THE PLOT AGAINST
MEXICO
LA OFRENDA
By Saturnine Herran, 1887-1918
THE PLOT AGAINST
MEXICO
BY
L. J. DE BEKKER
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
JOHN FARWELL MOORS
Senior Member, Moors & Cabot, Bankers
NEW YORK
ALFRED - A . KNOPF
1919
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY
L. J. DE BEKKER
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
>:
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to the author's colleagues in the
Committee on Mexico of the League of Free Na-
tions Association, in warm appreciation of
their efforts to prevent an armed
intervention in Mexico:
H. A. ATKINSON
JOSEPH P. CHAMBERLAIN
ROYAL J. DAVIS
CARLTON J. H. HAYES
S. G. INMAN
PAUL U. KELLOGG
PAUL KENNADAY
MRS. EDITH SHATTO KING
FREDERICK LYNCH
JOHN F. MOORS
J. W. SLAUGHTER
G. B. WINTON
STANLEY R. YARNALL
And
JAMES G. MCDONALD,
Chairman of the Committee and
of the Association.
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE
This is a fighting book. Its purpose is to ex-
pose and defeat the effort of a handful of pluto-
cratic Americans to involve the United States in
war with Mexico under pretext of an intervention,
in order that our neighbour to the south may be
permanently occupied, and that they may be free
to exploit the enormous natural wealth of the
Mexicans in petroleum, minerals and agricultural
lands, to their own exclusive advantage.
In the hope of preventing publication of the
series of articles in The Nation from which the
book takes its title, a lawyer and the chief press
agent of the interventionists represented to the edi-
tor of that journal that "The Plot Against Mexico"
had no existence in fact, being the product of the
overheated imagination of a gentleman whose ar-
tistic temperament dimmed his appreciation of
facts. They meant me, but they really hit the
President of the United States.
I did not discover or invent a Plot Against
Mexico. If any one invented it, the honour must
be ascribed to Woodrow Wilson. The following
statement, given out at the White House, and never
denied, was sent out from Washington March 25,
THE AUTHORS PREFACE
1916, by the Associated Press and published
throughout the world:
"Convinced that powerful influences are at work
to force an intervention in Mexico, Administration
officials were today considering just what steps
shall be taken to bring the agitation to an end. . . .
President Wilson is said to be determined to stop
the circulation of inflammatory rumours, and to
take legal steps if necessary."
I agree with Mr. Wilson's views as expressed in
his address to Congress, August 27, 1915, when
he said:
"We shall triumph as Mexico's friends sooner
than we could triumph as her enemies, and how
much more handsomely, with how much higher and
finer satisfaction of conscience and of honour!"
And he was right beyond a doubt in believing in
1916 that powerful influences were at work to force
an intervention in Mexico. These influences are
more powerful in 1919 than they were in 1916.
I hold no brief for the existing Government of
Mexico, nor for any individual or corporation hav-
ing interests there. My only purpose is to lay the
truth before the great body of American citizens in
order that they may not be led into an unjust war
by a few score of greedy capitalistic adventurers.
L. J. DE B.
New York City, Oct. 15, 1919.
CONTENTS
SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO? Introduction
by John Farwell Moors 1
ONE: THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO 21
Two: THREE SOLUTIONS FOR OUR MEXICAN
PROBLEM 50
THREE: AN INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA 68
FOUR: A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS 82
FIVE: MEXICO'S NEXT PRESIDENT 97
Six: BY SEA TO MEXICO 109
SEVEN: MEXICO CITY PROSPERS 116
EIGHT: JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT 126
NINE: MEXICO'S NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ART 133
TEN: A STUDY IN MELOMANIA 142
ELEVEN: BANDITS AND BOLSHEVIKI 147
TWELVE: Is MEXICO PRO-GERMAN? 156
THIRTEEN: THE DEMON AS LICOR DIVING 166
FOURTEEN: TRADE AND COMMERCIAL CREDITS 174
FIFTEEN: FINANCE AND THE BANKS 180
SIXTEEN: RAILWAYS AND NATIONALIZATION 190
SEVENTEEN: PETROLEUM AND POLITICS 202
EIGHTEEN: THE OIL MEN'S VERSION 213
NINETEEN: MEXICO'S FUTURE BRIGHT 226
APPENDICES
I. PRESIDENT CARRANZA'S MESSAGE 235
II. PROOF OF THE PLOT; BEING A POSTSCRIPT BY
THE AUTHOR 273
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
LA OFRENDA, by Saturnine Herran, 1887-1918
Frontispiece
FACINGJ
PAOK
SELF PORTRAITURE, by German Gedovius, professor
in the Nacional Academy 44
ISABEL DE PORTUGAL, by Pelegrin Clave, 1872-1890 70
THE VALLEY OF MEXICO, by Jose M. Velasco 94
SAN JERONIMO, by J. Gutierrez 134
OTHELLO, by Gonzales Pineda 138
THE SENATE OF TLAXCALA, by Rodrigo Gutierrez 178
COURTYARD OF AN OLD HOUSE, by Jimenez 230
>
SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO?
