
from San Luis Potosi. She had been promised a good
home and forty pesos a month for taking care of two
small children!

Wherever we went we found the houses full of fine
furniture made by the slaves.

"Yes," explained Antonio Pla, "some of the best arti-
sans in the country come right here — in one way or
another. We get carpenters and cabinet-makers and
upholsterers and everything. Why, on my ranches I've
had teachers and actresses and artists and one time I
even had an ex-priest. I had one of the most beautiful
actresses in the country one time, right here on *Hon-
dura de Nanche.* She was noted, too. How did she
get here? Simple enough. A son of a millionaire in
Mexico City wanted to marry her and, to get her out
of the way, the millionaire paid the authorities a good
price to kidnap her and give her to a labor agent. Yes,
sir, that woman was a beauty !"

"And what became of her?" I asked.

"Oh," was the evasive reply. "That was two years
ago!"

Truly, two years is a long time in Valle Nacional,

104 BARBAROUS MEXICO

longer, than a life-time, usually. The story of the
actress reminded me of a story told me by a newly-
married runaway Mexican couple in Los Angeles just
before I started on my trip. The young husband was
a member of the middle class of Mexico City and his
wife was the daughter of a millionaire. Because the boy
was considered to be "below" the girl, the girl's father
went to extremes in his efforts to prevent the marriage.

"George went through many dangers for me," is the
way the young bride told the story. "One time my
father tried to shoot him and another time my father
offered the authorities five thousand pesos to kidnap him
and send him to Valle Nacional. But I warned George
and he was able to save himself !"

Pla also told of eleven girls who had come to him in a
single shipment from Oaxaca.

"They were at a public dance," said he. "Some men
got into a fight and the police jailed everybody in the
hall. Those girls didn't have anything to do with the
trouble, but the jefe politico needed the money and so
he sent them all here."

"Well," I asked, "what sort of women were they ? Pub-
lic women?"

Pla shot me a glance full of meaning.

"No, Senor!" he said, with contempt in his voice, "do
you suppose that I need to have that kind of women sent
in here to mef"

The close attendance of owners and superintendents
as well as the ubiquity of overseers, prevented us from
obtaining many long interviews with the slaves. One of
the most notable of our slave talks occurred the day
following our visit to the Balsa Hermanos farm. Return-
ing from a long day's visit to numerous plantations, we
hailed a ploughman working near the road on "Hondura

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 105

de Nanche." The nearest overseer happened to be half
way across the field and the slave, at our inquiry, will-
ingly pointed out the slough of the alligators and con-
firmed the story of dying men being thrown to "The
Hungry."

*T have been here for six years and I believe I hold
the record for the valley," he told us. "Other strong
men come and turn to skeletons in a single season, but it
seems that I cannot die. They come and fall, and come
and fall, yet I stay on and live. But you ought to have
seen me when I came ! I was a man then — a man ! I had
shoulders and arms — I was a giant then. But now — "

Tears gathered in the fellow's eyes and rolled down
his cheeks, but he went on:

"I was a carpenter and a good one — six years ago.
I lived with my brother and sister in Mexico City. My
brother was a student — he was only in his teens — my
sister tended the little house that I paid for out of my
wages. We were not poor — no. We were happy. Then
work in my trade fell slack and one evening I met a
friend who told me of employment to be had in the
State of Veracruz at three pesos a day — a long job. I
jumped at the chance and we came together, came here —
here! I told my brother and sister that I would send
them money regularly, and when I learned that I could
send them nothing and wrote to let them know, they
would not let me send the letter! For months I kept
that letter, watching, waiting, trying to get an oppor-
tunity to speak to the carrier as he rode along the high-
way. At last I saw him, but when I handed him the
letter, he only laughed in my face and handed it back.
Nobody is allowed to send a letter out of here.

"Escape?" went on the ploughman. "Yes, I tried it
many times. Once, only eight months ago, I got as far as

106 BARBAROUS MEXICO

Tuztepec. I was writing a letter. I wanted to get word
to my people, but they caught me before the letter was
finished. They don't know where I am. They must
think I am dead. My brother must have had to leave
school. My—"

"Better stop/' I said. "A cabo is coming!'*

"No, not yet," he answered. "Quick ! I will give you
their address. Tell them that I never read the contract.
Tell them that I never saw it until I came here. My
brother's name is Juan "

"Look out!" I cried, but too late. "Whack!" The
long cane struck the ploughman across the back. He
winced, started to open his mouth again, but at a second
whack he changed his mind and turned sullenly to his
oxen.

The rains of our last two days in Valle Nacional made
the trail to Tuztepec impassable, so we left our horses and
traveled down river in a balsa, a raft of logs on which was
erected a tiny shelter house roofed with banana leaves.
Two Indians, one at each end, poled and paddled the
strange craft down the rushing stream, and from them
we learned that the Indians themselves have had their
day as slaves in Valle Nacional. The Spaniards tried to
enslave them, but they fought to the death. They em-
ployed their tribal solidarity and fought in droves like
wolves and in that way they regained and kept their
freedom. Such a common understanding and such mass
movements cannot, of course, be developed by the hetero-
geneous elements that today are brought together on the
slave plantations.

At Tuztepec on our way we met Senor P , poli-
tician, "labor agent," and relative of Felix Diaz, nephew
of President Diaz and Chief of Police of Mexico City.

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 107

Senor P , who dressed like a prince, made himself

agreeable and answered our questions freely because he
hoped to secure the contract for furnishing slaves for my
company.

"You can't help but make money in Valle Nacional,"
said he. "They all do. Why, after every harvest there's
an exodus of planters to Mexico City, where some of
them stay for months, spending their money in the most
riotous living!"

Senor P was kind enough to tell us what became

of the fifty pesos he received for each of his slaves. Five
pesos, he said went to Rodolpho Pardo, jefe politico of
Tuztepec, ten to Felix Diaz for every slave taken out of
Mexico City, and ten to the mayor of the city or jefe
politico of the district from whence came the other
slaves.

"The fact that I am a brother-in-law of Felix Diaz,"

said Senor P , "as well as a personal friend of the

governors of the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz, and of
the mayors of the cities of the same name, puts me in a
position to supply your wants better than anyone else. I
am prepared to furnish you any number of laborers up to
forty thousand a year, men, women and children, and
my price is fifty pesos each. Children workers last better
than adults and I advise you to use them in preference to
others. / can furnish you 1,000 children a month under
fourteen years of age, and I am prepared to secure their
legal adoption as sons and daughters of the company, so
that they can be legally kept until they reach the age of
twenty-two !**

"But how," I gasped, "is my company going to adopt
12,000 children a year as sons and daughters? Do you
mean to tell me that the government would permit such a
thing?"

108 BARBAROUS MEXICO

"Leave that to me," replied Senor P , signifi-
cantly. "I'm doing it every day. You don't pay your
fifty pesos until you get the children and the adoption
papers too !"

CHAPTER VI

THE COUNTRY PEONS AND THE CITY POOR

A whole book, and a large one, could very profitably be
written upon the slavery of Mexico. But important as
the subject is, it is not important enough to fill a greater
fraction of space in this work than I have allotted to it.
Most necessary is it that I dig beneath the surface and
reveal the hideous causes which have made and are per-
petuating that barbarous institution.

I trust that my exposition of the previous chapters has
been lucid enough to leave no question as to the com-
plete partnership of the government in the slavery.

In some quarters this slavery has been admitted, but
the guilt of the government has been denied. But it is
absurd to suppose that the government could be kept in
ignorance of a situation in which one-third the entire
population of a great state are held as chattels. More-
over, it is well known that hundreds of state and national
officials are constantly engaged in rounding up, trans-
porting, selling, guarding and hunting slaves. As I pre-
viously pointed out, every gang of enganchados leaving
Mexico City or any other city for Valle Nacional or any
other slave district are guarded by government rurales, or
rural guards, in uniform. These rurales do not act on
their own initiative ; they are as completely under orders
as are the soldiers of the regular army. Without the
coercion of their guns and their authority the enganchados
would refuse to travel a mile of the journey. A moment's
thought is sufficient to convince any unprejudiced mind

109

110 BARBAROUS MEXICO

that without the partnership of the government the whole
system of slavery would be an impossibility.

Slavery similar to that of Yucatan and Valle Nacional
is to be found in nearly every state of Mexico, but
especially in the coast states south of the great plateau.
The labor on the henequen plantations of Campeche, in
the lumber and fruit industries of Chiapas and Tabasco,
on the rubber, coffee, sugar-cane, tobacco and fruit plan-
tations of Veracruz, Oaxaca and Morelos, is all done by
slaves. In at least ten of the thirty-two states and terri-
tories of Mexico the proportion of labor is over-
whelmingly of slaves.

While the minor conditions vary somewhat in different
places, the general system is everywhere the same —
service against the will of the laborer, no pay, semi-
starvation, and the whip. Into this arrangement of things
are impressed not only the natives of the various slave
states, but others — 100,000 others every year, to speak in
round numbers — who, either enticed by the false promises
of labor agents, kidnapped by labor agents or shipped by
political authorities in partnership with labor agents,
leave their homes in other parts of the country to jour-
ney to their death in the hot lands.

Debt and contract slavery is the prevailing system of
production all over the south of Mexico. Probably
three-quarters of a million souls may properly be classed
as human chattels. In all the rest of Mexico a system
of peonage, differing from slavery principally in degree,
and similar in many respects to the serfdom of Europe in
the Middle Ages, prevails in the rural districts. Under
this system the laborer is compelled to give service to
the farmer, or hacendado, to accept what he wishes to
pay, and even to receive such beatings as he cares to
deliver. Debt, real or imaginary, is the nexus that binds

THE COUNTRY PEONS AND THE CITY POOR 111

the peon to his master. Debts are handed from father to
son and on down through the generations. Though the
constitution does not recognize the right of the creditor to
take and hold the body of the debtor, the rural authorities
everywhere recognize such a right and the result is that
probably 5,000,000 people, or one-third the entire popula-
tion, are today living in a state of helpless peonage.

Farm peons are often credited with receiving wages,
which nominally range from twelve and one-half cents a
day to twenty-five cents a day, American money — seldom
higher. Often they never receive a cent of this, but are
paid only in credit checks at the hacienda store, at which
they are compelled to trade in spite of the exorbitant
prices. As a result their food consists solely of corn
and beans, they live in hovels often made of no more
substantial material than corn-stalks, and they wear their
pitiful clothing, not merely until the garments are all rags
and patches and ready to drop off, but until they actually
do attain the vanishing act.

Probably not fewer than eighty per cent of all the farm
and plantation laborers in Mexico are either slaves or
are bound to the land as peons. The other twenty per cent
are denominated as free laborers and live a precarious
existence trying to dodge the net of those who would drag
them down. I remember particularly a family of such
whom I met in the State of Chihuahua. They were
typical, though my memory of them is most vivid because
I saw them on the first night I ever spent in Mexico. It
was in a second-class car on the Mexican Central, trav-
eling south.

They were six, that family, and of three generations.
From the callow, raven-haired boy to the white-chinned
grandfather, all six seemed to have the last ray of
mirth ground out of their systems. We were a lively

112 BARBAROUS MEXICO

crowd sitting there near them — four were happy Mexi-
cans returning home for a vacation after a season at
wage labor in the United States. We sang a little and
we made some music on a violin and a harmonica. But
not one of that family of six behind us ever smiled or
showed the slightest interest. They reminded me of a
herd of cattle standing in a blizzard, their heads between
their front legs, their backs to the storm.

The face of the old patriarch told a story of burdens
and of a patient, ox-like bearing of them such as no
words could possibly suggest. He had a ragged, griz-
zled beard and moustache, but his head was still covered
with dark brown hair. He was probably seventy, but
was evidently still an active worker. His clothing con-
sisted of American jumper and overalls of ordinary
denim washed and patched and washed and patched —
a one-dollar suit patched until it was nothing but
patches !

Beside the patriarch sat the old lady, his wife, with
head bowed and a facial expression so like that of her
husband that it might have been a copy by a great painter.
Yes, the expression differed in one detail. The old
woman's upper lip was compressed tight against her
teeth, giving her an effect of perpetually biting her lip
to keep back the tears. Perhaps her original stock of
courage had not been equal to that of the man and it
had been necessary to fortify it by an everlasting com-
pression of the mouth.

Then there was a young couple half the age of the two.
The man sat with head nodding and granulated lids
blinking slowly, now and then turning his eyes to stare
with far distant interest upon the merrymakers around
him. His wife, a flat-breasted, drooping woman, sat

THE COUNTRY PEONS AND THE CITY POOR 113

always in one position with her head bent forward and
her right hand fingering her face about the bridge of
the nose.

Finally, there were two boys, one of eighteen, second
son of the old man, and one of sixteen, son of the
second couple. In all that night's journey the only smile
I saw from any of the six was a smile of the youngest
boy. A passing news-agent offered the boy a book for
seventy-five centavos. With slightly widening eyes of
momentary interest the boy looked upon the gaily deco-
rated paper cover, then turned toward his uncle and
smiled a half startled smile. To think that anyone
might imagine that he could afford to purchase one of
those magical things, a book!

''We are from Chihuahua," the old man told us, when
we had gained his confidence. **We work in the fields —
all of us. All our lives we have been farm laborers in
the corn and the beans and the melons of Chihuahua.
But now we are running away from it. If the bosses
would pay us the money they agree to pay, we could
get along, but they never pay all — never. This time
the boss paid us only two-thirds the agreed price, yet
I am very thankful for that much, for he might have
given us only one-third, as others have done in the past.
What can I do? Nothing. I cannot hire a lawyer, for
the lawyer would steal the other two-thirds, and the
boss would put me in jail besides. Many times I and
my sons have gone to jail for asking the boss to pay
us the full amount of our agreement. My sons become
angry more and more and sometimes I fear one may
strike the boss or kill him. That would be the end
of us.

"No, the best thing to do, I decided at last, was to

114 BARBAROUS MEXICO

get away. So we put our wages together and used our
last dollar to pay for tickets to Torreon, where we hope
to find work in the cotton fields. I hear we can get one
peso a day in busy times. Is it so? Or will it be the
same story over again there ? Perhaps it will. But what
else can I do but try ? Work ! work ! work ! That's all
there is for us — and nothing in return for the work!
We do not drink; we are not lazy; every day we pray
to God. Yet debt is always following us, begging to
be taken in. Many times I have wanted to borrow just
a little from my boss, but my wife has always pleaded
with me. 'No,' she would say, 'better die than to owe, for
owing once means owing forever — and slavery.*

"But sometimes," continued the old man, "I think it
might be better to owe, better to fall in debt, better to
give up our liberty than to go on like this to the end.
True, I am getting old and I would love to die free, but
it is hard — too hard !"

The three-quarters of a million of chattel slaves and
the five million peons do not monopolize the economic
misery of Mexico. It extends to every class of men that
toils. There are 150,000 mine and smelter workers who
receive less money for a week's labor than an American
miner of the same class gets for a day's wages. There
are 30,000 cotton mill operatives whose wages average
less than thirty cents a day in American money. There
are a quarter of a million domestic servants whose wages
range from one to five dollars a month. There are
40,000 impressed soldiers who get less than two dollars
a month above the scantiest rations. The common police-
men of Mexico City, 2,000 of them, are paid but fifty
cents a day in our money. Fifty cents a day is a high
average for street-car conductors in the metropolis, where
wages are higher than in any other section of the coun-

THE COUNTRY PEONS AND THE CITY POOR 115

try except close to the American border. And this pro-
portion is constant throughout the industries. An offer
of fifty cents a day without found, would, without the
slightest doubt, bring in Mexico City an army of 50,000
able-bodied laborers inside of twenty-four hours.

From such miserable wages it must not be guessed
that the cost of the necessities of life are less than they
are here, as in the case of other low wage countries, such
as India and China. On the contrary, the cost of corn
and beans, upon which the mass of the Mexican people
eke out their existence, is actually higher, as a rule, than
it is in the United States. At this writing it costs nearly
twice as much money to buy a hundred pounds of corn
in Mexico City as it does in Chicago, and that in the
same money, American gold or Mexican silver, take it as
you like it. And this is the cheapest staple that the
poverty-stricken Mexican is able to lay his hands upon.

As to clothing and shelter, the common Mexican has
about as little of either as can be imagined. The tene-
ments of New York City are palatial homes compared to
the tenements of Mexico City. A quarter of a mile in
almost any direction off Diaz's grand Paseo de la
Reforma, the magnificent driveway over which tourists
are always taken and by which they usually judge Mexi-
co, will carry the investigator into conditions that are
not seen in any city worthy the name of civilized. If in
all Mexico there exists a city with a really modem sewer
system I am ignorant of its name.

Travelers who have stopped at the best hotels of the
metropolis may raise their eyebrows at this last state-
ment, but a little investigation will show that not more
than one-fifth of the houses within the limits of that
metropolis are regularly supplied with water with which
to flush the sewers, while there are many densely popu-

116 BARBAROUS MEXICO

lated blocks which have no public water whatsoever,
neither for sewer flushing nor for drinking.

It will take a few minutes' reflection to realize what
this really means. As a result of such unsanitary con-
ditions the death rate in that city ranges always between
5 and 6 per cent, usually nearer the latter figure, which
places that percentage at more than double the death
rate of well-regulated cities of Europe, the United
States and even of South America. Which proves that
half the people who die in Diaz's metropolis die of causes
which modern cities have abolished.

A life-long resident once estimated to me that 200,000
people of the country's metropolis, or two-fifths the
entire population, spend every night on the stones. "On
the stones" means not on the streets, for sleeping is not
pernlitted on the streets or in the parks, but on the floors
of cheap tenements or lodging houses.

Possibly this is an exaggeration. From my own ob-
servations, however, I know that 100,000 would be a
very conservative estimate. And at least 25,000 pass the
nights in mesones — the name commonly applied to the
cheapest class of transient lodging houses.

A meson is a pit of such misery as is surpassed only
by the galeras, the sleeping jails, of the contract slaves
of the hot lands — and the dormitories of the Mexican
prisons. The chief difference between the mesones and
the galeras is that into the latter the slaves are driven,
tottering from overwork, semi-starvation and fever —
driven with whips and locked in when they are there;
while to the mesones the ragged, ill-nourished wretches
from the city's streets come to buy with three precious
copper centavos a brief and scanty shelter — a bare spot to
lie down in, a grass mat, company with the vermin that
squalor breeds, rest in a sickening room with hundreds

THE COUNTRY PEONS AND THE CITY POOR 117

of Others— snoring, tossing, groaning brothers and sisters
in woe.

During my most recent visit to Mexico— in the winter
and spring of 1909 — I visited many of these mesones and
took a number of flashlight photos oi the inmates. The
conditions in all I found to be the same. The buildings
are ancient ones — often hundreds of years old — which
have been abandoned as unfit for any other purposes than
as sleeping places for the country's poor. For three
centavos the pilgrim gets a grass mat and the privilege
of hunting for a bare spot large enough to lie down in.
On cold nights the floor and yards are so thick with
bodies that it is very difficult to find footing between the
sleepers. In one room I have counted as high as two
hundred.

Poor women and girls must sleep, as well as poor men
and boys, and if they cannot afford more than three
cents for a bed they must go to the mesones with the
men. In not one of the mesones that I visited was there
a separate room for the women and girls, though there
were many women and girls among the inmates. Like
a man, a girl pays her three cents and gets a grass mat.
She may come early and find a comparatively secluded
nook in which to rest her weary body. But there is
nothing to prevent a man from coming along, lying down
beside her and annoying her throughout the night.

And this thing is done. More than once, in my visits
to mesones, I saw a young and unprotected girl awakened
from her sleep and solicited by a strange man whose
roving eye had lighted upon her as he came into the
place. The mesones breed immorality as appallingly as
they breed vermin. Homeless girls do not go to mesones
because they are bad, but because they are poor. These
places are licensed by the authorities and it would be a

118 BARBAROUS MEXICO

simple matter to require the proprietors to set apart a
portion of the space exclusively for women. But this the
authorities have not the decency to do.

Miserable as are the mesones, the 25,000 homeless
Mexicans who spend their nights there are fortunate com-
pared to the thousands of others who, when the shadows
fall upon them, find that they cannot produce the three
centavos to pay for a grass mat and a spot on a bare
floor. Every night there is a hegira of these thousands
from the city's streets. Carrying what pitiful belongings
they have, if they have any belongings, moving along
hand in hand, if they are a family together, husband and
wife, or merely friends drawn closer together by their
poverty ; they travel for miles, out of the city to the open
roads and fields, the great stock farms belonging to men
high up in the councils of the government. Here they hud-
dle about on the ground, shivering in the cold, for few
nights in that altitude are not so cold that covering is not
sorely needed. In the morning they travel back to the
heart of the city, there to pit their feeble strength against
the Powers that are conspiring to prevent them from
earning a living; there, after vain and discouraging strug-
gles, at last to fall into the net of the "labor agent," who
is on the lookout for slaves for his wealthy clients, the
planters of the lowland states.

Mexico contains 767,000 square miles. Acre for acre,
it is as rich as, if not richer than the United States. It
has fine harbors on both coasts. It is approximately as
near the world's markets as are we. There is no natural
or geographical reason why its people should not be as
prosperous and happy as any in the world. In point of
years it is an older country than ours. It is not over-
populated. With a population of 15,000,000, it has
eighteen souls to the square mile, which is slightly less

WAIFS, MOTHER AND SON, IN A MESON . TWENTY THOUSAND

SLEEP THIS WAY EVERY NIGHT IN DIAZ's CAPITAL ALONE.

FLASHLIGHT BY THE AUTHOR

GROUP OF HOMELESS CHILDREN IN A CORNER OF A " MESON", MID-
NIGHT. THOUGH THESE PLACES ARE LICENSED BY THE AU-
THORITIES, THERE IS NO SEGREGATION OF THE SEXES

THE COUNTRY PEONS AND THE CITY POOR 119

than we have here. Yet, seeing the heart of Mexico, it
is inconceivable that there could be more extreme pov-
erty in all the world. India or China could not be worse
off, for if they were, acute starvation would depopulate
them. Mexico is a people starved — a nation prostrate.
What is the reason ? Who is to blame ?

CHAPTER VII

THE DIAZ SYSTEM

The slavery and peonage of Mexico, the poverty and
illiteracy, the general prostration of the people, are due,
in my humble judgment, to the financial and political
organization that at present rules that country — in a
word, to what I shall call the **system" of General
Porfirio Diaz.

That these conditions can be traced in a measure to
the history of Mexico during past generations, is true. I
do not wish to be unfair to General Diaz in the least
degree. The Spanish Dons made slaves and peons of
the Mexican people. Yet never did they grind the people
as they are ground today. In Spanish times the peon at
least had his own little patch of ground, his own hum-
ble shelter ; today he has nothing. Moreover, the Declara-
tion of Independence, proclaimed just one hundred
years ago, in 1810, proclaimed also the abolition of chat-
tel slavery. Slavery was abolished, though not entirely.
Succeeding Mexican governments of class and of church
and of the individual held the people in bondage little
less severe. But finally came a democratic movement
which broke the back of the church, which overthrew the
rule of caste, which adopted a form of government as
modern as our own, which freed the slave in fact as
well as in name, which gave the lands of the people back
to the people, which wiped the slate clean of the blood
of the past.

It was at this juncture that General Porfirio Diaz, with-
out any valid excuse and apparently for no other reason

120

THE DIAZ SYSTEM 121

than personal ambition, stirred up a series of revolu-
tions which finally ended in his capture of the govern-
mental powers of the land. While professing to respect
the progressive institutions which Juarez and Lerdo had
established before him, he built up a system all his own,
a system in which he personally was the central and
all-controlling figure, in which his individual caprice was
the constitution and the law, in which all circumstances
and all men, big and little, were bent or broken at his
will. Like Louis XIV, The State — Porfirio Diaz was
The State !

It was under Porfirio Diaz that slavery and peonage
were re-established in Mexico, and on a more merciless
basis than they had existed even under the Spanish
Dons. Therefore, I can see no injustice in charging at least
a preponderance of the blame for these conditions upon
the system of Diaz.

I say the "system of Diaz" rather than Diaz personally
because, though he is the keystone of the arch, though he
is the government of Mexico more completely than is
any other individual the government of any large coun-
try on the planet, yet no one man can stand alone in his
iniquity. Diaz is the central prop of the slavery, but
there are other props without which the system could
not continue upright for a single day. For example,
there is the collection of commercial interests which profit
by the Diaz system of slavery and autocracy, and which
puts no insignificant part of its tremendous powers to
holding the central prop upright in exchange for the
special privileges that it receives. Not the least among
these commercial interests are American, which, I blush
to say, are quite as aggressive defenders of the Diaz
citadel as any. Indeed, as I shall show in future chap-
ters, these American interests undoubtedly form the

122 BARBAROUS MEXICO

determining force in the continuation of Mexican slavery.
Thus does Mexican slavery come home to us in the full
sense of the term. For the horrors of Yucatan and Valle
Nacional, Diaz is to blame, but so are we; we are to
blame insofar as governmental powers over which we
are conceded to have some control are employed under
our very eyes for the perpetuation of a regime of which
slavery and peonage are an integral part.

In order that the reader may understand the Diaz sys-
tem and its responsibility in the degradation of the
Mexican people, it will be well to go back and trace
briefly the beginnings of that system. Mexico is spoken
of throughout the world as a Republic. That is because
it was once a Republic and still pretends to be one.
Mexico has a constitution which has never been repealed,
a constitution said to be modeled after our own, and one
which is, indeed, like ours in the main. Like ours, it pro-
vides for a national congress, state legislatures and
municipal aldermen to make the laws, federal, state and
local judges to interpret them, and a president, governors
and local executives to administer them. Like ours, it
provides for manhood suffrage, freedom of the press and
of speech, equality before the law, and the other guar-
antees of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness which
we ourselves enjoy, in a degree, as a matter of course.

Such was Mexico forty years ago. Forty years ago
Mexico was at peace with the world. She had just over-
thrown, after a heroic war, the foreign prince, Maxi-
milian, who had been seated as emperor by the armies
of Napoleon Third of France. Her president, Benito
Juarez, is today recognized in Mexico and out of Mexico
as one of the most able as well as unselfish patriots of
Mexican history. Never since Cortez fired his ships there
on the gulf coast had Mexico enjoyed such prospects of

TKE DIAZ SYSTEM 123

political freedom, industrial prosperity and general ad-
vancement.

But in spite of these facts and the additional fact that
he was deeply indebted to Juarez, all his military pro-
motions having been received at the hands of the latter.
General Porfirio Diaz stirred up a series of rebellions
for the purpose of securing for himself the supreme
power of the land. Diaz not only led one armed rebel-
lion against a peaceable, constitutional and popularly ap-
proved government, but he led three of them. For nine
years he plotted as a common rebel. The support that
he received came chiefly from bandits, criminals and pro-
fessional soldiers who were disgruntled at the anti-mili-
tarist policy which Juarez had inaugurated and which, if
he could have carried it out a little farther, would have
been effective in preventing military revolutions in the
future — and from the Catholic church.

Repeatedly it was proved that the people did not want
Diaz at the head of their government. Three times dur-
ing his first five years of plotting he was an unsuccessful
candidate at the polls. In 1867 he received a little more
than one-third the votes counted for Juarez. In 1871 he
received about three-fifths as many votes as Juarez. In
1872, after the death of Juarez, he ran against Lerdo de
Tejada and received only one-fifteenth as many votes as
his opponent. While in arms he was looked upon as a
common rebel at home and abroad and when he marched
into the national capital at the head of a victorious
army and proclaimed himself president hardly a Euro-
pean nation would at first recognize the upstart govern-
ment, while the United States for a time threatened
complications.

In defiance of the will of the majority of the people
of Mexico, General Diaz, thirty-four years ago, came to

124 BARBAROUS MEXICO

the head of government. In defiance of the will of the
majority of the people he has remained there ever since —
except for four years, from 1880 to 1884, when he
turned the palace over to an intimate friend, Manuel
Gonzalez, on the distinct understanding that at the end
of the four years Gonzalez would turn it back to him
j again.

j Since no man can rule an unwilling people without
j taking away the liberties of that people, it can be very
/ easily understood what sort of regime General Diaz found
j it necessary to establish in order to make his power
secure. By the use of the army and the police powers
generally, he controlled elections, the press and public
speech and made of popular government a farce. By
distributing the public offices among his generals and
granting them free rein to plunder at will, he assured
himself of the continued use of the army. By making
political combinations with men high in the esteem of
the Catholic church and permitting it to be whispered
about that the church was to regain some of its former
powers, he gained the silent support of the priests and the
Pope. By promising full payment of all foreign debts
and launching at once upon a policy of distributing
favors among citizens of other countries, he made his
peace with the world at large.

In other words, General Diaz, with a skill that none
'i can deny, annexed to himself all the elements of power in
I the country except the nation at large. On the one hand,
jhe had a military dictatorship. On the other, he had a
financial camarilla. Himself was the center of the arch
and he was compelled to pay the price. The price was the
nation at large. He created a machine and oiled the
machine with the flesh and blood of a people. He re-
warded all except the people ; the people were the sacri-

THE DIAZ SYSTEM 125

fice. Inevitable as the blackness of night, in contrast to
the sun-glory of the dictator, came the degradation of
the people — the slavery, the peonage and every misery
that walks with poverty, the abolition of democracy and
the personal security that breeds providence, self-respect
and worthy ambition ; in a word, general demoralization,
depravity.

Take, for example, Diaz's method of rewarding his
military chiefs, the men who helped him overthrow the
government of Lerdo. As quickly as possible after
assuming the power, he installed his generals as governors
of the various states and organized them and other influ-
ential figures in the nation into a national plunderbund.
Thus he assured himself of the continued loyalty of the
generals, on the one hand, and put them where he could
most effectively use them for keeping down the people, on
the other. One variety of rich plum which he handed out
in those early days to his governors came in the form of
charters giving- his governors the right, as individuals, to
organize companies and build railroads, each charter
carrying with it a huge sum as a railroad subsidy.

The national government paid for the road and then
the governor and his most influential friends owned it.
Usually the railroads were ridiculous affairs, were of
narrow-gauge and of the very cheapest materials, but
the subsidy was very large, sufficient to build the road
and probably equip it besides. During his first term of
four years in ofiice Diaz passed sixty-one railroad sub-
sidy acts containing appropriations aggregating $40,000,-
000, and all but two or three of these acts were in favor
of governors of states. In a number of cases not a mile
of railroad was actually built, but the subsidies are sup-
posed to have been paid, anyhow. In nearly every case
the subsidy vras the same, $12,880 per mile in Mexican

126 BARBAROUS MEXICO

silver, and in those days Mexican silver was nearly on a
par with gold.

This huge sum was taken out of the national treasury
and was supposedly paid to the governors, although
Mexican politicians of the old times have assured me that
it was divided, a part going out as actual subsidies and a
part going directly into the hands of Diaz to be used in
building up his machine in other quarters.

Certainly something more than mere loyalty, however
invaluable it was, was required of the governors in
exchange for such rich financial plums. It is a well
authenticated fact that governors were required to pay a
fixed sum annually for the privilege of exploiting to the
limit the graft possibilities of their offices. For a long,
time Manuel Romero Rubio, father-in-law of Diaz, was
the collector of these perquisites, the offices bringing in
anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 per year.

The largest single perquisite whereby Diaz enriched
himself, the members of his immediate family, his
friends, his governors, his financial ring and his foreign
favorites, was found for a long time in the confiscation of
the lands of the common people — a confiscation, in fact,
which is going on to this day. Note that this land rob-
bery was the first direct step in the path of the Mexican
people back to their bondage as slaves and peons.

In a previous chapter I showed how the lands of the
Yaquis of Sonora were taken from them and given to
political favorites of the ruler. The lands of the Mayas
of Yucatan, now enslaved by the henequen planters, were
taken from them in almost the same manner. The final
act in this confiscation was accomplished in the year
1904, when the national government set aside the last of
their lands into a territory called Quintana Roo. This
territory contains 43,000 square kilometers or 27,000

THE DIAZ SYSTEM 127

square miles. It is larger than the present state of
Yucatan by 8,000 square kilometers, and moreover is the
most promising land of the entire peninsula. Separated
from the island of Cuba by a narrow strait, its soil and
climate are strikingly similar to those of Cuba and ex-
perts have declared that there is no reason why Quintana
Roo should not one day become as great a tobacco-grow-
ing country as Cuba. Further than that, its hillsides are
thickly covered with the most valuable cabinet and dye-
woods in the world. It is this magnificent country which,
as the last chapter in the life of the Mayas as a nation, the
Diaz government took and handed over to eight Mexican
politicians.

In like manner have the Mayos of Sonora, the Papagos,
the Tomosachics — in fact, practically all the native peoples
of Mexico — been reduced to peonage, if not to slavery.
Small holders of every tribe and nation have gradually
been expropriated until today their number as property
holders is almost down to zero. Their lands are in the
hands of members of the governmental machine, or per-
sons to whom the members of the machine have sold for
profit — or in the hands of foreigners.

This is why the typical Mexican farm is the million-
acre farm, why it has been so easy for such Americans as
William Randolph Hearst, Harrison Gray Otis, E. H.
Harriman, the Rockefellers, the Guggenheims and nu-
merous others each to have obtained possession of mil-
lions of Mexican acres. This is why Secretary of
Fomento Molina holds more than 15,000,000 acres of the
soil of Mexico, why ex-Governor Terrazas, of Chihuahua,
owns 15,000,000 acres of the soil of that state, why
Finance Minister Limantour, Mrs. Porfirio Diaz, Vice-
President Corral, Governor Pimentel, of Chiapas, Gover-
nor Landa y Escandon of the Federal District, Governor

128 BARBAROUS MEXICO

Pablo Escandon of Morelos, Governor Ahumada of
Jalisco, Governor Cosio of Queretaro, Governor Mercado
of Michoacan, Governor Canedo of Sinaloa, Governor
Cahuantzi of Tlaxcala, and many other members of the
Diaz machine are not only millionaires, but they are
millionaires in Mexican real estate.

Chief among the methods used in getting the lands
away from the people in general was through a land regis-
tration law which Diaz fathered. This law permitted any
person to go out and claim any lands to which the pos-
sessor could not prove a recorded title. Since up to the
time the law was enacted it was not the custom to record
titles, this meant all the lands of Mexico. When a man
possessed a home which his father had possessed before
him, and which his grandfather had possessed, which
his great-grandfather had possessed, and which had been
in the family as far back as history knew, then he con-
sidered that he owned that home, all of his neighbors con-
sidered that he owned it, and all governments up to that
of Diaz recognized his right to that home.

Supposing that a strict registration law became neces-
sary in the course of evolution, had this law been enacted
for the purpose of protecting the land owners instead of
plundering them the government would, naturally, have
sent agents through the country to apprise the people
of the new law and to help them register their property
and keep their homes. But this was not done and the
conclusion is inevitable that the law was passed for the
purpose of plundering.

At all events, the result of the law was a plundering.
No sooner had it been passed than the aforesaid mem-
bers of the governmental machine, headed by the father-
in-law of Diaz, and Diaz himself, formed land companies
and sent out agents, not to help the people keep their

THE DIAZ SYSTEld: 129

lands, but to select the most desirable lands in the
country, register them, and evict the owners. This they
did on a most tremendous scale. Thus hundreds of
thousands of small farmers lost their property. Thus
small farmers are still losing their property. In order
to cite an example, I reprint a dispatch dated Merida,
Yucatan, April 11, 1909, and published April 12 in the
Mexican Herald, an American daily newspaper printed
in Mexico City:

"Merida, April 11. — Minister Olegario Molina, of the Depart-
ment of Fomento, Colonization and Industry, has made a
denouncement before the agency here of extensive territory lying
adjacent to his lands in Tizimin partldo. The denouncement
was made through Esteban Re] on Garcia, his administrador at
that place.

"The section was taken on the ground that those now occupy-
ing them have no documents or titles of ownership.

"They measure 2,700 hectares (about 6,000 acres, or over nine
square miles), and include perfectly organized towns, some fine
ranches, including those of Laureano Breseno and Rafael
Aguilar, and other properties. The jefe politico of Tizimin has
notified the population of the town, the owners and laborers on
the ranches, and others on the lands, that they will be obliged
to vacate within two months or become subject to the new
owner.

"The present occupants have lived for years upon the land
and have cultivated and improved much of it. Some have
lived there from generation to generation, and have thought
themselves the rightful owners, having inherited it from the
original 'squatters.'

"Mr. Rejon Garcia has also denounced other similar public
lands in the Espita partido."

Another favorite means of confiscating the homes of
small owners is found in the juggling of state taxes.
State taxes in Mexico are fearfully and wonderfully
made. Especially in the less populous districts owners
are taxed inversely as they stand in favor with the

130 BARBAROUS MEXICO

personality who represents the government in their par-
ticular district. No court, board or other responsible
body sits to review unjust assessments. The jefe politico
may charge one farmer five times as much per acre as
he charges the farmer across the fence, and yet Farmer
No. 1 has no redress unless he is rich and powerful. He
must pay, and if he cannot, the farm is a little later listed
among the properties of the jefe politico, or one of the
members of his family, or among the properties of the
governor of the state or one of the members of his family.
But if he is rich and powerful he is often not taxed at all.
American promoters in Mexico escape taxation so nearly
invariably that the impression has got abroad in this
country that land pays no taxes in Mexico. Even
Frederick Palmer made a statement to this effect in his
recent writings about that country.

Of course such bandit methods as were employed and
are still employed were certain to meet with resistance,
and so we find numerous instances of regiments of sol-
diers being called out to enforce collection of taxes or
the eviction of time-honored land-holders. Mexican his-
tory of the past generation is blotched with stories of
massacres having their cause in this thing. Among the
most noted of these massacres are those of Papantla and
Tomosachic. Manuel Romero Rubio, the late father-in-
law of General Diaz, denounced the lands of several thou-
sand farmers in the vicinity of Papantla, Veracruz. Diaz
backed him up with several regiments of regulars and
before the farmers were all evicted four hundred, or
some such number, were killed. In the year 1892, General
Lauro Carrillo, who was then governor of Chihuahua, laid
a tax on the town of Tomosachic, center of the Tomosa-
chic settlement, which it was impossible for the people to
pay. The immediate cause of the exorbitant tax, so the

THE DIAZ SYSTEM 131

story goes, was that the authorities of the town had re-
fused Carrillo some paintings which adorned the walls of
their church and which he desired for his own home. Car-
rillo carried away some leading men of the town as host-
ages, and when the people still refused to pay, he sent sol-
diers for more hostages. The soldiers were driven away,
after which Carrillo laid siege to the town with eight
regiments. In the end the town was burned and a
churchful of women and children were burned, too.
Accounts of the Tomosachic massacre place the number
of killed variously at from 800 to 2,000.

Cases of more recent blood spiUings in the same cause
are numerous. Hardly a month passes today without
there being one or more reports in Mexican papers of
disturbances, the result of confiscation of homes, either
through the denunciation method or the excuse of non-
payment of taxes. Notable among these was the case of
San Andreas, State of Chihuahua, which was exploited in
the Mexican press in April, 1909. According to those
press reports, the state authorities confiscated lands of
several score of farmers, the excuse being that the own-
ers were delinquent in their taxes. The farmers resisted
eviction in a body and two carloads of troops, hurried to
the scene from the capital of the state, promptly cleaned
them out, shooting some and chasing half a hundred of
them into the mountains. Here they stayed until starved
out, when they straggled back, begging for mercy. As
they came they were thrown into jail, men, women and
children. The government carefully concealed the truth
as to the number killed in the skirmish with the troops,
but reports place it at from five to twenty-five.

An incident of the same class was that of San Carlos,
also in the State of Chihuahua, which occurred in
August, 1909. At San Carlos, center of a farming dis-

132 BARBAROUS MEXICO

trict, the misuse of the taxing power became so unbear-
able that four hundred small farmers banded together,
defied a force of fifty rurales, forcibly deposed the jefe
politico, and elected another in his place, then went back
to their plows. It was a little revolution which the news-
paper reports of the time declared was the first of its
kind to which the present government of Mexico ever
yielded. Whether the popularly constituted local gov-
ernment was permitted to remain or whether it was
later overthrown by a regiment of soldiers is not re-
corded, though the latter seems most likely.

Graft is an established institution in the public offices
of Mexico. It is a right vested in the office itself, is
recognized as such, and is respectable. There are two
main functions attached to each public office, one a
privilege, the other a duty. The privilege is that of
using the special powers of the office for the amassing
of a personal fortune; the duty is that of preventing the
people from entering into any activities that may endan-
ger the stability of the existing regime. Theoretically,
the fulfillment of the duty is judged as balancing the
harvest of the privilege, but with all offices and all places
this is not so, and so we find offices of particularly rosy
possibilities selling for a fixed price. Examples are those
of the jefes politicos in districts where the slave trade is
peculiarly remunerative, as at Pachuca, Oaxaca, Vera-
cruz, Orizaba, Cordoba and Rio Blanco; of the districts
in which the drafting of soldiers for the army is especially
let to the jefes politicos; of the towns in which the
gambling privileges are let as a monopoly to the mayors
thereof; of the states in which there exist opportunities
extraordinary for governors to graft off the army supply
contracts.

Monopolies called ^'concessions," which are nothing

THE DIAZ SYSTEM 133

more nor less than trusts created by governmental decree,
are dealt in openly by the Mexican government. Some of
these concessions are sold for cash, but the rule is to give
them away gratis or for a nominal price, the real price
being collected in political support. The public domain
is sold in huge tracts for a nominal price or for nothing
at all, the money price, when paid at all, averaging about
fifty Mexican centavos an acre. But never does the
government sell to any individual or company not of its
own special choice; that is, the public domain is by no
means open to all comers on equal terms. Public con-
cessions worth millions of dollars — to use the water of
a river for irrigation purposes, or for power, to engage
in this or that monopoly, have been given away, but not
indiscriminately. These things are the coin with which
political support is bought and as such are grafts, pure
and simple.

Public action of any sort is never taken for the sake
of improving the condition of the common people. It is
taken with a view to making the government more
secure in its position. Mexico is a land of special privi-
leges extraordinary, though frequently special privi-
leges are provided for in the name of the common people.
An instance is that of the "Agricultural Bank," which
was created in 1908. To read the press reports concern-
ing the purpose of this bank one would imagine that
the government had launched into a gigantic and benevo-
lent scheme to re-establish its expropriated people in
agriculture. The purpose, it was said, was to loan money
to needy farmers. But nothing could be farther from
the truth, for the purpose is to help out the rich farmer,
and only the richest in the land. The bank has now
been loaning money for two years, but so far not a
iingle case has been recorded in which aid was given

134 BARBAROUS MEXICO

to help a farm that comprised less than thousands of
acres. Millions have been loaned on private irrigation
projects, but never in lumps of less than several tens of
thousands. In the United States the farmer class is an
humble class indeed ; in Mexico the typical farmer is the
king of millionaires, a little potentate. In Mexico, be-
cause of the special privileges given by the government,
medievalism still prevails outside the cities. The barons
are richer and more powerful than were the landed
aristocrats before the French Revolution, and the canaille
poorer, more miserable.

