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DEC C 19 19
THE CONSPIRACY
AGAINST MEXICO
ARTHUR THOMSON
Bancroft Library
DEC C 1919
THE CONSPIRACY
AGAINST MEXICO
By ARTHUK THOMSON
icroft Library DEC C
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST
MEXICO
ARTHUR THOMSON
That there is a conspiracy against Mexico is plainly evident to
all who even in a very superficial manner have studied the facts. The
cry of Wall Street and its kept press is for intervention by the United
States and subsequent annexation to this country. The American
financial powers are unanimous in demanding that the "unsettled
state of affairs below the Rio Grande cease." Their representatives
in Congress have voiced their opinions in no uncertain terms that
intervention is necessary if American Big Business is to survive in
Mexico. British oil and other interests are likewise of an opinion
that United States troops must go into Mexico and clean up things
so as to make it safe for Capital. The American oil octopus in Mexico
has been plotting for some time and is still at it.
Now what are the facts concerning Mexico? Is it governed by
bandits, as one paper says, and "devastated by the clashing interests
of a half-dozen cut-throat leaders?" Are the people too ignorant and
incapable of self-rule? Was the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz a bless-
ing in disguise for the peons and a necessity under the circumstances?
Is it necessary for the United States to intervene and either establish
a "real government" or else annex the country? These are questions
which are frequently discussed and which we propose to answer
according to the facts made known by unbiased, truth-loving investi-
gators and not according to the "facts" of petroleum-smelling and
other propagandists with an axe to grind.
So that we may properly understand the events of recent years in
Mexico, let us go back one hundred years or so to the time when
Mexico, or Nueva Espana, as it was then known, was ruled by Spain.
MEXICO ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
Prior to its independence Mexico was ruled for three hundred
years by Spain. "Society," say the writers of one book, "was divided
into three strata. At the lop stood the privileged Spanish class of big
land-owners, comprising the Church and Aristocracy. This class
dominated the entire life of the country, and used the government
and army merely as a means to maintain their supremacy. Far below
tfcm la<y the small and insignificant middle class of mixed Spanish
4 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO
and native Mood the intellectuals, petty professionals, and merchants,
who crawled at the feet of the wealthy in the ever-present fear of
being trampled upon and flung into the common servitude
Far below the middle class again, and in the deepest misery and
degradation, were the toilers of the soil the natives, Aztecs, Toltecs,
Mayas, and other allied races immensely outnumbering the two
other classes, but powerless in their ignorance and disorganization."
("The Mexican People their struggle for Freedom," by L. Gutierrez
De Lara & Edgcumb Pinchon.)
The land was in the hands of a very few. The Church of Rome
was the greatest land-owner, with the Spanish landed aristocracy next.
Bancroft in his "History of Mexico," vol. 13, p. 704, says the clergy
"made the natives toil for them without payment." There were no
schools for the peons. If ill "there were for them but two or three
miserable hospitals in all Mexico, and in these they did but only die
of starvation and mistreatment."
THE REVOLUTION OF INDEPENDENCE
"By the year 1808 conditions in colonial Mexico had become so
intolerable for the great mass of people that revolutionary symptoms
began to appear simultaneously in all parts of the country" ("Mexican
People"). On September 15, 1810, revolution broke out in Dolores,
State of Guanajuato, headed by the revolutionary priest Miguel
Hidalgo. It was "essentially an agrarian revolution." For the peons
it was a struggle for the ownership of the land and not merely for
political change. As far as the peons were concerned the revolution
failed. The trinity of privilege in Mexico the Church. Army and
Aristocracy succeeded in sidetracking the agrarian revolution of the
toilers of the soil and making of it one for mere political change.
After ten years struggle Independence from Spain was accomplished,
but instead of it being Independence and the Land, for which the
peons under Hidalgo and Mcrelos had struggled, it became Independ-
ence and Privilege. The trinity of privilege still held the reins of
power, and "in the fields toiled the peons, still tilling the land from
dawn till dusk, under the lash of the master, still enduring the pangs
of hunger and the darkness of ignorance and now, sunk in unspeak-
able despair before the wreck of all their high hopes."
"The Monitor," official organ of the Archdiocese of San Francisco,
in its issue of August 23, 1919, says: "Mexico has never been a real
republic or enjoyed democratic institutions since the overthrow of
the Spanish Government at the beginning of last century. It has
experienced revolution after revolution and government by bandits
during the last one hundred years. The only times of stable govern-
ment were when autocrats like Diaz ruled with a rod of iron and
kept the bandits down."
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 5
CATHOLIC CHURCH INTRIGUES
Yes, for the last one hundred years Mexico has experienced revolu-
tion after revolution, but why? This organ of the Catholic Church
neglected to tell its readers the part played by the clergy during that
period. Nothing is said about the clerical intrigues for the establish-
ment of a monarchy, after the war with the United States, the bringing
about of which the Church played a leading part in Mexico. The
intrigues of the Catholic Church in Mexico were also largely respons-
ible for the Texas war in 1835. If the hand of the Church had been
kept off the revolution in 1810 Mexico would probably not have "ex-
perienced revolution after revolution during the last one hundred
years." Study Mexican history for the last century and you will find
the Catholic Church intriguing to establish a monarchy with Lucas
Alaman, the "man of the black brains," as the leader of the con-
spiracy. You will find the clergy inviting foreign intervention in order
to hold their power over the peons. The French intervention of 1861-
65 was partly on behalf of the Catholic Church. You will also find
the clergy preaching sedition, intriguing in all manners to keep their
power over the peons and to maintain the privileges of the Church,
making and unmaking governments, and ever siding with the ex-
ploiters and oppressors of the working people. "Out of the cloisters
sprang all the cuartelazos which had flayed the common people; out
of the cloisters sprang all the misery and poverty of the common
people, their degradation and national disgrace."
The recent revolution in Mexico, 1910-14, was, as in the case of
the Revolution of Independence, an agrarian revolution. The demo-
cratization of the land was its central purpose. In the recent revolu-
tion the peons called themselves Constitutionalists, that is, their plan
was to restore the Constitution of 1857. This is one of the most dem-
ocratic constitutions ever estabished in any country. It meant the
emancipation of the peons and tha end of exploitation and oppression
of the Mexican toilers. A reading of its articles leaves one with a
realization that those responsible for its formulation were anything
but "ignorant Indians incapable of self-government." Under Juarez
this constitution was put into effect as fully as possible with an in-
triguing Church and other interests, both domestic and foreign, to
contend with.
THE CONSTITUTION OF 1857
"The Constitution of 1857 is the exact expression of the aspira-
tions of the Mexican people as distinguished from the Church, Army,
and Aristocracy ... It is the first Constitution of the People, the
first expression of a pure democracy as opposed to a bogus democ-
racy, the first national enunciator of the principle that the foundation
of all social institutions is the Rights of Man as directly and unalter-
ably opposed to the Rights of Property." (Mexican People.)
In the first article of the Constitution the rights of man are set
forth as the foundation of social institutions: "The Mexican people
6 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO
recognize that the rights of men are the foundation and the purpose
of social institutions. In consequence they proclaim that all the laws
and authorities of the country must respect and sustain the warranties
stipulated by this Constitution."
"In the Republic everyone is born free" so reads the second
article. "The slaves who step into the national territory recover their
liberty by this mere fact, and have the right of the protection of the
law."
In Mexico at this time serfdom prevailed, and this article was
framed to abolish serfdom and free the serfs who were virtually con-
sidered as property of the estates.
The second part of the article referred to the fugitive slaves from
the United States. You will recall that chattel slavery prevailed at
that time in the superior and enlightened Southern States, and this
article was framed to grant freedom to the slaves who dared flee from
their beneficent masters.
The third article declares all education to be free. Later it was
amplified to make education "universal, free, non-sectarian, and com-
pulsory." "The Catholic schools of Mexico were sorry institutions,
and even such rudimentary education as they gave was restricted to
the rich. For the poor there was nothing but the most complete
illiteracy."