BY JOHN FARWELL MOORS
Senior Member, Moors & Cabot, Bankers.
Our national policy or, as it seemed to many
people, lack of policy in Mexico was assumed in
1916 to be altogether indefensible. ,It was this
even more than our attitude toward the European
war which apparently justified Mr. Hughes in leav-
ing the Supreme Court and becoming a candidate
for the Presidency. He called our efforts, such as
they were, to bring order out of chaos in Mexico
"a confused chapter of blunders." He also said:
"We have suffered incalculably from the weak and
vacillating course which has been taken. We
utterly failed to discharge our plain duty to our own
citizens." Now, three years later, this is more than
ever the settled opinion of thousands of Americans,
who have summed up our Mexican policy derisively
in two words: "watchful waiting." These thou-
sands of Americans gave little heed in 1916 to the
President's insistance that, serious as was our con-
cern for our own citizens in Mexico, we owed it to
the Mexicans themselves not to interfere unduly in
their struggle for liberty after intolerable suffering
[i]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
under the fair exterior of the dictatorship of Por-
firio Diaz. Today Mexico is still made to appear
a land of contending bandits. Dr. Paul Bernado
Altendorf, said to have lived in Mexico since 1914,
sums up this common point of view thus: "Mexico
is nothing more than an agglomeration of anarchist
gangs who kill and plunder with no restraint but
their own caprices." Similar views were given by
Mr. William Gates in the World's Work for Feb-
ruary, March, April and May of this year. Senator
Fall of New Mexico has been promulgating them for
years. Republican Floor Leader Mondell, Repre-
sentative Hudspeth from Texas, Representative
Gould from New York have done their best to
emphasize them. When Mr. Hudspeth said:
"The time has come when this Government should
say to Carranza: 'You have not fulfilled your
obligations in the protection of American lives, so
we withdraw recognition of you and will put troops
in Mexico to protect American lives till order is
restored,' " Congress applauded.
On the other hand, on February 6 last, our
Ambassador to Mexico, Mr. Henry P. Fletcher
stated publicly: "President Carranza has accom-
plished great work in preparing for development
and reconstruction, and in reorganizing the public
service, and has made such headway that the various
bandit leaders are now without real influence and
are operating in small bands. Carranza is the real
[2]
SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO?
power in Mexico." On January 7 the Boston News
Bureau quoted L. H. Coley, manager in Mexico for
the Ingersoll-Rand Corporation, as follows:
"There is some interference from lawless elements
in the Western districts, but not nearly so bad as
for the last few years. Nearly all the mines are
being worked, especially those owned by large for-
eign corporations." On February 21, Mr. Elmer
R. Jones, president of Wells Fargo and Co. in
Mexico, which formerly operated on 14,000 miles
of Mexican railroads, gave an equally optimistic
view after a two and a half months' trip through
Mexico. In April, Mr. B. Preston Clark, highly
respected in this city, speaking of the U. S. Smelt-
ing, Refining and Mining Co., made the following
impressive statement to the Episcopal Church Con-
gress in New York:
"It has been my privilege to be connected with
a mining company operating in Mexico. About
ten years ago we went there. We have tried to
treat the Mexicans as human beings. We told
them that we did not believe the current legend
than no Mexican was worth more than two pesos
a day, that with us, if a man did the work, he
would fare just the same, whether he was American
or Mexican, that in all ways we should respect
them and their wives and families as we would
our own. We went to it as a human proposition.
