MEXICO AND THE CARIBBEAN
MEXICO AND THE CARIBBEAN
CLARK UNIVERSITY ADDRESSES
EDITED BY
GEORGE H. BLAKESLEE
Professor of History and International Relations, Clark University
NEW YORK
G. E. STECHERT AND COMPANY
1920
COPTEIGHT
CLARK UNIVERSITY
COMPOSED AND PRINTED AT THB
WAVERLY PRESS
BY THH WILLIAMS & WILKINS COMFANT
BALTIMORE, MD., U. S. A.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION. George H. Blakeslee vii
MEXICO
FUNDAMENTAL FACTORS
I. ARE THE MEXICAN PEOPLE CAPABLE OF GOVERNING THEM-
SELVES? Honorable T. Esquivel Obreg6n, Minister of
Finance in the Cabinet of Mexico, 1913; Lecturer on Inter-
national Law, Columbia University 1
II. THE MEXICAN PEOPLE. Frederick Starr, of the University of
Chicago 15
III. UPON THE INDIAN DEPENDS MEXICO'S FUTURE. James Car-
son, National Councillor of the American Chamber of
Commerce of Mexico; Formerly Chief of the Associated
Press Service in Mexico 35
IV. THE FACTOR OF HEALTH IN MEXICAN CHARACTER. Ellsworth
Huntington, Ph.D., Research Associate, Yale University;
Formerly Research Associate of the Carnegie Institution
for Climatic Investigations in Mexico and Central America 44
SPECIFIC PROBLEMS
V. THE MEXICAN OIL SITUATION. Frederic R. Kellogg, General
Counsel of the Pan American Petroleum and Transport
Company 54
VI. THE RAILROAD SITUATION IN MEXICO. A. W. Donly, formerly
Trade Commissioner of the Dominion of Canada in Mexico 73
VII. LABOR IN MEXICO. James Lord, Treasurer, Pan American
Federation of Labor; Member of Labor Commission to
visit Mexico, 1918 91
VIII. RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS IN MEXICO. E. D. Trowbridge,
General Manager of the Mexico Company; formerly Gen-
eral Manager, Mexican Light and Power Company, Mexico
City 106
RECENT CONDITIONS
IX. RECENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO. Francis R. Taylor, Chair-
man of the recent Commission to visit Friends' Missions
in Mexico . 119
VI CONTENTS
THE NEW MEXICAN GOVERNMENT
X. MEXICO AND THE PRESENT REVOLUTION. John Vavasour
Noel, President of the Noel News Service 132
XI. GREETINGS TO THE WORLD PROM THE NEW LIBERAL CONSTI-
TUTIONAL PARTY IN MEXICO. Senor Manuel de la Pena,
Commercial Agent in New York of the Liberal Constitu-
tional Government of Mexico 141
AMERICAN POLICY
XII. How TO RESTORE PEACE IN MEXICO. Honorable Henry Lane
Wilson, Ambassador of the United States to Mexico, 1909-
1913 147
XIII. A CONSTRUCTIVE POLICY FOR MEXICO. Roger W. Babson,
President of the Babson Statistical Organization; Member
of the Federal Central American Commission of 1916 .... 156
XIV. THE UNITED STATES AND LATIN AMERICA. John F. Moors,
LL.D., Senior Member, Moors and Cabot, Bankers; Presi-
dent, Boston Associated Charities 162
XV. COMMON SENSE IN FOREIGN POLICY. Edwin M. Borchard,
Professor of Law, Yale University 166
THE CARIBBEAN
XVI. THE CARIBBEAN POLICY OP THE UNITED STATES. William R.
Shepherd, Ph.D., L.H.D., Professor of History, Columbia
University 184
XVII. THE PRESENT AMERICAN INTERVENTION IN SANTO DOMINGO
AND HAITI. Judge Otto Schoenrich, formerly President
of the Nicaragua Mixed Claims Commission; Connected
with the Reorganization of Dominican Finances; Author
of "Santo Domingo" 206
XVIII. AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN SANTO DOMINGO, HAITI, AND
VIRGIN ISLANDS. Colonel George C. Thorpe, United
States Marine Corps, Recently Chief of Staff of the Bri-
gade of Marines in Occupation of the Dominican Republic 224
XIX. THE PRESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN. Samuel Guy
Inman, Executive Secretary of the Committee on Coop-
eration in Latin America 248
XX. THE CENTRAL AMERICAN REPUBLICS AND THEIR PROBLEMS.
Webster E. Browning, Ph.D., Educational Secretary,
Committee on Cooperation in Latin America; formerly
President of the American College in Chile 277
XXI. THE UNITED STATES AND THE NATIONS OP THE CARIBBEAN.
Jacinto Lopez, Editor of La Reforma Social; author "The
War on the Pacific" and many essays on American and
International Questions 301
XXII. AMERICA'S "MARE NOSTRUM." Kirby Thomas, Consulting
Mining Engineer, New York 314
XXIII. PORTO Rico AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM. Pedro Cap6 Rodri-
guez, Spanish Editor of the American Journal of Interna-
tional Law; Member of the Bar of Porto Rico 333
INTRODUCTION
The chapters in this volume were first given as addresses
during the Conference upon Mexico and the Caribbean,
at Clark University, May 20, 21 and 22, 1920. This was
the seventh Conference upon International Relations held
at the University. First organized in 1909, they met
annually until the outbreak of the world war, after which
they were discontinued until the present year.
The ami of the University in organizing these sessions has
been to do its part in bringing about a more intelligent under-
standing of our international problems, a more sympathetic
appreciation of the attitude of other peoples, and a keener
realization of our own international duties. In presenting
the various and different sides of international questions,
and in emphasizing the points of view held by others, which
are often different from the popular views held among our-
selves, the University believes that it is fulfilling an obliga-
tion which it owes not only to its own students but to the
wider community of which it is a part.
If democracy is to control foreign relations, it has been
well said that democracy should know something about the
subject. And what more helpful service, along this line,
can a University render than to bring together a large group
of experts upon some foreign country, or closely connected
group of countries, men who represent not only our own but
other lands, owners and organizers of big business enter-
prises, missionaries, educators, investigators, authors, past
and present government officials — and give them a forum
from which to present the facts, as they see them, and a
recommendation of a national policy based upon these facts?
Since the world war has ceased to dominate our thought
and focus our entire attention upon Europe, it is now pos-
sible to study the international relations of our own hemi-
sphere, the most important of which are those connected
with the two closely related fields which were chosen for
this Conference, Mexico and the Caribbean.
vii
viii INTRODUCTION
Mexico admittedly presents a genuine problem, but one
due primarily to the inherent weakness and political insta-
bility of the country. How may it develop into a law-
abiding, capable nation, with an effective, educated, reli-
able middle class? In the following chapters various and
conflicting proposals are presented. A former member of
the Mexican cabinet urges that the only hope lies in grant-
ing complete power to the small educated upper class in the
country; others state that upon the Indian depends Mexico's
future; while some, even including a few Mexicans, believe
that the present situation can be remedied only by outside
help. But if the United States undertakes to settle the
Mexican situation, what means shall it adopt? Armed in-
tervention and the creation of a buffer state in Northern
Mexico is suggested by one of the Conference speakers, a
distinguished diplomat; financial and economic pressure, is
urged by others; a widespread system of education, lasting
for a hundred years, is the general proposal of the American
educators and missionaries from Mexico; while assistance
along sanitary lines, in order to lower the death rate, lessen
sickness, and increase efficiency, is still another solution.
The outstanding fact is that there is a genuine Mexican
problem, but that no general agreement exists as to its
proper solution.
In the Caribbean region — Central America and the islands
of the Caribbean Sea — the United States has made an
extension of actual power, within the last twenty years,
which has been one of the most striking features in the
whole history of American expansion; yet our country seems
relatively unconscious of this fact. Since 1898 it has secured
sovereignty over Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and
practical sovereignty over the Panama Canal Zone; it has
obtained a definite protectorate over the republics of Cuba,
Panama and Haiti, and a financial protectorate over Santo
Domingo; today it is in full military occupation of Haiti
and Santo Domingo, and has a garrison of marines in the
capital of Nicaragua. This extension of power has been
particularly rapid during the past few years; so much so
that many European observers believe and many Latin
INTRODUCTION IX
Americans fear that the United States is in the midst of
an expansion in this region which will continue until it
dominates, either as sovereign or overlord, all the islands of
the Caribbean and all the republics of Central America.
Do the American people wish this expansion to continue?
In fact do we have any definite policy for the Caribbean?
A distinguished Latin American diplomat once said to the
writer: "The United States ought to have a policy in the
Caribbean; now it can do anything it wishes there; but in
thirty years other nations may be strong enough to prevent
it." A keen analysis of the possible policies which may be
adopted, with the reasons in favor of each, is given in the
opening chapter of the Caribbean section of this volume.
But whatever general policy be adopted, the political in-
stability throughout much of this region, as well as the inter-
ests of the United States, both economic and military, will
undoubtedly force this country for many years to come to
exercise a certain amount of supervision over the Caribbean
and to undertake occasional intervention. It is important
however that both supervision and intervention should be
carried out in accord with the best American traditions, not
only of efficiency but of regard for the well-being and even
the susceptibilities of the peoples affected. It is at least
doubtful whether this has been done; many of the Latin
Americans, as is clearly shown by certain of the following
chapters, regard the United States as actuated by a thoroughly
imperialistic policy. The difficulty of judging fairly the
acts of American officials is shown by the difference in the
evidence presented at the Conference regarding the naval
administration of Haiti and Santo Domingo. Three writ-
ers, each of them entitled to rank as an expert, present three
different pictures: one condemns the administration se-
verely, another believes it to be notably excellent, while
the third balances failings against striking achievements.
However difficult it may be to learn the actual situation
in the Caribbean, as well as in Mexico, it is nevertheless a
task which should be undertaken by the thoughtful element
of the American democracy. To permit public sentiment
to exert its proper influence, both in determining American
X INTRODUCTION
policy and in insisting upon the highest standards in Ameri-
can administration, there is need of much definite informa-
tion and of a frank discussion of national aims by men,
broadminded and sympathetic, who are themselves inti-
mately acquainted with the problems involved.
To the distinguished contributors who have given both
definite information and frank discussion in the chapters of
this volume the University wishes to express its grateful
appreciation. It is their willing cooperation which has
made possible both the Conference upon Mexico and the
Caribbean and the publication of these addresses.
GEORGE H. BLAKESLEE.
Clark University,
November 18, 1920.
ARE THE MEXICAN PEOPLE CAPABLE OF
GOVERNING THEMSELVES
By Honorable T. Esquivel Obregon, Minister of Finance in the
Cabinet of Mexico, 1913; Lecturer on International
Law, Columbia University
The question: Are the Mexican people capable of self-
government? In the light of present facts and of the his-
tory of the country from her independence from Spain a
century ago, it seems to require a negative answer, because
during that period there was only about thirty years of
peace which came under the autocratic government of
General Porfirio Diaz.
I intend, however, to demonstrate that the Mexican
people can govern themselves, and that all the restless life
of Mexico is due to social factors which can be controlled
and must be if we ever shall have peace and orderly prog-
ress; if we ever have to meet our obligations to the world,
and the responsibilities inherent to our geographical posi-
tion, and to the wealth lying in our soil.
In order to support my conclusion let me begin by stating
facts which nobody can deny:
FIKST FACT
All Americans who have been in Mexico, as serious ob-
servers, can bear witness to the statement that there are in
Mexico intelligent lawyers who would refuse their support
to any cause, no matter how promising of high fees and
compensation, whenever they see that justice would be
hurt thereby; physicians who are not business men, and who
know how to combine science and charity; merchants who
have laboriously built up fortunes, without any one observ-
ing that they defaulted on their obligations — not even now,
when the revolution has destroyed so many fortunes honestly
2 T. ESQUIVEL OBREG6N
won, and affords a pretext for defaulting; business men who
show executive ability, which is one of the greatest needs
of a good ruler; and farmers, hard workers, who live a simple
life and are contented when they leave for future genera-
tions a new dam or a new ditch for the irrigation of their
land, a new plot reclaimed for cultivation, or a new tree by
the roadside for the relief of the traveler. Finally, I do
not know of any Mexican who does not love his country,
even though that love may be misguided or overshadowed
by passions of a less elevated character; it is a love which
is everywhere demonstrated by the fact that in spite of the
great sufferings and misery of Mexico at the present time,
and of the benefits which may be derived from naturaliza-
tion as a citizen of the United States, I do not know of any
Mexican who has asked for his first papers in this country,
because, while we all admire the United States, we cannot
help feeling an irresistible desire that there, where our fore-
fathers lie, there our remains may be united with theirs
forever in the bosom of the same mother country.
If these virtues are the crucial test of a man capable of
undertaking the government of a country, we have plenty
of men who possess them, who know how to govern and how
to sacrifice themselves for the love of it if need there be.
If I had the time, I could tell you wonderful tales of sacrifice
for the good of our people and for the glory of Mexico.
SECOND FACT
The second undeniable fact is that Mexico was in peace
during three centuries under the Spanish rule. Much has
been said to discredit that rule: to think of the Spanish
colonial system is to bring to the mind of many persons tales
of slavery, humiliations and atrocities ; tales of inquisition and
of denial of all rights that we think are most sacred. But it
is my first duty to warn you against such misconceptions
of the Spanish regime, because those prejudices which were
first spread by malice, are, in my opinion, the source of all
the mistakes made in the United States in its relations with
ARE MEXICAN PEOPLE CAPABLE OF GOVERNING 3
Mexico, and the most abundant spring of evil for the
latter.
Many persons have heard of the submission under which
Spain kept the Indians, but they do not seem to have heard of
the submission under which the Indians were accustomed to
live from time immemorial under the sway of their native
chiefs, and they do not know that some form of subordina-
tion was necessary in order to make the Indians who were
accustomed to it, contribute to the formation of the new
society. They seem not to have heard that the Indians had
to give their very flesh for the feasts of their chiefs, and that
Spain rescued them from this cannibalistic tribute. They
do not seem to have heard either that Mexico was popu-
lated, except hi a small portion of her southern territory,
by hunting tribes, and that Spain organized these tribes
into agricultural and industrial towns; that Spain incorpo-
rated the prominent Indian families into the Spanish nobil-
ity in order to make a practical application of the Christian
precept which blots out all differences of race, and makes
men equal over the world; that from the beginning of the
conquest many Indians were educated by the Spaniards
and distinguished themselves among the learned; and that
the Spanish language was so widely spread that now, wher-
ever you go in Mexico, you hear Spanish, and in most of
the regions the Indians have even forgotten that their
tribe had a dialect of its own. They seem not to have heard
that the first printing press of America was established in
Mexico, and the second University of America was founded
in Mexico; that the rich classes of Mexico in the Colonial
period could vie with the richest of the world, and that the
Mexican archives are filled with the records of their endow-
ments for the civilization of the natives and for the welfare
of the people; that the monetary unit of America, India and
China was the Mexican peso, showing the economic world
power acquired by the country under the Spanish regime;
and that the land property of the Indians was preserved
intact — nay it was even increased by Spain. If those per-
sons had merely read the statements made by impartial
4 T. ESQUIVEL OBREGON
scientific observers, such as Humboldt, they would know
what Mexico contributed in those times to the world in
matters of character and culture; they would be able to
understand why a peaceful life was lived in that country
in previous epochs, when the Spanish customs and methods
were not spoiled by unwise imitations.
How can these facts be reconciled with the tales of atroci-
ties so generally spread.
You, in organizing this wonderful Commonwealth, did
not experience any of the difficulties which confronted Spain.
You could build up a new society upon a basis of freedom
and democratic cooperation, because you had an homogene-
ous cultural ground, the same European mind. You created,
we may say, a European freedom, since you fought the In-
dian almost to his complete extinction, and discouraged the
political activities of the negro, where those activities could
be effective, until you have practically kept the negro a
merely passive element in your political organization. You
therefore reared your building entirely to your own satis-
faction, without experiencing any of those inconveniences
which confront the engineer who undertakes to adapt an
old building intended originally for a tenement house, into
a big modern factory.
Spain followed an entirely different policy. She tried by
all means to save the Indians from the clash with a stronger
race, to bring them up to modern culture by slow evolution,
through the only possible way — discipline; and, in order to
safeguard their civil rights and material interests, Spain with-
drew from them, temporarily, the political franchises, except
in reference to town government.
When Mexico was open to free trade with other coun-
tries, Europeans as well as Anglo-Americans rushed into it,
and they were disappointed with what they saw. They
saw there a peculiar society, a preposterous organization, a
combination of childish mentality with vices which ap-
peared like decadence; most of the people entirely ignorant;
some, although possessing a more or less advanced education,
were more inclined to display their knowledge as a token of
superiority than as a moral and intellectual asset and prac-
ARE MEXICAN PEOPLE CAPABLE OF GOVERNING 5
tical social force; and, finally, a group of persons really re-
fined and mentally strong who were trying in vain to infuse
common sense and good judgment into the public adminis-
tration. Those foreigners, as a rule, did not go beyond their
observation of present facts; they did not realize that that
state of affairs was the natural resultant of two opposite
forces, the European culture, and the Indian culture which
had been fighting each other during three centuries, and
that to have arrived at that point had been a wonderful
achievement on the part of Spain; they, on the contrary,
concluded that the Spanish system of colonization had been
a complete failure, that all that was Spanish had to be
swept away; and the Anglo-Americans thought, furthermore,
that the only remedy which could produce a quick relief
was the application of the principles of democracy — that
same democracy which in the United States had never been
the rule of the Indians or the negroes or any other race but
the Europeans. They did not stop to think that the Indi-
ans in their own country were left aside, dispossessed and
dislodged, abandoned in their primitive savagery; and there-
fore, they were unable to appreciate the painstaking task
of Spain in suppressing cannibalism, in teaching a Christian-
like culture and religion, in bringing up those people to that
semi-civilization.
I insist on this fact because in my opinion the injustice
done to Spain, in not recognizing that during her rule a
constant work of civilization was going on in her colonies,
with a liberality that would be surprising to many, is a mis-
take which constitutes a real cancer which eats into all your
system of thinking and dealing with the Spanish American
countries; and which has been dangerous to us, and may
produce many misunderstandings resulting in actual damage
to your trade and commerce with our countries. I regard
myself as a real and sincere friend of the United States, and
at the same time a real Mexican patriot, in warning you
against these misrepresentations.
6 T. ESQUIVEL OBREG6N
THIRD FACT
I have said that Spain instead of granting political rights
to uneducated people, gave them ample protection in their
material interests and placed them under strict discipline.
This system naturally produced abuses on the part of the
superior race, almost inevitable as the result of the survival
of the fittest; but hi order to reduce these abuses to a mini-
mum so that they would not be a grave obstacle in the cul-
tural development of the country, the king of Spain was
scrupulously careful hi the selection of his officials; he gave
to Mexico statesmen of the highest intellectual and moral
character who ever ruled her. Of the 64 viceroys in Mexico
during three centuries, no less than twenty could be cited
as models of statesmanship; the civic virtues which they
displayed, those virtues which were responsible for their
success and for the peace of three centuries, were honesty,
Justice and modesty. Modesty in a ruler is the strongest
guaranty for the people that conditions of living and social
organization will be studied humbly and attentively, and
that dangerous experimental innovations will be prevented,
when they are not warranted.
FOURTH FACT
The fourth undeniable fact is that General Porfirio Diaz
ruled in peace during thirty years. He went into power by
a revolution backed by the intellectual and liberal, as well
as by the sound conservative elements of Mexico. The
reason for this support is very simple : when General Diaz en-
tered the city of Mexico, after defeating the imperialist
forces of Maximilian, he showed great moderation, and also
at the same time, great tolerance and sympathy with the
enemy; he distinguished himself by surrendering to the fed-
eral government some $250,000 as a surplus, after paying
his troops and the administrative expenses of the states
under his military command. Thus he appeared before the
nation as possessing the qualities of moderation, honesty
and administrative ability. From that moment he was a
leader. Those qualities were the cause of his success.
ARE MEXICAN PEOPLE CAPABLE OF GOVERNING 7
When he was president he inaugurated an autocracy in
order to continue in power; he had recourse to the electoral
farce which in alternation with revolution has always been
the method of appointing presidents hi Mexico. The neces-
sity of aping the electoral proceedings of the United States,
without the indispensable background of a trained people,
was responible for the final undoing of that regime, and for
the lowering of the moral character of the people under it.
In order to carry on the farce of elections, the political at-
mosphere of Mexico was filled with lies. The reflections of
General Diaz required complicity from the governors of the
states down to the mayors of the towns and to the lowest
deputy police, and that complicity entailed a full system of
abuses, injuries and misrule. The country, however, availed
itself of that period of peace to frame an organization, which
although primitive and defective, was the natural resultant
of two opposite forces : an uneducated people, by racial tend-
encies and by centuries of tradition looking towards an
autocracy, and the necessity of appearing to enforce a
political constitution which prescribed methods of govern-
ment suitable for a different stage of culture. Under those
circumstances General Diaz confined himself to the economic
development of the country, but, due to the unethical politi-
cal methods, there resulted an inharmonious accumulation
of wealth; and to the education of the people and the reform
of the schools, which for the same reason, resulted in mere
pedantry. That defective and vicious organization was,
however, the natural outgrowth of our own society, the
best we could obtain under such adverse circumstances. It
could be used as a ground work; it was the painfully built
foundation, laboriously designed by the best intellectual
elements which helped General Diaz.
That lack of education among the masses, you may argue,
was the fault of Spam, and is the unpardonable sin of the
upper class of Mexico. This argument leads me to the fifth
fact to which I must call your attention.
8 T. ESQUIVEL OBREGON
FIFTH FACT
There is in Washington a bureau which, it seems to me,
does not attract great attention; it is called the Commis-
sion of Indian Affairs. Its activities and methods are most
interesting, and its reports should be read by all those states-
men of the Spanish American countries in which the Indians
abound, as is the case in Mexico. After many of the tribes
had disappeared and the whole number of Indians within
the territory of the United States had been reduced to three
hundred thousand, you began to be apprehensive of their
complete annihilation, which would mean the passing away
of one of the picturessque features of the life of the United
States. You felt equally alarmed over the possible destruc-
tion of the Indian and of the buffalo, and you provided
against such a result by reducing both, the Indian and the
buffalo, to reservations in which you could see to it that
they were well kept. Once you decided upon this course,
you went into the task with the characteristic ardor and
impetus which you put into your undertakings. An ap-
propriation, which in 19 13 was more than ten million dol-
lars, has been yearly granted for the supervision and edu-
cation of the natives in the reservations; the rentals of the
land belonging to them were also devoted to that use, and
even the wages of the Indian workers were put in a bank for
their welfare. A system of guardianship was planned;
political rights were practically withdrawn from them, and
even the disposition of their property was strictly controlled
by the inspector of each reservation. In reading the reports
of the Commission I have been greatly surprised by the
similarity of methods employed by the Commission of
Indian Affairs to those of the Spanish missions in Mexico.
So striking is that similarity that I could not help thinking
that either one of two things is true: that the policy of the
Commission of Indian Affairs was planned after that of the
Missions, or the system of the latter was so near to perfec-
tion that after various centuries, and in spite of the advance-
ment of pedagogical and social science, the Commission of
Indian Affairs had been led by force of facts to the same
AKE MEXICAN PEOPLE CAPABLE OF GOVERNING 9
conclusions. The basis of that system is common sense;
they do not aim to develop the Indians by the use of the
political franchise, but do try to prepare them for the fran-
chise through education and external discipline, so long as
discipline does not come from their own character. They
compel the Indians to carry on a more comfortable life in
order to make them love sociability and cooperation, from
which that comfort must come. After thirty years of this
intensive work of civilization, the Commission of Indian
Affairs has succeeded in teaching some sixty thousand
Indians to read and write.
Now, if with more than ten million dollars a year for the
education of merely three hundred thousand Indians in
reservations, kept in control by an overwhelming majority
of white population, and under the strict discipline of
guardianship, you have, as a result of thirty-eight years
efforts, taught only sixty thousand Indians to read and
write, how much money does Mexico need to develop twelve
millions of illiterate population, who show every opposition
to be educated, are scattered over the territory of the re-
public, and are almost incapable of discipline, due to the
extreme ideas of democracy and political rights which they
have absorbed. And how long will it take to have at least
the majority of the population educated in order that un-
der the present system of universal suffrage the educated
people of Mexico may have a chance to control the country?
The government of Mexico, however, has shown a great
interest in popular education; schools are found practically
in all towns; the educational system is so liberal that not
only primary schools but all professional schools are free for
students, who can undertake any career without the need
of paying tuition. Besides the schools of the government,
there are others supported by religious or charitable insti-
tutions, or endowed, so that if the people do not send their
children to school it is because, in some cases, they lack
ambition, in others it is due to some economic reason that
bars that ambition.
The whole system of education is defective, however, be-
cause in educating the people without giving them better
10 T. ESQUIVEL OBREG6N
economic opportunities and presenting to them higher stand-
ards of morality in political life, many unsatisfied and un-
controlled ambitions are raised which endanger the com-
munity. Mexico City, which was better supplied than any
other city in the country with educational facilities, showed
a greater criminality, because education made the people
long for a higher standard of living and made them realize
their misery. The problems of Mexico, consequently, must
be confronted at the same time from an economic, educa-
tional and ethical point of view; to try a solution from one
standpoint alone is a vain and dangerous attempt.
The wonder is that with our defective system of education
we have succeeded in getting 20 per cent of the population
educated (just the same per cent that you have obtained
among the Indian population, with all your inexhaustible
resources) ; and, moreover, that we have succeeded in raising
many Indians to prominent places in the scientific, artistic,
and political fields, even to occupy the Presidency of the
Republic, while in the United States I have never heard of
any Indian distinguishing himself in any way whatsoever.
An American explained to me that this was due to the
fact that the Indians on this side of the Rio Grande are very
stupid and lazy, and the other side of the river they are
very intelligent and ambitious; but he did not tell me to
what circumstances the psychological effect of the line of the
Rio Grande was due.
As a matter of fact there is no such psychological mystery
in this; the explanation is very simple. You are willing to
give the Indians education, but you will never give them a
social status on the same footing as a European. To think
of an Indian being a President of the United States is like
thinking of a whale building a nest in a tree.
In Mexico, on the other hand, if we do not have so many
and such good schools, we have instead that sense of equal-
ity inherited with our Spanish traditions. We welcome an
Indian in our highest society whenever he adopts our manners
and culture; an Indian can marry the daughter of an upper
class family if he only shows a proper behavior; and if he is
a learned man, the Mexican young men are proud of calling
ARE MEXICAN PEOPLE CAPABLE OF GOVERNING 11
him their teacher, just as in the colonial times the Indian
entered the ranks of the Spanish nobility and the descend-
ants of Indians were appointed viceroys. That moral
equality, encouraging the Indian, is responsible for his suc-
cess in life, and explains the mystery of the Rio Grande.
SIXTH FACT
Finally we have another undeniable fact, namely, the
decisive influence of the United States on Mexico. The
first revolution in Mexico was the effect of two causes: the
condition of Spain under the sway of Napoleon, and the de-
sire of the Mexican people to take advantage of that condi-
tion— imitating the United States believing that inde-
pendence from Spain would produce for Mexico the same
results that the United States had secured by its independ-
ence from England. Although Mexico was a country which
had long lived under a centralized form of government, and
that common sense indicated that centralization was a bene-
fit, they nevertheless created a fictitious federation in order
to imitate the United States; the consequent endless struggle
between federalists and centralists with all its sad conse-
quences, was at least the pretext for uprisings, revolutions,
and counter revolutions, which disturbed Mexico until
1860, when Juarez, with the moral and material support of
the United States, succeeded in establishing definitely the
federal system. And finally, I do not see any better illus-
tration of that influence in Mexican affairs than the policy
of the present administration in overthrowing Huerta and
substituting Carranza, with the results that all Americans
and Mexicans know well.
These are the most substantial facts in regard to Mexico,
and the conclusions must be the direct consequence of
those facts.
The first conclusion is that in those periods in which
Mexico has enjoyed peace, this peace has been produced by
the rule of the cultured section of the people and the sub-
ordination of the unlearned class to that rule. If the coun-
try is to be governed in accordance with the rule of univer-
12 T. ESQUIVEL OBREGON
sal suffrage, then the majority of the population, that is to
say, the illiterate section of it, will have the control of the
cultured class. In other words, that class which for its
own benefit was subordinated under the Spanish regime,
which in the United States is kept under guardianship,
would rule in Mexico. If such should be the case, we must
in candor confess that the Mexican people are not capable
of self-government. This is mere common sense. The
Indians and illiterate class of Mexico do not know in some
cases even the Spanish language, do not know the political
constitution, and the functions of the different branches of
the administration. If their vote is to decide, then they will
be the tools of wire pullers who may preach to them democ-
racy or communism or any other word which will excite them
and stir them into warlike action; or they will be the raw
material for the government electoral machine. In both
cases the sober honest citizen prefers to abandon the field
to his opponents because he can see no possibility of over-
coming that machinery, nor is he disposed to compete in
machinations. There is no country in the world in which
the most intelligent and capable class, in the long run, does
not obtain in the government the preeminence it deserves,
unless there is some external power, which interferes with
the inner forces of that country.
But, on the other hand, if the Mexican people are left
to their own resources and discretion they will prove their
capacity for self-government, just as they give daily proofs of
their intelligence as members of the professional classes, and
of their ability and honesty as business men. If they do
not find it necessary to misrepresent the facts, they may
start again that work of civilizing the Indians which they
undertook in the epochs of greater prosperity for Mexico.
Let the educated class of Mexico assume before the world
the responsibiliy for the culture of their own fellow citizens.
They will show that they are trustworthy.
I am not advocating an autocratic irresponsible govern-
ment; what I believe is a primary necessity for the We of
Mexico is to restrict the exercise of political rights in Fed-
eral matters to those who at least know how to read and
ARE MEXICAN PEOPLE CAPABLE OF GOVERNING 13
write, who thus have an opportunity to know what politics
and justice and political economy may mean. If we con-
tinue the rule of universal suffrage, we may have the opposite
effect of what you had in the South, where the majority
of the whites suppressed the vote of the colored people,
and we may be forced to suffer the well-known evils of
the reconstruction period, with all the political manoeu-
vres of the carpet-baggers. In Mexico the enormous ma-
jority of the unlearned class discourages and overcomes the
vote of the literate. If you remember the history of the
Indian territory of the United States, and the reasons why
you were compelled to withdraw the political franchise
from the Indians there, you may realize that the present
situation in Mexico is a mere duplication of conditions in
that territory; and you may be compelled to admit that my
suggestion is the only possible solution for the Mexican
problem.
Up to the present the adoption of any kind of literacy
test for the exercise of the franchise has met with opposition
principally from two sources: the government which con-
trols the illiterate class by means of the political machinery
of the administration; and the clergy which hopes to con-
trol it by means of religious fanaticism and prejudice. The
strength of this opposition comes from current opinions on
democracy and from the indiscriminate application of the
principle of equality; this opposition is so powerful that
even men of culture and character do not have the courage to
express their conviction and to attack universal suffrage, for
the benefit, nay, for the very life of Mexico as an independ-
ent country. It is due to my lack of political ambition,
that I can state the truth, and can speak with the utmost
positiveness and frankness.
The second conclusion refers to the influence of the United
States upon Mexico. If that influence, due to geographical
proximity, has been so decisive in the past and continues
so decisive in the present, let us utilize that for the recon-
struction of Mexico. The only way in which we may suc-
ceed is by securing the alliance of men of intelligence and
high character in the two countries; then instead of preach-
14 T. ESQUIVEL OBREGON
ing to the Mexicans the enforcement of principles the practi-
cability of which is doubtful, explain to us the valuable les-
sons which you have learned from your dealings with people
of a lower degree of culture; your experience in the South
during the reconstruction period, your troubles and difficul-
ties with the Indian Territory in the middle of the nine-
teenth century, the valuable suggestions which may be gath-
ered from the methods adopted by the Commission of
Indian Affairs, as well as from the studies made with laborers
of different races and origin, which are found in the reports
of the Department of Labor. If you wish really to help us
to organize our country as it must be in accordance with
existing facts and future possibilities, do not pay so much
attention to what the politicians of Mexico may say in order
to gain your support; notice carefully what they do in order
to obtain the support of their own people, particularly
whether they or their followers grow rich in their campaign
for democracy and the welfare of their country, and re-
serve your applause for those who deserve it from an ethi-
cal point of view. Then, as the blame or the applause of
the people of the United States is in itself a strong force in
the world, the whole world may see that that force is used
in the service of practical ethics, and Mexico will be the
first to reap the benefits thereof. That is the only thing
that I think we need from the United States for our recon-
struction, for a sound and solid reconstruction. Nothing
else. Is the United States willing to give us that help?
Now it seems that a new set of men are coming into power
in Mexico. I, for the benefit of my country and the coun-
try of my forefathers, and that of my children, and for the
fair, friendly and beneficial intercourse between Mexico and
the United States, wish for the new rulers, whoever they
may be, those virtues which characterized all of our good
rulers in the past: honesty, modesty, and justice, in order
to make good my last conclusion : that the Mexican people,
if left alone to the natural forces of their own society, are
capable of self-government.
THE MEXICAN PEOPLE
By Frederick Starr, of the University of Chicago
I shall estimate the population of Mexico at fifteen mil-
lion people. I shall divide this population into three ethnic
elements. The population is made up, first, of pure Mex-
ican Indian tribes; second, of a mixed population with a
basis of Indian and a mixture of Spanish or other foreign
blood; third, of the foreign element of fairly pure blood, or
unmixed with Indian — chiefly, of course, Spanish.
Now, I shall claim that there are six million pure-blood
Indians out of the fifteen million, and about eight million
of the mestizo, or mixed-blood population; that will leave
about one million foreigners of fairly pure blood. You
know that these figures are worth absolutely nothing, but
they are probably as good as any that can be suggested.
When we listened to Sefior Esquivel Obreg6n, he emphasized
the fact that Mexico is not to be considered ethnically: it
is to be considered from the point of view of education and
economic and social development. That is all right. There
is no reason why we should not look at the same popula-
tion from different points of view, and we may look at
it from that point of view just the same as we do from my
own viewpoint. He claims that 80 per cent of this popula-
tion might be called uneducated, and about 20 per cent
might be called educated. Now, this educated percentage
would include, of course, the great majority of those of
foreign blood; it would also include a certain number of
those who had risen from the mestizo, or Indian masses;
in other words, it would be larger than the pure blood pop-
ulation, through a slight admixture and increase of the
population from the other two sources.
Let us look at the Indian of Mexico. Senor Esquivel
Obreg6n, in talking with me, suggested that we cannot say
15
16 FREDERICK STARR
"the Indian of Mexico/ ' because there are so many dif-
ferent Indians of Mexico. He was right. There is no one
type of Mexican Indian; there are many types. Nobody
knows that better than I do. I have visited twenty-three
tribes, each with its own language. Thousands of pure
Indians have passed through my hands for careful examina-
tion. I have known their men, women and children; I
have slept in their poor houses; I have eaten their frijoles
and tortillas; I have drunk their black coffee; I have gone
without anything for my comfort except my zarape over
those mountains. I know them as few white men do and
as even few Mexicans do.
There are many different kinds of Mexican Indians-
many. I was talking once with the archbishop of Oaxaca.
He said, "In my diocese we have Indians as yellow as
lemons and as black as coal; we have them so short that
you could call them pigmies, and we have them taller than
the ordinary white man; we have Indians who are good,
and Indians who are bad." These differences are tribal
differences. The old Aztecs, when they wanted to speak
of someone who was stupid, would call him an Otomi. Those
of you who know Mexico have seen their bands come in to
the capital city with their loads of charcoal. You recog-
nize them by their primitive dress, their little stature,
their quiet, timid manners, and their heavy burdens. Those
Otomi are the very essence of stupidity; and so when a man
was notably stupid, the Aztecs said, "Oh, you Otomi,
you Otomi."
Don Porfirio Diaz was a great man; he was a great ruler.
During his power and greatness I never joined in that in-
discriminate paean of praise which foreigners were raising
to hun — and I am glad to say that since the time of his
downfall I have never joined in that indiscriminate criti-
cism and hostility which those same people too often have
shown and which have been fashionable since the days of
1911. Diaz was a great man and a great ruler, and he
owed it to his Indian blood. He was one-eighth Indian.
His father was a Spaniard of pure blood. His mother was
one-fourth blood Indian. He took after his mother. His
THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 17
strong character was due to his Indian blood and what
success he gained came more from that side than from the
other. Diaz looked with me through my picture book of
Mexican Indian types and when he came to the Otomi,
the old man looked at one of those types with straw in his
matted, dirty hah*, clothes tattered and torn, and he said,
"My schools will make the Otomi over again." It was
false. His schools could do a great deal more for an Aztec
than for an Otomi, because of original difference. We must
remember those differences in the Mexican Indians. It
is not as if they were a unit to deal with. I was a little
surprised at one thing that Senor Esquivel said. He claimed
that all the Indians knew Spanish well. Of course, I did
tell him that my own Spanish was picked up among the
Indians of the mountains, and so it was. What Spanish
I know I learned in the Mexican mountains and with those
poor Indians around me — but, I have been in towns of six
thousand Indian population where there were not, perhaps,
a dozen who could talk Spanish, and I have been in many
Mexican towns where there was only one man who could
talk Spanish. In those old days, Diaz always saw that
there was one person in every Indian town who could talk
Spanish. If he was not there beforehand, he was sent
there to act as secretario of the town, to conduct necessary
dealings with strangers. I think there are large Zapotec
towns where every man, woman and child speaks the two
languages, but there are other Indian towns where only
the secretario speaks Spanish. I can take you from the
City of Mexico, by electric-line, out about twenty min-
utes in the direction of Guadalupe, and until we are in
sight of its famous churches in the distance. Let us get
off and go across the fields, and in five minutes' walk I
will take you to a village where the people still speak regular
Aztec as their home language. Only twenty minutes from
the Plaza of the City of Mexico! That little village knows
Spanish — yes, but they all talk Aztec as then* common
language.
There are then many different tribes of Mexican Indians.
There were a hundred and fifty different languages spoken
18 FREDERICK STARR
in that country at the time of the Conquest. More than
fifteen languages are spoken in the State of Oaxaca today,
and more than 90 per cent of its population are pure blood
Indian. How would you like a problem like that? What
would you do with a nation where six out of every fifteen
persons was a full-blooded Indian? It is a difficult propo-
sition to handle.
Let us look at the Indians. They are ignorant, super-
stitious, suspicious. How ignorant they are! None of
them can read, but I do not care much about that. Illiter-
acy does not seem to me such an awful thing. More than
half the people I know, anyway, do not know how to read
and write, and many of the nicest people I ever met in my
life are absolute illiterates. Illiteracy is no crime. It is,
of course, a great disadvantage, sometimes. It is a great
disadvantage where the majority of the population knows
how to read and write. There the poor person who, through
some accident of birth, is prevented from having that knowl-
edge, is at a serious disadvantage — yes. But, what would
those poor things read, anyhow, if they knew how to read
down there in the Mexican mountains? I heard one of
our speakers groaning because our poor boys in Haiti cannot
see a newspaper once in four months ! Is not that a beautiful
situation? I know all about it, for there have been times
when I have not seen a newspaper for months and months,
and I did not feel any serious loss.
The Indians are suspicious and ignorant. Why, yes;
they do not know anything about the outside world. I
remember at one time I was in a Chinantec town where they
asked me about the outside world. Once in a while they are
interested. Occasionally you find an old man who has a
little knowledge of Spanish and a little curiosity about the
world outside. One such man said to me, "Sir, where do
you come from?" And because I have learned how to
answer that question, I said, "I come from El Norte — a
long way. Have you ever been down to Cuicatlan and seen
the railroad line?'7 "Yes." "You have seen a railroad
train, and know how fast it goes?" "Yes." "It takes
us two days to go from here to Cuicatlan; the next day
THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 19
we go to Puebla by train; we sleep there that night and
next day take a train to the City of Mexico; after traveling
several hours we stop and rest, and then we travel all the
next night and the next day, and the next night and the
next day, and the next night and the next day to reach my
place." A look of pain, and surprise and sympathy came
over his face, and he said: "Ah, sir; what a remote, out-of-
the-way place you come from!" He had never heard of
Chicago! He had never heard of New York! He had not
heard of William McKinley, or Roosevelt, or any of those
people! One time one said to me, "Sir, is the place you
came from Don Porfirio's country?" The name of Diaz
was the only name, almost the only name, in Mexico, that
hundreds and thousands of those Indians really did know.
"It is Don Porfirio's country?" "No; I answered; it is not
Don Porfirio's country." "Then it must be Papa?" (i.e.,
the Pope, at Rome) . ' ' No ; it is not the country of the Pope,
either." When they are told that it is neither the country
of Don Porfirio nor of el Papa, they are completely lost.
Ignorant? Yes. What a broad grasp he has on world
affairs! How ready he is to grapple with the serious prob-
lems of life! How definite his national ambitions must be!
Suspicious? They hate even to have a stranger stay one
night in their village. They say, "The next town, sir, is
only a little way on." Suspicious? Poor things! Why
should they not be suspicious? What friends have they
ever had that came as strangers to then: town? And super-
stitious? Yes; they are superstitious. They are good
Catholics, but they do not know anything about the church.
I remember that one day I was at Chicahuaxtla. When I
arrived I thought it a most beautiful place. We came there
one morning at ten o'clock. The sun was bright, and the
air fine, and as we reached the height, we looked down
yonder, seventy-five miles and could just see the blue
waters of the Pacific. It was a beautiful mountain scene.
Poor, little village with its few hundred Indians! We
stopped there several days. About two o'clock everything
changed; great billows of waves of mist came up from the
sea; by three o'clock one could not see a thing anywhere;
20 FREDERICK STARR
by four o'clock we were suffering, and the poor fellows all
had on their blankets and were sitting cold and shivering.
I thought this was just one day, you know, but I now believe
that it happens there every day of the year. From nine
o'clock in the morning until eleven o'clock a beautiful, clear
sky and balmy air, and the rest of the time shivering in that
penetrating fog and mist. Poor things! They are drunk-
ards, of course — there, under such circumstances. To
show you what good Catholics they are: I was measuring
my subjects one day; until I saw more people out than
usual, I did not realize that it was a Church holiday; pres-
ently I happened to look out toward the church, and there
came a poor fellow with his head broken open and with
blood flowing from the wound, his white shirt soaked with
blood, hands drenched and face covered. He came up
crying, with his hands out. I said: "What is the matter
with you?" He said, "I am the mayordomo of the church
here. It is our feast day. The priest was to come, and he
is not here, and the people are so outraged that one has
broken my head open with a club." No wonder they were
irritated over the loss of religious privileges. "You look
bad;" said I to him. "Go back to your house and have
your woman wash you and put on another shirt; if you die,
I will see that the man is punished." He went away quite
happy. About two o'clock I was still at work, and there
came a crowd from the other direction. They were carry-
ing a pole, and there was someone hanging from the pole,
to which he was tied with cords; two held his hands, and two
were holding his feet; he was hanging by a loop, and as he
came by he was struggling, and snarling and howling. I
asked, "What is the matter with him?" "Well," they
said, "it is a, fiesta, and he got drunk and cut his friend, and
we are taking him to the jail." At evening, at six o'clock,
we were in the house of the one mestizo that lived there,
the secretario of the town. We were eating our evening meal
and heard a noise outside. I said," What is the matter?"
"Probably something going on up at the jail." "Well,"
said I, "let's go and see." "No," said the secretario , "better
stay here." "There may be some harm being done; let us
THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 21
see what is the matter," said I. We went up there. The
police force was all there. There was a fire blazing outside
the jail, which was a single room built of logs, or slabs, with
one door and no windows. When we got there, the police
were standing in a half-circle around the door, and all the
villagers from that part of the village were looking on. Here
were some holding torches. Here was the blazing fire.
In the midst of the group was a man, frightfully drunk.
He was like an insane, crazy creature — screaming, yelling,
clawing and doing all sorts of horrible things, and the police
stood around, hopeless and helpless. " What is the matter?
What is the matter?" I said. " Why don't you put him into
the jail?" Well, they closed in, under my direction; they
seized the man, opened the jail door, and thrust him in.
I found out then that he was the thirty-fifth one out of the
population of three hundred and fifty that went into that
jail that day! And it was a church holiday! It was the
only day of the year that they would usually have had the
services of a priest. Once a year, in those Indian towns,
a priest visits the town and says mass and baptizes the
children that have been born, most of them out of matri-
mony. That is a picture of an Indian village in Southern
Mexico. To finish the story before we leave it, one of the
police came limping up to me, and another came up with a
blazing torch, and I saw then why they had been afraid.
The man's leg was bleeding, and as I looked at him I realized
what had happened. They had tried to put that crazy,
drunken fool into the jail before, and he had bitten a mouth-
ful of living flesh out of the leg of the policeman ! An Indian
town in Southern Mexico — yes.
There are perhaps six million of the population like that
— a problem, is it not? I am thankful to say that it is not
all like that. Think of Benito Juarez. He was a full
blood Indian. When he was a well-grown boy he could
speak scarcely a word of Spanish. He found his way to the
capital city of Oaxaca, found a good priest as a friend,
learned all he could, became a local official, later represented
his district at Mexico City, became a Supreme Court judge,
and then, when there was no legal president, because he was
22 FREDERICK STARR
Justice of the Supreme Court he became president of the
Republic of Mexico. Pretty good work for a pure-blood
Indian boy who did not know Spanish until well past the
days of boyhood. Today Sefior Esquivel Obreg6n and I
were talking about Altamirano, famous among the writers
of Mexico and Latin America — one of the best stylists
that the American continent has ever produced; he was a
practically pure-blooded Indian from one of those poor
towns of Oaxaca, in Southern Mexico. He represented his
nation at the courts of Europe, and finally died at the court
of Paris, of homesickness. They love their mountains so !
There were other things I was going to tell you about them.
I did not mean to tell you any stories at all! They are
hard-working; they are affectionate; they are clannish.
The Indian father loves his little ones. He is not " mushy,"
but he loves his wife. He knows his town and his own
people; that is all he knows, and that is all that he has
confidence in. His poor village means everything to him.
He will stand for his town and his people against anything—
everything.
Industrious? Yes, they all work. They work those
little fields diligently, and they raise just about enough to
keep them until the next harvest. They burn a little
charcoal; they make a few pots; they weave some mats and
braid some hats. They make a trip once in a while to
Oaxaca to trade and buy with their produce. In their
little towns they are all right. They have a good govern-
ment. It is pure democracy. They elect their own officers.
They are honest people, and form hard-working, industrious,
simple communities. If they are drunkards, they are so
because of special circumstances, such as that awful mist
driving up from the sea. I found that all towns situated
like that are drunken towns; drunkenness is the result of that
situation; I would be a part of that drunken town if I lived
there long enough and for the same reason.
I was going to tell you about their laboriousness. When
these people carry burdens to Oaxaca to sell or to trade in
the market, they carry the heavy burden on their back
for perhaps a hundred miles. They will be two, three, five,
THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 23
or more days on the road. They trade their goods, sleep-
ing on the stone pavements of the corridors in front of
houses or shops, and when they have disposed of their
little stock, they are ready to go home. They then pick
up stones and load themselves, carrying the load of stones
back to their towns, the weary miles over the mountains.
It looks foolish, doesn't it? They do it to keep themselves
in training; they do it because if they began to spare them-
selves a little, they might not have strength enough to go on.
Are they fools? No; they are not fools; there is nothing
the matter with their brains.
Let us look at the second element of the population —
the mestizos. Some mestizos and Indians rise; they are the
exceptions. Of course, more mestizos rise than Indians.
The mestizo is the person whom we are fond of calling a
" greaser. " I know him pretty nearly as well as I know the
Indian. He is the common, every-day mixed-blood Mexican.
Poor, miserable greaser — ignorant, superstitious, eminently
pious; gay, thoughtless, improvident. We are told that
he will work until he has a little money, and then he will
not work again until it is gone. Why should he not live
that way? How many of us would work if there was not
a constant spur on us? A few of us would; I am quite sure
that I would, but I am not sure about you! Why should
they work more than they must? They are gay and care-
less— even to the beggars on the streets of Mexico. We
have heard the beggars mentioned today; they are a sad,
sad sight, and yet, you know, they smile. They come up
with the saddest looks and say to you, "Senor ....
etc." You say, "Mariana, amigo mio," and smile back at
them, and they smile at you with a smile that is radiant.
You would think they never had a pang in their hearts,
when in reality they never had a belly-full of decent food
in their lives. So happy, and kind, and gentle — and so
poor! There are thousands of them — millions of them —
the mestizos, and most of them are very poor, in Mexico.
Let us look at some of their other qualities. They are
brave — yes — brave and cowardly! Villa is an example.
He is a very devil of fearlessness; and yet has more than
24 FREDERICK STARR
once shown himself an abject coward. It is a common
thing in the mestizos, this combination of fearlessness and
absolute cowardice. They are not afraid to die. If there
is anything that they are interested in that involves the
risk of death, they will throw themselves into it just the
same. They love a leader. Any leader will do, as long as
he is a leader — somebody who will say, "Let us do this."
They will flock behind him to do it. It is irrational, of
course; but they are frequently faithful. They are faithful,
and they are treacherous sometimes. I have had some most
faithful servants from these people. There was a Mexican
boy of the mestizo class who came to me at fifteen years of
age, and through fifteen years every time I needed him he
stood by me, and I knew I could never be taken unawares
so long as his eagle eye was watching my surroundings.
The boy was murdered in Mexico, sleeping in his bed, in
1912. He had worked with me in America, Europe, Asia,
Africa. He had traveled 200,000 miles with me. The
mestizos are frequently faithful. Any person who has had
genuine experience in Mexico, either as mistress in a house
or master in a shop, or superintendent of labor, knows that
there is a great deal that is fine and useful and valuable in
those mestizo people — common greasers. They are not
fools, either. They know what they want, and they are
learning what they ought to want. One of the most inter-
esting experiences of my life dates to the tune when Diaz
first began to draw the line between Bernardo Reyes who
had been Minister of War and whom the people expected
would be the next President of Mexico, and Limantour.
The mestizos were interested in that contest, and I saw the
birth and development of actual interest in politics such as
they had not been accustomed to before. From that day
on, Mexicans — the common Mexicans — have been think-
ing sanely and sensibly about what they want, but they
need leadership to realize and to achieve it.
I was going to say of the Indian, finally, that he is cruel
and bloodthirsty, and of the mestizo that he is cruel and
proud. Cruel in both cases, with the cruelty of the old
Indian; and in the mestizo, proud with the splendid pride of
Spam.
THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 25
Such are the people of Mexico. There are different ways
of looking at their problem. Senor Esquivel Obreg6n says
that the problem finds its solution in the handling of that
mass of Indians and mestizos by the ilustrados. It is a mode
of solution; it is the natural mode. It is the mode that was
to be hoped for, and it is the mode which would most
promptly and naturally solve the problem. But little prog-
ress has been made along that line. For four hundred
years the common people have been exploited. I admire
the old Spanish days a great deal. There are beautiful
things to be said about the times of the viceroys. Spain
did wonders in Mexico. There was a magnificent develop-
ment even in the sixteenth century. All that we have been
told about that development is true; but, after all, it was
a period of dreadful exploitation.
Let us examine the kinds of exploitation through which
Mexico has passed and under which it has suffered for more
than five hundred years. First, is the exploitation of the com-
mon Indian, which began long before the Spaniard ever landed
down there near Vera Cruz. Do you realize what a language
means that contains deferentials? There are deferentials in
the Japanese language. The Japanese say a thing politely to
a superior, or impolitely to an inferior, and naturally to an
equal. There are deferential forms hi many other languages,
but I know of no language where it comes to the perfection
that it comes to in some Mexican Indian tongues. Deference
is shown in most languages in the general construction of the
sentence and in special forms of verbs and pronouns. But
in Aztec adjectives are deferential, adverbs are deferential
and prepositions and conjunctions; in other words, it is not
only the nouns and pronouns that show an attitude of
cringing, servile respect to those above and of contempt for
those below, but all the parts of speech. And this attitude
of the common man to his superior antedates the coming of
the Spanish. In the ruined cities of Central America and
Mexico, the buildings that are left are only those that were
used for religious and governmental purposes. Thus, at
Mitla there is nothing of ruins except government and re-
ligious buildings — yet thousands of people must have lived
26 FREDERICK STARR
at Mitla. The people generally lived in poor huts, and the
priests and the rulers had substantial buildings constructed
with sweat and labor for their benefit; in other words, ex-
ploitation of the common people antedates the Conquest.
Then, four hundred years ago, came the Spaniard with his
career of conquest. There is no question about the ex-
cellent things he brought in. There is no question that
frequently fine things were developed, but the people were
pitilessly exploited. The Indians of Central America and
Mexico were put to work in the mines and fields and driven
by hard masters. I realize all that the Council of the Indies
did — all the good laws that were passed — all the efforts
made by such priests as Bartolome de las Casas. But the
situation was that of slavery for the Indian. He toiled in
the fields and the mines; he had to do all under pressure; he
was the last thing to be considered, so long as the conquista-
dor es got something out of it.
The next exploiters were the Frailes. Many of the mis-
sionaries were good and devout men, devoted and friendly
to the Indians; splendid developments they made. You
may still see those magnificent churches here and there all
over that wonderful country; and around those churches,
in the old days, were the huts of the Indians. The labor
was done under direction and wealth was produced; the
priests lived in luxury; the Indians were no doubt happy
to fall into the hands of the priests rather than outsiders,
but they were exploited for the Church. There is much
unjust criticism of the Catholic Church in Mexico. It
drained the population, yes; but the priests would have
been less than human and more than human if they had not
taken advantage of the situation they found. They came
upon a people who were accustomed to yield everything to
authority and to religion, and why should not they expect
the same kind of contributions that the Indians had been
in the habit of giving their own bloodthirsty gods?
Who were the next exploiters? Los duenos, los amos.
When those fine old properties, given to the conquistador 'es,
passed permanently into the hands of old families — splen-
did great possessions of land, wide-stretching, rich, fertile,
THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 27
and not only land properties, but hundreds and thousands
of men, who worked them were really owned by the duenos.
The laborers were entitled to their tortillas and frijoles, to
their poor clothing and simple shelter, and they contrib-
uted to the wealth of the owners. The situation might
have been worse than it was but the common laborers were
serfs on the lands. It was exploitation, and the peons got
out of it but a bare living, while the amos and duenos lived
in splendor.
Then came the revolution, one hundred years ago. For
a hundred years the form of exploitation has been different.
Today it is largely the exploitation of los politicos, the
leaders, the men who can, through the hands that they con-
trol, mount to power. Sad, is it not? One sort of exploi-
tation after another: is it always going to keep on? It
might have been hoped that the old situation would end
with the coming of the Spaniards; but things were worse;
when liberty and independence came, it might have been
hoped that things would improve, but they have gone right
on under the modern politico.
Such is the population of Mexico — the Mexican people.
Let us look at the Mexican Republic. From the beginning
it has been a land of prosperity and wealth; but only for a
few — always but a few. The priests, the chiefs, the con-
querors, the land-owners, the politicians, the leaders — have
had an easy time. It has been the people, who have carried
them. As Senor Esquivel Obreg6n says, the natural thing
is for an evolution to have taken place, but I see no signs
of upward evolution in that career of exploitation. The
situation of the Mexican population today is no better than
it was four hundred years ago, and yet in any genuine de-
velopment and evolution it should have been vastly im-
proved. The ilustrados should have helped that evolution.
They have been content to leave the Indians just a bare ex-
istence, so long as they were comfortable. One of the most
serious mistakes of Diaz in his long period of rule was the
fact that he did not develop those Indians — those fellows
in the mountains, talking their languages, living in their
little villages, into citizens of the Republic. During thirty-
28 FREDERICK STARR
five years Diaz should have instilled into their minds the
fact that they were part of a great nation; if he had done
that, they would be part of a great nation today. But
instead, he dealt with them in the easiest, simplest way.
They would pay their contribution, their personal tax for
the sake of being left alone. It was the easiest way to deal
with a serious problem. It was Diaz's way. He left the six
million Indians absolutely alone as long as they paid their
contribution. They do not know today that they are a
part of a nation. They do not know today their duties
toward anything outside their village. Porfirio Diaz made
a serious blunder in dealing with that problem in the easiest
way, instead of making the Indians realize that he was
President of Mexico, and that they were Mexicans — not
only Aztecs, and Mixtecs and Zapotecs, and so on, but
Mexicans.
There is a great deal of talk about the land problem.
There was a time when President Wilson used to talk about
the agrarian problem of Mexico. I do not think he has
the slightest idea of the real problem. There are two agra-
rian problems, both of which are of importance. We have
seen how the great estates came into existence. Hundreds
and thousands of people often labored on the lands of one
owner. That is an agrarian problem, and that is what Mr.
Wilson was thinking of; it is what most people in the United
States mean when they talk about the agrarian problem
of Mexico. But that problem can wait. Those great
estates, landed properties of old families, with the common
laborers upon them in actual serfdom, are undesirable.
They will pass, of course, in time, if Mexico really progresses.
It is too late in the world's history for such conditions to
be normal. But there is another agrarian problem; it is
more serious; its solution is urgent. Only a few years ago,
within the memory of hundreds and thousands of Indians
still living, some new laws were passed in Mexico the purpose
of which was simply to get possession of the common lands
of the Indians. In many towns the Indians do not own
individual land. A man occupies individual ground, his
father before him, and his grandfather before him, occupied
THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 29
it. He looks upon it practically as his, but it is really not
such. It is the property of his village, but he has the use of
it. Laws were passed that took such land into considera-
tion. These lands were taken away, here and there in the
Indian districts, land on which the Indians had lived for
years and years. The law said, such lands should be regis-
tered; if not registered by a given date they become public
land. What did those poor Indians know about registering
land that they had lived on for years and their ancestors
before them? They were not expected to register these
lands; it was known that they would not register. The land
was taken; the Indians were evicted from the soil. That
is the problem that hurts. It is the lands that have been
taken from the Indians during our memories, which should
be given back to them before the present generation of them
dies, that is the urgent agrarian problem of Mexico.
With the eviction of Indians from their lands — from their
common lands — there were troops of homeless, property-
less, wandering, tramping beggars, subjected to every kind
of temptation and degradation! Let the old masters, as
many of them as treat then- people right, alone for the pres-
ent. Take whatever time is necessary to deal with them,
but something should be done with these comparatively
recently evicted Indians. Their lands were sold to outsiders
ilustrados in Mexico and newspaper owners and others in
the United States.
There is another thing in this connection. I have been
in towns which, a little before my visit, were fine towns of
hundreds of people, which were practically depopulated or
left with but a few women and children in the place. What
had happened? American investors who wanted to try a
futile experiment in raising rubber or in developing coffee
plantations needed help. Do you get the idea? American
investors, German investors, French investors, people who
wanted agricultural labor where there was none available
needed hands, and whole towns were depopulated against
the wishes of the townsfolk in order to supply contract la-
borers to neighboring foreign plantations. Well, that is one
way of lifting and improving, teaching, giving the results of
Western culture to the Mexican people.
30 FREDERICK STARR
It seems as if a critical moment has come. It seems as if
the question is whether the future is to see a similar exploita-
tion. Are the Mexican common people to continue to be
slaves? After having been slaves of their own leaders, of
the conquistadores, of the misioneros, the duenos, and the
politicos, are they to be similarly exploited by los extranjeros
— the foreigners? It appears quite possible. It looks as if
we would expand; it looks as if we would crowd; it looks as
if we must have labor. Labor is not common; it can be
had. It may be paid well. We have paid better wages
usually than the ilustrados have. Yes; but after all, it is
slavery. And it is a slavery that is particularly hard where
the master knows nothing about the particular psychology,
or the makeup, or the past, the pleasures, the desires of the
laborers. I wish the ilustrados would wake up. I wish
that twenty per cent of educated population would help
the evolution a little bit. They have not done much in
a long time. They must wake up, because if they do not,
they are as sure to lose their hold as the common people of
Mexico are sure to lose theirs.
The only leader who seems to have said anything in favor
of the people of Mexico or to have made any public utter-
ance in their behalf, was the man of whose death we have just
heard — President Carranza. I have heard much criticism
of Carranza. He was not my choice for President; still,
when he was recognized I said: " Thank Heaven; Wilson
has recognized someone!" It was time that he did. There
were reasons why I believed that Carranza would be a
failure. Compared with what I expected, he has proved
an extraordinary success. Some things that he has done
are foolish. Like almost every man who has come into
power in Mexico, he threw his promises to the winds after
he was once in control. Yet he did some remarkable
things, considering the situation that he found. Well, he
has gone, I suppose. The ex-Ambassador (Hon. Henry
Lane Wilson) told us last evening that we did not know
anything of what had taken place in Mexico for the last
thirty days, and then immediately afterwards told us a de-
tailed story of Carranza fleeing into the mountains with
THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 31
27,000,000 pesos! Probably he has gone, and it is too bad
that he did not do more. His real weakness was the same
that President Roosevelt showed and that Mr. Wilson
showed. President Roosevelt, you remember, as he neared
the end of his term of office, was obsessed with the fear lest
his policies would be neglected — "My policies must be con-
tinued." It is an idea that people in power often get. It is
always a mistaken idea. There is no man whose policies
are so strong and so absolute that something else will not
do; but people are often taken that way, and Mr. Roosevelt
was. So he put Mr. Taft in, and you know how that came
out. It led to a rupture from which the party is still suf-
fering. Wilson came to a point once where he felt that his
policies were the one and only thing, and so he made an
appeal to the American people, and he said, "You must,"
and they gave him a Republican Congress ! The situation in
Mexico is that same thing. Carranza insisted on having
his policies continued, and they answered that demand by
arms, and that is all. It is not to insure a fair election of
our kind, which is a thing they know nothing about in
Mexico. What is the use of making pretenses, when we all
know better?
Is it probable that Mexico will really be absorbed by
United States capital? Is it probable that the Mexican
people will now be the slaves of a new exploiter? Is it
possible that after 500 years of absolutely living for the
benefit of others and getting nothing but a scanty living,
that they are to pass into hands quite as ruthless, harsh and
cruel as anything they have had before? My own belief
is that it depends on who they have as President in Mexico
for the next fifteen years.
This is my last point. Let me call your attention to
what is essential in a President of Mexico for the next few
years, if the people of Mexico are not to pass into the hands
of new exploiters.
The first thing is that the president of Mexico must have
some Indian blood. That was one point against Madero —
he was a Portuguese. Carranza was a Spaniard. The man
to solve Mexico's problems must have some Indian blood.
FREDERICK STARR
What are the two names that stand out conspicuously
among the names of the presidents of Mexico? Benito
Juarez and Porfirio Diaz. Diaz had only one-eighth Indian
blood, but he was a good deal of an Indian.
Second, the president of Mexico for the next fifteen years,
should have a strong hand. We talk a great deal about
tyranny, overriding public rights, and all that. My dear
friends, I am as interested in having every man, woman and
child have all then- rights as anyone can possibly be, but
the president of Mexico for the next fifteen years, if there is
to be evolution or progress, must be a man with a strong
hand; and, if he is a man with a strong hand, as president of
Mexico he will unquestionably override some human rights
during the period of his administration.
In the third place, the president of Mexico during the
next fifteen years must be a just man and must be prepared
to protect foreign interests and investments, but he must
think first, and always first, of the Mexican people.
In the fourth place, the president who is to help Mexico
within the next fifteen years must think much more of the
Indian and the common, poor mestizo than he does of the
ilustrado. I have no fear that the ilustrado will be thrown
down and trampled upon. It is not impossible — such
things have happened in other lands, in other times, but
both the Indian and the common man in Mexico are men of
extraordinary docility and gentleness of character, and if
only a little attention is given to their elevation and only a
little is done to help them, a great deal is accomplished.
You remember that we heard someone suggest that they
should be fed before they are taught. That idea has my
heartfelt sympathy. I do not think so much of books.
Books are all right, in then* way, and when the time comes,
give the Mexican children books — yes, put them in school;
but wash them, dress them, clothe them, feed them — yes,
give them something on which the digestive juices may act
— first. When I say give it to them, I mean let them earn
it; but let them earn it at a decent rate, in then: own way,
in work for Mexicans.
THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 33
Consider some of the men who have lately been presidents
of Mexico. There was old man Huerta. He was probably
a pure-blood Indian. He came into power entirely legally;
every legal step was observed when Victoriana Huerta
became president of Mexico. More than that, Huerta's
hands were not stained with the blood of Madero at the
time he became President. He is said to have been an aw-
ful drunkard, and they tell dreadful tales about the way he
took his whisky. I imagine that the people in this audience
do not know anything about whisky. Dr. Cummings has
gone, so I shall feel safe in making some observations!
Gentlemen take whisky by measured " fingers," and put a
certain amount of some kind of effervescent water in with
the whisky, and according to the amount of " fingers7' and
the amount of effervescent water, the gentleman's position
is gauged. The finger measure must not be too small, but
it must not be too large. Probably Huerta was no gentle-
man. Personally, I do not think that Huerta was so popu-
lar that if left alone he would have remained in power, but
before we got through with him, he was the fittest man to
occupy the presidential chair of Mexico, and I have always
regretted that Wilson did not recognize him. Huerta rep-
resented almost everything that I considered bad in Mexi-
can politics, but he was the legal ruler of the country; he
was an Indian by blood; he was a man with a strong hand;
he would not have granted anything to the Mexican people
as long as he did not have to do so. But Huerta was no
fool. He had seen Porfirio Diaz fall from his splendid
height; he had seen Madero, who had been the popular idol,
in less than two years absolutely destroyed. Being no fool,
Huerta would grant grudingly, he would give slowly, what
was necessary, and that is what the successful president of
Mexico must do. It is a mistake to throw too much at one
time to a struggling population. I hope the Mexican people
will get their rights; I hope they will struggle and insist
upon their rights; I hope that, no matter who comes to the
Presidential chair, he will be forced, gradually, to give them
their rights. But, let them get their rights gradually, in
34 FREDERICK STARR
the same way that we did through the days of English his-
tory. So much for old man Huerta.
And there was Carranza. I have said all I care to about
him. And here is Obreg6n. I do not know Obreg6n. I
believe that Carranza promised that he should follow him
and that more than one year ago it was fully arranged in de-
tail. It was expected that when Carranza got through and
the election came, Obreg6n should be the one candidate, and
that he would have the president behind him. Perhaps
they quarreled; perhaps it was only the obsession that his
policies were essential; at all events Carranza raised up
his personal candidate, Bonillas. The Mexican people ex-
pected Obreg6n to become president. He expected it.
Carranza meant it, up to a certain point. It looks now as if
he will be president.
Rodolf o de la Huerta must be an interesting man. He has
a good deal of Indian blood, and he is something of a ruler.
He is a reformer. Like most Mexicans, he has his warm
friends and his bitter enemies. His friends say nothing but
good of him, and his enemies nothing but bad. It is as-
serted by his friends that he made Sonora "dry as a bone;"
his enemies say that what he really did was to corner all
the drinks and sell them out at a sharp advance. In either
case, he must be quite a notable man. He is the present
power. We have heard something about Alvarado. My
suspicion is that Mexico is not big enough for both Obreg6n
and Alvarado. It is perhaps large enough for Obreg6n
and de la Huerta. Pablo Gonzales, who enjoys the nickname
of "The Squash, " perhaps will get on with Obreg6n, but they
will find the confines narrow when Obreg6n and Alvarado
come to really work together. Whichever of those men
comes in, it is to be hoped that he may build on the founda-
tions which Carranza has laid.
UPON THE INDIAN DEPENDS MEXICO'S FUTURE
By James Carson, National Councillor of the American Cham-
ber of Commerce of Mexico; Formerly Chief of the
Associated Press S?nice in Mexico
The year 1920 will perhaps figure in Mexico's history as
the most momentous since that of 1821 when Mexico first
attempted to walk alone. The overturning of the Car-
ranza government may mean the first real, though somewhat
uncertain, step toward self-government as we know it here
in the United States. This assumption is predicated on the
fact that the Mexicans are weary of war, after a nine years'
orgy of bloodshed, during which time almost every crime
was committed in the name of liberty and of democracy.
Much of the confusion which has clouded the minds of
many observers of Mexican affairs has been occasioned by
non-consideration of the history of the Mexican people and
the consequent failure to comprehend the true character
of the natives. It is but natural that North Americans
should apply the yardstick of experience in measuring the
happenings and judging of the future of the republic to the
south of them, but such a procedure must inevitably result
in wrong conclusions. The first question, therefore, which
one must endeavor to answer, in order to dispassionately
judge the present-day Mexican situation, is: Who are the
Mexican people?
Their beginning is shrouded in mystery. No field offers
such fascination for the archeologist. We know from the
ruins of Palenque and of Mitla that a race peopled Mexico
some 2000 years before Christ. From the inscriptions chis-
eled on the ruins of the stone temples which have been
unearthed it seems probable that these people were star-
worshippers and their hieroglyphics bear a resemblance to
those of the early Assyrians and Egyptians.
35
36 JAMES CARSON
The beginnings of Mexico, however, cannot be traced to
this dim past. The modern Mexican is a descendant of the
Toltecs and the Aztecs. Just what influence the first of
these races had in moulding the character of the present-day
people is questionable. The Toltecs left imposing monu-
ments in the shape of great pyramids rivaling some of those
of Egypt. The best two examples of these which have
endured until today are those at San Juan de Teotihuacan,
about thirteen miles southeast of Mexico City, and one at
Cholula on the outskirts of the City of Puebla.
The real forefathers of the present-day Mexicans were the
Aztecs. These people were of undoubted Mongolian ori-
gin and their migrations from that part of the United States
now occupied by the States of Oregon, California, Arizona
and New Mexico, into Old Mexico, can be easily traced to
this day We know that these people had some strong
qualities; that they had imagination, and some capacity
for civil government and a sort of genius for building. All
this can be read in the structures which they left in New
Mexico, in Chihuahua and in the ruins of the Teocali which
was built upon the site of the present Cathedral in Mexico
City.
When Hernando Cortez, with his little band of supermen,
landed at Vera Cruz and burned his ships behind him, the
Aztec was the dominant race in Mexico. If we can rely
upon the very fascinating accounts of Prescott and the
garrulous notes of that old conquistador, Bernal Diaz, we
may be sure that these people were in many things as far
advanced as were the Europeans of their day. They had
built great temples, had an educated priesthood, paid some
attention to public instruction, possessed a judiciary,
members of which were appointed for life, and had a ruler
who was elected to office. We know that they built a great
city in the valley of Anahuac in the high plateau region.
This city contained 300,000 inhabitants, had a great market
place where on certain days a fifth of the population gath-
ered to purchase finely woven cloths, gold and silver orna-
ments, sweetmeats, and foodstuffs of various kinds. The
city was everywhere intersected by canals, for it had been
MEXICO'S FUTURE 37
built upon the bed of a disappearing lake. It was such a
community that Cortez and his doughty warriors found
after they had fought their way up from the tropics to the
foot of the majestic Popocatepetl.
What happened is familiar to all of you. The Spaniards,
with insatiable greed for gold and fanatical zeal to advance
the cross, crushed these people with a cruelty, the relent-
lessness of which shocks readers of the history of that
period even to this day. It would be unfair to the Span-
iard to attribute to him all of the ills of present-day Mexico.
Some time ago I heard Vicente Blasco Ibanez, that gifted
novelist, brilliant orator and sparkling conversationalist,
pay an eloquent tribute to the courage and dauntlessness
of this little band that conquered an empire, and they
deserved it, if bravery and the spirit of adventure are the
only measures to be applied in judging of their conduct.
The conquest of Mexico is an epic the like of which has
never been paralleled in history. But while the Spaniards
built magnificent temples and stamped some of the strength
of the Iberian on the country, not even the eloquence of
an Ibanez can erase the blot which is all that remains of
the civilization of the early Mexican people. There can
be no quibble over this fact of history, for we have it from
the pen of a Spaniard himself — Las Casas — who devoted
his life in an attempt to right the great wrong committed
by the Spaniard.
The man from Spain and his descendants dominated
Mexico for three centuries, and the work of cruelty begun
by Cortez extended over that entire period, until the Mexi-
can became a mere serf, almost a dumb creature. When the
war for independence was begun, it was not the Mexicans,
but the Spanish Creoles who started it. Iturbide was of
almost pure Spanish blood and he was the first hero in
Mexican history. His empire did not last longer than
some of the succeeding presidencies. That Spam wrote
her rubrics large across the face of Mexico and the rest of
Latin America is a fact; that she crushed the Mexican
people in the process is, for our purpose, a more important
truth.
38 JAMES CARSON
Since the last of the Spanish troops, under O'Donoju,
marched down the slopes to Vera Cruz, that port through
which the Spaniards had first entered the country three
centuries before, Mexico, with two exceptions, has been
dominated by men of mixed Spanish blood, mestizos who
have retained the political traits and traditions of the one-
time mother country. These men constitute less than three
per cent of the population and are known to the outside
world and designated by many foreign observers as "the
Mexican people/' They are not. The real Mexican peo-
ple consist of some 13,000,000 of Indian blood, the dregs
of a once powerful and progressive race. The Mexican
problem resolves itself into a question of whether or not
these people can come back if the opportunity is given them.
Critics and scoffers of this view point (and unfortunately
these two terms are often too nearly synonymous when
treating of Mexican affairs) point to the fact that since the
days of the first presidency of Guadalupe Victoria, in 1821,
there have been seventy-three distinct administrations, and
that the average tenure of a chief executive of Mexico has
been less than one year. This, of course, is historically
true, but this long and discouraging record of constant
treacheries, revolutions and governmental turnovers was
broken by two regimes characterized by real patriotism and
progress. Is it not hopeful that these two administrations
were those of men of Indian blood?
When we speak of an Indian in Mexico we speak of a
Mexican. What are the facts, historically? Seventy-three
administrations in less than one hundred years. One of
these, that of Benito Juarez, a pure-blooded Indian, saved
the sovereignty of his country and drove the foreign invader
from its shores; the other, that of Porfirio Diaz, an Indian,
gave to the land thirty-six years of peace and prosperity,
and a material development and wellbeing which demon-
strates the possibilities of the future. Seventy-one admini-
strations by inheritors of Spanish traditions were failures,
two by men of Indian blood were successes. Is it not fair
to assume that it is within the realm of probability that the
Indian can come back?
MEXICO *S FUTURE 39
The character of the Mexican Indian is much misunder-
stood. He is naturally serious, docile and industrious.
Centuries of domination have made him childlike, and for
that reason he is easily led. The mestizo, politician and
military chieftain, take full advantage of this trait and thus
find it comparatively easy to keep the revolutionary pot
boiling. Under the leadership of such men the Indian has
committed horrible atrocities, but the belief that by nature
he is bloodthirsty and warlike is wholly erroneous.
For the past nine years the Indian has been fighting furi-
ously, now at the beck of one leader, again at the call of
another. There are abundant signs at present that this
sort of thing is at last palling upon him; that after decades
of deceit he is beginning to see the light. He is tired of
fighting. He is commencing to see that the type of leader
he has so long blindly followed is more interested in sustain-
ing himself than in ruling for the benefit of the country.
In this awakening lies the hope of the future for Mexico.