Article 4 reads: "Every man is free to adopt the profession, trade,
or work that suits him, it being useful and honest; and to enjoy the
product thereof . . . ."
This article was framed with the view to breaking the bonds of
peonage and recognizing the "right of the people to the enjoyment of
the full product of their labor."
<So terrible had been the experiences of the peons at the hands
of their masters that the Constitution of 1857 was framed with the
purpose of making impossible a repetition of those bitter experiences,
and each article was written with the purpose of abolishing some evil
that cursed the country or declaring some principle or right to be
necessary to a just social order. In the fifth article we read: "No man
shall be compelled to work without his plain consent and without just
compensation. The state will not permit to become effective any
contract, pact or agreement with the purpose of the curtailment, the
loss, or the irrevocable sacrifice of the liberty of any man, may the
cause be for personal labor, education, or religious vows. The law
in consequence does not recognize monastic orders, and will not permit
their establishment, no mutter what may be the denomination or pur-
pose lor. which they pretend to be established. Neither will be per-
mitted a contract or agreement by which a man makes a pact for his
proscription or exile."
"The monastic orders were suppressed 'because bitter experience
had proved them to be an unmitigated evil, the breeding grounds of
sedition, oppression, exploitation, and social depravity. The basic
immorality of a parasitic life further undermined their common integ-
rity and it was a normal consequence that the parasite and sexual
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 7
pervert should become the traitor and the intriguer." ("Mexican
People.")
The right of free speech and press was established by articles
6 and 7. "The liberty of writing and publishing writings upon any
matter in inviolable. No previous censorship nor imposition of bonds
upon the writers nor the publishers for the purpose of curtailing the
freedom of the press can be established by any law or authority, such
freedom being restricted to respect of private life, morals, and public
business." (Article 7.)
Article 13 reads: "In the Mexican Republic no one shall be sub-
jected to private laws nor special courts. No man or corporation shall
enjoy fueros nor receive emoluments unless they : be a compensation
for public services and already fixed by law."
In Mexico at that time the ecclesiastical and military authorities
considered themselves immune from the civil law and they acted
accordingly. For forty-seven years previous to this time ecclesiastical
and military fueros had cursed the country hence this article abol-
ishing them.
"No man shall receive emoluments," was written in this article in
order to abolish the rents, tributes, tithings, and taxes which the clergy
received from the poor and "also the universal practice of the clergy
of extorting the last ceatavo from the dying peon and his superstitious
relatives under threat of the law, and the still more terrifying threat
of refusing the last unction."
By Article 27 the vast illicit holdings of the Church were put at
the disposal of the people: "... Religious corporations and institu-
tions, no matter of what denomination, character, durability, or pur-
pose, and civil corporations when under the patronage, direction, or
superintendency of religious institutions, or ministers of any cult,
shall not have the legal capacity to acquire or manage any real estate
except the buildings which are used immediately and directly for the
services of the said institutions; neither will the law recognize any
mortgage on any property held by these institutions."
Article 28 reads: "State and Church are independent. Congress
cannot make any law establishing or forbidding any religion. . . ."
PRIVILEGE AND THE CONSTITUTION
"From the moment when this Constitution was proclaimed the
peons began to take full advantage of it" and the Church and Army
began to fight it. According to the Catholic historian Zamacois, "The
Archbishop of Mexico, Don Lazaro de la Garza, announced in circulars
sent to the bishops a few days after the order for the taking of the
oath (Secretary of the Interior's order to all government employees
8 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO
to take the oath of obedience) had been given, that since the articles
of this Constitution were inimical to the institution, doctrine, and rites
of the Catholic Church neither the clergymen nor laymen could take
this oath under any pretext whatever . In view of this communication
the bishops of all the dioceses sent circulars to their respective country
vicars and the parish curates, and to the other ecclesiastics, inform-
ing them, First: That it was not lawful to swear allegiance to the
Constitution because its articles were contrary to the institution,
doctrine and rites of the Catholic Church. Second: That this com-
munication must be made public, and copies of it distributed as widely
as possible; and that they must notify the government of their action."
(Zamacois, "Historia de Mejico.")
"To a devoutly Catholic population these orders were disturbing
enough. Torn between their opposing political and religious beliefs,
they hesitated and fell into the utmost confusion. Even so, political
good sense undoubtedly would have won the day in the teeth of the
Church had not a tremendous mandate come to them from the Pope
of Rome, the vicar of Christ on earth, to disobey utterly and com-
pletely all the commands of the impious Liberal government "
("Mexican People"). This long document from Pope Pius IX con-
cludes as follows: "Thus we make known to the faith in Mexico, and
to the Catholic universe, that we energetically condemn every decree
that the Mexican Government has enacted against the Catholic re-
ligion, against the Church, and her sacred ministers and pastors,
against her laws, rights, and property, and also against the authority
of this Holy See. We raise our Pontifical Voice with apostolic freedom
before you to condemn, reprove, and declare null, void, and without
any value, the said decrees, and all others which have been enacted
by the civil authorities in such contempt of the ecclesiastical author-
ity of this Holy See, and with such injury to the religion, to the sacred
pastors, and illustrious men. For this we command that those who
have contributed to the fulfillment of the said decrees by action, ad-
vice, or command shall seriously meditate upon the penalties and
censures imposed by the apostolic constitutions, and by the canons
of the councils against the violators of sacred persons and things,
against the violators of the ecclesiastical liberty and power, and
against the usurpers of the rights of this Holy See." ("Mexico a traves
de los Siglos," vol. 5, p. 226.)
"The papal mandate fell like a bomb upon the people of Mexico."
"The Pope's mandate, as we have seen, was no half-hearted affair. On
the contrary it condemned to destruction the whole glorious edifice
of human liberty reared at the cost of such tremendous sacrifice in
the Constitution of 1857."
The Constitution took effect on Sept. 16, 1857, and the "next day
Felix Zuloaga, the commander-in-chief of the army, headed a powerful
cuartelazo against the government, proclaiming that the constitution
was not acceptable to the nation, and that it was therefore abrogated.
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 9
..." The fight against the government forces raged for two days
in Mexico City. "Then, as in the revolt of 1847, the friars patrolled
the trenches of the revolting soldiery, exciting them to the fight; then,
as in that other epoch, the clergy paid the wages of the troops, and
their agents were bribing the officers of the government that swelled
the ranks of the enemy. The city was deserted ; at night time the only
light was the blaze of the artillery fire and the sinister flashing of
the bombs; in every street there were (breastworks, and from every
door came forth the groans of the dying and the moans ofi the
wounded." (Gustavo Baz, "Vida de Juarez.")
"The reaction was victorious in the capital, and the wickedness of
one man and the ambitions of others had provoked a civil war that
was destined to last until the extermination of one of the contending
factions. The joyous clamoring of the bells, the majestic music of
the Te Deum, the rejoicing of the Clericals everywhere, and the
drunkenness of the soldiery, welcomed that victory of fraud, ambition,
and reaction . . . ." (Gustavo Baz.)
Shortly after this, however, Benito Juarez, the representative of
the people as against the forces of reaction and privilege, was recog-
nized by Congress as lawful President, he having been President of
the Supreme Court and Vice-President of the Republic.
Now began again the struggle between the trinity of privilege and
the masses; oppressor against oppressed. "On one side were the revo-
lutionists, armed with ihe. buckler of legal power and ready to shed
their blood for freedom of thought and speech, for the suppression of
the monasteries, the confiscation of the ecclesiastical estates, the sup-
port of the civil power as the only recognized authority in society, and
for the upholding of the complete equality of men and liberty and civil-
ization of the Republic. On the other side were the Clergy and the
Army banded together to re-establish a government born of treason
and mutiny, to re-enforce all the abuses that were left as a legacy to
Mexico by the colonial regime, and to proclaim as invulnerable and
divine rights the rule of the clergy, the army fueros, and the inviola-
bility of the Church estates, and damning as heresy the freedom of
conscience and the equality of men.