And the special financial privileges centering in the
cities are no less remarkable than the special privileges
given to the exploiters of the hacienda slave. There is
a financial ring consisting of members of the Diaz ma-
chine and their close associates, who pluck all the finan-
cial plums of the "republic," who get the contracts, the
franchises and the concessions, and whom the large aggre-
gations of foreign capital which secure a footing in the
country find it necessary to take as coupon-clipping part-
ners. The "Banco Nacional," an institution having some
fifty-four branches and which has been compared flat-
teringly to the Bank of England, is the special financial
vehicle of the government camarilla. It monopolizes the
major portion of the banking business of the country and
is a convenient cloak for the larger grafts, such as the
railway merger, the true significance of which I shall
present in a future chapter.

Diaz encourages foreign capital, for foreign capital
means the support of foreign governments. American
capital has a smoother time with Diaz than it has even
with its own government, which is very fine from the
point of view of American capital, but not so good from
the point of view of the Mexican people. Diaz has even

THE DIAZ SYSTEM

135

entered into direct partnership with certain aggrega-
tions of foreign capital, granting these aggregations
special privileges in some lines which he has refused to
his own millionaires. These foreign partnerships which
Diaz has formed has made his government international
insofar as the props which support his system are con-
cerned. The certainty of foreign intervention in his
favor has been one of the powerful forces which have
prevented the Mexican people from using arms to remove
a ruler who imposed himself upon them by the use of
arms.

When I come to deal with the American partners of
Diaz I mention those of no other nationality in the same
breath, but it will be well to bear in mind that England,
especially, is nearly as heavily as interested in Mexico as
is the United States. While this country has $900,000,000
(these are the figures given by Consul General Shanklin
about the first of the year 1910) invested in Mexico,
England (according to the South American Journal) has
$750,000,000. However, these figures by no means repre-
sent the ratio between the degree of political influence
exerted by the two countries. There the United States
bests all the other countries combined.

Yet there are two English corporations so closely iden-
tified with the Mexican financial ring as to deserve special
mention. They are the combination represented by Dr.
F. S. Pearson, of Canada and London, and the other cor-
poration distinct from the first, S. Pearson & Son, Lim-
ited. Of Dr. F. S. Pearson it is boasted that he can get
any concession that he wants in Mexico, barring alone
such a one as would antagonize other foreign interests
equally powerful. Dr. Pearson owns the electric railway
system of the Federal District and furnishes the vast
quantity of electric light and power used in that political

136 BARBAROUS MEXICO

division of Mexico. Among other things, he is also a
strong power along the American border, where he and
his associates own the Mexico Northwestern Railway and
several smaller lines, as well as vast tracts of lands and
huge lumber interests. In Chihuahua he is establishing
a large steel plant and in El Paso, just across the line,
he is building a half million dollar sawmill as a part of his
Mexican projects.

S. Pearson & Son have been given so many valuable
concessions in Mexico that they were responsible for the
invention of the term, **the partners of Diaz." Through
concessions given them by the government they are in
possession of vast oil lands, most of which are unex-
ploited, yet so many of which are producing that the com-
pany recently gave out a statement that it would hereafter
be in a position to supply its entire trade with Mexican
oil. Its distributing company, "El Aguila," contains on
its directorate a number of Diaz's closest friends. Pear-
son & Son, also, have monopolized the contracts for deep-
ening and improving the harbors of Mexico. Since their
advent into the country some fourteen years ago the
government treasury has paid to this concern $200,000,000
for work on the harbors of Salina Cruz and Coatza-
coalcos, and the Isthmus railroad. This amount, a
government engineer told me personally, is an even double
the price that should have been paid for the work. In 1908
Diaz's congress appropriated $50,000,000 to install an
extensive irrigation project on the Rio Nasus, for the
benefit of the cotton barons of the Laguna district in the
State of Durango. Immediately afterwards the Pearson
company organized a subsidiary irrigation concern with
a capital of one million. The new company drew up plans
for a dam, whereupon the Diaz congress promptly voted

THE DIAZ SYSTEM 137

$10,000,000 out of the $50,000,000 to be paid to the
Pearsons for their dam.

In this chapter I have attempted to give the reader an
idea of the means which General Diaz employed to
attract support to his government. To sum up, by means
of a careful placing of public offices, public contracts and
special privileges of multitudinous sorts, Diaz absorbed
all of the more powerful men and interests within his
sphere and made them a part of his machine. Gradually
the country passed into the hands of his officeholders,
their friends, and foreigners. And for this the people
paid, not only with their lands, but with their flesh and
blood. They paid in peonage and slavery. For this they
forfeited liberty, democracy and the blessings of progress.
And because human beings do not forfeit these things
without a struggle, there was necessarily another function
of the Diaz machine than that of distributing gifts, an-
other material that went into the structure of his govern-
ment than favors. Privilege — repression; they go hand
in hand. In this chapter I have attempted to sketch a
picture of the privilege attached to the Diaz system; in
the succeeding chapter I shall attempt to define its ele-
ments of repression.

CHAPTER VIII

REPRESSIVE ELEMENTS OF THE DIAZ MACHINE

Americans launching upon business in Mexico are
usually given about the same treatment at the hands of
local authorities as they have been used to at home. The
readier hand for graft is more than overbalanced by the
easier plucking of the special privilege plum. Sometimes
an American falls into disfavor and is cautiously perse-
cuted, but it is seldom. And if he is there to get rich
quickly, as is usual, he judges the Mexican government
by the aid it gives to his ambition. To him the system of
Diaz is the wisest, most modern and most beneficent on
the face of the earth.

To be wholly fair to Diaz and his system, I must con-
fess that I am not judging Mexico from the viewpoint of
the American investor. I am estimating it from its eifects
upon the mass of Mexicans generally, who, in the end,
must surely determine the destiny of Mexico. From the
viewpoint of the common Mexican the government is
wholly the opposite of beneficent; it is a slave-driver, a
thief, a murderer; it has neither justice nor mercy —
not-hing but exploitation.

In order to impose his rule upon an unwilling people
General Diaz found it necessary not only to reward the
powerful of his country and to be free and easy with the
foreigner, but also to strip the people of their liberties to
the point of nakedness. He took away from them all
governmental powers, rights and securities^ and all powers

13d

REPRESSIVE ELEMENTS OF THE DIAZ MACHINE 139

to demand the return of these things. Why do nations
universally demand a popular form of government?
Never until I saw Mexico did I appreciate to its full the
reason why. The answer is that life under any other
system is intolerable. The common interests can be con-
served only by the common voice. Governments by indi-
viduals not responsible to the mass invariably result in
robbery of the mass and debasement of the nation. The
upbuilding of any people requires certain social guar-
antees which are not possible except under a government
in which considerable numbers take part.

When General Diaz led his army into the Mexican
capital back in 1876 he declared himself provisional presi-
dent. Shortly afterwards he held a pretended election
and declared himself constitutional president. By a "pre-
tended election" I mean that he put his soldiers in posses-
sion of the polls and prevented, by intimidation, anyone
from appearing as a candidate against him. Thus was he
"elected" unanimously. And, except for one term, when
he voluntarily relinquished the office, he has continued to
elect himself unanimously in much the same way.

I do not need to dwell on the election farces of Mexico,
since the warmest flatterers of Diaz admit that Mexico
has not had one real election during the past thirty-four
years. But to those who desire some statement of the
matter it will only be necessary to point out the results
of the Mexican "elections." Can anyone imagine a nation
of some 15,000,000 with, say 3,000,000 persons of voting
age, all preferring the same man for their chief executive,
not only once, but year after year and decade after
decade? Just picture such a condition obtaining in the
United States, for example. Could anyone imagine Mr.
Taft being re-elected by a unanimous vote ? Mr. Roose-
velt was undoubtedly the most popular president this

140 BARBAROUS MEXICO

country ever had. Could anybody imagine Mr. Roose-
velt being re-elected by a unanimous vote? Moreover,
could anyone imagine a country of 15,000,000 souls in
which ambition never stirred the heart of more than one
individual with the desire to stand before the people as a
candidate for the highest office in the nation ?

And yet this is exactly the condition we find in Mexico.
Eight times Don Porfirio has been seated as "president."
Eight times he has been elected "unanimously." Never
has an opponent stood against him at the polls.

And the story of the presidential succession is repeated
in the states. Re-election without contest is a rule which
has seen exceedingly few exceptions. The governor of
the state holds office for life, unless for some reason he
loses favor with Don Porfirio, which is seldom. A mem-
ber of the Mexican upper class once put the situation to
me quite aptly. Said he : "Death is the only anti-re-elec-
tionist in Mexico." The chief reason why the states are
not governed by men who have been in office for thirty-
four years is because those who were first put in have
died and it has become necessary to fill their places with
others. As it is, Colonel Prospero Cahuantzi has ruled
the State of Tlaxcala for the whole Porfirian period.
General Aristeo Mercado has ruled the State of Michoa-
can for over twenty-five years. Teodoro Dehesa has
governed the State of Veracruz for twenty-five years.
When deposed in 1909, General Bernardo Reyes had gov-
erned the State of Nuevo Leon for nearly twenty-five
years. General Francisco Canedo, General Abraham
Bandala and Pedro Rodriguez ruled the States of Sinaloa,
Tabasco and Hidalgo, respectively, for over twenty years.
General Luis Terrazas was governor of Chihuahua for
over twenty years, while Governors Martinez, Cardenas
and Obregon Gonzalez ruled the States of Puebla, Coa-

READY B^OR THE EXECUTION

REPRESSIVE ELEMENTS OF THE DIAZ MACHINE 141

huila and Guanajuato, respectively, for about fifteen
years.

Diaz's system of government is very simple, once it
is explained. The president, the governor, the jefe
politico — these three names represent all the power in the
country. In Mexico there is but one governmental power
— the executive. The other two departments exist in
name only. Not one elective office remains in the country.
All are appointive. And through the appointive power
the three executives mentioned control the entire situa-
tion. The word of these three officials in his particular
sphere — the president in the twenty-seven states and two
territories, the governor in his state, the jefe politico in
his district — is the law of the land. Not one of the three
is required to answer to the people for his acts. The
governor must answer to the president and the jefe
politico to the governor and the president. It is the most
perfect one-man system on earth.

Of course such conditions were not established with-
out a struggle. Neither can they be maintained without
continued struggle. Autocracy cannot be created by fiat.
Slavery cannot exist merely by decree of a ruler. There
must be an organization and a policy to compel such
things. There must be a military organization armed to
the teeth. There must be police and police spies. There
must be expropriations and imprisonments for political
purposes. And there must be murder — murder all the
time. No autocracy can exist without murder. Autoc-
racy feeds upon murder. It has never been otherwise,
and, thanks to human nature as we find it, never can be.

The succeeding two chapters are to be devoted to
sketching the extirpation of political movements having
for their purpose the re-establishment of republican insti-
tutions in Mexico. But first it seems well to define the

142 BARBAROUS MEXICO

public powers and institutions which are employed in this
unholy work. These consist of :

The army.

The rurale forces.

The police.

The acordada.

The Ley Fuga.

Quintana Roo, the "Mexican Siberia."

The prisons.

The jefes politicos.

In a published interview issued during the Liberal re-
bellion in 1908, Vice-President Corral announced that the
government had more than 50,000 soldiers who were
ready to take the field at an hour's notice. In these
figures he must have included the rurale forces, for em-
ployes of the War Department have since assured me
that the regular army numbered less, almost an exact
40,000, in fact. On paper the Mexican army is, then,
smaller than ours, but, according to estimates of the
actual size of our army published by American experts
during the past three years, it is larger, and in propor-
tion to the population it is at least five times larger.
General Diaz's excuse for the maintenance of such a
large army has always been a hint that the country might
at any time find itself in danger of invasion by the
United States. That his purpose was not so much to pre-
pare against invasion as against internal revolution is
evidenced by the fact that, instead of fortifying the bor-
der, he fortified inland cities. Moreover, he keeps the
bulk of the army concentrated near the large centers of
population and his best and most extensive equipment
consists of mountain batteries, recognized as specially
well adapted to internal warfare.

Mexico is actually policed by the army and to this end

REPRESSIVE ELEMENTS OF THE DIAZ MACHINE 143

the country is divided into ten military zones, three
commanderies and fourteen jefaturas. One sees soldiers
everywhere. There is not an important city in the coun-
try that has not its army barracks, and the barracks are
situated in the heart of the city, where they are always
ready. The discipline of war is maintained at all times,
the presence of the soldiers and their constant drilling
are a perpetual threat to the people. And they are used
upon the people often enough to keep always fresh in
the memories of the people the fact that the threat is not
an empty one. Such readiness for war as is maintained
on the part of the Mexican troops is not known in this
country. There is no red tape when it comes to fighting
and troops arrive at a scene of trouble in an incredibly
short time. As one example, at the time of the Liberal
rebellion in the fall of 1906 the Liberals attacked the city
of Acayucan, Veracruz. Despite the fact that the city is
situated in a comparatively isolated part of the tropics,
the government concentrated 4,000 soldiers on the town
within twenty-four hours after the first alarm.

As an instrument of repression, the Mexican army is
employed effectively in two separate and distinct ways.
It is an engine of massacre and it is an exile institution, a
jail-house, a concentration camp for the politically un-
desirable.

This second function of the army abides in the fact
that more than 95 per cent of the enlisted men are
drafted, and drafted for the particular reason that they
are politically undesirable citizens, or that they are good
subjects for graft on the part of the drafter. The
drafter is usually the jefe politico. A judge — at the
instance of the executive authority — sometimes sentences
a culprit to the army instead of to jail, and a governor —
as at Cananea — sometimes personally superintends the

144 BARBAROUS MEXICO

placing of considerable bodies of men in the army, but
as a rule the jefe politico is the drafting officer and upon
him there is no check. He has no system other than to
follow his own sweet will. He drafts laborers who dare
to strike, editors who criticize the government, farmers
who resist exorbitant taxation, and any other ordinary
citizens who may present opportunities for graft.

As a dumping ground for the politically undesirable,
the conditions within the army are ideal, from the point
of view of the government. The men are prisoners
rather than soldiers and they are treated as such. For
this reason the Mexican army has gained the title of
"The National Chain-gang." While in Diaz-land I
visited a number of army barracks. The barracks at Rio
Blanco are typical. Here, ever since the Rio Blanco
strike, 600 soldiers and 200 ruralcs have been quartered
within the shadow of the great mill, in barracks and upon
ground furnished by the company, an hourly menace to
the miserably exploited workers there.

At Rio Blanco a little captain showed us about — ^De
Lara and I — at the behest of an officer of the manufac-
turing company. El Senor Capitan informed us that the
pay of the Mexican soldier, with rations, is $1.90 per
month in American money and that the soldier is always
expected to spend the major portion of this for extra
food, as the food furnished is of too small a variety and
too scarce a quantity to satisfy any human being. The
captain confirmed the reports that I had often heard to
the effect that the soldier, in all his five years service,
never has an hour to himself away from the eye of an
officer, that he is as much a prisoner in his barracks as
is the life-termer in a penitentiary.

The proportion of involuntary soldiers the captain esti-
mated at 98 per cent. Often, said he, the soldiers, crazy

MEXICAN CAVALRY: YOU SEE SOLDIERS EVERYWHERE IN DIAZ-LAND

MEXICAN COUNTRY JAIL

REPRESSIVE ELEMENTS OF THE DIAZ MACHINE 145

for freedom, break and run like escaping convicts. And
they are hunted down Hke convicts.

But the thing that struck me most forcibly during my
visit was that the little captain, in the hearing of half a
company of men, told us that the soldiers were of the
lowest class o^ Mexicans, were good for nothing, a bad
lot, etc., apologizing thus in order to make us understand
that in time of war the quality of the army would be
much improved. The soldiers heard and failed to look
pleasant and I decided right there that the loyalty of the
Mexican army stands upon a very flimsy basis — merely
fear of death — and that in case of any future rebellion
against the dictatorship the army can be counted upon to
revolt in a body as soon as the rebellion develops any
appreciable strength — that is, enough strength to afford
the deserters a fair chance for their lives.

The territory of Quintana Roo has been characterized
as one of the "Siberias of Mexico," from the fact that
to it, as convict-soldiers, are consigned thousands of
political suspects and labor agitators. Sent there osten-
sibly to fight the Maya Indians, they are treated so
harshly that probably not one per cent of them ever see
their homes again. I did not succeed in penetrating per-
sonally to Quintana Roo, but I have heard accounts of
it from so many authentic sources that I have no doubt
whatever that my estimate of it is correct. One of these
sources of information I shall quote at some length, a
distinguished government physician who for three years
was Chief of Sanitary Service with the army in the
territory.

"For thirty years," said this man, "there has been an
army of from 2,000 to 3,000 men constantly in the field
against the Maya Indians. These soldiers are made up
almost entirely of political suspects and even many of

146 BARBAROUS MEXICO

the officers are men who have been detailed to duty in
the territory only because the government has some rea-
son for wanting to get rid of them. Quintana Roo is
the most unhealthy part of Mexico, but the soldiers die
from five to ten times as fast as necessary because of the
grafting of their chief, General Bravo. During the first
two years I was there the death rate was 100 per cent
a year, for in that period more than 4,000 soldiers died of
starvation and sickness induced by starvation!

"For month after month," said this physician, "I have
known the deaths to average thirty a day. For every sol-
dier killed by a Maya at least one hundred die of starva-
tion or sickness. General Bravo steals the commissary
money and starves the soldiers with the connivance of
the federal government. More than 2,000 have died of
acute starvation alone during the past seven years, since
General Bravo took command. Not only that, but Bravo
steals the cremation money. The soil of the peninsula,
you must know, is rocky, the hard-pan is close to the
surface and it is not practical to bury the dead. The gov-
ernment appropriates money to buy oil for cremation, but
Bravo steals this money and leaves the bodies to lie in the
sun and rot away!'*

Because it would result in his imprisonment I cannot
publish the name of this authority. I feel perfectly free,
however, to name Colonel Francisco B. Cruz, chief de-
porter of Yaquis. Colonel Cruz told me that in three
years General Bravo had saved $10,000,000 from money
grafted off the army in Quintana Roo. The fact that
nearly all the deaths of soldiers was the result of starva-
tion was proven in the year 1902 to 1903, when General
Bravo took a vacation and General Vega had command.
General Vega stole no food or medicine or oil money

REPRESSIVE ELEMENTS OF THE DIAZ MACHINE 147

and as a result he reduced the number of deaths from
thirty a day to an average of three a day.

"In its campaign against the Mayas/' the former Sani-
tary Chief told me, "the government built a railroad
sixty metres long. This railroad is known among the
soldiers as The Alley of Death/ for it is said that every
tie cost five lives in the building. When this road was
built many prisoners were taken from the military prison
of San Juan de Ulua to do the work. To encourage
them to toil all were promised that their sentences would
be cut in half, but after a few weeks in the hands of
Bravo the majority begged — but in vain — to be returned
to Ulua, which is the most dreaded of all houses of incar-
ceration in Mexico. These unfortunate prisoners were
starved and when they staggered from weakness they
were beaten, some being beaten to death. Some of them
committed suicide at the first opportunity, as did many
of the soldiers — fifty of them, while I was there."

Fancy a soldier committing suicide! Fancy the cruel
conditions that would lead fifty soldiers among 2,000 to
commit suicide in the space of three years !

As to the graft features of the army drafting system,
as I have suggested, the jefe politico selects the names
in his own way in the privacy of his own office and no
one may question his methods. Wherefore he waxes
rich. Since — allowing for a high death rate — some
10,000* men are drafted every year, it will be seen that
the graft possibilities of the system are enormous. The
horror of the army is used by the jefe to squeeze money
out of wage-workers and small property-holders. Unless
the victim is drafted for political reasons, the system
permits the drafted person to buy another to take his
place — provided the drafting officer is willing. This
option on the part of the jefe is used as a great money-

1148 BARBAROUS MEXICO

getter, since the jefe is never willing unless the victim
buys the jefe as well as the substitute. Usually it is
not necessary to buy the substitute," but only the jefe
politico. In some districts it is said to be a regular prac-
tice to keep tab on the higher-paid class of wage-laborers
and when they are paid after a long job, to drag them to
jail and tell them that they have been drafted, then, a
day or two later, to send word that $100, more or less,
has been fixed as the price of their liberty. I was told
of an instance in which a carpenter was drafted in this
way five times in the space of three years. Four times
he parted with his money, sums ranging from $50 to
$100, but the fifth time he lost courage and permitted
himself to be led away to the barracks.

The rurales are mounted police usually selected from
the criminal classes, well equipped and cofnparatively
well paid, whose energies have been turned to robbing
and killing for the government. There are federal
rurales and state rurales, the total of the two running
somewhere between 7,000 and 9,000. They are divided
among the various states in about an equal propor-
tion to the population, but are utilized most in the rural
districts. The rurales are the special rough riders of
the jefe politicos and they are given almost unlimited
powers to kill at their own discretion. Investigation of
wanton killings by rurales working singly or in squads
is almost never made and the victim must stand well
indeed with the government before punishment is meted
out to the murderer.

In Mexico it is a small town that has no soldiers or
rurales and a smaller town that has no regular
gendarmes. The City of Mexico has over 2,000, or twice
as many as New York in comparison to its size, and
the other municipalities are equipped in proportion. At

YAQUIS HANGED IN SONORA

MEXICAN Rl UAI.ES

REPRESSIVE ELEMENTS OF THE DIAZ MACHINE 149

night the gendarmes have little red lanterns which they
set in the middle of the streets and hover near. One
sees these lanterns, one at each corner, twinkling down
the entire length of the principal streets. There is a
system of lantern signals and when one lamp begins to
swing the signal is carried along and in a trice every
gendarme on the street knows what has happened.

While the *'plain clothes" department of the Mexican
police is a comparatively insignificant affair, there ex-
ists, outside of and beyond it, a system of secret police
on a very extensive scale. An American newspaper-
man employed on an English daily of the capital once
told me : "There are twice as many secret police as reg-
ular police. You see a uniformed policeman standing
in the middle of the street. That is all you see, or at
least all you notice. But leaning against the wall of
that alley entrance is a man whom you take to be a
loafer; over on the other side lounges a man whom you
think is a peon. Just start something and then try to
get away. Both of those men will be after you. There
is no getting away in Mexico; every alley is guarded
as well as every street!

"Why," said he, "they know your business as well as
you do yourself. They talk with you and you never sus-
pect. When you cross the border they take your name
and business and address, and before you've reached the
capital they know whether you've told the truth or not.
They know what you're here for and have decided what
they're going to do about it."

Perhaps this man overstated the case — the exact truth
of these matters is hard to get at — but I know that it
is impossible to convince the average Mexican that the
secret police system of his country is not a colossal in-
stitution.

150 BARBAROUS MEXICO

The acordada is an organization of secret assassins,
a sort of secret police, attached to the government of
each of the Mexican states. It consists of a jefe de
acordada and anywhere from a half dozen to a half hun-
dred subordinates. Personal enemies of the governor
or of the jefes politic os, political suspects and highway-
men or others suspected of crime but against whom
there is no evidence, are frequently put out of the way
by the acordada. The names of the marked men are
furnished by the officials and the members of the so-
ciety are sent about the state with orders to kill quietly
and without noise. Two notable cases where the acordada
are reported as having killed extensively are those of
the days following the strikes at Cananea and Rio
Blanco. Personally I am acquainted with a Mexican
whose brother was killed by the acordada for doing no
more than shouting "Viva Ricardo Flores Magon." I
know also of a son of a general high up in the councils of
the Mexican government who became a suh-jefe de
acordada in the state of Coahuila. He was a wild young
fellow who had been put out of the army for acts of in-
subordination toward a superior officer. But his father
was a friend of Diaz and Diaz himself appointed the
youth to the acordada job, which paid a salary of three
hundred pesos a month. This man was given two assist-
ants and was sent out with orders to "kill quietly along
the border" any and all persons whom he might suspect
of connection with the Liberal Party. No check what-
ever was placed upon him. He was to kill at his own
discretion.

The acordada at times work extensively even in the
Mexican capital, which more nearly approaches the
modern in its police methods than probably any other

REPRESSIVE ELEMENTS OF THE DIAZ MACHINE 151

city in the country. Before the Liberal rebellion of 1906
the government, through spies, secured the detailed
plans of the rebels, as well as the names of hundreds
of the participants, and a large number of these were
killed. What was done by the acordada in Mexico City
at that time may be guessed by a statement made to me
by a well known newspaperman of Mexico City. Said
he: "I have it from the most reliable source that dur-
ing the week preceding September 16 not less than 2,000
suspects were made away with quietly by the secret po-
lice and special deputies — the acordada — so quietly that
not a line in regard to it has ever been published to this
dayr

I hesitate to print this statement because it is too co-
lossal for me to believe, and I do not expect the reader
to believe it. But I have no doubt whatever that it
was partially true; that, say, several score were killed
at this time and in this way. Liberals whom I have
met have often spoken to me of friends who had sud-
denly disappeared and never been heard of again and
many of these were supposed to have been done away
with by the acordada.

The Ley Fuga, or law of flight, is a method of killing
resorted to by all branches of the Mexican police power.
It was originated by order of General Diaz, who de-
creed that his police might shoot any prisoners who
should try to escape while under guard. While it may
not have originated for that purpose, this rule came to
be used as one of the means of putting to death persons
against whom the government had not the shadow of
another excuse for killing. The marked man is simply
arrested, taken to a lonely spot and there shot. The
matter is kept quiet, if possible, but if a situation should
arise that demands an explanation, the report is given

152 BARBAROUS MEXICO

out that the victim had attempted to escape and had
brought his fate upon himself. Thus it is freely as-
serted that thousands of lives have been taken during
the past thirty-four years. Today instances of the Ley
Fuga are frequently reported in the Mexican press.

Many political outlaws end their days in prison.
Among the Mexican prisons there are two whose hor-
rors stand out far above the others — San Juan de Ulua
and Belem.

During both of my trips to Mexico made during 1908
and 1909 I put forth desperate efforts to secure admis-
sion as a visitor to Belem. I saw the governor of the
Federal District; I saw the American ambassador; I
tried to enter with a prison physician. But I was never
able to travel farther than the inner door.

Through that door I could see into the central court,
where ranged hundreds of human beings made wild
beasts by the treatment they received, ragged, filthy,
starving, wolfish wrecks of men — a sight calculated to
provoke a raucous laugh at the solemn declarations of
certain individuals that Mexico has a civilized govern-
ment.

But farther than that inner court I could not go. I
was permitted to visit other prisons in Mexico, but not
Belem. When I pressed His Excellency, the Governor,
he admitted that it was not safe. "On account of the
malas condiciones, the vile conditions," he said, "it
would not do. Why," he told me, "only a short time ago
the vice-president, Senor Corral, dared to make a hurried
visit to Belem. He contracted typhus and nearly died.
You cannot go."

I told him that I had heard of Americans being per-
mitted to visit Belem. But he was unable to remember.
Doubtless those other Americans were too well known

REPRESSIVE ELEMENTS OF THE DIAZ MACHINE 153

— they were too much involved in Mexican affairs — to
leave any danger of their coming out and telling the
truth of what they saw. My credentials were not sat-
isfactory enough to permit me to see Belem.

But I know Belem fairly well, I think, for I have
talked with persons who have seen Belem as prisoners
and come out of its horrors alive. Editors, many of
them were; and I have talked with others — officials,
prison physicians, and I have read the newspapers of
Mexico.

Suffice it, however, to put down some bare and naked
facts. Belem is the general prison for the Federal Dis-
trict, which comprises the Mexican capital and some
surrounding suburbs, approximating, in all, a popula-
tion of 600,000 people. It is alike city jail, county jail
and penitentiary, except that there is also in the district
another penitentiary, which is distinguished from Belem
by confining within its walls only criminals who have
been sentenced to more than eight years confinement.
The penitentiary — which is so designated — is a modern
institution, decently built and sewered. The prisoners
are few and they are fairly well fed. Visitors are al-
ways welcome at the penitentiary, for it is principally
for show. When you hear a traveler extolling the
prison system of Mexico put it down that he was con-
ducted through the Federal District penitentiary only
— that he does not know of Belem.

Belem is a musty old convent which was turned into
a prison by the simple act of herding some thousands
of person within its walls. It is not large enough de-
cently to house five hundred inmates, but frequently
it houses more than five thousand. These five thou-
sand are given a daily ration of biscuit and beans in-
sufficient in quantity to keep an ordinary person alive fof

154 BARBAROUS MEXICO

many weeks. The insufficiency of this ration is so well
realized by the prison officials that a regular system of
feeding from the outside has grown up. Daily the
friends and relatives of prisoners bring them baskets of
food, in order that they may live through their term of
confinement. Of course it is a terrible drain on the
poor, but the system serves its purpose — except for
those hundreds of unfortunates who have no friends on
the outside. These starve to death without a finger be-
ing raised to help them.

"Within three days after entering Belem," a Mexican
prison physician informed me, "every inmate contracts
a skin disease, a terrible itch which sets the body on fire.
This disease is entirely the result of the filthy condi-
tions of the place. Every year," he continued, "the
prison goes through an epidemic of typhus, which kills
an average of at least ten per cent of the inmates.
Within Belem there is no system of order among the
prisoners. The weak are at the mercy of the strong.
Immediately you enter as a prisoner you are set upon
by a horde of half -crazed men who tear the clothes
from your back, take away your valuables, if you have
any, and usually commit nameless crimes upon your
person, while officials of the prison stand grinning by.
The only way to save yourself in Belem is to turn wild
beast like the rest, and even then you must be strong —
very strong."

Should I give the name of this physician every official
at the national capital would instantly recognize him as
a man of high standing with the government. I shall
not name him only because if I did he also would go to
Belem as a prisoner. Such stories as his I heard- from
too many widely different sources to be able to doubt
them. The stories of the Belem epidemics always get

REPRESSIVE ELEMENTS OF THE DIAZ MACHINE 155

more or less into the Mexican papers. I remember that
during my first visit to Mexico, in the fall of 1908, the
papers reported an epidemic of typhus. For the first
three days the number of new cases were daily recorded,
but after that the news was suppressed. The condition
threatened to become too great a scandal, for on the
third day there were 176 new cases !

According to an old prison director whom I inter-
viewed, at least twenty per cent of the prisoners at
Belem contract tuberculosis. This prison director spent
many years in the prison at Puebla. There, he says,
seventy-five per cent of the men who go into the place
come out, if they ever come out, with tuberculosis.

Torture such as was employed in the Middle Ages
is used in Belem to secure confessions. When a man
is taken to the police station, if he is suspected of a
felony he is strung up by the thumbs until he tells.
Another method used is that of refusing the prisoner
drink. He is given food but no water until he
chokes. Ofter prisoners declare before the judge that
they have been tortured into confession, but no inves-
tigation is made. There are — inevitably — records of
innocent men who have confessed to murder in order
to escape the torture of the thumbs or of the thirst.
While I was in Mexico two Americans suspected of rob-
bery were reported in the newspapers as having been
arrested, their wrists strapped to the bars of their cells,
and their finger nails jerked out with steel pincers.
This incident was reported to our State Department,
but no action was taken.

San Juan de Ulua is an old military fortress situated
in the harbor of Veracruz — a fortress which has been
turned into a prison. Officially San Juan de Ulua is
known as a military prison, but in fact it is a political

156 BARBAROUS MEXICO

prison, a prison for political suspects, and so choice is
the company that resides therein — resides, but is ever
changing, for the members die fast — and so personal
is the attention given to this place by President Diaz,
that throughout Mexico San Juan de Ulua is popularly
known as the "private prison of Diaz.*'

San Juan de Ulua is built of cement, the prison cells
are under the sea and the salt water seeps through upon
the prisoners, some of whom lie, half-naked and half-
starved, in dark dungeons too small to permit of a full
grown man lying down in comfort. To San Juan de
Ulua was sent Juan Sarabia, vice-president of the Lib-
eral Party, Margarita Martinez, a leader of the strike
at Rio Blanco, Lazaro Puente, Carlos Humbert, Abra-
ham Salcido, Leonardo Villarreal, Bruno Trevino and
Gabriel Rubio, a sextet of gentlemen handed over to
Mexico by the United States government at the request
of the former as "undesirable immigrants;" Caesar Ca-
nales, Juan de la Torre, Serrano, Ugalde, Marquez, and
scores of other leaders of the Liberal movement. Since
entering those grey walls few of these men or women
have ever been heard of again. It is not known whether
they are dead or alive, whether they were shot beyond
the walls, whether they died of disease and starvation
or whether they are still eking out a miserable existence
there, hoping against hope that a freer government will
come and set them free. They have never been heard
of because no political prisoner in San Juan de Ulua
is ever permitted to communicate in any way with his
friends or with the outside world. They cross the har-
bor in a little boat, they disappear within the grey walls
and that is all. Their friends never learn how they get
on, nor when they die or how.

Of the official assassms of Mexico the jefe politico is

REPRESSIVE ELEMENTS OF THE DIAZ MACHINE 157

the arch fiend. The jefe politico commands the local
police and rurales, directs the acordada and frequently
gives orders to the regular troops. While, because of
government control of the press, comparatively few
crimes of the jefes politicos become public, yet during
my most recent visit to Mexico — during the winter and
spring of 1909 — two wholesale killings which were
prompted by jefes politicos were widely reported in the
newspapers of that country. One was that of Tehuit-
zingo, where sixteen citizens were executed without
trial, and the other was that of Velardena, where, for
holding a street parade in defiance of the jefe politico,
several were shot down in the streets and a number vari-
ously estimated as from twelve to thirty-two were ar-
rested, lined up and shot, and buried in trenches which
they had been compelled to dig previously with their
own hands.

A comment of El Pais, a conservative Catholic daily
of the capital on the Tehuitzingo affair, published in
April, was as follows:

"Terrible accounts have reached this capital as to what is
taking place at Tehuitzingo, District of Acatlan, State of Puebla.
It is insistently reported that sixteen citizens have been executed
without trial and that many others will be condemned to twenty
years' confinement in the fortress of San Juan de Ulua.

"What are the causes that have given rise to this barbarous
persecution, which has dyed our soil anew with the people's
blood?

"It is the fierce, infamous caciquismo which oppresses the
people with a heavy yoke and which has deprived them of all
the benefits of peace.

"We ask, in the name of law and of humanity that this
hecatomb cease; we ask that the guilty parties be tried fairly
and calmly according to the law. But among those guilty
parties should be included those who provoked the disturbance,
those who drove the people to frenzy by trampling their rights.

158 BARBAROUS MEXICO

If the jefe politico sought to defy the law by dictating an elec-
tion, he is guilty or more guilty than the rioters and ought to
be made to appear with them before the authorities to answer
for his acts."

This is about as violent an outburst as is ever per-
mitted to appear in a Mexican publication, and there are
few papers that would dare go this far. Had El Pais
wished to charge the guilt to General Diaz as the founder
and perpetuator of the little czardom of the jefes polit-
icos, it would not have dared to do so, for in Mexico
the king can do no wrong ; there is no publication in the
country so strong that it would not be suppressed at
once did it directly criticize the head of the government.
The comment of El Tiempo, another leading conserva-
tive daily of the capital, on the Velardena massacre,
which appeared also in April, was :

"These irregular executions are a cause of profound dissatis-
faction and ought to be put a stop to at once for the sake of the
prestige of the authorities; and in order to attain that end it is
necessary that the authors of such outrages should be severely
chastised, as we hope that those who are responsible for the
sanguinary scenes that have been witnessed at Velardena, and
which have occasioned so much horror and indignation through-
out the republic, will be.

"Let it not be said that Velardena is an isolated case without
precedents. Only to mention a few of the cases that are fresh
in the public memory, theer is the Papantla affair, the affair at
Acayucan, the shootings at Orizaba at the time of the strike, the
shootings at Colima, of which the press has been talking just of
late, and the frequent application of the ley fuga, of which the
most recent instance occurred at Calimaya, Tenango, State of
Mexico."

In closing this chapter perhaps I can do no better than
to quote an item which appeared in The Mexican Her-
ald, the leading daily published in English, February 15,
1910. Though the facts were perfectly well authenti-

REPRESSIVE ELEMENTS OF THE DIAZ MACHINE 159

cated, the Herald dared to print the story only on the
authority of another paper, and it presented the matter in
such mild and cautious terms that it will require a care-
ful reading to bring out the full horror of the deed.
Here is the item:

"The Pais gives the following story, the details of which it
qualifies as too monstrous for even Zelaya to attribute to Estrada
Cabrera :

"Luis Villasenor, prefect of Cualcoman, Michoacan, recently
shot without trial an old man because his son committed a
murder. The victim in this case was Ignacio Chavez Guizar,
one of the principal merchants of the place.

"Some days ago a member of the rural police (a rurale)
arrived at the house of the deceased in a state of intoxication
and began to insult and abuse the family. A quarrel succeeded,
in which the policeman was shot by Jose Chavez.

"The prefect of police arrived on the scene of the trouble and
arrested the father and another son, Benjamin, the slayer hav-
ing made his escape, and took them to the police station. That
was the last seen of them. Soon the people of the town began
to inquire what had happened to them. The story was spread
that they had escaped from prison. But a relative, a nephew
of the deceased father, having a certain suspicion that this
story was not true, opened what appeared to him a recently
made grave, near the police station, and there found the corpses
of the two men who had been recently arrested. The prefect,
not having been able to capture Jose or to learn where he was,
had made the father and brother suffer for his crime.

"Commenting on this story, the Pais calls for the punishment
of the author and the guarantee of the carrying out of the
laws of the country."

CHAPTER IX

THE CRUSHING OF OPPOSITION PARTIES

Men and women on our continent are daily suffer-
ing death, imprisonment or exile for contending for
those political rights which we have considered as ours
since the birth of our country, rights of free speech,
of free press, the right of assembly, the right to vote
to decide who shall hold the political offices and govern
the land, the right to be secure in person and property.
For these things hundreds of men and women have
died within the past twelve months, tens of thousands
within the past thirty years, in a country divided from
ours only by a shallow river and an imaginary geo-
graphical line.

In Mexico today are being lived life stories such as
carry one's imagination back to the days of the French
Revolution and the times when constitutional govern-
ment, that giant which was destined to complete the
change from the Middle Ages to Modernity, was being
born. In those days men yielded up their lives for
republicanism. Men are doing the same today in Mex-
ico. The repressive part of the Diaz governmental ma-
chine which I described in the last previous chapter
— the army, the rurales, the ordinary police, the secret
police, the acordada — are perhaps one-fifth for protec-
tion against common criminals and four-fifths for the
suppression of democratic movements among the peo-
ple. The deadly certainty of this repressive machine

160

THE CRUSHING OF OPPOSITION PARTIES 161)

of Diaz is probably not equaled anywhere in the world,
not even in Russia. I remember a trusted Mexican
official once summing up to me the feeling of the Mex-
ican people, taught them by experience, on this thing.
Said he: "It is possible that a murderer may escape
the police here, that a highwayman may get away, but
a political offender never — it is not possible for one
to escape!"

I myself have observed numerous instances of the
deadly fear in which the secret police and the govern-
ment assassin are held even by those who would seem
to have no cause for fear. Notable among these is the
panic which overtook the family of a friend with whom
I was staying — his brother, sister, sister-in-law and
nephew and niece — when the secret police surrounded
their house in the capital and waited for my friend to
come out. They were middle-class Mexicans of the
most intelligent sort, this family, very well known and
highly respected, and yet their fright was pitiful. Now
they dashed this way and that, now to a window and
now to a door, wringing their hands. Now they huddled
together, verbally painting the dire calamities that were
sure to descend not only upon the hunted one, but upon
their own heads because he had been found with them.
My friend had committed no crime. He had not been
identified with the revolutionists, he had merely ex-
pressed sympathy for them, and yet his family could
see nothing but death for him. And after the fugitive
had escaped by jumping through a window and climbing
over house-tops, the head of the family, speaking of
his own danger, said to me: "I myself may go to jail
for a time while they try to compel me to tell where
my brother is hiding. If I do not go it will be only
because the government has decided to respect me for

162 BARBAROUS MEXICO

my position and my influential friends, yet hourly I am
expecting the tap on the arm that will tell me to go."

The case of most extreme fear which I observed was
that of a wealthy and beautiful woman, wife of an offi-
cial of the Rio Blanco mills, with whom De Lara and
I took dinner one day. The official drank deeply of
wine, and as the meal was near an end his tongue
loosened and he spoke of matters which, for the sake
of his own safety, he should have guarded. The wife
sat opposite him, and as he spoke of government mur-
ders of which he knew her face blanched and with her
eyes she tried to warn him to be more careful. Finally
I turned my face away, and, glancing sidewise, saw her
take the opportunity to bend forward over the table
and shake a trembling, jeweled finger in his face. Again
and again she tried skilfully to turn the conversation,
but without success, until finally, unable to control her-
self longer, she sprang forward, and, clapping a hand
over her husband's lips, tried to dam back the fearsome
words he was saying. The animal terror on that wom-
an's face I can never forget.

Fear so widespread and so extreme as I met with
cannot be the result of imagined dangers. There must
be something behind it, and there is. Secret killing
is constantly going on in Mexico, but to what extent
no one will ever know. It is asserted in some quarters
that there are more political executions going on right
now than ever before, but that they are more cleverly
and secretly done than ever before. Whether that is
true or not I do not know. Certainly the press is better
controlled than ever before. The apparent quiescence
of Mexico is entirely forced by means of club, pistol and
knife.

Mexico has never really enjoyed political freedom.

THE CRUSHING OF OPPOSITION PARTIES 163

The country has merely had the promise of it. How-
ever, the promise has undoubtedly helped to keep patri-
otic Mexicans fighting for a fulfillment, however great
the odds against them. When Porfirio Diaz captured
the Mexican government in 1876 the Mexican battle
for political freedom seemed won. The last foreign
soldier had been driven out of the country, the throt-
tling grip of the church on the state had been broken,
the country had inaugurated a system of universal suf-
frage, it had adopted a constitution much like that of
the United States, and finally, its president, one of the
authors of the constitution, Lerdo de Tejada, was in
the act of putting that constitution in operation. The
personal revolution of General Porfirio Diaz, made suc-
cessful by force of arms only after it had failed twice,
put a sudden stop to the progressive movement, and ever
since that time the country has gone back politically,
year by year. If it were humanly possibly to put a
stop to the movement for democracy in a country by
killing the leaders and persecuting all connected with it,
democracy would long ago have been killed in Mexico,
for the leaders of every political movement in opposi-
tion to President Diaz, however peaceful their methods,
however worthy their cause, have either been put to
death, imprisoned or hunted out of the country. And
as I shall show in the next chapter, this statement is
literally true down to the present day.

Briefly I will sketch some of the more important of
these opposition movements. The first occurred toward
the close of President Diaz's first term in office and was
a movement having for its purpose the re-election of
Lerdo, who, upon Diaz's capture of the power, had fled
to the United States. The movement had not time to
gain any headway and come out in the open before

164 BARBAROUS MEXICO

it was crushed in the most summary manner. The
leaders were considered as conspirators and were treated
as if they were guilty of treasonable acts — worse, in
fact, for they were not even given a semblance of a
trial. On a night in June, 1879, nine men, prominent
citizens of Veracruz, were dragged from their beds,
and on an order telegraphed from General Diaz, ''Mata-
los en caliente/' "Kill them in haste," Governor Mier
y Teran had them lined up against a wall and shot to
death.