The effect was prodigious.
[3]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
"This attitude brought out the best there was
in those people and the best there was in us. For
eight and a half years of revolution, under those
Southern stars, the roar of our mills has never
stopped. Today 7,000 men operate them, of whom
57 only are Americans (less than 1%).
"Mexicans hold important positions all along
the line. I could spend an evening telling you
that story. How we have fed them, fought typhus
and influenza with them, and how they have done
their part like men. Two things I must say.
After Vera Cruz we insisted that all our Americans
leave Mexico. The properties were left in abso-
lute charge of Mexicans for eight months. They
stole nothing; they allowed no one else to steal
anything; they operated the plants successfully,
and returned them to us in as good condition as
when our Americans came out.
"On another occasion $250,000 in bullion was
stolen from the company. Our 6,000 miners of
their own motion, when they heard of this, saw to
it that that bullion was returned within 24 hours,
and within 48 hours it was on a Ward liner bound
for Liverpool. Do you wonder that I trust them?"
On May 4 an editorial, a column long, in the
New York Times, entitled "A Visit to Mexico,"
said: "Darkest Mexico was penetrated on March
29 from Laredo by a train of Pullman cars carry-
ing fifty members of the San Antonio Chamber of
[4]
SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO?
Commerce and bound for the principal cities of
the country so long ravaged by revolutionary bands.
When the San Antonians returned to American soil,
Mexico was no longer dark to them. It was not a
disturbed and distressed country as they saw it.
The visiting merchants had a halcyon time, travel-
ling 3,000 miles and enjoying all the comforts of
home. The impression that Mexico had been dev-
astated by revolution the Americans found to be
a grotesque exaggeration."
Production, exports and the earnings of foreign
companies with property in Mexico all tend to con-
firm these many reports of comparatively stable
conditions there and of a more and more successful
outcome of the Revolution.
How is it then that in the general news columns
conditions in Mexico are now almost daily painted
as direful?
A clue to the mystery may perhaps be found in
the potential riches of Mexico, particularly in the
expanding production of oil. Mexico is said to be
capable of producing 50% of the whole oil supply
of the world and oil is said to be the world's most
valuable product. The Carranza Government has
sought by law to secure ownership, not only of all
future sub-soil rights but until recently of retro-
active rights. Last October, Mr. Frederick R.
Kellogg, general counsel for the Mexican Petroleum
Co., stated very clearly (New York Nation, Oct. 5,
[5]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
1918) the foreign companies' side of the case.
"The oil companies," said he, "have opposed, and
will oppose to the end, the attacks to which they are
being subjected." The stock market showed its
confidence in such opposition, for at the time of Mr.
Kellogg's pessimistic article, Mexican Petroleum
stock was almost doubling in market value.
On January 21, 1919, a financial news sheet an-
nounced modestly the formation of the "National
Association for the Protection of American Rights
in Mexico." The leading interests in this Associa-
tion were then reported to be the Rockefeller Cos.,
American Smelting and Refining Co., Anaconda
Co., and Mexican Petroleum Co. This association
is now said to have a press bureau in most com-
petent hands at 347 Fifth Avenue, New York, and
others elsewhere. Its name appears with great
frequency in the press, notably in connection with
the attacks in Mexico on unknown American
citizens, in whom it purports to take a deep interest.
The large corporations which organized it are
usually no longer mentioned, but the bureau chief
has testified that he receives a salary of $20,000.
On February 23 announcement was made by one
of the leading banking houses in New York of the
formation of an international committee of twenty
bankers, ten from the United States and five each
from England and France "for the purpose of pro-
tecting the holders of securities of the Mexican Re-
[6]
SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO?
public," etc., "with a view to such positive action
as may be taken whenever circumstances permit."
Since then the dark pictures of Mexico have
grown in number till now they appear almost daily.
An extraordinary broadside appeared giving the
prophetic news that there would be a revolution in
Mexico in June. Other extraordinary broadsides
followed featuring Felix Diaz, who, with a redoubt-
able general, named Blanquet, has assembled, as
it were over night, an army of 40,000 men and was
marching on Mexico City. This movement, what-
ever it was in reality, collapsed; Blanquet was
killed; Diaz became a fugitive.
