129254
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
MEX1C0 UNDER
CAR'fcANZA
A Lawyer's Indictment of tie Crown-
ing Infamy of Four Hundred
Years of Misrule
BY
THOMAS EDWARD GIBBON
GARDEN CITY NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1919
COPYRIGHT, igip, BY
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF
TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES,
INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
DEDICATION
To THE submerged eighty per cent, of the Mexi-
can people the peons who, for four hundred
years, have been the victims of an industrial
slavery almost without parallel in history, and to
those who have been their greatest friends and
benefactors in that dark period, the heroic Ameri-
can pioneers who, at the risk, and oft-times at
the cost, of their lives, have invaded the mountains,
deserts, and jungles of Mexico to discover and
develop the hitherto unknown natural resources
of that country for the benefit of its workers and
of civilized mankind.
PREFACE
How are the people of Mexico faring under
Carranza?
What is the character of the Carranza adminis-
tration?
Are our relations with the present Mexican
Government satisfactory or otherwise?
How have Americans resident in Mexico been
treated?
What are the facts about investments of Amer-
icans and other aliens and what relation have
these investments borne to the country's economic
welfare?
How have the Carrancistas treated these invest-
ments?
What is the underlying cause of the woes that
have beset the Mexican people since they began
experimenting with self-government nearly a
century ago?
Is there a remedy for these evils any hope for
the future?
vii
viii PREFACE
In the following pages an attempt has been
made, after earnest and prolonged investigation,
to answer these questions fully, frankly, without
passion and without prejudice.
THOMAS EDWARD GIBBON.
Los Angeles, Gal.,
January, 1919.
CONTENTS
Preface vii
CHAPTER I
How the People of Mexico Have Fared Under
the Carranza R6gime 3
CHAPTER II
Character of the Carranza Revolutionary
Party Constituting the Recognized Gov-
ernment of Mexico The Relations Estab-
lished with the United States and the Rest
of the World 42
CHAPTER III
Character of Foreign Investments in Mexico.
Particularly Those of Americans Rela-
tions of These Investments to the Eco-
nomic Condition of the Country Dealings
Between Foreign Investors and the Mexi-
can Government 93
CHAPTER IV
How the Carrancistas Have Treated the In-
terests of Foreign Investors .... 147
CONTENTS
CHAPTER V
FACE
Causes of the Evils Which Have Afflicted the
Mexican People Since Their Existence as a
Self-Governing Nation Began in 1821
The Remedy 194
APPENDIX I
The General Law for the Construction of
International and Interoceanic Railways . 239
APPENDIX II
Union and Central Pacific Railroads , , 345
APPENDIX III
Revised List of American Citizens Killed in
Mexico by Armed Mexicans During the
Revolutionary Period Between December,
1910, and September i, 1916 . . . . 248
APPENDIX IV
List of 6 1 Outrages Committed in the Oil
Regions of Mexico Alone in a Period of Six
Months and Eight Days 263
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
CHAPTER I
How tie People of Mexico Have
Fared Under the Carran^a Regime
CARRANZA 'S rSgime was recognized by
the United States October 19, 1915, as
the de facto, and nearly three years later
as the de jure, government of Mexico. That is
to say, this nation on the former date gave notice
to all the world that, waiving consideration of its
legal status, the administration set up by Carranza
was in fact the government of Mexico, having the
power and the inclination to perform all the func-
tions of a government in relation to its own people
and to fulfil all international obligations. Recog-
nition as the de jure government was nothing less
than an official notification to the family of nations
that Carranza's administration was legally consti-
tuted and that it possessed both the lawful power
and the inclination to discharge its obligations
toward its own people and all the rest of the world.
Having been the recognized authority for about
four years the Carranza Administration may be
4 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
deemed to have had time to demonstrate its fitness
to govern. While Mexico has never been free
from revolutionary disturbances during this period,
and not all the national territory has acknowledged
Carranza's authority, a survey of present condi-
tions should give a fair idea of the character and
capacity of the Carrancistas and of what may be
expected of them in the future.
The Mexican people being more vitally con-
cerned than any one else their case should be con-
sidered first. To characterize their condition
in a sentence, their existence for the last four years
has been an unbroken crescendo of accumulating
woes. Carranza and his adherents have destroyed
the material prosperity of the country ; have robbed
the people to whom that prosperity was due of
hundreds of millions of dollars; have reduced
hundreds of thousands of their countrymen, once
happy and contented workers in great industrial
enterprises, to starvation; have dragged Mexico
down to a depth of degradation and misery without
a parallel even in the gloomy history of that un-
happy country.
The Carrancistas' superlative power for evil is
easily explained. Previous to the Diaz era the
Mexican people were chiefly engaged in farming
and stock raising, only to a limited extent in
mining, and hardly at all in manufacturing indus-
tries. The looting and confiscation, always a
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 5
conspicuous feature of revolutionary activities,
therefore, affected but little the daily life of the
common people because they produced all the
food they needed; and the population being very
much less than it now is, starvation, or even hun-
ger, did not often result from these frequent dis-
turbances.
The outstanding achievement of Diaz in the
thirty-four years that he guided the destinies of
the nation was a tremendous development of
public service works, such as railroads, street
railways, telephone and telegraph systems, gas
works and manufacturing industries of various
kinds, mining and smelting. The result was a
marked change in the economic life of the country.
Under the stimulus of ample employment and
wages very much higher than ever before known,
the population quite doubled during the Diaz
period, much of the increase being concentrated
in the cities which had become the centres of
industry. Instead of the great majority of the
population raising its own food, therefore, hun-
dreds of thousands of laborers were engaged in
activities that produced no food at all for them-
selves and their families. When the Carrancistas
destroyed the nation's public service and indus-
trial enterprises this great working population
was reduced to idleness; and being without re-
sources was forced to submit to starvation or
6 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
seek a precarious livelihood by joining the preda-
tory bands that scour the country.
No one ever will know how many thousands of
helpless women and children, to say nothing of
able-bodied men, actually starved to death as a
result of this almost complete stoppage of indus-
trial activity. A prominent Mexican has esti-
mated that not fewer than ten thousand persons
have starved to death in Mexico City alone in the
last four years. This is merely an informed
opinion, to be sure; but beyond any question many
thousands of these poor people have died of hunger
while yet other thousands of lives have been lost
as the result of privations and unsanitary condi-
tions directly attributable to the lawless conduct
of the dominant party. The epidemic of Spanish
influenza swept through the country last fall,
taking frightful toll because after enduring penury
and want for so long the people lacked the stamina
to resist disease.
Not satisfied with merely taking the bread out
of the mouths of so many of their countrymen, the
Carrancistas with a refinement of cruelty next
deprived them even of the meagre dole of charity.
No doubt many readers will recall the fact that
in the latter part of 1915 the American Red Cross,
which has earned the admiration of the world by
its noble work in stricken Europe, which had been
ministering to the needs of thousands of destitute
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 7
and starving Mexicans, was expelled from the
country by Carranza. This astounding deed
and its consequences are described in the Red Cross
Magazine, the official journal of the organization,
for November 15, 1915, from which the following
extracts have been taken
"At the request of General Carranza, and with
the advice of the American Department of State,
which was consistent with the request, the Ameri-
can Red Cross discontinued its relief activities in
both southern and northern Mexico October 8,
and Special Agents Charles J. O'Connor and J. C.
Weller, whose enterprise, hardihood, and efficiency
in relieving the starving populace had brought
them much praise, have been withdrawn. As it
developed, the State Department advice in
advocacy of the withdrawal of the Red Cross
representatives presaged the formal recognition of
the Carranza organization. Announcement of the
decision to recognize General Carranza and his
forces was made October gth. [The recognition
as the de facto government of Mexico is referred
to.]
"At this time, just as was the case the month
previous, many deaths were occurring daily from
starvation and the country as a whole was in a
pitiable plight, economically and industrially. It
has been devastated from end to end and so im-
poverished and demoralized that under the most
favourable conditions it would be possible only
slightly to alleviate the widely extended suffering
which will be forced upon the Mexican people dur-
8 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
ing the ensuing winter. General Carranza's as-
surance that the situation would be cared for,
therefore, has not wholly dispelled the feeling of
sincere regret on the part of the American Red
Cross over relinquishing its part of the relief work,
"It is hard, for instance, to leave a locality
where many thousands of families, mothers and
babes predominating, have been absolutely depend-
ent for sustenance upon small portions of nourish-
ing vegetable soup which we had daily distributed.
Half-famished mothers with skeleton babies at their
breasts have besought the Red Cross agents, in the
name of all that is holy, to do something for their
little ones to save them if they could not save the
mothers and there have been many formerly
well-todo persons, not of the peon class, who have
been among the pitiful petitioners for Red Cross
aid.
" In Mexico City alone, under the very compe-
tent direction of Mr, O'Connor, a chain of free
soup stations was operated for over a month and
26,000 families were supplied daily at the height of
the distribution. WToole families were rescued from
the necessity of trying to stomach the putrefied flesh of
domestic animals found in the streets of Mexico City.
Peon families could desist for a short time from
picking up morsels of waste food from the rubbish
heaps. They could leave off the rdle of human car-
rion crews amid the offal of the slaughter-houses.
"Thousands of families in Monterey, Monclova
and Saltillo were given a little respite from a diet of
prickly or cactus pears, mesquite beans and other
wild products of northern Mexico prairies, where
Special Agent Weller, like Mr. O'Connor, endeared
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 9
himself to the civilians and took many personal
risks in their behalf."
In a report from a Red Cross Agent on file in the
State Department at Washington appears the fol-
lowing:
" In conclusion, I only regret that some of our
higher-up government officials could not have
been with me to see the brand of individuals that
are now in control of the situation in Mexico. They
do not represent any of the good element in Mexico.
They are lawless and have no more idea of patriot-
ism than a yellow dog. They are mentally incap-
able of handling the situation. General Elisondo,
in command at Monclova and also in command of
a district larger than Massachusetts, is a boy of
twenty-four years, uneducated and absolutely ir-
responsible. General Zuazua, formerly classed as
a saloon bum around Eagle Pass, a Lieutenant-
Colonel in command of a territory as big as Rhode
Island, was sent to the Mexican army some fifteen
years ago, having been arrested for stealing horses
and cattle. These are not the exceptions but the
rule of the character of the men who now dominate
one of the largest states in northern Mexico.
"This fact is largely due to Carranza, who has
allowed them to do as they please and they have
no respect whatever for him, each man ruling his
district as he sees fit.
" I do not find any difference between the Car-
ranza faction and the Villa faction, with the excep-
tion that Pancho Villa seems to have a better con-
trol of his men. * * *
io MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
" Having been in personal contact with both fac-
tions, I believe that it would be a crime to turn
loose this some 200,000 bandits, thieves, and
scapegoats on the country. They are rotten with
disease and have been divorced from all ideas of
ever working again."
It is well to bear in mind fbat the authors of the
foregoing statements bave no financial interest in
Mexico. They were made "by tie representatives of
the Red Cross, whom Carran^a "banished because be
did not wish tbe world to know tbrougb tbem tbe
desperate condition to wbicb be bad brougbt Us
country.
In a speech made in the Senate of the United
.States June 2, 1916, Senator Fall, of New Mexico,
stated that records on file in the Department of
State showed that, at the very time when our
Red Cross was feeding 26,000 families a day in
Mexico City, the capital of the nation,
"Venustiano Carranza himself, or through ad-
herents, shipped 37,000 tons of food stuffs through
the port of Vera Cruz alone and got the golden
dollars for it and put them in his pocket.
" I myself saw three carloads of potatoes, the last
shipped out from the Guerrero District by Mexican
officials and sold at El Paso, Texas, to put gold
into their own pockets, while the people who
raised these potatoes were living on roots or dying
of starvation. If our Government, does not know
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA u
these conditions, it is because its officials will shut
their eyes and their ears."
This statement has never been challenged and
it is so much of a part with other things that have
been done by the Carranza party as to be entirely
worthy of belief.
That the terrible condition of the masses of
Mexicans depicted in the reports of Red Cross
officials, quoted, still continues is shown by an
article published in the New York Sun January
29, 19 1 8. The article is introduced by a statement
from the Editor of the Sun which says :
"In view of the many conflicting reports that
have come out of Mexico since, the United States
declared war on Germany, the Sun sent a trained
investigator into Mexico from Vera Cruz. His
instructions were to be impartial and unbiased in
his views and to depict the situation exactly as it
is."
In the article in question the investigator of the
Sun says:
"Mexico City is full of starving Indians, insuffi-
ciently clad and with no shelter to protect them-
selves at night to escape the icy winds that sweep
down from the encircled snow-clad mountains when
the sun goes down. They huddle together for
warmth on recessed doorsteps, passing the bitter
night in a physical state that must somewhat ap-
12 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
proach that of the hibernating bear, and in the
morning they crawl into a sunny ^lace and slowly
thaw into life again, when they get up and resume
: their pathetic quest for food. They mutely appeal
with outstretched hands and wistful eyes to the
passer-by, and there are legions of them/'
These conditions exist at the present time, A
gentleman who had been in business in Mexico
for some ten years prior to the beginning of the
Carranza regime, who had travelled much through-
out the country, returned there late last fall, to
ascertain what present conditions were. He
visited Mexico City and other points. I know
this gentleman well, and can, therefore, vouch
for his high character, and reliability. This is
the substance of what he told me:
" I spent several weeks in October and Novem-
ber, 1918, in and around Mexico City, a locality
I have known intimately for years. One evening
I took a walk for the purpose of seeing what condi-
tions were among the poor. I am sure that on that
walk I saw at least three thousand miserable per-
sons crouching in recessed doorways and other
places that offered some slight protection from the
wind. They were lying as close together as they
could get, often with a dog in the centre of the pile
to contribute the warmth of its body. They were
men, women, and children. Most of the latter
were naked, though a few had a ragged, dirty rem-
nant of a .coat or pair of trousers or, perhaps,
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 13
merely a piece of dirty cloth. The older persons
were dressed in rags. In all the years I have
known Mexico City I had never before seen such a
sight. f
"While in the city I met a Mexican gentleman
who owned a large hacienda in the state of Guana-
juato. He told me that in order to provide some
employment for the people on his estate to keep
them from starving he decided to have an improve-
ment made which would keep a couple of hundred
men, which was all the unemployed there were on
the place, busy for some time. The news spread
quickly that work was to be had on the hacienda,
which was promptly stormed by an army of idle and
hungry men. Not fewer than seven thousand men
applied for work on a job that was only meant as a
makeshift to provide bread for two hundred.
Some of these applicants were so reduced by priva-
tion and want that they died on the ranch, having
used their last remaining strength to reach what
they hoped was a chance to work/'
It should be borne in mind that these wretched
creatures represent the " people " of Mexico; the
peon population whose support the Carranza
leaders sought and secured by promises to make
conditions of life easier for them than they ever
had been under former governments.
Some time ago newspapers in Mexico City an-
nounced that a small revolution had been started
by the farmers in the State of Michoacan because
the commanders of Carranza troops had confis-
i 4 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
cated the food the farmers had raised, and had
sold it. This very thing has been done in numer-
ous instances throughout Mexico by the repre-
sentatives of the Carranza Government as was
stated by Mr. Cabrera in a newspaper article
quoted in another chapter.
It would be surprising if the members of the
Carranza Government, who have shown such dis-
honesty in their dealing with private possessions,
should refrain from exhibiting the same spirit in
dealing with public property. That they have
observed no such restraint is shown by many in-
stances of the dishonesty of public officials that
have come to light.
On October 25, 1917, an editorial appeared in
El Universal, the leading daily of Mexico City,
which said in part:
"The transcendental depth of the bad railway
communications with the consequent uncertainty
of transport of passengers and merchandise con-
tinues to be one of the gravest problems to settle.
Every little while assaults and blowings up of
freight trains occur. The scarcity of rolling stock
continues and more than anything else, the im-
moral exploitation of the railways by employees
and military chiefs continues. The most important
route which connects our first port with the capital
of the republic, the route by which the greater
part of our exportation leaves and through which
almost all imported products from Europe come, is
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 15
the least safe right now. By what perfected tele-
pathy, or by what arts of marvellous intuition, do
bombs explode exactly under the trains filled
with the richest and most abundant of high-priced
goods?
"These distressing reflections come up again to
our mind when we remember the strange circum-
stances of the destruction of the freight train
blown up a short time ago near Atoyac. The loco-
motive was drawing a car of paper belonging to
this newspaper; another, the property of the Na-
tional Paper Company; a car full of condensed
milk; others with valuable cloths, etc. It appears
there was not a single death in the derailment and
from data received up to now, it is known that the
rebels got little or no result from their attack. We
know very little about the fortune of the freight
which came in this train consigned to various busi-
ness houses of this capital. As to our 1 15 rolls of
paper, we have been informed that they were trans-
ported almost intact to the city of Vera Cruz by a
secondary military authority and sold there to mer-
chants without conscience who bought them, .
knowing the crime they were committing. We
have proof, for our special representative was
present at the investigation ordered by the
Governor of Vera Cruz, that the responsibility
is all upon the military . authorities of the
port.
" If the public peace requires it, it is well that
individual guarantees be suspended in all the
country; but, if the military authorities are going
to have full power, what will proprietors, merchants,
industrial people do when their goods and sup-
16 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
plies are improperly sequestered? May a Major
Chief of tie Line, or a General Chief of Garrison,
dispose of private property without tie owner laving
tie right to protest?"
It will be noted that the editor who thus com-
plains of having been robbed by the military au-
thorities at Vera Cruz of his 1 1 5 rolls of paper does
not say that he recovered his property or that
any one was punished for the theft.
I have a friend who, for many years before the
Carranza party came into power, was engaged in
a business enterprise in the City of Mexico for
which he imported supplies in carload lots through
Vera Cruz. The business which he conducted was
one of considerable advantage to the city and to
the Mexican people.
Some time ago I met this friend in this country
where he is now making his home. He said, and
his high character guarantees the truthfulness of
his statement, that shortly after the Carranza
party secured control of the line of railway be-
tween Vera Cruz and the City of Mexico, he was
required by the management to pay $300 per car,
in addition to the regular freight rate, before he
could secure delivery of his freight. After his
cars started from Vera Cruz they would disappear
somewhere on the line and, before he could get
them delivered, he would be forced to pay the
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 17
bribe demanded by the operating force of the
railway. The amount of bribe money per car
increased until at last he was met withf the de-
mand for $1,600 in order to secure* delivery of a
car of freight. This he paid and then closed up
his business and left the country, as he found it
impossible to continue under such exactions.
El Excelsior, a daily newspaper published in
Mexico City, in its issue of November 28, 1917,
contained the following:
" Under the pretext of modifying the law of
organization of departments of government,
Deputy Reynoso began yesterday in the Cham-
ber of Deputies a sensational debate, brilliantly
ended by Sanchez Ponton, on the economic man-
agement of the railways. According to these and
other orators, the railway officials have made their
hay to the damage of the public, of the nation, and
of the credit which we used to have in foreign parts.
The orator referred to the deal for the sale of waste
material made a short time ago and says that he
can prove that two-thirds of the iron and steel
sold was new and perfect. Furthermore, he reads
a statement of from January to June, 1917, accord-
ing to which there were 238 railway accidents due
to negligence of the employees and the neglect of
old track repairment by Pescador, Director General
of Railways.
"The Secretary read documents to prove that
baggage and other railway matters are controlled
by a brother-in-law of Pescador from which damage
and delays of passengers result. * * *
i8 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
"Sanchez Ponton read the contract made be-
tween Pescador and the Senator General Nafaratte
for the sale of so-called waste material at $10 per
ton and observes that the business was so, good for
the purchasers that the same Senator Nafarette
ceded his rights for four pesos per ton and that the
two gentlemen who figured as accomplices in the
operation did the same thing.
''He continues making charges against certain
other people on account of divers contracts as bad
as that just cited and especially refers to one in
which 70 pesos per ton was paid for steel belonging
to the national railways/' '
El Universal of the same date, in its account of
the proceedings in the Mexican Congress, contains
the following:
"Among other charges by Deputy Reynoso
made against Pescador, the worst is relating to a
sale of a great lot of so-called old iron at $10 per
ton when he states the fact is that three-fourths of
this iron was new iron and that in it were 180
wheels and axles from Monterey." * * *
" Deputy Ponton read a copy of a contract made
between Senator General Nafaratte and Messrs.
Salazar and Maples, by means of which the first
of said gentlemen transferred his rights to the
second in a purchase made from the constitutional-
ist railways of 20,000 tons of old iron at $10 per ton.
Nafaratte charged 4 pesos for each ton as a profit in
the transfer. Later Ponton read a copy of the
Certificate of Incorporation of the company organ-
ized by a brother of the railway auditor, the first
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 19
assistant to the director and the treasurer of the
company, a company dedicated, as the confession
in its circulars states, for the purpose of furnishing
freight cars to those who need them.
"He also cited a deal for the sale of rails at 70
pesos per ton when they cannot at present be pur-
chased at 140 pesos and said that payments were
not received in money but in very bad and very
costly ties.
" He also states that when metallic money began
to circulate again, the great majority of railway
employees were paid a determined amount in notes
for a stated period; certain persons bought these
notes at a discount of 25, 50, 60, and even 75 per cent,
and when almost all of the notes had been cornered,
the order was given to pay them, from which an
enormous amount of money was made."
We thus see that General Nafaratte, one of the
most prominent members of the Carranza ad-
ministration, in a deal made for government prop-
erty, secured a profit amounting to 4 pesos per ton
on 20,000 tons of iron by merely permitting his
name to be used, and that it was freely charged in
the Mexican Congress that the poor employees of
the national railways had been speculated upQn
to a shameful extent in the payment of their wages
by the government.
It is commonly said in Mexico that the Villa
and Zapata forces operating against Carranza
secure their ammunition, and sometimes their
20 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
arms, by purchase from the commanders of the
Carranza troops. On November 2, 1917, El
Universal contained the following from a corres-
pondent at Puebla under date of October 31 :
"The Chief of the military operations in the
state has decided to open proceedings against the
chiefs of forces in charge of the garrisons near the
zone not yet controlled by the government, who are
accused of the very grave crime of being in con-
nivance with the enemy to whom they furnish
war supplies in exchange for articles easily sold
which the Zapatistas introduce to the regions in
which they operate.
"The accusations made to the superior military
authorities were made by members of the Mexican
brigade ' Hidalgo/ which was under the orders of
General Segura and which now is converted into a
regiment. Officers and troops of said corps in-
formed General Villasenor that Col. Patrinos and
Lieutenant Colonel Torres, chiefs of forces operat-
ing in the Atlixco District, had established a crim-
inal trade with the Zapatistas marauding around
said city; the Jrade consisting in the interchange
of hides and copper, products of Zapata raids, for
ammunition and other war supplies which the
supreme government puts into the hands of the
army for the defense of our institutions/'
In its issue of June 5, 1918, El Excelsior pub-
lished the following news Item:
" In round numbers the amount stolen from the
Federal Treasury by paymasters now consigned to
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 21
the authorities is close to 600,000 pesos. There
are 37 cases before the District Court of the Capi-
tal. The amount for which the paymasters on
trial appear to be responsible is the sum before
mentioned, or, to be absolutely exact, 585,000
pesos. In addition there are other cases before the
Circuit Court, the Supreme Court of Justice and the
District Courts of the states. From the data at
hand, a moderate estimate of the sum involved in
these cases would be 400,000 pesos. However, we
lack the exact data to give a detailed account of
these cases.
"With regard to the cases pending before the
four District Courts of Mexico, two proprietory
and two supplementary, we have the following
information." * * *
The paper then proceeds to give the names of
the thirty-seven defaulting army paymasters
referred to with the amount which each is accused
of having stolen. The list is too long for publica-
tion here, but it may be stated that the amounts
run from 500 pesos to 180,000 pesos.
The foregoing instances of grafting are merely
illustrative of the scope and extent of the public
robbery perpetrated by the members of the Ca-
rranza government.
The United States Bureau of Statistics of the
Department of Commerce and Labor shows the
total revenue and expenditures of the National
Government of Mexico for the fiscal year 1909-
22 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
1910, the last year of the Diaz r6gime, in United
States dollars as follows:
Revenue $52,952,000
Expenditures 47,324,000
Out of this payment was made of the interest
on the national debt and on railroad bonds; the
national railroads were kept in excellent physical
condition, and all obligations of the government
were met.
It is also of interest to note that during the last
fifteen years of the Diaz regime, there was a sur-
plus of national revenue amounting to $73, 500,999,
of which $36,500,000 was devoted to public works,
the remainder of $37,060,000 being used to form
a part of the available cash holdings of the National
Treasury which existed when Diaz went out of
power. The same statistical authority shows
the national revenues and expenditures of the
Carranza government during the fiscal year 1914-
1915 to have been (in U. S. dollars):
Revenue $72,687,000
Expenditures 75 ,798,000
It may be well to call attention specifically right
here to the fact, although it is made plain in these
pages, that this increase of twenty million dollars
in the revenues as compared with the Diaz regime
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 23
does not indicate a healthy growth in commerce
and industry, but quite the reverse. The national
revenues are raised chiefly by confiscation rather
than by a just tax on prosperous business. Fur-
thermore, it must be noted that the national ex-
penditures do not include a cent for the payment
of interest or principal of the national debt. They
could not have included any considerable sum for
the maintenance of the railways for the reason
that since the Carranza administration began
operating them there has been a constant deteriora-
tion of rolling stock and permanent way until
to-day there are barely enough engines and cars
remaining in use to operate intermittently the
most important two lines. Large mining and
commercial interests are compelled to furnish their
own rolling stock in order to secure service.
It will be noted in the following table that
120,755,631 pesos, or nearly two-thirds of the
budget, is assigned to the Department of War
and Marine, which, of course, means almost en-
tirely to the army. There is no provision made
for the payment of interest on the public debt
and nothing for education beyond an item as-
signed to the "Bureau of University and Fine
Arts"; nothing for the education of the common
people who had been promised such liberal educa-
tional advantages by the Carranza party before it
came into power.
24 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
The Federal appropriations passed by the
Mexican Congress for 1918 were as follows:
PESOS
Legislative Power 2,967,858.75
Executive Power 1,064,577.20
Judicial Power 1,552,258.00
Department of Government . . 1,280,428. 50
Department of Foreign Affairs . 3*362,591 . 50
Department of Finance and Pub-
lic Credit 20,213,094.40
Department of War and Marine. 120,755,63 1 .65
Department of Agriculture and
Fomento 7,005,683.00
Department of Communication
and Public Works . . . 21,382,229.65
Department of Industry and
Commerce 2,831,384.00
Bureau of University and Fine
Arts 2,269,301.00
Bureau of Public Health . . . 1,898,396. 50
Office of Attorney General of the
Nation 549,888.50
TOTAL 187,133,322.65
In a statement published in the Washington
Star, October 31, 1917, from a person described as
Charles A. Douglas, "Counsellor in the United
States for the Mexican Government, who returned
to Washington this week after a month's stay in
Mexico/' the following appears:
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 25
"Order is being slowly but surely restored.
Barring exceptional train robberies and small sore
spots in, the states of Morales and Durango, condi-
' tions are approaching normal everywhere. * * *
"The recently and intelligently revised system
of education is in full operation from the common
free schools all over the Republic to the National
University at the capital. * * *
"The work of railroad rehabilitation is illumi-
natingr More than 12,000 freight cars and loco-
motives were destroyed down to their steel frames
during the Revolution. They are now running at
full blast eight or ten workshops located in various
. sections of the Republic, giving work to 11,000
employees and the cars are being rebuilt wholly
at home at the rate of 4,000 per annum."
Compare the foregoing with the following from
a report of the debate in the Mexican Chamber of
Deputies on the suspension of constitutional
guaranties published in El Universal of Mexico
City, October 17, 1917, at which time Mr. Douglas
must have been in the Mexican capital, according
to the Washington Star, in which Luis Cabrera,
who at that time was second in importance in the
Carranza administration, is quoted as saying:
"To commence a review of the determining
factors of this present situation I must at once
refer to our delicate economic situation. And I
put it in the first place because we all know that in
politics success comes with money and there can be
26 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
no success without money. * * * We have de-
stroyed the banks because they opposed the revo-
lution but now shall we say 'We are done; give us
your bills again? ' No ; we will not do it. We have
destroyed the railways because it was necessary
to do it to combat the military enemy. Very
well; now what we have to do is to repair the
railways so that the blood of prosperity of the
country may begin to circulate again over them,
for without ways of communication we can do
absolutely nothing. * * * Our political obli-
gation toward attacks on train and highway
robbery is to study them to see if they are inde-
pendent or if there is some cause which unites
them. * * * Does the army exist? Yes. Does
[the Villa movement exist? Yes, it exists and it
must be extirpated ruthlessly. Does the Zapata
movement exist? Yes, the Zapata movement
covers exactly the large grant which Charles V as-
signed to Marquis Del Valle: Morelos, Puebla,
Tlaxcala, Oaxaca and Chiapas."
The places named by Mr. Cabrera as the locale
of the Zapata movement are five Mexican states.
His statement harmonizes with other facts adduced
in this chapter, all tending to show the existence
of a condition very far from that described in the
Washington Star article.
Regarding the "recently and intelligently re-
vised system of education/' which according to
the Counsellor for the Mexican Government, "is in
full operation, from the common free schools all
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 27
over the Republic to the National University at
the capital/' the following excerpt from El Ex-
celsior, of Mexico City, for December 21, 1918,
will be found illuminating:
"One hundred and sixteen thousand three hun-
dred eleven children of school age in the Federal
District are receiving no instruction at all. This
figure, which is all the more significant and dis-
couraging in that it relates to a section which is
usually considered the most cultured of the Re-
public, has been taken from the statistical data
just published by the Bureau of Education.
"The present census gives the Federal District
a population of approximately 1,000,000 inhabi-
tants. Applying the generally accepted rule
which gives 20 per cent, of the total population to
children of school age, there should be 200,000
such children in the Federal District.
"The school census taken at the opening of the
present year which was unquestionably deficient
in several respects shows an enrolment of 89,689
children, thus leaving 1 16,31 1 children who are re-
ceiving no instruction at all. These figures, which
offer much food for thought, bring out strikingly
the backwardness of education as compared with
former years.
"In 1910, when the population of the Federal
District according to the census of that year, was
720,752, the school enrolment was 86,896, a dif-
ference of less than 3,000, with a population of
300,000 less than in the present year.
"But even more recent years have shown a
28 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
larger school attendance than for the year just
closed. Thus, in 1917 the attendance reached
104,038, that is to say, 21,000 more pupils than
there are to-day.
" If we turn now to the number of schools, here
again we find a remarkable difference. In 1910,
the following schools were open: Grade Schools
332; Higher Grade Schools 40; Night Schools
(Extension Schools) 42; Kindergarten 5 total 419.
"During the year just closed the following
schools were open: Grade Schools 270; Higher
Grade Schools 60; Night Schools (Extension
Schools) 42; Kindergartens 1 1 total 382.
" It will be seen, therefore, that to-day with a
larger population the Federal District has 36 less - V
schools than it had in 1910.
"The number of teachers assigned to the 382
schools that were open during the past year was
1980, of whom 826 were Normal School graduates,
335 certified teachers, and 819 were without any
certificate at all.
"The budget for last year, which covered the
Federal District, and the territories of lower
California, Tepic, and Quintana Roo, assigned
13,000,000 pesos to educational purposes. The
budget for 1919, covering only the Federal Dis-
trict, carries only 5,500,000, distributed as follows:
For the City of Mexico 2,971,634; for the munici-
palities exclusive of the city, 955,455; for the
Bureau, 1,817,385."
One of the gravest charges brought by the
Carranza revolutionists against their predecessors
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 29
and most strongly insisted upon, was that proper
provision had not been made for the education
of the masses of the Mexican people. The
Carrancistas pledged themselves to afford ample
facilities for popular education, as the most im-
portant of the reforms which they were to institute.
Notwithstanding this, we find that, although the
population of the capital city of Mexico has in-
creased nearly 50 per cent, since 1910, the last
year of the Diaz administration, there is to-day
in the Federal District containing the City of
Mexico, 37 fewer schools than existed in 1910.
Furthermore, while the Carranza budget for last
year for education in the federal district and ter-
ritories was 1 3,000,000 pesos, the national budget
for education for 1919 carried only 5,500,000
pesos. This, of course, means that the public
revenues are being so fully absorbed by the graft-
ing officers of the army which keeps Carranza in
power, that little is left for popular education.
The failure of the Carranza regime to live up to
its promises is emphasized by the fact that its
declared annual income is 46,000,000 pesos larger
than was that of the Diaz administration.
Propaganda publications maintained in Wash-
ington by the Carranza government assure the
public in almost every number that peaceful con-
ditions throughout all the territory of Mexico are
nearly or quite restored. Notwithstanding all
3 o MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
this it appears that nearly two-thirds of the
national appropriation for the year 1918 has been
devoted to maintaining the military power.
To all who understand conditions in Mexico,
this means that the heads of the army are being
bribed, at the cost of the public, to maintain the
Carranza element in power, and that the leaders of
that party are prepared to sacrifice the country
and its people in every way so long as they may
retain the reins.
While the Carranza government is devoting
nearly two-thirds of the national revenue to the
army, recent reports show how the mass of the
people are faring and what is being done for their
benefit. An American business man of high
character who had just returned from a trip
through Mexico for the purpose of deciding whether
it was possible to reopen an important public-
service undertaking in the City of Mexico which
had necessarily been discontinued shortly after
the Carranza forces took possession of that city,
writing under date of March 21, 1918, reported
the following among other things:
"Our train left Laredo, Mexico, on time, Febru-
ary 17, and the trip was very pleasant from there
until we reached San Luis, from which point it was
necessary that we be accompanied by an armoured
train and on asking the reason -for this we were
informed that the country thereabouts was in-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 31
fested with bandits, so much so that it was unsafe
to travel save in this way. An armoured car was
attached to the rear of the Pullman. In this way
we got through without any mishap. The train
that went to the city the day previous was de-
tained for five hours while the bandits were being
driven into the hills.
"As you know, the national railways of Mexico
pass through a very rich agricultural section of the
republic and this is the season of the year when the
ranchers should be busy planting their crops. On
the entire trip we did not see a single man in the
fields getting ready for spring planting and saw that
very little fall wheat had been sown. The crop this
year from that section of the Republic will be very
small. In addition to the above we did not see
more than one hundred head of cattle grazing on
the entire trip.
" During the first day in the city we were sur-
prised by the number of people on the streets and
were told that the city and its suburbs now had a
population of one million people, and that the cities
of Vera Cruz and Guadalajara had populations of
sixty-five and one hundred and fifty thousand
people, respectively. This condition is brought
about by the fact that it is not safe for them to live
out in the country and work their farms. This
great influx of people has caused rents and food-
stuffs to increase in price, or as it was expressed,
there is a large consumption here and no produc-
tion.
"The railroads of the country are all in control
of the government. The trains that run to Laredo
and Vera Cruz are being run, and will be run, at all
32 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
hazards to the extent of the Carranza control.
Trains to Laredo run every day and those to Vera
Cruz run about five days each week. This ir-
regularity is due to rebel activities in the vicinity
of Ometusco.
"The train equipment on these two roads is
kept in good shape due to the fact that all of the
equipment of the railroads of the Republic is con-
centrated on the two lines. Up to the present
time, when the equipment was getting to be in bad
shape, the government would confiscate another
railroad and replenish, but now they have taken
over their last road and the source of supply will
soon be exhausted. To show how the railroad
equipment has deteriorated, let us state the fol-
lowing facts:
"The Mexican railroad had in its service 100
engines. After nine months' operation by the
government of Mexico, there are only 30 of these
engines that are fit for service. Of the equip-
ment of nationally owned lines, at least ninety
per cent, is in the yards along the lines. Aguasca-
lientes yard has 288 broken-down engines, San
Luis 231, and all the other small yards are fuIL
Steel for the repairing of the tracks is being se-
cured from the old Central Railroad of Mexico.
"The Mexico City of to-day is not the Mexico
City of six years ago. At that time, the people
looked better, the streets were cleaner, the pave-
ments were in good condition, the foreigners were
all busy and provided employment for all the
Mexican people who wanted to work. Their
homes were kept up in good shape and showed
evidences of prosperity ajad wealth. None of this
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 33
exists now; just the reverse, and it is plain to the
casual observer that the present state of affairs can
easily be traced to the inefficiency of the several
parties which have ruled the country during the
elapsed time.
"Not a single one of the several rebel chiefs, who
have been in power, can be said to represent the
wishes of the Mexican people. They do represent
a small faction and all of the laws made and ei>-
forced in that time have been for the benefit of the
officials and their friends and not for the people.
"The present officials are taxing the people
much above the taxes of former years. They are
collecting more money but they are not paying
their employees. School teachers in the City of
Mexico have not been paid for months. Clerks
in the employ of the government are receiving half
pay. But they do not fail to pay the excessive
salaries of the generals and a few subordinates
who are so much in evidence in the streets, riding
around in high-priced automobiles.
"The generals and their subordinates in Mexico
City are the only government employees who are
receiving full pay. This pay is increased by graft
secured on army business, so that thousands of
dollars are expended by each one in the purchase
of automobiles and the entertainment of disreput-
able characters. This was so marked that a history
of the subject was published in El Universal, which
antagonized the army officials to such an extent
that the editor of this paper was thrown into jail
where he was kept for more than a month. Need-
less to say, the article did not have the desired
effect as the dissipation increased rather than
34 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
creased. If such a thing is possible, it is getting
worse every day."
Another description of conditions up to the
end of June, 1918, is furnished by a gentleman whc
had resided in Mexico City during all of the revolu-
tionary period until the latter part of last June,
He is a newspaper man of experience, a trained
observer, familiar by years of life in Mexico with
the people of the country and the conditions which
prevail. His character is so high that I am con-
vinced that he is entitled to the fullest credence.
He says:
"According to newspapers, entirely friendly to
the Carranza administration, literally thousands
of government employees have been dismissed, in-
cluding not only clerks in the government depart-
ments but school teachers and railway men as the
railways of the country are being operated by the
government. Even entire government bureaus
have been abolished. There is retrenchment
everywhere along the line except in one depart-
ment of the government the military establish-
ment. The significance of this fact is not to be
overlooked.