"The revolution was a genuine social revolution; it was a struggle
to overthrow many years of deeply entrenched interests, three cen-
turies of prejudice, and ideas as old as the world, as old as fanaticism
and liberty. The programme of the one element was to destroy in
order to create; the programme of the other to conserve in order to
destroy." (Gustavo Baz, "Vida de Juarez.")
In 1861 the Constitutionalist Army entered Mexico City and on
January Hth of that year Juarez and his cabinet re-established con-
stitutional rule in Mexico. And this in spite of papal bulls and ex-
communications by the clergy!
10 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO
But this young democracy was a challenge to the capitalism of
the world it had to be destroyed!
"On the llth of June, 1861, Juarez was proclaimed constitutional
President of Mexico, and on the 31st of October of the same year,
France, England and Spain signed a contract in London pledging
themselves to a joint invasion of Mexico for the purpose of over-
throwing the constitutional government, and establishing in its place
a monarchy, supported by bayonets." ("Mexican People.")
"On the 2nd of January, 1862, the fleets of the three allies entered
the harbor of Vera Cruz." Finally, after Juarez had officially recog-
nized the financial claims against Mexico by the allies, England and
Spain withdrew from the intervention, but the French remained.
Maximilian, an Austrian prince, was offered the emperorship of Mexico
by Napoleon III of France, and on Decemlber 12, 1864, he entered
Mexico City.
After playing into the hands of the trinity of privilege Maximilian
was imprisoned and later shot on May 19, 1867. And on July 15, 1867,
President Juarez, with his cabinet, entered Mexico City. Intervention
was at an end, and now began the work of reconstruction.
PORFIRIO DIAZ THE DESPOILER
Many eulogists of Porfirio Diaz and his system have sought to
make the people of America believe that . Diaz was the "Maker of
Mexico," and the strong man needed to keep an ignorant Indian popu-
lation in order. Under Diaz, they say, the country was at peace, the
bandits were kept down, capital was safe, and the country prospered.
Yes, but at what a price! Capitalism is materialism, and these wor-
shipers at the shrine of mammon never for a moment consider the
human side of the picture. Far from being the maker of Mexico, Diaz
was its Despoiler. Under Diaz and his upholders, the same old trinity
of privilege we have seen before, together with foreign speculators
and concessionists, slavery thrived, and conditions for the peons were
perhaps more intolerable than during the colonial period with its
Inquisition and other horrors. But the country prospered, we are told!
Capital was safe, and foreigners did not have to keep awake nights
fearing that the coming of dawn would find them dispossessed. Now,
let us look at the other side of the picture and see the condition of
the toilers under this most beneficent regime of Porfirio Diaz.
After the Ayutla Revolution, which broke out in 1854, and which
gave to Mexico the Constitution of 1857, many of the peons became
independent farmers. During the agrarian democracy of 1867-76, a
million peons became farmers upon their own land. Education was
fostered. The building of the national railroads was started. Juarez
"aimed at the national construction, ownership, and operation of all
the means of transportation and communication within the country."
That curse of modern Mexico, the foreign speculator and concessionist,
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 11
was shut out. Mexico was saved from the landed aristocracy, the
military despots, and the clutches of the Catholic Church for a time!
But what was the cause of the setback of this young democracy?
Why did it not grow and thrive? Why were the high and noble hopes
of the peons crushed? This young thing that had been inspired by the
Spirit and religion of liberty, equality and fraternity, that had dared
to stay the hand of oppression and exploitation, that had tasted the
sunshine and glory of the new day, met with a violent death. To Diaz
and his soldiery, representing international capitalism American,
British and French railroad and industrial speculators and concession-
seekers must be laid the responsibility for the death of the develop-
ing agrarian democracy.
Porfirio Diaz was a military officer under Juarez. Seeing that he
would make a willing tool, those interested in exploiting the labor and
resources of Mexico helped Diaz to overthrow the constitutionalist
rule and establish himself as dictator of the country. In 1876 the Diaz
cuartelazo took place and triumphed, not because of its strength -or
popularity, but because of the fear of the people of United States
intervention. "Thus we have Porfirio Diaz President of Mexico by the
grace of American Big Business through the immediate instrumental-
ity of an unpopular army revolt, and as a direct result of the national
fear of United States intervention. Consequently, from the day of his
entry into Mexico City in 1876, to the day of his flight to Paris in
1910, thirty-four years (ater, Diaz was supported POSITIVELY by the
psychological power of the clergy and the subsidized press, by the
physical power of the Army, and by the economic power of the United
States and Europe; NEGATIVELY by the impotence of the people in
face of an ever impending United States invasion." ("Mexican
People.")
During the dictatorship of Diaz the people something like two
millions were evicted from their lands. Peonage was re-established
and wage slavery was of the most abject character.
EVICTION OF THE SMALL FARMERS
Mexico certainly prospered under Diaz for the few, the land-
owners, speculators and concessionists. The following paragraphs from
"The Mexican People" illustrate the methods of Diaz and his soldiery
in evicting the small farmers from their lands and turning it over to
the big landowners and so making the country prosperous!
"One day (in 1885) a party of surveyors appeared in the valley
(Papantla in the State of Vera Cruz) with their transits. The people
knew only too well the meaning of this invasion, and, filled with fore-
boding, they protested to the surveyors that they had no desire to have
their lands measured even if the government had ordered it, for those
lands were their private property by the warranty of the Constitution.
The surveyors persisted and the next day appeared with a posse of
rurales. Again the people protested, but this time they were silenced
12 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO
by force, and in the clash that ensued, several lives were lost on
both sides.
"Pour days later a force consisting of several thousand rurales
and a division of the army entered the valley and began the system-
atic extermination of the population. How many were killed will
never be known. About ten years ago in the course of our investi-
gations we visited this valley and endeavored to elicit some details
of the affair from the people. Neither man, woman, nor child could
be induced to say a word, because already a number of them had met
death, banishment, imprisonment, and flogging for even speaking of it.
In spite of this dumbness of the people, however, we obtained inde-
pendent proof that for fifteen days the slaughter never ceased, that
not a man escaped alive, that only a remnant of women and children
were spared, and that the task of burying the dead was so great that
a month after the air for miles around the valley was unbreathable
owing to the stench of the thousands of putrefying corpses. Today
this whole region, where once twenty thousand peaceable, industrious
folk obtained a prosperous living; from the soil, belongs to a single
rich family.
"In Nuevo Leon, one of those states which by reason of its great
agrarian strength had managed to retain a certain independence, the
local government endeavored to protect the people in the possession
of their lands. The speculators, however, were not to be balked of
their prey. Accordingly Diaz, at their behest, dispatched an over-
whelming force into the state, overthrew the authorities and again
accomplished the wholesale eviction of the people from their lands.
"The natives of Nuevo Leon, however some of the best fighting
stock in Mexico violently resisted the government troops, and Diaz
in order to quell them was compelled to resort once more to the threat
of inviting United States intervention. The ruse was entirely suc-
cessful. Washington dispatched troops to the border, and the people
abandoned the fight, choosing to submit to wholesale eviction from
their farms rather than incur a new violation of the fatherland.
"Following the dispossessions of Papantla and Nuevo Leon, the
entire State of Chihuahua passed from the possession of hundreds of
thousands of small farmers into the possession of two or three families
under the leadership of one man today (under Diaz) the largest cattle
owner in the world "
The entire Isthmus of Tehuantepec under Diaz belonged to what
was known as the Pearson syndicate, headed by Wheetman D. Pearson,
now Lord Cowdray probably knighted by the British Government for
his great work of exploiting the resources and labor of Mexico!