While this incident happened thirty years ago, it is
perfectly authenticated, and the widow of General Teran
exhibits to this day the yellow paper upon which are
inscribed the fatal words. The killing is now known as
the Massacre of Veracruz and is noted because of the
prominence of the victims rather than for the number
of those who lost their lives.

During the ten years following the Massacre of Vera-
cruz two Mexicans aspired at different times to oppose
Diaz for the presidency. One of these was General
Ramon Corona, governor of Jalisco, and the other was
General Garcia de la Cadena, ex-governor of Zacatecas.
Neither lived to see ^'election day." While on his way
home from a theatre one night Corona was stabbed to
death by an assassin, who was in turn stabbed to death
by a company of police which, by a strange coincidence,
was waiting for him around a near corner. Cadena heard
that assassins were on his trail and took flight. He tried
to reach the United States, but was caught at Zacatecas
and shot to death, being pierced by many bullets from
the pistols of thugs, all of whom escaped. No one can
prove who ordered the killing of Corona and Cadena,
but it is easy to draw conclusions.

In 1891 Mexico was thrown into a ferment by the

A Typical Mexican Military Execution.

LINED UP AGAINST A WALL

AFTER THE VOLLEY

THE CRUSHING OF OPPOSITION PARTIES 165

announcement of Diaz that he had decided to continue
in power for still another term, a fourth one. An
attempt was made to organize a movement in opposi-
tion, but it was beaten down by clubs and guns. Ricardo
Flores Magon, the political refugee, took a student's
part in this movement and was one of the many who
suffered imprisonment for it. The choice of the oppo-
sition for presidency was Dr. Ignacio Martinez. Dr.
Martinez was compelled to flee the country, and after
a period spent in Europe he settled in Laredo, Texas,
where he edited a newspaper in opposition to President
Diaz. One evening Dr. Martinez was waylaid and shot
down by a horseman who immediately afterwards
crossed into Mexico and was seen to enter army bar-
racks on the other side. It is a pretty well authenticated
fact that on the night of the assassination the governor
of the state of Nuevo Leon, who was at that time recog-
nized as Diaz's right-hand man in the border states,
received a telegram saying: "Your order obeyed."

The only movement which Diaz ever permitted to
gain much headway in the matter of organization was
the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party sprang into birth
in the fall of 1900, after all danger of effective opposi-
tion against the dictator's entering upon a sixth term
had been obviated. A speech delivered in Paris by the
Bishop of San Luis Potosi, in which the priest declared
that, in spite of the constitution and the laws of Mexico,
the church in that country was in a most flourishing and
satisfactory condition, was the immediate cause of the
organization. Mexicans of all classes saw greater danger
to the national welfare in the renascence of a church heir-
archy than they did even in a dictatorship by a single
individual, for death must some day end the rule of
the man, while the life of the church is endless. They

166 BARBAROUS MEXICO

therefore once more took their lives in their hands and
attempted to launch still another movement for the
restoration of the republic.

In less than five months after the bishop's speech
125 Liberal clubs had arisen in all parts of the country,
a half hundred newspapers were started, and a call was
issued for a convention to be held in the city of San
Luis Potosi on January 5, 1901.

The congress was held in the famous Teatro de la Paz,
It was jammed with delegates and spectators, among
the latter being many soldiers and gendarmes, while
in the street below a battalion of soldiers was drawn
up, ready to deal with the assembly should its voice
be raised against the dictator.

Anything so radical as an armed rebellion was not
spoken of, however, and the various speakers steered
carefully away from any direct criticism of President
Diaz. On the other hand, resolutions were adopted
pledging the Liberals to pursue the campaign of reform
only by peaceful means.

Nevertheless, as soon as it became evident that the
Liberals were planning to nominate a candidate for
the presidency, three years later, the government began
operations. By Russian police methods, the clubs all
over the country were broken up and the leading mem-
bers were arrested on fictitious charges, imprisoned or
forced into the army. A typical case was that of the
club "Ponciano Arriaga," of San Luis Potosi, which
formed the national center of the federation. On Janu-
ary 24, 1902, although other clubs had been violently
broken up for doing so, "Ponciano Arriaga" made bold
to hold a public meeting. Here and there among the
people were distributed soldiers and gendarmes in citi-
zens* clothing, under the command of a prominent law-

THE CRUSHING OF OPPOSITION PARTIES 167

yer and congressman, an agent provocateur, who had
been commissioned by the government to destroy the
organization.

At a given moment, according to Librado Rivera,
who was vice-secretary of the club, the agent provocateur
jumped to his feet to protest against the work of the
club, and at the signal the disguised soldiers and gend-
armes feigned to join in the protest, smashing the chairs
to pieces against the floor. Their leader fired some
shots into the air, but the genuine audience and the mem-
bers of the club did not make the least move lest they
give some pretext for an attack, for they knew that
the agent provocateur and his assistants were but stag-
ing a comedy in order to invite violence to themselves
from some members of the club. Nevertheless, hardly
were the shots fired when a crowd of policemen in-
vaded the hall, striking right and left with their clubs.
Camilo Arriaga, president of the club; Juan Sarabia,
secretary; Professor Librado Rivera, vice-secretary, as
well as twenty-five other members, were arrested and
accused of fictitious crimes, such as resisting the police,
sedition, and so on. The result was that they were all
imprisoned for nearly a year and the club was dissolved.

Thus were dissolved the majority of the other clubs
in the Liberal federation. The Liberal newspapers, pub-
lic spokesmen of the clubs, were put out of business by
the imprisonment of their editors and the destruction
or confiscation of the printing plants. How many men
and women lost their lives in the hunt of the Liberals
which extended over the succeeding years will never be
known. The jails, penitentiaries and military prisons
were filled with them, thousands were impressed into
the army and sent away to death in far Quintana Roo,
wnile the ley fuga was called into requisition to get rid

168 BARBAROUS MB}i\Uj

of men whom the government did not dare to execute
openly and without excuse. In the prisons tortures such
as would almost shame the Spanish Inquisition were
resorted to

Upon the organization of the Liberal Party some fifty
newspapers sprang up to support it in different parts
of the country. Every one of them was suppressed by
the police. Ricardo Flores Magon once showed me a
list of more than fifty newspapers that were suppressed
and a list of more than a hundred editors that were
jailed during the time he was struggling to publish a
paper in Mexico. In his book Fornaro gives a list of
thirty-nine newspapers that were persecuted or sub-
jected to trial on trivial excuses in the year 1902 for
the purpose of providing against any public agitation
against a seventh term for President Diaz. During
1908 there were at least six outright suppressions, the
newspapers to be put out of business being "El Piloto,"
a daily of Monterey ; "La Humanidad" and "La Tierra,"
two weeklies of Yucatan; "El Tecolote," of Aguasca-
lientes, and two of Guanajuato, "El Barretero" and "El
Hijo del Pueblo." During the period while I was in
Mexico at least two foreign newspaper men were de-
ported for criticizing the government, two Spaniards,
Ross y Planas and Antonio Duch, editors of the paper
"La Tierra," in Merida. Finally, in 1909 and 1910
the story of the suppression of the Liberal Party and
its press was repeated in the suppression of the Demo-
cratic Party and its press — ^but I must reserve that for
another chapter.

During the Liberal agitation many of the best-known
writers of Mexico fell by the assassin's hand. Among
them were Jesus Valades of Mazatlan, Sinaloa. Hav-
ing written articles against the despotism, while walk-

THE CRUSHING OF OPPOSITION PARTIES 169

ing home from the theatre one night with his newly
wedded wife he was set upon by several men, who
killed him with daggers. In Tampico in 1902 Vincente
Rivero Echeagarey, a newspaper man, dared to criti-
cize the acts of the president. He was shot down at
night while in the act of opening his own door. Jesus
Olmos y Contreras, a newspaper man of the state of
Puebla, about the same time published articles expos-
ing an alleged licentious act of Governor Martinez. Two
friends of the governor invited Contreras to supper.
In the street the three walked arm in arm, the writer
in the middle. Suddenly thugs fell upon him from be-
hind. The false friends held Contreras tight until he
had been struck down, when a heavy rock was used
to beat the head of the victim into a pulp so that his
identification might be impossible.

In Merida, Yucatan, in December, 1905, the writer,
Abalardo Ancona, protested against the "re-election"
of Governor Olegario Molina. Ancona was thrown into
jail, where he was shot and stabbed to death. *

In 1907 the writer, Augustin y Tovao, died of poison
administered in Belem prison. Jesus Martinez Carrion,
a noted newspaper artist, and Alberto Arans, a writer,
left Belem to die in a hospital. Dr. Juan de la Pena,
editor of a Liberal newspaper, died in the military prison
of San Juan de Ulua. Juan Sarabia, another well-
known editor, was also imprisoned there and for a long
time was supposed to be dead, until recently, when his
friends got word of him. Daniel Cabrera, one of the
oldest Liberal editors, was a cripple, and many times he
was carried to jail on a stretcher.

Professor Luis Toro, an editor of San Luis Potosi,
was imprisoned and beaten in prison so severely that he
died. In the same prison Primo Feliciano Velasquez^

170 BARBAROUS MEXICO

a lawyer and publisher of "El Estandarte," was beaten
so severely that he became a life-long cripple. Another
attorney and editor, Francisco de P. Morelos, was beaten
in the city of Monterey for writing against the govern-
ment in his paper, "La Defensa." In Guanajuato, Jose
R. Granados, editor of "El Barretero," was beaten for
writing against the government. In Napimi, a lawyer,
Francisco A. Luna, was beaten and wounded with knives
for writing against the government.

And so a list could be given pages long. Ricardo
Flores Magon, Jesus Magon, Enrique Magon, Antonio
J. Villarreal, Librado Rivera, Manuel Sarabia and
many others spent months in prison for publishing oppo-
sition papers. Others were assassinated. As I said
before, autocracy feeds on murder, and the rule of
Porfirio Diaz has been one long story of murder. When
assassination, imprisonment and countless forms of per-
secution had destroyed their organization in Mexico, the
leaders who still retained their lives and liberty fled
to the United States and established their headquarters
here. They organized the Junta, or governing board
of the Party, established newspapers, and it was only
after the agents of the home government had followed
them here and succeeded in so harassing them with
false charges which resulted in their imprisonment that
they abandoned all hope of doing anything peaceful for
the regeneration of their country and decided to organ-
ize an armed force for the purpose of overthrowing the
[Mexican dictator.

The story of the persecutions visited upon the Mex-
ican refugees in the United States I will detail in an-
other chapter. It is sufficient here to pass over them
and point merely to the result of their attempts to bring
about a change in their government by revolution.

THE CRUSHING OF OPPOSITION PARTIES 171

Briefly, the Liberal Party has launched two armed
revolutions against Diaz. Both of these have come to
grief at an early stage; first, because of the efficiency
of the government in putting spies in the midst of the
revolutionists and thus being able to anticipate them;
second, because of the severe methods used in repres-
sion; and, third, because of the effective co-operation
of the United States government, since the uprisings
were necessarily directed from this side of the line.

The first Liberal attempt at revolution was to have
been launched in September, 1906. The rebels claim
to have had thirty-six military groups partially armed
within Mexico and ready to rise at one signal. They
expected that at the first show of strength on their
part the army would desert to their standard and that
the civilians would receive them with open arms.

Whether they judged the army and the people cor-
rectly will never be known, for they never succeeded
in making any great show of strength. Government
spies betrayed the various groups, and when the ap-
pointed hour struck the majority of the leaders were
already dead or domiciled in San Juan de Ulua. The
revolution was to begin on the national independence
day, September 16, and the way the government pre-
pared for it generally may be imagined from the report
which I previously quoted of the large number of secret
killings in Diaz's capital.

Liberal groups in two cities succeeded in making a
start. One group captured the town of Jiminez,
Coahuila, and another laid siege to the army barracks
at Acayucan, state of Veracruz. Civilians joined them
in these two cities, and for a day they enjoyed partial
success. Then trainloads of troops got into each town,
and in a few days what was left of the rebel force was

172 BARBAROUS MEXICO

on its way to prison. The concentration of troops into
those towns was nothing short of wonderful. As before
stated, though Acayucan is comparatively isolated, 4,000
regular soldiers reached the scene within twenty-four
hours after hostilities began.

The second rebellion was scheduled to come off in
July, 1908. This time the Liberals claimed to have
forty-six military groups ready to rise in Mexico. But,
as it turned out, nearly all the fighting was done by
Mexican refugees, who recrossed from the United States
at Del Rio, Texas, and other border centers, armed with
guns purchased here. The Liberal leaders here claim
that every military group in Mexico was anticipated
by the government and the members arrested before
the appointed hour. This certainly occurred at Casas
Grandes, Chihuahua, and the affair, being given much
publicity, caused the groups from the United States to
act prematurely. It is also claimed that some of the
strongest groups were betrayed by a criminal who, be-
cause of his facial resemblance to Antonio J. Villarreal,
secretary of the Liberal Junta, was freed from the
Torreon jail and pardoned by the authorities on condi-
tion that he go among the revolutionists, pass himself
off as Villarreal and betray them. I personally know
of two cases in which emissaries who left the Liberal
headquarters in the United States carrying orders for
the rising of certain groups fell into the clutches of the
government soon after they crossed the line.

Nevertheless, the rebellion of June, 1908, profoundly
shook Mexico for a time. The fighting in Coahuila fur-
nished the American press with a week's sensation,
and it was a month before the last of the rebels had
been hunted down and shot by the superior forces of
soldiers and rurales.

THE CRUSHING OF OPPOSITION PARTIES 173

Such was the "RebelHon of Las Vacas," as it has come
to be known both in the United States and Mexico. As
a result of this rebelHon and the previous one, the Mex-
ican agents in the United States at last succeeded in
breaking up the Liberal organization here almost as
effectively as it was broken up in Mexico. Up to the
time of the Congressional hearing on the persecutions
in June, 1910, all the Liberal leaders in the United States
were either in prison or in hiding, and no Mexican dared
openly espouse the cause of the Liberal Party for fear
that he, too, might be thrown behind the bars on a
charge of having been in some way connected with one
of those rebellions.

CHAPTER X

THE EIGHTH UNANIMOUS ELECTION OF DIAZ

In order that the reader may entirely appreciate the
fact that the poHtical reign of terror established by Diaz
thirty-four years ago continues in full bloom to the
present day I shall devote this chapter to a record of
the presidential campaign, so called, which ended June
26, 1910, with the eighth "unanimous election" of Presi-
dent Diaz.

To the end that the authenticity of this record may be
beyond question, I have excluded from it all informa-
tion that has come to me by means of rumor, gossip,
letters and personal reports — everything except what has
already been printed in newspapers as common news.
In hardly an instance, moreover, was one of these news-
papers opposed to the regime of General Diaz; nearly
all were favorable to him. Therefore, if there are any
errors in these reports, it is safe to assume that the truth
has been minimized rather than overstated. It is safe
to assume, also, that since the newspapers from which
the reports were taken are published in Mexico where
they are under the censorship of the police, that numer-
ous other incidents of a similar, as well as of a worse,
character, occurred which were never permitted to
appear in print.

Before proceeding to these records I may be pardoned
for restating the fact that President Diaz has held his
position at the head of the Mexican government for
more than a generation. In the latter part of 1876,
nearly thirty-four years ago, heading a personal revolu-
tion, he led an army into the Mexican capital and pro-

174

EIGHTH UNANIMOUS ELECTION OF DIAZ 175

claimed himself provisional president. Soon afterwards,
he held what is called an election, and announced that
the people had chosen him constitutional president —
unanimously. In 1880 he turned the government over
to a friend, Manuel Gonzalez, who was also elected
unanimously. In 1884 Gonzalez reinstalled Diaz after
a third unanimous election. Following 1884 Diaz was
re-elected unanimously every four years for twenty
years, until 1904, when the presidential term was length-
ened to six years, and for the seventh time he was
elected unanimously. Finally, July 10, 1910, Diaz was
unanimously elected president of Mexico for the eighth
time.

The Mexican presidential campaign just closed, if I
may so denominate it, properly dates from the month
of March, 1908. At that time, through James Creel-
man and Pearson's Magazine, President Diaz announced
to the world, first, that under no circumstances would
he consent to enter upon an eighth term, and, second,
that he would be glad to assist in the transference of
the governmental power from himself personally to a
democratic organization of citizens. According to Mr.
Creelman, his words were:

"No matter what my friends and supporters say, I retire when
my present term of office ends, and I shall not serve again. I
shall be eighty years old then.

"I have waited patiently for the day when the people of the
Mexican Republic would be prepared to choose and change their
government at every election without danger of armed revolu-
tions and without injury to the national credit or interference
with national progress. I believe that day has come.

"I welcome an opposition party in the Mexican Republic. If
it appears, I will regard it as a blessing, not an evil. And if it
can develop power, not to exploit but to govern, I will stand
by it, support it, advise it and forget myself in the successful
inauguration of complete democratic government in the country,"

176 BARBAROUS MEXICO

The interview was reprinted by nearly every peri-
odical in Mexico, and it produced a profound sensation.
It is not exaggerating to say that the entire nation,
outside of official circles, was overjoyed by the news.
The nation took General Diaz at his word, and immedi-
ately there arose a lively but temperate discussion not
only of the various possible candidates for the presi-
dency, but also of innumerable questions relating to
popular government. Books and pamphlets were writ-
ten urging Diaz to immortalize himself as a second
Washington by giving over the government to his people
when he might very easily retain the supreme power
until his death.

But at the height of this discussion the word was
passed quietly about that the president's promise to
retire at the end of the term was not final. To show
how thoroughly the government had public speech and
the press under control at this time it is only necessary
to say that at once, upon the foregoing announcement
being made, the discussion of presidential candidates for
1910 stopped.

Diaz was so thoroughly entrenched in power that
there seemed little use of opposing him directly, but
the people remembered the other statement that he had
made and that he had not yet retracted — that he would
welcome an opposition movement in Mexico. The dec-
laration that he would support an opposition movement
seemed paradoxical, and so the bright heads of the
progressive element were laid together to devise a move-
ment that, while not being in direct opposition to Diaz,
would at the same time be able to work an opening
wedge into the log of democracy.

The plan hit upon was to urge President Diaz to
retain his seat and in the same voice to ask that the coun-

EIGHTH UNANIMOUS ELECTION OF DIAZ 177

try be permitted freely to choose a vice-president, so
that in case Diaz should die during his next term his
successor might be more or less in line with the desires
and ambitions of the people.

The silence with which President Diaz received the
publication of this plan was taken for consent, where-
upon there began a widespread agitation, an organiza-
tion of clubs, the holding of public discussions, news-
paper debates, all of which might very well be taken
as proof that President Diaz was right when he declared
the Mexican people fit at last to enjoy the blessings of a
real republic.

According to Mr. Barron, in an interview published
in the New York World, within a short time no fewer
than five hundred clubs were organized in Mexico. In
January, 1909, these clubs held a convention in the cap-
ital, formed a central organization known as the Cen-
tral Democratic Club, elected officers and adopted a
platform, the main points of which were as follows :

Abolition of the jefes politicos and the transference of their
power to municipal boards of aldermen.

The extension of primary education.

Suffrage laws to be enacted and enforced placing the franchise
on a mixed educational and property basis.

Greater freedom for the press.

Stricter enforcement of the laws of reform (against monastic
orders, etc.).

Greater respect for human life and liberty and a more effective
administration of justice.

Legislation making it possible for workingmen to secure
financial indemnity from their employers in case of accidents
and to enable the public to sue transportation companies and
other like corporations on the same ground.

Agrarian laws for the encouragement of agriculture.

The officers elected to head the new party were four
bright young congressmen: Benito Juarez, Jr., presi-

178 BARBAROUS MEXICO

dent; Manuel Calero, vice-president; Diodoro Batalla,
secretary; Jesus Urueta, treasurer.

April 2nd the Re-electionist Club, an organization
consisting wholly of office-holders, appointees of Diaz,
met and duly nominated General Diaz and his vice-
president, Ramon Corral, for re-election. Shortly after-
wards, in accordance with its original plan, the Demo-
cratic Party also named President Diaz for re-election.
For vice-president it named General Bernardo Reyes,
governor of Nuevo Leon.

Take a look at the general situation for a moment.
Here was a party of men, consisting of the best edu-
cated, most intelligent and most progressive element in
the country. Their platform shows their demands to
have been excessively moderate. The party had sprung
into existence through the published promise of General
Diaz to permit it to function. In order to assure itself
of safety at his hands, the party had placed General
Diaz at the head of its ticket. Finally, the campaign
which it launched was marvelously temperate and self-
restrained. There was no call to arms. There was no
hint of rebellion or revolution in any form. What
criticism as was offered of existing institutions wa3
offered with studious calmness and care. General Dia?
was even praised. The people were asked to vote foi
him, but — to vote for Reyes for vice-president.

It required only a few days to develop the fact that
in the event of an election Reyes would triumph over
Corral by a large majority. Former enemies of Reyes
were for him, not because they loved him, but because
the movement behind him held out a promise of a little
self-government for Mexico. As soon as the popularity
of the Democratic Party became evident, despite the

EIGHTH UNANIMOUS ELECTION OF DIAZ 179

order that prevailed at its meetings, despite the temper-
ance of its press, despite the fact that the laws were
studiously observed, instead of supporting and advising,
as he had promised to do, General Diaz moved to de-
stroy it.

Diaz's first open move against the Democratic Parly
was to nip the propaganda for Reyes that was beginning
in the army. This he did by banishing to remote parts
of the country a dozen army officers who had subscribed
themselves as favorable to the candidacy of Reyes.

This action of Diaz has been defended on the ground
that he had a perfect right to prohibit members of the
army from exercising political functions. But inasmuch
as the president of the Re-electionist Club was an officer
in the army, inasmuch as numerous army officers engaged
openly and actively in the Corral campaign, it would
seem that these men were proceeded against rather be-
cause they were for Reyes than because they were
members of the army.

Captain Reuben Morales, one of the punished officers,
had accepted the vice-presidency of a Reyist club. He
was ordered to resign from the club or to resign from
the army. He resigned from the army, or attempted
to do so, but his resignation was not accepted and he
was sent away to the territory of Quintana Roo. Eight
of the offending officers were sent to Sonora to be placed
in the field against the Yaqui Indians.

The banishment of the army officers took place at
the end of May. Following close upon the incident
came action against some Democratic leaders who occu-
pied positions in the government. Congressmen Urueta
and Lerdo de Tejada, Jr., and Senator Jose Lopez Por-
tillo were among the first to be deposed from their
positions.

180 BARBAROUS MEXICO

Some students of the national schools of jurispru-
dence, mines, medicine and the preparatory school of
Mexico City, were encouraged in forming a club to
further the candidacy of Corral. But when the students
of the Jalisco state schools of law and medicine formed
a club to further the candidacy of Reyes the govern-
ment ordered them either to abandon their political
activity or to leave school. They sent a committee to
Diaz to appeal for fair play. But he gave them no
satisfaction, the threat of expulsion was renewed with
the result that so many students were expelled from
the Jalisco schools that the schools actually closed for
lack of pupils.

In July, a committee of re-electionists from Mexico
City held a public meeting in favor of Corral in the
Delgado theatre, Guadalajara, capital of Jalisco. The
audience, composed largely of democratic students, hissed
one of the speakers. Whereupon companies of police,
which had been held in readiness, were ordered to clear
the building and square.

This the police did after the manner of Mexico —
with sabre, club and pistol. The figures on the killed,
wounded and imprisoned were suppressed by the authori-
ties, but all newspaper reports at the time agree that
there were persons killed and wounded, as well as
imprisoned. The highest estimate that I have seen
placed the killed at twelve, the seriously wounded at
thirty-five and the arrested at one thousand. Following
the occurrence, Guadalajara was filled with state and
national troops. General Ignacio Bravo, notorious as the
most ruthless officer in the Mexican army, was hurried
from Quintana Roo temporarily to replace the exist-
ing head of the military zone; and, finally, all political

EIGHTH UNANIMOUS ELECTION OF DIAZ 181

expression of the Democrats was put down with an
iron hand.

Among the prominent leaders of the Democratic
movement in Guadalajara who were made to suffer at
this time was Ambrosio Ulloa, an engineer and lawyer,
founder of a school for engineers, and head of the
Corona Flour Milling Company. Ulloa happened to be
president of the Reyes club of Guadalajara, and, on the
theory that the club was in some way responsible for
the so-called student riot, Ulloa, a week after the occur-
rence, was taken to jail and imprisoned under a charge
of "sedition."

During the putting down of the student movement
in Guadalajara at least one case of the ley fuga was
reported from that city. The victim was William de la
Pena, a former student of Christian Brothers' College,
St. Louis, Mo., also of the Ohio State University. The
case was reported in the St. Louis papers, from which
place a dispatch was sent out through the Associated
Press. Relating the occurrence, the press dispatch said :

"He (Pena) was at his country home, when an officer of the
Rurales invited him to go with him. He mounted his horse and
went. Next day servants found his body, riddled with bullets."

September 7th Congressman Heriberto Barron, who
had mildly criticized Diaz in an open letter, fled from
the country and took up his residence in New York.
One Mexican paper has it that agents of the Diaz
secret police forced Barron upon a Ward liner at Vera-
cruz and compelled him to leave the country. In New
York newspapers Barron declared that he had fled to
escape imprisonment. A few months later he begged to be
allowed to return home, but was told that he must
remain an exile until the death of the president of Mex-
ico. The heinousness of Barron's crime may be gath-

182 BARBAROUS MEXICO

ered from the following paragraphs, the most uncompli-
mentary in his open letter to Diaz:

"At the velada to which I have alluded, when your name was
pronounced by the orators, it was received with unanimous
hisses and marks of disapproval.

"On the night of the performance given at the Principal
theatre in aid of the Guerrero victims, the entire audience main-
tained a sinister silence on your arrival. The same silence pre-
vailed when you departed.

"If you had occasion, as I have, to mingle with the gather-
ings and groups of people of different classes, not all Reyists,
you would hear, Mr. President, expressions of indignation
against you spoken openly on all sides."

Within ten days after the banishment of Barron, a
foreign resident, Frederick Palmer by name, an English-
man, was lodged in Belem prison, denied bail, held in-
communicado for some days, and finally was sentenced
to one month's imprisonment — for doing nothing worse
than remarking that he thought Diaz had been president
of Mexico long enough.

July 28th Celso Cortez, vice-president of the Central
Club Reyista of Mexico City, was lodged in Belem
prison for making a speech at the club rooms criticizing
members of the Diaz cabinet.

Following came a long list of arrests of members of
the Democratic movement throughout the country. Usu-
ally the charge was "sedition," but never was any evi-
dence produced to prove sedition as Americans under-
stand that term. In this movement there was never
any hint of armed rebellion or any concerted violation
of existing laws. In all of these cases I have yet to
learn of any in which reasonable ground for the arrest
existed. In many cases the victims were kept in jail
for months, and in some cases they were sentenced to
long terms in prison. The number persecuted in this

EIGHTH UNANIMOUS ELECTION OF DIAZ 183

way is problematical, as reports of only the more promi-
nent cases got into the Mexican press. The following
are a few of those recorded:

In August Jose Ignacio Rebollar, secretary of the Club
Reyista of Torreon, with several others, was arrested
for appearing at a serenade given to the governor of the
state and attempting to proselyte for Reyes.

On August 1, 1909, a company of rurales broke up
a meeting of Reyistas in Silao and placed a number
of them in jail.

In November, 1909, Manuel Martinez de Arrendodo,
a wealthy planter ; his nephew, Francisco de Arrendodo ;
four attorneys, Pedro Reguera, Antonio Juarez, Enrique
Recio and Juan Barrera, also Marcos Valencia, Amado
Cardenas, Francisco Vidal and other were sent to jail
for attempting to hold a Reyist meeting in Merida,
Yucatan. Several of the number were kept in jail for
more than six months.

In January, 1910, Attorney Francisco Perera Escobar,
a member of the legislature in the state of Campeche,
was arrested for distributing bills announcing a meeting
of Reyists.

December 7, 1909, Jose Lopez Portillo y Rojas, a
prominent Reyist of the capital, was imprisoned in
Belem on a trumped up charge. Some months later it
was reported that he was still there and that he was
to be sentenced to nine years' imprisonment.

January 26, 1910, some Democrats held a public meet-
ing in the Alameda, Mexico City. Dr. Manuel Espinosa
de Los Monteros, president of the Central Club Reyista,
presided, and Don Enrique Garcia de la Cadena y
Ancona delivered a patriotic address. The police broke
up the meeting and arrested Cadena and Monteros,
charging them with sedition. At this writing it is re«

184 BARBAROUS MEXICO

ported that both of them will be sent for long terms
to the penal colony on the Tres Marias Islands in the
Pacific.

During the months following the attempt to place a
candidate in the field against Vice-President Corral the
Democrats tried to strengthen their position by contest-
ing some state and local "elections." As a result there
were many arrests and several massacres by troops or
local authorities.

At Petape, Oaxaca, the Twenty-fifth battalion of regu-
lars fired on a crowd of the opposition, killing several.
Seventy were jailed.

At Tepames, Colima, there were many shootings.
After the jail was full, the authorities are reported as
having taken out some of the prisoners, compelled them
to dig their own graves, then shot them so that they fell
into the trenches.

At Tehuitzingo, Puebla, in April, it was reported that
sixteen citizens were executed without trial, and that
many others had been condemned to twenty years* con-
finement in the fortress of San Juan de Ulua.

In Merida, Yucatan, federal troops were placed in
the polling booths and large numbers of Democrats
were arrested.

In the state of Morelos, in February, 1909, the Demo-
crats attempted to elect Patricio Leyva in opposition to
Pablo Escandon, a slave-holding Spaniard whom Diaz
had selected for the place. For accepting the Demo-
cratic candidacy Leyva was dismissed from his govern-
ment position as Inspector of Irrigation in the Depart-
ment of Fomento. The president and vice-president
of the Free Suffrage Club at Jojutla and the officers of
a similar club at Tiaquiltenango, as well as many others,
were jailed on charges of sedition, while the authorties

EIGHTH UNANIMOUS ELECTION OF DIAZ 185

were reported as having killed several. Police placed
in possession of the polls prevented many from voting,
and finally the vote as actually cast was falsified in favor
of Escandon, who became governor.

In July, 1909, many arrests occurred at Puerte, Si-
naloa, and the town was filled with federal rurales. In
January, 1910, sixteen men arrested some time before
on suspicion of being in a plot against the government
at Viesca, were sentenced to be shot, the supreme court
sitting at the capital pronouncing the decree.

While such incidents were going on the press situa-
tion was being manipulated, also. The government
bought or subsidized newspapers, on the one hand, and
suppressed them on the other. Some thirty or forty
daily and weekly publications espoused the Democratic
cause. I do not know of one of them which the govern-
ment did not compel to suspend operations. Despite
the fact that they were careful of their utterances, they
were put out of business, the majority of them by im-
prisonment of their editors, seizure of their printing
plants, or both.

April 16, 1909, Antonio Duch, editor of Tierra, of
Merida, was escorted aboard a steamer at Veracruz by
the Mexican secret police and compelled to leave the
country under the charge of being a "pernicious for-
eigner." His paper was suppressed.

July 15, 1909, Francisco Navarro, editor of La Lib-
ertad, organ of the Club Democratico of Guadalajara,
was jailed for criticizing the sabreing of Reyist students.
His paper was stopped, his office closed, a gendarme was
placed on guard and it was officially announced that were
an attempt made to issue the paper from another shop,
it, also, would be closed.

August 3, 1909, Feliz Vera, correspondent of demo-

186 BARBAROUS MEXICO

cratic papers at Guadalajara, was taken to Belem prison,
where he remains at this writing, though so far no
formal charge has been filed against him.

In October, 1909, Manuel M. Oviedo, editor of La
Hoja Suelia and president of the Anti-re-electionist
Club of Torreon, was sent to prison and his paper was
suppressed. Action was taken because Oviedo asked
for a fair state election following the forced retirement
of Governor Cardenas.

In November, 1909, Martin Stecker, a native of Ger-
many, editor of El Trueno, Linares, Nuevo Leon, was
jailed on a charge of "defamation" and his newspaper
was suppressed. Stecker was only a very mild Reyist.
The real reason for his arrest was that Linares is a
good newspaper field and members of the Diaz machine
wished the sole privilege of exploiting it. Just previous
to the suppression of El Trueno Governor Reyes had
been banished from the country and his friends put out
of the municipal government at Linares.

In November, 1909, Revista de Merida, of Merida,
Yucatan, was suppressed by the government. Editor
Menendez and other writers were imprisoned on the
charge of sedition.

About the same time two other Merida newspapers
were suppressed. One was Yucatan Nuevo. Its edi-
tors, Fernando M. Estrada and Ramon Peovide, are
at this writing still in jail. The other was La Defensa
Nacional. Its editors, Calixto M. Maldonada and
Caesar A. Gonzalez, were charged with "provocation of
rebellion." The evidence produced in court against them
consisted of copies of a circular sent out by the National
Anti-re-electionist Club, which they were passing among
their friends.

In February, 1910, Heriberto Frias, editor of El

EIGHTH UNANIMOUS ELECTION OF DIAZ 187

Correo de la Tarde, was driven out of Mazatlan be-
cause he published the statement that in the so-called
election in Sinaloa boys of ten and twelve were permitted
to vote the administration ticket, while men of forty
and fifty of the opposition party were turned away on
the ground that they were too young to vote.

In October, 1909, Alfonso B. Peniche, editor of La
Redencion, Mexico City, was arrested for "defamation"
of a minor employe of the government. Despite his
imprisonment, Peniche succeeded in continuing his pub-
lication for a time, although in order to do so he was
compelled to smuggle his copy through the bars of the
prison. After remaining in Belem a short time he pub-
lished an article asking for an investigation 'into the con-
ditions of Belem, alleging that an instrument of torture
called "the rattler" was used upon the prisoners. This
undoubtedly had something to do with the extreme
severity of the punishment that was meted out to
Peniche, for after remaining five months in Belem he
was sentenced to banishment to the penal colony on the
Tres Marias Islands for four long years.

Undoubtedly the charge against Peniche was only a
subterfuge to get him out of the way. The story of
his "defamation," according to Mexico Nuevo, the most
conservative democratic daily, was:

In his paper Redencion, now suspended, he published a state-
ment signed by various merchants, making charges against a
tax collector of the federal district, relating to acts committed
in his official capacity. The Bureau of Taxation took action
in the matter, ordering an investigation, and, as a result, the
charges were sustained and the tax collector was removed by the
Secretary of Hacienda, with the approval of the President of
the Republic, for "not deserving the confidence of the govern-
ment;" moreover, he was arraigned before the first judge of the
district, for an inquiry into the supposed fraud of the treasury,
and this inquiry is now pending.

188 BARBAROUS MEXICO

This being the case, there were many reasons to suppose that
Peniche, in publishing the accusation, was working in the public
interest and was not committing any crime. Instead of this, he
is convicted of defamation, an even more serious offense than
libel.

El Diario del Hogar, an old and conservative daily
paper of the capital, which has espoused the cause of
the Democrats, printed an account of Peniche's banish-
ment also, the article appearing under the caption
"Newspaper Men Watch Out." The authorities at once
forced the suspension of the paper. The owner, Filomena
Mata, an aged man who had retired from active life;
Filomena Mata, Jr., managing editor, and the mechanical
foreman, were taken to prison. A month afterwards
it was reported that father and son were still in jail
and that Mata, Sr., was dying of ill treatment received
from the jailers.

Some time later, in March, 1910, the government
forced the suspension of Mexico Nuevo. It was revived
later, however, and is the only Democratic paper which
survived the Reyes campaign.

Paulino Martinez was one of the oldest and best-
known newspaper men in Mexico. His papers were
the only ones in opposition to the policy of the admin-
istration which succeeded in weathering the storm of
press persecutions of past years. For several years his
papers. La Voz de Juarez and El Insurgente, were the
only opposition papers in Mexico. Martinez kept them
alive, so he told me himself, by refraining always from
making direct criticisms of high officials or acts of Gen-
eral Diaz.

But with the campaign against the Democratic move-
ment Martinez's papers went with the rest. When the
government began action against him his papers num-

EIGHTH UNANIMOUS ELECTION OF DIAZ 189

6ered four, La Voz de Juarez, El Insurgente, El Chi-
naco, all weeklies, and El Anti-Re-electionista, a daily.
All were published in the capital.

The first blow fell upon La Voz de Juarez (The Voice
of Juarez). August 3, 1909, that paper was suppressed
and the plant confiscated. "Slandering the army," was
the charge. The police looked for Martinez, but failed
to find him. All minor employes found about the shop
were jailed, and it was announced that the plant would
be sold.

September 3rd the secret police descended upon El
Insurgente and El Chinaco, also upon El Paladin, a
weekly paper published by Ramon Alvarez Soto. The
type forms of all three publications were seized and
taken to the offices of the secret police as "pieces de
conviction." Soto, Joaquin Pina, Martinez's managing
editor of El Chinaco, Joaquin Fernando Bustillos, an-
other editor, five printers, two other employes and Mrs.
Martinez, were taken to jail. After five days the report-
ers and printers were released. But Mrs. Martinez and
Enrique Patino, a member of El Paladin staff, who had
been apprehended later, were held on charges of sedi-
tion.

El Anti-Re-electionista, the last of the Martinez papers,
succumbed September 28th. The office was closed, the
plant seized and sealed with the seal of the court, and
twenty-two employes found about the office were all
taken prisoner and charged with sedition. The list con-
sisted of three members of the office executive force,
one reporter, fifteen typesetters and three bindery girls.

How long these twenty-two remained in prison is not
recorded. Six months later I saw a report that at least
one of the Martinez editors, D. Feliz Palavicini, was
still in prison. Mrs. Martinez remained in jail for sev-

190 BARBAROUS MEXICO

eral months. Her husband succeeded in escaping to
the United States, and when Mrs. Martinez joined him
neither of them had a dollar. Mrs. Martinez, by the
way, is a native of the United States.

Most remarkable of all was the treatment meted out
to the nominee of the Democratic Party, General Ber-
nardo Reyes, governor of the state of Nuevo Leon.
Doubly, trebly remarkable was that treatment in view oi
the fact that General Reyes not only did not accept
the nomination of the Democratic Party, but that he
repudiated it. Four times he repudiated it. Not only
that, but during the months in which calamities were
being heaped upon him and his friends he never gave
utterance to one word or raised his little finger in the
most insignificant act that might be construed as an
offense to President Diaz, to Vice-President Corral, or
to any of the members of the Diaz government. By its
military bluster the government tried to create the im-
pression that Reyes was on the verge of an armed revolt,
but of that there is not the slightest evidence.

As a candidate. General Reyes did not perfectly fit
the ideal of the leaders of the Democratic movement,
for he had never before appeared in any way as a
champion of democratic principles. Doubtless the
Democrats chose him, as a government organ charged,
because of their belief in his "ability to face the music."
Reyes was a strong figure, and it requires a strong figure
to rally the people when their fears are strong. It was
for this reason that the Democratic leaders pinned their
faith to him, and they launched their campaign on the
assumption that when he discovered that the people were
almost unanimous for him, he would accept the nomina-
tion.

In this the Democrats were mistaken. Reyes chose

EIGHTH UNANIMOUS ELECTION OF DIAZ 191

not to face the music. Four times he repudiated the
nomination publicly. He retired to his mountain resort
and there waited for the storm to blow over. He put
himself out of touch with his partizans and with the
world. He made no move that might give offense to
the government.

And yet — what happened to Reyes?

Diaz deposed the head of the military zone, which
includes the state of Monterey, and placed in command
General Trevino, a personal enemy of Reyes. Trevino
marched upon Reyes' state at the head of an army. He
stopped on his way at Saltillo and, by a display of arms,
compelled the resignation of Governor Cardenas of
Coahuila merely because the latter was a friend of Reyes.
He threw his army into Monterey and overturned the
local government, as well as all the municipal govern-
ments in the entire state. Diaz ordered a fine of a third
of a million dollars placed upon Reyes' financial asso-
ciates, in order that they, as well as he, might be dealt
a crushing blow financially. Trevino surrounded Reyes
in his mountain resort and compelled him to return, a
virtual prisoner, and to hand in his resignation. Finally,
Reyes was sent out of the country, ostensibly on a "mili-
tary mission" to Europe — actually, banished from his
native country for two years, or longer, should the ruler
so decide.

So perished Reyism, as the government papers de-
risively called the opposition. The Democratic move-
ment was demoralized for the time being, and the gov-
ernment doubtless imagined that the end of Reyes meant
the end of the Democratic movement.

But not so. The democratic ambitions of the peo-
ple had been aroused to a high pitch, and they would not
be denied. Instead of intimidating them, the banish-

192 BARBAROUS MEXICO

ment of Reyes and the high-handed acts that went be-
fore it only served to make the people bolder in their
demands. From daring to nominate a candidate merely
for vice-president, they passed to nominating a candi-
date for president. The pseudo opposition party became
an opposition party indeed.

In Francisco I. Madero, the party found its new
leader. Madero was a distinguished citizen of Coahuila,
a member of one of the oldest and most respected fami-
lies in Mexico. The Maderos had never involved them-
selves in Diaz politics; they were rich farmers, well
educated, cultured and progressive. Madero's first
notable interest in democracy was shown in his book,
"La Sucesion Presidencial," which he published in 1908.
It was a thoughtful but mild criticism of the Diaz
regime, and in the end it urged the people to insist upon
the right to engage in the elections of 1910.

Madero's book is said to have been suppressed in
Mexico, but only after it had gained wide circulation,
and its influence was no doubt considerable in prompt-
ing the launching of the Democratic Party. After the
nomination of Reyes, Madero went about the country
in his own private car, addressing public meetings, not
campaigning for Reyes, but confining himself chiefly to
the dissemination of the A, B, C's of popular govern-
ment.

The banishment of Reyes did not stop Madero's
speech-making, and before the end of 1909 it was
announced that the Democratic and Reyist clubs would
reorganize as "Anti-Re-electionist" clubs, and that a
national convention would be held at which the Anti-
Re-electionist Party would be organized and nomina-
tions made for president and vice-president of the re-
public.

EIGHTH UNANIMOUS ELECTION OF DIAZ 193

The convention was held in the middle of April, 1910 ;
Madero was named for president and Dr. Francisco
Vasquez Gomez for vice-president. The scattered ele-
ments of the interrupted campaign were got together and
Madero and such others of the Democratic leaders as
were out of jail went on with their speech-making —
careful, as ever, to criticize but sparingly and to encour-
age no breaches of the peace.

The result was instantaneous. The nation was again
in a fervor of enthusiasm over the idea of actually exer-
cising their constitutional right of franchise. Had the
movement been small, it would have been allowed to
go its way and spend itself. But the movement was
tremendous. It put on a parade in the national capital
such as Diaz, with all his powers of coercion and of
hire, had never been able to equal in his own behalf.
Every marcher in that parade knew that in walking
with that throng he was laying himself liable to perse-
cution, to ruin, perhaps to death, but yet so great was
the throng that the government organs themselves were
forced to admit that the parade was a triumph for the
"Maderists," as the Democrats were now called.

Before the convention and during the convention the
Diaz press pooh-poohed Madero, his program and his
party as too insignificent to be noticed. But before the
delegates had returned to their homes the movement
had assumed such grave proportions that the govern-
ment proceeded against it as it had proceeded against
the "Reyists" before the banishment of Reyes. Every-
where members of Anti-Re-electionist clubs were thrown
into jail; such progressive newspapers as remained
and dared to espouse the Democratic cause were sup-
pressed, and the police power was used to break up the
clubs, stop public meetings and prevent receptions being

194 BARBAROUS MEXICO

accorded the party's candidates as they traveled through
the country.