"In El Universal, a Mexico City newspaper
now owned by prominent officials of the Mexican
Government and entirely friendly to Carranza, a
good bird's-eye view of the situation in Mexico
is given in an editorial published June 5, 1918*
The editorial seeks to remonstrate with certain rail-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 3
road employees for protesting against a govern-
ment order that their wages should be paid 75
per cent, in cash and the remainder in government
promises to pay to be redeemed in actual cash
'when there is an improvement in the economic
circumstances that prevail at present/ The editor
says:
'"The argument [of the employees] is based on
a falsehood, namely, that the weight of this policy
of economy will fall solely on the working men of
the Mexican Railway. The truth is that the
weight of this policy of economy has been felt for
some time past by social classes just as important as
the Mexican Railway workmen. The facts are
much too recent to call for repetition. Who is
ignorant of the fact that many government bur-
eaus have been closed because of the policy of econ-
omy? Thousands of school teachers have "been dis-
missed; thousands of government employees have
been discharged, even in the railways, the reduc-
tion of the personnel cannot be called slight.
"'Did not the newspapers of yesterday or the day
before state that nine hundred railway men, who had
been dismissed from their jobs, were going to the
United States? 9
"There is great suffering among the lower classes
from lack of food and the pangs of hunger are not
unknown among the middle classes. Beggars,
always numerous in Mexico, have multiplied ten-
fold. In Mexico City, beggars are constantly at
the entrances of all the restaurants of any size and
persons going in and out are importuned for char-
ity. Waiters have to keep constantly on the alert
to prevent beggars in their filthy rags from entering
36 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
the restaurants and legging bits of food from persons
dining at the tables. In the central streets of the
capital at night, it is a common sight to see doorways
heaped with boys and girls of tender age, sleeping
huddled together for warmth, often with a dog or two
in the pile.
"Excessive prices of corn and beans make it
almost impossible for the poorer classes to use
them and the middle classes, whose wages have
been only slightly increased, if increased at all, are
in even greater straits as they have to maintain an
appearance of respectability.
"As a class, perhaps, there has been no greater
suffering than among the school teachers. In
some of the states, there were instances where the
teachers in the public schools had not been paid for
four or five months. In Mexico City even, it was
frequently the case that their pay was a month or
more in arrears.
"Under the Mexican system, they should receive
their pay every ten days, there being three pay days
to the month. Due to the characteristic Mexican
custom of living from day to day, the passing of
even one pay day was a serious matter, causing
suffering and with the pay constantly in arrears,
teachers, as a class, were almost always in a state
of not knowing where their next meal was to come
from.
" I was told by a former Mexican public school
teacher, who is now working in a private institu-
tion, that she frequently met her old friends on the
street and that their constant story was that of
suffering and want She said that at first she hesi-
tated to offer them money but having made the
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 37
experiment once, she never hesitated again. She
said that the offer of a peso or a half peso "brought
tears of gratitude to the eyes of the recipient and often
a confession of not having tasted food for twenty-four ,..
tours or longer. These were teachers coming from
the respectable middle class, and even in some cases,
from former wealthy families of the upper classes,
and only extreme necessity would have brought them
to the point of accepting alms.
" In the state of Zacatecas months passed with-
out the school teachers being paid and during the
teachers* convention at the state capital, for the
purpose of registering a general protest, statements
were made that teachers lad pawned all their furni-
ture and other 'household goods, and in many cases,
actually were on the verge of starvation. One man
teacher stated that he had just lost a child because
he could not by any possible means obtain money
to buy certain foods which the attending physician
had declared were necessary to save the child's life.
"In the states and in the capital teachers of
many years' experience have abandoned their
positions and sought other means of making a
living, often being forced into menial employ-
ment.
" In travelling from Mexico City to the Ameri-
can border one cannot fail to be impressed with
the number of beggars at the stations as the train
proceeds through the central Mexican states and,
with the added fact that, as the American border is
approached, the beggars are less numerous and
finally disappear altogether,
"A typical condition is described in the following
note from the San Luis Potosi correspondent of
38 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
El Excelsior, one of the leading Mexico City news-
papers:
'"San Luis Potosi, June 2 A great affluence of
beggars has been noted in different parts of the
city for some days past, especially in the paseos and
central streets. Passers-by are literally assaulted
by these beggars sometimes there are entire
families of them who appeal to the charity of
the public. The sights presented by these persons,
in addition to being repugnant, are highly im-
moral, as many of them, including men, women, and
children, exhibit themselves in the public highways
in a condition which lacks hut little of complete naked-
ness, often a serious danger to the public health on ac-
count of the filthy condition of the rags which hut
half cover them. 9
"The Mexican army is Carranza's salvation and
at the same time is his greatest danger. Estimates
as to the actual force sunder arms vary from fifty
to seventy-five thousand, the observer stating that
the pay rolls probably show double the number
given in their estimates. This army is the biggest
drain on the Carranza treasury; it is keeping the
federal government in a state of bankruptcy, and
yet so widely spread are revolutionary activities
in Mexico that the maintenance of such a force is
necessary.
"The Carranza income is larger than that of the
Diaz government and could he reduce army graft
even fifty per cent, his problem of making the in-
come meet disbursements would be comparatively
easy.
"On June 18, 1918, El Universal published the
following:
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 39
"'We were informed yesterday from an author-
ized source that in the new budget the federal
government is preparing, the salaries assigned to
government employees will be seventy-five per
cent, of that they now receive: At present seventy-
five per cent, of the salary is being paid in cash and
twenty-five per cent, in bonds but, in the new
budget, the salary basis will be seventy-five per
cent, of that now in effect/
" It is virtually impossible for Carranza to stop
graft and keep a loyal army. This is more espe-
cially the case when one remembers that some of the
leading generals with the most important com-
mands in the country are earning very modest
salaries and living at the proverbial clip of Pitts-
burgh millionaires despite the fact that they had no
private fortunes before joining the Carranza move-
ment/'
The criminal waste of public funds by public
officials in Mexico City at the present time is
mentioned in the article from the New York Sun,
previously referred to, in the following language:
"Mexico City wears an awful aspect and the
awfulness is accentuated by the contrast between
the dark, filthy patios, in which the starving peons
huddle and the palaces built by ibe 'Cientificos' of
tie Dia^ regime where tie Carrancista officials now
bold obscene orgy. Carranza limselj las chosen tie
magnificent residence at 95 Paseo de la Reforma as
Us private residence. Each general las Us awn
picked troop to guard bis residence and a military
land to entertain lim"
40 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
It is evident, judging from all reliable informa-
tion, that the Carranza party has violated its
pledges to the people of Mexico as completely as
the pledges of its leaders to the United States and
the civilized world were violated.
While generals of the army are permitted to rob
the public funds and pursue a career of shameless
dissipation and extravagance, the employees of
the railroads have their wages reduced; the school
teachers remain without their pay and are forced
to resign their positions by thousands; the civil
employees of the government are dismissed and
departments closed while important business re-
mains unattended to. The country is filled with
beggars, and people are dying by the thousands
for lack of the necessities of life.
The experience of the masses of the people under
the government given the major portion of Mexico
by" the Carranza party furnishes a striking parallel
to that of the Russians at the hands of the Bol-
sheviki. In every country there exists a predatory
element whose chief ambition it is to secure con-
trol of the machinery of government by violence
and then to use it in depriving industrious, frugal
people of the property they have accumulated, and
dividing it among themselves. This element is
represented in Mexico by the Carranza party,
in Russia by the Bolsheviki, and in the United
States by the I. W. W.
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 41
In Mexico the destruction of productive industry
by the greed of this party has deprived hundreds
of thousands of the citizens of the chance of
making a living and has brought indescribable
miseries upon that country. Dispatches day by
day for the last year have told the story of similar
conditions in Russia, brought about by the actions
of the Bolsheviki. By their plots for burning
harvest fields, grain elevators, factories of various
kinds, and destroying animals, the I. W. W. have
shown that they would do the same thing if they
should ever succeed in securing control of our
country as the Carranza party has in Mexico and
the Bolsheviki in Russia.
The fact that in each country these predatory
elements have been the tools of Germany, have
accepted her money, done her criminal bidding,
and in every way shown their sympathy for that
country and its malignant purpose, to thwart
which the Allies have expended the lives of millions
of their citizens and billions of money, presents a
peculiar psychological situation. Surely, the evi-
dent sympathy of these criminal classes in each
country with Germany can be accounted for only
on the theory that it is an expression of that
"fellow feeling which makes us wondrous kind/*
CHAPTER II
Character of the Carran^a Revolutionary Party Constitut-
ing the Recognised Government of Mexico Tie Relations
Established with the United States and tie Rest of tie WorU
THE character of the Carranza revolution-
ary party may be judged by the record of
negotiations between its representatives
and our own Department of State and by its acts
in conducting the recognized government of
Mexico. Some of the most important of these
negotiations are set forth in U. S. Senate Docu-
ment No. 321, entitled "Affairs in Mexico."
The relations established by the Carranza regime
with the United States Government and with other
nations are shown by the communications con-
tained in that document. Still more illuminating is
the record made by the Carranza government
by its treatment of foreigners, especially Americans.
The information contained in Senate Document
No. 321 was elicited by a resolution adopted by
the Senate on January 6, 1916, which was in part
as follows:
"Resolved, That the President be requested, if
not incompatible with the public interests, to in-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 43
form the Senate upon the following subjects and
to transmit to the Senate the documents, letters,
reports, orders, and so forth, hereinafter referred
to:
"First. Is there a government now existing in
the Republic of Mexico; and if so,
"Second. Is such government recognized by
this Government; how is such government main-
tained, and where; who is now the recognized head
of such government, and is the same a constitu-
tional government?
"Third. By what means was the recognition of
any government in Mexico brought about, and
what proceedings, if any, were followed prior to
and resulting in recognition, in any conference
between this country and Argentine, Brazil, Chile,
Guatemala, and any other country or countries?
* * *
"Sixth. What assurances have been received
from the Mexican Government, or requested by this
Government, as to payment of American damage
claims for injury to life or property of our citizens
resulting from the acts of Mexico or citizens of that
country within the past five years?
"Seventh. What assurances have been given
by the Mexican Government as to the protection
of foreigners and citizens, and particularly in the
free exercise of their religion, in public or in pri-
vate?"
In response to this resolution, the President, on
February 17, 1916, transmitted to the Senate a
letter to himself from the Secretary of State, at-
44 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA*
tached to which were various documents to which
the Secretary refers. In this letter the Secretary
says [the italics throughout are the author's]:
"(0 The government at present existing in
Mexico is a de facto government established by
military power which has definitely committed itself
to the lotting of popular elections upon {be restora-
tion of domestic peace.
"(2) This de facto government of Mexico, of
which General Venustiano Carranza is the chief
executive, was recognized by the Government of
the United States on October 1 9, 1 9 1 5 . * * *
" It cannot be said that the de facto govern-
ment of Mexico is a constitutional government.
The de facto government, like the majority of
revolutionary governments is of a military char-
acter, but, as already stated, that government las
committed itself to the lotting of elections, and it is
confidently expected that tie present government will,
within a reasonable time, le merged in or succeeded
ly a government organised under tie constitution
and laws of Mexico. * * *
" (6) With regard to the settlement of Ameri-
can claims against the Mexican Republic for in-
juries to the lives or property of American citizens,
the undersigned has the honour to direct your at-
tention to the copy of a letter from Mr. Arredondo
(the de facto government's agent in Washington),
dated October 7, 1915, and its enclosures hereto-
fore referred to and hereto appended as Enclosure
No. 4 and its annexes.
" (7) With reference to the assurances given by
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 45
the Mexican Government concerning the protec-
tion of foreigners and * citizens/ particularly re-
specting the free exercise of religion, the under-
signed encloses herewith a letter on the subject
from Mr. Arredondo, dated October 8, 1915, (En-
closure No, 7)."
In Mr. Arredondo's letter, referred to by the
Secretary of State as Enclosure No. 4, appears
the following:
"Mr. Venustiano Carranza, depositary of the
executive power of Mexico, whom I have the
honour to represent in this country, has author-
ized me to say to your Excellency that his public
declarations of December 12, 1914, and June 11,
1915, bear the statement that the government he
represents in its capacity of a political entity,
conscious of its international obligations and of its
capability to comply witb them, has afforded guaran-
ties to the nationals and has done likewise witb regard
to foreigners and sball continue to see that their Iive3
and property are respected in accordance with the
practices established by civilised nations and the
treaties in force between Mexico and other coun-
tries. That besides the above, be will recognifc
and satisfy indemnities for damages caused by the
revolution wbicb sball be settled in due time and in
terms of justice! 9
Mr. Arredondo's letter was accompanied by a
jmmber of documents, referred to by the Secretary
of State as "annexes." The first of these, in
46 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
order of date, is entitled "Plan of Guadalupe"
and appears to be the declaration of principles
upon which the Carranza revolution was founded.
This declaration is dated March 26, 1913, and
purports to have been signed by sixty-four officers
of the troops of the state of Coahuila with which
Carranza, then governor of that state, began his
revolution against the Huerta government, which
had succeeded the murdered Francisco Madero,
In this "Plan of Guadalupe" appears the following;
"Whereas the legislative and judicial powers
have recognized and protected General Huerta
and his illegal and anti-patriotic proceedings con-
trary to constitutional laws and precepts ; * * *
we, the undersigned, chiefs and officers command-
ing the constitutionalist forces, have agreed upon
and shall sustain with arms the following:
"i. General Victoriano Huerta is hereby re-
pudiated as President of the Republic. * * *
"4. For the purpose of organizing the army
which is to see that our aims are carried out, we
name Venustiano Carranza, now governor of the
state of Coahuila, as first chief of the army which
i$ to le called 'Constitutionalist Army'
" 5. Upon the occupation of the City of Mexico
by the Constitutionalist Army, the executive power
shall be vested in Venustiano Carranza, its first
chief, or in the person who will substitute him in
command.
"6. The provisional trustee or the executive
power of the Republic shall convene general elec-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 47
tions as soon as peace may^ lave been restored and will
surrender power to the citizen who may have been
elected."
Accompanying the letter of Mr. Arredondo was
a document entitled "R6sum6 of the Mexican
Constitutionalist Revolution and Its Progress/*
of which Mr. Arredondo was the author, in which,
after reciting the deaths of President Madero and
Vice-President Suarez and their succession in
power by General Huerta, he says:
" Mr. Venustiano Carranza, upon being apprised
of the above-mentioned outrageous assault and of
the infringement of the federal constitution and acting
in his capacity of the governor of the state of
Coahuila and in fealty to the oath he had taken upon
entering into the performance of his high investiture
to preserve and cause all others to observe the federal
constitution and to guard its institutions repudiated
the aforesaid General Huerta as President of
Mexico and initiated that which has been named
as 'The Revolution of the Constitutionalist
Party/"
Mr. Arredondo also transmitted to the Secretary
of State, as an "annex" to his letter, a document
entitled "Decree of General Carranza" dated
December 12, 1914, which was signed by General
Carranza and in which the following occurs:
48 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
"That the undersigned, in his capacity as consti-
tutional governor of the state of Coahuila, had
solemnly taken ibe oath to observe and cause the
general constitution to be observed, and that comply-
ing with this duty and of the above oath, he was in-
evitably obliged to arise in arms to oppose the
usurpation of Huerta and to restore constitutional
order in the Republic of Mexico. * * *
"That, it being imperative, therefore, that the
interruption of constitutional order should sub-
sist during this new period of struggle, the Plan
of Guadalupe should, therefore, continue to be in
force, as it has been the guidance and banner of it,
until the enemy may have been overpowered com-
pletely in order that the constitution may be re-
stored. * * *
" Article 4. Upon the success of the revolution
when the supreme chieftainship may be established
in the City of Mexico and after the elections for
municipal councils in the majority of the states
in the republic, the first chief of the revolution, as
depository of the executive power, shall issue the
call for election of congressmen, fixing in the call the
date and terms in which the election shall be held."
Mr. Arredondo also, transmitted with his letter
an "annex" entitled "Declaration to the Nation/'
signed by V. Carranza, dated June n, 1915, in
which the following occurs:
"Treason was carried into effect by General
Huerta under the pretext of saving the City of
Mexico from the horrors of wan * * *
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 49
President and Vice-President were assassinated
and, due to the complicity or weakness of the
other powers, the nation was left without a consti-
tutional representative. Then I, as governor of
the state of Coahuila, and in obedience to the consti-
tutional provisions, articles 121 and 128 of our funda-
mental charter, assumed the representation of the
republic in the terms in which the constitution
itself vests me with this right, and supported by the
people which rose in arms to regain its liberty.
In fact, the above-mentioned articles provide the
following:
" 'Every public bfficer, without exception, prior
to his taking possession of his charge, stall render
an oath that he will sustain tbe constitution and the
laws emanating tberefrom. Tbis constitution sball
not fail in force or vigour, even tbougb on account of
rebellion its observance may be interrupted. In the
case that pursuant to a public disturbance a gov-
ernment contrary to the principles sanctioned by
the constitution may be established, as soon as
tie people regains its freedom its observance sball
be reestablisbed and, according to it and to the
laws which by virtue of it may have been enacted,
those who may have figured in the government
emanated- from the rebellion shall be tried as well
as those who may have cooperated in the move-
ment/ * * *
"Witb a view to realising tbe above-mentioned
purposes, I have deemed proper to inform the na-
tion upon the political conduct to be observed
by the constitutionalist government, in the per-
formance of the program of social reform con-
tained in the decree of December 12, 1914.''
5 o MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
"First. The constitutionalist government shaft
afford to foreigners residing in Mexico all the guar-
anties to which they are entitled according to our
laws, and shall amply protect their lives, their free-
dom, and the enjoyment of their rights of property^
allowing them indemnities for the damages which
the revolution may have caused to them, in so far as
such indemnities may be just and which are to be
determined by a procedure to be established later.
The government shall also assume the responsibility
of legitimate financial obligations." * * *
Fourth. There shall he no confiscation in con-
nection with the settlement of the agrarian question.
This problem shall be solved by an equitable
distribution of the lands still owned by the gov-
ernment; by the recovery of those lots which may
have been illegally taken from individuals or com-
munities; by the purchase and expropriation of
large tracts of land, if necessary; by all other means
of acquisition permitted by the laws of the coun-
try/' * * *
"Seventh. In order to establish the constitu-
tional government, the government by me pre-
sided shall observe and comply with the provisions
of articles 4, 5, and 6 of the decree of December
12, 1914."
It should be noted that the two documents en-
titled respectively " Decree of General Carranza,"
dated December 12, 1914, and " Declaration to
the Nation/' signed by V. Carranza, dated June
n, 1915, were, when they were issued, given the
widest possible circulation in this country, as well
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 51
as abroad, with the intention, undoubtedly, of
appealing to the sympathy and support of our
country and the world for the declared effort of tie
Carran^a revolutionists to restore tie constitution
in its full force and tlerely give to Mexico a govern-
ment which slould safeguard tie riglts of ler awn
people, as iv^ll as of foreigners. These documents,
undoubtedly, had that effect among people who
knew the Mexican constitution of 1857, referred
to in them, as being an admirable organic law for
the foundation of a democratic government.
The "Inclosure No. 7," referred to in paragraph
7 of the letter of the Secretaiy of State to the
President is a letter from Mr. Arredondo to the
Secretary of State, dated October 8, 1915, as
follows:
"Mv DEAR MR. LANSING: Complying with
your Excellency's request asking me what is the
attitude of the constitutionalist government in re-
gard to the Catholic Church in Mexico, I have the
honour to say that inasmuch as the reestablishment
of peace within order and law is the purpose of
the government of Mr. Venustiano Carranza, to
the end that all the inhabitants of Mexico without
exception, whether nationals or foreigners, may
equally enjoy the benefits of true justice, and
hence take interest in cooperating to the support
of the government, tie laws of reform, wlicl guar-
antee individual freedom of worship according to
everyone's conscience, stall be strictly observed.
52 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
Therefore the constitutionalist government will
respect everybody's life, property and religious be-
liefs without other limitation than the preserva-
tion of public order and the observance of the
institutions in accordance with the laws in force
and the constitution of the republic.
"Hoping that I may have honoured your ex-
cellency's wishes, I avail myself of this opportun-
ity to reiterate to you the assurances of my highest
consideration
"E. ARREDONDO."
There was also included in the report to the
Senate a letter from the Secretary of State
to Mr. Arredondo, dated October 19, 1915, as
follows:
"Mr DEAR MR. ARREDONDO: It is my pleasure
to inform you that the President of the United
States takes this opportunity of extending recog-
nition to the de facto government of Mexico, of
which Gen. Venustiano Carranza is the chief
executive.
"The Government of the United States will be
pleased to receive formally in Washington a diplo-
matic representative of the de facto government
as soon as it shall please General Carranza to desig-
nate and appoint such representative; and, re-
ciprocally, the Government of the United States
will accredit to the de facto government a diplo-
matic representative as soon as the President has
had opportunity to designate such representa-
tive.*
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 53
" I should appreciate it if you could find it pos-
sible to communicate this information to General
Carranza at your earliest convenience.
"Very sincerely yours,
"ROBERT LANSING."
The foregoing correspondence between Mr.
Arredondo, the agent of the Carranza revolution-
ists at Washington, and our Secretary of State
plainly shows two things :
First, that our Government, trusting in the
pledges contained in the communications of Mr.
Arredondo to it and in the various declarations of
General Carranza, conferred upon the constitu-
tionalist revolutionary party, headed by General
Carranza, recognition as "the de facto government
of Mexico of which General Venustiano Carranza
is the chief executive/'
Second, that when the Secretary of State in his
letter to the President referred, in paragraphs 6
and 7 of that letter, to Mr. Arredondo's letters
of October 7, 1915, and October 8, 1915, with
annexes quoted from, he intended that those
should be accepted as an answer to the inquiries
appearing in paragraphs 6 and 7 of the Senate
resolution, as to what assurances had been re-
ceived from the Mexican Government regarding
the payment of damages for injury to the life or
property of American citizens; the protection of
54 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
foreigners and citizens in Mexico, and the fres
exercise of their religion.
The final outcome of the pledges that the per-
sonal, property, and religious rights of foreigners
in Mexico would be observed by the Carranza
Government that were iterated and reiterated by
the head of that government, and by its represen-
tative in Washington, appeared when the new
constitution of Mexico was adopted by the
Carranza party on January 31, 1917. An inspec-
tion of that instrument shows that every pledge
made by the representatives of the de facto, since
recognized as the de }ure, government was delib-
erately and completely violated. The record
made by the Carranza administration since the
adoption of that constitution in dealing with the
rights of foreigners has shown a consistent and
continued violation of all those rights. To show
how completely the pledges of the Carranza gov-
ernment were broken by the new constitution, a
reference to a few of the provisions of that docu-
ment will be appropriate.
THE MEXICAN CONSTITUTION OF 19 1 7
It will be observed that General Carranza, as
the head of what he and his followers had denom-
inated the "Constitutional Party of Mexico,"
repeatedly made the pledge that as soon as he was
established in the City of Mexico he would issue
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 55
a call for the election of Congressmen. The record
shows that he did nothing of the kind. To the
contrary, as soon as he found himself in control of
the City of Mexico in the summer of 1914 he de-
clared a "preconstitutional period," setting aside
the constitution he had claimed he fought to restore
and in the fall of 1915 he issued a call for a consti-
tutional convention whose functions it should be
to enact for Mexico a constitution de novo in com-
plete disregard of the constitution of 1857 to which
he and his adherents had pledged unlimited fealty
in communications addressed to our country and
to the world.
To show just how completely this action of the
Carranza party violated the rights of the Mexican
people, it should be observed that the constitution
of 1857 was adopted by ihe vote of representatives of
all 'the Mexican people, whereas when General
Carranza issued his call for the election of delegates
to a constitutional convention several states of the
republic were in no sense under 'his control and Us
writ calling ihe election did not run in those states.
This fact is well known to everyone acquainted
with the conditions which obtained in Mexico
at that time and if any additional proof were
needed it is found in the fact that shortly after
the constitution was adopted, Mn Cabrera, the
Secretary of Finance under Carranza, stated on
the floor of the Mexican Congress that the five
56 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
states of Tlaxcala, Puebla, Morelos, Oaxaca, and
Chiapas were entirely under the control of oppo-
nents of the Carranza government. Furthermore,
in his call for the election, First Chief Carranza
expressly provided that the ekctive franchise should
be exercised only by tbose citizens who were known
to have been the supporters of his revolutionary party.
Thus, we have the spectacle of the chief of. a
movement which he denominated the "Constitu-
tional Party," pledged to the restoration of the
constitution of 1857, deliberately throwing that
instrument upon the scrap heap and assuming to
enact a new constitution for the whole Mexican
nation by a convention whose members did not
represent several states of the Mexican federal
union and were in no sense the representatives of
all the citizens even in the states in which the
election was held, because, by the very terms of
the writ calling the election, a large number of
those citizens were disfranchised. It has been
stated, and I believe truly, that the votes cast for
delegates represented less than 2 per cent, of the
population.
A glance at some of the provisions of this new
constitution will show how completely it violated,
in every possible way, the pledges that had been
made to our Government and the rest of the world
by the Carranza party. Section XIV of Article
27 of the new constitution provides:
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 57
"Commercial stock companies stall not acquire,
"bold, or administer rural property. Companies of
this nature which may be organized to develop any
manufacturing, mining, petroleum, or other in-
dustry, excepting only agricultural industries, may
acquire, "bold, or administer land only in an area ab-
solutely necessary for their establishments or ade-
quate to serve tie purposes indicated, wbicb the ex-
ecutive of tie union, or of the respective states, in each
case, shall determine."
Almost all large real estate holdings of foreigners
in Mexico in the form of ranches, coffee and rubber
plantations, and great projects for the irrigation of
arid lands were held by corporations regularly
organized under the laws as they had existed under
the constitution of 1857. It will be noted that
by the terms of the foregoing provision it is made
impossible for any corporation to hold any rural
or agricultural property, and, as a result, under a
strict construction of this provision, many great
properties belonging to foreigners, and particularly
to Americans, are to-day without legal ownership.
Furthermore, so far as manufacturing, mining,
petroleum, and other industries of that nature
are concerned, the executives of the nation and of
the respective states are given the arbitrary author-
ity to determine what extent of lands are "ab-
solutely necessary" to carry on their business
and to divest them of all other lands. No appeal
58 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
is provided against the exercise of this most
despotic power. No one who is at all acquainted
with the character of the men who have come
into office under Carranza can for a moment
suppose that the great majority of them will
neglect such an opportunity for robbing the foreign
owners of mining and petroleum properties either
by arbitrarily taking from them the larger or more
valuable part of their holdings or by extorting
money from them by threats of exercising this
power.
In the same Article 27 is found the following
provision, relating to mineral deposits, including
petroleum:
" In the nation is vested direct ownership of all
minerals or substances which in veins, layers,
masses, or beds constitute deposits whose na-
ture is different from the components of the land,
such as minerals from which metals and metaloids
used for industrial purposes are extracted; beds
of precious stones, rock salt, and salt lakes formed
directly by marine waters; products -derived from
the decomposition of rocks, when their exploita-
tion requires underground work; phosphates which
may be used for fertilizers; solid mineral fuels;
petroleum and all bydro-carbons-*-solid, liquid, or
gaseous."
Under the national laws formerly in force,
"solid mineral fuels; petroleum and all hydro-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 59
carbons solid, liquid or gaseous" were the prop-
erty of the owners of the lands in which they ex-
isted. Under this law the title to the petroleum
deposits as well as to coal mines, was acquired by
foreigners who invested their money in the develop-
ment of these great natural resources which had
been neglected for four hundred years by the Latin
masters of the country. Thus, at a stroke of the
pen, all these great deposits of natural wealth,
which had been bought and paid for by their
foreign owners, are confiscated and the ownership
transferred to the nation.
The eifort on the part of the Carranza govern-
ment to assert the national ownership of these
petroleum deposits has recently called forth a
letter of protest from our ambassador at Mexico
City. In this letter the position, entirely correct
under international law, is taken that the attempt
on the part of the new Mexican constitution to
transfer the ownership of the oil deposits, that had
been acquired by American citizens by purchase,
to the Mexican nation is a violation of international
law which works great injustice to our citizens
and can not be tolerated. This matter is now
under discussion, but there can be no doubt
that, unless the Carranza government is compel-
led by the sternest attitude on the part of this
nation to hold its hand, this robbery will be con-
summated.
60 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
Section VII of Article 27 of the new constitution
provides, as follows:
" During the next constitutional term, the Con-
gress and the state legislatures shall enact laws,
within their respective jurisdictions, for the pur-
pose of carrying out the division of large landed
estates, subject to the following conditions:
"(a) In each state and territory there shall
be fixed the maximum area of land which any one
individual or legally organized corporation may
own.
" (b) The excess of the area thus fixed shall be
subdivided by the owner within the period set by
the laws of the respective locality; and these sub-
divisions shall be offered for sale ON SUCH CON-
DITIONS AS THE RESPECTIVE GOVERN-
MENTS SHALL APPROVE, in accordance with
the said laws.
" (c) If the owner shall refuse to make the sub-
division, this shall be carried out by the local gov-
ernment by means of expropriation proceedings.
"(d) The value of the subdivisions shall be
paid in annual amounts sufficient to amortize the
principal and interest within a period of not less
than twenty years, during which the person ac-
quiring them may not alienate them. The rate of
interest shall not exceed 5 per cent, per annum.
"(e) The owner shall be BOUND TO RE-
CEIVE BONDS OF A SPECIAL ISSUE to guar-
antee the payment of the property expropri-
ated. With this end in view, the Congress shall
issue a law authorizing the states to issue bonds to
meet their agrarian obligations.'*
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 61
Thus, machinery has been prepared by which
the amount of real property owned by any individ-
ual or corporation may be limited and the owner
may be forced to accept for all excess real estate
which he owns prices fixed by the State, in State
bonds, which at the present time would certainly
not be worth the paper on which they were printed.
The new constitution has proved so successful
as an instrumentality for robbery and spoliation
that its makers and administrators have been
encouraged to amend it so as to extend very greatly
its usefulness for acquiring without compensation
the property of individuals and corporations.
To that end, President Carranza, on December
14, 1918, submitted to the Mexican Congress
' a proposed amendment to the confiscatory Article
27 of the constitution heretofore referred to. A
part of the amendment provides that paragraph
3 of Article 27, as amended, shall read as follows:
"The nation shall have at all times the right
to impose upon private property such limitations
as the public interest may demand, as well as
the right to regulate the development of such nat-
ural resources as are susceptible of appropriation,
in order to conserve them and equitably to dis-
tribute the public wealth. Establishments or
concerns of private ownership, having a general
interest, whether belonging to single individuals
or to associations or persons, shall not be closed
62 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
on account of lockouts, strikes, or any other like
reason, without the authority of the executive who
shall be empowered to administer them whenever,
in his judgment, the suspension or closing of op-
eration may prejudice the interest of society or,
the demands of the public service. So soon as the
difficulties which have brought about govern-
mental administration shall have disappeared,
the government shall return to the owners, or
their lawful representatives, the establishments
that have been intervened, and the net proceeds
obtained therefrom during the official adminis-
tration. Establishments or concerns of public
interest shall be deemed to be those having to do
with communication by railroad, telegraph, tele-
phone, ocean cable, radio-telegraph, radio-tele-
phone and tramway; places for the sale of drugs
and medicines; r light companies; undertaking
establishments; municipal water and sanitation
enterprises; the mining industry, including both
the extraction and the treatment of ore; agri-
cultural establishments; cotton mills, and all
other concerns which are analogous in the opinion
of the executive."
Just how the power that would be granted by
this amendment to take over and operate any busi-
ness or enterprise upon the occurrence of a strike
of its employees would be used by the government
in power is shown by an incident which transpired
in the City of Mexico shortly after the Carranza
soldiers took possession of jt in 1914. After
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 63
appropriating everything that was movable and
which could be converted to their own use, the
Carrancistas looked around for bigger game.
The company operating in the city at that time
which received the largest cash income was "The
Tramways of Mexico Company" a corporation
financed by American, Belgian, Canadian, and
English capital. This company was earning and
paying a large bond interest and a small dividend
upon its stock. It was also paying large monthly
amounts to the Necaxa Light and Power Co.
(owned by the stockholders of the railroad com-
pany) for hydroelectric power.
The governor of the Federal District in which
Mexico City is situated, General Heriberto Jara,
solved the problem of acquiring the street railroad
lines with their great earning power by fomenting
a strike of the company's employees. He notified
the Mexican employees that he would stand by
them in a strike, whereupon they promptly struck
for double wages and half time. The officials
of the railway resisted their demands, which would
have meant immediate bankruptcy for the com-
pany. Thereupon Governor Jara, declared, the
lines a public utility and that as such their operi-
tion could not be suspended, and the government
took over the lines. This was in October 1914.
The government still holds and operates the lines;
it pays no bond interest and has paid only a small
64 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
part of the total amount due from the railroad
company to the Hydroelectric Company for power.
Of course the balance of the income has gone to pay
the expenses of the Carranza government, which
consist largely of salaries to army officers.
Other concerns have been taken over in the
same way, and, with the constitution amended
as proposed by the president, any business iri
Mexico which appears to be earning a profit, from
running a railroad to farming, can be seized and
used by the government, as the street railways
in the Federal District were.
Article 33 of the new constitution provides:
"The executive shall have the exclusive right to
expel from the republic forthwith and without ju-
dicial process any foreigner whose presence he
may deem inexpedient."
The significance of this article is twofold:
First, it is undoubtedly intended to provide
against any foreigner remaining in Mexico who
might be disposed to make himself disagreeable
by opposing any violation of his rights. Should
he attempt such a thing, the president has power,
from which there is no appeal, to banish him.
That power has already been exercised in numer-
ous instances. One use of it that attracted some
attention a short time ago occurred when John C.
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 65
Royle, correspondent of the Associated Press, an
American citizen, made himself persona non grata
to the government in power in that country by
telegraphing out of the country an article of news
value which had appeared in one of the newspapers
published in Mexico City. This American citizen
was arbitrarily loaded upon a passenger coach, a
guard was stationed on each platform and he was
compelled to remain there until the train arrived
at a frontier town, whence he was forced to leave
the country.
Second, the fact that such a provision as this
could become part of the organic law shows how
utterly the party now in power fails to conceive
of the most rudimentary principles of democratic
government. No people who have any correct
conception of democracy could for a moment con-
template the possession of such arbitrary power,
from the exercise of which no appeal is provided,
by any member of its government.
The pledge regarding religious toleration, con-
tained in the letter of Mr. Arredondo to the Secre-
tary of State already quoted, will be recalled.
That pledge was undoubtedly accepted as satis-
factory by our Secretary of State and by our
President when, following its receipt, he recognized
the Carranza power as the de facto government of
Mexico. This, like all other pledges made by the
Carranza party, was violated by the new constitu-
66 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
tion. Section II of Article 27 of this document
provides.
"The religious institutions, known as churches,
irrespective of creed, shall in no case have legal
capacity to acquire, hold, or administer real prop-
erty or loans made upon such real property; all
such real property, or loans, as may be at present
held by the said religious institutions, either on their
own behalf or through third parties, shall vest in the
nation, and any one shall have the right to de-
nounce properties so held. Presumptive proof
shall be sufficient to declare the denunciation well
founded. Places of public worship are the prop-
erty of the nation, as represented by the federal
government, which shall determine which of them
shall be continued to be devoted to their present
purposes. Episcopal residences, rectories, sem-
inaries, orphan asylums, or collegiate establish-
ments of religious institutions, convents or any
other buildings built or designed for the adminis-
tration, propaganda, or teaching of the tenets
of any religious creed, shall forthwith vest, as of
full right, directly in the nation, to be used ex-
clusively for the public services of the federation
of the states, within their respective jurisdictions.
All places of public worship which shall later be
erected shall be the property of the nation/'
In Article 1 30 of the new constitution, the fol-
lowing appears:
"The state legislatures shall have the exclusive
power of determining the maximum number of
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 67
ministers of religious creeds according to the
needs of each locality.
- "Only a Mexican by lirth stall le tie minister
of any religious creed in Mexico.
"No minister of religious creeds shall, either in
public or private meetings, or in acts of worship
or religious propaganda, criticize the fundamental
laws of the country, the authorities in particular,
or the government in general; {bey shall have no vote
or "be eligible to office, nor shall they be entitled to as-
semble for political purposes' 9
Compare the foregoing with the declaration in
the letter of Mr. Arredondo to our Secretary of
State in which he says:
"Therefore, the constitutionalist government
will respect everybody's life, property, and religious
belief, without other limitation than the preser-
vation of public order and the observance of the
institutions in accordance with the laws in force
and the constitution of the Republic/'
Of course, as the constitution of 1857 was in force
in Mexico when this letter was written, and the .
Carranza party had pledged itself to the support
of that constitution, our Secretary of State was
justified in accepting this declaration at its face
value. In the cities of Mexico to-day are numbers
of chapels and churches, erected either by mission-
aries in their endeavour to serve and elevate the
character of the people, or by foreigners for their
68 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
own use. Every one of these properties has been
confiscated by the terms of the constitution and 1
now belong to the nation. Furthermore, no for-
eign congregation can gather in a place of wor-
ship built with its own money to enjoy the
ministration of a preacher of its own race. In
all the world no government recognized as even
semi-civilized imposes upon religion such burdens
as those under which it now rests in that portion
of Mexico subject to the new constitution which
has resulted as the perfect fruit of the Carranza
movement.
In view of the kind of government which the
Carranza party has conducted, one can well under-
stand the motive of its representatives for includ-
ing in their new constitution an inhibition against
. a minister of the gospel criticizing the laws of the
country, the authorities in control, or the manner
in which they exercise their power. It would
appear, however, that the provision divesting
every minister of the gospel of his franchise as a
citizen was a gratuitous expression of the hatred
of the constitution-makers for all religion.
The action of the Carranza government in in-
flicting the new constitution upon Mexico, thereby
violating all its pledges to this country and to the
civilized world, is so thoroughly characteristic and
illustrative of the moral degradation of the element
governing the larger part of Mexico as to
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 69
justify a short recapitulation of the violated
pledges,
First. In the Plan of Guadalupe already set forth,
in the letter of Mr. Arredondo to our Secretary
of State, and in Carranza's Decree and Declaration
/iated, respectively, December 12, 1914, and June
n, 1915, appears the unqualified pledge that upon
the success cf the revolution begun by Carranza he
would restore the constitution of 1857 * fuU force
and effect. He violated this promise by assemb-
ling a constitutional convention as soon as he ob-
tained control of a major portion of the national
territory and causing the convention to enact an
entirely new constitution which should take the
place of the constitution of 1857.