Next, Zapata was made to appear the hopeful
patriot of Mexico. But on March 15 he was said
to be fleeing to the mountains and on April 11 he,
too, was reported killed.
In May a triumphant march by Villa through
Chihuahua had the front pages. He captured
Parral; he advanced on Juarez; he had become
miraculously transformed not only in strength but
character. The New York Sun suddenly ab-
solved him from responsibility for the Columbus
massacre. The Washington correspondent of the
Boston Evening Transcript, whose earlier castiga-
tions of Villa would fill a volume, had on May 3
over a column extolling him. Villa had been
"grossly misrepresented," his military operations
were being conducted "regularly and under a well-
[7]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
devised plan and not according to the methods of
the banditti"; Gen. Angeles, Villa's "Provisional
President of Mexico," was "chief of staff and one
of the best soldiers in Mexico"; his sentries
throughout Parral were "a guaranty of life, liberty
and property"; he "requisitioned" $50,000 from
Spanish residents, "not for the equipment of his
army, but for ameliorating conditions in Parral";
he was no longer the "drunken Villa" but was re-
garded by "his American friends" (whoever they
were) as "one of the most uncompromising pro-
hibitionists on the continent"; he "does not even
smoke." The lower classes under rebel control
were "more prosperous and contented than ever
before." The article ends prophetically thus:
"Villa is only one of several other local chieftains
who stand ready to make serious trouble for the
Carranza Government, when the time comes."
Villa, however, when he reached Juarez, was
driven by United States troops perpendicularly
d9wn to his former level of unspeakable bandit.
The Provisional President of Mexico disappeared.
When June came there were left only the wrecks
of three well-advertised revolutions and consider-
able mortality. The Carranza Government seemed
to be more firmly established than at any previous
time.
With the collapse of the revolutions extraor-
dinary publicity was suddenly given to outrages
[8]
SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO?
on American citizens in Mexico. On July 8 the
National Association for the Protection of Ameri-
can Rights in Mexico itself announced that the
Executive Committee had decided "to use its utmost
endeavours" to make these outrages "an interna-
tional issue." The next day the New York Times 9
on "unusually well informed authority," told us
that President Wilson would soon appear before
Congress "and make an address on the Mexican
problem, dealing with the matter along the lines
of the McKinley message to Congress, which led to
intervention with Cuba." On July 20 the overt act
needed for intervention seemed almost, if not quite,
to have taken place. "Outrage on American
Sailors" said great headlines. "This is one of the
gravest of the many grave incidents which have been
staged in Mexico within recent months," said Act-
ing Secretary of State Phillips. "Every sensible
American knows the course we should adopt to
stop these outrages. We ought to kill about 2,000
Mexicans," said Senator Ashurst of Arizona.
Senator Fall was described as "one who gave free
expression to his feelings." The losses, when
officially reported, proved, however, to be only a
watch, a pair of shoes and "some money"; the
sailors had gone, contrary to orders, into bandit
country; and the Mexican authorities were said to
be most friendly and zealous to capture the wrong-
doers. That indiscreet barometer of Wall Street
[9]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
sentiment, Mexican Petroleum stock, had risen on
what was called the "tension" caused by this in-
cident.
In July the Committee on Rules of the House of
Representatives proceeded With the agitation.
Ambassador Fletcher, the first witness, continued
to speak well of the Carranza Government and said
that Carranza's authority was now fairly well
established over most of Mexico. He stated that
he had records of 217 Americans killed in Mexico
in eight years. "391," the National Association
for the Protection of American Rights in Mexico
was quick to assert.
The principal other witness before the Committee
was William Gates, author of the articles last spring
in the World's Work, who interested the Committee
so much that it called him back for more testimony.
Gates was described as an "archaeologist." The
New York Sun said he came from Baltimore, the
World and the Tribune that he came from Cali-
fornia, the Times that he came from Cleveland.
Gates testified that most of the bandits were Car-
ranza men, and that most Mexicans would say, if
they should hear of financial and possible military
assistance against Carranza: "Thank God, you
have redeemed belief in America."