So severe was this persecution that, May 21st, Attor-
ney Roque Estrada, one of the most prominent of the
Anti-Re-electionist speakers, addressed an open letter to
Diaz, begging him to interfere in behalf of constitutional
rights. This was followed by a letter from Madero him-
self, couched in a similar vein. In recounting some of
the outrages which had been heaped upon his friends,
Estrada said in part:

'When the delegate of Cananea, Sonora, returned to his
home, he was imprisoned, just as were some presidents of clubs;
in Alamos, Sonora, independent citizens were arrested, and a
journalist and his family were martyred; in Torreon, Coahuila,
in Monterey, and in Orizaba the rights of association and
reunion have been impudently violated; finally, in the tormented
City of Puebla, immediately after the visit which the candidates
of the people made on the 14th and 15th of the current month,
an epoch of terror was begun, capable of destroying the repu-
tation of the most sane and solid administration. In the City
of Zaragoza many independent citizens were confined in prison,
others were consigned to the army, as in the case of Senor
Diaz Duran, president of an Anti-Re-electionist club; and others
have felt the necessity of abandoning their homes in order to
escape the fury of authority."

Some of the outrages recounted in Madero's letter
follow :

"At Coahuila the public officials have arbitrarily forbidden
demonstrations in our honor, preventing also the spread of our
principles. The same has happened in the states of Nuevo Leon,
Aguascalientes and San Luis Potosi. * * * j^ the States of
Sonora and Puebla the conditions are serious. In the former
State an independent journalist, Mr. Caesar del Vando, was
thrown into jail. * * * At Cananea the prosecutions are
extreme against the members of my party, and according to late
news received therefrom more than thirty individuals have been
imprisoned, among them the full board of directors of the

EIGHTH UNANIMOUS ELECTION OF DIAZ 195

Club Anti-Re-electionista de Obreros (workers), three of whom
were forcibly enlisted in the army.

"At Puebla, Atlixco and Tlaxcala, where untold outrages
have been committed against my followers, reigns intense excite-
ment. The last news received shows the conditions of the
working classes to be desperate; that they may at any moment
resort to violent means to have their rights respected."

In June, the month of election, matters became very
much worse. Estrada and Madero themselves were
arrested. On the night of June 6 they were secretly
taken and secretly held in the penitentiary at Monterey
until the truth became noised about, when charges were
formally preferred against them. Estrada was charged
with "sedition." Madero was first accused of protect-
ing Estrada from arrest, but soon afterwards this charge
was dropped and he was accused of "insulting the
nation." He was removed from the penitentiary of
Nuevo Leon to the penitentiary of San Luis Potosi, and
here he remained incommunicado until after "election."

The presidential campaign ended amid many reports
of government persecutions. A reputable dispatch dated
June 9th said that in breaking up a gathering at Saltillo,
following the news of the arrest of Madero, the police
rode down the crowds, injuring more than two hundred
people. Another, dated June 14th, said that in the cities
of Torreon, Saltillo and Monterey more than one hun-
dred persons were arrested on the charge of "insulting"
the government ; that at Ciudad Porfirio Diaz forty-seven
prominent citizens were arrested in one day, and that
a big exodus of citizens of the border towns, fearing
arrest, was taking place to the United States. Still
another dispatch, dated June 21st, said that more than
four hundred arrests had been made in northern Mexico
the previous day and that 1,000 political prisoners were

196 BARBAROUS MEXICO

being held incommunicado, where they would remain
until after the election.

"Election day" found soldiers or rurales in every
town and hamlet. Booths were actually put up here and
there and a farce of an election was gone through with.
Soldiers held the polls and every man who dared cast a
ballot for any but the administration ticket knew that he
was risking imprisonment, confiscation of property, even
death, in doing so. Finally, the government went
through the form of counting the vote, and in due course
of time the world was told that the Mexican people had
proved "practically unanimous" in their choice of Dia^
and Corral.

CHAPTER XI

FOUR MEXICAN STRIKES

On the line of the Mexican Railway, which climbs, in
one hundred odd miles of travel, from the port of Vera-
cruz 10,000 feet to the rim of the valley of Mexico, are
situated a number of mill towns. Nearing the summit,
after that wonderful ascent from the tropics to the snows,
the passenger looks back from his car window through
dizzying reaches of empty air, sheer a full mile, as the
crow might dare to fly a score of them, down to the
uppermost of these mill towns, Santa Rosa, a gray
checkerboard upon a map of green. Just below Santa
Rosa, but out of sight behind the titanic shoulder of a
mountain, nestles Rio Blanco, largest of the mill towns,
scene of the bloodiest strike in the labor history of
Mexico.

In altitude half way between the shark-infested waters
of Veracruz harbor and the plateau of the Montezumas,
Rio Blanco, which in Spanish means White River, is
not only a paradise in climate and scenery, but it is also
perfectly situated for water-power manufactories. A
bountiful supply of water, provided by the copious rains
and the snows of the heights, gathers in the Rio Blanco
and with the speed of Niagara rushes down the mountain
gorges and into the town.

It is said to be a favorite boast of Manager Harting-
ton, the steel-eyed, middle-aged Englishman who over-
sees the work of the 6,000 men, women and children,
that the mill at Rio Blanco is not only the largest and

198 BARBAROUS MEXICO

most modern cotton manufactory in the world, but that
it pays the richest profits on the investment.

Certainly the factory is a big one. We saw it — De
Lara and I — from A to Z, following the raw cotton from
the cleaner through all its various processes and treat-
ments until it finally came out neatly folded in fancy
prints or specially colored weaves. We even descended
five iron ladders down into the bowels of the earth, saw
the great pin and caught a glimpse of the swirling black
waters which turn every wheel in the mill. And we
observed the workers, too, men, women and children.

They were Mexicans with hardly an exception. The
men, in the mass, are paid thirty-seven and one-half
cents a day in our money, the women from one dollar
and a half to two dollars a week, the children, who range
down to seven and eight, from ten to twenty-five cents
a day. These figures were given us by an officer of the
mill who showed us about, and they were confirmed in
talks with the workers themselves.

Thirteen hours a day — from 6 until 8 — are long for
labor in the open air and sunshine, but thirteen hour?
in that roar of machinery, in that lint-laden air, in those
poisonous dye rooms — how very long that must be ! The
terrible smell of the dye rooms nauseated me and I had
to hurry on. The dye rooms are a suicide hole for the
men who work there, for it is said that they survive, on
an average, only a twelve-month. Yet the company finds
that plenty of them are willing to commit the suicide
for the additional inducement of seven and one-half
cents a day over the regular wage.

The Rio Blanco mill was established sixteen years ago
— sixteen years, but in their history the mill and the
town have just two epochs — before the strike and after
the strike. Wherever we went about Rio Blanco and

FOUR MEXICAN STRIKES 199

Orizaba, the latter being the chief town in that political
district, we heard echoes of the strike, although its bloody
story had been written nearly two years before our visit.

In Mexico there are no labor laws in operation to
protect the workers — no provision for factory inspection,
no practical statutes against infant labor, no processes
through which workmen may recover damages for in-
juries sustained or death met in the mine or at the
machine. Wage-workers literally have no rights that the
employers are bound to respect. Policy only determines
the degree of exploitation, and in Mexico that policy is
such as might prevail in the driving of horses in a lo-
cality where horses are dirt cheap, where profits from
their use are high, and where there exists no Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Over against this absence of protection on the part
of the governmental powers stands oppression on the
part of the governmental powers, for the machinery of
the Diaz state is wholly at the command of the employer
to whip the worker into accepting his terms.

The six thousand laborers in the Rio Blanco mill were
not content with thirteen hours daily in the company of
that roaring machinery and in that choking atmosphere,
especially since it brought to them only from twenty-five
to thirty-seven and one-half cents. Nor were they con-
tent with paying out of such a sum the one American
dollar a week that the company charged for the rental
of the two-room, dirt-floor hovels which they called
their homes. Least of all were they content with the
coin in which they were paid. This consisted of credit
checks upon the company store, which finished the ex-
ploitation— took back for the company the final centavo
that the company had paid out in wages. A few miies
away, at Orizaba, the same goods could be purchased

200 BARBAROUS MEXICO

for from twenty-five to seventy-five per cent less, but
the operatives were unable to buy their goods at these
stores.

The operatives were not content. The might of the
company towered like a mountain above them, and
behind and above the company towered the government.
Behind the company stood Diaz himself, for Diaz was
not only the government, he was also a heavy stockholder
in the company. Yet the operatives prepared to fight.
Secretly they organized a union, "El Circulo de
Obreros," which means "The Circle of Workers," hold-
ing their meetings not en masse, but in small groups
in their homes, in order that the authorities might not
learn of their purposes.

Immediately upon the company learning that the work-
ers were discussing their troubles it took action against
them. Through the police authorities it issued a general
order forbidding any of the operatives from receiving
any visitors whatsoever, even their own relatives being
barred, the penalty for violation being the city jail. Per-
sons who were suspected of having signed the roll of the
union were put in prison at once, and a weekly news-
paper which was known to be friendly to the workers
was swooped down upon, suppressed and the printing
plant confiscated.

At this juncture a strike was called in the cotton mills
in the city of Puebla, in an adjoining state. The mills
of Puebla were owned by the same company as owned
the Rio Blanco mills, and the operatives thereof were
living under similar conditions to those at Rio Blanco.
The Puebla workers went on strike and the company,
knowing that they had no resources behind them, de-
cided, as one of its agents told me, "to let nature take

FOUR MEXICAN STRIKES 201

its course;" that is, to starve out the workers, as they
believed this process could be accomplished inside of a
fortnight.

The strikers turned for aid to those of their fellow-
craftsmen who were at work in other localities. The
Rio Blanco workers themselves were already preparing to
strike, but thereupon they decided to wait for a time
longer, in order that they might collect from their meager
earnings a fund to support their brothers in the city of
Puebla. Thus were the ends of the company defeated
for the moment, for by living on half rations both work-
ers and strikers were able to eke out their existence.
But no sooner had the company learned the source of
strength of the Puebla strikers than the mills at Rio
Blanco were shut down and the workers there locked
out. Other mills in other localities were shut down and
other means taken to prevent any help reaching the
Puebla strikers.

Locked out, the Rio Blanco workers promptly as-
sumed the offensive, declared they were on strike and
formulated a series of demands calculated in some meas-
ure to alleviate the conditions of their lives.

But the demands were unheard, the machinery of the
mill roared no more, the mill slept in the sun, the waters
of the Rio Blanco dashed unharnessed through the town,
the manager of the company laughed in the faces of the
striking men and women.

The six thousand starved. For two months they
starved. They scoured the surrounding hills for ber-
ries, and when the berries were gone they deceived their
gnawing stomachs with indigestible roots and herbs
gleaned from the mountain sides. In utter despair, they
looked to the highest power they knew, Porfirio Dia.-^,

202 BARBAROUS MEXICO

and begged him to have mercy. They begged him to
investigate their cause, and for their part they promised
to abide by his decision.

President Diaz pretended to investigate. He ren-
dered a decision, but his decision was that the mills
should reopen and the workers go back to their thirteen
hours of dust and machinery on the same terms as they
had left them.

True to their promise, the strikers at Rio Blanco
prepared to comply. But they were weak from starva-
tion. In order to work they must have sustenance. Con-
sequently on the day of their surrender they gathered in
a body in front of the company store opposite the big
mill and asked that each of their number be given a
certain quantity of corn and beans so that they might
be able to live through the first week and until they should
be paid their wages.

The storekeeper jeered at the request. "To these dogs
we will not even give water!" is the answer he is cred-
ited with giving them.

It was then that a woman, Margarita Martinez, ex-
horted the people to take by force the provisions that
had been denied them. This they did. They looted the
store, then set fire to it, and finally to the mill across
fhe way.

The people had not expected to riot, but the govern-
ment had expected it. Unknown to the strikers, bat-
talions of regular soldiers were waiting just outside the
town, under command of General Rosalio Martinez him-
self, sub-secretary of war. The strikers had no arms.
They were not prepared for revolution. They had in-
tended no mischief, and their outburst was a spontaneous
and doubtless a natural one, and one which an officer
of the company afterwards confided to me could easily

FOUR MEXICAN STRIKES 203

have been taken care of by the local police force, which
was strong.

Nevertheless, the soldiers appeared, leaping upon the
scene as if out of the ground. Volley after volley was
discharged into the crowd at close range. There was
no resistance whatsoever. The people were shot down
in the streets with no regard for age or sex, many wom-
en and children being among the slain. They were pur-
sued to their homes, dragged from their hiding places
and shot to death. Some fled to the hills, where they
were hunted for days and shot on sight. A company
of rural guards which refused to fire on the crowd when
the soldiers first arrived were exterminated on the spot.

There are no official figures of the number killed in
the Rio Blanco massacre, and if there were any, of
course they would be false. Estimates run from two
hundred to eight hundred. My information for the
Rio Blanco strike was obtained from numerous widely
different sources — from an officer of the company itself,
from a friend of the governor who rode with the rurales
as they chased the fleeing strikers through the hills, from
a labor editor who escaped after being hotly pursued
for days, from survivors of the strike, from others who
had heard the story from eye witnesses.

"I don't know how many were killed," the man who
rode with the rurales told me, "but on the first night
after the soldiers came I saw two flat cars piled high with
dead and mangled bodies, and there were a good many
killed after the first night f*

"Those flat cars," the same informant told me, "were
hauled away by special train that night, hurried to
Veracruz, where the bodies were dumped in the harbor
as food for the sharks"

Strikers who were not punished by death were pun-

204 BARBAROUS MEXICO

ished in other ways scarcely less terrible. It seems that
for the first few hours death was dealt out indiscrimi-
nately, but after that some of those who were caught
were not killed. Fugitives who were captured after the
first two or three days were rounded up in a bull pen,
and some five hundred of them were impressed into
the army and sent to Quintana Roo. The vice-president
and the secretary of the "Circulo de Obreros" were
hanged, while the woman orator, Margarita Martinez,
was among those sent to the prison of San Juan de
Ulua.

Among the newspaper men who suffered as a result
of the Rio Blanco strike are Jose Neira, Justino Fer-
nandez, Juan Olivares and Paulino Martinez. Neira
and Fernandez were imprisoned for long terms, the lat-
ter being tortured until he lost his reason. Olivares
was pursued for many days, but escaped capture and
found his way to the United States. None of the three
had any connection with the riot. The fourth, Paulino
Martinez, committed no crime more heinous than to
comment mildly in his newspaper in favor of the strik-
ers. He published his paper at Mexico City, a day's
ride on the train to Rio Blanco. Personally he had been
no nearer the scene of the trouble than that city, yet he
was arrested, carried over the mountains to the mill
town, imprisoned and held incommunicado for five
months without even a charge being preferred against
him.

The government made every effort to conceal the facts
of the Rio Blanco massacre, but murder will out, and
when the newspapers did not speak the news flew from
mouth to mouth until the nation was shuddering at the
story. It was a waste of blood, indeed, yet, even from
the viewpoint of the workers, it was not wholly in vain.

FOUR MEXICAN STRIKES 205

For in the story the company store held a prominent
place, and so great a protest was raised against it that
President Diaz decided to make one concession to the
decimated band of operatives and to abolish the company
store at Rio Blanco.

Thus where before the strike there was but one store
in Rio Blanco, today there are many; the workers buy
where they choose. Thus it would seem that by their
starvation and their blood the strikers had won a slight
victory, but it is a question whether this is so, since in
some ways the screws have been put down harder than
ever before. Provision has been made against a repeti-
tion of the strike, provision that, for a country that
claims to be a republic, is, to speak mildly, astounding.

The provision consists, first, of eight hundred Mex-
ican troops — six hundred regular soldiers and two hun-
dred rurales — who are encamped upon the company
property; second, of a jefe politico clothed with the
powers of a cannibal chief

When we visited the barracks, De Lara and I, the
little captain who showed us about informed us that
the quarters were furnished, ground, house, light and
water, by the company, and that in return the army was
placed directly and unequivocally at the call of the com-
pany.

As to the jefe politico, his name is Miguel Gomez, and
he was promoted to Rio Blanco from Cordoba, where
his readiness to kill is said to have provoked the admira-
tion of the man who appointed him, President Diaz.
Regarding the powers of Miguel Gomez, I can hardly
do better than to quote the words of an officer of the
company, with whom De Lara and I took dinner one
day:

"Miguel Gomez has orders direct from President Diaz

206

BARBAROUS MEXICO

to censor the reading of the mill workers and to allow
no radical newspapers or Liberal literature to get into
their hands. More than that, he has orders to ki)i any-
one whom he suspects of having evil intentions. Yes,
I said kill. It is carte blanche with Gomez, and no qces--
tions asked. He asks no one's advice and no coi'rt ?it;^
on his action, either before or after. And he d(,j: Ydli
If he sees a man on the street and gets any wh:/<.sical
suspicion of him, dislikes his dress or his farc^ it is
enough. That man disappears. I remember ? laborer
in the dye-mixing room who spoke some words friendly
to Liberalism ; I remember a spool tender who ri,entioned
strike; there have been others — many others. They
have disappeared suddenly, have been swallowed up and
nothing heard of them but the whispers of their
friends !"

Of course, it is impossible in the nature of things to
verify this statement, but it is worth noting that it does
not come from a revolutionist.

The trade unionists of Mexico are, of course, by far
the best paid workers in the country. Because of the
opposition of both employers and government, as well
as the deep degradation out of which it is necessary for
the Mexican to climb before he is able to pluck the fruits
of organization, unionism is still in its infancy in Mexico.
It is still in its swaddling clothes and, under the circum-
stances as they exist today, its growth is slow and
fraught with great hardship. So far, there is no Mex-
ican Federation of Labor.

The principal Mexican unions in 1908, as set forth
to me by Felix Vera, president of the Grand League of
Railroad Workers, and other organizers, were as fol-
lows:

The Grand League of Railroad Workers, 10,000 mem-

FOUR MEXICAN STRIKES 207

bers; the Mechanics' Union, 500 members; Boilermak-
ers* Union, 800 members; Cigarmakers' Union, 1,500
members; Carpenters' Union, 1,500 members; the Shop
Blacksmiths' Union, with headquarters at Ciudad Por-
firio Diaz, 800 members; Steel and Smelter Workers'
Union, of Chihuahua, 500 members.

These are the only permanent Mexican unions, and
an addition of their membership shows that they total
under 16,000. Other unions have sprung up, as at Rio
Blanco, at Cananea, at Tizapan and other places in re-
sponse to a pressing need, but they have been crushed
either by the employers or by the government — usually
by both working in conjunction, the latter acting as the
servant of the former. In the two years since 1908 there
has been practically no advance in organization. Indeed,
for a time the largest union, the railroad workers, hav-
ing been beaten in a strike, all but went out of existence.
But recently it has revived to almost its former strength.

All the unions mentioned are Mexican unions exclu-
sively. The only branch of American organization
which extends to Mexico consists of railroad men, who
exclude Mexicans from membership. Hence the Grand
League itself is a purely Mexican union.

As to pay, the boilermakers received a minimum of
27y2 cents an hour in American money; the carpenters,
who are organized only in the capital and have as yet
no scale, from 75 cents to $1.75; the cigarmakers, from
$1.75 to $2; the shop blacksmiths, 22J/1 cents an hour,
and the steel and smelter workers, 25 cents an hour.

Among these trades there have been several strikes.
In 1905 the cigarmakers enforced their own shop rules.
A little later the union mechanics in the railroad shops
at Aguascalientes struck because they were being gradu-
ally replaced by Hungarian unorganized men at lower

208 BARBAROUS MEXICO

wages. The strikers not only won their point, but se-
cured a five-cent per day raise of wages besides, which
so encouraged the boilermakers that the latter crafts-
men made a demand all over the country for a five-cent
raise and got it.

Besides several short strikes of less importance still,
this is the extent of the labor victories in Mexico. Vic-
tory has been the exception. Intervention by the gov-
ernment, with blood and prison for the strikers, has been
the rule.

The strike of the Grand League of Railway Work-
ers occurred in the spring of 1908. The league consists
principally of brakemen, who received $37.50 per month
in American money, and shop mechanics, who received
twenty-five cents an hour. Early in 1908 the bosses at
San Luis Potosi began discriminating against union men,
both in the shops and on the trains. The unions pro-
tested to General Manager Clark, and the latter promised
to make reparation within two months. At the end of
two months nothing had been done. The union then
gave the manager twenty-four hours in which to act.
At the end of twenty-four hours still nothing had been
done. So the entire membership on the road, consisting
of 3,000 men, walked out.

The strike tied up every foot of the Mexican National
Railway, consisting of nearly one thousand miles of road
running from Laredo, Texas, to Mexico City. For six
days traffic was at a standstill. Recognition of the union,
which is the necessary prerequisite for successful peace
in any struggle along union lines, seemed assured. The
great corporation seemed beaten, but — the men had not
reckoned with the government.

No sooner did Manager Clark discover that he was

FOUR MEXICAN STRIKES 209

beaten on the economic field of battle than he called
to his aid the police power of Diaz.

President Vera of the Grand League was waited upon
by the governor of the state of San Luis Potosi and
informed that if the men did not return to work forth-
with they would all be rounded up and thrown in jail
and prosecuted for conspiracy against the government.
He showed Vera a telegram from President Diaz which
in significant terms reminded Vera of the massacre at
Rio Blanco, which had occurred but a year previously.

Vera hurried to the national capital, where he inter-
viewed Vice-President Corral and attempted to secure
an audience with Diaz. Corral confirmed the threats of
the governor of San Luis Potosi. Vera pleaded that the
strikers were keeping perfect order; he begged that
they be fairly treated. But it was no use. He knew that
the government was not bluffing, for in such matters
the Mexican government does not bluff. After a con-
ference with the executive board of the union the strike
was called off and the men went back to work.

Of course that demoralized the union, for what, pray,
is the use of organization if you are not permitted to
pluck the fruits of organization? The strikers were
taken back to work, as agreed, but they were discharged
one after another at convenient times. The member-
ship of the league fell off, those remaining upon the roll
remaining only in the hope of a less tyrannical govern-
ment soon replacing the one that had foiled them. Vera
resigned the presidency. His resignation was refused,
he still remained the nominal head of the organization,
but there was nothing that he could do. It was at this
juncture that I met and talked with him about .the railroad
strike and the general outlook for Mexican unionism.

210 BARBAROUS MEXICO

"The oppression of the government," said Vera, in his
last few words to me, "is terrible — terrible! There is
no chance for bettering the condition of labor in Mexico
until there is a change in the administration. Every free
laborer in Mexico knows that!"

Vera organized the Grand League of Railway Work-
ers of Mexico in 1904, and since that time he has passed
many months in prison for no other reason than his
union activities. Not until early in 1909 did he engage
in anything that smacked of political agitation. The
hardships imposed by the government upon union organ-
ization, however, inevitably drove him into opposition
to it. He became a newspaper correspondent, and it
was because he dared to criticize the despot that he again
found his way into that awful pit, Belem.

August 3, 1909, Vera was arrested at Guadalajara and
carried to Mexico City. He was not taken before a
judge. Nor was any formal charge lodged against him.
He was merely told that the federal government had
decided that he must spend the next two years in prison,
serving out a sentence which had four years previously
been meted out to him for his union activities, but under
which he had been pardoned after serving one year and
seven months.

Though a permanent cripple, Vera is a brave and hon-
est man and a fervent organizer. Mexican liberty will
lose much by his imprisonment.

Strikes in Mexico so far have usually been more the
result of a spontaneous unwillingness on the part of the
workers to go on with their miserable lives than of an
organization of labor behind them or an appeal by agi-
tators. Such a strike was that of Tizapan.

I mention the strike of Tizapan because I happened
to visit the spot while the strikers were starving. For

FCmR MEXICAN STRIKES 211

a month the strike had been going on, and though 600
cotton mill operatives were involved and Tizapan was
only a score of miles from the palace of Chapultepec,
not a daily newspaper in the capital, as far as I have
learned, mentioned the fact that there was a strike.

I first heard of the Tizapan strike from Paulino Mar-
tinez, the editor, who is now a political refugee in the
United States. Martinez cautioned me against saying
that he told me, since, though he had not heard of the
strike himself until after it had been called, he thought
the telling might result in his arrest. The next day I
took a run out to Tizapan, viewed the silent mill, visited
the strikers in their squalid homes, and finally had a talk
with the strike committee.

Except for Valle Nacional, I never saw so many
people — men, women and children — ^with the mark of
acute starvation on their faces, as at Tizapan. True,
there was no fever among them, thejr eyes were not
glazing with complete exhaustion from overwork and
insufficient sleep, but their cheeks were pale, they
breathed feebly and they walked unsteadily from lack of
food.

These people had been working eleven hours a day for
wages running from fifty cents to three dollars a week
in our money. Doubtless they would have continued to
work for it if they were really paid it, but the bosses
were always devising new means to rob them of what
Jittle they were entitled to. Dirt spots on the calico
meant a loss of one, two and sometimes even three pesos.
Petty fines were innumerable. Finally, each worker was
taxed three centavos per week to pay for the food of
the dogs belonging to the factory. That was the last
straw. The toilers refused to accept partial wages, the
mill was closed and the period of starvation began.

212 BARBAROUS MEXICO

When I visited Tizapan three-fourths of the men
had gone away seeking work and food in other parts.
Being wholly without means, it is quite likely that a
large percentage of them fell into the hands of labor
agents and were sold into slavery in the hot lands. A
few men and the women and children were staying and
starving. The strike committee had begged the national
government to redress their wrongs, but without avail.
They had asked President Diaz to reserve for them a
little land out of the millions of acres which he was con-
stantly signing away to foreigners, but they had received
from him no reply. When I asked them if they hoped
to win the strike, they told me no, that they had no hope,
but they did not care; they preferred to die at once and
in the open air than to go back to such miserable treat-
ment as had been accorded them in the factory. Here is
a translation of a pitiful appeal which these Tizapan
strikers sent out to mill centers in other sections of the
country :

Fellow Countrymen:

By this circular we make known to all the workers of the
Mexican Republic that none of the factories which exist in
our unfortunate country have exhibited men so avaricious as
the manufacturers of "La Hormiga," Tizapan, since they are
worse than highway robbers; not only are they robbers, but they
are tyrants and hangmen.

Let us make it plain to you. Here are we robbed in weights
and measures. Here are we exploited without mercy. Here are
we fined two and three pesos and down to the very last of our
wages, and we are dismissed from our work with kicks and
blows. But what is the most disgusting, ridiculous and vile part
of it all is the discount that is made on the workers of three
cents weekly for the maintenance of the lazy dogs of the factory.
What a disgrace!

Who can live such a sad and degraded life? Whereupon it
does not appear that we live in a republic conquered by the

FOUR MEXICAN STRIKES 213

blood of our forefathers, but rather that we inhabit a land of
savage and brutal slave-drivers. Who can subsist on wages of
three and four pesos weekly and discounted from that fines,
house rent, and robbery in weights and measures? No, a
thousand times, no! Because of such circumstances we petition
our dear country for a fragment of land to cultivate, so that
we may not continue to enrich the foreigner, trader and
exploiter, who piles up gold at the cost of the devoted toil of
the poor and unfortunate worker!

We protest against this order of things and we will not work
until we are guaranteed that the fines will be abolished and
also the maintenance of dogs, for which we ought not to pay,
and that we shall be treated as workers and not as the unhappy
slaves of a foreigner.

We hope that our fellow workers will aid us in this fight.

The Committee.
Tizapan, March 7, 1909.

The Tizapan strike was lost. When it v^^as ready to
do so, the company reopened the mill v^ithout difficulty,
for, as corporation prospectuses of the country say,
there is labor aplenty in Mexico and it is very, very
cheap.

The Cananea strike, occurring as it did, very close
to the border line of the United States, is perhaps the one
Mexican strike of which Americans generally have heard.
Not having been a witness, nor even having ever been
upon the ground, I cannot speak with personal authority,
and yet I have talked with so many persons who were
in one way or another connected with the affair, several
of whom were in the very thick of the flying bullets,
that I cannot but believe that I have a fairly clear idea
of what occurred.

Cananea is a copper city of Sonora, situated several
score of miles from the Arizona border. It was estab-
lished by W. C. Greene, who secured several million
acres along the border from the Mexican government

214 BARBAROUS MEXICO

at little or no cost, and who succeeded in forming such
intimate relations with Ramon Corral and other high
Mexican officials that the municipal government estab-
lished upon his property was entirely under his control,
while the government of the Mexican town close beside
it was exceedingly friendly to him and practically under
his orders. The American consul at Cananea, a man
named Galbraith, was also an employe of Greene, so
that both the Mexican and United States governments,
as far as Cananea and its vicinity was concerned, were
— W. C. Greene.

Greene, having since fallen into disrepute with the
powers that be in Mexico, has lost most of his holdings
and the Greene-Cananea Copper Company is now the
property of the Cole-Ryan mining combination, one of
the parties in the Morgan-Guggenheim copper merger.

In the copper mines of Cananea were employed six
thousand Mexican miners and about six hundred Amer-
ican miners. Greene paid the Mexican miners just half
as much as he paid the American miners, not because
they performed only half as much labor, but because
he was able to secure them for that price. The Mexicans
were getting big pay, for Mexicans — three pesos a day,
most of them. But naturally they were dissatisfied and
formed an organization for the purpose of forcing a
better bargain out of Greene.

As to what precipitated the strike there is some dis-
pute. Some say that it was due to an announcement
by a mine boss that the company had decided to super-
sede the system of wage labor with the system of con-
tract labor. Others say it was precipitated by Greene's
telegraphing to Diaz for troops, following a demand of
the miners for five pesos a day.

But whatever the immediate cause, the walkout was

FOUR MEXICAN STRIKES 215

Started by a night shift May 31, 1906. The strikers
marched about the company's property, calling out the
men in the different departments. They met with suc-
cess at all points, and trouble began only at the last
place of call, the company lumber yard, where the parade
arrived early in the forenoon. Here the manager, a
man named Metcalfe, drenched the front ranks with
water from a large hose. The strikers replied with stones,
and Metcalfe and his brother came back with rifles.
Some strikers fell, and in the ensuing battle the two
Metcalfes were killed.

During the parade, the head of the Greene detective
squad, a man named Rowan, handed out rifles and
ammunition to the heads of departments of the com-
pany, and as soon as the fight started at the lumber yard
the company detective force embarked in automobiles
and drove about town, shooting right and left. The
miners, unarmed, dispersed, but they were shot as they
ran. One of the leaders, applying to the chief of police
for arms with which the miners might protect them-
selves, was terribly beaten by the latter, who put his
entire force at the service of the company. During the
first few hours after the trouble some of the Greene
men were put in jail, but very soon they were released
and hundreds of the miners were locked up. Finding
that no justice was to be given them, the bulk of the
miners retired to a point on the company's property,
where they barricaded themselves and, with what
weapons they could secure, defied the Greene police.

From Greene's telegraph office were sent out reports
that the Mexicans had started a race war and were mas-
sacring the Americans of Cananea, including the women
and children. Consul Galbraith sent out such inflam-
matory stories to Washington that there was a flurry

216 BARBAROUS MEXICO

in our War Department; these stories were so mislead-
ing that Galbraith was removed as soon as the real facts
became known.

The agent of the Department of Fomento of Mexico,
on the other hand, reported the facts as they were, and
through the influence of the company he was discharged
at once.

Colonel Greene hurried away on his private car to
Arizona, where he called for volunteers to go to Can-
anea and save the American women and children, offer-
ing one hundred dollars for each volunteer, whether he
fought or not. Which action was wholly without valid
excuse, since the strikers not only never assumed the
aggressive in the violent acts of Cananea, but the affair
was also in no sense an anti-foreign demonstration. It
was a labor strike, pure and simple, a strike in which
the one demand was for a raise of wages to five pesos
a day.

While the false tales sent out from Greene's town
were furnishing a sensation for the United States,
Greene's Pinkertons were sent about the streets for an-
other shoot-up of the Mexicans. Americans had been
warned to stay indoors, in order that the assassins might
take pot shots at anything in sight, which they did. The
total list of killed by the Greene men — which was pub-
lished at the time — was twenty-seven, among whom were
several who were not miners at all. Among these, it
is said, was a boy of six and an aged man over ninety,
who was tending a cow when the bullet struck him.

By grossly misrepresenting the situation, Greene suc-
ceeded in getting a force of three hundred Americans,
rangers, miners, stockmen, cowboys and others, together
in Bisbee, Douglas and other towns. Governor Yzabal
of Sonora, playing directly into the hands of Greene at

FOUR MEXICAN STRIKES 217

every point, met this force of men at Naco and led them
across the line. The crossing was disputed by the Mex-
ican customs official, who swore that the invaders might
pass only over his dead body. With leveled rifle this
man faced the governor of his state and the three hun-
dred foreigners, and refused to yield until Yzabal showed
an order signed by General Diaz permitting the inva-
sion.

Thus three hundred American citizens, some of them
government employes, on June 2, 1906, violated the laws
of the United States, the same laws that Magon and
his friends are accused of merely conspiring to violate,
and yet not one of them, not even Greene, the man who
knew the situation and was extremely culpable, was ever
prosecuted. Moreover, Ranger Captain Rhynning, who
accepted an appointment of Governor Yzabal to com-
mand this force of Americans, instead of being deposed
from his position, was afterwards promoted. At this
writing he holds the fat job of warden of the territorial
penitentiary at Florence, Arizona.

The rank and file of those three hundred men were
hardly to be blamed for their act, for Greene completely
fooled them. They thought they were invading Mexico
to save some American women and children. When
they arrived in Cananea on the evening of the second
day, they discovered that they had been tricked, and
the following day they returned without having taken
part in the massacres of these early days of June.

But with the Mexican soldiers and rurale forces which
poured into Cananea that same night it was different.
They were under the orders of Yzabal, Greene and Cor-
ral, and they killed, as they were told to do. There
was a company of cavalry under Colonel Barron. There
were one thousand infantrymen under General Luis

218 BARBAROUS MEXICO

Torres, who hurried all the way from the Yaqui river
to serve the purposes of Greene. There were some two
hundred rurales. There were the Greene private detec-
tives. There was a company of the acordada.

And all of them took part in the killing. Miners were
taken from the jail and hanged. Miners were taken to
the cemetery, made to dig their own graves and were
shot. Several hundred of them were marched away to
Hermosillo, where they were impressed into the Mexican
army. Others were sent away to the penal colony on
the islands of Tres Marias. Finally, others were sen-
tenced to long terms in prison. When Torres' army
arrived, the strikers who had barricaded themselves in
the hills surrendered without any attempt at resistance.
First, however, there was a parley, in which the leaders
were assured that they would not be shot. But in spite
of the fact that they persuaded the strikers not to resist
the authorities, Manuel M. Dieguez, Esteban E. Calderon
and Manuel Ibarre, the members of the executive board
of the union, were sentenced to four years in prison,
where they remain to this day — unless they are dead.

Among those who were jailed and ordered shot was
L. Gutierrez De Lara, who had committed no crime ex-
cept to address a meeting of the miners. The order for
the shooting of De Lara, as well as for the others, came
direct from Mexico City on representations from Gov-
ernor Yzabal. De Lara had influential friends in Mex-
ico, and these, getting word through the friendship of
the telegraph operator and the postmaster of Cananea,
succeeded in securing De Lara's reprieve.

The end of the whole affair was that the strikers,
literally hacked to pieces by the murderous violence of
the government, were unable to rally their forces. The
strike was broken, and in time the surviving miners

FOUR MEXICAN STRIKES

219

went back to work on more unsatisfactory conditions
than before.

Such is the fate the Czar of Mexico metes out to
workingmen who dare demand a larger share of the
products of their labor in his country. One thing more
remains to be said. Colonel Greene refused to grant
the demand of the miners for more wages, and he
claimed to have a good excuse for it.

"President Diaz," said Greene, "has ordered me not
to raise wages, and I dare not disobey him."

It is an excuse that is being offered by employers of
labor all over Mexico. Doubtless President Diaz did
issue some such an order, and employers of Mexican
labor, Americans with the rest of them, are glad to take
advantage of it. American capitalists support Diaz with a
great deal more unanimity than they support Taft.
American capitalists support Diaz because they are look-
ing to Diaz to keep Mexican labor always cheap. And
they are looking to Mexican cheap labor to help them
break the back of organized labor in the United States,
both by transferring a part of their capital to Mexico
and by importing a part of Mexico's laborers into this
country.

CHAPTER XII

CRITICS AND CORROBORATION

The first five chapters of this book, which, in a little
less extended form, were published serially in The
American Magazine in the fall of 1909, called forth a
considerable measure of comment both in the United
States and Mexico. Both the magazine and myself
were deluged with letters, many of which asserted that
the writers themselves had witnessed conditions similar
to those which I described. On the other hand, there
were many who flatly averred that I was a fabricator
and a slanderer, declaring, variously, that nothing akin
to slavery or even to peonage existed in Mexico, that, if
it did, it was the only practical way to civilize Mexico,
anyhow, that the Mexican working people were the
happiest and most fortunate on the face of the earth,
that President Diaz was the most benign ruler of the
age, that a long enough hunt would discover cases of
barbarities even in the United States, and we would
better clean our own house first, that there were $900,-
000,000 of American capital invested in Mexico — and
so on and so on.

The remarkable thing, indeed, about the discussion
was the headlong manner in which certain magazines,
newspapers, book publishers and private individuals in
this country rushed to the defense of President Diaz.
These individuals evidently acted on the theory that a
charge of slavery in his domain was an aspersion on
the rule of President Diaz, and quite correctly so. Where-
fore, they proceeded to denounce me in the most vigor-
ous terms, on the one hand, and to let loose a flood of
adulatory literature concerning President Diaz, on the

220

CRITICS AND CORROBORATION 221

other. I imagine that it would require a very long freight
train to carry all the flattering literature that was cir-
culated in this country by the friends of Diaz in the
six months following the first appearance of my articles
upon the news stands.

The perusal of those articles and this other literature
also would drive anyone inevitably to the conclusion
that somebody was deliberately distorting the truth. Who
was distorting the truth? Who — and why? Since the
who as well as the why are peculiarly a part of this story
I may be pardoned for pausing for a few pages to reply,
first, to the question, "Who?"

It would give me pleasure to present here some hun-
dreds of letters which, among them, corroborate many
times all the essential features of my account of Mex-
ican slavery. But did I do so there would be little room
left in the book for anything else. I can merely say
that in most cases the writers claimed to have spent
various numbers of years in Mexico. The letters were
unsolicited, the writers were paid by no one; in many
cases they were endangering their own interests in writ-
ing. If I am the liar, all of these persons must be liars,
also, a proposition which I doubt if anyone could believe
were they to read the letters.

But I am not printing these letters and I do not ask
the reader to consider them in my favor. Samples of
them, and a large enough number to be convincing, are
to be found, however, in the November, December and
January numbers of The American Magazine.

I shall pass over, also, the published testimony of other
writers, well-known investigators, who have corrobo-
rated my story in more or less detail. For example,
the account of the slavery of the American rubber plan-
tations, written by Herman Whitaker and printed in

222 BARBAROUS MEXICO

The American Magazine for February, 1910; the ac-
counts of the slavery of Yucatan by the EngHsh writers,
Arnold and Frost, in the book, "An American Egypt,"
which was quoted at length in The American Magazine
of April, 1910. The corroboration which I shall present
here is taken almost entirely from my critics themselves,
persons who started out to deny the slavery or to pal-
liate it, and who ended by admitting the existence of the
essential features of that institution.

To begin with the least important class of witnesses,
I shall take up first the statements of several American
planters who rushed into print to defend the system
of their friend Diaz. There is George S. Gould, man-
ager of the San Gabriel rubber plantation, on the Isthmus
of Tehuantepec. In various newspapers Mr. Gould was
quoted extensively, especially in the San Francisco Bul-
letin, where he speaks of the "absolute inaccuracy" of
my writings. Here are some of his explanations taken
from that paper :

"As general manager of the San Gabriel, I send $2,500 at a
certain season to my agent in the City of Oaxaca. He opens
an employment office and calls for a quota of seventy-five
men. * * *

"The laborer is given an average of fifty cents (Mexican) a
week until the debt he owes the company is liquidated. The
company is not obliged to pay him this amount, but does so to
keep him contented. He is usually contracted for for periods
ranging from six months to three years. In three years, if he
is reasonably industrious and saving, he will not only have paid
off his debt money, but he will draw his liquidation with money
in his pocket. * * *

"The sum total is this: The peon slavery in Mexico might
be called slavery in the strictest sense of the word, but as long
as the laborer is under contract to the plantation owner he is
being done an inestimable good. It is the plantation owners
who prevent the peon — ordinarily worthless humans with no
profession— from becoming public charges. Unwittingly perhaps

CRITICS AND CORROBORATION 223

they block a lawless and irresponsible element by teaching the
peon to use his hands and brain."

Mr. Edward H. Thompson was for many years the
American consul in Yucatan. Mr. Thompson owns a
henequen plantation, and, though I did not visit it, I was
informed that he held slaves under exactly the same
conditions as do the henequen kings. Immediately fol-
lowing the publication of my first article Mr. Thompson
issued a long statement that was published in so many
papers that I imagine a news syndicate was employed to
circulate it. Mr. Thompson began by denouncing my
article as "outrageous in its statements and absolutely
false in many details." But read what Mr. Thompson
himself says are the facts :

"Reduced to its lowest terms and looking at the matter without
the desire to produce a sensational magazine article, the so-
called slavery becomes one of simple contract convenience to
both parties. The native needs the money, or thinks he does,
while the planter needs the labor of the native servant.

"The indebted servant is held more or less strictly to the
terms of the verbal and implied contract, according to the
personal equation of the planter or his representative. This
general fact is equally true in all of the great industries of our
country as well as in Yucatan.

"I do not seek to defend the system of indebted labor. It
is bad in theory and worse in practice. It is bad for the
planter because it locks up capital that could otherwise be
employed in developing the resources of the plantation. It is
worse for the servant, because by reason of it he learns to lean
too much on the powerful protection of his creditor-em-
ployer."

Reading those lines with discrimination, you will ob-
serve that Mr. Thompson admits that debt slavery is
prevalent in Yucatan, admits that a similar system exists
all over Mexico, and admits that it is a system that can-
not be defended. They why does he defend it ?

224 BARBAROUS MEXICO

Mr. C. V. Cooper, an American land promoter, writ-
ing in the Portland Oregonian, says that he read my
articles with "amusement mixed with indignation," and
decided that they were "grossly exaggerated." But he
made some admissions. Said he:

"The Mexican peon law provides that if a servant for any

reason is indebted to his employer, he must remain and work
out the debt at a wage agreed upon between the employer and
the employe."

But, Mr. Cooper, if the employe must remain, how
can he have any say as to how much the wage which
you declare is "agreed upon" shall be ?

Very naively Mr. Cooper explains the freedom of the
peon. Says he:

"There is nothing compulsory in his service at all. If he does
not like his surroundings or his treatment, he is at perfect
liberty to obtain the amount of his debt from anyone else and
leave the property."