Second. There appears in both the Decree and
the Declaration of General Carranza an unqualified
promise that when his revolutionary movement
was successful he would first "issue the call for an
election of congressmen, fixing, in the call, the day
and terms in which the election shall be held/' He
violated this promise by issuing a calUfor the elec-
tion of the members of a constitutional conven-
tion and did not call congress together until he had
secured the enactment by that convention which,
as we have seen, did not represent the MexTcan
people, of a new constitution which would govern
and control the action of the congress.
Third. Both Mr. Arredondo in his letter to
TO MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
our Secretary of State and General Carranza in
both his Decree and Declaration solemnly promise
to "afford to foreigners residing in Mexico all the
guaranties to which they are entitled according to
our laws, and stall amply protect their lives, their
freedom, and tie enjoyment of their rights of property,
allowing them indemnities for the damage which
the revolution may lave caused to them" As we
shall '.see in succeeding chapters, the Carranza
government has confiscated the capital of banks,
the public service properties throughout the
country, and various other properties of foreigners
of the value of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Furthermore, although Carranza's administration
has been recognized as the de facto government of
Mexico by this country since October 9, 1915, and
as the de jure government for a year, no step has
been taken to pay the indemnities due foreigners
for damage done by the revolutionists, but the
damage and destruction of those properties have
continued to the present time and are now pro-
ceeding.
Fourth. In his Declaration to the nation of J une
n, 1915, General Carranza pledged himself that
"there shall be no confiscation in connection with
the settlement of the agrarian question. This
problem shall be solved by an equitable distribu-
tion of the land still owned by the government,
etc." In violation of this pledge, the new consti-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 71
tution gives to each state and territory the right
to fix the maximum area of land which any one
individual or corporation may own and to compel
the owner to subdivide the -remainder and offer it
for sale at a price to be fixed by the government or,
in default of such action on the part of the owner,
gives the state the authority to fix the price at
which it will take over the land and compel the
owner to accept bonds of the state in payment
therefor, which would mean absolute confiscation.
We have seen how completely the Carranza
government has violated the pledge of its diplo-
matic representative, Mr. Arredondo, that "the
laws of record which guarantee individual freedom
of worship [according to everyone's conscience
shall be strictly observed/'
One of the worst features of the Carranza con-
stitution is that, not having been enacted by a
constitutional convention .representing either all
of the national territory or all the people of the
nation, it will be a perpetual and very just incite-
ment to revolution on the ground that it was not
adopted by and does not represent the will of the
Mexican people. Indeed, that objection has al-
ready been urged by all the opposing factions now
in arms against the Carranza government as con-
stituting a ground for their revolutionary activi-
ties.
The story of the violated pledges made to this
72 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
government by the Carranza administration would
not be complete without some reference to the
chapter which led to the Columbus massacre and
subsequently to the killing of American soldiers and
officers at Carrizal, which is briefly as follows:
After the United States had recognized the
Carranza r6gime as the de facto government of
Mexico the latter applied for permission to trans-
port by rail through American territory a military
force to attack Villa, for the reason that the famous
bandit could not be reached in any other way.
The request was granted; and Carranza soldiers,
carried upon American railroads through United
States territory, invaded that portion of Mexico
controlled by Villa's forces and defeated them.
This, of course, inspired Villa with the bitterest
hatred of America and led to his attempt to secure
revenge by raiding Columbus, New Mexico, and
killing a number of the citizens and several United
States soldiers. Before the President ordered
the punitive expedition to invade Mexican ter-
ritory he arrived at a diplomatic understanding
with Carranza which is embodied in a communica-
tion from our State Department to the Carranza
government under date of March 13, 1916, which
included the following:
"The Government of the United States under-
stands that in view of its agreement to this recipro-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 73
cal arrangement proposed by the de facto govern-
ment, the arrangement is now complete and in
force and the reciprocal privileges thereunder
may accordingly be exercised by either govern^
ment without further exchange of views/*
The President, as Commander-in-Chief of the
United States Army, thereupon ordered the puni-
tive expedition to proceed into Mexico, and on the
evening of the day on which this order was given
he called the newspaper correspondents to the
White House and gave to them the statement
which was published the next morning to the effect
Hat the punitive expedition bad leen ordered under
an agreement witt the de facto government of Mexico
and was to be used for the single purpose of ap-
prehending the bandit Villa and his followers.
There can, of course, be no doubt that this state-
ment was absolutely true and that the invasion was
amply justified. Later, however, it became ap-
parent to Carranza that the presence of American
troops upon the soil of Mexico was prejudicing him,
as the head of the government, with his supporters
in whose minds he had sedulously cultivated hatred
and distrust of the "gringos." With the purpose
of rehabilitating himself in the regard of his sup-
porters, he caused his Secretary of Foreign Rela-
tions to address to our State Department the im-
pudent letter, referred to in Chapter IV, in which
the claim was made that the presence of American
74 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
troops in Mexico was an act of bad faith and was
being used by our Government for political pur-
poses; that their presence upon the soil of Mexico
constituted a grave wrong to that country and end-
ing with the following threat:
"The Mexican government understands that
in the face of the unwillingness of the Ameri-
can Government to withdraw the above forces,
it would be left no other recourse than to procure
the defence of its territory by means of arms."
In reply to this letter Secretary Lansing, in his
indignant letter of June 20, 1916, quoted in Chap-
ter IV, said:
" If, on the contrary, the de facto government
is pleased to ignore this obligation and to believe
that, 'in case of a refusal to retire these troops,
there is no further recourse than to defend its
territory by an appeal to arms/ the Government
of the United States would surely be lacking in
sincerity and friendship if it did not frankly im-
press upon the de facto government that tie execu-
tion of Ms threat would lead to the gravest conse-
quences. 9 '
At the same time General Trevinp, in command
of a force of Mexican troops located near the camp
of the American punitive expedition, sent a note
to General Pershing, under date of June 16, 1916,
as follows:
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 75
"I am instructed by First Chief Carranza, to
inform you, that any movement of American
troops from their present lines to the south, east
or west will be considered as an overt act and
will be the signal for hostilities."
To this message General Pershing replied, under
date of June 18, 1916:
" I have not received any orders to remain sta-
tionary or withdraw. If I see fit to send troops
in pursuit of bandits to the south, east or west,
in keeping with the object of this expedition, I
shall do so. If any attack is made on any part of
my forces when performing such duties, the entire
military strength of the expedition will be used
against the attacking forces/*
A short time after these threats were exchanged,
a force of several hundred Mexican soldiers, armed
with machine guns, attacked a small detachment
of American cavalry killing several of their num-
ber, including two fine young officers. This kill-
ing of American soldiers, considered in the light of
all the circumstances under which it occurred and
the overwhelming force that attacked our men,
was virtually assassination by lying in wait, but
it was not succeeded by the "serious conse-
quences" mentioned by our Secretary of State,
nor was "the entire military strength of the ex-
pedition" used against the attacking forces, as
76 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
threatened by the general commanding the Amer-
ican punitive expedition. On the contrary, Car-
ranza, apparently appreciating the fact that the
wave of indignation at this outrage which swept
over this country might force the hand of the
Administration and compel the carrying out of the
threats of Secretary Lansing and General Persh-
ing, came forward with a proposition to appoint
a joint commission to be constituted of three
members representing each of the governments to
"hold conferences and resolve at once the point
regarding the definite withdrawal of the American
forces now in Mexico, draft a protocol of agree-
ment regarding the reciprocal crossing of forces,
and investigate the origin of the incursions taking
place up to date, so as to be able to ascertain re-
sponsibility and arrange definitely the pending
difficulties or those that may arise between the two
countries in the future. * * * Tie purpose oj
the Mexican government is that such conferences
shall he held in a spirit of the most frank cordiality
and with an ardent desire to reach a satisfactory
^greemeni and one honourable tohoth countries."
To this our acting Secretary of State replied as
follows:
" In replying, I have the honour to state that
I have laid your Excellency's note before the Presi-
dent and have received his instructions to inform
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 77
your Excellency that the Government of the
United States is disposed to accept the proposal
of the Mexican Government in the same spirit of
cordiality in which it is made. This Government
believes and suggests, however, that the powers of
the proposed commission should be enlarged so
that, if happily a solution satisfactory to both gov-
ernments of the question set forth in your Excel-
lency's communication may be reached, tie com-
mission may also consider suctt other matters, tie
friendly arrangement of wlicb would tend to improve
the relations of the two countries"
It was stated at the time in the press that the
"other matters" which the United States desired
the commission to consider were the payment of
indemnities to American citizens for damages
sustained in the course of revolutionary activities
and also an agreement which would protect their
property there from future exploitation by the
government and people; and the truth of this state-
ment was afterward shown by the course of the
negotiations.
The United States was represented on this com-
mission by Secretary of the Interior Lane, Judge
Gray of Delaware, and Dr. John R. Mott, three
of the ablest men in the country. Shortly after
the commission convened in the Griswold Hotel
at New London, Connecticut, I visited the hotel
and remained for several days. While there, the
President came to New London on his yacht. The
78 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
commissioners in a body paid their respects to him
and later he returned the call and was in conference
with the commission at the hotel for some time.
On the afternoon of the day of the President's
call, a member of the commission said to me:
"The talk of the President to the commission,
and especially what he said to the Mexican com-
missioners about the importance of their country
recognizing and living up to its international ob-
ligations, was one of the most impressive things
that I ever listened to/*
The commission remained in session for months
and during this time the American commissioners
endeavoured, without success, to secure some agree-
ment regarding the recognition and protection of
the rights of our citizens in Mexico. Just how this
effort was met on the part of the Mexican com-
missioners is shown by an incident that occurred
at a session of the commission. Some time after
the commission adjourned without having been
able to put a word of agreement in writing, I was
told by a friend, who had just arrived from the
City of Mexico, that the friends of Mr. Bonillas, a
representative of Mexico on the commission, were
circulating there with great gusto a story that
duringa session of the commission one of the Amer-
ican members had delivered what was evidently a
very carefully prepared speech for the benefit of
the Mexican commissioners in which he dwelt upon
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 79
the importance, and the necessity, of Mexico's
recognizing her obligations under international
law, and concluded with the statement that unless
Mexico did recognize and live up to her interna-
tional obligations she could never hope to have the
respect of the other nations of the world, when,
quick as a flash, came from Mr. Bonillas on the
other side of the table:
"Then the other nations of the world can go to
hell!"
Upon meeting one of the American members of
the commission, afterward I told him of this story
and asked if anything of the sort had occurred.
The answer was:
"The incident occurred exactly as you have
related it."
"Don't you believe that before the Mexican
commissioners left the City of Mexico they were
instructed by Carranza to make no commitments
whatever regarding the protection of American-
owned property in Mexico, because he had in mind
at that very time the confiscatory constitution
which was subsequently enacted at Queretero?"
I asked.
" I am absolutely certain of it," was the reply.
Undoubtedly, this attitude of Mr. Bonillas
toward his country's international obligations
showed him to be so worthy a member of the Car-
ianza government as to suggest his supreme fitness
8o MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
to represent it diplomatically' at the capital of the
nation whose rights under international law it had
violated and proposed to "continue to violate. So
the climax of the exhibition of boorish manners
which Mr. Bonillas's friends related with so much
pride is found in the fact that he was later ap-
pointed ambassador to Washington and, in pur-
suance of our policy of "patience" with his govern-
ment, was, of course, accepted as persona grata in
that capacity. With such a spirit inspiring the
Mexican members of the joint commission it is, of
course, no subject of surprise that its sessions, ex-
tending over several months, should have resulted
in exactly nothing.
But, in the meanwhile, the appointment of the
commission and its prolonged sessions had acted
as a sedative, giving time for cooling the burning
indignation of the American people over the mur-
der of our soldiers, which undoubtedly was the
result desired by Carranza when he suggested its
formation. It also marked another of the count-
less instances of betrayal of the American Govern-
ment in its efforts to meet and adjust our differ-
ences with Mexico by the peaceful means of
diplomacy rather than by the exercise of force.
In all the diplomatic negotiations with Germany,
and the shameful violations of her diplomatic
pledges to this country which led to the world war,
there was nothing which for infamous and immoral
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 81
violation of diplomatic pledges compares with the
experience which the United States has had with
the Carranza administration since it was recognized
as the de facto government of Mexico. In view of
the fact that Germany's breach of diplomatic
agreements with this country rightly resulted
in a declaration of war, one can hardly under-
stand why the Carranza regime's shameful viola-
tions of its diplomatic promises to, and agree-
ments with, us should have been rewarded by
recognition as the &e jure government of the
country which it was misgoverning in so terrible
away.
Long before the infamous chapter of violated
diplomatic agreements was written by Carranza
we had had similar experiences with the Latin
Mexicans who have always controlled that country
which showed their utter lack of diplomatic
honour. A history of Mexico says:
"Almost from the commencement of the Mexi-
can republic, outrages on the persons and property
of American citizens have been committed and re-
dress has always been either positively refused, or
so delayed that both there and in the United
States the idea became current that such violations
of the laws of nations were to be overlooked and
unpunished.
"This course on the part of Mexico was es-
pecially disgraceful, as the United States had been
the first nation to recognize her separate existence,
82 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
and American citizens had fought well in more
than one of the battles of her revolution. * * *
"This state of things was endured patiently by
the Government and people of this country, be-
cause both the one and the other were unwilling
to add to the burdens of Mexico, and hoped that
a calmer day would break over the sister repub-
lic, and a season of peace at home enable her to
attend to her foreign obligations.
"On the 5th of April, 1831, a treaty of amity
and navigation was concluded between the re-
publics; but almost before the ink on the parch-
ment was dry, fresh outrages were perpetrated, so
that within six years after that date, General
Jackson, in a message to Congress, declared that
they had become intolerable, and that the honour
of the United States required that Mexico should be
taught to respect our flag.
"He declared that war should not be used as a
remedy *by just and generous nations confiding
in their strength for injuries committed, if it can
be honourably avoided 1 ; and added, 'it has oc-
curred to me that, considering the present embar-
rassed condition of that country, we should act
with both wisdom and moderation, by giving to
Mexico one more opportunity to atone for the
past, before we take redress into our own hands.
To avoid all misconception on the part of Mexico,
as well as to protect our national character from
reproach, this opportunity should be given with
the avowed design and full preparation to take im-
mediate satisfaction, if it should not be obtained
on a repetition of the demand for it. To this
end I recommend that an act be passed authoriz-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 83
ing reprisals, and the use of the naval force of the
United States, by the executive, against Mexico,
to enforce them in the event of a refusal by the
Mexican government to come to an amicable ad-
justment of the matters in controversy between us,
upon another demand thereof, made from on board
of one of our vessels of war on the coast of Mexico'/*
Congress granted the authority to President
Jackson which he had requested to settle our dif-
ferences with Mexico. When that nation found
that our Government was in earnest and came to
fear the use of force, it suggested the formation of
a joint commission, as Carranza did under similar
circumstances. The commission was appointed,
and the history of its dealings is so much an anti-
type of the record made by the joint commission
appointed at the suggestion of the Carranza gov-
ernment that it appears to justify the following
additional quotation from the historian referred
to:
"On the i ith of April, 1839, a joint commission
was appointed, which, however, was not organized
until August ii, 1840. The powers of the com-
mission by the act creating it, terminated in Feb-
ruary, 1842, and Mr. Polk, in his last annual mes-
sage, thus characterizes its conduct:
" Tour of the eighteen months were consumed
in preliminary discussions on frivolous and dilatory
points raised by the Mexican commissioners; and
it was not until the month of December, 1840,
84 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
that they commenced the examination of the
claims of our citizens upon Mexico. Fourteen
months only remained to examine and decide upon
these numerous and complicated cases. In the
month of February, 1842, the term of the commis-
sion expired, leaving many claims undisposed of
for want of time. The claims which were allowed
by the board, and by the umpire authorized by
the convention to decide in case of disagreement
between the Mexican and American commission-
ers, amounted to two million twenty-six thousand
one hundred and thirty-nine dollars and sixty-
eight cents. There were pending before the um-
pire when the commission expired additional claims
which had been examined and awarded by the
American commissioners, and had not been allowed
by the Mexican commissioners, amounting to
nine hundred and twenty-eight thousand six hun-
dred and twenty-seven dollars and eight cents,
upon which he did not decide, alleging that his
authority had ceased with the termination of the
joint commission. Besides these claims, there
were others of American citizens, amounting to
three million three hundred and thirty-six thousand
eight hundred and thirty-seven dollars and five
cents, which had been submitted to the board,
and upon which they had not time to decide before
their final adjournment.
" The sum of two million twenty-six thousand
one hundred and thirty-nine dollars and sixty-
eight cents, which had been awarded to the claim-
ants, was a liquidated and ascertained debt due by
Mexico, about which there could be no dispute,
and which she was bound to pay according to the
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 85
terms of the convention. Soon after the final
awards for this amount had been made, the Mex-
ican Government asked for a postponement of the
time of making the payment at the time stipulated.
"'In the spirit of forbearing kindness toward a
sister republic, which Mexico has so long abused,
the United States promptly complied with her
request. A second convention was accordingly
concluded between the two governments on the
30th of January, 1843, which upon its face declares
that "this new arrangement is entered into for the
accommodation of Mexico." By the terms of this
convention, all the interest due on the awards which
had been made in favour of the claimants under the
convention of the nth of April, 1839, was to be
paid to them on the 3Oth of April, 1843, and the
"principal of the said awards, and the interest ac-
cruing thereon/' was stipulated to "be paid in five
years/ in equal instalments every three months/*
Notwithstanding this new convention was en-
tered into at the request of Mexico, and for the
purpose of relieving her from embarrassment, the
claimants have only received the interest due on
the 30th of April, 1843, and three of the twenty
instalments.
" 'Although the payment of the sum thus liquid-
ated, and confessedly due by Mexico to our citi-
zens as indemnity for acknowledged acts of outrage
and wrong, was secured by treaty, the obligations
of which are ever held sacred by all just nations, yet
Mexico has violated this solemn engagement by
failing and refusing to make the payment. The
two instalments due in April and July, 1844, under
the peculiar circumstances connected with them,
86 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
have been assumed by the United States and dis-
charged to the claimants, but they are still due by
Mexico. But this is not all of which we have just
cause of complaint. To provide a remedy for the
claimants whose cases were not decided by the
joint commission under the convention of April
the i ith, 1839, it was expressly stipulated by the
sixth article of the convention of the 30th of j anu-
ary, 1843, that 'a new convention be entered into
for the settlement of all claims of the Government
and citizens of the United States against the re-
public of Mexico which were not finally decided by
the late commission, which met in the city of Wash-
ington, and of all claims of the government and
citizens of Mexico against the United States.
"'In conformity with this stipulation, a third
convention was concluded and signed at the City
of Mexico on the 2oth of November, 1843, by the
plenipotentiaries of the two governments, by which
provision was made for ascertaining and paying
these claims. In January, 1844, this convention
was ratified by the Senate of the United States with
two amendments, which were manifestly reason-
able in their character. Upon a reference to the
amendments proposed to the government of Mex-
ico, the same evasions, difficulties, and delays were
interposed which have so long marked the policy of
that government toward the United States. It
has not even yet decided whether it would or would
not accede to them, although the subject has
been repeatedly pressed upon its consideration/
" By failing to carry out the stipulations of this
last convention, Mexico again outraged the Gov-
ernment of the United States/'
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 87
We see from the foregoing that President Wil-
son, in his dealings with the present government
in Mexico, has met with the same experience that
several other chief executives of our country have
had. President Wilson has spoken of his efforts
to show " patience " in his dealings with the pres-
ent government of Mexico, and surely it has been
amply exhibited in condoning the most outrageous
violations of rights ever committed by the people
and government of one country against the people
and government of another.
Our experience with Mexico, begun nearly a
hundred years ago and continuing until it culmi-
nated in war, proved that there was a limit to our
forbearance. For some time after the close of the
Mexican War, the rights of American citizens were
respected by the Mexicans. But it did not take
long for^a people so prone to ignoring and violating
the rights of others to forget the lessons of the war
and again begin the violation of the rights of Amer-
ican citizens both along the border and in Mexico.
The persistent aggressions upon our citizens
along the border resulted, in the organization by
the state of Texas of a force which afterward be-
came famous under the name of "Texas Rangers,"
which was used to afford to the citizens of that
state the protection which they did not get from
the soldiers of the nation. Finally conditions
became so bad as to provoke from Secretaiy of
88 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
State Evarts in 1878 a communication to the
Mexican Government in which he said:
"The first duty of a government is to protect life
and property. This is a paramount of ligation.
For this governments are instituted, and govern-
ments neglecting or failing to perform it become
worse than useless. This duty the Government of
the United States has determined to perform to the
extent of its power toward its citizens on the border.
It is not solicitous, it never has been, about the
methods or ways in which that protection shall be
accomplished, whether by formal treaty stipula-
tion, or by informal convention; whether 1 by the
action of judicial tribunals, or whether by that of
military forces. Protection, in fact, to American
lives and property is the sole point upon which the
United States are tenacious."
This, unmistakable intimation that our Govern-
ment proposed thereafter to live up to its duty, as
thus defined, in its dealing with Mexico moved
Diaz to take steps to prevent the occurrence of
further outrages along the border and to provide
proper protection for Americans in the interior
also. This condition continued throughout the
Diaz regime and, apparently, might have been
continued had our Government in its dealings with
the Mexican revolutionists maintained the position
assumed by Secretary Evarts. This, however,
was not done. Every effort was made to avoid
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 89
any clash between Mexican and American forces.
Our soldiers and civilians in border towns were
killed by bullets from contesting factions in Mexico
but our armed forces were forbidden to return the
shots. Eighteen American citizens were killed
in El Paso, about a score of soldiers and civilians
at Naco, and numbers at other points.
No Mexican can understand or appreciate the
sort of forbearance with which our Government
under both Republican and Democratic adminis-
trations has treated the invasion of the rights of
our citizens on the border. Instead of interpreting
it as an exercise of patience and consideration for
the Mexican people, they have regarded it as a
manifestation of cowardice and it has merely
encouraged them to further invasions of our rights.
Shortly after the killing of our soldiers at Carrizal
and because it was not followed by the punish-
ment of those who were guilty of that crime, a
prominent paper in an interior Mexican city pub-
lished an article in which it was said that the ex-
perience at Carrizal showed how easily a Mexican
army could march through American territory to
Washington, and dwelt with some gusto upon the
wealth of loot that would reward such an expedi-
tion.
As a result of the course which our Government
had adopted for some time after it recognized the
Carranza r6gime as the de facto government of
90 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
Mexico, conditions along the border became as bad
as, or worse than they were during the pre-Diaz
period. Just how bad they were is shown in the
letter of Secretary Lansing quoted in Chapter IV.
They finally became so intolerable and resulted in
the loss of so many American lives and the destruc-
tion of so much American property at the hands
of invading Mexican bandits that in April, 191 8, two
hundred and fifty owners of ranches along the
Texas border held a meeting at Van Horn in that
state and spent several days discussing measures
to be taken for the protection of their homes,
families, and property. Later, our Government
seems to have changed its policy and to-day along
the border shot for shot is exchanged whenever a
bullet comes across the line. This has resulted in
a distinct decrease in such offenses.
In view of the result that has been achieved by
the policy of patience maintained toward Mexico
since the beginning of revolutionary activities the
query is suggested: Would our officials in Wash-
ington have maintained such a policy in dealing
with the lawless elements represented by the Car-
ranza government at the expense of our citizens,
had they known of the results of the same policy
adopted seventy-five years ago and followed for a
number of years, as set forth in the foregoing
quotations from the messages of Presidents Jack-
son and Polk?
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 91
History shows that throughout the whole career
of Mexico as an independent nation except during
the Diaz period, the Latin-Mexican element re-
sponsible for its government has never failed to
attempt to violate any international agreement
or obligation when it thought its interests would
be served by such a course. The history of our
patience and forbearance before the Mexican War
reads like the story of the dealings between our
Government and Mexico from the period in Presi-
dent Taft's administration, when revolutionary
activities began, to the present time. The only
difference is that we have secured even less sat-
isfaction as the result of our policy of "patience"
than was obtained previous to the Mexican War.
In the meanwhile, these experiments with the law-
less, dishonest, and criminal element represented
by the Latin-Mexican governing class, have been
paid for by the lives of hundreds of American
citizens and the destruction of hundreds of mil-
lions of dollars' worth of American property.
Previous to the thirty-four years of orderly
government enforced by Diaz few Americans
resided in Mexico and little American capital had
been invested there. But, encouraged by the law
and order maintained by the Diaz government
and by its invitations to invest in that country,
our people had gone into Mexico in considerable
numbers. It is estimated that at the beginning
92 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
of the revolutionary period in 1910 at least forty
thousand Americans were making their homes
there. Americans had invested their lives and
hundreds of millions of dollars of their capital
in enterprises which, while profitable to them-
selves, were of enormous economic value to the
country with which they had cast their fortunes.
These thousands of Americans and hundreds of
millions of their property are the counters with
which the game of "patience" has been played
with Mexico by our Government for seven years.
And, if one may continue the simile, our Gov-
ernment has been playing a game with the cards
marked against it, for we have practised the
diplomacy of an honest, moral people, while the
Mexicans have shown that disregard for every
diplomatic agreement and every obligation under
international law which should have been expected
from the Latin-Mexican element, which has earned
the reputation of being the most congenially dis-
honest and immoral race in the world to-day.
This would appear to be strong language were it
not so plainly justified by the history of nearly a
hundred years. I believe that in what follows I
shall amply establish its truth and justice.
CHAPTER III
Character of Foreign Investments in Mexico,
larly Those of Americans Relation of These Investments
to ibe Economic Condition of the Country Dealings
Between Foreign Investors and ibe Mexican Government
L BOUT the end of Diaz's long administration
Marion Letcher, American Consul at
Chihuahua, compiled a statement which
was filed in the State Department at Washington
showing the total wealth of Mexico to be
$2,434,241,422; of which Americans owned
$1,057,770,000; English, $321,302,800; French,
$143,446,000; all other foreigners, $118,535,380;
Mexicans, $792,187,242. Senator Fall, of New
Mexico, who is well informed on Mexican aifairs,
asserts that the correct figures for English invest-
ments are more than double those given by Consul
Letcher; and that the figures for the Americans
should also be largely increased. However this
may be, the Consul's compilation will at least serve
to give an idea of the relative importance of for-
eign capital in developing the resources of Mexico.
The fact is that foreigners have developed Mexico;
have built its railroads, opened its mines, con-
94 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
structed and operated its factories,, opened up its
oil wells, introduced modern machinery and im-
plements, and have given employment to prac-
tically all the native labour in the country, except
that engaged at from 15 to 50 cents a day on the
plantations, farms, or ranches.
The point of present interest is that these large
foreign investments, and their influence in develop-
ing natural resources and affording a livelihood to
all who were willing to work, are paraded as one
of the fundamental grievances of the Carrancistas
to redress which they have confiscated all the prop-
erty that could be converted into cash without
too much effort and have greatly damaged or
destroyed substantially all the rest. Conscious
that such proceedings are not considered exactly
good form in the countries whence the invest-
ments came, the Carrancistas have expended
a good deal of ingenuity in endeavouring to justify,
or at least to excuse, their peculiar ideas regarding
the rights of property. Or it may be that these
endeavours have been prompted less by prickings
of conscience than by a fear that if the whole truth
were known there might be some inconvenient
insistence upon restitution and protection for
whatever property is left in accessible shape and
for such foreigners as still survive.
The Carrancistas have been particularly zealous
in their efforts to win American sympathy. To
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 95
this end they have maintained two centres of
propaganda in the United States. One, located
in Washington, issues a monthly journal and press
sheets at frequent intervals describing in roseate
terms alleged conditions in Mexico and descant-
ing upon the beneficent effects of Carranza's sway.
This material is circulated among members of
Congress, Government officials and others sup-
posed to be more or less influential.
Every number of these publications contains
numerous manifestations of one of the most prom-
inent vices of the Latin element of Mexico, and
that is mendacity. Probably a sufficient example
of this characteristic may be found in a statement
in one of these publications to the effect that a
recent school census taken in Mexico City showed
that a larger percentage of children of school age
attended the public schools in that city than were
attending the public schools of the city of New
York. Of 'course, this statement to any person
acquainted with conditions there was palpably
false. Its falseness was quickly demonstrated by
news from Mexico City, published in the daily
papers of this country a short time after the item
referred to appeared, to the effect that many of the
schools there had been closed because the govern-
ment found itself unable to pay the salaries of the
teachers.
Another centre of Carranza propaganda was
g6 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
established in New York City shortly after the
beginning of the Carranza revolution, by what was
called the "Latin-American News Association/*
In some way unknown my name appears to have
been entered upon the mailing list of this associa-
tion, and I have received numerous pamphlets
devoted to various phases of Mexican affairs. In
one of these appears the following statement:
" Mexico has been the happy hunting ground of
the adventurer since the days of the Spanish Con-
quest. Egypt, Morocco, Tunis, South Africa,
do not compare with it as a treasure box. Govern-
ment has always meant merely an organized sys-
tem of robbery and exploitation. It gave the
people nothing, it took everything the people had.
It taxed them in the most ruthless ways; it spent
the taxes for private purposes and profit. The
courts were merely another instrument for enforc-
ing serfdom along with the army."
As we shall see, this statement is entirely true
as applied to the Latin masters of the Mexican
people and the sort of government which they
were accorded by these masters during the first
three hundred years of their control. The pam-
phlet continues:
" Diaz reduced the process to a scientific system.
He termed it 'developing the country/ The con-
cession seekers flocked to Mexico with the coming
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 97
of Diaz to power in 1876. He owed them every-
thing, for they made him master of Mexico. They
enjoyed thirty-four years of almost uninterrupted
freedom until the flight of Diaz to Paris in 1910.
... He paid his first debts by concessions for
the building of two railroad lines from the Texas
border to Mexico City. Land was given for the
right of way, together with a subsidy of $14,000 per
mile on level country and $35,000 per mile in rough
country. * * *
" During all these years, the United States was
unhappily the bulwark of the exploiting interests.
The Mexican people feared American intervention
more than anything else and this fear kept them
from revolution. And the colossal grants and sub-
sidies for railroads, mines, oil, gold, silver, copper
and land, judiciously distributed, identified the
United States 9 State Department, tie Senate, tie press,
and the people of the United States with Dia% no mat-
ter what Us outrages might loe*
"The Mexicans want to get back their lands
which have been taken from them by bribery or
machine guns. And they are doing it. They
want to get back their oil wells, gold and silver
mines, and the tremendously rich copper deposits
of the north, and they are doing it."
The name of the author of the pamphlet is not
given, and there is no means of ascertaining the
race to which he belongs. It is certain, however,
that the paragraphs quoted indicate two of the
worst characteristics of the element which has
given Mexico bad government for four hundred
98 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
years, and these are mendacity and lawless greed.
It will be noted that the author of the article does
not hesitate to allege that the grants and sub-
sidies given by the Diaz government were success-
fully used as bribes to influence the State Depart-
ment, the Senate, the press, and the whole people
of the United States. This may be accepted as a
fair measure of the truthfulness of the Carranza
propaganda with which the country has been
flooded. What the writer really meant, although
he did not say it, was that the Mexicans lad taken,
and propose to continue to take ly tie strong land,
tie property acquired ly citizens of tie United States
and otler foreigners in tleir country.
It is my purpose to show that no citizen of tie
United States, during tie Dia% regime, ever acquired,
ly grant or subsidy, a dollar's wortl of oil territory,
gold, silver, or copper mines, or land; and that the
railroad subsidies from which American citizens
benefited were probably the most moderate ever
given for such value as was received by Mexico in
the building of her railroads, and were very much
less than subsidies granted by our own country
for a like purpose. Also, that in the use of the
subsidies by the recipients of them a degree of
honesty was exhibited which we cannot claim to
have been exercised in handling subsidies granted
for railroad construction in the United States. As
an illustration of the reckless falsehoods which
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 99
have been uttered about the dealings of our people
with Mexico, and which, alas, have found credence
to which they were not entitled among men in
responsible positions in our Government, may be
cited the history of oil development.
PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT
The existence of petroleum in what is now the
state of Vera Cruz, was known before the Spanish
conquest. Asphaltum, produced by the drying
on the surface of exudes from these oil deposits,
was used before the time of Cortez for making the
floors of the Aztec temples. The Latin inhabi-
tants of Mexico knew of the existence of these oil
exudes from the time that they first occupied the
country. Notwithstanding this fact, and the
further fact that since the development of oil in
the United States it was known that exudes of this
character indicated the presence of petroleum
beneath the surface, no citizen of Mexico ever
showed the possession of energy and initiative
enough to attempt the development of these oil
measures. It remained for two Americans,
Messrs E. L. Doheny and C A. Canfield, citizens
of Los Angeles, to undertake the development
which has added enormously to the economic
wealth and welfare of Mexico, and which has con-
ferred a great benefit upon the civilized world.
These men, who had made fortunes in petroleum
ioo MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
development in the United States, learned of the
existence of the exudes in what is now known as
the oil territory of Mexico. They visited this
section, which at the time was largely a jungle,
,and convinced themselves of the existence of
subterranean oil measures. These measures were
upon lands which were held in private ownership,
under titles dating largely from the time of the
Spanish conquest, four hundred years before. In
their oil developments they of course, were forced
to deal with these private owners, inasmuch as
Article 10 of the Mining Law of Mexico at that
time provided:
ART. 10. The following substances are the ex-
clusive property of the owner of the land, who may
therefore develop and enjoy them, without the
formality of claim or special adjudication:
I Ore bodies of the several varieties of coaL
IV Salts found on the surface, fresh and salt
water, whether surface or subterranean, petroleum
and gaseous springs, or springs of warm medicinal
waters.
Shortly after Diaz came into power he induced
the government to adopt the plan of granting for a
stated term immunity from import and export
tariff taxes upon all material brought into the
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 101
country and used in founding any new business
enterprise, which would be for the direct economic
benefit of the nation, and all products of such
business that should be shipped out. In this, of
course, the nation did nothing further than to-day
is being done by probably a hundred enterprising
cities in our own country where manufacturing
enterprises are attracted by the grant of immunity
from local taxes for a certain number of years, or,
where the law prohibits such favours being granted
by municipal governments, by contributions to the
cost of land for factories, and other advantages.
Messrs. Doheny and Canfield went to the gov-
ernment and calling attention to the fact that at
that time Mexico had no oil wells and that fuel was
one of the great economic needs of the country,
announced that they proposed to invest a large
sum in endeavouring to develop the petroleum
deposits, and asked to be granted a concession
which would enable them to conduct their business
for a term of years free of national import and ex-
port duties. As the law providing for the granting
of such a concession required that the enterprise
should represent a new business of a character not
developed, before they could secure the concession
for which they asked they were compelled to ob-
tain a certificate from the government of every
state in the Mexican Union certifying that no oil
development had been made in any such state,
102 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
in order to establish the fact that the business
which they proposed to conduct would really add
a new business to the industrial life of Mexico.
Having obtained these certificates, they secured
a "concession" which granted to the enterprise of
developing petroleum, which they proposed to
conduct, immunity from all national import and
export taxes on any material which they might
bring in for use in their business, or any product
thereof which they might ship out of the country
for a period of ten years. This was the sole ad-
vantage ever given Mr. Doheny and his associates
by the Mexican Government. Having obtained
this concession, they then proceeded to invest
several millions of dollars in the purchase of land
and clearing it, drilling wells, providing pipe lines,
tankage facilities, refineries, vessels for transport-
ing oil, and all the other equipment required for the
successful prosecution of the business which even-
tually added greatly to the economic wealth of
Mexico. In order to do this, of course, they staked
millions of dollars upon the chance of finding oil
in paying quantities.
There is no doubt that, owing to the habit of
speaking of work done by Americans in the de-
velopment of petroleum and other enterprises
of that character as "concession," there is a
general impression that the lands have been ob-
tained as a gift from the Government, perhaps
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 103
with other valuable privileges in addition. Pos*-
sibly this erroneous impression may be traced in
the first place to the translation of the Spanish
word "concesion" which means merely a franchise
or a permit to do business, as the equivalent of the
English word "concession/' which means some-
thing quite different.
After the discovery of oil in paying quantities
by Mr. Doheny and his associates the attention of
other large oil interests was attracted to the Mexi-
can field and in due time the Standard Oil Com-
pany, the Waters-Pierce Company, and the Eng-
lish interests represented by Lord Cowdray, as
well as other less important organizations, secured
territory in the oil fields by purchase or lease and
commenced the production of petroleum. Not
in one instance, however, did any American com-
pany secure any part of its oil territory as a
grant, gift, or concession from the Mexican Gov-
ernment, although the contrary has been asserted
in numberless false-propaganda pamphlets and
articles that have been distributed by the Mexican
revolutionists in this country.
Much of the oil territory still belongs to Mexican
citizens and is being operated by various companies
under leases from the land owners, just as hun-
dreds of thousands of acres of oil land belonging
to farmers have been operated under leases pro-
viding for stipulated royalty payments in the
104 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
various oil-producing states of our own country.
These Mexican owners of petroleum lands have
held meetings at Tampico, and have submitted
vigorous protests to the Carranza government
against Article 27 of the new constitution, which
is being used by the Carranza administration in an
attempt to rob them of the contents of their lands
which the law has heretofore assured to them; but,
as the oil industry is to-day one of the few in that
country that are paying and as the Carranza gov-
ernment is constantly in need of money for the
use of its dissipated army officers, efforts to con-
summate the scheme of robbery under the so-called
new constitution have by no means been abandoned.