"The clergy had a prominent position at the banquet
Indeed, never had the Church prospered as it had under Diaz. Not
only were the clergy given a prominent share in the Mexican debt
operations, and thus enabled again to possess themselves of vast land
holdings, but immense concessions of the richest lands in Mexico were
given them from time to time in such quantities, indeed, that the
Church in Mexico owns more land today (under Diaz) than at any
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 13
timo since the Conquest." ("Mexican People.") And this in spite of
article 27 of the Constitution of 1857, which forbids "religious corpora-
tions or institutions, no matter of what denomination" from having a
"legal capacity to acquire or manage any real estate except the
buildings which are used immediately and directly for the services
of the said institutions." The law of December 14, 1874, is also
similar to this.
Says Enriquez in his biography of Diaz: "General Diaz is the head
of the Freemasons in Mexico. He is of the thirty-third degree and
Grand Commander for life. At the same time he is the invisible head
of the Catholic Church, its arch-protector and its director, influencing
indirectly the appointment of bishops and archbishops, and the crea-
tion of new dioceses of archbishoprics." (Zayas Enriques, "Porfirio
Diaz.')
To those who desire a first-hand inside story of conditions for
the toilers in Mexico under Diaz just previous to the revolution of
1910, I recommend John Kenneth Turner's book "Barbarous Mexico."
Says the author: "The real Mexico I found to be a country with a
written constitution and written laws in general almost as fair and
democratic as our own, but with neither constitution nor laws in
operation. Mexico is a country without political freedom, without
freedom of speech, without a free press, without a free ballot, without
a jury system, without political parties, without any of our cherished
guarantees of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is a land
where there has been no contest for the office of president for more
than a generation, where the executive rules all things by means of a
standing army, where political offices are sold for a fixed price. 1
found Mexico to be a land where the people are poor because they
have no rights, where peonage is the rule for the great mass, and
where actual chattel slavery obtains for hundreds of thousands." This
was Mexico under Porfirio Diaz, "president" of Mexico by grace of
American Big Business! Do you wonder the slaves, the peons,
revolted?
YUCATAN SLAVERY
During the dictatorship of Diaz thousands of Yaqui Indians of
Sonora were evicted from their lands and transported to the slave
pens of the Yucatan henequen, or sisal hemp, plantations. These
plantations were owned by about fifty henequen kings and were
worked by about one hundred and fifty thousand slaves, Yaquis,
Koreans, and native Mayas, or as the planters called them to get
around the law which forbade slavery, "laborers in enforced service
for debt." "But the fact that is was not service for debt was proven
by the habit of transferring the slaves from one master to another, not
on any basis of debt, but on the basis of the market price of a man."
Writing in "Barbarous Mexico," John Kenneth Turner has the
following to say about the slavery of Yucatan as it existed when Diaz
was in power in Mexico:
14 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO
"How are the slaves recruited? ... It is very easy,' one planter
told me. 'All that is necessary is that you get some free laborer in
debt to you, and then you have him. Yes, we are always getting new
laborers in that way.'
"The amount of debt does not matter, so long as it is a debt, and
the little transaction is arranged by men who combine the functions
of money lender and slave broker. Some of them have offices in
Merida and they get the free laborers, clerks, and the poorer class of
people generally into debt, just as professional loan sharks of America
get clerks, mechanics, and office men into debt by playing on their
needs and tempting them. . . .
"These money-lending slave brokers of Merida do not hang out
signs and announce to the world that they have slaves to sell. They
do their business quietly, as people who are comparatively safe in
their occupation, but as people who do not wish to endanger their
business by too great publicity like police-protected gambling houses
in an American city, for example. . . .
"These men buy and sell slaves. And the planters buy and sell
slaves. I was offered slaves in lots of one up by the planters. I was
told that I could buy a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, or a thousand
of any of them, to do with them exactly as I wished, that the police
would protect me in my possession of these, my fellow beings. Slaves
are not only used on the henequen plantations, but in the city as per-
sonal servants, as laborers, as household drudges, as prostitutes. How
many of these persons there are in the city of Merida I do not know,
though I heard many stories of the absolute power exercised over
them. Certainly the number is several thousand. . . .
"Why do the henequen kings call their system enforced service
for debt instead of by its right name? Probably for two reasons
because the system is the outgrowth of a milder system of actual
service for debt, and because of the prejudice against the word slavery,
both among Mexicans and foreigners. Service for debt in a milder
form than is found in Yucatan exists all over Mexico and is called
peonage. Under this system, police authorities everywhere recognize
the right of an employer to take the body of a laborer who is in debt
to him, and to compel the laborer to work out the debt. Of course, once
the employer can compel the laborer to work, he can compel him to
work at his own terms, and that means that he can work him on such
terms as will never permit the laborer to extricate himself from his
debt. . . .
"The slaves of Yucatan get no money. They are half-starved.
They are worked almost to death. They are beaten. A large per-
centage of them are locked up every night in a house resembling a
jail. If they are sick, they must still work, and if they are so sick that,
it is impossible for them to work, they are seldom permitted the ser-
vices of a physician. The women are compelled to marry, compelled
to marry men of their own plantation only, and sometimes are com-
pelled to marry certain men not of their choice. There are no schools
for the children. Indeed, the entire lives of these people are ordered
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 15
at the whim of a master, and if the master wishes to kill them, he
may do so with impunity. I heard numerous stories of slaves being
beaten to death, but I never heard of an instance in which the mur-
derer was punished, or even arrested. The police, the public pros-
ecutors, and the judges know exactly what is expected of them, for
the men wLo appoint them are the planters themselves. . . ."
Now this is all changed. Slavery and peonage have been abolished
in Yucatan by the people who rebelled against the tyranny of the
wonderful "maker" of Mexico, and one of the most progressive govern-
ments in Mexico has been set up.
Those who defend Porfirio Diaz and his system don't tell you about
these things. They don't speak of how the government of Diaz set
about to exterminate the Yaquis of Sonora; of how the government
deported them to Yucatan, and how the authorities utilized the money
derived from their sale into slavsry. No, Diaz, they tell us, was the
maker of Mexico; the country prospered under him and doubtless
many of them wish another Diaz would come along and give them
back privileges taken from them by the Constitutionalists.
John Kenneth Turner reports the following statement made to
him by Colonel Francisco B. Cruz of Diaz's army relative to the selling
of the Yaquis into slavery in Yucatan:
"In the past three and one-half years I have delivered just fifteen
thousand seven hundred Yaquis in Yucatan delivered, mind you, for
you must remember that the government never allows me enough
expense money to feed them properly, and from ten to twenty per
cent die on the journey.
"These Yaquis sell in Yucatan for $65 apiece men, women, and
children. Who gets the money? Well, $10 goes to me for my ser-
vices. The rest is turned over to the Secretary of War. This, how-
ever, is orly a drop in the bucket, for I know this to be a fact, that
every foot of land, every building, every cow, every burro, everything
left behind by the Yaquis when they are carried away by the soldiers,
is appropriated for the private use of authorities of the State of
Sonora." ("Barbarous Mexico.")
Let it be understood that the slavery in Mexico under Diaz was
not only the concern of Mexican landowners. Americans, and others,
also were interested in slavery. "Americans work the slaves buy
them, drive them, lock them up at night, beat them, kill them, exactly
as do other employers of labor in Mexico. And they admit that they
do these things. In my possession are scores of admissions by Amer-
ican planters that they employ labor which is essentially slave labor.
All over the tropical section of Mexico, on the plantations of rubber,
sugar cane, tropical fruits everywhere you will find Americans
buying, imprisoning, killing slaves." ("Barbarous Mexico.")
16 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO %
THE MEXICO OF TODAY
Now let us consider the Mexico of today. Having revolted and
once more established constitutional rule, democratized the land,
abolished slavery and peonage, and established freedom of press and
speech, the people of Mexico once more find themselves face to face
with threatened intervention.
One of the schemes of the interventionists is to try to make people
believe that the present constitution of Mexico, known as the Consti-
tution of 1917, is in no way related to the Constitution of 1857, but is
a new one, framed mainly with the purpose of confiscating all prop-
erty supposedly belonging to foreigners, Americans in particular. The
Constitution of 1917 is an evolution of that of 1857; it is a modification
and an enlargement of the Constitution of 1857. It was written with
the blood and tears of the oppressed and exploited peons of Mexico,
and it is without a doubt the most democratic and humanitarian
document in the western hemisphere; in fact, outside of Soviet
Russia no country in the world has taken such a step toward real
liberty.