From whom else, Mr. Cooper? Oh, the sweet, sweet
liberty of Mexico!

It is too bad that Mr. Cooper should have marred such
a rosy picture as he paints by admitting the man-hunt-
ing part of the system. But he does :

"Should a man run away, we can have him brought back if
the amount of the debt involved is worth while. The expense
of his capture is paid by the plantation and added to his
account."

Yet Mr. Cooper finally avers:

"The peons are perfectly free to come and go as they choose,
with the only legal proviso that they do not swindle any one out
of money that has been advanced them in good faith."

Mr. Cooper thought so well of his defense of the
Diaz system that he— or someone else — went to the ex-
pense of having it printed in pamphlet form and cir-
culated about the country. There were other pam-

CRITICS AND CORROBORATION 225

phleteers besides Mr. Cooper, too, who rushed to the
defense of Mexico. One was Mr. E. S. Smith of Tippe-
canoe, Iowa, the man who wired President Taft begging
him to deny The American Magazine the mails, and
that before my first article went to press. Mr. Smith
wrote "The Truth About Mexico," which The Bankers'
Magazine printed, and the same matter was afterwards
put into a pamphlet. Mr. Smith was so extravagant
in his denials of imperfections in Mexican institutions
and so glowing in his descriptions of Mexico's "ideal"
government that one of that government's warmest de-
fenders. The Mexican Herald, was revolted by the pro-
duction and printed a long editorial in which it prayed
that Mexico might be delivered of such friends as Mr.
Smith.

Mr. Giiillermo Hall, another American who is inter-
ested in Mexican properites, considers my articles a
"great injustice," inasmuch as, since the poor Mexican
knows nothing of freedom, he must be perfectly well off
as a slave. The Tucson, Arizona, Citizen quoted Mr.
Hall as follows :

"The cold facts stated in black type might seem preposterou^\ \
to the Americans of this country, whose training and environ- \
ment are so different * * * j^ the lower country along the
border, for instance, the so-called peon has no conception of
the liberty we enjoy in America. He absolutely doesn't know
what it means. The property owners there are compelled by
force of circumstances to maintain, at present, a sort of feudal- '
ism over him."

Mr. Dwight E. Woodbridge, a planter and writer,
wrote at length in defense of Mexican slavery in the
Mining World, the organ of the American Mine Owners'
organization. Here are some excerpts :

"Unquestionably there are brutalities and savageness in
Mexico. Outrages are committed there, both on the prisoners

226 BARBAROUS MEXICO

taken from confinement to haciendas and on the Yaquis. * * *
I am interested in a large plantation in southern Mexico, where
we have some 300 Yaqui laborers.

"Throughout the Yaqui country I have seen such things as
are pictured in the magazine, passed the bodies of men hanging
to trees, sometimes mutilated; have seen hundreds of tame
Yaquis herded in jails to be sent to the plantations of Yucatan,
or Tabasco, or Veracruz ; have heard of worse things.

"There is a certain sort of peonage in Mexico. One may call
it slavery if he will, and not be far from the truth. It is, in
fact, illegal, and no contracts under it can be enforced in the
courts. The slave is a slave so long as he is working out his
debt."

Of course none of the defenders of Mexico admit all
of my assertions, and all of them, naturally, seek to
minimize the horrors of the slave system — otherv^^ise
they could not be defending it. But you will see that
one admits one thing and another another until the whole
story is confessed as true.

Among the American publishers who rushed to the
defense of Diaz was Mr. William Randolph Hearst.
Mr. Hearst sent a writer, Otheman Stevens, to Mexico
to gather material to prove that Mexico is not barbarous.
Valiantly did Mr. Stevens attempt to carry out his trust,
but in dealing with the contract slavery system he suc-
ceeded in admitting most of the essential points, and was
able to defend only on the plea of capitalistic "necessity."
Some of his admissions, as they appeared in the Cos-
mopolitan Magazine of March, 1910, are:

"To offset these prospects of early industrial advances is the
contract labor system, and the contract labor system in Mexico
is a bad institution.

"Its repulsive features to our eyes is the fact that, while the
laborer enters voluntarily into the contract, the law gives the
employer a right over the workman's person in the enforcement
of the contract. Theoretically, there is no argument to be made
for contract labor.

CRITICS AND CORROBORATION 22Z

"If an enganchado rebels or is insolent or lazy, the lithe rod
in the hands of the 'boss' of the gang winds around him, and
he soon understands that he must fulfill his part of the con-
tract. If he runs away, a reward of ten dollars is paid to who-
ever brings him back. His clothes are taken away from him,
and he is clad in a gunny sack with holes cut for arms and
legs."

Mr. Stevens* defense of this system, as published in
the same number of the same magazine, is:

"Outside of the restrictions of dogmatic controversy there
is only one phase that makes a wrong right, and that is neces-
sity. A legal enforcement of a contract by using physical force
over the person is in itself wrong. On the other hand, legisla-
tion now prohibiting contract labor would work a greater wrong,
for it would destroy millions of investments, would retard a
most beneficent and rapid development of the richest region on
this continent, if not in the world, and would, by reflexes, work
more harm to the very people it would intend to aid than an
indefinite continuance of the present conditions."

This is exactly the logic the slave-driving cotton plant-
ers of our southern states used before the Civil War.
It will hardly "go" with anyone who has not money in-
vested in Mexican plantations which use enganchados.

I do not wish to tire the reader, but, aside from the
fact that I have been most violently attacked, I have
a reason for wishing to go a little deeper into this mat-
ter of critics and corroboration. Let us get right down
into Mexico itself, down to the very newspapers that
are paid a specified sum each week in exchange for
manufacturing public opinion favorable to President
Diaz and his system. In Mexico City there are two
daily newspapers printed in English, the Herald and
the Record. Both are prosperous and well edited, ano
both are open defenders of the Mexican government
The Herald, especially, repeatedly denounced my articles.

228 BARBAROUS MEXICO

I believe that I can show as many as fifty clippings from
this paper alone which, in one way or another, attempted
to cast doubt upon my statements. Nevertheless, in the
course of the daily publication of the news, or in the
very campaign of defense, both of these papers have,
since the first appearance of "Barbarous Mexico,"
printed matter which convincingly confirmed my charges.
October 23, 1909, the Daily Record dared to print an
article from the pen of Dr. Luis Lara y Pardo, one of
the best-known of Mexican writers, in which he admitted
that my indictment was true. A few lines from the
article will suffice. Said Dr. Pardo:

"The regime of slavery continues under the cloak of the loan
laws. Peons are sold by one hacendado to another under the
pretext that the money that has been advanced must be paid.
In the capital of the Republic itself traffic in human flesh has
been engaged in.

"On the haciendas the peons live in the most horrible manner.
They are crowded into lodgings dirtier than a stable and are
maltreated. The hacendado metes out justice to the peon, who
is even denied the right to protest."

A widespread fear among the common people of be-
ing ensnared as enganchados would argue not only that
the system is extensive, but that it is fraught with great
hardship. January 6, 1910, the Mexican Daily Record
published a news item which indicated that this is true,
and also suggested one way in which the government
plays into the hands of the labor snarers. Shorn of its
headlines, the item is :

"Five hundred contract laborers intended to work at con-
struction camps on the Veracruz and Pacific railroad, are
encamped near Buenavista station as a result of their unwilling-
ness to sign a formal contract, and the law prohibiting their
being taken into another state without such contract.

"Governor Landa y Escandon yesterday afternoon refused to

CRITICS AND CORROBORATION 229

grant the request of R. P. Davis and F. Villademoros, signers
of a petition to him to allow the laborers to be shipped out.
With their wives, children, and all their worldly possessions they
form a motley camp near the station.

"In their petition, Davis and Villademoros claim that the rail-
road company is suffering large losses by the detention of the
laborers and that many of the latter fear if they sign contracts
they will he shipped to sugar and coffee plantations and held
until the expiration of the specified terms.

Governor Landa refused the request on the ground that
the law requires such a formality to protect the laborers, while
the reason for waiving it did not appear logical."

The Mexican Herald furnishes more corroboration
than the Mexican Record. Commenting editorially upon
the announcements of "Barbarous Mexico," it said,
August 27, 1909:

"In this journal during recent years, and in many Mexican
papers as well, the abuses of the peonage system, and the ill-
treatment of los enganchados or contract laborers in some
regions, have been most frankly dealt with. The enlightened
Governor of Chiapas has denounced the evils of peonage in his
state and has received the thanks of the patriotic press of the
country. That there are dark spots in agricultural labor condi-
tions, no fair-minded person of wide information seeks to deny."

About the same time Paul Hudson, general manager
of the paper, was quoted in a New York interview as
saying that my exposures "do not admit of categorical
denial." And in the Mexican Herald of May 9, 1910,
J. Torrey Conner, writing in praise of General Diaz,
says: "Slavery, doubtless, is known to exist in Mexico
— that is generally understood." In February, 1909, in
an editorial item upon the political situation in the state
of Morelos, the Mexican Herald went so far as to admit
the killing of debt laborers by their masters. To quote
it exactly:

"It is undeniable that their (the planters') management is at

230 BARBAROUS MEXICO

times severe. When angry they heap abuse on the peons and
even maltreat them physically. In some instances they have, in
times not so distant, even taken the lives of native laborers
who have incensed them, and have gone scot free."

August 27, 1909, in an article on "The Enganchado"
the Herald said, in part:

"The enganchados are guarded most carefully, for there is the
ever present danger of their running away on the slightest
opportunity. Often the cahos are cruel in their treatment, a fact
which is to be condemned. * * * It is not in keeping here
to mention the abuses which are alleged to have been practiced
against the enganchados, the treatment of men so shamelessly
that they die, the raping of the women, the deprivation of the
laborers of any means of bathing, and the unsanitary condition
of their houses, leading on to noxious diseases. * * * -^q
planter who knows the real history of the system, or the inside
facts of the neighboring plantations, will deny for a moment the
worst stories of the enganchado are true.

"Plantation men do not take the enganchado labor because
they like it. Nor do they prefer it to any other, even the
lowest. But there is a certain advantage in it, as one planter
said to the writer, with a queer thrill in his voice : *When you've
got 'em they're yours, and have to do what you want them to do.
If they don't, you can kill them.'"

Such corroboration from a subsidized supporter of the
system itself would seem rather embarrassing to those
individuals v^^ho were so zealous as publicly to announce
that my portrayal of Mexican slavery was a fabrication.
It will be seen that my exposures of Mexican slavery
were not the first to be circulated in print; they were
merely the first to be circulated widely, and they went
into considerably more detail than anything that had
gone before. The little item that I have just quoted
admits practically all the worst features which I dealt
with in my articles.

CRITICS AND CORROBORATION 231

Here is an ordinary news item clipped from the Mex-
ican Herald of May 30, 1909:

"Angel Contreras, an enganchado, belonging to a good family,
is reported to have been brutally killed by being beaten to death
with staves at the nearby San Francisco sugar mills in the
El Naranjal municipality. Local newspapers state that other
similar crimes have been committed at that place."

This is the first information I have had that men are
beaten to death in the sugar mills of Mexico.

I present a news item from the Mexican Herald which
describes better than I did in my fourth chapter one
of the methods pursued by labor snarers to get their
fish into the net. The newspaper prints the story as if
the occurrence were unusual ; I reprint it in full because
it is typical. The only difference is that in this particular
case the victim was rescued and the labor agent was
jailed for a day or two only because it chanced that the
victim had been an employe of the national Department
of Foreign Relations. Had the authorities wished to
stop this sort of man-stealing, as the Herald would
have us believe, why did they not arrest the keepers of
the other "casas de enganchadores" which they found,
and liberate the prisoners? But here is the item, head-
lines and all:

"BOY OF 16
TRAPPED HERE.

"ALAMEDA SCENE OF BOLD

KIDNAPPING BY

SPANIARD.

"TO GO TO OAXAQUENA.

"CONTRACTORS PLANNED TO SEND

BOY TO AMERICAN

PLANTATION.

"When Felipe Hernandez, agent of a company of labor con-
tractors, commonly referred to in Mexico as 'enganchadores,'

232 BARBAROUS MEXICO

met sixteen-year-old Benito Juarez in the Alameda on Wednes-
day afternoon and induced him by brilliant promises of work
and wages to accompany him to a house on la Calle de Violeta,
he (Hernandez) made one of the serious mistakes of his life.
By refusing to allow young Benito to go out of the house after
he had once entered it, Hernandez violated one of the federal
statutes and he is now being held in the fifth comisaria to
answer a charge of illegal detention.

"Hernandez claims that he is the employe of one Leandro
Lopez, who is securing laborers for the Oaxaquena Plantation
Company, an American concern operating an extensive hacienda
on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, on the state boundary of Vera-
cruz, not far from Santa Lucrecia. Both men are Spaniards.
The whereabouts of the boy, Benito Juarez, was not definitely
ascertained until yesterday afternoon, when his release was
secured upon the demand of Subcomisario Bustamante of the
fifth comisaria, who subsequently arrested Hernandez after the
lad's statement had been placed on record at the comisaria.

THE boy's seduction.

"On Wednesday afternoon, at about 2 o'clock, young Benito,
who had been working with his mother, a bread vendor, was
sitting on one of the benches in the Alameda when, according to
his account, Hernandez happened along and in a benevolent
way asked him if he wanted a job at $1.50 a day. The man
explained that the work was at an alcohol factory near the city
and that the position was something in the character of time-
keeping or other clerical work. The lad agreed and was
induced to accompany his new-found friend to Calle Violeta,
where the details of his engagement were to be arranged.

"On the way they stopped at a cheap clothing store, where
Hernandez purchased a twenty-cent straw hat, a fifty-cent blouse,
a pair of sandals and a pair of trousers. Arrived at the house
on Calle Violeta young Juarez received orders to put on the peon
clothing and to relinquish his own suit of good apparel. In the
house where he found himself he encountered three or four
other men in the same situation with himself who apprized him
of the fact that he was now a contract laborer destined for a
plantation in the hot country.

HIS FRIENDS TRACE HIM.

"Until a short time ago Benito had been employed as a mozo

CRitlCS AND CORROBORATION 233

in the office of the department of foreign relations on the Paseo
de la Reforma and it was a fairly good suit of clothing that he
had worn while working there that he exchanged for the peon's
outfit. It was also through the charity of his former employer
in the government office that he was released from his unwilling
detention in Calle Violeta.

"The boy's mother, Angela Ramos, who lives at No. 4 Calle
Zanja, had expected to meet him at the Alameda, where he was
waiting when Hernandez came along. Not seeing him, she
started inquiry, which elicited the information that he had been
seen going away with a man who was supposed to be a labor
contractor, and she forthwith hunted up Ignacio Arellano, who
is employed in the foreign relations building, and explained to
him her trouble.

POLICE APPEALED TO.

"Mr. Arellano, accompanied by Alfredo Marquez, an em-
ploye of the department of fomento, secured the addresses of
three establishments commonly known as 'casas de engancha-
dores,' located variously at Calle de Moctezuma, 7a Calle de
Magnolia, and la de Violeta. Their experience as related yester-
day to a representative of The Herald was much the same at
each place and was about as follows :

"At each of the labor contractors' 'offices' where they sought
admission they were refused, being told that they had no such
individual as the boy in question in their charge. At each place
the assertion was made that they never contracted persons under
age. Finding their efforts fruitless, Arellano and Marquez took
the matter to the fifth comisaria, where it was explained to
Subcomisario Bustamante, who detailed an officer and two
secret service men to the places in question with orders to
search them thoroughly.

SEARCHING THE HOUSE.

"No particular resistance was made to the entrance of the
officers at either the Moctezuma or Magnolia street places. In
the former were about a dozen men who had signed contracts
to go out of the city to work on plantations, while in the latter
were about twice the same number. These men are said to have
claimed that they were refused permission to leave the place
where they were lodged while waiting transportation to their
ultimate destinations.

234 BARBAROUS MEXICO

"At Calle Violeta, however, the door-keeper at first refused
the officers admission, only submitting when threatened with
the arrest of every person in the house. Here young Juarez
was found and was taken to the fifth comisaria for examination.
As soon as his statement had been taken the arrest of Hernandez
was ordered, and after his identification by the boy, the latter
was set at liberty.

THE boy's account.

"Recounting his own adventure last night, young Juarez
described the meeting in the Alameda and the exchange of
clothing, and continued:

"'After I entered the house I learned from one of the men
who was already there that I had been fooled in the promise of
pay at $1.50 as time-keeper in an alcohol factory, and when I
asked the man with whom I had come if his promises were not
correct he said that of course they were not and that I was to go
to work as a peon on the Oaxaquena plantation at fifty cents per
day. Then I asked him to let me go, as I did not want to do
such work, but he would not let me leave the house, saying that I
owed him five pesos for the clothes he had given me.

" 'Before that I had told him that I would have to ask my
mother's permission before I could go. He told me he was in a
great hurry, so I wrote her a note and gave it to him to be
delivered. Later he told me my mother had read the note and
had given her permission, but I have found out since that she
never received it and was hunting for me at the time.

"*I was given a peso and five cents as an advance on my
pay and the next morning I was given twenty-five cents with
which to buy food, which was sold in the house. All this money
was charged up against me, to be paid after I went to work,
as I learned before I left the place. Breakfast, which cost
thirteen cents, consisted of chile and chicharrones (the crisp
residue of dried-out pork fat), while dinner, a bowl of soup,
cost twelve cents. There was no supper.

"'After I was brought into the house there was brought in a
man, and a woman who had a year-old baby with her. They are
there yet. The people in the house still have my clothes, but I
am pretty glad to get out of going to the hot country, anyway.
I did not sign any sort of a contract. I did not even see one and
I do not know whether the others in the place had signed con-

CRITICS AND CORROBORATION 235

tracts or not. They all said they had been refused permission to
leave the house unless they paid back the money which they
were told they owed.*

GOOD WORK OF THE POLICE.

"From the time that the first notice of the infraction of the
labor law was received by the police officials at the fifth comis-
aria until the prosecution of Hernandez was put under way
their activity has demonstrated beyond any question how far the
government authorities are from connivance in labor abuses
with which this country has been charged.

"The Mexican law provides punishment by five years imprison-
ment for offenses of this character against minors, and expressly
forbids the signing of contracts by persons under legal age
binding themselves to work. As there is no legal detention with-
out process of law, the prospects for a severe punishment of the
man Hernandez, if the assertions of the lad are found correct,
seems certain, as he is likely to be made an example of for the
benefit of other labor contractors disposed to be careless of
their methods."

I doubt if I could do better than to end this chapter
with quotations from official reports of the United
States government itself. Cold-bloodedly as were the
succeeding paragraphs written, the statements that they
contain are yet exceedingly corroborative. They are
from Bulletin No. 38 of the United States Department
of Labor, published in January, 1902. I should like to
quote more extensively, but I take only a few para-
graphs from pages 42, 43 and 44.

"In a great many (Mexican) states where tropical products are
raised the native residents are employed under a contract which
is compulsory on their part, owing to their being in debt to the
planter. * * *

"The system of enforced labor is carried out to its logical
sequence in the sisal-grass plantations of Yucatan. There, on
each large plantation, is to be found a body of peons, called
criados or sirvientes (servants), who, with their families, live
on the plantations, and in many cases have been born there.

236 BARBAROUS MEXICO

These criados are bound to the soil by indebtedness, for although
a mere contract to perform certain services does not impose
specific performance, it is held in Yucatan that where an
advance payment has been made either the repayment of the
money or, in default thereof, the specific performance may be
exacted.

"The system of labor enforced by indebtedness seems to
work in Yucatan to the satisfaction of the planter. The peon
is compelled to work unless he is able to pay oflf his constantly
increasing debt, and any attempt at flight or evasion is followed
by penal retribution. The peon rarely, if ever, achieves inde-
pendence, and a transference of a workman from one employer
to another is only effected by means of the new employer
paying to the former one the amount of the debt contracted.
The system thus resembles slavery, not only in the compulsion
under which the peon works, but in the large initial expense
required of the planter when making his first investment in
labor.

"In the State of Tabasco the conditions of forced labor are
somewhat different and the difficulty of the labor problem,
especially from the point of view of the planter, is exceedingly
aggravated. In Tabasco the law does not permit the same
remedy as in Yucatan, namely, the enforcement of the specific
performance of a contract upon which an advance payment has
been made, but this drawback is more apparent than real, since
the governmental authority is vested in the hands of the land-
owning planting classes, and the obligation of contracted peons
to work for the planters is virtually enforced."

Is it necessary to ask again, who has been distorting
the truth, myself or the other fellow? Is there slavery
in Mexico, and is it widespread? Are men bought and
sold like mules, locked up at night, hunted down when
they try to run away, starved, beaten, killed? Surely
these questions have been answered to the satisfaction
of every honest reader. But I have not yet answered
that other question, why — why are so many Americans
so ready to distort the truth about Mexico?

CHAPTER XIII

THE DIAZ-AMERICAN PRESS CONSPIRACY

If there is any combination of Interests in the United
States that exercises so powerful an influence over the
press of this country as does President Diaz of Mexico
I should like to know its name.

In a previous chapter I asserted that no publication in
Mexico dares, no matter what the circumstances, to crit-
icize President Diaz directly. While the same thing
cannot, of course, be said of the United States, at least
this can be said, that there exists a strange, even an
uncanny, unwillingness on the part of powerful Ameri-
can publishers to print anything derogatory to the ruler
of Mexico; that, also, there is manifested a remarkable
willingness to print matter flattering to the Mexican
dictator.

At this writing I do not know of a single book, regu-
larly published and circulated in the United States, which
seriously criticizes President Diaz, the man or his sys-
tem; while I could name at least ten which flatter him
most extravagantly. Indeed, I do not know of any book
that has ever been circulated in the United States — that
is, one put out by one of the regular publishing houses —
which attempted an extended criticism of President
Diaz.

And the situation with the magazines is exactly the
same. While the number of articles containing praise of
Diaz which have been published in magazines — not to
mention newspapers — during the past several years have
undoubtedly run into the hundreds, I do not know of one
prominent magazine that has prosecuted a criticism of
the Mexican dictator.

Is it not an astonishing situation? And what is the

2^1

238 BARBAROUS MEXICO

reason for it? Is it because the system of Diaz is be-
yond reproach? Or is it because by some mysterious
power that personage is able to control the press in his
favor ?

Look about you. Is there any other statesman or poli-
tician of the present day, American or foreign, who has
been accorded a larger proportion of praise and a
smaller proportion of blame by prominent American
publishers than President Diaz?

I say that I do not know of one prominent magazine
that has prosecuted a criticism of Diaz. Then how about
The American Magazine? The American Magazine
began a criticism, truly. And it planned to carry it out.
Repeatedly it promised its readers that it would deal
with the political conditions behind the slavery of Mex-
ico. It hinted that Diaz would be shown in a new light.
It had the material in its hands — most of the material
of this book — and it was very bold and unequivocal in
its announcements. And then —

The American Magazine proved the point that I am
making more convincingly than any other instance than
I can cite. Suddenly my articles were stopped. The po-
litical investigation was stopped. Other articles were
substituted, milder articles, good as corroborations of
the exposures of slavery, but in each and every one of
these articles there was contained a suggestion that
President Diaz was not personally to blame for the bar-
barous conditions that had been held up to the light.

"Diaz controls all sources of news and the means of trans-
mitting it. Papers are suppressed or subsidized at the pleasure
of the government. We know of some of the subsidies paid
even to important Mexican papers printed in English. The
real news of Mexico does not get across the border. Books
that truly describe the present state of things are suppressed
or bought up even when published in the United States. A

THE DIAZ-AMERICAN PRESS CONSPIRACY 239

great Mexico-Diaz myth has been built up by skilfully applied
influence upon journalism. It is the most astounding case of the
suppression of truth and the dissemination of untruth that recent
history affords."

With these words the editors of The American Maga-
zine heralded to the world the first of my articles under
the title of "Barbarous Mexico."

"Skilfully applied influence upon journalism!" Lit-
tle did the writer of that pregnant phrase realize how
pregnant it was. Little did he imagine that before six
short months were gone that phrase would be as ap-
plicable to his own publication as to any other.

What was the skilfully applied influence exerted upon
The American Magazine? I am not pretending to say.
But to anyone who will go back and read again the bold
announcements of the September, October and Novem-
ber numbers of the magazine — 1909 — read the enthusi-
astic comments of the editors on the interest aroused
by the series, the delighted statements of jumping circu-
lation, the letters of subscribers begging the editors not
to fear, but to go on with the good work, and then note
how the magazine sheered away from its program after
the first of the year, the conclusion that there was some
kind of "skilfully applied influence" seemed pretty well
justified.*

* Since this matter was put in type The American Magazine has
begrun a second series of articles on Mexico, in whicli it promises to
follow out the thread of exposure which it dropped several months
previously. In the October issue, 1910, it prints under the name of
Alexander Powell an article two-thirds of which had been written
by me and furnished to The American fifteen months earlier. The
alleged author did not even take the trouble to re-write the mate-
rial, and it appears almost word for word as I orig^inally wrote it.
To my mind this is but a confirmation of my widely circulated
charges : First, that The American failed to carry out its promises to
the public because of "skilfully applied influence ;" second, that it
has gone back to the subject of Mexico only because its readers
who have read my charges have whipped it into doing so. Finally,
its publication at this late day of my oriprinal material is proof
that it has not been "gathering new facts," as announced, and that
the facts furnished by me in the first place are the most effective as
well as the most reliable that have yet come into its possession.

240 BARBAROUS MEXICO

But let us note some of the journalistic antics of some
other leading publishers. There is William Randolph
Hearst, for example, proprietor of The Cosmopolitan
Magazine and numerous daily newspapers in different
parts of the country. There is no use of dwelling here
upon the democratic and humanitarian professions of
Mr. Hearst. Everybody knows that for the United
States, and doubtless most other countries, he advocates
democracy, freedom of speech, a free press, universal
suffrage, regulation of predatory corporations, protec-
tion of labor. But Mr. Hearst's readers have just
learned that for Mexico he is in favor of despotism, a
police ruled press, no suffrage, unbridled corporations,
and — slavery. I have never seen a more frantic apology
for these institutions anywhere than is to be found in
the March, April and May, 1910, numbers of the Cos-
mopolitan Magazine.

That Mr. Hearst was personally responsible for the
publication of these articles is evidenced by an inter-
view which he gave The Mexican Herald while in Mex-
ico last March. Says that newspaper, under date of
March 23:

"In reference to the stories attacking Mexico, which have
been largely circulated recently, Mr. Hearst stated that he had
looked after defending the good name of this country to the
best of his ability. He placed two of his staff, Otheman
Stevens and Alfred Henry Lewis, at work on matter pertaining
to Mexico and much of the material collected by them had
already appeared in some of his newspapers."

So headlong was Mr. Hearst^s hurry to the defense
of Diaz that he did not take time to secure writers fa-
miliar with the most primary facts about their subject,
nor give them time to compare notes and avoid con-
tradictions, nor give his editors time to verify ordinary

THE DIAZ-AMERICAN PRESS CONSPIRCY 241

statements. Mr. Lewis' article was prepared so liter-
ally at the last moment that, when it came, the magazine
had already been paged and the article had to be put in
as an insertion, with special paging. A laughable
feature of the campaign was that, in introducing his
knights of the defense, the editor of the Cosmopolitan
moralized at length on the matter of permitting raw and
untried writers — meaning myself — to handle important
subjects, and named a list of proven and guaranteed-to-
be-reliable writers among whom was Mr. Alfred Henry
Lewis. But when Mr. Lewis came to write! I pray
that in all this book there is not one mistake one-half as
ridiculous as any of a dozen in Mr. Lewis' short article.
Mr. Lewis modestly remarked, near the start, that:
"Personally, I know as much of Mexico and Mexicans
as any.'* But the burden of his story was that my
writings were inspired by Standard Oil, which wanted
revenge on Diaz for having been "kicked out of Mex-
ico." Now how Mr. Lewis could have lived in the
United States during the previous few months and read
the newspapers without having learned of the oil war
in Mexico, a war in which at the very time the lines
were written. Standard Oil seemed on the point of
forcing its only competitor to sell out to it on unfavor-
able terms, how Mr. Lewis could have failed to know
that Standard Oil owns millions of dollars worth of oil
lands and does a vast majority of the retail oil business
in Diaz-land, how he could have been ignorant of the
fact that H. Clay Pierce, head of the Standard Oil cor-
poration in Mexico, is a director of the National Rail-
ways of Mexico, the government merged lines, so-called,
and a close ally of President Diaz, is a little difficult to
understand. Personally, Mr. Lewis knows as much of
Mexico and Mexicans as any! Any — ^what?

242 BARBAROUS MEXICO

Just one more of Mr. Lewis' all-embracing blunders
in that article. Said he:

"Search where you will, in every Mexican corner, from the
Pacific to the gulf, from Yucatan to the Arizona line, you will
meet no sugar trust to cheat the government with false scales,
no coal trust to steal the fires from the poor man's chimney, no
wool or cotton trust to steal the clothes off his back, no beef
trust to filch the meat from his table, no leather trust to take
the shoes off his feet. * * * The trusts do not exist in
Mexico."

Which proves that Mr. Lewis does not know the first
principle upon which Mexican finance and Mexican com-
mercial life is based. Not only does the same financial
ring which monopolizes the great industries of the Uni-
ted States monopolize those same industries in Mexico
— I shall presently enumerate some of them — but every
state and locality has its minor trusts which control the
necessities of life in their field a great deal more com-
pletely than such necessities are controlled in this coun-
try. Mr. Lewis does not seem to know that the Mexican
government is openly in the trust business, that by sale
and gift of special privileges known as "concessions"
it creates and maintains trusts of high and low degree.
Personally, Mr. Lewis knows as much of Mexico and
Mexicans as any!

Just a slip or two from Mr. Stevens, taken almost at
random.

"There is no terrifying labor question to make the investor
hesitate. A strike is unknown, and there is no danger of a
shortage of labor, skilled or unskilled."

And another:

"No bank in Mexico can fail, no bank-note can be worthless,
and no depositor can possibly lose his money, no matter what
fatality may befall the bank with which he has his account."

THE DIAZ-AMERICAN PRESS CONSPIRCY 243

As to the first statement, I have answered it in the
chapter, "Four Mexican Strikes." Three of these strikes
are famous and there is no excuse for Mr. Stevens'
having heard of none of them. As to the second state-
ment, there are some hundreds of Americans who are
just now fervently wishing it were really true — fer-
vently wishing that they could get a settlement on the
basis of twenty-five cents on the dollar. In February,
1910, about the time Mr. Stevens was penning so glow-
ingly,'the United States Bank of Mexico, the largest
bank in the country which catered to Americans, was
wrecked in exactly the same way as most American bank
wrecks are made — by misappropriation of funds to sup-
port a speculative scheme. The bank went to smash,
the president went to jail, the depositors did not get
their money and at this writing there seems little chance
of their getting any of it. Certainly they will never get
all or half of it. And this was not the only disaster of
the sort that has lately occurred in Mexico. About May
1, 1910, another American bank, the Federal Banking
Company, went to smash and its cashier, Robert E.
Crump, went to jail. The fact is that there was no
ground for Mr. Stevens' statement whatsoever.

To quote all of Mr. Stevens' blunders would be to
quote most of his three articles. He went to Mexico
to prepare a defense of Diaz and he did not take the
trouble to put a liberal sprinkling of facts in his de-
fense. He was taken in charge by agents of Diaz and
he wrote down what they told him to write. He was
even taken in on the little yarn about the Yucatan slave
who got his master into jail, a yarn which had done duty
before. The story runs that a hcncquen king beat one of
his laborers, the laborer appealed to a justice of the
peace, who arrested and fined the master. The truth

244 BARBAROUS MEXICO

of the incident was — and my authority is most reliable
— that the slave had run away, was caught by a planter
other than his owner, who attempted to hold him quietly
as his own. In the course of the day's work the slave
was badly beaten, and it was in this condition that his
real owner found him. The real owner secured the ar-
rest of the would-be thief, in the name of the slave, and
so the story of the "equality before the law" of the slave
and master went out to the world.

The important thing, however, is not the laughable
mistakes of Mr. Hearst's writers, but the wherefore of
Mr. Hearst's putting his printing presses so unreservedly
into the service of a man and a system such as he would
not defend for a moment were they to be found in any
other country.

But let us mention a few more publications which have
put themselves in the same class as Mr. Hearst's maga-
zine. There is Sunset Magazine. In February, 1910, it
began a series of articles by "Gasper Estrada Gonzalez,"
who is announced as "a stateman who is very close to
Diaz." There were three articles of fawning flattery.
Followed an article by Herman Whitaker, in which he
praised Diaz to the skies and absolved him from all
blame for the slave atrocities of Mexico. Then came an
article by a man named Murray, who wrote to justify
Diaz's extermination of the Yaquis.

Moody's Magazine ran a series of articles under the
title, "Mexico as it Is," in which the writer attempted to
neutralize the effect of "Barbarous Mexico" upon the
public conscience. I have already mentioned defenses
which were published in the Bankers' Magazine and in
the Mining World. In addition, The Overland Monthly,
The Exporter, many newspapers — like the Los Angeles

THE DIAZ-AMERICAN PRESS CONSPIRCY 245

Times — and various smaller publications, as well as
many private individuals and a book publisher or two
took up the work of defending their friend Diaz.

As to the book defense against "Barbarous Mexico,"
little has appeared so far, doubtless because of the
shortness of time, but there are reports that several
books are on their way. One of these, it is said, is to be
by James Creelman, who left the employ of Pearson's
Magazine at the call of Diaz, hurried to Mexico from
Turkey, and spent several weeks going over the route
I described in my articles, in order that he might be
able to "refute" me with verisimilitude, no doubt.

The book "Porfirio Diaz," written by Jose F. Godoy,
whom Diaz recently appointed as his minister to Cuba,
though it does not refer to my exposures in any way,
was quite likely hurried out because of them. Here is
a very expensively printed book, containing nothing that
has not been printed repeatedly before, except — seventy
pages of endorsements of Diaz written by prominent
Americans. Here we have the case of a man, Mr. Godoy,
who actually went about — or sent about — among sena-
tors, congressmen, diplomats and cabinet officers, solicit-
ing kind words for President Diaz. And he got them.
In looking over this book it seems to me that almost any
discriminating persons would be moved to inquire what
moved G. P. Putnam's Sons to issue that hook. Surely
it was not entirely the hope of profitable sales to the
general public.

I know of only one book of criticism of the Diaz sys-
tem that was put out by a regular American publisher,
and the criticism in that book was so veiled and so in-
terspersed with flattery that the American reviewers
took it for one of the old adulatory sort. Only one of

246 BARBAROUS MEXICO

them, so the author himself told me, was discerning
enough to see that it was a book of criticism. "I wrote
the book that way/' the author said to me, "in the hope
that it would be allowed to circulate in Mexico."

But the officials of the Mexican government were
more discerning than the American book reviewers and
the book was not allowed to circulate. Not only that,
but quite suddenly and mysteriously it disappeared from
the stores in this country and very soon was not to be
had. Had the book disappeared because it was bought
by the public, the publishers would be expected to print
a second edition, but this they declined to do and, though
flatly asserting that the work was not again to appear,
they also declined to give the author or other inquirers
further satisfaction. The book I refer to was the one
entitled "Porfirio Diaz," written by Rafael DeZayas
Enriquez and issued by D. Appleton & Co., in 1908.

Carlo de Fornaro, a Mexican newspaperman, or
rather, a native of Italy who had spent two years in
newspaper work in Mexico City, also wrote a book,
"Diaz, Czar of Mexico," printing it himself because he
could not find a regular publisher. It was refused cir-
culation in Mexico and action for criminal libel was at
once begun against Fornaro in the New York courts.
To bring this suit, the editor of Diaz's leading news-
paper, El Imparcial, with Joaquin Casasus, the most
prominent lawyer of Mexico and former ambassador to
the United States, hurried from the Mexican capital.
Among the American lawyers employed as special pros-
ecutors was Henry W. Taft, brother of the president
and counsel of the National Railways of Mexico. For-
naro, being without the means to bring witnesses from
Mexico to support the charges made in his book, was

THE DIAZ-AMERICAN PRESS CONSPIRCY 247

convicted, sent to prison for one year and the book was
thereafter not circulated in the regular way. In fact,
immediately after the arrest of Fornaro for some reason
the New York book stores, at least, refused longer to
handle the work. The Fornaro incident occurred in
1909.

Perhaps even a more remarkable incident still was that
of the suppression of "Yucatan, the American Egypt,"
written by Tabor and Frost, Englishmen. After being
printed in England this book was put out in this coun-
try by Doubleday, Page & Co., one of our largest and
most respectable publishers. It was put out in expen-
sive form and, in the natural course of the book trade,
should have been purchasable for years after it left the
presses. But within six months the publishers, replying
to a would-be purchaser, asserted that the book "has
gone out of print and absolutely no copies are available!"
I have the letter myself. The book was almost entirely
about the ancient ruins of Yucatan, but it contained a
score or so of pages exposing the slavery of the hene-
quen plantations — and it had to go. What sort of argu-
ment was used upon our esteemed and respectable pub-
lishers to cause them to withdraw the book can be imag-
ined.

These instances are added to the others to show what
happens when a writer does succeed in getting an ex-
pose of the Diaz system into print. In this book which
I am writing I am doing my best to bring out the most
important facts and at the same time avoid giving valid
grounds for action at libel. When it appears there will
be no legal reason why it should not be circulated as the
majority of books are circulated. Nevertheless, if it is
extensively offered for sale in the usual way it will be

248 BARBAROUS MEXICO

the first extended criticism of Diaz and his system to
be put squarely before the American people. And the
reason for its being the first will be not because there
have not been facts that begged to be printed and writers
that desired to print those facts, but because of that
"skilfully applied influence upon journalism" which Gen-
eral Diaz exerts in our land of free speech and free
press.

Again I come back to the question: What is the
source of that "influence upon journalism?" Why do
citizens of the United States, who profess a reverence
for the principles for which their forefathers of ^(i
fought, who claim to revere Abraham Lincoln most of all
for his Emancipation Proclamation, who shudder at the
labor-baiting of the Congo, at the horrors of Russia's
Siberia, at the political system of Czar Nicholas, apolo-
gize for and defend a more cruel slavery, a worse politi-
cal oppression, a more complete and terrible despotism
— in Mexico?

To this question there is only one conceivable answer,
that for the sake of sordid profits principles of decency
and humanity, principles which are universally conceded
as being best for the progress of the world, have been
set aside.

By this I do not mean that all of the Americans who
have expressed admiration for General Diaz have been
directly bribed to do so by gifts of so many dollars and
so many cents. By no means. Some publishers and
some writers have undoubtedly been bought in this way.
But the vast majority of the active flatterers of Diaz
have been moved by nothing more than "business rea-
sons," which, by some persons, will be considered as
little different from bribery. As to the great mass of the

THE DIAZ-AMERICAN PRESS CONSPIRCY 249

Americans who think well of Diaz, and sometimes speak
well of him — as distinct from what I have called the
"active flatterers" — they have simply been fooled, de-
ceived by the consistent press campaign which the oth-
ers have kept up for, lo, these many years.

Such American planters as those whom I have quoted
as defending the Diaz system of slavery may have been
moved by nothing more reprehensible than a desire to
prevent my exposures from "hurting the country," or
"hurting business," meaning their business. In fact,
I was much surprised that so many actual residents of
Mexico came forward in support of my statements as
did, inasmuch as nearly every American in Mexico has
some land which he has obtained for a very low price —
or for nothing at all — and which he wishes to sell at
a profit. Or he has a stock-selling scheme, in a rubber
plantation, for example, with which he is trying to se-
cure the good money of widows and orphans, poor
school teachers, small business men and working peo-
ple. Just as the average American real estate boomer
"boosts his town," decries exposures of political cor*
ruption as "hurting business," even suppresses news of
plague, earthquake fatalities and such things, so the
American in Mexico, knowing that exposures of slavery
and political instability will frighten away investments
and perhaps lose him some profitable deals, seldom hes-
itates to argue that political and industrial conditions in
the country are ideal. The more property a man owns
in Mexico the less likely is he to tell the truth about
the country.

As to the American publishers, the "business reasons"
are usually found either In the interest of the publisher
himself in some property or "concession" in Mexico,

250 BARBAROUS MEXICO

or in his business connection with some other person*
of means who hold such properties or such concessions-
And through one or the other of these avenues un-
doubtedly nearly all of our largest publishers, of books,
magazines or newspapers, are touched. The situation
in my home town may be a little exceptional, but from
it may be guessed the extent of the "skilfully applied
influence" of Diaz that probably extends over the whole
country. I reside in Los Angeles, California, where
there are five daily newspapers. At the time of the
high-handed persecutions of Magon, Villarreal and Riv-
era, Sarabia, De Lara, Modesto Diaz, Arizmendez,
Ulibarri and other Mexicans, political enetpies of Diaz,
in 1907, it became plain that the muzzle was on all of
those newspapers. Suspicion was confirmed by a man-
aging editor of one of them, who said in confidence to
me and to others:

"The newspapers of this town could get those men out
of jail in twenty-four hours if they went at it. But they
won't go at it because the owners of all five are inter-
ested in concessions in Mexico. You see we're up against
it. We don't dare to say a word, for if we did Diaz
would get hack at us."

Two of these newspaper owners were Mr. Hearst
himself and Harrison Gray Otis, the latter proprietor of
the well known Los Angeles Times. Each of these men
own more than a million acres of Mexican land, which
they are generally credited with securing from the Mex-
ican government for nothing or practically nothing. In
addition to owning a magnificent stock ranch, Mr.
Hearst owns vast oil lands and, in addition, is credited
with being involved financially with the Southern Pacific
Railroad Company, which is one of the hugest bene-
ficiaries of the Diaz government. As to the magnifi-

THE DIAZ-AMERICAN PRESS CONSPIRCY 251

cence of Mr. Hearst's stock ranch, permit me to repro-
duce an item which was published in the Mexican Her-
ald, August 24, 1908.

IS WONDERFUL ESTATE.

HEARST HOLDINGS IN CHIHUAHUA
SMALL EMPIRE.

IS OVER MILLION ACRES.

Within the Enclosure Graze 60,000 Herefords and 125,000
Head of Sheep — ^Thousands of Horses and Hogs are Raised
There.

"With over a million acres of the finest agricultural and
grazing land, with large herds of blooded cattle, horses and
sheep, roaming over this vast domain, the big Hearst cattle
ranch and farm in Chihuahua is the peer of any such estate in
the world, whether it lies in the great corn belt of Illinois or
Kansas, or stretches for miles across the wind-swept prairies of
Texas or Oklahoma. Two hundred and fifty miles of barbed
wire fence enclose a portion of this vast ranch and within the
enclosure graze 60,000 thoroughbred Herefords, 125,000 fine
sheep, and many thousand head of horses and hogs. A modern,
up-to-date ranch and farm, whose crops are unexcelled in the
world, and whose stock is famous from end to end of the
Republic, this ranch is convincing evidence of the great future
which is in store for the agricultural and stock raising industry
of Mexico."

Thus spoke E. Kirby Smith, a well-known planter of Cam-
peche, who is spending a few days in the city. Mr. Kirby
Smith has just returned from an extended trip into Chihuahua,
where he spent several days on the great Hearst ranch.

