The book of red and yellow : being the story of blood and a yellow streak

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THE BOOK OF
RED AND YELLOW

BEING A STORY
OF BLOOD AND A
YELLOW STREAK

By
FRANCIS CLEMENT KELLEY

CHICAGO

The Catholic Church Extension Society
OF the United States of America

1915

Copyright, igiSf

by

FRANCIS C. KELLEY

Chicago

Press of

The Henry O. Shepard Co.

632 Sherman Street

Chicago

The Book of Red and Yellow

READERS of this book who have been following European war
news will understand the reference to colors in the title. A friend
suggested that I could appropriately call it " The Red Book,"
because it is a tale of blood. Another urged that " The Yellow Book "
might be a better title, since it shows the yellow streak in human nature.
Both suggestions appealed to me; but the using of both titles together
seems better still. This book tells a tale of blood and shows the yellow
streak in some human beings. The trail of the coward is over the per-
petrators of the outrages which here are told. No one but a coward
could take advantage of weakness and murder innocence. " The Book
of Red and Yellow " expresses exactly what I want to express.

►!*

A few months ago strange rumors of outrages committed by the
Constitutionalists in Mexico began to appear in American papers. The
first inclination of practically all who read the items was to doubt;
and the second inclination to shrug the shoulders and say : " Well, it's
war." Even in Mexico itself, when the news of the horrors at Durango
was received, Mexicans themselves charitably said to one another:
" These things are the work only of irresponsible leaders and in one
place. They do not imply that the Revolutionists have any such program
in mind. Those who have done these fearful things will, in due time,
be punished." But we were all wrong.

When Saltillo fell, the outrages were repeated. At Zacatecas they
not only were repeated, but new infamies were added. At other cities,
Zacatecas was outdone. Then the horrors were visited on every city and
state taken by the Constitutionalist forces.

Some refugees from Mexico at last began to cross the American line.
The border towns of Texas rapidly filled up with them. At Vera Cruz
there were so many that they became a serious problem to the American
authorities. Not only were officers of the Federal army, officials of the
Huerta government and other political exiles among the refugees, but also
priests who had never taken up arms or interfered in political matters,
sisters whose lives had been given up to teaching the works of charity,
brothers who had spent themselves on the education of the Mexican
youth, bishops and archbishops. Over five hundred of these religious
refugees came into the American lines. Most of them were destitute.
Practically all had been robbed of everything they possessed. They told

4 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

of hardships, of murders, of crimes worse than murder, and of sacrileges.
It was the men who heard these stones, many of them officers of the
United States army and navy, who, shocked and outraged in their finer
feelings, spread the awful news, which now began to reach the ears of the
American people in all its repulsiveness.

It seemed, however, as if a conspiracy of silence had been organized.
Reputable papers, supposed to be anxious to print the truth and to give
the news, did neither. Statesmen, so-called, pooh-poohed everything.
The man on the street said the thing was too horrible for credence. The
wily politician saw danger ; but all the time the people in Vera Cruz, who
had hearts, saw red.

At last a pitiful appeal to charity, to feed the hungry, to clothe the
naked, and to give asylum to the homeless, reached The Catholic Church
Extension Society, chiefly through the efforts of the Rev. R. H. Tierney,
Editor of America, and the Rev. H. A. Constantineau, Provincial Treas-
urer of the Oblate Fathers in San Antonio. It was plain to the directors
of the Society that, if they could not do justice to these suffering exiles,
they could, at least, be charitable to them. The Most Reverend James E.
Quigley, D.D., Archbishop of Chicago, at once directed me, as President
of the Society, to go wherever the refugees were, and use what funds
were needed to assist them. I proceeded at once to Texas, saw the situa-
tion, relieved the immediate needs in San Antonio, El Paso, Laredo,
Galveston, etc., and then started for Vera Cruz. Before taking the boat
for that point, I learned by cable that, when the news of the impending
evacuation of that port by the American troops was given out, all the
refugees who could go had left for Cuba. I went to Havana instead of
Vera Cruz, and found as many of these refugees in Cuba as we had in
the United States, but in a far more deplorable condition. With the
funds at my disposal, I spent what was needed, and came back to report
to the Board of Governors of the Society and beg that more assistance
be extended.

While in Texas I had the opportunity of hearing the stories of the
refugees and investigating them. Knowing that there would be more of
these stories in Cuba, I requested the Archbishop of New Orleans, who
spoke Spanish and who had been a bishop in Porto Rico, to come with me.
He kindly agreed to do this; and His Grace took especial care of the
investigations, securing information which perhaps could never have been
secured otherwise.

►^

On my return to Chicago, the Society took further action and author-
ized me to pay the expenses incident to saving and helping the remaining

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 6

priests and sisters at Vera Cruz, should the Government fail to act favor-
ably on the request of the refugees for transportation to Galveston. Our
appeal to the charity of American Catholics has not been in vain, yet
much still remains to be done. I publish this book in the hope that it
will stir up even a greater manifestation of charity. The Board of
Governors of the Society, relying on this, has authorized the publication.
Our motives are purely charitable and humanitarian. The Society
declines to enter into the discussion of these things except from that
standpoint. We have no political axe to grind. We do not propose
to attach blame to any one, much less to the administration now in
power in Washington. If mistakes have been made, good-will may
rectify them in part. If the President and his advisors have been
deceived, one can readily understand that it was an easy matter to
deceive them. They were not on the ground. No one can read this
story without knowing that it was to the interests of some party or
parties to lend themselves to such deception. That the deception was a
crime every reasonable man and woman will concede ; and the crime is all
the clearer in that the sufferers have, as usual, been the innocent. If there
were no refugees except political ones, we could be sorry for them ; but
we would be obliged to admit that chances must be taken in Mexican
politics. The political refugees, however, formed the minority. Those
who had committed no crime, and who had not mixed in political
squabbles of any kind, had to suffer the most.

It will easily be understood that I can not give the names of persons
and places referred to in many of the statements to follow. After reading
the statements, and considering the conditions in Mexico, the reader will
not wonder why, in the majority of instances, such details had to be
left out. I do not care to sign death-warrants. But I have the original
documents in my possession, or I know where they are, and have con-
sulted them. They may be examined by those who have a right to see
them and whose honesty in asking for them is beyond question.

The General Conditions of the Persecution.
To begin I give a partial list of the outrages which have been com-
mitted in the name of " liberty " and the Constitution, by the men who
claim to be fighting in Mexico for both. Not one single charge is over-
drawn. I give them as they were given to me, not by a few individuals,
but practically by all. I append proofs which can not be questioned.

first.
The Constitutionalists in Mexico have attempted to destroy, and prac-
tically have destroyed, three-fourths, if not more, of the Catholic Church
in their country ; which means that they have destroyed three-fourths of
all the organized religious forces in Mexico. They did it deliberately, and
as a result of a prearranged plan. They did it remorselessly and cruelly.

SECOND.

These same men drove out of Mexico, imprisoned or sent into hiding
in fear of their lives, practically all the Catholic bishops in the Republic.
Of those who remain, one alone is exercising his ministry unimpeded,
because he is in the territory held by General Zapata, who is not and was
not at any time subject to Carranza's authority. Of the others still on
Mexican soil, three to my certain knowledge are in hiding, and one is in
the penitentiary, sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for no crime
whatever. To this charge may be added that of driving into exile priests
and Sisters of Charity, religious men and women of all kinds, some of
whom are Mexican citizens and some citizens of other nations.

third.
These same men were guilty of seizing private property, even property
held in the names of individuals, only because such property was used for
religious purposes. They looted churches, destroyed libraries, scientific
laboratories, colleges, schools, museums of Mexican archeology, valuable
manuscripts and residences. They practically wiped off the map of
Mexico her best institutions for higher education.

FOURTH.

They imprisoned, tortured and murdered priests and teachers.

FIFTH.

They committed most abominable and unspeakably vile outrages
against the persons and virtue of young girls, good women, and Sisters
whose lives had been vowed to the service of Almighty God.

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 7

SIXTH.

They interdicted practices of religion publicly under the penalty of
death.

SEVENTH.

They usurped ecclesiastical jurisdiction by appointing to office, in what
was left of the Church, such men as they pleased.

EIGHTH.

In order to carry these things out with some show of reason, they
published the vilest lies against the Church and her clergy.

NINTH.

Proclaiming their desire for a free government under a constitution,
they destroyed absolutely the liberty of the press, suppressing all news-
papers and other publications not controlled and directed by themselves.

TENTH.

In various other ways they set aside the very Constitution to which
they proclaimed allegiance, and set it aside deliberately.

Before taking up the discussion of these charges, a word about the
Revolution itself. Porfirio Diaz had given peace to Mexico, but had ruled
the country as a dictator. The rebellion against him by Francisco Madero
was successful, and Madero himself was legally elected President of the
Republic. It is probable that Madero was the first President really
elected by the people themselves. If there were irregularities in his
election, these irregularities could not have changed the result. Under
Madero, an attempt was made to give Mexico a constitutional form of
government, or rather to put the Constitution into effect for the first
time. It was not an ideal constitution. The addition to it of the Laws of
Reform of Benito Juarez made it even less desirable. Neither of these
were ideal democratic documents, but they were the law. The murder
of Madero was a vile act, but it was never proven that Madero's suc-
cessor. General Huerta, had been a party to that murder. Huerta himself
was selected to succeed Madero in accordance with all the forms of law.
He was a strong man, democratic, and fairly just. His government was a
dictatorship like that of Diaz; but this much can be said of him: he
could have brought peace to Mexico. He was prevented from doing
this, however, by a new revolution headed by Governor Venustiano Car-
ranza. The new revolution was fostered by influences from the United
States. No revolution is possible in Mexico otherwise, since Mexico has
no facilities for supplying arms and ammunition. All arms and ammuni-

8 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

tion for Carranza's outbreak were supplied by American firms, whose
names are known, and who could easily have been prevented from supply-
ing them. To end any revolution in Mexico, it is only necessary to forbid
the sending of arms from the United States into that country. The
Carranza forces had unlimited supplies, both of arms and money with
which to buy them. They were successful, and were aided to their suc-
cess by the closing of the port of Vera Cruz to Huerta. I do not question
the right of our Government to close the port. Neither do I criticize the
attitude of the administration to Huerta. I merely state the facts. On
the face of things, it looked as if the people were fighting for constitutional
government. I desire to show, in a general way in this chapter, how far
the actions of the Constitutionalists agreed with their professions.

In the beginning, the outrages committed by Carranza's army were
few, but at Durango it was clearly seen that the first step of the revolu-
tion was to be the utter destruction of religion. The Constitutionalists
found at Durango a venerable and holy old man, who had long been the
archbishop of that diocese. He was immediately arrested and from him
was demanded a ransom of $500,000. Now, the people of Mexico are not
rich. The Church is not rich. There was no union between Church and
State, and there had not been such a union for fifty years. The Con-
stitutionalists might as well have asked the archbishop for $500,000,000
as for $500,000. He had not the money to give. He told his captors so.
They flung him into prison. When they released him, it was only to keep
him in durance within the city limits. They showered indignities upon
his head. They arrested his clergy, exiled many, closed churches; in a
word, they did all they could to stamp out religion in Durango. Some
good people got together a few thousand dollars. Seeing that they could
get no more, the Constitutionalists released the archbishop, but drove
him out of the city. He went to Morelia, where again he was held for
ransom, and again some good people bought his liberty. Then, after two
months of this sort of thing, he escaped to the United States. I saw him,
a sad old man, broken in health, but uncomplaining. Had I depended
upon him for information, however, I would have had none. He suffered
in silence, but I received the information from others, even those who
were eye-witnesses of the affair.

Here is a statement by one of these eye-witnesses to the taking of the
city of Durango by the Carranzista forces. I dare not give his name, for
fear of the consequences to himself if he returns to Mexico :

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 9

No sooner were the Constitutionalists in the city, under the command
of General Tomas Urbina, than there was a tremendous riot among them,
and the second general in command was killed and a great number of
others perished.

On hearing the first reports of the riot, crowds forced open the doors
of all business houses, ransacking and setting fire afterward to them.
Nine palaces and many houses were wiped out. Leading families who,
previous to this horrible episode, had been considered rich, to-day have
not even bread to eat, and many are without clothing.

The outrages committed did not cease at this point, but increased, and,
on the second day, without court-martial, all the officials and chiefs taken
during the battle or after were sentenced to death, thus disregarding
entirely the guarantees and promises not to execute any one. Repre-
sentatives of the leaders entered the archbishop's palace and other private
homes, forcibly carrying with them those who had taken refuge there.
Notwithstanding the entreaties of the sisters, mothers, wives and children,
they were conducted as the vilest criminals to the dirtiest and unhealthiest
prison cells. The day after they were compelled to beg from door to
door the tremendous amount of money that had been demanded as ran-
soms. In the meantime other groups of armed men entered and pro-
faned the Church of the Jesuit Fathers ; and the Carmelites were horribly
insulted and outraged. In the cathedral where the remains of the dead
bishops and archbishops had been laid they scattered the remains with
their swords. Not satisfied with this, they then approached the arch-
bishop's palace, addressing the archbishop in very unbecoming language
and demanded $500,000 as a " loan," which amount he was unable to pay,
and he was thereupon taken to jail, notwithstanding the fact that he was
in an almost dying condition. Not even a chair or bed was given him,
and he was left on the floor of the condemned cell.

These acts and others filled all the city with consternation, which
increased by the hearing of other outrages which have been committed
against families, and more especially so when priests were seen arrested
for the mere fact of their profession and because they were unable to pay
the money demanded of them.

What was done at Durango was the rule whenever the rebels con-
quered a new territory, and, when the payment of ransom was not
sufficient, exile followed. Very early also in the conquests of the
Constitutionalists came the same outrages in Matamoros. In both Dur-
ango and Matamoros the churches were pillaged, the desecrating of the
graves of the dead bishops was done with the object of discovering if
there might be some valuable objects buried with them. Swords were
run through the disinterred bodies. That all this was premeditated and
part of a plan, Carranza and the leaders themselves declared. In dis-
courses published in their newspapers, they claimed that they intended
to destroy militarism, capital and the clergy. It was in carrying out this
plan that the cities were given to pillage, estates seized and religion
trampled upon. It was a crime to have been a soldier in the Federal

10 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

army, to be a rich man, no matter how honestly the riches might have
been gained, or to be a priest, teacher or Sister, no matter how much
charity or good work had been done as such. There was no process of
law. The Cathedral Chapters of Durango, Monterey, Zacatecas, Guada-
lajara, Puebla, etc., they dissolved by Constitutionalist authority.

The following statement, sworn to by the writers before a notary,
gives an idea of the way the persecution was carried on in the north.

From its very beginning the Constitutionalist Revolutionary Party
of Mexico showed itself to be anti-religious, as is proven by the injustices
committed in the State of Sonora, Sinaloa and Chihuahua against priests
and church property. But not in the degree that it afterward attained.
Don Venustiano Carranza, who never before had shown signs of " clero-
phobia," allowed himself, according to our belief, to be influenced by
certain members of what is known in Mexico as the " Reform Party,"
the same that tried to force Francisco I. Madero into a religious persecu-
tion. From then on, the irreligious spirit of the Constitutionalists' revolu-
tion appeared unmasked.

We shall say nothing of what preceded the taking of Monterey from
lack of concrete data sufficiently authenticated.

Monterey. — They took Monterey, the capital of the State of Nuevo
Leon, on April 24, 1914. According to the general custom, the Revolu-
tionary officials left the churches undisturbed, but on the 27th of the
same month they ordered all churches closed, and took possession of the
keys. On May 12 the priests were cited to appear. Accordingly the
Vicar-General, sixteen foreign and several Mexican priests went to the
place appointed, where a " loan " of $500,000 was demanded of them. As
they declared themselves unable to give such an immense sum, they were
put in prison. By the intervention of their respective consuls, the for-
eigners were set free, but at the same time declared banished from Mex-
ican soil. The Vicar-General and the other Mexican priests remained
in jail.

The archbishop's palace was occupied by the rebels, who destroyed a
magnificent library and possessed themselves of the archives of the arch-
diocese. The printing-press of the archbishopric was taken over for the
publication of the impious newspaper, El Bonete, in the pages of which
were published, in an attempt to dishonor the priesthood, the documents
found in the secret archives. (Records of diocesan disciplinary cases.
—Ed.)

On June 7 they publicly burned the confessionals and other church
furniture. They also publicly profaned the statues of the saints in the
streets, casting lots on them and shooting at those which by lot were
determined as " Huertistas." There were, moreover, numerous spolia-
tions, robberies and other excesses committed in the churches.

As a climax to these infamous proceedings, the Governor of the State
issued a decree, under date of July 14, in which, after an introduction
very offensive to the clergy, which he designated as " corrupt and cor-
rupting," religious liberty was practically abolished.

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 11

In several towns of this State were committed acts of sacrilegious sav-
agery. In Tanquecillos, for example, they profaned the sacred vestments,
using them for a dance. At Margaritas, the Ciborium of the Tabernacle
was used in drinking " mescal." At Cerralbo they took the statues of the
saints, not excepting that of the national devotion. Our Lady of Guada-
lupe, and cast them into a well, mutilating that of Our Lady of Lourdes
to make it small enough to be forced in, at the same time issuing a decree
in which it was declared that anyone caught trying to rescue the statues
would be summarily executed. In Las Aldamas the churches were con-
verted into barracks. A certain Father Regalado was obliged to walk a
distance of about eighty miles, from Linares to Victoria. Another priest,
Father Martin, parish priest of Galeana, was robbed of all he had, and it
was only by fleeing to the mountains that he freed himself from still
worse treatment.

Tepic. — The city of Tepic, capital of the territory by that name, was
captured in the middle of May. They imprisoned the bishop, Rt. Rev.
Andres Segura, and Very Rev. Ramon Vilalto, Superior of the Mission-
ary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in the penitentiary about the
17th of the same month, sentencing them to eight years' imprisonment.
Other priests were left at liberty, although forbidden to leave the city.
That, at least, was the belief at first, but now we know that all the Mis-
sionary Fathers of the Heart of Mary residing there are actually in
prison.

Saltillo. — This city, capital of Coahuila, fell into the hands of the
Revolutionists in the beginning of June, if we are not mistaken. It is
impossible to describe what the priests suffered there. Eight of them
(four Jesuits, three Eudists and a Benedictine) were shut up in a dark
room, and kept there eight days. Then, at midnight the door was opened,
and they were told they were condemned to death. One by one they
were taken out, and with each of them a mock execution was carried
out in the minutest details — the line of sharpshooters, the signal to fire,
the discharge and even the falling of the body, which was produced by a
push from behind. Afterward they were taken in a stock car to Torreon,
where they were shamefully paraded through the streets ; and from there
they were taken through Cuidad Juarez to the border. We have been told
that other priests were forced to suffer the torment of the gallows, being
tied by the neck and lifted into the air. One of them was raised thus
three times, until he lost consciousness.

Zacatecas. — This is the capital of the state of the same name, and
was taken June 3 at sundown. Immediately after they captured Rev.
Inocencio Lopez Velarde, who was a Fiscal Promoter, Professor of the
Seminary and Chaplain of the Theresian Sisters, and after robbing him,
took him to the outskirts of the city and killed him, afterward maltreating
his dead body, which was found the next day, the head and chest riddled
with bullets. On the 4th, early in the morning, they went to the College
of the Christian Brothers, and took away its chaplain. Father Pascual
Vega, and Brothers Adrian and Adolph, president and vice-president,
respectively. All three were conducted to Bufa Hill and shot. No one
in the city knew where they were till on the third day their bodies were
found half -buried. The other brothers were sent to prison and subjected to

12 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

a thousand indignities. On the 25th all the priests of the cities were cited
to appear. Twenty-three priests, headed by the Vicar-General, presented
themselves. They were menaced with death if they would not give on the
same day before 6 p.m. a '' loan " of $1,000,000, and were incarcerated
in a miserable dungeon. There they were kept three days without food
or drink and in danger of asphyxiation. In the afternoon of that day the
"loan" was demanded, they took out the Vicar-General and another priest,
pretending that they were to be shot, and at the same time threatening
the others with a like punishment if they would not quickly give the sum
demanded. Knowing very well that it was impossible for them to collect
such a fabulous amount, especially if they kept them locked up, the
Revolutionists allowed three of them to go out, and they were able to
get together $14,000. The rebels took this sum, but ordered them to
continue their begging among the faithful until they collected at least
$100,000. They did so, but they were told that $4,000 was missing, and
obliged them to go out again and collect that sum, but they were not even
then set at liberty. They were kept in jail until the night of July 3,
when they were taken to the depot and put in a dirty box-car and sent to
Torreon and Cuidad Juarez, guarded by a convoy of drunken soldiers,
who were constantly menacing them with their guns. There they were
despoiled of all they had and were obliged to take refuge in the United
States. The Episcopal palace was changed into a barracks.

A brutal deed was perpetrated at Villa de Guadalupe. Father
Valeriano Medina, a charitable priest, was taking care of the wounded in
the parish school, which he had converted into a hospital. The Revolu-
tionists entered the house on horseback, killing some of the patients with
their horse's hoofs, and taking the others out to be shot. The Father,
who was the especial object of these outlaws' search, escaped. The parish
priest of Cabra, Rev. Jesus Alba, was taken to the cemetery and killed.

Aguascalientes. — The capital of the state of that name, was taken
shortly after Zacatecas, and all the priests exiled. On the 4th of August,
the confessionals and some statues of saints were publicly burned.
Governor Fuentes threatened with death any priest who would attempt
to exercise his ministry.

San Luis Potosi. — July 17 they peacefully entered San Luis Potosi,
capital of the state of that name. Nevertheless, this was one of the cities
in which the clergy had to suffer most. On the 19th, they asked the Vicar-
General for the bishop's carriage, and Col. Alberto de Avila struck him
and put him in prison. Thanks to the German consul, he was liberated in
two hours.

On the 20th an order was published forbidding the celebration of
Mass on week days under penalty of $1,000 fine for the first offense,
$2,000 for the second, $3,000 for the third, and either exile or death for
the fourth. Confession, outside the danger of death, was prohibited, and
even then only with a government official present to hear. Ringing of the
bells was to be confined to secular uses.

On July 25 a proclamation of exile for all priests was published,
ordering them to be at the depot at five o'clock next morning. They
complied, but had to wait until six in the evening, when the Carranzistas
appeared. They allowed ten priests to remain for services in the city,

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 13

and one other because he was sick. The other twenty-seven were put
into a stock car and thus taken to Charcas. Here they were taken out,
made to look into some wells, and threatened with being thrown into them.
Then they took them to a hacienda and enclosed them in a sacristy, the
walls of which were bespattered with human blood. After three days
they relieved them of all they had. They detained the bishop's secretary,
the first assistant of Del Sagrario parish, and a Franciscan monk. The
others were freed on condition that they leave the country. They
arrived at Monterey, via Saltillo, on July 31. Here the Vicar-General,
Very Rev. Agustin Jimenez was detained. The others were again
arrested, and taken under a guard to Nuevo Laredo, with orders to
shoot anyone trying to escape. Then their photographs were taken, as if
they were criminals, and they were obliged to cross the border. Among
the exiles was Rev. Fr. Espinosa, a venerable Franciscan, ninety-four
years of age.

The magnificent Episcopal palace was sacked, and the books of its
library sold at ridiculous prices. We hear, however, that an Englishman
claimed the palace and everything contained therein as his own, and that
it was turned over to him.

QuERETARO. — This city, capital of the state of that name, was taken
by the Carranzistas on the 29th of July. The same day Fathers Gabriel
Goray, a Carmelite, and Sousa, a Franciscan, were kept in the De la Cruz
barracks two days, and then driven through the streets on horseback,
vested in their religious habits. Then they liberated the latter and made
the former enter the army. The churches were all closed, the Revolu-
tionalists keeping all the keys, except those of the churches San Jose and
Santa Clara, which were deposited in the Spanish vice-consulate. In
this vice-consulate several Spanish priests took refuge, and others hid
themselves in various disguises. On the 30th or 31st the Catholic high
school was attacked, and the Christian Brothers and the French vice-
consul taken out by armed force. On the 3d of August the Seminary was
changed into a Constitutionalist police station. On the 8th the con-
fessionals were burned in Zena Garden. Father Rabago was imprisoned
and Canon Florencio Rosas put in charge of the diocese of Queretaro.
On the 11th they attacked the vice-consulate, taking prisoners the priests
hidden there. These were taken at bayonet point to the barracks De la
Alameda, thence to Griega, afterward back to the same barracks, and
finally set free. On the 27th a large Catholic manifestation caused great
fear among the Revolutionists. They exiled all the Spanish priests on
the 29th, taking them to San Luis Potosi, where they were detained until
September 12 and then sent to Laredo. The others were obliged to appear
in the former bank of San Luis in order to declare what goods they
possessed, how they acquired them and what were the possessions of the
diocese.