The principal articles of the Constitution of 1917 are similar to
those of the Constitution of 1857. What should especially interest
the workers of this and other countries, aside from the principal
articles, is the great attention given to labor and social welfare by
the 1917 Constitution. Under Article 123 we find the following:
"I Eight hours shall ibe the maximum limit of a day's work.
"II The maximum limit of night work shall be seven hours.
Unhealthy and dangerous occupations are forbidden to all women and
to children under sixteen years of age. Nightwork in factories is
likewise forbidden to women and to children under sixteen years of
age; nor shall they be employed in commercial establishments after
ten o'clock at night.
"Ill The maximum limit of a day's work for children over twelve
and under sixteen years of age shall be six hours. The work of
children under twelve years of age cannot be made the object of a
contract.
"IV Every workman shall enjoy at least one day's rest for every
six days' work.
"V Women shall not perform any physical work requiring con-
siderable physical effort during the three months immediately pre-
ceding parturition; during the month following parturition they shall
necessarily enjoy a period of rest and shall receive their salaries or
wages in full and retain their employment and the rights they may
have acquired under their contracts. During the period of lactation
they shall enjoy two extraordinary daily periods of rest of one-half
hour each in order to nurse their children.
Library
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 17
"VI The minimum wage to be received by a workman shall be
that considered sufficient,. . . to satisfy the normal needs of the life
of the workman, his education and his lawful pleasures. . . .
"VII The same compensation shall be paid for the same work
without regard to sex or nationality.
"XI When owing to special circumstances it becomes necessary
to increase the working hours there shall be paid as wages for the
overtime one hundred per cent more than those fixed for regular time.
In no case shall the overtime exceed three hours nor continue for
more than three consecutive days; and no women, of whatever age,
nor boys under sixteen) years of age, -may engage in overtime work.
"XII In every agricultural, industrial, mining or similar class of
work employers are bound to furnish their workmen comfortable and
sanitary dwelling-places for which they may charge rents not exceed-
ing one-half of one per cent per month of the assessed value of the
properties. They shall likewise establish schools, dispensaries, and
other services necessary to the community. . . .
"XIII Furthermore ,there shall be set aside in these labor centers,
whenever their population exceeds two hundred inhabitants, a space
of land not less than five thousand square meters for the establish-
ment of public markets, and the construction of buildings designed
for municipal services and places of amusement. No saloons nor
gambling houses shall be permitted in such labor centers.
"XIV Employers shall be liable for labor accidents and occu-
pational diseases arising from work; therefore employers shall pay
the proper indemnity. . . .
"XV Employers shall be bound to observe in the installation of
their establishments all the provisions of law regarding hygiene and
sanitation and to adopt adequate measures to prevent accidents due
to the use of machinery, tools and working materials. . . .
"XXII An employer who discharges a workman without proper
cause or for having joined a union or syndicate or for having taken
part in a lawful strike, shall be bound, at the option of the workman,
either to perform the contract or to indemnify him by the payment of
three months' wages. . . ."
Now, where in these enlightened United States will you find a
state that has laws on its statute books that can favorably compare
with the albove provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917? You
can't find it. Where is there a state in the Union that has the eight-
hour law on its books? Where is there one that gives the woman
worker the deal that the oft-time despised and "ignorant" Mexicans
give her? Tell me where in this country above the Rio Grande a
woman worker gets equal pay for equal work with a man. You can't
18 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO
do it. Thousands and thousands of women in the United States are
occupied in similar work as men and are they getting equal pay-
ment? Most decidedly not. That is why they are oftentimes em-
ployed they can be worked cheaper.
I am not claiming perfection, or anything resembling perfection,
for the Mexican Constitution, nor would any intelligent Mexican claim
such, but I do claim, and I think intelligent and fair-minded Americans
will likewise claim, that the downtrodden, exploited peons of Mexico
have produced a document written with their blood and bitter tears
that surpasses anything and is a greater step towards real liberty of
the People than anything produced by any country on the American
continent. In fact, as mentioned before, Soviet Russia, and also
Soviet Hungary (which was crushed by those who battled for five
years to make the world safe for democracy the imperialistic Allied
Governments) these workers' Soviet republics are the only countries
that have produced Constitutions of. the People, as have also the
Mexican Revolutionists, though not as far advanced as the European
Revolutionists. If the Mexican Constitution has not been put wholly
into effect the cause lies more above the Rio Grande than below it. It
even might have been worded stronger and made more really man-
cipating if the Colossus of the North had not been in the minds of the
framers. If hands are kept off Mexico real social and economic justice
will develop, with the control and ownership of the means of produc-
tion in the hands of the workers all industry in the hands of those
who do the work, for the benefit of all, not a few society being
of such an order that the Rights of Man are supreme and not those of
Property. This the upholders and disciples of capitalism in America
can see, and that is one reason why they demand intervention.
Anything that threatens the Profit System must be crushed! Plutoc-
racy, both European and American, has been touched at its pocket
nerve the reaction from which frequently causes the plutocrat to
see red.
There is an organization of exploiters of Mexican labor and re-
sources, with headquarters in New York City, known as the National
Association for the Protection of American Rights in Mexico. This
association, which should be called the Association for the Spreading
of Lies about Mexico and Preaching of Intervention, issues a bulletin
filled with carefully selected articles of misrepresentation, often un-
signed, and deliberately published with the purpose of inflaming the
people's minds and "educating" them to intervention. This bulletin
they spread broadcast, and their organizers go about the country get-
ting new memibers chiefly from the ranks of the capitalists and their
retainers and pouring their poisonous virus into the minds of the
unwary and those unacquainted with the facts regarding Mexican
affairs.
I have before me a list of members of this association and on the
executive committee we find, among others, the following: Edward L.
Doheny, president, Pan-American Petroleum and Transport Co.; Amos
L. Beatty, general counsel, The Texas Co.; Walter Douglas, president,
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST "MEXICO 19
Montezuma Copper Co.; Thomas W. Lamont, member of J. P. Morgan
& Co.; Chester O. Swain, general counsel, Standard Oil Co. of N. J.
In groups the active members run as follows: agricultural and
cattle; banking and security holders; commercial trading; industrial;
mining and smelting; petroleum and petroleum refining; and the
"general interest" group, which is composed of the El Paso Chamber
of Commerce, Houston i hamber of Commerce, and the Los Angeles
Chamber of Commerce, the last mentioned being the most notorious
group of labor-haters and exploiters in America.
This is certainly a fine crowd to entrust the welfare of Mexico
and its people to! This is the group of labor exploiters who are so
concerned about carrying democracy to the downtrodden peons who
are crying out for a deliverer, to hear this association tell it.
American "rights" in Mexico that means capitalist or property
rights. You don't hear anything about American workers' rights in
Mexico the noise is all about property rights. There is also some
noise about personal rights of Americans, but this is merely a scheme
to hide the real issue. But where did these Americans who are
making all this noise about their property rights get these so-called
rights from? Who gave them these rights? How did they come into
possession of all this property, in the interest of which they are so
anxious to have American workers drop their tools, shoulder guns
and fight the Mexican workers? Do you suppose these Association
for the Protection of American Rights in Mexico people would cross
the Rio Grande, in the event of intervention, and bleed and die for the
sake of their property rights in Mexico? No! They want the people
who have no property in Mexico the workers of America to do the
dirty work for them, while they sit back and urge the people on in
the name of patriotism and democracy!