"This ranch," said Mr. Kirby Smith, "is typical of the great
modern stock farms and presents a glorious picture as to what
may be expected from enterprises of this character, if properly
conducted, in this Republic. The stock is of the best. Imported
jacks and stallions, thoroughbred brood mares and thoroughbred
cattle dot the ranch from end to end.

"Vast amounts of corn and potatoes are raised, and in potatoes
alone fortunes are going to be made by the farmers of northern
Mexico."

252 BARBAROUS MEXICO

As to the Sunset Magazine, it is owned outright by
the Southern Pacific Railroad company, and Moody's
Magazine, the Bankers' Magazine, The Exporter, and
the Mining World are all known to be dominated by
Wall street Interests. And what, pray, have the South-
ern Pacific Railroad and Wall street to do with Diaz and
Mexico ?

The answer is — everything. While Wall street has
more or less conflicting interests in the looting of the
United States, Wall street is ONE when it comes to the
looting of Mexico. This is the chief reason why Amer-
ican publishers are so nearly one when it comes to the
flattering of Diaz. Wall street and Diaz are business
partners and the American press is an appendage of the
Diaz press bureau. Through ownership and near owner-
ship of magazines, newspapers and publishing houses,
and through the power of shifting advertising patron-
age. Wall street has up to this moment been able to
suppress the truth and maintain a lie about Diaz and
Mexico.

CHAPTER XIV

THE AMERICAN PARTNERS OF DIAZ

The United States is a partner in the slavery of Mex-
ico. After freeing his black slaves Uncle Sam, at the
end of half a century, has become a slaver again. Un-
cle Sam has gone to slave-driving in a foreign country.

No, I shall not charge this to Uncle Sam, the genial,
liberty-loving fellow citizen of our childhood. I would
rather say that Uncle Sam is dead and that another is
masquerading in his place — a counterfeit Uncle Sam
who has so far deceived the people into believing that
he is the real one. It is that person whom I charge with
being a slaver.

This is a strong statement, but I believe that the facts
justify it. The United States is responsible in part for
the extension of the system of slavery in Mexico; sec-
ond, it is responsible as the determining force in the
continuation of that slavery; third, it is responsible
knowingly for these things.

When I say the United States I do not mean a few
minor and irresponsible American officials. Nor do I
mean the American nation — which, in my humble judg-
ment, is unjustly charged with the crimes of some per-
sons over whom, under conditions as they exist, it has
no control. I use the term in its most literal and exact
sense. I mean the organized power which officially rep-
resents this country at home and abroad. I mean the
Federal Government and the Interests that control the
Federal Government.

Adherents of a certain political cult in this country
are wont to declare that chattel slavery was abolished in

253

254 BARBAROUS MEXICO

the United States because it ceased to be profitable.
Without commenting on the truth or fallacy of this as-
sertion, I aver that there are plenty of Americans who
are prepared to prove that slavery is profitable in Mex-
ico. Because it is considered profitable, these Ameri-
cans have, in various ways, had a hand in the extension
of the institution. Desiring to perpetuate Mexican
slavery and considering General Diaz a necessary factor
in that perpetuation, they have given him their undivided
support. By their control of the press they have glori-
fied his name, when otherwise his name should be by
right a stench in the nostrils of the world. But they
have gone much farther than this. By their control of
the political machinery of their government, the United
States government, they have held him in his place when
otherwise he would have fallen. Most effectively has
the police power of this country been used to destroy
a movement of Mexicans for the abolition of Mexican
slavery and to keep the chief slave-driver of Barbarous
Mexico, Porfirio Diaz, upon his throne.

Still another step can we go in these generalizations.
By making itself an indispensable factor in his continua-
tion in the governmental power, through its business
partnership, its press conspiracy and its police and mil-
itary alliance, the United States has virtually reduced
Diaz to a political dependency, and by so doing has vir-
tually transformed Mexico into a slave colony of the
United States.

As I have already suggested, these are generalizations,
but if I did not believe that the facts set forth in this and
the succeeding chapter fully justified each and every
one of them, I would not make them.

Pardon me for again referring to the remarkable de-
fense of Mexican slavery and Mexican despotism which

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THE AMERICAN PARTNERS OF DIAZ 255

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we find in the United States, inasmuch as it is itself a
strong presumption of guilty partnership in that slavery
and despotism. What publication or individual in the
United States, pray you, was ever known to defend the
system of political oppression in Russia? What publi-
cation or individual in the United States was ever known
to excuse the slave atrocities of the Congo Free State?
How many Americans are in the habit of singing paeans
of praise to Czar Nicholas or the late King Leopold?

Americans of whatever class not only do not dare to
do these things, but they do not care to do them. But
what a difference when it comes to Mexico! Here
slavery is sacred. Here autocracy is deified.

It will not do to deny the honesty of the comparison be-
tween Mexico and Russia or the Congo. For every
worshipper of Diaz knows that he is an autocrat and
a slave-driver and enough of them admit it to leave no
ground for doubt that they know it.

What, then, is the reason for this strange diversion
of attitude? Why do so many prostrate themselves be-
fore the Czar of Mexico and none prostrate themselves
before the Czar of Russia? Why is America flooded
with books hailing the Mexican autocrat as the greatest
man of the age while it is impossible to buy a single book,
regularly published and circulated, that seriously criti-
cizes him?

The inference is inevitable that it is because Diaz is
the Golden Calf in but another form, that Americans
are profiting by Mexican slavery and are exerting them-
selves to maintain it.

But there are easily provable facts that carry us far
beyond any mere inference, however logical it may be.

What is the most universal reply that has been made
to my criticisms of Mexico and Mexico's ruler? That

256 BARBAROUS MEXICO

there are $900,000,000 of American capital invested in
Mexico.

To the Powers that Be in the United States the nine
hundred million dollars of American capital form a con-
clusive argument against any criticism of President Diaz.
They are an overwhelming defense of Mexican slavery.

"Hush ! Hush !" the word goes about. "Why, we have
nine hundred million dollars grinding out profits down
there!" And the American publishers obediently hush.

In that $900,000,000 of American capital in Mexico
is to be found the full explanation not only of the
American defense of the Mexican government, but also
of the political dependency of Diaz upon the Powers
that Be in this country. Wherever capital flows capital
controls the government. This doctrine is recognized
everywhere and by all men who have as much as half
an eye for the lessons that the world is writing. The
last decade or two has proved it in every country where
large aggregations of capital have gathered.

No wonder there is a growing anti-American senti-
ment in Mexico. The Mexican people are naturally
patriotic. They have gone through tremendous trials
to throw off the foreign yoke in past generations and
they are unwilling to bend beneath the foreign yoke to-
day. They want the opportunity of working out their
own national destiny as a separate people. They look
upon the United States as a great colossus which is
about to seize them and bend them to its will.

And they are right. American capital in Mexico will
not be denied. The partnership of Diaz and American
capital has wrecked Mexico as a national entity. The
United States government, as long as it represents Amer-
ican capital — and the most rampant hypocrite will hardly
deny that it does today — ^will have a deciding voice in

THE AMERICAN PARTNERS OF DIAZ 257

Mexican affairs. From the viewpoint of patriotic Mex-
icans the outlook is melancholy indeed.

Let us cast our eyes over Mexico and see v^hat some
of that $900,000,000 of American capital is doing there.

The Morgan-Guggenheim copper merger is in abso-
lute control of the copper output of Mexico.

M- Guggenheim Sons own all the large smelters in
Mexico, as well as vast mining properties. They occupy
the same powerful position in the mining industry gen-
erally in Mexico as they occupy in the United States.

The Standard Oil company, under the name of the
Waters-Pierce, with many subsidiary corporations, con-
trols a vastly major portion of the crude oil flow of Mex-
ico. It controls a still greater portion of the wholesale
and retail trade in oil — ninety per cent of it, so its man-
agers claim. At the present writing there is an oil war
in Mexico caused by an attempt of the only other oil
distributing concern in the country — controlled by the
Pearsons — to force the Standard to buy it out at a
favorable price. The situation predicts an early victory
for the Standard, after which its monopoly will be com-
plete.

Agents of the American Sugar Trust have just se-
cured from the Federal and State governments conces-
sions for the production of sugar beets and beet sugar
so favorable as to insure it a complete monopoly of the
Mexican sugar business within the next ten years.

The Tnter-Continental Rubber company — in other
words, The American Rubber Trust — is in possession of
millions of acres of rubber lands, the best in Mexico.

The Wells-Fargo Express company, the property of
the Southern Pacific Railroad, through its partnership
with the government, holds an absolute monopoly of
the express carrying business of Mexico.

258 BARBAROUS MEXICO

E. N. Brown, president of the National Railways of
Mexico and a satellite of H. Clay Pierce and the late
E. H. Harriman, is a member of the board of directors
of the Banco Nacional, which is by far the largest finan-
cial institution in Mexico, a concern that has over fifty
branches, in which all the chief members of the Diaz
financial camarilla are interested and through which finan-
cial deals of the Mexican government are transacted.

Finally, the Southern Pacific Railroad and allied Har-
riman heirs, despite the much vaunted government rail-
way merger, own outright or control by virtue of near-
ownership, three-fourths of the main line railway mile-
age of Mexico, which enables it today to impose as ab-
solute a monopoly in restraint of trade as exists in the
case of any railway combination in the United States.

These are merely some of the largest aggregations of
American capital in Mexico. For example, the Harri-
man heirs own two and one-half millions acres of oil
land in the Tampico country, and a number of other
Americans own properties running into the millions of
acres. Americans are involved in the combinations
which control the flour and meat trades of Mexico.
The purely trade interests are themselves considerable.
Eighty per cent of Mexican exports come to the United
States and sixty-six per cent of Mexican imports are
sent to her by us, the American trade with Mexico
totaling some $75,000,000 a year.

So you see how it is in Mexico. The Americanization
of Mexico of which Wall Street boasts, is being accom-
plished and accomplished with a vengeance.

It were hardly worth while to pause at this juncture
and discuss the question why Mexicans did not get in
on the ground floor and control these industries. It is
not, as numerous writers would have us believe, be-

THE AMERICAN PARTNERS OF DIAZ 259

cause Americans are the only intelligent people in the
world and because God made Mexicans a stupid peo-
ple and intended that they should be governed by their
superiors. One very good reason why Diaz delivered
his country into the hands of Americans was that Amer-
icans had more money to pay for special privileges. And
Americans had more money because, while all Mexicans
were becoming impoverished by the war for the over-
throw of the foreigner, Maximilian, thousands of Amer-
icans were making fortunes by means of grafting army
contracts involved in our Civil War.

Let me present an instance or two of the way in which
Americans are contributing to the extension of slavery.

Take the Yaqui atrocities, for example. Vice-presi-
dent Corral, who was then in control of the government
of the state of Sonora, stirred up a Yaqui war because
he saw an opportunity to get the Yaqui lands and sell
them at a good price to American capitalists. The
Yaqui country is rich in both mining and agricultural
possibilities. American capitalists bought the lands
while the Yaquis were still on them, then stimulated
the war of extermination and finally instigated the
scheme to deport them into slavery in Yucatan.

But American capital did not stop even there. It fol-
lowed the Yaqui women and children away from their
homes. It sazv families dismembered, women forced
into wifehood with Chinamen, men beaten to death. It
saw these things, encouraged them and covered them up
from the eyes of the world because of its interest in the
price of sisal hemp, because it feared that with the pass-
ing of slave labor the price of sisal hemp would rise.
The American Cordage Trust, a ramification of Stand-
ard Oil, absorbs over half the henequen e\;port of Yu-

260 BARBAROUS MEXICO

catan. The Standard Oil press declares there is no slav-
ery in Mexico. Governor Fred N. Warner , of Michi-
gan, publicly denied my expose of slavery in Yucatan.
Governor Warner is interested in contracts involving
the purchase annually of half a million dollars worth
of sisal hemp from the slave kings of Yucatan.

Also, Americans work the slaves — ^buy them, drive
them, lock them up at night, beat them, kill them, ex-
actly as do other employers of labor in Mexico. And
they admit that they do these things. In my possession
are scores of admissions by American planters that they
employ labor which is essentially slave labor. All over
the tropical section of Mexico, on the plantations of rub-
ber, sugar-cane, tropical fruits — everywhere — you will
find Americans buying, beating, imprisoning, killing
slaves.

Let me quote you just one interview I had with a
well known and popular American of Diaz's metropolis,
a man who for five years ran a large plantation near
Santa Lucrecia

"When we needed a lot of enganchados" he told me,
*'all we had to do was to wire to one of the numerous
enganchadores in Mexico, saying: *We want so many
men and so many women on such and such a day.' Some-
times we'd call for three or four hundred, but the en-
ganchadores would never fail to deliver the full number
on the dot. We paid fifty pesos apiece for them, reject-
ing those that didn't look good to us, and that was all
there was to it. We always kept them as long as they
lasted.

"It's healthier down there than it is right here in the
city of Mexico," he told me. "If you have the means to
take care of yourself you can keep as well there as you
can anywhere on earth."

THE AMERICAN PARTNERS OF DIAZ 261

Less than five minutes after making this statement he
told me :

*'Yes, I remember a lot of three hundred enganchados
we received one Spring. In less, than three months we
buried more than half of them"

The hand of the American slave-driver of Mexico has
been known to reach out for its victims even as far as
his own home — the United States. During my travels
in Mexico, in order to become better acquainted with
the common people, I spent most of my traveling days
in second or third class cars. Riding in a third class
car between Tierra Blanca and Veracruz one night, I
spied an American negro sitting in a corner.

"I wonder if they ever caught him down here?" I
said to myself. "I'll find out."

Tom West, a free-born Kentucky negro of twenty-
five, hesitated to admit that he had ever been a slave.
But he confessed gradually.

"Ah was workin' in a brick yahd in Kaintucky at two
dollahs a day," was the way Tom put it, "when anothah
cuUahd man come along an' tole me he knowed where
Ah cud get three seventy-five a day. Ah said *Ah'm with
ye.' So he hands me one o' them book prospectuses
an' the next day he tuk me to the office o' the company
an' they said the same thing — three seventy-five Amer-
ican money, or seven an' a half Mex ! So Ah come with
eighty othah cullahd folks by way o' Tampa, Florida,
and Veracruz, down here to a coffee and rubbah planta-
tion at La Junta, near Santa Lucrecia, Oaxaca.

"Seven and a half a day! Huh! Seven an* a half!
That's just what they paid me when they let me go-^
aftah two yeahs! Ah run away twict, but they ketched
me and brung me back. Did they beat me? Naw, they
beat lots o' othahs, but they nevah beat me. Ah yeh,

262 BARBAROUS MEXICO

they batted me a few times with a stick, but Ah wouldn't
a let 'em beat me ; no suh, not me !"

The plantation that caught Tom West, Kentuckian,
was an American plantation. Some months after talk-
ing with Tom I happened to hold a conversation with a
man who identified himself as Tom's master after I
had told him Tom's story.

"Those niggers," this American told me, "were an
experiment that didn't turn out very well. They must
have been ours, for I don't know of anybody else down
that way that had them at the time of which you speak.
The seven and a half a day? Oh, the agents told 'em
anything to get them. That was none of our business.
We simply bought them and paid for them and then
made them work out their purchase price before we gave
them any money. Yes, we kept them under lock and
key at night and had to guard them with guns in the
daytime. When they tried to make a break we'd tie
*em up and give 'em a good dressing down with a club.
The authorities? We chummed with the authorities.
They were our friends."

The partnership of American capital with President
Diaz not only puts at its disposal a system of slave labor,
but also permits it to utilize the system of peonage and
to beat the class of wage-laborers down to the lowest
point of subsistence. Where slavery does not exist in
Mexico you find peonage, a mild form of slavery, or
you find cheap wage-labor. Diaz's rurales shot Colonel
Greene's copper miners into submission and threats of
imprisonment put an end to the great strike on an Amer-
ican-Mexican railroad. American capitalists boast of the
fact that their Diaz "does not permit any foolishness
on the part of these labor unions." In such facts as

THE AMERICAN PARTNERS OF DIAZ 263

these are found the reason for their hysterical defense
of him.

I shall briefly outline the railroad situation in Mexico,
and tell the story of the railway merger.

Today the main lines of Mexican railroads aggregate
12,500 miles. Of this mileage the Southern Pacific com-
pany controls and will probably soon own 8,941 miles, or
nearly three- fourths of the total. These lines consist of :

The Southern Pacific in Mexico, 950 miles; the Kan-
sas City, Mexico and Orient, 279 miles; the Pan-Amer-
ican, 296 miles; the Mexican, 327 miles; the National
Railways of Mexico, 7,089 miles.

Of these the Southern Pacific is the only one that is
being operated openly as the property of the Harriman
heirs. The Orient road is operated under the presidency
of A. E. Stilwell, a Harriman ally, whose vice-presi-
dent, George H. Ross, is a director of the Chicago &
Alton road, a Harriman property with which the Orient
road has traffic agreements. Construction is still going
on on both of these roads and they are drawing from
the Diaz government about $20,000 of subsidy for every
mile built, or nearly enough to build the road.

The Pan-American railroad was recently acquired by
David H. Thompson, who is the nominal president.
Thompson was the United States ambassador to Mex-
ico, where he seems to have represented the Harriman
interests first and the other American interests after-
wards. After securing the road, he resigned the am-
bassadorship. It is a pretty generally accepted fact that
Thompson was acting for Harriman in securing the road.
Harriman men are associated with him as directors of
the road. The especial purpose of Thompson's securing
the road was to incorporate it as a part of Harriman's

264 BARBAROUS MEXICO

plan to make an all-rail route from the Arizona bordet
to Central America.

The only control exercised by the Harriman interests
over the "Mexican Railway," as far as the writer knows,
is that involved in the pooling of interests, in both freight
and passenger traffic, of the Mexican road and the Na-
tional Railways of Mexico. It is the inside story of the
Mexican merger — a story which I obtained from unim-
peachable sources while working as a reporter of the
Mexican Daily Herald in the Spring of 1909.

Briefly, the story is this: The consolidation under
nominal government control of the two principal rail-
road systems in Mexico, the Mexican Central and the
Mexican National, was brought about, not, as is officially
given out, to provide against the absorption of the Mex-
ican highways by foreign capitalists, but to provide for
that very thing. It was a deal between E. H. Harriman,,
on the one hand, and the government financial cama-
rilla, on the other, the victim in the case being Mexico.
It was a sort of deferred sale of the Mexican railroads
to Harriman, the members of the camarilla getting as
their share of the loot millions and millions of dollars
through the juggling of securities and stock in effecting
the merger. On the whole, it constitutes perhaps the
most colossal single piece of plundering carried out by
the organized wreckers of the Mexican nation.

In this deal with Harriman, Limantour, Minister of
Finance, was the chief manipulator, and Pablo Macedo,
brother of Miguel Macedo, Sub-secretary of the Depart-
ment of the Interior, was first lieutenant. As a reward
for their part in the deal, Limatour and Macedo are said
to have divided $9,000,000 gold profits between them,
and Limantour was made president and Macedo vice-
president of the board of directors of the merged roads,

THE AMERICAN PARTNERS OF DIAZ 265

which positions they still hold. The other members of
the board of directors of the merged roads are Guil-
lermo de Landa y Escandon, governor of the Federal
District of Mexico, Samuel Morse Felton, former pres-
ident of the Mexican Central, who was Harriman's
special emissary in Mexico to work on Diaz to secure
his consent to the deal, E. N. Brown, former vice-presi-
dent and general manager of the Mexican National lines,
and Gabriel Mancera. Each of these four men is said to
have made a personal fortune for himself out of the
transaction.

The National Railways of Mexico, as they are officially
known, have, in addition to a general board of directors,
a New York board of directors. Note the Harriman
timber to be found among these names: William H.
Nichols, Ernest Thallmann, James N. Wallace, James
Speyer, Bradley W. Palmer, H. Clay Pierce, Clay Ar-
thur Pierce, Henry S. Priest, Eban Richards and H. C.
P. Channan.

Whether the Mexican railroad steal was conceived in
the brain of Limantour or of Harriman is not known,
but Limantour seems to have attempted to bring about
the merger originally without the aid of Harriman.
Some four years ago Limantour and Don Pablo Mar-
tinez del Rio, owner of the Mexican Herald and man-
ager of the Banco Nacional, went into the market and
bought heavily of Mexican Central and Mexican Na-
tional stock, after which they broached the merger
scheme to Diaz. Diaz turned the proposition down points
blank and Limantour and del Rio both lost heavily, del
Rio's losses so bearing down upon him that he died
soon afterwards.

It was at this point that Limantour is suppose 1 to
Have turned to Harriman, who immediately fell in with

266 BARBAROUS MEXICO

the scheme and carried it to an exceedingly successful
termination for himself.

Harriman owned some Mexican Central stock, but
fifty-one per cent of this property was in the personal
possession of H. Clay Pierce. When the first rumblings
of the 1907 panic were heard Pierce was persuaded to
hypothecate his entire holdings to Harriman.

After getting control of from eighty to eighty-five
per cent of the Mexican Central property Harriman sent
Samuel Morse Felton, one of the ablest railroad manip-
lators in the United States, to talk Diaz over to the
merger scheme. Where Limantour had failed Felton
succeeded and the world was informed that the Mexican
government had accomplished a great financial feat by
securing the ownership and control of its railroad lines.

It was announced that the government had actually
secured fifty-one per cent of the stock of the company.
Also the government was put in nominal control of the
situation.

But — in the deal Harriman succeeded in placing such
heavy obligations upon the new company that his heirs
are almost sure to foreclose in the course of time.

The Mexican Central and Mexican National systems
are both cheaply built roads; their rolling stock is of
very low grade. Their entire joint mileage at the time
of the merger was 5,400 miles, and yet under the merger
they were capitalized at $615,000,000 gold, or $112,000
per mile. Oceans of water there. The Mexican Cen-
tral was 30 years old, yet had never paid a penny. The
Mexican National was over 25 years old, yet it had paid
less than two per cent. Yet in the over-capitalized mer-
ger we find that the company binds itself to pay four
and one-half per cent on $225,000,000 worth of bonds

THE AMERICAN PARTNERS OF DIAZ 267

and four per cent on $160,000,000 worth of bonds, or
$16,525,000 interest a year, and pay it semi-annually!

Out of the merger deal Harriman is supposed to have
received, in addition to merger stocks and bonds, a cash
consideration and special secret concessions and subsi-
dies for his west coast road. Harriman dictated the con-
tract as to the payment of interest on those merger bonds
and his successors will compel payment or foreclose.
As long as Diaz remains in power, as long as the Mex-
ican government is "good ;" that is, as long as it contin-
ues in partnership with American capital, the matter
can be arranged — if in no other way, by paying the defi-
ciency out of the Mexican treasury. But the moment
there is trouble it is expected that the government will
be unable to pay and the railroad will become American
in name as well as in fact.

Trouble ! That word is an exceedingly significant one
here. A Mexican revolution will probably mean trouble
of this particular sort, for every revolution of the past
in Mexico has seen the necessity of the government's re-
pudiating all or a part of the national obligations for
a time. Thus the final step in the complete American-
ization of Mexico's railways will be one of the clubs held
over the Mexican people to prevent them from overturn-
ing a government that is particularly favorable to Amer-
ican capital.

. Trouble! Trouble will come, too, when Mexico at-
tempts to kick over the traces of undue American "in-
fluence." The United States will intervene with an
army, if necessary, to maintain Diaz or a successor who
would continue the special partnership with American
capital. In case of a serious revolution the United
States will intervene on the plea of protecting American

268 BARBAROUS MEXICO

capital. American intervention will destroy the last
hope of Mexico for an independent national existence.
Mexican patriots cannot forget this, for it is daily pa-
raded before them by the Diaz press itself. Thus the
threat of an American army in Mexico is another of the
American influences which keep Mexico from revolu-
tion against the autocracy of Diaz.

American capital is not at present in favor of political
annexation of Mexico. This is because the slavery by
which it profits can be maintained with greater safety
under the Mexican flag than under the American flag. As
long as Mexico can be controlled — in other words, as
long as she can be held as a slave colony — she will not be
annexed, for once she is annexed the protest of the
American people will become so great that the slavery
must of necessity be abolished or veiled under less brutal
and downright forms. The annexation of Mexico will
come only when she cannot be controlled by other means.
Nevertheless, the threat of annexation is today held as
a club over the Mexican people to prevent them from
forcibly removing Diaz.

Do I guess when I prophesy that the United States
will intervene in case of a revolution against Diaz?
Hardly, for the United States has already intervened
in that very cause. The United States has not waited
for the revolution to assume a serious aspect, but has
lent its powers most strenuously to stamping out its
first evidences. President Taft and Attorney General
Wickersham, at the behest of American capital, have
already placed the United States government in the
service of Diaz to aid in stamping out an incipient rev-
olution with which, for justifiable grounds, our revolu-
tion of 1776 cannot for an instant be thought of in com-
parison. Attorney General Wickersham is credited

THE AMERICAN PARTNERS OF DIAZ 269

with being a heavy stockholder in the National Rail-
ways of Mexico; Henry W. Taft, brother of the pres-
ident, is general counsel for the same corporation. Thus
it will be seen that these officials have a personal as well
as a political interest in maintaining the system of Diaz.
Three times during the past two years the United
States government has rushed an army to the Mexican
border in order to crush a movement of Liberals which
had risen against the autocrat of Mexico. Constantly
during the past three years the American government,
through its Secret Service, its Department of Justice,
its Immigration officials, its border rangers, has main*
iained in the border states a reign of terror for Mex-
icans, in which it has lent itself unreservedly to the
extermination of political refugees of Mexico who have
sought safety from the long arm of Diaz upon the soil
of the 'Hand of the free and the home of the brave"

CHAPTER XV

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF THE ENEMIES OF DIAZ

America, Cradle of Liberty, has joined hands with
Porfirio Diaz, the most devastating despot that rules a
nation, in stamping out that portion of the world move-
ment for democracy which is today attempting to se-
cure the common rights of human beings for the Mex-
ican people.

In previous chapters I have shown how the United
States is a voluntary partner in the slavery and political
oppression of Diaz-land. I have shown how, by its com-
mercial alliance, its press conspiracy and its threat of
intervention and annexation, it has supported the mil-
itary dictatorship of Diaz. This chapter I shall devote
to the story of how the United States has delivered its
military and civil resources into the hands of the Tyrant
and with that power has held him in his place when
otherwise he would have fallen; and thus has been the
final determining force in the continuation of the system
of slavery which I have described in the early chapters
of this book.

When I say the United States here I mean the United
States government chiefly, though state and local gov-
ernments along our Mexican border are also involved.
Numerous instances go to show that, in order to exter-
minate the enemies of Diaz who have come as political
refugees to this country, public officials from the presi-
dent down have set aside American principles cherished
for generations, have criminally violated some laws and
stretched and twisted others out of all semblance to
their former selves, and Have permitted, encouraged

270

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF ENEMIES OF DIAZ 271

and protected law-breaking on the part of Mexican offi-
cials and their hirelings in this country.

For the past five years the law of our border states,
as far as Mexican citizens are concerned, has been very
much the law of Diaz. The border has been Mexican-
ized. In numerous instances our government has dele-
gated its own special powers to agents of Mexico in the
form of consuls, hired attorneys and private detectives.
Mexican citizens have been denied the right of asylum
and the ordinary protection of our laws. By the reign
of terror thus established the United States has held
in check a movement which otherwise would surely
have developed sufficient strength to overthrow Diaz,
abolish Mexican slavery and restore constitutional gov-
ernment in the country to the south of us.

Three times during the past two years, twice as Sec-
retary of War and once as President, William Howard
Taft has ordered troops to the Texas border to aid
Diaz in wreaking vengeance upon his enemies. He also
— at the same time as well as at other times — ordered
posses of United States Marshals and squads of Secret
Service operatives there for the same purpose.

The first time Taft ordered troops to the border was
in June, 1908, the second time in September, 1908, the
third time in July, 1909. The troops were commanded
to drive back into the hands of pursuing Mexican sol-
diers or to capture and detain any fugitives who at-
tempted to cross the Rio Grande and save their lives
upon Texas soil.

That this action on the part of President Taft was
an undue stretching of the laws it would appear from
dispatches sent out from Washington, June 30, 1908.
From one of these dispatches published throughout the
country, July 1, 1908, I quote the following:

272 BARBAROUS MEXICO

"The employment of American troops for this purpose, by the
way, is almost without precedent in recent years, and the law
officers of the War Department, as well as the Attorney-General
himself, have been obliged to give close study to the question
of the extent to which they may exercise the power of pre-
venting persons from entering the United States across the
Mexican border.

"Under the law no passports are required except in the case
of Chinese and Japanese, and about the only other reasonable
ground for detention of fugitives seeking to cross the line would
be some presumable violation of the immigration or health-
inspection laws.

"So it will be a delicate task for the army officers, who are
charged with the duty of policing this international boundary
line, to avert clashes with the civil courts if they undertake to
make promiscuous arrests of persons fleeing from Mexico into
the United States."

The troops obeyed orders. Fleeing Liberals v^ere
turned back to be pierced by the bullets of Diaz's sol-
diers. Was our government justified in causing the
death of those unfortunate men in such a manner? If
not, would it be improper to characterize the action as
executive murder?

During the past five years hundreds of Mexican refu-
gees have been imprisoned in the border states, and there
have been numerous attempts to carry refugees across
the line, in order that the Diaz government might deal
vv^ith them after its own summary methods, and many
of these attempts have been successful. Some of the
schemes employed in this campaign of deportation are,
first, to institute extradition proceedings under charges
of "murder and robbery ;" second, to deport through the
Immigration Department under charges of being "unde-
sirable immigrants ;" third, to kidnap outright and felo-
niously carry across the line.

Some members of the Liberal Party whose extradition

MEXICAN REVOLUTIONISTS

TOMAS SABARIA ANTONIO I. VILIARREAL

RICARDO FLORES MAGON

ENRIQUE FLORES MAGON IJBR*DO RIVERA

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF ENEMIES OF DIAZ 27Z

was sought on charges of "murder and robbery" during
the space of a few months were Librado Rivera, Pedro
Gonzales, Crescencio Villarreal, Trinidad Garcia, Deme-
trio Castro, Patricio Guerra, Antonio I. Villarreal, Lauro
Aguirre, Ricardo Flores Magon and Manuel Sarabia.
There were others, but I have not definite knowledge of
their cases. Some of the prosecutions occurred at St.
Louis, others at El Paso, Texas, others at Del Rio, Texas,
and others at Los Angeles, Cal.

An uprising of a Liberal club at Jimenez, Coahuila,
formed the basis of the charges in all but one or two of
the cases. During this uprising somebody was killed and
the government postoffice lost some money. Wherefore
every Mexican who could be convicted of membership in
the Liberal Party, although he might never have been in
Coahuila nor have ever heard of the rebellion, stood in
danger of extradition for "murder and robbery." The
United States government spent a good many thousands
of dollars in prosecuting these manifestly groundless
charges, but it is to the credit of certain Federal Judges
that the prosecutions were generally unsuccessful. Judge
Gray of St. Louis and Judge Maxey of Texas both char-
acterized the offenses as being of a political nature. The
text of the former's decision in the Rivera case follows :

The United States vs. Librado Rivera.
City of St. Louis, ss., State of Missouri.

I hereby certify that upon a public hearing had before me at
my office in said city on this 30th day of November, 1906, the
defendant being present, it appearing from the proofs that the
offense complained of was entirely of a political nature, the
said defendant, Librado Rivera, was discharged.

Witness my hand and seal.

James R. Gray,
United States Commissioner at St. Louis, Mo.

274 BARBAROUS MEXICO

The scheme to deport political refugees through the
Immigration Department was more successful. The
immigration laws provide that, if it be discovered that
an immigrant is a criminal or an anarchist, or if he has
entered this country in an illegal manner, provided that
such discovery is made within three years of his arrival
here, the immigration officials may deport him. The
question of the "undesirability" of the immigrant is not
a subject for review by the courts, the immigrant may
not appeal, and within two or three restrictions the im-
migration agent's word is law. It will be readily seen,
therefore, that if the said official be not an honest man,
if he be willing to accept a bribe or even yield to influ-
ence or blandishments, he may, with impunity, send many
pure and upright men to an untimely death.

And exactly this thing has been done. Antonio I.
Villarreal, secretary of the Liberal Party, was among
those placed in danger of deportation "under the immi-
gration laws." After various means had been used un-
successfully to secure his extradition, he was turned over
to the immigration officials at El Paso and was actually
on his way to the line when he made a break for lib-
erty and escaped.

Of a large number of Mexican Liberals arrested in
Arizona in the fall of 1906, Lazaro Puente, Abraham
Salcido, Gabriel Rubio, Bruno Trevino, Carlos Humbert,
Leonardo Villarreal and several others were deported in
one party by the immigration officials at Douglas. There
is no legal excuse for deporting an immigrant because he
is a political refugee. On the other hand, according to
"American principles," so-called, he is entitled to espe-
cially solicitous care for this reason. And yet all of these
men were deported because they were political refugees.

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF ENEMIES OF DIAZ 275

All of them were peaceful, respectable persons. The
law under no circumstances permits of deportation after
the immigrant has been a resident of this country for
more than three years. But several of this number had
lived here for longer than that time and Puente, who
was editing a paper in Douglas, claimed to have resided
in the United States continuously for thirteen years.

Still another crime of officials may be cited In this par-
ticular case. When occasion arises for deportation the
immigrant in ordinary cases is merely returned to the
country whence he came. But in this case the group of
Mexican Liberals was delivered over to the Mexican po-
lice in handcuffs, and the American handcuffs were not
removed until the prisoners arrived at the penitentiary of
Hermosillo, state of Sonora!

The Mexican government, by the way, found nothing
against these men after it had got them except that they
were members of the Liberal Party. Nevertheless, it
sent each and every one of them to long terms in prison.

Many Americans will remember the case of L. Gu-
tierrez De Lara, whom the Immigration Department
seized for deportation in October, 1909, accusing him
of being "an alien anarchist." De Lara had resided more
than three years in this country, yet undoubtedly he
would have been sent to his death had not the country
sent up such a protest that the conspirators were fright-
ened. It is supposed that De Lara's life was sought at
this particular time because he accompanied me to Mex-
ico and aided in securing material for my expose of
Mexican conditions.

When Diaz fails to gain possession of his enemies in
the United States by other means he does not hesitate
to resort to kidnapping and when he resorts to kidnap-

276 BARBAROUS MEXICO

ping he finds no trouble in securing the criminal assis-
tance of American officials.

The most notable case of refugee kidnapping on rec-
ord is that of Manuel Sarabia. The case is notable not
because it is the only one of its kind, but because it is the
one which was most successfully exposed.

Manuel Sarabia was second speaker of the Liberal
junta. He was hounded about from place to place by
Diaz detectives, finally bringing up in Douglas, Arizona,
where he went to work quietly at his trade of printer.

On June 30, 1907, Antonio Maza, the Mexican consul
at Douglas, saw Sarabia on the street and recognized
him. That evening U. S. Ranger Sam Hayhurst held
up Sarabia at the point of a pistol and, without a war-
rant, put him in the city jail. At eleven o'clock that
night Sarabia's door swung open, he was led outside,
forced into an automobile, carried across the interna-
tional boundary line and there turned over to Colonel
Kosterlitzsky, an officer of Mexican rurales. The ru-
rales tied Sarabia on the back of a mule, and telling him
that he was to be shot on the road, made a hurried trip
with him through the mountains, finally bringing up, af-
ter five days, at the penitentiary at Hermosillo, Sonora.

What saved Sarabia? Just one thing. As he was
forced into the automobile he cried out his name and
shouted that he was being kidnapped. The ruffians
guarding him choked him into silence and then gagged
him, but some one had heard and the story spread.

Even then Consul Maza had the audacity to try to
hush up the matter and carry his plot to a successful
conclusion. By some means he succeeded in muzzling
the string of Arizona newspapers run by George H.
Kelly, as Kelly afterwards admitted in court. But in
Douglas at that time there was a newspaper man whom

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF ENEMIES OF DIAZ 277

Maza could not bribe. It was Franklin B. Dorr, who
was running the Douglas Daily Examiner.

In his paper Dorr raised a protest that stirred the
blood of the people of Douglas. Street meetings were
held to further arouse the people. Mother Jones was
there. A crowd looked for Maza with a rope. Tele-
graphic appeals were sent to the state and national
governments. And finally — Sarabia was shamefacedly
returned.

What would have happened to Sarabia if his voice
had not been heard on that night in June, 1907? Ex-
actly what has happened to others whose frightened
voices have not been heard. He would have dropped
out of sight and no one would ever have been able to
say for certain where he had gone.

And what, pray, happened to the kidnappers? Abso-
lutely nothing.

Consul Maza, Ranger Hayhurst, Lee Thompson, city
jailer. Constable Shorpshire, Henry Elvey, the chauffeur,
and some private detectives whose names were never
given to the public seem plainly to have been guilty of
the crime of kidnapping, which is punishable by impris-
onment in the penitentiary. Those named were arrested
and the first four were duly held to answer to the up-
per court sitting at Douglas. Elvey made a clean breast
of the case and the evidence seemed conclusive. But
as soon as the excitement had blown over every one of
the cases was quietly dropped. It was not Sarabia's
fault, for an eflfort was made to bribe Sarabia to leave
town and Sarabia refused the bribe. Evidently the
money which had bribed Hayhurst, Thompson and
Shorpshire was not all the money that was used by
Maza at that time.

Nearly every small town along the Mexican border

278 BARBAROUS MEXICO

harbors a personage who enjoys the title of Mexican
consul. Consuls are found in villages hundreds of miles
from the Mexican border. Consuls are supposed to be
for the purpose of looking after the interests of trade
between countries, but towns in California, Arizona,
New Mexico and Texas which do not do a hundred dol-
lars worth of trade a year with Mexico have consuls
who are maintained by Diaz at the expense of tens of
thousands of dollars a year.

Such consuls are not consuls at all. They are spies,
persecutors, bribers. They are furnished with plenty
of money and they spend it freely in hiring thugs and
detectives and bribing American officeholders. By the
power thus gained they have repeatedly suppressed
newspapers and put their editors in jail, as well as
broken up political clubs of Mexicans.

During the trial of Jose Maria Ramires and four
other Liberals in El Paso in October, 1908, a city police-
man naively swore that his chief had told him to obey
the orders of the Mexican consul and the chief of police
of Juarez, a Mexican town.

When, after threats by the Mexican consul of Tucson,
Arizona, thugs destroyed the printing plant of Manuel
Sarabia in that city in December, 1908, Sarabia was
unable to persuade the City Marshal to make an inves-
tigation of the affair or to attempt to bring the perpetra-
tors to account.

City detectives of Los Angeles, California, have re-
peatedly taken orders from the Mexican consul there
and have unlawfully placed in his hands property of
persons whom they have arrested.

Antonio Lozano, the Mexican consul at Los Angeles,
at one time had two fake employment offices running
at the same time for the single purpose of hiring mem-

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF ENEMIES OF DIAZ 279

bers of the Liberal Party and luring them to points in
Mexico where they could be captured by the Diaz police.
This same consul, after De Lara and I started on our
trip to Mexico, offered bribes to various friends of De
Lara to tell them where he had gone.

Such minor details would fill many pages. John Mur-
ray was arrested by Secret Service Chief Wilkie. Mur-
ray's offense consisted of raising money for the legal de-
fense of the refugees. Robert W. Dowe, the American
customs collector at Eagle Pass, Texas, was compelled
to resign under charges of acting as a secret agent for the
Mexican government, and receiving money for such
service. The evidence in the case was suppressed by our
Treasury Department, which reinstated Dowe after some
months had passed and public indignation over the affair
at Eagle Pass had blown over. In the District Court of
Los Angeles, Cal., a warrant for the arrest of De Lara, his
wife, Mrs. Mamie Shea, an American, Mrs. Marie Tala-
vera and about twenty others, has been on file for many
months, ready for service at any time. Those named are
charged with violating the neutrality laws in having cir-
culated a manifesto printed by the Liberal Party. Threats
that this warrant was to be served have been made to
various of the parties, with the evident purpose of de-
terring them from aiding in any way the movement for
the regeneration of Mexico.

Only a few months ago newspapers reported that Ma-
jor Elihu Root of the U. S. Army had gone on a special
mission to Mexico to confer with Diaz's War Depart-
ment on the most practical means of entrapping the ene-
mies of Diaz who are sojourning on our soil.

Only a short time ago the news was printed that Punto
Rojo, an anti-Diaz labor paper of Texas, had been sup-

280 BARBAROUS MEXICO

pressed, that $10,000 reward had been offered for the
capture of its editor, Praxedis Guerrero, that secret
service men in pursuit of that reward had seized sub*
scription books of the paper and from the books had se*
cured names of men who would be at once proceeded
against.

During the past three years persecution of this general
character has directly caused the suspension of at least ten
newspapers printed in Spanish along the border for Mex-
ican readers.

To each of these persecutions and press suppressions
there is an interesting story attached, but to attempt to
detail all of them would require too great a proportion
of this work. I shall detail but one case, that of Ricardo
Flores Magon, president of the Liberal Party, and his
immediate associates. This case, as well as being the
most important of all, is typical. Its difference from
the rest has been chiefly that Magon, having been able to
gather about him greater resources, has been able to make
a longer and more desperate fight for his life and lib-
erty than others of his countrymen who have been singled
out for persecution. For six and one-half years Magon
has been in this country and during nearly the whole of
that time he has been engaged in trying to escape being
sent back to death beyond the Rio Grande. More than
one-half of that time he has passed in American prisons,
and for no other reason than that he is opposed to Diaz
and his system of slavery and despotism.

The worst that can be said of Magon — as of any of
his followers whom I know — is that he desires to bring
about an armed rebellion against the established govern-
ment of Mexico. In cases where reformers are given
the opportunity of urging their reforms by democratic

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF ENEMIES OF DIAZ 281

methods, armed rebellion in this day and age are inde-
fensible. But when through the suppression of free
speech, free press and such liberties, peaceable means of
propaganda are impossible, then force is the only alterna-
tive. It was upon this principle that our revolutionary
forefathers proceeded and upon which the Mexican Lib-
erals are proceeding today.

Magon and his followers would never have come to
this country to plot against Diaz had not their peace-
able movement been broken up by gun and club methods
and their lives seriously endangered at home. The
propriety of citizens of despotic countries seeking refuge
in another country, there to plan better things for their
own, was for many decades recognized by the constituted
powers of the United States, which protected political
refugees.

A dozen years ago Palma established the Cuban revo-
lutionary Junta in the city of New York, and instead of
being arrested he was lionized. For more than a century
political refugees from European countries. South Amer-
ica, and even China have found safety with us. Young
Turks prepared for their revolution here. Irish soci-
eties raised money here for a movement to free Ireland.
Jewish defense societies have been financed all over the
country and none of the promoters have been turned
over to the vengeance of the Czar. And these things
have been done openly, not secretly. Today there are
known to be Portuguese revolutionist headquarters in
the United States. Porfirio Diaz himself — what historic
irony! — when he turned revolutionist found safety on
American soil and, though his cause was an extremely
questionable one, no one arrested him. What is more,
Diaz committed the identical crime which, through the
legal machinery of the United States, he is now urging

282 BARBAROUS MEXICO

against many of the refugees, that of setting on foot a
military expedition against a foreign power. On March
22, 1876, Diaz crossed the Rio Grande at Brownsville,
Texas, with forty armed followers for the purpose of
waging war upon President Lerdo de Tejada. He was
driven back and, though all America knew of his exploit,
no effort was made to imprison him.