Two factors have been largely responsible for this change
in the native Mexican. One of these has been the disil-
lusionment resulting from years of bloody fighting which
have brought him nothing but poverty and misery ; the other,
the uplifting influence of great American and other foreign
business enterprises and American business men who have
gone into his country to develop its natural resources. No
single thing has done as much to promote the welfare of the
Mexican of the lower class as has the example of the pro-
gressive foreigner. Americans built the railways in Mex-
ico, more than 15,000 kilometers of them. In doing so they
developed artisans, such as machinists, carpenters, black-
smiths, and a multitude of other skilled craftsmen. They
raised the standards of living and the daily wage of the
worker. They did this deliberately, and the influence of
these pioneer builders spread to other great concerns oper-
ating mines, mills and factories. These mechanics formed
the nucleus of the middle class which in the near future will
for the first time in the history of Mexico begin to assert
itself. These Americans taught, but they did so by example
rather than by precept. Mexico has an educational sys-
40 JAMES CARSON
tern, but like much that was inherited from Spain it is
hollow — a matter of form rather than substance. The great
need of the people today is for vocational training, and
the genius of the American for organization will supply
this if he is given an opportunity to help the Mexican to
develop the vast riches of his country. This is the only
kind of intervention that is thinkable. Armed intervention
by the United States would be a calamity, the effects of
which would be felt for many decades to come in the sus-
picion and lack of esteem in which the United States would
be held by the other republics of the western hemisphere.
Such a movement would be a mistake, not only from the
standpoint of justice, but also from that of political
expediency.
The two great dangers which confront the present Govern-
ment are those of militarism and the inaccessibility of vast
stretches of territory which make the Central Government
little more than a name to the people inhabiting them.
Militarism has always been the curse of Mexico and if the
liberal government, which has just taken over the reins of
power, allows itself to be dominated by the ambitions of
the various chieftains who have hastened to give it allegi-
ence, it will be in great danger of going the way of other
governments. Nullifying this threat of disaster is the gen-
eral sentiment of the country against a further continuance
of righting of any kind.
Conditions existing at the present time are somewhat
analogous to those which prevailed in the early seventies,
just before Porfirio Diaz assumed supreme control. At
that time the country had been bled white by a succession
of revolutions which had stretched over the previous half
century. It wanted a strong hand at the helm to stamp
out banditry and give the people an opportunity to follow
their peaceful pursuits. Diaz proved to be such a man.
Will Obregon measure up to these standards? Those who
know him well believe that he will do so. He is young,
vigorous and patriotic and his expressed desire to live on
friendly terms with the United States will greatly aid him
in his tremendous task. Carranza might have been the
MEXICO *S FUTUEE 41
greatest man in Mexican history had he been willing to link
the destinies of his country with those of the United States
and her allies in the great world war. When he chose to do
otherwise he sealed his doom.
Even with peace, the task of reconstruction in Mexico
is one that calls for administrative genius of the highest
order. Few people realize the great extent of Mexico ter-
ritorially. It has more than 767,000 square miles, com-
prising an area greater than all of Western Europe, and
equalling that of Great Britain, France, Belgium, Holland,
Denmark, the German Empire, Switzerland, Italy, Greece
and Cuba. Although telegraphic communication is main-
tained with practically all of this territory, and more than
10,000 miles of railway connect up its principal cities,
there are still entire regions where the inhabitants live in
most primitive style, weaving the fabrics for their very
simple clothing and obtaining their food as did their ances-
tors centuries before. Often these people know no Spanish,
speaking their native dialects of which philologists tell us
there are sixty-five separate and distinct ones. To attempt
to judge Mexico by its capital city, or by the various other
thriving centers of population in some of the better known
states, is as futile as to try to get a picture of our own coun-
try by examining a cross-cut section of the East Side of the
City of New York.
There are certain natural and economic laws which work
inevitably. Because of her geographical position, Mexico
must always be closely linked to the United States of
America. No false Chauvinism on the part of Mexican
politicians can change this condition of affairs. Further-
more, the vast riches of the country are needed by the
entire world. This is an age of steel and oil, and just as
coal and iron spelled dominance in the past half century, so
these two first mentioned commodities will determine lead-
ership in the present. Mexico is rich in the elements of
both of these. She is also abundantly provided with every-
thing else man wants. What Baron Humboldt said more
than a century ago is true today: Mexico is "The Treasure
House of the World." If her people can be aided and
42 JAMES CARSON
guided in developing them, her future is secure; but always
it is essential to differentiate the Mexican people from the
Mexican politician.
I have found it helpful, in trying to think logically on the
Mexican question, to consider that country as a patient
and to endeavor through an analysis of the happenings of
the past to arrive at a diagnosis that may be reasonable,
intelligent and sympathetic. There is nothing uncompli-
mentary intended towards that nation in this method of
approach for I have always been a warm admirer of the
Republic and its people.
It is undeniable that Mexico is suffering from a disease
which from tune to time during the past one hundred
years has threatened its existence as a sovereign State. It
is deep seated and its source can be traced to the Iberian
peninsula and the Spaniard. Like most grave illnesses it is
complicated, and seemingly contradictory evidence baffles
the efforts of the diagnostician. It is the sick man of the
West as is Turkey of the East. It is suffering from an ail-
ment produced by the political philosophy of the Iberian
as contrasted with that of the Anglo Saxon. It is interest-
ing to speculate on what might have happened had the
foreign penetration of the Aztec Empire been postponed one
hundred years and a man of the stripe of Sir Walter Raleigh
had sailed into the harbor of Vera Cruz instead of one of
the ilk of that giant of adventuresomeness, Hernan Cortez.
While there is much to admire in the character of the
Spaniard and some of the pages he has written in history
are unmatched by the achievements of any other, the gen-
ius for self-government is not one of these. This is true
despite the fact that individualism is the basic note of
Spanish psychology, an Iberian characteristic which has all
the force of an imperious atavism, and that the present-day
Latin American is the product of that fierce strain of reli-
gious fanaticism which the Moors brought into Spain, and
of that assertive love of self-government expressed in the
charter of Leon in the year 1020, antedating the Magna
Charta wrested from King John and making liberty and
democracy of more ancient date in Spain than in England.
MEXICO'S FUTURE 43
What is wanted now in Mexico is an invasion of capital,
books, ideas and ideals which shall rid the country of the
political poison which lingers as a Spanish inheritance.
This is the sort of an intervention which will be the salva-
tion of that country. Whether or not it will come depends
upon the attitude of the new regime towards the outside
world, and, particularly, the United States of America.
THE FACTOR OF HEALTH IN MEXICAN
CHARACTER
By Ellsworth Huntington, Ph.D., Research Associate, Yale
University ; formerly Research Associate of the Carnegie
Institution for Climatic Investigations
in Mexico and Central America
People who talk about Mexico often go to extremes. Those
at one extreme maintain that the Mexicans are as capable
as any race in the world. All they need is education, re-
ligion, good government, and a " chance/' Those at the
other extreme say that the Mexicans are racially inferior;
the Indians are hopelessly stupid and dull, while the Span-
iards are by nature mercurial and volatile. Every sensible
person recognizes that neither of these extremes is true;
yet they color our thinking to a dangerous extent. Many
of those who are most unselfishly interested in the future
of Mexico seem to be wasting much of their effort because
they will not squarely face the fact that the Mexican is
different from the American of the United States, and no
amount of education, religion, good government, or oppor-
tunity will make him the same. On the other hand a
great many people who know Mexico thoroughly and sym-
pathetically destroy their own influence by assuming that
the evils which are so patent in Mexico are due to the sup-
posed racial incapacity of the Mexicans.
The truth seems to be that the Indian blood does give
Mexico an inheritance different from that of our own people,
and even the Spanish blood is marked by inherent traits
which differ from those of the races of northern Europe.
Nevertheless, we have no right to assume that the condition
of Mexico as we see it today is due solely, or even primarily
to this inheritance. In fact, we do not know what the
Mexican inheritance is, or what it might achieve if placed
under the right surroundings. On the other hand it is
44
HEALTH IN MEXICAN CHARACTER 45
equally unscientific to assume that if the educational, social,
political, and religious conditions of Mexico were made
perfect, the Mexicans would be able to maintain what we
commonly call a high civilization. How can we know until
we have a clear idea as to the racial capacity of Mexico?
One of the greatest reasons for our blurred ideas as to
the relative importance of race on the one hand and social
organization on the other, is our almost complete disregard
of the great realm that lies between the two. The name of
that realm is health. A nation of chronic and incurable
invalids cannot possibly make great progress no matter how
fine may be its inheritance or how perfect its social system.
At least it cannot make progress unless it finds some means
of curing itself.
Mexico may almost be called a nation of invalids. It has
three times as much sickness as the northern United States.
The death-rate is universally recognized as by far the best
measure of the health of a nation. The outstanding fact
about the death-rate in Mexico City is that for the past
ten years it has averaged not far from forty-five. Yet
Mexico City lies on the cool, lofty plateau and has been
supposed to be one of the healthiest parts of Mexico. Of
course the Mexican mortality statistics are very imperfect;
but that only makes the situation worse. No matter how
bad may be the system of mortality records, a death that
does not occur is never put on record. A great many deaths
however, fail to be recorded because no physician or priest
is summoned. Or if the priest and physician are present
they forget to send in the record. Until one studies the
mortality records in a supposedly advanced country like
our own, one has no idea of how difficult it is to secure ac-
curacy even when fine organizations like our Census Bureau
and our local boards of health are making the most strenu-
ous efforts. Thus it seems practically certain that in Mex-
ico City the amount of sickness and death is at least three
times as great as in the cities of the northern United States.
In extenuation of this deplorable state of affairs it has
sometimes been claimed that Mexico City suffers from a
low swampy situation and from worse conditions of drain-
46 ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON
age than do other parts of the Mexican plateau. As I
have shown elsewhere/ however, there is no evidence that
the capital is any worse than the smaller Mexican towns
and villages except as all large cities are at a disadvantage
simply because of their size and the consequent poor hous-
ing, over-crowding, and bad air. Moreover, the supposed
bad effect of the low swampy situation of Mexico City in
the bed of what was once a lake can hardly account for the
city's poor health, for strangely enough the death-rate falls
notably as soon as the wet season begins. Yet that is the
very time when the lake-bed becomes swampy and its bad
effects should be at a maximum. In a word, it appears that
aside from the handicap of its size, Mexico City is fairly
typical of the plateau regions of Mexico where the great
majority of the population is located. The lowlands cer-
tainly are no better. At Vera Cruz, the only other Mexican
city where the mortality statistics are of any appreciable
value, the death-rate appears to be about the same as at
the capital. Vera Cruz has the advantage of being only a
tenth as large as Mexico City, but even so, it is surprising
that a low, hot, tropical city on the sea-coast should be no
worse than the high, cool, temperate city on the plateau.
Nevertheless a study of the comparative mortality of many
parts of the world indicates that if a few plagues like yellow
fever and malaria are kept down, the cities of tropical sea-
coasts are at least as healthy as those of dry tropical inte-
riors and perhaps even of plateaus.
What has been said above implies that Mexico as a whole
is at least three times as unhealthful as a state like New
York, for example. But the disparity between the Mexican
conditions and those among the readers of this article is
even greater. It is well known that intelligent people of
the educated classes suffer much less from sickness and
1 Ellsworth Huntington: The Relation of Health to Racial Capacity:
The Example of Mexico. To be published shortly in the Geographical
Review. The article here referred to deals with the same subject as the
present article, but considers it from the geographic standpoint with
special reference to climate and with comparisons between Mexico and
other regions. Thus the two articles supplement each other and should
be read together.
HEALTH IN MEXICAN CHARACTER 47
death than do the ignorant and poverty stricken. Hence it
seems conservative to say that among Mexicans as a whole
there is four times as much sickness and death as among
the readers of this article and their families and friends;
while even among the upper classes of Mexico there is three
times as much as among our similar classes.
The effect of widespread ill health upon children is much
worse than upon adults. For Mexico I have not been able
to secure the exact figures, but a comparison of the most
healthful countries of Europe, namely, Norway, Sweden,
Denmark, and Holland, with three of the most unhealthful,
namely Bulgaria, Servia and Rumania as they were before
the Great War, will make the matter clear. Making a
slight allowance for the imperfections of the records in the
more backward countries,2 and eliminating other errors by
the use of a " standard population/ ' it appears that the
death rate in the three Balkan countries under normal
conditions is about 2.2 times as great as in the four Scandi-
navian countries. This ratio, however, varies according to
age, as appears in column A of the following table :
A B
Children under one year of age 4.0 (?) 7.2 (?)
Children one to 4 years of age 3.5 6.3
Children 5 to 14 years of age 3.0 5.4
Young people, 15 to 24 years of age 2.2 4.0
Adults, 25 to 34 years of age 2.1 3.9
Adults, 35 to 44 years of age 2.0 3.7
Adults, 45 to 54 years of age 1.9 3.5 .
Adults, 55 to 75 years of age 1.8 3.3
Between Mexico and the United States the difference in
health likewise is greatest in early youth and decreases with
age. If we assume that the change from age to age is the
same as in Europe, the amount of ill health and death in
Mexico compared with the upper classes in the United
States varies as appears in column B. In other words,
where one baby under a year old dies among the babies of
your acquaintances, over seven probably die in Mexico.
Where one of the children aged one to four is ill among
2 The method of making these corrections together with a full discussion
of the significance of the data in respect to Europe will form part of a
volume to be published shortly under the title ''Europe."
48
ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON
your friends, six are ill in Mexico. Even among adults
there is three times as much disease and death as among
your friends, but the older people are much better off than
the children.3
8 Since this article was in type Mr. Wallace Thompson has kindly fur-
nished me with the Mexican mortality rates given below in column A. They
are taken from a book on Mexico which he expects to publish shortly, and
are based on the Mexican census of 1910. This census makes the death rate
for Mexico as a whole 30.8 for the year in question, or approximately two
thirds of the average rate for Mexico City. Anyone who is familiar with
mortality statistics will realize that Mexican data collected only for a
single year in connection with the decennial census are sure to be much
farther below the truth than are the statistics for Mexico City which are
collected regularly every year. In Mexico, as in the more backward coun-
tries of Europe, there is especial negligence in recording the deaths of young
children, and to a less degree, of old people. Hence in column A the first
two numbers and the last are scarcely worth regarding. The rest are fairly
consistent, although their irregularity when plotted denotes inaccuracy.
Column B shows similar figures for native whites of native parentage in
the registration area of the United States as it existed in 1911, but exclud-
ing the three most southerly states included at that time, namely, Mary-
land, Kentucky, and North Carolina. Column C gives the number of times
by which the Mexican figures exceed those of the United States. The last
column D, is an attempt to correct the Mexican figures on the basis of
two assumptions: (1) that they should show a regularity corresponding to
that which is found in the figures of advanced regions like the United States;
and (2) that the Mexican figures are 10 per cent too low in the better por-
tions of the table, an assumption which is almost certainly too low. This
last column approximates the truth, although it makes no claim to be
more than an estimate. It is important, however, that this estimate based
on figures for the whole of Mexico in comparison with the most populous
part of the United States is in substantial agreement with the previous
estimate based on Mexico City in comparison with Europe.
A
REPORTED
MEXICAN DEATH
RATE PER
THOUSAND 1910
B
DEATH RATE
AMONG NATIVE
WHITES OF NA-
TIVE PARENT-
AGE IN THE
UNITED STATES
1911
C
RATIO OF A
TO B
D
CORRECTED
ESTIMATE OF
TRUE RATIO OF
A TO B
Under 1 year
365 0
102 2
3.6
7.7
Under 5 years
89.5
29.8
3.0
6.9
5—9 years
16 0
3.1
5.2
5.7
10—14 years
11 0(?)
2 2
5.0(?)
4.8
15-19 years
12.1
3.4
3.6
4.0
20-29 years
14 4
5.0
2.9
3.4
30-44 years
19 9
6 2
3.2
3.2
45-60 years*
35.2
12.8
2.8
3.1
Over 60 years*
97.7
64.6
1.5
3.0
* 65 years, United States.
HEALTH IN MEXICAN CHARACTER 49
Let us now apply our results to character. In order to
gain some idea of what ill health does in Mexico, try to
picture a community in which the children have from five to
seven times as much illness as have the children of your
neighbors, and where the adults have three or four times as
much illness as have you and your friends. Ask yourself
how much difference it would make hi will power, self-
control, initiative, originality, education, and many other
qualities. The answers are so obvious that it is scarcely
necessary to set them forth in detail. That they apply to
Mexico can scarcely be doubted when one considers the
physique, education, temperament, and achievements of the
Mexicans whom one has known.
Since children are more plastic than adults and are more
affected by conditions of ill health, we may briefly sketch
what would be likely to happen in our own community if a
generation should grow up having six times as much ill
health as is the lot of our present generation. The first
result would be that as infants the children would fret and
cry much more than now, and they would continue to do
this to a later age than at present. That in itself may seem
no great matter, but it leads to serious consequences. The
fretful, sickly child is apt to be pampered by its parents;
its little whims receive undue attention; it gets the toy, the
petting, and the candy that it cries for; it learns to think
that its desires are the thing that all the world must satisfy.
If that sort of training goes on till a child is a dozen years
old, the child is " spoiled.77 It becomes selfish, self-indul-
gent, and self-willed. Such spoiled children are under an-
other serious handicap. They are apt to be very trying to
their elders, and if the elders are not strong minded and
self-controlled, they are likely to lose their tempers and
treat the children roughly. Among sickly, nervous par-
ents this is much more likely to happen than among those
who are well. Almost everyone has seen the sad results
when weak parents alternately pamper their children and
then turn on them in sudden rage. With children of a
nervous type such treatment combined with poor health is
apt to lead to irritability and high temper. The duller,
50 ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON
slower types, on the contrary, are apt to become phlegmatic,
listless, and patiently submissive.
When the time comes for the sickly child to begin its
education, there is often much delay. Then when school
work is finally begun, it is irregular. Because the child is
sick it is kept at home, and naturally it falls behind in its
classes. Even when it happens to attend school regularly
for some time, not only its teachers and parents, but the
child itself makes excuses for its shortcomings on the ground
of its previous handicaps. Of course a bright child who suf-
fers from poor health will do much better work than a dull
child who has the best of health, but that is not the point.
The essential point is that the bright child will not learn
to apply himself steadily and constantly. He will lose that
sense of shame which comes to any right-minded child when
he finds himself falling behind his peers. Or if he keeps the
sense of shame, he will be tempted to resort to subterfuges
to hide his deficiencies. And often he will be filled with
jealousy or perhaps will be led to cheat.
It would be easy to go on with a long category of the moral
handicaps which come to a child that suffers from ill health.
An adult who has had good health in youth may make poor
health a stepping stone to great sweetness of character.
Sometimes even a child may do the same. Yet as we look
around at the people of our acquaintance we see that in
general those who have suffered much from poor health in
childhood have not developed the strength of character
nor the power of concentration, self-control and achievement
that have come to those who have been well. The faults
of those who have had poor health, their superficial educa-
tion, their tendency to resent the implication that they can-
not achieve as much as their more fortunate fellows, and
their tendency to excuse their own short-comings and to
magnify those powers which they do possess — all these are
typical of the faults of the Mexicans who possess a large
• share of Spanish blood. So, too, the phlegmatic submis-
siveness of the sickly child who is born with a stolid brain,
and his tendency to lose his self-control completely when
once the breaking point is reached are characteristic of the
HEALTH IN MEXICAN CHARACTER 51
duller Mexican types — those with a greater share of Indian
blood.
Health stands, as it were, between inheritance or racial
character on the one side, and the social, political, religious,
and educational systems on the other. It neither adds to,
nor takes away from inheritance, but it helps to determine
the skill and energy with which inherent traits shall be
developed and used. Nor can health in itself add anything
to the social and other systems in which the Mexicans live,
but it is of the greatest value in providing good material
on which those systems may work. No sane teacher would
hesitate a minute between a class of healthy, hearty, happy
little urchins, even though they were full of the Old Nick,
and a class of sickly, weakly, self-centered little youngsters
no matter how submissive. So, too, a teacher of religion, a
social worker, an office-holder, a business man who has
grown up in sturdy self-reliance without much thought of
himself and his ills is likely to prove much more useful than
one who has grown up with the habit of relying on others
and who is constantly wondering whether he does not need
to take a day off because he does not feel quite like work.
If it be true that health plays an important part in mold-
ing the character of the Mexicans, the inevitable conclusion
is that those who have Mexico's regeneration at heart should
do as much for health as they are doing for education,
religion, politics, and business. It is not enough to heal
the sick, or to stamp out epidemics. Disease must be pre-
vented and good health must be made the rule. The task
will not be easy. In fact, as I have shown elsewhere,4 the
climate of Mexico, even on the highlands, interposes a
handicap which can probably never be overcome entirely.
Nevertheless, if to our present knowledge of sanitation and
preventive medicine there be added an equally thorough
knowledge of just what effects are produced by climate and
how they can be met, there is little doubt that the amount
of ill health in Mexico can be reduced at least one half and
perhaps more. To make Mexico a healthful country
4 Ellsworth Huntington: The Relation of Health to Racial Capacity:
The Example of Mexico. Geog. Rev.
52 ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON
through education alone is a long and discouraging task.
Unquestionably education in hygiene and health will do
much, and is a vital necessity. With it, however, there is
need of actual demonstration. Moreover, in this, as in
many other things, the Mexicans need foreign leaders in
whom they have full confidence. During the war the Red
Cross showed as never before what can be done by a vast
organized effort to promote the general health. The
Rockefeller Foundation is doing the same thing here and
there over the world, just as our own Public Health Service
is doing it in various parts of the United States. We talk
about our duty to Mexico. We realize that if we are to
live happily with her we must bring about many changes
and yet must bring them gently and without arousing the
bitter antagonism which flames out so easily when we are
arrogant and self-assertive. Moreover, as a nation we
must be very careful not to give the Mexicans the feeling
that we are trying to exploit them politically and commer-
cially. Even the most chauvanistic Mexican, however,
ought not to object if the International Red Cross should
take the health of Mexico in hand. If that were done it
would seem natural that the majority of workers should be
from the United States even though the control remained
absolutely international.
If tactful methods were used it would probably be possible
to secure abundant cooperation on the part of the Mexicans
themselves. Towns might be persuaded to advance a cer-
tain sum of money and let the Red Cross direct its expendi-
ture, with the understanding that the Red Cross itself
should expend a proportional amount. At first the sums
pledged by the Red Cross would presumably be much
larger than the Mexican appropriations. Yet if the value
of the work were realized, and if real cooperation were es-
tablished between the Mexicans and the outsiders, there is
a reasonable prospect that Mexico herself might see the
need of large expenditures. Undoubtedly there are many
and great difficulties in any such plan. Probably rebuffs
would be experienced in many quarters, but there is one
great advantage. The plan does not call for any vast
HEALTH IN MEXICAN CHARACTER 53
expenditure at first. It merely calls for a trial in one
town. If the authorities could be persuaded to enter into
a five or ten-year agreement whereby they should cooperate
with the International Red Cross in making the city thor-
oughly healthful, the results would speak for themselves.
If they were good, many other places would soon be clam-
oring for cooperation. If Red Cross workers, with the spirit
which usually animates them, were spread through Mexico
in only a tenth as great numbers as business men, the feeling
between the United States and Mexico would assume a
warmth and cordiality which it never can have while the
Mexicans feel that we are trying to exploit them, and while
we feel that they are not doing their share to make their
own land civilized. Such a spirit would be good for Mexico
and good for us; good for business and good for politics.
What could be finer than for thousands of our young people
to have a year or two of Red Cross service in an interesting
land like Mexico at the end of their college courses. Among
all the countries of the world Mexico is the one where our
responsibility is greatest. Among all the fields wherein we
can help that country none is so neglected as public health.
Perhaps this open field offers the avenue whereby each
country can most fully serve the other.
THE MEXICAN OIL SITUATION
By Frederic R. Kellogg, General Counsel of the Pan American
Petroleum and Transport Company
I do not think that you would have invited me to speak
on the Mexican oil situation tonight if the title of my
address were to be strictly construed; and I have, there-
fore, taken the liberty of interpreting it in a somewhat
broader sense.
It is true that we shall deal with Mexican problems; but
the same considerations which relate to matters which
happen to have arisen in Mexico, relate also to every other
part of this earth where American men, money and enter-
prise may penetrate.
It is true that we are to speak of oil; but the questions
involved in this discussion are not limited to this particular
commodity, but affect all commodities.
It is also true that while we are to look tonight upon a
situation which from its nature can only be a temporary-
one, nevertheless the principles which underlie that situation
and upon which it must eventually be resolved, are those
which will determine the future of our entire foreign com-
mercial policy.
Before I go into details let me confess that the years which
I have spent in constant struggling with these questions,
finding them on my desk every morning and not even being
able to leave them there at night — of constant scanning of
the horizon to see what new spoliatory schemes had been
or might be devised by the ingenious and alert minds of the
Carranzista faction — of unremitting endeavors to assist in
shaping our own course so that such schemes might be
counteracted and avoided, have not — I admit it freely-
predisposed me to a really neutral view of the subject.
Nor have they predisposed me to look with favor upon
54
THE MEXICAN OIL SITUATION 55
glittering generalities about the " brotherhood of man" and
the " spiritual unity of all Pan-America," uttered by gentle-
men who have had no actual dealings with Carranza offi-
cials, and no practical experience in Mexican commercial
affairs. Nevertheless, it will be my effort to limit my state-
ments tonight in such a manner that at the conclusion of
my remarks you will find that the greater part of which I
shall say to you is not merely a matter of opinion or asser-
tion on my part, but is capable of verification from docu-
mentary and official records.
The Mexican oil question is this:
Shall any nation within whose borders American citizens
have ventured their capital and their lives in the promotion
of industrial enterprises be considered as having the right
to take from these Americans the fruits of their enterprises
when success has been attained, without any pretense of
compensation or any shadow of title other than that which
physical force may furnish?
The question resolves itself into two subdivisions. In
the first place, it involves a statement of the circumstances
which especially interest the oil companies themselves. In
the second place it is my intention to inquire what interest
you and all of your American fellow citizens have in the
outcome of this controversy.
First) as to the situation of the oil companies.
The commercial development of petroleum in Mexico
began in 1900. Prior to that time its existence in Mexico
had been recognized as a scientific fact; but until that year
no successful effort was made to produce it commercially.
In 1900 Messrs. Edward L. Doheny and Charles A. Canfield
went to Mexico and acquired their first properties. They
acquired them by purchase from private owners who had
held them from the crown of Spain by continuous chains of
titles dating back three hundred years. Messrs. Doheny
and Canfield were not then and never since have been
"concessionaires." They have never asked nor received
anything from the government of Mexico. They never
56 FREDERIC R. KELLOGG
acquired any public lands, but continued their acquisition
of properties from private owners. They were followed by
other American oil companies, all of whom likewise pursued
the same policy. An English company obtained a conces-
sion from the government covering a large extent of terri-
tory, but so far as my information extends no oil has ever
since been produced from it.
The essential point that I wish to make entirely plain at
the present moment is that despite the many reports and
statements that have been made by our enemies to the con-
trary, the truth is that no American company has ever had
an oil concession from Mexico at any time since the beginning
of the commercial development of petroleum in that country.
At all times during the acquisition of these private prop-
erties the law of Mexico relative to titles to petroleum was
contained in three statutes: First, the law of 1884; second,
the law of 1892; and third, the law of 1909.
All of these statutes contained provisions which are sub-
stantially identical and are entirely unequivocal, to the
effect that petroleum belonged to the owner of the surface
of the lands and might be developed and dealt with by the
surface owner as he saw fit without governmental license
or interference.
In other words, the Republic of M&dco in these enactments
issued unmistakable invitations to all the world to come and
invest its money, its brains and its labor in this industry, to
endeavor to establish it upon a basis of mutual advantage
to the enterprises and to the government of Mexico, to ac-
quire lands for that purpose by private treaty and not by
public license or denouncements, and hi short, to pursue
this business as petroleum men have been accustomed to
pursue it in the United States.
There has never been the least doubt as to the meaning of
any of these statutes — a point which is not only demonstrable
by an examination of the language itself, but which was
decided at a special session in 1905 of the Academy of Juris-
prudence of Mexico, an association resembling the Ameri-
can Bar Association, and containing all the leading jurists
THE MEXICAN OIL SITUATION 57
of Mexico among its members, at which with only one dis-
senting vote it was determined that under the laws of 1884
and 1892 petroleum did not belong to the Mexican nation
and could not be taken by the Nation from private owners
without full compensation.
In reliance upon these statutes and their uncontradict-
ed interpretation, petroleum development progressed. A
country which had been almost a trackless jungle — the con-
quest of which cannot be appreciated by those who have
not seen it — was made into one of the greatest producers of
petroleum in the world today. Enormous pipeline systems
for the collection of petroleum were established. Great
storage and terminal facilities were supplied. Large fleets
of tank steamships were built. The sum total of all of
these investments aggregates several hundred millions of
dollars.
During the presidency of Porfirio Diaz all went well; and
it was not until Carranza — the apostle of liberty — became
dictator that any change in the spirit of the Mexican
legislation concerning petroleum became manifest. As
soon, however, as he had been recognized de facto by the
American government he conveniently forgot his previous
pledges to respect the rights and properties of foreigners,
and set himself to work, together with Luis Cabrera (who
may fairly be called the "ame damneV' of the Carranza
administration) to concoct detailed methods of accomplish-
ing what Mr. Cabrera had declared it was his intention to
accomplish, to wit: to drive Americans out of Mexico and
take over their property. In making this statement I am
not indulging in generalities, for I have before me the
sworn testimony as to this declaration given by a gentleman
who was present at a dinner in Vera Cruz at which the
declaration was made, and at which not only Cabrera but
Carranza were present.
Pursuant to this plan Carranza first took possession of
the railroad systems, and since that day no security holder
has received a dollar upon his securities, and all net reve-
nues have been confiscated by the Carranza government.
The Wells Fargo Express Company's business seemed
58 FREDERIC R. KELLOGG
thriving. Hence Mr. Carranza took that over. He then
found that the tramway systems of the metropolis seemed
to be productive and decided that they should be added to
his collection. He learned that two of the leading banks,
one controlled by English and one by French interests, had
large stores of gold com in their vaults, and, perhaps to
show that his theories of liberty were not limited to the
acquisition of American properties, compelled these bankers
to make what he was pleased to term a "loan," and by force
of arms removed all of the specie which he was able to dis-
cover. He also took over the English owned railroad run-
ning from Vera Cruz to Mexico. As long as it earned money
he kept it. Occasionally he turned it back to its owners,
resuming, however, its possession as soon as its finances
showed improvement.
During all of this time his mind had been working upon
the petroleum situation. How to get hold of these proper-
ties with the least friction and the greatest effectiveness
evidently gave him and the wily Mr. Cabrera some concern.
Fortunately for them, as they considered it, the World War
created a situation which made it somewhat unlikely that
the United States government would be able to give much
attention to any aggression against its petroleum compan-
ies; and finally, with the aid of some of the leading German
representatives in Mexico, they adopted a plan to amend the
constitution so as to purport to assert that the Mexican
nation, and not the petroleum companies, owned these
properties and that the nation could enforce its alleged
rights to them without any shadow of compensation to the
men who had bought, paid for and developed them.
As compared to this plan, let me again refer to the solemn
written pledge given hi October, 1915, by Carranza' s ac-
credited representative, Mr. Arredondo, to the United States
government, hi which it was stated that the Carranza
government
conscious of its international obligations and of its capability to
comply with them, has afforded guarantees to .... for-
eigners and shall continue to see that their lives and property are
respected, in accordance with the practices established by civilized
nations.
THE MEXICAN OIL SITUATION 59
As a method of carrying out his ideas Mr. Carranza con-
vened what he was pleased to term a " Constituent Con-
gress" for the purpose of amending the constitution. This
course, in harmony with the greater part of Carranza' s
proceedings, was wholly unauthorized by the provision of
the then existing law; for the Constitution of 1857 contained
perfectly reasonable provisions for its own amendment "by
the congress of the union by a two-thirds vote of the mem-
bers present and approved by a majority of the state legis-
latures."
Not only did Carranza (probably because of his incom-
plete control over the country) adopt this extra legal method,
but with commendable frankness he decreed publicly that
in the selection of delegates to this Constituent Congress
only such persons should be allowed to vote as were mem-
bers of his own faction. All other voters were disqualified.
Moreover, with respect to certain states, such as Oaxaca,
where his authority was not recognized, methods even
more arbitrary and illegal were adopted in order to secure
the ostensible nomination of delegates who would be sub-
servient to his wishes.
The decisions of this "Constituent Congress" as to petro-
leum are contained in the well-known Article 27 of the
new constitution, which provides that "in the nation is
vested direct ownership of .... petroleum and all
hydro-carbons."
Curiously enough the language of the constitution does
not go expressly to the extent to which Mr. Carranza in
his subsequent decrees sought to carry it. It does not in
so many words declare that petroleum under private lands
belongs to the nation, and in Articles 14 and 126, it provides
that no "laws" (the constitution itself being stated to be a
law) "shall be given retroactive effect to the prejudice of
any person whatsoever."
Article 27 contained a number of other provisions of great
importance to the petroleum companies, such as one
prohibiting corporations from acquiring, holding and
administering rural properties, except in such area as the
executive might fix as absolutely necessary for their estab-
60 FREDERIC R. KELLOGG
lishments. There is also a provision preventing foreigners
from acquiring direct ownership of land within 50 kilometers
from the seacoast — which includes almost all of the present
known petroleum territory.
After the adoption of the constitution nothing was done
for a year. Then, between February and August, 1918, a
series of executive decrees were issued by Carranza purport-
ing to carry the constitution into effect. In all these de-
crees he disregarded Articles 14 and 126 and purported to
construe the constitution as retroactively affecting all lands
acquired for petroleum purposes by foreigners even prior to
the date when the constitution took effect.
As illustrative of Carranza's habitual disregard of law,
even of the law of his own country, it is interesting to note
that these decrees were issued by him with no power or au-
thority whatsoever to do so. He had been granted by Congress
a limited power to act in matters involving the country's
finances; and disregarding this limitation, he treated the
congressional authority as a blank check entitling him to
make decrees which would completely alter the system of
land titles which had long been in force.
The essential provision common to all of these decrees
was that those who claimed to be the owners of petroleum
lands must file statements of the lands thus claimed by
them and must pay rentals and royalties to the government as
a condition of being allowed to continue in their operation.
Please note particularly that these decrees were not based
in any sense at all upon the theory of eminent domain with
which we in this country are so familiar, for in every civil-
ized nation the taking over of private property by the
government for its own necessities can only be done if just
compensation is paid to the owner of the property thus
taken. In this case there was not even a pretense of com-
pensation, whether just or otherwise. The situation was
precisely the same as though the State of Massachusetts
should come to a man who for seventeen years had owned
the house in which he lived, and which he originally bought
and paid for, and in the title to which there are no defects,
and say to him "We have decided to take over the owner-
THE MEXICAN OIL SITUATION 61
ship of your property. If you desire to do so, you may
still occupy the house, but only upon condition that you
pay the government such rental as we may now fix, subject
to any increase hereafter that we may see fit to make, and
that you comply with such other conditions as we may
impose."
Please do not for a moment think that I am exaggerating
in giving this illustration; for the course which the Car-
ranza government attempted to adopt toward the owners of
these petroleum properties was identical with that which
the State of Massachusetts would have followed in the
case supposed. And hi my opinion it is because of the utter
inability of the American mind to conceive such arbitrary
and conscienceless action on the part of the government of
a nation which claims to be civilized, that the petroleum
companies have found such great difficulty in making the
justice of their position apparent to the American nation
at large. You will, I think, search in vain in the peace time
history of civilized nations for any parallel to the wholesale
plan of governmental thievery which Carranza attempted
to follow out.
If anyone of you had owned the house which the State of
Massachusetts in my hypothetical illustration had claimed,
what would you have done?
Exactly what we did — fought.
The principal petroleum companies of the United States
organized themselves into an association whose one and
only purpose was and still is to contest in every practical
and decent way the confiscation of their properties; and in
making that fight we relied and are still relying solely upon
two weapons. These weapons do not consist of machine
guns or implements of war. We had no armed force either
of our own contriving or of any government to support us.
But we stood and are standing today upon the propositions,
first, that we are morally right, and that the Ten Command-
ments still possess vigor even when attempted to be dis-
regarded by an alleged government, and, secondly, that the
public opinion of the United States, if our citizens once but
knew the real facts, would never permit the consummation
of such a shame.
62 FREDERIC R. KELLOGG
We refused to comply with the Carranza decree. We
allowed the day upon which Carranza had ordered that we
must file our declarations or lose our properties to pass,
and told his government that we should not file any such
documents. This attitude was something which he had
not looked for, and he at once revealed his consciousness
of the weakness of his position by issuing a decree at the
fifty-ninth minute of the eleventh hour postponing the tune
within which we were required to obey his commands.
Greatly encouraged by this demonstration of our own
strength and his recognition of his own weakness, we again
refused, and on four successive occasions refused to do so,
until finally becoming somewhat alarmed at the prospect
of the possibility of a direct conflict with the United States
upon this question, Carranza announced that he would
turn the whole matter over to the Mexican Congress, which
should adopt the " organic law" regarding the petroleum
industry.
No such law had ever been adopted up to the tune of the
end of the Carranza regime.
But although Carranza was unwilling to force a direct
issue upon this question, we soon found that the campaign
had taken a different turn and that he was seeking to ac-
complish his aims by indirect action. This assumed many
different forms.
In the first place, many regulations of an harassing nature
hitherto unknown became adopted and a maze of red tape
was established in respect of almost every necessary activ-
ity of a petroleum developing concern.
In the next place, governmental officers allowed the filing
of claims against our properties by others who claimed to
be entitled to acquire them under the terms of the Carranza
decrees.
In the third place, concessions began to be granted to
Carranza favorites permitting drilling upon certain lands
which in fact are comprised within the titles held by the
petroleum companies.
THE MEXICAN OIL SITUATION 63
In the next place, provision was made so that no company
was allowed to drill on its own land unless it had a drilling
permit, and that no permit would be granted unless hi the
applications therefor the petroleum companies agreed to
abide by the terms of any petroleum law that might be en-
acted in the future. This resulted in stopping drilling and
was one of the most serious difficulties with which we had
to contend, for it set back the entire plan of petroleum
development in Mexico for over six months — a loss which
we have never since been able to make up, and which has
been directly reflected hi this country hi the great damage
to our mercantile marine, which depended upon this sup-
ply of oil for its fuel, to many great manufacturing establish-
ments, likewise thus dependent, and to the users of gaso-
line in automobiles throughout the length and breadth of
the United States.
Lastly, and this was the most serious of all the steps which
he took, he sent his armed forces into the oil regions. Up
to that tune these properties had been in the control of
Pelaez, himself a petroleum land owner and supported by
many other Mexicans hi the same position who had risen
in revolt against the confiscatory plan of which I have
spoken. During the whole period of his occupation of this
territory perfect order had prevailed. Our properties had
not been looted, our men had not been injured or even
insulted. From the moment, however, that the Carranza
forces entered upon the scene a practical reign of terror was
inaugurated. Attacks upon messengers carrying money
with which to pay workmen in outlying districts became
every day matters. Many hundreds of thousands of dollars
were stolen. A continuous line of insults and assaults were
committed upon our men and — worst of all — the natural
ferocity and lawlessness of these people resulted hi a long
chain of murders of our employees. On one occasion Car-
ranza soldiers entered a camp where four Americans were
at work and, although they made no resistance, yet they
were lined up and shot in cold blood. On another occasion
a launch bearing payroll money was shot at from ambush
and a man was killed, others being wounded. On another
64 FREDERIC R. KELLOGG
occasion five men were killed under similar circumstances.
In all, twenty of our employees were thus murdered and
not a single Carranzista was ever brought to justice for any
of these murders. So far as my information is concerned,
despite reports to the contrary, no arrests were even made
in respect of any of these atrocities. But, although our
employees have never been allowed to carry guns or to adopt
any means of defending themselves, they were not men who
allowed themselves to be driven from their work even with
death staring them in the face. They held on — through the
war period when every drop of the Mexican oil was most
urgently needed — through the following so-called peace
period, which for them was worse than that of the war —
up to the day when Carranza with his schemes of dictatorial
power and arbitrary spoliation set at naught, himself experi-
enced the death to which his policies had comdemned so
many American citizens.
The campaigns conducted against us hi Mexico were
paralleled by other campaigns in this country. Carranzista
propagandists, acting under direction from Mexico, sup-
plied with funds from the Carranza treasury, formed in this
country organizations bearing various camouflaged titles,
and succeeded in persuading certain American citizens to
join with them. Some of those people are in this room
tonight. I am not contesting the good faith with which
these gentlemen acted, but I have no hesitation in charac-
terizing their mentality as — to say the least — somewhat
peculiar. Two particular elements were much in evi-
dence. The first one was a singular credulity with regard
to every statement made by any properly authenticated
Carranzista against the probity and honor of any American;
and the second was complete incredulity as to the possibility
of the truth being told by any American — especially if he
were engaged in the petroleum industry. This Carran-
zisto-American combination commenced and carried on a
systematic campaign for the purpose of poisoning the mind
of the American public against the oil companies and in
favor of the Carranza administration and of its spoliatory
THE MEXICAN OIL SITUATION 65
attempts. Instances of misrepresentation regarding these
various points appeared almost daily in our press. For
instance, if a paymaster was robbed one was quite sure to
see in a few days a suggestion that he had connived at his
own robbery. If one of our employees was murdered there
never was lacking a dispatch from Mexico to the effect that
he had been drinking and had unwarrantably attacked a
faithful Carranzista soldier. So far as the effort to confis-
cate our properties was concerned, abundant argument was
forthcoming to show that we who desired to keep that
which was ours were in the wrong and that the Carranzista
government was actuated by the highest principles and with
ample justification in its effort to enrich itself at our expense.
Constant repetition was made of the old assertion that
we were " concessionaires " when, as I have already shown,
no American ever held a concession.
We were accused of being tax-dodgers, although no ques-
tion of taxation was ever at any time involved and the only
moneys which we refused to pay were the " rentals and
royalties" — payment of which would have admitted that
our own properties no longer belonged to us but to the
government.
We were said to have fomented rebellion against the
Carranza administration, when the fact was that the only
rebellion in the oil regions was the Pelaez rebellion which
was originated and continued by the Mexican land owners
who themselves were affected by the spoliatory Carranza
decrees. ^
The argument was solemnly made — and has been repeated
by John Lind, former governor of the State of Minnesota,
in his sworn testimony before the Fall Committee within the
last two weeks, that the law of 1884 was adopted as the
result of a corrupt intrigue conducted by oil men with
President Diaz. In this connection I canriot refrain from
specifically quoting what Mr. Lind said under oath at
this hearing. I wish to read you his exact language:
The state in Mexico owned the oil until some time during Diaz's
administration, when Lord Cowdray discovered oil. Then they
secured an act of the Mexican Congress relinquishing the State
66 FREDERIC R. KELLOGG
claim to the oil and real property. Of course, Lord Cowdray and
his organization in Mexico, under Diaz, were in position to virtu-
ally dictate, and they did dictate to the Mexican government
what they wanted, and they got what they wanted.
Senator Fall gave me the privilege of appearing before
the committee to answer these statements of Mr. Lind's.
This task was not a difficult one for the following reasons:
first, that Lord Cowdray was not the discoverer of oil in
Mexico, as Messrs. Doheny and Canfield were the pioneers
and Lord Cowdray never entered the oil business until
three years later; second, Lord Cowdray did not dictate the
oil law of 1884 because it was dictated nineteen years before
he had anything to do with the oil business; third, Lord Cow-
dray did not intrigue with President Diaz with reference to
the passage of this law because Gonzales and not Diaz was
president when this law was enacted; fourth, no oil operator
dictated or intrigued for the adoption of this law because
the oil industry did not commence in Mexico until sixteen
years after the date when the law of 1884 went into force.
Another accusation of the same class was that we were
refusing to obey the laws of Mexico. There is not a word
of truth in this accusation except insofar as we refused to
obey the so-called law (which had no legal validity) under
which we were menaced with the loss of our properties.
Another common argument used by these dextrous propa-
gandists was that before the law of 1884 the Mexican nation
owned the petroleum, and that in 1917 the nation simply
resumed that which she had temporarily and erroneously
allowed to pass out of her control. To this attack there are
two answers. In the first place, even if this claim were
justified historically, there is no possible theory upon which,
after Mexico had changed any previous law and had adopted
.the law of 1884 and after foreigners in reliance upon this law
had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the petroleum
industry, the Mexican government could turn around, ignore
what it itself had done and, with one stroke of the pen,
destroy the rights of the petroleum operators to the proper-
ties which they had acquired and developed in reliance upon
the law in question and the good faith of the Mexican
THE MEXICAN OIL SITUATION 67
nation. But in the second place, there is no basis for this
claim in legal history. In 1559 Philip II, the King of Spain,
incorporated certain sub-soil substances into the " royal
patrimony/7 thus taking them away from their private
owners. But these substances were simply metalliferous
substances — a clear distinction being drawn between metal-
liferous minerals and non-metalliferous minerals. More-
over, this absolute monarch, more enlightened than Car-
ranza, who posed as the president of an ostensible republic,
expressly provided for just compensation to any private
owner from whom rights were thus acquired. In 1783 other
decrees were issued by Charles III which were somewhat
broader in then: scope and contained ambiguous language.
It will be remembered that at this time, as well as at the
time of Philip II, coal and petroleum, the principal hydro-
carbons found in the sub-soil, were not recognized as
being of great importance. Shortly after the decree of
1783, however, the importance of coal was perceived and
other decrees were issued in 1789 and 1792 providing that,
irrespective of any language which had been used in previous
laws or of any interpretation which had been given to
them, coal, since it was neither a metal nor a semi-metal,
should not be considered as belonging to the royal patri-
mony. Of course, you will immediately observe that al-
though petroleum was not then under discussion, yet that
the reason given for the exemption of coal from the opera-
tion of the decree covers precisely the situation as to
petroleum.
The Republic of Mexico took over the rights which the
crown of Spain had enjoyed. In the eighteen-seventies and
the early eighteen-eighties questions arose as to the scope
and effect of these Spanish laws and as to whether coal
(the petroleum industry not then having commenced in
Mexico) should be considered as belonging to the nation or
not. Litigation took place upon the subject; but the entire
matter was settled once and for all by the voluntary act of
the Mexican nation itself which, after adopting an amend-
ment to the constitution providing for the promulgation of
mining laws by the federal government, proceeded to adopt
68 FREDERIC R. KELLOGG
the law of 1884 which expressly provided, as already shown,
that petroleum belonged to the owner of the surface and
not to the nation at large.
Another frequent ground of attack was the accusation
that the petroleum companies had no right to complain of
any treatment which the Mexican government submitted
them to, provided Mexican citizens themselves were treated
in a like manner. This is the so-called " Carranza doctrine "
for which he hoped to obtain the approval of Latin
America. It is only necessary to observe that it is and
always has been completely contrary to the universally
accepted principles of international law, as will appear from
the following quotations:
Where a government asserts that its citizens in a foreign country
have not been duly protected, it is not competent for the govern-
ment of that country to answer that it has not protected its
own citizens. (Moore's Digest of International Law, vol. vi, pp.
803-804.)
Each country is bound to give the nationals of another country
. . . . the same redress for injury which it gives to its own
citizens and neither more nor less; provided the protection which
the country gives to its own citizens conforms to the established standard
of civilization If any country's system of law and
administration does not conform to that standard, although the
people of that country may be content or compelled to live under
it, no other country can be compelled to accept it as furnishing a
satisfactory measure of treatment of its citizens. (Secretary Root's
Address to Pan-American Conference.)
The alien, therefore, is not bound to accept the treatment
accorded to nationals if such treatment is in violation of the
ordinary principles of civilized justice. (Borchard, Diplomatic
Protection of Citizens Abroad, p. 107.)
But perhaps the favorite ground upon which the oil com-
panies were assailed was that they were seeking to bring
about armed intervention by the United States of America
in the affairs of its smaller neighbor to the South for the
purpose of subserving then- own greed and financial ambi-
tions. On analyzing these statements it will always be found
that they are based upon our efforts to educate the American
people as to the wrongs to which we were being subjected
in Mexico. It was easy for the Carranzista propagandists
THE MEXICAN OIL SITUATION 69
and their American allies to raise a cry of violent and un-
justifiable behavior and conspiracy against those of us who
were defending ourselves from attacks; but they were never
able to see anything wrong in the attacks themselves which
were being committed against us.
By a parity of reasoning, if a man is attacked by a thug
hi the street, and if he ventures to defend himself the re-
sponsibility for the resulting damage is his and not that of
the highwayman. Likewise, if a man while walking with
his wife sees her attacked by a human brute, he should,
according to the complacent doctrines of these individuals,
keep his hands off lest he be guilty of the wrongful use of
force. On the same theory the Belgians should be most
seriously condemned for having had the hardihood to resist
the Germans, who simply wished to occupy their country.
And there would seem, likewise, to be little doubt as to the
terrible responsibility of the owners and crew of the Lusi-
tania for venturing to travel in waters from which they
had been already solemnly warned. Unless these grossly
distorted views of right and wrong have some foundation
which is not apparent to the ordinary sane man, the petro-
leum companies believe that there can be no doubt that the
responsibility for the present petroleum situation in Mexico
rests upon the Carranzista faction who endeavored to steal
their properties from them, and not upon the petroleum
companies who have done their best to prevent the con-
summation of this thievery. And they have no doubt but
that when the simple facts are given the wide publicity which
it is our desire that they should have, the American public
will entirely agree with us.
The petroleum companies neither desire nor have any
reason to desire armed intervention by the United States
in the affairs of Mexico except possibly as a last resort after
all other means have failed and when not only the petroleum
industry but the entire principles at the bottom of our for-
eign commerce and our national honor as well are at stake.
And, furthermore, they not only do not desire intervention
— which if it should come would expose their properties to
enormous hazards and themselves to great pecuniary loss —
70 FREDERIC R. KELLOGG
but they are firmly convinced that no intervention is or will
be necessary provided that any faction in Mexico which
seeks or may seek to accomplish such an injustice shall be
told by the United States of America in the kindly but
absolutely firm language which was used by Secretary Evarts
in 1878, "Thus far shalt thou go, but no farther."
As the second part of this talk, how does the Mexican oil
situation affect the United States at large?
In many ways.
First and foremost, because of the moral principle in-
volved. For this country never has reached, and I believe,
never will reach a point of spiritual degradation such as to
result in the deliberate approval of a violation even by an-
other nation of any one of the ten commandments.
Second, because of the necessity of Mexican oil produced
by American companies to the industries and consumers of
America.
Our navy is largely dependent upon fuel oil for its motive
power. Over five hundred of the leading industries of New
England have substituted fuel oil for coal beneath their
boilers. Our merchant marine now uses sixty million bar-
rels of fuel oil a year, and before long will need over one
hundred million barrels. There are today nearly eight
million internal combustion gasolene-consuming engines in
the United States and before the end of this year their num-
ber will probably have increased to nearly ten millions.
The internal production of petroleum in this country is
no longer adequate for the needs of our consumption, de-
spite the enormous prices which it is bringing. During the
current year the sum total of these needs will require the
importation into this country of approximately eighty
million barrels of Mexican oil if it can be produced.
Should the operations of our producing companies be
further hindered and delayed or should they be compelled
to cease entirely, through aggressions committed against
them, millions of American consumers will be directly and
indirectly affected, not merely so far as any question of price
is concerned, but with reference to their ability to obtain
petroleum and petroleum products at all.
THE MEXICAN OIL SITUATION 71
Lastly, the matter affects this country in its entirety
because, as I have suggested at the beginning of this talk,
the principles upon which the Mexican oil conflict must be
decided lie at the basis of our entire future foreign commerce.
It is beyond question that foreign commerce is today an
essential to the industrial well-being of any nation. No
country in the present stage of the world's history can live
a hermit existence and still prosper; and this principle is
as true of our own great land, despite its enormous markets
and resources, as of any other country. But if we are to
have a foreign commerce our citizens must be willing to
devote their lives and their capital to its development; and
this will no longer be true if it becomes known that the
United States of America has adopted the policy of abandon-
ing those of its children who are endeavoring to promote its
foreign trade and of allowing them to be subjected, without
protection, to any attacks and assaults which governments
such as the Carranza government may desire to commit
upon them. Men will not risk their health, their fortunes
and their lives in discovering and developing the natural
resources found within the borders of foreign lands and which
are so necessary to our own national development if they
know that when success has been achieved its fruits may be
snatched from their hands by those who, themselves lack-
ing in courage, initiative and ability, nevertheless always
stand ready to fatten upon the achievements of others.
Our individual citizens cannot stand alone against the
organized power of foreign lands. They are entitled to the
support and the help of our own government in their legiti-
mate enterprises lawfully conducted. With that support
they will hold their own against. the citizens of any other
nation in this world. But they cannot do this by them-
selves. They must be protected, where they are entitled to
protection. And such a policy on the part of this govern-
ment is simply one of respect for its citizens and for itself as
well. It involves no bullying of small nations, for there
is no law of man or of God that suspends the operation of
the eighth commandment merely because of the small size
of the human being or an international being who may seek
72 FREDERIC R. KELLOGG
to transgress it. It does not mean any " big stick " or " chip
on the shoulder" policy, but on the other hand a policy
which is willing to give a square deal to all square men and
insists upon a square deal for ourselves in return. It is
not a policy of intervention, for intervention is promoted
not by the man who believes in square dealing, but by the
man who advocates the approval of crooked dealing at the
expense of our citizens by governments or nationals of other
nations. It is not a policy of war, but is a policy of peace.
Without such a policy our foreign commerce cannot be
prosperously continued. But with such a policy once
established and understood by the rest of the world our
men, our money, our ability and our energy will penetrate
into all parts of the world where commercial success is to
be achieved and where stores of natural resources are to be
found. Our ships will without aggression sail the seven
seas; the lives and enterprises of Americans will be respected;
and our flag, instead of being considered as a rag which
may be safely dragged in the dust and defiled, will be uni-
versally recognized among all civilized men as the emblem
of a kindly and long suffering — but always mighty and majes-
tic nation — AMERICA.
THE RAILROAD SITUATION IN MEXICO
By A. W. Donly, formerly Trade Commissioner of the
Dominion of Canada in Mexico
Except in the minds of the rainbow chasing visionary and
the half-baked pacifist, it is generally accepted that the flag
must either go ahead of commerce or follow so closel in
its wake that the two shall not be separated by any great
distance. It is equally true that, if commercial develop-
ment is to prosper, adequate means of transportation must
be provided. The fact that any certain district or country
may be fertile in soil, or possessed of other great natural
wealth, is not sufficient. Until transportation is provided,
this potential wealth must remain practically unproductive
and of little worth.
The truth of the foregoing statements has never been
better illustrated than in the case of Mexico. A country
of great fertility and of vast natural resources, her lack of
interior and exterior means of communication had kept
her, previous to 1876, in a most primitive state, so far as
commercial development and prosperity are concerned. Up
to that time, one single line of railway, 264 miles in length,
connected the port of Vera Cruz with the capital city and
this was the then sum total of railroad development. In
1911, when Porfirio Diaz retired from office, the total num-
ber of miles was nearly seventeen thousand.
Mexico, being a land without adequate inland waterways,
must depend for her internal transportation in bulk almost
exclusively upon her railroads. These have been of com-
paratively recent origin, the first line to operate in the
republic having been inaugurated in 1873. This road, fi-
nanced and constructed by British enterprise, is known as
the Mexican Railway. It connects the capital of the coun-
try with its most important seaport, Vera Cruz.
73
74 A. W. DONLY
Various concessions were granted for the construction of
this line; the first one as early as 1853, but no serious effort
was ever made to construct the line until 1856; even then the
constant disturbances in Mexico so delayed the work that
for eleven years little was accomplished. With the over-
throw of Maximilian in 1867, the problem was formally
taken in hand, and by the law of November 27, 1867, the
road was granted an annual subsidy of 560,000 pesos, equiv-
alent at that time to so many dollars, to run for twenty-five
years. The following year the clause giving the Mexican
Railway the sole right to construct a line between Mexico
City and Vera Cruz was cancelled, but the government
pledged itself to subsidize no other line between these two
points for a period of sixty-five years. It may be noted
that this concession was granted ten years prior to the presi-
dency of Porfirio Diaz, who is frequently accused of being
the author of the practice in Mexico of granting concessions
to foreigners. As a matter of fact it was under the imperial
government in 1864 that the Mexican Railway Company
Limited was incorporated in London, the company's con-
cession being confirmed after Maximilian's overthrow by
the government of Benito Juarez, as has been stated.
Under the final form of the concession, the Mexican govern-
ment secured for itself the right to demand a revision of
freight and passenger tariffs every two years, and to be
represented on the board of directors.
The main line of the Mexican Railway is but 264 miles
long; its branches aggregate 57 miles. The construction of
the road was exceptionally difficult, owing to the steep
grades and the nature of the ground encountered, there
being a climb of over 8000 feet in the first 160 miles. This
alone would have rendered the road costly, but in addition
to this source of expenditure the Mexican government
insisted upon the clause in the concession demanding that
the construction of the line be carried on simultaneously
from both ends. This involved an immense outlay of
energy and money in hauling rails and other material from
the sea-coast up to the high table-land in carts and enor-
mously increased the cost of the undertaking. The object
THE RAILROAD SITUATION IN MEXICO 75
of this action on the Mexican Government's part is not
quite clear, the explanation generally offered being that
experience in other Latin American Countries showed that
concessionaires frequently became discouraged and aban-
doned their work unfinished, if it were possible to do so with-
out too great a loss, but that having hauled their material
to an inland point, it would be hopelessly lost should the
road not be finished. At all events the road was built under
these conditions and the capitalization is correspondingly
high, being as follows :
Pounds sterling
Ordinary share capital stock 2,254,720
First preferred share capital stock 2,554,100
Second preferred share capital stock 1,011,960
Perpetual debenture stock 2,000,000
Total 7,820,780
The venture was profitable only in a moderate degree, the
exceedingly steep grades involving heavy operating charges
and what with this and the large capitalization, it was long
before any dividends were declared. In 1902, only the
first preferred shares paid a dividend, and then only at the
rate of about 2.5 per cent per annum. In 1907 the first
preferred paid 8 per cent and the second preferred about
5 per cent; the ordinary shares paid nothing. Until 1914
the Mexican Railway suffered comparatively little through
the disturbed conditions prevailing in Mexico since 1910,
but beginning with the American occupation of Vera Cruz
in 1914, during which a portion of the track was torn up,
and from that tune until 1919, the road has suffered enor-
mously. Since November, 1914, it has been the scene of
constant battles and assaults upon trains, with the result
that a very large part of its rolling stock and most of its
buildings were destroyed. The Carranza government took
over the property and has been operating it for its own
profit. It managed to keep the line open by constructing
numerous block-houses along the right-of-way and by send-
ing heavy military escorts on all of the trains. This dis-
couraged the rebel raiding-parties and a fairly regular ser-
vice was maintained throughout 1919, though the traffic was
76 A. W. DONLY
far below normal. It was stated by persons claiming to
know that of the eighty odd locomotives included in the
company's equipment in 1914, only eight or ten were in
service in 1919. The yards at Apizaco and Orizaba are
filled with wrecked cars, and almost every one of the
smaller station buildings along the line is damaged beyond
repair, but the roadbed itself has escaped with compara-
tively little damage, the tunnels and more important bridges
being intact.
The desirability of rail connection with the United States
was recognized at the tune the Mexican Railway was com-
pleted, but President Lerdo de Tejada, at that tune the
Mexican executive, did not favor the project, regarding it as
a strategic menace to the safety of his country. He did,
however, grant charters for lines to the interior of the re-
public from its capital, without extending to the frontier.
Under his successor, Porfirio Diaz, a different policy was
adopted and railroad building was encouraged, particular
attention being given to the construction of lines covering
the northern and central plateaus, at that time the best
developed and most productive portions of Mexico.
As a result of this policy it was not long before the region
in question was traversed by extensive systems of rail-
roads which added incalculably to its commercial prosperity.
The principal lines, three in number, were built in the
eighties. They were: The Mexican Central Railway, con-
necting Mexico City with El Paso, Texas, as its main trunk,
from which branches ran from Irapusto through Guada-
lajara to Manzanillo on the Pacific, from Aguascalientes
via San Luis Potosi to Tampico on the Gulf of Mexico, and
another from Torreon to the same port via Monterrey; the
Mexican International Railroad, running from the City of
Durango to Eagle Pass via Torreon; and the old Mexican
National Railroad, the shortest route from Mexico City to
the United States border, via San Luis Potosi, Saltillo and
Monterey to Laredo.
According to the franchises or " concessions" under which
these roads were built, they all received government sub-
sidies at an average rate of 7000 pesos a kilometer or 11,200
THE EAILROAD SITUATION IN MEXICO 77
pesos a mile. At the time the subsidy was granted, this
represented an equal number of American dollars; it is to
be noted, however, that the subsidy was not paid in a lump
sum, but spread over a long term and that the fall in the
price of silver, which came in the late eighties, reduced the
value of the government help by one half. According to
the testimony of Mr. E. N. Brown, at one time president of
the National Railways of Mexico, before the Senate Investi-
gating Committee (Investigation of Mexican Affairs, Part
I, p. 1793), the subsidy was from 15 to 18 per cent of the
cost of construction of the line. The concession carried
with it :
(a) The right to construct the railroad.
(b) The right to build a telegraph or telephone line.
(c) The right to exploit the railroad and the telegraph
or telephone line during the entire period of the franchise.
This period might not exceed ninety-nine years.
At the close of this period the railroad, with its " lands,
stations, piers, warehouses, etc.," in good condition, be-
came the property of the nation.
There were numerous other requirements exacted by the
government, such as the free carriage of mails, half-rates
for all government employees and for soldiers, whether on
or off duty, and for all their equipment, horses and artillery.
All tariffs, freight, and passenger, must be revised every
three years, such revision to receive the approval of the
Department of Communications and Public Works.
The concessionaires on their part had the following privi-
leges: Fifteen years exemption from federal and local tax-
ation except the stamp tax; for five years, importation free
from customs duties and from taxes, of fixed material for
tracks, rolling-stock and repair parts, material for telegraph
lines, turntables, cranes, water tanks, etc.; and protection
against competing lines for a period of not more than ten
years within a zone agreed upon. (Railroad law of Mexico
as amended to April 29, 1899.)
78 A. W. DONLY
THE TEHUANTEPEC NATIONAL RAILWAY
The Tehuantepec National Railway crosses the Isthmus
of Tehuantepec; which is situated in the southern part of
Mexico in the States of Vera Cruz and Oaxaca. The dis-
tance from ocean to ocean, as the crow flies, is 125 miles,
and the idea of utilizing it in one way or another had long
suggested itself to the authorities of Mexico, even in colo-
nial days. The project of a canal was also considered, as
was a combination of a canal and land transportation.
One well known American engineer even advocated a ship-
railroad, for the building of which he was given a concession,
though the work was never undertaken.
In 1878 a concession for a railroad was given to Mr.
Learned of New York, but this was forfeited in 1882; sev-
eral others obtained the concession, but all failed to con-
struct the railroad until 1892, when Messrs. Hampson,
Stanhope and Corthell obtained the franchise and began the
work which was completed in 1894. They lacked, however,
port facilities at the two tidewater terminals, Salina Cruz
on the Pacific and Coatzacoalcos, as the port on the Gulf
of Mexico was then called. The project of constructing
these works was beyond the means of any private firm;
furthermore, the Mexican government was determined to
exercise full control over a route so important strategically.
It therefore took over the railroad and entered into a con-
tract with the British firm of S. Pearson & Son for the con-
struction of the terminal facilities and for making such
improvements to the railroad as were necessary to enable
it to carry the traffic which it was hoped to develop. The
government further entered into partnership with Pearson
& Son for the operation of the property, the agreement
between the two contracting parties being signed in its
final form in May, 1904. The contract, as made in 1902,
had a life of fifty-one years, the firm of Pearson & Son being
the managers of the property, the working capital of
$7,000,000 being furnished in equal amounts by the con-
tracting parties. The following disposition was to be made
of the earnings: (1) Payment of operating expenses, main-
THE RAILROAD SITUATION IN MEXICO 79
tenance of track and a reserve fund set aside for repairs.
(2) Payment of interest on loans. (3) Payment to the
two partners of 5 per cent on the capital furnished by them.
(4) Refundment of losses for previous years which had been
charged to capital. (5) Payment of interest at 5 per cent
annually for capital invested in Coatzacoalcos port works.
(6) Surplus to be divided between the partners of which the
government was to receive during the first thirty-six years,
65 per cent; during the next five years, 68.5 per cent; during
the next five years, 72.5 percent; and during the remaining
years 76.5 per cent; the balance in each case going to
Pearson & Son.
The route presents no engineering difficulties of note; the
highest point being only 730 feet above sea-level. The
port works at both terminals are elaborate, those at Coatza-
coalcos, or Puerto Mexico as it is now called, consisting of
extensive jetties and wharves, while at Salina Cruz an open
roadstead has been converted into an artificial port capable
of accommodating six vessels and susceptible of being en-
larged to double that capacity at a small outlay. Both
terminals were equipped with electric cranes and other
loading devices, which at the tune of their installation were
the most modern of their kind. There were also magnifi-
cent warehouse and storage facilities.
The line as rebuilt was inaugurated in 1907, the Hawaiian
American Steamship line making use of this route for the
transportation of the sugar it carried from Hawaii to your
Atlantic ports, the trans-shipment charges at the Isthmus
of Tehuantepec being reasonable and the service excellent;
products from California, Oregon, British Columbia and
Alaska were also routed across the isthmus in preference to
being sent by Panama, there being a saving of some 1200
miles by the former route for cargoes shipped from San
Francisco for Altantic ports.
The unusually substantial character of the road-bed has
to some extent protected it from injury at the hands of the
fighting factions which infested the territory through which
the Tehuantepec National Railway runs; but the rolling
stock has shared the fate of that of other lines, a great por-
80 A. W. DONLY
tion of it having been destroyed by fire or dynamite, acci-
dent or wear. Moreover, the Tehuantepec line, though
managed with remarkable ability, did not, even before the
revolution began, develop the traffic that had been hoped
for, the Panama Canal .proving a more serious competitor
than had been anticipated. Nevertheless, a fair business
was being built up, and had anything like normal conditions
prevailed, the road would in all probability have developed
into a paying investment. The revolution which broke
out in 1910 did not at first cause the Tehuantepec line much
loss, but from 1913 the disorders, which prior to that time
had been confined to the north of the Republic of Mexico,
spread over the south as well, and from that tune on there
was a constantly growing shrinkage of Mexican products
to be shipped across the isthmus as well as more or less
destruction of the railroad's property.
A large part of the freight carried consisted of raw
Hawaiian sugar, brought to Salina Cruz from Honolulu
by the Hawaiian American Line steamers, and transferred
by rail to Puerto Mexico, whence steamers of the same line
took it to the refineries on your eastern seaboard. When
the United States entered the European war, the Hawaiian
American Line boats were taken over by the American
government and the traffic across the Isthmus of Tehuante-
pec was still further reduced. It has now shrunk to insig-
nificant proportions with little prospect in sight for any
improvement in the situation. Much of the rolling stock
has been destroyed or diverted to use upon other lines,
and the port works at both terminals are suffering from
neglect, the revenue of the late Carranza government being
swallowed up by the demands of his military establishment.
The present outlook for the future of the Tehuantepec
National Line is anything but roseate.
In 1903 Mr. Jose Y. Limantour, Minister of Finance under
President Porfirio Diaz, began work on a program having
for its object the government control of one or more of the
principal railroads of the country. The first property in
which he acquired such a controlling interest was the Mexi-
can National Railroad, and some years later he carried to
THE KAILROAD SITUATION IN MEXICO 81
a successful conclusion a merger, by which he took into the
system now known as the National Railways of Mexico,
the line already mentioned, the Mexican Central Railway,
the Mexican International Railroad and two short standard-
gauge lines in the southern part of the republic, the Vera
Cruz and Pacific, which connects Santo Lucrecia on the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec with the cities of Vera Cruz and
Cordoba, and the Pan-American which joins Sano Geronomo
on the Tehuantepec National Railway with the frontier of
Guatemala. In addition, the merger controlled the very
extensive narrow-gauge Interoceanic Railway of Mexico,
which extends from Vera Cruz well into the State of More-
los, passing through Jalapa, Puebla and Mexico City, and
its subsidiary line, the Mexican Southern Railway, which
runs between Puebla and Oaxaca. The two last named
properties, though operated as part of the system of the
National Railways of Mexico, do not belong to it, and in
the statements which follow as to mileage, equipment and
capitalization, these two lines are not included.
As stated by the annual report of the National Railways
of Mexico for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1914, the
company's liabilities at that tune were:
Mexican currency U. S. currency
Capital stock 448,014,716
Funded debt 407,672,380
Stocks and bonds of original lines in
hands of public 3,833,495
Assumed obligations 2,226,912
Interest on bonds and notes 7,879,250
Unclaimed dividends 25,878
Notes payable 67,364,824
Total, less current liabilities 937,017,455
$468,508,727.50
The same report gives the total mileage of the system,
exclusive of yards and sidings, but including several short
leased lines of an aggregate length of less than sixty miles as :
Miles
Standard gage 6,468
Narrow gage 387
6,885
82 A. W. DONLY
The gathering of these particular data presents no great
difficulty, even in time of revolution, as they are a matter
of record and easily accessible. For all practical purposes
both the liabilities and the mileage for 1914 were the same
as they were at the time of the formation of the merger in
1908. On the other hand, correct information as to the
physical condition of the road, and of the rolling stock on
hand is by no means so easy to obtain, as may be gathered
from the " Remarks" taken from the report already quoted:
These statements (covering rolling-stock) are inserted this year
only because it has been customary to publish such data in our
annual reports.
Comparing the figures with the equipment on hand at the close
of the last fiscal year, they indicate that during the year under
review but 1734 freight and 40 passenger cars and no engines
were destroyed. As stated elsewhere in this report, many districts
or divisions were out of our hands either for brief periods or during
the entire year and consequently it was impossible to get accurate
data as to the destruction. The reports were kept as accurately
as official data was received for them from division officers, but
from current reports of casualities received by us, during the year,
it is believed that the above list is not complete.
During the year the daily reports received indicated at times
the destruction of complete trains. In regard to locomotives
the report does not show any as destroyed from revolutionary
causes, but undoubtedly many of the engines which were dyna-
mited, burned or otherwise wrecked during the year were reduced
to such a condition that they should be called destroyed. In
the attack on Monterrey, October 23 and 24, 1913, 17 engines
were burned in the round house and a total of 637 cars were
burned; when Monclava was attacked, March 11, 1914, 9 engines
and 281 of our cars were burned.
The superintendent of the mechanical department closes his
annual report by saying: "Condition of engines on Northern
Cardenas, Monterrey, Chihuahua, Monclova, Torreon and Dur-
ango Divisions and Tampico Terminal cannot be shown, on ac-
count of no reports having been received due to present situation."
Mr. E. N. Brown, whose testimony has been referred to,
states that in 1913 the " National Railways and the subsidi-
ary lines had some 22,000 freight cars in service, and 729
locomotives." In the Tenth Annual Report of the National
Railways of Mexico, for the fiscal year ending June 30,
1918, there is given in review the following information as
to the rolling-stock on hand June 30, 1913, as compared
with that on hand at the time the report was issued :
THE RAILROAD SITUATION IN MEXICO 83
June, 191S June, 1918 Decrease
National railways 16,661 10,538 6,123
Freight cars, standard gage 1,831 1,193 638
Freight cars, narrow gage 435 345 90
Passenger coaches, standard gage. 118 84 34
Passenger coaches, narrow gage... 620 362 258
Locomotives, serviceable
Bearing in mind the dates, it will be noted that the above
inventory applies to the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913,
nearly three years after the political disturbances in Mexico
began; already the railroad properties had suffered consid-
erably, but far worse was to come.
It is well to digress here for a moment for the purpose of
discussing briefly a certain important factor in the railroad
situation in Mexico, to wit, its personnel. At first owing
to the utter unf amiliarity of the Mexicans with every branch
of this industry, it was necessary to fill all positions requir-
ing mechanical knowledge and skill, or a familiarity with
railroading and its allied professions, with foreigners, in
this case almost exclusively Americans. Practically all of
the locomotive engineers, conductors, station agents, tele-
graph operators, boiler-makers and others connected with
the repair shops were of that nationality, as well as a large
proportion of the office force.
It was early recognized by the Mexican government that
from a national point of view this state of affairs was highly
undesirable, and steps were taken to remedy the situation
with the cooperation of the railroads themselves. Sch ols
for educating apprentices were established as early as 1890.
Boys desiring to learn railroading were taken at fourteen
or fifteen years of age, under a four-year contract, beginning
at 62 J cents a day for the first year, with a gradual increase
in wages which for the fourth year were 3| pesos. A forfeit
of 25 cents a day was held back and this was paid to them
on completion of the contract, when they received a certifi-
cate of service constituting them as what was known as
journeymen (jornaleros). They were then free to remain
with the railroad or to seek work elsewhere. In 1912 there
were 2000 such apprentices under contract to the National
Railways, and from the time the system had been put in
84 A. W. DONLY
effect, a period of twenty-two years, it was estimated that
15,000 or 18,000 boys had received training under it. Be-
tween 1907 and 1912, fifteen schools of a more advanced
character were established to educate men in the operating
service, to make them " proficient on train rules, air signals,
air brakes and other mechanical appliances," and they had
lectures given periodically by experts in these lines, prin-
cipally Americans. There was also apparatus installed in
these schools to demonstrate the appliances. (Mr. E. N.
Brown's testimony.)
In 1912, under the presidency of Madero, a sweeping
change of personnel was decided upon. Possibly the un-
friendly attitude of the United States government at that
tune influenced the decision, for threats of intervention were
constantly in the air and under the circumstances, the
Mexican government can hardly be blamed for not wishing
the country's means of transportation to remain in the
hands of the citizens of a nation with which hostilities
appeared highly probable. But, while no valid objection
can be raised as to the propriety of making the change, the
method employed provided a great deal of criticism, not
wholly undeserved. If I remember rightly, a decree was
issued making compulsory after a certain date the use of
the Spanish language in all business connected with the
operation of the roads; this virtually forced the resignation
of a large part of the American employees, few of whom
spoke that tongue with the necessary degree of fluency and
still fewer could either read or write it. It was an ungra-
cious return for the years of service they had rendered and
worked great hardships upon the many who were too old
to begin life over again in other countries, and it is to be
regretted that the Mexican government, in exercising what
was its right, could not have shown greater consideration.
As might have been expected, the immediate results of
the change were not beneficial to the railroads, for many
men were moved into positions of responsibility which they
were unqualified to fill. It is but fair to the Mexicans to
say that in time they rose to the occasion, and that they
have since developed railroad men quite equal to many of
those whom they succeeded.
THE EAILROAD SITUATION IN MEXICO 85
The political disturbances which for the last ten years
have afflicted Mexico, have profoundly affected most of her
industries and none more so than that of railroading, for
from the beginning of the fighting, the roads were used for
moving troops; indeed, on the arid plains of the north,
where many of the campaigns were waged, they furnish
the only practical method of transportation. So closely
have the military movements in Mexico been tied to the
railroads that it may be said with substantial accuracy
that 90 per cent of the fighting there has taken place within
ten miles of the nearest line.