Gaunajuato. — On the 31st of July almost all the cities of this very
rich state were captured. In the capital, on the 1st of August, " loans "
were forced, heavier ones on priests than others. After a few days all
the priests were convoked and told that confession was absolutely pro-
hibited, even to the dying, and that any commission of ladies asking for
repeal of these laws would not be received.

14 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

Leon. — Although they entered this town July 31, they were expelled
the next day by Pascual Orozco ; but regained it on August 2. They im-
posed on the bishop a **loan" of $500,000, and, as his representatives could
not collect more than $6,000 they took possession of the stipends and
goods of the clergy. The canons were arrested and imprisoned in their
own houses. Foreign priests were expelled. They prohibited the ringing
of church bells and drove out the nuns from the convents.

Irapuato. — Here the confessionals were burned August 3 ; confes-
sion was prohibited under pain of death, and nuns exiled. They tried to
kill the parish priest and Father Chavez. ,

SiLAO. — They arrested all the priests, and, on giving them their free-
dom, they kept as hostages the parish priest and another Father whom
they robbed, even of the dinner and supper their families brought them.

Celaya. — The Missionary Sons of the Heart of Mary hid themselves
in near-by farms. The Archbishop of Michoacan, Most Rev. Leopoldo
Ruiz, who happened to be there, hid himself in the home of a Catholic
gentleman. The other priests hid in different houses in the city. One
of the fugitives betrayed the others, telling where they were concealed, and
all were captured. The Archbishop, Father Penaflor, a Franciscan, and
Father Lara, a parish priest, were especially sought after. Thanks to the

courage of Mr. C , who was on the point of being shot three or

four times for not telling where His Grace was concealed, he was able
to save himself by flight to a hacienda. Some others were also able to
remain in hiding. Those who were imprisoned, in number about twenty-
five, as they were unable to pay the $60,000 demanded, were exiled ; being
taken to Laredo in a filthy stock car.

Zamora. — It seems that in this town the venerable Archbishop of
Durango was imprisoned, and with all his priests compelled to sweep the
streets. He was taken, guarded and on foot, to Piedad, and from there
by train to Irapuato, August 27, according to the account of an eye-
witness.

ToLUCA. — The Revolutionists entered this city, the capital of the
State of Mexico, on August 8. On the 10th they closed all the churches,
keeping the keys themselves, and they have not been opened until the
present day. They laughed at a commission of Catholics who asked per-
mission to have Mass, saying they would allow it if for each mass they
paid them $300,000. The Sacraments and all public worship were pro-
hibited. They arrested Fathers Garduno, Campos, Orhalas and Joaquin.
The Passionist Fathers, nine in number, whose hiding-places were dis-
covered, were taken prisoners and incarcerated for fifteen days; then
permitted to go to the Spanish vice-consulate on the express condition
that they would leave the Republic within fifteen days. Because he would
not disclose the hiding-place of the Holy Cross Fathers, Brother Mariano
Gonzales, of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, was
shot.

The Church of Carmen was plundered, a very large and beautiful
statue of the Sacred Heart chopped to pieces, and the sacred vessels,
jewels and ornaments of the statues stolen. They also sacked the Church
of La Merced and were engaged in burning various things taken there-
from until eleven at night.

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 15

In nearly the whole city of Toluca there was no priest to baptize, for
all were in hiding.

Finally Father Paredes tried to make some arrangement, but was able
to obtain absolutely nothing. Before this a decree was published, which
reached even the absurdity of prohibiting fasting and mortification, etc.

Mexico. — In the capital of the Government religion has relatively
suffered less. However, Father Paredes was set up as Vicar-General.
About thirty priests have been arrested, and some of them beaten. For
example, Father Zaragoesa. The House of Retreat of the Angels was
changed to a barracks, and the confessionals of its Oratory burned in the
streets. The Church of St. Bridget was closed and the Carranzistas took
possession of the rectory, etc.

PuEBLA. — In this, the capital of the state. Father Escobedo was placed
as administrator of the diocese. They dissolved the Cathedral Chapter
and exiled its members ; the confessionals of many of the churches were
taken away and stored in a cellar. The places in the cathedral formerly
occupied by the confessionals were marked with secret society emblems.
The pulpit of the cathedral was declared open to all. A decree was pub-
lished suppressing confession. A dance was held in the chapel of the
Catholic College of the Jesuits. By another decree all religious were
expelled. They took possession of De la Salle College and others. They
made a barracks of the Episcopal palace, etc.

Vera Cruz. — The capital of this state being protected by American
troops, all has been peaceful there, but in some cities of the state atrocities
have been perpetrated.

At Tepozotlan they stole the ciborium, dropping the Sacred Hosts
on the floor, and not permitting them to be gathered up until two days
later.

At Jalapa all priests were expelled, being given twenty-four hours to
leave.

In Cordoba all the churches were taken possession of and a decree of
expulsion against all priests was published.

Orizaba fell into the hands of the Carranzistas August 24. Four
days after all nuns were expelled. Afterward, by proclamation, all priests
were banished and the churches closed; all except that of El Calvario,
for fear of the people. Mass, however, was not allowed to be said there.

The above statements give a very general idea of the persecutions.
In the chapters to follow a few statements more in detail are given.

II.

Guadalajara.

This statement I print in full. To attempt to compress it would be to
destroy its force. It was written by an exile who suffered the horrors of
the persecution himself. Were I to take the facts as a basis for writing
the story myself I would, at the same time, take a note of personal
experience out of it, which could only destroy some of the vividness of
the sad narration.

"After a weak show of resistance and a sham battle on the outskirts
of the city, Huerta's troops abandoned the city of Guadalajara in the
night between the 7th and 8th of July, 1914. During the sortie the ineffi-
cient General Mier was killed and his small army scattered. At the same
time the army of General Obregon entered the city by detachments. They
met no resistance from the inhabitants, but were acclaimed by a number
of ragged workingmen and some revolutionists of the city. Up to this
time it was thought that the Huerta newspapers were libeling his oppo-
nents and that the Obregonistas were not as barbarous as the Villistas and
their kind. The invaders themselves declared that the city of Guadalajara
would be convinced that the Constitutionalist cause was that of peace and
justice; and they ordered the motto of Juarez to be engraved over the
door of every school : * Respect for the rights of others is peace/ The
irony of this motto is great. Scarcely had the Constitutionalists entered the
city when they confiscated all the automobiles. They began with that of the
archbishop, which Obregon appropriated for himself. They took all the
carriages and fine horses. The officers broke into the houses of the well-
to-do, whether they were at home or away. They camped there and
parceled out among themselves and their women and friends the furniture,
table service, and even the clothes of the women and children of the house.
They searched everywhere for the officials of the Huerta government,
for the principal employees of that government, for the members of the
Catholic party and for every one whom they considered political enemies.
A number of these were shot, some with the greatest cruelty.

" General Obregon managed to restrain individual outrages of his
soldiers, but the pillage went on unchecked in other forms as violent and
as criminal. The barracks were left empty, while the troops were pur-
posely lodged in the most flourishing and best-kept institutions of learning
and charity. On July 9 a picket of soldiers was placed at all the doors of

16

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 17

the Jesuit College. This is the best in the city, and possesses a fine equip-
ment of physical and chemical apparatus from Europe. The rector had
just left the classrooms on the first floor, when a band of Yaqui Indians,
bedecked with feathers, entered and camped with their women in the
clean and elegant lecture-rooms. Colonel Calderon, one-time school-
master and afterward an inmate of San Juan de Ulua prison, and now
a shining light in the Constitutionalist army, although without any educa-
tion and evidently without principle, took for himself the rector's room
and quartered his officers and musicians in the upper stories. He refused
to listen to protests. He made no effort to stop the destruction of scien-
tific instruments which was going on, nor did he respect the French flag
which hung above the door of the building. Only one who has seen it
can picture a barracks in Mexico. It is a mass of human bodies, filthy
men, women and children, who cook their meals, make their beds, wash
their clothes and bathe themselves in view of all. They live with all
their instruments, arms, playthings and animals heaped around them.

" As the spoliation was to be accomplished by degrees, the rector was
allowed a miserable lodging in the barracks, which he had to accept,
unless he wished to sleep in the street. For several days he was not
allowed to pass out the door of his own house. Colonel Calderon's
troops are the most moral, if there can be any morality among soldiers
where the petty thefts of the enlisted men are punished by death, while
wholesale thefts are committed with impunity by the officers. Calderon's
troops are composed of full-blood Yaquis, who possess a religion of a kind,
in that they carry pictures and medals of saints on their hats and show
respect toward churches and priests. On this account the Constitu-
tionalists dissemble the war which they are making on religion by leading
the Indians to think that they are pursuing, not their beloved priests, but
one Mr. Clergyman (Don Qero), whom they portray as the worst of
criminals. The Yaquis showed respect to the Jesuit priests who continued
to live among them. The Indians did not destroy the furniture and
apparatus except after the example of some of the officers who came
there.

" The other colleges suffered even a worse fate. The ecclesiastical sem-
inary, which is one of the finest buildings in the city, was occupied by
troops and horses the same day that the Jesuit College was entered. At
once officers and soldiers began to sack it. They threw the books out of
the windows or sold them for 10 cents a volume to any one who would
buy. Still worse was the occupation of the College of the Ladies of the
Sacred Heart. This is an English establishment. But the consul pro-
tested in vain, and the flag of that country was not respected. The most
shameless troops, with their women and horses, took possession of the

18 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

beautiful garden of the nuns. The women camp-followers afterward
entered the sleeping apartments of the Sisters and stole the clothes of the
nuns and their pupils. They dressed themselves up in these, or sold the
finest clothes and furniture for a pittance and destroyed what they could
not use or sell. The sick and wounded were placed in the infirmary of
the college, notwithstanding that there was no need of it, because there
was plenty of room in the hospitals. The soldiers and their shameless
women went to bed in the rooms of the Sisters and pupils. The teachers
and children had fled the evening before at the approach of the bandits.

" It can not be said that these outrages were committed only by the
soldiers, and without the knowledge or consent of the so-called Generals
Obregon, Lucio Blanco, Rafael Buelma, Benjamin Hill, and the pre-
tended Governor, M. M. Dieguez. The last-named was once a miner at
Cananea and a resident for several years in San Juan de Ulua prison on
account of a mine theft committed by him at Cananea. These were the
men who, for the purpose of uplifting society, advancing civilization and
spreading the sciences, preferred to leave the many barracks and other
available public buildings unoccupied and to lodge their troops in these
centers of learning. These were the men who commanded the flags of
foreign nations to be taken down from the houses and who threatened the
consuls who dared defend their countrymen or who would attempt to
appeal at any time to Mexico City or Washington. These Constitutional-
ist leaders were informed and led by the secret society members of the
place, who are more intelligent but not less savage than themselves, and
who advised them to levy their heaviest tolls on Catholics and to imprison,
as they did, the priests and other persons whom they pointed out as
enemies deserving to be shot. These Constitutionalist leaders are the
very men who closed all the courts, so that nobody could defend his
rights. They destroyed all means of communication, so that they would
not have to obey any one, even Carranza himself. Finally they got a
woman of the underworld, a notorious character called Atala Apodaca,
to proclaim war unto death upon the Catholic priests. And they published
the vilest attacks and the grossest calumnies in two or three miserable
sheets, which were the only papers they allowed to be circulated.

" At first they did not persecute the priests so violently. But before
long the mask dropped from their faces. They faked a plot of the clergy
which had for its object to make the people rise against the new govern-
ment. On July 21 Governor Dieguez gave an order forcibly to arrest all
the priests of the city and to take possession of all the churches. Soldiers
were let loose in detachments of fifty. They went through the whole city
and arrested not only the priests, but also the sextons and even persons

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 19

found praying in the churches. They took the Marist Brothers, with
many boys who were at play in the college. They arrested a number of
servants, and even some seamstresses, whom they accused of having made
mustaches and beards to disguise the priests. The poor prisoners were
forced to pass the night in the barracks, cooped up in foul-smelling cells,
where they had to stand or to sit among drunken soldiers, who pointed
their guns at them and brutally threatened and vilely insulted them. The
prisoners were stripped of everything — money, watches, books, and even
glasses. Among them were sick people who were brought in on cots.
These were simply the orders of Governor Dieguez, which were carried
out by his bloodthirsty troops. They were eager to shoot, without investi-
gation, any one whom a drunken or furious officer might point out.

" The following day they filled the Escobedo prison with more than
one hundred and twenty priests of all nationalities. Among them was
the Bishop of Tehuantepec, Rt. Rev. Ignacio Plasencia, who was visiting
in the city. The accusers did not even know the names of the prisoners.
Three improvised courts made ridiculous the forms of justice. They
afterwards declared that ' no cause was found for proceeding against the
defendants' ('no haher habido causa para proceder en contra'). Mean-
while the prisoners were kept isolated (incommunicado) in the dungeons
for six or seven days, against all the laws of the country. To inquiries
by friends as to what offense they had committed or what charge there
was against them, the only answer was * these are the orders of General
Dieguez.'

"The Catholics of the city were in consternation. There would have
been an uprising, except for the fear that the innocent prisoners would
be shot. There was no service on Sunday, nor were the bells rung. The
churches were not opened during these days, except to save the Sacred
Hosts such as had not been profaned. These had been picked up and
removed (recogidas) by pious women. Meantime the Constitutionalists
took advantage of these days to invade the churches. They profaned
them with their troops and women. They stole everything of value in
some of them. And they searched for arms and cannon which they said
were hidden there. They even opened and profaned the graves and
announced that they had found bodies of persons assassinated by the
clerical party, together with the arms which they had hidden there. All
that they really did find was thirty or more old guns which had been
bought for 25 cents each by the Marist Brothers for the military drills of
their students. The Constitutionalists celebrated this find as a victory,
and made vague assertions about having found even a cannon and dyna-
mite bombs in nobody-knows-what hiding-place of the priests. They

20 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

kept up these charges until they made themselves ridiculous. Then they
abandoned them for others equally false and such as could be invented
only by wild men. A week later, when Obregon returned from Colima,
they began to set the priests free without any more order or judgment
than was shown before. They were allowed to depart, minus the money
which had been stolen from them in part or altogether in the various
places where they had been.

" The Jesuits did not return to their college, because they were for-
bidden to. Moreover, the officers and soldiers had cleaned out everything
of use to themselves. They had even gone so far as to sell to any one
who wished to buy costly scientific apparatus for which they took a dollar
or two. Colonel Calderon, who was careful under other circumstances,
now showed that his sectarianism was equal to his lack of culture. He
had promised to protect the library and scientific laboratories. For fifteen
days he had lived with the Jesuits. During that time he was convinced
that they were honorable gentlemen. But to no avail. Calderon let them
be thrown into prison as common criminals. Not only did he not protest
himself, but he paid no attention to the protest of some of his officers and
almost all of the soldiers. The college was occupied thenceforth by a
guard of soldiers, and the musicians and their families. No protection
was afforded the college, either by the captain who was sick there, or by
Dieguez, to whom notice was given, or by Secretary Berlanga, who, with
cynicism, had come some days before to see for himself the fine equip-
ment and perfect arrangement of the physical and chemical and natural-
history laboratories and the library. Finally, August 3, the college
building was confiscated, with all that it contained, without allowing the
priests to take even their personal efifects or clothes.

" Many of the professors in the colleges of the Jesuit Fathers, the
Ladies of the Sacred Heart and the Marist Brothers were Mexicans. But
most of them were foreigners who had come to Mexico to supply the lack
of Mexicans in these congregations. And, so as to destroy them with less
trouble, the Constitutionalists made up their minds to banish the foreign
priests and professors from Guadalajara. In order to suppress the col-
lege of the nuns, all they had to do was to take away the building and
steal or destroy everything in it.

" August 5, Mr. Lobato, mayor of the city (presidente del ayuntami-
ento), who is a man of some education, but with rabid anti-Catholic
notions, directed the foreign consuls to call their nationals among the
priests and professors to the city hall (palacio de ayuntamiento) in order
to define to them their situation. About forty-eight gathered there. He
marched them through the streets to the government palace (palacio del

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 21

gohierno) to hear the orders of Dieguez. The Governor did not show
himself. He is an uncouth person, who does not know how to talk.
Instead, his secretary, M. Aguierre Berlanga, appeared. He is as small
in mind as he is in body. H he knows how to write, certainly he can not
speak or appear to advantage before people. He spoke in the name of
Dieguez. He said that, although most were innocent, nevertheless for
political reasons the Governor would banish them in three days from
Mexican soil. They all protested against such a flagrant violation of the
Constitution and the international laws committed by these very persons
who called themselves Constitutionalists. The application of the thirty-
third article of the Constitution — namely, the expulsion of " pernicious "
foreigners without formal trial, is reserved to the President of the Repub-
lic alone. They appealed to Carranza and to all the foreign consuls. But
no attention was paid to anybody, nor were telegrams allowed to be sent.
The foreigners were compelled to leave by the port of Manzanillo,
although that port was still occupied by Federals. To their protests,
Dieguez replied that the Constitutionalists would be in possession of the
port in three days and that the exiles meantime could wait any place they
pleased, even in the field of battle, until the way should be cleared. As
the foreigners were Europeans, they asked Dieguez to delay the banish-
ment until the road to Vera Cruz should be opened, because Carranza
was on the point of entering Mexico and it would be less expensive for
all of them to leave the country by this road. Dieguez replied that they
must leave by way of Manzanillo, in spite of its unhealthy climate. From
there they might go any place they chose. He would do no more than
put them on a ship. He would not give them any assistance for the
journey. All that he would grant was five days, without any extension of
time. Since Dieguez is as stupid as he is fanatical, the decent people of
Guadalajara could not impress upon him the barbarity of this banish-
ment by way of Manzanillo nor the need of assistance felt by these men
who had been robbed of everything they possessed, nor the violation of
all law and justice which he was committing against all foreign nations
by forbidding them communication with their consuls in Mexico or the
United States.

" On August 10 the foreign priests and professors were given an hour's
notice to be at the railroad station. The purpose of the short notice was
to prevent the people of the city from gathering to bid them farewell.
They were threatened with prison or death if they delayed. Soldiers
were waiting for them in the station. There also were a number of
Constitutionalists, secret service members, and a band of music. Like a
tiger lapping the blood of its victim and roaring with delight over the
dismembered body, Dieguez ordered the band to play the hymn of

22 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

Juarez and, after other such pieces, as the train pulled out, ' la Goland-
rina.' The Catholics and pupils of the exiles who crowded the station,
having come to bid them an affectionate farewell, wept with grief and
indignation. The priests also wept to see so many good people in Mexico
victims of a few bandits. They were somewhat consoled with the hope
that their own woes would cease when they should arrive among people
who could better appreciate their science and virtue. But their cares
were not to cease there. The guard which accompanied them had orders
to leave them at the end of the road, even though it were in the line of
fire between Federals and Constitutionalists. When they arrived at
Colima, Governor Ruiz, who was more humane than Dieguez, knowing
that the road was not open and that there was no food on the way, and
that to abandon the exiles there would be to condemn them to death,
gave orders to keep them all night in the station in the car in which
they arrived. The following day he took their names, because in Guada-
lajara even this much had not been done. Governor Ruiz informed them
that they would continue to be prisoners, but he gave them permission to
live in the city, with the city limits as their prison walls. He allowed
them to lodge wherever they could, and made them pay their own
expenses, besides requiring them to report daily at the police head-
quarters.

" When the Constitutionalists entered Manzanillo, whch was not until
some days afterward, the big chief Dieguez wanted to send the forty-
seven foreigners away at once, without giving a thought as to whether
there was a train, a ship or lodging and food in Manzanillo. August 20
he gave orders for all to be in the station. It was known there that there
was no train; but the passengers were kept in ignorance until midday.
The governor knew all day there was no train. But he was feasting in a
neighboring plantation. He said to his military aide, Lepe, that he
would punish them with one day of Constitutionalist camp life. For
fifteen hours they waited for the train and almost suffocated with the
heat. At night the Governor arrived and ordered the train to start. But
the English consul, and the German consul who himself was being
expelled, and the Spanish consul, all pointed out that in Manzanillo there
was neither food nor ship, and they prevailed on Dieguez to let them
wait in Colima until some steamship should arrive.

" Eight days more the exiles waited for a ship. They lived on the
charity of the good citizens of Colima and especially on the alms of the
priests of this diocese who, unconscious of themselves, displayed won-
derful charity. On the twenty-ninth of August came a new order to
depart, because a ship was soon expected. Since now Carranza had

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 23

established his government in Mexico and since he had promised the
United States to respect the persons and property of foreigners, the
governor was asked that they be allowed to receive orders from Carranza
or from the foreign ministers in the capital, to the effect that they might
sail from Vera Cruz, or at least that their passage be paid from Manza-
nillo. But Governor Ruiz would neither do nor allow anything of the
kind. He who was living in a house he had stolen, and he who ate and
slept in another's home, need have little care for unhappy exiles. He said
that there was a ship at Manzanillo and meantime they would be lodged
in the hotel recently confiscated from D. Bias Ruiz. But this lodging,
during the three days they had to stay in Manzanillo, consisted only of
the choice of the floor for a bed or some rooms which had been wrecked
in a filthy, abandoned hotel. On the floor below were lodged the troops
and on that above the officers and some shameless women. The port,
which had lately been abandoned by several thousand Federals, had
been cleaned out of all provisions. As a climax to the outrages suffered
by the priests, they were denied permission in that hot climate even to
bathe in the sea. To add to their woes and to share them, fifty nuns.
Ladies of the Sacred Heart, who had been deceived by the promise of a
ship, were set down without protection in this hell-hole. The only hope
which the Mexican government offered to the one hundred persons whom
it had proscribed was to suggest to them the ship Bonita, in which one
hundred Constitutionalists were to be carried to Mazatlan and in which
it was said there was scarcely room for eight persons more. And this
took place while Carranza and Dieguez allowed a shipload of Chinese to
disembark at Manzanillo. Surely the Chinese were an advantageous
exchange for so many religious teachers who were being exiled for no
other crime than that of having consecrated their lives to the welfare
of the Mexican people; to teach them a religion which forbids robbery
even under the Constitutionalist name of loot {avance), a religion which
teaches the people the difference between right and wrong, in order that
they may not be the playthings of anti-Christian atheists and political
bandits, a religion which teaches the Mexican people to exercise their
rights as citizens and to demand for Catholics that religious liberty
which the so-called Laws of Reform, to the destruction of civilization,
deny them. Yet these Constitutionalists permit the Mormons, the Chi-
nese and the Hindus to practice their religion and morality. There is
plenty of liberty in Mexico for the association of prostitutes, and yet
not enough liberty to permit three Catholic women to associate for the
purpose of teaching little girls Mathematics and English. What crime
have the Constitutionalists found in these latter? None. They them-
selves are now ashamed of the fable which they invented of a plot and of

24 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

arms. But we are wrong. They accuse them of having written over the
doors of their houses ' obscene ' words such as * Ave Maria Purissima' of
having written upon their walls the name of Jesus, of having read in their
churches the pastoral letters of their bishops.

" But these Constitutionalists, who have written over the doors of the
schools the motto of Juarez, ' Respect for the rights of others is peace ' ;
these men who at the same time open stores to sell their loot, which they
have stolen from individuals and Catholic schools; these men whose
only thought is to rob peaceful citizens in order to enrich themselves,
what do they know or care for the rights of others or for peace? These
men, who destroy all the schools and force the children to listen to the
lessons of an ignorant, bloodthirsty and immoral woman, like Atala
Apodaca and admirers of her, like Valencia and Ortega, what apprecia-
tion have they of the right of freedom of education which the Constitu-
tion of Mexico itself guarantees ?