The millions of dollars which American oil pro-
ducers risked in their enterprises were of enormous
economic value to the country. The oil from
their wells, and from those developed later by other
foreign interests, furnished fuel for the Mexican
railroads, a considerable mileage of which was
controlled by the government, cheaper and of a
better quality than they had ever been able to
obtain before. It furnished fuel which resulted
in the establishment of gas plants in Mexico City
and elsewhere an economic development of pe-
culiar value, on account of the moderate climate
in which gas furnishes the cheapest and best pos-
sible fuel for household purposes. These plants
have all been ruined by the revolution. The
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 105
asphalt residuum from the distillation of the crude
oils furnished paving materials, with the result
that numerous Mexican cities that had never
known a yard of good pavement became the pos-
sessors of beautifully paved streets. In addition,
it has furnished employment for thousands of
Mexican workmen at wages several hundred per
cent greater than any that they had ever received
from their own countrymen. Furthermore, the
"concession" obtained by Mr. Doheny and his
associates conferred no immunity from state or
municipal taxes.
In entering upon the development of oil in Mex-
ico, these citizens of the United* States and other
foreigners did nothing more than was done some
years ago by a great European corporation,
financed by the Rothschilds, known as "The
Shell Oil Company" (Royal Dutch), in securing
large areas of oil territory in the state of California;
the only difference being that production in this
territory had been developed as a profitable busi-
ness before these foreign interests acquired their
property, while those Americans who first entered
upon oil development in Mexico assumed all the
risks of failure which confront every pioneer in a
mining venture. The foreign company which has
acquired oil properties in California sells some of
its products in this country and ships quantities
of it to other markets, while all the profits of the
io6 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
operation, of course, go to the stockholders abroad.
Yet, any citizen of the United States who would
complain that the Shell Oil Company has done a
deadly wrong by acquiring and exploiting oil lands
in this country, and should demand therefore,
that its property be confiscated, would be re-
garded as either a lunatic or a criminal. However,
the Carranza party finding that foreigners, by
their intelligence and enterprise and the invest-
ment of millions of dollars, have developed a
natural resource into a valuable economic asset,
decides that those foreigners have imposed a griev-
ous wrong upon the country which it has at-
tempted to cure by adopting Article 27 of the Con-
stitution of 1917, which provides:
" In the nation is vested direct ownership of all
* * * solid mineral fuels; petroleum and all
hydrocarbons solid, liquid or gaseous."
Under the authority of that article the Car-
ranza government is now attempting to make the
petroleum companies pay it "rentals and royalties "
for the privilege of taking the oil from lands that
have been in the possession of private owners for
nearly four hundred years, and were acquired for a
price supposed to be full value paid by the for-
eigners as the first step in creating an enterprise
which has benefited the people of Mexico in a
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 107
hundred ways. What would the farmers of Penn-
sylvania, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas, and
California, upon whose lands oil has been de-
veloped, think if the people of their states should
adopt constitutions providing that the oil was
public property and insist upon collecting the
royalty which the private owners of the land have
heretofore received?
Of course, no people that is not so congenitally
immoral as to be incapable of appreciating the
moral character of an act would undertake to
perpetrate such a wrong upon the owners of private
property as the Carrancistas are endeavouring to
inflict upon the owners of oil lands. But it is safe
to say, that, so long as the present government
feels that it has the power to cany out this scheme
of robbery, no protest made by native or foreign
landowner will be of any avail.
Our own country has recently instructed its
diplomatic representative in Mexico City to make
such a protest and it has been done. It would
appear that our country is prepared to use force
to make that protest effective, to prevent the
robbery of American citizens.
RAILROAD SUBSIDIES AND FOREIGN INVESTMENTS
IN MEXICAN RAILROADS
Apologists for the confiscatory actions of the gov-
ernment now in power in Mexico have had a great
io8 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
deal to say about the concessions for building rail-
roads granted to foreigners by Diaz. They have
denounced these concessions in unmeasured terms
as among the greatest wrongs inflicted upon the
Mexican people by that government. These
apologists for the acts of the Carranza government
in taking possession of the railroads and failing to
pay either interest upon their bonds or dividends
to stockholders, allege that these roads were origi-
nally built at the cost of the public.
In investigating the history of subsidies for rail-
road construction in Mexico, it is well to bear in
mind that prior to the period when the principal
concessions were granted, almost all railroad? in
our own country were the recipients of subsidies
for the purpose of defraying a part, or all, of the
cost of their construction. This particularly
applies to the West where, on account of the coun-
try being sparsely settled and recognition of the
fact that years might elapse before sufficient busi-
ness could be developed to make the operation of
the railroads profitable, it was understood that no
such great public improvement could be made
at the entire cost of private investors and that
these improvements promised to be of such great
value to the nation at large as well as to the sections
of the country directly served, as to justify the
public in contributing to their construction. It is
probably not an over-statement to say that every.
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 109
county and city in the Middle-Western states, for
whose service railroads were constructed, contrib-
uted something in the form of subsidies; and, as
we shall presently see, the National Government
gave enormous sums to the Union Pacific and the
Central Pacific companies.
Similar conditions in Mexico produced similar
results in railroad construction. But those who
now seek to excuse their confiscation of all the
great investments made by foreigners before or
during the Diaz regime, have sought to charge
Diaz and his government with the responsibility
for all subsidies granted to Mexican railroads. In
point of fact, the encouragement of railroad con-
struction in Mexico by subsidy was entered upon
years before Diaz came into power in 1876, and
was an important part of the efforts made by the
great patriot, Juarez, to improve native land and
elevate the condition of his countrymen. A
history of Mexico says:
"While it would be difficult to determine exactly
the date at which Mexico emerged from her con-
dition of insularity and took her place among the
nations of the world, it would not come amiss to
mention that under the wise administration of
Seiior Lerdo she certainly laid the foundation for
her coming prosperity. That marvel of engin-
eering skill, the Mexican Railroad, which had been
in progress of construction sixteen years, was
no MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
formally opened in January, 1873, and the coast of
Mexico at Vera Cruz was connected with its capi-
tal. By a decree of Congress in 1874 [two years
before Diaz came into power] a concession was
granted for another line northwardly from the City
of Mexico, which was the initial step taken in the
great movement connecting the capital with the
chief cities of the United States. Roads and tele-
graph lines were now projected in all directions;
commerce, both external and internal, developed
with great rapidity, and in the fiscal year of 1878
the exports from Vera Cruz alone amounted to
more than $16,000,000."
i
It may be noted in passing that the line referred
to by the historian when he says: "By decree of
Congress in 1874 a concession was granted for
another line northwardly from the City of Mex-
ico/' is one of the lines named in a Carranza prop-
aganda pamphlet which alleges that Diaz "paid
his first debts by concessions for the building of
two railroad lines from the Texas border to Mexico
City/' The fact is that the concession for this
line was granted under the administration of Pres-
ident Lerdo de Tejada, two years before Diaz came
into power.
The most important railroad concession and
subsidy granted by the Diaz government was for
the line which subsequently became known as the
Mexican Central and this on account of its im-
portance and extent, may be taken as being fairly
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 1 1 1
illustrative of that character of all. It is of par-
ticular interest to Americans for the reason that
the company which built the railroad was organ-
ized by Boston capitalists. For these reasons, the
law embodying this concession, given in Ap-
pendix I, will repay careful study by those who are
desirous of knowing the exact truth about Mexican
railroad concessions and subsidies about which so
much has been said. It will be noted, as among
the most important provisions of this law, that the
concession provides:
First : that at the end of ninety-nine years the road
shall revert to the nation free of all encumbrances.
Second: that the mails were to be carried free
by the proposed railroad during the life of the
concession, to wit: ninety-nine years.
Third: that maximum tariffs for the carrying
of freight and passengers are named in the con-
cession which, by comparison with the rates
charged for years by our own Western railroads
constructed with the aid of government subsidies,
will be found to have been very much lower than
the latter.
Fourth: the government gave to the company
a subsidy of $9,500 for each kilometre of con-
structed road, equalling $ 15, 311 per mile, pay-
ment of which should not commence until after
the completion of the first one hundred and fifty
kilometres.
1 12 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
In order that a comparison may be made of the
terms upon which the respective governments
aided railroad construction in Mexico and in our
own country, the grants by the U. S. Government
to the Union Pacific Company and the Central
Pacific Company, are set forth in Appendix II.
By this it will be seen that in addition to an out-
right gift to the companies of 12,800 acres of gov-
ernment land per mile of railroad constructed, a
subsidy was granted in the form of a cash loan
"equal to $16,000 per mile for that portion of the
line between the Missouri River and the base of
the Rocky Mountains; 48,000 per mile for a dis-
tance of one hundred and fifty miles through the
mountain range; $32,000 per mile for the distance
intermediate between the Rocky Mountains and
the Sierra Nevada range; $48,000 per mile for the
distance of one hundred and fifty miles through
the Sierra Nevadas."
The original act provided that the cash subsidy
should be a first mortgage upon the road, but by a
subsequent amendment it was made a second
mortgage, the company being authorized to issue
its own bonds to an amount equal to the Govern-
ment's issue as a first mortgage on the lines. It
will be noted that there is no provision for any
reversionary interest of the Government in these
lines, for which the aid aiforded was much greater
than any subsidy ever granted by the Mexican
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 113
Government and no provision was made for carry-
ing mails free. There was a provision for the
transportation of United States troops and this
stipulation, it is said, was inserted because it was
recognized that probably United States troops
would have to be moved over the lines for their
protection against Indians. Even this small
benefit to the Government was afterward reduced
by a ruling that the stipulation regarding the
transportation of troops meant only that there
should be no charges for trackage, but did not
oblige the company to furnish cars free. It is also
worth while for those who appear to feel that Mex-
ico should be rescued from the consequences of
improvident railroad subsidies granted, to consider
the manner in which the subsidies were dealt with
by the interests building the Mexican and the
American railroads respectively.
Nothing with which foreigners have been con-
nected in Mexico has been more bitterly denounced
by Carranza propagandists than the railroads built
by American investors with the aid of subsidies.
One of the bitterest and most mendacious of these
denunciations appears in a somewhat portentous
volume by DeLara and Pinchon published in New
York under the title of "The Mexican People:
Their Struggle for Freedom/' a few months after
the Carranza revolution began. In a chapter
entitled "The Railways" are some statements
1 14 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
which we quote as examples of the kind of prop-
aganda circulated by the Carrancistas. The
italics appear as in the book:
"Not a dollar of American capital has been ex-
pended anywhere or at any time in the building
of Mexican railroads. They were built entirely by
Mexican capital. And what is more, they were so
immensely oversubsidized, that in many cases they
were built -solely for tbe sake of the subsidy, and in
such a fashion as to be useless for transportation:
e.g., the lines from El Paso and Laredo to Mexico
City. It is true that these railroad stocks were the
playthings of American speculators; and that such
railroads as Mexico possesses have come into a
bastard existence as a result of the cupidity and
lawlessness of American promoters and stock
gamblers, but this indicates the limit of America's
service to Mexico in this respect* * * *
"These much-lauded railroads and govern-
ment enterprises cost the nation unnumbered
millions procured by the most extortionate tax-
ation. Not a dollar of foreign capital was used
in financing them. They were wrought out by the
toil of the common people and financed by the
money of the common people. Even so, for every
million dollars expended in actual construction, at
least three million dollars was wasted in bribery
and embezzlement."
That part of the above quotation which says:
"They were built solely for the sake of the subsidy,
in such fashion as to be useless for transportation :
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 1*5
e.g. the lines from El Paso and Laredo to Mexico
City/' refers to the Mexican Central Railroad
which was built under a subsidy of $ 15, 311 per
mile granted by the law appearing as Appendix L
If, as stated in the foregoing quotation, "for every
million dollars expended in actual construction,
at least three million dollars was wasted in bribery
and embezzlement/* then the portion of the sub-
sidy granted for the Mexican Central Railroad
actually applied to its construction was- $ 3,828
per mile. A little analysis will show how much
credence this statement deserves.
If the line was laid with 75-pound steel rails, 132
tons per mile would have been required which at
$28 a ton, the standard price for years, would have
amounted to $3,696, f . o. b. the mills at Pittsburgh
or Chicago. This would leave a balance of $132
to pay for such essentials as angle bars, bolts,
spikes, and ties, not to mention such details as
freight charges for all material for long distances,
grading, track-laying, and equipping the line. It
does seem doubtful that so much could be done
for $132 a mile, even in Mexico.
As a matter of fact, the Mexican Central runs
for several hundred miles through a desert in which
construction was exceptionally expensive because,
rnot merely all material, but food for the men,
forage for the animals, and even drinking water for
both had to be transported long distances at great
ii6 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
expense. The desert terrain between the Rocky
Mountains and the Sierras, through which the Cen-
tral Pacific was constructed is similar to that
through which the Mexican Central was built. A
reference to Appendix 1 1 will show that in addition
to a subsidy of 12,800 acres of land per mile a cost
of $64,000 per mile was provided for, one-half be-
ing loaned by the Government on a second mort-
gage, the other half to be raised by the company
on its first mortgage bonds. While the cost of
constructing the Central Pacific was excessive,
beyond question, the excess could hardly have been
near 50 per cent, of the total cost. Yet we are
asked by these champions of the Carranza revolu-
tion to believe that the "American speculators"
who constructed the Mexican Central Railroad,
accomplished that expensive work for a cost of
$3,828 per mile, and that they did a great wrong
to Mexico by accepting the government subsidy
of $15,3 u per mile, although it carried with it the
obligation to transport mails free of charge for
ninety-nine years and the provision that at the
end of that period the road should become the
property of the government free of all liens or
encumbrances without the payment of additional
compensation.
To say that the statement above quoted, that
"not a dollar of foreign capital was used in financ-
ing*' these subsidized railroads is false, would
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 1 17
hardly express the reckless disregard for truth
which characterizes the writers of the book referred
to as well as every other Carrancista propagandist
who has endeavoured to poison the minds of the
American people with their outgivings. Further-
more, the Mexican subsidized railroads, after their
construction, were managed with such honesty
that, some years before the end of the Diaz ad-
ministration, it became evident that it would be a
good investment for the Mexican Government to
purchase the controlling interest in the stock of
the Mexican Central Railroad, which the writer
quoted says "was built solely for the sake of the
subsidy and in such fashion as to be useless for
transportation/' This purchase was made by
the Diaz government and its wisdom as a business
venture is shown by the fact that when Diaz went
out of power the net earnings of the Mexican
Central Railroad were sufficient to pay interest
on all of its indebtedness and to pay an annual
dividend of 5 per cent, upon its preferred stock.
The road never found it necessary to go through
a receivership, nor was its operation ever crippled
by financial reverses. Compare this with the
record made by the companies constructing the
Union and Central Pacific lines.
Notwithstanding the enormous land and bond
subsidies granted the Union Pacific Railroad, its
promoters were so greedy that they attempted
n8 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
to secure additional advantages through national
legislation. This attempt resulted in what has
come to be known as the Credit Mobilier scandal.
An investigation by Congress disclosed a shameful
scandal involving the bribing of a number of its
members. The inquiry culminated in a report
recommending the impeachment of two Congress-
men. In addition to this, so improvidently, reck-
lessly, and dishonestly were the finances of the
Union Pacific managed that it passed through two
receiverships before it finally reached a position
of stable financial organization.
While the Central Pacific was never permitted
by its promoters to reach a condition of bank-
ruptcy, it is a well-known fact that the four men
who promoted it organized the "Contract and
Finance Company/' which acted as an inter-
mediary between the railroad company and the
Government, doing the construction work, and
collecting the cash subsidy. When the road was
finished and put into operation, it was found that
the organizers of this construction company, who
were men of very moderate means when they
undertook the enterprise, had all become million-
aires. This fact, together with the scandals which
were unearthed by government investigation of
the Union Pacific, suggested similar investigation
of the Central Pacific construction. When this
investigation took place and it became necessary
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 119
to examine the books of the " Contract and Finance
Company" in order to ascertain the actual cost of
the construction work upon which the government
subsidies had been drawn it was found that they
had all been destroyed.
The fact is that there can be no comparison
between the care shown for the interests of the
Mexican Government in the handling of aid to
railroad construction and the utter lack of care
exhibited by our own Government under similar
circumstances.
In order to justify their dishonest invasion of
the rights of foreigners who made investments in
Mexico previous to and during the Diaz period,
the Carrancistas have assumed the attitude that
foreigners who financed the construction of rail-
roads, either by buying the bonds of the nation
issued to secure the cash subsidies granted or by
supplying the additional cost committed a great
wrong against their country. Certainly no one
will undertake to argue that the railroads are not a
valuable economic asset to the country. Even
under the wretched and dishonest management
that they have had at the hands of the Carrancista
government, they have contributed greatly to the
welfare of Mexico. It is very certain that unless
these roads had been constructed by foreign capital
they would not have^been built at all, for the gov-
ernment was unable to pay the subsidies save by
120 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
selling bonds to foreigners, and the subsidies
granted did not anything like defray the cost of
constructing and equipping them.
A country as wealthy as the United States has
been for many years was not able to finance the
construction of her railroads. At one time, in
addition to holding the major portion of the bond
issues of our principal railroads, foreign investors,
as shown by Wm. G. Ripley in his work on "Rail-
road Finance and Organization/' in the period
from 1890 to 1896 held the absolute majority of
the stock issues in at least five of them; namely,
Illinois Central, 65 per cent.; Pennsylvania, 52 per
cent.; Louisville and Nashville, 75 per cent.; New
York, Ontario and Western, 58 per cent. ; Reading,
52 per cent. At the present time, on account of
the great prosperity which the industry and thrift
of the people of our country have produced, the for-
eign holdings of the stocks and bonds of American
railroads have been almost entirely wiped out by the
purchase of these securities by American investors.
The difference between this country and Mexico
under her Latin-Mexican masters in their treat-
ment of foreign investors is well illustrated in the
matter of investments in railroads in the two coun-
tries. The Americans welcomed foreign capital
in the development of great business enterprises
and depended upon their own industry and thrift
eventually to acquire the properties by purchasing
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 121
the securities. To-day almost every dollar of for-
eign capital that was invested in our railroads has
been returned and the bonds and stocks which
represent this capital are owned by our people. As
a result, we were able to finance the billions of
expenditure for the war by floating national bonds
at a lower rate of interest than any other country
involved was able to secure.
The controlling elements in Mexico have found
what they conceive to be a much easier method
of balancing their account with foreign investors
by confiscating the railroads and refusing to pay
a dollar upon the principal or interest of the
securities issued for their construction. The
result is that to-day Mexico's credit is so poor that
although she has been desperately endeavouring
to raise money in the markets of the world for the
last three years she has been unable to secure one
cent from foreign investors to meet the needs of her
government. Do not these contrasting conditions
suggest to those of our own citizens, among whom
are some of our government officials, who have been
encouraging, or at least palliating and excusing,
the actions of the Carranza government that they
are really doing a deadly injury to that country?
FOREIGN INVESTMENTS IN MEXICAN MINES
The supporters of the present order, or more
correctly disorder, now existing in Mexico, in their
122 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
efforts to win the sympathy of the world, dwell
with much insistence upon the allegation that for-
eigners, particularly Americans, have exploited,
to their benefit and to the injury of the country,
its mineral resources, more especially gold, silver,
and copper.
While it is true that considerable foreign capital,
mostly American, during the past seventy-five
years and particularly during the Diaz regime
when law and order reigned, was invested in mining,
history shows that the enterprises carried on by
foreigners really resulted in taking very little from
the mineral resources of the country that was
available and valuable to its inhabitants.
Mexico, when conquered by the^Spaniards, was
enormously rich in gold and silver, and for the first
three hundred years of Spanish control it con-
tributed immense amounts of those metals to
Spain. During this time, the Mexicans became
excellent prospectors, and were so successful in dis-
covering the rich deposits of gold and silver that
during the last hundred years few new deposits
have been found that were sufficiently rich to pay
for working by the primitive methods employed
by the natives. Furthermore, during the period
when foreigners became interested in Mexican
mining, it was impossible for Diaz, or any other
head of the government, to grant any special
privileges, or rights, to favoured beneficiaries, for
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 123
the reason that a very carefully thought-out and
excellent code of mining laws prescribed, as do
those of the United States, the methods by which
mineral deposits might be secured and worked. A
study of the history of precious-metal mining in
Mexico during the past three quarters of a century
will show that the principal enterprises conducted
by foreigners were of three kinds and usually
involved securing the mines from private owners.
First: the reopening of mines upon which work
had ceased because the Mexican miners had carried
the workings down to a depth at which it became
impossible with their primitive equipment to con-
trol the water, and they had been driven out. The
foreigners, <by applying modern high-powered
pumps, were enabled to unwater these mines
and to fallow the deposits to greater depths than
could ever have been reached by the Mexicans.
Second: the handling of large deposits of low-
grade ores which by the primitive methods of the
Mexicans could never have been treated with pro-
fit, but which, by the application of modern im-
provements, permitting large quantities of ore to
be handled cheaply, enabled the foreigner to make
a profit.
Third: in re-working great dumps of material
that had once been worked by Mexican miners
whose primitive methods failed to extract all the
values* From these old dumps the foreigner with
124 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
his modern methods and machinery was able to
-extract a profit.
During the first three hundred years following
the conquest of Mexico, very much the larger part
of the richest deposits of gold and silver had been
discovered and exhausted to the extent that the
Spanish methods of mining permitted. When
the revolution against Spain began, mining was
nothing like as important as it had been; and, of
course, the disturbed conditions during the eleven-
year contest for freedom further reduced that
industry. Little was done to revive it until some-
time after 1830 when, encouraged by the hope that
the country would have a government of some
stability, the English were first among foreigners
to begin taking an active part in mining. A brief
resum of the development of the principal silver-
and gold-mining centres in Mexico follows.
SILVER MINES
Pacbuca, State of Hidalgo. This camp was dis-
covered by the Spaniards and operated by them
for many years. In this operation, most of the
deposit available under Spanish methods of mining
was exhausted and that fact, together with the
unsettled conditions produced by the revolution
beginning in 1810, resulted in a suspension of min-
ing activity in this centre. About 1830 English
capital became interested in these mines and by
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 125
installing steam-driven Cornish pumps, the new
owners were able to operate them with considera-
ble success until work was greatly curtailed in
1893 by the drop in the price of silver. Later,
American capital joined with British in working
these mines and the American engineers, by in-
troducing the cyanide process of treating the ores,
and cheap power for operating the pumps and
mining machinery from hydroelectric develop-
ments in the vicinity, again brought prosperity
to this section, so that shortly before the revolu-
tion of 1910, Pachuca production of pure metallic
silver was about 1.5 tons per day, making it the
leading producer of silver in Mexico and one of the
most important in the world. But this result was
achieved with low-grade ores which could never
have been mined or reduced at a profit by Mexican
methods.
Guanajuato, State of Guanajuato* The history
of this section corresponds closely to that of
Pachuca, although the ores are of a somewhat
lower grade. After work under Mexican methods
of mining had been suspended for a period, Ameri-
cans undertook to apply modern processes of min-
ing and ore-reduction and, in doing so, invested
large sums. They applied cheap electric power,
supplied by the Central Mexico Light and Power
Company owned by capitalists of Colorado
Springs, Colorado. Much of the ore treated came
126 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
from the old 4umps in which it had been left owing
to the inefficient methods of the Mexicans, and
much other ore was obtained from the workings
where it had been permitted to remain as being
of a grade too low to be treated by the old methods.
At one time there were employed in this camp
about 12,000 Mexican miners and mill men. Some
of the money paid in wages to these men reached
the farmers in the vicinity who raised crops to feed
the mining population, and produced a condition
of great local agricultural prosperity. This work
was suspended when our Government ordered all
Americans to leave Mexico and return to the
United States, and these thousands of Mexican
labourers who were making a good living and the
Mexican farmers, who were furnishing the food for
the labourers, have been the greatest sufferers.
Sierra Mojada, State of Coaluila. This im-
portant producer of lead silver ores is located in a
waterless desert and, contrary to the general rule,
was not discovered by the Spaniards. Work upon
it was begun in 1880 by a number of Mexican
miners and mining companies* The work pro-
ceeded with indifferent results due to inefficient
smelting methods and lack of transportation until
1890 when American capital built a railroad eighty-
five miles in length connecting the camp with the
main line of the Mexican Central Railway, thus
affording an outlet for the ores which, because of
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 127
their character, had to be treated in modern smelt-
ing furnaces in order to recover the silver they
contained. At first the ores were shipped to
Argentine, Kansas, later to El Paso, Texas, and
still later to smelters in San Luis Potosi and Aguas
Calientes, also built and operated by Americans.
At one time prior to the present revolution, the
camp .of Sierra Mojada produced ore at the rate
of about i ,000 tons per day, from which one ton of
pure silver was extracted. A number of the more
important mines remained in the hands of their
original Mexican owners, but were operated under
the direction of American mining engineers. The
camp is now entirely inactive due to the precarious
railway transportation and because of its exposed
situation inviting bandit raids. In the meantime,
of course, thousands of Mexican miners, who were
earning good livings, have been thrown out of em-
ployment and have really been the greatest suf-
ferers by this suspension of an important industry
carried on by American capital and enterprise.
Santa Eulalia, State of Clilualua. This im-
portant camp on the outskirts of the city of
Chihuahua was discovered and worked by the
Spaniards at an early date, but the output was
never very important, because the operators tried
to smelt the lead silver ores in antiquated furnaces
made of stone and adobe. Production here did
not reach full tide until American capital erected
128 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
large smelting works at Chihuahua which enabled
the mines to produce profitably a large tonnage of
relatively low-grade ore. In point of tonnage,
this camp surpassed Sierra Mojada just before the
present revolution, but a portion of the output of
the mines was zinc ore which was shipped to
Kansas and Oklahoma to be treated by modern
methods, aided by cheap fuel.
Parral y State of Chibuabua. This had been one
of the old bonanza camps of the Spaniards, who,
after extracting the high-grade and easily worked
ores, abandoned it as unprofitable. Activities
were not resumed until Boston capitalists extended
a branch of the Mexican Central Railroad to
Parral and Santa Barbara in 1900. Following this
there was a period of great activity involving the
investment of many millions of American capital
in the development of mining properties and the
erection of large cyanide and concentrating mills.
Perhaps half of these yielded favourable results,
although on the wholes the camp has never returned
more than a small fraction of the money spent by
the Americans. The camp was not supplied with
cheap hydroelectric power, although a Canadian
company had about completed a large plant for
this purpose just before operations had to be
suspended on account of the last revolution. One
of the best-known mines of the camp was the
Palmilla, owned by a native Mexican named Pedro
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 129
Alvarado. This mine was unusually rich, and
for a time Alvarado demonstrated his prosperity
to the world in rather a spectacular fashion, among
other things, offering to pay the national debt of
Mexico, and in constructing a palace at Parral said
to have cost about half a million dollars. How-
ever, when his bonanza was worked out and after
he had spent most of his fortune in search of
another, he decided to dispose of his mining in-
terests to a strong Boston company, which built
a large cyanide plant, installed machinery, and
invested money and intelligent effort in de-
veloping the low grade ores which Alvarado had
left behind as valueless. This camp has remained
inactive since the last American there was mur-
dered by so-called revolutionists, . although some
small undertakings were subsequently carried on
under German auspices.
The other and less important silver camps of
Mexico were scattered all over the republic and
are too numerous to specify in detail, but with
hardly any exceptions they had been exploited
by Spaniards or Mexicans at one time or another,
had then been abandoned as unprofitable and later
taken up and worked by American or European
capital, usually expended under the direction of
American mining engineers or practical miners
who had no interest other than that of an employee
earning his livelihood by his ability and education,
130 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
teaching American methods and the use of Amer-
ican mining machinery to the native Mexicans,
thereby increasing their value to their families and
to their country.
GOLD MINES
El Oro, State of Mexico. In recent years, this
camp has been the most important producer of
gold in Mexico. It was not worked by the Span-
iards or Mexicans who overlooked it because the
ores did not out-crop on the surface. The pro-
fessional knowledge of mining engineers was
required to reveal the existence of the ore under the
surface. The large mines were developed by
British and French capital, the former being
expended under the direction of American mining
engineers, who also built the railway connecting
the camp with the outside world. Before the
revolution, this camp gave employment to about
7,000 men. The ores were treated by the cyanide
process introduced by Americans.
San Pedro, State of San Luis Potosi. The vast
gold deposits of this camp were discovered by the
Spaniards and since that event mining activity has
never ceased. Due to the fact that the mines were
dry and the ores were amenable to smelting in
primitive adobe furnaces, Spanish methods were
unusually successful and resulted in the production
of gold by them to the amount of some hundreds of
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 131
millions. So valuable and successful were these
mines that the City of San Luis Potosi, said to have
been at one time the second largest centre of
population in Mexico, was built near them. How-
ever, the exhaustion of the high-grade ores de-
stroyed the prosperity of the city and it was later
reduced to the population of a small town. Long
before 1890, the high-grade ores had been ex-
hausted and operations were confined to the efforts
of Mexican miners scratching around in the old
workings for a few remnants of the former great
bonanza and in picking over the old dumps and
waste material rejected- during the bonanza days.
Later, an American company built a modern
smelter in the city of San Luis Potosi and this
enabled the Mexican owners to increase their
operations'-and handle certain refractory ores to
which their own methods could not be applied.
Thus a measure of prosperity returned to the camp
and was continued until 1903, when it again be-
came necessary to reduce operations to a negligible
minimum on account of the low grade of the ores
and the primitive methods employed in their
extraction. The American company owning the
smelter was then induced to take a lease on the
mining property at San Pedro under a system of
tribute, or royalty, to the native Mexican owners^'
which is still in effect. Because of large sums
expended in development work, new shafts,
i 3 2 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
modern machinery, and the construction of a rail-
way from the smelter to the mines, the output
gradually increased until in 1911 it amounted to
about 700 tons of ore per day and gave employ-
ment to some 2,000 people. Again hydro-
electric power, supplied by American capital,
was a factor in the successful operation of these
low-grade properties where the product was made
up exclusively of material rejected by the Span-
iards and Mexicans, who gutted the best part and
allowed the rest to cave and become mixed with
valueless country rock.
COPPER MINES
With a few unimportant exceptions, the Span-
iards were never able to exploit copper ores in
Mexico successfully; therefore, all of the copper
mines which have been operated in the recent past
were developed by foreign capital. In the order
of their importance, these copper properties are
located and owned, as follows:
Cananea, State of Sonora. Owned by American
capital.
Boleo, Lower California. Owned by French
capital.
Tet%i%dlan, State of PueTdlo. Owned by American
and Italian capital.
Mateluala, State of San Luis PotosL Owned by
American capital.
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 133
Aguas Calientes, Stale of Aguas Calientes.
Owned by American capital.
The refractory nature of these copper ores, all
of which are sulphide, required the expenditure of
large sums for the erection of blast furnaces and
accessories, and the skill and knowledge possessed
by American engineers. In the course of develop-
ing these mines, a great number of unsuccessful
enterprises were undertaken and a vast amount
of American effort and money expended without
the return of any profits.
In conclusion, it should be noted that cheap
coal and coke, the use of cheap hydroelectric
power, together with effective railway transpor-
tation, all of which were supplied by foreign
capital, have played a most important part in the
development during the last thirty years of
Mexico's great mining industry.
None of the mines owned or operated by for-
eigners was ever acquired as a concession or grant
through the favouritism of Diaz, or any other head
of the Mexican Government. They were, in
nearly all instances, either purchased or leased
from Mexican owners and were all acquired under
the general laws governing the acquisition of
mineral properties. Very much the larger num-
ber of them represented a character of mining which
the Mexicans would not, and could not, have
pursued because they had not the initiative, the
134 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
capital, or the engineering knowledge required.
Whatever wealth was taken out of them by the
foreigners would never have been accessible to
the Mexicans. The employment of tens of thou-
sands of natives and the distribution of much
money in the form of wages, cost of food stuffs,
and so forth, represented just so much economic
value which would never have been acquired
save for the investment of foreign capital and
intelligence.
Any one who may be inclined to doubt the
possibility of the exhaustion of easily worked
gold and silver mines in Mexico during the three
hundred years of Spanish rule will find the history
of gold mining in California enlightening. A
pamphlet issued by the California State Mining
Bureau entitled "California Mineral Production
for 1915" contains a very carefully compiled
table showing the annual gold production of that
state from the time of the discovery of gold by
Marshall in 1848, to and including the year 1915.
That table shows that the total production for
the sixty-eight years amounted to the enormous
value of 1,631, 183,696. The precious metal, it
will be borne in mind, was first found in large
placer deposits easily accessible by primitive
methods of mining. The production in 1848,
the year of the discovery of gold, amounted to
$245, 30 i. The annual production increased so
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 135
rapidly that in 1852, the fifth year after the dis-
covery, it reached the maximum production of
$8 1 ,294,700. More than half of the total pro-
duction for the sixty-eight years was made in the
first twenty years after the discovery of gold.
The production rapidly decreased after reaching
its maximum in 1852, until it had fallen in 1889
to $11,219,913. Meanwhile the exhaustion of
the easily accessible placer deposits had directed
the attention of miners to the values carried in
veins and in low-grade placer deposits which could
only be worked by the expensive mechanical process
known as dredging. Both vein mining and placer
dredging require the investment of large sums of
money and the use of a much higher degree of skill.
By these methods, the gold production of the state
has been gradually increased until in 1915 it
reached the value of $22,442,296, but it has never
approached the maximum realized in the fifth
year after the discovery of gold.
When it is recalled that the population of Mexico
was much more dense than that of California when
gold was discovered and that for three hundred
years the people had been engaged in gold and
silver mining, and the development of that in-
dustry had been stimulated by the urgent demands
of the mother country for the payment of tribute
in these precious metals, it will be seen that the
probability of the exhaustion of the easily access-
136 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
ible deposits after three hundred years was very
great, and that these deposits were so exhausted
everyone familiar with the history of mining in
Mexico knows.
Careful study will show the accusation, so often
repeated by revolutionists bent upon confiscation,
that the Mexican people have been robbed of great
mineral wealth by foreigners, to be a pure inven-
tion of men desirous of justifying, or palliating,
the wrongs they have perpetrated. The net
result up to date of the seven years of revolutionary
aggression upon the foreign-owned mining in-
vestments is that some hundreds of thousands of
Mexican labourers, who were earning wages many
times greater than they were ever paid by their
former Latin-Mexican employers, have been
denied the opportunity to make a living, and have
been reduced to conditions of misery and suffering
almost without a parallel even in the history of
their own turbulent country.
FOREIGN INVESTMENTS IN MEXICAN 'LANDS
Since Mexico became self-governing the agrarian
question has been most often assigned as the cause
for the political unrest which has formed, so large
a part of her history. As, previous to the Diaz
regime with its enforced law and order, few for-
eigners had acquired land in Mexico, the com-
plaint against agrarian conditions prior to that
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 137
<!
period was that the lands were monopolized by the
Latin element, which had originally acquired them
in large holdings after the conquest by Cortes.
This condition it was asserted, and with much
truth, had been continued by the successors of the
original Latin conquerors, thus denying the native
or peon population an opportunity to acquire an
interest in the lands.
It is true that since Mexico became independent
there has been considerable change in the owner-
ship of lands. Every revolutionary movement
has been characterized by the looting of personal
property and, in the vast majority of cases where
revolutions have been successful, they have been
followed by the confiscation of real property,
owned by the supporters of the losing faction, for
the benefit of the successful revolutionists. But,
inasmuch as the confiscated lands were distributed
to the leaders of the successful party and they were
almost universally representative of the ruling
Latin race, the relation of the peon masses to land-
holding was little affected by these changes in
ownership.
It is true that Juarez, after he returned to power
at the end of the Maximilian epoch, did confiscate
numbers of large real-estate holdings of the Church
with some that had been owned by supporters of
Maximilian, and provided for their division among
the working class. He did this because, being of
i 3 8 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
pure Indian blood, he was most sympathetic with
the peon class and because, being an honest man
and a patriot, he made an honest effort to cany
out the promises he had made to redress unfavour-
able agrarian conditions. But his tenure of office,
and life, ended soon after the beginning of this
eifort to establish conditions more just to the
masses, and the beneficiaries of his distribution of
lands being unable to hold them against the mach-
inations of the governing Latin element, Juarez's
efforts to readjust agrarian conditions met with the
same ultimate failure that had followed the few
other attempts to put the masses of the people into
possession of some of the lands.
When Diaz succeeded to power there was no
very marked change in the ownership of large real-
estate holdings, but it appears that shortly after
his accession a number of the revolutionary leaders
under him became owners of extensive tracts of
land, and the acquisition of some of these from the
public domain was probably facilitated by the
government. However, these changes in owner-
ship, like others that had been made as the result
of various triumphant revolutions, did not work
any improvement in agrarian conditions for the
peon masses, because the new owners still repre-
sented the governing Latin element and held the
land in large tracts.
During the three hundred years of Spanish con-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 139
trol and for some time after its close, the industrial
interests of the nation were almost entirely agri-
cultural, pastoral, and mining. Intelligent and
persistent effort to develop railroad construction,
manufacturing, and other new business enterprises
appears to have been first begun under the patriot,
Juarez, continued under his successor, Tejada, and
to have been most successful under Diaz, because
of the long period of law and order which his stern
methods maintained* Previous to the attraction
of foreign capital to Mexico her original industries
had been conducted in the primitive and slip-shod
manner characteristic, even at the present time,
of most Latin-Mexicans. As a result there was
little or no attempt at intensive cultivation of the
lands, assisted by comprehensive modern methods
of irrigation, which so large a part of the lands
require. The same condition 1 existed in the
pastoral industry, which was little assisted by any
intelligent effort to increase the value of its product
by improvement of breeds and supplementing the
food supply of the natural ranges by the production
of forage crops.
Shortly after foreign capital became interested
in Mexico under Diaz, it was only natural that the
attention of investors should have been attracted
to the opportunities for making money by acquir-
ing lands and applying modern methods to their
management. It became evident to foreign in-
140 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
vestors that Mexico offered unusual opportunities
for profit in the production of coffee, of cattle by
improving the grades and producing forage crops
for feed and, later, by the production of rubber
which had become, by the invention of the auto
vehicle, of such great importance in the economic
life of the world.
It was also discovered that large tracts of arid
land could be made wonderfully productive by
irrigation in a comprehensive way involving the
investment of large sums of money. Within the
last thirty years considerable sums have been
invested in land in the tropic regions which was
unproductive jungle until put by foreign pur-
chasers to profitable use in the production of coffee
and rubber. Foreigners have also invested in
large areas of ranch lands which have in every
instance been purchased, most often from private
owners, but, in rare instances, from the govern-
ment at prices fixed by law. These properties,
by the application of modern methods of manage-
ment, were made much more valuable than they
would ever have been in the possession of their
original Latin-Mexican owners.