At first the railroads suffered chiefly from the interrup-
tion of commercial traffic and from the rough usage inci-
dental to armed movements the world over; but as their
strategic importance became more clearly understood, they
came to be regarded in many cases as the main objectives;
he who had possession making every effort to retain it, he
who did not, resorting to every method to capture or dam-
age his enemies' means of communication. In the begin-
ning these methods were such as are sanctioned by the rules
of civilized warfare; the attacks were directed exclusively
against troop trains by means of artillery fire, the tearing
up of rails or the hemming in of trains by the destruction
of bridges behind and in front of them. As time went on,
however, and preventive measures were devised against the
old methods of attack, new ones were evolved, and just as
in the European war the Germans sank all merchantmen,
enemy or neutral, on the theory that they were or might
be used to convey supplies to the Allies, so in Mexico, a
faction driven to bay inflicted all possible damage upon the
railroad with the intention of causing its opponents the
greatest amount of harm. As a result, in a very short
time the operations were not confined to attacks on military
trains, but were directed at every moving thing, animate or
inanimate, along the railroad, and soon degenerated into
brigandage, pure and simple, only too often accompanied
by acts of the most fiendish cruelty against the passengers,
the mutilation, torture and murder of men, and the kid-
napping and violation of women. On more than one occa-
86 A. W. DONLY
sion, the wounded victims of an assault were drenched in
oil and burned, together with the car in which they lay
helpless.
Destructive as was the rebel activity of those days, it was
at least confined to a small part of Mexico, there being little
of it outside of the states of Chihuahua and Morelos. Fol-
lowing Madero's fall, however, the disorders spread over
the entire country, much of the destruction became purely
wanton, and men calling themselves soldiers did not shrink
from perpetrating outrages usually associated with crimi-
nals of the lowest order. With the triumph of the Carranza
revolution against Huerta in 1914, matters grew still worse
for immediately after ousting their common enemy, the
two victors, Villa and Carranza, quarreled and the civil
war which followed exceeded in ferocity anything that
Mexico had ever known.
Very early in this phase of the fighting, Carranza, who
regarded himself as the only legally constituted authority
in Mexico, seized such railroads as he could and operated
them in the name of the government, as provided for under
the laws of April 29, 1899, Chapter VIII, Article 145, pages
10 and 11, which say:
The federal authorities are entitled, in case in their opinion
the interests of the country require it, to make requisitions on
the railroads, their personnel and all their operating material,
and to use them as they may consider advisable. In this case,
the nation shall indemnify the railroad companies.
If no agreement is reached as to the amount of the indemnifi-
cation, the latter shall be based on the average gross earnings in
the last five years, plus ten percent, all expenses being borne by
the company.
In the event of war or of extraordinary circumstances, the
executive may take measures to render unserviceable either the
whole or part of the line, also the bridges, telegraph lines and
signals forming part of the road. Whatever may have been de-
stroyed shall be replaced at the cost of the nation, as soon as the
nation's interests allow of it.
Under the circumstances, therefore, the seizure of the
railroads by the Carranza government has been the best
thing that could have happened to the railroads themselves,
insofar as it clearly fixes upon the nation the responsibility
THE EAILROAD SITUATION IN MEXICO 87
for the damages sustained, and this responsibility becomes
all the more clearly established through the recognition of
Carranza by the United States as the de jure president of
Mexico.
In the absence of a systematic survey the monetary equiv-
alent of the damage must remain a matter of conjecture,
though such a conjecture made by so competent an author-
ity as Mr. E. N. Brown cannot but carry weight.
In his testimony, repeatedly quoted, he says: " Making
repairs to rolling stock, bridges, stations, and other de-
stroyed property, together with making good arrears of
repairs, I should estimate at from sixty-five to seventy
million dollars United States money." (Mr. E. N. Brown,
Investigation of Mexican Affairs, Part II, p. 1795.)
To this sum we must add the accrued interest upon the
bonds and notes of the company, all of which has remained
unpaid ever since Carranza seized the property. According
to the balance sheet of June 30, 1919, appearing in the elev-
enth annual report of the National Railways of Mexico,
these are:
Mexican currency U. S. equivalent.
Interest on bonds and notes 117,140,489
Unclaimed dividends on first preferred
shares 25,114
Notes payable, extended by agreement . 67,324,263
184,489,263 $92,244,933
From this statement it will be noted that the accrued
interest on bonds and notes have increased since 1914 from
less than 8,000,000 pesos to more than 117,000,000, or by
109,000,000 pesos, $54,500,000 in United States currency,
about $11,000,000 a year.
It would be useless to try to state the amount of indem-
nity to which, for the use of the property by the Mexican
government, the railroad company will be entitled under
the law cited, when the time for settlement comes. The
wording of the law itself is somewhat vague.
If no agreement is reached as to the amount of the indemnifi-
cation, the latter shall be based on the average gross earnings in
the last five years, plus 10 per cent, all expenses being borne by
the company.
88 A. W. DONLY
It is evident from this provision that its framers had in
mind the seizure of the country's railroads at the beginning,
and not four years after the outbreak of hostilities, as was
the case when Carranza commandeered the roads in 1914.
Clearly, the five-year period immediately preceding the
seizure of the properties is not a correct or fair index to their
earning capacity, from the causes already sufficiently de-
scribed, so that in the final casting up of accounts the ques-
tion of equity and fair dealing will play as important a role
as that of mere bookkeeping. How adversely the revenues
of the company were affected by the Carranza revolution
may be judged by comparing the net earnings for the
year ending June 30, 1914, with those of the previous year.
These were :
Mexican currency
For 1912-1913 ." 21,101,900
For 1913-1914 2,367,439
18,734,461
The gross earnings for the same two periods had fallen
from 57,370,282 pesos to 34,273,341 pesos, a shrinkage of
40 per cent.
The number of unknown factors involved in this question
make its further discussion unprofitable for the present,
though it is safe to say that it will afford rich pickings for
the legal profession when the proper tune comes.
What we do know within reasonable limits of certainty
is the arrears of interest and the amount needed to restore
the properties to good physical condition. These are as
follows :
Mexican currency
Accrued interest on bonds and notes 1919. 117,140,489
Less accrued interest on same 1914 7,879,249 109,261,240
Interest for the fiscal year 1919-1920, approximate.. . 22,000.000
Estimated cost of repairs at rate of exchange 2 to 1 . . 130,000,000
Total pesos 261,261,240
or 130,630,620 dollars in United States currency, for which
amount the Republic of Mexico is unquestionably liable.
THE RAILROAD SITUATION IN MEXICO 89
It is to be noted that this estimate does not include
the notes payable amounting to over 67,000,000 pesos or
$33,500,000, as this item appears in the general balance
of 1914 and is therefore not chargeable to government
operation.
So much for the economic and physical condition of the
railroads in Mexico. Before closing I shall refer briefly to
their moral condition. Under the Carranza administra-
tion, it has been impossible for shippers to get cars unless
graft is paid. Everything is regulated by schedule. I have
heard it stated that a thousand pesos is the amount neces-
sary to be paid, over and above the regular freight tariff,
in order to secure from the "broker/ who collects and
distributes the graft, the guarantee of a car from the bor-
der to Mexico City.
Since the year 1911 Mexico has been indulging in an orgy
of wild-oat-sowing for which she should be rebuked, sternly
if necessary, certainly effectively. The injury to legitimate
business and enterprise of all kinds has been in direct ratio
to the deterioration of the railway service. The latest re-
deemers, who are now making their bow to the public,
exude the same kind of promises to which we have so long
been accustomed. I am not so pessimistic as to have lost
hope; on the other hand I am not surcharged with expecta-
tions. A burned child dreads the fire and I am just re-
turned from a sojourn of several weeks in Missouri. By
their acts we shall know them and judge them thereby.
It is well to bear in mind, in this connection, that the pres-
ent revolt against the authority of Carranza is not a popular
uprising but has been conducted by those very political
militarists who were instrumental in placing him in power.
In any case, the government of this country still owes
an undischarged duty and obligation towards many of its
own nationals as well as to those of other countries. Our
pacifist orators and Bolshevist agitators to the contrary
notwithstanding, the bulk of the railway and other Mexican
securities are not held by the frequently maligned " Barons
of Wall Street/7 but by the small investors in this country
and in France, Belgium and England. These were pur-
90 A. W. DONLY
chased in good faith, all too frequently based upon informa-
tion emanating from official or semi-official sources in Wash-
ington and it is now the duty of the American government
to insist upon such a reestablishment of order and economy
in the southern country as will insure their ultimate re-
demption with all accrued interest.
In conclusion, I do not hold the submerged masses in
Mexico responsible for any of the present disaster and
chaos. Even that element in the country which is most
directly responsible, is entitled to some palliation for the
gravity of its crimes, for were the Mexicans not encouraged
to shed as much blood as they saw fit to lead them from the
dark shadow of dictatorship into the full light of a glorious
democracy? And the saddest commentary of all: today,
Mexico is a bankrupt nation. With an abundance of poten-
tial assets, she will never be able economically to rehabili-
tate herself without outside help. The direct and indirect
loss of the past nine years, must run well into the billions.
With the capacity for production existing in 1911, had she
not gone upon the rampage, she could have come through
the years of the Great War a creditor nation to the extent
of as many billions as she is now a debtor and occupy an
enviable position. Instead she is still that eternal " Mexi-
can problem" and a thorn in the flesh to those nations out-
side whose doors she must wait as a mendicant, if she is to
re-achieve that political and economic status which she
forfeited in the fateful years of 1910-1911.
LABOR IN MEXICO
By James Lord, Treasurer, Pan American Federation of
Labor; Member of Labor Commission to Visit
Mexico, 1918
I have been asked to say a few words at this conference
regarding the labor situation in Mexico. I will try to give
you the benefit of a few facts as they occur to me regarding
my experience with Mexican and other labor for many
years, and especially in connection with my experience the
last time I was in Mexico in the summer of 1918, when I
had a good opportunity to study at close range the new labor
movement there as it exists now.
Labor in Mexico is in bad shape. Ages of industrial
serfdom, exploitation, internal fighting and revolution have
kept the people fairly demoralized in that unhappy coun-
try. The Mexicans, strangely, like other people are creat-
ures of environment, and when in any locality the oppor-
tunity occurs through better environment or a greater
measure of real liberty, a distinct improvement is manifest,
and by the same token bad economic and social conditions
find their reflex there, just as they do in other countries.
The present labor movement in Mexico was conceived in
the throes of the revolution against President Porfirio Diaz.
Prior to that tune they had no opportunity of openly meet-
ing in any way, or even discussing the wrongs they endured.
The peon, under the Diaz regime, was always to be a peon.
This was the status quo question all over again. When the
revolution burst forth, the workers seized their opportunity
and began to organize into local sindicatos. Later they
united these local sindicatos into district organizations.
They fought in the revolution as industrial units, or unions,
and the officers of the Machinists' Union, or the Bricklay-
ers' Union, or what-not, would be the officers of that par-
ticular unit of the army, in many cases. The leaders of
91
92 JAMES LORD
this movement in its inception — those who elected to lead
the men — were men of education. In many cases they were
men of culture, professors, theorists, men who had become
radical by reading but who had learned nothing in the field
of bitter experience, and this knowledge is necessary to one
who would really understand the laboring man. Men with
good intentions took charge of this movement, and it spread
rapidly through Mexico. It was known as La Casa Del
Obrero Mundiat, or " House of the Workers of the World."
The Mexicans have a strong admiration for the French.
They like to do things as they think the French would do
them, and this was shown in the formation of their labor
movement. This explains the origin and the peculiar form
of that movement in its beginning. Time and experience
are changing their methods and ideas. They are getting
their feet on the ground. They have already had consid-
erable experience with other movements, and it is the sen-
timent of the workers throughout Mexico at this time to
form a strong, practical trade movement, a national federa-
tion, composed of national, self-governed unions of trades
and industries. They are also developing leadership among
the workers — leadership that I prophesy will be heard from
and will be known in the industrial world with no discredit
to their ability. They are going along, trying their best to
build the movement into such a form that they may get
the best results for themselves. They realize that other
people who came from lower depths, even, than the Mexican
worker, have worked out their industrial redemption. They
feel that they are to have at least one trial in their own
country. We can pass a more intelligent judgment upon
them after they have been given a fair trial. They are
going to get that trial, and they surely have my best wishes.
Some years ago, a group of plucky forward looking men
from the different Pan-American countries, together with a
few of us in this American labor movement, began to talk
things over, began to try to deal with the situation as it
existed. We began by meeting periodically. The thing
developed until a sort of committee was automatically formed
to deal with Pan-American labor affairs. It grew so that
LABOR IN MEXICO 93
nearly all the time some representatives of Honduras,
Argentina, the West Indies, or Mexico, were in Washington
working away at the idea of a Pan-American Federation of
Labor — a Pan-American International. They knew of the
International of Europe — hi fact, of the world — of which
America is a part. The idea was to build another Interna-
tional to deal with the labor situation in the Western Hemi-
sphere. Out of these efforts carried on by a few men grew
the Pan- American Federation of Labor; and at the Laredo
conference, in November, 1918, the organization was finally
launched forth. Its first international meeting was a very
good conference, the proceedings of which are well worth
the tune of any man or woman to read. It was a good be-
ginning, but we expect to improve on the ideas that came
before that Pan-American conference as tune goes by.
Our first attempts were to set up an institution that would
make for better fraternal relations between the workers of
the different Pan-American countries — Make for better con-
ditions for workmen emigrating from one country to another,
set up a central bureau of information regarding the general
economic conditions in these countries, and so on. We
feel that we have been able, to a large extent, to prevent
bloodshed on at least two occasions by the intelligent use of
knowledge in our possession and the feeling that would be
engendered in the workers of the different countries and the
intelligent use of the prestige that we had attained through
our comparatively small efforts. There is a great deal of
work for the Pan-American Federation of Labor to do.
There is a desire being manifested by the units composing
it to "hew to the line" and do that work, and as tune went
on, it was decided that a committee from the American
labor movement should go through Mexico, at least. There
were certain things that needed to be attended to — certain
things that needed doing. So, in the summer of 1918, John
Murray, a Union printer, a man who was very familiar with
the affairs of Mexico, one who has gone over the " divide"
since that time, to the distinct loss of the workers of all the
Pan-American countries, Santiago Iglesias, a native Span-
iard, and your humble servant, were selected to undertake
94 JAMES LORD
this mission. I am going to tell you of just a few of our ex-
periences that will give you an idea of the existing situation
better than any other method that I can think of just now.
We went in by way of Laredo. We stopped at Saltillo,
the capital of Coahuila, for a considerable time. We found
that the National Federation of Labor for Mexico had al-
ready been formed four or five days before our arrival. We
knew there was considerable sentiment for this thing being
done, but we had no idea that it would be done so quickly.
We found that the governor of that state had taken it upon
himself to send out an official call to all the labor centers in
the country of Mexico, requesting them to assemble at
Saltillo, or in the State of Coahuila, for the purpose of using
their best endeavors to form a suitable solidified national
federation. He made no attempt to fasten himself on the
movement or to interfere with it in any way. He simply
sent out the call, addressed the delegation, and gave a little
wholesome advice, and said: "It is yours, go ahead."
We went to the places in Mexico where we could get in
touch with the people who could give us information of the
actual existing situation. We met President Carranza and
the cabinet officers, and we talked the situation over very
plainly with them. We found some encouraging sentiment,
and we found some sentiment that was not very encouraging,
in official circles. The Mexican who was holding office at
that time would make the admission very soon after begin-
ning conversation with you that he was a State Socialist
and believed in State Socialism. In discussing with them
what they really did believe, or how they construed State
Socialism, one got something of a shock. They did not
believe that labor unions were particularly needed. They
did not think that workers ought to take it upon themselves
to establish international relations. They thought the gov-
ernment should control not only the industries, but the ac-
tions of the individuals in their country. They would take
care of their labor conditions, the matter of wages, and the
general welfare of workmen. They would take care of the
international relations, also. There would not be any
more strikes. It was not good for the workers to have
LABOR IN MEXICO 95
strikes. They were State Socialists! That was a new
definition of State Socialism to me. We found that many
of these gentlemen had that idea and were using it in that
way. We found that every bit of real opposition we en-
countered from the tune we crossed the border until we got
back came from those men who were handling the campaign
of German propaganda. There was not anything else that
appeared in it — those men and their tools and hirelings.
After having some meetings and after having one big,
central meeting in Mexico City, it was decided that I should
address a last meeting to be held in a large labor hall in
that city. The papers came out — El Democrata, National-
ista — not pro-German, but German — absolutely German
owned and sold as the German press. These papers had
never been friendly to the workers' cause, but the reverse.
They suddenly became ultra-radical. An article appeared
in the editorial columns and on the front pages of a syndical-
ist, or anarchist nature, every morning and every evening,
written by a man who knew how to write that kind of stuff —
I have had some experience reading it ! He was no ordinary
man that wrote those editorials. They were warning the
workers of Mexico against these gringoes, these tools. They
were telling them that their only hope was to stay in the
syndicalist camp. The only hope of the workers was to
fight any attempt of the American labor movement to en-
snare them. They were not advocating national ownership
or public ownership, but they claimed that the industrial
group could take that industry and determine in their wis-
dom what to do with that industry. They were getting
out these articles all the time. They were running editorials
saying that these gringoes, who should not be allowed to
remain hi Mexico another minute, were here to get Mexico
into this war, to fight her good friend, Germany, alongside
of the thief and the murderer, the United States, the " Colos-
sus of the North.'7 We got copies of all these papers and
kept them. They make very interesting reading. No mat-
ter what we said at these meetings, they simply distorted
them to suit themselves. Unfortunately for them, in this
case, as well as in many other cases, these people showed
96 JAMES LOKD
that they were hardly as intelligent as they were industrious.
They overdid the thing to such an extent that the situation
reacted in our favor. In the first mass meeting that I
attended and addressed, they had a fine, choice collection of
American wobblies — I. W. W.'s — who had slipped away
from the United States to get away from the draft. The
Pan-American countries are infested with these people
today. They are anywhere where they can stir up trouble
and inflame people's minds, just as buzzards gather around
the carcass of a dead horse. Mexico City is a Mecca for
them. They came into these meetings. They raised their
objections. They tried to stir up insurrection in the audi-
ence. In every case I had a man who could point them out,
and when they came in, I challenged them to come up on
to the platform and ask their questions out in the open and
say what they had to say, with the alternative of going out
of the meeting. I put it up to them, and so did the other
speakers. They would not face the music. They wanted
to stir up a row and get the situation beyond control, and
then their work would be done. They kept this up contin-
ually. We were gradually getting the workers to under-
stand this campaign. We did not tell them to do as we had
done; we told them plainly that our movement was not per-
fect, that we had made many mistakes, and that we expected
to make many more. It was the movement that the work-
ers of North America had made, and it would always be
made to conform to the highest average intelligence and
desires of the workers. It would be changed just as they
wanted to change it. We told them that each country par-
ticipating in the Pan-American Federation would have to
build its own movement in its own way, according to its
own light; but we could all learn by meeting on common
ground and exchanging our views and experiences and pos-
sibly we could learn also by one another's mistakes. Never-
theless, the papers were warning the workers to stay out.
We were trying to ensnare them. Stories were printed in
El Democrata and Nationalista and Universal about the
stealing of Texas and Arizona and California, of outrages
committed daily on innocent women and children of the
LABOR IN MEXICO 97
border states. The story of almost every atrocity happen-
ing at that time on the Western front was taken almost
literally, the names changed, and the thing made to apply to
the " Colossus of the North!" I will simply say that for a
few weeks down there it was not one of the kind of times
when you got the blues because you had nothing to do or
nothing to think about.
Now for the illiterates, for that great army, the beggar
class, whose future no living man can forecast. Two halls,
or pulque joints, were kept open in violation of the law.
Third-rate whiskey is mild by the side of "pulky" and what
it will do to you. One was called Hindenburg, and the
other, U-Boat 38. They showed pictures of those atrocities
in there. They told stories of these atrocities — what was
going on in Coahuial, and Sonora, and Chihuahua. Never-
theless, while the sentiment dominating Mexico City at the
time we were there was pro-German, the sentiment was
created by those in control at that time, and the sentiment
amongst the illiterates was surely pro-German because of the
stuff they got in the Hindenburg and in U-Boat 38. The
thinking class — the thinking class among the workers and
in the business circles were pro- Ally. I made up my mind
at that time, and I have never changed it, that Carranza
was hopelessly pro-German. I say that because I saw what
was going on every day. I know the stories I heard, but
I am not going by the stories: I am going on what I saw,
and I can believe that. The report was that Pablo Gon-
zales was pro- Ally. He was a sort of Secretary of War with
the army taken away from him. He had no army. You
could spot the officer — the military officer — who was taking
the money. Any man or woman here could pick him out.
They trained their mustaches to grow straight up. They
tried even to do a little of the goose step when they were
walking, shamelessly, brazenly, letting people know what
they were at. The sentiment in Mexico City was that the
Western front could not stand up. When the Germans
went through to the Channel ports, the Mexicans believed
that it was only a matter of time before the defense on the
Western front would break utterly, and when that world
98 JAMES LORD
domination came, the young fellow who was a trained mili-
tarist would not be the worst off in that kind of a combina-
tion. That applied individually and nationally. All these
things entered into our efforts to make clear to the workers
there what the Pan-American was for.
Now, regarding conditions in Mexico, as to whether a
part of the people are fit to rule, or not. We have had the
universal ballot in this country, and I will say that unless
that eighty per cent of the Mexican people used the ballot
more intelligently than we do here, there would be no danger
of the intelligent twenty per cent minority being submerged !
Man is a creature of environment. If an American worker
or a British worker had to go to his work continually on
a diet of frijoles and tortillas, if there is any power on
earth could make him do that, I do not know that his effi-
ciency or his productivity would be as great, even, as that of
the Mexican laborer. He might possibly stand a whole lot
more than he stands. I have lived on that fare for a little
while, but not more than a minute longer than I could help !
Man is a creature of environment. Is it right, is it intelli-
gent, to forever condemn the peon, who never got enough
wages to enable him to get anything better than red beans
and flapjacks, which do not produce enough strength for
the work he is expected to do? For the amount of work he
is able to do, he cannot earn any more, and therefore he
cannot do any more, for he cannot obtain the necessary food
on which to work. What chance has he? Somebody else
has been unfit to govern, I should think, for they have evi-
dently failed in their mission. The Mexican worker, as I
understand him, is sick and tired of revolutions. He is sick
and tired of the whole game. I do not know whether he
ever would be any better than he is, for he has never had
any chance to be any better. Give them better environ-
ments; give them something to eat; give them other condi-
tions under which to live besides this state of constant revo-
lution. Give them a living wage, and then pass judgment
on them after they have had a reasonable chance to try to
make better men of themselves. It may be, of course,
that the Mexican has lost his mental stamina. People
LABOR IN MEXICO 99
talk about this proposition lightly. Perhaps if a man would
live on a diet of frijoles and tortillas for twelve months
and work in the mines on that kind of fare, he might be
better able to pass judgment on these people. Let him put
himself in the peon's place for once. And I respectfully
recommend to the directors of industry in Mexico, whether
British, American, or native, that they try out a system of
joint relations with their workers, that they recognize at
last the human equation in this thing, that they give them a
living wage, that they build them better homes, that they
teach them hygiene and cleanliness, that they teach them
some things worth while — teach them some things besides
hatred. A slave may have feared his master, but he never
respected him. If a chain is fastened to a slave, the other
end of the chain is fastened to his master. I have always
revolted against this caste idea since I was able to under-
stand what it was. That old prayer, "God bless me and
my wife, my son John and his wife, us four and no more,"
will not save poor Mexico. The man who helps Mexico
will have to help her in the spirit of a broader vision than
that. The way to help Mexico, in my opinion, is to help
without trespassing, to give them an opportunity to save
themselves, and we will then see what they will do.
I remember, a few years ago, I was attending a meeting
of the American Federation of Labor at San Francisco.
There is a field down in southeastern Arizona known as the
Clifton, Morenci Metcalf field, a field almost unknown to us
at that time. I have been a miner since I was eleven years
old, and I have been pretty much over the mining fields of
the world. I have had some practical experience. This
field was, however, unknown to me. I had never been in it.
It is practically in old Mexico. Ninety per cent of the
people there speak Spanish. There are a few Spaniards
there, but the great majority of the people are Mexicans.
They had gone on a strike in that field. They did not
belong to any organization. They had simply got to the
jumping-off place — to the place it is dangerous to let any
group of workmen arrive at — to the place where they felt
that they had nothing to lose. They all went out on strike.
100 JAMES LORD
There was not a speck of smoke in that field, from a miner
to a smelter. Strangely enough, in that particular instance
the sheriff was not against the strike, and it is the one
lone case in the hard rock mining states that I know of.
Strangely enough, in that particular case the governor of
the state was not against it; and strangely enough, in that
particular case the militia was not used to kill the strikers.
The militia went in and kept the peace. The gunmen, the
same group of which a few are dining in Paradise since a
few days ago in West Virginia, were in there. Some of the
best informed men went to them and said: "We do not
want trouble with you; we have not done anything to you.
Don't let the sun go down on you. If you come back the
second time, we shall not be so polite to you as we are now."
The gunmen went out; and that is the only strike I know of
in the West where the peace was kept and not a dollar's
worth of property was lost. Imagine my feelings. I was
there merely to look it over and see if I could be of assist-
ance to them or give them any advice. I found every-
thing so different from anything I had ever experienced.
Dick Franz was the groceryman there, and all his neighbors
and customers were Mexicans. He extended them credit
on beans and flour — the same old fare, for strike fare was
the same fare that they got when they were working. He
extended them credit to the extent of $34,000, and was
ready to fold up his tent and steal away when I got there.
He had ruined his own credits. He had no regrets; he kept
saying, "We got them licked, if only the beans had held
out." In that situation, I sat down and wired every fellow
in the labor movement I knew who would get a move on
him, and donations began to come in. We got enough
money to pay for a carload of beans, gave the money to
Franz, who got the beans and re-established his credit all
along the line. By this time the Department of Labor was
interested and came into the situation, and one of the best
men in that service happened to go out there — a man who
was a thorough miner, hard rock and coal, and who knows
the game. Through his efforts a stockholders' meeting was
held in El Paso, and the stockholders all came from Scot-
LABOR IN MEXICO 101
land. It was their first time in this country. They were a
set of very fine gentlemen. They had no idea of the cor-
ruption and the graft that had been practiced on these
miners. As fast as cases were proven at the hearings, and
as boss or sub-boss, or anyone else was proven guilty of
graft or anything irregular, his head was cut off officially,
and he was told to go. They carefully considered all the
demands of the miners, and on their own statement, which
is in writing, they admitted that the demands were not
unreasonable and that they would meet them at once.
The settlement finally hinged on what wages the miners
were to get. They got the eight-hour day, better homes,
better conditions underground, and the promise of things
such as ventilation that meant a great deal to them. They
could not agree on the wage. The men, in their first strike,
and with victory apparently within their grasp, wanted to
establish the standard wage in the copper mines of the
Rocky Mountains. In this particular case the ore was not
very rich; it is what they call low grade ore. In this case
the production of ore per man was just a fraction more
than half the production from any of the other camps. I
knew the reason. You had only to look at the men to know
why they did not produce more. They had not it in them
to do it. But they wanted that wage. We told them it
was a physical impossibility to do it, commercially. We
said to them, "You will put this field out of business, and
then you will all be through. You will get a good, substan-
tial advance in wages. We advise you to take it. You
can live better; you can get better food; you are going to
have a lot better working conditions. Now try to raise the
production and show that there is some benefit hi these im-
provements; and whenever you do, they will go into confer-
ence with you again and discuss the question with you
again." They went back to work, and by degrees the pro-
duction per man was brought up until it was on par with the
other mining fields. The miners lived better, had better
homes, and did better hi every way, and in six weeks — pos-
sibly two months — from the day they returned to work,
Dick Franz was paid his $34,000jby those Mexicans. There
102 JAMES LORD
is an instance that shows what can be done by the Mexicans
when they are given something to eat and a chance to show
what they can do.
I could cite many other incidents that have occurred in
these United States with Mexican workmen where the same
thing has taken place. In the mining camps in Colorado,
New Mexico, and other states where the Mexican miner
owns his home, has a small automobile, in some cases, he
has proved that he is as good a miner as there is in the
camp. Talk about going down to them — you can go down
to them and bring them up to your own level; you don't
have to stay down there with them. These things have been
done before, and they can be done again; and until the Mexi-
can worker is treated in that kind of a spirit, until some intel-
ligence is manifested hi connection with this problem, there
will be no peace in Mexico.
I went through the coal fields and the hard rock mining
fields in Mexico in 1918, and today the wage is a peso and
a quarter a day — a dollar and a quarter (Mexican money)
and the cost of living is higher there than it is here. How do
they do it? How can they give their children enough to
eat? How can they do their work? How can they raise
decent children? How would you like to have such condi-
tions exist in the United States? If men's environments
are improved, they will become better and more tolerant
men. There will be better little boys and girls, and they
will become better men and women. Somebody is to blame
besides the peon. I am not afraid to go down to him. I
have been there often, and I have brought him up, too. I
am not afraid of that 80 per cent, and I am not their judge,
either. I have not been that good in my life that I can pass
judgment on that 80 per cent. I have done many things
in my life that have been wrong, but I have always tried to
play the game squarely with my fellow worker. Well, a
peso and a quarter is the wage down there. In the bitumi-
nous fields it is a little better, for it is mostly piecework, and
they might make a dollar and a half or two dollars and a
half. The only organizations that are national in character
are those of the coal miner, the textile worker and the rail-
LABOR IN MEXICO 103
road worker. The "land of promise' ' for the Mexicans did
not materialize under Carranza, by any means, and it never
could. He was a disappointment to the workers; there is
no question about that. I was in Mexico City one tune
when they forbade the street railway workers from holding
a peaceable parade, and they were 100 per cent organized
there at that time. They were told what would happen to
them if they held it. I was in position to hear of these
things, being in different parts of Mexico from time to time.
Regarding the new regime, it is superfluous for me to say
that I do not know what will happen. Nobody can be a
prophet regarding conditions in Mexico with any safety.
I know the men in charge, and I would stake my future on
the judgment and good intention of at least some of them.
Certainly, it is true that they helped to put Carranza in
power, and they were disappointed in him, for he did not
make good. Many of us, with our splendid enlightenment
and qualifications, might have been loud in our praise for
Woodow Wilson a little while ago and now be disappointed
in him. That is human nature, and it does not belong
alone to Mexico. You have got to give people a chance to
save themselves. You cannot hand democracy down to
anybody; it cannot be done. You must give them a chance
to achieve democracy, and that is the only way it will exist
in this world. The labor movement is what the workers
make it. The syndicalist movement, as it appears in Latin-
American countries, is the natural expression that comes
after ages of repression and is the natural vent to the the-
ories and ideals of the entire Latin race. We do not tell
them what to do. We tell them our own experiences, and
they are trying to make their own movement conform to
ours. My judgment is that they will have a strong, virile
movement in Mexico; and that in the other countries the
labor movement will follow pretty much as the Mexican
movement goes. Whether they succeed or not, there must
be the opportunity afforded them to become real human
beings, with the right to live as human beings should live,
and until such conditions develop there will never be satis-
faction or internal peace in Mexico. I am going to help
104 JAMES LOED
them all I can. My best wishes go with Obregon. I believe
he will be the next president of Mexico. I said that a year
ago. I personally hope he will be the one chosen. I believe
he is big enough to do the things that must be done. I
believe he can convince the people that the constitution of
Mexico wants changing, that some of their idealism should
be set aside, and that they should do the very necessary
work that needs doing. As the constitution was drafted,
where the Government owned everything below the surface
of the ground and all other things, it would be very nice and
it would not be very hard to manage or to carry it into
effect, provided they could lick America and Great Britain
and a few other countries; otherwise, the constitution is
unworkable. Carranza knew very well that it was unwork-
able, I believe that these men know it and have said so,
to the extent that they can change anything of that char-
acter to conform to intelligent, sensible progress. The
Mexican worker is beginning to realize that he has unnec-
sarily wasted a lot of time shouting, " salute the revolution
sociale" and " capital is Internationale," and he is beginning
to feel that the only thing that is international is labor, and
that if it is intelligently organized, the worker has nothing
to fear, no matter from what country capital comes. He is
organized to the place where he can take care of his own
affairs, and in this way he will take care of himself hi a
better way than he will by simply showing and demon-
strating that he has a ton of philosophy and an ounce of
real, intelligent fight — and that is the way the Mexican
worker has been sized up, up to date. Let us not pass
judgment upon him because he has suddenly acquired revo-
lutionary ideas. Think of the environment. Think of his
surroundings. Let us be glad that we have not had to
endure the things that have been forced upon him. When
we talk of social status, I may say that my own ancestors
occupied a lower social status than the Mexican now occu-
pies, and this not so long ago either. Think of the environ-
ment of the miners in Great Britain. It was not so long
ago that the records showed that children were born in the
mines. I have seen the record showing that one mine
LABOR IN MEXICO 105
manager traded a pony for a man with a neighboring mine
owner. My grandmother worked in a coal mine in Britain
when she was a very small child. My father was in the
mines at the age of six. My mother worked in a woolen
mill at seven years of age. They are both living in this
country now, and they are intelligent people. I know some-
thing about this low status, for they came from it, and the
British workers have come from a pretty low status in a
comparatively short time; and I will convince every man
and woman I can, at every opportunity that comes to me,
that the thing to do is to throw their sheltering arms around
these unfortunate neighbors of ours, and let us all try to see
if we cannot make better progress; we will see if there cannot
be industrial peace and progress achieved in this life. We
will go on and do our best and see that the frijoles and tor-
tillas standard of fare disappear forever from this world,
that the word " caste'7 shall have gone the way of the oxcart,
and that the sunlight of industrial liberty shall shine over
all the children of men.
RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS IN MEXICO
By E. D. Trowbridge, General Manager of the Mexico Com-
pany; formerly General Manager, Mexican Light
and Power Company, Mexico City
The recent turn-over in Mexico could scarcely be termed
a revolution. It represents a revolt, within the same party,
of a large faction which insists on a more progressive gov-
ernment, demands speedy pacification of the country and
aims at more cordial relations with other countries. The
turn-over is so recent that there has scarcely been time to-
even formulate a regular program.
The change was a quick one, practically all the important
military units going over to the new movement. The gov-
ernment, while of a provisional character pending elections,
may be considered a continuation of the liberal or revolu-
tionary government of Carranza. While the new leaders
are committed to certain reforms and to a more friendly
attitude toward foreign capital, the problems with which
the government has to deal have not changed. These prob-
lems are largely based on economic and social conditions.
To understand them it is necessary to briefly review condi-
tions prevailing in Mexico prior to the Madero revolution,
and to outline the course of events during the past decade.
During the centuries of Spanish rule the Mexican Indian
was, in most respects, a slave. Independence brought little
improvement in his position, as independence brought noth-
ing of democracy with it. Half a century of misrule by
selfish and unscrupulous dictators was followed by a certain
effort under Benito Juarez to improve the situation. Then
came the French occupation, and the ambitious empire of
Maximilian, followed by a long period of disorder and de-
pression. Under Porfirio Diaz the country was pacified,
public credit established, railways built and industry de-
veloped, but little was done for the mass of the people,
106
RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS IN MEXICO 107
The scheme of government was a highly organized machine
run by a few men, and in many respects, run for the benefit
of the land-owning class. Eighty per cent of the popula-
tion was illiterate and ignorant. There was nothing in the
way of political education. >
With the growth of a middle class, and the development
of more liberal ideas, particularly in the north, came de-
mands for reforms and for correction of abuses which had
crept into the government. When the Madero revolution,
laughed at in the beginning, swept over the country, the
mass of ignorant people furnished the background for all
sorts of disorder. The ignorant peon, easily led by eager
and often unscrupulous leaders, knew no distinction between
liberty and license. He was willing to loot, and was glad
to wreak vengeance on those whom he considered as his
oppressors. In a pure spirit of vengeance he burned crops,
wrecked buildings, killed or drove off cattle, and, in general,
put an end to production on the vast estates. When the
peon, after his outburst of passion, wanted to go back to
work, there was no work to be had. Moreover, with a
partial suspension of production, food stuffs went up in
price. The peon then quite naturally turned bandit. A
score or more men, acting in a band, could raid a big rural
estate or village, obtain loot and foodstuffs, and move on.
After the reactionary movement under Huerta and his
downfall, there followed a period of chaos, with Carranza
who represented the majority of the Madero following, fight-
ing for the control of the country against Villa, Zapata,
Felix Diaz and other leaders who sometimes acted indepen-
dently and sometimes together. Through 1914, 1915 and
1916, civil war swept over the country. The national cap-
ital changed hands eight times. Industry stopped, farm
production ceased, railways were wholly or partially closed
down, banks suspended, the currency was demoralized,
people starved to death, there were serious epidemics of
typhus, and, in general, a condition approaching anarchy
prevailed.
Under the conditions it was inevitable that numerous
local bands should be formed who proceeded to dominate
108 E. D. TROWBRIDGE
certain sections of the territory. Frequently these bands
had the backing of rural property owners, who, by contrib-
uting to their support, could be assured of protection against
other bands or against the incursions of the leading factions
fighting for supremacy. These bands gave their support to
Villa, Zapata, Feliz Diaz, Pelaez or other leaders, as the
case might be, and in return were left in control of their
own particular districts. They levied more or less irregular
contributions from towns, villages and rural estates, and
for a time were the substitute for any regularly constituted
authority.
There are several phases of the matter to be considered.
Brigandage at first was profitable, but gradually, as every-
thing portable or salable disappeared from rural estates,
the attraction in the life disappeared. In the confusion
and disorder most of the owners of farms, ranches or estates
had abandoned their properties, resulting, in many sections,
in a complete suspension of production. The bandit then
became half-farmer, half-bandit, scratching the earth to
plant a little corn one day and roaming the country in search
of plunder the next. Many who have been enjoying this
life will not want to go back to peaceful pursuits, and the
hardier characters will continue to give trouble until exter-
minated or compelled by thorough patrolling of the country
to live orderly lives. For the majority of the bandits their
roaming will cease by a process of sheer exhaustion. The
government control of the railways, cities and towns has
become, generally speaking, strong enough to make raids of
any size out of the question. There is nothing left on rural
estates. The bandits are beginning to realize that if crops
are not grown they themselves will starve. Many of them
are begging for the resumption of work on properties which
they themselves helped wreck only a short time ago. Nat-
urally every property put back in production will auto-
matically cut down the amount of lawlessness. Many
properties which were entirely abandoned for three or four
years are again producing crops.
This resumption, coupled with abundant rains this year
has reduced the price of corn, the staple of the country,
RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS IN MEXICO 109
from $2.50 per bushel a year ago to a price of $1.10 per
bushel, throughout central Mexico. Naturally, the drop
in the price of corn will improve general conditions, through
reduction hi living costs.
In some sections everything is ready for a full resumption
of agricultural activity, but there are many practical ob-
stacles hi the way. The greatest of these is the lack of
money. Rural properties were stripped of everything port-
able— livestock needed for farm work was long ago driven
off. Owners of properties have had no income and have
nothing to start up with, either for re-equipping their prop-
erties or paying then1 labor until they can get return from
crops. In the state of Morelos, for example, the great
sugar estates lie helpless. Grinding mills and machinery
were wrecked, and cane lands burned over. Fine estates,
watered by elaborate irrigation systems, are producing noth-
ing for the sole reason that there is no money available.
The upheaval in Mexico wrecked the banking system,
and the banks, which are closed or are doing only a foreign
exchange business, have no money to lend. The govern-
ment has bought a considerable amount of farm machinery
which it proposes to sell to farmers on time. While this will
help somewhat, it is only a drop in the bucket.
The question of full resumption of work on the large
Mexican estates is closely related to the general agrarian
problem in Mexico. Under the Spanish rule great grants
of land were made to court favorites, or were given as
rewards for campaigns of conquest. These estates have, in
many cases, passed down intact to present holders. The
church acquired great estates, and many of these, passing
into private hands, formed the basis of immense holdings.
The estate owners were the only people of wealth, and
the tendency was for them to keep adding to their properties.
In the past century the number of individual holdings has
been cut in two. Ninety-six large estates are credited with
120,000,000 acres of land, or an average of nearly two
thousand square miles each. Six thousand properties rep-
resent a total of 300,000,000 acres of land. It is self-evi-
dent that such a condition was calculated to keep the mass
110 E. D. TROWBRIDGE
of the people in practical slavery, to keep down wages, and
to curtail production.
Much has been written by Mexican reformers on the agra-
rian question, and there has been a general demand for
breaking up these vast properties. The reformers generally
ignore the fact that the mere breaking up of the properties
will not result in anything. The main difficulty is not
agrarian but social. The average peon, turned loose on a
piece of land, would starve to death. He has received, for
four hundred years, wages which rarely exceeded seventy-
five centavos, or thirty-seven cents. He has had to sup-
port his family on this. It goes without saying that he has
no savings. He can not buy the simplest implements, and
he has nothing to live on until harvest time, even if he did
manage to get a crop planted. He must, by force of cir-
cumstances, work for someone else. Besides, while he
labors well under the direction of an administrator, he knows
little or nothing of farming, and would, in nine cases out
of ten, be at a complete loss if placed on his own resources.
He has no outlook, no hope, no vision. If he has a blanket
and can get enough food to keep body and soul together
he is content. His family is incidental, and he gives them
food until they can shift for themselves.
But he is likeable, docile and apt, and a good, faithful
worker so long as he needs work, but he does not care a
hang for tomorrow. His nature is not going to be changed
by the adoption of reform laws or new agrarian schemes.
There are a great many of him to educate and to develop
to the point where he will have some idea of the responsi-
bilities of life and citizenship. This will take time.
Meanwhile the reformers, in their anxiety to aid the peon,
have unconsciously placed obstacles in the way of his get-
ting back to work. The constitution of 1917, while theo-
retically defensible in most respects, was so strongly anti-
capitalistic in three or four features as to arouse the general
hostility of organized capital, thereby greatly reducing the
chances of securing the money necessary for reconstruction
purposes. The assembly which adopted the constitution
was extremely radical, and went on the theory that the way
RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS IN MEXICO 111
to reform is to reform, without considering whether the
reforms proposed were so drastic as to defeat their own
ends. Many of those who favored extreme measures now
realize that modifications must be made, and various gov-
ernment commissions are studying the questions involved.
Mexico, in point of natural progress, was behind other
nations, and her form of autocratic government was out of
keeping with modern ideas. The immediate effect of the
revolution was to upset violently the economic equilibrium
of the country and to produce a state of chaos. Then came
the stage of re-establishing the regular authority, return to
a metal currency basis, and a resumption of normal indus-
trial activity. The material progress made in this stage
has been surprisingly good — almost amazing. This is indi-
cated by the figures of exports and imports, and by earnings
of railways, public utility companies and industrial concerns.
The question of full pacification of the country is interlocked
with problems of government finance, rehabilitation of the
banking system, international relations and internal politics.
Mexico's relations with other countries, aside from ques-
tions involving the protection of life and property, have an
important bearing on her own internal development. A
situation which from time to time threatens foreign inter-
vention involves so much uncertainty as to retard the stab-
ilizing of affairs. Moreover, this uncertainty greatly en-
courages those who are opposed to the government. Most
important of all, any feeling of uncertainty prevents obtain-
ing the money needed for reconstruction purposes. Mexi-
can problems seem to go around in a circle. Foreign
opposition cuts off a supply of money badly needed for
public and private purposes; without money operation of
the great agricultural properties cannot be resumed; with-
out such resumption there is no work for thousands of peo-
ple; this in turn results in a continuation of disorder and
creates a lack of confidence in the ability of the government
to handle the situation. Economic conditions cannot be
fully stabilized until a banking system is created to take
care of the ordinary needs of the country. The existing
banks can do nothing because their assets are largely tied
112 E. D. TROWBRIDGE
up in properties which are producing nothing. The govern-
ment cannot get money for a new banking system because
of the lack of confidence. The various complications in
foreign relations develop a generally hostile attitude on the
part of foreign governments.
This appears to be a pessimistic picture. Actually, it is
surprising that the situation is not much worse than it is.
The amazing recuperative power of the country has been
shown by the recovery to semi-normal conditions from a
state of chaos three years ago. Exports and imports are
higher than ever before, railway earnings are forty per cent
higher than during the Diaz regime, government income is
considerably higher than ever, and the country, after sev-
eral years of suffering under a depreciated paper currency,
is back on a gold-and-silver currency basis. Under the
Carranza regime, while those best informed felt that the
leaders of the movement were honest and patriotic, there
is no question that a fearful amount of graft existed. Many
have tried to paint all revolutionary movements in Mexico
as nothing more than factional fights to control the national
treasury. In this view I cannot agree, as it seems quite
clear that, in spite of elements of personal greed, there was,
in the Carranza regime, and there is under the latest revolt,
a sincere desire to do something constructive for the coun-
try— something to elevate the status of the mass of the peo-
ple. The country, ill-prepared as it was for anything like
a democratic form of government, suffered through the
opportunity given to a horde of greedy petty chiefs. The
new government will doubtless learn that many of the
unscrupulous have not, in changing their political clothing,
made any change in their selfish motives. Graft may be
expected, almost as a matter of course, but it must be
checked and eventually eliminated if anything tangible is
to come of the whole liberal movement in Mexico. So
long as graft exists on a large scale there will be, both in-
ternally and externally, a lack of confidence in Mexico. A
Mexican friend of mine observed some months ago that
under Diaz graft was a monopoly, controlled by a small
ring, but that it had been "democratized," and everyone
RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS IN MEXICO 113
had a chance. This sort of feeling goes a long way to
convince public opinion, both in Mexico and the United
States, that the Mexican situation is well-nigh hopeless,
and that nothing but a strong dictatorship, or outside inter-
vention, will set up a government capable of handling af-
fairs. It seems vital that the new government should,
through securing the support of all intelligent classes in
Mexico, make every endeavor to eliminate the grafting
element. There are, fortunately, strong indications that
the new government will secure the active support of
many of the old conservative element in Mexico — an ele-
ment at first opposed to any reforms but now convinced that
any return to the old form of government is out of the
question.
If foreign relations can be straightened out another step
will have been taken toward getting everything in order.
The general question of these relations may be subdivided
under five heads: arrangements to avoid border troubles;
protection for the lives of Americans and other foreigners
resident in Mexico; claims for loss of life or damage to prop-
erties during the revolution; treatment of foreign capital
invested in Mexico; and the controversy over the Mexican
oil fields.
The question of border troubles is a part of the general
problem of a complete pacification of the country. The
large rebel bands in the Northern part of Mexico have been
pretty well broken up, and in a large part of the territory
conditions are good, or fairly good. Some Americans
claim that the Mexican military do not want peaceful con-
ditions restored, as they can, while any disorder exists,
impose on the public. There are many cases of abuse on
the part of unscrupulous military officials. It seems quite
idle, however, to say that the military as a whole make no
serious effort to restore peaceful conditions. The relative
prosperity of the country, as compared with conditions two
years ago, is proof that the government has been working
steadily for pacification. If the government had a thor-
oughly organized and well equipped army the program of
pacification would go on at a higher rate of speed. The
114 E. D. TROWBKIDGE
army sprung into existence during the revolution, and, gen-
erally speaking, was officered by men who knew little of
organization or discipline. It is only within the past year
that much has been done toward the development of effi-
cient military standards. Many officers are unruly, and in
certain sections there is much reason for complaint. How-
ever, there appears to be some improvement, and a reali-
zation, which scarcely existed before, that a central authority
must be reckoned with.
It seems essential, in connection with maintenance of
order along the border (and in other sections of the country)
that the government should organize a strong force of light-
cavalry to act as rural police — a force similar to the old
rurales. Such a force, supported by scouting airplanes,
would soon suppress the operations of bandits of any size,
and would greatly reduce the chance of raids across the
line. It would also result in greater security of life all over
the country. The government is undoubtedly making ef-
forts to protect the lives of foreigners, and there has been
in the past two years, a marked diminution in attacks
against the person. During the chaotic conditions prevail-
ing in 1914, 1915, and 1916 many lives were lost, but the
outrages in the past year have been few in number and
generally in territory remote from regular control. Every
American living in Mexico has a pretty fair idea of where
it is safe to go, and where his chances of getting into trouble
or danger are above the average. If he deliberately goes
into dangerous zones he is partly responsible for any trouble
he may get into. The question of whether Mexico should
be in perfect order is quite another matter. The purpose
of these statements is not to exonerate the Mexican govern-
ment of its responsibility for the protection of the lives of
foreigners, nor to minimize the liability of the American
government in the matter, but rather to present the facts
as they are. Whether the Mexican government is doing all
that could be done to pacify the country thoroughly and
thereby make it safe for foreigners and natives alike is a
matter subject to discussion. That the government has
done much in this direction is certain. It also seems certain
RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS IN MEXICO 115
that with money and with more efficient organization paci-
fication could be considerably speeded up. The question
of foreign claims for loss of life or damage to property during
the revolution is properly one for mixed claims commissions.
The Mexican government some months ago named a com-
mission to investigate claims and make awards. Few for-
eign claims have been filed with this commission. Alien
claimants naturally do not want to submit claims to a
commission named by the government against which the
claims are made. Doubtless a mixed conmmission will soon
be formed to deal with the question.
With the exception of the railway investment the large
units of capital in Mexico suffered comparatively little
damage during the revolution. Properties of the large
mining, public utility, oil and industrial companies came
through with little or no physical damage. The oil com-
panies have prospered throughout. Many other properties
suffered through loss of revenue because their receipts were
depreciated in paper money. Others were obliged to shut
down at times because of demoralized conditions. The
smaller properties fared worse. Many ranches, farms and
plantations lost heavily through raids, cattle and livestock
being driven off and everything portable being carried away.
Many small mines, located in remote districts, were aban-
doned by their owners. Some of these properties have
resumed operations, but many located in out-of-the-way
places are still closed down. The railroads suffered very
badly. Stations were burned, bridges destroyed and rolling
stock wrecked. For a long tune earnings were in paper
money and barely sufficient to pay running expenses, so
that there was heavy depreciation of track and equipment.
All the railways are four or five years in arrears on bond
interest. The situation is all the more difficult because
with one or two exceptions, the railway companies were in
a weak financial position before the revolution broke out.
The National Railways Company, owning two-thirds of
the mileage in Mexico, has capital liabilities, bonds, stock
and accrued interest amounting to $500,000,000, with gross
earnings of only $40,000,000. The highest net earnings
116 E. D. TROWBRIDGE
before the revolution were slightly over $10,000,000, or at a
rate of about 2 per cent on the present capital liability.
The complete demoralization during the upheaval in Mexico
is clearly shown by the fact that receipts of the system,
reduced to American currency, fell from an average of
$2,500,000 to less than $100,000 in January, 1915. The
earnings have increased very rapidly during the past two
years, and now exceed pre-revolution figures. Wages and
other expenses are, however, higher than formerly, and a
deficit is certain for some time.
The Mexican government is in arrears on the national
debt, but the prospects of resumption of payments are good.
The total national debt, including accrued interest on var-
ious loans, damages payable to railways, and loans from
banks, is about $500,000,000, calling roughly for $25,000,000
of interest annually. The present government revenue is
at a rate of $90,000,000, which, were it not for heavy ex-
penses of a large army needed to restore order, would be
ample to cover ordinary expenses and interest charges. An
increase of 30 per cent in income will put the government in
a position to meet all its obligations. Naturally, every
property placed in production means a step nearer to this
position.
It goes without saying that a situation which involved so
much material loss for so many people — owners of proper-
ties or holders of government, railway or corporate secu-
rities, created many enmities. Foreigners in Mexico,
generally speaking, were hostile to the revolutionary move-
ment. With the improvement in conditions many have
modified their views, but their attitude collectively has in the
past been such as to increase friction in international rela-
tions. Another cause for friction was the greatly exagger-
ated impression held by Mexicans as to the amount of profits
reaped by foreign investments in Mexico. A single case
may be cited on this point. An article in a leading American
periodical a few months ago, written in a sympathetic
spirit, noted incidentally, and as evidence of good conditions,
that one silver mine is shipping $15,000,000 of bullion
monthly. This would be at a rate of $180,000,000 a year,
RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS IN MEXICO 117
when, as a matter of fact, Mexico's total silver production
this year, from all mines, will not reach $100,000,000.
The controversy over the Mexican oil fields is a compli-
cated affair. Foreign interests control practically all the
developed territory. The rights of these companies to
exploit their lands are quite clear, and the efforts of the
Carranza government to annul such rights were based, not
on legal grounds, but largely on questions of public policy.
The Mexican oil fields have potential possibilities of yielding
a billion barrels of oil annually, an amount far in excess of
any other fields in the world. The government has feared
that the control of such vast resources by a few foreign
companies would be detrimental to national interests, and
has endeavored to curb the development of the industry
under such control. It seems as if some suitable arrange-
ment could be reached by which the companies interested
could go ahead with their program of development, the
government retaining a reasonable control, through proper
regulations, of the industry. Mexico lacks the capital to
develop her natural resources, and should encourage for-
eign capital. She should, however, take precautions to
prevent such capital becoming a dominant factor in her
internal affairs. The attitude of the Mexican government
in the oil controversy has been a narrow one. On the other
hand, the collective attitude of the oil interests has not
been one calculated to assist in any permanent and satis-
factory settlement of the question.
Summarized, the immediate problems to be met are :
1. Rehabilitation of railways.
2. Resumption of agricultural activities.
3. Creation of a banking system.
4. Policing of rural districts.
5. Securing support of intelligent people of all factions.
6i Elimination of graft.
7. Reorganization of national debt on basis of partial
payment of interest, with full payment later.
8. Settlement of foreign claims.
9. Settlement of oil controversy.
10. Modification of certain impractical features of the
Constitution.
118 E. D. TROWBRIDGE
11. Restoration of full civil government throughout the
country.
12. Efficient reorganization of army.
Co-incident with measures to meet these problems the
government should study other problems of great import-
ance. Of these the most important are the extension of
popular education, the creation of a large class of small
land-owners, the extension of transportation system to
assist in a full development of agricultural and other re-
sources, a general reform in the system of taxation, and a
reform in the political system to establish the beginning of
a representative form of government. Much has been
accomplished in ten years in the creation of public opinion
and the development of popular thought. Much more can
be accomplished by patriotic and sincere effort to create a
stable government. If all interested give unselfish devotion
to their country the program of reconstruction will go for-
ward steadily and surely, and the progress will leave no
excuse for any outside interference in Mexico's future.
RECENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO
By Francis R. Taylor, Chairman of the Recent Commission
to visit Friends1 Missions in Mexico
My visit to Mexico was neither long enough nor extensive
enough to qualify me for an opinion upon the conditions
throughout the entire country, but only upon the sections
which we traversed. Even then the things we saw for
ourselves and the information we received constitutes,
naturally, the chief sources of the conclusions at which
we arrived.
My companion, Arthur L. Richie and I were sent out by the
American Friends' Service Committee to visit the sections
assigned to the Society of Friends for mission work as well
as the Federal District, hi anticipation of opening up work
hi Mexico similar to that about concluded in the stricken
parts of Europe. This object was undertaken entirely in
view of the international difficulties existing. It is of a
broader and more temporary nature than the established
form of missionary endeavor, particularly in the number
of volunteer, short-tune workers that are used, when avail-
able. The Friends' mission work is confined, under the
agreement between the Evangelical Churches, to the state
of Tamaulipas, and small portions of the states of Nuevo
Leon and San Luis Potosi. Like all the other denomina-
tions, the Friends do not at all adequately cover then* large
extent of territory, but the range of our inquiry took us
pretty generally over this section, and after that, by the
main line of the railroad, to the capital city, through the
varying and interesting states between, thence returning
via Laredo. What I shall say, therefore, refers to that
section only, except in those instances when such obser-
vations may be presumed to be typical of the nation as a
whole.
119
120 FRANCIS R. TAYLOR
We found agriculture in all stages of development — from
the primitive ox-drawn, wooden plow, shod with iron, to
the highly organized sugar or citrus plantation. Back of
each was the pitiable lack of banking facilities. If there
is any one boon that the farming population of Mexico
needs, it is the bank, more for deposit and savings even
than for credit, desirable and essential through the latter is.
We had entered Mexico with the preconception that the
panacea for Mexico's ills lay in a division of the great landed
estates. We left with the opinion that such a subdivision
was greatly to be desired but that the peon would profit
little by it at once. So great is the gulf between the classes
and so remote the possibility of advance from the peon
class, that two generations of education in thrift and ele-
mentary economy will be necessary before the full benefit
of the division can be expected to affect the peon class in
any but an incidental way. Even from that standpoint,
however, the effort is worth while, just as the similar process is
valuable to the Indian wards of the United States. Smaller
land holdings, once achieved, will prove hi any country
an incentive to the sense of proprietorship that dwells at
the root of thrift and national wealth. Moreover, the
economic fitness, sufficient to justify peon land holding, will
be developed, hand in hand with the increasing possibility
of obtaining the land.
Two agricultural enterprises, now past the experimental
stages, are noteworthy examples of the possibilities of the
country. The Friends' Mission at Victoria, Tamaulipas,
operates a dairy farm, having hi view developing it into an
agricultural school later. It would be practically impos-
sible to train Mexican boys hi this school as, their training
complete, there would be no prospect for independent work.
Small though his equipment would be, the cost of it would
be entirely beyond the attainment of a peon youth, even
if the land were obtainable. The trinity of insurmountable
obstacles, facing such a youth — no land, no savings and
no thrift, surely present a problem of vast magnitude and
of no easy solution. In the meantime, this farm is serving
its very useful purpose as an object lesson. In spite of
RECENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 121
cattle raids, Mr. Gulley, a young Idaho Quaker, has gathered
together a small herd of grade cows from which he supplies
milk to the town. So superior is its quality that he cannot
fill the demand for the "mission milk," and the old distinc-
tion between "leche con agua" and "agua con leche,"
which used to obtain in some sections of the country, has
disappeared, and that too, upon a profitable basis. It
would be hard to overstate the possibilities for good, inherent
in such a farm, whether as an object lesson alone or later
as a training school for the youth of a great state.
The second agricultural enterprise, typical of Mexico at
her present best, was the vast sugar plantation of Foon
Chuck, near Xicotencatl, Tamaulipas. It was an inspira-
tion to see the manifest hum of industry evident in the
cane fields and sugar mill of this enlightened and enlighten-
ing Chinese gentleman. To irrigation and a high sense of
responsibility for his laborers, seems to be due, in an unusual
degree, the air of solid accomplishment and satisfied con-
tentment that marks his hacienda and particularly the
village of "El Canton."
Foon Chuck is one of the most distinguished of Mexico's
28,000 Chinese. Beginning life in humble circumstances,
he is an outstanding example of the possibilities in Mexico,
open to thrift and industry. Like many of his countrymen
he married a Mexican wife, and has acquired in the rearing
of his large family, a veritable passion for the education of
the Mexicans. In "El Canton" he has a school for the
children of his 700 peons and, though not a professing
Christian, is willing and anxious to have a Christian organi-
zation open up work on his hacienda.
To have experienced the hospitality of this remarkable
little man and to learn from him the results (or rather the
lack of them) of his efforts on behalf of his peons, was an
instructive lesson in Mexican traits and foibles. Dressed
hi a soft shirt, a brown, broad-brimmed felt hat and knee
boots drawn over tight khaki trousers, he was a "typical"
enough planter to have starred for a movie film. Add to
these the pleasant aroma of sugar about his person and
you can picture the master of the mill, the home, and the
hacienda.
122 FRANCIS T. TAYLOR
Two of his experiments, long ante-dating the numerous
"crises" between the United States and Mexico, are full of
significance for the ultimate solution of their fundamental
difficulties.
From his 8500 acres, Foon Chuck offered any of his
peons an acre apiece, for their own cultivation, in beans and
corn, as a side issue to their regular work on the hacienda.
He also supplied seed and provided plowing and utensils
for cultivation. All went well till the crop was harvested
and then never a stroke of work did those peons do until
the supply was exhausted.
Another experiment in this " welfare work" centered in
a community store, at which Foon Chuck supplied goods
to his peons at about two-thirds cost. Once again his
altruistic efforts were baffled by the shiftlessness of his
peons. The number of his employees greatly increased,
the efficiency of the force greatly decreased and the business
of the store prospered apace. In a short time he found he
had twice as many men as before, each doing about half
time work and all battening on the low prices at the com-
munity store.
It was at this tune that Chuck decided upon education
as the real and only solution of Mexico's ills, and, since most
of his children are now Christians, he inclines of late to
add Christianity as a determining factor in the issue.
I incline also to mention a third agricultural enterprise,
as typical of the best of another kind of Mexican country
life. Chuck's hacienda was started only thirty years ago,
but another large hacienda, on the outskirts of Mexico
City, dates far back into the last century with its low,
rambling mansion house, fully equipped with all modern
conveniences. It would be hard to overstate the delights
of this cultured home, with a well watered patio, redolent
with the fragrance of roses and honey suckle; its large
grove of enormous eucalyptus trees, its gardens and shady
walks and bowers. Moreover it is one of the most important
of the city's milk supplies, with its 750 high grade Holstein
cows and its score of bulls, many of both entitled to registry,
if such a thing were known in Mexico.
RECENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 123
Here also were the numerous peons, the very back bone
of the whole enterprise, and yet few of them appeared in
any way entitled to registration for any quality other than
a sort of unquestioning and aimless fidelity to the manual
tasks set for them and carried out by means of them, through
the superior intelligence of an efficient Scotch-American
manager. In our delightful visit to this ancient garden
spot of Mexican culture, I felt unconsciously brought back
into the heydey of a Virginia plantation, of the days, "before
the war." Evidences of a luxury based upon an abundance
of very cheap, and consequently inefficient labor, abounded.
Tales of the childish dependence and shiftlessness, the
gullibility, the simplicity, and withal, the loveableness of
the peons and their families, were of direct kin to those
known to us in the stories of Thomas Nelson Page, of the
plantation negro.
One of these stories is worth recording. Our visit coin-
cided with the day of Bonillas' triumphal entry into Mexico
City, returning from Washington as the administration
candidate for the presidency. Our hosts told us that
seventy of their peons had asked and received leave of
absence, the day before, to march in the parade, at one
peso a head. Their sense of importance, in this national
event, had been vastly increased by an appreciation in
their value. The year before, they had only been "tostones"
—at a toston, or half a peso a head; but this year, in Bonil-
las' ill-starred behalf, they had become "pesones." Imag-
ine their delight and the consequent inconvenience on the
hacienda, when the candidate's arrival was delayed a day
and the loyal "pesones" were corralled like cattle, in the
city, for delivery, en masse, the next day as a part of the
vociferous, enthusiastic crowd, acclaiming the hero, who
with his chief, was soon to be driven into exile by the next
turn of the political wheel.
In all of these agricultural enterprises — the Quaker mis-
sion farm, the Chinaman's sugar plantation and the huge
dairy farm of the Federal District, the management was
solely in the hands of foreigners and the native Mexican
was present only as a laborer of the lowest and least efficient
124 FRANCIS R. TAYLOR
kind. There are great Mexican haciendas under native
control, like those of the Osuna brothers, near Foon Chuck's,
but it is safe to state that even on these the peons entirely
lack that stimulus of possession, for which they are not
and, without years of preparation, will not be ready. A
few years ago they were little better than the yokels and
knaves of old England, practically a part of and, upon
transfer, passing with the land. Today the Mexican peon
has in a real sense a far greater degree of freedom than he
had before the recent series of revolutions. He has acquired
the desire of and the ability to travel. If the campaigns
of the past decade have done nothing else, they have stimu-
lated and to a degree gratified this migrating instinct.
The haciendados already complain of the greater independ-
ence of the laboring classes, not so much in the exorbitance
of their wage demands as in the ease with which they can
travel, family and all, on the top or floor of a box car, to
another section in search of employment. Almost inevit-
ably this migration is toward the North, and by thousands
they have crossed the Rio Grande into the United States
for work on the railroads and truck farms of Texas and the
middle West.
Migratory or roving possibilities, coupled with the insta-
bility due to lack of land possession, are a large part of the
unrest in Mexico today. The joy of ownership and the
inspiration of possession, incident to the modest home or
small farm must exist, at least as possibilities, in any nation
that is to preserve its identity in the world of today. While
therefore the agricultural situation in Mexico is far from
the ideal, it does offer possibilities of development in the
future. The millions of acres of arable land in Mexico
that await only the magic presence of irrigation to break
forth with some of the world's choicest products, are a
vast promise of untold opportunity to the peon. Give him
education in thrift, train him in agriculture and grant him
fair means of obtaining his parcel of land with equitable
access to the all important water supply and, in the course
of years, the Mexican problem, like all others, will gradually
rectify itself.'
RECENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 125
Of the industries of Mexico the casual visitor sees but
little. The great breweries of the country have reaped
rich prospects from prohibition in the United States. We
heard of new plants being established by moving the entire
plant from the states to one or another of the thriving
northern cities of Mexico. Certainly the border towns did
a thriving business in dispensing refreshment to the parched
Americans who thronged them, particularly on Sundays.
Allied to these are the pulque distilleries, as much of a
social and political curse as were the whiskey distilleries
in our older republic. The fermentation of the juice of the
magaya, or century plant, into this pulque is on paper as
strictly regulated as its sale. It is, however, as freely made
for private consumption as for commercial use and any
attempt to discourage it strikes at an important activity
of innumerable people who collect the juice for market.
A still more important industry, though by no means on
a factory basis, is the working of the hennequin fiber into
ropes, bags, brushes and mats. The hennequin is also the
source of practically all the binder twine in the United
States, and its cultivation is one of the most important
occupations in Mexico. The skill and deftness which many
of the natives acquire in working upon the hennequin fiber
is marvelous to those whose idea of industry is based upon
the correlated factory systems of a highly specialized com-
munity. The lack of machinery and the dependence upon
simple hand looms and still simpler twisting devices places
Mexico, in almost all parts, in the class of undeveloped
nations, from the standpoint of specialized industry. The
sole exceptions to this statement are the considerable wool
weaving industry and the great mining and smelting oper-
ations— the former being largely of native enterprise.
The railroads of the country gave every appearance of
improvement over what must have been the condition a
short time ago. In the railroad yards of Monterrey was
enough scrap and material to have assembled many badly
needed locomotives. On the side lines the service was
farcical, so far as any attempt at schedules was concerned.
Engine 236 on the line from Matemoros to Monterrey was
126 FRANCIS R. TAYLOR
a bye-word, we found, to those who frequented the road
and the sophisticated would wait over a day rather than
risk the imminent delay incident to its use. We experienced
its vagaries and missed a night's sleep, due to some stoppage
in the smoke flue which was remedied time after time, by
the engineer ramming the poker down the smoke stack
while the fireman worked at the difficulty in the roasting
heat of the open boiler head.
Following the suit of the United States, the national
government had taken over the railways and formed a
national system. Rates of fare, though high, compared
favorably per mile with those in the states, and in tune
consumed seemed much cheaper, an all day trip costing
very little. Upon any train one can purchase a time table
covering all the roads in the country, though one could
never be certain of the schedule except when too late to
meet it. On the line from Tampico to Monterrey we
experienced a bad head-on collision, at 4 a.m., our train
being long overdue and having gone ahead against its
signal. The telescoping of two express cars and the envelop-
ing of the two engines absorbed the shock so completely
that all the passengers escaped injury and the engineers
alone were hurt. As an aftermath to the nationalistic
feeling resulting from the revolutions, the entire personnel
of the railroads has been changed to Mexicans alone. The
British, who used to predominate in the management of
the roads have entirely disappeared from apparent operation,
whether to the detriment of the service or otherwise, the
casual observer cannot say. It was interesting to note,
however, that the only trade union in evidence in Mexico
City was the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers whose
elaborate float was one of the conspicuous objects in the
Bonillas parade.
For the main line of railroad from Laredo to Mexico
City, a two days' journey, very few apologies are needed.
Barring the slowness of the schedule, the service was as
complete as on any first class road in the United States.
The Pullman porters, both Mexican and negro, were courte-
ous and efficient. There were no dining cars but meals
RECENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 127
were served from buffet broilers in entirely satisfactory
fashion.
All the traffic, however, was not in the first class com-
partments. Second class and in most cases, third class
accommodations, were in more demand and here was most
evident the travelling tendency, already mentioned. Box
cars, fitted with rude seats, lengthwise, served for the vast
majority of the travelling populace. The condition of these
rough coaches after a day's occupation by crowded groups
of both sexes and all ages, is more esthetically suggested
than described. Food for these itinerants was most
abundantly supplied at almost every station by swarms of
slovenly women or decrepit old men whose Mexican deli-
cacies were eagerly bought after hurried haggling over
prices. These steaming concoctions seemed most unsavory
to the gentler palates of the uninitiated and we went for
long stretches with no other food than citrus fruits, hard
boiled eggs or similar articles, obtainable in then: original
packages, beyond the need of adaptation by human
endeavor.
Another inevitable accompaniment of these train loads,
and practically the only apparent evidence of disturbed
conditions, was the car load of soldiers. Sometimes in
wooden box cars, again in specially constructed steel cars
with elaborate loop holes for rifle fire, and always poorly
accoutred and shabbily clothed, these details of a score or
so of soldiers, gave evidence of the hand of the government
in the protection of the traffic and the travelling public.
Nor were they entirely for effect. In Sonora, where Villa
held outlaw sway, a train was captured, the crew and guard
killed and the passengers robbed, while we were hi the
country. Near Osorio, in Tamaulipas, just a day before
we happened there, a small band of raiders had been beaten
off by the guard without loss of life and the tram had pro-
ceeded. Without knowledge of the affair, we went the next
day, thirty miles back into the country from the railroad,
in a dilapidated Ford car, with a half breed chauffeur and
four other Mexicans, to visit Foon Chuck, as already related.
Though our journey was necessarily at night and with no
128 FRANCIS R. TAYLOR
other light than matches, on a tortuous road, full of bumps
and ditches, we felt slight apprehension. Surely no metro-
politan chauffeur could have handled a car more deftly
than did that Mexican, and just as surely, no better chance
ever offered to rob two unwary Americans. If the states
produced any taxi-drivers as courteous as our half-breed,
it would be a pleasing discovery to find them.
In currency, credits and banks, our sister republic finds
her real weakness, which underlies and is at one and the
same time the cause and effect of much of her business
inefficiency. Near the border, United States currency is
gladly circulated and is in fact more in evidence than the
native. United States gold corns pass current throughout
the country, as readily as the Mexican "azteca" a twenty
peso piece, and the most beautiful coin I have ever seen,
In central Mexico, the smaller United States coins are not
accepted, and under the Carranza regime, the government
issued "vales/' paper money, of fifty centavos and one
peso in value, and reputed to be upon an entire gold basis.
Certain it is that they were very well received in the Federal
District and, in sooth, change making without them was
well nigh impossible. Frequently it was necessary to take
postage stamps and street car tickets as change, due to the
great scarcity of the small silver and copper coins.
In none but the largest towns were there any banks.
Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas and a city of 18,000
inhabitants had no banking facilities at all. In Monterrey
there were several excellent banks, of modern and attractive
appearance, equipped for English speaking business, and
in general, most efficient in handling foreign credits. They
appeared even more efficient than the greater banks in
Mexico City. The latter were practically all branches of
German or Canadian Banks, but business was not so press-
ing but that it could all be transacted in the three hours
daily during which alone the institutions are open. Loans
from these banks were restricted to the very smallest sums
possible, checks were practically not used at all and the
dealings of the large commercial houses were transacted
almost entirely in actual exchange of gold.
RECENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 129
Turning to the educational opportunities of the country,
one is at a loss to describe the pitiable inadequacy of it all.
To those of us whose heritage includes, indeed prescribes,
educational possibilities beyond the ken of the Mexican
youth, it is difficult to find a sufficiently accurate parallel
to convey a correct impression. A school system there is,
but it rarely leads beyond the sixth grade. The schools are
usually held hi the houses of typical Mexican architecture,
built directly on the street, of thick walls to withstand the
heat at mid-day, with few windows and little ventilation.
The lack of school equipment is the most noticeable short-
coming. Most of the government schools have the anti-
quated desks, discarded in the states since the '80s. Paper
and pencils are at a premium and in many of the schools
slates were in evidence, with pencils carved from the lime-
stone rocks near the village. In the city of Victoria, a
large city school existed, better than anything we saw even
in Mexico City. The Victoria school was of recent con-
struction, with a large cinder paved patio which served as
an athletic ground. The two great schools or preparatories
of Mexico City were distinctly creditable to the country,
leading to a point about one year under graduation from
our high schools. The University of Mexico covers about
to the end of our second collegiate year and has suffered
much from the revolution. Even at its best, it would not
be considered of collegiate grade hi the Eastern United
States.
It is, however, hi the primary and grade schools that one
may judge most accurately of the life of the nation. Great
areas of the country are entirely unschooled. No such
institution as "the little red school house" exists and the
inefficiency and inadequacy of the government schools are
the more reflected by comparison with the mission schools,
which in turn impress the visitor with a sinking feeling
when one compares them with the schools in the United
States. Suffice it to say that for the vast majority of
Mexican children, school possibilities simply do not exist,
and where they do exist, they are of so simple and ele-
mentary a character as to require years of consistent,
130 FRANCIS R. TAYLOR
uninterrupted effort to bring them into anything like a
real school system.
Local taxes and local government are in Mexico as in the
states inextricably bound up with the school system. We
were informed that subsidies from the federal government
had been cut off from the local schools, they being thrown
entirely upon the resources of the states, and that graft
was so rampant in the state government that many of the
government schools were being closed. The one bright
feature of Mexican education is the presence and idealism
of a large body of educators, mostly men, but including a
few women, trained hi the colleges of the United States, and
earnestly endeavoring to keep themselves free from partisan
politics. In the hands of these and the foreign missionaries
rests the future of Mexican education, and that future is
brighter than the present material situation would indicate.
I have outlined these features of Mexican life, fragmentary
though our observation of them necessarily was, simply to
indicate how pitiful is the situation of Mexico today. It
is a situation which the United States, by reason of the
admitted special interests of many of her business men,
particularly of her oil companies, neither can nor ought to
work out alone. It is one of an essentially international
character in which the stable republics of South America
must, of necessity, be called upon to aid us. A policy of
military intervention, with all the suffering it would entail
upon both sides of the Rio Grande, would be absolute folly.
A policy of international penetration for the right definition
and enforcement of the international obligations which the
Mexican government has in all too many instances openly
flouted, is the only one that can possibly lead to a definite
solution of the problem. Together with this, must be
assumed an attitude of ignoring in Mexico, as we do in
other countries, cases of individual outrages and murder
with which the Mexican government itself not only has
nothing to do, but which are directly in contravention of
its policy and efforts. American citizens should remember
that the American public never heard of Mexican outrages
until comparatively recent times, although they existed in
RECENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 131
the past in greater number than they have recently. It has
been the increasing importance of American investments in
Mexico in the past two decades that have brought her laxity
in law enforcement pointedly before the American public.
Even now one can truthfully state that the situation is no
worse than it was on our own frontier in California and
Alaska, hi the days of the gold rushes, and also that the
murders and outrages in Mexico since 1910 have not equaled
in number the accidental deaths in the coal mines of the
eastern United States, where unimportant and unknown
miners died unheard of and unheeded by the same American
public that responds so sensitively to Mexican outrages.