" What crime have the priests committed ; what fault have they been
guilty of that secret societies and the revolution hate them so? The
Jesuits had the misfortune to have accredited their schools and colleges
and to have shown the inferiority and disorder of the government system.
They have committed the fault of educating the more cultured class of
society and of having merited the esteem of these because of their faith-
ful service and modesty in that work. They have committed the fault
of being taken for rich men and of having received the sons of rich men.
What matters it that nearly one-fourth of their pupils could not, on
account of their poverty, pay even one-half of the small tuition which
was asked ? * You are immensely rich,' repeated the parrot Dieguez,
when the Rector of the college went to ask permission to get his clothes.
An educated person would have tried to find out the truth. The Jesuits
are not a business concern, which combines its interests for trade. Their
constitution requires complete financial independence in all their houses.
One house can not assist another to any considerable extent. Thus there
are houses that are rich, and there are colleges that are poor and even
poverty-stricken. The latter might fail and the Order could not help
them. Each college and institution must live on its own resources and
for the benefit of the community in which it is located. The College of
Guadalajara did not even have its own building. And the scientific
apparatus and furniture were not paid for, but were owed for to the
extent of $70,000 which is still due various Mexicans and foreigners.
This is the wealth which ' was being sent to Europe.' These are the
millions which they put in their banks.

" The crimes of the Marist Brothers were of the same kind and their

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 25

wealth the same. They taught commercial courses and the elementary-
branches better than the atheist teachers, and their pupils finished their
studies better educated, more industrious and more moral than those of
their enemies. Secret society fanaticism and Mexican constitutionalism
could not stand the scientific and moral superiority of the Catholics, and
they preferred to bury the people in ignorance by leaving them without
teachers, which they confess they lack, rather than allow ' these pernicious
foreigners ' to teach them.

" And what was the crime of the Salesian Fathers ? They occupied a
large building, still unfinished and unpaid for, where they taught the arts
and crafts to the children of the common people. They had the very
best tools and machinery for carpentry, bookbinding, printing, shoe-
making, and the like. They committed the crime of teaching, practically
for nothing, trades whereby the sons of the poor workingman would be
enabled to earn an honest living. These are the things for which they
were hated by these infamous bandits, who claim to work in behalf of
the people and yet who have never been able to establish a single school
of this kind for the people. These pretenders were ashamed to let a
foreigner inspect their poor imitations of industrial schools. Nor will
they try to run these machines, which they do not understand, and which
they have stolen from their legitimate owners.

'' The Fathers of St. John were guilty of even greater crimes : they
conducted a free hospital and a free insane asylum. It is incredible,
perhaps, but true, that the religious antipathy of Dieguez and the atheists
went so far as to condemn such well-known and efficient nurses as the
Fathers of St. John. Nay, more, they defamed them. Their newspapers
declared that the Fathers of St. John were holding at their asylum
persons whom they pretended to be insane for the purpose of getting
possession of their property. Dieguez even sent his private secretary
to demand the freedom of an insane man who, he maintained, was
unlawfully detained. The secretary was not satisfied until he saw the
man, who was a violent maniac. Another time General Hill took out a
patient and carried him away with him. But the patient, who was almost
an idiot, paid no attention to his supposed liberator and at night said he
wanted to go home. He was let go and he went back by himself to the
asylum.

" The proscribed priests and sisters spent three terrible days in Man-
zanillo. Yet the promised ship did not arrive. Nor was there any hope
of getting out of that dangerous climate. If they did not leave there,

26 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

they would die of starvation, disease or anxiety. They engaged to pay
$6,500 for passage on the ship Hong Kong and Mexico City, where they
would have to mix with Chinese and to sleep on miserable bare canvas
cots in the hold of the ship. But they preferred this to the savage hos-
pitality of the Constitutionalists. The exiles were able to make up among
them only half the price for their passage. It became necessary for the
captain to accept their promise to pay him upon their arrival at San
Francisco, where American citizens would not fail to give assistance in
their misfortune to so many foreigners, whose interests the Government
in Washington had promised to protect. Will the American people allow
outrages such as these to continue? Will they not demand from Dieguez
and the Mexican government an indemnity which will permit us to
return to our homes and in the meantime to buy food during our exile?
"We all protest against the unjust spoliation of our property, for which
we will demand indemnity when a government shall be established. We
protest against the barbarity with which they have expelled us. We
protest against the savage manner in which they have driven us out of
the country for which we have labored so many years. We protest
against the according to us of such treatment as would not be accorded
the worst criminals. We protest against the indignity offered our flags
and our consulates, against the illegality of the verbal decree by which we
were expelled and against the execution of that decree which was even
more illegal and cruel. We trust that the American people, who are
lovers of justice and civilization, will realize that they are in honor
bound to defend us in the name of science and humanity, to demand
satisfaction for the flagrant violation of the recommendations which were
made by them to Carranza and his followers. If this be not done, then
the declaration of the Carranzistas will be confirmed that, whatever they
do, is done with the knowledge and approbation of the Washington Gov-
ernment."

III.

NUEVO LEON, ZACATECAS AND SALTILLO.

The Archbishop of Monterey, Monsignor Plancarte, is one of the
scholars of Mexico, and one who has devoted his great talents to Mexican
historical and ethnological research. For forty years he has been at
work, during which time he has published valuable contributions to the
history of his native country, notably, " Tamoanchan el Estado de Morelas
y el Principio de la Civilkacion en Mexico." A sequel to this work, a
study of the third period of Mexico's ancient history, entitled: ''La
Invacion Chichimeca en la Valle de Mexico," was in preparation and
almost finished when the revoldtionists reached the city of Monterey in
the State of Nueva Leon. The archbishop had collected, during his
forty years of work, at the expense of great labor and sacrifice, a mag-
nificent library of books and manuscripts, as well as a museum of
Mexican antiquities which he had himself excavated. This latter collec-
tion was begun in 1883. When Archbishop Plancarte was at Cuernavaca,
where he resided before his promotion to Monterey, the Hon. Elihu
Root, and the foreign geologists who attended the Geological Congress
of Mexico, came to see this splendid collection. Some of the archbishop's
archaeological discoveries were outlined to American scientists by Mr.
Holmes, of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, in an article pub-
lished in a Philadelphia scientific review. The archbishop had scientific
correspondence on this subject with the Smithsonian. As Mexico is one
of the richest, as well as the most interesting fields for archaeological
research, because of its ancient civilization and absorbing story, the work
of Archbishop Plancarte was most valuable to scientific men interested in
the North American continent. This scientist at least might have escaped
the charge of political meddling. His diocese, his studies and his never-
ending writings, gave him little thought or interest in anything else.

But such was not the case. When the Carranzistas entered Monterey,
it was to commit the same crimes as they had committed in other cities.
Homes were entered and taken, the archbishop's being among the first.
Then his effects began to disappear. The most valuable books, it is
openly said, were taken by Urrieta, a Deputy to Congress, and De la
Paz Guerra, Government Secretary of the State of Nuevo Leon, both
supposed to be men of honor and character. The labor of forty years
was destroyed. The almost completed manuscript of the archbishop's
new scientific book went with the rest. No one gained by the destruction

27

28 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

of the manuscripts, for they were thrown away as useless. The museum
was looted and its contents taken by people who knew nothing of their
value, or who looked upon them as no better than ordinary curios. With
these went valuable pictures, family heirlooms, personal belongings, etc.
The archbishop was left without the result of his life's labor, and is
to-day in exile in San Antonio, with not one single dollar. When I met
him he was wearing the borrowed cassock of a simple priest. He had
not saved even his pectoral cross.

When the shepherd was stricken, the sheep could expect no pro-
tection. Priests were taken publicly to jail ; professors were dragged
with them. The " liberators," who wanted schools, as they said, had the
same respect for the teacher as they had for the preacher. Later on, the
foreign priests were freed on the representations of their respective con-
suls ; but they were at once sent out of the country.

Then the Carranzistas turned their attention to the churches. The
confessionals were burned and the temples closed. But this was going
pretty far, and the people, who however, had no arms, were muttering.
So five churches were allowed to open, but only under such restrictions
as to do away altogether with liberty of conscience. Nero and Diocletian
had their counterparts in Monterey.

Then followed a reign of terror for the other towns of the State of
Nueva Leon. All the school property was seized. Even that belonging
to individuals was taken. A monument of antiquity, and the finest
church in the State, St. Francis of Monterey, dating from the sixteenth
century, was destroyed, and its works of art mutilated.

There were no priests killed in Monterey, but the faithful laity were
not so fortunate. Sefior Mandin was shot without cause or crime. The
nuns were spared from the crowning shame, so far as I can learn, but
not so the daughters of many respectable and honest families. Zacatecas
saw five priests killed horribly ; Coahuila lost by shooting the pastor of
St. Peter's ; Zamora had the awful spectacle of one of her priests found
killed in a field and his body half-eaten by animals. But for Monterey
there was only robbery, spoliation, imprisonment, exile, the destruction
of schools, and the wiping out of scientific records which some would say
were worth many lives.

Why did the archbishop leave? He was ordered to go. They
accused him of receiving a letter from one of Huerta's ministers, begging
his influence to bring about peace. So even the reception of such a letter
was considered a crime which merited banishment.

►I-

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 29

As to the facts I have here set down, they are all from a resident of
Nuevo Leon who had every opportunity of knowing the truth. He was
well acquainted with the archbishop and all the prominent people of the
State. He gave the facts to me in an interview and afterward set them
down in writing, offering to have the truth of them attested under oath
before a notary. Knowing the man's reputation, I replied that this was
not necessary. So he added to his statement an expression of his
willingness to swear to the truth of his words at any time.

One of the most informing statements in my possession, because it
goes very much into detail, was given by an eye-witness to the treatment
of the priests of Zacatecas, already touched upon in a general way.
Because this statement is written so that the printing of it in full would
immediately expose the name of the person who gave it, I rewrite and
summarize, using the facts as they were sworn to.

At ten o'clock on the morning of June 25 the staff-officers of General
Villa summoned all the priests of Zacatecas to appear at the headquarters.
The priests obeyed, and arrived very soon at the house of Dr. De la
Torre, where Villa had taken up his residence. Colonel Beytia, chief of
Villa's staff, ordered the Vicar-General to send for the priests who had
not yet arrived. One of the officers was appointed to accompany the
priests appointed by the Vicar-General, the Colonel saying to him : " H
this officer does not come back, you will answer with your head."

At noon twenty-three priests were present, and the Colonel made the
following statement : " General Villa asks a million pesos from you. If
this sum is not turned in by to-morrow morning, all of you will be shot."
The priests answered that it was an impossible request, and they prepared
themselves to die.

At twelve o'clock that night the Vicar-General and another priest
were taken to the guardhouse by Major Villareal, who said: "You are
going to be shot, because you will not give the money." The priest said
that they had until ten o'clock in the morning, but the Major answered:
" I know nothing about that. I know only the orders I have received."
The Major gave the Vicar-General permission, however, to return to the
other priests, that he might delegate some one to act as Vicar-General
after his death. This done, he returned to the guardhouse. Five mounted
soldiers took the two priests in charge and brought them to a hill near
the railroad station. They were separated at a ditch and money demanded
of each one in turn. The priests said again that they possessed nothing.
One said that he had his family home and offered to give them that.
He said that he had no right to take money which did not belong to him,

30 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

meaning whatever diocesan funds he held. The question was then asked :
"What kind of a death do you prefer; to be hanged or shot?" The
priests selected shooting. The officer in charge then said to one of the
soldiers : " Give me your rifle. How many bullets are in it ? " The
soldier answered : " Two." " Well," said the officer, " I think two are
enough." Bitterly, one of the priests said : " I think so, too." " Why,"
asked the officer of another priest, " do you allow yourself to be shot
instead of handing over the money? " The priest answered: " I possess
nothing but a few old books. Take them, but let it be known that I am
killed on account of my poverty."

The officer then took them back to the guardhouse, where they slept
on the bare floor. The same night Major Villareal informed the other
priests that the Vicar-General was to be shot unless they raised the money
required. The next morning the good people of the city sent food. At
eight o'clock the priests were sent out to see if the money could be col-
lected. They came back at four with ten thousand pesos. Villareal
ordered them to secure at least twenty thousand, or he would shoot four,
beginning with the Superior. The priests were sent out again on June 27,
and collected the required sum of twenty thousand pesos, the people
giving the money to save the priests. When this money was paid over,
Colonel Beytia demanded one hundred thousand pesos. If the money
was not forthcoming, eight would be killed. He said that the graves
had already been dug on the hills. He gave the priests paper and told
them to make their wills. The priests went out again, but could get
nothing, for the rich families had gone away. The officer said : " Go out
again and beg from door to door." Again the priests went out and
begged. It was pitiful, for even the little children gave them their
pennies. This was on Friday. On Saturday, Sunday and Monday they
were driven out again under guard. On Sunday no devotions were
allowed in the churches. On Tuesday, at four in the morning, the priests
were awakened by the cries and laments of a girl in the adjoining room
occupied by the Colonel. The reason can be guessed. The girl was kept
in the house two days. At eight o'clock that morning the priests returned
with a hundred thousand pesos that had been given by the people to save
them from death. The money was handed over to Major Alvarez and
Major Villareal. Thursday morning the priests were still prisoners and
Major Alvarez said that four thousand four hundred and fifty pesos
of the one hundred thousand were lacking. When the money was paid
over, there was nothing lacking. When they counted the money, two
thousand and sixty-six pesos were gone. The priests had to go out and
beg again. They asked for a receipt and the permission to leave and go
about their duties. At eight o'clock that night the priests were ordered

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 31

to the railroad station to be given their freedom. They gathered up their
little belongings, but Major Villareal ordered them to leave everything
behind, as they would be back in a few minutes. Six officers brought
them to the station. One showed them a railroad coach and said : " Get
in here, because General Villa wants to see you in Torreon." On the
night of July 4, on the train, the officers were drunk and insulted the
priests in vile language. On the fifth they reached Torreon and were
turned over to a guard. In the guardhouse they slept on an earthen floor
full of vermin. There were twenty priests, all Mexicans except one.
The room in which these twenty were confined was about sixteen feet
square. In the middle of the night they were awakened by women who
had to pass through the room to reach the officers' quarters in the adjoin-
ing room. They received no food from the officers, but the people of
Torreon gave them food and clothing. They were kept prisoners until
Friday. On that day they were loaded into a railroad coach, where they
met four Christian Brothers (teachers). There should have been six,
but two had been killed brutally at Zacatecas, together with the Chaplain
of the Brothers, Father Vega. This killing was done by General Urbina.
On Saturday, the train reached Juarez and the priests were sent across
the international bridge into the United States. No charge was made
against these priests for violating the laws or helping the cause of Huerta.
There was no trial ; no hearing of the priests' side of the case. The only
possible charge that could have been made was that one of the priests,
a canon, went to console the dying soldiers at the hospital, when he saw
them lying on the bare floor without medical care and attention. Moved
by their deplorable condition, he collected some money from the clergy
and gave it to the Governor of Zacatecas to help the wounded. That was
all the money they gave to the Federals.

An interesting sidelight on this story comes from the town of Jalpa.
After the fall of Zacatecas, several Federal soldiers went to Jalpa. The
parish priest remained there. The town occupied an advantageous posi-
tion between two mountains and was very difficult to approach.
Knowing what had occurred at other places, the parish priest told his par-
ishioners that they had a right to defend their lives and property, and
the honor of their wives and daughters. The people took up arms and
defended themselves. The priest is accused of being a Huertista. Stories
will probably be circulated, because of his action, that the priest opposed
the government.

It is also interesting to note, since the Constitutionalists claim that the
rural priests are good and that they are in favor of them, that Father Alba

32 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

in the little town of Calera, near Zacatecas, was killed. Reports say that
it was by the order of Gen. Eulalio Gutierrez. Is this the Eulalio
Gutierrez selected by the Constitutionalist Convention for President of
Mexico ?

Zacatecas was attacked twice. During the first attack, the Constitu-
tionalists took a little village about three miles from the city, Guadalupe.
The parish priest was attending eight or ten wounded soldiers in his
house. The Constitutionalists took the soldiers out and shot them in
the yard, and then rode over their dead bodies on horseback, crushing
them horribly.

Another statement, sworn to before a notary, is of no less interest,
because of the details it gives. While I have the sworn statement itself, I
have also had the story verified personally by one of the priests who was
tortured. He is a Spanish Benedictine Father, now located at the Bene-
dictine Abbey at Covington, Louisiana. His own story was published in
The Morning Star, of New Orleans, but this I take from the sworn state-
ments mentioned.

" There were nine Jesuit Fathers in a college at Saltillo, with four
scholastics and nine lay Brothers. Three priests were Spanish, one
French and the rest Mexicans. The college had a total enrollment of
ninety-six students. When Torreon fell the foreign priests were sent
away. On the 21st of May, 1914, the Federals withdrew, pillaging the
town before leaving, exacting taxes and taking the horses. That same
afternoon, at two o'clock, the Constitutionalists came in and killed the
remaining Federals. The Constitutionalists came to the college and took
possession on the 21st. Villa came to Saltillo the next day at nine o'clock.
The Fathers were summoned to headquarters at three o'clock. Six
Jesuit Fathers, three Eudists, a Benedictine, and a number of Diocesan
priests were ushered into Villa's presence, who began abusing them and
asked how many Spaniards there were among them. The Benedictine
Father informed Villa that he was a Spaniard. He then ordered the
priests to give him a million pesos in coin. They had no money and
three were sent out to beg. Colonel Fierro was sent as a guard. At the
college they had three thousand and eighty pesos. They gave Villa that.
He was not satisfied. Colonel Fierro was informed that the families
who were able to help them were out of town. The priests told him that
there was nothing to do but beg from door to door. This, however, he
would not permit. Villa said : ' It is necessary to put you to the guillo-
tine and to execute all of the Fathers, and I am the only man to do it.'
When Villa was speaking, he kept cracking nuts with his teeth and using
vile language. He kept the priests prisorrers that night in his house.
Some Fathers by this time had collected thirteen thousand pesos. Villa
let the secular priests go, but kept the others. That night two priests
became ill. One of them got permission to go to the English consulate ;
the other, who was a Jesuit, was not allowed to go out. Villa himself

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 33

said : ' Take away that shameless man from here. Put him in a separate
room and shoot him in order to cure him.' The priest was in a high fever
that night. The sick priest heard Villa say : * Take this big goat out and
shoot him.' He was carried out on a mattress into another room and left
alone. In the afternoon Villa came into the room. * What is the matter
with you ? ' he asked. * I am sick with fever,' replied the priest. Villa
replied : ' I will send you out to be shot.' All of Sunday night and
Monday, the priest was left there sick. At midnight on Monday, he was
ordered to get up and follow a soldier. Again he was put with the other
priests. In the meantime, at the same hour. Colonel Fierro summoned
the other priests, and with a naked sword in his hand ordered them to
follow him. As they passed through the hallway, they met several sol-
diers, who were commanded to load their rifles. The priests were lined
up, two by two, and taken to an adjoining house which was empty. They
were then shown into a large room, illuminated by candles. An officer
told them that they had been sentenced to death, and then turning to the
other soldiers, he said: 'Whom shall we begin with?' The priests
quietly gave one another absolution, and a Jesuit volunteered to be the
first. He was taken away and the others left under guard. After a
short time, the priests heard a shot and the noise of a body being
dragged out. Colonel Fierro and the soldiers returned. One had a
horse-hair rope in his hands. He approached another priest and said:
* Your time has come.' The priest himself put the noose around his
neck. He was taken to the large room and commanded to reveal the
place where the treasures were hidden. The priest answered that he
could do no more. The rope was tightened around his neck, and he was
choked until he became unconscious and fell to the floor. He recovered
consciousness, however, and one of the soldiers drew a revolver and fired
a shot. The same soldier ordered him to stand up, and the priest was
again asked for treasures. He answered in the same way and was tor-
tured as before. Again the priest came to his senses and was once more
choked into unconsciousness. He was then taken to another room,
where he found the other Fathers. Later, two others came in and
told them what had happened to them. They heard the groans and chok-
ings later of the sick father."

4-

The sick man had the same experiences as the others. They were
taken back to Villa's house, and on the way the soldiers who had mal-
treated them asked forgiveness, saying that they had to obey superior
orders.

" Colonel Fierro, with an escort of soldiers, took the priests to the
railroad station. The people had gathered around to show sympathy, but
the Colonel shouted : ' Those who show any sympathy for these men
must go with them.' They were placed in a freight car under guard.
One of the officers was drunk. When the train was about to leave
Saltillo, a girl fifteen years of age came with blankets for the priests.
Villa ordered this girl to be thrown into the car with them, so as to make
people think that she was one of their party, but she broke away and
escaped. During the journey the drunken Colonel kept threatening to

34 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

kill the priests. Once he pointed his revolver at the Superior of the
Eudists, but a soldier knocked up his arm and the shot went wild. At
Paredon, a prostitute was put into the car. They came to a place where
the track was torn up, and horses had to be had for six miles. When
asking for the horses, it was announced to the people that ten horses
were needed for the priests and one for the prostitute, who was their
traveling companion. When they reached the railroad again, they were
put into a cattle car without food. During the night the prostitute
remained with the officer in charge. At Torreon the priests were kept
prisoners. At the barracks they were given food. In the morning they
were sent to Chihuahua under the guard of Beytia, General Villa's chief
of staff, who was drunk and kept threatening death to a sick priest and
to an old one. They had no food all day. They passed the night at
Chihuahua on the bare floors. On Sunday they were given a meal and
on Sunday night taken to the station again. The following morning they
were sent to Juarez and expelled from the Mexican territory. There was
no medical attention given them until they arrived at El Paso, where
Dr. Paul Gallagher and Dr. Carpenter treated their throats. They had
never contributed one dollar to Huerta. No crime was charged against
them."

IV.

The Persecution of the Sisters.

Sincerely do I wish that this chapter could be left out of my record.
I never approached a task with more reluctance of soul than the one
which faces me now. It is abhorrent to even think that men could be so
low and bestial as to touch, with unholy hands, the pure women who
have dedicated their lives to God and to God's poor; and who have
consecrated their white souls to the virginity made forever blessed by the
Virgin Mother of our Redeemer. But the story must be told, and, since
it must, let a Sister from Mexico who saw with her own eyes the conse-
quences of the unbridled lust let loose by the revolutionists, tell it in her
own way. Her statement was sworn to in the most solemn manner before
an American archbishop, and in my presence. Signatures are attested
by an ecclesiastical notary under the official seal of the diocese. I use
nearly all of the document. What follows is translated from the original
Spanish :

" The sad and lamentable situation of our Mexican Republic compels
me to state under oath the conditions which exist in Mexico as a result
of the diabolical persecution of the Catholic Church.

" Our temples are closed and our churches profaned. On our altars
the Holy Sacrifice is no longer offered. Our confessionals have been
burned in the public squares and there is hardly one that dares to approach
the Sacrament of Penance, even in the most remote corner of a home.
The Immaculate Lamb no longer comes to aid our souls, and the priest
who dares offer the Holy Sacrifice is sentenced to death. Homes are
desolated, mothers cry over the death of their sons, husbands are torn
from their families for service with the troops, while their children weep
at bidding their father the last farewell. Our priests are persecuted.
They wander along the road without anything to eat. Prelates have been
forced to abandon us and it seems that God Himself has hidden. Church
bells no longer ring. The blood of our brothers runs in the streets. Nuns
are taken to the barracks and their virginity attacked.

" It appears as if hell had unchained itself and devils had taken pos-
session of men to harm their brothers. Anarchy and revenge have seized
their hearts, and the rich are left in the worst misery.

" Since Don Francisco Madero, in 1910, declared war against Don
Porfirio Diaz to this date, we have not had a moment of peace, and fol-
lowing Madero's example, many others have arisen in arms to attack the
Catholic Church on all sides — some worse than others — so that there is
not one single State in the Republic that has not been a victim of horrible
outrages.

36 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

" The revolutionists have closed the temples and prohibited the Sacra-
ments to the degree that any priest daring to hear confession or offer the
Holy Sacrifice is shot. Confessionals and some of the statues of the
Saints have been burned in the public squares, accompanied by music
and improper speeches. The churches have been so profaned that some
of the revolutionists have entered them on horseback. Statues were
demolished and relics trampled on. Over the floor the Holy Hosts have
been scattered, and in some instances have been fed to the horses.