There have been also established by Amer-
icans a number of agricultural colonies where the
lands were divided into small holdings which were
occupied by American families and were cultivated
under the methods, and with the improved ma-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 141
chinery, used in the United States. This latter
development should have been of peculiar eco-
nomic value to Mexico, for, in addition to produc-
ing a large amount of permanent taxable values
for the country and giving employment to many
of the common labourers at wages in excess of any-
thing they had ever received from native land-
owners, they furnished a constant example to the
people of modern methods of land cultivation
which in time should, and doubtless would, have
benefited that larger part of the population, en-
gaged in agriculture.
A most important development of foreign land-
ownership has been brought about in the last
twenty years by the investment- of foreign capital,
principally from the United States, in great rec-
lamation projects. Comprehensive and costly
systems of irrigation have made arid lands, pre-
viously of no economic value, very productive. An
example of this may be found in the vicinity of
Torreon, where English and American capital
utilized the waters of a river in irrigating many
thousands of acres of land formerly arid that for
some years past have produced large and valuable
crops of cotton. I have had some opportunity of
observing an irrigation enterprise carried out dur-
ing the past fifteen years by American capital
Here by utilizing the waters of a river, nearly a
hundred thousand acres of arid land, which pre-
142 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA ,
viously had never produced a dollar, has been made
to yield great crops of cotton and forage. This
one enterprise alone has added millions in value
to the permanent taxable property of Mexico and
it is to-day paying taxes to the extent of more than
a hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually to
the territorial government in which the land is
situated. While the taxes are high, the owners
of this particular investment are somewhat con-
soled by the fact that the territorial government,
in marked exception to the general rule, has at its
head an honest and efficient executive who sees
to it that these revenues are used in maintaining
order, constructing highways, maintaining public
schools, and for other public improvements.
Since early in the Diaz regime and during its
continuance, Mexico had a system of land laws
which provided, as do similar laws in our country,
for the sale of public land at prices and upon terms
named therein. After these laws were enacted
and until they were set aside by the Carranza
government, itr was never possible for Diaz, or any
one else, to make a grant or gift of any public lands
to any citizen or foreigner. A somewhat careful
investigation has failed to discover a single instance
in which land in Mexico is held by a citizen of the
United States by virtue of any public grant or con-
cession in the nature of a gift. As in the case of
mining and oil properties, what lands have been
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 143
acquired in that country by our citizens have been
bought at a price which represented the full value
of the land to the owners; and if, under the man-
agement of the foreign owner, the lands became
worth more than was paid for them, as they un-
doubtedly did in most cases, this increased value
was attributable entirely to the energy and in-
telligence of the foreign owner.
This success of the foreign owner, while produc-
ing some profit to him, has necessarily been of
great economic value to the people and nation, be-
cause it has furnished employment for labour at
rates in every instance greater than the Latin-
Mexican landowner paid; it has increased by
millions the taxable property of the country; and
it has afforded an object lesson in improved meth-
ods of management and cultivation which should
have been of great value to the people of the coun-
try. Yet, the American investor, who has thus
added to the prosperity of Mexico, is denounced
by the element now in power as a robber of the
people. We shall see in another chapter how these
foreigners have been deprived of their properties,
their homes wrecked and ruined, and many of
them, with their families, murdered. In nothing
more than in the treatment, by the people now in
power, of the foreigner who has acquired landed
interests in Mexico, as contrasted with the treat-
ment of the foreigner who has acquired land in our
144 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
own country, is the difference between the policies
which direct the government of the two countries
shown.
The largest privately owned tract of land in the
United States is the great Maxwell Ranch, in New
Mexico, This tract, consisting of about 1,470,000
acres, has for years belonged to Dutch capitalists
and is devoted principally to stock grazing. But
nobody has heard any accusations that these for-
eign investors have inflicted a grievous wrong upon]
our people by becoming owners of this great hold-
ing. Probably every citizen of New Mexico would
resent indignantly any suggestion that he desired
to see his state, or its citizens, become the pos-
sessors of this land by confiscation. The indus-
trious Scandinavian peoples, who settled the great
Northwest, and made their homes upon land
acquired for a very small part of its actual value
from the Government, and who are to-day the
most responsible factors in the prosperity of states
like Minnesota and Wisconsin, rendered the same
service to this country that the industrious Amer-
icans who settled in a number of agricultural
colonies and made their homes and developed lands
there rendered to Mexico.
I have in mind an Italian colony established
some years ago upon cheap land in a sparsely set-
tled section of my native state, Arkansas. These
industrious Italians, on land that before had pro-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 145
duced nothing of value, have established beautiful
farms and vineyards, have built an attractive
little town where the fine church and school build-
ings are the pride of the community, and have
turned a section of country which was almost un-
productive into a garden spot, the site of many
happy homes of an industrious people. So proud
is the state of what these people have done that
their achievements are described and illustrated
in books and pamphlets advertising the resources
of the state.
The only reference to similar enterprises which
have been established by Americans in Mexico
that will be found in the propagandist literature
issued by the Carranza party takes the form of
denunciation of the foreigners who have estab-
lished these little centres of industry and produc-
tion as robbers of the Mexican people. The fact
is that the Latin-Mexican element which at all
times has been in control of the government and
which, until foreigners became interested and
developed valuable properties there under the
encouragement of the Diaz regime had busied
themselves in using a hundred revolutionary
movements to confiscate the property of each
other has found that to-day the properties most
valuable and which, therefore, appeal most to its
lawless greed, are those built up by the intelligence,
enterprise and industry of foreigners. This ele-
I 4 6 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
ment is now industriously engaged in confiscating
these properties, and is endeavouring to justify
and excuse its acts by accusing the people who
have built them up of being robbers of their coun-
tiy.
In the United States we welcome the invest-
ment of the money, the intelligence, and the in-
dustry of foreigners, and recognize them as assets
added to the prosperity of the country. Because
we have pursued that policy we stand to-day with-
out a peer in national prosperity, wealth, and credit.
The powers now in control in Mexico, in gratify-
ing their greedy desire for property created by
the foreigner, have so destroyed the prosperity
of their country that thousands of their people
within the past five years have died of starvation,
other thousands are on the brink of destruction,
and the credit of their country is so low that they
are unable to raise a dollar by public loans. - Surely
such a comparison of results should give pause to
those who may feel inclined to encourage or to
tolerate such a spirit as is now dominant in the
management of governmental affairs in Mexico.
CHAPTER IV
Hew tie Carrancistas Have Treated
the Interests of Foreign Investors
HAVING learned in the preceding chapter
that the Carrancistas denounce foreign
investments as a great wrong against
their country, and having examined in detail the
nature and extent of these alleged injuries, it may
be of interest to ascertain just how these self-
constituted guardians of the National honour have
avenged the offenses, and what steps they have
taken to put the Mexican people in possession of
their own. It would be logical, if anything re-
lating to such an extraordinary point of view may
be so characterized, for the Carrancistas to begin
their task of redressing grievances by first calling
to account the alien investments most vitally
important to the economic welfare of Mexico; and
that is precisely what they did.
Cheap fuel is a prime requisite of industry.
Until a score of years ago Mexico was almost
entirely dependent upon coal imported from the
United States at heavy expense for fuel for railroad
and industrial needs. Then coal of good quality
147
I 4 8 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
was discovered in the State of Coahuila. Amer-
ican, French, English, and Mexican capitalists
combined to form the Companfa Carbonifera
Agujita e Annexas which developed large mines at
Agujita and Lampacitos which furnished the rail-
roads with an abundant supply of much cheaper
fuel than they had ever had before, and also ren-
dered possible the building of large smelters, the
development of iron mines, the establishment of
iron and steel production, and other important
industries.
These alien coal barons were not long permitted
to continue their crime of enabling many thou-
sands of Mexicans to earn a far better livelihood
than they had ever enjoyed before cheap fuel be-
came known. One of the first acts of Carranza
after his revolution was anounced in the "Plan
of Guadalupe," on March 26, 1913, was to send
his brother, Jestis Carranza, on May 26 to call
these coal producers to account. Perhaps the
story of what followed cannot be better told than
in the words of an American who was interested
in the works. Here is what he wrote:
** Shortly after the assassination of President.
Madero, the mines at Lampacitos were visited by
General Jesfis Carranza, a brother of the present
First Chief of Mexico, who, in command of a revolu-
tionary body, demanded of the manager of the
mines that he be paid 100,000 pesos, in default of
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 149
which, he threatened to burn and destroy the plant.
As the manager had not such a sum in his posses-
sion, and telegraphic communication with thehead-
quarters of the Company in the City of Mexico was
interrupted, he was unable to comply with the de-
mand and General Carranza thereupon proceeded
to destroy the plant, and in prosecution of such
intent, dynamited several hundred coke ovens,
burned most of the houses and buildings, and de-
stroyed the extensive structures of the company,
such as the tipple and washer.
"After completing such work of destruction,
General Jesfis Carranza announced that he in-
tended to march immediately to Agujita, the other
plant of the company, situated some fifty miles
from Lampacitos and that if, by the time he arrived
there, the money previously demanded by him was
not paid, he would destroy the plant in Agujita.
"Upon arriving at the latter named place, the
corporation representative being without money
and being unable to comply with the demand of
general Carranza, the latter proceeded to destroy
the plant at Agujita and would have succeeded,
as in the case of Lampacitos but for the fact that his
troops were frightened away before the destruc-
tion was completed by the rumoured approach of
Huerta's forces. * * *
"General Carranza did not destroy a large body
of coke which was on hand at the time of the dep-
redations committed by him and his forces and this
has been regarded by the shareholders of the com-
pany as one of the sources from which it would be
able to derive large sums of cash to be immediately
used in the work of rehabilitating the mines.
i 5 o MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
" I am just in receipt of a Declaration of For-
feiture of various mining properties in Coahuila,
including among others the plant at Agujita above
described. The R. Muzquiz, whose name is signed
to the Declaration of Forfeiture, I am informed, is
the Chief at Coahuila of the civil partisans of First
Chief Carranza.
"It is believed that the first object of the Dec-
laration of Forfeiture is to provide means whereby
some 30,000 tons of coke on hand, and worth at the
present time about 2,000,000 pesos in Carranza
currency, may be disposed of/'
Observe the thoroughness with which this par-
ticular alien wrong was set right. First, Carranza,
through his brother, imposes a penalty of 100,000
pesos upon the coal company for producing the
fuel which made it possible for many thousands
of Mexicans to earn a livelihood. Failing to col-
lect promptly enough, he wrecks the property as
a warning to other aliens to be quick with the cash.
The fact that several thousand Mexicans employed
in and around the mines were left to starve was a
minor incident. Finally, he declares the title to
these important mining enterprises forfeited be-
cause the owners had ceased to operate them after
Jestis Carranza did such a good job of wrecking
them.
What happened to these coal mines is typical
of the fate of most industrial enterprises owned by
Americans in Mexico. To make the story com-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 151
plete the fact may be added that after the mines
had stood idle for some time, because the owners,
having no assurance of protection, dared not re-
store them to operation, the properties were
purchased for a very small part of their value by a
corporation representing a group of German
capitalists whose headquarters are in Frankfort-
on-the-Main. The new owners, under the pro-
tection which everything German receives from
Carranza, have reopened these mines, and are now
producing coal and coke with which to operate
smelters which they have also acquired in Mexico,
and which are conducted in competition with
American-owned smelters whose operations have
been hampered in every way, and some of which
have been closed altogether by the exactions of the
government.
The foregoing is only one of numerous instances
in which Germans have been able to secure, at a
small fraction of their true worth, properties belong-
ing to citizens of our own country and of our allies,
France and Great Britain, the value of which had
been largely destroyed by the exactions of the gov-
ernment now in power in Mexico.
The most humiliating result of the Germanophile
character of the Carranza element has been that it
has forced American citizens to seek for their
properties the protection of the German flag. An
incident of this sort some time ago came to my
152 . MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
attention because it happened to concern residents
of Los Angeles with whom I am very well ac-
quainted. These men were developing a large
rubber and coffee plantation in Mexico. They
purchased the land, which was unimproved jungle,
from private owners at a good price. Had the
plans of the investors been carried out, a great
property worth millions of dollars, subject to
taxation, would have been created. They hap-
pened to have as a manager a German whose
nationality was attested by a distinctly Teutonic
name. This man had shown himself to be trust-
worthy, and, when it became evident that the
powers in Mexico had great respect for German
rights and none whatever for those of citizens of
the United States, the owners of this great property
placed it in the name of their German manager.
Some time ago they showed me a letter from this
manager, in which, after telling that all the goods
in the store maintained on the property had been
taken by a company of soldiers from military head-
quarters near by, he continued:
" I am glad to inform you that we were able to
recover most of the goods taken away from us by
the government to the capital. The governor,
hearing they belonged to us, gave order for their
release and what was left was immediately returned
to us. When we think of the fact that other people
have lost their entire stock and shipments, we may
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 153
consider ourselves belonging to the more favour-
ably and considerately treated people/'
The other people referred to in the quotation
were foreigners, not Germans, who had not been
provident enough to place their properties under the
aegis of a German name. The existence in a
neighbouring country of a condition which makes
it necessary for American citizens to seek pro-
tection from looting and destruction of their
property by placing it under the protection of the
bloody flag of Germany is something which no one
who endeavours to confine himself to moderate
language can comment upon.
Some years ago, the Richardson Construction
Company, including some of the wealthiest men
in New York City, was organized for the purpose
of impounding the waters of the Yaqui River to
irrigate a body of 800,000 acres of arid land in the
Yaqui Valley. The company purchased from
private owners about 400,000 acres in the state
of Sonora. The remainder of the Iand w to be ir-
rigated belonged to numerous private holders,
mostly Mexican citizens. A contract was made
between the company and the national govern-
ment, by the terms of which the company, in con-
sideration of certain payments made and certain
obligations assumed, was authorized to use the
waters of the river up to a designated maximum
154 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
which was estimated as being the amount required
to irrigate all the land under the project. The
rates at which this water was to be furnished by the
company to the owners of land were named in the
agreement, and were very low much lower, in
fact, than the rates for irrigation which prevail in
Southern California. The land, while unproduc-
tive in its arid state, is, when irrigated, among
the most fertile in the world. A date for the com-
pletion of the work was named, with the provision
that the term should be extended to cover any
delays in the work for which the company was not
responsible. The company by the terms of its
contract gave security for the carrying out of its
agreement, the estimated total cost of which was
about 14,000,000. The land, under irrigation,
would have been worth $100 per acre or more.
The project fully carried out would have created
an economic asset, subject to taxation, of a value,
of nearly or quite $100,000,000. The company
in 1909, entered into an agreement with the state
government of Sonora, by the terms of which the
state, appreciating that the land was of little value
until canals could be built, agreed not to assess its
holdings higher than 4 pesos a hectare for the term
of ten years.
From 1912 until the present time, conditions in
the Yaqui Valley have been so uncertain and the
raids of the Yaqui Indians have been so unre-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 155
strained that the company has been unable to
begin the construction of its large dams. Pending
this work, however, the company has constructed
a wing dam and has built about 400 miles of canals
which provide irrigation for 30,000 acres of land,
about one half of which belongs to Mexican citi-
zens. The company also established an experi-
mental station for testing the value of various
agricultural products, and published, in Spanish
and English, bulletins giving the result of these
experiments, which were distributed gratuitously
to all applicants. In other words, it established
a fully equipped agricultural experiment station,
giving to the Mexican people a service which their
own government had never adequately performed.
In 1915 the Carranza government installed
General Calles as military governor of the state
of Sonora. Among the first acts of this governor
was the issuance of a decree, No. 17, dated Decem-
ber 23, 1915, the apparent object of which was the
confiscation of property by levying high taxes
impossible of payment, especially so that the land
could not be used because of Yaqui Indian depre-
dations and generally abnormal conditions* When
the company objected to this taxation and referred
to its contract with the state government of
Sonora, dated 1909, it was told that Governor
Calles had cancelled this contract and that it must
pay the taxes provided in the decree.
156 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
Under the political organization of Mexico, the
territory of the state is divided into a number of
smaller areas called municipalities; these munici-
palities have no relation to the density of popula-
tion in the country, but are extensive areas of coun-
try land, frequently including 500 square miles or
more. In addition to the assessment made by the
state government for purposes of taxation, the
municipality assessed the land an amount varying
from 50 per cent, to 75 per cent, of the state as-
sessment. Under the national law of taxation as
established by Carranza's government, national
revenue stamps to the amount of 60 per cent, of
the amount of the state and municipal taxes must
be placed upon the receipts for these taxes before
they are valid. Thus the projectors of this great
enterprise were met with a demand to pay a state
tax upon their arid lands assessed at the value
of productive lands; to pay a municipal tax rang-
ing from 50 per cent, to 75 per cent, of the state's
valuation and, in addition, to pay a national tax
which was 60 per cent, of the sum of the state and
municipal taxes.
It may be interesting to note in this connection
that during the Diaz period the maximum of the
national stamp tax required to be paid upon state
taxes was only 20 per cent, while the Carranza
government has tripled the national tax. This
assessment was resisted by the company. The
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 157
government of Sonora then proceeded to sell some
of the company's improved property, including
company buildings, to satisfy the state tax, and
demanded that the company should pay on ac-
count of this tax one half of all its receipts from
irrigation, and proceeded to enforce the demand
by taking money from the safe in the company's
office by force. Later on, these assessments were
modified. But recently the company has been
faced by an exaction in another form which shows
the utter lack of conscience, as well as of all care
for the economic future of their country, which
characterizes the Carranza officials.
The last exaction came in the form of a federal
decree demanding that the company pay an
annual tax on the maximum amount of water that
its contract with the federal government gives
it the right to divert from the Yaqui River for the
irrigation of the entire valley, approximately
800,000 acres of land, payment of this annual tax
to begin at once, although the contract provides a
period of approximately twenty years in which to
complete the irrigation system and subdivide the
lands that will then, and not until then, be using
the maximum amount of water provided. Upon
the representative of the company explaining to the
Secretary of Fomento that the company could not
exist under such a burden, especially as it was being
prevented from completing its work by the failure
I 5 8 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
of the government to protect its workmen from
raids by the Yaqui Indians and that it stood
ready at all times to carry out its agreement as
soon as conditions permitted, it was met with a
threat that its right to the waters of the Yaqui
River would be forfeited and that innumerable
smaller rights to these waters would be issued so
that each man or small group of men could provide
their own system of irrigation.
Of course, it would be utterly impossible to
irrigate adequately and economically so great an
area of land except by one --system under single
management, requiring many millions of dollars.
With this investment made, as originally planned,
water would be delivered for irrigating this wonder-
fully rich territory at a very low cost. The Mexi-
can Government has no money to carry out the
plan and no prospects of ever securing any. Yet,
because the company will not submit to a robbery
which would bankrupt it in a short time, this offi-
cial of the national government proposes to de-
stroy an enterprise that would produce hundreds
of millions of value where nothing exists to-day.
It would also furnish employment to thousands of
Mexican labourers and would result in building
up a great property subject to taxation.
This is one example of the way many enter-
prises of like character are being destroyed by the
Carranza government as a result of a short-sighted
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 159
and unpatriotic greed which prefers a few dollars
of loot in the present to a great national benefit in
the future.
In all the stories that have been written of the
robbery and ofttimes murder by revolutionists
during the last seven years, and especially by the
revolutionists headed by Carranza, nothing is
more pitiful than the destruction of a number of
agricultural colonies established by Americans.
These colonists represented foreign invasion of the
most beneficent character. The members of these
communities were industrious, frugal Americans
whose efforts were devoted to making land, which
before had been unproductive, yield the things
most needed in their adopted country.
The first result of the success of these colonies
consisted in increasing the national wealth to a
large extent by producing property subject to
taxation. They also gave employment to great
numbers of the agricultural labouring class of
Mexicans at wages higher than they had ever
before known. In addition, they furnished ex-
amples to the Mexican people of improved methods
of cultivation which should have made them of
great economic value to the country.
There were a number of these American colonies,
at Garcia, Pacheco, Juarez, Dublan, Diaz, and
other places in the states of Sonora and Chi-
huahua. An incomplete list of these colonists,
160 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
prepared by U. S. Senator Fall of New Mexico for
the use of our Secretary of State, enumerates 284
men, 301 women, and 1,266 children, 1,100 of
whom had been born in Mexico. AH the persons
on this list not born in Mexico had lived there
from ten to twenty-eight years.
A typical example of what these colonists were
subjected to is shown by the following statement
of one of them:
"There must have been 125 houses destroyed at
Colonia Diaz, which I believe suffered more than
the others. We had just three hours to get out,
leaving all the accumulations of years of hard work.
Oh, it was hard ! I don't want to think of it. We
left June 2, 1913, as the bandits destroyed my two-
story granary and threshing machine. I laid out
that place twenty-eight years ago and, so to speak,
grew up with it, so you can imagine how I feel in
the matter. Several times the Mexicans thrashed
through the colony, playing havoc with it each time
until now it is in absolute ruin. Beautiful homes
all destroyed, farm equipment burned. Every-
thing those wretches could lay their hands on they
burned or wrecked. I had 300 head of Polled
Angus cattle; I saved only 29 head. Of 8c horses
we had on the ranch, only 8 escaped the hands of
the bandits. In that section, there were ten stal-
lions worth $50,000. We did manage to save 3
or 4 from the bandits. I had 6,000 bushels of
wheat on my ranch a year ago. It went quickly
when the revolutionists showed up. In the colony
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 161
altogether there must have been 40,000 bushels,
all of which went. There were about 4,000 people
in the colonies. There are now only a few families
left and they are in danger."
It will be noted that the outrages recited by this
American citizen, who had devoted twenty-eight
years of his life to building up a valuable property,
occurred after the beginning of the Carranza
revolution, March 26, 1913. While the outrages
were not all perpetrated by followers of Carranza,
most of them were, because his followers were more
numerous than those of all other revolutionist
leaders combined.
The American farmers who composed these
little centres of agricultural industry and pros-
perity were in no sense exploiters of Mexico under
concessions granted by the Diaz government, for
they had purchased the land upon which they
built their homes and depended upon their own
industry, economy, and enterprise for the pros-
perity which they had achieved, and not upon any
advantage secured by concessions, or privileges
of any kind granted by the Mexican Government.
The destructive effects of the Carranza govern-
ment on the financial life of the country are shown
in the treatment of the greatest two banking
institutions in its capital city; the Banco Nacional,
representing French capital, and the Bank of Lon-
162 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
don and Mexico, representing French and English
capital. The following description of the way the
Carranza government dealt with the Banco Na-
cional was secured from a man who was at one
time connected with that institution. He says:
"Since the Carranza government came into
power the bank has been obliged to accept at par,
in payment of the loans which it made formerly,
either in specie or notes of the Banco Nacional, the
paper money issued by the Carranza government
which had depreciated in value and was worth only
five or six cents instead of fifty cents (its face
value).
"For having tried timidly to prevent the afflux
of this depreciated paper in its vaults, the directors
of the bank were imprisoned and the employees
were molested.
"The paper of the other governments (Villa and
Zapata), which the bank was obliged to receive in
payment, was declared to be invalid and it had to
be remitted to the authorities and destroyed.
"It is thus that more than 30,000,000 pesos in
current account alone, representing active funds
of the bank amounting to $15,000,000 were reim-
bursed by paper which, on an average, was not
worth more than three or four million dollars.
"On September 15, 1916, Carranza issued a
decree annulling the concessions of circulation of
the banks, fixing a period of sixty days in which to
increase their specie holdings up to an amount
equal to the amount of their circulation, estab-
lishing Sequestration Councils composed of three
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 163
members nominated by the government and for-
bidding the banks to transact any business without
the sanction of the Secretary of Hacienda.
"On September 26, the Council of Sequestration
named by the government went to the Banco
Nacional to take possession. As the Directors*
Council of the bank protested against these violent
measures, on September 28, the manager and the
assistant manager of the bank were arrested at
their homes by order of the military authorities,
while an armed force presented itself at the bank,
making all employees and domestics leave and
then closing the doors.
"The bank was forced to grant to the govern-
ment a first loan of 5,000,000 gold pesos. This
forced loan was followed by others until all specie
holdings of the bank were successively remitted
to the government and the bank was thus despoiled
of thirty to thirty-five million pesos in gold and
silver which had g^ranteed the circulation before
the Carranza gover nment came into power. Since
then and until the present time the bank, besides
having been thus cicp rived of its specie holdings,
was forbidden to transact any financial business,
exchange or other; so that it is obliged to main-
tain a staff of employees and to meet general ex-
penses which are very high, while it is impossible
for it to earn a cent. Practically, the Banco Na-
cional has seen its credit balance reduced to almost
nothing, as a result of theobligation taaccept paper
money; its concession which was granted in 1884 has
been annulled; it has been forbidden to-transactany
financial business, even the most legitimate; In
principle, its management is in the hands of the
164 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
Council of Seguestration although in fact, thanks
to the loans which have been granted, the old ad-
ministration has been tolerated; almost all of its
branches have been closed; finally, it has been
obliged to loan to the government its entire specie
holdings, "gold" and silver/'
The experience of the London and Mexico Bank
was equally disastrous. On July 3, 1917, the
Board of Directors of that Bank published its
annual report in El Universal, the leading daily
paper of the City of Mexico, in which it said:
"It was then reported that of the amount of
more than nineteen million pesos in gold and silver
in bars and coin which has been in the bank's
vaults, there had been slowly taken away from
January 18, 1917, until the present time, the sum
of more than seventeen million pesos; there re-
maining in the vaults, according to information
received by the Board of Directors, only about two
million pesos. In the report it was stated that the
Board of Receivers (a board appointed by and
representing the Carranza government), ordered
that 'the cash department and the safes should
always remain open, which measure obliged the
Board of Directors to put a corps of employees on
guard in this department, day and night, to avoid
responsibility for abstraction of funds from the
vaults falling on those not responsible.
"The Board stated categorically that of the
$\g, 611,141 in specie which were in the vaults of
the bank, hardly $2,000,000 remain, as the Board
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 165
of Receivers, had disposed of the difference, and
that the said Board of Receivers has sold at the
lowest prices securities considered first class by
the bank.
"That on February 15, 1917, the Department
of Finance refused to recognize the bank's Board
of Directors, refusing to take up any matter
connected with the institution with them and
ordered that the Board of Receivers liquidate
the bank.
" Mention was made of a communication from
the Department of Finance in October last year,
asking for delivery to the mint of the bars of
metal which the bank had in vault and a message
from the Sub-Secretary of Finance was annexed,
sent from Queretaro to the manager of the bank,
categorically stating that the money coined there-
from would be returned to the bank; and it
was reported that, notwithstanding this assur-
ance given by the Sub-Secretary of Finance, com-
pliance with this written oifer has never been
made.
"Finally, it was stated that of 820 silver bars,
taken by the government, worth more than a mil-
lion pesos, national gold, and eighty gold bars
worth. 1,840,1 19 pesos, to be coined by the mint,
they have returned to the bank, in the breach of
the offer made from Queretero by the Sub-Sec-
retary of Finance, only 299,675 pesos for the silver
bars and 200,000 pesos for the gold bars, causing
the bank a deficit of 2,697,387 pesos/'
The foregoing instances of the robbery of for-
eigners by the government now in power might
166 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
be multiplied until they would fill all the pages of
this book without exhausting the list. They are
given as being merely illustrative of the character
of the Carrancistas. The list of what they have
wrecked and ruined might be extended to include
mines, smelters, public-service corporations, rail-
roads, and in fact every kind of financial and in-
dustrial enterprise which contributes to the well-
being of a country.
The spirit of looting and dishonesty which rules
the present government appears to have been very
frankly indicated in a series of articles published
last year by Luis Cabrera, at one time Secretary
of Finance in the Carranza cabinet and one of the
most prominent leaders in the Carranza revolu-
tionary party. It appears that Mr. Cabrera had
been accused by some of his enemies of profiting
by his control of the national finances. In re-
sponse to this accusation, he published three
articles in El Universal, in the City of Mexico, in
which, while admitting that large amounts of
property and sums of money had come into pos-
session of the military officials as a result of rob-
bery and confiscation, he denies that this money
had found its way into the national or state
treasuries. In his explanation Secretary Cabrera
shows how this was done, as follows (we quote
verbatim from El Universal; the italics are
ours) :
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 167
" By disposing of articles other than money, such
as furniture, automobiles, or real estate, for per-
sonal use or for profit.
"During the constitutionalists' revolution, the
case has been repeated, with unfortunate fre-
quency, under the pretext of confiscating 'inter-
vened' properties, and great quantities of private
property have been seized in the beginning for the
nation, but the confiscators bave used them for per-
sonal profit or sold them for money. It is unneces-
sary to bring proofs of this, for unfortunately,
almost all of the confiscation of the enemies 9 proper-
ties, with honourable exceptions, bave been made with
tbe deliberate intention of converting tbe goods for
private use. This goes from the mere loan* of a
horse or saddle, from tbe requisition of grain and
fodder which are not used for tbe troops, to the oc-
cupation of louses, property, and ranches wbicb
bave been confiscated and were cultivated and exploited
directly for tie benefit of tbe confiscate*"
Following is a list of some of the important
properties belonging to foreigners of which the
Carranza government has taken possession and is
using without compensation to the owners:
National Railways of Mexico: representing Brit-
ish, American and French capital;
Mexican Railway, Vera Cruz-Mexico City; British
capital;
Wells-Fargo Express Co.; American capital;
Vera Cruz to the Isthmus Railway; American and
British capital; "
168 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
Inter-Oceanic Railway; British capital;
Mexico Telephone and Telegraph Co.; American
capital;
Street Railway of Mexico City; Canadian and
American capital;
Railways of Yucatan; British capital;
Mexican Navigation Co.; American capital; Ships
under Mexican flag;
The London and Mexico Bank; French and Brit-
ish capital;
The Banco Nacional; French capital.
The railways have been almost entirely wrecked;
the capital of the banks has been used for the pur-
poses of the Carranza government and not one
cent has been paid, or any effort made to pay one
cent, to the owners of these properties although
they have, for years, had neither use of the prop-
erties nor income therefrom.
Thus, we see that Mexico is in the grasp of men
who have sacrificed, and are continuing to sacrifice,
the welfare of the country for the opportunity to
secure by looting the immediate dollar. It is
nothing to these men that a great coal company,
producing a vital necessity of the industrial and
economic life of Mexico should have been wrecked
because they were disappointed in not having
been able to rob the management of that company
of 100,000 pesos. It is nothing to them that a
great irrigation enterprise, that would have created
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 169
$100,000,000 of value, given employment to thou-
sands of people, produced a great taxable asset to
the country, and yielded immense annual produc-
tion of foodstuffs and cotton worth millions of dol-
lars, should be wrecked and ruined. All this they
are willing to sacrifice in order to secure a few dol-
lars of present loot. It is nothing that the great
financial institutions of the country, which fur-
nished the capital that is the life blood of business,
should be wrecked and ruined provided they can
secure some present money which almost all goes
to the army for the purpose of maintaining the
heads of that organization in a life of vicious in-
dulgence in the capital city.
It is this spirit now controlling the government
which has destroyed the industry of Mexico and
deprived hundreds of thousands of its people of
the chance to make a living; has caused thousands
of them to starve to death; has reduced the com-
pensation of its labourers and school teachers
until their incomes will barely sustain life, or has
deprived them of employment altogether and has
made the country the social and economic wreck
that it stands to-day*
No account of the treatment of foreigners by
the Carrancistas would be complete without a
reference to the number of American citizens who
have lost their lives at the hands of the revolu-
tionists.
ITO MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
A list of 285 American citizens, with their names
and addresses, who were killed by Mexican revolu-
tionists between December, 1910, and September,
1916, was carefully compiled by private parties
for the information of our Government. This
list, which is given in full in Appendix III, did not
pretend to be complete, for it did not include the
two officers and thirteen men killed by the fol-
lowers of Carranza at Carrizal, nor many other
Americans known to have been killed but whom
it has not been possible to identify.
The most disquieting feature of this shameful
series of crimes is that it has continued uninter-
rupted and unrebuked to the present moment.
The New York Times of October 20, 1918, con-
tained a list of sixty-one outrages including ten mur-
ders and two kidnappings, the victims of which were
held for ransom, not for all of Mexico, be it re-
membered, but for the oil regions alone, in a period
of six months and eight days ending July 31, 1918,
an average of an outrage every three days. This
list is reproduced in Appendix IV. It will be
noted that not all the crimes were committed by
banditti but that some were perpetrated by Car-
ranza soldiers in uniform. In one instance Car-
ranza soldiers overtook banditti who had just
robbed a launch of a considerable sum and robbed
the robbers. In still another instance the banditti
compelled their victim to sign a certificate to
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 171
satisfy their commander that they had stolen
everything there was to take. The oil fields offer
a happy hunting ground for robbers in uniform or
out of it, because money is more plentiful there
than elsewhere, as the petroleum industry is about
the only one left in anything approximating full
operation.
Probably no better statement of outrages upon
the persons of Americans could be made than that
contained in the letter of our Secretary of State
of June 20, 1916, addressed to the "Secretary of
Foreign Relations of the de facto government of
Mexico." This letter was provoked by a most
impudent communication addressed by C Aguilar,
Secretary of Foreign Relations of the Carranza
regime, which the United States had recognized
as the de facto government of Mexico, to Sec-
retary of State Lansing, in which the writer ac-
cused our Government of bad faith in sending
troops into Mexico to apprehend bandits who had
invaded our country and murdered our citizens.
The letter of Secretary Lansing in reply is probably
one of the most remarkable documents ever
framed by an officer of a responsible government
in the showing that it made of tame submission
to outrages upon its citizens. The only consola-
tion for an American citizen in the whole dismal
recital is found in the evident burning indignation
of the Secretary of State at the existence of condi-
172 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
tions which made such a letter possible. In his
letter the Secretary says (Italics are the author's) :
" For three years the Mexican Republic has been
torn with civil strife; the lives of Americans and
other aliens have been sacrificed; vast properties
developed by American capital and enterprise have
been destroyed or rendered unproductive; bandits
have been permitted to roam at will through the
territory contiguous to the United States and to
seize, without punishment or without effective
attempt at punishment, the property of Amer-
icans, while the lives of citizens of the United
States, who ventured to remain in Mexican ter-
ritory, or to return to protect their interests, have
been taken, in some cases barbarously taken, and
the murderers have neither been apprehended nor
brought to justice.
" It would be difficult to find in the annals of the
history of Mexico conditions more deplorable than
those that have existed there during these recent
years of civil war.
" It would be tedious to recount instance after
instance, outrage after outrage, atrocity after
atrocity, to illustrate the true nature and extent of
the widespread conditions of lawlessness and
violence which have prevailed. During the past
nine months in particular, the frontier of the United
States along lower Rio Grande has been thrown
into a state of constant apprehension and turmoil
because of frequent and sudden incursions into
American territory and depredations and murders
on American soil by Mexican bandits, who have
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 173
taken the lives and destroyed the property of Amer-
ican citizens, sometimes carrying American citizens
across the international boundary with the booty
seized.
"American garrisons have been attacked at
night, American soldiers killed and their equip-
ment and horses stolen. American ranches have
been raided, property stolen and destroyed, and
American trains wrecked and plundered. The
attacks on Brownsville, Red House Ferry, Pn>-
greso Post Office, and Las Peladas, all occurring
during September last, are typical. In these attacks
on American territory, Carrancista adherents, and
even Carrancista soldiers^ took fart in ibe looting,
burning, and killing. Not only were these murders
characterized by ruthless brutality, but uncivilized
acts of mutilation were perpetrated. Representa-
tions were made to General Carranza, and he was
emphatically requested to stop reprehensive acts
in a section which he has long claimed to be under
the complete dominion of his authority. Notwith-
standing these representations and the promise of
General Nafaratte to prevent attacks along the
international boundary, in the following month of
October a passenger train was wrecked by ban-
dits, and several persons killed, seven miles north
of Brownsville, and an attack was made upon
United States troops at the same place several days
later.
"Since these attacks, leaders of the bandits,
well known both to Mexican civil and military
authorities, as well as to American officers, have
174 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
been enjoying with impunity the liberty of the
towns of northern Mexico.
"So far las the indifference of tie de facto govern-
ment to these atrocities gone that some of these leaders,
as I am advised, lave received not only the protection
of that government, lut encouragement and aid as wett.
Depredations upon American persons and prop-
erty within Mexican jurisdiction have been still
more numerous.
"This Government has repeatedly requested, in
the strongest terms, that the de facto government
safeguard the lives and homes of American citizens
and furnish the protection, which international
obligations impose, to American interests in the
northern states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon,
Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Sonora, and also in the
states to the south.
"For example, on January 3d, troops were
requested to punish the band of outlaws which
looted the Cusi mining property, eighty miles west
of Chihuahua, but no effective results came of this
request.
" During the following week the bandit, Villa,
with his band of about 200 men, was operating
without opposition between Rubio and Santa
Ysabel, a fact well known to Carrancista authori-
ties. Meanwhile a party of unfortunate Amer-
icans started by train from Chihuahua to visit the
Cusi mines, after laving received assurances from
tie Carrancista authorities in the state of Clilualua
that the country was safe and that a guard on the train
was not necessary. Tie Americans leld passports
of safe conduct issued ly tie authorities of tie de
facto government. On January loth, the train was
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 175
stopped by Villa bandits and eighteen of the Amer-
ican party were stripped of their clothing and slot
in cold blood in what is now known as the Santa
Ysabel Massacre. * * * Within a month after
this barbarous slaughter of inoffensive Americans,
it was notorious that Villa was operating within
twenty miles of Cusihuiriachic and publicly
stated that his purpose was to destroy American
lives and property. Despite repeated and insis-
tent demands that military protection should be
furnished to Americans, Villa openly carried on
his operations, constantly approaching closer and
closer to the border. He was not intercepted nor
were his movements impeded by troops of the de
facto government and no effectual attempt was
made to frustrate his hostile designs against Ameri-
cans. In fact, as I am informed, while Villa and
"bis band were slowly moving toward tbe American
frontier in tbe neighbourhood of Columbus, N. M.,
not a single Mexican soldier was seen in this vicinity,
yet ibe Mexican authorities were fully cognisant of
Ms movements and on March 6, as General Gavira
publicly announced, be advised tbe military author-
ities of tbe outlaws 9 approacb to tbe border so tbat
tbey migbt be prepared to prevent bimfrom crossing
tbe boundary.