Then, however, there was another collapse.
David Lawrence pointed out in the New York
Evening Post that Gates had written to H. L. Hall,
[10]
SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO?
Santa Monica, California, letters showing himself
to be a "bridge" between the various rebel elements
in Mexico, to have had Zapata's credentials as
persona grata with all the revolutionaries, and to
have had letters from Felix Diaz showing him "one
of us." One letter says: "I write you this, as you
represent Zapata, am now awaiting the return of the
people from Paris, for things to climax. When
they do I am ready. I hope we shall succeed."
He cautiously added: "Of what is actually going
on of real moment it is impossible to write as you
can judge." Gates has publicly admitted these
letters, but denies their obvious implication.
The appeals for justice from the Mexican Gov-
ernment have been given scanty heed by the people
of the United States. On February 26, three days
after the formation of the committee of twenty
bankers, a prominent member of the Mexican Gov-
ernment registered a caveat. Said he : "If the new
committee considers that the situation in Mexico is
not as it was ten years ago, we can expect good re-
sults. But if the same error is made as by many
who are interested in our affairs who wish Mexico
to return to the basis of ten years ago, we can only
expect the creation of new difficulties."
On July 26 the Mexican Ambassador at Washing-
ton addressed the people of the United States telling
of the comparatively stable government now in
Mexico. He compared the outrages there with
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
those here after our Civil War. He stated that
Mexico was paying two-thirds of its income to chase
bandits. He pointed to the balance sheets of the
big companies operating in Mexico as evidence of
their prosperity.
On August 2 President Carranza said: "The
petroleum companies have set out to engender ill-
feeling between Mexico and the United States.
They are doing this through the medium of some
sections of the American press which are distorting
facts to suit their own ends. Mexico is not opposed
to the petroleum companies or to any other foreign
investors. We merely require that, if such com-
panies are to operate in the Republic, they abide by
our laws."
From Mexico has come the charge that Senator
Fall was behind a letter from Col. Charles F. Hunt
to Villa, offering Villa a visit from Senator Fall and
others, for the purpose of helping to push the cam-
paign against the Mexican Government. Senator
Fall replied: "Liars, of course, as usual." But he
admitted that he had sent the State Department
copies of the Hunt- Villa correspondence.
Warnings have come also from American
sources. On March 17 the correspondent in
Mexico City of the New York World wrote: "A
campaign instigated chiefly by petroleum interests
is afoot to force the next Republican Congress to
intervene in Mexico." Early in April the New
[12]
SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO?
York Nation said: "There is reason to believe that
efforts of serious proportions are being made to
bring about war between the United States and
Mexico. Bit by bit the propaganda is being spread
with ostensible fortuitousness. Leading Canadian
and American oil men go to Paris. In Paris these
gentlemen meet with the other oil groups. The
British Government has taken over large oil in-
terests and is going into the business. Gen. Blan-
quet suddenly lands in Mexico and carefully pre-
pared statements of his enterprise are issued in
New York. A drive is on and the story of it is
written plainly in the Blanquet propaganda.
President Carranza is to be labelled pro-German
and his regime is to fall into the category of Bol-
shevism." This point of view is now being in-
stilled into us. With the collapse of the revolutions
and of the Gates testimony, there is being placed
under our eyes propaganda calculated to inflame
our minds against Carranza by imputing to him pro-
German activities against this country. Dr. Alten-
dorf, already mentioned, who claims to have
worked in Mexico under the guise of a "loyal Ger-
man," is now making these charges.
On July 6 the Christian Science Monitor quoted
John R. Phillips, who it says "has investigated and
is thoroughly familiar with the whole problem" :
"This recrudescence of the propaganda was all
timed to go off in conjunction with the activities of
[13]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
various revolutionary leaders in Mexico. But
these leaders, sent down there and financed by
American interventionists, were disposed of by the
Mexican Government forces. Villa's and Angeles'
elaborately staged and widely heralded operations
were abortive. Blanquet and Zapata were killed.
All of this left the propaganda which was to syn-
chronize on the American side with these bandits,
high and dry, without excuse for its existence. But
as the propaganda organs were ready for function-
ing, they were allowed to go on with their work of
pouring their poison into the American press in a
last desperate effort to accomplish their purpose."