Yes, where did they get these "rights" we are hearing so much
about? Most of the American concession-holders and property-holders
in Mexico got their "rights" from Porfirio Diaz. And where did Diaz
get them from? He stole them from the people the peons, the small
farmers. He gave concessions often where he had no right to give
concessions. Many an American and British capitalist has made a
fortune from these concessions. Diaz destroyed the existing agrarian
democracy when he came into power in 1876, a democracy that doubt-
less would have developed and blossomed into genuine industrial
democracy founded on social and economic justice, and in its place he
planted a despotism held together by bayonets, at the shrine of which
American, British and other concession-seekers and speculators wor-
shipped and grew fat at the expense of the toilers of the mines and
the mills and the peons of the soil. If an investigation were made, it
would probably be found that many of these so-called American prop-
erty rights in Mexico are resting on a pretty slim foundation. Any-
how, even though we grant them all their "rights," have not the
people of Mexico a perfect right to determine how the property
rights of the country shall be administered, and just what "rights"
property has? If the Mexicans determine that all property of a public
20 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO
nature such as the land, the mills, the mines, the oil and other
mineral deposits shall be nationalized or socialized, have they not a
perfect right to do so? However they determine the land or oil de-
posits, for instance, shall be worked or controlled, is their right.
If the Mexican Government determines that the interests of the people
demand that the oil deposits shall be nationalized, it has a right to go
into the oil district of Tampico and tell the American, British and
other oil producers that from such and such a date the oil wells will
be operated by the people for the benefit of all and not merely for the
benefit of a few millionaires and their families, none of whom live in
the country but are residents of other countries, busy in exploiting
the people of those countries as they are those of Mexico. If the
people of Mexico determine that the big landed estates shall be
taken from the holders who in the majority of cases got the estates
illicitly and by eviction of the small farmers from their land they
have a right to do so.
Speaking of American rights in Mexico reminds me of Mexican
rights in the United States. Down along the border Mexicans, work-
ing men and women, are continually suffering from abuses of their
rights as men and women at the hands of Americans, some of whom
are probably loudest in the cry for American rights in Mexico. In
Southern California Mexican children were so discriminated against
in certain public schools recently that one Mexican consul was forced
to protest to the Governor of California. As Linn Gale, American
editor of Gale's Magazine (published in Mexico City) says, "President
Carranza in his message to the Mexican Congress a few days ago
showed that Mexico has as much reason to 'intervene' in the affairs
of the United States if it were big enough as the United States has
to interfere with the government down here and more. The list of
crimes committed against Mexicans north of the Rio Grande is an
indictment against the American Government that is considerably
harder to explain away than any complaint that has been made
against the Carranza Administration. The American Government,
considering the wealth, education and opportunities in the United
States, has a record black as midnight compared with that of the
young, immature, but honestly struggling Government of Mexico."
We are told that Mexico is overrun with bandits. We won't deny
that there are bandits in certain parts of Mexico, but if it were made
as difficult for the bandits to get firearms and ammunition as it is
for the Carranza Government, probably the banditry would soon be a
thing of the past. American ammunition is invariably found on cap-
tured bandits who knows but that is part of the plot to force inter-
vention to supply these bandits with ammunition, and even to make
bandits?
Speaking of bandits do you know that American and British oil
producers in Mexico employ a bandit band to "guard" their property?
So as to keep the Carranza Government out of the Tampico oil dis-
trict the bandit Pelaez is paid a large sum monthly. L. J. de Bekker,
writing in "The Nation" of July 12, 1919, makes the statement that
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 21
he "had been told by the American Embassy in Mexico City that the
oil men paid Pelaez, for guarding their interests, $200,000 a month."
This has been denied by the Association of Oil Producers in Mexico in
a letter of reply to "The Nation," July 14, 1919, in which they said
that "Pelaez naver got one-sixth of that amount for any month from
the oil companies." So, you see, we have their own word for it that
this bandit did receive money from them. And that he is guarding
their interests is made evident by the following paragraph of the same
letter: ''The article says: 'King Pelaez of the oil fields considers it
a patriotic duty to blow up any rolling stock belonging to the Govern-
ment.' None of Pelacz's men operate anywhere near any railroad.
It is true bandits, or 'patriots,' are -continually blowing up cars between
San Luis Potosi and Tampico, but 'King' Pelaez troops are operating
in the oil fields only, far from any railroad, for the reason that the
Government is attempting to confiscate their oil values."
The statement that "Pelaez's troops are operating in the oil fields
only, far from any railroad" is proven false by Mr. de Bekker who
says, "I have photographs of some of the Pelaez bandits swinging
from telegraph pole:s, where they were hanged by Mr. Carranza's sol-
diers. These photographs, being taken from the car windows, show
them to have been pretty close to the track."
HEARST AND INTERVENTION
The hypocritical Hearst press, which has been engaged for a num-
ber of years in misrepresenting the Mexican revolution and squealing
eagle fashion for intervention, makes much of the fact that Americans
have been killed in Mexico. The country, say these people with an axe
to grind, must be cleaned up and responsible, orderly government
established, or better still annex it to the United States.
Now, before the United States undertakes to "clean up" Mexico,
how about cleaning up at home first? What about the recent race
riots in Washington and Chicago? How about the lynchings of the
enlightened South? (I just picked up a paper and read: "Five dead in
Knoxville race riot." We sure ought to restore order in Mexico, all
right!) As "The Nation" remarks in its August 23rd issue, "there
have been 217 Americans killed in Mexico since 1911 and 544 Amer-
icans lynched within our borders within that period (we have no
record of the number of those killed in strikes and other disorders)."
There is a reason for Hearst's cry for intervention and it is not
the one he tells his readers. The Mexican Herald, August 24, 1908,
published the following information, which throws a light on the
Hearst screeching for intervention: "With over a million acres of the
finest agricultural and grazing land, with large herds of blooded cattle,
horses and sheep, roaming over this vast domain, the big Hearst cattle
ranch and farm in Chihuahua is the peer of any such estate in the
world whether it lies in the green corn belt of Illinois or Kansas, or
stretches for miles across the wind-swept prairies of Texas and Okla-
homa. Two hundred and fifty miles of barbed wire fence enclose a
22 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO
portion of this vast ranch and within the enclosure graze 60,000
thoroughbred Herefords, 125,000 fine sheep, and many thousand head
of horses and hogs." This land Hearst is "generally credited with
securing from the Mexican government (Diaz's) for nothing or
practically nothing." Now, the Mexican revolution of 1910-14 was, as
I stated before, tn agrarian revolution and you don't have to stretch
your imagination very much to see what would happen to such estates
as Hearst's if the full purpose of the revolution were put into effect.
Another eagle screech er for intervention is the Los Angeles Times.
Why? The same reason another million acres of land.
Some of the Catholic clergy also want intervention to get back
the Church's lost power m Mexico. Some Catholic prelates and pol-
iticians in America have worked and agitated for intervention ever
since 1910. It has been said that Felix Diaz's counter-revolutionary
activities were backed partly by Catholic gold, and he is known to
have received "through an American prelate, a check for one hundred
thousand dollars, with which Don Felix wa.s to go to Havana to rally
his followers and begin his preparation to start a new revloution."
This was msde known by a Mexican Catholic and ex-federal officer,
S. Augusto Zubieta and an affidavit, written and sworn to by him, as
to the counter-revolutionary part played by many Catholic institutions
in America, follows: "I, Salvador A. Zubieta, do hereby declare that
on or about December, 1914, and January, 1915, I had occasion to meet
Cardinal , and talking over the Mexican situation, we
discussed several questions of importance, among them the alleged
actions of Carranza against the Catholic Church, and he confided to
me that the Catholics in this country were disposed to back a new
revolution, of which Felix Diaz was to be the head. The instigator of
this movement is the well-known murderer, Cecilio Ocon, who
seems to have gained the ear and the confidence of Cardinal ;
the said Cardinal having believed unquestionably all the false repre-
sentations made by this unscrupulous murderer. The Cardinal also
asked if I would help in this, probably because he thought my family
conections in Mexico and the fact of my being a Catholic, would gain
some advantage to the cause. Cardinal also stated that
many Catholic institutions in this country were ready to back this
movement with about ten million dollars.