" In some churches the Carranzistas have impersonated priests, saying
Mass, and have occupied the confessionals, hearing confessions and dis-
closing what has been told to them. (All of this I have seen with my
own eyes.)

" The most beautiful of the temples in the Republic, the Church of
San Antonio, at Aguascalientes, has been converted into the Legislative
Hall. The Church of San Jose, in Queretaro, is now the public library.
The wonderful convent of the Discalced Carmelites, also in Queretaro,
has been seized, and the Brothers of the Christian Doctrine, who owned a
handsome Lyceum, the approximate total value of which was over
$500,000, lost more than $50,000 spent in repairing it. The colleges of the
Lazarist Fathers, Jesuits, and many others have perished. The property
of the Church has been appropriated and many of the ecclesiastical
archives have been burned. The orders of nuns have been expelled from
the Republic, giving them only a half hour's time to leave, and without
allowing them to take the least piece of wearing apparel. Many religious
have been taken to the barracks and the prison, where their chastity has
been in grave danger. From the Catholic schools the furniture has been
stolen. Immorality has extended to such a degree that not only virginity
has been violated, but nuns have been taken away by force and are being
subjected to the most horrible suffering.

" In Mexico City I have seen with the utmost regret many religious
who have been victims of the unbridled passions of the soldiers. Many I
found bemoaning their misfortune, being about to become mothers, some
in their own homes and others in maternity hospitals. Others have
allowed themselves to be carried away by their misfortune and have given
up all, filled with desperation and shame. They complain against God,
saying that they have been abandoned by Him.

" Religious of various orders have so dressed themselves, and so go
about, as to hide the fact that they are nuns, for fear that the revolu-
tionists may carry them away. Some priests worthy of full credit, have

told me that, in a hospital located in , there are fifty religious that

were taken away by the soldiers, out of which forty-five are about to
become mothers, notwithstanding the fact that they have religious voca-
tions and were bound by vows.

" In the , in Mexico City, are others in this same condition and

others also in the hospital of . In Celaya and Mexico City I have

seen many others that were obliged to join the Red Cross, and under this
pretext were held as slaves, treated by the soldiers as though they were
their own women and not giving any attention to the sick. In a great
many cases young women, after having been compelled to lead this life,
were thrown out into the street, some being killed as though they were
animals.

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 37

" As to the clergy ! What have the ministers of God not suffered ?

Fathers and (at present in the United States) can tell.

They were under sentence of death only because they directed Catholic
labor societies. Many have been shot, and those having any property
have been exiled and their property seized. In Guadalajara the clergy in
its entirety was exiled, having been compelled to leave in box and cattle
cars, their departure being accompanied by a band playing burlesque
music amidst mockery and hooting. Eight days later the religious were
compelled to leave and, thank God, women were brave enough to arm
themselves with stones to use if music was played upon their leaving.

" The clergy in Torreon and Zacatecas were offered for ransom, and
after obtaining $100,000, were compelled to pave the streets. Many were
forced to enlist with the army, while others were shot. Lastly, they were
exiled without being allowed to take any clothing or money.

" The clergy in Queretaro were imprisoned and exceedingly heavy
fines imposed upon them and were later exiled.

" Many Fathers have been in the penitentiary in Mexico City, while
others are at present used as servants. When they are discharged they
must go without clothing — many of them being obliged to dress as
women in order to leave. In some towns they have been locked up
together with bad women and threatened with death if they resisted.

" I have seen used as saddle blankets and ornaments on the horses,
the chasubles, stoles, maniples, girdles, pluvial capes and altar linen;
while women wore the copes, and the corporals were used as handker-
chiefs. The holy vases have been profaned in sundry ways. After
drinking from them, the soldiers used them as night vessels, which they
afterwards threw into the street. In some towns the chalice has been
burned and the Hosts scattered on the floor. Soldiers have sacrilegiously
eaten them and, as before said, they have also been fed to the horses.
Statues were used as targets until they fell to the floor. I have seen
wagonloads of statues that were on their way to be burned ; some I was
fortunate enough to save, by daring to address the chief, telling him that
I would rather be burned before the statue of my Holy Mother. The best
sculptures have been taken away to the museums. The Del Carmen
Church, in Queretaro, was to have been transformed into a dance hall, but
I do not know whether the intended work has been completed. In other
churches the images of Christ have also been shot at.

" On the road from to Mexico City I found seven religious

who asked to be directed to a maternity hospital, claiming not to be
religious, but the fact that they were religious was very evident from
their manner of speaking. They related to me how they were able to
escape from the mountains where the revolutionists had held them. I
tried to console them, but it was useless. They said that they were
already condemned and abandoned by God, and were in such a despairing
condition that they cursed the hour of their profession.

" All these horrible things have compelled me to come to as a

refugee, bringing with me seven religious, of whom I was Prioress, in
order to bring them to safety and away from the personal persecution
that some were subjected to. It is a fact that they were being searched
for by means of photographs, and when found would have been taken
away and killed if they resisted.

38 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

" Our community, the , was located in the city of ,

where I left on July 9 for , in the hopes of making a new home,

bringing with me ten postulants and other religious, to get away from

the danger which threatened them in . I left there other

religious awaiting the results of my new foundation in , who were

to join me later. Only with great difficulty was I able to keep them
together and alive, as their families had lost all their property; conse-
quently their dowries were gone and I had not even a single cent. On
the 27th of July all the Orders were expelled from , including our-
selves, and we were given twenty-four hours' time to leave the country.

" Not having any means, I presented myself to the local military

chief, , begging him to intercede in our favor with Governor

, so that we might be allowed two or three months to look for

funds with which to leave the country. This gentleman told me that he
was a Catholic, and advised me to leave the Republic as soon as possible
if we did not want to suffer the same outrages that many others went
through in other places. He offered me all kinds of guarantees and told
me how to save my nuns from the many dangers that threatened them.

" To this gentleman I also came after having scaled the walls of the
Church of in order to save four sculptures and other altar orna-
ments. In this case I was incurring a fault which was subject to the
death penalty as punishment. Not only was I forgiven for this, but he
gave me a safe conduct to avoid being molested by any one. I take the
liberty of recommending him as a good man. I am very grateful to him.

" On the 28th of August, I returned to to bring the other

religious that remained there, in order that we might leave the Republic

together. Our religious were badly persecuted in and had to be

divided and placed in private homes to avoid their being taken to the
barracks.

" I returned to with my nuns, and on the road I met several

spies who injured us greatly. In a rented house we only had three
rooms for twenty-four religious and novices, and each day I had to go
out in search for bread to eat. They were deprived of hearing Mass and
receiving Communion. God only knows what I suffered to liberate them
from danger and obtain food.

" For twenty-two days I was scarcely able to sleep, fearing that at
any moment the house would be attacked and the nuns stolen. They
were obliged to sleep on the floor of one room after offering to God the
sacrifices of the day.

" Some days I was obliged to change houses as often as three times,
since our hiding-places had been discovered, which fact the officer (my
friend) would tell me. The spies denounced us again. I was compelled

to leave with seven for the , and beg of foreign prelates that they

permit me to make a new home, where I could safely place the other
religious that I had under my charge, and who are at present hiding in
the city of , Mexico.

" I leave to God the fulfillment of His holy will and, in the meantime,
pray Him to remedy the troubles of the Mexican Republic and preserve
the President of the United States of America, so that he may stop the
numerous calamities that have fallen upon the Mexican Church."

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 39

Names of persons and places which might identify the Sister Superior
who wrote the above statement, or her friends, have been eliminated for
reasons already given; but, in this case especially, because some of the
Sisters have not yet escaped, and the devoted Superior, supplied with the
necessary money by The Catholic Church Extension Society, has returned
to Mexico to find them and bring them to a place of safety.

No further comment on this sworn statement is necessary.

If any doubt remains as to the certainty of these abominable out-
rages, the following, which is a sworn statement before a notary, by one
of the most prominent parish priests of Mexico City, ought to put it
to rest : " The stories regarding outrages against Sisters are so common
in the City of Mexico that they are believed by all. I have never heard a
denial even by those whose interest it would be to disprove them. The
common information is to the effect that many Sisters are pregnant, and
others suffering from loathsome diseases, because of assaults upon them
by revolutionary soldiers."

Another sworn statement, for the publication of which full permis-
sion was given by the person making it, testifies to the same effect. The
part of the statement which concerns the outrages is as follows :

" I have it on the authority of Dr. (no permission to publish

this name, as the doctor is still in Mexico), physician in the street called

in , Mexico, that in his own private house there were

seventeen Sisters who had been outraged by revolutionists, and were in
a pregnant condition. I also know that other Sisters in the same condition

were in the Asylum of Mexico City."

(Signed) N. Corona.
" State of Texas, |

" County of Galveston. )

Sworn to and subscribed before me on this 24th day of October, 1914.

(Signed) H. Rebaud,
[seal] Notary Public for Galveston County, Texas.

On the same day the following sworn statement was given me :

" I know that one month ago, to my certain knowledge. Sisters out-
raged by revolutionists and in a pregnant condition were in the

Asylum of Mexico City. This house is in charge of Miss ,

(Street ) . The stories of the outrages on Sisters are so

commonly spoken of in Mexico City as to vanquish all thought of their
not having occurred. Naturally, the names of the Sisters, and the
houses they are in, were kept as secret as possible, in view of the future
of the poor, unfortunate victims themselves.

Superior of Church,

" State of Texas, 1

" County of Galveston. )

40 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 24th day of October, 1914.

(Signed) H. Rebaud,
[seal] Notary Public for Galveston County, Texas.

The next statement is signed by the Superior-General of one of the
large teaching orders of Mexico. The good reputation and high character
of the Superior-General is attested by two archbishops, who in witness
thereto have signed the original document, which is in my possession :

" Having been requested to inform you of my knowledge regarding
the outrages suffered by the religious in Mexico at the hands of the
revolutionists, I can truthfully give the following information:

" * While the Mother Superior of of Sisters of ,

was in Mexico during the month of June last, and having heard that
there had arrived a number of religious that had been outraged, filled
with indignation and pain, she asked permission of the Mother-
General to investigate the whereabouts of these religious, in the hope of
offering them refuge and taking care of them, if it were possible. Her

first efforts were directed to the Hospital, where it was stated

these religious would be found. Upon calling there, she was informed
of the veracity of these charges, but was advised that the nuns had

already been transferred to the religious' house of . Finding that

they were already being taken care of, she made no further inquiries in
this direction, in view of the fact that it was very painful and mortifying
to all.'

•^

The following is an extract from a letter dated, " Mexico City, Octo-
ber 25, 1914." Original is in the hands of a gentleman in San Antonio,
Texas :

" Concerning the subject you speak of in your letter (the outrages), I
can tell you that, only three months ago, a lady asked me to receive in my
sanitarium three nuns from Durango who were in the said condition."

Here is a translation from the columns of El Presente, a Mexican
paper published in the Spanish language at San Antonio, Texas. The
date of the issue from which the article is taken is November 7, 1914.

" But let us not mislead ourselves. We said that the revolution com-
pletely ignored the manly virtue of respect towards women, and the irre-
futable evidence is at hand. Even if some of our readers who are not
accustomed to read in print of certain criminal deeds, it is necessary to
state that the Constitutionalist horde not only devoted themselves to
stealing, murdering and incendiarism, but, worst of all, are the violators
of unfortunate women and are guilty of all kinds of wrongs and indig-
nities. In every city, in every town, and in every country place, they
have left the ravages of their visit. While we could specifically give

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 41

(•
names, places and date6, we will not do so for fear of being considered
chroniclers of dishonor and lost virginity.

" Yet there is still more. The Mexican revolutionists have committed
the greatest crime that could be committed, the one that can hardly be
conceived by any civilized people of the present day. We refer to the
infamous and monstrous outrages upon the nuns in Mexico."

The refinement of deviltry could scarcely surpass what the following
from signed statement of a Vicar-General, the original of which is in my
possession, narrates : ,

"A priest of the same diocese ( ) was locked in a room with

a woman of evil repute. Then they (the revolutionists) calumniated him,
and gave him a mock trial before a " Council of War," and sentenced him
to be burned to death. They did not carry this sentence out, but the
priest became mad. He lost his reason for three days. Then they
brought him to and let him go free."

Why did they not finish their work? A ruined reputation is not pre-
ferable to a martyr's crown.

This letter comes from Toluca. I have the original, which was
written by the daughter of a respectable family of that city, a lady who
had devoted herself to charitable works. It was addressed to her pastor,
who was then and still is in exile in the United States :

" I am going to ask you a question. If one should fall into the hands

of — (revolutionists), would it not be preferable to end one's life

than to suffer their usual outrages ? I did not think that this would ever
come, and therefore never made this inquiry before, but the situation
seems very probable now. Had we not full confidence in our good God,
I believe we would perish. What we expected did not happen, but what
we never imagined took place. There is a feeling of pain, fear, indigna-
tion and shame in the face of so many horrible things."

Should she commit suicide rather than suffer what others suffered?
God of Heaven! and this is the twentieth century of the Christian dis-
pensation, but Christians remain unmoved.

To these I add a sworn statement, already published in America,
addressed to the Hon. William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State, and
which is, therefore, to be found in the archives of the State Department
at Washington :

(COPY)

Washington, D. C, October 8, 1914.
To His Excellency, The Hon. W. J. Bryan, Secretary of State:

Sir, — On July 22 last I had the honor of addressing your Excellency

42 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

on the subject of the persecution of the Catholics in Mexico as prac-
ticed by the revolutionary parties now in power in that country.

The Third Assistant Secretary of State, under date of July 24,
acknowledged receipt of my letter.

Since then I have made the acquaintance of the Rev. R. H. Tierney,
editor of the Catholic paper America, published in New York City, who
writes me that he visited you concerning this subject, and that your
Excellency wished to hear me on the same matter. I have thought it
well, therefore, to note down for your convenience the principal points,
and I wish to say that I have written down nothing of which I am not
fully aware and can vouch for personally. I have lived in Mexico twenty-
three years, am a German by birth, by religion a Lutheran, and am sixty
years of age.

I know of Catholic clergymen, who under pain of death were forced
to sweep the streets of a city and do menial work for common, illiterate
soldiers.

Of a bishop, seventy years old, deported to the penal colony on the
Pacific Coast.

Of several priests in the Monterey penitentiary as late as August 30,
last.

Of a parish priest, eighty years old, so tortured that he lost his reason.

Of many deported to Texas, both Mexicans and foreigners.

Of priests and sisters tortured by hanging and strangling.

Of a priest in hiding who was enticed out to confess a person and
instead was thrown into a dungeon.

Of forty Sisters of Charity who have been violated, of which number
four are known to me, and one of these has become demented.

I have been instrumental in saving six Sisters and seven girl pupils
from the same fate.

Of an Englishman who tried to save the personal effects of these thir-
teen women, being fined $2,000 for the attempt.

Of all the confessionals of the Monterey district churches being piled
in a public square and burned.

Of valuable paintings stolen from churches and supposedly brought
to the United States by filibusters.

Of Constitutionalist soldiers, led by a man who is now Governor of a
State in Mexico, doing on the altar what decency does not permit me to
say.

Of doing the same at another church, into the chalice, and making the
priest drink of it.

Of decrees published by those now Governors of States, prohibiting
the practice of religion, and closing the churches, convents and schools.
I am respectfully your humble servant,

(Signed) Martin Stecker.

117 B Street S. E.
District of Columbia:

Martin Stecker, being first duly sworn, deposes and says that the fore-
going is a true copy of a letter sent by him to the Hon. Wm. J. Bryan,
and that the same is in all substantial particulars a true statement of facts.

Martin Stecker.

THU BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 43

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 28th day of October, 1914.
J Charles M. Birckhead,

Notary Public, D. C.

Decency recuses permission to chronicle more. Even as these state-
ments stand I have hesitated about printing all of them, but if the story
is to be told it must be told as it is. Whatever good is to come out of it
for the poor refugees, and the almost destroyed church in Mexico, will
come only when a fair-minded and just people have the truth.

How do you like it? Put your own religious teachers and pastors in
the same place and judge.

V.

YUCATAN.

The case of Yucatan is one of the saddest in the history of the Mex-
ican persecutions. Not because the people and the Church were treated
more severely than in other places, but because Yucatan had not been in
rebellion at all, and had kept the peace. The citizens of the State simply
accepted conditions as they were. The people of Yucatan are a very quiet
and industrious people. They ask for nothing better than such quiet and
industry. Stories published some years ago by an American magazine
concerning " barbarities " in Yucatan were bitterly resented by the people.
No section of Mexico has had more prosperity, considering everything,
than the State of Yucatan. The fact that the people did not take up arms
is perhaps one of the most eloquent testimonies that could be given as to
the satisfactory condition of the State.

The great industry of Yucatan is the growing of hemp. The country
could, if the people so desired, grow a great many other things, but the
hemp industry is very profitable. Most of it is sold in the United States
or through American merchants. The port of the state is called Pro-
gresso. It is the Mexican terminus of the Ward Line steamers from
New York. The city of Merida, the capital, as well as the state, is rich
in antiquities connected with the history of Mexico. Excavations have
been made which have resulted in rich archaeological treasures. One of
the greatest archaeologists was the former Archbishop of Merida, a native
Mexican, by birth of Indian blood. He was one of Mexico's most
learned men and did in the South what Archbishop Plancarte was doing
in the North. He had published valuable works which attracted the atten-
tion of scientists everywhere. The present Archbishop of Yucatan is a
native Mexican of German descent, a man of very great ability and a wise
administrator. He has made a decided mark on the Church in his diocese,
and is loved and revered by his people.

Although Yucatan was, as I already said, peaceful and industrious,
and although it was taken over by the revolutionists without fighting,
nevertheless the first effort made was to bleed the people. As soon as the
Constitutionalist Governor Avila took command, a " loan " of $8,000,000
was imposed upon the hemp growers. The decree calling for this robbery
was printed in La Revista de Yucatan on September 29, 1914. The decree

44

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 45

gives, as a reason for the impost, that the northern section of Mexico
suffered great dangers ; that its fields were made barren and its cattle
destroyed, so as to make it impossible to contribute in a financial way
" to the complete reestablishment of order." The decree goes on to
say that " the State of Yucatan has been the only one not suffering the
consequences of a civil war, and able to preserve all its fountains of
wealth, which are in full production." The impost of $8,000,000 was made
on all the inhabitants of the State who have a capital of $100,000 or more.
The '* loan " was compulsory and individuals subject to it were obliged
to pay within five days.

Before issuing this decree, and also before the expulsion of the clergy
and the closing of the churches, the Constitutionalists took good care to
disarm the people. Not a gun was left in Yucatan. Resistance was im-
possible. This was only following the plans already put into force in
other states. The Constitutionalists imposed their will in the name of
the people, whether the people wanted it or not. Robbery under these
circumstances is easy. One can not object too strenuously when the
robber has a gun and the victim is weaponless.

The condition of the hemp growers was, however, not so favorable
as the decree intimated. It was not easy for them to raise $8,000,000 in
five days, with the consequences of war in other states and in Europe
upon the country. They complained very bitterly, mentioning their busi-
ness debts. If they could not pay these, they would be ruined. The
paying of the Constitutionalist impost meant paralyzing the industries of
Yucatan.

But there is a side light also to be thrown upon the difficulty —
currency. While Yucatan had more coin than perhaps any other section
of Mexico, yet the coin had constantly been withdrawn from circulation.
The people were hoarding it, because they knew very well that every
effort was being made by the revolutionists to get all the coin of the
country into their hands. Instead of coin the revolutionists had issued
paper money. The paper money of Carranza and Villa was practically
worthless, and even the paper issued by the Mexican banks was, while I
was in Texas, valued only at about 16 cents on the dollar. Americans
bought it at 16 cents to pay their bills in Mexico where it had to be
taken at face value. Mexican producers were, therefore, being paid at
the rate of 16 cents on the dollar for what they were exporting. To
make matters worse, the Constitutionalists issued a decree obliging all
people having coin or bank notes, to put them in circulation, or be pun-
ished severely. It will be remembered that more than one Mexican
*' patriot " decamped with considerable money. He always took his money

46 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

out in coin or transferred it to Europe. There is a good reason why
the present " patriots " should force the Mexican people to put their coin
in circulation and accept paper instead. The effect on the currency and
on business of such a move can easily be imagined. The position of the
planters of Yucatan was an unenviable one.

However, the Governor was willing to relieve the situation as far as
he could, but not to the extent of giving up the " loan." He relieved it by
declaring that for six months the planters should not he obliged to pay
any other debts. He intended putting on another " loan " of from
$3,000,000 to $4,000,000 and hitting the smaller planters with it ; so it
was declared in another decree that no one in Yucatan should be obliged
to pay his business debts for a period of six months. There was then no
excuse for the planters. The Constitutionalist government was their
only debtor — for six months ; but after that time they would have to
pay the other debts in the face of hard times and a debased currency.
There was no recourse, for the guns were aimed at them. One planter's
share was $400,000. A little more " liberty " of this kind in Yucatan
and the industries of the state would be no more.

Then the Constitutionalists tackled the Church, but it was necessary
now to take a further measure of precaution, so the Governor issued
Decree No. 18, which " under authority vested in him by the First Chief
of the Constitutionalist Army," considered : " that the government
should aim to purify all social elements, in order to prepare for a vigorous
revival of constitutional government — considering, secondly, that as the
national press is amongst these elements it must have immediate attention,
as up to the present time, editors have in their profession lacked the
necessary social guarantee." (What this means, of course, was known
only to the government. Editors have never been considered social
beings by their contributors ; and the Governor of Yucatan had become
quite a contributor to the press, with decrees at least.) So the Governor
ordered that on the very next day all newspapers in the state should
cease publication. And further, " that before resuming publication they
would have to apply to the Governor for a permit, setting forth qualifica-
tions and proofs of honesty, morality and capacity to direct such a pub-
lication." The Governor offered to give such permits " to those who in
his opinion possessed the necessary qualifications."

The editors had to have their honesty passed upon by the greatest
set of thieves that ever operated in the Republic of Mexico; their
morality passed upon by the representatives of the most bestial soldiery
that ever inflicted themselves upon a peaceful populace. The liberty of
the press went out by the scratch of a governor's pen. Yet this is the
government in which we Americans place our hopes for peace in Mexico.

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 47

Only last week I read a laudatory editorial on Carranza in one of the
most prominent American dailies. I wonder how the writer of the
editorial would enjoy having his hero pass upon his honesty and morality.

All means of defense gone, and the press muzzled, then came the
destruction of the Church. Archbishop and priests were exiled. The
foreign priests, of course, went first. All residing in the State of Yucatan
for less than thirty years had to go within five days' time. Sixty-five
arrived in Cuba penniless. If they did not go peacefully, violence was
threatened. They had already resorted to violence in Campeche. So th»
clergy were expelled as " pernicious foreigners," but not without protest.
The ladies of Yucatan took up their cause and forwarded the following
to the governor :

"' To the Honorable Governor:

" We have come to intercede on behalf of those who have lived on
the Yucatan soil, loving it as their own, dividing the sorrows and happi-
ness of our land with us, with no other end than to propagate the doctrine
of love, peace and mercy ; with no other idea than to give consolation to
the fallen, courage to the harassed and hope to the despairing; with no
other arms of defense than the image of Him who ordered us to love
one another as brothers ; with no other politics than planting seeds of
goodness, charity and the fulfilment of our duty; and with no other
defense or shelter than faith in our laws and the guarantees of the
Yucatan land as a mother to all living on her soil. Those men to-day,
against whom no shade of wrong can be found in Yucatan or anywhere
else, in whose lives society has never found the least flaw, are cruelly
expelled from this land without any wrong-doing, but solely for political
reasons to which they are entirely foreign. Our spirit can not conciliate
this with the points of liberty and democracy stated in the Constitution.
Those for whom we ask justice have had no part in the battles that have
stained with blood our country and filled our homes with sorrow and
pain. Here in Yucatan we do not and can not understand the danger
that would compel the exiling of the priests, as from these priests that
are to-day exiled we have only received lessons of piety, beneficial deeds
and a public education. We desire for our children, for our brothers, and
for all the sons of this Yucatan soil who want to keep their beliefs and
their ideals as their richest social inheritance, the Christian education
which is the most becoming for the safeguarding of dignity and nobility
of life. You, Senor Governor, no doubt retain amongst your most pleas-
ing remembrances those of your school days, and from which you have
unquestionably found much consolation more than once. Therefore,
Sir, we dare invoke the sweet, maternal love that, even after death, lives
in your mind as a benediction from the regions of eternity, and are,
therefore, sending to you our manifestation of pain and respectful sup-
plication against the expulsion of foreign priests. We ask in the name
of all Yucatan, in the name of all that live and love our land, and in the
name of the blessed woman to whom you gave the sweet title of ' mother/

48 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

and who from Heaven joins us in our request, that you do not consent
to close the Yucatan soil to those priests, and that they may not receive
as compensation for their labors for good and peace, the bitterness of
exile. We ask that you do this for our people in the same spirit as if
you were placing the case before your own father, and as if you wanted
to deed a title of just pride to your son."