"Villa's unhindered activities culminated in the
unprovoked and cold-blooded attack upon Amer-
ican soldiers and citizens in the town of Columbus
on the night of March 9, the details of which do not
need repetition here in order to refresh your mem-
ory with the heinousness of the crime. After
murdering, burning, and plundering, ViUa and bis
bandits, fleeing south, passed witbin sight of tbe
176 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
Carrancista military post at Casas Grandes, and
no effort was made to stop bim by the officers and
garrison of the de facto government stationed
there. * * * American forces pursued the law-
less bandits as far as Parral where the pursuit was
halted by the hostility of Mexicans presumed to be
loyal to the de facto government, who arrayed
themselves on the side of outlawry and became in
effect the protectors of Villa and his band. * * *
I am reluctant to be forced to the conclusion which
might be drawn from these circumstances that the
de facto government, in spite of the crimes com-
mitted and the sinister designs of Villa and his
followers, did not and do not now intend or desire
that these outlaws should be captured, destroyed,
or dispersed by American troops, or at the request
of this Government, by Mexican troops. * * *
Candour compels me to add that the unconcealed
"hostility of tie subordinate military commanders of
tbe de facto government toward the American troops
engaged in pursuing tie Villa bandits and ibe efforts
of ibe de facto government to compel tbeir withdrawal
from Mexican territory by threats and show of
military force, instead of by aiding in ibe capture
of tie outlaws, constitute a menace to ibe safety
of American troops and to ibe peace of ibe border.
* * * In view of this increased menace, of
ibe inactivity of ibe Carran^a forces, of ibe lack
of co-operation in ibe apprehension of the Villa Izan-
dits and of ibe known encouragement and aid given to
~bandit leaders, it is unreasonable to expect the
United States to withdraw its forces from Mexican
territory or to prevent their entry again when their
presence is the only check upon further bandit out-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 177
rages and the only efficient means of protecting
American lives and homes, safeguards which
General Carranza, though internationally obligated
to supply, is manifestly unable or unwilling to
give."
Surely no further proof should be needed of the
fact that Carranza and his followers have, from the
very beginning, been inspired by a spirit of law-
less aggression in their dealings with Americans
and the citizens of our allies, England and France,
which has led them to violate every principle of
international law which is supposed to govern the
conduct of a country toward the nationals of other
countries.
That the Carranza party has been permitted to
cany on without restraint its lawless dealings
with the persons and properties of all foreigners
in Mexico, except the citizens of Germany, must
be accepted as one of the results of the great war;
but, in view of the failure of our own Government,
during eight years' revolutionary activity in Mexico,
to furnish any protection worthy of the name to
the persons and property rights of Americans in
that country, we probably cannot claim that the
war has had any eifect upon the treatment of
American citizens there. During the first two
years of revolution begun by Madero and con-
tinued by several leaders who challenged his power
after he had succeeded Diaz, many offences against
178 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
the persons and property of Americans in Mexico
and along the border were committed by various
revolutionary bands. During this period our
country was under a republican administration,
and the officers of that administration adopted the
course of refusing protection to American citizens
against offences from armed Mexicans, which ap-
pears to have been followed by our Government
continuously since that time. In a speech made
in the United States Senate on March 9, 1914, the
Honorable Albert B. Fall, United States Senator
from New Mexico, in criticizing the failure of
President Taft's administration to afford protec-
tion to Americans against lawless invasion of their
rights by Mexicans, said in reference to the killing
of our citizens in El Paso by bullets from the guns
of Mexican revolutionists:
"The United States troops patrolled the city,
the streets, the water front, and the boundary line.
Telegrams were sent backward and forward, one of
the officers, at least, demanding that he be allowed
to go across into Mexico for the purpose of prevent-
ing the threatened danger to Americans on this
side, in a city of 50,000 people. But they were not
allowed to enforce their warning and 18 American
citizens, including women, were shot down in the
streets of El Paso.
"Mr. President, when their friends asked of the
Government of the United States that it might
investigate the killing of American citizens on
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 179
American soil and obtain for their families some
little measure of relief in the payment of damages
to those who needed it for their daily subsistence,
this great Nation in writing refused to consider
their cases and relegated them to the Mexican
courts in the Republic of Mexico.
"Finally this matter was brought to the atten-
tion of the Congress of the United States by the
Senator from Arizona (Mr. Smith) and myself, and
when the Congress of the United States finally
understood the matter they took it out of the hands
of the State Department, which had proven itself
incapable and unworthy in dealing with affairs of
this kind, and placed it in the hands of the War De-
partment, who found damages to American citi-
zens in El Paso for killing and wounding Ameri-
cans, to the amount of $71,000 which should be
paid by this Government, which might thereafter
undertake to enforce its claims upon the govern-
ment of Mexico.
"The Senate, Mr. President, I am proud to say,
made an appropriation a year ago for the payment
of these claims. Now the people are back here
begging again at the hands of this Government
that some little measure of justice to the children
and widows of American citizens shot down on
American soil may be provided as for two or three
years they have been compelled to depend upon
their own efforts."
It may not be amiss at this point to recall the
fact that when the United States recognized the
Carranza administration as the de jure govern-
i8o MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
ment of Mexico it became legally bound under
international law to collect all just claims of
American citizens for damages to property or
Injuries to person from the Mexican Government.
Failing so to collect, this Nation is morally, though
not legally, bound to pay the claims itself. We
recognized this principle of international law some
forty years ago when twenty-one Chinamen were
hanged in Los Angeles during an anti-Chinese
outburst. Although China had no navy and was
wholly incapable of enforcing any claim we vol-
untarily paid the bill for damages. We again
recognized this principle a few years later, when a
number of Italians were lynched at New Orleans,
by paying promptly and without protest a bill for
damages from the Italian Government, Finally
we have recognized the duty of Government to
protect its citizens wherever they may be, in more
than a hundred instances in various places from
the Chinese coast to Armenia; from Patagonia
to Japan and on the Barbary coast. When
armed force was necessary to insure protection
or exact reparation for injury to its citizens the
American Government has not hesitated to use
such force in the past. Indeed, the protection of
its citizens abroad as well as at home is one of the
fundamental functions for which governments
are created.
So bitterly did the citizens of the border states
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 181
resent the failure of President Taft's administra-
tion to protect the rights of American citizens that
the National Democratic Convention of 1912 in-
cluded in its platform the following plank drafted
by a delegate from El Paso:
"The constitutional rights of American citizens
should protect them on our borders and go with
them throughout the world, and every American
citizen residing or having property in any foreign
country is entitled to and must be given the full
protection of the United States Government, both
for himself and his property/'
Now note how the pledge was fulfilled. In a
speech on the floor of the Senate, March 9, 1914,
Hon. Albert B. Fall, Senator from New Mexico,
related his experience, in seeking protection for
Americans in Mexico, at the hands of Secretary of
State Bryan, who figured conspicuously in the
convention that adopted this pledge, and who was
appointed to the highest seat in the cabinet by the
president elected upon the platform containing
the pledge. Said the Senator :
" I went to the Secretary of State (Mr. Bryan)
myself for the purpose of presenting to him a con-
crete case which occurred in the town of Cananea,
where an American citizen was threatened with
deportation by the so-called authorities of that
182 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
Mexican state. During that conversation the
same subject (character of American citizens in
Mexico), was brought up to me, and it was stated
that the Americans who were in Mexico were not
Americans who were seeking to make homes there
and help the country, but they were solely repre-
sentatives of corporations, there for the purpose of
exploiting the people, obtaining possessions, getting
hold of dollars, and coming back to this country,
and that tley tad no right to demand protection for
Heir property".
Other responsible officials of this Government
have since sought to justify their failure to protect
the persons and property of Americans against law-
less aggression in Mexico by the astounding alle-
gation that our citizens had so conducted them-
selves there that they were unworthy of protection
by this Government! Under such circumstances
it is hardly surprising that crimes against the per-
sons and property of Americans in Mexico, not
alone by revolutionists, but also by the present
recognized government, have been continued and
enormously increased.
It is beyond belief that England and France
would have submitted tamely to the outrages per-
petrated upon their citizens if they had not been
so fully occupied in fighting the German friends of
the Carrancistas for the freedom of the world.
The fact that in this emergency America failed
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 183
to do anything for the protection of the nationals
of these two countries furnishes no very strik-
ing evidence of our inclination and capacity
to discharge the duty of maintaining orderly
government in the Americas, which we have
sometimes accepted as a corollary of the Monroe
Doctrine.
Citizens are urged by the Government to help
extend our foreign commerce. No argument
should be needed to prove that in onfer to develop
commerce with a foreign country oar citizens
must acquire business enterprises there. Every
successful commercial nation has foBowed that
policy. The two peoples that have been most
successful in developing foreign commerce in the
last half century are the English and the Ger-
mans. In the case of both the most prominent
factor in their success has been the acquisition or
creation of business enterprises abroad. Ger-
many's activity in this direction is shown by the
fact that the alien property custodian has taken
possession of German investments in the United
States valued at more than eight hundred million
dollars.
The attitude of the American Government,
as exemplified in its dealing with Mexican
affairs, is that its citizens perpetrate a great
wrong against any country with which they
try to develop commerce unless they expatriate
184 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
themselves and make their permanent homes
there.
There was an especially good reason why Amer-
icans who went into Mexico should not give up
their citizenship. While they were willing to risk
their persons and the money they invested they
could not be expected to forget that until Diaz
established law and order Mexico had witnessed
the rise and fall of seventy odd heads of govern-
ment, in almost every instance as the result of a
violent revolution of which the prominent feature
was the looting of private property. Doubtless,
Americans who cast their business fortunes in
Mexico remembered the uncertainty of govern-
ment during more than fifty years, and for that
reason determined to maintain their American
citizenship to which they might appeal for pro-
tection in the event that the Latin-Mexican ele-
ment, which had exhibited its lawless greed so of-
ten, should attempt to violate their rights. That,
when the day of need came for them to claim
the shelter of the Stars and Stripes, its protection
was denied them, is the saddest, most tragic
chapter in all the history of our dealings with
Mexico.
The Americans who went into Mexico upon the
invitation of the government and played a great
part in promoting the country's economic welfare
are exactly the same sort of Americans who by the
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 185
tens of thousands 'have within the past two decades
emigrated to the wheat lands of Western Canada.
These men, confident of the sort of government
that they would be given by the Anglo-Saxon
race became citizens of Canada and for more than
four years fought the battles of their adopted
country on the western front as a part of the
Canadian troops who have made such glorious
history.
Before leaving the subject of the destruction
by the Carranza government of the property of
citizens of our allies who for more than four
years fought Germany, a reference to its effect
upon the war would not be inappropriate. That
such effect was achieved and that it was and
is seriously burdensome to the Allies is easily
shown.
The demands of the war have been particularly
heavy upon copper, lead, rubber, and food, and the
actions of the Carranza party have had a marked
influence upon the production of all of those
articles. It is, of course, impossible to secure at
the present time any definite comparative figures
by which the destruction of the industries produc-
ing those staples in Mexico can be accurately indi-
cated. In the latter part of 1916, certain Ameri-
can mining interests operating in Mexico, sup-
posed to represent in mass about two thirds of the
American mining interests in that country, com-
i86
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
piled for the use of our officials some figures show-
ing the difference between the production of cer-
tain metals in the year 1912, the year before the
Carranza revolution started, and in the first half
of the year 1916. Following is a tabulation of
these figures:
Ore, .
Gold .
Silver.
Copper
Lead .
Zinc .
1912
5,180,059 tons
252,843 ounces
31,892,735 ounces
74,984 tons
70,939 tons
46,765 tons
FIRST HALF OF 1916
904,131 tons
39,895 ounces
6,200,339 ounces
1 23, 1 56 tons
2,928 tons
11,183
It will be noted that the foregoing table shows
a reduction in the production of two metals of
prime necessity in war, copper and lead, of about
38 per cent, in the former and more than 91 per
cent, in the lead production. If to the foregoing
figures should be added the reduced production of
the American mining interests not represented,
the loss would, of course, be increased by 50 per
cent.
With the present development of the auto-
vehicle, rubber is an article of prime necessity,
especially in war. The following table prepared
by the American companies engaged in producing
rubber from the Guayule shrub in Mexico com-
pares the production of the years 1910, which
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 187
witnessed the beginning of revolutionary activities,
and 1916:
PRODUCTION OF GUAYULE RUBBER
From January, 1910, to December, 1916
POUNDS
YEAR PRODUCED
I9IO 28,488,320
I9II 24,144,960
1912 20,172,000
1913 6,177,840
I9M 1,904,000
1915 5,976,007
I9l6 1,070,924
It will be seen that the production of this neces-
sity for the military establishments of our country
and its allies during the war was reduced by more
than 96 per cent. This, however, does not tell
the full story of the loss. All rubber imported into
the United States from Mexico can be brought by
railroad. All other rubber imported required the
use of ocean tonnage which was so precious after
our entrance into the war. As the result of the
destruction of rubber production in Mexico, many
millions of pounds, to offset the loss, had to be
brought in by the use of much maritime tonnage
which might, of course, have been used for other
most necessary purposes.
388 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
The condition of the Mexican population, as
indicated in the matter quoted from various
sources, has resulted in a great reduction of food
production in that country. This reduction has
been so great that it was estimated about the
beginning of 1918 that the United States would
have to permit at least a hundred million bushels
of corn to be shipped into Mexico to avert threat-
ened starvation. In addition to this the burden
of the allies who were fighting Germany was in-
creased by the fact that at least a billion and a
half dollars of the money of the United States and
her allies invested in Mexico has had its earning
power destroyed by confiscations and other law-
less exactions of the Carranza government. Under
normal conditions these Mexican investments had
a very high earning power which could have borne
a not inconsiderable share of the burdens of war.
It must have been a matter of distinct gratifica-
tion to Carranza and his pro-German associates
that they were able to contribute so much to the
aid of Germany and the burdens of her opponents.
But at last some, at least, of the Mexicans have
awakened to an uncomfortable realization that a
day of reckoning is at hand. One significant indi-
cation of this is to be found in an article published
in A. B. C., of Mexico City, December 14, 1918.
To make the matter more interesting the article
has been brought to the attention of the State
MEXICO .UNDER CARRANZA 189
Department at Washington and of members of
Congress. A. B. C. is the first independent news-
paper of the Carranza regime. It came into
notoriety at a time when one of its most prominent
contributors, Licentiate Eduardo Pallares, was as-
saulted in a cowardly manner by a noted Mexican
military chief, now at large in that city. Its
editor was also brutally assaulted a few days later;
and as a result of the action of the military and
Germanophile Minister of the Interior the paper
suspended publication. It has recently resumed
publication, showing the same virility and inde-
pendence as before. The leading article in the
first issue after resumption began: "As we said
yesterday/' etc., which was the editorial way of
refusing to recognize its suspension or to recant
anything it had said. The article referred to of
December 14, 1918 said:
" By a strange coincidence, the triumph of the
Constitutionalist Revolution in August, 1914,
coincided with the beginning of a war in Europe,
whose consequences and duration none could fore-
see, but which would certainly contribute toward
a definitive change in methods of government.
But peace once more has come to the world, and
governments are beginning to balance their books
after the outpouring of men and material that the
war required. But not alone those nations that
took part in the struggle are checking up their ac-
counts after these past four years, but also those
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
that held aloof either through egoism or through
necessity are making up their books, for they fully
realize that the fruits of victory will be shared by
all, in the measure of their deserts, and of certain
special circumstances, and that the keen eye of the
investigator will know how to weigh the attitude
adopted by each in the war and to give to each
what he deserves.
"As members, then, of a community which must
shortly be tie subject of inquiry of the chanceries of
the world, our duty is to help our government in its
tasks and to speak frankly, for the day of reckoning
i$ upon us and we must avoid malicious deceptions
and futile excuses which can only place our country
in a humiliating position. It is preferable to fall
face forward than to drop on our knees in sup-
pliant tone.
" For four years and four months, the Consti-
tutionalists in Mexico tave conducted things in total
disregard for tie interests of att who did not belong
to the political group in power. Not the most rudi-
mentary principles of practical politics, nor the
most elementary rules of diplomacy and courtesy
stopped their action. Like the tables of proscrip-
tion which gave such ill-fame to Scylla, there were
expelled from the country nationals and foreigners
alike, without regard even for the diplomatic status
of some of the expelled. When Belgium was
receiving the kindly consideration of all civilized
nations for the heroic resistance she offered against
the violators of her sovereignty, she received a sam-
ple of the characteristic courtesy which the Constitu-
tionalists were beginning to show: ler Minister was
forced to leave at the express "bidding of the revolw-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 191
tionary authorities. Later, the representatives of
other nations, among fbem England,, Guatemala and
Spain, also left the country because they were held
to be enemies of fbe revolution, while the representa-
tive of Brazil was accused of reactionary tendencies
just at the moment when he was leaving to report
to the Government of the United States as to his
conduct of affairs while representing this latter
nation. Diplomatic amenities were dispensed
with; all were treated as if Dr, Francia had held the
portfolio of Foreign Affairs. And if this was the
fate of representatives accredited to Mexico, what
was not the lot of the ordinary citizens of ibese
countries, whose governments, on account of fbe state
of war, could not give fbe necessary protection to fbeir
nationals'? We do not deny that in certain cases
the conduct of the above-mentioned diplomatic
representatives may, at times, have been irregular,
but, be this as it may, the action of the Constitu-
tionalist government was, because of its display of
brute force, both unwise and impolitic. On the
other hand, it is our opinion that the majority of
cases of the expulsion of foreigners was justified;
which was not the case, however, with that of the
nationals, some of whom were driven out under
most infamous conditions.
" It is proper to recall that by virtue of, 'might
is right' theory, the properties of many foreigners
were seized, many offbem being still administered by
fbe government, now ruled by a political constitution
wbicb fbe Constitutionalists saw fit to impose upon
fbe nation. The protests, covering each and every one
cf these act$ 9 on file in our Department, will have to
be drawn out of fbe pigeon-boles into wbicb they bave
192 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
been relegated, in orderto be considered anew; but
excuses and pleas will no longer avail, for the bour
bos struck and tbe decision must be made. Wbat
answer can be given as to tbe cancellation of bank
concessions and tbe forced loans from tbe banks, as to
tbe seizure of tbe tramways and of tbe Mexican rail-
roads, as to the indefinite suspensionoftbe publicdebt
services, as to failure to meet tbe railroad coupons,
etc., etc.? We frankly do not know; but we foresee
tbefutt weight of responsibilities, and as Mexicans
earnestly desire a solution satisfactory to our dig-
nity and decorum. This doubt, however, assails
us: Are tbose wbo direct our destinies in these days
able to settle sucb momentous problems? If the
group at present all-powerful in administration cir-
cles continues as it has heretofore, without new
blood, without expelling from its midst the corrupt
elements, we can readily give a categorical *NO/
"We must set down here for this is tbe gravest
of all our responsibilities our attitude during tbe
war, our much vaunted nationalism which served
as a ready pretext for several authorities to support
tbe Germanopbile press, which favoured the election
of the standard-bearer of the Teutons in Mexico
as Senator for the Federal District. We must
think, too, of the whole series of irritating acts of
unjustified arrogance, of idiotic conduct which only
the folly of several of our compatriots made pos-
sible. We must recall the withdrawal of our repre-
sentative in Cuba as the first step toward carrying
out a new international doctrine. We think of so
many and so varied proofs of leaning tovoard Germany
which if we were to relate them would make this
article too long. Our purpose is merely to point
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 193
out to our authorities the error of their ways, so
that in the days about to dawn they should not fall
into the same errors, since It is unfair that the Mex-
ican nation and people should suffer the conse-
quences of the mistakes, whims and inefficiency of
certain, slort-visioned authorities.
"Peace las surprised some of tie leaders of the
Administration who believed flat tleir star would not
set so soon 9 that tie struggle would be indefinitely
prolonged, and that, at last, tie might of Germany
would impose itself upon tie world. All tlese il-
lusions lave disappeared in thin air, and they are
suddenly brought/tf to face with the present situa-
tion. Let them take up new positions, because the
problems with which they are beset are about to be
settled, tie lour of reckoning las struck, and we must
be collected in order to appear in a proper r6Ie.
We earnestly hope for this on behalf of Mexico, so
that there may not befall her, as on other occasions
guilt which is solely imputable to a group of Mexi-
cans blinded by pride and ambition."
CHAPTER V
Causes of tie Evils Which Have Affiided tie
Mexican People Since Their Existence as a Self-
Governing Nation Began in 1821 Tie Remedy
NO GOODjpurpose would be served by the
foregoing recital of incompetence, fatuity,
and crime unless it led to an understanding
of the underlying causes of Mexico's woes in order
that a remedy may be found and applied. A short
cut to enlightenment may be found in a brief
rSsumS of events since the patriot priest, Hidalgo,
rang the grito, or alarm, upon the bells of his little
church at Dolores in 1810 to call together a few
friends to begin the revolt against the intolerable
oppression of Spain which cost the mother country
what had been her most important dependency in
the new world for nearly three hundred years.
. After eleven years of conflict, in the second year of
which Hidalgo paid with his life the penalty of his
patriotism, Mexico, in 1821, established her inde-
pendence and began her career as a self-governing
nation under a form of democracy.
In the ninety-eight years that have elapsed since
then there has hardly been a year, except during
194
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 195
the period under the ruthless rule of Diaz, that has
not been marked by one or more attempts at
revolution. That most of these attempts have
been successful is shown by the fact that within
this period Mexico has experimented with some
thirty-eight different forms of government under
eighty-five rules.
During the fifty-five years which elapsed be-
tween the date of her independence and the acces-
sion of Diaz to power, she had tried thirty-six
of these several forms of government under
seventy-five rulers. This excessive mutability in
government which probably no other people on
earth ever passed through can only be accounted
for by the existence among her leaders of a con-
tempt for law and order, a spirit of selfish ambition
and lust for power and an absence of the restraints
of patriotism and devotion to the public welfare
without a parallel in history.
This contempt for law and order has affected
the nation not alone through its influence on
internal affairs; it has also resulted in several grave
international complications.
In 1838, Mexico became involved in serious
difficulty with France, arising from outrages on
the persons and property of French citizens at
different periods of her revolutionary history. In
that year the French Government, wearied with
ineffectual demands for reparation, sent a fleet of
196 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
warships to bombard the fortifications of Vera
Cruz.
In 1837, at the request of President Jacksonville
American Congress passed an act authorizing him
to make final demand upon the Mexican Govern-
ment for redress for numerous outrages that had
been committed upon the persons and property
of American citizens, and to use the naval forces
of the United States to enforce such demand.
After years of negotiation, signalized by numerous
deceptions and violations of diplomatic agreements
on the part of Mexico, the differences between that
country and the United States were only partly
adjusted and later, in 1846, became one of the con-
tributing causes of the war between the two coun-
tries.
In 1861, Spain, France, and England entered
into an agreement to take joint action to enforce
certain rights which they had against the Mexican
Government, and this afterward led to French in-
tervention and the short-lived empire of Maxi-
milian.
With the conclusion of the Maximilian epoch
by his capture and execution, in 1867, the republic
was again restored, with Juarez as president. In
a short time his possession of the office was chal-
lenged by Diaz, who failed in his attempt to unseat
him, but, later, in a second revolutionary attempt
against Lerdo de Tejada, who had succeeded
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 197
Juarez upon the latter's death, he was successful
and took his place at the head of the government
as President in 1876.
For thirty-four years Diaz was in the actual
control of Mexico's affairs, and during this period,
with the exception of four years when his creature,
Gonzales, was president, he was the official head
of the Mexican Government. Although a number
of revolutions were attempted during Diaz's in-
cumbency, his great ability, and the stem use of
force, enabled him to suppress that turbulent
element which for more than half a century had
been responsible for a condition of change and tur-
moil, and tor retain control of Mexico's affairs.
During this period Diaz, for the first time in the
experience of Mexico as a democracy, brought
order, tranquillity, and a fair amount of honesty
into the administration of its governmental af-
fairs. He addressed himself earnestly to the ma-
terial development of his country and, whatever
may be thought of the character of the structure
that he reared, there can be no doubt that during
his term of power he showed that he was a con-
structive statesman of great ability a type of
strong, original, and effective character rarely
produced by any country oftener than once in a
century or more. During his incumbency the
material progress of his country was remarkable,
but the beneficent results of that progress were sa
igS MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
unevenly distributed among the people that there
at all times existed a smouldering discontent which
was bound some time to result in revolt- It did so
result when in November, 1910, Madero began his
revolution against the man who, for so many years,
had been president in name, and dictator in fact.
Age had so weakened the strong man's control of
affairs that, as the result of some months of activity
on the part of the revolutionists, he, in 1911, re-
signed from the presidency and abandoned his
country.
When Diaz surrendered the office of president
and left the country the interest had been paid so
promptly upon the national indebtedness for more
than a quarter of a century that Mexico's credit
was equal to that of any nation in the world.
During the last few years of the Diaz administra-
tion, 36,500,000 pesos from the public revenues had
been devoted to the building of great harbours and
other public works, and at the date of his abdica-
tion more than 75,000,000 pesos were in the na-
tional treasury. The Mexican railroads, including
those in which the government owned the stock
control, were paying interest on their bonds and
dividends to stockholders. Owing to the develop-
ment of railroads and other public service enter-
prises, mining, agriculture, and manufacturing,
largely by foreign capital, hundreds of thousands
of Mexican labourers of the peon class were receiv-
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 199
ing much higher wages in their service than they
had ever before received. Persons and property
were as safe in Mexico as on any other portion of
the American Continent. The old warfare be-
tween Mexican bandits and American citizens
along the border, that had existed practically with-
out interruption from 1821 when Mexico gained
her independence to the accession of Diaz to the
presidency in 1876, had ceased for so long that
none but the oldest inhabitants on the frontier
could recall the time when the Texas rangers had
been organized for the purpose of dealing with
Mexican raids across the border.
But, notwithstanding the fact that the adminis-
tration of President Diaz had produced great de-
velopment along many lines, and that a much
greater degree of prosperity and comfort existed
among a considerable portion of the working
classes than ever before, there can be no doubt that
a large majority of the labourers in the service of
the great land owners were inadequately paid, as
they had been since the native population was as-
signed to the vast estates into which the country
had been divided by the Spanish conquerors. Nor
can there be any doubt that the welfare of the
peons, descendants of the aboriginal inhabitants,
constituting 80 per cent, of the population was
not looked after as humanity and a proper concep-
tion of the duties of a government to its people re-
200 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
quired. And, because it was felt that the peons
had been permitted to remain in economic servi-
tude and had been denied those opportunities for
education and economic advancement to which
every man is entitled, many friends of the Mexican
people welcomed the success of the Madero revolu-
tion in the hope that it meant a better chance in
life for the submerged majority.
But before Madero had become firmly seated in
the presidency, it became evident that the old
spirit of political unrest and unpatriotic lust for
power and loot, which had destroyed the capacity
of government for good from the date of its inde-
pendence to the advent of Diaz, still existed. A
half dozen revolutions were started against Ma-
dero during the first two years of his term by other
ambitious leaders. This struggle for power, and
the consequent opportunity of robbing both public
and private wealth, resulted in the unseating of
Madero before he had served half the term to
which he had been elected, and the assassination of
himself, the vice-president and a number of his
friends and supporters.
Since the close of Madero's brief and tragic
career the fact is only too plainly apparent that the
unsettled conditions, with all their attendant evils,
which existed previous to the Diaz period, have
returned in full force. In the eight years since
Diaz abandoned his office and his country Mexico
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 201
has had nine different presidents and at no time
has all her territory been subject to the National
Government. 1 At the present time its control
is divided among a number of contenders for power
and place, and the Carranza administration, which
holds the largest area of the national territory,
has so failed to impose its authority upon the
whole, that a few months ago Mr. Cabrera, its
leading official stated on the floor of the Mexican
Congress that in at least five states, Carranza had
no control.
PRESIDENTS OF MEXICO FROM DIAZ TO CARRANZA:
1. General Porfirio Diaz, 1873-1883; i888-May 25, 1911.
2. Licentiate Francisco Leon de la Barra, May 25, 1911- Nov.
i, 1911.
3. Don Francisco I. Madero Nov. i, I9ii-Feb. 19, 1913.
4. Licentiate Pedro Lascurian, 7:01 p.m. Feb. 19, 1913-746 p. m.
Feb. 19, 1913.
5. Gen. Victoriano Huerta, Feb. 19, 1913-July 15, 1914.
6. Licentiate Francisco Carbajal July 15, I9i4-Aug. 13, 1914.
(The presidential office was vacant for six days and the city was under
the command of Gen. Alvaro Obregon. From Nov. 25, 1914 to Dec.
13, 1914 the capital was occupied by the Zapatistas.)
7. Gen. Eulalio Gutierrez Dec. ^-January 29, 1915. He acted
as executive in connection with the presidency of the convention and
in charge of the executive power. He abandoned Mexico City.
8- Gen, Roque Gonzalez Garza president of the revolutionary
convention, succeeded as acting executive Jan. 30, I9i5-May 30, 1915.
9. Licentiate Francisco Lagos Chazaro. "The sovereign revolu-
tionary convention" decreed Lagos Chazaro successor to Gonzalez
Garza and he took possession of the office July 31, 1915 and retained
it until the, convention was dispersed by the Constitutionalist army
in October, 1915.
10. Venustiano Carranza, August 20, 1914 to Nov. 24, 1914 First
Chief of the Constitutionalist army in charge of the executive power.
From Nov. 24 he abandoned the capital and removed the executive
office to Vcra Cruz. Elected Constitutional President March 11,
1917-
202 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
Mexican finances have never been in such a dis-
organized condition, nor has the national credit
ever been so utterly destroyed. For five years
no attempt has been made to pay interest upon
any financial obligations. The nation's industrial
and financial institutions have been so completely
wrecked and its income so recklessly and dis-
honestly administered, that during the last year
the civilian employees of the government have been
receiving only one half to three fourths of their
nominal pay and many of the schools have been
forced to close their doors for lack of funds to pay
the teachers' salaries. The country, whose credit
ten years ago was second to none, to-day cannot
borrow a dollar in the "money markets of the world.
At no period have the laws for the protection of
persons and property been so poorly enforced as
at the present time. Within the year, the news-
papers of the capital city have reported that the
streets were not safe for pedestrians after 8 o'clock
at night, as numerous robberies were being com-
mitted, many of them by soldiers and officers in
uniform. Never before has the government not
only permitted, but encouraged and participated
in, the lawless confiscation of private property to
the extent that has characterized the course of the
Carranza administration. Not for twenty-five
years has employment been so uncertain and wages
so low as at the present time. During the last
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 203
five years many thousands have died from starva-
tion and the bad sanitary conditions that have re-
sulted from the poor government, or lack of govern-
ment, of the centres of population.
So numerous and so great are the accumulated
evils resulting from the contests for power and
pelf, which various leaders have waged for eight
years, that it is no exaggeration to say that the
closing years of the first century of Mexico's ex-
periment in self-government finds the masses of her
people more hopelessly wretched than they have
ever been during that long period, while the coun-
try is now under the control of elements which
give no promise of future betterment.
The contemplation of such a failure of a people,
during nearly one hundred years, to achieve any
real progress in self-government, suggests that
some factor, or factors, must exist which have
worked with uncontrollable power against the
good, and in favour of the bad. The cause most
often cited as being responsible for the failure of
popular government in Mexico, and especially for
the wretched condition of the labouring classes,
comprising 80 per cent, of the population, is agra-
rian, caused by the holding of the lands in great
bodies by a small number of persons and the denial
to the masses of the opportunity to secure an
interest in the land. Promises to amend this
condition have been made by almost every one of
204 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
the more than a hundred leaders who have, in
less than that number of years, begun important,
and most often successful, attempts at revolu-
tion.
During the contest for Mexican independence
the patriot leader Morelos recognized the need of
a wider distribution of the land and made some
attempt, in 1815, to allot holdings to the peons in
that part of the country which the forces under his
command controlled. But, notwithstanding the
fact that almost every revolutionary leader who
has succeeded in securing a following sufficient to
unseat his predecessor and place himself at the
head of the government, has announced, as a part
of the "plan" upon which he founded his rev-
olution, a determination to make provision for
a broader distribution of lands to the common
people, no successful and lasting eifort has been
made to accomplish this desirable end. All
changes, in land holding have been temporary and
no continuing good has been accomplished. This
would appear to indicate that no permanent relief
of agrarian troubles can be obtained by dividing
the land among a labouring class without educa-
tion or means, which has for centuries been ac-
customed to working as employees of the property-
owning class, with no experience in the control of
its own labour in independent industry, and to sug-
gest that some other and more deeply seated cause
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 205
is responsible for Mexico's utter failure in her at-
tempt at self-government.
A somewhat extensive study of the history of
Mexico has impressed me with the conviction that
the basis of all her trouble is racial. Mexico is
inhabited by two distinct races: one the descen-
dants of the aborigines comprising probably 80
per cent, of her total population, who furnish prac-
tically all the common labour of the country the
"hewers of wood and drawers of water" usually
denominated "peons/' and who, as a class, are
uneducated and non-property-holding. The other
20 per cent, of the population are the descendants
of the Latin conquerors who, beginning by monopo-
lizing all of the landed and other wealth of the
country, and possessing all of its educated intel-
ligence, have continued to hold that position of
advantage, which has made them the governing
race and conferred upon them, and made them re-
sponsible for, the control of the uneducated and
non-property-holding 80 per cent.
The 20 per cent, of the Latin-Mexican popula-
tion, includes the half-breeds or "mestizos," va-
riously estimated as constituting a fourth to a third
of the Latin element.
A democracy, in order to be successful, must rep-
resent the will of the majority. No people can
effectively participate in government unless they
are endowed with a cultivated intelligence en-
206 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
abling them to arrive at informed opinions. In
order that participation of the majority in the
government of a democracy may be effective, the
masses must be educated. In the last analysis,
the chance that Mexico will ever have a govern-
ment that will insure the prosperity and happiness
of its citizens depends upon the capacity of the
majority of its people, and that means the great
peon class, to receive and profit by education.
Any successful effort to arrive at a correct judg-
ment upon the causes of Mexico's failure in self-
government, and of the possibility of her achieving
successful government in the future must, there-
fore, involve a study of the two races which com-
pose her population.
First, the investigator must appraise the char-
acter of the minority, or Latin, race which, by
virtue of its practical monopoly of property and
educated intelligence, has given Mexico its govern-
ment in the past, and this involves a study of the
history, development and moral character of that
race as it exists at present.
Second, the investigator must study the history
of the peon or native Indian races which compose
the great majority of the inhabitants, and appraise
their character and capacity for profiting by the
opportunity for intellectual improvement which a
chance for popular education may offer.
Inasmuch as the Latin race is the one now in
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 207
power, and the race which has been, and will
continue to be responsible for its government until
the majority of its citizenship is elevated intel-
lectually and morally by a widely diffused op-
portunity for education, it would appear logical
to consider the history and character of that race
first.
THE LATIN-MEXICAN
The Latin element was, of course, introduced by
Cortez when he conquered Mexico and established
over it the government of Spain. As soon as the
conquest was completed, the lands' were divided
among the Spanish conquerors, thus establishing,
the holding in large tracts, by a few owners, of the
national domain. A history of the occupation of
Mexico by the Spaniards says:
" Inasmuch as the Indians formed the great bulk
of the Hispano-American population, the king, of
course, soon after the discovery, directed his atten-
tion to their capabilities for labour. By a system
of repartimientos they were divided among the
conquerors and made vassals of the land holders.
The capitation tax levied on every Indian varied
in different parts of Spanish America 'from
four to fifteen dollars, according to the ability of
the Indians. They were doomed to labour on the
public works as well as to cultivate the soil for the
general benefit of the country, while by the im-
position of the mita they were forced to toil in the
mines under a rigorous and debasing system. Toil
208 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
and suffering were the conditions of the Indians in
Mexico after the conquest and it might have been
supposed that the plain dictates of humanity would
make the Spaniards content with the labour of
their serfs without attempting afterwards to rob
them of the wages of such ignominious labour.
But even in this, Spanish ingenuity and avarice
were not to be foiled, for the corregidores in the
towns and villages to whom were granted minor
monopolies of almost all the necessities of life made
this a pretext for obliging the Indians to purchase
what they required at the prices they chose to affix
to their goods. The people groaned but paid the
burdensome exaction while the relentless officer,
hardened by the contemplation of misery and the
constant contemplation of legalized robbery, only
became more watchful, sagacious, and grinding in
practice as he discovered how much the down-
trodden masses could bear. There was no press
of public opinion to give voice to the sorrows of the
masses and personal fear even silenced the few who
might have reached the ear of merciful and just
rulers. At court the rich, powerful, and influential
miners or land owners always discovered pliant
tools who were ready by intrigue and corruption to
smother the cry of discontent or to account plausi-
bly for the murmurs which upon extraordinary
occasions burst through all restraint until they
reached the audiencia or the sovereign/' 1
If, as has been generally agreed by sociologists,
the sure revenge of the servile class is found in the
1 "History of Nations/' Vol. 22, page 104.
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 209
corruption of the master class, certainly no condi-
tion has ever existed better calculated to destroy
the moral fiber of a race than the condition of the
Latin element in Mexico's population, during the
three centuries between the Spanish conquest and
attainment of natural independence. It should be
understood that in what is said concerning the
character of the Latin-Mexicans, the great ma-
jority of that race is referred to. I know Latin-
Mexicans who are men of ability and the highest
probity and whom I am glad to call friends. But
they are in a sad minority, and the very fact that
they are honest men prevents their taking part in
the activities of the party of robbers and violators
of international law and diplomatic pledges, which
now control the destinies of their country. Fur-
thermore, the qualities of character which make
them admirable have, in most instances, caused
their banishment.
Occasionally the Latin race has produced a
popular leader of the highest character and most
devoted patriotism. There can be no doubt of the
honesty and the single-minded devotion to the
public good of a leader like Hidalgo but unfor-
tunately he represents the exception; the rule has
been found in such conscienceless demagogues as
Santa Anna, Paredes, and Carranza, and the al-
most numberless leaders who have not hesitated to
plunge the masses of the people into the profound-
210 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
est misfortunes in order to gratify the selfish am-
bition and greed of themselves and their followers.