"(Signed) SAL. AUGUSTO ZUBIETA.
"New York City, Feb. 27, 1915.
"State of New York ( QQ
County of New York / v
"Sworn to before me this 27th day of February, 1915, (Signed)
W. J. Berow, Notary Public, New York County No. 374, New York
Reg. No. 5255.
"(Seal) WILLIAM J. BEROW, Notary Public, New York County."
(This affidavit is copied from a pamphlet by Dr. A. Paganel, of
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 23
Mexico City, entitled "What the Catholic Church has done to
Mexico.")
The following letter published in "Pueblo," Vera Cruz, March 26,
1915, and sigoed by a number of Catholic priests in Mexico, should be
of interest to these militant trouble-makers in the United States who
are agitating for intervention:
"To Don Venustiano Carranza, Chief of the Constitutionalist army
and in charge of the Executive Power of the Union: 'We the under-
signed Catholic priests of the Archbishopric of Mexico, take pleasure
in stating that it is with regret and disapproval that we have seen a
number of Catholic refugees in i'oreign countries, acting on the advice
and under the influence of an association which with the pretext of
protecting the Catholic cause, has long been trying to interfere in our
national affairs, address a petition to a foreign government for the
protection of the Church in Mexico. We protest to you that none of
us have taken part in these measures which we consider anti-patriotic
an unnecessary " (Signed) Dr. Antonio J. Paredes, Vicar Gen-
eral of the Archbishopric of Mexico; Jose Cortes, rector; and a number
of other Mexican and Spanish priests."
U. S. GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE
Ever since Porfirio Diaz was driven out of power in 1910 the
United States Government has threatened intervention and has even
gone so far as to send expeditions into Mexico after bandits supplied
with American arms and ammunition. President Taft mobilized troops
on the border as a sinister hint, it seemed, to the revolutionists and
to strike terror into their hearts. The present Administration's actions
are well known. One day President Wilson is for a thing and the next
he changes. In Indianapolis, Jan. 8, 1915, he said: "Until the recent
revolution in Mexico eighty per cent of the people never had a 'look-
in' in determining what their government should be It Is none
of my business and it is none of yours how long they take !n> determin-
ing it. It is none of my business and it is none of yours how they go
about the business. The country is theirs. The government Is theirs.
Have not European nations taken as long as they wanted, and spilt
as much blood as they pleased, in settling their affairs? And shall we
deny that to Mexico, because she is weak? No, I say!"
But in a note to Carranza, June 2 1915, President Wilson has evi-
dently experienced a change of neart: ". . . I, thereiore, call upon
the leaders of Mexico to act. . ]f they cannot accommodate their
differences and unite for this great purpose within a very short time,
this Government will be constrained to decide what means should be
employed by the United States in orde- to help Mexico save herself
and serve her people." We know how Mexico would be helped!
While the present Administration has not actually intervened by
force of arms it has prevented the Carranza Government from carry-
24 THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO
%
ing out all the ic-forms of the Revohm-ur by its protests i.i>d threats
to Curranza whenever his Government contemplated putting into effect
those reforms. Says John Kenneth Turner, in the "Liberator" of June,
1919, of the policy of the Wilson Government: "Agrarian reform was
opposed always. Representations were made against Carranza's orig-
inal land decree, at the beginning of 1915, and a warning entered
against its application to foreigners. Confiscations of vast holdings
for non-payment of taxes> non-compliance with the terms of conces-
sions, or for other reasons, met with repeated objection. Even expro-
priation of the estates of counter-revolutionary plotters evoked protests
against 'any action that savors of confiscation.'
"From the beginning, also, representations were made against
every measure seeking to conserve the oil and other mineral deposits
for the Mexican people, or even to tax oil or mineral properties, ade-
quately. . .
"In the unending stream of representations appeared numerous
direct threats and ultimatums, while resort was made to various forms
of coercion, including naval and military demonstrations. Hardly an
item of domestic policy escaped interference, which was invariably on
behalf of special privilege.
"Finally, the army of the 'punitive expedition' was held in Mexico
for nine months after the Villa chase was definitely abandoned, nine
months after General Scott acting for the United States, had signed
a memorandum to the effect that the dispersion of the Villa bands had
been completed. Meanwhile, Franklin K. Lane and his associates on
the American-Mexican Joint Commission, were attempting to browbeat
the Mexicans into yielding the guarantees demanded by the Rocke-
fellers, the Guggenheims, the Dodges and the Dohenys. Although, in
explaining the expedition, the President had declared that the troops
would not be used in the interest of 'American owners of Mexican
properties' 'so long as sane and honorable men are in control of the
government,' the public statement of Lane, issued at the end of No-
vember (1916), after a long interview with the President, was nothing
more nor less than an acknowledgment that the troops WERE being
held in Mexico for that purpose and for no other, and a threat that
they would remain there until an agreement was reached regarding
such little matters as oil and mining taxes."
HANDS OFF MEXICO
Now, as I said at the beginning, the cry of Wall Street and its
kept press is for intervention; capital, both American and British, is
for intervention. The concessionists, the owners of large estates, the
mining, oil and railroad interest, all want a government established in
Mexico that will enable them to exploit the country and its labor to
their heart's content. If the United States did intervene, then probably
the cry would go up for annexation. For the profitmonger knows no
limit.
THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST MEXICO 25
The Mexican people will solve their problems if outside govern-
ments keep their hands off. Let it be the business of American Labor,
of all lovers of freedom and fair-play to keep hands off Mexico. Let
the servile press howl for intervention as it will, nothing else can be
expected of it. It is capitalism's mouthpiece and a fawning, corrupt
thing!
Remember the noble words of William Lloyd Garrison: "My coun-
try is the world; my countrymen are all mankind." The cause of the
workers of one country is the cause also of the workers of the rest
of the world. Those striving for Liberty, Equality, Fraternity in
Mexico, those striving for the emancipation of Labor, with all that
that means, and these serving their fellowman in the country below
the Rio Grande deserve the respect and help of the workers in this
country above the Rio Grande. Let your voice be heard in unmistakable
terms: HANDS OFF MEXICO !
26 APPENDIX
WHY WAR WITH MEXICO?
A WAR WITH OUR SISTER REPUBLIC IS ALMOST HERE AND
AMERICA IS ASLEEP.
(From a Leaflet issued by the People's Print, New York City.)
Do You Know:
1. That a meeting was recently held in the Banker's Club, New
York City, between representatives of the Oil Interests in Mexico and
a leading religious organization, to map out the compaign of spiritual
uplift for our boys in the inevitable war with Mexico?
2. That a host of translators and legal experts are at work in
New York City NOW to figure out a method by which certain enormous
oil and gas properties may nominally be held by native dummy-direc-
tors to conform with Mexican law, but the real control resides in Wall
Street, New York?
3. That for the last six months higher officials of the American
Army have been drawing up plans for a Mexican campaign by the
United States troops? The correspondent of the "New York Times"
in Coblenz, Germany, asserts that the Army of Occupation has been
spending the last six months perfecting plans for the war with Mexico.
He also states that it will be a war conducted with all the latest imple-
ments of destruction and carried out on the 1919 model of warfare.
4. That the British Government has already taken over title to
the oil holdings of its nationals in Mexico, and has thus perfected an
important step toward an Anglo-American alliance to exploit our sister
nation?
5. That the most powerful banking groups in the world, headed
by J. P. Morgan & Co., of New York, and including British and French
b'ankers, (besides other American firms, have organized themselves to
protect the "rights" of foreign investors in Mexico?
6. That a satisfactory "meeting" was held between oil magnates
and the State Department on July 7, as a result of which Wall Street
confidently expects early action to "stabilize" Mexico? (See "New
York Times," financial section, for July 8.)
7. That during the months of April and May, Mexico City was the
meeting place for trade ambassadors from all parts of the world?