" Requested in Merida on the 5th of the month of October, 1914."
The above document will be interesting to those who assert that these
expulsions of clergymen were desired by the people. It is at once a
testimony to the priests themselves, to the religious character of the people
of Yucatan and to the efficiency of the Church in that State.

The appeal to the " liberties " guaranteed under the Constitution is
certainly appropriate, when made to a Constitutionalist Governor; but
not timely, for Villareal said : '' We want to get along awhile without
our Constitution."

I have set down this story of Yucatan, not as a solitary example of
overriding the laws and the Constitution of Mexico, but simply as an
example of the peaceful actions of the Constitutionalists. It is true that
the Governor of Yucatan did not murder any priests, nor did his soldiers
outrage any Sisters, but he murdered the free press and outraged the
laws. Yet we Americans expect that from such actions will come peace,
tranquillity, and the revival of industry to the Republic of Mexico.

VI.

THE CAMPAIGN OF CALUMNY.

I

General Antonio I. Villareal was the president of the Constitutionalist
convention at Aguascalientes. This convention was called for the purpose
of bringing peace to Mexico. Its keynote was supposed to be conciliation.
It began with a declaration of war against the Church, and ended with a
declaration of war against the chief of the Revolution. It has plunged
Mexico once more into a bath of blood. Villa is in arms against Carranza.
They are flinging charges at one another ; and, incidentally, proving from
their own mouths the charges that I make in this book. In the manifesto
of General Villa against his rival, an original copy of which is in my
possession, he charges his superior with having " interfered with liberty
of conscience by the persecution of the Church; of having permitted
governors to suppress religion, of imposing penalties on religious prac-
tices authorized by law, of outraging profoundly the religious feelings of
the people through acts condemned by civilization and the rights of
nations."

►^

Carranza's answer is interesting. He says :

*' If General Villa were capable of weighing the meaning of what
they wrote for him to sign, he would not have put himself in such an
unseemly situation by formulating the charges against me, because it was
he himself who exaggerated this just resentment of the Constitutionalist
party against the members of the Catholic clergy for sustaining the dic-
tatorship. He went so far as to cause real alarm or indignation among
all classes of society.

" The fact is that General Villa, who now seeks an agreement with
the clergy by showing himself so respectful toward religion and religious
practices, did, in every place he occupied during the campaign, expel the
priests, close the churches, and forbid religious exercises. And in Zaca-
tecas his anti-religious fanaticism reached a climax which contrasts
greatly with his present Christian meekness. He expelled eleven priests
of different nationalities, of whom three were French, and of these no one
yet knows their resting-place.

" It is high time to recall to General Villa in this regard the hearty con-
gratulation which he sent to General Antonio I. Villareal, Governor of
Nueva Leon, when the latter published a decree in which he restricted

49

50 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

religious exercises and forbade Confession. The following is the text of
the congratulatory message :

" ' Chihuahua^ July 29.
" ' General Antonio I. Villareal, — I congratulate you heartily and
enthusiastically on your decree imposing restrictions on the clergy in the
State over which you worthily rule. And already I am hastening to
follow your wise example, because, like yourself, I think that one of the
greatest enemies of our progress and liberties has been the corrupt clergy
who have so long ruled in our country. I salute you affectionately.

" ' General-in-Chief Francisco Villa.' "

This effort on the part of General Carranza to shift the blame for
outrages against liberty of conscience guaranteed by the Constitution
weakens when it is understood that at no time before the rupture of the
relations of the two leaders was General Villa anything but a subordinate
of General Carranza. The latter claimed the title and rights of " First
Chief," quarreled with the Aguascalientes Convention for daring to
suggest that it was more powerful than he, and quarreled with Villa
himself when he gave his allegiance to that body. On the other hand,
after the Battle of Torreon, when Villa was certainly at the height of his
power and all looked for him to proclaim his attitude and take the
leadership, he gave out a statement, which was published in all the
American and Mexican papers, acknowledging his position of inferiority
to that of Carranza, hailing him as his Chief, and proclaiming his loyalty
to him. This declaration Carranza accepted.

All this makes very plain the fact that General Carranza was the man
who directed the policy of the Revolutionists ; who was behind him makes
little difference. It is certain that General Villa was not. He was acting
under the orders, or according to the known policy of the First Chief.
The responsibility rests with General Carranza.

It is not without significance that the moment General Villa broke with
his Chief, his policy toward religion changed ; and it was he who launched
the charges of persecution and invasion of the rights of conscience against
his former superior. Villa's name, it is true, appears in the accounts of
the torturing of priests, but Villa's own actions were few. His officers,
especially Colonel Fierro, seemed to take the actual work out of his hands.
Much was done in Villa's name of which he probably knew very little.
His account was bad enough. How much did certain officers add to it
without his authority or with the certainty that he could not interfere?
Villa's later actions do not agree with his former ones ; while Carranza
began as a persecutor at Durango and persecutes still in the State of
Vera Cruz. ,

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 51

This same Antonio I. Villareal, to whom General Carranza referred
above, is, I believe, the man upon whom the chief responsibility for the
persecutions rests. It was he who opened the convention of Aguas-
calientes with an attack upon the Church, from which I take the following :

" One of our main objects should be to annihilate our enemy, so that
he may be absolutely dead. . . . Our Constitution prohibits confisca-
tion; therefore we want to live a little time without our Constitution.
. . . We must tear from the enemy the foundations upon which a new
revolution may be builded. We must tear from him his properties. We
must make him impotent, as an enemy without gold is an enemy at whom
we may laugh. Our enemy is privilege, the privilege maintained from
the pulpit through the services of the entire Christian clergy. . . .
We must tear away the wealth of the powerful and must also comply
with the Laws of Reform, which refer to the wealth of the clergy. In
the same manner that the Laws of Reform nationalize the property of
the clergy, we must nationalize the property of privilege for the welfare
of this Republic. It has been done. . . . From the clergy we must
tear the property which they acquired under the conciliatory policy of
General Diaz. They have a right to use the temples consecrated to
religion, but no right to own, as they do, convents and beautiful buildings,
all of which the priests call 'educational property,' but are nothing else
than foundations of perversion for children's minds.

" The Revolution should not attempt anything against liberty of
conscience or liberty of worship. During the period of activity it was
just and it has been done. It was in order to punish the clergy that
associated with Huerta and the Catholics that furnished him money ; but
past that period, we should, like good Liberals, respect all worship, but
never allow our children to be poisoned. It is better to prohibit the
teachings of the clergy than religion. Let them continue to preach, but
prohibit their teaching-rights."

From this speech, which was received with great applause by the con-
vention, some things stand out very strongly. First, that the Constitu-
tionalists do not want the Constitution until they have finished robbing,
raping and murdering. No one can read anything else out of the
discourse. Second, after they have taken all they can get, and have com-
mitted all the atrocities in the calendar of crimes, then they want to sit
down for a period of merited rest, with the money they have gathered,
and ask the Republic to give them and their ill-gotten gains the protection
of the law. Third, they desire to take away from the Church every-
thing but the use of the church buildings ; that is, such of them as have
not, at that time, been turned to other uses. This, of course, means

62 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

liberty of conscience and worship ; but the clergy must not do any more
than pray in the churches. They will not he permitted to teach, to
administer the Sacraments, to attend the dying, or, in fact, carry out their
ministry in any way except by prayer.

How would the Protestants of the United States like to be in this
condition? Supposing the shoe were on the other foot, would it pinch?
And yet a great many of our Protestant fellow-citizens hope for great
things in Mexico from the Constitutionalist regime.

It is interesting to ask how the clergy are supposed to live under these
circumstances. According to Constitutionalist decrees, copies of which
I have, they are forbidden to ask offerings or tithes. Now, all offerings
and tithes for the support of religion in Mexico have been free-will
offerings. No one has been taxed for the Church. No one has been
forced to pay anything. In some sections of the Republic the old tithe
custom has been kept up by the people themselves; in other sections
religion is supported only through offerings at baptism, marriages and
funerals; but these, too, are forbidden, and forbidden under severest
penalties. So liberty of worship in Mexico is to consist of this: The
clergy can not teach, therefore can not train candidates for the priest-
hood in seminaries. That disposes of the question of having priests ;
there can be none. It might be said that the deficiency can be made up
from other countries ; but a foreign clergy is prohibited in Mexico, and
all the foreign clergy have already been expelled. The clergy has the full
right and permission to pray, when it is provided that there will be no
clergy at all to offer the prayers. Again, those priests who remain may not
take up collections, may not receive offerings when people are accustomed
to make them, may not live by their labor of love at all. In fear lest some
of them could make a living otherwise, the law is to be enforced that they
may not have investments, and may not even leave their family legacies
to the upkeep of religion. This is " liberty of conscience." This is '' free-
dom of worship." This is " democratic government." With this program
the Constitutionalists come before the American people to ask for sym-
pathy and assistance ; and have had it.

How would this affect the Protestant missionaries in Mexico? They
want it because they desire the destruction of the Catholic Church. Are
they going to live within the law, or stand up against the law ? They will,
of course, live within the law ; but if foreign priests are not allowed,
foreign ministers can not be allowed either. If they are, the law is
violated. If they violate the law and live in Mexico, how about their

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 53

teaching ? How about the many existing Protestant schools and colleges ?
Will an exception be made in favor of these? If so, Protestants will be
demanding the special privileges against which General Villareal shouts.
If Protestants build churches, will not these also be confiscated? But,
above all, what of the future? The aim of all Protestant missionary
activity is to found Protestantism permanently. Missions call for begin-
nings only. The day is looked forward to when the output from the
missionary treasury will cease, and the converts support their own
church. The missions are then said to be on a '* self-supporting basis."
Donors to missions in the United States are encouraged with the hope that
many of their missions will soon be in that condition. Very well ; how
soon will the Mexican Protestant missions arrive at that happy state
under these laws, if the people may not give to the support of their work,
even after it has been established? In their mad desire to kill off the
Catholic Church, are not many of these reverend " generals " and
" colonels " kiUing the goose that laid the golden Qgg for them ? But what
need they care? They no longer need the goose.

How does it come that General Villareal can utter such sentiments —
utter them with impunity — and even win applause ? It has come about
because of a campaign of calumny, the most outrageous that has ever
occurred in the history of the world. It is perfectly true that isolated
examples can be found everywhere of priests who have been unfaithful
to their holy obligations, as of ministers who have been anything
but examples to their flocks; but that is only weak human nature
occasionally showing itself. The overwhelming majority of the clergy of
Mexico have been faithful, both to their vows and to their duties. Even
Senor Zubaran, who attempted to reply to Cardinal O'Connell, acknowl-
edges this of the rank and file of the country priests; but the most
exemplary priests in Mexico are the hard-working priests of the populous
city parishes ; and the most pious of all have been the religious who were
thrown out in a body. The most abominable stories have been circulated
among the people of irregularities of the clergy, not forgetting even to
slander individuals. For example, recently they sent through every
Mexican paper accusations of rape against Father Vincente Latorre. His
victim was supposed to be Miss Josefina Pimentel, and the priest was
supposed to be in prison for his crime. The American-Mexican paper,
El Presente, had the following about this charge in its issue of November
7,1914:

" We have taken pains to investigate this, and information shows that
it is untrue. Accusations of all kinds directed to the clergy in Mexico are

54 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

all too frequent, and, for reasons or pretext always unfounded, the Car-
ranzistas have exiled them. Let us not forget the accusation made of
finding arms and ammunition in the temple of Santo Domingo, which was
found to be a great untruth and which the Carranzistas themselves had to
correct.

*' This is not a religious organ, nor have we any political agreement
with the Church, but we aim to be defenders of truth and justice, and,
therefore, believe the action of our colleagues a little hasty in accepting
scandalous and untrue reports such as these.

"As regards Miss Pimentel, we are assured that she is not known in
Mexico."

The editor states the truth. When the churches were looted, stories
were given out that arms were found in them, skeletons of murdered
people and skeletons of babies. No one in Mexico believes these stories
except the ignorant ; but they serve their purpose. Most of them are for
American consumption, and American consumption only.

What are the facts regarding the condition of the Catholic Church in
Mexico? Perhaps the best answer is the letter already quoted from the
ladies of Yucatan. Read it over again ; it is enlightening. Then add to
it the following, which is the translation of a signed statement made to
me, and now in my possession, by a lawyer from Mexico, a writer of
distinction and note:

" I had not written to you, according to my promise, because I was
awaiting the confirmation of some very important news from Mexico
relating to a fact which fully corroborates an opinion of mine. •

" This news has just been confirmed by my wife, who received it from

the Superior of the of Mexico City, who heard it from his

confreres in Morelia.

" This city (Morelia) is the capital of Michoacan, a very rich and pop-
ulous State (having more than one million inhabitants, and unequaled for
agriculture and mining) . It has for many years been noted for its fervent
and solid piety.

*' Gertrudis Sanchez, who took part in Madero's revolution, a coarse
and irreligious man, ordered the expulsion of the Salesians of Don Bosco
and the confiscation of their college. (I must tell you, by the way, that
I am proud to have had the honor of materially aiding in the foundation
of this useful establishment.)

'' I forgot to tell you that this Sanchez, by the will and grace of Car-
ranza, is now Governor of the State.

" The Salesians are greatly liked by the people, who uprose to defend
them, armed with guns, clubs, stones, whatever was at hand, and so

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 55

intimidated the officials that they revoked the order, and for a few days
left the poor exiles unmolested.

'* But Sanchez, who had gone to Mexico City after this, and there held
conference with Carranza, drinking courage at that fountain, on his
return to Morelia, convoked, at night and by stealth, not only the
Salesians, but the entire clergy, to whom he gave notice of expulsion,
giving as a reason, of course, that they were making fanatics of the
people.

" But the courageous population was ready, and several thousand men
gathered in front of the Governor's palace. (Bear in mind that the city's
population is 50,000.) All were armed as well as they could, all were
prepared to fight and die, and when the Governor, trembling with rage
(I do not say fear, for he is no coward), came out on the balcony and
tried with fair words to calm the just riot, nothing could be heard but a
shout from thousands of throats : ' Robber ! outlaw ! Godless wretch !
Either leave our priests in peace or we will destroy your palace !'

" I believe that the soldiers of Sanchez sympathized with the people,
for he himself, soulless as he is, made no attempt at resistance. On the
contrary, he underwent the humiliation of having to revoke the decree,
which had been orally given. The priests were carried in triumph to their
houses by their brave deliverers, who have sworn never to permit such a
savage and sacrilegious treatment of their clergy.

*' The Carranzista papers said not a word about this, which occurred
during this very month of October (the second uprising was on the 17th) ;
but the fact is notorious, and will serve as a lesson to many other cities
just as Catholic as Morelia. And this confirms my idea that a leader
who would proclaim the fullest religious liberty, such as exists in the
United States, and does great honor to that noble country, would have
in his favor the strongest national elements, and the result would neces-
sarily be most favorable, for he would have established a strong, prudent
and patriotic government.

"If the American people would help us in this undertaking they
would permanently cement the Christian alliance of two nations, and
would deserve more glory for having procured freedom for our con-
sciences than they already have for the emancipation of the negro.

" Further commentary is unnecessary. You, honored sir, will readily
understand that I am right.

" You may publish this, if you like, but please do not mention my
name or residence, for my family is still in Mexico, and those in power
there are capable of anything !

" When my family (I do not know when!) will be at a safe distance,
there is no fact to which I will not be ready to attest, and defend in every
way." 44

56 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

But even far more interesting is the statement of a former Governor,
himself a " Liberal." The statement was made before a notary in Texas,
a copy of which is in the hands of His Excellency, the Apostolic Delegate
at Washington, (A certified copy is in my possession.) The Governor
resigned his high office, not because he was in sympathy with Huerta, but
because he objected to Huerta's methods. He left his home for the sake
of his two daughters. He states emphatically that the majority of the
Mexican people are law-abiding and in favor of order. He states also
that : '' The Catholic Church, a few Protestant churches and all the
other religious creeds of Mexico have never taken any part in this revo-
lution." Again : " In order that you may understand that I am not
untruthful and that I am not partial to priests, I will state that in politics
I belong to the Benito Juarez party and I was always recognized as a
member of the Liberal party. I have tried to practice the greatest respect
toward the Catholic religion, and I know for certain that the priests of
my State, after having suffered various vexations, and this without any
motive or reason, have been exiled. We have had the good fortune of
never having heard any scandal on the part of any of our clergy. The
same may be said of the other religious sects. I repeat that never in any
revolution has Mexico witnessed such barbarous excesses as in the present
uprising, and I speak as one having experience, for I witnessed two and I
fought on the side of Juarez. To-day there is no respect for any of the
political divisions, or any religious body in Mexico. To me any man who
is honest has a right to be respected, be he Catholic, Protestant or Jew.
One may think " pro " or *' con " about some ideas, but about stealing
and killing there must be only one opinion.

"As regards the clergy, they have no power, no chance to favor the
rich people rather than the poor. Besides, the greater part of the clergy
in Mexico comes from the poorer classes. Furthermore, the idea of
morality and justice is prevalent in the minds of our priests."

It is charged that the Church has kept the people of Mexico in
ignorance, and that ninety per cent of these people are ignorant. The
answer to this is very easy.

I need only call attention to the fact that the history of the Catholic
Church in Mexico may be divided into only two chapters: one, the
Church under Spanish influence; the other, the Church under the Re-
public. The idea of giving freedom to the Church rarely occurs to the
Latin governmental mind. Its idea of the separation of Church and
State never admits the possibility of the Church being free within the free
State. The separation laws of France clearly show what I mean. Under
the pretext of separation, a plan was introduced which, if accepted, would

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 57

have utterly destroyed the Church. The Latin statesman, when hungry,
wants a chance to take a bite out of the Qiurch. Nothing else will satisfy
him. Under Spanish rule the Church had often to be used as far as
possible to develop Spanish power. Later the Government seized
churches, religious institutions and church property. It gave back the
church buildings and some of the institutions, but on condition that it
could keep the property and in reparation pay for the upkeep of religion.
It took that burden, therefore, away from the Church, while indirectly
keeping it upon the people. It made itself the gatherer of God's share, so
that it could always keep its hands on the source of supply. It dictated
appointments of bishops and pastors, and said how far the Church could
go in carrying out her teaching mission. Its policy was to send to the
colonies the unworthy clergymen, who were not wanted abroad. Bishops
had no choice but to accept them. It hampered the Church on every side,
and then blamed it for the consequences it had brought upon itself. In
spite of this, the Church Christianized the people. But Spanish laws
were enforced which did not suit the colonies. Nothing could be done
without the consent of the Spanish monarch. Education was hampered ;
but, in spite of this, the Church established schools. The Franciscans
and other missionaries placed schools side by side with their monasteries.
At first the Indians did not go to them, but after a while their opposition
was overcome. In 1524 there was not a single Indian who could read.
Twenty years later, when Bishop Zumarraga wanted a book translated
into the Indian tongue, he mentioned the good it might do, because
" there are so many who know how to read." Pedro de Gante had a
thousand children under his instruction, teaching them religion, music,
singing and Latin. He began a school for grown-up people and founded
another for fine arts and crafts. Some of the schools had as many as
from eight hundred to a thousand pupils. In spite of the difficulties, the
Church did all she could, and the Government as little as possible.

When the Revolution came, and with it the Laws of Reform of
Benito Juarez, an end came also to what little freedom the Church had.
She was despoiled of such possessions as had been left her. She was
forbidden to teach, which means to open schools of any kind, except of
theology. Her ministers even could not dress as clerics. The law of
May 13, 1873, forbade any religious demonstration outside of a church
building, and forbade clergymen or Sisters to dress in any way that would
indicate their calling. The Constitution of 1857 interfered with personal
liberty to the extent of forbidding anybody to enter a religious Order,
and refused religious Orders a legal right to hold property. The law of
July 12, 1859, suppressed religious Orders and religious societies, forbade
the foundation of new congregations, ordered all books, manuscripts.

58 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

prints and antiquities belonging to such Orders to be given up. The law
of February 26 suppressed female communities. The law of July 12,
1859, took away all property from the clergy; but that of February 5,
1861, returned to the Church its parochial residences, bishops' houses,
etc. Then September 25, 1873, saw a new law which forbade any religious
institution to acquire property or the revenue derived from it. The law
of December 14, 1874, struck at the right of the clergy to receive legacies.
The law of July 31, 1859, took away from the clergy the right to manage
or have anything to do with cemeteries. The law of February 2, 1861,
took from the Church her hospitals and charitable institutions, as also
did a law of February 28 of the same year. To make it more certain
that the Church could not be charitable, the law of August 27, 1904,
forbade clergymen to act as directors and administrators, or patrons of
private charities, and extended this decree even to include those delegated
by clergymen. It will clearly be seen that, under the Constitution and
Laws of Reform, the clergy had little power left, and the Church little
chance to uplift the people. A Mexican archbishop has written : '' Not
only was the Church despoiled of her ancient properties and oppressed
by tyrannical laws, but the situation was rendered more difficult later on
by the Law of Public Instruction." However, General Diaz permitted
some educational foundations, seeking his authority under the Law of
Private Beneficence; but under this law, even if the priests themselves
wished to found a work of charity, they had to leave religion out of it.
Yet, in spite of it all, some schools were founded — many, in fact — but
always under the danger of information being laid against their directors
and persecution following. A Mexican bishop, now in exile, told me
that Mexican Catholics who desire to give religious instruction to their
children have to go the length of " seeing " the secular schoolmaster, and
even bribing him not to tell on them. Still, one religious Order had over
four million dollars invested in schools and colleges. The Constitu-
tionalists took it all, but left the mortgages for the Order to pay. Then
they assassinated the professors of Zacatecas, destroyed the libraries, etc.

All these unjust laws are the more to be regretted when it is known that
only the Church can educate or civilize the Indians. With the Indian the
civil power is impotent. The Indian is religious. He may be deceived
into revolution, but it must be deception that brings him into it. Car-
ranza's troops told the Indians that they were fighting against a certain
Mr. Clergyman (Don Clero), and the Indian was always looking for this
tyrant, not knowing that it was the Church the Carranzistas meant. The
suppression of the flourishing missions of the Jesuits and the Franciscans
in the north of Mexico, at the end of the eighteenth century, resulted

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 59

either in the complete extinguishing of these Indians or their return to
barbarism. Within the last few years missions among the Indians started
again ; but now they are destroyed. What must be said of the " patriot-
ism " that, in a country where ninety per cent of the people are illiterate,
destroys, or attempts to destroy, the only power that has shown its ability
to do the work of civilization ? They may advance theories by the bushel,
but there is no theory regarding the work of the Qiurch. A business
man does not desert his true and tried methods of securing business. He
tests his theories before he replaces the old by the new. Mexico, fifty
years ago, embarked in a new venture. The result has been constant
revolution, murder, destruction of property, and crimes which cry to
heaven for vengeance; and now those responsible ask the world to
believe that it is all done in the name of liberty, and that the Church which
their forerunners reduced to impotence is responsible for it.