The Mexican problem is one that will not be solved in
a decade nor in a generation. Its solution lies in a process
far more fundamental and far more tedious than anything
that has yet come to the surface in the recommendations
and findings of the Fall Committee. It is one that must
emanate from the hearts and brains of the peoples of two
Americas, rather than through the might and force of our
nation or of any other. It involves fundamental reform
and elementary education in Mexico. It involves a vast
unselfish and somewhat costly educational process either
by the United States government or by the Christian
churches in the United States. I have no doubt whatever
that Mexico could be subjugated by force of arms, but I
rather entertain the vision of a vast host of the youth of
America called to a higher standard than that of our war
eagles, a standard of a peaceful mission to our neighbor
in the south, a mission similar to that which, during my own
college days, the youth were called upon to assume in the
education of the Filipinos. We found difficulty in sub-
jugating the natives of those Islands and after conquering
them were forced to justify this by educating them. If
there is one thing of which my observation hi Mexico
convinced me, it is that the education and development of
Mexico is possible without a preliminary armed conquest
and that the idealism of the young manhood and woman-
hood of America simply awaits the proper call from our
government or our churches to fulfill the possibilities of
which it is inherent.
MEXICO AND THE PRESENT REVOLUTION
By John Vavasour Noel, President of the Noel News Service
In discussing the frequent revolutionary movements in
Hispanic America it is incumbent upon us, before passing
judgment on them, to consider the history of their peoples
and then* racial and social components.
The Spanish settlement of a great portion of the New
Hemisphere was truly a conquest, and as such it is generally
known; differing essentially as to its purposes and character
from the establishment of civilization in our own country.
In one case gold was the objective, in the other religious
freedom and liberty were the chief impulses. While it is
true that we warred with the Indians and drove them from
then* lands we did not enslave millions of meek and submis-
sive natives, nor cause then* extermination under inhuman
treatment on lands or hi mines, nor utilizing them as tools
to secure wealth for ourselves or for greedy monarchs at
home.
Spanish civilization, as implanted in this hemisphere, was
not without its virtues and has its defenders because of the
civilizing influence of some of the religious orders of the
Catholic Church. One cannot however escape the funda-
mental truth that, in the name of the king and under the
cloak of religion, territories were dominated by force, their
peoples enslaved and their lands and wealth taken from
them. With it there was no idealistic thought, no message
of a new world to be founded.
I emphasize these well-known facts in order that you may
realize that force and autocracy dominated in Hispanic
America from the moment daring and unscrupulous soldiers
of fortune planted the flag of Castilla and Leon on discovered
land.
Then came the adventurers of Spain, later the viceroys
and numerous officials and with them traders and others.
132
MEXICO AND THE PRESENT REVOLUTION 133
Their aim was to exploit the natives, and thus a dominating
caste composed of whites and half breeds was in control,
the latter chiefly caused by Spam's unwillingness to allow
the women to join then1 men in the new world. Under royal
grants and by other means vast estates were founded, prin-
cipalities in fact, owned by one family, constituting in tune
with others the oligarchies which even today exist in many
of the republics of Hispanic America.
In the course of years self dependence developed in those
lands. The French revolution and our own, as well as the
tendency of the tunes, were causes that led them to revolt
from the mother country. But changed political condi-
tions meant to the masses of Indians only a change of mas-
ters, who fought among themselves for power, which meant
the presidency of the republic.
There was no political education possible under such cir-
cumstances and no evolution as in other lands, which have
all had their bloody struggles before public opinion was suf-
ficiently enlightened to use the present day means of the
ballot, often with chicanery and gold as the corrupting influ-
ences, instead of bullets.
The fair-minded individual will admit that the series of
constant revolts all over Hispanic America were thus inev-
itable. Force was the only possible weapon. Some of the
republics however have today progressed sufficiently to seek
recourse in arms only as a last resort where some great
principle is involved.
Mexico, concerning which I desire to make a plea for a
more generous understanding of its problems, as history
tells us, did not escape the common fate which I have
described. I can find no better words than those of General
Salvador Alvarado, one of the leaders of the present move-
ment, and who is likely to be known in the future as its
historian, who in a recent statement addressed to the
American people said:
In the first place one should take into consideration the com-
position of our society when we gained our independence in 1821.
It consisted of seven millions and a half of pure Indians and of
mixed blood, belonging to the lower class, together with half a
134 JOHN VAVASOUR NOEL
million Spaniards and half-breeds, constituting the dominant
class. This half million was made up of land and mine owners,
merchants, clergymen, military men, lawyers and politicians.
This class was conservative, obstructive and the enemy of all
progress. The progressive elements of the country had not been
able to freely develop their tendencies, and progress had to be
made by constant struggles and clashes. With such a dispropor-
tionate social composition, the gradual social evolution was not
possible with harmony among the different classes and their
tendencies, because since their birth they brought as an original
vice a great lack of equilibrium. That was the reason for the
continuous wars of our early life; wars culminating in our War of
Reform, 1855 to 1860. These retarding elements having been
vanquished, resorted to intrigues abroad, to bring about French
intervention in 1862, which ended in 1867 with the withdrawal
of the French troops and Maximilian's execution.
After a few years came Diaz, courageous, cunning and
daring. He won on a no reelection platform and then
perpetuated himself in power for thirty years. He governed
as an autocrat, gave material progress to the privileged caste
and to a small middle class. His record shows no great
constructive work for the masses.
He encouraged arts and letters and sought the help of
foreign capital, surrounding himself with able men, natives
and foreigners, but he brooked no rivals and put down with
an iron hand any opposition to his will or any attempt at
individual expression.
A social conscience, as we understand it, was hardly to be
expected of him, but I freely give him credit for having acted
according to the best tenets of his times. It was my privi-
lege to meet him and talk with him about his people and the
problems of the day. He believed in paternalism and he
thought that education and work for the masses would solve
all problems. He sat on the lid of all political and social
evolution, and in his later years, was surrounded by a group
of self-seekers who, in alliance with foreign capitalists,
sought to benefit personally by Mexico's great natural
wealth.
Then came the storm. Powerful social forces long held
in check, blew up the lid. Chaos has reigned for ten years,
a long period indeed in a sense, but a brief one in the devel-
opment of a nation. Madero came and for a time con-
MEXICO AND THE PRESENT REVOLUTION 135
quered, suffering a martyr's death. His principles live today
and his disciples are continuing his pioneer work.
Carranza and Villa followed him and both have contrib-
uted toward Mexico's social progress. They have made
fatal mistakes which led to the death of the first and the
probable elimination of the second.
Carranza's contribution toward Mexico's regeneration
cannot be ignored and time only will give it proper value.
He loved his people and was devotedly followed by the
younger and more progressive Mexicans of all classes until
he failed to carry out the fundamental aims of the revolu-
tion; established a one-man government and allowed him-
self to be surrounded, as Diaz did, by a designing clique,
which, with his dogmatism, his exaggerated nationalism and
his efforts to have a civilian elected as his successor, were
the causes of his downfall. He was the strong man needed
to coordinate the forces of the revolution after Madero's
death. His dominant will, his stubborn courage and
patience were required in those days. He succeeded and
I believe his countrymen will accord him a place in their
hearts and remember his deeds more than his mistakes. He
led his people from one mile-stone of progress to another
and lost his life because of the very qualities which to them
were useful during the days he led to victory.
Villa is a complex character. He has also contributed
his share toward the regeneration of his country and toward
social progress when he fought for the great principles of
the revolution, before his break with Carranza and his
acts of banditry. The real story of his part in Mexican
affairs has not been told. I am inclined to doubt many of
the tales about him and I know that, misguided as his
methods are, there is a real love for his people in his heart.
His hand is against society because of the oppressions and
cruelties practised by the privileged caste toward him and
his fellows.
The present successful revolutionary movement in Mex-
ico had its origin in the realization, a conclusion reached
with regret, by a great number of the followers of Carranza
that he had, as they put it, betrayed the revolution.
136 JOHN VAVASOUR NOEL
They felt that their struggles and sacrifices and the thou-
sands of lives lost, had brought so far a change in men and
not in methods; that the same centralized autocratic power
existed as in the time of Diaz and that no real effort was
being made to improve the condition of the masses. Their
belief that Carranza intended to perpetuate himself in
power by having a dummy candidate elected was the cause
for immediate action.
The responsibility lies with a group of men chiefly from
Sonora, a virile state, led by Obregon.
He and other loyal supporters of the basic principles of
the Madero revolt, and later followers of Carranza, held a
number of meetings and on April 23, 1920, subscribed to a
document known as the Agua Prieta Plan.
This now historic proclamation is a declaration of prin-
ciples and outlines "an organic plan for democracy, law
and order. " Its preamble contains a declaration to the effect
that the sovereignty resides in the people and charges Car-
ranza with its violation; that having exhausted all peaceful
means to convince the chief executive of his errors, he is
charged with treason to the fundamental arms of the Con-
stitutionalist revolution. In consequence it is time for
the people of Mexico to assume its sovereignty.
The organic plan demands the relinquishment of power
by Carranza, repudiates certain public officials, sustains
others and provides that Adolfo De la Huerta, the governor
of Sonora, shall be supreme commander and that a pro-
visional presidency shall be established until elections may
be held. It also adopts the constitution of February 5,
1917, as the fundamental law of the Republic.
This plan was made public when Carranza forces threat-
ened Sonora, and met with immediate and, with a few
exceptions, a general response among all those who had
fought with Carranza for the great principles now again
declared in the Agua Prieta plan. A bloodless and victori-
ous revolution, unquestionably supported by public opinion,
took place within a month.
What the future will bring forth is difficult of prophesy.
Judging however from immediate results and with a knowl-
MEXICO AND THE PRESENT REVOLUTION 137
edge of the leaders of the movement, friends of Mexico ask
for a fair deal, for a reasonable understanding, and for
patience.
To again quote Alvarado:
We, Mexicans of today, through our progressive young men,
do not ask more of the world than a little patience and a little
faith in our ability to solve our problems and arrange our affairs.
We can thus speak, because we are sure of the great political
progress we have made in these nine years of struggle, and we
feel doubly sure of it, on account of the powerful and irresistible
current of opinion existing in Mexico today for peace, opportu-
nity and reconstruction, We do not deceive ourselves, as every
observer that goes to Mexico will note on every side eagerness for
tranquillity and peace, and a strong and well-defined social
conscience which demands a rapid reorganization of our public
life.
Have faith in our sincerity and in our latent power and you
will not regret it.
The searchlight of public inquiry is now directed on the
men responsible for this revolutionary movement.
Among them Obregon stands as the central figure and
after him De la Huerta, Alvarado, Calles, Benjamin Hill
and a host of other progressive Mexicans.
I am convinced from my personal acquaintance with them
and because of some knowledge of the character of the His-
panic Americans, gained by years of residence among them,
of the sincerity and the necessary qualities of leadership of
Obregon, De la Huerta and Alvarado. They are remarka-
bly of the same mind in their intense purpose to regenerate
their people. Whatever extreme or so-called radical views
some of them may have had, the possession of power and
responsibility will broaden their viewpoint. They will
come in contact with many forces and will undoubtedly be
content to labor slowly but consistently in their avowed
purposes of social regeneration.
Obregon makes the more spectacular appeal on account
of his brilliant military record. His courage, independence
and versatility, and his ability to organize the present move-
ment are desirable qualities for an administrator. Lovers
of Mexico hope that he will surround himself with able and
honest men, irrespective of party, and adopt a conciliatory
138 JOHN VAVASOUR NOEL
policy toward all those who desire to help in the work of
reconstruction.
De la Huerta, whom I knew quite well when he was consul
general in New York, is one of the most capable and modest
men I have ever met. Essentially democratic, he dislikes
all pomp and show and goes to the root of all issues, without
preamble. He is one of the few men who have been able
to befriend the Yaqui Indians, among whom he is an hon-
orary chief. As governor of Sonora, serving two terms, his
was a remarkable record of constructive achievement. As
provisional president he will govern with moderation.
After the elections for a new chief executive I know that
his influence will be always for the under dog, the Mexican
peon.
Alvarado became an international figure some years ago
when he successfully executed a series of notable reforms as
governor of Yucatan. All the forces of reaction and priv-
ilege, not only in his state but in this country, were aligned
against him because he collected just taxes, improved the
conditions of the peon and by a cooperative commission
regulated the price of sisal hemp and brought prosperity
to the land by distributing its wealth more equitably. As
one of the great leaders of the new movement and its spoke-
man in this country he has a brilliant career before him in
the service of Mexico.
Alvarado visited this country last February when it was
my good fortune to meet him. I have a high regard for
his dynamic personality, his sterling qualities and his abso-
lute honesty. After handling millions in Yucatan, when
Carranza, out of jealousy removed him, he had not enough
money to pay his hotel bill on his return to Mexico City.
During his temporary eclipse from public life he wrote a
remarkable work entitled The Reconstruction of Mexico,
which is soon to be translated into English and which I
commend to students of the social and economic problems
of that country.
So much for the past. We now face the future. The
question before us is : Will Mexico continue to be the battle
ground of conflicting military groups or are the new and
progressive forces strong enough to suppress them?
MEXICO AND THE PRESENT REVOLUTION 139
Experience shows us that in social changes two factors
are essential to stabilize and bring to fruition such upheav-
als. One is force used to hold in check conspiracy and the
second is the support of public opinion. In the case of
Mexico the leaders are men of action and determination.
Obregon, their leader, is unquestionably Mexico's greatest
military genius and the idol of the soldiers. As to the sec-
ond requisite the astonishing success of the present revolu-
tionary movement would seem to indicate that public
opinion did support it; there is ample evidence of a great
longing for peace and the reestablishment of normal condi-
tions among all classes.
We can help our southern brothers by adopting a sympa-
thetic attitude and refuse to be influenced by sensational
news wired by newspapermen who make their living by in-
venting thrillers, or maliciously circulated by those who are
interested in keeping alive distrust of Mexico in order to
benefit materially. We must not let those who would pos-
sess the oil or any other source of Mexico's wealth force
our government to adopt coercive methods toward a weaker
nation.
The new group has declared its intention to give a liberal
interpretation to article 27 of the Constitution of 1917
dealing with the vexing oil problem; to welcome foreign capi-
tal under equitable conditions and give it fair treatment
and to gradually repay all foreign loans.
Is our attitude toward Mexico to be determined by covet-
ousness and greed, thus placing us before the Hispanic
American world in the light in which some of their Yankee-
phobe demagogues portray us or shall we extend the hand
of fellowship to a struggling nation and show the world
that we have ideals beyond material things?
I prophesy success for this splendid effort on the part of
the younger and more progressive element of Mexico, but
I foresee that they will need the courageous help of all lib-
eral forces in this country. Unless the new government
can with dignity reach a fair settlement of the oil problem
and meet the demands of other money interests a campaign
of vilification and slander may take place at any moment.
140 JOHN VAVASOUR NOEL
Then we must act promptly and use all means at our com-
mand to prevent the crime of intervention* There may
not always be a Wilson to prevent it.
Have we not sufficient evidence of the futility of inter-
vention by force of arms in the internal affairs of other
nations? Has not the Great War taught us something in
that respect? Force, though necessary and unavoidable
at times, brings its own reaction. If we attempt to dictate
to Mexico concerning its laws, to take sides in its internal
quarrels in order to gain material advantages, we shall only
strengthen their nationalism and lose not only their good
will but that of Hispanic America.
; Let us be patient, tolerant and helpful. Our material
and moral rewards will be immeasurably greater.
GREETINGS TO THE WORLD FROM THE NEW
LIBERAL CONSTITUTIONAL PARTY IN
MEXICO1
By Senor Manuel de la Pena, Commerical Agent in New
York of the Liberal Constitutional Government of Mexico
I have been kindly invited by Clark University to speak
the thoughts of my fellow citizens, of the Liberal Consti-
tutionalist Government which I have the honor to rep-
resent as Commercial Agent in New York, before this
audience of intellectual men and women.
Were I speaking to an ordinary audience I would
begin by recounting something of Mexican history; I would
tell you something of the Aztec Indians and the Spanish
conquerors; I would place before your imagination the
wonderful landscapes of the Mexican mountain and plateau
so as to set a background for my address. Such an exordium
is not necessary; you are all well acquainted with those
details. You know also the Mexican psychology; you know
that we are not fundamentally different from other peoples;
that we have virtues and defects, that we have in Mexicogood
men and bad men, just as in any other country. You do not
belong to that class of men who, when they read that a
crime has been committed beyond the Rio Grande, at once
brand as criminal the whole nation. You understand, be-
cause you have studied history, that the mere existence of
a bad government does not mean that the people afflicted
by that misfortune is a bad people; you know that
sooner or later that people will react and will overthrow
such obstacles as may stand in its way. You all know that
such misfortunes as occasional bad government are apt to
lAn address delivered at the Clark University Conference on Mexico
and the Caribbean, May 21, 1920.
141
142 MANUEL DE LA PENA
exist anywhere; yet we all know and believe that in the
end, whatever be the immediate trend of events, justice
and righteousness will prevail.
Mexico is evolving from an epoch of darkness. Experi-
ence has opened the eyes of the people; sufferings and hard-
ships have shown us the straight road toward progress;
and if we have overthrown an objectionable regime, it is
because we knew that it was moving in the wrong direction;
that it had stepped aside from the path of justice and the
right interpretation of the national ideals.
Long ago, when the Spanish "encomenderos," who were
some of them practically slave drivers, herded the poor Aztec
Indians, beating them in order to derive from then- sufferings
as much profit as possible, regardless of their anguish and
fatigue, those unfortunate Indians had but two words to
answer, two words in their wonderful language, full of bit-
terness and dignity: "Ni tlaca," which means, "We are
also human."
Mexico has for a long time been made the target for
many malicious blows. The faults of its presidents and
the crimes of its outlaws have been regarded as characterstic
of every Mexican; Mexico has been for a long time at bay;
yet we believe that Mexicans are entitled to a fair trial,
that we are entitled to be judged impartially and justly
by those who know us: we are also human.
You Americans in the United States ask yourselves why
it is that the elections being so near, scheduled to take
place this coming month of July, we Mexicans could not
wait for them in order to settle our differences through the
ballot. But I would ask you what you would do, if one of
your presidents showed that he was planning to manipulate
the elections in favor of a candidate of his own choice,
quite unknown to the people, because that candidate had
offered to become a blind tool in his hands; if this man in
order to carry out that plan intended to send troops into
some of the states and even to overthrow the legal governor
of one of them; if he were to use all the power which the
people had vested in him, and the funds belonging to the
LIBERAL CONSTITUTIONAL PARTY IN MEXICO 143
nation, in order to support his unpopular candidate, and
at the same tune set every sort of obstacle in the way of
the other candidates; it you saw your country provoking
the enmity of all other countries without accomplishing
anything for the welfare of your own people; and if you
understood that the coming election was to be merely a
farce through which such a dishonest regime would per-
petuate itself in power. Facing this situation, if you knew
that you could not resort to the ballot, would you not then
resort to bullets?
Unfortunately, that was the situation in Mexico.
Now you might ask: "How are we to know that this new
government will afford adequate guarantees and justice?
All revolutions have started with wonderful promises which
were never fulfilled/' To a certain extent that is true;
but the present case is different. This popular movement
which in so short a time has come to control the whole
country, has been started, has gone on, and has won its
goal without having offered any glowing promises; still it
has fulfilled practically every hope. Even during the
period of fighting life and property has been respected, no
trespasses committed, no injuries inflicted upon anyone, no
revenge satisfied. All have been afforded adequate guaran-
tees, foreigners as well as nationals. It is not a logical
consequence that such a movement deserves confidence?
Is it not merely common sense to believe in results after
they have been accomplished?
The American people have greeted with hope and sym-
pathy a new Mexico. We have seen the favorable impres-
sion which the fall of the Carranza regime has caused; this
sympathy is due to the fact that it was chiefly the Carranza
regime as was well known, which has made impossible a
real and true friendship between our two countries. Both
the American and the Mexican peoples wish to become
friends, to work in cooperation; but this result has been
prevented by lack of mutual understanding; you, as well
as we, have nearly always intrusted the task of settling our
differences to men who knew little, if anything, of the
144 MANUEL DE LA PENA
other country. I hope that in the future this will be other-
wise, because I am perfectly confident that if Mexicans
who know you, and Americans who know us, were allowed
to arrange those so-called conflicts, they simply could not
exist. There are no conflicts between both peoples. They
have been many conflicts between men, Americans and
Mexicans, whose duty it was to have avoided them.
We young men of Mexico, as well as all those who
know the United States, have realized that, unless foreign
capital and immigration be encouraged to go into our
country and develop its natural resources, those resources
will be lost to the world. Those who are willing to come
to us, bringing with them the necessary capital to help
themselves by helping us to develop our lands, our mines
and our other natural resources, will not go into and settle
in a country in which they are not properly protected by
the laws. We know how the United States has been devel-
oped by foreign capital and immigration, because foreign
investors and settlers found a country which received them
with open arms and with just laws. We realize that our
country has immense treasures which are waiting for the
hands that are to make them useful to mankind; we realize
that we need aid from outside, from the whole world, since
no country has ever advanced by its own power when
inclosed within an impassable wall, the existence of which
the world has a right to forbid.
Therefore, the laws that we intend to uphold will protect
foreign capital and immigration, so far as this may be done
in accordance with the eternal principles of justice and
equity.
We young men of Mexico who have had the benefit of
observing the consequences that past mistakes have brought
to our people, intend, in order to accomplish a truly patriotic
work, to give especial attention to the education of the
Indians who form the greatest part of the present popula-
tion of Mexico. So far the governments of Mexico have
forgotten the Indians, some of whom, to be sure, have risen
from their former status, and made a name for .themselves,
LIBERAL CONSTITUTIONAL PARTY IN MEXICO 145
but the great majority of whom are still in much the same
condition as their ancestors, prevented from amounting to
anything because of then- continuing ignorance.
Indians have been accused of being a turbulent race;
they are not so. They are peaceful, but they are easily
misled by anyone who offers to better their sad condition.
Now we mean to better it, and to do it not by giving them
arms, but by giving them schools and books.
The Liberal Constitutionalist government comes to you
with open arms. All the leaders of the revolution have
spoken to the American people asking their friendship and
cooperation which we know you are willing to give. Gen-
eral Obreg6n, prominent among those leaders, has said:
My ideal for the relations between Mexico and the United
States is to make the international border like the Canadian
boundary, withdrawing troops, except customs officials.
Carranza's interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine was a mis-
take, although I believe Carranza was perfectly sincere in the
belief that his policy was best for Mexico.
Further, I will quote a message from Mr. Adolfo de la
Huerta, Provisional President of the new government,
which was dated the thirteenth of May:
I beg to ask you to inform the government of the United
States of America that we have given complete guarantees to
natives and foreigners not only in this state, but by all civil and
military authorities therein. The present government of Mexico
will also maintain the firm purpose of following the same line of
conduct by giving necessary and ample guarantees to the foreign
capital that may be invested in this Republic in conformity with
our laws.
Our government is also well disposed to develop relations with
the United States, in conformity with the rules of international
law and with the standards of absolute justice, equity and good
faith.
We mean to banish hatred, that obstacle which stands
in the way of mankind; we intend to create love and friend-
ship through mutual understanding; we wish you to go to
Mexico, to know us, to become acquainted with the real
Mexican people. We also wish all Mexicans to go back to
their country. We have eliminated the word "exiles;"
146 MANUEL DE LA PENA
they are no longer exiled from Mexico. We have even
banished the word " amnesty" because it means pardon.
During our long and bitter struggle for freedom and de-
mocracy, some Mexicans have been mistaken, some misled;
they were honest and sincere in their opinion; they need
no pardon; they are guilty of no offense; Mexico is their
country, and the doors are open to them. We wish the
cooperation of every honest man.
The question has been raised whether the new Govern-
ment will uphold the Constitution of 1917 or that of 1857.
What I can assure you and the world is that Mexico will
maintain laws which will satisfy and protect every legal
right, every legitimate enterprise, laws which will encourage
foreign capital to go into Mexico and to help us to develop
our natural resources, laws against which no objection can
be justly taken.
General Alvarado, now Minister of Finance, alluding to
the thoughts of the new Government said:
We know that we have to guarantee the lives and properties
of nationals and foreigners. We know that we have to pay our
debts as gentlemen. We know that the difficulties of Mexico
affect many parts of the world.
And because we are conscious of our situation and of our re-
sponsibilities, we wish to make gigantic efforts to comply with
our duties, not to be run over as a hindrance, not to be regarded
as a troublesome neighbor, but as a useful and excellent friend
always ready to cooperate in every effort to advance civilization.
We Mexicans of today, through pur progressive young men, do
not ask more of the world than a little patience and a little faith
in our ability to solve and arrange our affairs.
Have faith in our sincerity and in our latent forces, and you
will not repent.
You have heard the words of those who are leading this
movement, words which unquestionably inspire confidence;
you have seen how national protest has eradicated a regime
which failed to interpret the real will of a people anxious
for peace and order; you have observed their conduct. We
have indeed gained favor in the eyes of the world, to which,
in the name of the new government of Mexico, and through
the kindness of this most distinguished audience, I offer
our very sincere greetings.
HOW TO RESTORE PEACE IN MEXICO
By Honorable Henry Lane Wilson, Ambassador of the United
States to Mexico, 1909-1913
Not even the most ardent supporters of the President are
bold enough to attempt a defense of the humiliating and
injurious policy which the administration has pursued to-
ward Mexico during the last seven years; the Democratic
National Convention of 1916 adjourned without having
uttered a single sentence in its defense; such administration
press as exists is apologetic, evasive and misleading. A policy
which had its birth under radiant skies and with the patient
though uncomprehending approval of public opinion now
has none so poor as to do it reverence. From the Lind
mission, with its harlequinic follies, to the tragedies of Vera
Cruz and Tampico; from these unhappy incidents to wide-
spread anarchy and chaos illuminated by the passage across
the stage of seven bandit presidents shot in and shot out of
power, the plundering of cities, the rape of women, the
unrequited murder of hundreds of Americans and the exile
of thousands, the farcical recognition of the buffoon military
autocrat Carranza and the ghastly spectacles of San Ysabel,
Columbus and Carrizal, there is not one ray of light to
relieve the picture. The adventurous philandering and
mischievous intermeddling of the Wilson administration,
which by its policy made these things possible, has been
witnessed with mixed feelings of sorrow and amusement by
an American public accustomed to dignity, courage and
moderation hi the management of the foreign relations of
this country; and Europe, though very busy just now, has
looked on with wondering and speculative eyes.
Whether the President was misled by false or by ignorant
agents or whether his breaking away from the century old
traditions and practices of this government sprung from the
funeral baked meats of a previous pedagogical environment,
147
148 HENRY LANE WILSON
it is quite evident from his amazing utterances from time
to time that he has learned nothing by experience and that
as we began so we shall continue. So far as this admin-
istration therefore is concerned the discussion of the estab-
lishment of any basis for the procurement of an enduring
peace in Mexico is purely academic. We must wait for
sounder statesmanship and stronger arms.
No clear discussion of the question of enduring peace in
Mexico can proceed without a recital, however brief, of
relative historical antecedents. Let us recall then the cir-
cumstance that Porfirio Diaz was the last of sixty-three
Mexican presidents, all of whom attained power by revo-
lutionary methods and were expelled by violence, and that
since the time of Diaz seven chief executives have presided
over the destinies of this unhappy country. Manifestly
therefore anarchic and extreme revolutionary conditions
prevail in the country and will persist indefinitely until
true remedies are adopted.
These conditions can be cured by the application of two
methods only : (1) By autocratic restraint ; (2) by evolution.
The method of autocratic restraint was tried by Diaz for
thirty-five years and succeeded largely because Diaz was
not only an autocrat but also a wise and just ruler, a sincere
patriot and an honest man. Diaz developed the material
side of Mexico in a most marvelous way. He covered her
soil with a network of railways; developed her mining, her
agricultural and her manufacturing resources and with his
army and rural police made life as safe upon a Mexican high-
way as upon one of the public thoroughfares of the state of
Massachusetts. But he never found or awakened the soul
of Mexico. Believing, as I know he did, that the moral
and intellectual development of Mexico would follow her
physical evolution, he founded a peculiar civilization and a
new system of governmental control. Over a foundation
of Aztec barbarism, ignorance and superstition he spread a
thin veneer of Aryan supremacy. Working under this sys-
tem the government was severe but just. It was not a
democracy; it was not politically free, but no man, who
obeyed the law, suffered either in life or goods.
HOW TO RESTORE PEACE IN MEXICO 149
But Diaz passed and then came Madero, a well inten-
tioned man, of small capacity and hampered with an impos-
sible program. Entering into power as the apostle of many
flamboyant and subversive theories, he was driven by the
stern necessities of the dangerous position which he occu-
pied into the maintenance of a form of government pre-
cisely the same as that maintained by Diaz. He hacked
away at the Aryan veneer but it resisted and persisted; he
threw into confusion and disorder the system created by
Diaz but gave the Mexican people nothing in place of it ; he
vacillated between extremists and reactionists and finally
lost the support of all elements of society.
That a man of the Huerta type would succeed Madero
was inevitable to those who know the Mexican psychology.
Having had weakness the country wanted strength ; in place
of vacillation it wanted firmness. Therefore though Huerta
came into power as the result of the violent overthrow of
Madero he was received willingly if not enthusiastically by
the Mexican people. Huerta was a man of strong passions,
great courage and patriotism; his ambition was to restore
the system of Diaz but he lacked the genius and constructive
industry of Diaz. Lacking these qualities he fell a victim
to conspiracies and was driven from power by the armies
and fleets of the Government of the United States, leaving
behind him chaotic conditions which endure to this hour.
None of these three governments tried the experiment of
evolution (number two); that is to say, firm government
accompanied by gradual extension of power to the people
as they become more fitted for its exercise by education
and by training in the principles of true democracy. Paren-
thetically it may be said that Mexico can never be revolu-
tionized into the practice of constitutional and democratic
methods. Eighty per cent of the population can neither
read nor write and are as ignorant of the fundamental prin-
ciples of true democracy or of constitutional methods as a
Zulu or a Hottentot. Let us carry away from this part of
the discussion therefore the idee fixe, that in any scheme for
the restoration of peaceful conditions in Mexico the plan
of Evolution must be included.
150 HENRY LANE WILSON
We come now to the consideration of constructive methods
for restoration of peaceful conditions in Mexico. It must
be borne in mind that any plan, originating with this gov-
ernment, for the restoration of peaceful conditions in Mex-
ico will be, in a large measure, repugnant to the Mexican
people. But it must be also remembered that the phrase
" Mexican people77 is merely a figure of speech; as a nation
Mexico passed away with Diaz. What we have is a sick
patient requiring a drastic surgical operation; the knife
should be applied without consideration of the patient's
wishes.
There seeing to me to be three practical methods of pro-
curing peace in Mexico. None of these methods ha^ been
considered by the present administration, a circumstance
however, which ought not to weigh heavily against them.
They are:
1. Active and sympathetic support of the real governing
elements in Mexico. By the phrase "Real governing ele-
ments in Mexico" I mean the white race or those elements
of the population in sympathy with the white race. Of
Mexico's fourteen million population probably three million
would fall under this description. Upon this element of the
population a great responsibility has always rested; from
it comes the great army of proprietors and farmers, the
occupants of official executive and administrative positions,
the bar, the bench, the military rank and to a very large
extent the shop keepers of Mexico. This element of the
Mexican population has been driven into exile by the bar-
barities and tyrannies of Carranza and Villa and their
followers; with it has gone all precedent, tradition and prac-
tice. Most of these people are friendly to real constitu-
tional government and in their ranks only are found those
who understand the value of system, organization and sci-
ence in government. By one road or another, sooner or
later, they will come into control again in Mexico. Mani-
festly to those who know Mexico, it would be the part of
wisdom to recognize the position of this element of the
population, to weld it into an organized force, to support
it with sympathy and direct espousal and having, in amends
HOW TO RESTORE PEACE IN MEXICO 151
for our misdeeds of the past, aided in the installation of a
responsible government we should seal the birth of real
democracy by provisions in a revised Mexican constitution
which would lead to gradual enlightenment of the masses,
improvement in the conditions of the laboring classes, a
more equitable distribution of lands, an unbiased function-
ing of the courts of justice, and religious freedom. A political
party armed with a program like this, energetically sup-
ported by this government, would quickly gain the ascend-
ency and with the good will and sympathy of the world
might address itself to the task of restoring order, peace
and reform with hope and confidence.
2. The creation, organization and recognition of a new
independent republic to extend from the Rio Grande to the
twenty-second parallel. This would include all of the states
of Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Coahuila, Nuevo
Leon and Tamaulipas and the territory of Lower California,
an area more than thrice that of Texas and richer in re-
sources. The creation of such an independent republic
would have the following advantages.
(a) It would include a vast area of fertile agricultural and
mining lands and under the direction and protection of this
government and with liberal laws governing immigration
and citizenship would ultimately develop into a prosperous
and self sustaining nation maintaining order and demo-
cratic institutions.
(b) It would operate as a " buffer" state between this
country and its parent country.
(c) It would afford self government to a part of Mexico
which the central government at Mexico City has never
been able to successfully control and which has been the
breeding place of all recent Mexican revolutionary move-
ments.
(d) It would leave remaining to Mexico the territory
which is the center of her wealth and population and over
which she might reasonably be expected to exercise suc-
cessful control.
I do not advocate this plan as a desirable one from every
standpoint. I would prefer to see a united and peaceful
152 HENRY LANE WILSON
Mexico within her present limits without an acre subtracted
from her territories or a single citizen lost. I am neverthe-
less confident that the creation of such a buffer state would
ultimately produce peace and order in both the old and
new republic.
8. Armed intervention. Except to protect the lives and
property of American citizens and for the punishment of
those who unlawfully destroy either, I have always been
opposed to intervention, armed or otherwise, in the affairs
of Mexico. I have believed that while intervention might
be an excellent thing for Mexico and her people its resultant
effect upon our own body politic would be evil and disas-
trous. Political adventures undertaken in the name of
civilization too often culminate in hypocritical cant about
" pulling down the flag/7 "our manifest destiny "and the
41 pressure of population."
Nevertheless, there were in Mexico four years ago sev-
enty-five thousand industrious, law abiding American citi-
zens; pioneers of our commerce, of our traditions and cus-
toms, who had made homes there and were developing the
riches and resources of the country. These peaceable people
have been despoiled of their goods and chattels, have been
expelled from the country and many hundreds of them have
been foully and brutally murdered.
The President asked once in a speech in New York "what
glory can be got out of a war with Mexico." It may be
answered that we can get none, but we can discharge a
sacred duty to those Americans, who under the administra-
tion of Cleveland, Roosevelt and Taft had not to seek the
protection of the British flag but rather found Britons seek-
ing and receiving the protection of the American flag. How
can a peaceable and orderly republic such as ours quietly
endure for an indefinite period disorderly and chaotic con-
ditions within sight of our own border? If we have not a
duty to fulfill to civilization we have one to fulfill to our-
selves in the maintenance of peaceful conditions in this
continent; unless we undertake this job of house cleaning
we may later have to witness the task being done by a
strong and powerful hand from across the sea. Though I
HOW TO RESTORE PEACE IN MEXICO 153
have not advocated intervention by this government in
Mexican affairs, except in discharge of duty to our nationals,
I have always believed it to be inevitable since the over-
throw of Huerta by the present Wilson administration. On
the occasion of my retirement from the position of ambassa-
dor to Mexico I made the subjoined recommendations to
the President.
RECOMMENDATIONS CONCERNING MEXICO SUBMITTED BY AMBAS-
SADOR WILSON TO THE PRESIDENT IN AUGUST, 1913, AND AFTER-
WARDS TO THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE
SENATE
Recognition
Recognition under the present circumstances cannot be made
with the same effects and the same results as immediately after
the assumption of power by the new administration. It would
be misconstrued, now, as a yielding to pressure and force, and
would result in the loss of great prestige.
If recognition is accorded it should be done in the following way :
First: By a preamble, recognizing the remarkable and unpre-
cedented situation in Mexico, the desire of the United States to
contribute to the restoration of order in a neighboring and friendly
state, and the necessity, on account of the important matters
daily pending between the two governments, to establish full
official relations with all the benefits and obligations resulting
therefrom.
Second: No recognition should be accorded unless the important
international questions, like the Chamazal, the Colorado River
and the specific claims falling under a clear rule of international
law, shall be immediately closed upon the basis presented by the
government of the United States and agreed to by the government
of Mexico in correspondence with the ambassador and verbally.
Third: Recognition should not be accorded unless an inter-
national claims commission, having jurisdiction over all kinds
and classes of claims arising out of the revolutionary movements
during the last three years shall be admitted in principle by the
Mexican government.
Fourth: Recognition should not be accorded unless ample
guarantees for the holding of a constitutional presidential election,
during the month of October shall be given; and this would involve
the removal of the present Minister of Gobernacion, who is a
pure creature of Huerta, and the substitution therefore, of a
Mexican of force and power — say Calero — who is thoroughly
committed to the principle of constitutional government.
Fifth: Recognition should not be accorded unless the federal
government is able to furnish evidence of its ability to restore
peace and order to the 22nd parallel.
154 HENRY LANE WILSON
Sixth: Recognition should not be accorded unless an arrange-
ment can be made by which the American Government, in co-
operation with the Mexican Government, will be permitted to
cross the border and aid the federal authorities in restoration of
order down to the 22nd parallel, always giving ample stipulations
for the retirement of our troops, whenever order and peace have
been established, in the judgment of the United States and Mexi-
can commissioners duly appointed.
Recognition accorded in this manner will restore our lost
prestige, impress foreign and native opinion in Mexico and
undoubtedly restore peace and prevent further bloodshed.
Intervention
If recognition is not accorded in some form or other, our duties
as a civilized nation, pledged to the world to preserve the peace
and order of this hemisphere, point directly to immediate and
effective intervention.
This should be done in the following way :
First: By discreetly removing the already decimated and ruined
American population from Mexico.
Second: By the transfer of the charge of our diplomatic and
consular establishments to representatives of other powers.
Third: By the massing of our fleet in overwhelming proportions,
aided by effective marine reserves, at every Mexican port on the
Atlantic and Pacific.
Fourth: By the massing of our army, fully equipped for invasion,
at every strategic point lying on the border states, and the calling
out of the reserves in all border states.
Fifth: By the appointment of commissioners, one of whom
should be the ambassador, another the general-in-chief of the
army, another the ranking officer of the investing fleet and another
a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.
The duty of this commission would be to seek, by a preliminary
action, a reconciliation of all the contending forces in Mexico,
with the understanding that their duties should be urgent, ex-
peditious and not to be detained by any dilatory methods, and
with a further understanding that they should follow in the path
of invasion, re-establishing the rule of law and dispensing justice
and order in the name of the United States.
Any invasion should be accompanied by a public statement
that our purpose is not one of aggression, but that we are acting
in the discharge of a duty to humanity and civilization and that
when once constitutional methods and practices are re-established
and firm government installed our troops will retire to the United
States.
Since these recommendations were made Mexico has gone
from bad to worse — we have forcibly intervened twice; we
have called out the border militia and have penetrated
HOW TO RESTORE PEACE IN MEXICO 155
Mexican soil to practically the 22nd parallel. We inter-
vened at Vera Cruz without reason or right and retreated
amid execrations and ridicule. We justly intervened after
the Columbus raid, but tardily and unpreparedly. In
neither of these instances have we contributed to the pro-
tection of American citizens or to the restoration of peace-
able conditions in Mexico. Intervention if it is to take
place should be made by competent hands and not subordi-
nated to political exigencies — no pin pricking, no wobbling,
no epistolary bombardments. Bearing in mind the in-
competency and vacillation which the present administra-
tion has displayed in the management of our own domestic
and foreign affairs I doubt whether it can be trusted to
successfully restore peace and order in Mexico through
intervention.
I have stated here three methods by which peace can be
restored in Mexico.
1. Active and sympathetic support of the real governing
elements in Mexico.
2. By the creation, organization and recognition of an
independent republic from the Rio Grande to the 22nd
parallel.
3. Armed intervention.
All of these methods are fairly subject to attack and
criticism; all have weak points; any one of them, if adopted,
may produce enduring peace south of the Rio Grande.
A CONSTRUCTIVE POLICY FOR MEXICO
By Roger W. Babson, President of the Babson Statistical
Organization; Member of the Federal Central Ameri-
can Commission of 1916
For some time the scenery has been set for some kind
of intervention in Mexico. This came near happening dur-
ing the early part of President Wilson's illness, and what
occurred at that time was very largely responsible for Sec-
retary Lansing's resignation. Had the Republicans then
been in power, that incident would doubtless have been
made an excuse for Mexican intervention.
Although Carranza should be given, certain sympathy
and respect for what he has done, yet his doom was sure to
come. Like many others, he had over-reached himself,
forgetting the ladder by which he climbed up. The only
thing which had saved Carranza for some tune was the fact
that he had no strong opponent. Since the armistice, the
European governments, and quite likely the United States,
had been hoping for some strong opponent whom they could
endorse and recognize.
Straight out and out intervention would be very danger-
ous and very costly, both directly and for its effect upon
the whole of Latin America. If, however, there were two
strong factions in Mexico, between which the United States
and European countries would be compelled to choose,
then these nations would be justified in backing the new
party. Conditions are bad in Mexico. Both the Mexican
people and the rest of the world are anxious for peace so
that they can develop their country and its industries.
Anything which can bring about such peace is justifiable
and is to be desired.
FALLACY OF WAR
Although I do not take the pacifist's view regarding
Mexican intervention, I am impressed by some figures which
the leaders of the Interchurch Movement have recently
156
A CONSTRUCTIVE POLICY FOR MEXICO 157
given out. They claim that the money spent during the
first six months of General Pershing's border campaign
would have been sufficient to establish a good public school
system, an agricultural college and a modern hospital in
every Mexican city of over 4000 people. In addition, there
would have been available an endowment of several hundred
thousand dollars for educational work in each of these com-
munities. These figures are simply based on the cost of
the first six months' military campaign. When the total
cost and the present cost are considered, the figures would
be most astounding.
The people of the United States have been opposed to
military intervention. It has, however, been generally be-
lieved that intervention of some kind would some day be
inevitable. By nature we are our brother's keeper, and the
responsibility cannot be avoided either by the demands of
the militarists or by the resolutions of the pacifists. The
real question is — shall intervention be of military and
destructive nature or shall it be of an educational and con-
structive nature? The idea that we can continue to sit by
and take no sides in the troubles of our nearest neighbor is
preposterous. Even if the present revolutionists are
friendly to the financial interests of the United States, this
does not obviate the probability of intervention in some
form. Although we now do not have to intervene to get
Carranza out (as was the common opinion a few months
ago) we may be obliged to intervene some day in order to
keep the new interests in power or to prevent them from
fighting among themselves.
The moral question involved in Mexican intervention is
the eternal question. Both those who favor military inter-
vention and those who oppose it base their contentions on
the " brother's keeper" theory. Granting, however, that
we are our brother's keeper does not make the end justify
the means. Two wrongs do not make a right, and in pro-
tecting others in Mexico, we should be very careful to use
methods which cannot be questioned. This is another
reason why, if there is to be any kind of intervention, it
should be constructive intervention of the most unselfish
type.
158 ROGER W. BABSON
RELATIONS WITH ALL LATIN AMERICA
Irrespective of the moral issue involved, we should con-
sider the effect of military intervention on Mexico and the
other Lathi American countries. Ever since we took Texas
and California away from Mexico, the Latin Americans
have been suspicious of us. This suspicion was increased
when we took Porto Rico, Panama and began to interfere
hi certain other Latin American countries. " Dollar diplo-
macy," as the American policy is called, is very repugnant to
the Central and South American people. It is true that
the Wilson administration has healed these wounds to a
large extent. Today we are on more friendly terms with
Latin America than at any time since the days of Monroe.
Military intervention, however, in Mexico, would smash
our Latin American friendships and undo all the good which
has been accomplished during the past eight years.
Psychologically, this would be a most dangerous time to
temporize at this tune with with the friendship of Lathi
America. During the past five years we have secured a
grip on Latin American trade because the English, French,
and Germans were unable to supply the goods or finance
the purchases. The Latin Americans were compelled to
trade with us or go without the goods. Now the markets
of the world are again open, transportation lines are re-
established, and the Latin Americans can again buy from
either Europe or America as they desire. Moreover, it is
only human nature that the English and French should
make a strenuous effort to get back the trade which was
formerly theirs and which we took while they were busy
protecting civilization. Furthermore, the Germans, who
were always unfair to us in connection with Latin American
trade, will now renew their efforts with great vigor and
resort to any means to get back again into the folds.
Under these conditions, it is evident that if we attempted
military intervention in Mexico our European competitors
would use this as an argument against us in connection with
trading in Latin America. These Central and South Amer-
ican people are very sympathetic and almost sentimental
A CONSTRUCTIVE POLICY FOR MEXICO 159
when it comes to trading. By nature they consider ques-
tions of honor and friendship vastly more important than
questions of dollars and pounds sterling. Hence, if any
kind of intervention is necessary, it must be a constructive,
unselfish intervention, one which will not arouse the enmity
of Central and South America.
CONSTRUCTIVE INTERVENTION
A constructive form of intervention in Mexico means
more than the building of schools, agricultural colleges, and
hospitals, or the supplying of teachers, doctors, and nurses.
A constructive form of intervention in Mexico requires the
rehabilitation of Mexican railways and banks, and the intro-
duction of agricultural machinery, seed, fertilizer, and some
form of supervision. In talking this over with Senators in
Washington, I find that they are favorably disposed to
such intervention, provided we can " police" the country
in order to " protect" our investments. Some even say:
"This is all we want to do now; but there is no need of the
government's supplying this money. The financial inter-
ests of the United States and England are ready at any
time to go to Mexico and operate the mines, develop the
ranches, and teach the people how to work." This is very
true, but they demand the control of the properties if not
the control of the country. This is where the rub comes.
For a constructive policy in Mexico to succeed, the con-
trol of the properties must remain with the Mexicans so
far as further developments go. We must have for our
motto, "Mexico for the Mexicans," rather than "Mexico
for the Americans." This is the rock on which the inter-
vention discussions ultimately become shipwrecked. The
Mexicans would rather go on in their present inefficient and
unhappy way, but feeling that when they do work out their
own salvation it will be their own, than to have immediate
peace and prosperity and lose control of their properties in
the process. Shouldn't we respect them for their willing-
ness to sacrifice the present in order to insure the future?
We people of the United States have twice been through
160 EOGER W. BABSON
the same experience that they are going through; our revo-
lutionary days extended over a generation; our Civil War
tore the country asunder. At both of these times foreign
governments, in the interests of immediate peace and pros-
perity, attempted to interfere and "make us behave. " We
know how we would have resented their intervention and
that it would simply have prolonged the struggle and de-
layed the result.
It seems to be a law of nature that nations and individuals
must work out their own salvation and find themselves
through struggle and sacrifice. There is no short road to
growth. Development takes time. We can truly aid a
boy by helping him to help himself, but we cannot go any
further. We can give him the help for which he asks,
but we cannot force aid upon him without disaster. We
can show him the error of his ways and urge him to follow
other paths, but as soon as we use force or restraint, the
reaction is very dangerous. It is the same with nations.
We can remove the causes of war and revolution by giving
more freedom to the people, supplying work to the unem-
ployed, and furnishing tools, seeds and other things neces-
sary to get industry established. When, however, we go
any further, we tread on dangerous ground.
From what I have said, some readers may think I am
opposed to intervention of any kind and believe only in the
Wilson policy of " watchful waiting." Theoretically, I
think the Wilson policy is correct and if the Europeans had
the same vision, I would favor no form of intervention what-
ever. Europe, however, has not the vision. The practical
situation is that if we do not intervene in some way Europe
will. Such European intervention would be a distinct mis-
take. Therefore, as we cannot have the ideal conditions, we
must make the best of the situation and choose the lesser of
the two evils. As Gr over Cleveland said : " We must adapt
ourselves to conditions rather than to theories. " It is very
evident that some form of intervention is inevitable and
that, if the Republicans are successful in November, the
United States will intervene in Mexico. Therefore, the
question is, what shall the form of intervention be? Shall
A CONSTRUCTIVE POLICY FOR MEXICO 161
it be destructive, based on force, or shall it be constructive,
based on the principles of righteousness, justice and broth-
erly kindness?
This is a suggestion: that we insist Mexico protect for-
eign interests on the legitimate investments made previous
to 1917; but that we cooperate with the Mexican govern-
ment hi its present desire to bring about a new social order.
In short, let us compromise by saying we conform to your
new policy provided you do not make it retro-active.
RELIGIOUS STATESMEN NEEDED
The great need of the hour hi Washington and the capitals
of Europe is more religion. The great need is for religious
statesmen who are afraid neither to tackle big problems nor
to tackle them hi new ways. A great difficulty today seems
to be that our political leaders are largely made up of two
classes — either they are fearless and strong men, like some
of our senators, but stand for anti-Christian principles; or
else they are weak-kneed men who stand for what is good,
but who lack the stamina and courage to insist upon these
Christian principles being carried out. The way the Mexi-
can situation is being handled is a very good illustration of
the way these two groups of statesmen work. The first
group believe in military intervention so strongly that they
are willing to kill, destroy, and even wreck the League of
Nations in order to make intervention possible; while the
pacifist group is too cowardly to do anything. A great
opportunity exists for some statesman to stand for intervention,
but to insist on a sane, constructive form of intervention whereby
the money will be spent on schools, hospitals, farming machin-
ery, and transportation. If one half the money being spent
now by our Army and Navy in connection with Mexico
were spent in helping Mexico agriculturally and industri-
ally, used in improving the transportation systems and in
doing other constructive work, we should be making real
friends instead of enemies and the entire world would be
infinitely better off.
THE UNITED STATES AND LATIN AMERICA
By John F. Moors, LL.D., Senior Member, Moors and Cabot,
Bankers; President, Boston Associated Charities
This country entered the Spanish War primarily to help
Cuba, though there were savage cries of " Remember the
Maine" and certain sensational newspapers were doing their
best to shove us into the war. We came out of the Spanish
war still trying to help Cuba and determined that our prom-
ise to her of independence would be kept.
The diplomats of the old world ridiculed our virtuous pro-
fessions at the time. Theodore Roosevelt, speaking at
Christ iania, Norway, in 1910, told how these diplomats
poked fun at him, assuring him that these virtuous promises
would be broken and he, insistent usually that insult should
be resisted, accepted the jibes without offense, so habitu-
ated was everyone to the scandalous standards then preva-
lent in international diplomacy. In his autobiography, pub-
lished in 1913 he wrote: —
We had explicitly promised to leave the island of Cuba, had
explicitly promised that Cuba should be independent. When
the promise was made, I doubt if there was a single ruler or diplo-
mat in Europe who believed that it would be kept. As far as I
know, the United States was the first power which, having made
a promise, kept it in letter and spirit.
Unfortunately, half a century before the war with Spain,
we had waged war from motives, which might easily be
interpreted as ignoble, with Mexico and, defeating her,
despoiled her of half her territory. This event sank deep
into the minds, not only of Mexico, but of all Latin America.
The " Colossus of the North" was feared and, because
feared, was hated. Our habitual contempt for the revolu-
tion-torn Latin- American republics blinded our eyes to this
hatred and accentuated it because it bred lack of caution
and derisive nicknames.
162
THE UNITED STATES AND LATIN AMERICA 163
Then, at the very moment when we kept our promises to
Cuba, we took Porto Rico — took it from Spain but without
consulting the Porto Ricans. Soon afterwards, in 1903, we
"took" Panama. It did not belong to us. It belonged to
Colombia. And we set up the plea that Colombia was
anti-social, that her leaders were "mountain bandits," that
we had a mandate from civilization to take what did not
belong to us. President Roosevelt in October, 1903,
drafted a letter to Congress proposing that we take Panama
by force. At 6.00 p.m., November 3, there was a skillfully
prepared revolution on the Isthmus. Our warships pre-
vented the Colombians from attempting to suppress it.
We recognized the new Republic of Panama November 6.
We promised to place all countries, including this country,
on a parity in the payment of tolls for using the canal.
In the administration of Mr. Taft we undertook to exempt
our own coastwise trade from these tolls. The Wilson ad-
ministration righted this wrong but so far has sought vainly
to persuade Congress to vote $25,000,000 to Colombia for
the property taken from her.
Latin- America followed these events with keener interest
than we followed them. When Secretary Root, on a mis-
sion of good- will, went to South America in 1906 he spoke
excellently at Rio de Janeiro. But the people of South
America were suspicious, applying to us as to all men the
injunction: "By their deeds shall ye know them."
The fall of the Diaz regime in Mexico, the accession and
murder of Madero, the usurpation by Huerta, the long and
bloody revolution, the agitation in this country for interven-
tion, our interest in our big investments in Mexico, the devel-
opment of rich oil fields there, the seizure of Vera Cruz and
the Pershing expedition have increased the dread of us in
Latin America and have made the Monroe Doctrine seem
more a danger than a protection.
Today a new, brief and comparatively bloodless revolu-
tion has caused a new change in the kaleidoscope and
brought with it new problems.
President Wilson's address at Mobile in October, 1913,
his efforts to befriend Mexico during the early years of the
164 JOHN F. MOORS
long revolution, his refusal to be stampeded into war with
Mexico in 1916 were cheering incidents in the almost endless
story of distrust resulting from the fear of aggression. The
A. B. C. Conferences in 1916, futile though they proved, were
evidence of the good-will in Latin- America when assured of
our respect and friendliness.
It is a sad commentary on our influence that the further
the Latin-Americans are from us the happier they seem
to be. Chile and the Argentine are not only prospering but,
when they were on the verge of war with each other, they
settled their difference by a conference, instead of by force,
and they melted then: engines of death and built of them a
great statue to Jesus Christ and today the Christ of the
Andes on a mountain summit three miles above the level of
the sea, still commemorates that great achievement.
Mexico, on the other hand, is perpetually in hot water.
And we are always talking about her and threatening her
and despising her and investing in her riches. When we
have invested, we have too often insisted that the only
sound course is to " clean her up." It has become the law
and the gospel with strong nations that then* citizens and
then* citizens' property shall be protected, by fire and
sword, if need be, wherever such citizens and their property
may be. The conception that our citizens entrust their
persons and their property at then* own risk to the laws and
conditions in weak and unsettled countries is widely looked
upon as unsound and ignoble. Yet the transition from pro-
tecting our innocent citizens, to protecting our all too ag-
gressive citizens, to championing then- cause without much
regard for the standards of unknown races is not only an
easy transition but one which may be fraught with injus-
tice, bullying, violence, and finally with the assessment of
damages and the acquisition of the weak nation's property.
The official attitude in recent years of the United States
toward Mexico has been admirable and was the precursor
of that new diplomacy which found a fitting embodiment hi
the fourteen points. But during these same years the atti-
tude of many influential Americans toward Mexico has been
irritating in the extreme. The admirable official attitude
THE UNITED STATES AND LATIN AMERICA 165
has been despised by most men of education. The exas-
perating attitude of threats and contempt has been ac-
cepted as the proper attitude. Vast, fundamental issues
are today involved in what we think and do in regard to
Mexico. The problems are at our very door. We cannot
escape them. Shall we be a kind friend and neighbor, not
officious, but ready to help when we are asked to help, re-
specting her and her rights, using reason, not force, simply
because we are superior in the latter, patient, unselfish,
with all the virtues which we profess in our religion? Or
shall we throw all these to the winds and think first of our
interests present and prospective in Mexico, and, knowing
our strength, use it for selfish aims, leading our young men
to slaughter other young men and forcing America again to
fail the world when moral leadership is most needed?
These questions should be approached, not impatiently
or scornfully or selfishly, but respectfully, discreetly, and
with faith in men however outwardly unlike ourselves.
COMMON SENSE IN FOREIGN POLICY
By Edwin M. Borchard, Professor of Law, Yale University
The intelligent appreciation of economic facts and an
understanding of the forces at work in shaping interna-
tional relations is my interpretation of common sense in
foreign policy. For the elaboration of my views in this
respect, I shall ask your indulgence.
The principal material purpose of human activity, I take
it, is the satisfaction of economic wants by opening the re-
sources of the earth to a wider distribution at lower cost.
The remarkable advance in these directions witnessed in the
last century by improved methods of transportation and
communication and by the application of machinery in
agriculture, mining and manufacture has been unequalled
in history. The end and ami of thus promoting the mate-
rial comfort and prosperity of mankind being assumed to be
true, conflicts have arisen in modern times in the methods of
bringing the aims to realization, either in the economic prin-
ciple pursued or in the attempt by various groups to arro-
gate to themselves advantages not conceded by other groups.
The effort, on the one hand, to maintain and extend the
advantage of one group has often run counter to similar
efforts of other groups.
Within the domain of a nation this conflict of interest has
thus far been fairly well adjusted by municipal law. In the
United States, such statutes as the Interstate Commerce
Act, the Sherman Act, and the Federal Trade Commission
Act, designed to prevent unfair competition, all evidence
the continued purpose of the community to prevent un-
fair advantages by one group, interest or individual over
the other. However short of perfection the system may
still be, it has been amply manifested that when competi-
tion no longer adequately protects the interests of the public,
governmental regulation and even governmental ownership
166
COMMON SENSE IN FOREIGN POLICY 167
emerges as a check upon unfair advantage. The police
power under the Constitution has served to impose ever
greater burdens upon private property in the interests of
the public welfare; and given free discussion and a free bal-
lot our system is capable of adjusting itself to the expanding
needs of a developing community, with its ever growing
demands. The internal struggle now proceeding in many
countries of the world is a reflection of this effort to adjust a
political system to the increasingly insistent demands of
important groups in the community; and in so far as that
struggle ceases to be peaceful, it indicates the maladjust-
ment of the political and legal machinery to the social or
economic demands of the times.
In the international domain, we find this clash of conflict-
ing interests possessed of but few instruments for concilia-
tion or adjustment. Diplomacy, treaties, mediation, com-
missions of inquiry, arbitration, however effective they may
have been in preventing many conflicts, and however prom-
ising they may be, have exerted but little influence in avert-
ing the trial by battle of those larger economic issues which
lie at the foundation of most modern wars. Nations which
unhesitatingly impose the restraint of law upon both the
strong and the weak groups within the state, decline, not-
withstanding Hague Conferences and arbitration agree-
ments, to submit then* more important international dif-
ferences to adjustment by peaceful machinery. Impatient
of such restraint when what they deem their " vital inter-
ests'7 are involved, they plunge into reprisals or war as the
arbiter of the difference, and devote the periods between
wars to the strengthening of alliances and physical resources
so as to cope successfully with the prospective antagonist
their very preparation frequently invites. War, of course,
while a recognized method of adjusting international dis-
putes, signifies in reality the breakdown of law, or if you
will, the rule of the jungle. So defective is our modern
civilization that at intervals all too frequent it sanctions in
approving or reluctant impotence the armed clash of whole
nations.
Why is this? Is it possible to prevent it? Are we going
forward or backward?
168 EDWIN M. BOUCHARD
Failure to understand the underlying causes of modern
conflicts explains, in part, I believe, the apparent inability
to prevent them. Mention has been made of the recent
enactment of municipal statutes against unfair competition
in the more advanced countries, coming as the outgrowth
of a realization that powerful or unscrupulous groups or
individuals seek to obtain advantages over others which are
unfair, under a standard of business ethics created by the
mores of our time. In the international domain, on the
other hand, unfair competition flourishes among the great
powers in a fashion that sooner or later must lead to conflict.
No statutory code declares it to be unfair; for the attempt
to monopolize the economic resources of backward nations
by the creation of spheres of influence, mandates, protec-
torates or colonies, the effort to control markets, trade
routes, cables and coaling stations, and by tariff barriers
to obtain preferential treatment, discriminate against com-
petitors, or stimulate home industry — all these are deemed
worthy manifestations of state activity looking to national
strength and prosperity. The fallacy lies in the fact that other
nations seeking like outlets and instruments for their econ-
omic activity find their efforts thwarted or hampered by an
advantage already gained or about to be gained by a rival
nation; or a nation having secured control of a particular
market, finds its predominance challenged by a new com-
petitor. There being no legal machinery or any federal or
international trade commission to adjust these conflicting
interests, and the issue indeed presenting no question of
legal right or wrong, each imperialist nation is driven by
necessity to safeguard its own success in this continual
struggle, by diplomacy and the force of arms, justifying
its efforts under the name of self-preservation. Foreign
policy is fashioned to the maintenance of supremacy in this
struggle of the nations, and the fallacy in believing that any
ultimate material benefit accrues to the people by engaging
in this struggle, is what I would denominate as the primary
manifestation of a want of understanding. Psychological
repugnance and historical grievances, to be sure, often
cooperate powerfully in producing conflicts, but in this day
I regard the economic factor as of transcendent importance.
COMMON SENSE IN FOREIGN POLICY 169
The growth of modern imperialism is coincident with the
rise of the industrial system and the export of capital. Great
Britain came out of the Napoleonic wars into a new era of
industrial expansion and utilized her resources in coal and
machinery in a happy combination with a strong navy and
the then existing colonial system to extend British influence
throughout the world. Her exports in goods and capital
expanded British markets everywhere and led to that close
association between the Foreign Office and the overseas
investor which, except in Latin America, has all but insured
the investment, and would, but for the Monroe Doctrine,
have had the same result in Latin America. How far the
masses of the British people have benefitted by this policy
of overseas investment is questionable, according to Mr.
C. K. Hobson, the English economist.
I will not undertake to detail the ramifications of the
alliance between finance and politics, but that finance has
had a vital influence in dictating political control no in-
formed statesman or economist will deny. It was around
1850 that France began to accumulate capital for foreign
investment, and tangible evidence of its influence in foreign
policy is found in the fact that the alliance between Russia
and France, which was so important a factor in the diplo-
matic background of the war, traces its origin to the first
loan of 500,000,000 francs by French bankers to Russia
in the late eighties. Further loans by France were con-
ditioned upon the use of the money in particular directions.
Germany entered the race at the end of the seventies and
her rapid strides in combining commercial expansion with
political influence in the Near East, with its threat to the
political interests of Russia and England, had as much to do
with the causes of the Great War as any other single factor.
More recently Japan and the United States have entered
the lists as foreign investors and whether they can resist
the temptations of imperialism, with its dangers of conflict
with competing imperialisms, is a question that the next
decade or two will answer for us.
Our own record in the growth from the agricultural to
the industrial stage, and thence from the mercantile to
170 EDWIN M. BORCHARD
the financial stage, from the status of exporters solely of
raw materials to exporters of manufactured products has
not been fraught with immediate political threats to foreign
powers. Such political effects as have followed our quest
for world markets have been confined principally to coun-
tries in and around the Caribbean, and there other factors
also entered into the situation. We would probably not
be administering Haiti today, but for the fact that France
threatened to intervene if we didn't. Moreover, our con-
trol in those countries, speaking generally, is not conducted
with any view to an American trade monopoly, as the foreign
trade statistics of those countries for the last ten or fifteen
years will attest. Our Philippine adventure was not pre-
meditated but came as one of the unsolicited consequences of a
successful war. On the whole, it cannot be said that we have
exploited our position, and I have little doubt that if we
could obtain assurance against the Philippines falling into
the hands of an imperialist government, they could, like
Cuba, have their independence almost any time. It is my
opinion that, taking conditions as they are, and admitting
many of the mistakes of our responsible and irresponsible
officials, our policy in Central America and the Philippines
as receivers in bankruptcy or self-appointed guardians,
still furnishes one of the cleanest pages in the history of
imperialism. It is a comparatively new game for us and
was not entered upon with premeditation. We may im-
prove with further experience, or we may, following Euro-
pean example, grow worse. The American people should
be able to control the policy to be adopted.
But now new forces are in operation and the avoidance of
international conflicts will require an unusual degree of com-
mon sense on the part of the administration and on the part
of the people. Unless the people awake to the importance
of foreign policy in its effect on their personal welfare, there
is little hope, notwithstanding improved machinery, for
any more sensible adjustment of international differences
than the recent past has demonstrated. Some of the more
obvious of the factors requiring attention and popular
vigilance I shall take the liberty of pointing out as I proceed.
COMMON SENSE IN FOREIGN POLICY 171
We have come out of the Great War with a trade balance
of some ten billions and large loans to foreign governments.
The gap will be difficult to close. We have already received
much gold and bought back several billions of our foreign-
owned securities, thus reducing our foreign interest require-
ments. Our merchant marine will reduce our payments
abroad under this head. Being one of the few manufac-
turing countries whose industrial plant is apparently in
good condition our exportable surplus will doubtless be
large for many years. Countervailing factors, of course,
are brought into operation as a result of these very facts.
The unprecedented favorable trade balance has unbalanced
exchange rates to such an extent that European merchants
can buy from us only by paying excessive prices, and that
has already curtailed our exports. If the world's credit
structure is to remain unimpaired, Europe must ultimately
repay us in goods and it would be wise policy for many
reasons, not least of all, the interests of American consumers,
to stimulate such imports in every way.
But one of the obvious methods of squaring the account
is by investing our accumulated capital abroad, and this
process has grown to unprecedented proportions since
1914. It would be very active today but for the fact that the
financial world has little confidence in European stability,
due, I believe, to the economic errors of the Treaty of Ver-
sailles, to which I shall advert in a moment. In the mean-
time, our investments abroad, in Latin-America and else-
where, will bring a large volume of trade in their wake and
our merchant marine is equipped to carry the products of
our enlarged manufacturing capacity to all parts of the
world. The adoption of a consistent foreign policy will
inevitably become necessary. What form will it take and
what factors will enter into consideration?
There is now a pressing demand from our large commer-
cial and financial interests for an expansion of our foreign
trade and of our merchant marine. Both results can be
achieved, but the effort will encounter certain obstacles,
to the negotiation of which foreign policy will have to be
directed. Just as laissez-faire has been forced into con-
172 EDWIN M. BOUCHARD
stantly smaller compass in domestic economy, so in inter-
national commerce the same phenomenon is apparent.
Notwithstanding the intimate relation between the British
Foreign Office and the investor, the British trader until
lately enjoyed a considerable measure of laissez-faire. Its
success constituted its justification. But as German trade
in one quarter after the other entered into successful com-
petition, the adoption of German foreign trade policy met
with greater favor; and it now seems likely that the German
cartel system and export associations and syndicates and
the plans for governmental and trade cooperation will to
a considerable extent be adopted by England and other
exporting nations. The British Manufacturers Corpora-
tion, the British Trade Corporation, the reorganized Board
of Trade with its Departments of Commerce and Industry
and Commercial Intelligence, the various Trades Commit-
tees, all indicate that ever-growing cooperation between
government and commerce which in its present general
form is a recent phenomenon of foreign policy. We have
already indicated our adherence to the principle by the
creation of such governmental organs as the War Finance
Corporation and the United States Shipping Board, and by
such statutes as the Webb Act and the Edge Act. The
promoting functions of the State and Commerce Depart-
ments will also doubtless be enlarged. Moreover, it is
common knowledge that for the last half century European
bankers making loans to governments have almost always
obtained the preliminary consent and worked in cooperation
with their Foreign Offices. Our own State Department is
not only consulted by American bankers in the making of
foreign loans, but new loans made to any country around
the Caribbean by any bankers are not likely to be made
without the acquiescence of the State Department. A
sudden aversion to "dollar diplomacy" in 1913 induced a
withdrawal of the American bankers from the Six Power
Loan to China, President Wilson stating that there should
be "no entangling foreign alliances even in respect to arrange-
ments for supervising the financial compacts of weaker
governments .... the responsibility of the United
COMMON SENSE IN FOREIGN POLICY 173
States in the Six-Power group is obnoxious to the principles
upon which this Governments rests." But in 1918, Ameri-
can participation seems no longer to have been obnoxious
to those principles, for Mr. Wilson approved our joining
the Four-Power consortium, committing this Government
to an extent unasked by the bankers in 1913. The official
statement of the Department of State published July 29,
1918, reads in part: "the American government will be will-
ing to aid in every way possible and to make prompt and
vigorous representations and to take every possible step
to ensure the execution of equitable contracts made in good
faith by its citizens in foreign lands." It would not be
easy to find a more complete reversal of foreign policy than
is embodied in the declaration just quoted. Several pro-
posals to refund the Honduran debt have been disapproved
by the Department, and similar disapproval of the Pearson
oil concession in Colombia, it will be recalled, induced
those important British interests some years ago to with-
draw from the field. We must assume that this is done by
virtue of a liberal interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine
and to forestall political differences; but it indicates the
intimate relation between Government and private enter-
prise which modern international politics discloses on every
hand.
To obtain as free an outlet as possible for our expanding
commerce will require the fullest governmental cooperation,
and diplomacy will inevitably be involved. Then too will
come the urgent need of those trained men whom we now
find it so difficult to attract to the public service. As
European governments recover then* strength in competi-
tion, tariffs and preferences of various kinds will appear as
cards in the game. The proposed imperial policy of Great
Britain by which trade between the mother country and the
colony is mutually to be promoted is a reminder of a colonial
policy which prevailed a century ago. Its enforcement
today to the disadvantage of foreign powers is likely to
have large political consequences.
Within a phenomenally short time we have become the
second maritime power, with nearly ten million tons of
174 EDWIN M. BOUCHARD
shipping. As it is deemed important that American com-
merce should not have to rely on foreign bottoms, and as it
is known that American ships are, by reason of fairer treat-
ment of crew and better pay to builders, more expensive
to operate than foreign ships, methods are now being pro-
posed to insure us against American ships escaping to foreign
flags and to promote American shipbuilding. A proposal
which is now meeting favor is to give to goods imported
in our vessels a tariff rebate, and thereupon abrogate numer-
ous treaties. The device may prove distasteful to foreign
governments, which may adopt countervailing restrictions.
For example, it is conceivable that coaling stations in
various parts of the world may refuse to sell bunker coal
to American vessels; or foreign countries may discriminate
against American goods or vessels. It is true that our
distinctive interpretation of the most-favored-nation clause
has not had serious results, and it may be that the discrim-
ination proposed would not encounter retaliatory measures;
but I am inclined to believe that under present conditions,
when the recent belligerents are exerting every effort to re-
cover and strengthen their economic position such a measure
as that proposed will not go unchallenged. That it con-
stitutes a decided violation of Point Three (on "economic
barriers") of the famous Fourteen, has been overlooked by
some of its advocates.
Again, a manufacturing and trading nation must have
assured access to basic raw materials, and the quest for and
control of raw materials, such as coal, iron and oil are likely
to weigh heavily in the shaping of foreign policy during the
next few decades. The pressure of a growing industry was
combined with the revival of a historic claim to induce
Germany to annex the iron fields of Lorraine in 1871, and
unless her demand for raw materials is satisfied in Russia
or elsewhere, we are likely to see considerable trouble in
the future over Alsace and Lorraine. More recently oil
has loomed up as the motive power of the future, and the
desire to obtain an assured supply has inspired much of the
diplomacy of the recent past and will doubtless influence
greatly the immediate future. It has not gone unnoticed,
COMMON SENSE IN FOREIGN POLICY 175
I assume, that Mesopotamia and Syria have not wanted for
mandatories, whereas barren Armenia seems to have a good
deal of difficulty in finding one. Indeed, it is common
knowledge that Great Britain, always the most foresighted
of nations, has adopted a governmental oil policy by which
she hopes to control for British interests the oil supplies
of all British possessions, from the United Kingdom to the
smallest mandatory, and of as many other nations as possi-
ble, and expects to "buy into" such of the foreign oil com-
panies as she can. An article in Spelling's Magazine last
year explained the policy frankly; and more recently Mr.
Walter Hume Long of the British Cabinet has given us a
very convincing expression of his views on the subject.
When it is recalled that our Geological Survey estimates
that our own oil resources, at present rates of consumption,
will be exhausted in twenty years, it is apparent that our
quest for oil must more than ever be directed toward foreign
fields. If there we encounter conflicting claims previously
staked out by other nations, or if we are placed in the
position of having to buy our oil from more favored nations
at their price and conditions, its effect on our foreign policy
will be reacjily apparent.
II
With these facts in mind, I wish to direct attention to the
Treaty of Peace and to some of the events and phenomena of
current history in order to point out what seem to me to be
the lessons of the day in foreign policy. It is my belief
that by an unbiased discussion and consideration of facts
and the effort to draw honest conclusions from them our
government and our people may be enabled to avoid some
of the more obvious pitfalls of the immediate future. If,
in the expression of my opinions, I should challenge some
popular beliefs or what seem to me to be illusions, I trust
my ideas will be received under the admitted limitation, so
ably expressed by Mr. Justice Holmes, "that the best test
of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in
the competition of the market."
176 EDWIN M. B ORCHARD
It is my conviction that the American people have less
knowledge of foreign affairs than any people of Europe,
due partly to our traditional isolation from international
politics and partly to defective education. This innocence,
combined with the crusading instinct of a pioneer in polit-
ical liberty, makes our people peculiarly susceptible to a
foreign policy of idealistic phrase-making and to the mach-
inations of the propagandist. An examination of the facts
and the effort to think upon them independently, so promi-
nent in our political literature on foreign affairs down to
1860, seems now to be exceptional only. Emotion seems to
have replaced logic in the consideration of events. Per-
haps the movies or the kaleidoscopic daily newspaper have
something to do with this responsiveness to emotional
stimulus and want of critical analysis. At all events, it
has not yet penetrated the popular consciousness that, as
I believe, the professed purposes of " making the world
safe for democracy ," defeating militarism, promoting a
lasting peace, preventing war and establishing a new prin-
ciple of cooperation among the nations to bring about these
ends are, in the realm of fact, conspicuous by their absence in
the terms of the settlement. The terms of the Treaty proper
impress the conviction that while preponderating force can
terminate a war, as John Bassett Moore has expressed it,
it is no guaranty of peace. Indeed, one hazards little in
predicting that there is more war than peace likely to issue
from the treaties of 1919, with their Balkanization of Eastern
Europe and their challenge of fundamental principles of
economics, as pointed out by Mr. Vanderlip. Efforts to
amend the treaties seem to produce a hostile reaction from
one or other of the Allies. The authors of the League of
Nations, creating their own major premise in disregard of
the substantive facts of the Treaty of Versailles and the
minor treaties, and of the existing international economic
system, have devised an elaborate machinery to stop the
outbreak of war after its causes have been allowed, as in
the past, freely to operate and ferment into hostility. How-
ever sympathetic we may be to the idea, the superstructure
is out of harmony with its foundations, and this seems to me
COMMON SENSE IN FOREIGN POLICY 177
an insuperable obstacle to success. That we have had
similar leagues in the past, professing the same purposes,
has been apparently dismissed from consideration, and the
greater enthusiasm and credence aroused by this league is
attributable, I believe, to a natural tendency, in time of
crisis, to grasp at a panacea. The founders profess in a
tense moment of history to have established a League for
Peace, when they were unable, after full deliberation, to
establish such a comparatively unimportant body as an
International Prize Court. It is already apparent to many
students of international affairs that the League of Nations,
cordially as we may endorse its announced purposes, is, as
I fear, essentially a military alliance of the principal victors,
attracting to themselves a considerable number of neutrals
who expect to profit by the association. Time will tell
whether the history of this alliance will differ greatly from
that of its predecessors. Unless I am greatly mistaken, it
will last as long as the interests of the major members re-
main identical.
Can we find any present justification for a hope of peace?