These included manufacturers, bankers, and engineers from the
APPENDIX 27
United States and Canada, from Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy,
Holland, Denmark, Norway, Argentina, and from Central and South
America, and from Japan and China. These men were seeking orders
and opportunities for investment and were finding both. American
Chamber of Commerce .bodies are placing branches in Mexico with
agents to map out the country with a view of exploiting her unlimited
resources and robbing the Mexican paople of their rich heritage.
8. That the "New York Times" on July 9, declared: "The state-
ment was made to the New York Times correspondent by a person
who is usually well informed that .President Wilson would soon appear
before Congress and make an address on the Mexican problem, deal-
ing with the matter along the lines of the McKinley Message to Con-
gress which led to intervention in Cuba?"
9. That "Restore Law and Order" will be the slogan of our war
with Mexico, just as "Making the World Safe for Democracy" was our
government's slogan for fighting the Germans? Says the "New York
Times" "A canvas of the situation seems to indicate that American
intervention in Mexico, not for the purpose of interfering with the
sovereign right of Mexicans to govern themselves, but to protect the
lives and rights of foreigners in Mexico, and to restore law and order,
may be only a matter of months, if not weeks?
10. That Mexican oil stock advertisements are now appearing
with alarming regularity on the financial pages of New York dailies?
Also that engineering firms are advertising their services for survey-
ing Mexican properties?
11. That the "Society for the Protection of American Rights in
Mexico" controlled by the Anaconda Copper Company, the J. P. Morgan
& Co., and other large corporations are looking up the widows and
orphans of Mexican border irregularities with a view of producing
them in Washington as "exhibits" for Congress? Have you ever
heard of the Anaconda Copper Co. producing the victims of mining
conditions in Butte, Montana, of the Deportation victims of Bisbee,
Arizona, before Congress, with a view of demanding "Justice" for the
miners?
Shall America's Youth be sacrificed to satisfy the greed of a Com-
bination of Foreign Exploiters?
Will not American citizenry protest against this brazen plot to
stampede people into as shameful a war war as was ever planned?
THE WAR CAN YET BE AVERTED IF AMERICA WAKES UP!
28 APPENDIX
*
THE TRAGEDY OF THE TROPICS
Wherever Nature is most bountiful, there the worker
is most exploited and oppressed. The heavy hand of imper-
ialism has been felt for a long time in all those countries
where the sun shines strongest and where the earth yields
its fullest harvests. Exploitation and oppression of the
most brutal nature have stalked through the forests, over
the fields, into the villages and towns, and enslaved, killed
and mutilated. If mental enslavement in order to enslave
the body were impossible, then the imperialist did not
hesitate to use force. Where imperialism could use a
tyrant, as in the case of Porfirio Diaz in Mexico, it refrained
from calling to its aid the armed power of its own particular
country. But where a tool could not be found ,then it used
its own soldiery force, "force to the utmost." India,
Egypt, the lands of the Congo in Africa, the Central Ameri-
can republics, and the islands of the Caribbean Sea the
toilers in these countries of the tropics and semi-tropics
have felt the slimy, brutal hand of imperialism in all its
ruthlessness and they are still feeling it !
First take the case of India. Probably no worse crime
against native races has been committed anywhere where
imperialism has laid hands on. People of the British
Empire are accustomed to hearing the praises sounded of
the wonderful beneficence of British rule of native races.
One of the stock arguments of defenders of British rule is
that without such rule the various religions cults and castes
and races would endlessly fight among themselves. But,
like all disciples of economic injustice the world over, they
use these excuses to fool those unacquainted with the facts
and to justify their exploitation. What a wonderfully just
government of a country it must be that makes not only
possible but unavoidable a periodic famine to stalk through
the land, cdaiming its victims by the millions! Yes, and
millions under British imperialistic rule in India suffer from
not only periodic, but daily starvation as well ! This proves
without any other evidence and there is abundance of it
the beneficence of British rule !
Bancroft Library
APPENDIX 29
And whenever the Hindus get tired of the beneficence
of their British masters and plan to throw off the yoke of
imperialism, the heavy mailed fist is used to crush the dis-
ciples of liberty. When necessary, it reaches out across the
sea and finds ready help from the imperialistic forces of
other countries. Witness the present United States Govern-
ment coming to the aid of British imperialism and impris-
oning Hindu rebels in this country! If you are a friend of
freedom,, that should make you think and ACT! These
men are to be deported to India where the beneficent British
Government will treat them as becoming rebels line them
up and shoot them. You and others can prevent this, if you
act quickly, just as you can prevent the rape of Mexico by
the imperialistic forces of America.
Imperialism is imperialism, regardless of the flag under
which it parades. Stripped of all its pretenses it stands
forth as plain economic exploitation of the resources and
labor of a country bv the capitalists of another country, sup-
ported bv soldiery. We often hear about European imperial-
ism, but how about American imperialismi? All the weak
republics of Central America are well acquainted with this
particular brand of imperialism. And the workers of these
countries are among: the worst exploited and oppressed in
either North or South America. When American capitalists
can't manage the native governments, they call on the
United States Government and soldiers are dispatched to
the scene and government bv foreign bayonets is estab-
lished. Probably the United Fruit Co. would not be able to
subject their workers in Central America to such degrading
conditions of toil if it were not for the ready support it re-
ceives from the imperialism of the United States.
What right has the United States Government to med-
dle in Costa Rica? Why the virtual protectorate in Nica-
ragua ? And how will Mr. Wilson justify the occupation of
Santo Domingo by U. S. marines ? "There is no freedom of
the press, no right of assembly, and the people cannot take
the initiative to modify the situation," according to Dr.
Carvajal, late President of Santo Domingo. This is another
matter that should make people think and ACT !
30 APPENDIX
Is true Freedom but to break
Fetters for our own dear sake,
And, with leathern heart, forget
That we owe mankind a debt?
No ! true Freedom is to share
All the chains our brothers wear,
And, with heart and hand, to be
Earnest to make others free.
They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse.
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think ;
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three !
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
APPENDIX
HEARSTON1AN SOLILOQUY
By BERTUCCIO DANTINO
Says one William Randolph Hearst:
"Mexico is quite accurst
By a dreadful kind of soil
That is full of gold and oil
That we gentlemen of leisure
Think was put there "for our seizure.
It's absurd for any Greaser
To object when we would seize 'er.
That we grab such land on sight
Is our good God-given right,
And no ignorant old peon
Has a moral right to be on
Any spot for which we hanker,
And some day we've got to spank 'er
If old Mexico impedes us
When we steal her wealth that feeds us.
"Tho we Yanks are filled with greed,
If those Mexies will but heed
We won't do them any hurt,
Only come and take their dirt.
If those Mexies weren't so slow,
And had sense enuf they'd know
Wealth endangers all their souls!
(Such as gold and oil and coals!)
All such dangers we'd remove,
And objectors we'd reprove
By invading intervention,
Which, you see, is our intention.
"Tho we've millions in our coffers,
We grab .anything that offers
To enlarge our present holdings;
Nor care we for all the scoldings
Of the slaves who work for wages,
Or the soap-box man who rages
'Gainst our looting our weak neighbors,
Or the silly fool who labors.
Wilson is the mighty geezer
We can get to lick the Greaser.
"Tho he kept us out of war once,
Still he's onto all our wise stunts,
32 APPENDIX
And when we get good and ready.
He will mind the reins real steady;
Jail the Dubbs who seek to check us,
And the Pacifists who'd wreck us.
"Baer was right when once he tcld us
In His wisdom God would hold us
As custodians of all wealth
(We don't do it for our health,)
But because we've got the habit,
When we see a good thing, grab it!
When y/e pay the priest for masses
It ensures us Heavenly passes;
Therefore tho we're rather slow,
Soon we'll capture Mexico!"
Gale's Magazine.
(For information about this pamphlet address Author, 634 13th St.
Oakland, Calif.
The International Press *4S$*> 034 13th St., Oakland, Cal.
OEC
matters
Syracuse, N. Y.
PAT JAM. 2 M 90S