The revolutionists frankly directed their efforts against the rich as
well as against the clergy. They demanded the forcible impoverishment
of the wealthy class, without due process of law and without compensa-
tion. They have put this into force wherever they could. They have
seized haciendas, forcibly entered homes and drove the owners and their
families on the streets, moving in themselves. Now they insist that the
clergy catered to the rich, and are, therefore, become the enemies of the
poor. They forget that it is the province of the Church to aid and
comfort the poor, and that the only means she has for doing it is her
influence in securing the money for carrying on her work from those
who have it to give. She has, therefore, always in history stood between
the rich and the poor. If this were not her position, how could she
establish her hospitals, schools, orphanages, and a thousand other works
of charity? Even in the United States the cry goes up that the Church (by
which is meant all Christian religious effort) should devote itself more to
philanthropy and less to the cultivation of simple piety. In other words,
the demand is being made that the Church more than ever must devote
herself to securing from the rich the means to alleviate suffering. How
could religion answer that demand if its enemies charge that it caters to
the rich when it begs from them? In Mexico the Constitutionalists not
only kill the Church because they say she does no good, but, on the other
hand, they kill her when she does do good.

•J-
During the Spanish regime in Mexico the Church maintained as
friendly a relation with the State as was possible. If she had not main- ^
tained such relations her voice would never have been heard in court. •
It was the influence of the Church that secured a hearing for Las Casas
against the oppressors of the Indians. To-day in Mexico the Church has

60 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

no influence. A new Las Casas could accomplish nothing; but the
Church has had some influence with property-holders, which was always
used to favor the poor. The only mitigation of the hard lot of some of
the peons was won by the influence of the Church over individuals.

The Constitutionalists insist that the people of Mexico are against the
Church ; yet, when the churches are opened, they are crowded. In more
than one case the persecutors had to stop their fury in fear of an uprising
among the people, who crowded around the exiled priests until the leaders
were terrified. Rut the same leaders took good care in the next place that
the people could not menace them, for they took away their weapons.

The Zapata revolution is a case in point. Zapata has held two States
in a grip of iron. His revolution is popular. His soldiers are the only
ones who show a disposition to work. They have taken up land and
they are cultivating it. A short time ago I met a prominent gentleman,
Mexican, who had gone through the entire length of Zapata's territory
in carriage and on horseback. He scarcely saw a soldier. People were
working in their fields. The Church in Zapata's territory has not been
molested. Churches are open, and one of the bishops, at this writing, is
actually out on his confirmation tour. If the Revolution is a popular
uprising against the Church, why is it that Zapata holds his power
through the popularity of his movement with the people, though he has
made no attack whatever upon the Church and religion? Some excesses
have been committed by Zapatists, it is true, but by the camp-followers.
None of the exiles I met have charged Zapata with responsibility for
them. On the contrary, they warmly defended him, and stated that
when outrages have been committed neither Zapata himself nor the
general run of his people had any responsibility for them. On the other
hand, outrages by Constitutionalists had been fomented by the most
abominable calumnies, and by the leaders themselves. They manu-
factured plots out of whole cloth. " Conspiracies by the clergy," never
even thought of before the troops entered, were announced even before
the Constitutionalists had had time to make an investigation.

The cry in this revolution has been a cry for vengeance against the
assassins of Madero. Carranza himself makes this his rallying cry,
forgetting that he himself was against Madero and intended leading a
revolution against him. The opportunity which arose through Madero's
death did not change his mind about a revolution, but changed the details.
Now he charges the clergy with having cooperated in the assassination of
Madero. His proof is that the clergy recognized Madero's government.
How much truth is there in this statement ?

The revolution which ended in the assassination of Madero lasted ten
days. It came on suddenly and without warning. These days are called

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 61

the " Ten Tragic Days." The outbreak occurred in the City of Mexico,
and was practically confined to that city. If the clergy were in league to
bring about the downfall of Madero, it might be expected that the revo-
lution would have been general. What time did the clergy have to
compass their ends in ten days, and what object could they have had for
bringing about the downfall of the first government in fifty years which
permitted free elections, by means of which the Catholic party, it is
conceded, would have been placed in power? The downfall of Madero
was a blow to the interests of religion. It is perfectly true that the
bishops and clergy recognized the government of Huerta. What else
could they do ? He had been placed in power according to the laws and
Constitution of Mexico. He had been recognized by the Congress, the
Senate, the Supreme Court and the diplomatic corps, including the
American Minister. The Church stands for lawful authority. When
that authority is in power it is the duty of the Church to accept it and
live under it. This is exactly what was done. It is not the business of
the Church to foment revolution. The clergy had no right to put Huerta
on trial. Neither the laws of Mexico nor their own obligation as priests
assigned to them any such duty. The Church wanted peace, and accepted
Huerta as she had accepted Madero. Had she done otherwise, there
might have been a lawful charge against her of fostering rebellion ; but
against the Church the charges will be made anyhow. The hatreds of man
for man are unaccountable enough, but there is a still more unaccountable
hatred of man for God, and all that represents Him.

I have seen a document issued by the Constitutionalist representatives
in New York City, attempting to prove that the Church was playing
politics. The letter is dated July 11, 1913. It is from Archbishop Mora
of Mexico City to Sefior Urrutia. The Archbishop said : " I beg to
assure you once more that all the curates and priests under my jurisdic-
tion, in compliance with their duty, will make every effort, in order to
bring about, as soon as possible, the fulfillment of the aspirations of all
the good people in this Republic, who desire the peace and tranquillity
of the beloved country. I say that they do so in compliance with their
duty, because the Church desires peace and to avoid bloodshed, and that
all cooperate to the ultimate object of society, which is the well-being
of all its members." Is there anything in these words that indicates more
than a desire to work under the existing form of government, with an
object of bringing peace to the country? This is the evidence put forth
by the representatives of the Constitutionalists themselves to justify
murder, exile, imprisonment and unspeakable outrages against the
innocent. What decent court could accept such evidence? Did even

62 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

Robespierre send a single person to the guillotine on such testimony ? If
he did, who wants to be classed with Robespierre ?

Truth is that the Constitutionalists have gone forward without even
a probability of evidence. They have gone forward in the face of a
pastoral letter, issued by a number of bishops in the City of Mexico,
protesting vigorously, while Huerta was still in power, that neither the
Church nor the clergy had mixed up in revolution or in political matters.
As one Mexican archbishop said to me : " These men have adopted the
cry of Voltaire, ' Fling mud ; some of it will stick.' " They fling the mud
in such generous quantities that some of it is bound to stick ; even in the
face of the fact that Huerta himself, whom the Church was supposed to
uphold, gave out a law of oppression concerning ecclesiastical property,
and suppressed Catholic newspapers, among them La Nacion, the organ
of the Catholic party, simply because this party refused him votes. He
exiled its president and persecuted its members ; yet they charge that he
was the candidate of the Catholics themselves.

VII.

OUTSIDE INFLUENCES AGAINST THE CHURCH IN MEXICO.

The assertion that the recent revolution in Mexico was financed and
the revolutionists armed by capitalists in the United States, one meets
constantly and hears on every side. I have never heard it denied, even
in our own country. Americans do not take the trouble to deny what
they believe to be true. With that situation I have nothing at all to do.
As a citizen of the United States I deeply regret it, but my present dis^
cussion concerns chiefly the outrages against religion.

The charge that the Government of the United States directly aided
and abetted the revolutionists I do not entirely believe. I have too high
a regard for President Wilson to concede anything of the kind. I do
believe that he was mistaken; but I also believe that, for the mistake,
biased information and biased investigators were mainly responsible. I
believe that men sent by the President to report facts as they found them
reported visionary dreams of things as they wanted them. I believe it,
too, on the testimony of honorable men, who had more opportunity of
knowing the actual condition of things in Mexico than these strangers,
some of whom could not even speak the language of the country, but who
allowed their own bigotry to taint their judgment. Sefior Frisbie, an
American and the son of General Frisbie, who spent nearly all of his life
in Mexico, informed me that, on a Ward Line boat for New York, he
met the wife of one of these representatives, who was himself on the
boat, returning to report to the President, and that this lady said to him,
not knowing that he was a Catholic, that " the priests and nuns should
be driven out of Mexico." Another of these representatives made similar
statements in Vera Cruz to a gentleman whose letter I have in my posses-
sion. But all that is neither here nor there. It concerns the political
situation, which, so far as this book is concerned, is no affair of mine.

Two outside influences were exerted, and have been exerted for years,
to the injury of the Catholic Church in Mexico. One of these is the
influence of secret societies and the other the influence of a section of
American Protestantism.

Concerning the influence of the first, the following editorial, taken
from the New York Times of November 8, 1914, will be enlightening :

" The reappearance as a threatening factor in Mexican politics of
Scottish Rite Masonry is a phenomenon which merits a word of present

I

64 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

comment. In 1824, with the very beginning of modern Mexico, the two
principal political factions were allied either with the Scottish or York
Rites of Masonry. The Scottish Rite had grown up under Spanish
influence and was all-powerful until our first diplomatic representative in
the young republic, Joel Poinsett of South Carolina, remembered now
chiefly as the botanist who gave his name to the poinsetta, founded the
York Rite purely as a political factor. The lodges of the Yorkinos, who
were much less exclusive than the Escoseses, multiplied rapidly and
exerted all the influence of the various branches of an American political
machine. Of course, Poinsett was not authorized by our Government to
meddle in Mexican politics or to extend the influence of Masonry in
Mexico, and his imprudence eventually led to his recall. But for many
years Masonry exerted a strong factional force throughout the country,
and the sudden reappearance of the Scottish Rite, in a pronunciamento
against the United States Government for not withdrawing the troops
from Vera Cruz without conditions, suggests that Masonry may have been
exerting its influence quietly in the upheavals of the last four years.

"Of course, the historic Masonry of Mexico took on its political
purpose accidentally. The order of Scotch Masons was largely composed
of men of Spanish blood, the aristocracy of the country which had thrown
off the foreign yoke, put its first Emperor to death, and asserted itself as
a self-governed community. They worked together for protection. But
Poinsett's York Grand Lodge was founded deliberately with political
intent and inevitably lent fresh political strength to the older lodge. The
survival or the revival of Masonry as a force in politics in Mexico is
interesting, and may be important. The report that all the signers of the
inflammatory document have been put in jail indicates that the authorities
in Mexico City do not view favorably the intrusion of secret societies in
politics."

I do not, in publishing the above editorial, desire to make charges
against the rank and file of the membership of the American Masonic
body. I am not unaware of the fact that Masonry in the United States is
considered by the great majority of its members as nothing more than a
fraternal or social organization ; but Masons themselves in America have
recognized the fact that the Masonic body all over the world does not
hold the same ideals. It will be remembered that some years ago, a protest
was made by a Masonic body in Canada to the English Grand Master (at
that time the Prince of Wales, who afterward became King Edward
VII.) against the establishment in Montreal of lodges operating under a
charter from the Grand Orient of France. Their objection was based
upon the fact that such lodges were anti-Christian, while Masonry under

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 65

British jurisdiction held belief in God to be a fundamental condition for
membership. Their protest was ineffectual, for the foreign lodges were i
established, and, as a matter of fact, exist to-day. It will also be remem- *
bered that only three or four years ago, when Montreal was preparing
for the great Eucharistic Congress, which would bring to the city Catholic
prelates, priests and laymen from all over the world, and was, as a matter
of fact, the largest convention the city was ever called upon to handle, it
was discovered that one of these foreign lodges deliberately planned to
direct visiting priests to houses of ill-fame instead of to respectable
boarding-houses, and afterward to have the places raided, so as to make
it appear that priests had chosen such residences during their stay at
Montreal. The exposure of the whole plot was made in the public press of
Montreal. If proof is needed that American Masons know that universal
Masonry is something entirely different from their own ideals, it is found
in the acknowledgment of the British and American lodges themselves,
whose members claim openly that they have no affiliation with what we
might call Latin Masonry, which includes the Masonry of Mexico and
South America. I have talked with hundreds of American Masons, and
every one has the same statement to make, that Latin Masons would not
be received in American lodges. However, this statement is not entirely
true, though those who make it believe that it is. Even Latin Masonry is
divided. In Italy, where Latin Masonry is strong, the division exists ;
and the point of difference is the question of political activity and infi-
delity. As an illustration, it may be remembered that when Mr. Theodore |
Roosevelt visited Rome he received representatives of one body of Italian |
Masons, headed by Baron Fava, as brothers. Representatives of the
other had no such recognition. Now, no one for an instant dreams that
Theodore Roosevelt, Mason, would affihate himself with men who aim at
the destruction of order and who deny the existence of God, any more
than any one would believe that William H. Taft, Mason, could do the
same thing. There are numberless American Masons who have not only
been most friendly with their Catholic fellow-citizens, but are even sin-
cere admirers of the Catholic Church. No one believes that these men
have any desire to see her influence destroyed, her charities broken up,
and her children left without religious direction of any kind. We may I
safely absolve the great body of American Masons from the charge of
knowingly injuring the Church in Mexico.

Nevertheless, it is true that, from the great body of American Masons,
some men have been selected who are in sympathy with the irreligious
propaganda of Latin Masonry ; and there is every reason to believe that,
through these men. Masonic influence has wrought injury to religion in
Mexico. How far this has gone no one can tell, but that representatives

66 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

of the United States have fraternized with the Masons in Mexico is
openly charged by the Mexicans themselves. I have a letter from which
this remarkable statement is taken : " When the Masons in Mexico called
on United States Masons to get us out of Vera Cruz, I knew," etc.

What evidence my informant had I do not know. Having been in
Vera Cruz practically from the beginning of American occupation, he
was in a position to learn things that I could not possibly have learned
The point I desire to make is, that American Masons, viewing their society
purely as a fraternal and social organization, can scarcely blame the
Church for objecting when all we know of Masonry, outside of British
and American possessions, is that the fraternity stands before the people
as religion's unqualified and unrelenting enemy, through whose influence
murders, robberies, exilings and worse have been perpetrated, not only
in Mexico, but also in Portugal. It is a recognized fact in both Italy and
France that Masonry stands for irreligion and the total destruction of the
Catholic Church.

In Mexico, though Porfirio Diaz was himself a Mason, yet during his
dictatorship the lodges were greatly reduced in membership. When
Madero came into power there was a campaign for active reorganization.
This campaign sought recruits not only among the middle class, but also
among the workingmen. Before the revolution entered cities, the lodges
fiercely attacked the Catholic religion, through calumnies from press and
platform. Their members served as spies and informers, and even
exposed the hiding-places of the priests and of the sacred vessels. This
is not a guess. It is an admitted fact all over Mexico.

El Liberal, the official organ of Carranza, can be quoted as an authority
upon this point.

It charges that the Church in Mexico wants American intervention,
in spite of the fact that two archbishops have issued letters as patriotic
as any statements ever given out in Mexico, and in spite of the fact that
not one of the churchmen who are refugees here would even consider the
idea of upholding intervention. The Mexican bishops and priests are
Mexicans and patriotic men.

" It is indispensable," says El Liberal, " that to accomplish our deter-
mination a strong call be made to the followers of truth to come to the
line to fight for victory or death, for liberty and fraternity in the temples
consecrated by triumphs and inexplicable abnegations — the lodges.
. . . We Mexican lovers of liberty, equality and fraternity, let us
hasten to join the army of the defense of these ideals. Let us work in
our lodges toward its realization."

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 67

When I charge that a section of American Protestantism has played
an evil part in the Mexican persecution, I do not intend to charge my
Protestant fellow-citizens in general with the crime. There are some
thirty million people in the United States who have allied themselves in
some way with Protestantism. Most of these meet their Catholic fellow-
citizens socially and in a business way every day. They live at peace
with them, and they ask for nothing better than that this condition
continue. They are willing to grant to others the liberty of conscience
which they desire for themselves. They know their Catholic fellow-
citizens. They have confidence in them. Many of their families are allied
with Catholic families by marriage or ties of blood. They contribute to
Catholic charities, and often generously at that. They believe the Catholic •
Church has a mission in the United States, and they look upon the Church
as having given a notable contribution to the peace and prosperity of this
Republic. In American wars they have fought side by side with Catholic
soldiers, as to-day they work side by side with Catholic men and women
in the daily duties of life. It is far from my thought to charge such men
and women with complicity in the outrages perpetrated in Mexico.

Still there is another section, representing the uneducated and bigoted
sectarians among Protestants. Nothing less than the total destruction of
the Catholic Church in America would satisfy them, and to bring about
such a result they would not hesitate at all to revive the iniquities of past
ages, when religion was so bound up with the politics of nations that in
her name thousands were sent to their death. This section has many
papers and magazines devoted to the cause of religious enmity. One of
these papers has a circulation of a million and a half. Decent Protestants
have protested against this situation. They have been horrified at the vile
calumnies these organs of bigotry fling at the Church and her priesthood.
Their protest has been voiced time and again by such men as Dr. ,Wash-
ington Gladden. The secular papers will not print their tirades, but still
they go on with their work. They scatter their infamous libels. They
call the Pope " the Chief of White Slavers." They brand priests as
monsters of iniquity. They declare our religious houses to be dens of
prostitution. They put the mark of shame upon pure and virtuous
Catholic womanhood, a mark which the worst libertine is willing to
declare, from his own experience, to be notoriously undeserved. The
papers printing such libels freely circulate through our mails at second-
class rates. Consequently they are virtually subsidized by the Government |
and Catholics themselves are taxed to uphold them. The Dominion of
Canada has refused permission to circulate such papers through its post-
offices, or even through other carriers. We permit it all in the name of a
free press ; but it is not liberty of the press that we are granting, but the
beginning of unbridled license. j^

68 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

The vile calumnies of these people have been circulated in Mexico.
Their lurid tales have been printed in Spanish, with the intention of
swaying Mexican Catholics from their allegiance to the Church. They
have preached in Mexico through Protestant missionaries that the United
States is a Protestant nation, but Protestant in their own sense ; so that
whatever is done against the Catholic Church surely meets with approval.
A court of the Guardians of Liberty, the bigoted society which has
General Miles for its leader, sent to Villa the following letter :

" Alamo Court, No. 1, Guardians of Liberty of Texas, a patriotic
organization of American citizens, with courts throughout the entire
United States, which has for its purpose the maintaining of the United
States Constitution and the complete separation of Church and State,
desires to express to you, and other patriotic Mexicans, our hearty
approval of your actions and the great good and service you have and are
rendering your people and the country.

" We would especially commend your actions in ridding your country
of the basest of human vultures, the Catholic priesthood. Whenever
women are forced to secretly confess to a man who has never married,
and knows nothing of the sacredness of woman or of home, it is but
natural for immorality to exist, and until this practice is stopped it is
impossible to raise up a liberty-loving, intelligent, patriotic, moral gen-
eration.

" Again assuring you of our appreciation of your invaluable worth to
your country, and trusting thit you may continue your good work until
the people of your country are freed, indeed, from the root of the trouble,
the Roman Catholic Church, in the language of the patriot, we would
exclaim, ' Viva Mexico by Villa !' "

This was openly offering the encouragement which we very well
knew had been for a long time extended secretly. All of these things
are done in the name of American Protestantism, and done in such a way
as to make American Protestants responsible for them. Protestant
missions in Mexico have their share of the blame for the persecutions.
For years they have been working, but their achievements have been
practically nil. By this time people ought to know from experience that
the Latin is a Catholic or nothing. When he loses his allegiance to the
Church he becomes an infidel or an atheist. Such a being as an
indifferentist can hardly find room to breathe among Latin people. The
Latin must be one thing or the other. Those who are swayed from the
Catholic Faith by Protestant missionary efforts land in the ranks of open
infidelity, enemies to all religion. What triumph is it for Protestantism

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 69

that France persecuted the CathoHc Church, when Viviani declared that
his task was to " blot out the stars from heaven " ? What triumph did
Protestantism gain from the new birth of atheism in Portugal? If
Protestants believe that the Catholic Church is Christian at all, why do
they follow a plan which they know will destroy Christianity with the
Church? Can any one answer these questions? To me they are mys-
teries beyond solution. In Mexico former Protestant ministers are to-day
" generals, colonels and captains." The Provisional President, Guiterrez,
is said to be an ex-Protestant minister. The revolutionary governors of ^
two states were Protestant ministers. Almost to a man have these former
salaried officials of American Protestant missionary societies entered the ^
ranks of revolutionists.

VIII.

A LAST WORD.

This story I have written down as I received it from the mouths of
eye-witnesses. I am well aware of the fact that due allowance must be
made for natural resentment in those who were the victims of injustice
toward their persecutors. I have no objection to the reader making his
own allowance in this regard, and making the allowance as generously as
he pleases. There still remain the great facts of the case: the murder,
exile, imprisonment, rape and robbery of the innocent. Nations often
have in history been built on a foundation of crime, but we all had hope
that the enlightened twentieth century would have nothing to add to the
evil record. In making your allowances will the reader please weigh
these, some findings of my own, to the evidence?

First. In all my conversations with the refugees, lay and clerical, I
met but few who were not enlightened men and women, many highly
educated, all sober and serious, some speaking many languages, most of
them graduates of colleges and universities — in short, the kind of people
the average American citizen likes to know, and feels honored in knowing.

Second. Among these refugees I found but one who disliked Mexico
and would not return there under any circumstance. In justice to him,
however, I must state that he was not a Mexican citizen, and that he had
private reasons of his own for the dislike, reasons which any red-blooded
man would justify sentimentally, if not logically. All the others loved
Mexico and wanted nothing better than the opportunity to return to their
native land. They desire peace and the reign of law. Their passionate
attachment to their country might well be envied by our more matter-of-
fact sort of patriotism.

Third. Not one Mexican with whom I conversed desired the inter-
vention of the United States, if such intervention meant the loss to his
country of her independence. The utmost limit of their concession to the
necessity of intervention was for that kind of intervention which would
guarantee beforehand the integrity of their nation, and her freedom as
soon as peace was restored and a just and stable government set up.
They all believed that the United States could well be a sister, but never
a successful stepmother to Mexico.

Fourth. I found that every one of these refugees had lost all sus-
picion of American motives, even though condemning what they consid-

70

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 71

ered our " mistakes " in dealing with Mexican problems. They had
learned that our motives, that is, the motives of the great mass of the
American people, were good.

Fifth. The charitable and fraternal action of American Catholics
deeply touched the refugees, and, learning of the liberty of conscience
enjoyed in this Republic, their admiration increased with their gratitude.
I could not help thinking that this argues more for the prosperity of
future trade relations than the cruel policy of concession-grabbers, whose
money and influence have deluged Mexico with innocent blood. A founda-
tion is now laid for a brotherly feeling between Americans and Mexicans.
Love will build up what cupidity has destroyed.

On these things, as well as on the facts before presented, let me base
my last word about Mexico to my fellow-citizens, Protestant and Catholic.

There is need in the world to-day of an enlightened nation, honoring
God, loving peace and presenting ideals of true liberty, whose very
existence will be a rebuke to lawlessness, and Avhose greatest message is
the old message of faith, hope and charity. There is need in this Western
world of a great nation, whose glory is not in conquest by arms, or even
conquest in commerce, but rather in a spirit of justice and fraternity
which permeates all its people. We all think that the United States comes
nearer both ideals than any nation yet born to the earth ; but, alas ! her
sister nations on this Western hemisphere look at her with suspicion not
unmixed with fear. To them she is " The Colossus of the North," whose
sons come only to extort riches, while scorning their people, berating their
convictions, mocking their religion, and often fomenting bloody discords.
Have we any idea how deeply many of our fellow-citizens have gone in
encouraging and paying for the frequent revolutions of which we speak
so often with such contempt?

We, who love to think that we regard the rights of conscience above
all other rights, do we reflect on the fact that, in our name and to the
flaunting of our flag, we send to the neighbors whose good will we desire
to cultivate, men who tell them that their ideals of centuries must be
abandoned, that their methods of worshiping God are idolatrous, that
their own sons in the clergy are moral lepers, that their own daughters
who have adopted the religious state are dupes and prostitutes, that their
shrines are abominations, that their love for God is a sham ?

Do we ever reflect that Spanish civilization has had a more difficult
task than ** Anglo-Saxon " civilization in the Americas, in that it was
" handicapped " by the inexorable Faith which forced the conqueror to
preserve and not destroy the conquered, and, thus limited, could not
colonize one-tenth as much as attempt to civilize? Do we give the

72 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

Spanish conqueror of Indian nations credit for the fact that, when he
brought his Church with him he was hampering the exercise of his own
power, by religion's demand to give the Indian the right to live? Does
he not sometimes stop to think what would be the condition even of these
United States had the conquerors here preserved the Indian to the
extent of outnumbering the whites ten to one ? Could we expect anything
better, under such conditions, than Mexico has, and some other Spanish
republics have, to-day?