Are we going forward or backward? The question deserves
passing consideration. It was fairly generally accepted
during the war that our only chance of prolonged peace lay
in disarmament, and the Covenant met that conviction by
making provision therefor. With the enemy disarmed, the
popular mind was encouraged in the belief that disarma-
ment might be realized. As a matter of fact, the tendencies,
I submit, are all the other way. The imperialist nations,
notwithstanding the best of intentions and the pressure
from taxpayers, do not dare to disarm for fear of losing
their place in the sun and in the intensive competition for
markets and raw materials which is now in process of de-
velopment, a competition which at any time may require
military support. Each nation has a satisfactory reason,
conclusive upon its national conscience, why disarmament
is impossible for it, although it would lend hearty encour-
agement to the disarmament of other countries. I do not
charge this to evil influence in Government. The funda-
mental instinct of self-preservation, under the system of
178 EDWIN M. BOUCHARD
international rivalry, motivates the policy. The fault is
a manifestation of the weakness of the international order,
in which I can, with the best of intention, find no tangible
evidence of improvement.
We were encouraged to believe that international law
would be strengthened by the Peace. The result, I venture
to believe, is quite the contrary. Time forbids a detailed
analysis of the Treaty in this regard; but attention may be
called to one of the many dangerous precedents adopted in
the Treaty. While it was proper to punish the German
Empire for its admitted violations of law, the victors should
themselves have manifested greater respect for the restraints
imposed by law and long-established international practice.
For law is intended to bind the strong as well as the weak.
Since 1815, the doctrine that private property is immune
from seizure to satisfy public obligations, has been deemed
a fixed principle. It was an application of a distinction,
incidental to the advance of civilization and enunciated
in a classic phrase of Rousseau, between the public forces
of the state and the private citizen. While the war had
done much to wipe away the distinction, it was a shock to
find that the Treaty adopts the principle of the practical
confiscation of private enemy property and investments.
The danger in this precedent can hardly be overemphasized.
Not only does it subject every foreign investment to the
precarious contingencies of war and peace, from which it
should be completely removed, but it constitutes an assault
from above upon the sanctity of private property at a time
when that institution, which lies at the foundation of our
social structure, is being challenged from below in a degree
never before known. Should the principle prevail, dis-
armament becomes more remote than ever, for not only
the integrity of public but of private property would now
depend upon success in arms. This is only one of the
many steps backward which in my opinion the Treaty has
sanctioned.
Other recent phenomena likewise merit consideration.
Prominent among these is the anti-alien legislation of many
countries designed to keep out the foreign emigrant and
COMMON SENSE IN FOREIGN POLICY 179
the foreigner's business. This will probably have consider-
able future effect. The period between 1880 and 1914 had
witnessed a freedom of migration and economic activity
which made overpopulation easily dilutable throughout the
world and gave ready opportunity by economic freedom and
liberality of corporation laws to the mobility of capital and
entrepreneurs. The period since the war has witnessed a
reversion to the restrictive policy of the 18th and early 19th
centuries. Such measures as the Paris Economic Reso-
lutions and the Balfour Report, the British Non-ferrous
Metal Industry Act and similar measures adopted in various
degree and kind by other countries, all designed to prevent
competition from more favored or skillful producers and
promote home or strategic industries for the purpose of
achieving economic self-sufficiency and independence from
reliance upon foreign supplies, not only increase the burden
resting upon consumers but constitute measures of economic
warfare which are likely to promote political hostility. I
sympathize with the unfortunate dilemma of the gentle-
men who are responsible for the Treaty — to punish Germany
adequately and obtain reparation and yet preserve peace
and the economic stability of Europe. On the horns of
that dilemma, Europe is now impaled. However much the
situation excuses their shortsightedness, the lessons of the
last year and a half should have warned them of what hi
all probability lies before.
Certain obvious truths require brief mention in the correct
public appreciation of an enlightened foreign policy. First,
the assumption that your own motives are always higher
and purer than those of others may be soothing to the con-
science, but carries no conviction to your opponents or
necessarily to third parties. Every act of imperialistic
expansion is accompanied by invocations on the altar of
self-sacrifice. Its motive will usually be found in a service
to " humanity," a word used or abused in recent years with
poetic license. For example, Japan a few days ago in a
proclamation opposing a separate state in Siberia asserted
"that Japan will not tolerate hi any country close to Japan
any political organization designed to interfere with world
180 EDWIN M. BOUCHARD
peace and to defy humanity." Those who invoke our divine
mission to " clean up Mexico" doubtless are comforted by
the air of self-righteousness embodied in the proposal and
easily overlook some of its more sinister implications.
Again, no war since 1815, according to the usual statements
of historians and statesmen of the respective belligerents,
has been anything but a war of defense. Military alliances
are always characterized as " defensive."
Secondly, the ability to see ourselves as others see us
seems particularly essential. The interpretation by the
Senate majority of the Monroe Doctrine, arrogating to our-
selves to the exclusion of the League of Nations any privi-
lege of interference in Latin-American disputes has aroused
a storm of protest in intellectual circles among our sister
republics. Our long delay in liquidating the Colombian
obligation and conditioning its discharge upon reciprocal
advantage has been generally disapproved throughout the
southern continent. Our control over certain Central Amer-
ican and Caribbean countries, not, I believe, fully under-
stood, has done much to impugn our motives in Latin
America. Our shifting and unintelligent attitude toward
Mexico, sometimes dignified by calling it our Mexican
policy, has weakened our prestige in Latin America. Indeed,
should the counsels of armed intervention ultimately pre-
vail, we may find a repercussion throughout Latin America
which will embody the first consistent challenge to our
interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine and may involve us
in conflict with other powers. It must be remembered that
Latin America, while conceding that the Monroe Doctrine
properly serves to keep European political control out of
America, does not admit any corollary by which United
States control is to be substituted. One step in diplomacy
leads to the next, and the world is now, more than ever
before, a house of cards. Had Austria appreciated this
fact, the world war would probably not have occurred
in 1914. Moreover, reliance upon permanent friendship
among nations is likely to prove most tenuous in times of
test, if history has any meaning. While deep-seated
hostility unfortunately is a common phenomenon, such as
COMMON SENSE IN FOREIGN POLICY 181
the eternal feud between France and Germany, the much-
vaunted ties of friendship are easily broken when political
conditions require. Another phenomenon is the belief,
apparently entertained in high quarters, that all peoples
can accommodate themselves or mould then- institutions
to fit our Constitution. It is a manifestation of the passion
for uniformity often nurtured by illiberal minds. It has
much to do with the misfortunes of Mexico. The Constitu-
tion among us has experienced changes which have altered
much of its original conception, and properly so, for it
could not survive if it could not adjust itself to the genius
of each succeeding age and its social demands. But to
impose it on other peoples to whose institutions it does not
respond, is likely to produce friction and not peace.
Finally, a new factor in foreign policy, of exceptional
importance, requires intelligent consideration to avoid
misguidance. I refer to the press and organized propa-
ganda. Never before in history has the world been sub-
jected to so much misinformation, carefully prepared to
advance a political cause. With the skillful aid of an official
censorship which surpassed all military needs in the sup-
pression of facts, the people have been almost helpless in their
effort to learn the truth. The sources and channels of the
news were polluted. Diplomacy has found the department
of propaganda as essential an adjunct as the army and navy,
and against its machinations the struggle is difficult. I do
not condemn the press too severely, for often they are as
much sinned against as sinning. Were I to characterize
the position in my own language, I would not be so severe
as the expert whom I shall take the liberty to quote, but I
believe it well for our people to ponder the words of such an
authority as Mr. Charles Grant Miller, lately editor of the
Cleveland Plain Dealer. He says in the trade journal,
Editor and Publisher :
For five years there has been a world-wide famine in facts.
Truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, about any-
thing of grave public interest, seems to have disappeared from the
face of the earth. The date line is no longer any sign of the real
source of news. Assertion is little indication of the truth. The
news of Russia, the Balkans, the Bosphorus, and Central Europe
182 EDWIN M. B ORCHARD
mostly originates in London or is trimmed to London's shifting
interests; tidings of conditions in England, France and Italy are
carefully strained through the foreign loan centers of Wall Street;
and where all the rest of the worldful of interested if not interest-
ing misinformation comes from the Lord only knows.
The only defense against these forces of perversion is the
cultivation of intelligent opinion by a critical press and
public. Whether that end can be achieved I am not sure,
for the task, in face of the prevailing adverse conditions,
is very nearly insuperable. In foreign affairs, our public in
general is so devoid of any background of information that
the professional propagandist has a fairly easy task. The
only safeguard lies in education of the people, itself made
difficult by the propagandist, and in the development of a
body of journalists and editors who will manifest at least
as much regard for the interests and good name of their
own country as they do for the interests and policies of other
countries.
Appreciation of these facts and forces, I believe, is es-
sential to the development of an intelligent foreign policy.
Unless the economic foundation of international relations is
better understood, there will always be danger of the falsifica-
tion of issues and the confusion of public opinion by astute
or irresponsible politicians and by emotional or uninformed
journalists. Such understanding will also serve to give a
healthier and more reasoned direction to our collaborative
efforts in the building of a more stable international order.
Instead of carrying out policies thought out for us in foreign
capitals and ostensibly founded on permanent moral or politi-
cal principles, we shall be able to contribute to the promotion
of the general welfare by a sound judgment of the present
effect and probable future consequences of our foreign policy.
The necessity for enlightenment in this respect was never
more apparent than now. I do not believe that in modern
times the world has faced a greater crisis than that before
which we now stand. A continuation of the unenlighten-
ment from which the present governments of Europe seems
unable to escape is almost certain to lead to future wars, an
eventuality which would threaten not only present political
COMMON SENSE IN FOREIGN POLICY 183
systems, but the economic system as well. The intelligent
cooperation of the world's economic statesmen seems to me,
therefore, imperative, if we are to avert the dangers ahead.
Mere political cooperation— at best temporary and fluctuat-
ing, and never sufficiently informed, impartial or f arsighted —
will not solve the immediate problem. I would not oppose
collaboration by this Government in any cooperative effort,
by common counsel or definite action, calculated to relieve
the periodic tensions produced by the present international
competitive system, with its absence of all restraint upon
unfair competition; and I am even hopeful that some
day the world may see a centralized body appointed by
the nations with authority to allocate raw materials and
capital according to economic needs. Such an institution
would, I believe, more nearly solve the problem of war than
any now in existence. But now and at all times a foreign
policy informed by a major premise of fact and not fancy
is essential to the welfare of the nation.
THE CARIBBEAN POLICY OF THE UNITED
STATES1
By William R. Shepherd, Ph.D., L.H.D., Professor of
History, Columbia University
Until a quarter of a century ago the people of this country
knew of the great sea that lies to the southward as a neigh-
boring expanse of waters girdled with palm-treed shores
and dotted with islands innumerable, glistening in manifold
hues under the rays of a tropical sun. It was fabled as a
region once productive of rakish buccaneers and later of
swaggering revolutionists. In its political firmament each
of the various and variable republics that it contained was
presumed to occupy a separate star revolving through
international space — with as many revolutions per minute
as might seem desirable. From its exuberant soil sprang
the toothsome sugar-cane, the aromatic coffee and tobacco
and the delectable fruits that diversified the tastes of
temperate climes: An area where nature did as it pleased
and man did likewise, amid scenes both primitive and idyllic,
it was a geographical expression that meant little outside
of books and palates. Certain of our statesmen of old, to
be sure, had cast a wistful glance at an island or two and
even bits of mainland, as suitable places of sojourn for
evanescent ambitions, but the region continued nevertheless
to lie beyond the run of our public consciousness.
Suddenly in 1895 the Caribbean hove into sight. The
Monroe Doctrine awoke startled from its slumbers in the
realm of the more or less theoretical, and an insurrection
arose to shatter the last vestige of an ancient colonial
grandeur in the New World. Out of a dispute over the
1 In this paper an effort will be made to state the problem and to indicate
four policies that might be adopted. Of these policies only the first, as
the one that seems to correspond to the actual trend of events, will be
discussed at length.
184
CARIBBEAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 185
boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana and out
of a revolt of Cubans against the dominion of Spain have
come forth in the brief period of twenty-five years a series
of consequences for the United States, of which even now
as a people we have but scant appreciation. What we had
fancied peculiar to the expansive tendencies of European
nations in the remoter parts of Africa, Asia and the archi-
pelagoes of the Pacific has become a reality in our own
career. A region near in space but hitherto isolate in
thought has been converted into a sphere of influence for
this country. The Caribbean Sea has become an American
Mediterranean, if not altogether an American lake.
In and around this great sea to the southward are
islands and mainlands amounting in extent to over 1,300,000
square miles, or more than a third that of the United States
itself. They may be said to stretch like a giant chain all
the way from Bermuda, 580 miles east of North Carolina,
down to the northern coast of South America, and thence
up to Guatemala, 450 miles south of a point about midway
between Texas and Florida. Here under fifteen national
flags are four 'political groups. They consist of American
dependencies, what are virtually American protectorates,
independent republics and European colonies. To the first
group, of course, belong Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
The second is divisible into three classes, namely: states
like Cuba and Panama, which have a government of their
own, subject to certain specified limitations that we have
seen fit to impose; states like Haiti and Nicaragua, which
also have a government of their own, though subject in the
one case to a similarly specified but considerably more
stringent control on our part than is true of the class pre-
ceding, and in the other case to a supervision looser but
quite as effective; and a state called the Dominican Re-
public, which has no government at all of its own. To be
sure we maintain a solemn humbug of an international
relationship with it by having a Dominican envoy extra-
ordinary and minister plenipotentiary resident at Washing-
ton and an American diplomat of the same rank and title
dwelling hi the city of Santo Domingo, but the directing
186 WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD
word of an American naval officer is law in that land.
Doubtless the arrangement has its advantages, in that the
American director and the American diplomat can converse
in a language mutually intelligible and entertain views
that are fairly identical! The third group is composed of
the Central American republics of Guatemala, Honduras,
El Salvador and Costa Rica, where the influence of the
United States has been more or less patent at tunes, and
the two South American republics of Colombia and Vene-
zuela. The fourth is made up of the insular and continental
colonies of Great Britain, France and the Netherlands.
Out of this Caribbean area, following a plan of events
as they emerged, we have assembled on a small scale a
political and economic conglomerate that, like its huge
British compeer in the world at large, is fearfully and
wonderfully made. We appear even to have been living
up to the best traditions of our erstwhile motherland, by
gathering it all up in spells of absentmindedness. In putting
it together our course of action reveals something of the
equally British "unity in diversity." We seem also to have
grasped and applied the meaning of the famous answer of
a British minister who, when asked in the House of Com-
mons what reason Great Britain had for holding Egypt,
replied: "that of being hi a position to give the khedive
authoritative advice!"
Without attempting either a logical or a chronological
order of presentation, since neither would bring with it
either clarity or consistency hi the essential absence of both,
a list in outline of the more obvious of the heterogeneous
processes at work might be offered. It would include:
applications of the Monroe Doctrine, both as it was and
as it has grown to be; the determination of boundaries;
the prevention of filibustering; the annexation of territory
by conquest and by purchase; aid in the establishment of
two republics, and the temporary administration of one
of them; the acquisition of a canal zone, as well as an option
on a second canal route, and an attempt to secure a third,
asserting thus a claim to sole ownership of potentially
competitive routes hi the vicinity; the actual building of
CARIBBEAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 187
a canal; the acquisition further of islands and harbors to
be used as naval stations; the military as well as diplomatic
protection of persons and property, both foreign and Ameri-
can; the restoration and maintenance of order, including the
reservation of a right to intervene for the purpose; the
establishment of a native constabulary under American
officers; the placing of limitations on the amount of indebted-
ness which a republic might incur; a course of financial
rehabilitation carried actually to the point of putting re-
publics into the hands of a receiver; mediation between
belligerent states; help in the formation of a species of
federation of republics under moral supervision; intervention
for the purpose of insuring fair elections and the enforce-
ment of rules of sanitation, both physical and moral; a
refusal to recognize presidents who had gained their positions
by a resort to violence, the diplomatic blocking of grants
of economic concessions to Europeans, and the destruction
of the government of one republic and the imposition of
varying types of restriction upon the governments of others.
To all such activities of an official character must be added
the spread and diversification of commercial, industrial and
financial enterprises on the part of American citizens and
corporations, weaving ever closer and closer the economic
network that binds the Caribbean lands to the United
States. Not the proximity of these lands alone, but the
nature of then: climate and soil and the wealth of their
resources in general render them of incalculable value to
us. They constitute a tropical belt similar to that which
European nations have acquired long since in other parts
of the world and have found altogether desirable. They
are so many natural markets lying upon one of the greatest
commercial highways of the present and future — to and
from the Panama Canal. From them come raw materials
and secondary foodstuffs requisite for our factories and
exchangeable for our basic foodstuffs and manufactured
articles. They have become localities, also, for the invest-
ment of American capital under circumstances that may
invite the exercise of political influence to a greater or less
degree.
188 WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD
Though all of the Central American countries in par-
ticular, except El Salvador, front on both the Pacific and
the Caribbean, their economic outlook on the whole is
directed toward the Caribbean. Tropical fruit thrives most
abundantly in the lowlands on the Caribbean side. Here
too the sugar-plantations and the forests of hardwoods
and rubber are mainly accessible. With the construction
of interoceanic railways and the growing use of agricultural
machinery, the commerce that springs from the steady
development of the interior tends to flow out of Caribbean
ports that serve as feeders for New Orleans, New York and
other American seaboard centers. No small percentage of
Central American trade, furthermore, has been derived
from investments made by American corporations and
individuals. All this would show that, quite apart from
political influence, the currents of commerce in this area,
as elsewhere in the Caribbean, set toward the United States,
and by it are controlled.
Back of the entry of American capital, however, which
has been comparatively recent, lie a series of financial
complications in which many of the republics have been
involved with European creditors. As a bulwark against
foreign aggression of the sort that was contemplated in
1823, the Monroe Doctrine, of course, has been effective.
No overt attempts have been made, or seem likely to be
made by any non-American nation at actual colonization
or the setting up of a foreign political system or the oppres-
sion of any of the republics. More insidious forms of alien
influence have appeared to menace the welfare of the lands
to the southward and challenge the future efficacy of the
great American tenet in its broader implications.
Viewing the history of the smaller Caribbean republics
as a whole during the last quarter of a century, it is evident
that, with the exception of Cuba, few have displayed
financial soundness. Even in the case of the European
colonies the balance sheet has been far from favorable.
Most of the smaller republics, certainly, like tropical areas
elsewhere, have gravitated toward bankruptcy, as one or
another has repudiated or scaled down its foreign debt,
CARIBBEAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 189
found itself unable to pay, or has fallen into dispute with
foreign creditors. Whether the fault lay primarily hi the
misbehavior or incapacity of the rulers of any particular
country, or was attributable rather to the rapacity of
European financiers who took advantage of helplessness
or corruption, is beside the point. The condition called for
alleviative action by a strong neighbor, if security and
development were to be attained.
On the other hand, apart altogether from phenomena
suggestive of force and fraud, and taking legitimate trans-
actions alone into account, it is manifest that, hi proportion
as weak little tropical countries need outside capital for
the utilization of resources that consist of a single or of a
very small number of staple products, their dependence
upon this financial aid is likely to make them in greater or
less degree subject to the political influence of the home
government of the investor. Similarly, to the extent that
this particular home government supports its nationals and
promotes their enterprises accordingly, so does the process
of economic imperialism continue until the tropical lands
in question become hopelessly subordinate to an alien
political control. Such a control would be revealed in three
main respects, namely: over the public debt, over conces-
sions granted to foreigners for the exploitation of natural
resources, and over forms of purely private investment.
The issue that fairly presents itself, therefore, is, whether
the inevitable control that proceeds from a necessity of
adjusting pecuniary claims of one sort or another should
be exercised by a European nation or by the United States.
Unrelated as official courses of action to meet all these
conditions and circumstances may seem, they have followed
quite consistently nevertheless certain lines of development
coincident with the economic tendencies of the Caribbean
area and marked out by former American Secretaries of
State. One is found hi the declaration of Richard Olney
in 1895: "the United States is practically sovereign on this
continent, and its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it
confines its interposition."2 Another is visible in state-
2 House Documents, 54th Cong., 1st sess., I, No. 1, pt. 1, p. 558.
190 WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD
ments of Elihu Root in 1904: "the Monroe Doctrine ....
is an assertion of our right for our own interest to interfere
with the action of every other nation in those parts of this
hemisphere where others are sovereign .... and to
say, if you do thus and so, even by the consent of the sover-
eign, we shall regard it as an unfriendly act because it will
affect us injuriously;"3 "we arrogate to ourselves ....
only the right to protect; what we will not permit the great
Powers of Europe to do .... we will not permit
any American republic to make it necessary for the great
Powers of Europe to do."4 A third is to be noted in an
assertion of Philander C. Knox in 1912, when, referring also
to the Monroe Doctrine, he said: "it has in Providence
been given to us of the North to state and interpret it."6
"Territorial propinquity," moreover, according to Robert
Lansing in 1917, "creates special relations between coun-
tries."6 Though pronounced in the famous Lansing-Ishii
agreement, and hence in quite a separate connection, the
implications of this assertion, as between the United States
and the Caribbean region, are obvious enough.
When one reviews such highly significant utterances by
our former Secretaries of State, the most striking thing about
them is the fact that they were delivered by representatives
of both of the great political parties. This in itself denotes
a continuity of thought under successive administrations
and regardless of differences in political platforms. In sub-
stance the several dicta appear to mean that the exercise
of independent action by American republics is subject to
limitations imposed by the United States for its own pro-
tection and in the interest of an enforcement of the Monroe
Doctrine, by obviating in advance any reason for its appli-
cation. As a political medicine, accordingly, the Monroe
Doctrine becomes a preventive instead of a remedy. They
would indicate, also, that the proximity of a powerful and
progressive country to a feeble or backward one entitles
8 Senate Document No. 471, 63rd Cong., 2d sess., p. 39.
4 Elihu Root, Miscellaneous addresses, p. 272.
5 American Journal of International Law, vol. vi, p. 495.
6T. F. Millard, Democracy and the Eastern Question, p. 152.
CARIBBEAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 191
the former to a right of determining the kind of relationship
that shall exist between them.
Whatever the inferences that may be drawn from these
<licta, they are centered in economic and political concerns
so closely interwoven as to constitute, when applied to the
Caribbean region, something quite akin to a declaration of
economic imperialism. If the original foundation upon
which the structure rests are the Venezuelan imbroglio and
the Cuban insurrection, the keystone to the arch is the
Panama Canal. At this inter oceanic waterway practically
all of our interests roundabout it since 1903 have converged,
with the object of defending it and of guarding against the
acquisition by oversea nations of adjacent trade routes that
might compete with it. The control of the Canal has carried
with it dominance over the Caribbean area, and that for
strategic, political and economic motives identified with
the protection of our own national welfare.
Regardless, then, of their particular status of dependence
or independence, the countries lying in and around that
area are of vital interest to the United States. Not only
are they immediate neighbors in whose well-being we must
have the concern that proximity suggests, but their location
possesses for us a political and economic, as well as purely
human, significance that we cannot fail to heed. They
are situated so close to our shores and to the Panama Canal
that their fortunes and ours are and must be indissolubly
linked. Whether this fact has become an actual part of
our national consciousness or not, it is revealed in utterances
and in deeds, official and private, sufficiently to make its
existence plain. More than that, the trend of international
events here in the New World, no less than in the Old, as
the economic and political consequences of the war became
apparent, would seem to foretell the likelihood of an extension
of the influence of the United States on an ever-widening
scale over the countries in and around the Caribbean.
In this connection one need cite but a single concrete
illustration — the oil problem. Our consumption of this
product, so indispensable in an oil-driven age, is increasing
and the home supply of it diminishing. This, however,
192 WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD
is not the really serious or alarming phase of the matter.
Rather is it to be found in the disposition of European
governments to bar foreigners out of the ownership and
operation of oil properties, and themselves actually to
participate in the ownership and control of the corporations
that may be concerned — and this not hi their own dominions
alone, but hi countries where they have no sovereignty.
The possible effects of such a plan of action upon the United
States are easily conceived. Means of counteraction will
have to be sought hi the Caribbean region as well as in
Mexico. The acquisition by European countries of African
and Asiatic territories to be held under the form of mandates
from a League of Nations, and having a door ostensibly
open while the economic manage within apparently is kept
closed, has thus a meaning to us on this side of the water.
Whatever the characteristics of thought and deed, there
has been nothing deliberate and systematic about our course
of action in the Caribbean. Neither the government nor
the people of the United States has planned it hi conscious
fashion. Worse than that, utter indifference joined with
ignorance has marked only too often the popular attitude
toward it. Things said or done have aroused substantially
no public attention, met with no organized aid or opposition
in Congress and seldom produced either approval or con-
demnation in the press. Not only is there a lack of interest
in what we have done or are doing in the Caribbean, but
in why anything has been done. The American people has
never expressed an opinion at the polls as to whether it
sanctioned or not a variety of our performances there.
Even the purchase of insular territory at an enormous
price evoked no especial comment one way or the other.
Supposedly independent republics have had their independ-
ence diminished or destroyed, their affairs taken over and
their inhabitants and property made subject to officials
acting under the orders of the President of the United
States — all without the slightest constitutional warrant —
and yet who among us seems noticeably to care?
To our neighbors in the Caribbean, moreover, what may
be termed the fourfold relationship of this country to its
CAKIBBEAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 193
sister republics in America appears to have been applied
with particular intenseness, and in each of its phases: of
territorial expansion, political and economic dominance,
invocations of the Monroe Doctrine and pronouncements
about Pan-Americanism. The notion, indeed, of an essen-
tial community of interests and problems between the
United States and its fellow republics, which suggests
cooperation for the promotion of the one and the solution
of the other, has been iterated on many an occasion, even
if the action taken by this country has been rather unilateral
than otherwise. So, too, in its protean guises the Monroe
Doctrine — if its initial letters and its mode of application
at times suggest anything — would seem to have been evolved
under successive presidential administrations from a Demo-
cratic-Republican "Manifest Destiny" into a Republican
"Masterful Domination/' continuing on into a Republican
"Money Diplomacy" and thence, according to the opinion
of some perhaps, into a Democratic "Much Deception" —
if the disparity between benevolent assurances about the
equality of nations great and small and the actual manner
in which they have been handled since 1913 is taken into
account. But when all is said and done, the American
public seems to have recked nought of cause or consequence.
There has been some expostulation, to be sure, over a
supposedly deliberate imperialism of ours which would seek
to create a tropical empire to the southward, as a sort of
belt of heat about the temperate waist-line of the United
States. Condemnation, also, has been levelled at the treat-
ment by this country of a number of the smaller republics,
on the ground that they were so treated because they were
weak nations and as such might be imposed upon. To
these charges, however, an answer is not difficult.
It has not been a deliberate spirit of imperialism, nor
even a solicitous regard for the Monroe Doctrine, but rather
a more or less unconscious determination on the part of
the United States to maintain its political preponderance,
promote its economic advancement, and strengthen through-
out the area of the Caribbean a sense of inter-American
solidarity of which the United States should be the sponsor
194 WILLIAM E. SHEPHERD
and guarantor, that has led this country to introduce among
presumably independent republics a kind of tutelage un-
known elsewhere in the world. By so doing it has sought
no exclusive commercial privileges. Oversea nations share
with it freely the benefits of the stability that it has striven
to maintain. Their citizens, capital, trade and property
in general are quite as amply protected as our own. Yet
it cannot be denied that, in regard to several of the republics
immediately to the southward, and carefully as the sugges-
tion of a political protectorate has been avoided, this
country has converted itself into a trustee; it has become
a self-appointed mandatary for weaker neighbors. Even
so it would be hard to prove that the line of action we have
taken was based solely upon the superiority of our strength
over their feebleness. The real distinction, on the contrary,
that we have endeavored to draw rests upon the difference
between orderly and progressive self-government and retro-
gressive disorder. In the latter case government by the
consent of the governed may signify merely taking a gun
and going into politics; but to the Anglo-Saxon mind at all
events it would express something other than consent!
One may admit, nevertheless, the possibility that the
substantial difference as an international problem between
the plight of Mexico and that of some of the little nations
of the Caribbean has been one of size. Were Mexico a
small state requiring for the restoration of "law and order "
merely the despatch of a squad of American sailors and
marines, with or without the formulation in advance of a
treaty for the purpose of setting up a virtual protectorate,
and minus also the antecedent approval or even knowledge
of the American people, the woes of Mexico might have
been assuaged long since. Many Americans and other
foreigners have been slain and much American and other
foreign property has been destroyed or damaged in that
country. This has not been true in the Caribbean states.
"Cleaning up" Mexico, doubtless, would be a big job;
whereas "wiping out" the independence of little Caribbean
republics seems to have been part of the day's work!
CAEIBBEAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 195
In view of all the foregoing and in view also of the fact
that we have completed a quarter century of practices more
or less at variance with platitudes, though not with official
dicta, and have emerged furthermore from a war that in
directing our energies abroad has obscured more than ever
our thought and conduct nearer home, it is about time for
us to cease drifting in the Caribbean. The course of the
United States toward the republics and European colonies
in and around the American Mediterranean ought to be
shaped by a definite policy. Just what we intend to do in
that region should be rendered clear. Even if such cate-
gorical questions as, how long will our actual power and
our potentialities for interference remain as they are, how
often shall we go back to a political archbishop at Washing-
ton for more time — as the earlier evolutionists did with the
Ussherian chronology — or whether we shall ever let go, can
hardly be answered in a manner that will carry practical
conviction, we can differentiate at least among what we
imagine we are doing, what we are really doing and what
we intend to do. The people of the United States ought
to face realities and leave off swallowing honeyed phrases
that have a different taste, perhaps, in the Caribbean. A
precise declaration of intention is needed — an expression of
deliberate national will working on the basis of a knowledge
of the facts and an appreciation of the possible consequences.
Rather than allow the United States to continue resembling
a glacier that in terrifying' silence is slipping slowly and
surely southward, with scant prospect of melting as it goes,
the simile of an avalanche might be preferable. At least
it would have the advantage of enabling our Caribbean
neighbors to see and hear it coming!
In the formulation of a definite policy on the part of the
United States four courses of action are available for con-
sideration. Briefly they may be designated as "regulation,"
"annexation," "neutralization" and "abstention." In a
geographical sense, "regulation" would be applicable to
the smaller republics; "annexation," to the British, French
•and Dutch colonies; "neutralization," to the republics and
possibly to the colonies also, and "abstention," to both of
them.
196 WILLIAM K. SHEPHERD
Taking up the first of these suggested modes of procedure,
"regulation" would mean that the United States, without
depriving of its actual independence any nation that is
unable to maintain an orderly and progressive existence,
should exercise over it such a degree of supervision and
control as may be requisite to enable the country concerned
to govern itself properly. If we adopt and proclaim this
to be our Caribbean policy, however, the motives, methods
and consequences which it would involve must be clearly
understood. It would not be sufficient simply to hit upon
a form of administration for a given locality, with or without
training in the art of self-government, or to employ the
customary means for an assurance of order or an attainment
of relief from the burden of indebtedness. The question
would be : whether the purpose of the United States and the
action chosen to correspond would be altruistic in nature —
one genuinely and sincerely designed to help small nations
to help themselves; or whether it would be fixed in the terms
merely of our own material interests and possibly theirs.
Along with the assumption by this country of a right to
determine for itself whether a particular republic is fitted
for self-government or not, it would be equally a duty to
make indisputably plain the circumstances that would
justify interference in the internal or external affairs of that
republic. No claim based on proximity or necessity alone,
which might involve, as it did in a certain famous example
in western Europe at the outbreak of the recent war, the
perpetration of a moral wrong, would suffice. The essential
rights of small nations on this side of the water are no less
an obligation to uphold than they are on the other side.
What, then, are the bases upon which such regulation
might rest? In the first place it is obvious that a nation
has the duty no less than the right to protect its citizens
and then* interests abroad, so long as the conduct of such
citizens is in accordance with the privileges guaranteed them
by treaty and the general principles of international law.
Since the United States, moreover, has undertaken in its
interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine to prevent non-
American nations from interfering beyond a certain point
CAEIBBEAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 197
in the affairs of an American republic for the protection of
their nationals, it is plainly the duty of the United States
also to extend such protection beyond the point which the
non-American nations in question may not pass. While
in this manner it is bound to safeguard legitimate foreign
interests, it is none the less obligated, on its own behalf and
on that of any particular republic, not only to forestall
foreign intervention but to balk foreign intrigue.
In the second place, it is amply recognized at common
law that anyone has the right to abate a nuisance. If
conditions reach such a pass in any given republic that the
lives and property of foreigners and nationals are wholly
or even largely at the mercy of armed bands engaged in
chronic revolutionary turmoil, or in fomenting in one state
an insurrection planned for another state, and the conduct
of public affairs in that country becomes an international
scandal, the United States would have to restore order.
How legitimate the performance of this police duty might
be must depend upon the extent to which foreigners, rather
than natives, were really to blame for the conditions war-
ranting such action.
Financial rehabilitation is another basis on which a policy
of "regulation" should rest. To countries like many of
those in the Caribbean loans have been and still are in-
dispensable. If such loans are to have the proper security,
they must be backed by liens upon the public revenues,
foremost among which are the customs receipts. By their
honest and economical administration in the interests of
the republic concerned, no less than in those of the foreign
creditors, the proceeds from taxation in one form or another
would be put beyond the reach of more or less professional
trouble-makers, whose chief ami might be to seize the
public treasury. The chances are, also, that a goodly
number of the evils associated with the grant of lavish
concessions to foreigners as an easy way of borrowing money
would be obviated. The old situation whereby, if a foreign
corporation in receipt of such a concession paid the rental
regularly, the government was not likely to intervene on
behalf of its nationals who might suffer from a misuse of
198 WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD
the privilege in question, would not so readily occur. It
may well happen, nevertheless, that the development of
natural resources in some instances could be rendered
profitable only through the grant of concessions to corpo-
rations which thereby are enabled to control, not land and
modes of transportation alone, but native labor as well.
If so, the duty of honest supervision to guard against
exorbitant demands becomes all the more imperative.
American companies, therefore, doing business in Caribbean
countries where the local government is unable or unwilling
to keep them within proper legal restraints, should be in-
corporated under the federal laws of the United States and
be made subject to regulation and inspection.
This brings up the question as to the ethics of certain
pecuniary claims that have been put forward by foreign
creditors of Caribbean lands. Fifteen years ago, when the
news was flashed across the seas that the government of the
United States was about to undertake the work of rehabili-
tating the finances of the Dominican Republic, the effect
upon European banking circles was paradoxical. The quo-
tations of bonds issued by such countries rose forthwith,
but some of the bondholders protested against any arrange-
ment of the sort contemplated for ascertaining the actual
validity of the debts alleged to have been incurred. It
was apparent then that the United States had no sympathy
with the European practice, sanctioned by long usage, of
demanding the payment of claims at the cannon's mouth,
prior to a legal determination of the justice of the amount
to be exacted. Whatever the opinion entertained overseas
on the matter, this country showed itself unwilling to
subscribe to the view that any nation should be at liberty
to decide at its pleasure how it might collect from small
states sums declared to be due its nationals.
If proper care in the supervision of matters financial is
exercised, the results are likely to prove beneficial both to
the foreign investor and to the republic concerned. As the
one is relieved of anxiety about his money, so the other is
protected against oppressive exploitation and the ill effects
of its own improvidence. An assurance of stability in these
CARIBBEAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 199
respects would meet pecuniary obligations, replace a fluc-
tuating and more or less irredeemable paper money by a
gold-secured currency, and attract the capital needful to
stimulate industry, promote commerce, and foster the im-
provement of seaports and modes of transportation. In
general, it would provide the republic in question with the
measure of prosperity which the abundance of its natural
resources might suggest. Above all, the United States
would be enabled to take due precautions against possible
infringements of the Monroe Doctrine under the guise of
safeguarding innocent foreign loans and concessions.
So as not to wound unnecessarily, and still less to destroy,
the consciousness of nationhood, financial supervision should
be entrusted to international commissions and not to Ameri-
cans alone. The creation of boards composed of representa-
tives both of the republic concerned and of our own country
would not imply any disparagement of dignity on either
side. If railways and other public works can be built on
this joint basis, and if nations interested have assigned to
commissions of the sort industrial and commercial tasks of
great difficulty which they have performed with entire
success, there is no valid reason why the same course of
action could not be adopted in reference to matters of
finance as between the United States and Caribbean coun-
tries whose pecuniary problems seem incapable of solution
by local effort alone.
Another basis for the policy of "regulation" would take
the form of an imposition of moral restraint upon a govern-
ment whose conduct might seem hurtful to the welfare of
its citizens or that of an assurance of moral support to
attempts at social amelioration. On behalf of international
fair-dealing, however, the course of action ought never to
be inconsistent or gratuitously meddlesome. Such a spec-
tacle as that of the United States refusing to uphold the
authority of the Central American Court of Justice for the
creation of which it was really the sponsor, and allowing it
to lapse after a decision indirectly adverse to our procedure
with regard to the financial rehabilitation of Nicaragua had
been rendered, ought never to be repeated. Neither should
200 WILLIAM B. SHEPHERD
the performance of refusing to recognize a president who
might have secured his power through a resort to violence.
While it is all very well for the United States to try to
inculcate a love for democracy of an Anglo-Saxon type, by
helping Caribbean republics to govern themselves, insuring
to them the largest measure of democratic government of
which they may be capable, and exercising on its own ac-
count such an amount of control over the fundamentals as
may seem reasonable and prudent, insistence upon a right
of withholding recognition because of a difference hi methods
of presidential selection is wholly unjustifiable. Unless we
are prepared to accept the implication that this procedure
entails, namely, that we ourselves guarantee the fairness
of elections by superintending them, it is a most insidious
form of intervention in the domestic affairs of a friendly
neighbor. The same may be said of our practice in several
cases of sustaining a particular government in power which
is not desired by a majority of the citizens.
Were the policy of "regulation," furthermore, to be not
only adopted but rendered systematic, it would suggest the
advisability of ascertaining whether the existing forms and
processes of administration employed in the Caribbean are
well adapted to the needs of the localities affected, and
whether some degree of uniformity, instead of the actual
heterogeneity, might not be introduced both into that area
and into the various bureaus and divisions at Washington
which are charged with the conduct of their affairs. It
would determine whether the course of action thus far
pursued and the theories underlying it really befit the needs
of the regions and peoples to which they are applied, and
the extent to which a careful discrimination might provide
for subserving better their respective interests where con-
ditions might present marked differences for consideration.
However satisfactory a kind of administration which dis-
tributes powers between central and local authorities under
a federal system may seem to the American people, it is
not apt to work under circumstances quite unlike those to
which we are accustomed. At the earliest possible moment,
also, military control, wherever set up, should be superseded
CARIBBEAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 201
by civil rule. More important still, the American authori-
ties temporarily in charge should provide amply for the
advancement of education and never rest content merely
with a promotion of material well-being. Industry, com-
merce and transportation must be stimulated, of course,
but the training of the mental and moral senses and the
elevation of the standard of living are so many human rights
that must be given preference over all other considerations.
Instead of having the duties and responsibilities at Wash-
ington distributed among several departments of govern-
ment, moreover, it might be desirable to consolidate them
as much as practicable on behalf of a more efficient adminis-
stration. As matters stand, the failure to coordinate the
agencies entrusted with the direction of Caribbean concerns
is likely to produce confusion where it does not work in-
justice. Consolidation, also, might serve more effectively
to centre public attention upon this particular phase of our
foreign relationships, lest it become excessively bureaucratic.
Every possible safeguard, therefore, must be chosen
against arbitrary action. To whatever of importance is
done the utmost publicity should be assured. This is all
the more imperative in view of the indifference of our
people to foreign affairs. The United States is not like
Great Britain, where spokesmen for native peoples are
numerous in Parliament and advocates of their rights are
vocal in the press and on the platform. Here in our country
the tendency only too often is to conclude that such a
spokesman or advocate is harboring an ulterior motive of
self-interest or else a sinister design upon the common wel-
fare. Frank and honest constructive criticism, neverthe-
less, is needed in the management of our foreign concerns
more than in those of domestic import, just because so
little public attention is devoted to them.
Manifold as the several advantages of the policy under
consideration may appear to be, there is quite another side
to the picture. If "regulation" be our motto, it means
something other than mere " dollar diplomacy " or the sub-
stitution of " dollars for bullets," in the same fashion that
the police phase of our course of action would be intended
202 WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD
to replace bullets by ballots. It connotes a tightening of
the grip of the American investor whose hand would be
upheld by the government of the United States. If this
in turn should imply the reduction of the smaller Caribbean
republics to the position of debtors, in order to facilitate
the exercise of political power over them, or on the plea of
suppressing revolution give to Americans a monopolistic
grasp upon the resources and wealth of those countries, its
ethical merits would be dubious indeed.
Moreover there are certain pleasant terms in international
parlance the use of which an honest consistency would have
to make us forego. "The twenty-one independent republics
of the New World," the "equality of sovereign states in
this hemisphere," the "self-determination of small nations,"
even "Pan- Americanism" and similar expressions, would
have to fall somewhat into desuetude, except as ornate
trappings for state occasions. And yet, if it be true that
several of the Caribbean countries are in fact no longer
independent and belong almost, if not quite, in the category
of the British crown colonies, so far as their relationship
to the United States is concerned, the inconsistency in
employing misnomers would seem already obvious.
It might happen, also, that the concretion of a heteregene-
ous series of activities in the Caribbean into a definite and
officially announced policy of regulating their affairs would
move in the direction of forming an actual Caribbean empire
by a constant enlargement of the nature and scope of what
was being done. If so, it might create a tendency to widen
its bounds far enough to include Mexico. True, our Dec-
laration of Independence had no historical bearing at the
time of its pronouncement upon the republics in the Carib-
bean, but there is at least a semblance of a generality of
application about the principles it sets forth. If govern-
ments do owe their just powers to the consent of the gov-
erned, as much in the great sea to the southward as they
do in the United States itself and in other powerful nations,
it is rather hard to reconcile either this particular tenet, or
its later exposition in regard to making the world safe for
democracy, with a regulation of the affairs of sister republics,
CABIBBEAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 203
unless the mental reservations that may be lurking behind
either of them are rendered distinctly geographical and
political as well.
It might be argued, furthermore, that in order to befit
a new set of circumstances the adoption of such a policy
would require still another fundamental alteration in the
Monroe Doctrine as originally conceived. As that pro-
nouncement was designed to protect both the republics of
America at large and the United States itself against the
wiles and perils of European domination, so hereafter it
would have to be understood to mean that it supplies the
United States with an official dictum for the establishment
in the Caribbean of an American sphere of influence. On
the principle that what a non- American power is prohibited
from doing we may do, and that precisely because our
country is not a non-American power, we can build up or
tear down as we list — for "we have the ships, we have the
men and we have the money too!" The Caribbean re-
publics, accordingly, under such an interpretation of the
Monroe Doctrine, must be kept absolutely independent of
Europe, even if in order to attain that desirable situation
we have to make them dependent upon the United States.
Of the policies that remain to be dealt with, those of
"annexation' ' and "neutralization" belong to the realm of
the conceivable rather than of the actual, and hence do
not call for elaboration here. "Annexation," it may be
said, would suggest the acquisition of the British, French
and Dutch colonies by purchase from their present European
owners.7 Whatever the advantages or disadvantages of
this procedure, its adoption would be quite compatible
with the policy already discussed. Just as "regulation,"
if duly safeguarded against abuse, would assure to the
republics an independence as effective as that which Cuba
now possesses, so "annexation," if carried out in the spirit
that has been displayed in the administration of Porto
Rico and the Philippines, would endow the colonies with
7W. R. Shepherd, "The attitude of the United States toward the re-
tention by European nations of colonies in and around the Caribbean,"
in Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science (New York, 1917), pp.
200-13.
204 WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD
a measure of self-government and an opportunity for
progress more liberal by far than what they now have.
"Neutralization," on the other hand, is a course of action
from which the ideas of "regulation" and "annexation"
would be wholly absent. Moreover it would necessitate
a relinquishment of the Monroe Doctrine to the geographical
extent that might be required. At all events it would have
as its objective an application to the Caribbean of what has
been done to states, provinces and other localities in Europe
and islands adjacent to it. The republics, and it Great
Britain, France and the Netherlands were willing, the
colonies also, would be placed under an international guar-
antee of perpetual immunity from external attack, and
prevented in like fashion from making war. To this end
the European countries that hold the dependencies in
question, the Dominion of Canada and the greater nations
at least of South America, as the parties mainly interested,
might be invited to join the United States in a common
pledge of protection to the Caribbean lands.
Among the three policies thus far proposed, that of
"regulation" is at present the most practicable from the
American national standpoint. It squares more with pre-
cedents and conditions, also, than either of the others.
If declared definitely to be the policy of the United States,
it might have a beneficial influence through this very
declaration upon republics of unrest, which are not soothed
by bland assurances from us about equality among sovereign
nations, so long as acts indicative of a belief to the contrary
are employed against them. In the fullness of time, more-
over, acquisition of the European colonies may be combined
with it.
But, if the smaller republics in and around the great
sea to the southward, along with their fellows of larger
dimensions elsewhere in America, are, as on repeated oc-
casions our statesmen and publicists have declared them
to be — free and independent sovereign nations, on an
equality of rank and dignity with other nations of the world,
and hence entitled to the immunity from interference by
outsiders which that status would require — and if the
CARIBBEAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 205
"Pan- Americanism'* that we profess really rests upon such
a foundation, then "abstention" would be ideally and
sentimentally the policy for the United States to adopt.
This would mean a discontinuance of the practices that
have marked our treatment of many of the Caribbean
countries, a withdrawal of so much of the political control
over them as now exists, and an abandonment of any
thought of acquiring the European colonies as well as of
securing the neutralization of either the republics or the
colonies. Logically, also, it would appear to connote even
a renunciation of the Monroe Doctrine.
Accordingly the little states in question would have to
be allowed to work out then- own destinies as they might
see fit. Any limitation placed upon them in the exercise
of then* right to freedom in the broad sense would wound,
and possibly destroy, their consciousness of nationhood.
The sole remedy in justice applicable to them, in case their
behavior at any time were not to square with the rules of
conduct laid down by civilized nations, would be to subject
them to an international boycott until they had mended
their ways.
For two reasons, however, a policy of "abstention" is
untenable. One of them is unhappily the incontrovertible
logic of things as they are. The other is the fact that most
of the republics of Latin America, including several of
those in the Caribbean area, have joined the League of
Nations, and by so doing have formally recognized the
validity of the Monroe Doctrine which, in accordance with
Article 21, "nothing" in the Covenant "shall be deemed
to affect." Whether the United States becomes a member
of the League or not, the result is the same. The cardinal
tenet that governs our relations with the republics of Latin
America has become through their express recognition of
it, and through that of the other signatories of the Covenant,
a part of the international law of the world. Instead of
protecting them against such a construction as the United
States may determine to put upon the Monroe Doctrine,
their adoption of the Covenant appears rather to have
deprived them of the measure of protection that they
already enjoyed.
THE PRESENT AMERICAN INTERVENTION IN
SANTO DOMINGO AND HAITI
By Judge Otto Schoenrich, formerly President of the Nicaragua
Mixed Claims Commission; Connected with the Reorgani-
zation of Dominican Finances; Author of
"Santo Domingo"
As part of the heritage left us by the Spanish War our
country is charged with the arduous but honorable task
of assisting the countries of the Caribbean Sea in the quest
of economic and political well-being. Porto Rico and Cuba
early came under our administrative action and our record
in both of those Islands has brought honor to the United
States. In the last five years new fields have been opened
to our activity, and Hispaniola, the favorite island of
Columbus, has resounded with the tramp of the American
marines. The two republics on that island, the Dominican
Republic of Santo Domingo, and the Republic of Haiti,
had stumbled on the difficult road of self-government and
we have intervened to raise them up and help them on to
material prosperity and political stability. It is the purpose
of this address to set forth, in brief outline, how these inter-
ventions have come about and the manner in which we are
fulfilling our mission.
SANTO DOMINGO
Occupation by the United States
Between the Dominican Republic and the United States
close relations have existed since 1905. At that time the
Dominican custom-houses were placed hi charge of an
American receiver-general for the purpose of securing a
bond issue through which the Dominican Republic redeemed
itself from bankruptcy. Under a treaty between the
Dominican Republic and the United States both govern-
206
INTERVENTION IN SANTO DOMINGO AND HAITI 207
ments agreed to protect the receiver-general, and the
Dominican government promised not to increase its debt
without the consent of the American government.
Events progressed satisfactorily in Santo Domingo until
November, 1911, when the assassination of President
Caceres inaugurated a period of civil commotion, during
which the Dominican government violated its treaty pledge
to refrain from further debt contraction. As revolution
succeeded revolution the American navy repeatedly gave
moral support to one side or the other, and officials came
from the state department to arrange compromises. In
April, 1916, the minister of war endeavored to depose the
president, and another revolution threatened, when the
American government took drastic action. With the con-
sent of the Dominican president marines were landed and
took possession of Santo Domingo and other port towns.
In the interior there was some opposition, but occupation
of the whole country was eventually accomplished, with a
loss of seven Americans killed and fifteen wounded, and
probably about three hundred Dominicans killed and
wounded. The American forces took over the collection
of the Dominican revenues and disarmed the inhabitants,
but otherwise the affairs of the Republic were administered
in the usual manner.
The Congress of Santo Domingo thereupon elected as
temporary president Dr. Francisco Henriquez y Carvajal,
a distinguished physician and highly cultured man, who
assembled a cabinet of the most prominent Dominicans.
The United States government, however, refused to extend
recognition except on condition that a new treaty between
the two countries be adopted, similar to the treaty recently
negotiated between the United States and Haiti. The
principal features of this treaty were the collection of the
customs under American auspices, the appointment of an
American financial adviser, and the establishment of a
constabulary force officered by Americans.
Henriquez and his cabinet refused to accede, pointing
out that the proposed arrangement would make the Domini-
can government a puppet controlled by all-powerful and
208 OTTO SCHOENMCH
not sufficiently responsible American officials. The Ameri-
can authorities exerted pressure by declining to pay over
any of the Republic's revenues, and as they controlled
practically all, the Henriquez government was left penniless.
As a result no salaries were paid, most government services
were discontinued, and the whole machinery of government
was paralyzed. The entire country rallied about the
president, however. Political enmities were forgotten,
officials performed their duties as far as possible without
pay, and the resistance to the American demands, though
passive, was general.
Proclamation of military government
The situation continued for several months until on
November 29, 1916, the commander of the American cruiser
force in Dominican waters broke the deadlock by declaring
the Dominican Republic under the temporary military
administration of the United States.
Although the proposed new treaty had met with resistance,
I believe the majority of thinking Dominicans found abun-
dant consolation in the turn of events. They remembered
the advances in Porto Rico and Cuba under American
supervision and hoped that in a few months the road would
be opened to similar progress in Santo Domingo.
The United States navy and marine officers took over
the entire government of the country, which they still
retain. A rear-admiral of the American navy is military
governor and exercises full executive and legislative func-
tions, the Dominican congress being suspended. The posts
of cabinet ministers are filled by officers of the American
navy and marine corps. Although this form of government
still continues in Santo Domingo, yet at the same time an
American minister is maintained there, under the theory
that the country is independent; naturally his duties are
nominal.
INTERVENTION IN SANTO DOMINGO AND HAITI 209
Accomplishments of military government
The military government has now lasted three and one-
half years. In that time it has accomplished a number of
results of benefit to the country, of which I shall mention
the more important :
1. Public works. The military government has shown
a commendable interest in road building. Many miles
of roads have been constructed in different parts of the
country. This in itself is a service greatly to be appreciated,
for it would be difficult to find anywhere in the world worse
mountain roads than in Santo Domingo. The Dominicans,
however, complain that much money has been wasted.
Some work has been done also on bridges, port improve-
ments and minor matters.
2. Finance. In financial matters the military govern-
ment has been wise enough to utilize the services of a
competent civilian who was formerly assistant receiver-
general. Through a claims commission most of the claims
outstanding against the Dominican government have been
settled, and the awards of the commission have been paid
by means of a bond issue. New tax and revenue laws have
been enacted.
8. Police. The Dominican army and police force were
abolished and in their place a new police force, called the
national guard, has been created. It is to be observed that
whereas in Cuba and Porto Rico nearly all the officers of
the newly created police forces were natives and very few
Americans, in Santo Domingo the rule is the other way,
and practically all the officers are former officers or privates
of the marines.
4. Education. The marine officer in charge of education
is a very intelligent man and many decrees attest his interest
in the matter. A set of new school laws prepared by a
board of prominent Dominicans has brought considerable
improvement over former conditions, though probably the
improvement would be still more marked had trained edu-
cators been on the board.
210 OTTO SCHOENRICH
5. General improvements. Further, a new postal organi-
zation has been effected; new sanitary regulations issued;
considerable study made of the chaotic land title situation,
with a view to introducing the Torrens system; attention
has been given to the promotion of agriculture; and a
number of other measures are under consideration.
These accomplishments are all of great importance; yet
when we compare them with the far-reaching reforms
effected in Cuba during the first intervention, which also
lasted about three and one-half years, or in Porto Rico
during the first three and one-half years of American rule,
or even during the shorter second intervention in Cuba,
they appear meager. The improvements have not been
so varied, nor so thorough, nor so excellent as those in
Cuba and Porto Rico.
Moreover the work in Cuba and Porto Rico is all the
more remarkable because of the small amount of friction,
the measure in which the cooperation of the people was
obtained, and the fact that full civil liberties were enjoyed
by the native population. In Santo Domingo, on the other
hand, the reforms have been accompanied by the complete
suppression of popular liberties under a drastic censorship
and the oppressive action of arbitrary military courts.
And this brings me to the three great defects which in the
eyes of the Dominicans have neutralized the good works
of the military government, namely, first, the character
of the military government; second, the provost courts;
and third, the censorship.
Character of the military government
Military officers give excellent results in administrative
positions during warfare or in brief emergencies, but as a
rule they do not prove good administrators in the long run.
They are apt to be autocratic, arbitrary, intolerant and
inefficient. There are, of course, exceptions, as is proved
by the administration of General Wood in Cuba, but the
rule is as stated. Such has been the experience in Santo
Domingo.
INTERVENTION IN SANTO DOMINGO AND HAITI 211
Among the naval and marine officers in charge in Santo
Domingo a number have been conscientious though in-
experienced administrators; many have done then* work
without sympathy; and not a few have been overbearing
tyrants. As a chain is judged by its weakest link, so these
have made most impression on the Dominicans. Most of
the officers have had to depend on interpreters, generally
imported from nearby islands, who have been disposed to
adopt an aggravating air of superiority.
To the credit of the military government it must be said
that it has repeatedly sought the assistance of competent
civilians, though it has occasionally made errors of judg-
ment in their selection. It has made the bad mistake of
giving the Dominicans little participation in their govern-
ment and has thus set itself up as a hateful foreign military
autocracy. A few months ago, with a flourish of trumpets,
it appointed an advisory council of the five foremost Domini-
cans, but as it ignored the council's recommendations and
tried to force the council to endorse an objectionable bond
issue, the members of the council resigned and resentment
was greater than before.
In the provinces and municipalities the local American
military commanders have acted like little kings, to the
disgust of Dominicans and foreigners alike. As often
happens, the lower the grade of a military official, the more
overbearing his conduct is apt to be. There are many
stories current of tactless conduct on the part of the local
American officials and of the arrogance and petty tyranny
of American and Dominican subordinates. There are also
unfortunate stories current of torture of prisoners by water
cure, by application of red-hot machetes and in other ways.
A protest signed by the Archbishop of Santo Domingo
which is being circulated throughout Latin America, is, in
part, my authority for this statement. Giving prisoners
an opportunity to escape and shooting them while escaping
is also said to have occurred.
212 OTTO SCHOENRICH
The provost courts
Another source of dissatisfaction is found in the provost
courts. They are composed of one or more American
officers and were originally established to take cognizance
of "offenses against the military government," but this
phrase was stretched to cover almost anything. The
provost courts have gained the reputation of being unjust,
oppressive and cruel, and to delight in excessive sentences.
These provost courts, with their arbitrary and overbearing
methods, their refusal to permit accused persons to be
defended by counsel, and their foreign judges, foreign
language and foreign procedure, are galling to the Domini-
cans, who regard them with aversion and terror.
The censorship
The third source of trouble has been the censorship.
When the American authorities took over the administration
of Santo Domingo, they immediately instituted a censorship
more rigid than any the country had seen in the darkest
days of dictatorship. Nothing was too high for the censor:
he went so far as to blue-pencil an official address of the
chief justice of Santo Domingo; nor was anything too insig-
nificant: not even an advertisement for a servant girl could
be published without his approval. Arbitrary and ridi-
culous rulings of censors elsewhere had their counterpart
in Santo Domingo. The use by newspapers of the title
"general," as a title for a Dominican, and of certain words
such as "national" and "revolution" and of certain phrases
such as "freedom of thought," "freedom of speech," was
strictly forbidden. Not the slightest criticism of the acts
of the government or American officials was tolerated.
Censors in different cities had different criteria of severity,
and the censor in Santo Domingo has forbidden the repro-
duction of an article which was lawful in Macoris, thirty
miles away. Papers and books from the United States
were censored as freely as those from elsewhere. A book
of the Porto Rican poet, Jose de Diego, speaker of the house
INTERVENTION IN SANTO DOMINGO AND HAITI 213
of delegates of Porto Rico, and which circulated freely in
that island, was forbidden in Santo Domingo and its dis-
tributor sentenced by a provost court to five years at hard
labor, which penalty was generously commuted to banish-
ment from the Republic and confiscation of his stock of
books. In September, 1919, the newspaper El Impartial of
Macoris was fined $300 by a provost court for reproducing
an inoffensive cablegram which had appeared in a newspaper
of San Juan, Porto Rico, and such examples might be
multiplied.
Discontent in Santo Domingo
The protest against the censorship at length filtered back
through Washington to Santo Domingo and since January
of this year there has been a relaxation of the rules. Also
the military government is showing a greater consciousness
of its responsibilities. Meanwhile, however, a spirit of
violent opposition and resentment against everything Ameri-
can has been roused among the inhabitants. A number
of men have taken to the woods to resist the American
administrators by force of arms. They are called "bandits"
by the American authorities, but they evidently have the
assistance and sympathy of the country people.
It was formerly the boast of the Dominicans that a
stranger could safely visit any part of the country unarmed.
Now this condition has changed, properties are menaced,
and it is dangerous to ride across the country without an
armed guard.
That forcible resistance to the military government is
not more widespread is due solely to two circumstances:
the fact that the country has continued to enjoy economic
prosperity, and the good sense of the Dominicans who
realize that armed resistance would be futile.
Happily the military government seems to have profited
by its experiences, and its tendencies at the present tune
are more reassuring, but the record so far cannot be viewed
with satisfaction.
214 OTTO SCHOENRICH
HAITI
Occupation by the United States
Turning now to Haiti we find a peculiar and very confus-
ing condition of affairs.
Up to 1915 the relations of the United States with Haiti
were as formal as those with the most distant countries.
Of late years, however, there had been a rapid political
decay in Haiti, the country had not respite from internal
warfare, and the danger of international complications
became constantly greater. At length, in July, 1915,
President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam was overthrown and
driven to take refuge in the French legation in Port-au-
Prince. The next morning the city was aroused at learning
that during the night the garrison of the jail, under orders
of the district commander, had massacred over 200 political
prisoners. After the funeral of the victims several of the
mourners proceeded to the Dominican legation, where the
district commander had taken refuge, hauled him out and
killed him. The others invaded the French legation,
dragged out the ex-president and handed him over to the
mob, by which he was promptly killed and mutilated.
Two hours after this occurrence, July 28, 1915, the cruiser
Washington arrived in Port-au-Prince. Marines were dis-
embarked and the military occupation of the country by
the United States forces was begun. American marines
gradually occupied the whole country. Against the vain
protest of the Haitian government they took over the
Haitian custom-houses and many public services, including
most municipal services; disarmed the Haitian soldiers
and police; and seized all weapons they could find. Yet
while sorry to lose their independence even temporarily
many Haitians were not grieved at the American occupation
as they believed it meant the opening of a new era for their
country.
Although the American military officials directed as much
of the public administration as they chose, the Haitian
governmental organization remained intact and continued
to function in so far as its workings did not conflict with
the actions of the Americans.
INTERVENTION IN SANTO DOMINGO AND HAITI 215
The Haitian treaty
The Haitian congress having elected a new president of
Haiti, the American legation presented the draft of a
permanent treaty between the United States and Haiti,
making Haiti to all intents an American protectorate. The
treaty raised a storm of protest. Under the strongest
pressure the congress eventually adopted it, but with
twenty-three "explanations/7 which in some respects varied
the sense of the document and recall the "reservations"
to the peace treaty recently discussed in the American
senate. The American state department correctly decided
that the "explanations'7 were merely expressions of opinion
and did not amount to amendments. The Haitian treaty
was accordingly approved by the American senate without
modification, and ratifications were exchanged May 3,
1916. Nothing more has since been heard of the Haitian
"explanations.77
Under this treaty the American government promises
to aid Haiti in the development of her resources and the
reorganization of her finances. A number of American
experts are to be nominated for Haiti by the president of
the United States : a general receiver of customs and assist-
ants, a financial adviser, officers to organize and command
a Haitian constabulary, and engineers to supervise Haitian
public works and sanitation. It is further provided that
the United States may intervene for the preservation of
Haitian independence and the maintenance of an orderly
government. The term of the treaty has been fixed at
twenty years. The treaty tends to set up two groups of
authorities in the same territory, namely, the Haitian
government and the American treaty officials, and thus
contains the germs of innumerable conflicts.
Dispersal of the Haitian congress
The Haitian government having elected a president and
adopted the treaty began to hint that the military occupa-
tion should cease, and it actually received a written promise
from the American minister carrying that implication. But
216 OTTO SCHOENRICH
American promises in Haiti have been scraps of paper.
The occupation still continues, it has charge of all services
it cares to hold, and all inquiries with respect to its duration
are answered with evasions.
Meanwhile the treaty was put in effect and the American
officials for which it provided were appointed and entered
upon office.
In 1916 the Haitian congress prepared to meet on the
date fixed by the constitution. Their assembling did not
suit the American authorities, but instead of avoiding it
in a tactful way the executive was induced to issue an
entirely illegal decree dissolving the congress. The con-
gressmen having met nevertheless, their meeting place was
raided by American officers and marines, who dispersed the
congress like so much rabble.
Later the government called the election of a consti-
tutional assembly to draft a new constitution and act as
legislature. An assembly of high-class men was chosen,
which met in June, 1917. It soon became apparent that
the assembly labored under the delusion that it was expected
to be a coordinate governmental body and not a rubber
stamp. Accordingly the Haitian executive, under the
pressure of the American authorities, issued a decree dis-
solving the assembly. The assembly hall was surrounded
by constabulary and marines and the members and spec-
tators were locked in for several hours, apparently to make
them more amenable to reason. Then, while the chief
officers of the constabulary stood about with drawn revolvers,
the order of dispersal was given, and the speaker was warned
not to answer a word on pain of being shot. Since that
time the bothersome system of government through a
congress has been dispensed with.
A new constitution was then elaborated in executive
circles and submitted to a plebiscite. It was adopted by
an overwhelming majority. The result was a foregone
conclusion, for no one had been permitted to discuss the
new constitution, all voting was oral, and only the boldest
dared vote against it. There is nothing remarkable about
the new constitution, however, except several provisions
INTERVENTION IN SANTO DOMINGO AND HAITI 217
at the end. One of these postpones the next election of
congress until January of an even year, which year is to be
fixed by decree of the executive. Thus, in a perfectly
constitutional manner, the meeting of congress can be
indefinitely postponed.
Meanwhile legislative powers are vested in a council of
state appointed by the executive. The council of state is
agreeably tractable; last year, indeed, two members fought
against a measure, but they were promptly removed and
their places were taken by more reasonable men.
Governmental disorganization
There are thus in Haiti at the present time three govern-
ments: the Haitian government, the American treaty officials
and the military occupation. The first is impotent, the
second inefficient, the third indifferent to the feelings of the
native, but in the accomplishment of results the most
efficient of the three. All three must be consulted before
it is possible to proceed with any important matter.
The situation is chaotic; there is no recognized hand;
the functions of the different officials overlap; and there
is constant friction between the Haitian government and
the treaty officials; between the engineering department
and the constabulary; between the navy officers and the
marines; between the sanitary department, the marines,
the constabulary and the financial adviser. When an
agreement is made with one department others refuse
to allow it to go through, and no one desiring to take up
a matter knows with whom to begin or with how many
departments he must treat before it is finally concluded.
With such confusion and lack of cooperation it would be
impossible even for the most competent men to do con-
structive work.
Accomplishments under American intervention
Under the circumstances it is not surprising that dis-
tressingly little has been accomplished in the period of
almost five years since American intervention began. Very
218 OTTO SCHOENRICH
few items merit mention, and several of these require
qualification:
1. Constabulary. A native constabulary has been organ-
ized, as to the expense of which the Haitians complain
considerably. Almost all the posts of officers are held by
Americans, the higher posts having been given to com-
missioned officers of the United States marines and the
lower posts to non-commissioned officers. Thus sergeants
and corporals of marines suddenly found themselves lieu-
tenants of the gendarmerie and virtual monarchs of the
districts where they were stationed. (The title of some
of these lower officers is "souslieutenant," which is occasion-
ally given the English pronunciation of "souse-lieutenant"
by persons who see a peculiar significance in the term.)
The amount of tact displayed by such warriors in dealing
with the natives can be left to the imagination. The higher
officials were men experienced in military affairs, who have
proven their valor many times in expeditions in which the
marine corps has participated. Their military training
inclined them to be autocratic and then* tact was unfortu-
nately not always coextensive with then: valor.
2. Road-building. Many miles of road have been built
in different parts of the country. The work has been carried
on under the direction of marines, on the theory that a
marine can do anything. The Haitians claim the roads
are badly built and that much money was wasted on them.
The later roads cost less as they were built under the corvee
system, authorized by an old law long in disuse, by which
the country people could be forced to give a certain amount
of labor on the roads. The Haitians complain that the
marines enforced this system with harshness and brutality.
3. Customs service. The dishonesty which formerly char-
acterized the Haitian customs service has been eliminated.
The merchants, native and foreign, complain, however,
that the customs laws are being enforced in a spirit which
tends to stifle commerce and industry.
4- Sanitation and prisons. A number of ditches have
been dug around various towns for drainage purposes,
INTERVENTION IN SANTO DOMINGO AND HAITI 219
gutters have been cleaned and the prisons are kept in
sanitary condition.
That is about the whole record of five years. In spite
of the army of American officeholders there is not a trace
of the great constructive measures which distinguished the
two interventions in Cuba and the first years of American
rule in Porto Rico.
Default in public debt
Not only has the action of the American officials been
barren of results, but with respect to the public indebtedness
of Haiti it has been positively mischievous. No attempt
has been made to liquidate or provide for the pending
claims against Haiti. On the contrary, the first act of the
American occupation was to allow the foreign and internal
debt to go into default, and that default continues up to
the present day. It mattered not that numerous revenues
were specifically pledged to the service of these debts:
these moneys have been misapplied to other governmental
purposes.
The foreign debt is held mostly in France, and as that
country was being financed by the United States, it did
not make the outcry which might otherwise have been
expected. The internal debt is held mostly in Haiti and
the default in its service was a serious matter. As there
are no savings banks in Haiti, nor large enterprises in the
securities of which money might be invested, it was the
custom of the saving JIaitian of moderate means to invest
his money in government obligations. The bonds of the
interior debt were a favorite investment for doctors, lawyers,
employees and other people of the middle class. The
default brought sadness and want to many families. It
is said that most of the bondholders, pressed by want, have
sold then* papers for insignificant sums to a local bank or
to speculators who expect to redeem them from a loan
now in contemplation.
220 OTTO SCHOENRICH
Tactlessness of officials
But what exasperates the Haitians even more than the
mismanagement of then- affairs is the air of superiority
adopted by many of the foreign officials and the rudeness
and contempt with which the natives are often treated.
Unfortunately some officers forget that they are supposed
to be in Haiti for the purpose of advancing the happiness
of the inhabitants, and they act as though they were in a
conquered country, do not attempt to conceal their race
prejudice and have no regard for the feelings of the natives.
The principal offenders are officers in the lower grades and
former non-commissioned officers or privates of the marines.
In Haiti also unfortunate stories are current of torture by
water-cure and of shooting of prisoners.
The provost courts
The American provost courts have further contributed
to the popular discontent. Their rule is said to be that
a marine can do no wrong — to a native Haitian. They
do justice as they see it, without bothering much whether
there is a statute prohibiting the offense. Henri Chauvet,
the editor of Le Nouvelliste, the principal newspaper of
Port-au-Prince, learned that to his sorrow. Having received
a tip that Mr. Ruan, the financial adviser, was soon to be
recalled, he published it in his paper. He was called before
the acting chief of the gendarmerie and invited to tell
where he got "that damned lie about Ruan." Chauvet
replied that he had printed the item in good faith, believing
it to be true, but that he would print a denial if it were
not. He refused to give the name of his informant, as he
did not wish to get a friend into the trouble he saw coming
to himself. Thereupon he was fined $300 and kept in
jail till the fine was paid and his paper suspended for three
months. The joke was that the tip was correct and Mr.
Ruan was actually recalled shortly after.
Nor do technicalities of procedure disturb the provost
courts. Their procedure is the acme of simplicity and
INTERVENTION IN SANTO DOMINGO AND HAITI 221
promptness, as Mr. Victor Mangones, of a well-known
Haitian family, can testify. Mr. Mangones is a wholesale
merchant, and as a sideline to his regular business he owns
a little store near the waterfront of Port-au-Prince, which
store is conducted by an employee. Now the occupation
has made an order that no rum shall be sold to the marines:
the order has never been enacted by any duly constituted
authority in Haiti nor has it been published according to
law, but the provost courts do not consider such details.
In November, 1919, several thirsty marines sent a Haitian
boy to the store of Mangones for a bottle of rum and the
storekeeper sold it to him, never thinking it was for Ameri-
cans. Somebody told the provost court, which immedi-
ately sentenced Mr. Mangones, the owner of the store, to
six months' imprisonment at hard labor. It did not take
the trouble to summon or hear him. The first thing
Mangones knew of the matter was when he was seized,
hustled off to jail, put in stripes, and made to work breaking
stones on the rock-pile. Fortunately he had influential
friends, who with the assistance of the French minister,
obtained his release.
Discontent in Haiti
The contemptuous and oppressive conduct of their new
rulers has aroused such bitterness among the populace, that
groups of malcontents have begun to form in the woods.
They are called "cacos," the Haitian term for political
bandits. The audacity and following of these "cacos"
became such that on the fifteenth day of last January
a force of about 2000 dared to attack the capital city,
Port-au-Prince. They penetrated far into the city, and
it was not until after they had burned a block of buildings
and battled for over an hour that they could be scattered
by the marines and gendarmerie. This incident goes to
show that the Haitians are exasperated to the point of
open rebellion. Yet such is the disorganization of govern-
ment that no improvement in the situation is in sight.
222 OTTO SCHOENRICH
CONCLUSION
Thus a review of developments in Santo Domingo and
Haiti in the last five years is not gratifying to our national
pride. When we consider the splendid achievements in
Cuba and Porto Rico, the record made in Santo Domingo
must bring us deep disappointment, while the mess in
Haiti must awaken feelings of resentment and shame.
I do not wish to give the impression, however, that the
blame for conditions rests entirely upon the local American
authorities, for most of them have been earnest workers
and have done their duty as they saw it. The chief fault
is higher up, in the Washington government, which has
permitted these conditions to arise and develop. The com-
plaints to which I have in general terms referred, have been
brought to the attention of the state department many times
but without avail. The Washington government, in its
dealings with Haiti and Santo Domingo, has displayed a
disregard of the rights of the inhabitants, an obtuseness
with respect to the obligations devolving upon the United
States, and an indifference to the opinion of Latin- America
and the world, which are simply incomprehensible.
Not only from these countries do we hear complaints,
but also from the Virgin Islands, whose inhabitants claim
that they had more freedom and received more consider-
ation under Danish rule than at present. It seems that
whenever in the last five years the United States have
assumed the government of another country, the coming
of the American flag has signified the suppression of popular
institutions and the setting up of an arbitrary and inefficient
militarism.
Our government seems disposed to forget at times that
our position in those countries is that of a trustee. We
are therefore in honor bound to exercise more vigilance with
reference to their affairs than with respect to our own and
use extraordinary care in choosing men and enacting meas-
ures. Failing to do so we shall prove false to our trust,
and when we stoop to use our authority for the purpose of
dispensing party patronage, as has unfortunately repeatedly
INTERVENTION IN SANTO DOMINGO AND HAITI 223
occurred, we are in the position of a trustee who uses the
trust funds for his own ends.
There can be no doubt, however, that the American spirit
of common sense and fair dealing will eventually assert
itself and that Santo Domingo and Haiti will yet have oc-
casion to praise American administration, generosity and
justice. Let us hope that this result may soon be attained,
to the benefit of the inhabitants of those countries, to our
own satisfaction, and to the glory of the American name.
AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN SANTO DOMINGO,
HAITI, AND VIRGIN ISLANDS
By Colonel George C. Thorpe, United States Marine Corps,
Recently Chief of Staff of the Brigade of Marines in
Occupation of the Dominican Republic
As I have come to this conference with a paper previously
prepared, without knowledge of the nature of the dispar-
agements to be heard here today with reference to our govern-
ment's conduct of affairs hi the West Indies, I can reply
specifically thereto only by way of remarks interposed here
and there.
In advance I will reveal my point of view (my prejudice,
you may say) by confessing my complete surprise at the
picture painted by an earlier speaker whose representation
of conditions hi Santo Domingo is so foreign to my under-
standing of them that I began to wonder if I really had been
in that country at all, but had only dreamed of being there,
until I learned that the critical speaker has not been there
himself for many years, certainly not since the beginning
of the American occupation. I am quite certain that I
reported at Santo Domingo City as chief of staff of the
brigade of marines in occupation of the Dominican Repub-
lic in February, 1917. In that capacity as well as by special
detail, I visited many parts of the country — even the most
remote and unfrequented — and, as in a rather wide expe-
rience of travel I always find people the most promising
objects of interest, it was natural that wherever I went I
made friends with the natives and talked with them on
intimate terms. In riding up to a mountain hut with my
escort, we would dismount and exchange ceremoniously
polite greetings with the family. Whatever is strange and
mysterious (as is the foreigner to these ignorant country-
men) is alarming or terrifying. They, in seeing armed
Americans for the first time, would regard us with frightened
224
AMEEICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN SANTO DOMINGO 225
expectancy. But a seat would be offered, followed soon by
a cup of black coffee. By the time I had asked the names
and ages of children gaping from every window and corner,
and had told them I had little ones at home myself — "one
as old as Carmita and another as big as Pedro" — the ice
was broken and they saw there was nothing terrible about
the foreigner who knew that children liked sweetmeats.
Many of such wayside hospitalities ended in the exchange of
simple presents. Incidentally, of course, I learned their
grievances if they had any and could estimate then- attitudes.
During the last seven months of my stay of nearly two
years, I was in command of the eastern district composed of
two provinces and part of a third, where there was a so-
called insurrection which was not a real insurrection because:
(1) the participants were mostly criminals (or bandits) who
were interested only by the attraction of adventure and
license; (2) they had no propaganda or other announcement
of any grievances against the government; (3) their activi-
ties were directed far more against peaceable Dominicans
than against armed forces of the government; (4) their
acts were typically criminal, consisting of robbery, murder of
Dominicans who would not meet their demands, destruction
of Dominican property, and fiendish crimes against very
young girls. When the leader, Vicentico, and his followers
surrendered to me in July, 1917, he told me they had had
no grievance against the government or against Americans.