More recently, Mr. L. J. de Bekker, a correspon-
dent sent to Mexico by the New York Tribune to
"write the truth about the situation," has given
first-hand information. Mr. de Bekker was in
Mexico during February, March and April, 1919.
He found "peace and prosperity" in the greater
part of Mexico, controlled by the Mexican Govern-
ment, but "devastation and anarchy" in the oil
region, where one Pelaez, "King of the oil fields,"
a bandit, employed by the oil producers, was in
their interest forcibly defying the Mexican Govern-
ment. The Tribune did not publish his views.
When published elsewhere, these views drew on
July 26 a reply from a body calling itself "The
Association of Oil Producers in Mexico" and writ-
[14]
SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO?
ing from New York. In this reply the Association
practically admits the forcible defiance of the
Mexican Government by the foreign oil producers,
for it says: " ' King' Pelaez's troops are operating
in the oil fields only, far from any railroad, for the
reason that the Government is attempting to con-
fiscate their oil values." The reply insists that the
companies are not "voluntarily" assisting Pelaez
against Carranza, and that Pelaez is in effect a
blackmailer who would destroy the oil wells if
tribute were not paid him. Congressman La
Guardia, though decrying the purposes of the
Carranza Government, has confirmed in the follow-
ing statement, the open warfare against that govern-
ment waged by Pelaez in return for the tribute
paid him by the oil companies : "The Pelaez faction
is the best equipped, best uniformed army of all the
factions. It is about 5,000 armed men under the
command of Gen. Pelaez. These forces protect
the oil industries from being robbed by the Car-
ranza faction. It is supported and paid for by the
oil companies. I understand that the pay is some-
thing like $180,000 a month, and that several
million dollars already have been paid to Pelaez
for necessary protection."
Should we like it if the foreign owners of some
of our factories should employ gunmen to kill our
officials in the enforcement of our income tax law?
[15]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
Is not the Pelaez situation far more exasperating
and ominous for Mexico than even this suppositi-
tious case would be for us?
So far the United States has not intervened,
except to drive off Villa and to chase (vainly) the
bandits who recently captured two American
aviators. But Senator Lodge has appointed a
Senate investigating committee which consists of
Senator Fall, chairman; Senator Smith of Arizona,
said to be the "conspicuous chum" of Fall, and the
colleague of Ashurst, quoted above, and Senator
Brandegee of Connecticut, whose point of view is
typified by his comment on a recent article by ex-
President Taft: "I never pay any attention to the
froth he emits. Every time you throw a cake of
soap into him, he emits whatever froth President
Wilson wants him to." A committee could not
have been appointed more predisposed to find for
intervention.
The situation is further complicated by the fact
that in the Monroe Doctrine are involved obligations
as well as privileges. England and France have
enormous interests in Mexico. As the Monroe
Doctrine precludes them from themselves protecting
those interests by force, they may be expected to
turn to us to see that their interests and those of
their citizens in Mexico do not suffer. We are
their friends and want to remain their friends.
"Watchful waiting" may seem as inexplicable to
[16]
SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO?
them now as it seemed to Mr. Hughes in 1916, and
as it has long seemed to all Jingoes.
Let us not, however, deceive ourselves. "Prop-
aganda" means the artificial dissemination of
news calculated to produce a state of public opinion
desired by those who disseminate the news. "In-
tervention" in the case of a strong nation, dealing
with a weak one, is a euphemism for war. The
phrase to "clean up" Mexico similarly means war
upon her. Nine men in ten in the financial dis-
tricts assume today that we should go to war with
Mexico. They are doubtless ignorant of the fact
that in 1848 the United States signed a treaty with
Mexico agreeing to arbitrate all differences before
going to war. No American should tolerate mak-
ing this treaty a "scrap of paper."
On December 4 last, a typical item in a financial
column said: "The outlook for companies operat-
ing in Mexico is believed to be brighter than it has
been for a long time. The great expansion in the
American army undoubtedly will exert a salutary
effect on the obnoxious elements in the Southern
Republic." With equal candour, on July 15 a cor-
respondent of the New York Times in Coblenz
wrote that the American army was drawing up
plans for a Mexican campaign. "The military
machine," said he, "has begun to do what the
armies of European nations have long done, that is,
draft plans of campaign against neighbour nations."