But now the policy has been changed to accommodate
President Diaz. Action has been taken against political
refugees of just one other country, Russia, and it is
safe to assume that those cases were undertaken merely
that the authorities might defend themselves against
the charge of using the machinery of government with
partiality against Mexicans.

Magon and a small group of followers, including his
brother Enrique and the Sarabias, crossed the Rio
Grande in January, 1904, and soon afterwards established
their paper "Regeneracion" in San Antonio. The paper
had been going but a few weeks when a Mexican, a
supposed hireling of the Mexican government, called at
the office and tried to reach the Liberal leader with a
dirk-knife. Enrique Magon grappled with the fellow,
and in another moment four city detectives rushed in
and placed Enrique under arrest. The next day he was
fined $30 in the police court, while the supposed thug
was not even arrested.

The exiles looked upon this incident as a part of a
conspiracy to get them into trouble. They moved to St.
Louis, where they re-established their paper. They had
hardly got into their new quarters when they began to
be annoyed by the Furlong Detective Agency. They
claim that the Furlong Detective Agency put an "opera-
tive" into the office of "Regeneracion" in the role of an
advertising solicitor, put "operatives'* into the St. Louis

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF ENEMIES OF DIAZ 285

postoffice to waylay the letters of the exiles, put "opera-
tives" out to hunt somebody to bring libel proceedings
against "Regeneracion," put "operatives" at work to
harass the editors of the paper in every possible way.

Our Postoffice Department, called to aid in the sup-
pression of "Regeneracion," revoked the second class
privileges which had been properly secured at San
Antonio. But this was insufficient, so two different
parties were brought from Mexico to institute charges
of criminal and civil libel against the editors. The edi-
tors were thrown in jail, the publication stopped. Fur-
long detectives stole letters and turned them over to the
Mexican consul, and from these letters, the refugees
claim, was gleaned a list of names which resulted in the
arrest of some three hundred Liberals in Mexico.

The editors got out of jail on bail, whereupon new
charges were prepared to get them back again. But,
having important work to do, they chose to pay their
bail and flee from these charges. Magon and Juan
Sarabia went to Canada and it was here that they carried
on their final correspondence preparatory to launching
an armed rebellion against Diaz. The first gun was to
be fired October 20, 1906, and on the night of October
19 the Liberal leaders gathered at El Paso preparatory to
crossing the line the following morning.

As set forth in a previous chapter, this rebellion was
betrayed and was more or less of a fizzle. Of the refu-
gee leaders, Juan Sarabia was betrayed into the hands
of Diaz and with scores of others was soon afterwards
sent to the military prison of San Juan de Ulua. Villar-
real, as previously stated, was among those arrested by
the American police. For a long time he fought extradi-
tion on the "murder and robbery" charge and was finally
turned over to the immigration authorities. Immigra-

284 BARBAROUS MEXICO

tion officers were in the act of leading him to the boun-
dary line when he bolted and succeeded in escaping by
running through the streets of El Paso. Librado Rivera,
first speaker of the Liberal Junta, with Aaron Mansano,
was kidnapped at St. Louis by city detectives, was hur-
ried as far as fronton, Missouri, but was there rescued
and brought back through an expose which was made by
one of the St. Louis papers.

As for Magon, for months he was hunted by detec-
tives from city to city. He went to California, but was
still kept dodging and once masqueraded as a woman in
order to escape the Diaz hounds. Finally, he revived his
paper in Los Angeles under the name of "Revolucion"
and here he was joined by Villarreal and Rivera. The
three worked quietly together, keeping always indoors in
the daytime and going out for their airing only at night
and in disguise.

Early in August, 1907, the hiding-place of the Liberal
leaders in Los Angeles was located. The evidence seems
to point to a plot to kidnap them much as Sarabia was
kidnapped. First, the officers had plenty of time in
which to procure a warrant, but they did not procure
a warrant nor even attempt to do so. Second, they
secreted an automobile in the vicinity and did not use it
after the arrest. Third, when the three men, fearing a
kidnapping plot, cried out at the top of their voices, the
officers beat them with pistols most brutally, Magon being
beaten until he lay bleeding and insensible on the
ground. This circumstantial evidence of a kidnapping
plot is borne out by the direct testimony of one of the
hirelings of the Mexican consul at that time, who has
since confessed that there was such a plot and that the
Mexican consul was the man who hatched it.

Everything seems to have beeix arranged. The descent

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF ENEMIES OF DIAZ 285

of the sleuths was made August 23, and Ambassador
Creel came all the way from Washington to be on hand
and see that things went off smoothly. On the night Ox
August 22 Creel was given a banquet by Mexican con-
cessionaires having headquarters in Los Angeles and the
following day he sat in his hotel and waited for news
that his thugs had gotten their victims as planned.

But the outcries of Magon and his friends collected a
crowd and it became impossible to kidnap them. So
unprepared were the officers for a mere arrest case that
when they got their prisoners to jail they were at a
loss to know what charge to place against them, so they
put them down on the police books as '^resisting an
officer r

Ambassador Creel then proceeded to hire some of the
highest priced lawyers in Southern California to devise
ways and means for getting the prisoners down into
Mexico. These lawyers were ex-Governor Henry T.
Gage, Gray, Barker and Bowen, partners of U. S. Sena-
tor Flint; and Horace H. Appel. When the cases came
into court their names were announced by the public
prosecutor as special counsel and always during the
hearings one or more of them was personally in attend-
ance.

The "officers" who beat the refugees nearly to death
and then charged them with resisting an officer — although
they had not even procured a warrant — were Thomas H.
Furlong, head of the Furlong Detective Agency of St.
Louis, chief refugee-hunter for Diaz, an assistant Fur-
long detective, and two Los Angeles city detectives, the
notorious Talamantes and Rico.

For months previous to the arrest of Magon and his
associates a card offering $20,000 for their apprehension
was circulated about the United States. That the city

286 BARBAROUS MEXICO

detectives received their share of this reward is evi-
denced by sworn testimony given in the Los Angeles
courts by Federico Arizmendez, a Los Angeles printer.
After the arrest of Magon the sleuths repaired to the
office of Magon's newspaper, where they took into cus-
tody the nominal editor, Modesto Diaz. Here they met
Arizmendez and the following conversation ensued :

Talamantes — You'd better congratulate me; I just
made a thousand dollars.

Arizmendez-^How's that?

Talamantes — I've just caught Villarreal.

At this writing Rico and Talamantes are still members
of the Los Angeles police force !

The identity of the employer of Talamantes et al.
was confirmed beyond question and the astounding usur-
pation by that employer of American governmental pow-
ers was revealed when upon being released the day
following the conversation quoted above, Modesto Diaz
was informed that he would have to wait a few days
for the papers taken from him at the time of his arrest,
as they had been placed in the hands of the Mexican
Consul!

If there is any doubt as to who hired Furlong and his
henchmen to hunt down Magon the doubt will be dis-
pelled by the reading of an excerpt from Furlong's
sworn testimony taken in the Los Angeles courts. Here
it is:

CROSS EXAMINATION.

By Mr. Harriman:
Q. — What is your business?

A. — I am the president and manager of the Furlong Secret
Service Company, St. Louis, Missouri.
Q. — You helped to arrest these men?
A.-I did.
Q. — ^What right did you have?

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF ENEMIES OF DIAZ 287

Mr. Lawler— That is objected to as a conclusion of the witness.

Q.— By Mr. Harriman: Did you have a warrant?

A.— No, sir.

The Commissioner—The other question is withdrawn and now
you ask him if he had a warrant?

Mr. Harriman — ^Yes, sir.

Q. — Arrested them without a warrant?

A. — Yes, sir.

Q. — You took this property away from them without a war-
rant?

A.— Yes, sir.

Q.— Went througfi the house and searched it without a
warrant ?

A. — ^How is that?

Q.— Went through the house and searched it without a war-
rant?

A.-Yes.

Q. — And took the papers from them?

A. — I didn't take any papers from them. I took them and
locked them up and then went back and got the papers.

Q. — Took them from their house and kept them, did you?

A. — No, sir. I turned them over

Q.— Well, you kept them, so far as they are concerned?

A. — ^Yes, sir.

Q. — ^Who paid you for doing this work?

A. — ^The Mexican government.

Nor was Furlong backward about confessing the pur-
pose of the hunt. By a Los Angeles newspaper
Furlong, in bragging about the arrest, was quoted as
asserting that he had been "after" Magon and his friends
for three years. During that period, he said, he had
succeeded in "getting" 180 Mexican revolutionists and
turning them over to the Diaz government, which "had
made short work of them." According to an affidavit
properly sworn to by W. F. Zwickey and on record in
the Los Angeles courts, Furlong stated that he was
"not so much interested in this case and the charges for
which the defendants are being tried as in getting them

288 BARBAROUS MEXICO

over into Arizona; that all we (meaning by Ve' himself
and the Mexican authorities) want is to get the defend-
ants down into Arizona, and then we will see that they
get across the line."

Attorney General Bonaparte seems to have had the
same purpose as Furlong and the Mexican authorities,
even at a time when the case in hand did not involve
extradition to Mexico or even to Arizona. During a
hearing before Judge Ross in San Francisco Mr. Bona-
parte had the temerity to wire his district attorney in
that city: "Resist habeas corpus proceedings in case
of Magon et al. on all grounds, as they are zvanted in
Mexico" This telegram was read in court. The inci-
dent was all the more remarkable in view of the fact
that only a few days previously Bonaparte, in answer to
a query from U. S. Senator Perkins, had replied by
letter assuring the senator that the purpose of the prose-
cution of these men was not to send them back to
Mexico.

Five separate and distinct charges were brought
against Magon and his associates, one after another.
First, it was "resisting an officer." Then it was the old
charge of "murder and robbery." Later it was criminal
libel. Still later it was murdering "John Doe" yn Mex-
ico. Finally it was conspiracy to violate the neutrality
laws.

Undoubtedly the conspirators would have early suc-
ceeded in their purpose to railroad the men back to
Mexico had not a number of Los Angeles organizations
formed a defense committee, held mass meetings to
arouse public sentiment, collected funds, and hired two
able attorneys. Job Harriman and A. R. Holston. These
lawyers after a long fight succeeded in driving the prose-
cution into a corner where they were compelled to pro-

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF ENEMIES OF DIAZ 289

ceed only under action involving imprisonment in this
country.

During the early stages of the legal fight the Diaz
agents were suppressing the paper "Revolucion'* in
characteristic style. After the arrest of its three editors,
the editorial emergency was met by L. Gutierrez De
Lara, who had not previously been in any way identified
with the Liberal Party. Two weeks later De Lara was
keeping company with Magon, Villarreal and Rivera.
His extradition was sought on the ground that he had
committed robbery "on the blank day of the blank
month of 1906 in the blank state of Mexico !"

Despite the passing of De Lara "Revolucion" con-
tinued to appear regularly. As soon as the agents of
the prosecution could locate the new editor they promptly
arrested him. He proved to be Manuel Sarabia and he
was charged with the same offense as happened to stand
against Magon, Villarreal and Rivera at the time.

Who was left to publish little "Revolucion ?" There
were the printers. They — Modesto Diaz, Federico Ariz-
mendez and a boy named Ulibarri — rose to the occasion.
But in less than a month they, too, were led to jail,
all three of them charged with criminal libel. Thus the
Mexican opposition newspaper passed into history. Inci-
dentally, Modesto Diaz died as a result of the confine-
ment following that arrest.

"Revolucion" was not an anarchist paper. It was not
a socialist paper. It did not advocate the assassination
of presidents or the abolition of government. It merely
stood for the principles which Americans in general
since the Declaration of Independence and the Constitu-
tion of the United States came into being have consid-
ered as necessary to the well-being of any nation. If
an American newspaper of its ideals had been sup-

290 BARBAROUS MEXICO

pressed by one-tenth as brazen methods, a righteous
protest would have echoed and re-echoed across the con-
tinent. But it was only a Mexican newspaper, an oppo-
nent of President Diaz, and — it was suppressed.

The story of Lazaro Gutierrez De Lara well exem-
plifies the system of robbing the enemies of Diaz of
their personal liberty in the United States, as practiced
by the Department of Justice working in conjunction
with Mexican agents in various parts of the West during
the past five years.

De Lara was taken to jail on September 27, 1907, on
telegraphic instructions from Attorney General Bona-
parte. As before stated, he was charged with larceny
committed on the blank day of the blank month of
1906 in the blank state of the Republic of Mexico, and
on this awful indictment his extradition to Mexico was
sought.

The extradition treaty between the United States and
Mexico provides that the country asking extradition
must furnish evidence of guilt within forty days of the
arrest of the accused. In De Lara's case this little
technicality was waived, and at the end of forty days a
new complaint was filed containing the illuminating
information that the alleged crime had been committed
in the state of Sonora. This was considered sufficient
ground upon which to hold the prisoner another forty
days.

Nothing happened at the end of the second forty
days, and on December 22 Attorney Harriman applied
for a writ of habeas corpus. The writ was denied and
the prosecution was given more time in which to file a
third complaint. De Lara was then accused of stealing
uncut stove-zvood in the state of Sonora, August 7j,

1903 f
Several oeculiar facts developed at the hearing. One

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF ENEMIES OF DIAZ 29l

was that De Lara had been tried and acquitted of the
identical offense in Mexico more than four years previ-
ously. Another was that while at the trial in Mexico the
value of the wood was fixed by the prosecution at four
dollars, at the Los Angeles hearing its value was placed
at twenty-eight dollars. Because a thief cannot be extra-
dited for stealing less than twenty-five dollars the wood
market had taken a spectacular jump. But, by an over-
sight of the prosecution the market even then did not
jump quite high enough, for by discovering that the price
of silver was a little lower than usual that year, Attor-
ney Harriman showed that the alleged value, fifty-six
Mexican pesos, did not come to twenty-eight dollars in
American money, but a little less than twenty-five dol-
lars, and so on that technicality the life of De Lara
was saved.

The facts of the case were that De Lara had never
stolen any wood, but that, while acting as attorney for
a widow whom a wealthy American mine owner was
trying to euchre out of a piece of land, he had given
the widow permission to cut some wood on the land for
her own use. The audacity of the prosecutors in this
case would be unbelievable were it not a matter of rec-
ord. De Lara was released, but only after one hundred
and four precious days of his life had been wasted in
an American jail. He had been luckier than many of
his compatriots, he had won his fight against extradi-
tion, but that three and one-half months were gone and
could never be brought back. Moreover, "Revolucion"
had been suppressed and a Mexican gentleman had been
taught that he who opposes the tyrant may be properly
disciplined in the United States as well as in Mexico.

Magon, Villarreal and Rivera remained in prison con-
tinuously since August 2Z, 1907, for nearly three years.
From early in July, 1908, to January, 1909, they were

292 BARBAROUS MEXICO

held incommunicado in the Los Angeles county jail,
which means that no visitors, not even newspaper men,
were permitted to see them. For a time not even Mrs.
Rivera and her children were permitted to see the hus-
band and father. Only their local attorney saw them.
Two attorneys who were representing them in another
state were excluded on the flimsy ground that they were
not attorneys of record in California.

The only excuse Oscar Lawler, United States Dis-
trict Attorney, had to offer for this severe isolation
when, in July, 1908, I called upon him at his office and
protested was:

''We are doing this at the request of the Mexican
government. They have accommodated us and ifs no
more than right that we accommodate them"

Requests were also made by the Mexican government
that the men be not admitted to bail and the requests
were obeyed. The privilege of liberty on bail pending
trial is guaranteed by the law to all accused persons
below the murderer in cold blood, and yet Judge Wel-
born, sitting both as district and circuit judge, denied
the men this privilege. Bail had previously been fixed
as $5,000, ten times the amount required in similar cases
that had previously come up. In the latter part of July,
1908, this amount was raised and presented in the most
gilt-edged form, but it was not accepted. Judge Wel-
born's excuse was that a rule of the Supreme Court
says that during habeas corpus proceedings the custody
of a prisoner shall not be changed. This rule he strangely
interpreted to mean that these particular prisoners
should not be admitted to bail.

During their six months of incommunicado, when
the prisoners were unable to make any public state-
rnent, Lawler took advantage of their enforced silence

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF ENEMIES OF DIAZ 293

publicly to declare them guilty not only of the offenses
charged, but of others, among them a plot to assassinate
President Diaz, when, as a matter of fact, Lawler had
no evidence whatsoever of such a plot.

After nearly two years in county jails Magon, Villar-
real and Rivera, were adjudged guilty of conspiring to
violate the neutrality laws by conspiring to set on foot a
military expedition against Mexico. They were sen-
tenced to eighteen months' imprisonment and were con-
fined in the penitentiary at Florence, Arizona. Sarabia
was not tried. Having waived extradition proceedings,
he had been taken to Arizona ahead of the others. Here
he was released on bail and soon afterwards was mar-
ried to Miss Elizabeth D. Trowbridge, a Boston girl
of old and wealthy family. His health broken by long
confinement, believing that a trial would result in his
imprisonment in spite of the lack of evidence against
him, Sarabia was persuaded to pay his bail and with his
wife flee to Europe. There he has since interested him-
self in writing for various English, French, Spanish and
Belgian papers articles upon the democratic movements in
Mexico.

The campaign to extradite the refugees on charges of
"murder and robbery,'* generally failed. It succeeded
insofar as it kept a good many Liberals in jail for many
months, drained their resources, weakened their organi-
zation, and intimidated their friends, but it did not suc-
ceed in extraditing them. Most of the Liberals deported
were deported by immigration officials or by kidnapping.

The "murder and robbery" campaign failed because it
was so plainly in contradiction with American laws and
American principles. The U. S. prosecuters must have
known this from the start but, in order to accommodate
Diaz, they went ahead with the prosecutions. That this

294 BARBAROUS MEXICO

campaign was not a mere blundering on the part of in-
dividual U. S. Attorneys, but that it was a policy of the
highest officials of the government was shown, in 1908,
when numerous published reports from various depart-
ments at Washington and from Oyster Bay expressed
the desire of the administration to deport Mexican polit-
ical refugees "as common criminals"

Failing in its efforts to deport Mexican refugees whole-
sale "as common criminals," our Department of Justice
concentrated its energies to secure their imprisonment for
violation of the neutrality laws or conspiracy to violate
the neutrality laws. It is a high misdemeanor to set on
foot a military expedition against a "friendly power," or
to conspire to set on foot a military expedition against a
"friendly power." In addition to Magon, Villarreal,
Rivera and Sarabia, some of the Liberal refugees who
have been prosecuted under this law are Tomas de Espi-
nosa, Jose M. Rangel, Gasimiro H. Regalado, Lauro
lAguirre, Raymundo Cano, Antonio Aruajo, Amado Her-
nandez, Tomas Morales, Encardacion Diaz Guerra, Juan
Castro, Priciliano Silva, Jose Maria Martinez, Benjamin
Silva, Leocadio Trevino, Jose Ruiz, Benito Solis, Tomas
Sarabia, Praxedis Guerrero, Sirvando T. Agis, John
Murray, Calixto Guerra, Guillermo Adan, E. Davilla,
Ramon Torres Delgrado, Amendo Morantes, Francisco
Sainz, Marcelleno Ibarra and Inez Ruiz.

Most of the arrests occurred at San Antonio, Del Rio,
El Paso, Douglass, or Los "Angeles. This is by no means
a complete list, but is a list of the most notable cases.

In nearly all of these cases the accused were kept in
Jail for month after month without an opportunity of
proving their innocence. When the cases came to trial,
they were usually acquitted. Convictions were secured in

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF ENEMIES OF DIAZ 295

the cases of Espinosa, Aruajo, Guerra, Priciliano Silva,
Trevino, Rangel, and Magon, Villarreal and Rivera.
Prison sentences ranging from one and one-half to two
and one-half years were given the convicted ones and
they were confined either at Leavenworth, Kansas, or
Florence, Arizona.

Were these men guilty? If not, how is it that they
were convicted?

It is my opinion that not one was guilty within the
proper interpretation of the statute, that the laws were
stretched to convict them, that in some instances, at least,
they were deliberately jobbed.

This is a bold statement, but I think the facts bear me
out. That there exists on the part of our government
a most incontinent desire to serve Diaz is shown by the
circumstance that cases where the evidence of violation
of the neutrality laws is ten times as clear — as American
expeditions to aid revolutions in Central American or
South American countries — have been and are habitually
overlooked by our authorities. But this fact I do not
need to urge in favor of the Mexican Liberals. The truth
is that there has never been any adequate evidence to
show a violation of the neutrality laws on their part.

Did they set on foot a military expedition against a
friendly power? Did they plan to do so? No. What
did they do ? They came to this country and here planned
to aid a revolutionary movement in Mexico. Here they
fled to save their lives, here they staid, planning to re-
turn and take part in a rebellion upon Mexican soil;
nothing more.

Did this constitute a violation of the neutrality laws ?

Not in the opinion of U. S. Judge Maxey, of Texas,
who reviewed some of the cases. January 7, 1908, the

296 BARBAROUS MEXICO

San Antonio Daily Light and Gazette, quotes Judge
Maxey as follows :

"If Jose M. Rangel, the defendant, merely went across the
river and joined in the fight, he had every right to do so, and
I will so tell the jury in my charge. This indictment is not for
fighting in a foreign country, but for beginning and setting on
foot an expedition in Val Verde county."

The exact text of the law is as follows :

"Every person who, within the territory or jurisdiction of
the United States, begins, or sets on foot, or provides or pre-
pares the means for, any military expedition or enterprise, to
be carried on from thence against the territory or dominions of
any foreign prince or state, or of any colony, district or peo-
ple, with whom the United States are at peace, shall be
deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and shall be fined
not exceeding $3,000, and imprisoned not more than three
years."

Magon, Villarreal, and Rivera, the leaders, not only
did not set on foot an expedition against Mexico, but
they did not even cross the river and fight themselves.
Their conviction was secured through the palpably per-
jured testimony of a Mexican detective named Vasquez,
who presented the only direct evidence against them.
Vasquez claimed to be a spy who had penetrated a meet-
ing of a Liberal club. There, he declared, letters were
read from Magon ordering the club to constitute itself as
a military body and invade Mexico. At this meeting, said
Vasquez, military appointments, forwarded by Magon,
were made. The names, said he, were written by a mem-
ber named Salcido. The paper was produced, but hand-
writing experts brought by the defense proved the docu-
ment to be a forgery. Vasquex then changed his testi-
mony and swore that he wrote the names himself. This
was a vital point in the testimony and, had the public

AMERICAN PERSECUTION OF ENEMIES OF DIAZ 297

prosecutors been interested in upholding the law, rather
than in persecuting the political enemies of Diaz, they
would have discharged the defendants and prosecuted
Vasquez for perjury.

The general persecution of Mexican political refugees
continued unabated up to June, 1910, when the scandal
became so great that the matter was presented to Con-
gress, and the facts which I have set down here, but in
more complete form, were testified to before the House
Rules Committee. Resolutions providing for a general
investigation of the persecutions are now pending in both
houses.

Up to the initiation of congressional proceedings the
government planned to continue the persecutions. Re-
peatedly it was announced that, when the terms of Ma-
gon, Villarreal and Rivera, at the Florence penitentiary,
ended, they would be prosecuted on further charges. But
on August 3 they were released and were not re-arrested.
Since that date there have been no prosecutions, to my
knowledge. It is to be hoped that the laws of this coun-
try, and the great American principle of protection for
political refugees, will not again be abused, for I fear
that the conspirators are only waiting for the public to
forget their past crimes.

There may be further persecutions and there may not.
Even if there are not, Justice will not be satisfied; the
friends of decency and of liberty cannot be content. For
some of the victims are still enduring unjust punishment
which it is in the power of the American people to end.
There is Lazaro Puente, for example, the peaceful editor,
thirteen years a resident of the United States, who was
unjustly and unlawfully deported as an "undesirable im-
migrant" by our immigration officials. Lazaro Puente is

298 BARBAROUS MEXICO

a prisoner in San Juan de Ulua, the military fortress in
Vera Cruz Harbor. He has been a prisoner there for
more than four years. Unjustly he was yielded up to the
Diaz police: in justice the American people should de-
mand that he be returned free to this country.

CHAPTER XVI

DIAZ HIMSELF

"But Diaz himself — isn't he a pretty good sort of
fellow?"

It is a question that almost invariably rises to the
lips of the average American when he learns for the
first time of the slavery, peonage and political oppres-
sion of Mexico. Though the question is only another
evidence that the Diaz press agents have done their
work well, yet it is one that may very well be exam-
ined separately.

The current American estimate of Porfirio Diaz, at
least up to the past year or two, has indeed been that
he is a very good fellow. Theodore Roosevelt, in writ-
ing to James Creelman after the publication in Pear-
son's Magazine of the latter*s famous laudatory article,
declared that among contemporary statesmen there was
none greater than Porfirio Diaz. In the same year, dur-
ing a trip to Mexico, William Jennings Bryan spoke in
the most eulogistic terms of Diaz's "great work." David
Starr Jordan of Stanford University, in recent speeches,
has echoed Creelman's assertion that Diaz is the greatest
man in the western hemisphere. And hundreds of our
most distinguished citizens have expressed themselves
in a similar vein. On the part of prominent Americans
traveling in Mexico, it has become a custom, a sort of
formality of the trip, to banquet at Chapultepec castle —
the lesser lights at Chapultepec cafe — and to raise the
after-dinner yoice in most extravagant praise, loudly to

299

300 BARBAROUS MEXICO

attribute to Porfirio Diaz the virtues of a superman,
even of a demi-god.

Were not the facts overwhelmingly to the contrary,
did not the easily provable acts of Porfirio Diaz tell an
entirely different story, I would not presume to question
the estimates of such men, especially when those estimates
agree and are accepted generally as correct. But when
the facts speak for themselves, it matters not how
obscure may be the individual who brings them to light.
It matters not, even, how distinguished the men who
disregard those facts, for facts are greater than men.
Current Literature, in calling attention to the new con-
ception of Porfirio Diaz that has of late been gaining
ground in America, refers to Diaz as a man of mystery.
"Is he a sublime statesman or is he a colossal criminal?"
it inquires. To which I would reply that we have our
ideals of statesmanship and our concepts of criminality;
all we need upon which to base an estimate are the facts
of the life of the man in question. Given the facts and
the mystery dispels itself.

In judging the life of a man, especially of a man who
has decided the fate of thousands, who has "saved a
nation," or wrecked it, small virtues and small vices
count for little; insignificant acts of good or ill are
important only in the aggregate. A man may have com-
mitted grave crimes, yet if he has brought more joy to
the world than sorrow, he should be judged kindly. On
the other hand, he may be credited with laudable deeds,
yet if he has locked the wheels of progress for a time
to feed his own ambition, history will not acquit him of
the crime. It is the balance that counts ; it is the scales
that decide. Will not Porfirio Diaz, when weighed in
the balance of his good and evil deeds, be found want-
ing— terribly wanting? His friends may sing his praises,

DIAZ HIMSELF 301

but when they, his best friends, begin to specify, to point
out their reasons for selecting him for a high niche in
the hall of good fame, is it not found that they them-
selves become, instead of his advocates, his prosecutors?
Out of even their mouths is he not convicted and by
those our ideals of statesmanship and our concepts of
criminality will we not judge him, not a statesman, but
a criminal, and because there is no individual man in the
world who wields so much power over so many human
beings, will we not judge him the most colossal criminal
of our time?

It is curious, this almost universal feeling — in this
country — that Porfirio Diaz is a very good fellow. But
it can be explained. For one thing, individuals who
have not had the opportunity to judge a particular man
or thing for themselves, though they be college presi-
dents and congressmen, are apt to accept the word of
others as to that man or thing. Porfirio Diaz, knowing
this and valuing the good opinions of men who do not
know, has spent millions for printer^s ink in this coun-
try. For another thing, most men are susceptible to
flattery and Diaz is a good flatterer. As prominent Cath-
olics journeying to Rome seek an audience with the Pope,
so Americans traveling to Mexico seek an audience with
General Diaz ; they usually get it and are flattered. Still
again, to paraphrase an old proverb, men not only do
not look a gift horse in the mouth, but they do not
look the giver in the mouth. Despite the ancient warn-
ing, men do not usually beware of the Greeks when they
bring gifts; and Diaz is free with gifts to men whose
good opinion is influential with others. Finally, there
IS nothing that succeeds like success, and Diaz has suc-
ceeded. Power dazzles the strong as well as the weak
and Diaz's power has dazzled men and cowed them until

302 BARBAROUS MEXICO

they had not the courage to look steadily at the glare
long enough to see the bones and carrion behind it. I
do not for a minute imagine that any decent American
approves of the acts of Porfirio Diaz. I merely guess
that they — the decent ones — are ignorant of those deeds
and are moved to strong praise by having accepted the
word of others — and by the dazzle of success.

As for me, I do not come with a new ideal of states-
manship with which to change your opinions, but I come
with facts. With those facts before you, if you hold
Washington a great statesman, or Jefferson, or Lincoln,
or any other enduring light of American political his-
tory, I am sure you cannot at the same time hold Porfirio
Diaz a great statesman. What Porfirio Diaz has done,
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, would have abhorred to
do, and you yourself would abhor to do or see done, are
you really an admirer of any or all of these men.

Porfirio Diaz is truly a striking figure. He must be
a genius of a sort and there must actually be some traits
of character about him to be admired. Let us examine
some of his acts with a view to discovering whether or
not he may justly be called the greatest living statesman
or "the grandest man in the Americas."

First let us examine those broadly general allega-
tions upon which is based his good fame abroad. Chief
among these are three, that Diaz has "made modern
Mexico," that he brought peace to Mexico and should
therefore stand as a sort of prince of peace, and that he
is a model of virtue in his private life.

Did Porfirio Diaz "make" modern Mexico? Is Mex-
ico modern? Hardly. Neither industrially nor in the
matter of public education, nor in the form of govern-
ment is Mexico modern. Industrially, it is at least a

DIAZ HIMSELF 303

quarter of a century behind the times; in the matter of
public education it is at least a half century behind the
times; in its system of government it is worthy of the
Egypt of three thousand years ago.

True, Mexico has seen some advancement in some
lines — especially industrially — during the past thirty-
four years. But that mere fact does not argue any pro-
pelling force on the part of Porfirio Diaz. In order to
show that Diaz was the special propelling force will it
not be necessary to show that Mexico has advanced in
that period faster than other countries? And should it
be shown that Mexico has advanced more slowly than
almost any other large nation in the world in the past
thirty-four years, would it not be logical to attribute to
Diaz at least some of that retarding force?

Consider the United States thirty-four years ago and
then today, and then consider Mexico. Consider that
the world has been built over, industrially, in the past
thirty-four years. To make the comparison perfectly
unassailable, disregard the United States and European
countries and compare the progress of Mexico with other
Latin-American countries. Among persons who have
traveled extensively in Argentine, Chili, Brazil and even
Cuba, and Mexico, there is a pretty good agreement
that Mexico is the most backward of the five — in the
matter of government, in the matter of public education,
even industrially. Who made Argentine? Who made
Chili? Who made Brazil? Why don't we find a
"maker" of these countries? The fact is that whatever
modernization Mexico has had duriner the past thirty-
four years must be attributed to evolution — that is, to
the general progress of the world — instead of to Porfirio
Diqz. In general, Porfirio Diaz has been a reactionary
'force. His claims for being progressive are all based

304 BARBAROUS MEXICO

Upon one fact — upon his having "encouraged" foreign
capital.

''Diaz, the peace-maker, the greatest peace-maker
alive, greater than Roosevelt!" chanted an American
politician in a banquet at the Mexican capital recently.
And the chant was only an echo of louder voices. I
remember seeing, not long ago, a news item stating
that the American Peace Society had made Porfirio
Diaz an honorary vice-president, in consideration of
his having brought peace to Mexico. The theory seems
to be that since the history of Mexico before Diaz was
full of wars and violent changes in the government and
the history of Mexico under Diaz has been without vio-
lent upheavals of far-reaching effect, Diaz must neces-
sarily be a humane, Christ-like creature who shrinks at
the mention of bloodshed and whose example of loving-
kindness is so compelling that none of his subjects have
the heart to do anything but emulate him.

In answer to which it will only be necessary to refer
the reader to my account of how Diaz began his career
as a statesmen by deliberately breaking the peace of
Mexico himself, and how he has been breaking the
peace ever since — by making bloody war upon the self-
respecting, democratic elements among his people. He
has kept the peace — if it can be called keeping the
peace — by killing off his opponents as fast as their
heads have appeared above the horizon. This sort of
peace is what the Mexican writer DeZayas calls "me-
chanical peace." It has no virtue, because the fruits of
legitimate peace fail to ripen under it. It neither brings
happiness to the nation, nor prepares the nation for
happiness. It prepares it only for violent revolution.

For more than twenty years before arriving at the
supreme power in Mexico Diaz had been a professional

DIAZ HIMSELF 305

soldier and almost continually in the field. The wars
of those times were by no means unnecessary affairs.
Mexico did not fight simply because it is the Mexican
character to be looking always for trouble, for it isn't.
Diaz fought in the Three Years War, in which the throt-
tling grip of the Catholic church on the throat of the
nation was broken and the nation secured a real repub-
lican constitution. Afterwards he fought in the War
of Maximilian, which ended in the execution of the
Austrian prince whom the armies of Napoleon Third
had seated as emperor.

During these twenty odd years Diaz fought on the
side of Mexico and patriotism. He probably fought no
more wisely nor energetically than thousands of other
Mexicans, but he had the good luck to have become
acquainted in his youth with Benito Juarez, who, years
later, as father of the constitution and constitutional
president, guided the destinies of the country safely
through many troublous years. Juarez remembered Diaz,
watched his work and promoted him gradually from one
rank to another until, at the downfall of Maximilian,
Don Porfirio held a rank which in our country would
carry the title of major-general. Note how Diaz repaid
the favors of Juarez.

Following the overthrow of Maximilian, peace reigned
in Mexico. Juarez was president. The constitution was
put into operation. The people were sick unto death of
war. There threatened neither foreign foe nor internal
revolt. Yet the ambitious Diaz wantonly and without
any plausible excuse stirred up rebellion after rebellion
for the purpose of securing for himself the supreme
power of the land.

There is evidence that Diaz began plotting to seize
the presidency even before the fall of the empire. Dur-

306 BARBAROUS MEXICO

ing those last days when MaximiHan was penned up in
Queretaro friends of Diaz approached several military
leaders and proposed that they form a military party to
secure the presidency by force of arms, which prize
would be raffled off among Generals Diaz, Corona and
Escobedo. General Escobedo refused to enter into the
conspiracy and the plan consequently fell through. Diaz,
who was at that time besieging Mexico City, then effected
a secret combination with the church to overthrow the
Liberal government. According to one writer, he inten-
tionally delayed taking the metropolis and asked General
Escobedo for two of his strongest divisions, which he
planned to turn against Juarez. But Juarez received
word of the plot in time and instructed General Esco-
bedo to send two of his strongest divisions under com-
mand of General Corona and General Regules, respec-
tively, with orders to destroy the treachery of Diaz,
should it arise. When the reinforcements arrived Diaz
tried to get them entirely in his power by appointing
new officers, but Corona and Regules stood firm, and
Diaz, realizing that he had been anticipated, abandoned
his plot.

Immediately after the coming of peace Juarez ap-
pointed Diaz commander of that part of the army sta-
tioned in Oaxaca and Diaz used the power thus secured
to control the state elections and impose himself as
governor. After his defeat for the presidency Diaz
started a revolution, known as *'La Ciudadela," The
Citadel, but the uprising was crushed in one decisive
meeting with the government troops. Six weeks later
Diaz started a second revolution, calling his friends to
arms under what is known as the "Plan de Noria," a
platform, in reality, in which the leading demand was for

DIAZ HIMSELF 307

an amendment to the constitution absolutely forbidding
the re-election of either president or governors. This
rebellion also met with ignominious defeat on the bat-
tlefield at the hands of the government forces, and when
Juarez died in July, 1872, Diaz was a fugitive from
justice. During one of these little rebellions of the
present superman Juarez is said to have captured and
brought Diaz before him and told him that he deserved
to be shot like a rebel, but that the country would take
into consideration his services rendered during the War
of Intervention.

After the death of Juarez, Diaz prosecuted a success-
ful revolution, but only after four years more of plot-
ting and rebelling. The people of the country were
overwhelmingly against him, but he found one very defi-
nite interest upon which to play. That, far from being
a peaceful and legitimate interest, was a military inter-
est, the interest of the chiefs of the army and of those
who had made their living by killing and plundering.
The government of Juarez and the government of
Lerdo both carried out, after peace came, a sweeping
anti-militarist policy. They announced their intention
of reducing the army and proceeded to reduce the army.
Thereupon the chiefs thereof, seeing their glory depart-
ing from them, became fertile ground for the seeds of
rebellion which Diaz was strewing broadcast. Diaz
gave these army chiefs to understand that under him
they would not be shorn of their military splendor, but,
on the other hand, that they would be raised to posi-
tions of higher power.

Lerdo issued an amnesty to all revolutionists and Diaz
was safe from prosecution as a rebel. But instead of
employing the freedom thus given to useful and honor-

308 BARBAROUS MEXICO

able pursuits, he used it to facilitate his plotting until,
in January, 1876, he started his third revolution, issuing
his "Plan de Tuxtepec," in which he again demanded
a change prohibiting the re-election of the president.

For nearly a year Diaz prosecuted his third revolu-
tion, during that time issuing another manifesto, the
"Plan de Palo Blanco," which gave his operations the
aspect of still another and a fourth revolution. It was
under this plan that the rebel leader finally gained a deci-
sive victory over government troops and soon after-
wards led his army into the capital and declared himself
provisional president. A few days later he held a farci-
cal election, in which he placed soldiers in possession of
the polls and permitted neither rival candidates to appear
nor opposition votes to be cast.

Thus in 1876, more than a generation ago, Porfirio
Diaz came to the head of the Mexican state a rebel in
arms. He broke the peace of Mexico to begin with, and
he has continued to break the peace by periodical and
wholesale butcheries of his people. General Porfirio
Diaz, the "greatest living peace-maker," "prince of
peace!" It is a sacrilege!

That the Mexican dictator has not fallen a victim to
the physical debaucheries that sometimes over-tempt men
suddenly risen to great power is undoubtedly true. But
what of it? Certainly no one will argue that, since a
man keeps clean physically, he has a right to misgovern
a country and assassinate a people. Personal cleanli-
ness, physical temperance and marital virtue do not in
the least determine the standing a man deserves as a
statesman.

Thus it will be seen that the allegations upon which
the good fame of General Diaz is based have no founda-
tion in fact. Moreover, none of his flatterers have so

DIAZ HIMSELF 309

far discovered in him any claims for greatness any bet-
ter substantiated than those mentioned.

Diaz has some personal abilities, such as a genius for
organization, keen judgment of human nature, and indus-
try, but these do not determine that his public acts shall
be beneficent. Like the virtues the devout Methodist
kdy attributed to the Devil, industry and persistence,
they merely render him more efficient in what he does.
If he chooses to do good, they become virtues; if he
chooses to do ill, they may very properly be incorporated
with his vices.

The flatterers of Porfirio Diaz are wont to speak in
generalities, for otherwise they would come to grief.
On the other hand, a large book could be written re-
counting his evil deeds and contemptible traits. In-
gratitude is one of the charges least worthy of mention
that are made against him. Benito Juarez made the
career of Porfirio Diaz. Every promotion which Diaz
received was given him by the hands of Juarez. Never-
theless, Diaz turned against his country and his friend,
started rebellion after rebellion and made the last days
of the great patriot turbulent and unhappy.

Yet, to portray the other side, Diaz has shown grati-
tude to some of his friends, and in doing so he has at
the same time exhibited his utter disregard for the pub-
lic welfare. An Indian named Cahuantzi, illiterate but
rich, was Diaz's friend when the latter was in rebellion
against Juarez and Lerdo. Cahuantzi furnished the
rebel with horses and money and when Diaz captured
the supreme power he did not forget. He made Cahu-
antzi governor of Tlaxcala and sent him a teacher that
he might learn to sign his name to documents of state.
He retained Cahuantzi as governor of the state of
Tlaxcala, giving him free rein to rob and plunder at

310 BARBAROUS MEXICO

will. He kept Cahuantzi there for thirty-four years,
down to this day.

A similar case was that of Manuel Gonzalez, a com-
padre who aided the Diaz rebellions and whom Diaz
substituted for himself in the presidential chair from
1880 to 1884. After Gonzalez had served his purpose in
the federal government Don Porfirio presented him with
the state government of Guanajuato, where he reigned
until his death. Gonzalez was wont to boast that the
government had killed all the bandits in Guanajuato
but himself, that he was the only bandit tolerated in that
state.

The flatterers of Diaz tell of his intellectual ability,
but of his culture they dare say nothing. The question
as to whether or not he is a cultivated man would seem
important inasmuch as it would determine somewhat
the distribution of culture among the people whom he
controls so absolutely. Diaz is intelligent, but his in-
telligence may very well be denominated a criminal in-
telligence— such as is needed at the head of a great free-
booter corporation or an organization such as Tammany
Hall. In devising ways and means to strengthen his
personal power Diaz's intelligence has risen even to
genius, but of refinement and culture he possesses lit-
tle or none. Despite the necessity of his meeting for-
eigners almost daily he has never learned English nor
any other foreign language. He never reads anything
but press clippings and books about himself and he never
studies anything but the art of keeping himself in power.
He is interested in neither music, art, literature nor the
drama and the encouragement he gives to these things is
negligible. Mexico's drama is imported from Spain,
Italy and France. Her literature is imported from
France and Spain. Her art and music are likewise im-

DIAZ HIMSELF 311

ported. Within a century past art flourished in Mex-
ico, but now her art is decadent — choked Hke her bud-
ding Hterature, by the thorns of poHtical tyranny.

General education in Mexico is appalHngly absent.
The flatterers of Diaz tell of the schools that he has es-
tablished, but the investigator fails to find these schools.
They are mostly on paper. There is practically no such
thing as country schools in Mexico, while towns of
many hundreds of inhabitants often have no school
whatsoever. Nominally there are schools in such towns,
but actually there are none because the governors of the
various states prefer to keep the expense money for
themselves. While traveling in the rural districts of the
state of Mexico, for example, I learned that scores of
schools in small towns had been closed for three years
because the governor, General Fernando Gonzalez, had
withheld the money, explaining to the local authorities
that he needed it for other purposes. The fact that
there is no adequate public school system in Mexico is
attested by the most recent official census (1900), which
goes to show that but 16 per cent of the population are
able to read and write. Compare this with Japan, an
over-populated country where the people are very poor
and where the opportunities for education seemingly
ought not to be so good. Ninety-eight per cent of
Japanese men and 93 per cent of Japanese women are
able to read and write. The sort of educational ideals
held by President Diaz is shown in the schools that are
running, where a most important item in the curricu-
lum is military study and training !