That the vast majority of Dominicans were entirely un-
sympathetic with these bandits was evidenced by the fact
that the archbishop informed the military governor that the
provincial parishes had set aside a day of prayer and thanks-
giving over the restoration of order following the surrender
of Vicentico's bands. Immediately following that event
hundreds of new farms were opened by Dominicans in the
rural districts of Seibo province.
While conducting operations for suppression of banditry,
I lived for months in the rural towns and daily had long
talks with representative natives; we used to estimate every
conceivable possibility and make plans for future progress
— of how we could build roads and bridges, develop indus-
226 GEORGE C. THORPE
tries, advance agriculture, extend education, and promote
cooperation. Whenever I suggested cooperative enter-
prise they invariably assured me that any such mutual
undertakings as were represented by incorporation were im-
possible because of mutual distrust and because no one
would be satisfied with his share. I believe that explains
why the Dominicans are not able to sustain self-govern-
ment : they have no social feeling — no cooperative instincts.
I recall that when I was in that country, I was not in-
sensible to the fact that some young upper class Dominicans
felt the humiliation of seeing a foreign people ruling their
country, and while I tacitly sympathized, I knew (and they
often assured me) that they realized it was a situation for
which they could thank themselves, and however much they
might regret the suspension of then: sovereignty they
hoped our government would hold to its task until the
Dominican people became fit, through education and other-
wise. My intimate acquaintance extended not only to the
poor country people but to the most educated classes in
the cities in whose homes I was a frequent visitor.
To understand why it was necessary at last for our govern-
ment to occupy Santo Domingo, I must sketch briefly
the cardinal material items of Dominican history, even at
the risk of telling you much that you already know, and I
believe the later events cited will suggest the reluctance
with which our government intervened.
In this view we must take the two republics of Santo
Domingo and Haiti together, forming one island of 28,249
square miles (as large as Vermont and New Hampshire
combined) situated between Cuba and Porto Rico.
From the time of its discovery by Christopher Columbus
to the Peace of Ryswick (1697), the island was under Spanish
Governors. Early hi the sixteenth century the energetic
governor Ovando impressed the Arawaks so severely in
agricultural and building enterprises that, unaccustomed to
work, they broke under the strain, so that the Spaniards
had to import Africans. The more vigorous negro, allied
with European diseases, proved a too strong combination
against the Indian. It is said that some two million disap-
AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN SANTO DOMINGO 227
peared — died or carried off as slaves. Although the Indian,
as a race, vanished from the country, present day Domin-
icans honor Indian traditions, particularly the memory of
Princess Anacaona whose friendliness to the Spaniards was
most treacherously rewarded.
It was not only against the Indians that the Spanish
colonists had to fight, but during the first two hundred
years of European occupation they were troubled with
numerous uprisings of the blacks and were attacked from
without by the French, Dutch and English.
In 1585, Sir Francis Drake initiated England's strategy
against Spain by his piratical thrust at the Spanish Main
through Santo Domingo City, then a most important point
on the strategic map of the world. He utilized disloyal
natives to secure a foothold on the island.
The Peace of Ryswick settled the sovereignty by giving
France the western third (now Haiti), and Spain the re-
mainder. Haiti prospered for a tune and Santo Domingo
declined under the yoke of slavery and through isolation
until 1740 when the opening of its ports to foreign commerce
brought about improvement.
During the French Revolution the two colonies took
sides and carried on a border warfare.
The Treaty of Basle, 1795, ceded the whole island to
France and the French administration hi Haiti became su-
preme. Spanish colonists quit the country in a body,
going to Cuba, Porto Rico and Venezuela. It is said that
40,000 thus left their homes.
By 1804 the strength of the Haitians had become so for-
midable that a Haitian Republic was proclaimed over the
entire island. After much figthing, the French reestablished
their authority over the Haitians.
In 1808, a revolution broke out hi Seibo (the incubator of
insurrection ever since), and with the help of the English
the Spanish flag was hoisted the next year. Spanish do-
minion was confirmed by the Treaty of Paris, 1814. A
long period of seven years' comparative peace was followed
by a revolution against the Spanish which succeeded so far
as to establish an independent sovereign state called Spanish
228 GEORGE C. THORPE
Haiti which lasted a few weeks when the Haitians invaded
and established themselves so firmly that they were able
to hold on for twenty-two years until, in 1844, inhabitants of
Spanish descent succeeded in a revolution that established
the Dominican Republic with Gen. Pedro Santana as first
president. He lasted for nearly four years when a revolu-
tion resulted in elevating Gen. Manuel Jimenez to the
Presidency.
Another revolution the next year, displaced Jimenez by
Col. Buenaventura Baez who served out his term and was
succeeded by the reelection of Santan'a.
Revolutions and wars with Haiti filled the next twelve
years when the Dominican president called for Spanish aid
to pacify the country. Spam effected a military occupation,
but a revolution broke out two years later which lasted
until 1865 when Spain withdrew.
Revolutions were now a regular institution and an enor-
mous debt was piled up. During President Grant's admin-
istration there was strong Dominican demand for annexa-
tion to the United States endorsed by Grant which, however,
failed through opposition hi our Congress.
New governments were formed, through revolution, hi
1865, 1866, 1867, 1873, 1876 (two), 1878 (two), 1879.
In 1882 General Heureaux (of Haitian descent and known
by the nick-name of Lili) became president and by the
exercise of strong-armed government held his office for the
legal two-year term. After a bitter struggle his candidate,
General Billini, succeeded to the presidency, but, unable to
support the demands of his supporters for preferment,
resigned in a few months and was succeeded by the vice-
president, Gil, which brought about a revolution and re-
established Heureaux hi the presidency who held office,
by murder, tyranny and graft, until 1899 when he was
assassinated. Dominican annals are full of stories of this
monster's presidential adventures, according to which it
appears that as soon as Lili suspected anyone, even a blood
relative, of ambition, he contrived and effected his murder.
He was ingenious in diabolical methods.
AMEEICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN SANTO DOMINGO 229
The vice-president, succeeding Lili, was soon overthrown
by a revolution headed by General Horacio Vasquez who
held office less than three months. By a controlled election
Gen. J. I. Jimenez was made president and Vasquez vice-
president. Vasquez headed a revolution against his con-
frere and displaced him in 1902.
Vasquez was soon forced out and was succeeded by Gil
hi March, 1903. In October of the same year General
Morales headed a revolution and marched on the capital.
He was elected president in the following June, with Caceras
as vice-president.
The heavy expense of revolutions and the inefficient (not
to say corrupt) collection of revenues, had entailed a con-
stant increase of public debt, and by 1904 the interest was
entirely in default. Foreign governments began pressure
for payments due their citizens. Arrangements were made
to liquidate the debts by pledging customs receipts and an
American agent was placed in charge of the Puerta Plata
custom house. Other foreign nations demanded similar
rights. In the face of imminent danger of foreign interven-
tion, the Dominican Republic applied to the United States
for assistance. In 1905 an agreement with the United
States went into effect whereby the Dominican customs
receipts were to be collected by the United States, and provi-
sion made for the payment of the debt.
In spite of the fact that revolutionists could no longer count
upon capturing customs houses, revolutions continued.
President Morales fled and resigned. Caceras succeeded
him. A bond issue of $20,000,000 was made for conversion
of old debts, the principal creditors reducing their claims
by about one-half.
In 1907, a new fiscal treaty was confirmed by the United
States Senate and Dominican Congress which provided for
a general receiver of Dominican customs appointed by the
President of the United States.
Conditions improved; funds were set aside for the debt
and for public improvements. Caceras was reflected.
In 1911 Caceras was assassinated. The election of his
successor brought on a revolution which lasted for several
230 GEORGE C. THORPE
months and as the Dominican government could not restore
order it called in the good offices of the United States
which sent a commission to Santo Domingo. The various
factions were brought together in the choice of the Arch-
bishop Noel as president. The latter was soon in despair
and fled. Then the Dominican Congress elected Bordas
Valdez who served a year. Revolutions broke out again
and the United States again came to the rescue by sending
a commission which brought the parties together to choose
a provisional president (Ramon Baez, son of late President
Buenaventura Baez) and conducted a popular election
which chose ex-president J. J. Jimenez. Matters seemed
settled for a time, and conditions improved. But in less
than a year and half the secretary of war, Desiderio Arias,
executed a coup while the president was at his country
home, and through command of the military forces, seized
the government and imprisoned the loyal officers. At the
request of President Jimenez marines landed from American
ships and restored order in the capital. Jimenez resigned
and the Dominican Congress elected Dr. Carvajal. The
United States refused recognition of the new government
unless it would give assurance of maintenance of order and
honest control of finances, to which end a new treaty would
be required, providing for collection of customs under
American supervision, appointment of a financial adviser,
and establishment of a constabulary officered by Americans.
Carvajal refused consent to these terms. Matters drifted
for more than a year, when in view of the hopelessness of
the situation, marines were landed some miles west of the
city (as Sir Francis Drake's troops had done in 1585) and
marched upon the capital which was promptly evacuated
by Dominican forces under Arias.
Arias marched across the island and secured his position
hi the mountains at Santiago and thereabouts.
In June, 1916, the Fourth Regiment of Marines, pro-
ceeding from San Diego, Cal., landed at Monte Cristi,
under command of Col. J. H. Pendleton (now Brigadier-gen-
eral) who was placed in command of all forces operating
on shore in the Republic.
AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN SANTO DOMINGO 231
There were two principal routes from the coast to San-
tiago: one by way of a muddy trail for about 80 miles
climbing up grade flanked by heavy underbrush; the other
from Puerta Plata, a much shorter and steeper route served
by a dilapidated cog railway. The advance upon Santiago
was made by a column from each of these ports, and after
about ten days' marching and several engagements against
vastly superior numbers of insurgents hidden behind con-
cealed intrenchments, Colonel Pendleton's force reached the
vicinity of Santiago and was met by peace commissioners.
All the insurgents surrendered or dispersed and Arias sub-
mitted to American control which was at once established
militarily throughout the country under the administration
of Rear- Admiral Caperton.
Endeavors to reestablish government under Dominican
administration having proved fruitless, the military govern-
ment of the United States in the Dominican Republic was
set up November 29, 1916, with Capt. (now rear-admiral)
H. S. Knapp as military governor. His first proclamation
required the disarmament of the population. Mountains
of weapons of all epochs since the fifteenth century and a
great deal of ammunition and explosives were surrendered
or captured during the following year. And still enough
was held back to support the prosecution of a formidable
amount of banditry for two years more. During the present
occupation there have been 116 distinct fights or skirmishes
between marines and Dominican bandits, resulting in the
killing of 5 marine officers and 9 enlisted men, and wounding
of 7 officers and 34 enlisted men, i.e., 55 battle casualties
on our side. Dominican casualties are not known but cer-
tainly are many times our aggregate.
That brings us historically up to the present.
As to the form of governmental administration hi Santo
Domingo :
The military governor (Real- Admiral Snowden at present)
" administers" the Dominican Republic. He is assisted by
cabinet ministers whose functions are practically the same
as under Dominican presidency, incumbents being Ameri-
cans. The entire Dominican judiciary has been left in
office.
232 GEORGE C. THORPE
There are twelve provinces, each with a native governor
who, if he is the right kind of man, may do a great deal in
leading his people into peaceful pursuits and industry, and
in developing public works as did, especially, Governor
Elpidio Morales of Seibo hi 1917.
The country is further subdivided into 60 communes
which are governed by communal councils composed of the
best citizens, appointed by the military governor. Cities
and the larger towns are governed by councils called
ayuntamientos.
From a personal knowledge of the happenings in Santo
Domingo, I can say that the American administration of
that government has been actuated by a high sense of its
responsibilities and with a most earnest desire, at every
step, to build soundly for the present and future good of
the Dominican people. Nothing could be finer than the
way our officers, from lieutenant up (with rare exceptions)
have estimated particular Dominican situations and pro-
vided therefor.
During the World War, we had to get along with few
troops in Santo Domingo, and small detachments were
widely scattered. I recall that a second lieutenant with a
few marines was sent up into a troubled province to do his
best toward restoring order. It was a remote region and
possibly never had enjoyed the blessing of good govern-
ment. The better class of natives were impressed by this
young man's earnestness and under his guidance all sorts
of items of elementary progress were initiated: sanitation,
police, road building, suppression of brigandage, enforce-
ment of court decrees, collection of taxes, etc. A letter
came to the capital, signed by hundreds of natives, asking
that the young officer be made a permanent governor to
guide them forever. In the other end of the island, a
young American captain of constabulary (a sergeant of
marines) had similarly interested the people in progress
and when he was murdered by a bandit he was universally
mourned as a Dominican martyr: everyone wore a special
commemorative badge in his honor.
AJMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN SANTO DOMINGO 233
Everywhere in the island the troops make friends with
the people and are unpopular only with the criminal or the
flippant agitator with unworthy political amis.
From the first, the military government has truly esti-
mated its mission to be: (1) To promote education, primary
and vocational; (2) to build roads; (3) to create an effective
police force; (4) to cultivate a regard for law and order;
(5) to place property rights on a firmer basis, particularly
as to land titles; (6) to stabilize the finances of the country;
(7) and at the same tune, to respect Dominican institutions
and sentiments as far as may be.
As to the realization of these amis: Under Dominican
regime there was no real school administration. Primary
education was mostly confined to schools with one or two
teachers hi most important towns; no rural schools. Not
over 18,000 pupils hi all schools, average attendance 40
per cent. Teachers were very poorly paid and often their
salaries were corruptly withheld. The military govern-
ment's reform was based upon a report of a Dominican
commission. There is now a school system with the country
divided into 50 school districts of 6 departments, acting
under a minister of education. There were (January 1,
1920) 1468 teachers, free of political influence, whose salaries
are at least four times the supposed salaries of the teachers
under the Dominican regime. There are 195 primary
schools, 7 secondary and normal, 6 completely developed
industrials for girls and others under formation, 2 schools
of fine arts, 2 correctional schools, central university. As
against 18,000 pupils there are now more than 100,000 and
the average attendance is 85 per cent. There used to be
almost no school equipment and even hi the cities there were
no distinctive school buildings — only miserable dirty places
rented. During the past two years more than $200,000
worth of school equipment has been distributed. Schools
benefit by modern methods; physical, moral and vocational
training. As there is more than 90 per cent illiteracy in
Santo Domingo the Department of Education estimates
its mission to be to extend rudimentary education until
illiteracy is banished, to satisfy the basic mission of the
234 GEORGE C. THORPE
military government to lay the foundation of a self-sup-
porting democracy.
The agricultural college maintains an experimental sta-
tion near the capital, and thirty instructors are placed
throughout the country to give local instruction to farmers.
The government sells modern agricultural machinery at
cost to promote their use.
A national highway over the Cordilleras, from the capital
to Monte Cristi, connecting the northern and southern
coasts, estimated to cost $3,000,000 is 60 per cent complete.
Various other highways have been finished or are in course
of construction. In the absence of common carrier rail-
ways hi the southern provinces, these automobile roads
are of first importance to promote husbandry because with-
out them there is no reasonably available transportation
for marketing produce. Road building would have been
advanced much more if war conditions had not impeded
the importation of materials.
The government owned railway from Puerta Plata has
been improved and its earnings trebled.
A native constabulary called Guardia National Domin-
icana of a strength of about 2000 officers and men has been
brought to a high state of efficiency. Since its organi-
zation hi February, 1918, there has been no case of a native
Guardia's defection or desertion to insurgents or bandits.
These troops are scattered in small detachments all over
the country, and supported by American marines concen-
trated at important points, maintain order, perform police
duties, and serve the courts (in capacities analogous to
that of sheriff or bailiff), furnish prison guards, etc. Effort
to utilize native officers has not met with success. We were
very anxious to avoid using American officers therefor,
especially during the World War, but in nearly every case
the native officer failed to hold his men together and, with-
out proper control, the native soldiery was inclined to
impose upon the civilians.
The land ownership question is probably the most difficult
one to reform as the state of land titles is one of hopeless
confusion, due to the involved usages of land tenure — espe-
AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN SANTO DOMINGO 235
cially as to communal lands (tracts owned in common by
several persons with no division upon descent). The mili-
tary government is proceeding conservatively with this
problem so as to safeguard the rights of real owners: a wise
precaution especially in view of the ignorance of the masses
as to means of defending their titles. The government
has hi project a law, about to be promulgated, providing
for the division of undivided lands, with guaranteed titles.
The land is not of sufficient area to satisfy the claims of
all, and an honest adjudication will result in loss to many
people. A political government could never hope to
solve this problem because it could not withstand the pres-
sure of dissatisfied claimants. Under the military govern-
ment, the practice of law has been placed on a higher plane.
The profession has even been thrown open to women and one
Dominican woman is now prominent at the legal bar in
the capital.
The reform of the Dominican judiciary is in progress.
Penal proceedings have been simplified and trials correspond-
ingly expedited. Formerly many cases avoided trial by
prescription of time before their cases could be reached on
the docket. Now the criminal dockets are being cleared.
The military government has accomplished a great deal
hi prison reform. Nothing could have been worse than
the conditions of prisons and prisoners as we found them.
All this is being placed on a modern basis, as to sanitation,
segregation, probation, training, etc.
Civil service is being gradually extended to all depart-
ments of the government.
As to finances: When the United States took over the
administration of Dominican finances, the account of the
government was overdrawn in the sum of $14,234.63, and
payment of salaries and various claims were greatly in
arrears. The military government paid all 1916 indebted-
ness, has met all accruing expenses of government and on
October 1, 1919, had nearly $4,000,000 in the treasury.
The military government has reorganized the internal
revenue department and without increase of rates the col-
lections have almost trebled.
236 GEOEGE C. THORPE
A claims commission created by the military govern-
ment, in session now for about three years, will complete
its hearings and reports about March, 1920. Then the
entire floating debt of the Dominican Republic will have
been refunded. The government is issuing bonds (about
$5,000,000) in payment.
As a resume* of the public debt, it may be said that as
against the $20,000,000 bond issue there are assets in the
sinking fund (Sept. 30, 1919) of $8,210,738.83, leaving a
balance of liabilities to be liquidated, amounting to $11,789,-
261.17. If the Dominicans criticize this management of
their finances, as an earlier speaker claims, what can they say
of their own management which failed even to pay interest.
The Dominican people are grateful to the military govern-
ment for shipping aid rendered during the World War.
Had the United States not been in occupation of Santo
Domingo, the latter's products could not have been mar-
keted, with the exception of sugar which was needed by
the belligerents. The military government was very active
in securing shipping for the Dominican products and even
carried them on naval transports, not only thus saving the
people from distress, but placing millions of dollars in the
pockets of their citizens by the continuance of normal
trade or better.
HAITI
It is well known to you that the European governments
that colonized Haiti, finding it rich in resources, exploited
it with the fierceness characteristic of buccaneering times.
Hosts of African slaves were brought there directly from
the jungle, were worked unmercifully and were treated
worse than beasts. These slaves remained savages and
did not even learn then* master's languages. Some of the
strongest and most intelligent summoned spirit to escape
from the plantations and mines, taking refuge in the moun-
tains; they were called cacos (probably an African term).
Then in the time of the French Revolution and during the
teachings of the equality of man, French agitators came to
Haiti and told the slaves that they were as good as their
AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN SANTO DOMINGO 237
masters and that in France the oppressed had risen and
killed off their oppressors. So the blacks rose in Haiti
and gradually exterminated the whites; this movement went
so far as finally to result hi the murder of every inhabitant
with any white blood (even the mulattoes). Napoleon sent
an army of 10,000 soldiers to subdue Haiti. Its base was
in the north at Cape Haitian. At the same tune England
sent a force into the south which took Port au Prince by
storm. The yellow fever defeated both forces, but the
English escaped fairly well by being supported by then*
fleet. The French, not so served, perished almost to a
man. Visitors at Cape Haitian may now see the graves of
the French general, Napoleon's kinsman.
The outstanding result of the greater success of native
arms against the foreigner in Haiti, over those of the native
against the foreigner in Santo Domingo, is that Haiti, now
known as the Black RepubliCj is far less civilized than Santo
Domingo, known as the Mulatto Republic. While there is
a high percentage of ignorance in both countries, the Do-
minican is far more amenable to educating processes than is
the Haitian caco. During my two years' stay in Santo
Domingo, the doors and windows of my house were always
open and my personal effects often unguarded but the only
time I ever was robbed, the thief was a Haitian. In fact,
a large part of the so-called insurgents or bandits in Santo
Domingo are Haitians.
I understand that Haitian government employees never
were paid in cash, but hi due bills. If, for instance, an em-
ployee earned say 50 gourds (the Haitian monetary unit),
he received a chit or due bill for that amount. A broker
would give him 5 gourds for his piece of paper. The broker
would then pass it on to a higher broker who would give
him 10 gourds; and so on up through a series of grafters
until it finally reached the head of the government depart-
ment upon which the bill was drawn, he would pay possibly
half its face value and pass it to the government as a voucher
for full value.
Without dwelling upon the innumerable revolutions that
make the history of Haiti, we may come to the last which
took place in July, 1915.
238 GEORGE C. THORPE
It seems that the presidential palace was next to the
French legation and that there was an easily accessible
back way between the two which Haitian presidents often
availed themselves of to escape assassination. President
Sam traveled this familiar route in that July of 1915, and
gamed the diplomatic refuge, but, quite contrary to Haitian
precedent, the revolutionaries invaded theoretical French
territory and murdered Mr. Sam in the presence of the
French minister's family, and cut their victim's body into
pieces which they carried on spear heads hi a grand parade
through the streets. The capital, Port au Prince, was
filled with federal troops as well as by the cacos (insurgents)
from north Haiti. Hundreds of people were slaughtered—
especially scores of political prisoners.
Admiral Caperton, then in command of the American
naval forces in West Indian waters came into the harbor and
was asked to land troops to protect foreigners against the
rioting of this blood-thirsty mob. He complied by sending
a small force of marines and sailors which accomplished the
delicate operation of entering a fairly large city, with which
they were entirely unfamiliar, and into the midst of frenzied
masses that, though factional among themselves, were
united as against the invader. The landing party occupied
important points, checked destruction and bloodshed, and
possibly saved the city with the loss of a few sailors killed.
The whole country was in a state of chaos and bankruptcy
and savagery. A considerable force of reinforcements soon
arrived under Col. (now major-general) L. W. T. Waller
and set about subduing the cacos and pacifying the country.
After some delay the American commanders prevailed upon
the remnant of Haitian government to reorganize and select
a provisional president; a treaty was concluded with the
United States, providing for the latter 's supervision of
Haitian finances, for the organization of a constabulary,
and for the prosecution of public works and sanitation as
necessary features of progress.
American officers took charge of Haitian finances and
organized an efficient gendarmerie with an authorized
strength of about 2600 officers and men which was disposed
AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN SANTO DOMINGO 239
in various districts to cover the republic, preserving order,
promoting public works, and initiating extensive sanita-
tion improvements. Possibly the best achievement of this
organization was the completion of an automobile road
from Port au Prince to Cape Haitian on December 18,
1917. They have built some 600 miles of road. A force
of marines is maintained hi Haiti to support the gendarmerie.
From time to tune there have been disturbances on the
part of the cacos, particularly during the present year. But
during a period of nearly four years, from December 6,
1915, to November 1, 1919, there were only eighteen cas-
ualties among American troops.
There was almost no postal or telegraph service at the
beginning of the occupation; now those services are general
and mail deliveries are regular.
The revenues are collected efficiently and honestly, pro-
vision is made therefrom for liquidation of the large public
debt as well as for a progressive scheme of public improve-
ments. A certain sum is turned over to the Haitian gov-
ernment for its other expenses. There is absolutely no
graft or extravagance.
The present president has held office for some three years
and recently toured the country, being received enthusiasti-
cally everywhere; surely an absolute guaranty that the
Haitian majority approves of the present arrangement of
American occupation, for it was President Dartignave who,
on behalf of Haiti, participated hi initiating American
intervention. Under Haitian government a president would
have needed an army to guard him on such a trip.
As the schools are under the Haitian government, they
are not, as hi Santo Domingo, under the direction of an
American minister; at the same tune the forces of occupation
have aided the Haitian government in educational direc-
tions by establishing model schools and by having gendar-
merie officers report as to school sessions as, without such
precautions, teachers have been known to draw their sal-
aries without attending school sessions for several months
at a time. Progress in education in Haiti, it is safe to say,
will be infinitely slower than in Santo Domingo if the pres-
ent plans in both places continue.
240 GEORGE C. THORPE
As to sanitation, Haiti was a terrible place scarcely in-
habitable where the death rate at times was appalling.
Systematic sanitation has been effected by sanitary engi-
neers. The work of the Americans has changed sanitary
conditions so that Haiti is now most healthful and, with
Santo Domingo, should be the most popular winter resort
for tourists hi the western hemisphere.
VIRGIN ISLANDS
The Virgin Islands present an entirely different problem
from that of the Haitian-Dominican island, for in the former
there has been no resistance to American occupation. We
are there by right of purchase and practically by unanimous
consent expressed in a plebiscite. The vast majority of the
inhabitants had been eager for the transfer of flags for a
long time.
In 1901 I was mounting guns on Culebra Island, and to
give some of the men a holiday after hard work, manned a
sailing launch and sailed over to St. Thomas — about an
eighteen hours' trip with unfavorable winds. When my
little 30-foot boat came into St. Thomas harbor, with the
Stars and Stripes at the peak, thousands of people crowded
the water front to give us welcome. As the question of
sale of the islands was then acute in American-Danish
diplomacy, it seems the natives thought I had brought a
message announcing the transfer as an accomplished fact.
My men were received very hospitably at every turn and
even the Danish soldiers wanted to exchange their allegiance.
It is well known that the sole value of the Virgin Islands
to the United States is strategic; otherwise they are a lia-
bility instead of an asset. They were not self-supporting
under the Danes. Strategically they are well worth the
price paid and the small cost their maintenance will involve,
and possibly they may be turned to good commercial
account. At present they produce yearly about a million
dollars worth of sugar, and little else.
The population of about 35,000, on the three principal
islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John, nearly all
AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN SANTO DOMINGO 241
blacks, maintained itself largely through the revenues inci-
dental to shipping, and that principally in furnishing the
labor for fueling ships, though there was a considerable
trade in ships' supplies, especially when St. Thomas was
a free port.
The United States came into possession of the Virgin
Islands during the World War, when shipping was abnormal
and while our country was possibly too busy with the great
efforts it was making to win the war, to be able to give
intensive attention to these new possessions. Recently a
congressional committee has visited the islands and gathered
the fullest information, highly commended the military
government, and recommended its continuance.
As the islands are not self-supporting administratively
and as the natives themselves fail to make both ends meet,
the government not only has been without funds for public
improvements, but it has been called upon to provide sub-
sistence for indigents.
Very little ever had been done for the natives before the
American occupation: almost no educational facilities,
although a compulsory education for the very young made
every child able to read and write which arts they forget
by maturity; little road development except in the island
of St. Croix; almost no public service of sanitation and
health; practically every native deceased; no sewage in the
cities or elsewhere; not even a proper or sufficient water
supply.
With almost no funds available, the military government
has utilized to the fullest its own naval organization and
has given the people an efficient and free hospital and medi-
cal service under naval medical officers, which has been an
important service to the people.
The government has been able to do little hi the matter
of education on account of lack of funds. I visited Char-
lotte Amelia, the capital, in January, 1919, and was partic-
ularly impressed by the earnestness of the officers as well
as of their wives. They all were doing what they could to
better the conditions of the natives, and earlier, when I
was in Santo Domingo, I received the personal check of one
242 GEORGE C. THORPE
officer of the Virgin Islands government to be expended for
a certain kind of fiber which he was providing for St. Thomas
natives to start them in hat making.
But good intentions without money are not sufficient.
However some school buildings have been erected and a
good start has been made in a school system, under the
capable Superintendent Blair. An Agricultural Experi-
mental Station, under the United States Department of
Agriculture, has extended its activities over the three
principal islands. Roads have been built hi a small way
and the telephone service has been extended. A great deal
has been done for the poor.
SUMMARY
1. As to the Virgin Islands, it is safe to assume that our
government will do whatever is necessary to afford the
people an opportunity to make a living and gain an educa-
tion and that the islands will be a creditable colony. The
natives as a whole are proud of American citizenship.
2. In Santo Domingo, the achievements of the military
government have been highly creditable. In less than four
years it has accomplished more progress than had been
realized in ages of European colonization and native gov-
ernment, for it has in full swing a system of education
that will develop good citizens. A mental attribute, hereto-
fore unknown in the island, i.e. social feeling, is being surely
realized. By example the Americans are showing the Do-
minicans that public service is not principally self service.
Critics who assume that the Dominican masses are opposed
to American control are misinformed. If they have visited
the country at all, they have gained their information only
at sea port cafes where they have been indoctrinated by
idlers or politicians or special interests that are disappointed
hi the military government because it is not favorable to
reward without labor. If the critic will go into the country
and talk with the industrious native and small property
owners, or with self respecting intelligent persons any-
where, he will find an overwhelming verdict in our favor.
AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN SANTO DOMINGO 243
Some persons appear to assume that the American occupa-
tion was designed and is maintained principally in American
interests — to protect American settlers. Nothing could be
more erroneous, for as a matter of fact, there are very few
real American settlers, aside from Porto Ricans, hi the
island. There are a very few Americans on some of the
sugar estates and a very very few hi the cities, but one
never sees one hi the rural districts, outside of the govern-
ment service. I can't recall seeing hi two years as many
as a dozen American civilians resident in Santo Domingo
outside of government service.
American interest hi Santo Domingo is an humane interest
—a desire to see peace and good order and progress and an
equal opportunity available to all classes of a people. No
special favors accrue to Americans from the military
government.
It is not surprising that the work of the American occu-
pation has not yet created a perfect social order, as the
thoughtless and misinformed critic would seem to demand,
hi less than four years' trial. Every such problem is a new
one. It is not the same in Santo Domingo as in Haiti, and
it is far different from that of the Philippines where American
control has been the finest achievement of its land hi the
history of colonization. You have sent remarkably fine
governors to Santo Domingo and the Virgin Islands, wise
men of culture, gentle and considerate, and as fine men to
Haiti. Nothing could be finer than their devotion to their
temporarily adopted country. Speaking only of those I
know personally (and of whose administrations I have per-
sonal knowledge) I am sure there are no finer men than Rear
Admiral Oliver, the first governor of the United States Virgin
Islands; Rear Admiral Knapp, the first military governor
of Santo Domingo; Brigadier-Generals Pendleton and Fuller,
acting governors and commanding land forces hi Santo
Domingo; and Colonel Russell in Haiti. The American
people need have no concern hi giving such men an oppor-
tunity to work out their tasks without nagging them.
There is, however, one criticism of military government
in Santo Domingo and Haiti that I have heard advanced
244 GEORGE C. THORPE
by friendly natives. They ask why it is necessary to con-
tinue military courts for the trial of civilians who commit
offenses against the military forces or in violation of a few
decrees of the military governor. The last tune I heard this
complaint was from a Haitian. He cited an example of the
hardship in saying that a Haitian had been fined heavily
($50) for selling liquor illegally to a soldier. He said that
as the offense was only a trifling misdemeanor, the fine was
far too heavy.
That example is one illustration of the necessity of the
continuance of the military court with its present very
limited jurisdiction; the great chasm of difference in stand-
ards of right and wrong, as viewed by these natives and our-
selves, necessitates the retention of military courts for the
protection of the means of accomplishing our mission. Mur-
der is a very ordinary crime in that island, and without any
extenuating circumstances a native court will award a pun-
ishment of one year's imprisonment therefor. From the
point of view of the forces of occupation, firearms in the
hands of Dominicans very generally have made sources of
much of their trouble; but Dominicans, having been brought
up with firearms from infancy, find it difficult to see the
seriousness of a violation of the military government's or-
der against firearms. The effectiveness of the prohibition
would be nil without the aid of military courts.
It should not be forgotten that military (or provost)
courts have very limited jurisdiction; that their findings
and sentences are reviewed by the highest authorities; and
that they have no opportunity to be oppressive. They
never deny the right of accused to be represented by coun-
sel, as has been stated by a speaker here today; to the con-
trary they urge such representation. If there are those
who would prefer to be tried by civil courts, many people
appeared at my headquarters to appeal for military juris-
diction for then* cases. Everywhere one finds persons who
think their chances of escaping justice might be better hi
some other jurisdiction than that prescribed by law. Our
military courts are bound by the same rules of evidence
that are applied in United States courts and convictions are
AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN SANTO DOMINGO 245
had only on due process. That military process is not
unduly severe is attested by the fact that although many
bandits have been convicted of numerous murders, no na-
tive has paid the price of capital punishment under the mili-
tary government of Haiti, Santo Domingo or Virgin Islands.
As to the censorship, for which the military government is
criticized, it was not imposed at the beginning of the occu-
pation, as has been stated here today. It was not applied
for a long tune during which the freedom of the press was
grossly abused by the publication of wholly false and abu-
sive material intended to impede the restoration of order
for the benefit of the people. Furthermore, the censorship
was an incident of the World War. Santo Domingo was
a haven for many Germans who, with the idea of aiding
their own country, tried to embarrass the military govern-
ment by aiding banditry. Obviously a censorship was nec-
essary to curtail all such efforts as well as to obstruct the
importation of arms and ammunition.
3. The problem in Haiti is the most discouraging of all
for it is the most difficult. It will take a much longer time
hi the solution, for the Haitians are so much farther removed
from social competence. The inhabitants being as yet un-
able to appreciate mental and moral control must, obvi-
ously, be governed through the exercise or show of force
until education hi a generation or two has established a
supremacy of reason. Our guidance and protection to ma-
terial development in the country and protection to the
Haitian government is the only means through which the
objective can be obtained. The savage cacos will be dis-
orderly for sometime to come, no doubt, but they will not
seriously affect the march of progress desired by the good
Haitians who will lead Haitian thought. The American
Marines in Haiti have accomplished more good in four
years than was brought about hi all previous centuries of
Haitian history. Give them a chance for a few years more
and see what the Haitians themselves, under American
guidance, will make of themselves.
If there is any criticism due our administration hi the
West Indies, according to my own views, it is that there is
246 GEORGE C. THORPE
no announced policy and no definition of mission that is
generally understood. Uncertainty is painful. But if the
American government could announce and widely and
frankly publish, its intentions hi well defined terms, saying
that it proposes to remain in occupation until a certain
state of affairs is created and at least until a certain date
stated, it would be so much better for all persons concerned,
even for ourselves who could then allot our tasks hi refer-
ence to tune. It would give the native politicians an assur-
ance through which they would reconcile themselves to other
employment than political intrigue, and it would give the
masses who are pro- Americans a new confidence upon which
they could securely rest a scheme of life and employment.
Uncertainty is particularly a hardship for people of tropical
temperament who naturally are procrastinators; they delay
action until they may know what the de facto government
is going to do.
Definition of a mission, placed hi the hands of American
officials hi the West Indies, would be helpful because it
would afford a basis for indoctrinating all agencies of the
government.
As to the propriety of American occupation — there is
the same necessity to protect a whole population of helpless
people against a few exploiters and criminals that there
would be for you to stop a murder if you saw it about to be
committed hi your neighbor's back yard, or to step between
a villain and a helpless little girl about to be ravished. And
it is just as pusillanimous for a government to hesitate hi
such a duty as it is for an individual. It would be just as
gallant for the United States to leave the Dominicans and
Haitians to the fate that would await them if the old order
were restored, as it would be for you to stand by as an indiffer-
ent witness to the worst of crimes. Regardless of whether
there is any political theory that will cover such a case of
loss of self government by a people unfit to govern, I am
sure that no generous American could visit Santo Domingo
and Haiti and, learning the true conditions, wish an end to
the occupation.
AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN SANTO DOMINGO 247
I hope I may be pardoned a word as to the effect of public
criticism of our government's efforts in the West Indies.
There is no denying the value of criticism if based upon ac-
curate knowledge of facts and conditions. However pain-
ful it may be to the criticized agent it may being to him the
benefits of wide scientific knowledge and sound judgments
suggesting shorter routes to the end in view. But criticism
not founded on accurate knowledge of the case is only harm-
ful; it suggests no remedies to those in authority and only
serves to encourage the government's unworthy enemies.
The thoughtless critic thus allies himself with Dominican
bandits and Haitian cacos or with a few misguided politi-
cians who, failing to estimate the weight of the critic, see
in it new encouragement to intrigue. The politico sends a
copy of the American critic's speech to his friend, the bandit
chief, who, on the strength of this American encouragement,
kills a few more loyal natives and maybe an American ma-
rine, and rapes a town or two. If anyone really has knowl-
edge of any abuse of authority in Haiti or Santo Domingo,
it is his duty to report the facts to our government hi Wash-
ington; justice would follow speedily. So also if anyone
can give valuable suggestions for the improvement of our
governments hi the West Indies they would be most gladly
received, I believe, by the government's agents either hi
the Navy Department at Washington or hi the military
governments.
THE PRESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN
By Samuel Guy Inman, Executive Secretary of the Committee
on Cooperation in Latin America
It may be that I am the only one present at the Confer-
ence who has visited during the last year all of the countries
of the Caribbean where the United States maintains a force
of soldiers. I will therefore speak informally of political
conditions as I found them in some of the most interesting
of those countries, rather than trace the historical facts,
already amply described, which led up to the present influ-
ence of the United States Government in the life of these
countries.
The outstanding impressions of a trip through the coun-
tries of the American Mediterranean are, first, the marked
backwardness of most of them in matters of educational
and moral progress, and, second, the overwhelming influence
of the United States in their economic and political life.
It makes no difference how much one may have read about
the situation, it is impossible to realize until he has made
a visit to them one after another just how true it is that
the United States holds these countries absolutely in the
hollow of her hand.
Ordinarily when one is to have an audience with a Latin
American president he practices up his best Spanish phrases
and etiquette. But I recently found in Santo Domingo
that this was all unnecessary. The president of the Domin-
ican Republic when I was presented spoke to me in charm-
ing English. For he was none other than a rear-admiral
of the United States navy. On being presented to the
minister of foreign affairs, I found that he was an officer in
the United States Marine Corps, as was the minister of
war, minister of public works and the rest of the cabinet
hi this Republic. There is a certain advantage in this for
the American visitor, commercial man and even for the
248
PRESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN 249
American minister, who, curiously enough, is still accredited
and maintained before the government of the Dominican
Republic. Here at least is one Latin American government
which appreciates the English language and the North
American view-point enough to adopt them, which seems
to be what the average American thinks the whole world
should do.
One is deeply impressed with the fine spirit in which the
admiral and his cabinet are carrying on their work, which
they seem to regard as a real missionary job. The admiral
said that when he first received the request from Admiral
Benson in Paris to go to Santo Domingo, he said abruptly,
"I won't go." Benson's cable back to the department was,
"Disappointed in Snowden." The department again put
it up to Snowden, telling him he was holding up the whole
navy program. So he decided to go. Now that he is down
there he has become so interested in helping these people
that he would like to spend the rest of his official life work-
ing out the problems now before him. This represents the
spirit of many of our men, in spite of the criticism one often
hears on the military authorities.
The chief trouble with Santo Domingo is the utter ab-
sence of all the facilities and forces that we associate with
modern civilization. The capital has no street cars, no
sewers, water or telephone systems, only a few private
electric light plants and no building ever erected entirely
for school purposes. Illiteracy on the Island is calculated
at 90 to 95 per cent of persons over ten years of age. Many
country people have no sense of numbers above five.
There are practically no roads, and the northern and south-
ern parts of the island are like two different countries.
Venereal diseases, hookworm, malaria and tuberculosis run
riot without anyone knowing how to treat them.
The primary object of my visit was to survey the country
and suggest a united program of service which could be
undertaken to help hi the Island's development. Prac-
tically every person I asked as to what the people were hi
particular need of replied, " Everything." If I suggested
this or that or the other institution or activity, the reply
250 SAMUEL GUY INMAN
was, "Yes, anything you can do for these people will be
worth while. Don't be afraid of duplicating or doing too
much. That would be impossible. "
After a week in the capital, I drew up a tentative program
and invited ten gentlemen to meet me at luncheon to dis-
cuss it. There were present the admiral and his staff,
the president and his cabinet, as you choose to call them,
the chaplain of the marines, the archdeacon of the Episcopal
church and others. Admiral Snowden expressed himself
later in a letter as follows:
I beg to thank you for your hospitality of yesterday at the
Enlisted Men's Club, which was a most enjoyable meeting. I
was very much interested in the program you presented and
which we discussed, and most cordially endorse the program and
hope that we can arrange cooperation so that the many beneficial
institutions there outlined can be materialized for the benefit
of the Dominican people. These people are in the greatest need
of the institutions therein specified. They are to a great extent
a backward people who need an object lesson in modern ideas
and ideals. They would be willing to help themselves later on,
at which time they can be taught the value of these moral and
industrial activities.
Here is the difficulty with the present situation. A mili-
tary government is not designed to educate a people and
develop them in self-expression and government. In the
first place, there is too much government. Martial law
always means regulation of every detail of life. People
cannot meet in public gatherings to discuss their problems.
The newspapers cannot discuss political questions, and
criticisms are not to be thought of. Individuals talk mostly
hi whispers if they answer adversely your inquiries as to
how they like the present order.
In the second place, a foreign military government con-
ducted largely by officials who cannot speak the language
of the people and who have no idea of their history or
national psychology must necessarily be an unjust govern-
ment. Some of the American officials do their work in as
fine a spirit as any missionary who went to serve in a foreign
mission station. But this does not keep them from making
great mistakes when they arbitrarily determine great prob-
PRESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN 251
lems of taxation, education and economic and social life.
The United States navy has not had sufficient experience
in colonization to have built up a body of experts in such
matters. Officers are changed too often to build up a
body of experience and enlisted men are too anxious to get
home to take any interest in the people.
Two illustrations occur to me. With perfectly good in-
tentions the government was planning a landtax and was
about to require the properties to be registered. But if it
works out as it did a few years ago in Mexico it will mean
that the ignorant natives, who have enjoyed the use of lands
without question from generation to generation, will find
that their properties are registered in the name of slick
politicians who will thus build up great landed estates by
robbing the common people.
In the matter of education a wonderful showing has been
made hi the primary schools, which have grown from an
enrollment of some 30,000 three years ago up to 90,000 at
present, due to the herculean efforts of Colonel Lane, the
Minister of Education. But Colonel Lane has now left.
His efforts were centered on combating illiteracy. There
are no permanent foundations laid for building up either
of two indispensable educational forces, an adequate teach-
ing staff or universal training of children along industrial
lines. Higher education is almost wholly lacking and the
provision of former governments to send a number of stu-
dents to foreign countries has been discontinued by the
military government because of these students interesting
themselves in political problems.
In the third place the governors and the governed live
entirely apart from one another and there is practically no
means of intercourse. While a few Dominicans have been
employed to assist the Americans, they have thus largely
cut themselves off from their own people. The Americans
generally remain to themselves and the Dominicans do
likewise, if for no other reason than the simple one that
99 per cent of each party is unfamiliar with the language of
the other.
252 SAMUEL GUY INMAN
This was brought home to me by a visit to Senor Federico
Garcia Godoy, one of the most noted literary men hi Latin
America. American army men hi La Vega, his home, did
not even know there was such a man. When he found
out that I was not, as he supposed, a commercial traveler,
and that I had read his books and knew some of his friends
hi the literary world of Latin America, he was overjoyed.
To meet an American who could talk of history, literature,
international politics and other things belonging to his world
seemed to give him the surprise of his life. So I was all
the time meeting choice spirits among the Dominicans and
the Americans, but who knew nothing of one another. The
situation which shuts out entirely from the moulding of
national life some of these splendid Dominicans that are
well known for then* ability hi other parts of the world,
is an impossible situation.
The Dominicans recognize that they have made a mess
of governing themselves during the hundred years they
tried it. They are not unmindful of the benefits that have
come from peace and increased prosperity enjoyed under
American rule. Few ever expect to be entirely out from
under American influence. Strange to say, I found most of
them preferring their present situation to that of Haiti,
they reasoning as follows : The present military government
is essentially temporary, though it may last many years. Pub-
lic opinion of the world will not allow it to continue indef-
initely so long as we refuse to accept it. If we should sign
a treaty like that signed by Haiti, then we ourselves would
be to blame for our loss of sovereignty. Give us a treaty
along the lines of the arrangement with Cuba. Then you
can protect your commercial interests and help us restore
order if we return to political turmoil. But if we are good,
then we can direct our own affairs.
If there were time, it would be interesting to point out
some of the splendid things that the American authorities
have done in the way of building roads and port works,
improving sanitary conditions, paying foreign bond holders,
providing stable conditions for business, etc. Frankness
would compel me to say, however, that even hi these mate-
PKESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN 253
rial matters I was disappointed in the results, especially in
the two important matters of providing overland communi-
cation between the northern and southern halves of the
island and the suppression of the terrible disorder in the
ulterior of the country which still renders it unsafe for
travelers. There seems to be no letting up whatever in
the banditry, and an American probably runs greater risks
in traveling through certain districts than at any other tune
in the history of the country.
One of the greatest difficulties with the present situation,
however, is that the people are not being prepared for
government . The Dominicans have no responsibility placed
on them. They have no incentive toward progress except
material prosperity. More of their children may be taught
to read and write, more may secure advanced wages from
foreign corporations and more may enjoy automobile rides
on good roads, but the present military government by its
very nature cannot give itself to the development of the
nobler things of life. For this reason and for the other
that, whatever exigencies of war may have compelled us
to take over Santo Domingo, the American people cannot
permanently consent to robbing a people of their sover-
eignty. The present situation is an impossible one. I feel
sure that no one more fully recognizes this than the respon-
sible American officials concerned and that they will soon
bring about the needed change.
The situation in Haiti is very similar hi many ways to
that of Santo Domingo. But our authority in Haiti is
secured by treaty. In each country the military force is
the dominating one.
The first thing for a visitor to do, either in Santo Domingo
or Haiti is to report to the local American officer in com-
mand. The arrangements between our military forces in
the two countries is different, however, at least in theory.
In Santo Domingo there is no pretense of federal govern-
ment except by the American military forces. In Haiti
there is a president, cabinet and sometimes a congress, with
governors and local officials, which function in certain mat-
ters as long as they are willing to cooperate with the Ameri-
can military authorities.
254 SAMUEL GUY INMAN
There is, then, a dual government in Haiti, one the native
government and the other the American Marines, headed
by the general in command. If the native gendarmerie is
counted, and it has large authority, there may be said to be
three governments.
The man of most power is the Financial Adviser, an
American, who has final authority over the various items
of expenditure by the national treasury. In matters like
sanitation, the United States government details an officer
from the navy or the marine corps to serve under the Hai-
tian government. The gendarmerie, like the Guardia Na-
tional of Santo Domingo, is composed of native soldiers
officered by American marines, privates or non-commis-
sioned officers, who have been detailed by the marine corps
for this work after they have stood examination in ele-
mentary French and in Haitian law. Marines are only
stationed permanently in the larger towns, but the gen-
darmes are found scattered all over the country as well as
in all the cities. Where both forces are found their barracks
are in different parts of the town. As the officers of the
gendarmes are only enlisted men hi the Marine Corps and
the private gendarmes are Haitians, there is naturally little
relation between the personnel of the two organizations.
The marine who becomes an officer in the gendarmerie
finds himself clothed with almost unlimited power in the
district where he serves. He is the judge of practically all
civil and criminal cases, settling everything from a family
fight to a murder. He is the paymaster of all funds ex-
pended by the national government, he is ex-officio director
of the schools, inasmuch as he pays the teachers. He con-
trols the mayor and city council, since they can spend no
funds without his O.K. As collector of taxes he exercises
a strong influence on all individuals of the community. It
is no wonder that an ordinary private in the marine corps,
with a few months residence hi a foreign country, where
people are at a very low stage of civilization, and he him-
self with little or no preparation for such varied responsi-
bilities as are thrust upon him, is often accused of many
abuses and mistakes. When one sees the awful conditions
PRESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN 255
under which these gendarme officers are called to live, he
wonders if he himself would do any better under the same
circumstances. But the fact remains that it is impossible
to get anywhere in reforming a people who see nothing to
admire in the reformer, who too seldom tempers justice
with mercy but often inflicts a punishment more severe
than the crime.
The fight being waged by the force of marines and the
gendarmerie for the extermination of the cacos, or bandits,
is growing more serious constantly. While we were not
molested on the main road, it was evident everywhere that
we were in a country where there was real war. Most of
the big posts were stripped of men except barely enough to
do necessary guard duty, the rest of them being out in the
hills after the bandits. These outlaws go about in bands
numbering from twenty-five to two hundred. Not more
than 20 or 30 per cent are armed and these are very poor
shots, so that there are few casualties among our men. They
are now making a systematic drive and closing in on the
bandits and in some battles from twenty-five to sixty are
killed. It is the hardest sort of military work.
The bandits may be sighted on top of a hill, and by the
time our men hike to the spot their quarry will have crossed
over to the next hill-top and will holloa across making fun
of the slow Americanos. There is nothing to be done but
to keep on chasing them until through strategy or forced
marches they are within gun shot. The range needs to
be close, as the cacos are little affected by a wound that will
put an ordinary man out of business. I saw one man who
had been accidentally shot and brought into the fort where
a gendarme was probing for the bullet with what looked
to me like a needle used to sew up potato sacks. The blood
was flowing profusely as the probe went here and there,
but the man lay as still as though absolutely nothing was
going on. After seeing that I was more ready to believe
the stories of how they kept coming after they had been
shot in a way that would be fatal immediately to most men.
One's heart goes out toward our boys who are engaged in
this terrible business. Often their forced marches without
256 SAMUEL GUY INMAN
food last for many long hours and even days. Months are
spent in the wild country without seeing any civilized life
whatever, without any amusements, without even a news-
paper or magazine. Even in the smaller towns on the main
road of travel we found posts where the men had not seen
a newspaper for four months, and had no means of recre-
ation whatever. The few chaplains are working hard on
this matter, and one has just succeeded in getting a motion
picture machine sent way up into the hills in the interior
where the fighting is worst and where living conditions are
almost unbearable. For we must remember that interior
Haiti is like interior Africa, where natives live the most
degraded lives.
The men out on the field agree that the situation is get-
ting worse rather than better. They only see an end to it
when all the cacos shall have been exterminated. But
when will this be accomplished? In the killing of the pres-
ent crop others are grown. While Haiti has always had its
professional revolutionists and country bands who lived by
robbery, there seems to be a general agreement that the
present acute trouble was developed by the American officers
of the gendarmerie enforcing too rigidly an old law requiring
men to work the roads four days a month. This has now
been abandoned, and all road workers are paid a gourde
(twenty cents gold) per day for their work. But the oppo-
sition to government has been augmented to such an extent
that the American authorities see no way of settling it
except by the sword. In the short tune I was in the coun-
try I was not able to form a proper judgment as to whether
there was any particular political purpose behind this oppo-
sition to the Americans on the part of the cacos, or whether
they were simply a lot of bandits who preferred to live by
pillage rather than by work. One hears, of course, both
opinions expressed.
It is with great hesitancy that one even seemingly passes
criticism upon our American marines. No man knows but
that he might act in the same way under similar conditions.
It is the machine, not the man, that is to blame. From the
military standpoint, it is natural to regard all life as cheap;
PEESENT SITUATION IN THE CAEIBBEAN 257
especially when stationed in a country where people are
little above the animal, where you are hated and your Me
is sought, if not by all, at least by organized bands who
compel you to sleep with your hands on your arms, and
where, if ever caught, you know you will be subject to un-
mentionable torture before you meet a horrible death.
Under such conditions it is easy to live up to the rule of
"take no prisoners" and to have small respect for the rights
and property of those who have no respect for you and little
for themselves.
Military life, moreover, does not lend itself to civil re-
forms, for it is based on caste. Discipline is only main-
tained by obeying without question your superior. The
private is subject to the ire of the sergeant, the sergeant to
the lieutenant, the lieutenant to the captain, and so on.
And very likely the ire of all is visited on the civilian. As
a young editor, who had to take his paper to the military
authorities for their censorship before it was published,
said, "We want a civil government so we can approach
them. You go to see one of the military authorities. You
know he is a very fine man. But he has a guard at the
door who unceremoniously tells you to 'get out, and do it
quick! " Is it any wonder that the bandit situation
doesn't get better under such treatment or that the Ameri-
can soldier acts as he does under the conditions described,
when he has never had any training for administrative or
democratizing work? My duties have carried me into
many of the out of the way places of the world, where moral
restraint was largely removed. But in no place have I
ever seen American men descend so low in orgies with na-
tive rum and native women as in interior Haiti. But they
were not typical of our soldiers, many of whom are putting
up a heroic fight for character against awful odds.
The same thing applies to moral life. Who will throw
the first stone at the man who is compelled to live away from
all that is pure and ennobling, without religious or moral
influences of any kind, without books or recreation often,
without even a baseball or a victrola, hi the midst of the
vilest native life where men have little virtue and women
258 SAMUEL GUY INMAN
small sense of shame? The whole thing is absolutely un-
natural. If necessary for a few months under extraordinary
conditions, it should certainly not be allowed to exist through
the years that men do not get into a pure atmosphere or
see good women of their own race or hear a moral exhorta-
tion for two or three years, as happens with some of our
men here. Such men too often have their whole moral
makeup changed.
The best of the officers in Haiti realize that the situation
is not satisfactory and are doing what they can to correct
it. "So far we have done little for Haiti except stop the
graft — and that has not made the people like us! It is
time we were doing some constructive service for these
people." Thus spoke the commander of the American ma-
rines in Haiti. Of course he did not mean that literally be-
cause already much has been accomplished in the building
of roads, sanitation of cities, improvement of the postal
service and other public activities. The national debt,
which constantly threatened the independent life of the
nation, is being gradually liquidated.
If our government is to go forward satisfactorily with the
tremendous job it has begun there must be in every case
the most careful selection of the men who are sent to deal
with these people. When we began our work in the Phil-
ippines we sent a man like Mr. Taft to begin the develop-
ment of the people into a democracy. He found much the
same conditions as now exist in Haiti. When he began to
talk about "our little brown brother" it took strong meas-
ures to stop the sarcasm of the soldiers who sang, "He
may be a brother of William H. T., but he ain't no kin to
me." But the new spirit prevailed and today the develop-
ment of the Filipino toward democracy is the pride of
every American. The job in Haiti is a harder one, but it
can be accomplished by a combination of the highest type
of administrative and moral leadership.
The following extracts from the letter of a naval officer
emphasize the duty of the United States to render an
unselfish service to the backward people of this island:
PRESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN 259
In 1914 while I was on duty in Haiti and Santo Domingo the
thought occurred to me how the natives of these islands had
been neglected by the various philanthropic and religious societies
of the United States.
Again, after five years in Europe, I have once more returned
to Santo Domingo. Meanwhile we have actually taken over the
government of this Island and our moral responsibility for the
improvement and progress of the natives has been greatly in-
creased, while I note the same indifference on the part of the
various philanthropic and welfare organizations of the United
States toward this work.
The citizens of the United States, out of private funds, have
spent millions of dollars in helping and assisting the peoples of
war-stricken Europe. The peoples of war-stricken Haiti, our
own particular wards, the responsibility for whose betterment
we cannot now escape in view of the occupation, have received
practically nothing.
Europe has suffered from the devastation of wars for five years;
Haiti and Santo Domingo for over a hundred. At least 50 per
cent of the population are practically reduced to savagery; a
certain proportion are in the same condition as their ancestors
were when they were brought in slavery from the African jungles.
I do not believe that the various charitable and philanthropic
institutions, which after all represent the public — the people of
the United States — wish to shirk their moral responsibilities to-
wards these unfortunate people. Their neglect up until now,
their bending all their energies towards Europe at the expense
of their foster-child is attributable only to ignorance and lack
of knowledge of conditions.
But now the United States has occupied the Island, the Ameri-
can people should no longer remain in ignorance of the true con-
ditions. As soon as they realize and can visualize the state of
affairs, knowing that now we are legally and morally responsible,
have got to see the thing through, I'm sure they will respond as
they have always done to stricken and unfortunate branches of
the human race.
In Central America I found a different attitude toward
the United States than in any other part of the Southland.
There seems to be a rather general feeling that there is no
use of longer kicking against the pricks. The North Amer-
ican influence must remain predominant and the best thing
to do now is to work toward making it a just influence.
While there is plenty of the kind of prejudice that Ugarte
and his school stand for in other parts of Latin America
and there is much resentment at direct interference with the
internal affairs of the various countries especially in regard
260 SAMUEL GUY INMAN
to the presence of the marines and the Bryan-Chamorro
treaty in Nicaragua, the reasoning of the average man seems
to run something like this: "Our economic life must neces-
sarily depend very closely on the United States. We need
the help of the United States in stabilizing our political
life. We do not object to receiving such helpful influence.
But what does keep us continually resentful is the use of
marines to protect foreign investors and keep in power an
administration that is despotic, while doing nothing toward
helping the people in general to better their condition. Let
your influence be toward a positive program of improving our
political, economic, educational and social life, not in suppress-
ing self-expression and just nationalism. If you assume the
authority to say we cannot have revolutions, then you must
also assume the authority to compel our rulers, whom you
protect, to give us political and economic justice. We are
independent nations and we would like to run our own
affairs. But we admit that economically we are bound
inseparably to you; politically we need your steadying
influence to bring all Central America into harmonious co-
operative relations; and morally we need your stimulating
example. But do not force this on us. Help us to keep
our self-respect and our national honor while you help us
to rid ourselves of the tyranny of our caudillos, of our indi-
vidualism, our graft and our inertia. Please, Mr. Great
Big Yankee Man, we know we need your capital and your
powerful influence and we do admire you for many things,
but please, fewer marines, fewer one-sided treaties, fewer
demands for economic exploitation, and more help in de-
veloping the things that have made your own fine nation
great."
In Nicaragua the outstanding influence is the hundred
United States marines who live up on the hill dominating
the city. A hundred marines are not many, but as one
gentleman expressed it, "When we see that hundred up
there, we see a hundred thousand behind them and then
behind them a hundred million. So we know we must not
displease Tio Samuel."
PRESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN 261
The American bank that owns the railroad and dictates
the financial policies of the country and the American
customs collectors are the predominant forces that persuade
the Nicaraguans to court the favor of the United States or
curse then* luck, as the case may be.
As soon as I arrived at Managua, I had a perfect ava-
lanche of callers and requests for engagements. For maybe
this American could have some influence in getting his
government to better their conditions. Soon my days were
divided up, one with the editors, one with the educators,
one with the literati, one with the cabinet, one with the
supreme court, and so on.
The presidential elections were very close (August, 1920)
and the big question with the Conservative party was,
"Will our big Uncle stand by us as before and keep the
opposition from armed rebellion, so we may continue in
power?" The Liberals are no less insistently asking, "Will
the United States force the Conservatives to let us vote at
these elections so we may put in a man who represents the
majority of the people?" It has often been said, and it
seemed to me true, that the Conservative government in
power could not stand for any time unless it was supported
by the United States, for a large majority of the people were
Liberals. As Senator Root said in discussing the Bryan-
Chamorro treaty,
I am told that if the marines were withdrawn, the present presi-
dent would be obliged to leave the country immediately or he
would be expelled by a revolution. This situation raises a very
serious question, not about the desirableness of the treaty, but
about the way in which the treaty should be made. Can we
afford to make a treaty with Nicaragua, granting us perpetual
rights in that country, with a president who we have reason to
believe does not represent more than a quarter of the people of
the country, and who is maintained in office by our military force,
and to whom we would, as a result of the treaty, pay a large sum
of money to be disposed of by him as president? I should be
sorry to see the United States get into that position. We don't
want to maintain a government in Nicaragua by military force
perpetually, and it is highly probable that if we were to withdraw
our force after making such a treaty there would be a revolution
and the treaty would be repudiated, leaving us in a position where
our legitimate moral influence would be destroyed and nothing
262 SAMUEL GUY INMAN
but brute force left. There is a good deal of evidence that the
other people of Central America look at the subject in this way.
I should be very sorry to see the Central Americans convinced
that we wish to rule them by force, for it would be the end of all
our attempts to benefit them and help them along as we have
been trying to do.
The Liberals now claim that, since the United States has
interfered once with their internal affairs, the only just
thing for it to do in the present instance is to compel fair
elections — that if it simply keeps its hands off it will mean
the continuance of the Conservatives in power, since they
will count themselves in, however the election may swing.
The Liberals have been the opponents of intervention
and of course have not been popular with Americans. In
the early days of intervention, their leaders like Dr. Leon-
ardo Arguillo, whose tract against intervention was used as
a text in the University of Madrid, were very bitter in their
denunciations of the situation. Under no circumstances
then would our government allow them to attain power,
for they would, it was thought, immediately break faith with
American bondholders. These leaders now say that they
fu]ly recognize the obligations they have contracted with
United States financial concerns and would hold rigidly to
their agreements if they were elected. They claim that
they are not anti-American nor desirous of cutting off
relations with the United States and that it is not fair
to hold them responsible for the sins of Zelaya, who was in
no wise a representative Liberal, though he claimed to be
of that party.
The beneficial results of the American intervention in
Nicaragua seem to be three: peace, freedom of speech and
the protection of foreign investors. For a country that has
been the victim of unprincipled caudillos for many decades,
where political opponents have been subject to torture and
robbery, where property was unsafe and foreign interfer-
ence continuous, these are indeed great benefits. The Nic-
araguans put over against these benefits the following evils:
The practical loss of self-determination; actual decrease in
the number of schools and the weakening of the educational
PEESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN 263
system by turning it over largely to the church; excessive
taxes which work against the poor and favor the rich; lack
of any responsible body working for a constructive policy
for improving the Nicaraguan people politically, econom-
ically, educationally or socially.
If the Chileans are the Yankees of South America, the
Salvadoreans are the Chileans of Central America. A hard
working population (comparatively), a lack of revolutions,
numerous small industries, a well-organized army, empha-
sis on secondary education (always comparatively, remem-
ber), a strongly developed nationalism with a converse
questioning concerning North American imperialism, and
a pride of leadership among sister states — these and other
characteristics remind one familiar with South American
states of vigorous little Chile.
The most democratic president I met in all Latin America
is Don Jorge Melendez, who talked with me nearly an hour
recently in the most informal way about the people of
Salvador, the difficulties of avoiding revolutions in Central
America, financial and political relations with the United
States, and other questions. He was greatly delighted to
have North American visitors come to Salvador, he said,
because he recognized the necessity of closer relations be-
tween his country and the United States and thought that
such visits would add greatly to these relations. It is hard
for the North American to understand the difficulties with
which Central American governments have to cope. If the
president attempts to introduce reforms too rapidly he has
a revolution on hand. When Senor Melendez came into
office he found an internal debt of three millions, principally
back salaries, due to the loss of export and import duties
during the war. This debt was paid off the first year, prin-
cipally by a strict collection of the internal revenues on
liquor, which unfortunately is one of the largest sources of
income.
The interest on the national debt, held largely in England,
has been so promptly met that additional credit, not yet
used, had been extended. He is now working to get a
small change in the banking laws to meet the conditions of
264 SAMUEL GUY INMAN
a large American bank which is desirous of opening a
branch here.
As for internal improvements, the president said he had
just returned from the celebration in connection with the
opening of the railway from the south to Cajutapeque so
that one may travel by rail from the southernmost port,
La Union, to within twenty miles of the capital, covering
the rest by auto at present but very soon by rail. He has
just signed a contract with the International Railway of
Central America, a North American company, to build the
railroad from Santa Ana, near the Guatemalan border, to
join the railroad at Zacapa, Guatemala, which runs to
Puerto Barrios. Thus Salvador will have not only a rail-
road running the entire length of the country, but will be
brought within six days of New Orleans.
How much this will mean may be judged from the fact
that it now requires at least five or six weeks to get second
class mail, to say nothing of freight, which comes from the
United States via Panama, then up the west coast. Only
first class mail is brought by mule across from the Atlantic
port, Puerto Barrios. The contract calls for the completion
of this new road before February 15, 1923.
The president spoke of the problem of education as being
one of the most difficult, since the nation had been tied to
old systems which it was hard to change. But here he has
recently appointed a special commission to study the subject
and he expects them to completely modernize the public
school curriculum.
In the president's inaugural address, March 19, 1919, he
proposed the institution of a national campaign against
illiteracy. This has recently been started. At that time
he said,
I call the attention of thinking men and especially of the
Department of Public Instruction to the necessity of wiping out
the worst of our defects, illiteracy. How is it possible to conceive
of effective progress and definite implanting of a republic when
70 per cent of the people cannot read and write? It is humiliating
to announce such a sad condition, but it is necessary to leave aside
sweet sounding phrases and face frankly our situation, under-
standing that we are building on the sand if we do not teach those
PRESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN 265
who form the greatest majority of the nation how to read and
write. Public instruction must receive new impulses. Our public
schools are still influenced by chaotic systems and it is necessary
to popularize our instruction, having it penetrate to the very lowest
.social strata.
If, at the conclusion of my term of office, this disturbing per-
centage of illiteracy has been considerably reduced, I will have
-a legitimate pride, for by such diminution we shall have rendered
our nation the greatest service in preparing the present generation
to realize and carry forward the highest ideals of a democracy.
On inquiring of the president concerning a map showing
the military posts of the country, he explained that while
they did not want any more war yet it was necessary to be
prepared. In twenty-four hours, by communicating his
commands to three brigadier-generals, he could mobilize an
army of one hundred and sixty thousand men. One year
military service is obligatory for all men. The soldiers are
given a thorough instruction in common school branches
and in English, so that when they leave the army they are
much better prepared for fighting life's battles than before.
Because Salvador was the only Central American repub-
lic that did not join the allies in the war against Germany
and because she has recently asked the United States for a
definition of the Monroe Doctrine, it was particularly inter-
esting to hear the president declare his desire for close
relations with the United States. Because his ideas seem
to be so well represented by the words of his brother, whom
he has just succeeded in the presidency, I give them to you
here:
If American diplomacy, in its relations with the Central Ameri-
can peoples, maintains unimpaired the principles of equity and
justice laid down by President Wilson, principles of cordiality,
confraternity and respect for the sovereignty of these peoples,
such a policy of mutual consideration and good understanding
will be the foundation for closer commercial relations between
the United States and Salvador, as well as among the other
republics of the American continent.
The best means of rapprochement for two peoples is an intimate
reciprocal knowledge of their peculiar moods, their psychology,
their ideals and initiative in the path of civilization. North
Americans have made very little systematic and methodical effort
to comprehend the characteristics of the political and social
•evolution of our small nationalities. As a general rule, with but
266 SAMUEL GUY INMAN
very few exceptions, North Americans know very little about
our peoples because of false representations prompted by impulsive
meddling with these young states. We have been dubbed restless
peoples, ungovernable hordes, uneducated masses incapable of
civilization. But in spite of all this, for twenty-four years not
one single internal revolution or political commotion of any im-
portance has taken place in this republic, which has lived in
perfect peace, devoted to its work during a long period of progres-
sive reconstruction.
False and biased report spread by some writers in North
America, and the little importance given to our markets, have
contributed to the neglect by Americans of the study of these
peoples to such an extent that they have but very scant knowledge
of their commercial geography.
The breaking out of the European war was necessary in order
that some serious thought should be given to Central and South
America, for prominent men in the United States to undertake
the task of bringing about the intellectual rapprochement of our
respective countries, and for these nations to be deemed worthy
of study and encouragement.
We desire to know more intimately North America's cultural
status, its scholastic and municipal institutions, its methods of
cultivation of the land, its financial organization, its literature,
and above all its political institutions since our system of govern-
ment is analogous to that of the American people.
The interchange of university professors and students would
be an effective means of promoting mutual acquaintance. And
if it were possible and an agreement could be reached between
the United States and other countries of Central and South
America, nothing could contribute more to the strengthening of
our intellectual bonds than the foundation of a Pan American
University in the United States.
The men of the two Americas, educated side by side in the
same school, would work together to strengthen mutual bonds
of everlasting confraternity, and Spanish America, through an
army of its men thoroughly imbued with the practical methods of
American education, would benefit by a new standard of culture
more in harmony with the requirements of modern life.
The sending of lecturers to our universities, the establishment
of good daily papers and magazines in the Spanish language,
having a wide circulation in these countries, will contribute to
the spread of information about the resources and characteristics
of the North Americans in our midst.
It behooves the statesmen, bankers and manufacturers of the
United States to make effective the most important part in the
relations between the United States and Salvador. There are no
prejudices among us against the United States. We admire the
strength and fearlessness of the people of the United States in
their financial struggles, in their republican traditions and in the
doctrines of their publicists; we study closely the solutions reached
PRESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN 267
in their political evolution and their great administrative progress,
and in their pedagogical progress we find an inspiration for the
improvement and reform of our methods of teaching.
Conditions are propitious for bringing closer together the ties
that bind us to the democracy of the North, founded by Washing-
ton and made greater by Franklin, Jefferson and many other
great statesmen.
Behind those words of Don Carlos Melendez is the fact
that during the war, when he was president, Salvador had
much pro-German sentiment, which kept the country from
entering the war on the side of the Allies, although it de-
clared a benevolent neutrality toward them. For many
years there has been a more marked tendency in Salvador
than in other Central American countries to question the
intentions of the United States with reference to Latin
America.
Her protest against the Bryan-Chamorro treaty by which.
Nicaragua gave the United States the right to build a canal
through that country and establish a naval base in the Bay
of Fonseca was most vigorous. She claimed that the bay
is the common property of the three countries which it
touches and that the establishment of a naval base there and
the fortification of some of the islands would give the United
States, with long range guns, absolute command of Salva-
dorean territory and in case of war make her neutrality
impossible.
It may be said in parenthesis that when one sees the bay
it is easy to understand the truth of this statement. The
fact that this protest, although sustained by a majority of
the Central American court of justice, was unheeded by the
United States did not serve to lessen suspicion of America's
imperialistic motives.
During the Second Pan-American Scientific Congress in
Washington in 1915 the Salvadorean delegate, Dr. Alonso
Reyes Guerra, bearded the eagle in its nest and said plainly
that before there could be any real Pan-Americanism four
things were necessary: first, a declaration that the prohi-
bition against the conquest of American territory contained
in the Monroe doctrine applies to the United States as well
as to European countries; second, the adoption of the Drago
268 SAMUEL GUY INMAN
doctrine, which makes the collection of debts exclusively an
internal question to be handled within each nation itself;
third, elimination of all exceptions to the doctrine of non-
intervention; fourth, the institution of obligatory arbitra-
tion of all international disputes.
When President Wilson made his address to the Mexican
editors, which was the most satisfactory statement of a
decade concerning the North American attitude toward
Latin America, President Carlos Melendez of Salvador
immediately wrote to President Wilson saying that
As the ruler of the Salvadorean people, as a citizen of Latin
America, I wish to express to you my firm adhesion to the ideas
of justice and sentiments of fraternity with which your speech
to the Mexican journalists is replete. In expounding the Monroe
Doctrine you have dispelled pre judgments and unfavorable con-
jectures that have for many years hampered the full blossoming
and propagation of principles of true cordiality which must for
the common good exist between the United States and the other
republics of the American continent.
When the United States saw fit to have a special clause
placed hi the League of Nations pact, reserving the rights
involved in the Monroe doctrine without defining them,
Salvador spoke for the rest of Latin America and asked the
United States to define the meaning of the doctrine, since
other American nations entering the League would, with
the new clause, themselves recognize as binding this same
doctrine. Without a definition of the Monroe doctrine
these nations would be in the position of a man signing a
note without knowing its amount.
As will be recalled, our state department simply quoted
hi reply a part of President Wilson's address to the Second
Pan American Scientific Congress. This has not satisfied
many, who say that an address of a president cannot be
taken as the official declaration of a nation. But the gov-
ernment of Salvador, which under the young Melendez is
sympathetic to the United States and is backed by a public
sentiment of no little strength since the victory of the
Allies, has outwardly accepted the reply as satisfactory.
Indications are that the endeavors of Salvador to find out
if there is a colored gentleman in the Pan American wood-
PEESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN 269
pile will cease temporarily at least, and that the growing
commercial and financial relations with the United States
will cause, at least apparently, a more sympathetic attitude
toward us. That this friendship shall be real as well as
official, there should be a close study of Salvador and other
Central American countries by the government and the
people of the United States. We should be represented hi
those countries by diplomats who have a background of
history, language and culture that will enable them to pene-
trate beneath surface appearance and politeness to a real
understanding of the underlying feelings and motives of
Central American life.
The outstanding event in Guatemala recently is, of course,
the fall of Cabrera, the last of the old order of dictators in
Latin America except one — Gomez of Venezuela.
I was in Guatemala both immediately before and imme-
diately after the revolution. Having talked with Cabrera
about his policies during my first visit, I desired to compare
him with the new president on my second visit, which re-
sulted in an experience illustrative of the difficulty of keep-
ing straight on Central American politics.
Asking a friend whether he thought I could see the presi-
dent to find about his proposed program, he replied that he
thought I could and told me where to find him. Following
the directions I came to a private house which had a few
soldiers in front of the door and, on explaining that I wished
to see the president, my card was taken hi where I saw a
patio full of ragged soldiers. Pretty soon a gentleman in
military uniform came out and asked me what I wanted. I
told hun that I was anxious to see the president and talk
with hun about his new program. The gentleman seemed
to be a little confused and I again explained that I was now
going back to the United States and wished to carry a mes-
sage from the new president to the American people. But
still he did not seem to understand and I began to wonder
if my Spanish was at fault. After I had made the third
attempt to explain to him how important it was for me to
see the chief magistrate and find out his attitude toward
things American, he looked at me in a queer way and said,
270 SAMUEL GUY INMAN
"You must want to see the new president. It is the old
one that we have here in jail." As I had seen the old presi-
dent a few weeks before, I had no desire to see him again
and hurried on up to the house of President Herrerra, to
which I was directed, where I had a long interview with
him. When I finally found him, Don Carlos Herrerra, the
new president, said:
Tell the people of the United States that you met in Guatemala
a friend of the Americans. As to my program, in two words, it
is to follow as closely as possible the development of democracy
as it has taken place in the United States. In Guatemala we
have everything to do and I know of no better way of doing it
than studying carefully what has been done in the United States.
I have for a long time been a great admirer of that country.
My two boys were educated there. (Indeed these two boys are
American citizens.) I have visited the country myself; have for
a long time had business connections with many of its large com-
mercial organizations and believe thoroughly that the best thing
for our country's development is to maintain cordial relations
with the United States.
President Herrerra is a new type of ruler for Guatemala.
He is not a military man or even a politician. During the
long despotic reign of Cabrera, who had the most complete
spy system ever developed and who persecuted his critics
wherever they might be found in any part of the world, who
kept his prisons filled with political offenders and who
allowed no open opposition, the dictator had never been
quite able to lay hands on Herrerra, one of the richest men
in the country. For Don Carlos is not only a splendid busi-
ness man but has also proved himself to be careful and diplo-
matic. He is one of the few men who maintained his inde-
pendence and yet has not been openly persecuted by
Cabrera. His large fortune is invested in sugar and coffee
plantations. He is probably the largest exporter of both
commodities in Guatemala and maintains financial relations
with many of the big banks of England and the United
States, in which countries he is by no means a stranger.