Let us be fair. Spain preserved where we destroyed. With a con-
stantly diminishing Indian population, wards of the State, having schools
and colleges for all who wish to enter them, what one of our Indians has
ever shown the governmental and military genius of a Diaz, the intelligent
bravery of a Mejia, the surgical ability of a Urrutia, the philosophical
knowledge of a Munguia, the science of a Carrillo y Azcona, the theo-
logical training of an Alarcon, the poetic fire of an Altamirano, the
political acumen of an Estagnol, the legal and journalistic career of
Sanchez Santos, the artistic talents of Panduro and Velazquez ? Indians ?
Yes, all Indians, pure-blooded Indians. Name those of ours whose
genius has made such marks on the history of our country. Sitting Bull ?
Geronimo? Alas! such a beginning speaks badly for an ending. Think
this over before you condemn Spanish civilization in the Americas. We
have little to show for one hundred years of " Anglo-Saxon " attempts
to uplift our Indians. Yet the Indians of Mexico have produced men of
letters, artists, statesmen, soldiers, scientists, learned bishops and priests —
men of genius. But for all of that Spain's government was not respon-
sible. The credit belongs to the maligned Church, which stood out, with
Fray Las Casas, Fray Martin of Valencia, and Bishop Juan de Zumarraga,
for the rights of the natives, and sacrificed their entire lives for their
conversion, civilization and protection. What if there still remain some
of the ancient superstitions ? Have we, the enlightened, gotten rid entirely
of ours ? What of the Wall street broker who still trusts the clairvoyant
before his brains, who will not fling his hat on a hotel bed because the
action is supposed to be unlucky ? What of the thirteen-at-table nonsense,
or the fear of beginning a work on Friday ? The missionaries of Mexico
did not transplant Spaniards to Mexican soil to grow a garden without
seeding and to dispossess the wild beauty already there. They seeded
the ground anew, and grafted religion and civilization to plants their
colonies already had. Thus they worked to gradually clear off the ancient
superstitions. We tried to burn off our Indians' superstitions, and our
Indians went fast with them. We transplanted England and Ireland,
Scotland and Germany here ; but the Indians who yet live have still their

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 73

superstitions. They are dying, in many cases, with them. It's a different
story, that of Mexico and that of our country ; but, for the ancient people
of both, those of Mexico have the greater reason for gratitude.

When Sir Lionel Garden, the British Ambassador to Mexico under
Huerta, left this country for England, he expressed sympathy for the
" decent people " of Mexico. Do we even think of these " decent people "
when we give our unqualified sympathy to hordes of bandits, whose past
records alone would be prima facie presumption of guilt in any court of
justice in our country? Are "liberators" made of such material? For
two generations have the old colleges and universities of Mexico been
closed and new ones substituted ; yet to-day w^e find Mexico's best people
sending their children, almost by stealth, to the few religious schools that
have stolen back, and, when that is not possible, to schools of the same
kind in Spain and the United States. Francisco Madero himself was a
pupil of Mt. St. Mary's College in Maryland; Carranza a constant and
friendly visitor to the College of the Jesuits in Saltillo. The man in whom
both our Government and our people placed its highest hopes for peace
in Mexico was the Christian De la Barra ; and next to him the Christian
convert, Gamboa.

Susan Hale, in her history of Mexico, says : " It is evident that what
is needed is good government, good religion and good education." But
we have, alas ! by our own greed and our prejudice, made government a
thing to be fought for by robbers ; of religion a thing to be held up to
scorn and insult; of the old schools, that once were glorious, barracks
and ruins. We listen and applaud when the '' liberals " of every camp
tell us that the Church is responsible for poverty, ignorance and lawless-
ness ; but we do not listen to the Church which gave to Mexico all the
civilization she possesses, when she makes this gentle plaint, over the
noise of murder, debauchery and lust : You blame me for poverty, yet
you took from me the endowments for my hospitals, my orphanages, my
countless works of mercy. You blame me for ignorance, when you
closed my schools, stole my colleges and suppressed my universities
which first lit the torch of learning among this people. You say I have
added nothing to science and art, but you destroyed the art I brought with
me, burned my books and scattered the results of my labor for science
to the four winds of heaven. You blame me for ignorance after forbid-
ding me for fifty years to teach. You blame me for lawlessness, when you
destroyed my missions among a peaceful and thriving Indian population,
and gave, in my place to the people, the thirty pieces of silver with which
you bribed them to murder their fellows. You took the cross out of their
hands to replace it with a torch and a gun. Show me one good thing in

74 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

Mexico I did not give you. Show me one genius for whom I was not
responsible. Show me one step in advance I did not help you to take.
Cut away from your country all that I put in it, and see what remains.
You may thrust me out, exile my bishops, murder my priests, again steal
my schools, desecrate my sanctuaries and my virgins, but you can not blot
out history, you can not erase the mark I have left on you — not in a
century of centuries.

If the United States is to be the friend and sister of Mexico, to the
advantage of both, our citizens must rid themselves of a multitude of
inherited prejudices, and substitute a spirit of understanding for a spirit
of greed. There is more to be had in Mexico than oil and mining con-
cessions: there is the good will that makes such concessions a logical
consequence of a desire for help and a manifestation of deep gratitude.
I have no wish to condemn business enterprise, but it is poor business
that depends for success on machine guns. If powder and ball are the
things we want to dispose of to Mexico, the question arises: which
country is the less civilized, the one that sells or the one that buys ? We
scorn to learn the language of Mexico, yet we expect to talk to her
people so that they will understand. Pardon me, but do they understand
when we talk from the black mouths of cannon?

Mexicans do need " good government," and we have the opportunity
now of giving it to them, not by imposing our views upon them, not by
taking away their independence, but by telling them fairly and honestly
that we will help no government set up by thieves, nor any government
that is not founded on the principles of equal justice to all. Mexico can
not get along without a big brother yet; but a big brother who lets his
little brother fall into a well to drown is a poor excuse for a brother
at all.

Yes, Mexico needs " good religion." She has the Mother Church of
Christendom in her midst, but chained and bound by laws that were
intended to kill her. But Mexico's history shows that she will accept no
other religion. American Protestantism has tried for fifty years to sup-
plant the Catholic Church, but has not succeeded in doing any more than
the work of enlarging the number of atheists and indifferentists. These
missions are making no friends for us, but rather causing resentment
against us. Their very presence is taken as an insult by the enlightened
people, who can not but think that we regard them as heathen. Unbind
the Church of their Fathers, the Church of Las Casas; give her again
the right to teach and to preach ; let her build her missions anew with a
guarantee that they shall stand, not as relics of past greatness, but as
living, acting agencies for the uplift of the Indians and their advance to
greater things.

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 75

Yes, Mexico needs " good education." Then make every educational
work free, under democratic and wise laws. See that the teacher is not
penalized, his work destroyed, and his endowments seized by rapacious
banditti. Give help to every effort for the instruction of the masses.
Follow Washington's advice to encourage the means of education. It
works well with us; why should it be disregarded in Mexico? Would
we in these United States think of confiscating the hundreds of millions
of dollars invested in private educational endowments for the universi-
ties of Harvard or Yale or Chicago or Princeton, because they are pri-
vate and not state institutions; would we think of killing off the
endowments of human devotion and self-sacrifice of Washington, George-
town and Notre Dame, because they are religious institutions? Then
why give approval by a pleased look or a smirking silence, when these
same things are done in Mexico by bandits with American weapons in
their hands ?

Mexico lies prostrate to-day. Anarchy reigns. Religion is over half
destroyed. Greed steals the very school books from the children. Capital
is fleeing. Labor gladly grasps a gun, and works at killing for pay.
Virgins put on mourning for the worse than death that has befallen them.
The country lifts her head to look at us with eyes that are more than
half reproachful, but, thank God, there is also hope in them. We have
our opportunity, one that, taken now at the flood, leads on to better than
fortune. All South America, the South America we want to win to our
side, the South America we need, is watching us, to see if our good offices
must be bought by gold, by the sacrifice of hallowed and holy traditions.
This hour is the hour full of fate for us. Shall we grasp the full measure
of its pregnant possibilities ?

The Speech of the Silent Man

A REPLY TO MR. JOHN LIND

When a silent man puts his thoughts into language, the world expects
something. When that silent man happens to have been the Governor of
a State and the trusted personal representative of the ruler of what we
believe to be the greatest nation on earth, we expect something of tre-
mendous importance. When that silent man, who had been a Governor,
etc., has a wise face to match his silence, as becometh a University Regent,
we expect, when he speaks, to shed new light on any question, of sufficient
" pith and moment " to wring speech out of him.

In all these things has Mr. John Lind disappointed us. The public has
been devoured with curiosity regarding his report to the President on the
Mexican crisis. Attempts have been made, even in Congress, to find out
what the report contained ; but the attempts failed. Mr. Lind has been
importuned to speak, but he has spoken only on private occasions, or at
semi-private banquets with all reporters barred. But at last Mr. Lind
has given his views to the world. He has taken his time about it, pre-
sumably so that it might be understood they were the result of deep
study and thought. Months and months have elapsed since he returned
from Mexico, and only now (December, 1914) has he made his views
public. In The Bellman of December 5, and again in the same magazine of
December 12, Mr. Lind tells what he thinks of Mexico and her people.
I have read the articles, and after reading them have put them down with
anything but a feeling of satisfaction. It would have been better for Mr.
Lind to have maintained his dignified silence. " The mountain was in
labor and produced a mouse." No, that is not exactly the case. The
mouse was produced all right; but the mountain was only a mole hill,
and the mole hill itself is now nothing more than a mirage.

Mr. Lind's article quite naturally divides itself into two parts: one
dealing with the historic side, and the other giving what might be called
the personal side, because it gives Mr. Lind's own personal opinions upon
the situation. I am going to take up both sides separately.

THE HISTORICAL SIDE.

The historical part of Mr. Lind's article is absolutely worthless ; first,
because it is not Mr. Lind's at all, and, secondly, because it is not true.
Most of it is taken, with only a half attempt at paraphrasing, from an
article written by E. B. Tylor, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., for the Encyclopedia

76

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

77

Britannica, and which was published in the ninth edition, A. D. 1888,
Volume 16, pp. 210 to 213. Of course, there is absolutely no reason why
Mr. Lind should not have consulted an Encyclopedia to verify his original
research, or his own studies ; but it is absolutely puerile for a man who
avowedly poses as an authority on Mexico, after having spent months in
that country on one of the most important missions within the gift of the
American Government, to take practically all his facts from an Encyclo-
pedia, and even, in many cases, borrow the very language of the book
itself. Any schoolboy can copy an article from an Encyclopedia; but if
he attempted to hand in such an article, even paraphrased, to an exam-
ining board, his youth could scarcely save him from censure. Mr. Lind is
no youth. He is no schoolboy, but he evidently has lost none of the school-
boy tricks. I select a few lines from Dr. Tylor and a few lines from Mr.
Lind, to show the deadly parallel :

Mr. Lind:

" Below the king was a numerous and
powerful class of nobles."

" A rich and powerful merchant class."

" Great estates were owned by the
crown."

" Slavery existed, but in a rather mild
form. The children of slaves were born
free."

" There was a Supreme Court for the
cognizance of law appeals, located in the
palace, in the city of Mexico. There were
inferior tribunals in the principal cities,
over each of which a Supreme Judge
presided. These judges held office for
life, and could not be removed even by
the king. Their decisions in criminal
cases were final. Lands were set apart
for the maintenance of these judicial
officers. They appointed and supervised
the actions of the subordinate magis-
trates, and revised their judgments. In
fact, nothing gives a higher idea of the
elaborate civilization of Mexico than
this judicial system, which culminated in
a general court presided over by the
king."

"The laws and records of the court
were set down in picture-writing."

" The criminal code was very severe.
Fraud, the removal of landmarks, and
adultery, were punished by having the
offender's head crushed between two
stones, or cutting out the heart."

Dr. Tylor:

" Below the king was a numerous and

powerful class of nobles."

" A rich and powerful merchant class."
"The greatest estates belonged to the

king."

" Other classes of slaves were mildly
treated, and their children were born
free."

" The Supreme Courts of law formed
part of the palace, and there were tri-
bunals in the principal cities, over each of
which presided a Supreme Judge, who
was irremovable and whose criminal de-
cisions not even the king might reverse.
He appointed the lower judges and
heard appeals from them. Lands were
set apart for the maintenance of judges,
and, indeed, nothing gives a higher idea
of the elaborate civilization of Mexico
than this judicial system, which culmi-
nated in the general court and council of
state, presided over by the king."

"The laws and records of suits were
set down in picture-writing."

" The criminal laws were of extreme
severity. Fraud, removing landmarks,
adultery, etc., which differed as to
whether the criminal had his heart cut
out on the altar, his head crushed be-
tween two stones, etc."

The above are only a few selections. I could go on and make as many
more ; but any reader who desires to see the deadly parallel for himself,

78 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

need only read over the historical part of Mr. Lind's article and then Dr.
Tylor's paper in the Britannica. How much of an authority Mr. John
Lind is on the history of Mexico can now be judged very fairly.

It is bad enough to engage in literary piracy, but to steal what is
untrue is many times worse, and unforgivably stupid. Stealing diamonds
is bad, but stealing paste diamonds, not knowing that they are paste, must
be very unsatisfactory to the thief. That is about the position Mr. Lind
is in. Dr. Edward B. Tylor was an Englishman, born in 1832. In 1856,
or when he was twenty-four years of age, he went to Cuba, and, having
met an ethnologist there, he proceeded to Mexico with him. He became
interested in Mexico through that visit, and wrote a book, which he
published in 1861. I take this information about Dr. Tylor from the
Britannica's latest edition. I merely wish the reader to know that Dr.
Tylor was only twenty-four years of age when he went to Mexico, and
that he lived at a period when he would naturally be influenced by the
man who was, at that time, considered the great authority on Spanish-
America — Prescott. Since Dr. Tylor's time Mr. Prescott's history, a
great part of it, has been relegated by scientific men to where it belongs,
to the shelves of delightful romance. Mr. Prescott used the stories of the
Spanish conquerors of Mexico, their reports back to the court of Spain,
for all they were worth. As romances they were worth a great deal, but
as facts they were worth very little. It was Cortez' business to make the
Spanish monarchs believe in the wonders of his conquest ; and the glowing
imagination of some of the people with him helped to do the rest.

Two men have thrown utter discredit upon Prescotf s " history " —
A. F. Bandelier and Charles F. Lummis. Bandelier devoted his work to
the Indians of our own Southwest, Mexico and South America. Accord-
ing to the Britannica, Bandelier made himself '' the leading authority on
the history of Arizona and New Mexico," and, " with F. H. Cushing and
his successors, one of the leading authorities on prehistoric civilization."
" Bandelier has shown the falsity of various historical myths, notably his
conclusions respecting the Inca civilization of Peru." Mr. Bandelier, in
a preface to Charles F. Lummis' " Spanish Pioneers," stands behind every
word that Lummis writes, and Lummis himself has utterly destroyed the
romances of Prescott. " That we have not given justice to the Spanish
pioneers," says Mr. Bandelier, " is simply because we have been mivsled.
They made a record unparalleled, but our text-books have not recognized
that fact, though they no longer dispute it. Now, thanks to the new school
of American history, we are coming to the truth, a truth which every
manly American will be glad to know. I can only say that the estimates

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 79

and statements embodied in this volume are strictly true ; and that I hold
myself ready to defend them from the standpoint of historical science."

The whole historic section of Mr. Lind's article, following Dr. Tylor's
lead, is really an attempt to show how little the Spaniards did and hov/
much of a better civilization they destroyed.

The books of Mr. Lummis on the " Spanish Pioneers " and on " The
Awakening of a Nation" (Mexico) are eye-openers to those who desire
to know the truth regarding the old civilization and the new. " In spite of
our reasonable hostility to the Spanish blood," he says, " we must not give
our eyes the lie." " To such as find the testimony of Humboldt ineffi-
cient," says Mr. Lummis, " there could be no more useful reading than
the laws of Spain as to the Aborigines — the highest-minded, most com-
plete and most noble * Indian policy ' ever framed by man." As an
example of the romance in the statements which now pass as history
concerning Mexico, both Lummis and Bandelier proved, from fifteen to
twenty years ago, that the famous " columns of porphyry and jasper
supporting marble balconies," which Dr. Tylor concedes " were piers
carrying slabs," to be nothing more than adobe houses like the houses
used by our own Pueblo Indians.

But even Prescott did not swallow all the yarns of the Spanish con-
querors ; but those that he did accept have, nine-tenths of them, gone to
the scrap heap. What folly it is at its best, the idea that a people could
have been highly civilized who resorted to frightful human sacrifices!
Eighty thousand prisoners of war were sacrificed by Montezuma at the
dedication of one great temple, '' until the gutters ran red with blood."

But Mr. Lind thinks that '' the Indian empire of Montezuma, which
the Spaniards destroyed four hundred years ago, was in many respects
as far advanced as some of the European states at that period. This, of
course, is based on Prescott, who thinks that " the degree of civilization
which they have reached, as inferred from their political institutions, may
be considered, perhaps, not much short of that enjoyed by our Saxon
ancestors under Alfred." But it is a long call from Alfred to the days
of Ferdinand and Isabella.

Dr. Tylor and Mr. Lind vary from Prescott when they make what the
latter calls " itinerant traders," or, in our parlance, " peddlers," " a rich
and powerful merchant class." Mr. Lind is evidently unacquainted with
either Lummis, Bandelier, Enoch or Hale. Susan Hale's book on Mexico,
though biased, yet finds a place in *' The Stories of Nations," published by
T. Fisher Unwyn of London. The author knew something of recent
research. She concedes, with Bandelier and Lummis, that before Cortez.
Mexico " was inhabited by intelligent races of men." But she also says :

80 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

'' Empires and palaces, luxury and splendor, fill the accounts of the
Spaniards ; and imagination loves to adorn the halls of the Montezumas
with the glories of an oriental tale. Later explorers, with the fatal
penetration of our time, destroy the splendid vision, reducing the emperor
to a chieftain, the glittering retinue to a horde of savages, the magnificent
civilization, devoted to art, literature and luxury, reduced to a few
handfuls of pitiful Indians, q4iarreling with one another for supremacy;
and sighs to think his sympathies may have been wasted on the sufferings
of an Aztec sovereign, dethroned by the invading Spaniard."

Susan Hale's only offered consolation is that " after brushing away
the sparkling cobwebs of exaggerated reports, enough fact is left to build
up a respectable case for the early races of Mexico," and that is all that
can be done to-day.

The truth of the matter is that Spanish civilization in Mexico was to
early Aztec civilization as light was to darkness; and all that Mexico
possesses to-day of civilization she received absolutely fromx the Spaniards.
" Our partisan histories, even our Encyclopedias," says Lummis, " are
either strangely silent or strangely biased. They do not seem to recog-
nize the precedence of Spain, nor the fact that she made in America a
record of heroism, of unparalleled exploration and colonization, never
approached by any other nation anywhere. Long before the Saxon had
raised so much as a hut in the new world, or penetrated a hundred miles
from the coast, the Spanish pioneers had explored America from Kansas
to Cape Horn, and from sea to sea; and had far inland a chain of
Spanish cities five thousand miles long."

How does this accord with the " bondage, the ignorance, the vice and
the sloth" of the sixteenth century, according to Mr. Lind? As to the
cruelty of Spanish conquests, Mr. Lummis says that " they (the Span-
iards) were far less cruel than the Saxon ones." The Spaniard never
exterminated. He conquered the Aborigine and then converted and edu-
cated him."

I have before me a book by Professor Noll of the University of the
South, biased, of course, as most such books are. But the professor is
forced to concede this: *' It may be frankly admitted that the influence
of the religious Orders was, in the main, beneficial to the country
throughout the sixteenth century. The archbishops and bishops of
Mexico exercised great influence in the affairs of government. They were
respected by the civil authorities and venerated by the natives. . . .
The Jesuits, who arrived in the year 1572, true to the purposes of their
Order, tried to foster learning in the new land, though with but limited

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 81

success. Other religious Orders established and maintained admirably
appointed hospitals and asylums in every large city."

Enoch, an Englishman, whose prejudices are rather fairly distributed
against both Mexico and the United States, frankly says : " The Mexican
of to-day owes all he has — law, literature, art and social system, and
refinements of law and religion — to Spain."

I believe that any honest student of Mexican history can not but come
to exactly the same conclusion; but it is not according to Mr. Lind's
policy to say anything good of Spain. She must remain now and forever
the oppressor of Mexico, the excuse for revolution, and the horrible
example, to show the wisdom of the Lind advice.

MR. lind's personal VIEWS.

The reading of the section of Mr. Lind's article devoted to his per-
sonal opinions is interesting, but not informing. He cites, as a horrible
example of the oppression of the peon, that " the minimum fee of the
Church for marriages, baptisms and ceremonies of the like character is
ten pesos. No peon could accumulate or have so much wealth at one
time. If he is ambitious to wed his wife in the Church, or to have his
first-born baptized, the fee, with the expense of the fiesta, makes him a
debtor for life."

This can not apply to all peons, for, later on, Mr. Lind says that the
northern peon is " able to get married in the Church, have his child bap-
tized, to live in a decent house, and to educate his children ; and he does
all these things."

Now, if Mr. Lind had taken the trouble to find out the laws of the
Church and the customs of Mexico, he would have had an opportunity to
qualify his statements. It has, for example, been specifically laid down
for the guidance of pastors that they must not demand a fee of any kind
from the poor. According to the Church law, there is not a single person
in all of Mexico who can not come to his pastor and, if he is poor, have
every one of these ceremonies performed without any offering whatever.
I, personally, know one pastor in Mexico who annually has had four hun-
dred marriages without offerings of any kind. In other words, the same
law applies in Mexico that applies in the United States; and the same
understanding of offerings, in connection with such ceremonies, applies
in Mexico as applies in the Protestant churches of the United States.
There is not a Protestant minister that I know of, or ever heard of, but
expects a fee on the occasion of a marriage, and, I believe, also on the
occasion of a funeral, if the people receiving his ministrations are able to
give it. How grievously the officiating clergyman would be afflicted if
he found his envelope empty ! Why ? Because his fees are recognized as
part of his living. It is the same in Mexico. But 10 pesos in Mexico

82 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

does not mean $10 in this country. At present it means $2, and at the
highest rate of exchange it means $5. The fiesta is the father's own
business, and the Church has nothing to do with it.

Would $5 put the average Mexican peon in debt all his lifetime?
Mr. Lind surely does not think the American public is so credulous as to
believe that. However, that abuses have occurred is very probable; but
when they did, those responsible were acting, not in accord with the law of
the Church, but in direct contradiction to it.

Then, too, Mr. Lind does not mention the fees of the state. To save
the peon from " bondage " to the priest, the state decreed civil marriage.
It is true that the fee is only about 50 cents if the marriage is per-
formed in the office of the magistrate. But no Mexican peasant wants
that. He wants the marriage at his house, and the state knows this. Then
a carriage must be supplied for the magistrate, and two visits made, at a
cost of 8 pesos per visit. So 16 pesos is what the civil officials exact for
these marriages, which formerly the peon, by simply stating his poverty,
could have had performed for nothing.

The conditions under which the Church is supported in Mexico have
also been passed over by Mr. Lind. There is no law that compels the
peon to give anything to the support of religion. In some places the
people voluntarily make offerings of grain, according to the old Spanish
law, which, by the way, is also an old French law, and still in vogue in
parts of Canada. But in the greater part of Mexico the priests receive
no salary and no offerings of any kind, except the voluntary offerings at
marriages, baptisms and funerals. Mr. Lind would suppress all this in
Mexico, but would not suppress it among his own people in the United
States. As a married man, he presumably has made such offerings him-
self ; but, to do away with all chance of the Church existing at all in
Mexico, he censures such a practice in the neighboring republic.

Mr. Lind thinks that the Spaniards came to gather wealth and extend
the " authority and fanaticism of Spain " ; and they did it so well that
they imposed that bondage " spiritually and politically." He concedes
always that the English colonial policy was harsh and selfish, but was not
as bad as the Spanish. He does not mention a great difference, which is that
the Spanish bondage preserved the people and the English bondage anni-
hilated them.