Is Diaz humane? The question is almost superfluous,
inasmuch as few of his admirers credit him with this
trait. All admit that he has been severe and harsh, even
brutal, in his treatment of his enemies, while some of

312 BARBAROUS MEXICO

them even relate deeds of the most bloodthirsty cru-
elty— relate them with gusto, condemning not at all,
but treating the incidents as if they were merely some
excusable eccentricities of genius! The wholesale kill-
ings carried out by the orders of Diaz, the torture per-
petrated in his prisons, the slavery of hundreds of thou-
sands of his people, the heart-breaking poverty which
he sees every time he leaves his palace, and which he
could greatly ameliorate if he wished, are of themselves
sufficient proof of his inhumanity.

Cruelty was undoubtedly a part of his inheritance,
for his father, a horse-breaker by trade, was noted for
It. Horses which did not yield readily Chepe Diaz, the
father, killed, and others he chastised with a whip
tipped with a steel star, which he landed on the belly,
the most tender part of the poor brute. For this rea-
son the people of Oaxaca, the birthplace of Diaz, pat-
ronized the father but little, and he was poor. That in-
herited trait showed itself in Porfirio at an extremely
tender age, for while only a child Porfirio, becoming
angry at his brother over a trivial matter, filled his
brother's nostrils with gunpowder while he was asleep
and touched a match to it. From that time Felix was
known as "Chato" (Pug-nose) Diaz. "For Porfirio
Diaz" — in the words of Gutierrez De Lara, "the people
of Mexico have been the horse."

As a military commander Diaz was noted for his
cruelty to his own soldiers and to any portion of the
enemy that happened to fall into his Hands. Several
Mexican writers mention unwarranted acts of severity
and executions of subordinates ordered in the heat of
passion. Revenge is a twin brother of cruelty and Diaz
was revengeful. Terrible was the revenge visited by
the child upon his sleeping brother and terrible was the

DIAZ HIMSELF 313

revenge visited upon the town where his brother many
years later met a tragic death.

Accounts of the incident differ, but all authorities
agree that the massacre at Juchitan, Oaxaca, was done
in cold blood, indiscriminately and out of revenge. On
becoming president, Diaz installed his brother "Chato"
as governor of Oaxaca. "Chato" was a drunkard and
a libertine and he was killed while over-riding the per-
sonal liberties of the people of the town of Juchitan.
Many weeks later, long after the uprising of a day had
passed, President Diaz sent troops to Juchitan who,
according to one writer, suddenly appeared one evening
in the public square where the people had gathered to
listen to the music of a band, and poured volley after
volley into the crowd, continuing to fire until all the
people left in the square were dead or dying on the
ground.

Such killings have been a recognized policy of the
Diaz rule. The Rio Blanco massacre, the details of
which were set forth in a previous chapter, took place
after the town was entirely quiet. The executions in
Cananea were carried out with little discrimination and
after the alleged disturbance of the strikers was over.
The summary executions at Velardena in the Spring
of 1909 all took place after the so-called riot was over.
And other instances could be given. It may be sug-
gested that in some of these cases not Diaz, but an un-
derling, was responsible. But it is well known that
Diaz usually gave the orders for distributing indis-
criminate death. That he approves of such a policy as
a policy is shown by his remarkable toast to General
Bernardo Reyes, after the Monterey massacre in 1903.
when he said: "Senor General, that is the way to gov-
ern.

314 BARBAROUS MEXICO

The inhuman methods used by Diaz to exterminate
the Yaqui Indians have been exploited in a previous
chapter. One of his famous Yaqui orders which, how-
ever, I did not mention, not only exhibits his rude and
uncultured ideas of justice, but it paints his cruelty as
most diabolical. Several years ago, after various em-
ployers of labor of the state of Sonora had protested
against the wholesale deportation of the Yaquis be-
cause they needed the Yaquis as farm and mine laborers,
Diaz, in order to pacify the aforesaid employers, mod-
ified his deportation decree to read substantially as fol-
lows: "No more Yaquis are to be deported except in
case of offenses being committed by Yaquis. For every
offense hereafter committed by any Yaqui 500 Yaquis
are to be rounded up and deported to Yucatan."

This decree is attested to by no less a personage than
Francisco I. Madero, the distinguished citizen of the
state of Coahuila, who dared oppose Diaz in the presi-
dential campaign of 1910. The decree was carried out,
or at least the stream of Yaqui exiles kept on. Cruel
and revengeful is the Mexican president and bitterly
has his nation suffered as a result of it.

Is Diaz a brave man? In some quarters it has been
taken for granted that he is a man of courage, inas-
much as he made a success as a soldier. But there are
many distinguished Mexicans who, having watched his
career, assert that he is not only not brave, but that
he is a shrinking, cringing coward. And they point to
numerous accepted facts to support their assertion.
When the news of the uprising at Las Vacas reached
him in the last days of June, 1908, Diaz was suddenly
taken sick and for five days he staid in his bed. In high
government circles it was whispered about — and the
fact is alleged to have come from one of his physicians

DIAZ HIMSELF 3l5

— that he was suffering from a common malady which
comes upon one overpowered by acute and panicky fear.
The fact that when Diaz seized the power he carefully
excluded from any part in the government each and
every one of the most popular and able Mexicans of the
day is attributed to fear. The fact that he maintains a
large army which he distributes in every quarter of the
country, and a huge secret police system armed with
extraordinary power to kill on suspicion, the terrible
way in which he gets rid of his enemies, his bloody
massacres themselves, even his muzzling of the press,
are all attributed to arrant cowardice. In his book
*'Diaz, Czar of Mexico," Carlo de Fornaro voices this
belief in the cowardice of Diaz and reasons quite ef-
fectively upon it. He says:

"Like all people quick to anger he (Diaz) is not really fear-
less, for as the jungle song says, 'Anger is the egg of fear.*
Fearful and therefore ever vigilant, he was saved from destruc-
tion by this alertness, as the hare is preserved from capture by
his long ears. He mistook cruelty for strength of character
and consequently was ever ready to terrorize for fear of being
thought weak. As a result of the outrageous nickel law and
the payment of the famous English debt in the period of
Gonzalez, there happened a mutiny. 'Knife them all,' suggested
Porfirio Diaz to Gonzalez. But Gonzalez was not afraid.

"Last year, on the 16th of September, as the Mexican students
desired to parade on the streets of the capital, they sent their
representative, a Mr. Olea, to beg the President's permission.
Porfirio Diaz answered: 'Yes, but beware, for the Mexicans
have revolutionary tendencies lurking in their blood.' Think of
three score of youngsters parading unarmed being a menace to
the republic, with 5,000 soldiers, rurales and policemen in the
capital !

"It is only by admitting this shameful well-hidden stigma on
the apparently brave front of this man that we can logically
explain such despicable and infamous acts as the massacres
of Veracruz and Orizaba. He was then panic-stricken, like a

316 BARBAROUS MEXICO

wanderer, who shoots wildly at the fleeing phantoms of the
night; he was so terrorized that the only means of relieving his
blue funk was to terrorize in return."

Hand in hand with cruelty and cowardice often
travels hypocrisy and of the three Diaz is not the least
endowed with hypocrisy. Constantly is he foisting new
shams and deceptions and farces upon the public. His
election farces and his periodical pretense of wishing
to retire from the presidency and the reluctantly yield-
ing to a universal demand on the part of his people have
already been referred to. Diaz's rule began in hypocrisy,
for he went into office on a platform which he had no no-
tion of carrying out. He pretended to consider the doc-
trine of non-re-election of president and governors of
enough importance to warrant turning the nation over in
a revolution, yet as soon as he had entrenched himself in
power he proceeded to re-elect himself as well as his
governors on to the end of time.

When Elihu Root went in to Mexico to see Diaz and
to arrange some matters in regard to Magdalena Bay
Diaz was desirous of showing Root that the Mexican
people were not as poverty-stricken as they had been
painted. He therefore, through his Department of the
Interior, distributed the day before Root's arrival in
the capital, 5,000 pairs of new pantaloons among that
class of workmen who were habitually most prominently
on the streets. In spite of orders that the pants were
to be worn, the majority of them were promptly ex-
changed for food, and so Mr. Root was probably not
very badly fooled. The incident merely goes to show
to what extents the petty hypocrisy of the Mexican ruler
sometimes goes.

Diaz is the head of the Masons in Mexico, yet he
nominates every new bishop and archbishop the country

DIAZ HIMSELF 317

gets. Church marriages are not recognized as legal, yet
Diaz has favored the church so far as to refuse to
enact a divorce law, so that today there is no such thing
as divorce or re-marriage during the life of both parties
in Mexico. Constantly is Diaz trying to fool the peo-
ple as to his own motives. He brought about the merger
under national control of the two leading railway sys-
tems of the country, ostensibly to put the railways where
the government can use them best in time of war, but
actually in order to give his friends an opportunity to
make millions in the juggling of securities. Deceits of
this class could be enumerated ad infinitum.

One of the most notable hypocritical antics of Diaz
is his pretended concurrence in the overwhelmingly pop-
ular idolatry of the patriot Juarez. It will be remem-
bered that when Juarez died Diaz was in revolution
against him and that therefore if it is conceded that
Juarez was a great statesman it must be admitted that
Diaz was wrong in rebelling. Diaz undoubtedly recog-
nized this fact and some ten years ago he is said to have
aided secretly the publication and circulation of a book
which attempted, by new and cleverly written inter-
pretations of the acts of Juarez, to make out the father
of the constitution a great blunderer instead of a great
statesman. This failed to turn the tide against Juarez,
however, and Diaz fell in with the tide until nowadays
we see him every year, on the occasion of the birthday
of Juarez, delivering a eulogistic speech over the tomb
of the man against whom he rebelled. More than this,
during each speech Diaz sheds tears — rains tears— and
is wont to refer to Juarez as "my great teacher!"

The ability to shed tears freely and on the slightest
provocation has, indeed, been named by Diaz's enemies
as his greatest asset as a statesman. When a distin-

318 BARBAROUS MEXICO

guished visitor praises Diaz or his work Diaz cries—
and the visitor is touched and drawn toward him. When
the "Circulo de Amigos de General Diaz" pays its for-
mal call to tell its creator that the country once more
demands his re-election he weeps — and the foreign press
remarks upon how that man does love his country.
Once a year, on his birthday, the president of Mexico
goes down into the street and shakes hands with his
people. The reception takes place in front of the na-
tional palace and all the while the tears are raining
down his cheeks — and the soft-hearted people say to
themselves : "Poor old man, he's had his troubles. Let
him end his life in peace."

Diaz has always been able to cry. While striving
against the Lerdist government in 1876, just before his
day of success came, he was beaten in the battle of
Icamole. He thought it meant an end of his hopes and
he cried like a baby, while his subordinate officers looked
on in shame. This gained him the nickname of "The
weeper of Icamole," which still sticks to him among his
enemies. In his memoirs Lerdo calls Diaz "The Man
Who Weeps."

An oft-related incident which shows the shallowness
of the feeling which accompanies the Diaz tears is told
by Fornaro as follows:

"When Captain Clodomoro Cota was sentenced by the mili-
tary tribunal to be shot, his father sought the President, and on
his knees, weeping, begged him to pardon his son. Porfirio Diaz
also was weeping, but, lifting the despairing man, uttered this
ambiguous phrase: 'Have courage and faith in justice.' The
father left, consoled, believing that his petition had been
answered. But on the following morning his son was shot
The tears of Porfirio Diaz are crocodile tears."

It IS said that Diaz does not dissipate. At least he
drinks deep and drunkenly of the wine of adulation.

DIAZ HIMSELF 319

Both vanity and lack of refinement and taste are shown
by the very coarseness and ridiculousness of the praise
for which he pays and in which he revels.

Diaz is not noted for avarice, which is not surprising,
inasmuch as the power that he wields by reason of the
army and the rest of his machine is far greater than any
power that money could buy in Mexico. To Porfirio
Diaz money and other cashable goods are but a pawn
in the game, and he uses them to buy the support of
the greedy. Yet his enemies declare that he is the rich-
est man in Mexico. He keeps his financial affairs so
well hidden that few can guess how large a fortune he
has. It is known that he has large holdings under
aliases and in the names of dummies and that the vari-
ous members of his family are all wealthy. But why
should Porfirio Diaz care for mere money, when all
Mexico is his — his with no strings upon it except the
strings of foreign capital?

The picture sometimes drawn of the love match of
Don Porfirio and Carmelita Romero Rubio de Diaz,
while pretty, is not true ; the truth is not at all flattering
to the personal virtues of Diaz. The facts are that lit-
tle Carmen was forced to marry Diaz for purposes of
state. Her father, Romero Rubio, had held a high po-
sition in the Lerdist government and had a strong per-
sonal following; her god-father was Lerdo de Tejada
himself, while little Carmen, together with the other
feminine members of the family, was a devout Catholic.
By marrying the girl Diaz hoped to kill three birds with
one stone, to win the support of her father, to turn
aside the enmity of the friends of Lerdo, and to assure
to himself more actively than ever the support of the
church. He knew that Carmen not only did not love
him, but that she wanted to marry another man, and

320 BARBAROUS MEXICO

yet he was a party to her forced marriage. The mar-
riage did give him the more active support of the church,
it won Don Romero Rubio, but as for Lerdo, he was
obdurate. In his memoirs Lerdo prints some letters
from the unhappy Carmen, his god-child, to show how
her youth and innocence were employed as merchandise
in Diaz's mad barter for political security. One of these
letters, which also gives an interesting side-light on the
times, is as follows:

"Mexico City, Jan. 1, 1885.

"Sr. Lie. Don Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada.

"My Very Dear God-Father i—If you continue to be displeased
with Papa, that is no reason why you should persist in being
so with me; you know better than anyone that my marriage
with General Diaz was the exclusive work of my parents, for
whom, for the sake of pleasing them, I have sacrificed my heart,
if it can be called a sacrifice to have given my hand to a man
who adores me and to whom I respond only with filial affection.
To unite myself with an enemy of yours has not been to curse
you ; on the contrary, I have desired to be the dove that with the
olive branch calms the political torments of my country. I do
not fear that God will punish me for having taken this step,
as the greatest punishment will be to have children by a man
whom I do not love; nevertheless, I shall respect him and be
faithful to him all my life. You have nothing, God-father, with
which to reproach me. I have conducted myself with perfect
correctness inside the social, moral and religious laws. Can
you blame the Archduchess Marie of Austria for uniting herself
with Napoleon? Since my marriage I am constantly sur-
rounded by a crowd of flatterers, so much the more contemptible
since I do not encourage them. They do not fail in anything
except in falling down on their knees and kissing my feet, as
happened with the golden princesses of Perrault. From the
deputation of beggars with whom I became acquainted yesterday
to the minister who begged a peseta in order to dine, on the
staircase ascending or descending, all mix together and trample
each other under foot, entreating for a salute, a smile, a glance.
Th^ same who in a time not so very remote would have refused

DIAZ HIMSELF 321

to give me their hand had they seen me fall on the sidewalk^
today crawl like reptiles in my path, and would consider them-
selves happy if the wheels of my carriage should pass over
their unclean bodies. The other night, while expectorating in the
aisle of the theatre, a general who was at my side interposed
his handkerchief, in order that the saliva, each precious pearl,
should not fall on the tile floor. If we had been alone, surely
the miserable creature would have converted his mouth into a
cuspidor. This is not the exquisite flattery of educated folk;
it is the brutal servility of the rabble in its animal and repul-
sive form, in that of a slave. The p'^ets, the minor poets and
the poetasters each martyr me after his own fashion; it is a
waterspout of ink fit to blacken the ocean itself. This calamity
irritates my nerves to such an extent that at times I have
attacks of hysteria. Horrible, isn't it, dear God-father? And
I say nothing to you of the paragraphs and articles published
by the press that Papa has hired. Those who do not call me
an angel say that I am a cherub ; others raise me to the standard
of a goddess; others place me in the firmament as a star, and
still others put me down in botany, classifying me among the
lilies, the marguerites and the jasmin. At times I myself do not
know whether I am an angel, a cherub, a goddess, a star, a lily,
a marguerite, a jasmin, or a woman. Dios! Whom am I that
I am deified and enveloped in this cloud of fetid incense? Ah,
my God-father, I am very unfortunate, and I hope that you will
not deny me your pardon and your advice.

"Carmen."

Is Diaz patriotic? Has he the welfare of Mexico
at heart? The flatterers of Diaz sv^ear by his patriot-
ism, but the facts demand a negative answer. Diaz
helped depose the foreign prince, but immediately after-
wards he plunged a peaceful country into war to feed
his own ambition. Perhaps it will be said that Diaz
imagined that he could order the destinies of Mexico
more for the benefit of Mexico than could anyone else.
Doubtless, but why has he not given his country prog-
ress? Is it possible that he believes that autocracy is
better for a people than democracy? Is it possible that

322 BARBAROUS MEXICO

he considers illiteracy a condition of the greatest possi-
ble happiness for a people? Can he believe that a state
of chronic starvation contributes to the welfare of a
nation? He is an old man — eighty years old. Why
does he not make some provision against political chaos
after his death? Is it possible that he believes it to be
best for his people never to attempt to govern them-
selves, and for this reason is wrecking his nation so as
to prepare it for easy possession by foreigners?

It is impossible to believe these things of Diaz. It is
eminently more reasonable to judge that whatever de-
sire for the welfare of his country he possesses is over-
shadowed, wiped off the slate, by a personal ambition to
maintain his rule for life.

This, in my judgment, is a key to the character and
the public acts of Porfirio Diaz — to stay there — to stay
there!

How will this move affect the security of my posi-
tion? I believe this question has been the one test for
the acts of Porfirio Diaz in all those thirty-four years.
This question has always been before him. With it he
has eaten, drank, slept. With it before him he was
married. With it he built a machine, enriched his friends
and disposed of his enemies, buying some and killing
others ; with it he has flattered and gifted the foreigner,
favored the church, kept temperance in his body and
learned a martial carriage; with it he set one friend
against another, fostered prejudice between his people
and other peoples, paid the printer, cried in the sight
of the multitude when there was no sorrow in his soul
and — wrecked his country!

Upon what thread hangs the good fame of Porfirio
Diaz with Americans? Upon that one fact, that he has
wrecked his country — and prepared it for easy posses-

DIAZ HIMSELF 323

sion by foreigners. Porfirio Diaz is giving to Ameri-
cans the lands of Mexico; the people he is permitting
them to enslave; therefore he is the greatest living
statesman, hero of the Americans, the maker of Mexico !
A wonderful man, that he is intelligent and far-seeing
enough to appreciate the fact that, of all nations, the
American is the only one with virtue and ability enough
to lift Mexico out of its Slough of Despond! As for
the Mexican, let him die. He is only fit to feed the
grist mill of American capital, anyhow!

CHAPTER XVII

THE MEXICAN PEOPLE

Since, in the last analysis, all apologies for the Diaz
system of economic slavery and political autocracy have
their roots in assertions of ethnological inferiority on
the part of the Mexican people, it would seem wise to
end this book with an examination of the character of
Mexicans and a discussion of the arguments upon which
Americans are wont to defend a system in Mexico such
as they would not for a moment excuse in any other
country.

Every defense of Diaz is an attack upon the Mexican
people. It must be so, since there is no other conceiv-
able defense of despotism except that the people are
so weak or so wicked that they cannot be trusted to take
care of themselves.

The gist of the defense is that the Mexican must be
ruled from above because he "is not fit for democracy,"
that he must be enslaved for the sake of "progress,"
since he would do nothing for himself or the world were
he not compelled to do it through fear of the whip or
acute starvation, that he must be enslaved because he
knows nothing better than slavery and that he is happy
in slavery, anyhow. All of which, in the end, resolve
themselves into the simple proposition that because he
is down he ought to be kept down. Incurable laziness,
childish superstition, wanton improvidence, constitu-
tional stupidity, immovable conservatism, impenetrable
ignorance, an uncontrollable propensity for theft,
drunkenness and cowardice are some of the vices at-

324

THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 325

tributed to the Mexican people by those same persons
who declare their ruler to be the wisest and most beat-
ific on the face of the earth.

Laziness, in the estimation of the American friends
of Diaz, is the cardinal vice of the Mexican. Laziness
has always been a cardinal vice in the eyes of the grind-
ers of the poor. American planters actually expect the
Mexican to work himself to death for the love of it!
Or is it for the love of his master that he expects him
to work? Or for the dignity of labor?

But the Mexican does not appreciate such things.
And, failing to receive anything more tangible for his
work, he "soldiers'* on the job. Wherefore he is not
only lazy, but stupid ! Wherefore, it is right and proper
that he should be driven to the field with clubs, that he
should be hunted down, forced into enganchado gangs,
locked up at night, and starved.

It may be information to some persons to tell them
that Mexicans have been known to work willingly and
effectively when they saw anything to work for. Tens
of thousands of Mexicans have displaced Americans and
Japanese on the railroads and in the fields of the Amer-
ican Southwest. As high an authority as E. H. Harri-
man said, in an interview published in the Los Angeles
Times in March, 1909: "We have had a good deal of
experience with the Mexican, and we have found that
after he is fed up and gets his strength he makes a very
good worker."

Note that. *' After he is fed up and gets his strength"
Which is saying, in effect, that the employers of Mex-
ican labor, many of whom are estimable Americans,
friends of Diaz, starve them so chronically that they
have not the actual strength to work effectively. Thus
we have a second reason why Mexicans sometimes

326 BARBAROUS MEXICO

"soldier" on the job. Worthless, worthless Mexicans!
Virtuous, virtuous Americans!

The American promoter feels a personal grievance
at the religious bigotry of the poor Mexican. It is be-
cause of the church fiestas, which give the Mexican a
few extra holidays a month, when he is free to take
them. Profits are lost on those fiesta days; hence the
anguish of the American promoter. Hence the wel-
come which the American gives to a system of labor
such as we find in Valle Nacional, where the cane of
bejuco wood is mightier than the priest, where there
are neither feast days nor Sundays, nor any days when
the club does not drive the slave to the back-breaking
labor of the field.

"They told us labor was cheap down here," an Amer-
ican once said to me in a grieved tone. "Cheap? Of
course. Dirt cheap. But it has its drawbacks." He
expected every "hand" to do as much work as an able-
bodied American and to live on thin air besides !

Far be it from me to express approval of the influ-
ence of the Catholic church upon the Mexican. Yet it
must be admitted that the church alleviates his misery
somewhat by providing him with some extra holidays.
And it feeds his hunger for sights of beauty and sounds
of sweetness, which for the poor Mexican are usually
impossible of attainment outside of a church. If the
rulers of the land had been enlightened and had given
the Mexican the barest glimpse of brightness outside of
the church the sway of the priest might have been less
pronounced than it is today.

Those fiestas which are such a thorn in the side of
the American promoter are useful to him at least in
that they furnish him with an excuse for paying the

THE MEXICAN PEOPLE

327

wage-worker so little that it is an extravagance, indeed,
for the latter to take a day off. "They're so improvident
that I have to keep them at the starvation point or they
won't work at all.'* You'll hear Americans saying that
almost any day in Mexico. In illustration of which
numerous stories are virtuously recounted.

Improvident! Yes, the starving Mexican is improvi-
dent. He spends his money to keep from starving!
Yes, there are cases where he is paid such munificent
wages that he is able to save a centavo now and then
if he tries. And, trying, he finds that providence boots
him nothing. He finds that the moment he gets a few
dollars ahead he at once becomes a mark for every
grafting petty official within whose ken he falls. If the
masters of Mexico wished their slaves to be provident
they should give them an opportunity to get something
ahead and then guarantee not to steal it back again.

The poor Mexican is accused of being an inveterate
thief. The way a Mexican laborer will accept money
and then try to run away, instead of working for the
rest of his life to pay off the debt, is, indeed, enough
to bring tears to the eyes of the American grinder of
enganchados. The American promoter steals the very
life blood of the laborer and then expects the latter to
be so steeped in virtue as to refrain from stealing any
part of it back again. When a Mexican peon sees a
trinket or a pretty thing that takes his fancy he is quite
likely to steal it, for it is the only way he can get it.
He risks jail for an article worth a few centavos. How
often would he do it if the payment of those few cen-
tavos would not mean a hungry day for him? Amer-
ican planters steal laborers, carry them away by force
to their plantations, steal their families away from them,

328 BARBAROUS MEXICO

lock them up at night, beat them, starve them while they
work, neglect them when they are sick, pay them noth-
ing, kill them at the last, and then raise their hands in
righteous horror when a poor fellow steals an extra
tortilla or an ear of corn!

In Mexico plowing is often done with a crooked stick
or with the hoe. The backs of men take the place of
freight wagons and express vehicles. In short, Mexico
is woefully behind in the use of modern machinery.
For which the Mexican is accused of being unprogres-
sive.

But the common people do not choose how much
machinery shall be used in the country. The master
does that. American promoters in Mexico are little
more progressive in the use of machinery than are Mex-
ican promoters, and when they are they frequently lose
money by it. Why? Because flesh and blood are
cheaper in Mexico than machinery. A peon is cheaper
to own than a horse. A peon is cheaper than a plow.
A hundred women can be bought for the price of a
grist mill. It is because the master has made it so. If
by some means the price of flesh and blood were sud-
denly to be shoved up above that of dead steel, machin-
ery would flow into Mexico as fast as it would flow
into any new industrial field in the United States or any
other country.

Do not think that the Mexican is too stupid to oper-
ate machinery when he is put to it. There are some
lines in which machine labor is cheaper than hand labor
and we have only to look to these lines to learn that the
Mexican can handle machinery quite as easily as any
other people. Native labor operates the great cotton
mills of Mexico almost exclusively, for example. For
that matter, mechanical cunning of a high order is shown

THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 329

in the many hand arts and crafts practiced by the na-
tives, the blanket weaving, the pottery making, the rpak-
ing of laces, the manufacture of curios.

Ignorance is charged against the Mexican people as
if it were a crime. On the other hand, we are told, in
glowing terms of the public school system which Diaz
has established. Charles F. Lummis in his book on Mex-
ico remarks that it is doubtful if there is a single hamlet
of one hundred Mexicans in all the country that has not
its free public school. The truth is that the people
are ignorant and that there are few schools. The sort
of authority Mr. Lummis is may be gauged by the gov-
ernment statistics themselves, which, in the year Mr.
Lummis issued his book, placed the number of Mexi-
cans who could read and write at sixteen per cent of the
population. In Mexico there are some public schools
in the cities and almost none in the country districts.
But even if they were there, can a hungry baby learn
to read and write? What promise does study hold out
for a youth born to shoulder a debt of his father and
carry it on to the end of his days?

And they say the Mexican is happy! "As happy as
a peon," has come to be a common expression. Can a
starving man be happy? Is there any people on earth —
any beast of the field, even — so peculiar of nature that
it loves cold better than warmth, an empty stomach bet-
ter than a full one ? Where is the scientist that has dis-
covered a people who would choose an ever narrowing
horizon to an ever widening one ? Depraved indeed are
the Mexican people if they are happy. But I do not be-
live they are happy. Some who have said it lied know-
ingly. Others mistook the dull glaze of settled despair
for the signature of contentment.

Most persistent of all derogations of Mexicans is the

330 BARBAROUS MEXICO

one that the Spanish-American character is somehow
incapable of democracy and therefore needs the strong
hand of a dictator. Since the Spanish-Americans of
Mexico have never had a fair trial at democracy, and
since those who are asserting that they are incapable of
democracy are just the ones who are trying hardest to
prevent them from having a trial at democracy, the
suspicion naturally arises that those persons have an ul-
terior motive in spreading such an impression. That
motive has been pretty well elucidated in previous chap-
ters of this book, especially in the one on the American
partners of Diaz.

The truth of the whole malignment of Mexicans as
a people seems very plain. It is a defense against in-
defensible conditions whereby the defenders are profit-
ing. It is an excuse — an excuse for hideous cruelty, a
salve to the conscience, an apology to the world, a de-
fense against the vengeance of eternity.

The truth is that the Mexican is a human being and
that he is subject to the same evolutionary laws of
growth as are potent in the development of any other
people. The truth is that, if the Mexican does not fully
measure up to the standard of the highest type of Euro-
pean, it is because of his history, a most influential part
of which is the grinding exploitation to which he is sub-
jected under the present regime in Mexico. Let us go
back to the beginning and glance briefly at the Mexican
as an ethnological being and compare his abilities and
possibilities with that of the "free" American.

While nearly all persons of more than primary educa-
tion nominally accept the theory of evolution as the cor-
rect interpretation of life upon this planet, not so many
of us take advantage of its truths in estimating the peo-
ple about us. We cling, instead, to the old error of ex-

THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 331

istence by special creation, which supports us when we
wish to believe that some men are created of superior
clay, that some are inherently better than others and
always must be better, that some are designed and in-
tended to occupy a station of special rank and privilege
among their fellow men. Forgotten is the scientific
truth that all men are shoots from the same stalk, that
intrinsically one man is no better than another, that in
the fulness of time the possibilities of one race or people
are no greater than those of any other. Whatever differ-
ences there are between men and races of men are due,
not to inherent differences, but to the action of outside
influences, to soil and climate, to temperature and rain-
fall, and to what may be denominated the accidents of
history following naturally, however, in the train of
these influences. "A man*s a man for a* that and a*
that."

But there are differences. There are differences in
general between Americans and Mexicans. Let us see
if there are any differences which justify the condemna-
tion of Mexicans to slavery and government by a
despot.

What is a Mexican? Usually the term is applied
to the members of a mixed race, part native and part
Spanish, who predominate in the so-called sister repub-
lic. Pure natives who long ago left the aboriginal state
are also often included in the category and they seem
to have a right to the name. In the government cen-
sus of 1900 the proportion of races is given as 43 per
cent mixed, 38 pure native and 19 of European or dis-
tinct foreign extraction. The Mexican Year Book
thinks that the proportion of mixed peoples has greatly
increased in the past ten years until it is far more than
half the total today. The Mexican of today, then, is

332 BARBAROUS MEXICO

either all Spanish, all native, or a mixture of the two,
most often the last; so the peculiar character of Mexi-
cans can be said to be made up of a combination of the
two elements.

Take the Spanish element, first. What are the pe-
culiar attributes of the Spanish nature? In Spain we
find much art and literature, but on the other hand,
much religious bigotry and little democracy. We find
a versatile people, but a people with swift passions and
fickle energies. In its accomplishments along modern
lines Spain stands at the foot of the countries of west-
ern Europe.

But — why ?

The answer is to the credit of Spain. Spain sacrificed
herself to save Europe. Standing upon the southern
frontier, she bore the brunt of the Moslem invasion.
Retarding the barbarian hordes, she saved the budding
civilization of Europe and its religion, Christianity.
Long after the issue was settled as far as the other na-
tions were concerned, Spain was still engaged in that
fight. And in that death-struggle to preserve their ex-
istence, it was inevitable that the power of the State
should become more centralized and despotic, that the
Church should come into closer union with the State,
that the Church should become more unscrupulous of
the methods it employed to annex power to itself, more
sordid of gain, more dogmatic in its teachings and more
ruthless in the treatment of its enemies.

Thus is revealed the prime cause for Spain's position
as a laggard in the path of democracy and religious en-
lightenment. For the rest, it may be said that, while the
magnificent scenery of the country has helped to make
the Spaniard superstitious, it has also helped to make
him an artist; that while the exuberance of the soil by

THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 333

enabling him to secure his living with comparatively lit-
tle labor, has not forced him to habits of such regular
industry as are found farther north, it has contributed
to his cultivating the arts of music, painting and social
intercourse; that the heat of the summer, by rendering
hard labor at that season inadvisable, has also militated
toward the same ends.

Of course I am not attempting to go into details on
these matters. I am merely pointing out a few prin-
ciples which underlie racial diversities. On the whole,
a close examination of the Spanish people would show
that there is nothing whatsoever to indicate that they
are specially unfit or unworthy to enjoy the blessings
of democracy.

As to the native element, which is more important, in-
asmuch as it undoubtedly predominates in the make-up
of the average Mexican, especially the Mexican of the
poorer class, an examination of its peculiar character
will prove quite as favorable. Biologically, the aboriginal
Mexican is not to be classed with any of the so-called
lower races, such as the negro, the South Sea Islander,
the pure Filipino, or the American Indian. The Aztec
has been a long time out of the forest. His facial angle
is as good as our own. In many ways he measures up
to us. In some ways perhaps he even surpasses us,
while the ways in which he falls below us can all be
traced either to peculiar external influences, or the luck
of history, or both.

It must be admitted that Mexico is not quite as well
favored for the generation of physical and mental en-
ergy as is the great portion of the United States. The
bulk of the population of Diaz-land lives upon a pla-
teau ranging from 5,000 to 8,000 feet high. Here the
air is thinner and for every foot-pound of energy ex-

334 BARBAROUS MEXICO

pended there is a greater tax upon the heart and the
human machine generally. Americans who take up their
residence on that plateau find that they must live a lit-
tle more slowly than in this country, that it is better
to take the mid-day siesta, like the Mexicans. If they
persist in keeping up the old gait they find that they
grow old very fast, that it does not pay. If, on the
other hand, they choose to live in the tropical belt they
find that here, too, because of the greater heat and
moisture, it is not wise for them to work as fast as
they were wont to do at home.

If the average Mexican has less working capacity
than the average American it is largely for this reason,
and for the other reason that the Mexican laborer is
invariably half starved. When the American laborer
meets the Mexican on the latter's own ground he is quite
often outdone. Few Americans engage in physical la-
bor either on the plateau or in the tropics. The laborer
of no nation can outdo the Mexican in carrying heavy
loads or in feats of endurance, while in the tropics the
Mexican, if he is not starved, is supreme. The Ameri-
can negro, the Asiatic coolie, the athletic Yaqui from the
north, have all been tried out against the native of the
tropical states and all have been found wanting, while
there is no question as to the inferiority of the working
capacity of men of European descent under tropical
conditions.

So much for the working capacity of Mexicans, which,
in this extremely utilitarian age, is placed high among
the virtues of a people. As to intelligence, in spite of
the fact that it was always the policy of the Spanish
conquerers to hold the native Aztecs in subordinate po-
sitions, enough of the latter have succeeded in forcing
their way to the top to prove that they were quite as

WOOD CARRIERS, CITY OF MEXICO. A MEXICAN LABORER IS
CHEAPKU THAN A IIORSK

THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 335

capable in the higher functions of civilization as the
Spaniards themselves. The most brilliant poets, artists,
writers, musicians, men of science, military heroes and
constructive statesmen in the history of Mexico were
natives pure or natives but faintly crossed with the blood
of Spain.

On the whole, the Mexicans seem to exhibit stronger
artistic and literary tendencies than we and less inclina-
tion toward commerce and heavy mechanics. The mass
of the people are illiterate, but that does not mean that
they are stupid. There are undoubtedly several million
Americans who are able to read but who don't read reg-
ularly, not even a newspaper, and they are no better in-
formed, perhaps, and certainly no clearer thinkers, than
the peons who pass the news of the day from mouth
to mouth on their Sundays and their feast days. That
these people are illiterate by choice, that they are poor
because they v^- at to be, that they prefer dirt to clean-
liness, is absurd.

"They choose that sort of life, so why should we
bother ourselves about their troubles?" "They could
improve their condition if they cared to make an effort."
"They are perfectly happy, anyhow.'* Such expres-
sions are sure to greet the traveler who remarks upon
the misery of the common Mexican. The fact is, the
ordinary Mexican chooses the life he lives about as
nearly so as a horse chooses to be born a horse. As I
suggested before, he cannot be happy, for no starving
being can be happy. While as to improving his condi-
tion alone and unaided he has about as much chance of
doing it as a horse has of inventing a flying machine.

Pick up a poor young Mexican in Mexico City, for
example, where the opportunities are the best in the
land. Take a typical Mexican laborer. He cannot read

336 BARBAROUS MEXICO

or write because he was probably born in a country
district ten miles from the nearest school, or if he was
born in the shadow of a public school he literally had
to scratch the earth from the time he could crawl in
order to get something to eat. He has no education and
no special training of any kind because he has had no
opportunity to secure either. Having had no special
training all he is able to do is to carry heavy loads.

Probably at twenty-five he is a physical wreck from
under-feeding, exposure and overwork. But suppose
he is one of the few who has kept his strength. What
can he do? Carry more heavy loads; that is all. He
can get perhaps fifty cents a day carrying heavy loads
and all the effort of a Hercules cannot better the price,
for all he has is brawn, and brawn is cheap as dirt in
Mexico. I have seen men "making an effort." I have
seen them work until I could see the glazing of their eyes,
I have seen them put forth such efforts that their chests
rose and fell with explosive gasps, I have seen them
carry such heavy weights that they tottered and fell in
the street, in which way they are crushed to death, some-
times, by the thing above them. They were putting
forth their best efforts in the only thing they knew be-
cause they had never had an opportunity to learn any-
thing else, and they were dying just as fast as those
others who did as little as possible to live. The point
is that they never enjoyed the opportunities at the start
that we accept as a birthright. Imagine, if you can,
the majority of our American schools being suddenly
swept away, imagine a change from your condition of
partial work partial leisure to one of all work and no
leisure, imagine your earning power as insufficient to
feed any mouth but your own, imagine each mouth in
the family needing a separate pair of hands to feed it

THE MEXICAN PEOPLE

337

aiid each new mouth needing its own hands while they
are yet the soft hands of a baby — imagine these things
and you may faintly appreciate the difficulties which the
common Mexican encounters in trying to improve his
condition. For all practical purposes they are insur-
mountable.

And how about the capacity of Mexicans for democ-
racy? The assertion that democracy is not compatible
with "the Spanish-American character" seems to be
based wholly upon the fact that a considerable percent-
age of the Spanish-American countries — though not all
of them — are still ruled by dictators, and that changes
in the government come only through revolutions by
which one dictator is succeeded by another. This state
of affairs was brought about by the peculiar history of
these countries rather than by "the Spanish-American
character." Ruled as slave colonies by foreigners, these
countries asserted enough valor and patriotism to over-
throw the foreigner and expel him. Their struggle for
freedom was long and bitter ; moreover, being small coun-
tries, their national existence was in danger for con-
siderable periods after their independence. Therefore,
of necessity the military calling became a dominent pro-
fession and militarism and dictatorships followed nat-
urally. Today what Spanish-American countries as are
still ruled by dictators are ruled by dictators largely be-
cause of the support accorded the latter by foreign gov-
ernments, which oppose democratic movements some-
times even with arms. Diaz is not the only Spanish-
American dictator who is supported by the United States
at the behest of Wall street. During the past five years
several of the most notorious of the Central American
dictators have been held in their places only by a mili-
tary demonstration on the part of this country.

338 BARBAROUS MEXICO

But is Mexico ready for democracy? Does she not
need to be ruled by a despot for awhile longer, until such
a time as she shall have developed capacity for democ-
racy ? I repeat this absurd question only because it is so
common. The only reasonable reply is ^hat of Macau-
lay, that capacity for democracy can on\y increase with
experience with the problems of democracy. Mexico is
as ready for democracy as a country can be which has
no democracy whatsoever. There is 10 chance of Mex-
ico having complete democracy at \his time. These
things come only gradually, and therf." Is no danger what-
soever of her suddenly getting more democracy than is
good for her. Who will say that Mexico should not
at once have just a little democracy, enough, say, to de-
liver her people from the mire of slavery and peonage?

Assuredly Mexico is behind us in the march of prog-
ress, behind us in the conquests of democracy. But, in
considering her, be just and consider what the luck of
history gave us in comparison to what it gave the Mex-
ican. We were lucky enough not to have the rule of
Spain imposed upon us for 300 years. We were lucky
enough to escape the clutch of the Catholic church at
our throats in our infancy. Finally, we were lucky
enough not to be caught in our weakness at the end of
a foreign war, caught by one of our own generals, who,
in the guise of president of our republic, quietly and
cunningly, with the cunning of a genius and the re-
morselessness of an assassin, built up a repressive ma-
chine such as no modern nation has ever been called
upon to break. We were lucky enough to escape the
reign of Porfirio Diaz.

Thus, whichever way we turn, we come finally back
to the fact that the immediate cause of all the ills, the
shortcomings, the vices of Mexico is the system of Diaz,

THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 339

Mexico IS a wonderful country. The capacity of its
people is beyond question. Once its republican consti-
tution is restored, it will be capable of solving all its
problems. Perhaps it will be said that in opposing the
system of Diaz I am opposing the interests of the United
States. If the interests of Wall Street are the interests
of the United States, then I plead guilty. And if it is
to the interests of the United Stat^ s that a nation should
be crucified as Mexico is being crucified, then I am
opposed to the interests of the United States.

But I do not believe that this is so. For the sake of
the ultimate interests of this country, for the sake of
humanity, for the sake of the millions of Mexicans who
are actually starving at this moment, I believe that the
Diaz system should be abolished and abolished quickly.

Hundreds of letters have come to me from all over the
world begging to know what can be done to put a stop
to the slavery of Mexico. Armed intervention of foreign
powers has been suggested again and again. This is un-
necessary as well as impractical. But there is one thing
that is practical and necessary, especially for Americans,
and that is to insist that there shall be no foreign inter-
vention for the purpose of maintaining the slavery.

In Mexico today exists a nation-wide movement to
abolish the Diaz system of slavery and autocracy. This
movement is quite capable of solving the problems of
Mexico without foreign interference. So far it has not
succeeded, partly because of the assistance our govern-
ment has given in the persecution of some of its leaders,
and partly because of Diazes threat — constantly held be-
fore the Mexican people — of calling an American army
to his aid in case of a serious revolution against him.

Under the present barbarous government there is no
hope for reform in Mexico except through armed revo-

J40 BARBAROUS MEXICO

lution. Armed revolution on the part of the decent
and most progressive element is l strong probability
of the early future. When the revolution starts
American troops will be rushed to the border and
made ready to cross in case Diaz is unable to
cope with the revolt alone. If the American army crosses
it will not be ostensibly to protect Diaz, but to
protect American property and American lives. And to
this end false reports of outrages upon Americans, or
danger to American women and children, will be delib-
erately circulated in order to arouse the nation to justify
the crime of invasion. That will be the time for decent
Americans to make their voices heard. They will expose,
in no uncertain terms, the conspiracy against democracy
and demand that, for all time, our government cease put-
ting the machinery of state at the disposal of the despot
to help him crush the movement for the abolition of
slavery in Mexico.

PUBLISHERS' NOTE TO FOURTH EDITION

Since John Kenneth Turner wrote "Barbarous
Mexico" Diaz has fallen, Madero has fallen, and as
we go to press with this edition of the book, the
''Constitutionalists" under Carranza and Villa in
northern Mexico are fighting with considerable suc-
cess against Huerta, who still holds Mexico City.
Until this month President Wilson has resisted the
demand of American capitalists that the United
States intervene, but the latest dispatches indicate that
United States soldiers will soon invade Mexico.

The possibility of war with Mexico on behalf of
American capitalists makes it more important than
ever that American wage-workers understand the
facts which Turner has presented in "Barbarous
Mexico."

The trouble in Mexico is not mainly due to the
acts of Huerta or any other individual. It is due to
the fact that the working people of Mexico are held
in virtual slavery by the land system against which
they are rebelling. In Mexico there is little ma-
chinery as yet, and land ownership is the chief means
of exploitation. So the slogan of the Mexican rebels
is "Land and Liberty."

From the confused bits of information which trickle
through the battle lines, it seems that here and there,
in the territory occupied by the rebel armies, the
peons are beginning to work for themselves without
paying tribute to landlords. Will American workers
allow the American army to be used to force these
rebels back into slavery?
April, 1914.

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