His administration will no doubt be mainly a business
administration, devoted to the development of Guatemala's
wonderful economic resources. Already business men, both
PRESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN 271
native and American, are planning for great increases in
commercial development. Under the Cabrera regime mer-
chants did not dare order more than they needed for imme-
diate delivery, for they never knew what tomorrow might
bring forth. But now merchants are placing large orders
with every confidence that they are entering a new regime.
Already American Commercial travelers are feeling this
optimism as reflected hi increased orders.
President Herrerra was anxious to have me see his min-
ister of foreign affairs, Senor Aguirre, hi order to talk with
him more in detail concerning the lines along which the ad-
ministration would like the help of the United States. Senor
Aguirre is a cultured gentleman who has traveled widely,
speaks several languages and is in every way a cosmopolite.
He had charge of Guatemala's exhibit at the San Francisco
Exposition and has been active in many of the international
expositions of the world. While he is a farmer in the sense
that he owns a big plantation and gets his income from it,
yet he is especially interested in the matter of international
relations and has made a deep study of the question from
the standpoint of economics. Senor Aguirre said:
We must have the help of the United States, along three lines
particularly. First, we need your moral help. In the past
Guatemaltecos have had to hang their heads because of the utter
backwardness of their country and the lack of liberty we have
enjoyed. All of this must be changed. We must come out into
modern life. We realize that fundamentally our problem is a
moral one and we are not strong enough to cope with this problem
alone. We earnestly hope for the help of the United States in
the development of our moral life. Second, we need financial
help. Guatemala is one of the richest countries in the world.
There is practically nothing that we cannot produce. We have
not only the finest coffee in the world but wonderful sugar and
all kinds of tropical fruits. There is an opportunity to further
develop our agriculture and also for building factories. With
all of our fruit, canning factories would give splendid results.
Our water power furnishes great opportunities for the develop-
ment of electricity. We ought to have several North American
banks immediately.
There is also an opening for wholesale and retail stores handling
exclusively American goods.
In the third place we need your help in education. Here almost
everything is to be done. While the previous administration
272 SAMUEL GUY INMAN
pretended to be a friend of education and erected a certain number
of showy buildings, they have been little more than shells. The
education of the more than a million Indians in our population
is in itself a tremendous problem. We must make our education
modern and to whom can we look for help so much as to the-
United States which has advanced so rapidly along educational
lines?
My idea also is to make Guatemala a modern Mecca for Ameri-
can tourists. We have one of the finest climates in the world,
some of the most beautiful scenery, with mountains and lakes
more wonderful than those of Switzerland and we are within three
days of New Orleans. Of course we must first prepare for these
tourists by building automobile roads and hotels. This we expect
to begin very soon. If we can have a stream of American tourists
coming to Guatemala the development of our country will be
assured. Heretofore we have lived to ourselves. The former
government discouraged visitors to the country, as it did not care
for the outside world to know of its abuses. But our policy is
to throw open the gates to all friends of progress. We want the
world to come and see us.
The greatest criticism that the Guatemalan people had
of the United States government during the exciting days
of the revolution, was the publication in the Guatemalan
press of a note from the state department which indicated
that our government was very much opposed to the revolu-
tion. The revolutionary forces had conducted themselves
in a most remarkable way. In fact nothing like it has ever
been known in Latin America. For four months they
carried on a campaign against Cabrera by means of the press
and through public addresses, continually stating that they
did not intend to resort to arms but were determined toj
make this a peaceful revolution. They stuck to this deter-
mination even when they were fired upon by Cabrera's
soldiers during one of their peaceful parades. The reform
or " unionist" movement represented at least 90 per cent
of the nation. It did not therefore seem consistent with
the history of the United States or with the ideals of liberty
for which we stand that our government should publish the
statement which seemed to command the Guatemalans not
to revolt against one of the worst tyrannies that any people
have been subjected to, and who Americans ought to know
never kept a promise for reform.
PEESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN 273
The following is the American note which caused such
unfavorable comment:
Mr. Benton McMillin, envoy extraordinary and minister pleni-
potentiary of the United States of America to Guatemala, after
the issuance of the president's proclamation, issued, with the
authority of his government, the following for publication :
"The steady policy of the government of the United States is
to encourage constitutional government and free elections in
Central America. Having the greatest interest therefore in the
constitutional progress of Guatemala, the government of the
United States has learned with great pleasure of the proclamation
of President Estrada Cabrera regarding constitutional guarantees
and has confidence in view of the statements just made to this
government by President Estrada Cabrera, that he will faithfully
carry out the reforms proclaimed.
The government of the United States is opposed to revolution-
ary measures and firmly believes in view of President Cabrera's
proclamation there is no excuse for starting a revolutionary move-
ment in Guatemala and that therefore in the eyes of the civilized
world the gravest responsibility would rest with any man or group
of men who should start such a movement. The government of
the United States particularly desires to see peaceful constitutional
progress in Guatemala and would regard with horror any actions
which should cause a needless and inexcusable revolution to be
commenced in that country." (From Diario de Centra- America,
Guatemala, April 5, 1920.)
It ought to be said that this note was published by Min-
ister McMillin not because of his approval of its contents
but by order of his superior authority.
The final fall of Cabrera came when the National Assem-
bly declared him insane and unfit for office and elected Don
Carlos Herrerra to replace him. A few days before this
action Cabrera's assistant minister of war, his faithful
friend and servant for a decade, reported to his master that
some of his troops had deserted. This so enraged Cabrera
that he knocked the man down with the butt of his pistol
and kicked him around. The man finally escaped and took
refuge in the English legation and afterwards revealed to
the National Assembly that Cabrera was living a life in his
palace outside of the city which showed him to be insane.
He kept in his house some old Indian witches and herb-
doctors whose advice he continually accepted, and his sus-
picions of his closest friends and his cruelty to everyone
274 SAMUEL GUY INMAN
showed that he was not in his right mind. After the Assem-
bly had declared him insane he began to bombard the city
and for eight days there were the most frightful conditions
in the capital.
The American legation was besieged by a large number of
people who were afraid of their lives and for a week Minister
and Mrs. McMillin had 181 refugees in the legation. Most
of these were women and children. There were fourteen
members of President Herrerra's family there; some forty
Americans, and the rest represented all grades of Guate-
maltecos. It is easy to imagine the confusion that existed
at that time. American marines were brought up from the
Tacoma on the Pacific shore and from the Niagara on the
Atlantic side. Machine guns were stationed on both sides
of the legation and marines stood guard hi order to protect
the legation, which was several times threatened by mobs
who were infuriated against two Americans who had been
in league with President Cabrera in exploiting the people.
One of the most remarkable things about it all was the
heroism and unselfish service of Mrs. McMillin, who was
everything to everyone during those eight days, giving up
her own room to three of the women who were about to
give birth to children and going from one part of the house
to the other ministering to the sick and quieting the nervous.
The fourth day of the siege the house was put under mili-
tary rule. The cook of the Niagara was brought up to
take charge of the rationing, which was the only thing that
saved Mrs. McMillin from a complete breakdown, her own
servants being so excited that they could not even make
the coffee.
Things in Guatemala are rapidly becoming reorganized
and there are evidences everywhere of the new day. The
ordinary revolution in Central America is an opera bouffe
affair, but this upheaval in Guatemala has been justified if
any revolution in the world was ever justified. It has been
carried out hi the quietest possible way. When the city
was fired upon the Unionist party did not have any arms
whatever with which to protect themselves. They had
maintained, up to the very last, their determination not
PRESENT SITUATION IN THE CARIBBEAN 275
to resort to arms. They were able to defend the city when
it was attacked by Cabrera only because the government
troops themselves turned to the new regime. Many of the
men who are now in power have suffered terrible tortures
for long years for the sake of liberty. They have learned
by these sufferings the cost of liberty and it is the judgment
of people who know Guatemala best that they will work
for a really democratic government in one of the richest
countries of all the Americas.
The countries mentioned presented to me the most inter-
esting situations and there is not time to describe the others.
Cuba, by means of the Platt amendment and the predom-
inant economic influence of American capital which owns
most of the great sugar and tobacco estates, can have no
political or economic policies not approved by the United
States. Our protection of the Conservative government
there has brought immense prosperity to certain classes.
But if we do not want Cuba to become an American Ire-
land we must study with her some necessary constructive
policies.
Honduras means "the depths " and that unfortunate
country has almost reached them in many regards. She
does whatever we suggest for her to do. But our sug-
gestions so far are purely political and not educational.
The revolutionary government of Costa Rica has learned
the impossibility of standing without the recognition of the
United States, and a constitutional government, grateful to
us for our stand, is now reestablishing itself as it looks to
us for support.
Panamd seldom challenges the American influence, but
the presence of our soldiers in the interior of the country
and the shirt-sleeve diplomacy used in demanding the Island
of Taboga, caused the most regrettable insult to General
Pershing and shows we will get much more by adopting
some fine Spanish phrases than by shouting "hands up!"
Summing up, my first-hand observations in the Carib-
bean lead me to the following conclusions:
1. The United States really has here at the present tune
a colonial proposition.
276 SAMUEL GUY INMAN
2. The lack of a frank recognition of the situation and
lack of colonial experience have led us into mistakes that
have made our intervention more resented than is necessary.
3. Failure to mark out a definite policy, and leaving mat-
ters largely to the military, has led to a policy of suppression
rather than of constructive helpfulness.
4. Intervention being principally to conserve order, pro-
tect American investors and ward off European interference,
the reactionary parties in the various countries are too often
sustained and help is too often confined to material matters
with no consideration for building up education.
I would respectfully suggest the following as helpful steps
in dealing with the all important question of our relations
with the Caribbean countries:
1. A strong department with recognized responsibility in
the United States government to study conditions and ad-
vise the executive and legislative powers concerning rela-
tions between this country and smaller countries specially
dependent upon us. This department could well have an
advisory committee made up of some outstanding private
citizens who are in a position to aid in such work. Immedi-
ate economic, educational and social surveys should be made
to determine the exact situation and needs of the various
countries.
2. Signing of treaties with certain Caribbean countries
that recognize their sovereignty but secure the aid of the
United States in developing stable government, fair elec-
tions, unproved educational facilities, needed financial
accommodation, etc.
3. Withdrawal of United States marines from countries
where now stationed.
4. Special effort to help in the broad education of the
people of these countries through both government and
private agencies.
5. Cultivation of appreciation of the history, literature,
social life and problems of these countries on the part of
Americans.
6. Turn on the light and let the peoples interested pub-
licly determine and frankly avow the policy for their serv-
ants to follow in forming relations.
THE CENTRAL AMERICAN REPUBLICS AND
THEIR PROBLEMS
By Webster E. Browning, Ph.D., Educational Secretary, Com-
mittee on Cooperation in Latin America; formerly
President of the American College in Chile
It is a peculiar and interesting fact that those twenty
states which lie to the south of us and form the geographical
division generally known as Latin America, are less known
to the average citizens of the United States than are other
lands that lie much more distant, even on the other side of
the earth. It would be safe to say that through the crucible
of the World War the resurrected nationalities, such as
Czecho-Slovakia, Jugoslavia, the Ukraine and Esthonia, in
Europe, or Kurdistan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, in Asia,
have a more distinct personality in our minds than have
Nicaragua, Honduras or Venezuela, our near neighbors to
the south and members of the family of American nations
for a hundred years. The Asian Mesopotamia is probably
a clearer concept in the average American mind than is the
South American Mesopotamia formed by the republic of
Paraguay and the Argentine provinces of Entre Rios and
Corrientes, although their population is about the same
and the area of the latter is almost double the former. One
of the reasons for this lack of exact knowledge in regard to
the countries of Latin America is found in the fact that
it lies far off to one side from the usual line of travel. Our
American tourists visit those portions of the world which
lie east or west, but few of them seldom turn to the South
to the lands that lie under the gleam of the southern cross.
Another explanation is the fact that we have had but
comparatively few diplomatic questions of any great im-
portance with the countries that lie to the south. They
themselves have had local questions which sometimes
involved the United States, but, on the whole, we have been
277
278 WEBSTER E. BROWNING
able to keep apart from any responsibility in the solution of
their problems. And it must also be confessed and some-
what shamefacedly, that when we have been compelled to
participate in Latin American diplomacy our diplomats and
statesmen have not always taken the trouble to study local
conditions, to ascertain all the facts in the case, and thus
render a decision which left us higher in the estimation of
the peoples with whom we were dealing.
It is even more strange that the Latin nations which lie
nearest to us, contrary to the usual rule, are those which are
less known and on which our own supposedly superior civ-
ilization has had a less evident effect. The Central Amer-
ican republics are less often in our thoughts and in our
estimates than are Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Brazil,
which lie to the far south in the temperate zone and pour
their bounteous products into our markets and receive in
turn our exports in an ever-increasing ratio. In other
words our interest in Latin America has been largely com-
mercial and utilitarian, largely limited to those regions
which have promised the highest and quickest returns on a
financial investment.
GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING
This paper is to deal with "The Central American Repub-
lics and their Problems/' but, in view of the somewhat vague
understanding of the region to be described, which prevails
in most quarters, it may be well to set up at the beginning
a geographical and historical perspective in order that our
study may be the more clearly understood.
To locate the six republics of Central America on the
map, they border on the Pacific Ocean on the west and
south, and their shores are washed by the waters of the
Caribbean Sea on the east, while, through the territory of
one of them, runs that marvel of engineering skill, the
Panama Canal, which Viscount Bryce has so aptly termed
"the greatest liberty ever taken with nature." To the
northwest lies the territory of Mexico, our own troubled
and too little appreciated neighbor, and in the south Panama
CENTRAL AMERICAN PROBLEMS 279
clings, as if in filial love, to the skirts of its mother, the justly
discontented republic of Colombia. Lying entirely within
the tropics, between the parallels seven and eighteen north
latitude, their longitude would fall, roughly speaking, be-
tween that of Des Moines or Little Rock, on the west, and
Washington on the east. Thus their general trend is from
northwest to southeast, producing the easting of the south-
ern half of the American continent which throws its east
shores nearer to Europe and brings the west directly south
of the great ports on our east coast.
HISTORICAL SETTING
As to their historical setting, the five original republics —
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Salvador and Costa Rica
—under Spanish rule, which ended in 1821, formed the
Kingdom of Guatemala. This kingdom was ruled by a
captain-general who was directly responsible to the throne,
but who did not assume the title of viceroy, as did the
rulers of Peru, farther south. Due principally to the efforts
of Francisco Morazdn, of Honduras, a leader of the Liberals,
independence from Spain was secured in 1821 and a federal
republic was established which lasted until 1842. At that
time, because of mutual jealousies, this federation broke up
into its component parts and each state, at least hi name
and theory, became an independent republic. In but few
cases, however, and for no great length of time, has repub-
licanism existed in more than name and the President has
too often relied on the army to place and maintain him in
power, rather than on the votes of his fellow citizens. In-
ternational jealousies have persisted and because of this
and other handicaps, no one of the five republics has kept
proper pace with the progress of the Anglo-Saxon nations
to the north or with the Latin states in the far south of the
continent.
ATTEMPTS AT UNION
Repeated efforts have been made to reunite these weak
and often warring political units into one strong state; but
many of the people seem to partake of the turbulent char-
280 WEBSTER E. BROWNING
acter of their volcanic territory, and all such well-intentioned
efforts have failed. A Central American ' ' Hague Tribunal ' '
was set up a few years ago, all the republics except Costa
Rica signed the modus vivendi then drawn up, and occa-
sional meetings have been held for the purpose of adjust-
ing differences; yet but little has been gained in the way of
a permanent cementing of international friendships. On
the contrary, Central America has been notorious among
the nations of the world because of its constant revolution-
ary outbreaks and the amazing facility with which some of
its peoples have repudiated or failed to cancel foreign debts.
The soil has been drenched with the blood of the inhabi-
tants, and never have so-called Christian nations so given
themselves up to mutual slaughter and despoilment. Civil
wars have frequently reduced the male population to almost
the vanishing point, and the territory has been impover-
ished and laid waste with a ferocity which has been seldom
equalled in history.
During the rule of Spain the governors were but official
exploiters and assassins on a large scale. Under the repub-
lican form of government, these exploiters have too often
given way to dictators, or presidents in name, whose mutual
jealousies have often plunged their peoples into war and
caused the wholesale slaughter of many thousands of citi-
zens whose energies should have been used in the estab-
lishing of stable economic conditions. Progress has been
impossible and the prosperity of these peoples is constantly
hampered by enormous debts, when they have not been
cancelled by the simple process of repudiation.
A REGION OF VOLCANIC DISTURBANCES
The unusual frequency of earthquakes and volcanic erup-
tions has ateo been a hindrance to the prosperity and eco-
nomic stability of Central America. This section seems to
form a species of joint in the crust of the earth, a weak
point especially susceptible to disturbances from within,
and its volcanoes are among the most destructive on earth.
Six of these are located hi Guatemala, two in Salvador,
four hi Nicaragua, and four in Costa Rica.
CENTRAL AMERICAN PROBLEMS 281
The havoc wrought by the play of these terrific forces had
full illustration in the destruction of the second city of
Guatemala, now known as Antigua, in 1773, by a combina-
tion of seismic and volcanic movements; in the eruption of
Santa Maria, in the same republic in 1912, which covered
many square leagues with lava and ashes and blotted out
thousands of lives; and, more recently, in the destruction
of the present capital of Guatemala in December, 1917.
PANAMA" AND THE UNITED STATES
Panama, not yet named in the above lines, is the sixth
member of the Central American group and the one which
has most recently become an independent nationality. In
1903, Panamd, then a province or state in the republic of
Colombia, seceded from that country, and under the aegis
of the United States of America, quickly constituted itself
as a republic. Its existence has been very closely allied
with the interests of the United States and it is probable that
its independence could not have been achieved without the
not altogether disinterested advice and help of its powerful
friend to the north, and the echoes of "I took Panama"
have been a very real detriment to the Progress of Pan-
Americanism, or the cultivation of intimate friendly rela-
tions between the United States of America and the remain-
ing nations of the continent.
The area of the Panamanian republic is about equal to
that of the the state of Maine, or a little less than that of
Ireland, and a strip of land 10 miles in width and running
from ocean to ocean has been ceded to the United States
for the uses of the Canal. As a matter Of interest, the cities
of Colon and Panama, which lie outside the Zone, are gen-
erally policed by the United States and this latest-born of
American republics does little that is not approved by
Washington.
COMPARATIVE AREA AND POPULATION
The following table will show the comparative area and
population of the six republics of Central America, although
statisticians differ in their figures and unsettled boundary
disputes often make an exact statement impossible:
282 WEBSTER E. BROWNING
Square miles Population
Nicaragua 49,200 600,000
Guatemala 48,300 2,000,000
Honduras 46,250 555,000
Panama 31,520 350,000
Costa Rica 18,400 420,000
Salvador 7,225 1,200,000
Total 200,895 5,125,000
As regards the composition of the population of Central
America, the native Indian races are largely represented.
Sixty per cent of the population of Guatemala, for example,
is estimated as pure Indians, divided into thirty-six tribes,
each with its own language, or dialect, customs, dress and
religious beliefs. Of pure foreigners there are only some
15,000. The other republics have a smaller percentage of
pure Indians, but in all of them these " native sons" form
the background of the population and constitute a serious
problem.
COMPOSITE CHARACTER OF THE POPULATION
The unusually composite character of the population may
be judged from the following table of crosses which, although
prepared for the republic of Salvador, will apply with cer-
tain restrictions, to the entire six republics. It forms an
interesting study in ethnology and will alone explain many
facts in the history and character of the peoples of Central
America. It is as follows:
Crosses Father Mother
Ladino (mestizo) Spaniard Indian
Castiso Spaniard Ladina
Espaolo Castiso Spanish
Mulato Negro Spanish
Morisco Spaniard Mulata
Albino Morisco Spanish
Tornatos Albino Spanish
Lobo (wolf) Negro Indian
Caribujo Lobo Indian
Grifo Lobo Negress
Barsino Coyote (Indian) Mulata
Albarazado Coyote Indian
Chaniso Coyote Ladina.
Mechino Coyote Loba
CENTRAL AMERICAN PROBLEMS 283
In addition to these native crosses, every nation of the
world has contributed to the formation of the modern peo-
ples of Central America. Buccaneers, sea-rovers, tourists,
exiles from all lands — Teutons, Anglo-Saxons, Scandina-
vians, Greeks, Latins, Turks, Dutch, Asiatics, the sable
African — many of them honest tradesmen who have made
permanent homes in these lands, have generously mingled
then* blood with that of the natives. It is probable that
few, if any, other centers of population offer to the world
such an amazing mixture of the races as do the six republics
of Central America.
ORIGIN OF THE PEOPLES
Although no conclusive proof may be adduced, there is
good reason to believe that the Indians of Central America
had an Asiatic origin, and the general trend of the tribes
seems to have been northward. Copan, in Honduras, sup-
posedly marks the oldest civilization in this part of the
world, of which there is a record, and this was followed by
the Mayan civilization whose ruins exist near the little
village of Quirigud, in Guatemala, and these in turn were
followed by the tribes that invaded what is now Mexico
and left as monuments their magnificent temples and cities
in Yucatan, Chiapas and Oaxaca. These monuments pre-
ceded the formation of the Aztec empire and are even
pre-Toltec in their origin, antedating the pyramids of
Egypt, in the estimate of some archeologists, by thousands
of years. The glyphs of Quirigud are as yet undeciphered,
although the great stone calendar has been squared with
the Gregorian, and the origin of these people will probably
never be known. The fabled Atlantis which afforded a
passage across what is now a wide waste of waters, where
there are but a few scattered islands — the tops of what
must have been the high mountains of this now submerged
continent — may be more than a mere hypothesis, and its
counterpart in the Pacific may give the real explanation of
the origin of all these Indian hordes that in some dim age
of the past, swept up from the south and west and left
284 WEBSTER E. BROWNING
in the various stages of their journey the monoliths and
temples which are today the mute evidences of their engi-
neering skill and of their social organization. All through
South America, among the native tribes there persists a
tradition of some great Antarctic movement in which the
tribes gradually trekked northward, and the pre-Incan ruins
of Tiahuanacu, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, and those of
Machu-Pichu, in the interior of Peru, may be accredited
to these succeeding waves of immigration, the outward
edges of which reached over into what are now Colombia
and Venezuela and thus extended on to the north and west
in the order we have seen.
The existence of an advanced civilization in the regions
noted, all of which is or has been tropical, and the absence
of proofs of an equal development to the north or south,
would seem to indicate that the " curse of the tropics" was
not so potent in bygone ages as it is supposed to be today.
No Indian nation has left such monuments in colder regions,
and those who lived on the fringes of this advanced civili-
zation seem to have been, at least in a measure, subservient
or inferior tribes who have left no record of their impact on
world life.
Today the descendants of these same Indians constitute
one of the most serious problems of the Central American
statesman who goes below the surface and faces the future
of his race. This native population is the great, seemingly
inexhaustible, reservoir on which continuous drafts are be-
ing drawn to replenish and strengthen the mixed or Creole
population. It is the healthy, vigorous strain of the tribes
of the hinterland that must strengthen the worn-out and
often diseased blood of the dweller in the city, and thicken
that of the coast dweller which has been thinned by tropical
heat and debilitated by constant sieges of paludic and other
even more destructive fevers. Unless the sources are kept
pure and clean the whole stream will necessarily become pol-
luted and the doom of the Central American races will be
sealed.
CENTRAL AMERICAN PROBLEMS 285
CLIMATE
Central America, like Mexico, has for the most part, the
advantages that arise from a climate that, in a given region,
is practically stable. Along the coast, on either side, runs
the tierra caliente where every known tropical fruit may be
produced. The land is fertile and requires but little culti-
vation. Banana plantations have reached a high degree of
development, under the fostering care of the United Fruit
Company and similar corporations, along the coast, and the
coffee berry which grows on the slopes of the interior pla-
teaus, is rarely excelled in quality and flavor. Cane planta-
tions and cattle ranches stud the coast line and the latter
extend up into the higher regions of the interior, while fine
woods, among them mahogany and rosewood, abound in
the forests and form an as yet almost virgin treasure of
these lands.
The bulk of the European population has naturally sought
the high cool plateaus of the interior, in the tierra templada,
and the city of Panamd is the only Central American capi-
tal situated on the coast. Guatemala City is almost 5000
feet above the sea, thus resembling Bogotd and the City
of Mexico in climate and general conditions of life, though
both these capitals are higher. The different countries are
divided into what might be called cantons by mountain
ranges and pestiferous swamps, and this has no doubt
influenced the ethnological development of the native pop-
ulations, dividing them into small tribes, each with its own
dialect or language, customs and religion.
SOCIAL CASTES AND CONDITIONS
The population of Central America naturally divides it-
self, as in all Latin American countries, into three great
social castes or classes. First of all there is the Indian of
the hinterland, to whom reference has already been made.
Slightly above him in social standing is the ladino, or Creole,
of mixed blood, who occupies an intermediary position be-
tween the pure white or European population and the mass
of Indian laborers who are the hewers of wood and the
286 WEBSTER E. BROWNING
drawers of water. Though for the most part artisans, and
generally of a humble social category, some have reached
positions of influence, have become prominent in political
life, or even occupied the seat of the President and made
their voices heard in the legislative halls. The pure white
population is often a negligible quantity numerically and
tends to disappear through absorption by the lower classes.
The women of this class, in particular, are the stay of the
Church, while the men, openly non-religious, if not even
anti-church in their sentiment, generally turn to political
interests or give themselves to literary pursuits which are
seldom remunerative but are supposed to insure high stand-
ing in the community. In Central America to a degree
unknown in some of the states further south, the fact of
humble origin is not necessarily a bar to political prefer-
ence, nor to admission to the exclusive social circles of the
high-born. This social chasm which yawns between the
classes is more often crossed on a bridge of gold, yet talent
and industry are coming to be recognized for their own
worth and national life thereby deepened and strengthened.
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
Aside from what has been done by foreign capital, it may
be said that but little economic progress has been made in
Lathi America. Panama" in particular depends on the
United States not only for its political independence but
also for its economic life. The tremendous business carried
on by the administration of the Canal Zone in the immedi-
ate vicinity of the two principal cities of the republic, with
its thousands of employees, insures a constant and alto-
gether lucrative return on funds invested by the commer-
cial community; but the natural resources of the country
have been but very slightly exploited, and in the few cases
that form an exception, by foreigners. In the other repub-
lics the landed proprietors belong, generally, to the old
aristocracy, many of whose families received their grant of
land from the crown itself, and have held it through suc-
cessive changes of government, since its possession consti-
CENTRAL AMERICAN PROBLEMS 287
tutes not only potential wealth but also social standing and
prerogatives. But the development of these fiefs depends
very largely on foreign capital, particularly the construction
of railways to the coast and the transportation by sea to
foreign markets. The Central American governments have
given but little attention to the increase in the ways of
communication except in the granting of concessions to
foreign capitalists. Yet few centers in the world have
greater natural resources and the time cannot be far distant
when these republics under stable governments will come
into their own.
With the passing of dictators, who are an anachronism
in modern life, and the exercise of the unobstructed right of
suffrage by the peoples, Central America cannot fail to take
a position of large economic importance among the nations.
In spite of the physical handicaps of a tropical climate; a
heterogeneous and often nondescript population, hi which
the very dregs of humanity seem to have left an indelible
mark, especially in the coast regions; the earthquakes which
frequently wreck the cities, and the volcanoes which hurl
cinders and lava over the surrounding country — often cov-
ering it to a depth of many feet and blotting out thousands
of lives and destroying valuable property — the people of
Central America have most attractive qualities, in common
with the other Latin American nations, have shown a high
standard of intellectual and executive ability, and, under
good governments, ought to forge rapidly ahead and fulfill
their real destiny. The United States through the invest-
ment of capital, especially in the opening up of interstate
and international communication both by land and by sea
could do real service to Central America and at the same
time reap enormous returns on the investment.
An interesting illustration of the difficulties inherent in
communication with the various Central American states,
is found in the route usually preferred by those who would
go from Guatemala, the northernmost republic, to Panamd
at the extreme south of the Isthmus. Instead of simply
going down to the Pacific port of San Jose and thence
shipping direct to Balboa, the quickest as well as the most
288 WEBSTER E. BROWNING
comfortable route is that which leads down to Puerto
Barrios on the Atlantic coast. There the traveler takes
the United Fruit Company's boat to New Orleans and
then transships to a steamer of the same line for Cristobal.
Or, to give another illustration; if a letter is mailed in Den-
ver or even San Francisco, addressed to a resident of Mana-
gua, the capital of Nicaragua, it is not sent directly down
the west coast, but, instead, by rail to New Orleans, thence
by boat to Panama" and, finally, up the west coast to Corinto,
the port of the capital. In the usual course of events a
letter could be sent from San Francisco to Hong Kong or
Tokyo, or from New York to Cairo or Constantinople, in
less time, and with considerably more certainty of its safe
delivery, than to Managua or to Tegucigalpa.
The prompt completion of the Panama" railway from the
frontiers of Mexico to Panamd, with the corresponding
national lines running down to the ports in the various
countries, would be one of the most helpful contributions
to the solution of the economic and social problems of Cen-
tral America. Intercommunications would thus be made
easy, the rich and abundant products of the various coun-
tries would quickly and economically find an outlet to the
sea, and, what is of even greater importance, especially in
view of the proposed Federal union, the people of the dif-
ferent nationalities would come to know each other better,
jealousy and intrigue would tend to disappear and the dream
of Central American statesmen of a single strong political
entity lying between Mexico and South America would be
much nearer its realization.
PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
Statistics in the Department of Public Instruction are on
the whole incomplete and unsatisfactory, yet show, even in
the best of cases, the need of prodigious endeavor on the
part of the Central American peoples if they are to put
this exceedingly important function of the governments on
a proper basis.
CENTRAL AMERICAN PROBLEMS 289
Nicaragua, for example, where instruction is almost en-
tirely in the hands of the church, and a country which has
never erected a building for school purposes in all its his-
tory, is cited as having a total of 366 public and private
schools, including all those of primary and secondary grade.
The state offers no secondary instruction, but has three
universities and a number of normal schools. The annual
budget is $310,000. Counting the population at one-half
million, this means an annual per capita tax of about sixty
cents for all departments of instruction, or a total about
equal to the budget of one of our smaller colleges — such as
Berea, in Kentucky — or one-tenth the annual income of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.1 And this for an
entire nation!
Costa Rica reports 419 elementary and 2 high schools,
with a total attendance of 32,576 pupils. There is also a
normal school and a university with four faculties.
Honduras has 584 primary public schools, a national
institute, a University with four faculties, and the educa-
tional budget in 1918 amounted to $385,000.
Salvador in 1916 reported 989 primary schools with 1476
teachers and 57,555 enrolled pupils; 27 higher schools, in-
cluding 3 technical and 3 normal schools, with a total of
2345 pupils, and a national university with five faculties.
Panama" in 1917 maintained 398 public schools, through-
out the 8 provinces, with a total attendance of 22,000 pupils
under 315 teachers.2
The average illiteracy for all Central America, although
exact statistics are silent on this point, cannot be less than
75 per cent of the entire population, as compared with 7.7
in the United States, and the combined educational budget
for all Central America, with its population of over 5,000,000,
cannot exceed one half that of Harvard or Yale University
for a single year.
The statistics for Guatemala are more complete and for
the school year of 1918 are as follows. There are reported
1 Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1917, p. 47.
2 (The above statistics are taken from The Statesman's Year Book, for
1919.)
290 WEBSTER E. BROWNING
1642 primary schools, with a total matriculation of 41,162
pupils; two normal schools, one for each of the sexes, with
226 students enrolled; schools of commerce and of a similar
character, 212; and in the university, 57 students in phar-
macy and natural sciences; 158 in medicine and surgery;
and 110 in the faculty of law and political and social sci-
ences. At the close of the year 11 were graduated in law,
12 in medicine and surgery, 3 as dentists, 3 as mid wives, 3
as nurses, and 4 as pharmacists. Counting the population
at 2,000,000 the above figures would give roughly speaking,
one primary school for every 1200 persons, and one pupil
for every 50 inhabitants. In the secondary or high school
there is but one pupil for every 8500 inhabitants, and but
one university graduate for every 87,000 inhabitants.
Moreover in the estimation of eminent Guatemalans who
were not in sympathy with the government of the now over-
thrown dictator, Dr. Manuel Estrada Cabrera, there is
much that might be said as to optimism of the above sta-
tistics, as also of the equipment and methods of teaching.
The " college" as understood in the United States, is un-
known in Central America, as in all Latin America, and the
university receives its students direct from the secondary
schools, supplying in its lengthened program the courses
they could not receive before entering. The " university/'
too, it must be remembered, is a different concept in the
mind of the Latin American and generally centers around
some one building in the heart of the city, sans campus,
sans student life and activities, and sans most of the other
component parts of our somewhat complex university
organization.
RECENT POPULAR UPRISINGS
While Central America has always been a prolific center
of political uprisings, these movements have, in the main,
been military and fomented by pretenders to executive
authority who, in some way or another, had been able to
secure a following and overturn the one in power. An indi-
cation of a salutary change in methods of administration
is the evidently increasing power of the people and their
CENTRAL AMERICAN PROBLEMS 291
influence on the choice of the nation's executive. This may
be evidenced by recent developments in Costa Rica, and more
particularly by the recent overthrow of Dr. Manuel Estrada
Cabrera, in Guatemala, after 22 years of autocratic rule of
that country. This occurred during the writer's visit to
that country and evidently was the result of a great popu-
lar uprising rather than of the machinations of another
aspirant to power. The streets of the capital, for many days
before the declaration by the Assembly, that resulted in
the resignation of Estrada Cabrera, were filled with throngs
of determined citizens, who, in an orderly but energetic
manner, manifested their hatred of the old order of govern-
ment and their desire for a more democratic regime. Un-
biased observers declared that at least 90 per cent of the
thinking people of Guatemala were behind the movement
that finally resulted in the overthrow of the so-called con-
stitutional president, but who was in practice a Dictator,
and the appointment of his successor.
The steps by which this was brought about were interest-
ing and deserve perpetuation in the records of history, as
showing a distinct advance in revolutionary methods.
Urged on by the people, through its representatives, the
Assembly, on April 8, made public the following decree:
LEGISLATIVE POWER
DECREE NUMBER 1022
The National Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Guate-
mala,
WHEREAS: The documents which in our possession duly estab-
lish the mental alteration of Dr. Manuel Estrada Cabrera, Presi-
dent of the Republic, by which he is rendered incompetent to
continue as the Executive, and in order that he may attend to
the re-establishment of his health, in conformity with Article 52,
paragraphs VII and VIII, and 68 of the Constitutional Law,
THEREFORE:
IT is DECREED:
Article I. Dr. Manuel Estrada Cabrera is separated from his
position as President of the Republic and is given permission to
absent himself from the territory of Central America.
292 WEBSTER E. BROWNING
Article II. The supreme power shall be given over into the
hands of the citizen who is named for this purpose by the Assembly.
Article III. While Dr. Manuel Estrada Cabrera is in the
country he will be given the honors corresponding to the high
position which he had held and he is guaranteed by the people
full exercise of all his rights.
The same number of El Guatemalteco, the " official daily
bulletin of the Republic of Guatemala," published the
decree by which his successor in the presidential office was
named, and runs as follows :
DECREE NUMBER 1023
The National Assembly of the Republic of Guatemala,
WHEREAS : On this date Dr. Manuel Estrada Cabrera has been
separated from the exercise of the Executive Power,
AND WHEREAS, the person should be named who must succeed
him in that high position,
THEREFORE, in conformity with that which is decreed in Article
52, paragraph VIII, of the Constitution,
IT is DECREED:
That citizen Carlos Herrera is named Constitutional President
of the Republic in substitution for Dr. Manuel Estrada Cabrera.
It may be added here that these decrees did not bring the
desired result without the spilling of blood, although the
people were hoping that the revolution might be bloodless.
The dictator, from his forts on the hills above the city,
bombarded the defenseless population, for six days, with
interruptions, and many lives were lost. But the move-
ment, inasmuch as it was of the people and by the people,
did not waver and on April 14 an armistice was signed by
the terms of which Estrada Cabrera became a prisoner and
the new government came into power.
REVIVAL OF THE MOVEMENT TOWARD UNION
An interesting phase in the recent revolution in Guate-
mala is the attempt by the " Unionist Party ," now in power,
to revive interest in the federation of the Central American
States under one flag and one government. As illustrating
the sentiment of this party, which now represents the
CENTRAL AMERICAN PROBLEMS 293
people in its executive capacity, the Preamble to a decree
which the National Legislative Assembly was asked to
promulgate, will be of interest. Translated from the some-
what florid original into our colder and less tropical tongue,
it reads as follows :
The historic moment is definite and should be taken advantage
of. A century of shameful separation, internal revolts, calamities
and mistakes, have not been sufficient to quench the flame of
union among the Central Americans. Far otherwise, the people
rise above the sorrowful reality to a higher ideal of Justice and
Right, of aggrandizement and progress, does not bend under the
weight of misfortune, refuses to accept the dictates of adversity,
lifts up its countenance and demands union because it does not
wish to be consumed by impotence.
It is necessary that the sorrowful spectacle of our political
disintegration disappear, that we direct our gaze toward the
greatest and highest ends of existence, and fulfilling the ideals
bequeathed us by past generations, bring it about that Central
America be reborn, free, sovereign, independent and worthy of
taking its place by the side of the great nations of the earth.
The unity of the old Central American territory is a necessity
that is felt by all and desired by all. The political clubs, whether
they are Unionist or Liberal in affiliation, and the inhabitants
of the country, with no distinction whatever, desire it and hope
that the centenary of our independence be acclaimed in the five
republics by the flag of 1821. By the fathers of the Independence,
by those who fought for the noble idea of a united country, by
the blood spilled to bring about this desire of all Central America,
by our love to the races from which we have sprung, by our marvel-
ous geographic position, and taking advantage of the national
sentiment, now profoundly stirred and vibrant, we beg you to
give life to this ideal of a Union and that you promulgate the
following decree :
"The National Legislative Assembly of Guatemala proclaims
the Union of Central America; protects and sustains all endeavor
directed toward securing it in a peaceful manner.
"To that end, it convokes the other States in a Constituent
Central American Assembly, to be formed by fifteen individuals
from each State, elected by the people under conditions of the
most ample liberty and independence of action, who shall meet
in the City of Guatemala, on the first day of April, 1920, for the
purpose of choosing the city which shall serve as the seat of their
deliberations, decree the Political Constitution of the Republic
of Central America, and designate its Capital and the seat of its
legislative and executive power.
"Anyone who may declare himself as against this Union or
who may oppose its work or embarrass it in any way whatever,
bhall be held to be a traitor to the ideals of the country and both
294 WEBSTER E. BROWNING
unworthy and incapable of holding any public office or employ-
ment.
"To you, the members of Congress, corresponds the glory of
proclaiming that which for many years has been our fervent desire,
the sentiment of our race, the highest of our ideals, and we hope
that, not one or two, but all of you may favor this motion."
This decree was presented to the National Legislative
Assembly on March 1, 1920, but has not, as yet, been acted
upon. Inasmuch as this party is now in power, it will be
interesting to see how far they will be able to carry out this
very laudable project of a great federated Central American
republic. It would be a great triumph for modern democ-
racy, a long step forward in the progress of the nations,
of the western hemisphere, could these five republics lay
aside private and personal jealousies and ambitions and,
interested only in making of Central America a place "safe
for democracy," unite their interests and purposes through
the formation of one strong state whose influence would
weigh heavily in the Councils of the modern world.
That some of their own eminent statesmen are thinking
of the formation of one or more strong Latin American
nations, through the union or federation of some of the
smaller and sometimes defenseless peoples, is evidenced
by the recent words of a Mexican jurist.3 He said, in part:
The Latin American countries have developed without fixed
purpose, essaying all kinds of government without finding any
form that satisfies them. They have passed alternately from
tyranny to something very near anarchy, before arriving at
democracy. An immense self-love has made each one of these
small nations believe themselves entitled to figure as a power of
the first order. Each one of them believes that its artists, its
scientists, its army and navy are not surpassed by any other
nation. They have confounded love of country with love of
power.
What is the future of these countries? Will it be possible for
any of them to become truly great powers? While they live as
they are living? No.
Already out of the tropic of Capricorn have issued two nation-
alities which, including Brazil, are those of greatest vitality, the
greatest vigor and the greatest future — the Argentine Republic
8 The Future of the Latin American Republics, by R. de Zayas Enri-
quez, in La Nueva Democratic,, quoted in New York Times, May 10, 1920.
CENTRAL AMERICAN PROBLEMS 295
and Chile. They are two rival countries today; the lofty wall
of the Andes divides them, but the railroad, the viaduct and the
tunnel overcome the obstacles raised by nature. Law will over-
come the obstacle created by the character of both countries.
Chile, essentially a mining country; Argentina, essentially agri-
cultural, both with great industrial possibilities, are complete in
themselves. Merged into a single nationality they could become
great.
These expansions (resulting from the merging of these countries)
appear rational, and it is almost certain that they will be realized,
either by means of treaties formed through foresight or else by
wars, imposed by necessity, unless the threatened nations, which
would be absorbed in the expansion, Mexico included, should
change their tactics.
Within a very few years there will be no reason for the small
nations to exist; the present century will see them disappear
completely, at all events in Europe and America, because they
serve only as a hindrance to the progress of humanity.
If in Europe certain small powers have survived, it is due to
the fact that the great nations have protected and maintained
them, under the pretext of preserving Continental equilibrium.
The nation that sleeps, trusting in right, in agreements and
altruism, will have a tragic awakening, finding itself chained to
the chariot wheels of the conqueror.
History shows that countries, in order to be self-respecting must
be strong and prudent, but above all strong. Thus it is that the
Spanish American nations must succeed in making themselves
strong at any cost and this they will not be able to do, except by
means of democracy, which unites all the inhabitants in a commop
aspiration and a community of interests. To say, for example,
"Mexico for the Mexicans," "Cuba for the Cubans," shows lack
of practical sense. The modern doctrine is "The World for
Humanity."
The above words, spoken by a Latin American, apply
with special cogency to the small and now disunited nations
of Central America, and might well be pondered by their
statesmen.
ATTITUDE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN CENTRAL
AMERICA
The future happiness and prosperity of the peoples of
Central America is very largely in the hands of the govern-
ment of the United States. This is admittedly so, both
because the United States is the strongest nation in the
western hemisphere and because of the geographical situa-
296 WEBSTER E. BROWNING
tion. And it must be confessed that our diplomatic atti-
tude in the past, as regards all Latin America, leads some
of us to suspect that there may be misapprehension and
misunderstanding in the future. We do not seem to have
learned, as yet, that our duty is not limited to taking all
we can out of Latin America, but that we have also an
obligation to put something into it. Not entirely without
reason have many Latin Americans labored under a mis-
apprehension as to the real contents of the " Monroe Doc-
trine," and it would seem that the time has come when we
should either admit that it is an " obsolete shibboleth," or,
giving it the proper interpretation, make it a real " American
Doctrine," to whose defense every Latin American nation,
from giant Brazil to the comparatively pigmy Panama,
would instantly rally.
On this point it may be well to quote and ponder the
words of another Latin American statesman, uttered within
the last few weeks, as showing how the chief magistrate of
one of the most advanced nations to the south of us con-
siders the formation of such a league. Dr. Brum, Presi-
dent of Uruguay, in an address before the university
students in the capital of his country said, referring to
this League which he had proposed:
Owing to the state in which European countries remain after
the struggle, it may be said that fear of invasion by them in
America has been removed for many years. But is that sufficient
reason for us to take no interest in the future and turn away
from the Monroe Doctrine with the pretext it is now unnecessary?
I believe that today, more than ever, we should use foresight in
searching for formulas that may assure forever the peace and full
independence of American countries.
The principle of American solidarity, based on the constitution
of a continental league, is more ample than the Monroe Doctrine,
because it will not only defend the countries of America against
foreign invaders but also against imperialistic tendencies which
might arise among themselves.
The formation of this league, in my opinion, would be a logical
consequence of the Treaty of Versailles, which, in recognizing
and expressly accepting the Monroe Doctrine, seems to be desirous
of limiting its field of action, so far as American affairs are con-
cerned. On the other hand, the Supreme Council of the League
of Nations is composed principally of the delegates of the Great
Powers, nearly all the American countries having been excluded.
CENTRAL AMERICAN PROBLEMS 297
These countries need, therefore, to create a powerful organization
to look after their interests in the decisions arrived at by the
League of Nations. Harmonious and joint action by the "Ameri-
can League" would avoid European intervention in our affairs.
The policy of the United States in Latin America in the
past has been largely opportunist when, on the contrary,
it should have been well-defined, well-understood and ener-
getically enforced. With not little reason have the states-
men of these countries considered our methods as vacil-
lating and calculated to favor this or that party or individual
which might be expected to do the most in return. A
recent writer, referring to the overthrow of Estrada Cabrera
in Guatemala has voiced this feeling. He said:
The whole Cabrera episode probably will go down in history
as a rather unsavory interlude in our diplomacy in Latin America.
Cabrera stood for everything which President Taft and President
Wilson professed not to stand for; he represented iron force as
much as the Kaiser; he laughed at the doctrine of self-determina-
tion; he exploited his country; it has been changed to his advan-
tage; he believed in stark militarism. Yet President Taft's
administration tolerated him and Mr. Wilson's gave him eager
regard in return for his gesture in declaring war on Germany and
his truckling to our policy in Mexico and Central America. His
fall is a distinct feather in the cap of President Carranza of Mexico,
whose inveterate foe he was.4
And another, speaking of the intervention of the United
States in Nicaragua, and writing while still in that country
and with the actual conditions fresh in his mind, says :
In spite of all the abuses of the Zelaya administration, which
the United States threw out, much attention was paid by it to
public instruction. But as soon as the Conservative Party, pro-
tected by the United States, was put into power, they began to
bring into the country the Jesuits, Christian Brothers, Capuchinos
and other religious orders, and to give them charge of the schools.
At present practically the whole of public instruction is in the
hands of the Church. They cannot understand why the United
States government is working against itself, by protecting the
Conservatives in office while they encourage the Church in every
way and the Church, in turn, is giving itself to a constant cam-
paign of prejudicing the people against Americans as heretics
whom all good Catholics should oppose.5
4 The New York Globe, quoted in The Literary Digest, May 1, 1920.
6 Travel letter, S. G. Inman, from Managua, April 12, 1920.
298 WEBSTER E. BROWNING
The day has passed when the diplomacy of force can be
advantageously applied south of the Rio Grande. It has
sometimes given more immediate results than might other-
wise have been secured, but it has never been moral or
Christian, and consequently has failed in the end. No
better policy could be adopted by the United States in its
relations with the Latin American nations, and particularly
with those of Central America, which are our near neigh-
bors, and largely dependent on our good will, than the
principle enunciated centuries ago by one of the world's
greatest thinkers, " whosoever would become great among
you, let him become your minister, and whosoever would
be first among you shall be your servant."
A PROGRAM OF SERVICE
That a very large portion of the people of the United
States are thinking of Central America in terms of service
is evidenced by the recent celebration in Guatemala City
of a Conference between representatives of the various
boards which have mission work in Central America, and
the setting up by them of a cooperative program, which
when carried out, cannot fail to intensify friendly relations
between these nations. In no sectarian spirit, but with
altogether disinterested and altruistic intentions, it is pro-
posed to aid the various governments through the extension
of primary and secondary instruction; the establishing of
a model Normal school, industrial schools, especially among
the now neglected Indian population, and a training school
for nurses, all of which will converge hi a Union College to
be located in Panamd, and which will serve the intellectual
interests not only of Central America but also of the nearby
South American republics. Other institutions are also
planned, as a union Press which will be able to aid in the
supply of helpful literature; a hospital in each of the coun-
tries; help in combating the social evil; care of the insane;
a thorough survey of the Indian population and a com-
prehensive program for work among these neglected people.
CENTRAL AMERICAN PROBLEMS 299
The work that is being done by the Carnegie Foundation
and the Rockefeller Institute is also thoroughly appreciated
by the people and is accepted as evidence of the desire on
the part of the United States to aid in the solution of
Central American problems. An editorial which recently
appeared in the leading daily paper of one of the Central
American capitals, an organ which reflected the opinion of
the government, has admirably expressed the gratitude of
the people of that and neighboring countries for benefits
received from the institutions mentioned, and at the same
tune has enunciated an admirable philosophy of diplomacy.
The writer said :
Rising above the suspicions which "Dollar Diplomacy" and
the "Big Stick" have aroused in Latin America, the interest of
the United States in Spanish America has been shown in other
important ways and in each of these there are sufficient noble and
altruistic ideals to erase jealousies and hatreds.
More important than political treaties, than solemn promises
of friendship and love, than Congresses and Conferences, the
great cultural endeavors of the United States have contributed
to the drawing together of the Americas. That what we have
stated is true is proved by the great work done in all parts of the
continent by the Rockefeller Institute.
It is not necessary to refer to the discretion with which this
work has been carried on. No one is ignorant of the positive
benefit which this Institute has brought to the country. Its
work has not been one-sided. In combating the hookworm, to
do which it has penetrated to the remotest parts of the tropics,
it has propagated the truth concerning public hygiene, everywhere.
It has endeavored to teach cleanliness to the Indians, the necessity
of the bath, of sanitation, and of eating only healthful foods.
This Institute has gone from farm to farm, from house to house —
and at the same time its offices in the cities and most important
towns have lost no opportunity to examine the sick and to dis-
tribute medicines — and has interested a great circle of people
in its work. The results could not be more satisfactory, as proved
by the statistics published by the Institute.
If the fight against hookworm provokes our gratitude, of how
much greater benefit to the tropical countries has been the crusade
against yellow fever. The work of Gorgas and others has no
precedent in history. In the saving of humanity from this plague
no obstacle has been allowed to stand in the way. Money has
been poured out in torrents. The sacrifices have been multiplied
and the representatives of the Institute have gone from one ex-
treme of the country to the other — today in Mexico, tomorrow
in Guatemala and Salvador, and then on to Ecuador, and they
are in all places at the same time.
300 WEBSTER E. BROWNING
The recompense of their sacrifices and struggles is to be found
in their success, as in the discovery of the manner in which yellow
fever may be prevented.
This is the spirit that will bind the two Americas together
with bonds that cannot be severed — the spirit of service
rendered by the strong to those who are weak. And in
this spirit of neighborliness, in this attitude of mental and
spiritual hospitality, there is to be found the true solution
of our common economic problems, the root of all true
diplomacy.
THE UNITED STATES AND THE NATIONS OF THE
CARIBBEAN
By Jacinto Lopez, Editor of "La Reforma Social;" author
"The War on the Pacific" and many essays on
American and International Questions
The subject matter assigned to me easily lends itself to
an extensive and elaborate discourse on the geographical,
historical and political aspects of the relation of the United
States to the Caribbean Sea. But this would not meet
my purpose. In coming to this conference, I have a more
impersonal and far reaching interest. I have come here
to make a faithful exposition of facts and to state a few
plain truths in connection with a question which is of the
utmost importance for the destinies of the American Con-
tinent. I have come here with the purpose of rendering,
if it is in my power, a service to those ideals of right, justice,
and international good faith and good will which should
control, as principles of action, the policy of the great and
the small powers.
The policy of the United States in the Latin American
Continent is carried out without the knowledge of the Amer-
ican people whose interest in these matters has not as yet
been aroused. The American people are too busy with
domestic questions at home and with European questions
abroad. The public pays no attention to affairs in Central
and South America. The government is thus free to act
without any check and without any sense of responsibility.
The government carries forward its policies in Latin Amer-
ica even against the expressed disapproval of Congress.
The situation thus created is one of force, pure and simple.
It is the dictatorial use of overwhelming might in countries
too weak and distressed to think even of resistance. In
this arbitrary way, the President of the United States, who-
ever he may be, disposes of the fortunes and shapes the
301
302 JACINTO LOPEZ
destinies of the small countries bordering on the Carib-
bean Sea, according to his own and exclusive personal will;
without a consistent and deliberate policy, without any
knowledge or any comprehension of the peoples of those
countries, their problems, their needs, their woes, their
aspirations; without any regard for international law; some-
times violating even the very elements of Christian civili-
zation. His sole inspiration is that of the old Roman
patriotism.
The unbridled and unaccountable freedom of action of
the President of the United States in the countries of the
Caribbean, the supreme dictatorship which he exerts over
those lands, through both the great moral authority as well
as the naval power of the United States, fearless of the ulti-
mate sanction of public opinion at home — because the Amer-
ican people are entirely unaware of and entirely indifferent
to the events in a region which is, however, so intimately
connected with the most vital interests of the United States
— this is one of the things that impress and surprise us Latin
Americans. We are more deeply and painfully impressed
because we admire and love this country and fervently
believe that it has a civilizing mission to fulfill in the world
at large, but especially and particularly in Latin America.
The century old struggle with Great Britain for the con-
trol of the Isthmian routes; the unflinching policy of the
United States throughout the nineteenth century with re-
gard to the Island of Cuba; the war of 1898 for the expul-
sion of Spain from the remaining strongholds of her American
empire, testify to the paramount concern and interest of
the United States in the Caribbean waters and lands.
This interest is manifold. It is commercial, political and
strategic. It is inseparable from the national security of
the United States. This wide area of waters is the natural
outlet for the foreign trade of the United States with the
West Indies and with the South American countries. In
the policy of the government of the United States, the
Panama Canal is considered as a part of the coast line of
the United States. We can, therefore, imagine with all
its imponderable significance, a continuous coast line ex-
THE NATIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN 303
tending from the northwestern frontier of the United States
down to and through the Panama Canal, and therefrom up
to the northeastern frontier embracing within it the whole
of Central America, the Danish Islands, Cuba, Haiti or
Santo Domingo and Porto Rico. The continental shore
line of South America, from the mouth of the Orinoco River
to the Yucatan Channel, completes the land boundaries of
the Caribbean Sea on the South and West. The Platt
amendment; the Panama Canal and its history since the
government of the United States decided on an American
Canal under American control; the events of November,
1903, which resulted in the secession of Panama from Col-
ombia and the treaty of 1904 with the new republic by which
the United States became the sovereign of the Canal; the
policy of the United States government in Central America
since 1910, taking the Republic of Nicaragua as a starting
point or an entering wedge; the purchase of the Danish
Islands, made possible by the Great War and its economic
consequences in the mother country; and finally the policy
of the United States government in Haiti and Santo Do-
mingo in 1915 and 1916, likewise favored by the Great War,
are but manifestations of the supremely controlling inter-
est of the United States in the Caribbean.
The imperialistic expansion of the United States since
1898 is altogether in this magnificient area. Look at the
long line of islands stretching down from Key West to Port
of Spain. The United States has a footing everywhere.
From Guantanamo, the United States can control the wind-
ward passage between Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
From Porto Rico the United States can control the Mona
Passage. Haiti and Santo Domingo are under the direct
control of the United States since 1915 and 1916 and each
has a harbor of first class importance for a naval station,
Mole St. Nicholas and Samana Bay; the former command-
ing the eastern side of the Windward passage, and the latter
commanding the Mona passage from the west. The treaty
with Nicaragua gives the United States possession of the
Great Corn and Little Corn Islands off the east coast of
this republic together with the right to build a naval base
304 JACINTO LOPEZ
on the Gulf of Fonseca. St. Thomas has a splendid harbor
for a naval station too. Colon and the fortifications of the
Canal, the Canal itself, which has become the center of
the naval power of the United States, complete the picture
of the southward progress of the United States in its march
of expansion in the Mediterranean of the New World, which
has thus become an American domain, the Mare Nostrum
of the United States. Add to this the United States navy,
and we can have an idea of the amount of independence of
the sovereign nations bordering on the Caribbean. In this
way we can at the same time have an idea, in a general
sense, of the actual situation in the Caribbean world. The
United States is today the supreme lord of the Caribbean
and the whole question is what use does it make or is it going
to make of its power and how is it going to improve its
opportunities?
We all know the story of Panama. We all know how the
present position of the United States in that most important
spot in the world was attained. We all know that the Amer-
ican people did not approve the Roosevelt policy in this
matter; but what is not so well known is that the nature of
the procedure of the United States government in Nicaragua
and San Domingo is similar to that which was followed in
Panama. It was by force that the United States govern-
ment prevented Colombia from maintaining its integrity.
It was by force that the United States government estab-
lished in San Domingo in 1916 an American military govern-
ment. It was by force that the United States government
obtained in Nicaragua in 1914 rights and privileges that
practically destroyed the political existence of that country
as a sovereign nation and impaired the independence of each
and all the remaining four Central American republics. It
is by force that the conditions and the situation thus created
in those countries are maintained.
In San Domingo, a regularly constituted government,
headed by an unimpeachable man, was overthrown by the
American marines, simply because that man, true to his
duty, to his oath, to his conscience, to his country, stub-
bornly refused to affix his signature to a treaty handing
over to the United States the sovereignty of the republic.
THE NATIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN 305
In Nicaragua, the United States government gave its
support to an armed uprising against the central govern-
ment. The revolution was entirely justified and deserved
the sympathy of liberty-loving men everywhere. But after
the war was over it was seen that its leaders were willing to
pay a prohibitive price for the help received from the United
States government and without which they would not have
succeeded. Soon after the organization of the new regime
the chief of the Latin American division of the department
of state, Mr. Dawson, made his appearance at Managua,
Nicaragua, and served notice upon President Estrada that
his government would not be recognized by the United
States government except upon the acceptance by him of
the following conditions: the negotiation of a fifty million
dollar loan through the intervention of the United States
government, and the control of the custom houses of the
republic by the United States as security for the loan.
Everything was granted, but the American Congress denied
its approval to this pact.
The note in which the revolutionary government of Nic-
aragua asked the United States to render it the service of
entering with it into a contract for the management of the
custom houses and the placing of the loan, was written
by Mr. Dawson himself, and he opposed even the slightest
alteration suggested by the Nicaraguan minister of foreign
affairs. Notwithstanding the refusal of Congress, the Amer-
ican government persisted in its Nicaraguan policy and a
new arrangement was made by which a New York banking
concern made to the government of Nicaragua a loan
amounting to $1,500,000 and later a further amount of
$755,000. Since then the custom houses have been in the
hands of these New York bankers. Meanwhile, the princi-
pal leaders of the successful revolution, five in number, made
an agreement with Mr. Dawson providing that the nomina-
tion for president of the republic should fall exclusively
upon one of their group of five. There was a violent reac-
tion against this trend of events. The minister of war,
General Mena, rebelled. The provisional president lost no
time in asking the intervention of the United States govern-
306 JACINTO LOPEZ
ment to put down the rebellion. He wanted the United
States to protect with its forces all the inhabitants of the
republic including the protection of his own government,
which for all practical purposes from that moment had
ceased to exist. American troops were landed and for the
first time in the history of the continent the government of
the United States took sides with its military forces in the
civil strife of an American country in favor of a government
which had declared its impotency to rule. Later on this
same government, thus saved and backed by the United
States government, made a treaty with the government to
which it owed its existence, establishing an American pro-
tectorate over the republic. This treaty failed in the Sen-
ate of the United States and a new treaty was submitted
in 1914, which was approved in 1916, this tune without the
provision of the protectorate plan. By this convention the
United States paid to the government of Nicaragua three
million dollars in return for the following concessions: the
right to construct a trans-isthmian canal by the Nicaraguan
route or any other route in the territory of Nicaragua; and
the control by lease for ninety-nine years of Great Corn and
Little Corn Islands and of a naval base in the Gulf of Fon-
seca. The United States has the option to renew the lease
for a similar further period.
Costa Rica, Honduras and Salvador protested to the
United States against this treaty on the ground that it was
destructive of their independence as sovereign states and
contrary to their most vital interests. A canal through the
Nicaraguan route cannot be built without the consent of
Costa Rica which possesses proprietary rights over part of
the territory in the region of the San Juan River : and more-
over Nicaragua was forbidden by treaty to enter into any
agreement whatsoever for the opening of the canal without
Costa Rica concurring in the compact. Costa Rica and
Salvador, each acting separately, brought suit against
Nicaragua in the Central American Court of Justice, estab-
lished under the Washington Convention for the judicial
settlement of all disputes between the five republics. The
government of Costa Rica in March, 1916, asked the court
THE NATIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN 307
to declare that under the Canas-Jerez Treaty, the Cleveland
Laudo and the General Treaty of Peace and Amity of 1907,
the government of Nicaragua had no right to enter with
the United States or any other power into an agreement
such as the Bryan-Chamorro treaty; and that, therefore,
this treaty was null and of no value. On its part the
government of Salvador, on August, 1916, petitioned the
court to issue a writ ordering the government of Nicaragua
to abstain from executing the Bryan-Chamorro treaty.
The government of Salvador alleged that the Bryan-
Chamorro treaty violated the rights of Salvador in the
Gulf of Fonseca and imperilled its independence and na-
tional existence; that said treaty infringed, moreover, the
rights of Salvador under Articles III and IX of the Washing-
ton Convention of 1907. In December, 1916, the court
decided in favor of Costa Rica, supporting in every point
the position taken by her as complainant against Nicaragua;
and in March, 1919, the court passed judgment equally
favorable in the case of Salvador versus Nicaragua, and
declared that the Nicaraguan government was under obli-
gations to reestablish the status quo which existed between
the three republics prior to the Bryan-Chamorro treaty.
Did Nicaragua obey the sentence of the International
Judicial Court of Central America established under the
Washington Convention to which Nicaragua was a party
hi common with the other Central American republics?
The practical result was that Nicaragua withdrew her rep-
resentative in the court; and that the court, the first insti-
tution of its kind in the world, the greatest achievement of
civilization in our day in America as an agency of peace
and justice, passed away and exists no longer. The Bryan-
Chamorro treaty has no standing in international law. It
is inimical to the most vital interests of the Central Ameri-
can republics. It is in conflict with previous treaties al-
ready in force. It was made with a government set up and
kept up by the United States government, a government
that has no power or authority to make a treaty of such a
nature. The people of Nicaragua have not been consulted,
notwithstanding the fact that that treaty makes renuncia-
308 JACINTO LOPEZ
tion of sovereign rights that no nation can make without
committing suicide. Elihu Root publicly stated that the
treaty should not be made with the existing government
of Nicaragua but with a representative government. But a
representative government would never make such a
treaty. This treaty has disturbed the good relations of
peace and friendship and mutual confidence between the
five Central American republics. The government of Nic-
aragua is by them considered as playing the r61e of Judas.
And if there has not been a coalition of the other four re-
publics to remove it and bring Nicaragua back into the
Central American family of sister republics it is only be-
cause that government is under the protection of the United
States which supports it against the will of the Nicaraguan
people. It was in fear of a Central American crusade to
liberate Nicaragua from that government that the pro-
tectorate idea was put into the treaty of 1914 with the
United States.
The people of the Dominican Republic, the government
of which was by force supplanted in November, 1916, by
an American military government, has ever since that fate-
ful day been under martial law. Justice even in civil
matters is administered there by the provost marshal.
There is a censorship of the press compared to which the
methods of the Russian czar were an ideal example of lib-
eralism and wisdom. There is a system of repression by
the application of corporal punishments so cruel and so
inhuman that you would feel inclined, I am sure, to think
it unbelievable. They imprison the people without any
process of law. They chase the people in the country as if
they were savage beasts. Torments or tortures of various
forms, that of the water and that of the rope, for instance,
are practiced. Now the people of that republic are a
civilized Christian people. It can be said that San Domingo
is the cradle of Christian civilization in America. What is
their crime? What have they done? These people have
always been most friendly to the United States. The treaty
of 1907 with the United States government was made to
preserve their independence and sovereignty. By this
THE NATIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN 309
treaty the Dominican people occupy a singular position in
relation to the United States which was to act and is acting
as a trustee for them before the creditor nations. The
reason alleged for invading their country and subjugating
them is that there was at the tune a civil war. There is so
far as I know no reason put forth for treating them as the
Germans themselves have not been treated. After all that
how can they believe in civilization? It is in the name of
civilization that they have been crushed as a nation and
oppressed and terrorized as if we were not living in the
twentieth century but three or four centuries ago.
I was in Cuba in 1916. I witnessed the presidential
elections of November of that year. There was a land-
slide for the candidate of the Liberal Party. The defeated
candidate was the president himself who had run for re-
election, a word that has a sinister significance in Latin
American politics and Latin American history. Reelec-
tion means there usurpation and usurpation means revolu-
tion or civil war. This is invariably the rule in those coun-
tries and it did not fail this tune in Cuba. History repeated
itself in 1916 in the Pearl of the Antilles. The man in the
presidential chair was most unwilling to submit to the
verdict of the people and through the most scandalous
expedients carried on his determination to keep himself in
office for another four years. There was of course a revo-
lution. Revolution in Cuba means intervention by the
United States. Washington intervened in effect but did it
to put down the revolution and uphold the usurpation.
Revolution is an unpardonable crime in the eyes of Wash-
ington which has no eyes for usurpation.
From November when the elections were held, to Feb-
ruary, when the coup d'etat took place, there was plenty of
time and opportunity for the United States government to
exert its moral influence and prevent a catastrophe. Had
the least effort been made to do so, the sad events of Feb-
ruary, 1917, in Cuba could have been easily averted. The
experience of 1905 had shown a defect in the Platt amend-
ment. It was not preventive. It did not come into action
until after the consummation of the facts. This most val-
310 JACINTO LOPEZ
uable lesson was disregarded in 1916-1917. Measures could
have been taken and should have been taken then and there
to avoid the revolution of 1917. The way to avoid the
revolution was to make the usurpation impossible. And
with a single word whispered by the American minister at
Havana, in the ear of President Menocal, the people of
Cuba would have been spared the bloodshed, the destruc-
tion of property, the disorder and the discredit incident to
the coup d'etat. It is our opinion that the Platt amend-
ment was conceived with the purpose, in part, to save Cuba
from the cancer that has eaten into the Latin American
republics, despotic government. By article III of the Platt
amendment, the United States has the right to intervene
to maintain a government which will protest liberty. Lib-
erty was killed in Cuba in 1917 and a despotic government
arose from the official conspiracy to defeat the will of the
people as expressed in the elections of November, 1916.
Why did Washington permit this thing to happen? And it
would not have been possible but for the line of action taken
by Washington. The revolution would have deposed the
usurper, had it not been for the protection of Washington
and the decidedly hostile attitude assumed by it toward
the revolution. Evidently Washington failed in its duty.
It should have prevented the conflict. It should have by
all means seen to it that a representative government was
maintained in Cuba in that emergency. As it was, democ-
racy was destroyed in Cuba in 1917 and Washington was
primarily responsible for it. There is no popular govern-
ment in Cuba today and the outlook is very dark. How is
representative government to be reestablished in Cuba?
The revolutions in Latin America are movements of free-
dom. They are consistently made against despotic govern-
ments. The aspiration to liberty thus expressed is seldom
realized but failure never kills the will to be free, and so
long as despotism exists, so long the aspiration to liberty
will fight for its extermination. This is the secret of the
endless civil wars in those countries. It is this state of
things which creates the opportunity and affords the pretext
for action by the United States of the sort we have seen in
THE NATIONS OF THE CAEIBBEAN 311
reviewing the situation in Central America, San Domingo
and Cuba.
Notice that intervention never happens when despotism
is in peaceful control. It commences to threaten the very
moment there is an uprising against it. Revolutions are
the explanation and the justification of the presence of an
American military government in San Domingo. A revo-
lution is the explanation of the Panama treaty. A revolu-
tion is the explanation of the Bryan-Chamorro treaty. The
conclusion is that the struggle for liberty, for good and rep-
resentative government, in short, for democracy, leads to
foreign servitude and that those people in order to preserve
their nationalities should keep quiet and get along the best
they can under despotism, no matter how cruel and destruc-
tive it may be.
Nearly every Latin American nation has passed through
the dark age of despotism and revolution. Argentina is
the most striking example. Chili had presidential dic-
tators until 1892. And many of them, the great majority,
have succeeded in the struggle for freedom and have estab-
lished stable and strong governments. The policy observed
by the United States in Nicaragua, for instance, would
have made this process impossible and civilization would
have been the loser.
Those countries have a right to live, deserve to live and
must live. Because they have not as yet achieved stability,
they should not be absorbed and submerged. Nations very
much older and larger than they are still solving tlhe problem
of self -government and internal pe>ace. No great European
power would even think of taking advantage of the con-
ditions in which Russia and Germany find themselves today
in order to exact from them concessions that would forever
undermine their status of sovereign and independent na-
tions. The greatest of all wars in all the centuries was
fought by the greatest of all powers in order to preserve
the independence and sovereign existence of the small
nations of Europe.
It is our belief that in the existing situation in the Carib-
bean, the United States has a noble and superior mission
312 JACINTO LOPEZ
to fulfill. It consists in helping the nations of the. Carib-
bean to enter definitely into the path of political develop-
ment. This should be done in a friendly, generous way,
with no selfish aims. The fundamental principle of action
of this mission should be the preservation of the territorial
integrity, and the independence and the sovereignty of
those nations. Here is an opportunity for the United States
to render civilization a service of first magnitude. How it
should or could be done is not for me to discuss on this
occasion. I know it can be done. I know it should be
done. The United States already is the overlord in the
Caribbean. There is no fear of any international political
rivalry in this region. The future of the world is not to
lie in warfare but in peace. Disarmament will become
more and more imperative every day. The hunt for naval
bases and positions of commercial advantage should not
be carried so far as to trespass moral and political bounda-
ries which are really inviolable if we are to live in a civilized
world. Naval bases and new fields for commercial expan-
sion should not be acquired at the price of the integrity,
the independence and the sovereignty of small and defense-
less nations which love their individuality and are loath
to part with it. All those people of the Caribbean Seas
have the sentiment of nationality. They believe in their
own destiny. They hate foreign domination. In this very
month of May several thousand Panamanians, the very
people of the so-called revolution of November, 1903,
marched through the streets of their city in a torch light
parade as a protest against the acquisition by the United
States of the major portion of Taboga Island for fortifica-
tion as a part of the Pacific defense scheme of the Panama
Canal. An automobile in which General Pershing was
driving to a ball in his honor, was halted by the procession
and forced to return to his hotel.
These countries are immensely rich. They have enor-
mous possibilities. The extraordinary increase of their
commerce in recent years, which is mainly carried on with
the United States, shows their importance. They consti-
tute in themselves an empire. They deserve to live. They
have the will to live.
THE NATIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN 313
The power of the United States is in itself so great that
all the other nations of the Caribbean are powerless against
it. In this sense their independence is already inevitably
restricted. There is no possibility that any one of them or
all of them combined would be able to act contrary to the
interests of the United States, but their rights as nations
should be strictly recognized and respected and their in-
ternal problems should be viewed sympathetically and with
a spirit of intelligence and disinterested cooperation.
AMERICA'S "MARE NOSTRUM "
By Kirby Thomas, Consulting Mining Engineer, New York
The Caribbean region is usually considered to include the
countries, colonies and dependencies bordering on the ir-
regular ellipse formed by the Islands of Cuba, Porto Rico
and Haiti on the north ; the Yucatan Peninsula, the Central
American countries and part of Colombia on the west;
Colombia and Venezuela on the south, and the Lesser An-
tilles on the east. The three colonial Guianas, although
without these physical limits should be included to form
part of the same economic group, likewise the outlying is-
lands of the Indies, and for general consideration, the
Bahamas and also the, geographically separate, Bermuda
Islands.
The Gulf of Mexico region, part of which is bordered by
important Mexican states, is geographically an extension of
the Caribbean region, but for the purposes of this discus-
sion and, generally, is considered separately.
HISTORY AND TRADE DEVELOPMENTS
The Caribbean region, as a geographical unit, is well
defined, but its communal members vary greatly in their
political status and relations and in social and economic
development. Geographically, and by reason of sea trans-
portation conditions, the region, as a whole, is one of our
"nearest neighbors" and therefore presents the inevitable
political, social and business problems arising from the
proximity and contact of communities and of nations. The
variety of conditions prevailing in the Caribbean area, and
the continual, and often unexpected, political and economic
changes affecting the individual Caribbean government or
geographic members, has given a complexity to this "neigh-
borly" contact with the United States which has puzzled
314
"MARE NOSTRUM" 315
American statesmen, befogged American public opinion,
and disconcerted the commercial and political programs of
other nations.
The historical development of the Caribbean people has
had a most important bearing on the conditions which pre-
vail today, socially, politically and economically. The first
civilization in the Americas was in the Caribbean and for
several centuries this region was the source of great commer-
cial activity and an important factor in the world's political
affairs and in the development of the world's commerce and
commercial politics. These conditions were at their zenith,
and largely were developed before the United States came
into national existence, and before the North American
colonies had become a factor either as a market for the
products of this region, or as a source of supply.
Prior to the Spanish-American war, the most important
trade activities of the Caribbean region were controlled by
Spain and Great Britain, and American participation was
limited and generally unsatisfactory. The American people
did not have the need of greater commercial exchange with
the Caribbean communities nor did they realize the impor-
tant trade possibilities in that direction. Although the
United States gained important territorial extensions and
commercial advantages as a result of the war with Spain,
it certainly cannot be said that the deliberate motives of
the war, on the part of the United States were either politi-
cal or economic. The results, as we now know, were of
much greater importance to the United States economi-
cally, than they were politically. And these results have
greatly influenced our Caribbean relations and interests.
The post-Spanish-war boom in American trade and in-
vestments in Cuba and Porto Rico was followed by an
awakened American interest in the whole Caribbean region
and a greater interest and activity in Latin American trade
and developments generally. Notwithstanding the coin-
cident diversion of American interest and capital to Mexico,
the trade and investments in the Caribbean region had
attained to a substantial total by the end of the first decade
of this century. Investments, outside of Cuba and Porto
316 KIRBY THOMAS
Rico, where they were assured of protection and fair treat-
ment by the American political participation, were re-
stricted and limited, except in a few special instances, and
American-Caribbean trade at all times had to overcome the
low prices and politically organized, or supported, compe-
tition of German and British commercial interests.
The undertaking of the Panama Canal by the United
States and the establishment of American political influence
on the Isthmus, was the next forward step affecting American
commercial interests in the Caribbean. The whole world
realized that the canal meant a great stimulus to Caribbean
trade and business. The nature, circumstances and magni-
tude of the Panama task appealed to the American imagi-
nation and turned attention to consideration of the new com-
mercial conditions expected to result from the completion
of the canal. From these considerations, and also because
of the unconscious stimulation of national pride, arose
many ambitious commercial plans on the part of American
business interests. These were influenced also largely by
the growing realization of the need of foreign trade expan-
sion to relieve recurrent conditions of over production in
basic manufacturing industries and to afford a market for
the agricultural, mining and other products which, in some
instances, far exceeded the domestic requirements.
Many of these plans, particularly concerning the Ameri-
can Tropical region, were weird and ill advised and never
came to serious endeavor. Others were deferred, or frus-
trated, by reason of the uncertainties in the finances of the
world which, as we now know, anticipated the European
war by several years. There was, however, a notable in-
crease in the exchange of merchandise and products between
the United States and the principal Caribbean countries.