It is worth while to remember that, with a few
exceptions, every revolution in Mexico has been
led by some representative of the Latin popula-
tion and the members of that race have, on account
of their virtual monopoly of the property and the
educated intelligence of the country, always con-
stituted the great majority of its governing ele-
ment. Even* during the war for freedom, the
character of this element was illustrated by an
incident which occurred in the fourth year of that
contest. After Morelos had succeeded Hidalgo
as the leader of the revolutionary forces, in an
effort to establish some form of regular government
he summoned a national congress which he in-
tended to be "a source of union to which his
lieutenants might look as to himself in case of ac-
cident." This congress was necessarily movable
because it had to follow the patriot army. It was
not only dependent upon the revolutionary forces
for protection but also for sustenance, inasmuch
as it was enabled to exist only by revenue secured
by the armed forces. Shortly after the capture
of Morelos by the Spanish forces, and Don Manuel
Teran had succeeded him in command the con-
gress enacted laws appropriating eight thousand
dollars a year as a salary for each of its members
and taking the management of the public funds
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 211
from the military commander and placing them in
the hands of its own officials; thus making the com-
manding general, to whom congress owed not only
its protection, but its very livelihood, a mere de-
pendent upon its authority. The congress was
promptly dissolved by General Teran who said:
"That instead of attending to the interests of the
people its members were occupied in taking care of
themselves and calling each other excellentisimos." 1
The same historian, in describing Mexico's eleven
years' struggle for freedom, is compelled to note
the evil results to the patriots' cause of the selfish
ambitions of individual leaders and he says, in
speaking of the condition of the revolution in 1817,
the sixth year of its existence:
"There was no longer among the insurgents any
directing power to which the various chiefs would
bow; each was absolute over his own followers and
would brook no interference on the part of another
leader; a combination of movements among them
was rendered impossible by mutual jealousies and
mistrust. Under these circumstances rule became
a series of contests between the local authorities
and hordes of banditti; and the wealthy and in-
telligent part of the population began to look to the
standard of Spain as the symbol of order." 2
lr 'Mexico and Her Military Chieftains;" Robinson, pages 57: 220.
^"Mexico and Her Military Chieftains;" Robinson, page 74.
212 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
That the character of the Latin leadership did
not improve is shown by the fact that within less
than two years after Mexico became independent,
the leader who had contributed most to that re-
sult, General Iturbide, attempted to destroy all
elements of democracy in the government and, for
a short period, made himself emperor. Upon his
removal by a revolutionary movement, still headed
by the Latin element, General Victoria was made
President. Of the administration of the first
regularly installed head of the Mexican govern-
ment as a democracy, the historian says :
"During the administration of Guadalupe
Victoria little was done to bring Mexico to that
state of quiet and security so indispensable for the
happiness and advancement of a country. The
finances were badly administered and peculation
was openly practiced in every direction/' 1
We have seen how one revolutionary leader
after another achieved power and was in his turn
displaced by a succeeding revolution, so that a
historian writing of the condition of the country
a few years after it had achieved its independence
said:
"We have now to trace a sad descent. We are
to see the people gradually becoming corrupt, until
^'Mexico and Her Military Chieftains;" Robinson, page 144.
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 213
they appear almost to lose the faculty of distin-
guishing right and wrong. We are to watch the
course of its principal men, see them become grad-
ually more depraved and cease at last even to pre-
tend to virtue. We shall see the treasury looked
upon as spoils and proclaimed as an inducement to
win partisans." l
Another historical writer, in an effort to explain
the action of Iturbide in endeavouring to establish
a royalist government in Mexico, says:
" It is probable that his penetrating mind distin-
guished between popular hatred of unjust restraint
and the genuine capacity of a nation for liberty,
nor is it unlikely that he found among his country-
men but few of those self-controlling, self-sacrific-
ing and progressive elements which constitute the
only foundation upon which a republic can be
securely founded." 2
The thought most strongly impressed upon the
mind of any student of Mexico's efforts at self-
government is that, while its leaders have pro-
duced declarations of principles, or "plans" as
they are called in revolutionary phraseology, which
proclaimed in the most fervent language, unquali-
fied devotion to the national welfare, the word
"patriotism/' as used by them, does not connote
^'Mexico and Her Military Chieftains;" Robinson, page 150.
'"History of Nations/' Vol. 22, page 255.
214 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
that capacity for self-sacrifice, for sinking of all
selfish interest, and devotion to the public good
that it means when used on this side of the Rio
Grande. In short, it may be truthfully said that
nowhere in the world has Doctor Johnson's famous
definition of patriotism as "the last refuge of a
scoundrel" been so fully realized as among the
Latin-Mexican governing class.
The French sociologist, Gustave le Bon, as the
result of his study of the influence of the Latin
element on government in the Americas, says--
"In general and fundamentally the political
problem of the Latin-American democracies is the
problem of public thieving."
This expression, as applied to all Latin-American
republics, may be too broad, but it certainly does
no injustice to the record made by the Latin ele-
ment in Mexico.
An educated and public-spirited Latin-Mexican,
Francisco Bulnes, who for many years was promi-
nent in the political, industrial, and literary life of
his country as a member of its Senate and House
of Representatives, a civil and mining engineer,
the head of various civic commissions, an editor of
important periodicals and a profound student of
Mexican affairs, has recently published a book
entitled, "The Whole Truth about Mexico."
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 215
While this book reflects the bitterness of feeling,
disgust and despair that may be natural in a
patriot witnessing the frightful ruin wrought by
the evil ambitions of some popular leaders and,
therefore, may appear extreme in some of its state-
ments, there can be no doubt that the intelligence
and opportunity for knowledge which its author
possessed make him an authority upon conditions
in Mexico and give special value to his appraisal
of the human element as it is reflected in the gov-
ernment of that unhappy country. Bulnes, in
explaining the causes which Iiave led to Mexico's
utter failure in self-government, says:
"Unfortunately, it is a fact that the ideal of the
middle-class family is to be part of this bureaucracy
and that the ideal of the bureaucracy is to rob the
union and individuals whenever possible. The
mother is no longer the just matron who shed the
radiance of her virtue over the home and reared
men for God, country and humanity. In these
days there are mothers who urge their husbands,
sons, sons-in-law, and brothers to steal from their
country. Sons are reared with this idea and it is
carried to the point of inculcating that this public
theft is a legitimate necessity, that it is an art, a
sign of distinction. The result of this schooling in
depravity has been that the lower classes have had
this baneful example before their eyes for many
years, which has destroyed the slender thread of
civic virtue possessed by them at the time of the
declaration of independence. It also threatens to
216 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
destroy all personal virtue, because it goes without
saying that a home which is a den of thieves cannot
be the nursery of virtue and morality."
And again, in describing the spirit of public
plunder which has actuated what the author
refers to as the bureaucratic element, composed
of those who serve their country in official posi-
tions, he says:
" In all the homes of bureaucrats, mothers, aunts,
wives, sons and daughters, servants and friends ad-
vised the head of the house to 'do business' with the
government; if they were employed, even more so.
'Doing business' with the government meant, of
course, stealing. They were advised to take every-
thing on contract, from laying fifty thousand kilo-
meters of railroad to removing the trash from
public office, all to be manipulated so as to redound
to the personal benefit of the contractor. If it was
not possible to obtain contracts, the judges ought to
steal sentences; the court secretaries the papers
bearing on the case; the clerks, the public trust;
the chiefs of departments, the office furniture, the
hospital supplies, the prison food, the arms and am-
munition of arsenals; they should rob the troops of
their pay; impose fines upon all; steal justice under
any form; steal wholesale and retail; steal even
the ink stands, pencils, paper, typewriters, and
typewriter ribbons, in a word, everything that
could be taken ought to be taken, however low and
1M The Whole Truth about Mexico;" Bulnes, page 37.
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 217
unethical the means employed to accomplish it
might be. * * * The passion for stealing was
so ingrained that it became the life and soul, the
warm, coursing blood, the master passion of the
nation/'
This dark picture would appear incredible if
we did not find it repeated by various authorities
and if we did not see it being reenacted with its
darkest shades accentuated by the looting that
characterizes the government which has been'
recognized by the United States. The story of
Carranza has been written from day to day in the
columns of Mexican newspapers, in the discussions
in congress, in the operation of public utilities,
such as the national railroads, where plunder,
rather than public service, have been the end
achieved by public officials. It must be always
borne in mind that when the government of Mexico
has been mentioned, government by the Latin
minority race is always referred to. The bureau-
crats denounced by Bulnes, the army paymasters
who have robbed their pay chests, the railroad
superintendents who have demanded bribes for
transporting merchandise, the army officers who
have been found selling the munitions placed in
their hands by the national government to the
l "The Whole Truth about Mexico;" Bulnes, page 149.
218 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
various bandit forces, are nearly all members of
the governing Latin element.
All this constitutes a discouraging picture which
would be without a ray of hope for the future if we
could not discover in the 80 per cent, of the Mexi-
can people who are descendants of the aboriginal
inhabitants, some qualities which, if encouraged
and developed, might promise to furnish that moral
element which, so far, has been conspicuously
lacking in the great majority of the Latin
population and which must be brought out if
popular government is ever to be made successful.
So the investigator must turn to the peon ele-
ment.
THE NATIVE MEXICAN
When Cortez conquered Mexico, it was oc-
cupied by a number of distinct families, or tribes,
so that the learned Mexican, Orozco y Barra says
there were eleven distinct language families, com-
prising thirty-five idioms and eighty-five dialects.
The most important of these tribes or families were
the Aztecs and probably next in importance the
Tezcocans.
The Aztecs, while not in complete control of the
area which now composes Mexico, were the domi-
nant power of the table-land and had their great
capital city in its central valley. As nearly as can
be learned, they occupied the country in A. D.
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 219
1325 and were, previous to that time, nomadic in
their habits.
The Tezcocans occupied a portion of the great
central valley and appear to have marched with
the Aztecs in their development of civilization.
The descendants of both the Aztecs and Tezco-
cans, together with those of all other native popu-
lations, have come to be referred to as Indians or
peons, and have, since the Spanish occupancy,
constituted the common labourers of the country.
These two great races had proved their native
intellectual power by developing a civilization be-
tween 1325 and 1519, when the Spaniards under
Cortez first introduced them to the old world, of
which Prof. Thomas Wilson, the ethnologist, says:
"The culture of the aborigines occupying Mexico
and Central America was of a totally different
character from that of the other aborigines of North
America. They were sedentary, agricultural, re-
ligious, and highly ceremonious; they built them-
selves monuments of most enduring character, the
outside of the stone walls of some of which were
decorated in a high order of art, resembling more
the great Certosa of Pavia than any other monu-
ments in Europe. The mounds for ceremony or sac-
rifice were immense. The manufacture and use of
stone images and idols was extensive and surprising
to the last degree. The working of jade and the ex-
tensive use thereof surpasses that of any other
locality in prehistoric times. Their pottery excites
220 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
our wonder and admiration; some specimens for
their beauty, their elegance of form, and fineness of
decoration; other specimens of idols or images are
astonishing on account of the precision of thfeir
manufacture and the difficulty of its accomplish-
ment by hand." 1
The material progress of the aborigines was
shown not only by their architecture and manu-
facturing, but by the extent to which they had
developed horticulture and agriculture, as wit-
nessed by the descriptions of the exquisite pleasure
gardens and parks surrounding the residences of
the kings of the country and their nobles.
Prescott describes with much enthusiasm the
system of laws which these people had established
and the judiciary they had organized for enforcing
them. And when Prescott, writing of the crime
of larceny, says: "Yet the Mexicans could have
been under no great apprehension of this crime,
since the entrances to their dwellings were not
secured by bolts or fastenings of any kind," he
mentioned the quality which differentiated the
native Mexican from the descendants of the con-
quering Latin race more clearly than does any
other racial characteristic.
They had created a highly developed machinery
of government, with systems of public revenue, of
1 "History of Nations/' Vol. 22, page 80.
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 221
military and civil service, and had developed a
method of recording, in permanent form, not only
the history of their country, but the daily trans-
actions of business and government.
The work of their artisans in metal was described
by their Spanish conquerors as exquisite in its
artistic perfection and the few examples of it still
remaining in European museums bear out the
truth of this description.
The intellectual advance of the people is well
demonstrated by the fact that their astronomical
researches and development of the science of
mathematics had enabled them to devise a calendar
more accurate than that which Imperial Rome
possessed in its proudest days.
While most of the literature which the native
races had placed in permanent form was destroyed
through the narrow superstition of their Spanish
conquerors, a few examples have been preserved
which indicate not only a high degree of mental
refinement but a very elevated code of morals.
Any one who has read the translation of the
poem of a Tezcocan king, and the letter of advice
of an Aztec mother to her daughter, contained in
the appendix of Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico,"
must have a high idea of the intellectual and moral
qualities of a people capable of producing such
expressions of elevated thought. And there ap-
pears to be no doubt that the civilization of the
222 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
Aztecs and Tezcocans had spread until it existed
in a greater or less degree throughout all the coun-
try which we now know as Mexico.
That people of the character of the native races
of Mexico as described by historians should now be
represented after four hundred years by those whom
travellers know as the ignorant and often brutalized
peons, would seem incredible were it not that the
world has had such terrible and pitiful examples of
the power of injustice, wrong, and oppression to
produce racial disintegration and degradation.
It is an historical fact known to students of
sociology that the servitude most destructive of the
physical, moral, and intellectual qualities of its
victims is economic and industrial rather than
chattel. It has been often said that the chattel
slave finds protection in the fact that he stands as
the representative of a certain amount of property
or wealth to his master, while the economic slave
represents to his employer, if he be unrestrained by
the prickings of conscience, only the labour that can
be obtained from him. As illustrating this, it may
be said that probably no owner of chattel slaves
ever treated them so harshly as some mill owners
of England who chained children to spinning and
weaving machines, so that they could not flee from
the torment of their occupation, before England
became wise enough to protect her people from
such conscienceless exploitation.
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 223
Prescott has made sympathetic note of the ef-
fect of the tyranny of the conquering race upon the
native races of Mexico. He says:
"Those familiar with the modern Mexican will
find it difficult to conceive that the nation should
ever have been capable of devising the enlightened
polity which we have been considering. But they
should remember that in the Mexicans of our day
do they see only a conquered race as different from
their ancestors as are the modern Egyptians from
those who built, I will not say the tasteless pyra-
mids, but the temples and palaces whose magnifi-
cent wrecks strew the borders of the Nile at Luxor
and Karnak." 1
The account of the industrial slavery of the
aboriginal Mexicans contained in the historical
quotation appearing in part first of this chapter
goes very far toward explaining their racial degra-
dation.
That the account quoted of the treatment of the
aboriginal Mexican population by their Latin mas-
ters is no different from that which would be found
in any honestly written history of Mexico, and that
the conditions described have continued since the
end of Spanish control to the present time, is shown
by the following, taken from Mr. Bulnes's book:
"The planters have been accused of treating
their Indian servants with haughtiness and disdain.
^'Conquest of Mexico"; Prescott, Book i, Chapter II.
224 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
It is true, but what the accusers conceal is that the
bureaucrats, political and non-political, have ever
accorded the same treatment to the Indian. It is
only the demagogues who love, venerate, exalt, and
protect them in their harangues, when they think
it will help to secure their votes or obtain universal
applause, bringing them favourably before the pub-
lic and making them feared by the government.
Even the most ragged, unwashed, vicious loafer of
the cities assumes an air of superiority and the tone
of a potentate toward the unfortunate Indian.
The best proof that all Mexico looks upon the
Indian as an inferior, is that every one addresses
him in the familiar form of 'tu' (which expresses
confidence and affection when addressed to an
equal, but condescension when directed toward an
inferior), and that every one orders him about as
though he were a slave. This attitude of imagi-
nary superiority is not found exclusively among the
Mexican Creoles and mestizos, but in every part of
Latin America where there are domesticated In-
dians. We do not have to go further back than
forty years to find the time when the population
was divided into 'gente de ra{dn' (rational beings)
and Indians; and at the present time the popula-
tion of mestizos is designated genie de ra{6n', in
contradistinction to the Indians/' 1
Most interesting and enlightening evidence of
the way in which the so-called democratic govern-
ment of Mexico, as controlled by the Latin element
representing the employing interests, has exploited
''The Whole Truth About Mexico"; Bulnes, page 74.
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 225
the peon population by legislation is shown in its
dealing with what was known as the Ejidos lands.
Before the advent of the Latin in Mexico and
since, many of the labouring class lived in small
settlements or villages. To these villages, from
Aztec times, appertained certain areas known as
Ejidos lands, which were the common property of
all. Upon these village commons the peon could
have a garden, or maintain a few goats or fowls.
This small opportunity of " contributing to the
family livelihood relieved him from absolute eco-
nomic dependence upon the employer upon whose
great estate he worked.
Some years ago a law was passed by the Mexican
Congress under the provisions of which the com-
mon lands, the use of which the villages of peon
labourers had enjoyed for hundreds of years, were
sold and became the property of the employing
class. Thus was destroyed by act of the national
government the last refuge which the peon had
from absolute economic exploitation by the em-
ploying class.
But hope can be found for the future of the
masses under the stimulus of proper opportunity
for intellectual development in the fact that
through the darkest experience of their night of
servitude and degradation, individual members of
the race have shown more than ordinary ability.
An instance of this is found in the historical work
226 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
of Ixtlilxochitl, often referred to and quoted by
Prescott. This historian, who had produced a
most interesting and authoritative account of his
people, was a descendant of the royal family that
furnished the kings of Tezcoco.
The fact that Mexico's most talented painter
was a pure-blooded Aztec, would seem to indicate
that the race has not lost the capacity for artistry
as expressed in some of their creations which ap-
pealed so strongly to the admiration of their Spanish
conquerors.
I was much interested in an account by Mr. E.
L. Doheny, who first discovered and developed
Mexico's great petroleum deposits, of his expe-
riences with the common labourer. Mr. Doheny,
being a man of warm humanitarian impulses, de-
cided that it was his duty so to manage his Mexican
enterprises that they should contribute as much a!s
possible to the comfort and well-being of the com-
mon people. As one means to that end, shortly
after he first began work in the oil fields nearly a
score of years ago, he secured numbers of peon
boys who were given a careful apprenticeship in
the mechanical department. He assured me, with
warm expressions of gratification, that these boys
developed into mechanics of the highest order, so
that he was finally able to entrust to them import-
ant mechanical work of his great plants, some of
which required a very high type of skill.
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 227
The most brilliant and interesting example of
what the native Mexican can do when he has an
opportunity for mental development is afforded
by Juarez, a pure-blooded descendant of aboriginal
ancestors, a lawyer by profession, who in the course
of his career demonstrated himself to be a leader
of great ability and a true patriot.
Almost without exception, foreigners who have
had years of experience in employing Mexican
labour have testified to the moral character, the
loyalty to his employer, and fidelity to his duties,
exhibited by the peon when he has not been
corrupted by the evil influences of the Latin,
element.
As the result of careful investigation and obser-
vation, I hope and believe that if the descendants
of the aboriginal Indians of Mexico should ever
have accorded to them a full and free opportunity
for intellectual and moral improvement, they may
be made an element in the citizenship upon which
a successful democracy may be founded; but I am
forced to the conclusion that, so long as the Latin
element is in power, this opportunity will never be
conceded to the majority race.
A somewhat extensive reading of history has
failed to show an instance in which a country oc-
cupied by two distinct races, with the minority race
in control by reason of its possession of the property
and educational opportunities, a government fair
228 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
to the majority has ever resulted. Students wno
are interested in this phase of government will find
a striking parallel between the history of Mexico
during the> four hundred years that her territory
has been occupied by a majority aboriginal race,
and a governing minority alien race, and that of
Egypt, during the more than twelve hundred years
since that country was conquered by the Moham-
medan Arabs. When this race conquered Egypt,
they became the possessors of its land and of what
educational opportunities existed, and thereby be-
came the governing element, although they were
always much in the minority.
The majority native race became the labouring
class, commonly known as the fellaheen the
hewers of wood and the drawers of water for the
governing class. This condition continued for
about nine hundred years until the country was
conquered and its government taken over by the
Turks. Afterward the Turks, associated with the
Arabs, who were of the same religion, continued to
be the governing element, with the fellaheen ma-
jority still continuing to furnish the common labour
of the country. Just how this minority of prop-
erty-owning and educated aliens controlling the
non-property-owning majority of the native race
has worked out for twelve hundred years, is shown
in a most interesting way in Lord Cromer's great
book "Modern Egypt." We find there the same
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
conditions appearing to result from the corrupting
influence of the servile majority working upon the
moral character of the governing minority, that
we have found in the history of Mexico.
For more than twelve hundred years the govern-
ment went from bad to worse in corruption and
inefficiency until, finally, it became necessary for
an alien country, England, to assume control in
order that it should be made to discharge its inter-
national obligations and, at the same time, give
a chance in life to the submerged majority. And
there can be no doubt that since the English have
controlled the Egyptian government, the fellaheen,,
for the first time in more than twelve hundred years,
have had something approaching a fair chance,
in life. During all that period and until the con-
trol of England was established, the fellah, who
worked the lands and furnished practically all
the other common labour, was the economic victim
of his Arabian and Turkish masters. He was
given of the results of his labour barely sufficient
to sustain life; he was denied every opportunity
for economic or intellectual improvement, and he
became largely what the Mexican peon, under the
economic rule of his Latin masters, is to-day.
Under the control of the English administrators
he has, for the first time, received something more
than a bare living as the result of his industry and,
by the extension of popular education, is beginning;
230 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
to receive those opportunities for intellectual im-
provement which will eventually make him a man
among men and qualify him to take a part in the
government of his country.
Every student of Mexican affairs can read with
much advantage Lord Cromer's work, especially
Book IV, in which the story of the effect of the
government of an alien minority upon the native
majority of Egypt's inhabitants is told.
The evidence of Mexican history, during the
four hundred years in which that country has been
controlled by an alien minority race, corroborated
by the example of every other country in which
similar conditions have existed, admits of but one
conclusion; namely, that the ultimate salvation of
Mexico depends upon its majority race being
elevated and improved by a broad and effective
scheme of popular education, and also by a chance
for the betterment of its economic condition, which
can only be afforded by an honest and efficient ad-
ministration of its government.
How these conditions may be brought about is
the vital problem for which a solution should be
found. That we cannot depend for it upon the
Latin-Mexican element which has misgoverned
Mexico for four hundred years would seem to be
evident. We have seen by the testimony of his-
torians of the past, and observers of the present,
what has been and is the fate of the peon element
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 231
composing 80 per cent, of the population at the
hands of the governing minority.
The stories told by representatives of the Red
Cross and other recent observers, as quoted else-
where in this volume, seem to show that nearly a
century of so-called "popular government" in
Mexico has left the condition of the peon very
much where it was when the government of Spain
ended. During that period he has been appealed
to for his support by more than a hundred leaders
of revolution and each appeal promised him an
amelioration of his condition. That the promises
have not been made good by the last revolutionary
leader, the Latin-Mexican chief of the party now
in power, appears to be very fully established by
evidence that cannot be disregarded. Looking back
from his present pitiful condition, through the
history of four hundred years, the peon can say
with Prometheus:
" No change, no pause, no hope ! Yet I endure."
I cannot believe that the salvation of the Mexi-
can peon can be brought about in any way other
than that in which corresponding changes have
been wrought in other countries similarly situated.
What Mexico needs, and what I believe she must
have, is the intervention in her affairs of some sav-
ing power such as England has afforded to Egypt
and our own nation has afforded to the Philippines,
and to Cuba, in a degree, under the authority of
232 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
the Platt Amendment. I had hoped that when
the so called "A. B. C. Conference" of the diplo-
matic representatives of Brazil, Chile, Argentina,
Bolivia, Uruguay, Guatemala and this country
met to consider the fate of Mexico it would by
concert of action originate some such movement
to rescue twelve millions of people from a condition
which has for so long been a disgrace to our com-
mon humanity. I had hoped that the peons would
be given that chance in life which every man-should
have but which they never have had, and never
will have at the hands of the governing element of
their country if we are "to use the history of the
past as a prophecy of thejuture." In saying this
I realize fully that I am challenging the convic-
tions, or the prejudices, of a great many people.
For myself I can say that I am expressing a con-
clusion which I have endeavoured to "avoid but
which a conscientious study of Mexican history
and conditions, with the sole desire of arriving at
the truth, has forced upon me.
If those who resent this conclusion would be
better satisfied by continuing conditions in Mexico
that have produced, and are producing, so much
agony to so many human beings, they probably
will be gratified, for there does not now appear to
be any prospect of the sort of intervention in
Mexico's affairs which I am forced to believe will
be necessary before any permanent amelioration
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 233
of the condition of the unfortunate masses can be
achieved.
But this need not, and should not, interfere with
some effort to better the condition of those victims
of Mexican misrule who are citizens of other
countries, most largely of our own. It is not neces-
sary to establish by argument the correctness of
the definition of our country's duty to its citizens
living or having interests in other countries as that
duty has been expressed in a hundred declarations
from our Department of State, and never more
fully, or correctly, than by the plank of the Demo-
cratic National Platform of 1912, already quoted.
That our Government, since the revolutionary con-
ditions in Mexico began nearly eight years ago,
has not discharged that duty to our citizens having
interests in Mexico nothing but the letter of our
Secretary of State, quoted in Chapter IV, preceding,
is needed to show. As a reason for this failure we
have been told that it was our duty to show pa-
tience and forbearance in our dealings with Mexico
with the hope that such an attitude would be re-
warded by such changes as would give to the un-
fortunate majority of her people a government such
as they had not had for four hundred years. There
can be no doubt that officials in Washington who
have dictated our policy with reference to Mexico
believed this and were actuated by motives of
what they conceived to be the highest humanitar-
234 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
ianism. But surely, before the lives and rights
of so many American citizens were risked, our offi-
cials should have made a careful effort to judge
whether or not there was any reasonable indication
that the element in A(lexico which they were in-
dulging, at so much cost to American citizens, could
reasonably be looked to for the accomplishment of
the humanitarian desires which inspired them. If
those officials had realized that the element to
which they were extending an indulgence so costly
to many of our people had been responsible for
Mexico's misgovernment for nearly a century,
they certainly would have hesitated before staking
so much upon the possibility of this element giving
to Mexico a better government than it had ever
before given.
It will not do to say that the Carranza revolu-
tionists expressed aspirations and intentions for
the government of their country of the most
exalted kind. History shows us that nothing is
more characteristic of the Latin-Mexican element
thau the use of high-flown language in the declara-
tion of their intentions where the government of
their country is concerned. And the same history
shows us that, during the ninety-eight years of the
control of popular government by this same ele-
ment, more than a hundred leaders of revolution
have pledged their duty to their country in lan-
guage as fervent and eloquent of patriotism as any
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 235
that the authors of the "Plan of Guadalupe" used
in making pledges which they afterward promptly
violated when trusted with the government of
their country. Readers of history will recall the
fact that Santa Anna, who was probably the most
perfect demagogue ever produced in Mexico, em-
bodied his pledge of duty to his country, and of
sympathy for her unfortunate masses, in language
as eloquent and high-flown as any ever used in the
pronunciamientos of that country's numberless
revolutionary leaders. As a result of his eloquence
and of the fact that he had lost a leg in the French
bombardment of Vera Cruz, he succeeded in in-
ducing his people to call him to the chief place in
their government three separate times, and each
time he signalized his election by promptly betray-
ing the people whom he had pledged himself to
serve.
Certainly our government officials must see by
this time how utterly false and hollow have been
all the pledges made by the party now in power
in Mexico, both to its own people and to the
nations of the world. If this demonstration has
been made, then the question would seem to arise:
Is it worth while to continue to sacrifice the
rights of our citizens for a consideration which we
ought to know by this time will never be de-
livered? If, as a people, we feel that we have no
right to interfere to protect the vast majority of
336 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
the Mexican people from the long agony inflicted
upon them by a minority of their countrymen,
surely we have the right to intervene to protect
our own citizens against the same criminal minor-
ity.
That right we have abrogated for nearly eight
years, but there is yet time to accomplish a great
deal that justice, to speak nothing of humanitar-
ianism, would appear to call for if we would cease
to expect at the hands of the dominant class of
Mexico the justice for the masses which we hu-
manely desire, and insist upon the sort of govern-
ment which the rights of our citizens demand.
In doing this we will be rendering a sort of ser-
vice to the unfortunate masses of Mexico. If,
when the spirit of loot and robbery began to assert
itself as a part of revolutionary conditions nearly
eight years ago, we had said to the Mexican leaders :
"You can kill and rob each other to your hearts'
content; for we have no right to dictate what your
actions shall be so long as they concern only your-
selves, but if you invade the personal or property
rights of any American citizen, we will use the
whole power of our great nation to see that the
offender is punished/' we would not only have been
rendering a proper service to our own citizens but
a very humanitarian service to hundreds of thou-
sands of Mexican workmen who were engaged in
serving American enterprises in their country.
MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA 237
That such an attitude upon our part would
have prevented most of the evils which our people
have suffered at the hands of revolutionists no one
who knows the character of the Latin-Mexican
leaders can have any doubt. The Latin-Mexican
recognizes force as the only influence that can con-
trol his actions. He has no conception of, and no
respect for, any other influence. Like his brothers,
the Bolsheviki, the I. W. W., and the Germans, he
cannot understand the failure or refusal to use force
to accomplish a purpose if it is at command.
By the policy that we have adopted we have
not only encouraged every sort of offense against
our own people but we have also encouraged the
destruction of business enterprises in Mexico
owned by our citizens and those of our allies upon
which hundreds of thousands of the peon element
of that country depended for a living. In addition
to that, we have, as we now must know, by every
encouragement and assistance that we have given
the Carranza element, to that extent assisted in
delivering the unfortunate masses of Mexico into
the hands of the class which is now, as it always
has been, their worst enemy. In a well-meant
effort to serve these unfortunate people we have
actually assisted in imposing famine and death
upon thousands of them.
In truth, the result of our handling of the Mexi-
can question during the past eight years, and the
238 MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
effect upon the masses of the people, who appeal
most to our sympathy, of what we have done,
emphasize the wisdom of the saying that "sym-
pathy without understanding is never effective and
often dangerous/*
Certainly the results of our efforts to help the
greatest sufferers in Mexico have not been such
that we can point to them with pride or satisfac-
tion. We have helped to destroy hundreds of
American lives and hundreds of millions of Ameri-
can property. We have also assisted in turning
the government of Mexico over to a party which
is destroying the lives of thousands of its own
people and confiscating, and spending in vicious
and immoral living, the property of other thou-
sands.
Would it not be better now for us to go back to
the idea of doing our simple duty to our own people
and leaving the Mexicans to their own devices,
if we feel that we are not warranted in rescuing
the suffering masses of them from the criminals
who are imposing upon them so many of the miser-
ies of "self-government" as it exists in Mexico?
APPENDIX I
THE GENERAL LAW FOR THE CONSTRUCTION
OF INTERNATIONAL AND INTER-
OCEANIC RAILWAYS
Ministry of Public Works, Colonization, Industry, and
Commerce of the Mexican Republic.
SECTION III
Fhe President of the Republic has directed to me the
following Decree:
Porfirio Diaz, Constitutional President of the United
States of Mexico, to the inhabitants thereof: Know
ye
That the Congress of the Union has enacted the
following:
The Congress of the United States of Mexico enacts:
Only Article. The Executive is authorized to reform
the contracts which he has celebrated for the construc-
tion of international and interoceanic railways, and to
celebrate new ones with another or other companies,
which may present themselves, granting in each case a
concession, without comprehending the arrangement
of the English debt, upon the following bases:
i st. The concession or concessions shall be in force
not more than ninety-nine years, and shall contain clauses
relative to the reversion of the road to the nation free
of all incumbrance, at the end of the term stipulated.
339
2 4 o APPENDIX
2cL The contracts shall be subject to the conditions
already agreed, and the reforms already accepted by the
soliciting companies, without modification, except to
the advantage of the nation.
3d. In order to treat with the companies, the Ex-
ecutive shall require previously guarantees and securi-
ties suitable to compel the execution of the enterprise.
The greatest advantages which relatively any company
offers in favour of the country shall bind the others.
Upon those points, the Executive shall hear the opihion
of the Attorney-General, which functionary shall give
it in writing, within ten days, which having passed the
Executive shall decide upon what is proper.
4th. The international and interoceanic networks
shall be divided into sections for the purpose of con-
tracting for one or more (sections) with each company
which has complied with the preceding requisites.
5th. The maximum of the tariffs shall not exceed
in any case the following figures:
For each ton of freight of 1,000 kilograms of mer-
chandise, and for each kilometre of distance:
First Class $0.06
Second Class 0.04
Third Class 0.02^
Passengers per kilometre:
First Class ......... $6.03
Second Class 0.02
Third Class o.oij
WAREHOUSAGE
For each 100 kilos or for each fraction of the same
perday$o.oof.
APPENDIX 241
The tariffs shall be revised every five years, the Min-
ister of Public Works having power to reduce them in
accord with the company; but in no case shall there be
any right to advance the same beyond the maximum
prefixed.
The application of the tariffs shall always be made on
the basis of the most perfect equality, the company not
being able to concede to any one any advantage which
it does not give to all who are in the same circumstances.
6th. The mails shall be carried free, during the life
of the concession.
7th. The companies shall be considered Mexican
in all which concerns their relations with the govern-
ment and the rights and obligations stipulated in the
respective concessions.
8th. The Executive shall fix in the manner most
convenient the terms of payment of the subsidies.
9th. The Executive, in making use of this author-
ization, shall not prejudice the rights acquired by the
States in virtue of former concessions.
loth. The concessionary companies, in case they
can acquire them, shall utilize the lines which have been
constructed upon the route adopted by them. Other-
wise they may construct parallel lines. In either event,
they shall not receive more than the excess of their own
subsidy above that of the line already constructed.
i ith. The forfeiture of any concession having been
decreed the nation shall acquire the ownership of the
part of the way constructed free from all encumbrance
and at a valuation fixed by experts named by the
Executive and by the company.
From this valuation shall be deducted the amount
of the subsidies paid to the company, and for the re-
mainder the Executive shall emit obligations secured
242 APPENDIX
by a mortgage of the road, which he may transfer by
means of a new concession.
The rate of interest which the obligations may bear,
and the manner of retiring them, shall be fixed in each
concession.
1 2th. These authorizations shall be in force during
the time of the recess of Congress, at the end of which
the Executive shall give an account of the use which he
has made of them.
Given in the Palace of the Executive Power of the
Union in Mexico, on the ist of June, 1880.
PORFIRIO DIAZ.
(Translation, from "Mexican Central Railway Co.,
Limited.")
Department of State and of Public Works, Coloniza-
tion, Industry, and Commerce of the Mexican
Republic.
(Extracts from Contract between Manual Fernandez,
Chief Clerk of the Department of Public Works,
in representation of the Executive of the Union,
and Sebastian Camacho and Ramon G. Guzman,
in representation of the Mexican Central Railway
Company, Limited, for the construction of two
railway lines, one from Mexico to the Pacific Coast,
and the other from Mexico to Paso del Norte).
CHAPTER I. Construction of the Railways.
Article i. . . .
At the end of the ninety-nine years of the grant, the
line will pass, in good condition and free of debt, to the
APPENDIX 243
control of the Republic; but the Government shall pur-
chase all the stations, warehouses, work shops, rolling
stock, tools, furniture, and fixtures which the Company
may have for the use and operation of the road, and
shall pay in cash the prices of said stations, storehouses,
workshops, rolling stock, tools, furniture, and fixtures,
fixed by two experts, one named by each party, and a
third previouslv appointed by those two to act in case
of discord.
If the Government thereafter wishes to rent or sell
the line the Company will be entitled to prefer-
ence. . . .
Article 5. ...
An engineer will be appointed by the Executive to
accompany each party of surveying engineers. The
salary of said engineer will be fixed by the Executive
and paid by the Company, said salary not to exceed
$4,000 per annum.
...
CHAPTER II. Basis of the Company.
.*
Article 13. . . . Within six months from the
date of this contract, a part of the Board, consisting of
five directors, shall reside in Mexico. Of these, two
shall be appointed by the Government, and three by
the Company.
The Directors named by the Government may reside
in Mexico or abroad.
The salaries of the Directors named by the Govern-
ment shall be fixed by the Executive and paid by the
Company, and shall not exceed $3,000 per annum.
244 APPENDIX
CHAPTER III. Concessions and Prohibitions.
Article 21.
To aid the construction of the lines of railroad and
telegraph to which this contract refers, the Govern-
ment binds itself to give to the Company or Companies
a subsidy of 9,500 for each kilometre of the road con-
structed and approved by the Department of Public
Works, according to the terms of this law. This sub-
sidy shall commence to be paid after the completion of
the first one hundred and fifty kilometres on the line
from Mexico to Leon, and successively for each section
of twenty-five kilometres.
On the section from Mexico to Huehuetoca, and from
Celaya to Irapuato, and generally on all the narrow
gauge lines already built, and which, according to Ar-
ticle 52, may be acquired by the Company or Companies
the Government shall only allow a subsidy of $1,500
per kilometre.
Article 27.
The Mexican Government will exact no taxes which
are not expressed in the following article, for the simple
traffic of passengers, correspondence, and merchandise,
over the international and inter-oceanic lines during
the period of twenty-five years, counting from the con-
clusion of each one of said lines; and all effects and mer-
chandise destined solely to traverse the road, and not
for consumption in the country, shall be free from every
kind of customhouse and port duties as well as from
taxes and imposts of every class.
APPENDIX II
UNION AND CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROADS
Line of Road. Omaha, Neb., to Ogden, Utah Junction
C. P. R. R.). 1032 miles.
The Acts of Congress (approved July i, 1862, and
July 2, 1864) incorporating the company provided for
a government subsidy equal to $16,000 per mile for that
portion of the line between the Missouri River and the
base of the Rocky Mountains; $48,000 per mile for a
distance of 150 miles through the mountain range;
$32,000 per mile for the distance intermediate between
the Rocky and the Sierra Nevada range; $48,000 per
mile for a distance of 1 50 miles through the Sierra Ne-
vada. The whole distance, as estimated by govern-
ment, from Omaha to the navigable waters of the Paci-
fic, at Sacramento, California, is 1,800 miles. The
company has also a land grant equalling 12,800 acres
to the mile. The original act provided that the govern-
ment subsidy should be a first mortgage on the road;
but by a subsequent amendment it was made a second
mortgage the company being authorized to issue its
own bonds to an amount equal to the government as a
first mortgage on the line. The original act provided
that the charge for government transportation should
be credited to it in liquidation of its bonds; and that in
addition, after the road should be completed, 5 per cent.