But, in spite of all this, Mr. Lind has found great good in the Mexican
people. He found them, for example, courteous and kind, grateful,
peaceful, patriotic, not ignorant though illiterate, progressive, skilful, not
really lazy, with a charming family life, artistic and hospitable. It would
be interesting to ask where they got these good traits. Did they persevere

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 83

throughout the entire Spanish regime, or have they sprung up since?
Historians tell us very plainly that the Spanish regime gave it to them ;
and, when you come to think it out, it v^as not such a bad regime that
could leave such marks upon a conquered people. If Spain gave the
Mexicans only " spiritual bondage and fanaticism," the " spiritual bondage
and fanaticism " produced very wonderful results. Would it not, perhaps,
be good for us if we had some spiritual bondage and fanaticism of that
kind?

4-

Among the " horrors " that the Spanish regime inflicted upon the
Mexicans, Mr. Lind mentions the Inquisition. This is rather strange, for
other historians tell us that the Inquisition amounted to very little in
Mexico. Some of them even hint that it was a method used by the gov-
ernment of keeping order ; and, what Mr. Lind does not seem to know,
and which I state under the authority of Professor Noll, " the Indians
were, by specific command, exempted from its operations."

Of course, Mr. Lind makes an attempt to explain some of the virtues
he found in the Mexicans. For example, that of politeness. He charges
it to the tyranny of the upper classes, for class distinction, he says, always
compels at least outward politeness. Yet, in another part of his article, he
informs us that he can not " recall an instance among the thousands of
people that I met and came into contact with, or in my walks about the
city or on the country roads, where the slightest rudeness or disrespect
was shown." Now, class distinctions make for politeness in the oppressed,
but not in the tyrant ; but Mr. Lind found the politeness in everybody.

It is much to be wondered at where Mr. Lind secured the following
bit of information : *' One of the first acts of the Spanish conqueror was
to distribute the arable lands of the people among his lieutenants and have
churches established." The reason I am wondering where he secured
this information is because it is not true. The Spaniards distributed the
settled lands among the Indians, retaining for themselves the mines and
unsettled lands. The land which the Church afterward acquired was
received as donations and bequests from individuals, and not from the
State. It is very easy for Mr. Lind to verify this, and, in doing so, will
find another fly in his peculiar sort of ointment — where he says " a whole
nation was made homeless." Natives at any time could take up land in
Mexico, and can do so to this day. If Mr. Lind will take the trouble to
consult Enoch's book on Mexico, published by T. Fisher Unwyn of
London, he will find, on page 157, the following: " National lands have
been set aside in vast areas; and any inhabitant of the republic may
' denounce ' or acquire a piece of such land, and retain it by paying an
annual tax payment, the prices varying from 2 pesos, in the remote
regions, to 20 or 30 pesos per hectare, equal to two and one-half acres, in

84 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

the more settled states." In some cases this law may have been found
worthless, but it is the law.

As a matter of fact, Mr. Lind, in speaking of Morelos, speaks to his
own discomfiture. He says that there all the land is owned by twenty-
seven men. Well, at one time all of this land was parceled out to the
people, who proceeded to sell it to the twenty-seven (if that is the correct
number of proprietors) , and, having sold it and received the money, now
they want it again. The question is, will the people remain proprietors
when the land is given to them? I have heard prominent and influential
Mexicans say that, if the land is again parceled out, there should be a law
passed at the same time forbidding the peon to sell.

Here is another statement that manifests either ignorance or a desire
to slander. Speaking of the peon's wages, Mr. Lind says : " They are
paid twenty-five centavos per day, and given a small measure (about a
pint) of corn. They are permitted to keep a few chickens, and occasionally
a goat or two ; but if they show the least inclination to increase their pos-
sessions, their ambition is promptly curbed." As a matter of fact, the peon
is given his house, enough land for himself to raise his garden truck,
twenty-five centavos in money, and three litres of corn and a half litre of
beans. He is not only permitted to keep a few chickens, but as many as he
wishes; and also a pig. He also receives wood. Besides this, entirely
away from his garden, he has another small piece of land, which is for
his use ; and he may raise, as he does, corn or anything else on it. It must
be remembered, too, that the three litres of corn and a half litre of beans,
together with the land he has and the wood, he may use as he pleases ; and
that all his chickens and pigs live on the hacienda. Of course, conditions
are not alike all over Mexico, nor can any one exactly define what a " peon
is ; but since Mr. Lind offers his statement to cover a general condition, he
might as well be truthful.

" The law of Mexico," Mr. Lind says, " makes it a crime for a person
in the employ of another to leave service while in debt to the employer.
Consequently, the great land owners take care that all their peons are in
debt." What are the facts about this? They are that the peon will not
enter service without an advanced payment, which is called the " acomodo,"
which amounts to from fifteen to twenty dollars. The land owner is not
at all anxious to give this, but the peon insists upon it. That binds him to
work for a certain length of time, but as a matter of fact, he works as long
as he likes and then he moves. Very seldom is the " acomodo " returned
to the land owner.

Mr. Lind seems to have very great affection for the Mexican of the
North, and he correspondingly despises those of the South. To him the

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 85

northern Mexican is the progressive Mexican, and the southern is the
one sunk in ignorance and despair. The northern Mexican earns three
to four pesos a day in the Texas cotton-fields, on the American railroads
and in the mines, so " he has learned to read his own language, and in
most cases, has picked up a little English," says Mr. Lind.

This statement is just as untrue as the others. The greatest destitution
among the Mexicans is in the North. The loosest morality among Mexii
cans is in the North. Proof of this Mr. Lind can have by studying the
Mexicans in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, who are all from the North.
The most progressive Mexican is in the South. The State of Oaxaca has
produced Juarez, Diaz, Pineda, Cervantes, and almost all the governmen-
tal brains during the twenty years of Porfirio Diaz. The Oaxaca Indians
desire education more than any Indian in the North. The South is the
garden spot of Mexico. I wonder if Mr. Lind ever turned his enigmatic
face to the South. It is true the Indians in the North have had a better
chance — an opportunity to secure better pay, since there is more mining
and manufacturing and railroading in the North; there is also better
land. But, as a matter of fact, the South is in a much happier condition,
and much less prone to revolutionary troubles. No American, who has
read reports from Mexico, but knows that the North is the center of
revolution, and that the South usually has to be stirred up to join in the
blood-letting. A single exception might possibly be the State of Morelos ;
but it is remarkable, too, as I stated in previous pages, that the revolution
in Morelos, under Zapata, showed few of the anti-religious atrocities that
accompanied the revolution in the North.

Mr. Lind certainly is optimistic when he states that the northern Indian
has learned " to read his own language, and in most cases, has picked up a
little English." The truth is that the northern Indian does not want to get
an education ; and that the southern Indian does. I would ask the reader
to remember, in this connection, what I said about Oaxaca. I am not
speaking on my own responsibility. I have secured my information f rora
a gentleman who was born in Oaxaca, and who lives in the North, and
who was engaged in social work in one of the large cities, but who has had
experience ini North, South and center. I shall be very glad, indeed,
if Mr. Lind is interested, to give my informant's name. He is a Mexican
with a European education, and has been a professor in his own country.

Another queer statement of Mr. Lind is that which concerns the opera-
tion of the national railroads. He says they were wholly operated by
Americans, but that to-day the entire system, from division superinten-
dents to trackmen, is in the hands of peons, who, a generation ago, had not
heard steam puff. " They do the engineering, superintend and manage the

86 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

shops, construct cars, coaches and locomotives that would do credit to
any shop on this side of the line."

It is true, as Mr. Lind says, that " they are not all of the peon class."
Neither the engineers, nor the conductors, nor the division superintendents,
nor any one else except the laborers, are of the peon class. The fact is
that Carranza's experiment was a failure, and that these positions are now
open to the Americans, whenever they can get them to come (vide
the daily papers, which reported about a month ago that the change had
been made). The fact is that even when the Mexicans did run the rail-
roads, it was the middle class and not the peon class that did the operating.
Mr. Lind fails constantly to distinguish between the two classes.

In the course of his article, the ex-Governor informs us that a Papal
bull forbade any instruction in Mexico for two hundred years, except
instruction in religion and politeness. Now, Mr. Lind will concede that
the Catholic Church is rather a compact organization, and that Papal bulls
are usually obeyed by the clergy. Will he kindly explain how it was pos-
sible, then, to found the numberless colleges, universities and schools, espe-
cially for the Indians, which were established in Mexico by the Spaniards.
What Pope issued that bull? What is the date of it? Surely, Mr. Lind
knows, and, if he does, he knows more than any authority on Mexico, or
any historian of the Church I have ever met.

But the pinnacle of loose statements is reached in the following : " The
discipline and restraint shown by the victorious Constitutionalist armies,
and their chiefs were most creditable and encouraging." I am glad to
know what encourages Mr. Lind. He is so quiet-appearing a man, so min-
isterial-looking, so mild in manner and so silent, that I thought he would
be encouraged by the sound of the sickle in the wheat or the hum of
industry in the factory, or the scratching of a pen over paper, rather than
by the sound of knives cutting throats, guns shooting the innocent, and
the thunderous appeals to hatred that came from these victorious armies
and their chiefs. Does Mr. Lind think the American people are fools?
They know what has happened in Mexico. They know what the " vic-
torious chiefs " have done. They know of the outrages and murders
committed. They know that nothing short of the Reign of Terror in
France has equaled, for " discipline and restraint," the awful work of his
friends in Mexico. This statement from a man who represented the
United States, or rather the President of the United States, and must have
known everything that went on in Mexico, is one of the most horrible

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 87

and blasphemous utterances that I have ever read. It takes the measure
at once of John Lind.

Of what use is it to go on further, picking out the things in his article
which stamp him as not only incompetent, but absolutely ignorant, after
every chance to enlighten himself. If these are the things he told the
President of the United States, my contention in previous pages, that the
President was deceived, proves to be true. The President must have
trusted Mr. Lind. Who would not trust so wise-looking a man? Buli
he trusted him to his own great injury. Mr. Lind was the President'^
eyes and ears in Mexico, but the eyes saw things that never were, and
the ears heard things that are a tissue of falsehoods from beginning to
end. No wonder we are in trouble over our Mexican policy ! No wondec
that it stands as the one great failure and blot upon a government that
meant well, and that intended to do things for Mexico's good. No wonder
that it has raised an angry protest among sixteen million people in this
country, and is daily bringing to their aid the enlightened among theiii
fellow citizens. If this is what Mr. Lind learned, he had better go to
school again. We did not need to send any one to Mexico to get false-
hoods. We had access to the Encyclopedia Britannica for the history of
Mexico, and we could have copied our impressions out of it just as Mr.
Lind did. And as for the things that he reports of his personal knowl-
edge, we have enough lie factories in the United States without paying
John Lind to go to Mexico at the expense of the taxpayers and manufac-
ture more lies.

A THIRD PART.

An extra natural division of Mr. Lind's article is his defense of the
policy of President Wilson toward Mexico. I am not concerned in attack-
ing President Wilson's policy. I have tried only to give the facts and let
people judge for themselves. Moreover, I am in entire sympathy with the
President's desire to avoid armed intervention in Mexico. I can go a step
farther. I have frequently met and consulted with the archbishops
and bishops of Mexico, and I know I speak their minds when I say
that they do not want such intervention. They are patriotic Mexicans
who fear for the independence of their beloved country, who dread
the shedding of their countrymen's blood, and who prefer to suffer even
death rather than see the foot of an invader step in enmity upon the soil
of Mexico. So while as an American I do not want our own country
plunged into a war, as the representative of members of the Mexican
hierarchy I do not want it for Mexico's sake. What the Mexican bishops
want is religious liberty. What American Catholics want is the promise
that a government which already has intervened in Mexican affairs to the

88 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

extent of telling the Mexican people what they should not do, will inform
one and all of the factions that the thing they must do, if they want recog-,
nition by this nation, is to guarantee a true democracy to Mexico, by giv-
ing its people what they have not had for fifty years — liberty of conscience.
The President can do that. He ought to do it. He can do no less.
We'll forget what is past, but the future, we are determined, shall not be
marked by the John Lindisms of the past, by which I mean — the unpar-
donable blunders of narrow-mindedness and prejudice.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH MEXICO?

Without egotism I think I can answer that question. Every one who
knows Mexican history and something of the condition of Mexico to-day,
can answer it.

Here is the answer : What is our President's endeavor in his Mexican
policy ? To his honor and credit, let it be said that he is aiming at giving
Mexico a lasting solution for her difficulties in the shape of a pure democ-
racy. But no democracy can be built upon the foundation-stone of tyranny.
If the President wishes to solve the Mexican problem, he must begin at
the foundation ; for all semblance of law has vanished from that country.
In the United States we believe that a foundation which does not guaran-
tee rights of conscience is a wrong foundation. Our fathers who founded
the republic were a unit on that point. They knew that no State can long
survive as a tyranny.

I think it is the general belief of the people of the United States that
President Wilson intends to recognize no government in Mexico that he
does not believe will give a lasting peace to the country. If he does not
secure a pure democrary for Mexico now, whatever government he recog-
nizes must be one in which he has confidence that it will at least prepare
the people for it. If his policy aims at makeshifts, we are very much mis-
taken about it.

In order to get at the crux of the difficulty, it is necessary to know that
since 1810 Mexico has been at war, civil or foreign, with but an interval
of peace. In the final defeat of the Spaniards with Iturbide, in 1821, the
last real stable government left Mexico. Since that time, one revolution
has followed another. The dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz was the era of
peace. But dissatisfaction was always there. Why?

If Mr. Lind will take a glance at the two great political parties of Mex-
ico, and the two great political parties of the United States, he will see
where the difficulty lies, always remembering that Mexican democracy is
a conceded failure, while that of the United States is a conceded success.

During the progress of the war between Mexico and the United States,
the first active attempt at anti-clericalism was made in Mexico. This

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 89

attempt took the form of robbing the Church. I do not defend the condi-
tion which made the Church something worth robbing. Personally, I
think the Church is better off with little property, outside its religious
houses, and its houses for charity and education, than it possibly could be
with great wealth. But about robbery, there can be only one opinion.

The wrong method was taken with the Church. Catholics resented it ;
and out of their resentment on one side, and the desire for spoliation on
the other, arose the two great political parties of Mexico — the Clerical
and the Liberal. The first was defensive and the other offensive. The
Clerical party feared spoliation less than the inevitable result confessed
by the Liberals as their goal — the restriction of religious liberty. The
events of the last year permit us to verify earlier impressions as to what
the Liberals really aimed at. Economic and agrarian questions were only
side issues. The great issue of Mexican politics was that of liberty of con-
science. Little was said about it, for the Church could say little. She did
not want to enter politics. But it is easy to understand other tyrannies
with this basic injustice in the laws.

The Mexican people have never been permitted to vote on the question
of religious liberty. It was never clearly put up to the suffrage of the
nation. Every revolution was an appeal to arms, and not until Madero
came was there even a partial attempt to find out the will of the people.
Madero proclaimed a free election. The Clerical party was organized
with his encouragement, although he was not a member of it. The result
of the election, in spite of the fact that the Liberals did the counting of
the votes, was really a verdict for religious liberty. Then revolution broke
out again. Since in a fair battle of ballots, religious liberty would have
won, the ballots were replaced by bullets, and the great question stiH
remains open, and still has in it the certainty of future trouble.

When our own nation was born, its founders settled the question of
religious liberty by constitutional enactment. They guaranteed liberty of
conscience ; and, as a consequence, it was taken out of politics, and every
later attempt to make it a part of a political struggle was frowned down
upon and defeated by the American people. The parties that fostered such
attempts lie wrecked and ruined along the highway of American progress.
As a consequence, our political divisions concern themselves about political
and industrial questions. They all aim at the material upbuilding of the
nation. The foundation-stone of our democracy, in the main, is justice:
so we have prospered, and we live at peace with our neighbors.

It is easy, then, to see the radical difference between the Mexican
political situation and our own; and it is easy to note the consequence

\

90 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

of each, to put a finger on the canker that is eating the heart out of
Mexico, and to know what lies at the root of its poHtical misfortunes.
Mexico has a poHtical issue upon which there can be no compromise on the
part of the majority of its people. No one can compromise on the ques-
tion of his natural rights. One may be defeated for the time being, but
never conquered. The question of religious liberty is too big for politics.
It transcends all other questions — overshadows them, buries them.
When men are sincere there can be no other thought on the matter. In
Mexico the religious issue is persistent. Fair play can not be secured by
arms. The " Liberals " will not yield until the Church is destroyed.
They refuse to grant others the rights which they demand for them-
selves ; so all questions which regard the material welfare of the nation
are sidetracked. Mexico still suffers as she has suffered for fifty years.
How can the Catholics of Mexico yield? They are not asking for
rights which they refuse to grant to their neighbors. Are they wrong in
their uncompromising attitude? They have already yielded in every
non-essential. They do not ask the return of their old confiscated prop-
erty. They do not ask a reunion of Church and State. They do not ask
for special privileges. They simply ask for the essentials — recognition
of their Church's right to exist, to preach, to teach, to administer the
Sacraments, and to hold such property as is necessary for the endowment
of her charities and her educational establishments. With her it is a
fight for life, for liberty to perform her duties. She can not accept laws
aimed at these rights, at the sanctity of her priesthood and at her freedom
to do acts of charity. Immortal souls are at stake. There is and there
can be no further compromise under such conditions.

On the other hand, there is no reason why the Church should be asked
to compromise. What she demands is only what our President himself,
with his high ideals, would say that a pure democracy gives her a natural
right to demand. She has the right to exist. She has the right to min-
ister, and the right to have and to hold what individual free men have
consecrated to her service.

For fifty years, upheld by sword and gun, the minority of Mexico
has denied the majority its freedom of worship ; has interfered with the
religious liberty of individuals; has coined their meekness into gold.
They have been doing this in the name of " democracy " ; so for fifty
years there has been no peace in Mexico. Education has been neglected.
Agrarian and economic sicknesses have cried out in vain for treatment.
Treasuries of successive governments have been looted. Theft has been
bold and open ; and now comes murder, more robbery, lust and sacrilege.
Why? Because fundamentally the whole fabric of Mexican democracy
is wrong. It was built on tyranny of the worst kind — tyranny over

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 91

men's consciences. The foundation-stone is oppression of the people in
the enjoyment of natural rights. You can not tinker with such a struc-
ture. You can not improve it so that it will last, unless that false base is
pulled out and replaced by justice full and free, by acknowledging the
right of the individual to worship God as his conscience tells him to
worship Him.

That is the crux of the Mexican difficulty. Here is the thing that
needs to be changed. If the United States is to help Mexico to peace and
prosperity, the only means the United States has is to point out the funda-
mental defect; and to insist, now that we have intervened in Mexican
affairs, that the cause for future intervention, because of the certainty of
future strife in Mexico, must be permanently removed. When the
Catholics of the United States ask our Government to refuse recognition
to any Mexican government which denies these basic repairs to the
Mexican governmental structure, the Catholics of the United States are,
at the same time, putting into the President's hands the power to insist
upon something which will make his name a future benediction in Mexico :
and which will make the American name honored and loved instead of
hated and despised, as it is now. Every one in Mexico thinks that we
have stirred up religious strife. The Constitutionalists have killed because
they believed the shedding of the blood of priests and nuns would be
approved in the United States. They do not stop to consider that Ameri-
cans can not approve for Mexico what they hate in their own country.

But is the Church responsible, at least partially, by holding possessions
which stirred up the cupidity of men ? Even if it were true, that would
be no extenuation of robbery. That the victim is rich does not excuse
the thief ; for the crime does not lie with the robbed, but with the robber.
Circumstances may influence the degree of guilt, but not the fact of the
crime. Did the Church receive her goods unlawfully? No one claims
that she did. The full indictment is that she possessed them. Is that
sufficient reason for spoliation? If it is, why do we not enter into a career
of spoliation ourselves? Why not rob, as I already pointed out, the
endowments of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Chicago, Creighton, St. Louis,
Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and the other imiversities of this country which
are endowed? Their combined endowments must certainly represent
more than all the wealth that was ever held for the combined religious,
charitable and educational works of the Church of Mexico. Why not rob
Mr. Rockefeller, who individually has more money than a biased writer
on Mexico, Professor Noll, charges that the whole Catholic Church pos-
.sessed? But let that point go. It is fifty years since the Church in
Mexico has had property. For the last fifty years she practically has had
none. The Laws of Reform robbed her. She can not hold property
except in the name of individuals, who may turn around and take it from

92 THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW

her. When the Constitutionalists charged, as an excuse for their crimes,
that the Church had given $20,000,000 to Huerta, they charged that the
Church had given far more money than the combined efforts of all her
bishops could have raised in ten years. What wealth she had, at any time,
came through the self-sacrifice and labor of thousands of her religious
men and women, who took for their part poverty, in order that religion
might have the means to teach and minister. Recall to mind the stories
told of the fabulous wealth of the Church in the Philippine Islands ; yet
when the friar lands were purchased by the United States, they were
found to be worth only $7,000,000. That $7,000,000 represented the
savings of ten thousand missionaries, who had nothing for themselves
but their food and clothes, and who died penniless through a period of
three hundred years. Recently France confiscated the " millions " of the
Church. When the spoil was counted up, the government had only
$2,000,000.

Yes, it may be urged, but the Church has spent much money to decorate
her shrines. She has silver and gold and precious stones. That is very
true, but she can not use such wealth. The silver and gold and the
precious stones are the free offerings of the people, who look upon them
as the possessions of their own particular towns or villages, and jealously
guard them. For example, in Oaxaca there is a shrine rich in pearls.
Every pearl came from a pearl fisherman; and these very fishermen
themselves to-day have hidden them away, in fear of the spoliation of
their own gifts. What help is it to the Church of Mexico, in a financial
way, that the shrines have been enriched by the people ? Why charge the
Church with having abundant wealth when she has no more power to
touch it than the State has — even less ? Some time ago an American
millionaire said to me : " Why does not the Church in Milan sell the
silver, gold and precious stones around the tomb of St. Charles and use
the money for missionary and educational purposes?" I recalled to his
remembrance the uniformed government officers standing all around the
wonderful cathedral — government guards over wealth that is looked
upon as the property of the nation, not of the Church. Thoughtless
people affect to be scandalized at the riches of the Church, but in reality
the Church owns none of these things. A few years ago it was suggested
that the Pope present a work of art from the Vatican galleries to an
Emperor. In the Italian Chamber of Deputies the Prime Minister, Crispi,
arose and stated that the Pope could do no such thing ; that the Church
was only the guardian of these works of art ; that they really belonged to
the nation, and that the nation would take them when she desired a new
guardian.

4*

THE BOOK OF RED AND YELLOW 93

For fifty years the Church in Mexico has been poor, living on the offer-
ings of her people, just as the different Protestant churches in America
live on the offerings they receive. Now she is told by the Constitutionalists
that she can not longer accept even these little offerings. They proclaim
that she must no longer teach or preach, dry the tear of sorrov^, bind up
the wounds of suft'ering, protect her orphans, or sooth the pillow of the
sick. The men who say this ask our nation to uphold them in their tyranny,
ask us to put the stamp of our approval on what we know to be a crime
against democracy — and John Lind helps them.

We can have pennanent peace in Mexico, but we can not have it on the
basis outlined by Mr. Lind. We can have it only on the basis that every
thoughtful American knows is the one and only and just basis. The
religious issue must be taken out of politics; and then politics will be
allowed to work for the industrial upbuilding of the country. I don't care
who governs Mexico ; the Catholics of the United States don't care ; but
what we do care about is hoWj whoever governs, will act in this matter of
keeping fifteen million unarmed people from their religious and natural
rights at the behest of a quarter of a million bandits, with guns supplied
by English and American commercial interests, having no thought of any
man's rights " so long as they can fill their dirty pockets."

The persecutors may buy the silence or encouragement of every paper
in the United States as they have already bought plenty of them ; they may
pull the wool over the eyes of a dozen editors of religious weeklies, as
they have already done with some ; they may land on every wire that con-
nects with a secret lodge, and drag thousands unknowingly into the evil ;
they may spend millions to " reach " the officials at Washington and keep
them fed on lies ; they may play on the political " loyalty " of every office-
seeker or officeholder in the nation; they may slander through the pens
of a thousand Linds and abuse through the mouths of a million Hales and
Sillimans ; but — they shall not with the silence of sixteen million Catholic
Americans fasten anew on a devoted people the shackles of religious
persecution.

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