The American capitalist, with his often almost unlimited
following of investors, sent his effective engineers and trained
executives afield in all the Caribbean region to find things
worth doing. In all these countries there were railroads to
be built, mines and plantations to be worked, opportunities
for manufacturing establishments, for public utility and
hydro-electric installations, and generally, great need of
AMERICA'S "MARE NOSTRUM" 317
development, undertakings such as really delight certain
American " captains of industry," and which appeal, per-
haps often unduly, to American investors. But the tan-
gible results were disappointing. The Panama Canal had
not changed Caribbean human nature nor reformed political
practices or conditions, which had prevailed since politics
began in the American Tropics. On close contact and after
examination, chronic and unrestrained political graft, con-
stant revolution and over night changes of government did
not appeal to, nor were they understood, by the responsible
representatives of American capital. In consequence, the
" industrial conquest of the American Tropics," of which
so much was heard in the beginning of our Panama enter-
prise, was hindered and deferred, at least, as far as most of
the independent countries were concerned.
A strong factor in the failure of American capital and
enterprise to engage adequately in these needed develop-
ment undertakings was the result and example of the course
of events in Mexico; in that country in 1911 began a politi-
cal upheaval which resulted, first and last, in the destruc-
tion, or effective confiscation, of over a billion of dollars of
American investments and the killing of hundreds of Amer-
ican citizens and the expulsion of nearly one hundred thou-
sand Americans from Mexico. The failure of the American
government to protect the property or lives of its nationals
in Mexico, followed by the surprising announcement of
President Wilson of a policy of non-interference and the
public and official criticism and denouncement of the busi-
ness activities of Americans in Mexico and abroad, by the
administration, naturally influenced the plans of American
capital, and of Americans, in respect to engagements hi
other Latin American countries which did not have a
reasonably long record of stability and responsibility in
their governments.
The European war had a mixed result on American com-
mercial interests in "the Caribbean. It removed practically
all European competition, but the limitations on transpor-
tation facilities and the necessary restrictions on trade and
business at home prevented any expansion, except in special
lines.
318 KIRBY THOMAS
The same favorable conditions as to European competi-
tion have prevailed, in part, during the year and a half which
has elapsed since the Armistice, and the transportation facil-
ities, especially the Caribbean commerce trade, have been
largely restored. The direct effect has been an enormous
increase in American trade with all the Caribbean countries.
As a result of this increase in the exports of the Caribbean
countries and also because of the high prices paid for the
products, an unprecedented prosperity has followed, notably
in Colombia and Venezuela, which has brought about in-
creased purchases of all commodities, including luxuries,
from the United States, the only market practically avail-
able up to the present.
To again take up the historical incidents of the Caribbean
story: As early as 1905, President Roosevelt, to prevent
action on the part of European creditors against Santo
Domingo, in variance with the spirit, if not the letter, of
our Monroe Doctrine, took control of the financial affairs
of Santo Domingo, an independent country of the Carib-
bean group. Congress approved this action, indirectly.
There was some discussion of this departure in American
international policy, but no effective protest on the part of
the general public nor any political group was made. In
1915, President Wilson directed a like proceeding in Haiti,
Congress again approving tacitly as it did very recently in
connection with similar incidents involving the self govern-
ing countries of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. In none of
these instances has American control yet been removed, nor
has any European or South American nation officially pro-
tested. These policies have been denounced, as aggressive
and " imperialistic" in some of the countries south of us.
There is now hi New York, a Latin American "junta"
devoted to agitation against these acts and policies, osten-
sibly on high grounds of political right and justice.
Whatever may be the abstract right in the policy which
has been installed on foreign soil in the Caribbean region in
four separate instances, agents of the American government,
backed effectively by American soldiers, the fact remains
that this form of modified political control has survived
AMERICA'S "MARE NOSTRUM" 319
consistently, in the only cases, in which it has ever been
applied in this manner, through the administration of three
presidents representing both of the major political parties.
A result, which may be determinative later, has directly
followed from the establishing of these quasi-protectorates.
There has been an increased local prosperity in each case
and considerable American investments have been made in
these, heretofore shunned, communities. The current of
trade of the countries concerned, both export and import,
for many years has been preponderantly with this country,
so we are concerned commercially only with the consequent
increase in the volume of business, which is considerable.
In 1918 the United States acquired by purchase the
Danish West Indies, thus increasing our definite national
interest in the Caribbean region and securing a naval base,
important to control from possible acquirement by some
other nation.
It is not advisable nor necessary here to discuss future
changes in the Caribbean political map. Certainly some
other of the "O. Henry" republics of Central America would
be greatly benefited in matters of trade and development if
they came under the aegis of the unexpressed American
policy in the Caribbean. It will be an affront to the na-
tional feelings of Colombia and Venezuela to mention them
in this connection, but Colombia has for a tune been more
or less under the spell of the doctrines of Cabrera, the
Latin American fire brand, associated with the late Mr.
Carranza in Mexico. Besides Colombia is still nursing a
memory of the incidents of Panama and is grieved over the
long delay in the $25,000,000 salve to her hurt which has
been promised at Washington. In Venezuela, President
Gomez is now apparently well established and he has done
important things for the material welfare and prosperity
of his country, but after Diaz in Mexico came the " ava-
lanche," and Venezuela may yet, and soon be another case
of history repeating itself. The British Islands in the Car-
ibbean would like freer and closer commercial relations with
the United States, their best market, and in fact the only
market for their major products. The French colonies are
320 KIRBY THOMAS
yearly in "red" on that nation's budget — and Britain and
France owe very large sums to the United States for War
loans! The Dutch colonies are a continual source of finan-
cial concern to the mother country.
What do the other South American countries think about
the continued increase of American ownership and political
control and financial and trade participation in the Carib-
bean? There is no public record of any official protest.
Some of the publicists and extremists from the South have
been feebly heard from and they foresee dire things in the
future for all Latin America. But the obvious answer is,
if answer need be made now, that the Caribbean, by reason
of its political, social and economic relations is our immediate
and important problem, and only remotely the concern of
the distant South American countries, which are only
slightly interested in its economic or political affairs or its
commercial developments.
NAVAL AND MILITARY CONSIDERATION
The experiences of the war have caused a realization on
the part of the United States of the necessity of prepara-
tion and anticipation, in the matter of protection for its
extensive coast lines and its numerous and enormously
important ports, and of the vital gateway, the Panama
Canal.
In addition to the several good harbors on the Gulf of
Mexico and the naval base at Key West, Florida, in its
own territory, the United States has an established and
important naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba, and controls
the Porto Rican harbors, and the more recently acquired
Port of St. Thomas, in the Danish Islands, which has been
called the "Gibraltar of the West Indies." Naval bases in
Haiti and San Domingo are available. Panama is well
fortified and protected. Recent negotiations have given
us important naval advantages hi Nicaragua. Other Cen-
tral American ports are likely, sooner or later, to be included
in the American naval control program.
AMERICA'S "MARE NOSTRUM" 321
The policy of the United States is, therefore, not deter-
mined by the necessity of acquiring more naval bases in
the Caribbean region, but rather by a national prudence
to prevent the development of any threatening or prepon-
derant interests on the part of any. other first rank nation.
Great Britain is already an important factor in the West
Indies situation by reason of its control of Jamaica and the
Barbadoes and the far outlaying Bermudas which constitute
a naval base of strategic value. The Caribbean interests of
France and Holland are practically negligible and are not
likely to be of serious concern to us, except as they offer a
starting point — for national expansion or a temptation for
some other strong and aggressive European power.
The necessity of establishing such conditions and relations
as will prevent the use of the available ports of the Carib-
bean by any outside nation, or a nation at war with the
United States, was emphasized by the fears and experiences
of the recent war. The rumored plans for German submar-
ine bases hi Yucatan, on the Colombia coast and on the
Island of Margarita, part of Venezuela, though more or
less groundless, caused alarm and trouble. The facility for
establishing wireless telegraph or airplane bases by an enemy
in time of war hi the territories surrounding the Caribbean
is now fully realized.
The promptness and effectiveness with which Cuba came
to our aid in 1917 and the advantage of the control of
Panama and Porto Rico will be remembered.
From these considerations it is obvious that the diplo-
matic policy of the United States should be directed towards
establishing such relations with the independent Caribbean
countries as will assure at least, a complete and friendly
neutrality, in case of another war.
HEALTH AND SANITATION RELATIONS
Under present day conditions the health and sanitation
of any part of the world is not limited by national bounda-
ries. The cooperation of all the civilized countries in stamp-
ing out contagious and other diseases is well established in
322 KIRBY THOMAS
principle and in practice. Particularly are all countries
concerned in the general sanitary conditions of their neigh-
bors, for travel and commerce must exist, more or less, be-
tween neighboring countries and with it are the possibilities
of the transmission of diseases. This protective idea has
been carried farther in regulating the exchange of com-
modities to exclude various plant and animal pests.
The Caribbean region has made much progress hi public
and private sanitation and in the advancement of health
conditions. Particularly Venezuela is active in this re-
spect. However, much yet remains to be done, especially
in some of the smaller countries and communities.
The United States has an obligation and a duty in respect
to the plans and policies which may advance the general
sanitation of the Caribbean communities.
MUTUAL ECONOMIC NEEDS
It is unnecessary to establish the advantage or the neces-
sity for foreign markets for American products. Several
years ago it was calculated that hi a number of the basic
industries, the American capacity for production, at maxi-
mum and under stimulation, was equal to eight times the
normal home consumption. In agriculture and with some
mining products, a similar necessity for an outside market
exists.
On the other hand, the expanding and varying needs of
the American people and the requirements of nearly every
line of industry depend on products and materials which
must be secured beyond our borders. For much of the
raw materials required by the United States, and for certain
staple products, the Latin American countries are geograph-
ically, and by reason of their natural resources and indus-
tries, and the advantage of sea transportation, the logical
sources of supply.
The increased demand for distinctively tropical products,
such as coffee, sugar, rubber, cocoanuts, tropical fruits,
including the ubiquitous banana, requires a trade control of
a large tropical area. Practically no part of the United
AMERICA'S "MARE NOSTRUM" 323
States is really tropical and the available and developed
tropical area of the Western hemisphere is small compared
to that which is controlled by the countries of Europe.
A consideration of the large demands for these special
tropical products and the limited area to supply them, the
most important part of which is included within the Carib-
bean region, indicates the necessity for encouraging the
development of production in the Caribbean countries and
the establishing of effective transportation and business
facilities to meet the growing requirements of the United
States markets.
The Caribbean countries are relatively small consumers
of manufactured products on account of the backward and
limited social development of the great proportion of the
people, but they require increasing quantities of railroad
and construction materials, and of machinery of all kinds,
and also merchandise and manufactured products of kinds
which the United States is well adapted to supply.
Many special natural resource products can best be ob-
tained from the Caribbean region — as platinum from Colom-
bia, chrome and manganese from Cuba and Costa Rica,
magnesite and bauxite from Venezuela and Guiana, iron
from Cuba, and tobacco from Cuba and Porto Rico. There
is a mutual advantage in encouraging the development of
these nearer-by sources of supply for our essential raw
materials.
LEGISLATION AND TRADE
Owing to the, more or less, complete dependency of most
of the Caribbean countries on the American markets, it is
plain that commercial legislation on the part of the Ameri-
can government is often of vital concern to them. This
was exemplified in numerous instances during the period of
the American high-tariff policy. The subsequent inaugu-
ration of a preferential tariff for Cuba and the free schedule
for Porto Rico seriously injured some of the other Carib-
bean communities commercially.
This necessary condition of inter-relation and trade reac-
tion suggests the practicability of the adoption, on the part
324 KIRBY THOMAS
of this country, of a policy of tariffs and trade regulations
to create a basis for bargaining with the independent coun-
tries and the colonies to insure advantages for American
interests. The, now almost forgotten, policy of reciprocity,
so eloquently presented by Mr. Elaine, appealed to the
imagination of the Latin Americans more than any other
distinctly American doctrine. This idea, modified to meet
our present lower tariff policies, and amplified to cover
other regulations than those directly involved in tariff re-
strictions, should be formally and systematically adopted
as a policy for the development, encouragement and control
of trade relations with the Caribbean countries.
In this connection it is of interest to recall the proposed
reciprocal trade treaty between Canada and the British
Caribbean colonies which was under negotiation a few years
ago. This treaty had for its purpose the support of the
trade necessities of the British colonies and the diversion
of their trade to Canada.
BANKS AS TRADE PIONEERS
The American banking institutions have very recently
recognized the need of increased and closer trade relations
with all of the South American countries by organizing for-
eign connections and by the inauguration of very elaborate
plans for branch or affiliated banks. This new American
banking policy has been extended to most of the Caribbean
countries. These American banking developments are a
material aid to trade and investment. However, it appears
that the banks are really engaged in pioneering, in expecta-
tion of the ability of American producers to compete in
outside markets, and in anticipation of a continuation of
satisfactory political conditions south of us, or the more
favorable trend of the policies of the American government
towards the protection and fostering of American trade and
investments abroad.
AMERICA'S "MARE NOSTRUM" 325
AMERICANS AND DEVELOPMENT WORK
The American abroad, especially in the partly developed
countries in all parts of the world, is essentially a developer
and a creator, and it is in this relation that he is particularly
effective and successful. Already Americans have success-
fully built railroads, installed water power projects, public
utilities, irrigation undertakings and equipped and operated
mining and oil properties in all of the Latin American
countries. American capital investing in these enterprises
usually requires that the business and technical manage-
ments shall be in the hands of Americans.
These undertakings, directly or indirectly effect trade.
The American engineer and manager specifies American
materials for construction and American tools. He and
his associates and assistants demand a certain amount of
American goods for the business and for personal consump-
tion. The local merchants are influenced to introduce
American goods. The result is the establishment of a grow-
ing trade and one which is not easily displaced by compe-
tition from other countries. These items, in the aggregate,
are considerable, as exemplified in the development of trade
in Mexico prior to the last, and recent, era of Mexican
revolutions.
OIL, BUSINESS AND POLITICS
The recent realization that some of the Caribbean coun-
tries have very important possibilities for oil and the critical
national need for a continued and increased oil supply, has
resulted in developments and undertakings which may
divert, control or overshadow the normal factors in com-
mercial progress and which may influence, through abso-
lute economic necessity or enlightened national self interest,
our government attitude and policies toward extra terri-
torial business and investments. This economic urge has
already influenced enormous American investments and
operations in oil in Mexico, a condition likely to be very soon
duplicated in Colombia and Venezuela.
326 KIRBY THOMAS
AMERICAN COLONIZATION
There have been numerous attempts to establish American
colonies in the tropical regions. In the main, these have
not been successful, partly because the type of American
interested is ordinarily not sufficiently adaptable and the
colonies are usually not well organized nor financed. These
American colonies, where essayed, have been, more or less,
out of harmony with local, political and social conditions,
and they have not affiliated with the native institutions
sufficiently to insure them the proper participation in and
support from the local governments.
The American, as a rule, outside the United States, is
most successful as an executive or in charge of engineering
and constructive work. In connection with mining and
similar undertakings, a considerable number of Americans
have found it satisfactory and advantageous to make their
homes abroad.
The fact that no large number of Americans have under-
taken to colonize in the Philippines, Porto Rico or Cuba,
where favorable governmental conditions are assured, is an
indication of the futility of advocating American coloniza-
tion in the independent countries or the foreign dependen-
cies of the Caribbean.
THE STORY OF THE BANANA
No discussion of tropical business is complete without a
consideration of the development of the banana trade.
This industry is distinctively American, having been largely
created by Americans and under control of Americans.
Banana raising utilizes heretofore worthless lands in the
islands and countries of the Caribbean and the growing and
marketing of this specialized crop employs a large amount
of local labor. On the other hand, the product affords a
very important contribution to our national food variety
and supply.
The influence of the banana trade and the allied activi-
ties is likely to be more and more important in inter-trade
between the United States and the Caribbean for the busi-
AMERICA'S "MARE NOSTRUM" 327
ness is based on a mutual situation which makes its develop-
ment unusually advantageous.
The American market will take an enormously greater
amount of tropical fruits if facilities for the harvesting,
transportation and marketing are organized so that the
cost to the ultimate consumer is reasonable and the supply
regular.
Thus the humble banana is playing an international r61e
in the Caribbean.
AN AMERICAN OPPORTUNITY
The enormous and successful development of the Ameri-
can packing industry and its influence on the character and
supply of essential food products, at home and throughout
the world, is a recognized commercial fact. Within recent
years several of the large American companies, engaged in
this business, have undertaken to establish packing plants,
f ollowing the American methods of organization and opera-
tion, in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. These operations
have been successful and promise to become of increasing
importance as a supplemental source of supply to our own
food needs and the world's requirements. There has been
no large undertaking of this kind in the northern countries
of South America. In Venezuela, the vast pampas area
offers favorable conditions for an enormous development of
stock raising. Efforts are being made to establish stock
raising and packing industries in both Venezuela and Col-
ombia. The essential preliminary is the introduction and
the acclimatization of suitable breeds of live stock to replace
the inferior native breeds. This will take some years and
can only be done with the support and cooperation of local
interests and local authorities.
The conditions in general are especially ready for the
development of important stock raising business hi some of
the Caribbean countries and the opportunity is offered for
the establishment and development of this modern "big
business," in control of Americans, and necessarily financed,
at the beginning, by American capital.
328 KIRBY THOMAS
FACTORS IN BETTER UNDERSTANDING
A large number of the citizens of the Caribbean countries
were diverted to the United States during the war for their
business and social purposes. The result has been mutually
beneficial. Recently the South American countries have
followed a policy of sending officials and commercial dele-
gates to the United States for business negotiations and
for general investigations and the effect of this personal
contact is particularly satisfactory. Our own governmental
organizations and various trade and social societies, formed
for the purpose of encouraging better understandings, have
been effective in entertaining these commissions and visitors
and in assisting them in their purpose. Various public and
business organizations have been engaged hi suitable pub-
licity with reference to the Latin American countries. Some
of these countries have placed their claims and advantages
before the American people by means of lectures, publica-
tions and other educational activities. All these things are
factors in a better understanding and, particularly, have
they been beneficial to the American public which was woe-
fully ignorant of the actual conditions hi the countries to
the south of us and was, more or less, indifferent to them
for various reasons.
During the past twenty years, a large number of Ameri-
cans have learned Spanish, either in schools or through their
activities hi Mexico and in other Spanish countries. Then-
children, living abroad have, too, acquired facility in Span-
ish. This has made available a large number of Ameri-
cans, for undertaking responsible representations in Latin
American countries for American business, especially hi
engineering and constructive lines.
PAN-AMERICAN RAILROAD AND INTERNAL TRANSPORTATION
The program for a Pan-American railroad from Hudson
bay to Cape Horn dates back nearly forty years : This am-
bitious plan has been rather an abstract idea than an
actual policy on the part of the several countries concerned
or the financial interests engaged in railroad development.
AMERICA'S "MARE NOSTRUM " 329
However, considerable actual progress toward its realiza-
tion has been made, incidental to independent and internal
railroad construction on both continents.
The actual completion of an overland rail line between
the United States and the northern countries of South Amer-
ica is not of special importance hi connection with the devel-
opment of mutual trade relations. It is likely that the inau-
guration of such facilities would increase travel materially,
particularly when the service can be brought up to present
day standards of comfort and convenience. It will appeal to
the travel lust of an increasing number of people to take an
international train in New York for remote political, social
and economic centers on another continent. Such a rail-
road would form one "leg" of various touring plans.
This Pan-American railroad project is over-shadowed by
the greater conveniences and cheapness of sea transportation
which is available for practically all of the trade develop-
ments between the Caribbean region and the United States.
The great need of the Central American and continental
countries of the region is internal transportation. This
condition has been notably relieved in the Central American
countries in the last decade, largely by American enter-
prises, supported by the local governments.
In Colombia and Venezuela, the Magdalena and the
Orinoco river systems and other rivers afford conditions
for internal navigation facilities. These have been utilized
greatly, but there is need of extensive improvement of these
water ways and of increased and better equipment. Vene-
zuela is particularly desirous of removing the obstruction
at the mouth of the Orinoco so as to be able to use this
river for access to its largely undeveloped "hinterland."
In both these countries, notably in Venezuela, a great
deal of work has been done recently in road building. With
the automobile, this improvement affords a means of social
and business intercourse which is a fair substitute for rail-
roads, especially for moderate distances or where the traffic
is small hi bulk or volume.
Many of the island communities also are hi need of inter-
nal transportation and there are many project sin abeyance,
330 KIKBY THOMAS
for short, but very important railroad extensions which
must come to realization as soon as capital is available and
local political conditions assuring.
In the development of these railroads and in furnishing
financial, engineering and organization aid for them and for
the larger transport projects the American business interests
have a great opportunity.
The rapid establishment of telegraph lines and wireless
stations throughout the remoter parts of these countries
has been a great factor in breaking down barriers and in
putting them in touch with the world's thought and doings.
It is likely that the aerial transport for passengers and freight
will be established between the sea ports and the interior
in the near future. This already is in process of develop-
ment in Peru and Brazil. The effect of this development
in transportation and communication is to unify and mo-
bilize the resources of these countries and to stimulate
them commercially, and to bring them into closer social,
political and trade relations with their "nearest neighbor/'
the United States.
IN GENERAL AND IN CONCLUSION
The United States has a preponderant and direct interest,
politically and economically, in the Caribbean region, which
interest has been greatly increased by the trade and political
relations due to the Panama canal and by the new trade
conditions during and subsequent to the war.
The continued adhesion to our Monroe Doctrine involves
direct obligations on our part in certain cases. This fact,
and our increased self interest, may be accepted as the
justification for an actual, but not specifically announced,
American policy towards the disturbed and disturbing mem-
bers of the Caribbean political group, which policy has pre-
vailed continuously and consistently, through the adminis-
trations of Presidents Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson.
This actual Caribbean policy is hi apparent contrast to
our national program in the case of Mexico during nearly
a decade, notwithstanding the similarity of issues involved*
AMERICA'S "MARE NOSTRUM"
This contradictory situation, however, may be taken as the
personal interpretation of President Wilson, for neither
congress nor any political party has endorsed our Mexican
policy, while congress has by enactments approved of our
Caribbean political undertakings.
The development of inter-trade relations between the
United States and the independent Caribbean countries
has been greatly retarded in the past by lack of governmental
stability and the incidental frequent disturbances to per-
sonal and property rights, both of natives and of foreigners.
The remarkable commercial progress of Cuba and Porto
Rico since the advent of American participation in their
governmental affairs is a measure of the economic loss
which has resulted from misgovernment in some of the
other Caribbean countries. The two larger countries, Col-
ombia and Venezuela, have made considerable progress and
economic gain, but not nearly as much as they would have
made had there been full confidence in their political insti-
tutions. Most of the Central American countries, and
notably Santo Domingo and Haiti, have, indeed, paid a
heavy economic price for political misbehavior with no
corresponding gain in social or political progress or ideals.
There has been a great increase in trade between the
United States and all the Caribbean countries and colonies
since 1914. Colombia and Venezuela have been particu-
larly prosperous during the last two years, measured by the
standards of export and import statistics. Most of this
trade has been with the United States since the War began,
for patent reasons, but the return of normal world compe-
tition seriously threatens the temporary advantages of this
country in the Caribbean, and hi fact hi all Latin American
trade.
The American banking interests have cooperated effect-
ively with American commercial interests to develop and
hold this trade. American capital, as far as available from
extraordinary domestic demands, is being increasingly em-
ployed in development undertakings in these countries, a
fact which will result in controlling trade effectively in
important lines. However, investments cannot continue on
332 KIRBY THOMAS
any substantial scale without assurances of security and
fair treatment and such assurances under the conditions,
can only come from the establishment of a change of policy
on the part of our own government toward trade and invest-
ments in foreign lands, particularly hi those countries which
have a consistently bad political record.
Our relations with our southern neighbors, Mexico and
Caribbean countries, constitute one of the most urgent,
difficult and important of our foreign problems of today, a
problem which must be met and solved by this generation
and one which requires wise, courageous and far sighted
statesmanship backed by intelligent and comprehending
public opinion.
An American writer has referred to the Caribbean as the
"American Mediterranean/' an apt enough geographical
designation, but in view of the increasing interest and
concern in Caribbean affairs, political, social and commer-
cial, on our part, this designation may well be changed to
"America's 'Mare Nostrum'" — Our Sea.
PORTO RICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM
By Pedro Capd Rodriguez, Spanish Editor of the American
Journal of International Law; Member of the Bar
of Porto Rico
To refer to Porto Rico as a national problem demanding
attention as something of important national concern may
seem perhaps rather strange. How can Porto Rico be a
national problem at all for the United States? The answer
to this question will seem perhaps rather difficult to the
average person, but that is probably because after the
acquisition of that Island from Spam nearly twenty-two
years ago, the people in this country have busied them-
selves with so many important and pressing national and
international problems which demanded attention, that
nearly everyone almost have forgotten our existence. So
to the average person it will be a matter of speculation to
determine what are the elements which enter into this
extraordinary and never heard of problem.
As a matter of history, the American people have given
very little attention to Porto Rico or its inhabitants. I do
not say this as a reproach, I simply state it as a fact. The
general inference in this country is that the government of
the United States is doing for them what is right. It is
generally surmised that our present condition, politically,
economically and even socially, is by far superior to the
condition we ever enjoyed under the rule of Spain. All
these things undoubtedly are true. I could enlarge upon
them and show with quite reliable data, statistics and docu-
ments that our present government, our finances, our agri-
culture, our industry, our commerce are all immensely
better. Our external trade has increased so much that it
seems almost an exaggeration to mention it. From
333
334 PEDRO CAP6 RODRIGUEZ
$17,000,000 in 1901, it has jumped to the almost incredible
amount of $142,000,000 in 1919, which is nearly one thou-
sand per cent. It may be well to mention that of this
large trade the United States absorbs over 80 per cent,
namely, $129,000,000 which exceeds the normal trade of
this country with Russia, Spain, the Philippines, or any
Lathi American country except Argentina, Brazil, Chile,
Cuba or Mexico. It is almost as large as the trade of this
country with China, or the combined trade of Guatemala,
Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama,
Dominican Republic, Haiti and Bolivia with the United
States. This of course shows the commercial importance
of Porto Rico to the United States.
In educational matters, the present level of Porto Rico
is by far above the one it held under Spain. At that tune
our educational establishment was poor and largely ineffi-
cient; today we have a modern, democratic school system
offering free education to the children of the Island and pro-
viding at public expense, out of the Porto Rican treasury,
teachers, buildings, equipment, books, etc., and although
this system of public education is not, as the Governor of
Porto Rico says in his latest annual report for 1918-1919,
as yet adequate to the great needs of the Island, it constitutes
as it stands such an immense advance over what existed at
the earlier date that the comparison would be really instruc-
tive and inspiring. I will not, however, enter into details.
Suffice it to say hi this respect that, as stated in the said
report, "the number of schools, of children attending
school, of school buildings, of teachers and of expenditures
for school purposes, have all been multiplied tremendously,
and that the overwhelming illiteracy of about 80 per cent
of the adult inhabitants has been reduced to probably less
than 60 per cent," or, to be more exact, to 54 per cent.
"Above all, the variety and character of the education, the
spirit and quality of the work done in the schools have been
broadened, modernized and liberalized in accordance with
the standards and ideals of the twentieth century."
In sanitation, health, police, public works and other
branches of the public administration, we certainly have
PORTO RICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 335
accomplished a great deal. As to roads, says the governor
of Porto Rico in his already mentioned report,
We started in 1899 with 267.4 kilometers of completed insular
roads — now we have 1,189.4 kilometers of completed roads.
. . . . In the twenty years prior to 1899, there were built
in Porto Rico 9 kilometers per year. In the past twenty years
there have been built 922 kilometers, or an average of 46 kilo-
meters per year. And this same acceleration of progress can
be seen in every other detail connected with communications,
both internal and external, railroads, trolley lines, telegraph and
telephone lines, the cables that land on our shores, the ships that
visit our harbors. The ox-carts and coaches of the earlier day
have been replaced by trucks and automobiles. In everything
that enters into or indicates the life of a people there is to be seen
this marvelous change and progress. In the architecture of their
homes and hotels, in the number and character of the crowded
shops and stores, in the traffic that throngs the busy streets and
fine roads, in the voluntary organizations formed for pleasure and
for social welfare, and especially in the number and quality of
the newspapers that make up the press — in fact in everything
one sees, there is written the record and the proof of twenty years
of most remarkable progress.
As to sanitation and guarding the public health, it may
be said that our record is equally creditable to the change.
The whole health service of the Island has been organized
and built up. On this particular subject of so much inter-
est to the people of the United States, says the so often
quoted report of the governor of Porto Rico:
The modern methods and agencies of guarding the public health
have been introduced, such as quarantine, hospital, scientific
study of causes, symptoms, treatment, and prevention of disease
and the whole medical profession mobilized so as to cooperate
in safeguarding the health of the people. Some dreadful diseases
such as yellow fever and perhaps smallpox have apparently been
permanently banished from the Island, and many others seem
to have been brought under definite control.
The death rate has been reduced so that last year, if we set
aside the 10,888 victims due to the great epidemic of influenza
and its complications, it was only 23.1 per thousand.
In legislative matters, in the enforcement of law and order,
and in the administration of justice, we have also made very
substantial progress. In municipal administration the
showing is simply astonishing. Let me quote once more
from the aforesaid report of the governor of Porto Rico.
He says on this point:
336 PEDKO CAP6 RODBfGUEZ
In 1899, immediately after the change of sovereignty, the credit
of the municipalities was so bad that the military governor, Gen,
George W. Davis, made the following statement in his report
on civil affairs for that year:
"Until municipal government and administration is reformed
and elevated to a very much higher plane than now, I see no hope
of greatly improved social, domestic, or economic conditions."
The progress made by the municipalities during the twenty
years has completely destroyed the distrust expressed in this rather
pessimistic statement. The large floating municipal debt, which
in 1901 amounted to $501,128, has completely disappeared, and
now all the municipalities close their financial operations each
year with cash surpluses on hand, while during the earlier period
only debts remained. In further proof of this progress we may
mention the extraordinary development of public-service enter-
prises that have been built, nearly all of them, during this period.
In the 75 municipalities of the Island there are now 37 water
systems, 8 sewers, 22 markets, 77 slaughterhouses and 52 hospitals.
The present public debt of the Island is a little over
$10,000,000, but for every dollar of this public debt, 'all
created during the last twenty years, as the governor says
in^his report, Porto Rico has more than one dollar and a
half invested in permanent public improvements to show
for it. "To be sure/' he says, "the surplus of $5,000,000
had to be invested out of the annual revenues, but a tax
system has been created and efficiently administered in
order to produce these revenues. Many larger countries
not a thousand miles away have four times the public debt
and not half as much to show for the money."
We have also developed physically, morally and intel-
lectually. Our standards of living have been greatly im-
proved. Many of the worst vices, such as gambling and
the use of alcoholic beverages, which in the earlier period,
as the governor says, were openly practised and recognized
by law, have now been prohibited by statutes enacted by
representatives of the people. Our working classes have
been raised a good many degrees from their former level of
practical ignorance and neglect : today we have labor legis-
lation which promotes and stimulates a healthy development
of labor conditions which affect the entire fabric of our social
and economical life as a people. Our professional classes
have been enlarged and increased in numbers and in effi-
PORTO RICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 337
ciency and usefulness to the community. Even our own
politicians seem to be doing quite well. On the whole it
may be said that we have unproved in every possible
sense; in the home, in the church, and in the community at
large. We certainly are better off today than we were under
the rule of Spain; we are better men; we are better Chris-
tians; we are better citizens.
And yet, may I not quote a few further sentences from
the official report of the governor of Porto Rico, to which
I have made so much reference above, in order to show a
condition which seems to me to be quite important for the
proper presentation of my subject? In that report of the
governor of Porto Rico, who is a native of Old Kentucky,
and who, therefore, may be supposed to be quite truthful
in the matter, it is said:
In short and in fine, these two decades of progress made by
Porto Rico under the American flag taken all together, constitute
a record which I believe can not be equaled by any people any-
where in the world in the same length of time. It is a record
creditable alike to the Porto Ricans themselves, and to the great
free Republic to which they owe allegiance. Much of it is due
to the liberality and generous aid of the great American Govern-
ment and people, but most of the credit is due to the splendid
cooperation of the Porto Ricans themselves. Without their co-
operation little of this progress could have been made. But the
people of the Island have eagerly availed themselves of every
opportunity offered them for improvement. With patriotic de-
votion to their Island and with a real aspiration for progress,
they have made quick response to all the changes that were
necessary for development. In politics and government, in edu-
cation, in commerce and industry, in social and moral improve-
ment, they have offered their cooperation and aid to the forces
that have made for betterment. This is the simple truth as to
the past, and this is the best augury for the future.
Now, the point which I wish to emphasize at this time is
this, that in twenty years of American administration in
the Island, in twenty years of continuous schooling, in
twenty years of earnest endeavor, and in twenty years of
bitter experience and hard work, we have made such strides
in the direction of our own development and the practice of
self government, that the very thing which at first every
one thought to be a matter of fifty, seventy-five or perhaps
338 PEDRO CAP6 RODRfGUEZ
one hundred years has been practically accomplished al-
ready in the course of two mere decades, in a score of years.
No one could claim today with any degree of impartiality
and truthfulness that we are not fully prepared to take
upon our own shoulders the serious responsibilities of a
completely self governing people. By the guidance, and
help, and example of the American people, we have already
attained that condition of social, economical and political
development, which entitles us to manage at least our own
internal affairs. We feel therefore that we have already
attained our political majority; and just as any normal boy,
upon becoming of age, wishes to go out into the world to
face and solve by himself his own problems of life without
parental dictation, interference or caprice; we too, as a
normal people, strongly feel that we ought to be permitted
to face and solve our own Porto Rican problems in our
own Port Rican way without governmental dictation or
interference from the United States. And this is clearly a
very natural feeling. It is not that we be ungrateful or
rebellious any more than a son who wishes to live his own
life and asks to be permitted to do so. He does not wish to
alienate his parents' affection; he does not mean to love
them any the less. It is that he hears the call of his own
nature, of his own Maker, urging him to work out by him-
self his own destiny, his own salvation.
I should not like to give the impression that we are
rebels, for we are not. Our devotion to this great republic
has been already shown during the last twenty years, and
especially during the great emergency of the world war.
Our record during that terrible conflict ought to convince
the most sceptical and cynical of our loyalty to the United
States. In that emergency readily and gladly we put all
our resources and man power to the service of the United
States. We actually contributed over 16,000 soldiers who
were about to leave for Europe when the armistice was
signed, and if the war had continued a little longer we prob-
ably would have contributed nearly 30,000 or 40,000 more;
our contribution in this respect was nearly as large as the
contributions of all the territories and the District of
POKTO EICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 339
Columbia combined; we actually contributed nearly $13,-
000,000 as our subscription to the liberty loan bonds, which
was greatly in excess of our quota fixed by the treasury
department; we engaged in and generously donated large
sums of money for all sorts of war activities, and actually
made a better showing than the territories and a good many
of the states. We certainly are very proud of our record
in this, as in other respects.1
The thought which I really wish to convey is that we have
already acquired that high degree of development when no
moral reason exists for subjecting us any longer to the pres-
ent state of governmental control by the United States.
We have undoubtedly reached a point beyond any possible
expectation; we have already acquired the clear conscious-
ness of being a distinct and characteristic Porto Rican
people, capable, intelligent, patriotic and able to assume
and discharge the obligations and duties of our own govern-
ment. We wish to be masters of our own affairs, insofar as
it may be consistent with the circumstances and the equities
of the situation. In this, I am sure, no one will find anything
reprehensible, nor deserving of reproach. That we should
wish to live our own mode of life and seek the welfare and hap-
piness of our people in conformity with our natural inclina-
tions, education and temperament, can not surprise anybody
at all; for that is a natural aspiration which consciously
or unconsciously rules the conduct of all men as well as of
all peoples, everywhere. It has been said that this natural
aspiration of men and peoples everywhere to choose their
own way of living constitutes a right and a principle which
can not be transgressed without a clear violation of the
laws of nature and the dictates of justice. It may be
doubted, however, in the present state of the world, if this
right and this principle can always be invoked to settle the
relations which must exist between neighboring peoples.
Experience is showing us constantly that the contrary is
1 For a more detailed account of Porto Rico's actual contributions to
the world war, and the attitude of its inhabitants towards the United
States in this great emergency, see the Report of the Governor of Porto
Rico, the Honorable Arthur Yager, for 1917, 1918 and 1919.
340 PEDRO CAP6 RODRIGUEZ
the truth. So far as Porto Rico is concerned, I believe
that it would be better and more profitable to examine the
facts, since the principle, or the aspiration as I should pre-
fer to call it, will be readily conceded by any one as deserv-
ing the most solicitous consideration in any intelligent study
of the matter.
II
Porto Rico, as it is well known, is one of the so-called
Greater Antilles, the smallest of the three; the other two
being Cuba and Santo Domingo. It lies between Saint
Thomas, which is the most important of the Virgin Islands
recently acquired by the United States from Denmark, on
the east, and Santo Domingo on the west. The distance
of Porto Rico from Saint Thomas is only about 80 miles;
in very clear days the mountains of either island can be
seen from the other. From the main coast of the United
States it is only about 1000 miles. Her position in respect
to this country is 1380 miles southeast of New York, which
is her principal port of communication with the United
States. The distance between Porto Rico and Panama is
only 1000 miles. In shape and contour, Porto Rico resem-
bles an irregular parallelogram, and its total area is 3606
square miles. According to the last census, the present
population of Porto Rico is over 1,225,000 inhabitants, or
an average of 340 per square mile. More than 62 per cent
of this population are whites, and less than 38 per cent are
colored. The capital of the Island is San Juan, with a popu-
lation of over 75,000 inhabitants.
In point of discovery, Porto Rico is older than the United
States. It was discovered by Columbus on his second voy-
age in 1493. Its conquest, however, was not begun by the
Spaniards until early hi the sixteenth century, under the
leadership of Don Juan Ponce de Leon, of whom it has
been written as an epitaph upon his tomb:
Nole sub hoc fortis requiescunt ossa Leonis
Qui vicit factis nomina magna suis.
PORTO RICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 341
Which freely translated into English means "This narrow
grave contains the remains of a man who was a lion by
name, and much more so by his deeds."
Since that time until the cession of the Island by Spain
to the United States, Porto Rico was a Spanish colony,
although for a number of years prior to the cession, it had
enjoyed the political status of a Spanish province. Its
constitutional unity with the mother country was not at-
tained until 1897, when the so-called "autonomfa" or a
Spanish system of self-government was extended by royal
decree to the Island.2
There is no doubt that the geographical position of Porto
Rico is of great military and strategical importance to the
United States. We know that it would be useless and ab-
surd to deny this proposition. The importance of Porto
Rico has, of course, been, in a sense, reduced by the acqui-
sition of the Virgin Islands by the United States, which offer
greater advantages than Porto Rico as a base for military
operations from the port of New York to the mouth of the
Orinoco. The strategical and military importance of Porto
Rico to the United States is not, however, to be measured
only by the use which this country may see fit to make of
the Island as a naval base for military operations; there is
also to be considered, I presume, the possible use which a
hostile nation might make of it in case that she could in one
way or another gain a foothold thereon. Porto Rico, on
the other hand, is included within the region of the Carib-
bean, which the United States already regard as a sort of
national preserve over which they must exercise entire con-
trol; and therefore, as a measure of self-defense, and for the
purpose of protecting its own military, political and even
commercial interests within the Caribbean Sea, which is,
2 The basis of this famous decree was a law of reforms passed by the
Spanish Cortes in 1895, upon the outbreak of the Cuban uprising. A
complete translation of this decree will be found in U. S. Foreign Rela-
tions, 1898, pp. 636-644. For an account of the government of Porto Rico
under Spain as well as a detailed consideration of this decree, see an article
which I contributed to The Hispanic American Historical Review, for
November, 1919, entitled "Some Historical and Political Aspects of the
Government of Porto Rico."
342 PEDRO CAP 6 RODRIGUEZ
so to speak, the Mediterranean of America, must always,
whatever the political condition of Porto Rico may be now,
in the past or in the future, regard with deep concern and
solicitude everything which may in any way affect the desti-
nies of that Island.
Before the acquisition of Porto Rico by the United States
as a direct cession by Spain stipulated in Article II, of the
Treaty of Paris, there is no doubt that it had always been
the policy of the United States to maintain the status quo
in the Island so far as questions of sovereignty were con-
cerned; that is to say, the United States always had pre-
ferred that Spain should continue to exercise her rights of
sovereignty and proprietorship over Porto Rico. This was
so, perhaps, because from that nation they apprehended the
least danger to their own interests, and because they did
not feel quite well disposed to complicate their own national
and international problems with the acquisition of a terri-
tory and a people totally foreign to their own. But let that
be as it may; the historical fact which we must bear in mind
is that the policy of the United States in respect to Porto
Rico was never, prior to the Spanish American war, a policy
founded on the desire of acquiring that Island for their
own national aggrandizement. For obvious reasons they
could not have viewed with either indifference or equanimity
the transfer of Porto Rico to any other power; nor would
they have the Island and its people established under an
independent government of their own, for the reason that
it was considered at the time that the native inhabitants of
the Island, as well as the Cubans, were not then sufficiently
prepared to assume and discharge the duties and responsi-
bilities pertaining to a self-governing people. The United
States therefore were compelled to adopt the policy of the
Status quo as the best course to be followed in the matter,
and thus whether willingly or unwillingly they always main-
tained that policy and permitted for nearly a century that
Spain should continue to exercise her sovereignty and con-
trol over the Island.
It would be really interesting and quite pertinent to the
subject of this paper to enter into a detailed examination of
PORTO RICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 343
the historical origin of the present relations of Porto Rico
and the United States previous to the Spanish American
War, and then coming down to the causes which brought
about that extraordinary conflict, enter into the consider-
ation of the reasons which the United States had for chang-
ing their traditional policy in respect to that Island and
demand the cession thereof from Spain as a condition sine
qua non of peace, in order to show that the cession was not
really demanded for the purpose of national aggrandize-
ment; nor as a mere compensation for or an equivalent to
the expenses, losses and sacrifices borne by the United States
in the successful prosecution of that war; nor even as part
consideration for the sum of twenty million dollars paid by
the United States to the old mother country to allay her
pain for the loss of the Philippines; but rather for the pur-
pose of putting an effective end to the Spanish domination
in our continent in order to prevent an almost certain
recrudescence of the old Spanish methods of government,
which might culminate in another war of liberation in be-
half of the Porto Kican people. But however interesting or
pertinent this study may be in the consideration of my
subject, I must leave it for some other occasion in order
not to make this paper inordinately too long.
So far as the purpose of the United States in demanding
the cession of Porto Rico is concerned, it would seem that
some other means could have been found which would not
have lent itself so easily to misinterpretation and doubt,
since it really appears rather anomalous and paradoxical
that, as a result of a war undertaken in the name of human-
ity, civilization, liberty and right, Porto Rico and its people
should have been handled like mere chattels from one sov-
ereignty to another without a proper regard for then: real
wishes in the matter. It would have been enough, per-
haps, that Porto Rico should have followed the same fate
as Cuba, and for this purpose it would have been sufficient
to demand that Spain should only relinquish, instead of
ceding to the United States, her claims of sovereignty and
government in the Island, as it was done in respect to Cuba.
This stipulation would have accomplished the purpose of
344 PEDRO CAP6 RODRfGUEZ
expelling Spain entirely from America, and at the same
time would have given to the United States freedom of
action to deal with Porto Rico, free from the constitutional
entanglements which gave rise to the doctrine of non-
incorporation elaborated by the present Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court, Mr. White, in the famous Insular Cases.3
But no one seems to have thought of this practical solu-
tion at the time. The explanation is to be found, perhaps,
in the fact that Porto Ricans were not then in arms against
Spain; nor were they exteriorizing at that juncture any
collective desires of acquiring their independence as a
people, probably because our principal leaders realized the
practical impossibility of the thing, and because, perhaps,
the brand new "autonomia" which Spain had just implanted
in the Island had had the effect of quieting down the unrest
among the people and smothering their political aspirations
to an independent life and government. On the other
hand, it is to be taken into account that Spain had cleverly
fomented, through all sorts of intrigues, since the emanci-
pation of her former colonies in the Western Hemisphere,
the preposterous proposition that the native inhabitants
of the Island were neither capable or prepared for self-
government, and the American people, who had always
rejected, as a matter of national policy, the possibility of
our independence, fearful of a repetition of the afflicting
scenes which had taken place at different periods in the
history of a neighboring Island, easily believed what Spain
had so repeatedly asserted in that respect, and figured
that the only reasonable way out of the complicated dilemma
was to demand an absolute cession of the Island in order
to prevent embarrassing situations and avoid complica-
tions of an international nature.
To this might be added that the native inhabitants of
Porto Rico had received the American forces of invasion
with such real and sincere demonstrations of approval and
3 These cases, as well as the doctrine of non-incorporation have been ex-
tensively examined by the present writer in a series of articles in the
American Journal of International Law; see especially the July number for
1919, pp. 483-525.
PORTO RICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 345
rejoicing — because they did not come to Porto Rico as
conquerors but as fellow Americans and liberators — that
the good American people, logically and naturally reasoned
—because this was so pleasing and flattering to their
national pride — that Porto Ricans would welcome American
rule in the Island with the same alacrity, with the same
satisfaction, enthusiasm and joy as they had welcomed the
American troops. And that, in a sense, was true. But
should it not be mentioned, at the same time, that the Porto
Rican people, regardless of party affiliations or distinctions
of any kind, were then under the impression, and firmly
believed it as well, because of the study they had made of
American history and institutions, and because also of the
declarations of the American commanders, that Porto Rico
would be instantly considered and held to be a regular terri-
tory of the United States, and eventually admitted into the
Union as a full-fledged state thereof, upon an equal footing
with the other states, as had been the custom in this country
until then? To this solution of our political status no intel-
ligent and honest Porto Rican would have made then any
real opposition; nor do I believe that any one with common
sense and having at heart the prestige, welfare and happi-
ness of our people would oppose it even now, if the United
States should conclude to adopt this one as the best solution
of the Porto Rican problem. The proof that at that time
at least such was the mental attitude of Porto Rico is that
immediately after the cession formally stipulated in the
protocol of Washington of August 12, 1898, the newspaper
El Liberal, which used to be the organ of the most important
Porto Rican party of that time, changed its name for El
Territorio which means "The Territory," and shows con-
clusively that the leaders of even that party, which was
genuinely Porto Rican, took it for granted and accepted it,
that the solution of statehood was the only logical and pos-
sible solution of our status.
And it could not be otherwise; because, leaving aside the
constitutional history of this country in that respect until
then, which perfectly warranted such an impression and
belief, what greater honor, what greater glory, what greater
346 PEDEO CAP6 KODEIGUEZ
happiness and blessings could befall us than to be consid-
ered an integral part of the Union, as a state thereof? It
would be as if the American people had called to the Porta
Rican people and said to them: "Come and share with us
the great responsibilities of our government; come and share
with us the serious duties of working out the destinies of
this great nation, the greatest and most powerful nation of
the universe; come and share with us the noble and beauti-
ful task of upholding and maintaining everywhere the gov-
ernment of the people by the people and for the people;
come and be one of us!"
Ah, that would have been, that was in reality our great
political aspiration; that was our golden dream; that was
our childish expectation of that remote epoch!
The United States, however, were very intent upon some
other things which were then demanding their earnest
attention. In acquiring Porto Rico they only had the
immediate purpose of liberating it from Spain, but in reality
they did not know then, nor do they know now, what they
were going to do with the Island and its inhabitants. To
be sure, the acquisition of Porto Rico was a very desirable
thing from both a military and a commercial point of view;
but no one seems, in point of fact, to have had any definite
idea as to the precise political relations which were to exist
in the future between the newly acquired territory and the
United States. And it was perfectly rational that those
who were at that tune in charge of the government of this
nation should feel greatly concerned as to the manner in
which they were to deal with the new acquisitions. As to
the Philippines there was a more or less manifested popular
sentiment against their permanent incorporation into the
United States, it being preferred that they should be kept
outside the constitutional unity of the nation. It was
apparent, however, that as a constitutional proposition, any
rule that should be adopted as to the Philippines must neces-
sarily be applied also to Porto Rico and thus, finally, our
Island become a sort of an experimental station where the
constitutionality of the exclusion of the Philippines should
be tried out and tested.
POKTO RICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 347
On the other hand, our leaders impressed and astounded
with the entirely unforeseen developments which had taken
place in the Island, had not judged the occasion propitious
or desirable at that tragical moment in our history, at the
tune of the cession, to put forth any claims to this or that
particular solution of our future political status, whether
within or without the United States, which might hinder
the American people in their wonderful work of liberation;
and although we were not consulted as to our real and
legitimate desires or self-determination in the matter, we
had full confidence in the honesty of purpose of this country,
and firmly believed that the cession would not be for the
aggrandizement of the United States, but for our mutual
benefit, and that it would not only put an end to the ob-
noxious rule of Spain in the Island, but also open to our peo-
ple a new political horizon, a new era of honor and progress
and happiness; a new collective life, not as a mere colony
which we had been under Spain in spite of our political status
as a province, but as a sovereign state of the Union, some
tune in the near or the distant future, as a people masters
of our own internal affairs and indissolubly united to the
American people with the honorable bands of a common
constitution and a common government and purpose in
everything national.
A few months later, however, after the acquisition, and
when the ink on the Treaty of Paris, by which the cession
had been accomplished, was scarcely dried on the paper,
the Supreme Court of the United States, hopelessly divided
in opinion, established, for the first tune in the constitu-
tional history of this country, a terrible distinction between
those territories which were held to have been incorporated
into the United States by the will or consent of Congress,
and those other territories newly acquired by the treaty
making power or otherwise which had not yet been incor-
porated into the United States. The former were held to
be integral parts of the United States, while the latter
were said to be mere territorial possessions, or, more accur-
ately, in the words of the Court, territory appurtenant and
belonging to the United States. And in this manner
348 PEDRO CAP6 RODRfGUEZ
Porto Rico was held to be included within the last classi-
fication, that is to say, that the Island is no part of the
United States but a mere subject of property, something
which the United States owns to do with as it shall see fit,
and thus, substantially, that Porto Rico is beyond the pale
of the Constitution in the sense that it is not operative in
the Island, except insofar as it may deprive Congress of
power to do some specific thing — a political status theo-
retically inferior to the one we had under Spain.
This decision, it is needless to say, was not at all satis-
factory and had a very distressing effect upon our people.
It was really disappointing, and did cause among us a
feeling of hurt to our pride, and to our national " amour
propre" as a people. But the most lamentable thing about
this decision is that it brought to our people a complete
disorientation as to our political aspirations, placing us in a
situation of uncertainty as to the real intentions of the
American people in respect to our future relations. Thus
we have divided in opinion, and can only wonder what the
ultimate decision may be upon this matter.
There is no question that the new constitutional doctrine
of incorporation, or non-incorporation, formulated by Mr.
Justice White in the Insular Cases was clearly advisable
and even necessary as a constitutional asset for the ready
solution of a multitude of problems which soon became
apparent in the proper management of the Philippine Islands
and even perhaps in Porto Rico; there is no question that
such a doctrine is very desirable and even commendable as
providing, very wisely and properly, for the contingencies
of the future in the development of what another great
American jurist had been pleased to call a good many years
earlier the " American Empire." Furthermore, that doc-
trine was in reality the handmaid of a wise and judicious
solution of the problem involved in the future disposition
to be made of the Island and its inhabitants. But that
decision was not well understood in Porto Rico as it was not
well understood outside of the Island, and it has caused a
great deal of harm to our people. We feel just like a man
lost in the woods, at the mercy of his guide. We do not
PORTO KICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 349
know what path to take; we do not know what to do, and we
must constantly depend upon your advice, upon your words
of counsel, whether you really mean what you say or not.
If the Supreme Court had declared twenty years ago that
Porto Rico was a regular territory of the United States
instead of establishing, as it did, a distinction of so-called
incorporation between Porto Rico and the other territories
of the United States, with all its constitutional results, our
position would have been made very definite and clear, and
then we would have striven during these same twenty years
to attain as soon as possible the complete status of state-
hood within this great union of sovereign States. As the
situation is today, we do not know in what direction to
strive; for the United States may ultimately decide for one
thing or for another. Congress, on the other hand, has
procrastinated and made this uncertainty more acute and
intense, not only by deliberately abstaining from making
any positive declaration as to the present or future status
of Porto Rico, but also by establishing in Porto Rico a
mixture of a territorial and colonial form of government,
and extending to Porto Ricans the privilege of American
citizenship. And in this way no one in the Island or the
United States can tell with any degree of certainty what
the permanent relations of Porto Rico and the United
States will be in the future.
The general inference in this country in respect to this
point is, insofar as I have been able to ascertain, that
Porto Rico will sooner or later follow the same course as
has been followed by all the other territories acquired by
the United States in the past. To this seems to lend color
the granting of American citizenship to Porto Ricans as the
first step in that direction. But this is only a mere infer-
ence founded, as a rule, on no definite process of reasoning
which would necessarily lead to that result. American citi-
zenship is a thing entirely independent from the political
status of the Island, as has been clearly shown in two
Porto Rican cases recently decided by the Supreme Court.4
4 The People of Porto Rico, et al, vs. Tapia, and the People of Porto
Rico vs. Muratti, 245 U. S. 639, decided per curiam.
350 PEDRO CAP6 RODRfGTJEZ
Even as American citizens we continue to occupy today the
same indefinite position as before. Our Island is no part
of the United States, and there is no reason to suppose that
it will ever be.
Occasionally one hears the opinion expressed that the
American flag will never come down in the Island, and that
Porto Rico will always be held as a colony or possession of
the United States; and that in this sense our political status
is right now perfectly well defined. In the same connection
it is contended that such a political status is perfectly con-
stitutional and well known and accepted in international
law and practice; so that juridically as well as politically
it might be said that the problem is already solved, and that
the only thing which now remains is to extend to Porto Rico
complete self government in an administrative sense with-
out the interference of the federal government.
There is also the opinion that Porto Rico will be ulti-
mately established as a free and independent sovereign
state. It is said that the idea of perpetual colonialism is
entirely repulsive to the American mind, that it cannot be
conceived that a people who only yesterday shook off that
form of government should today so easily adopt in respect
to Porto Rico a policy involving a principle which they
would not have applied to themselves.
But all these opinions have practically the same founda-
tion as the solution of statehood. In my estimation, and
so far as I can make out the situation, none of these opin-
ions, whether in one direction or another can claim more
real authority than the personal prestige of those who are
bold enough to assume the r61e of prophets at this tune, and
therefore can not be given too much importance either way,
for the reason that, as a rule, as already suggested, they are
merely founded on personal impressions of the moment
and, in consequence, lack that careful consideration and
study which is in reality the thing that gives personal opin-
ions their greatest value. In so far as the American people
is concerned, I should say that save for a small group of
men, mostly composed of prejudiced bureaucrats and offi-
cials or ex-officials of the American administration in Porto
PORTO RICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 351
Rico, who would like to see perpetuated the present order
of things in the Island, and perhaps some rather impulsive
members of Congress who do not hesitate to suggest the
solution of independence as the logical one, and some other
members of Congress connected with the committees in
charge of Porto Rican affairs in both Houses of Congress
who certainly are, as a rule, quite remiss in expressing any
positive views as to the future for publication, probably
because they they do not wish to commit themselves to
any particular policy at this tune, there is no intelligent
public opinion in this country upon such an important and
urgent national problem as the determination of the future
relations which ought to exist between Porto Rico and the
United States. The matter has been neglected so long that
the people of this country have come to look upon Porto
Rico as some sort of a little ward of the United States, re-
ceiving its protection and enjoying everything which Ameri-
can bounty and generosity can give away, without worrying
about anything else.
But that very attitude of the American people is very
harmful to us in more than one way. It hurts us collectively
as a people, and in our individual life as men, as Porto
Ricans, as American citizens. It hurts us in our concep-
tions of right; it hurts us in our pride, it hurts us in our
interests. In twenty years of constant activity under the
American flag, we have developed, as I said before, a long
way beyond all expectations. We have done great credit
to ourselves and to the United States. Without our col-
laboration, without our efforts, American rule in the Island
might have been perhaps very successful, owing to the great
capacity of the American people in matters of government;
but the record would not have been so brilliant, and they
would not feel so proud of it as they naturally do. There
are, however, those who persist in believing that we are
mere children, that we still need over our heads the rule of
a school master who shall constantly tell us what to do in
our local affairs; that somehow we are not as yet prepared
to take upon our own shoulders the serious responsibilities
of our own government, when as a matter of fact our rec-
ord shows that the opposite is the truth.
352 PEDRO CAP6 RODRfGUEZ
If the true test of preparation of a people for self govern-
ment is the attitude of that people towards law and order
and the estabilization of governmental things, we certainly
are better prepared than a good many so-called independent
nations and even some of the states. In Porto Rico we do
not have, we do not know, those organized subversions of
the public peace, which are so characteristic in Central Amer-
ican countries in the form of armed revolutions and insur-
rections against their governments, and so peculiar in some
of the states of the Union in the form of public lynchings,
which are manifestations of popular disrespect towards the
normal processes of law and order. In Porto Rico we do
not approve of these things. In the practical exercise of
self-government, in the measure which so far has been
granted to us, we have learned a great deal in self-restraint ;
our officials, our political parties, our leaders and our people
in general, have learned the lessons of tolerance, patience
and mutual respect. And yet you still procrastinate, until
the good work would seem to begin to spoil. The attitude
of the American people on this important problem of what
to do with Porto Rico can lead nowhere but to deep mis-
understanding, ill feeling and unrest.
I should not like to appear as giving expression to senti-
ments of antagonism and resentment, nor to foster the im-
pression that we have lost the least faith in the American
people. My purpose is merely to show that there is a se-
rious problem to deal with in Porto Rico; a problem which is
really of deep national interest, more so, perhaps, than
many others which engage their attention at this time.
That problem ought to be solved as soon as possible. The
people of Porto Rico are entitled to know and they ought
to be told, as soon as possible, what it is that they must ex-
pect, so that they may adjust their life to that expectation.
For this purpose, the people in this country should make up
then- mind and study seriously the different solutions of
this problem and choose that one which seems to them more
in harmony with their interests and the equities of the situ-
ation. There is no doubt in my mind that the acquisition
of Porto Rico from Spain was entirely justified from a
PORTO RICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 353
historical and moral point of view. But the maintenance
of the present state of things in the Island is indeed some-
thing which cannot in any way be even excused, and must
eventually hurt the cause o the United States in this
hemisphere.
Ill
In so far as our political parties in the Island are con-
cerned, they have formulated several solutions which, in a
large measure, show how hopelessly divided public opinion
is in the Island upon this important question, although, as
already suggested, their division arises .out of the uncer-
tainty of the American people upon the matter. Thus there
is a political party which has in its platform the solution of
statehood for Porto Rico. This party, which is the so-
called Republican Party, affiliated with the Republican
Party of the United States, has consistently maintained for
nearly twenty years that statehood is the only possible
solution of the problem consistent with American principles
and traditions, and with the best interests of the Island.
As a matter of principle, it would accept independence rather
than perpetual colonialism. Another political party, which
is the Independentist Party, while not professedly anti-
American, claims that the real aspiration of the Porto
Rican people is to be constituted into a free and independent
republic of their own, under a sort of a virtual protectorate
after the fashion of Cuba, with such concessions by the
Island in favor of the United States as may be deemed
necessary by the two peoples in mutual accord, and such
guarantees of independence and protection from the United
States in favor of Porto Rico as may also be deemed neces-
sary or advisable. There is lastly another party claiming
to be the party of the majority in the Island, the so-called
Unionist Party, which, while professing to stand for the
ultimate independence of Porto Rico, would prefer to make
haste slowly, and, for the time being, accept a solution of
complete self government in an administrative sense, as a
means of doing away with the present state of things.
354 PEDRO CAP 6 RODRIGUEZ
I will not undertake to examine at this time the multi-
tude of reasons which may be advanced in favor and against
each one of these several solutions proposed by the Porto
Rican parties from both a Porto Rican and an American
point of view, for although that would be perfectly within
the scope of this paper, yet as a practical proposition it
would be impossible to do so for lack of space. I will say,
however, that the acquisition of Porto Rico by the United
States as a direct result of the Spanish American War, has
given to that Island such a tremendous political importance
in the Western Hemisphere that Congress would not be
discharging its duty to the nation if it did not take advan-
tage of the opportunity which Providence has thus placed
in its hands to greatly improve the relations of this country
with Latin America. It should be realized, as soon as
possible, that the acquisition of Porto Rico is not, like the
acquisition of the Virgin Islands, of little political concern
to the Latin-American Republics. The Virgin Islands are
more or less a series of little islands and keys with a popu-
lation of about 35,000, only 3 per cent of which are whites,
the rest being negroes, with a historical background foreign
to that of the Latin- American republics. The population of
those islands scarcely could be called a people. They are,
besides, in an inferior state of civilization. Porto Rico is
different. As I have already suggested, Porto Rico has a
population of over a million and a quarter inhabitants,
more than 62 per cent of which are whites. We are one
of the peoples of Lathi America. In fact, we have na-
tional aspirations as a people distinctly Porto Rican. It
must follow, therefore, that however indifferent those re-
publics may appear to our lot, their peoples and govern-
ments are surely watching with profound interest the grad-
ual development of our relations with the United States.
In Porto Rico then, there is for this country a golden oppor-
tunity to destroy prejudices and suspicions which have
become historical, and to promote mutual confidence and
friendship, and consequently, better relations between those
republics and the United States.
PORTO RICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 355
The solutions offered by the political parties of Porto Rico
may well be taken, in my opinion, as the starting point in
the consideration of the problem, bearing however in mind
that, in so far as the Porto Rican people are concerned, re-
gardless of party politics, and save isolated cases of personal
likes and dislikes for this or that solution, they all would,
generally speaking, accept any one of those solutions which,
aside from material advantages or benefits to be derived
from each of them separately, would, no doubt, bring us
assurance of future repose and contentment, as well as
prestige and honor to the Island and its inhabitants. For
this reason I believe that solution of the problem rests
entirely with the United States. Of course a plebiscite to
ascertain the will of the Porto Rican people might not be
entirely amiss. I doubt, however, whether the political
parties might not try to make capital out of it, with the
result that even if the plebiscite was carried out in good
faith and without fraud, violence or intimidation, nothing
materially substantial might be gained by this extraordinary
and unreliable process, since it would only show what every-
body knows already, namely, that we are hopelessly divided
as to these things. I think, on the contrary, that a better
way would be to consult learned public opinion in the Island,
in so far as the self determination of the Porto Rican people
is concerned.
Personally, I believe that Porto Rico, as a whole and as
a people, is entirely fit and prepared, socially, politically
and economically, to assume and discharge the obligations
and responsibilities of a self-governing people, whether as a
state of this Union, an independent republic, or a completely
autonomous commonwealth under the sovereignty of the
United States, after the fashion of the British Dominions
but more in harmony with the republican institutions of
the United States. To my mind, the question is not there-
fore of preparation and fitness of the Porto Rican people
for the task of governing themselves under any of those
forms of government, and for this reason I would like to
see that element entirely dropped from all intelligent dis-
cussion of the subject. To continue harping on this cord is
356 PEDRO CAP6 RODRIGUEZ
merely to imitate the old and discredited methods of Spain.
That Spain .should try to make us appear as a people wholly
unprepared and incapable to manage our own affairs, is
something which can surprise no one; for such was always
the moral pretext advanced by colonizing nations for hold-
ing foreign territories and peoples under their domination
and rule, and, besides, her very sovereignty and govern-
ment in Porto Rico was really dependent on this assumption
of a lack of preparation and incapacity on the part of the
Porto Rican people. This is amply shown to be so by an
examination of the diplomatic history of the relations of
the United States with Spain in respect to Cuba as well as
Porto Rico. But with the record made by Porto Rico dur-
ing the last twenty years before our eyes, it would be idle
and rank nonsense to talk of those things.
Some say that this record made by Porto Rico in this
short period of tune is not really creditable to Porto Ricans,
but to the American officials who have been sent to the
Island to occupy the highest and most lucrative positions
in our government; but that is not so. The truth is that
some of those officials have been really inspiring to Porto
Ricans in their fervent desire to help our people in their
titanic struggle to lift themselves to their present state of
development. Those, no doubt, we honor and hold dear
in our hearts. But others, fortunately few, of those same
officials, who have been sent to occupy the highest and
most lucrative positions in our government, have been an
obnoxious hindrance and great obstacles to our develop-
ment. It is in spite of those officials that we have made the
honorable record of which we feel so proud during this last
twenty years. For them, however, we have no resentment,
but rather gratitude, for in their strange ways and behavior
they have taught us their lesson which, undoubtedly, has
made us wiser and will do us much good in the future.
IV
To approach the consideration of our subject from a
proper angle, it seems to me that we must, in the first place,
discard unjustifiable prejudices, and then examine the facts
PORTO RICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 357
in as cool and dispassionate a fashion as may be possible,
from the standpoint of right and the situations of fact as
well as of convenience for both Porto Rico and the United
States, bearing in mind that the policy that may be eventu-
ally adopted in respect to Porto Rico will be not only a
precedent which shall govern the action of the government
in the future, in the gradual development of this nation, but
will also be taken as an index by the South and Central
American Republics of the real attitude of the United States
towards them.
If the policy of the United States is of complete absorp-
tion of our people, which I seriously doubt very much, their
suspicions of continental absorption by you will be in a way
corroborated by your attitude. If, on the contrary, the
policy of this country has an undoubted tendency to recog-
nize, and to deal with us upon the recognition, that we are
a people, with a God given right to pursue our own way of
life, according to our own racial conceptions of culture and
civilization; happy, contented, unafraid, in the manage-
ment of our own government, the friends of the United
States will always point out with pride to Porto Rico as the
best proof of the real sentiments and aspirations of the
American people in our Continent. It will then be corrob-
orated by actual experience the American ideal which was
expounded at different times and under different forms by
Monroe, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Wilson, and which might
be expressed by saying that: "Every people ought to be per-
mitted to govern themselves free from foreign interference, pro-
vided they live up to the standards established by the law of
nations and the dictates of civilization.11
Now, if I may be permitted to say so, in my opinion, the
solution of statehood is not a practical solution either from
a Porto Rican or a purely American point of view. His-
torically, and as a matter of policy, the United States has
always been opposed to the incorporation into the Union
of noncontiguous territories upon an equal footing with the
States. There are those who contend that politically it
would be a mistake to incorporate a people historically and
ethnologically, as well as geographically, entirely different
358 PEDEO CAP6 RODRfGUEZ
and separate from the people of the United States; a people
having their own character, idiosyncrasies, racial tempera-
ment, mental processes and ideals, with practically no point
of contact whatever with the character, idiosyncrasies,
racial temperament, mental processes and ideals of the
American people; a people who, leaving aside the mutual
bonds of friendship and affection, is bound to the American
people by no other ties than political and commercial ones;
a people who could never be assimilated in the sense of
casting aside, as a useless garment, their own make-up, and
assume a new one identical to the American people's. There
is no question that we are of a different constitution than
the American people, and so we cannot think and feel as
they do. But all this is perhaps a mooted question, and
may turn out to be nothing but a mere prejudice, without
any real foundation. On the other hand, the power of
adaptation of our people may have a substantial bearing
upon the matter.
It is true, however, that it would not be an easy task to
crush in them all their heritage, aspirations and ideals by a
process of forced Americanization and thus make them
break entirely loose from their past, from their traditions,
from the promptings of their very nature. There is no
question that the complete Americanization of other Spanish
territories has been possible in the past only because those
territories were contiguous and practically unpeopled at
the tune of their acquisition. Porto Rico is overpopulated ;
it has a population of over one million and a quarter, or
nearly an average of 340 inhabitants to the square mile.
The American inhabitants of the Island do not exceed 3000
or 4000, and their number is constantly decreasing; so that
their influence could not bring about a complete change in
the character of the people as in some of the former Spanish
territories. But all this when rightly viewed, is not an
unsurmountable obstacle for the solution of statehood, be-
cause in New Mexico and Arizona, although there may be
found entire communities where the people still speak
nothing but the Spanish language, and live in the traditions
and customs of their race, surrounded by everything Span-
PORTO RICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 359
ish, there are no signs there that should point out to a mis-
take in the incorporation of those territories as States of
the Union.
And yet, I seriously doubt that the solution of statehood
is at all practical or desirable for Porto Rico, above all
because it seems to me that such a solution is not at heart
desired by the people of the United States, at least for the
time being, as an immediate solution of the problem to be
applied now. It would be probably expected that Porto
Rico should first pass through a probationary period of
territorial condition, and that we should keep, for an in-
definite length of time, three or four generations perhaps,
knocking at the door to be permitted to enter the Union on
an equal footing with the other states, as has been usually
the practice in the past. But this would not be really a
solution of the problem at all. Porto Rico is already pre-
pared to be a state of the Union, and if such should be the
solution given to the problem, it would have to be adopted
in a very short time, so that it could benefit the present gen-
erations who are most deserving because of their successful
efforts to bring Porto Rico to its present condition of
development and capacity for self-government. On the
other hand, the solution of statehood means a permanent
and indissoluble relation which cannot be abandoned once
it has been established between us; and therefore, if later
on, for one cause or another, likely to arise in the resulting
process of the complete absorption of our people in the
national life of the United States, this solution should turn
out to be injurious and even ruinous to us from the point
of view of our own regional life as a Porto Rican people,
there would be absolutely no means of remedying such a
situation, unless there should come about some unconceiv-
able change in the political structure of the nation. If such
a situation should arrive, it seems to me, the union between
Porto Rico and the United States would not mean greater
strength or benefit for the nation, but it would rather be
productive of weakness and detriment.
My doubts in reality do not arise from any fear whatso-
ever as to the good sense or absolute loyalty of the Porto
360 PEDRO CAP6 RODRfGUEZ
Rican people to the United States; nor that they may not
love the American flag and institutions as their own. No;
my doubts arise from the conviction I have that the spirit
of race is sure to react sooner or later against any thing which
may seem injurious or obnoxious to their self-determination
in then- progressive development as a people. I am sure in
my mind of that reaction, and fear that it might show up
when there is no effective remedy against it, after the con-
dition of Statehood should bring into real conflict our re-
gional interests with the general interests of the United
States. I do not fear anything for the present, but I do
fear for the future when our people should feel themselves
tied forever, not merely to the great destiny of this great
nation which eventually must be unavoidably ours, but
tied to all American institutions, to all American laws, to
all American practices of government, to all American turns
in the political, economical and social life of the United
States as a nation.
I am, therefore, of the opinion — and by it I do not intend
to convince nor to support or attack anybody — that all
attempts made along this line must necessarily result in
failure. To endeavor, for instance, to change the language
of Porto Ricans, to suppress what is Spanish in them, to
make them thoroughly American, in disregard of their his-
tory, temperament and peculiarities of race, in disregard of
the experience of humanity, seems to me must be condemned
as unwise and unnecessary. I do not believe that any
practical results could be attained by this solution of the
problem. To be sure, Porto Ricans are fast learning the
English language, but that is not the language of the home,
of the community at large. That is the language of con-
venience, the language people are learning as a profitable
accomplishment in their general education, and because
that language — why should I not say it? — is being largely
forced upon the people as a policy of rapid Americanization,
which I consider rather premature until the American people
shall determine what is ultimately to be done with Porto
Rico. In my opinion, the most which can be obtained in
reality is that the Porto Rican people shall become Ameri-
PORTO RICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 361
canized in the sense of having a profound love and venera-
tion for the American flag and institutions and adopt the
American point of view on questions of a national nature,
and above all that the United States can always count on
their complete loyalty, cooperation and friendship.
That is my opinion, and I express it with candor, not only
as a Porto Rican, with the authority which the study which
I have made of these things gives me to speak, but also as
an American citizen and with all the love and loyalty which
I owe to this great nation, not only because of my citizen-
ship, but also because I have here many things which are
very near to my heart, and because I wish to see this prob-
lem of what to do with Porto Rico solved in a just and sat-
isfactory manner both to my own people and to this country
where my wife and children were born.
I firmly believe that in attempting a solution to this
problem we must take into consideration many questions of
a national and international nature, which must alter or
modify not only our impressions of the moment, but also
our most cherished ideals and aspirations, if we are to
regard as paramount the highest interests of both Porto
Rico and the United States.
It is a well known fact that hi dealing with human
nature, it is better to let the processes of self-determination
shape the course of human conduct. The American people
can very well harmonize their own interests with ours, with-
out destroying our personality, without destroying us as a
people. We are more than willing, we are eager, to collab-
orate with the United States; we will serve the American
people better if they follow this course than otherwise. We
may be the point of contact of the two great races which
populate our great continent; we may be the index of a
greater and true Pan-American solidarity; we may be, as
it were, the interpreter which puts into communication and
carries intelligence between two different peoples, destroy-
ing misunderstandings and unfounded prejudices and ani-
mosities and causes of suspicion and distrust among them.
But if, in spite of these warnings of moderation and good
sense, it should be considered wise or necessary that we
362 PEDRO CAP6 RODRIGUEZ
should enter the Union as a full fledged state thereof, the
Porto Rican people are entitled to know it as soon as pos-
sible, so that they may adjust their collective and individual
life to that finality; and above all, no fear should be enter-
tained that we might reject such a decision. On the con-
trary, we shall rejoice at and feel very proud of it, because
in that manner the American people shall have bestowed
upon us a very great honor which we shall appreciate, and
then we shall try to do our best not to disappoint them in
their expectations.
On the other hand, if it should be determined not to make
us a state of the Union, nor to establish our people as an
independent government, at least for the time being, but
preferred that the American flag shall continue to wave in
Porto Rico as the symbol of the sovereignty of the United
States over the Island, leaving to future generations the
complete solution of the problem, the people of Porto Rico
should be told of it as soon as possible; and in the mean-
time we should be given the right to govern ourselves fully
and with as little interference from the United States in our
local affairs as possible. We should be given the right to
choose our own government officials, so that they may be
directly responsible to our people; and in national matters
which must affect our collective life as a people, the United
States should not impose the laws of this country upon us
as a burden; we should be given the opportunity to pass
upon those laws in their application to our Island; we should
be given a voice in the initiation and acceptance of such of
the treaties of this country as must affect us; we should
be given freedom of action, we should be given liberty, and
the opportunity to make good and grow to be a prosperous,
respected, happy and contented people, not by dictation,
but by generosity, by a noble guidance, by the sense of a
square deal, by the recognition of the self evident proposi^
tion that we are a people fully prepared to assume the
full responsibilities of our own government.
In this manner the Porto Rican people shall be able ta
await confidently and contented the final determination of
the political status of their Island, with the complete assur-
PORTO RICO AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM 363
ance that whatever that solution may be, it shall not be
inspired in selfish motives of national self aggrandizement
of the United States, in disregard of the legitimate aspira-
tions of the Porto Ricans. If this is done, the great destiny
of this great nation in our continent will be fulfilled perhaps
a century earlier.
I will not finish these remarks without stating that I
firmly believe in the great sense of justice and fairness of
the American people, and although public opinion has not
as yet crystallized in this country into any possible form of
solution of the Porto Rican problem, I have an inborn con-
viction, which I have seen corroborated in my general inter-
course with the people here, that Americans, as a rule
take a good deal of interest in Porto Rico, and wish it noth-
ing but happiness, prosperity and progressive development.
In this sense, I am sure Porto Ricans reciprocate with the
United States, and just let me say this: As a dependency,
as a piece of territorial property, as an unincorporated terri-
tory, Porto Rico has always done honor to the United
States, and whatever the ultimate solution of the Porto
Rican problem may be, the American people may rest as-
sured that Porto Rico will always love and do honor to the
United States.
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