245
246 APPENDIX
of the net earnings should also be applied to the same
purpose. The act was subsequently modified so as to
allow the company to retain one half of the charge of
transportation on government service, as the cost of the
same, and also relieves the company from paying the
5 per cent, of net earnings.
(A claim having been made by the Secretary of the
Treasury of the United States, that the company was
bound to pay the interest on the bonds issued by the
government to aid in the construction of the road, and
that the whole charge for government transportation
was to be held to be applied to such interest, Congress,
by an amendment to the army appropriation bill
which passed March 3, 1871, provided, "that, (sec.
9,) in accordance with the fifth section of the act ap-
proved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-four,
entitled 'An act to amend an act entitled an act to aid
in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line
from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to
secure to the government the use of the same for postal,
military, and other purposes', approved July first, eigh-
teen hundred and sixty-two, the Secretary of the Treas-
ury is hereby directed to pay over in money to the Paci-
fic Railroad Companies mentioned in said act, and
performing services for the United States, one half
of the compensation, at the rate provided by law
for such services heretofore or hereafter to be rendered;
provided, that this section shall not be construed
to affect the legal rights of the government or the
obligations of the companies, except as herein specifically
provided/")
(Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States,
1872-73, p. 389)
APPENDIX 247
CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD
. . . By an amendatory act, passed by Congress
April 4, 1864, the Central Pacific was made a body cor-
porate, with authority to own such portion of the road
as it might construct east of the eastern boundary of
the State of California. The company possesses ample
chartered powers, both from the States of California
and Nevada and from the federal government.
For that portion of its line between Sacramento and
the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a distance
of 7.18 miles, the government subsidy is at the rate of
$16,000 per mile, in its 6 percent, bonds. For the suc-
ceeding 150 miles through the Sierra Nevada, at the
rate of $48,000 per mile; and $32,000 per mile for such
other portion of the line constructed west of the Rocky
Mountains. The government subsidy is a second
mortgage upon the road, the company being especially
authorized by an act of Congress to issue its own bonds
equal in amount to the government aid, as a fir -st mort-
gage on the road. In addition to pecuniary aid, Con-
gress granted ten alternate sections of public lands on
each side of the line of the road or 12,800 acres per
mile.
(Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United
States, 1872-73, pp. 529-30).
APPENDIX III
Revised list of American citizens killed in Mexico by
armed Mexicans, during the revolutionary period
between December, 1910, and September i, 1916.
Total, 285 killed, including 17 sailors and marines at
Vera Cruz, 17 citizens and soldiers at Columbus, N. M.
Not including soldiers and officers killed at Carrizal
and 30 others not verified as to dates, etc., killed in
Mexico.
Adams, William, Near Ascension, Chihuahua, May i,
1912, Federal officer.
(Adams was shot while attending funeral of his
wife.)
Akers, Bert, Chihuahua, Jan. 21, 1916, Mexicans.
Alamia, John B., Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, 1913, Un-
known bandits.
Allen, Oscar, Pearson, Mar. 16, 1914, Unknown bandits.
(Murdered with an axe. Employee of Madera Co.)
Anderson, Mrs., daughter and neighbor, Chihuahua,
June 22, 191 1, Madero soldiers.
Anderson, Maurice, Santa Ysabel massacre, Jan. 9,
1916, Villistas.
Anton, George.
Atwater, Herbert, Vera Cruz, 1915, Unknown bandits.
Austin, A. L. Near Matamoros, 1915, Unknown bandits.
Austin, Chas., Near Matamoros, Aug. 7, 1914, Carran-
zistas.
(Chas. Austin, son of A. L. Austin, killed in 1915.)
348
APPENDIX 249
Ayers, Bowan, Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Aug. 14, 1912,
Unknown bandits.
Bagnell, Captain, NearTampico, 1914, Bandits.
(Capt. Bagnell an English subject.)
Batamia, Juan, Matamoros, 1915, Order Gen. Blanco.
Barrett, Thos., Cinco Minas Works at Hostolipaquillo,
Jalisco, 1913, Bandits.
Bauch, Gustave, Juarez, 1914, Villa.
Bean, Edgar, Puerto Cifes, Sonora, 1915, Bandits.
Beard, James, Parras, Coahuila, May, 1914, Bandits.
Bennett, J. N., Tampico, 1915, Carrancistas.
Benton, Thos., In Villa's office, Juarez, April 9, 1914.
(Benton was an English subject and his murder
was made a subject of correspondence between
England and this country.)
Billings, Roscoe, Near Mexico City, Feb., 1915, Carran-
zistas.
Bird, NearTampico, 1915, Carrancistas.
Bishop, Tomesachic, Nov., 1914, Carranza soldiers.
Bishop, Mrs. W. L, Mexico City, Feb. n, 1913,
Rebels.
Blackenburg, Herman, Near Chihuahua, Mar. 30, 1916,
Bandits.
Boley, Bernard, Near Raymondville, Matamoros, 1915,
Bandits.
Boone, Chas., Guzman, Oct. 28, 1915, Villa soldiers.
Boris, Gerew, Near Nueva Vista, Feb. 20, 1912, Ban-
dits.
Boswell, Louis Frank, Vera Cruz, April 24, 1914, Mex.
Federals.
Brooks, "Johnny", Colonia Chuichupa, Bandits.
Brown, C. M., Mazatlan Section, 1915, Indians.
Burton, Henry Knox, Santa Rosalia, July 6, 1913,
Carranza soldiers.
250 APPENDIX
Burwell, Western, Near Tampico, 1914, Carrancistas.
Buyrd, W, M., Jr., Tampico, 1915, Bandits.
Bushnell, L., Mexico, Mar. 24, 1913, Bandits.
Butler, Jas., Columbus, N. Mex., Mar. 10, 1916, Villa
soldiers.
Camera, Eugene, Lencho, Sonora, 1915, Indians.
Camp, John, El Paso, Texas, May 9, 1911, Bandits.
Carroll, John G. D., Alamo, Lower Cal., June 1 1, 191 1,
Federal soldiers.
Carruth, Mrs. Lee, and five children, Cumbre Tunnel,
Feb. 4, 1914, Rebels.
Chapel, F. C, Nogales, Sonora, 19-14, Mexican soldiers.
Crawford, James, Vera Cruz, 1915, Unknown bandits.
Clarke, Dr. R. G., Mexico City, May 27, 1911.
(Dr. Clarke was from Taylorsville, 111., and was a
partisan of Felix Diaz.)
Cohen, Glen Springs, May 6, 1916, Mexican raiders.
Colee, Glen Springs, May 6, 1916, Mexican raiders.
Compton, Harry, Chihuahua City, 1915, Unknown
bandits.
Compton. . . . Glen Springs, May 6, 1916, Mexi-
can raiders.
Cooper, Clarence, Pearson, May 4, 1913, Unknown
bandits.
Corbett, William, Near Minaca, 1916, Villistas.
(Corbett was an employee of Palomas Land &
Cattle Co.)
Corrie, William W., On board S. S. California, Apr. 1 1,
1913, Carranzistas.
Couch, A. H., Santa Ysabel, Jan. 9, 1916, Unknown
bandits.
Coy, Juan, Monclavo, 1915, Unknown bandits.
Cramer, Roy, Guerrero district, Jan. i, 1916, Villistas.
Critchfield, Geo., Tuxpam, Apr. 7, 1911, Revolutionists
APPENDIX 251
Cromley, Henry, Purandire, Michoacan, Jul. 21, 1912,
Mex. man serv.
Dalrymple, Chas., Victoria, 1915, Unknown bandits.
Darrow, Berris, Nueva Buena, Feb. 2, 1913, Unknown
bandits.
Davidson, W. A., Columbus, N. Mex., Man 10, 1916,
Villa soldiers,
Dean, J. S., Columbus, N. Mex., Mar. 10, 1916, Villa
soldiers.
DeFabir, C G., Vera Cruz, Apr. 22, 1914, Federal
soldiers.
Delawry, F. T., Vera Cruz, Apr. 22, 1914, Federal sol-
diers.
Deverick, Frank, Vera Cruz, Apr. 22, 1914, Federal
soldiers.
Dexter, Edward G., 1915, Oaxaca Indians.
Diepert, Geo. A., Juarez, 1915, Unknown bandits.
Dingwall, Wm. B. A., April 30, 1913, Rebels.
Dixon, Chas., Juarez, Jul. 26, 1913, Mexican soldiers.
Donald, Bruce, Near Guerrero, 1916, Villistas.
Donaldson, R. E., Near Matamoras, 1915, Unknown
bandits.
Donavan, J. J., Esperanza, Sonora, 1915, Indians.
Doster, Edward D., Mexico City, May, 1914, Unknown
bandits.
Davidson, Roderick, Rosario Station, Tepic., Apr. 5,
1916, Unknown bandits.
(Body taken to Mazatlan and buried under super-
vision of American Consul Alger.)
East, Victor W., Campeche, 1915, Unknown bandits.
Eckles, Temosachic, Nov., 1914, Federal soldiers.
Edson, John, Evanado, Guadalajara, 1915, Unknown
bandits.
252 APPENDIX
Edson, Mrs., Evanado, Guadalajara, 1915, Unknown
bandits.
Edwards, J. C, Agua Prieta, Apr. 13, 1911, Villistas.
Ely, Isaac R., Tampico, 1915, Villistas.
Ernest, Howell, . . .
Evans, Thos., Santa Ysabel, Jan. 9, 1916, Villistas.
Farrell, Tom, Hermosillo, 1915, Indians.
Fay, W. A., Esperanza, 1915, Unknown bandits. "*
France, Wenceslao, Acala, Chiapas, Sept. 23, 1911,
Indians.
Ferguson, R. H., 1915, Unknown.
(By bullet fired across the river.)
Fischer, E. C., Vera Cruz, Apr. 24, 1914, Federal sol-
diers.
Forney, Ernest, Brownsville, 1915, Mexican raiders.
Foster, Dr. Allan, L., Alamo, Lower CaL, June 1 1, 191 1,
Federal soldiers.
Fountaine, Thos., Jimenez, Mar., 1912, Orozquistas.
Fowler, Wm. E., Tuxpam, Mar. 9, 191 1, Mexican peon.
Froliebstein, E. H., Vera Cruz, Apr. 22, 1914, Federal
soldiers.
Fried, L. O., Vera Cruz, Apr. 22, 1914, Federal soldiers.
Gillette, Frank, Rosa Morda, Tepic, Dec. 10, 1911,
Bandits.
(Gillette was formerly a resident of Cleveland.
Murdered at his plantation. His wife was tied
to a tree while husband was killed as she looked
on.)
Gilmartin, M. J., Cumbre Tunnel, Feb. 4, 1914,
Bandits.
Goldsborough, Chas., Fuerte dist. Sinaloa, 1915, In-
dians.
Three sons of John Goodman, Acapulco, Apr., 1911,
Unknown bandits.
APPENDIX 253
Grigalva, Reyes, Nogales, 1915, Mex, policeman.
Griffin, Benj., Chihuahua, Jul. 5, 1913, Unknown
bandits.
Griffin, Fred A., Columbus, Mar. 10, 1916, Villistas.
Griffith, Mrs. Percy, Mexico City, Feb., 1912, Unknown
bandits.
Haggerty, David A., Vera Cruz, Apr. 21, 1914, Federal
soldiers.
Hall, Alexander, Santa Ysabel, Jan. 9, 1916, Villistas.
Hamilton, Victor, Near Torreon, Jan. 15, 1916, Villistas.
Harmon, E. M., Chihuahua, 1915, Unknown bandits.
Harper, A. N., South of Nogales, Nov. 12, 1915, Un-
known bandits.
Hart, H. M., Columbus raid, Mar. 10, 1916, Villistas.
Harvey, James W., Chihuahua, May, 1912, Mexican
rebels.
Harwood, P. W., Lower California, Jan. 28, 1914,
Federal soldiers.
Hase, H. C, Santa Ysabel, Jan. 9, 1916, Villistas.
Hays, Edmund, Madera, Chihuahua, 1913, Federal
soldiers.
Hidy, John Camp, San Luis Potosi, May 18, 1911,
Bandits.
Hertling, John, Douglas, Arizona, July, 1912, Orozco
rebels.
Hadley, C. B., Guadalajara, 1915, Unknown bandits.
Hobbs, Sergt. M. A., Columbus raid, Mar. 10, 1916,
Villistas.
Holmes, Mrs. Minnie L., Mexico City, Feb. 12, 1913,
Carranza bandits.
Howard, Frank, Coalcoman, Michoacan, Mar. 13, 1913,
Unknown bandits.
Howard, John S. H., Eagle Pass, Texas, Feb. 10, 1913,
Unknown bandits.
254 APPENDIX
Horace, Frank, Coalcoman, Michoacan, Mar., 1912,
Mexican rebels.
Huntington, Robt., Agua Prieta, Apr. 13, 191 1, Carran-
za bandits.
Jacoby, James, Chihuahua, 1915, Carranza bandits.
James, Mrs. Milton, Columbus raid, May 10, 1916,
Villistas.
Jensen, Chas., Near Matamoros, 1915, Unknown
bandits.
Jones, Harry J., Ojo de Agua, Texas, 1915, Mexican
raiders.
Johnson, Guy, Chihuahua, Feb. 10, 1916, Unknown
bandits.
Johnson, Thos., Santa Ysabel, Feb. 9, 1916, Villistas.
Joyce, Martin S., Ojo de Agua, Texas, 1915, Mexican
raiders.
Kane, Thos. C, Apr. 10, 1912, Unknown bandits.
Keane, Peter, Jan. 8, 1916, Villistas.
Kelly, Dr. E. E., Sonora, 1914, Indian soldiers.
Kelly, Patrick J., Velardena, Durango, Sept. 29, 1912,
Unknown bandits.
Kelly, Patrick, Cumbre Tunnel, Feb. 4, 1914, Bandits.
Kendall (engr.), Near Brownsville, 1915, Bandits.
Kindvall, Frank J., Columbus raid, Mar. 10, 1916,
Villistas.
Kendall, Wm., Hostolipaquilla, Oct. 13, 1913, Unknown
bandits.
King, NearTampico, 1914, Carrancistas.
Klesow, John, On board S. S. California, Apr. 1 1, 1913,
Mex. policeman.
Kraft, Anthony, Brownsville, 1915, Mexican raiders.
Krause, Emil Alex., Novillas, Tampico, Dec. 12, 1910,
Unknown bandits.
Klewson, John C., Guaymas, 1915, Unknown bandits.
APPENDIX 255
Lawrence, Albert H., Near Tampico, 1914, Carrancis-
tas.
Lane, D. J., Vera Cruz, Apr. 24, 1916, Mexican fed-
erals.
Lauhel, Porfirio, Nuevo Laredo, 1913, Unknown
bandits.
Lawrence, James O., Tampico, Mar. 22, 1912, Mexican
officer.
Lindsley, Lee, Near Minaca, 1916, Carrancistas.
Littles, Steven, 1916, Unknown bandits.
Lockhart, John R., Durango, Nov. n, 1911, Indians.
Maderis, H. F., Cumbre Tunnel, Feb. 4, 1914, Bandits.
Maguire, Geo. R., Alice Road, 1915, Bandits.
Mrs. Mallard and baby, Near Tampico, 1914, Carran-
cistas.
Martin, G., Vera Cruz, Apr. 21, 1914, Federals.
Martinez, Lucianao, Tampico dist., 1913, In battle.
Martinetto, A., Cumpas, 1915, Villa soldiers.
Mathewspn, A., 1912.
Meredith, R. W., Mexico City, Feb., 1916, Unknown
bandits.
Miller, Chas. DeWitte, Columbus raid, Mar. 10, 1916,
Villistas.
Miller, Morton, South of Tia Juana, Jan. 28, 1914,
Federal soldiers.
Miller, C. C, Columbus raid, Mar. 10, 1916, Villistas.
Milton, Chas., Sonora, 1915, Huerta followers,
Moreys, J. I., Cumbre Tunnel, Feb. 4, 1914, Bandits.
McBee, Albert T., Brownsville, 1915, Mexican raiders.
McClellan, James B., Rio Chico, Durango, Mar. 10,
1912, Unknown bandits.
McConnell, Herbert, Ojo de Agua, 1915, Mexican
raiders.
McCoy, J. P., Santa Ysabel, Jan. 9, 1916, Bandits.
256 APPENDIX
MacDonald, Maurice, San Pedro de las Colonias, 1914,
Federal soldiers.
McCutcheon, E. J., Cumbre Tunnel, Feb. 4, 1914,
Bandits.
McDonald, W. H., Pachuco Hidalgo, June 4, 1911,
Unknown bandits.
McGregor, Don., Minaca, Apr. n, 1916, Villistas.
McHatton, Richard, Santa Ysabel, Jan. 9, 1916,
Villistas.
Mclntosh, Walter, Tampico, 1915, Carrancistas.
McKane, Dr. E. S., Near Brownsville, 1915. Mexican
raiders.
McKinney, Arthur, 35 miles south of Columbus, 1916,
yillistas.
McKinsea, Near Agua Prieta, Sept., 1912, Rebels.
McManus, J. B., Mexico City, 1915, Zapatistas.
Moore, J. J., Columbus raid, Mar. 10, 1916, Villistas.
Morris, J. L, Cumbre Tunnel, Feb. 4, 1914, Bandits.
McKinney, Patrick, Mexico City, 1914, Bandits.
Newman, George, Santa Ysabel, Jan. 9, 1916, Villistas.
Nieverdalt, Sgt. John, Columbus raid, Mar. 10, 1916,
Villistas.
Nixon, Edward L., Near Tampico, 1914, Carrancistas.
Olsen, Seffer, Near Cuernavaca, Apr. 26, 1911, Zapa-
tistas.
(Formerly professor in the University of Cali-
fornia.)
, O'Neill, James, Near Ninaca, 1916, Villistas.
Parks, Samuel, Vera Cruz, May 6, 1914, Soldiers under
General Maas.
Parker, W. and wife, Hachita, N. Mex., June 26, 1916,
Mexican bandits.
Patrick, Glennon, Alamo, Lower CaL, June n, 1911,
Federal soldiers.
APPENDIX 257
Pearce, W. D., Santa Ysabel, Jan. 6, 1916, Villistas.
Percy, Rufus E., Vera Cruz, Apr. 22, 1914, Federal
soldiers.
Parmenter, John Glen, Guadalajara, 1915, Unknown
bandits.
Pearson, Geo. F., Western Chihuahua, Jan. 12, 1916,
Gen. Rodriguez.
Peterson, Near Panuco, 1914, Carrancistas.
Pederson, Peter, Vera Cruz.
Pelham, Oscar, Sta, Gertrude's mine, near Pachuco,
Sept. 14, 1911, Mexican rebels.
Pope, Elbert, Lower California, June, 1911, Bandits.
Poinsette, George, Vera Cruz, Apr. 21, 1914, Federal
soldiers.
Powdexter, William, Chihuahua, 1915, Mexican civilians.
Price, Scott, Mexico, Sept. 16, 1912, Unknown bandits.
Pringle, Chas. A., Santa Ysabel, Jan. 9, 1916, Villistas.
Reid, James M., Mexico City, Nov. 20, 1910, Mex.
policeman.
Ritchie, A. C., Columbus raid, Mar. 10, 1916, Villistas.
Robertson, Wm. C., Mazatlan dis. Sinoloa, 1913,
Rebels.
Robinson, E. L, Santa Ysabel, Jan. 9, 1916, Villistas.
Rogers, Glen Springs, May 6, 1916, Mexican raiders.
Romero, M. B., Santa Ysabel, Jan. 9, 1916, Villistas.
Roth, Near Tampico, 1914, Carrancistas.
Ross, Mrs. Chas. E., Chihuahua, 1915, Bandits.
Root, Morris, Nuajoori, Tepic., Sept. 2, 1913, Unknown
bandits.
Russell, Herbert, Near Durango City, Sept. 29, 1912,
Mexican rebels.
Sandanel, Jesus, Near Brownsville, Feb. 10, 1915,
Mexican soldiers,
San BIaz, Joseph T,, Sinaloa, 1915, Indians.
258 APPENDIX
Sanchez, Encarnacion, Mexicali, 1913, Federal soldiers.
Sawyers, Guy S., Monterey, 1914, Constitutionalists.
Schubert, Guido, 1913, Orozco rebels.
Scott, Peter, Near Nogales, 1915, Unknown bandits.
Shaffer, Ernest, Ojo de Agua, Texas, 1915, Mexican
raiders.
Schofield, Bernard, Cumbre Tunnel, Feb. 4, 1914,
Villistas.
Schmaher, J, F., Vera Cruz, Apr. 21, 1914, Federal
soldiers.
Seffer, Pehr. O., Cuernavaca, Apr. 29, 1911, Zapata
rebels.
(Probably same as Seffer Olson, listed under "O".)
Slate, Henry, South of Nogales, Nov. 12, 1915, Un-
known bandits.
Seggerson, Chas., Juarez, 1913, Unknown bandits.
Shepherd, John W., Guanajuato, Aug. 10, 1912, Un-
known bandits.
Shope, Wm. Henry, Near Medina.
(Shope is given in list of killed in 1910.)
Simmons, Albert F., Near Torreon, Jan. 15, 1916,
Villistas.
Simmons, R. H., Santa Ysabel, Jan. 9, 1916, Villistas,
Simon, Corp. Paul, Columbus raid, Mar. 10, 1916,
Unknown bandits.
Smith, Escalon, Mar. 27, 1912, Unknown bandits.
Smith, C. A., Vera Cruz, Apr. 22. 1914, Mexican
federals.
Smith, Frank, Tampico, 1914, Mexican federals.
Smith, J. P., Near Matamoros, 191 5, Unknown bandits.
Smith, John and five other Americans, Panuco River,
near Tampico, May, 1915, Mexicans.
Spillbury, Ernest, Pachuca City, Dec. 31, 1912, Mexi-
can civilian.
APPENDIX 259
Shell, Benj., Near Minaca, 1916, Carrancistas.
Soto, Pablo, Mexico, Mar. 24, 1913, Unknown bandits.
Squires, C. A. L, La Colorado, 1915, Indians.
Stell, Dr. A. T., Near Guerrero, 1916, Villistas.
Stepp, H. W., Durango, June 18, 1912, Mexican rebels.
Stevens, William J., Pacheco, Chihuahua, Aug. 28,
1912, Unknown bandits.
Strauss, H. L, Cuautia, Morelos, Aug. n, 1912, Un-
known bandits.
Stream, A. S., Vera Cruz, Apr. 22, 1914, Federal sol-
diers.
Stubblefield, Henry, Progreso, 1915, Carranzistas.
Summerlin, Rudolph, Vera Cruz, Apr. 24, 1914, Federal
soldiers.
Smith, Baron, Mexico City, Feb., 1915, Carranza
soldiers.
Joseph, Tays, San Bias, near Sinaloa, Sept. 5, 1914,
Carrancistas.
Taylor, James E., Vera Cruz, 1915, Unknown bandits,
Taylor, S. E., April 28, 1912, Unknown bandits.
Teanhl, Gilbert, San Luis Potosi, 1915, Unknown
bandits.
Thomas, A. E., South of Nogales, Feb., 1916, Rebels
Thomas, John Henry, Madera, Chihuahua, 1913,
Federal soldiers.
Thomas, Robert, Madera, Federal soldiers.
Urban, Richard, Sonora, 1915, Unknown bandits.
Valencia, Jos6, Mexicali, 1913, Unknown bandits.
Vandenbsh, Walter, Durango, 1915, Mexican civilian.
Varn, Grover V., Durango, 1916, Villistas.
Vergarra, Clemente, Piedras Negras, 1915, Unknown
bandits.
Waite, W. H., Ochotal, Vera Cruz, Apr. 4, 1912, Bandits.
(Beheaded when he refused to pay money.)
260 APPENDIX
Wadley, Charles, Santa Ysabel, Jan, 9, 1916, Villistas.
Walker, W. R., Columbus raid, Mar. 10, 1916, Villistas.
Wallace, W. J., Santa Ysabel, Jan. 9, 1916, Villistas.
Ward, Frank, Near Yago, Tepic, Apr. 9, 191 3, Unknown
bandits.
Warren, James L., Tampico, 1915, Carranza Colonel.
Warwick, William S., Juarez, 1915, Shot from across
river.
Watson, C. R., Santa Ysabel, Jan. 9, 1916, Villistas.
Watson, W. L, Vera Cruz, Apr. 22, 1914, Federal
soldiers.
Webster, John E., Cumbre Tunnel, Feb. 4, 1914,
Bandits.
Weinger, Thomas, Mapami, Durango, Oct. 2, 1913,
Rebels.
Wells, Edward F., Near Vera Cruz, 1915, Unknown
bandits.
White, Hostolipaquilla, May, 1914, Unknown bandits.
Williams, Hostolipaquilla, May, 1914, Unknown ban-
dits.
tms, John H., Nacosari, Mar. 8, 1913, Rebels.
[ms, Lee, Cumbre Tunnel, Feb. 4, 1914, Ban-
dits.
ims, Robert, Mexico, Sept. 16, 1912, Unknown
oandits.
Williams, John, Sonora, 1915, Indians.
Willis, M. K., Calexico, Lower Cal., July 17, 1911,
Federal officer.
Wilson, John, Near Esperanza, May, 1915, Indians.
Windham, W. S., Tepic, 1915, Unknown bandits.
Windhaus, Leo. C., Mercedes, Texas, 1915, Unknown
bandits.
Wiswall, Corp. Harry, Columbus raid, Mar. 10, 1916,
Villistas.
APPENDIX 261
Wolf, U. G., Northern Sonora, June 16, 1913, Unknown
bandits.
Wood, Near Tampico, 1914, Carrancistas.
Woon, J. W., Santa Ysabel, Jan. 9, 1916, Villistas.
Wallace, Walter, Rosario Sta., Tepic, Apr., 5, 1916,
Bandits.
(Body taken to Mazatlan and buried under super-
vision of American Consul Alger.)
In addition 43 Americans, whose 'names are not given,
are known to have been killed at different places in
Mexico. In this number of 43 are included the thir-
teen American soldiers and two officers killed at Carri-
zal by Carranza soldiers, June 18, 1916.
VICTIMS OF CUMBRE TUNNEL HORROR, FEBRUARY 4, 1914
Mrs. Lee Carruth and 5 J. I. Morris
children E. J. McCutcheon
M. J. Gilmartin Bernard Schofield
Patrick Kelly John E. Webster
H. F. Maderis Lee Williams
LIST OF MARINES SAID TO HAVE BEEN KILLED AT VERA
CRUZ, APRIL 24, 1914
Louis Frank Boswell Rufus Edward Percy
Francis P. De Lowry George Poinsette
Frank Deverick John F. Schumacher
Elzie C. Fisher Chas. Allen Smith
Lewis Oscar Fried Albin Eric Stream
E. H. Frolichstein Randolph Summerlin
Daniel A. Haggerty Walter L. Watson
Dennis J. Lane C. G. De Fabir
Sam Martin
262 APPENDIX
SANTA YSABEL MASSACRE, JANUARY 9, !Ql6
Maurice Anderson W. D. Pearce
A. FL Couch Chas. A. Pringle
Thos. M. Evans E. L. Robinson
Alexander Hall M. B. Romero
H. C. Hase R. H. Simmons
Thomas Johnson Charles Wadley
J. P. McCoy W. J. Wallace
Richard McHatton C. R. Watson
George Newman J. W. Woon
COLUMBUS RAID, MARCH IO, igi6
Mrs. Milton James Dr. H. M. Hart, Veterinary
W. A. Davidson, Nat'I W. T. Ritchie, civilian
Guard C. Dewitt Miller, civilian
J. T. Dean, civilian N. R. Walker, civilian
J. J. Moore, civilian Mark A. Dobbs, Sergt.
C. C. Miller, (?) civilian i3th Cav.
John Nievergelt, Band Paul Simon, Band
Sergt. James Butler, Private
Harry Wiswell, Corp. Troop F
Troop G Harry Davis, Co. K, Nat'l
Frank T. Kindvall, Troop Guard
K
Fred Griffin, Troop K
Total number of victims, 66
CARRIZAL, JUNE 1 8, 1 916
Lieut. Henry Adair, Capt. Boyd and thirteen American
negro soldiers whose names have not been made
public.
APPENDIX IV
The following list of 61 outrages committed in the
oil regions of Mexico alone in a period of 6 months and
8 days from January 23 to July 31, 1918, was published
in the New York Times of October 20, 1918. The oil
regions offer the most inviting field for robbery at
present because they are about the only place in Mexico
in which industry is active. The list includes 10 mur-
ders. The total loss by robberies in which specific sums
are mentioned is $107,507. Instances in which specific
values were not ascertained are not included.
1918
Jan. 23. Five soldiers held up Territas Blancas sta-
tion of the East Coast Oil Co., beat Paul
Schultz, pumper, with pistol, shot both him
and boy helper and attacked Mexican
woman.
Feb. 6. Bandits entered Naranjos and made off with
1 6 mules worth $3,000 and 3 horses worth
$700 belonging to the Aguila Co.
Feb. 8. Gang of 1 50 men swept into camp of Station
A, East Coast Oil Co., took everything in
commissary, supplies, blankets and bedding
and demanded $10,000.
Feb. 12. Attacked Ed House, paymaster of the Texas
Co., on Chijol Canal, just out of Tampico.
Fired on launch, wounding a launch boy.
House and assistants gave battle and got
away.
263
264 APPENDIX
Feb. 15. Armed Mexicans held up camp of Freeport
and Mexican Fuel Oil Co., at Camalote,
carrying off Lonnie Morris, a driller, holding
him for $ i ,000 ransom. Morris finally freed
without payment being made.
Feb. 19. Launch Tlendra, carrying F. C. Laurie,
attacked in Chijol canal and riddled with
bullets. Boat property of the Cia. Metro-
politana de Oleoductos S. A.
Feb. 21. Launches Tbendra and Houp-La attacked
in Chijol canal. Pilot and one passenger
wounded.
Feb. 21. Horconcitas camp of Mexican Gulf Co., held
up and pumper robbed of $329. This is
34 miles from Tampico.
Feb. 21. Ed House, paymaster, the Texas Co., killed
and 14,000 pesos carried away by armed
Mexicans with Federal army equipment and
rifles. Dr. Brisbane and Paymaster Minnett
both wounded. Forty men in attacking
gang. Hold-up in outskirts of Tampico;
party taking money to pay off workmen.
Feb. 22. The Texas Co.'s Obando camp robbed of
2,500 pesos; several shots fired.
Mar. i. Bandits rait workmen of Tierra Amarilla
camp, the Aguila Co. out into brush and
took supplies and $175.
Mar. i . Bandits entered Potrero and made off with
property worth close to $1,000.
Mar. 5. Oil camp at Tepetate held up and $1,340 in
gold and currency taken; bandits wore uni-
forms of soldiers.
Mar. 7. Bandits again raided Potrero, robbing every-
one from superintendent to Chinaman.
APPENDIX 265
Losses of Aguila Co. and men estimated at
about $2,000.
Mar. 15. Made second visit in month to Camalote;
took everything in sight. Subsequent raids,
in which two men were hanged to derrick,
compelled evacuation of camp. Property
of Freeport & Mexican Oil Corp.
Man 1 6. Armed Mexicans rob camp foreman of the
Texas Co. at Topila and hold up train. Con-
siderable loot taken.
Man 28. Launch Crotes with vice-president, general
manager and employees of the Cortez Oil
Corp. left Tampico with $32,125 on board.
Held up by nine bandits. Federal soldiers
finally ran them off, but stole part of the
money the bandits dropped. Company's
loss $12,007.67.
Mar. 28. Bandits entered Potrero, Aguila company,
taking money and property worth $1,000.
Mar. 28. Bandits again entered Tierra Amarilla, tak-
ing property worth about $4,000 including six
mules.
Apr. 6. Production camp, Texas Co., robbed; loss
several hundred pesos.
Apr. 7. Repeated performance of day before.
Apr. 12. Armed bandits entered camp at Tepetate,
beat employees cruelly and made off with
$323 in money and much property; men
lined up before armed squad during ransack-
ing process.
Apr. 13. Four men in uniforms of soldiers raided
camp of the International Petroleum Co.,
shoving gun into side of A. J. Kirkwood.
Assistant beaten with machetes and squad
266 APPENDIX
of employees taken out with threats of
execution.
Apr. 1 6. Employees of Mexican Gulf Co., finally
forced out of Tepetate district after series
of robberies and barbarities. Did not re*
turn to work for two weeks.
Apr. 1 8. Tepetate Pipe Line pump station, 65 miles
from Tampico, raided and looted by bandits.
Apr. 18. Theodore Rivers, Texas Co., employee,
robbed of watch and money.
Apr. 18. Motor barge Alma R., Texas Co., held up in
Chijol canal and several thousand pesos
taken; threatened lives of men on board,
thinking pay-roll was hidden.
Apr. 19. Superintendent of La Corona Co., at Topila,
and his wife robbed and mistreated and
driven out toward Tampico.
Apr. 23. San Pedro camp of the Aguila Co., raided by
bandits, who "requisitioned" $1,340 from
cashier.
Apr. 24. Station B, East Coast Co., Topila, raided
and employees robbed.
Apr. 25. Two armed Mexicans entered pump station
of the Aguila Co., at Bustos, and robbed
everyone in sight. Demanded and got a
note to their chief, saying that they had
done a clean job, leaving nothing.
Apr. 26. Same two Mexicans entered Santa Fe camp,
of La Corona Co., threatened to shoot cashier
and made off with $475.
Apr. 27. Armed Mexicans again dashed into Sante Fe
camp, shot up the place promiscuously, se-
cured $375 and disappeared.
May 6. J. N. Scott attacked near Tepetate camp and.
APPENDIX 267
severely cut with machetes and daggers.
Earl Boles and Ted Nabors, who went to his
assistance, also attacked.
May 6, Armed Mexicans broke into Santo Tomas sta-
tion, Aguila Co., and robbed station engineer
of personal effects and money worth $500.
May 12. Armed Mexicans robbed camp of everything,
making drilling impossible for a week; La
Corona Co., victim.
May 12. Soldier got drunk and went to sleep in tent;
other soldiers finding "body/' declared he
had been murdered and were getting ready
to lynch superintendent when drunken man
was awakened.
May 1 6. Paymaster of Cortes Oil Corp., held up by
pirates off island of Juana Ramirez in Tamia-
hua Lagoon; payroll equivalent 10310,547.50
in U. S. coin taken.
May 1 6. Launch /?. C. Holmes of the Texas Co., held
up and robbed of 30,000 pesos in Tamiahua
Lagoon.
May 17. Rex Underwood stood off gang of armed
Mexicans with revolver, refusing to give up
valuables.
May 22. Rex Underwood fired upon from ambush;
forced to desert horse and $1,040 tied in
sack to pommel of saddle. Saved life by
taking to bush.
May 1 8. Tepetate station, Mexican Gulf Oil Co.,
again held up and robbed.
May 20. The sum of $103 in Mexican gold currency
was stolen by bandits from the camp office
of the Cia. Metropolitana de Oleoductos
S. A. at lot No. 9 Tepetate.
268 APPENDIX
May 23. Armed Mexicans entered Santa Fe camp of
the La Corona Co., and demanded $20,000
otherwise they would burn the house of the
superintendent. They took the contents of
the safe, $456.60, and went away.
May 23. The same men visited Topila camp, La
Corona Co., and requisitioned from the
camp boss all his and his wife's personal
belongings.
May 26. Armed men return to Santa Fe camp, La
Corona Co., claiming again the 20,000 pesos,
searched all camp houses and went away with
$532 and clothes of employees.
May 29. The same men overrun camp again and
took $156, being the amount in the safe, as
well as food supplies.
June i. The men entered the camp at night and
robbed superintendent and his wife of all
personal belongings.
June 5, Transcontinental de Petroleo S. A. paymas-
ter at Amatlan lost during temporary ab-
sence 6,000 pesos.
June 8. Armed Mexicans returned to La Corona Co.,
camp during full daylight and took away the
money for the weekly payroll, amounting
to about 2,000 pesos at Santa Fe camp.
June, 8. At 3.1 5 P.M. four armed-Mexicans rode into
camp at East Coast Oil Co., Torres Terminal,
and demanded payroll money. The payroll
having been sent up to terminal by the
paymaster in the launch, had arrived at the
terminal about thirty minutes before the
holdup took place. The men secured
$1,542.65 Mexican gold currency. None of
APPENDIX 269
employees was molested because money was
surrendered immediately upon demand.
June 9. Robbers broke into the Aguila Co., office
at Tepetate and forced open the cash drawer,
stealing $967 in money.
June 12. During the encounter between the govern-
ment and reactionary forces the camp office
of Cia. Metropolitana de Oleoductos S. A.
at Palo Blanco was ransacked and the sum
of $1,100.81 Mexican gold currency was
stolen, in addition to a considerable quantity
of material and commissary supplies.
June 24. On the night of June 24 the Mexican Gulf
Oil Co/s, large earthen storage oil reservoir
at Tepetate set afire. Contained about
150,000 barrels of fluid. Approximately
80,000 to 90,000 barrels of fluid burned or
lost by reason of this fire.
June 26. One of the Texas Co/s employees was
robbed near Topila, but fortunately had
only a few dollars with him.
June 27. Foreign employees run out of Palo Blanco
after a regular battle.
June 28. Two employees of Aguila Co., attacked on
road and left for dead, being shot and
hacked with machetes.
June 29. Five armed men robbed Mexican Gulf Co.
terminal four miles above fiscal wharf at
Tampico. Four men, all Americans, mur-
dered.
June 30. Topila superintendent of La Corona Co.
taken away and held for ransom.
July 30. A. W. Stevenson, camp cashier of the pipe
line camp of the Texas Co., at Tepetate y
270 APPENDIX
was murdered by bandits upon his refusal
to open his safe and deliver its contents.
July 3 1 , Mexican Gulf paymaster held up and robbed
of $8,000 Mexican gold within four miles
of Tampico. No lives were lost in this
holdup.
THE END
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS
GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