[17]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
This time our army was to fight "with the most
modern weapons" with "the 1919 stamp upon
them."
Intervention thus conceived is not merely war,
but aggressive war on the old and, we had assumed,
discredited European basis, the war of a great na-
tion on a little one.
There is food for thought at such a time in the
views of labour.
The proceedings in New York, July 10, of the
Pan-American Federation of Labour, have the fol-
lowing entry: A resolution introduced by Louis
N. Morones, representing the Mexican Federation
of Labour, was adopted, deploring "the campaign
that for some time has been carried on to provoke
an armed conflict between the United States and
Mexico" and urging peaceful settlement of all dif-
ficulties. Similarly, Samuel Gompers, has said in
an interview: "To my mind, it would be the gravest
wrong which could be inflicted upon the people of
the United States, as well as upon the people of
Mexico, if the Jingo spirit which now seems to be
in the course of manufacture should drive us into
anything like a conflict with the people of Mexico.
The President, with his associates, has negotiated
a treaty of peace and in it established the covenant
for the League of Nations. One of the highest
purposes is die settlement of international disputes
[18]
SHALL WE INTERVENE IN MEXICO?
by peaceful means, and we cannot consistently ad-
vocate such high principles in our dealings with the
European nations as provided in the covenant and
then rush into an armed conflict with Mexico."
Will not a righteous cry go up from labour that
it is a capitalist's war, if we now intervene in
Mexico? Will not another righteous cry go up
from our new friends in the ABC countries that
we have justified their former suspicions of us?
Will not the whole world cynically compare our
professions with our practice, and look upon us, not
as leaders toward new and better international
ideals, but as the nation which failed the world at
the first test?
The politicians and the oil producers can easily
persuade themselves that intervention will increase
the production of supplies which the world needs.
They can strike a responsive chord when they urge
us to suppress outrages in Mexico, even though the
outrages there may not be more reprehensible than
they are here. Let us indeed agree with them that
in Mexico, as elsewhere, we should seek to have
justice done our interests and all reasonable pro-
tection granted our citizens. But where in all
history will there be folly like unto our folly, in-
famy like unto our infamy, if the propaganda, to
which we are wanted to give heed, should prove to
be the bearing of false witness against a helpless
[19]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
neighbour, trying to struggle to her feet, and should
deafen our ears to her appeals for mercy, and
should lead us to sharpen our knives "with the 1919
stamp upon them" and attack her and ravage her
lands and take to ourselves her riches?
[20J
CHAPTER ONE: THE PLOT AGAINST
MEXICO
Is there a plot against Mexico? I believe that
there is, and that it involves several high officials
of the United States Government; that its object is
armed intervention in Mexico, on some pacific pre-
text, the real purpose being permanent military oc-
cupation of the country, so that its internal affairs
may be administered in accordance with the in-
terests of the conspirators.
I believe that the originators of the plot are
American oil men now operating in Mexican ter-
ritory, or else greedy for an opportunity to begin
operations there upon terms of their own dictation.
I am aware that there exists a formidable publicity
bureau created to poison the minds of the American
people against Mexico, and that the publication of
the truth regarding that unfortunate country will
result in the publisher's being deluged with letters
of denial, of protest, of personal vilification and
abuse.
Proof is difficult unless undertaken by an
official commission empowered to compel evidence
and the evidence is largely circumstantial. But
there is enough to justify such an inquiry, if only as
[21]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
a means of preventing a war of invasion. (Senator
Lodge's appointment of the most notorious enemy
Mexico has to head an "investigation" of Mexican
affairs was the response to this suggestion.)
American and British oil interests in Mexico are
centred in Tampico, in the State of Tamaulipas, but
extend south along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico
to Tuxpan, in the State of Vera Cruz. Seeing only
Tampico, the visitor to Mexico would be impressed
by the extent to which American influence has
grown. This ancient Mexican port has developed
into a second-rate Key West. It contains some tall
buildings, and the only hotel in Mexico of the many
in which I sojourned where the "scarlet creeper"
is cultivated. Seeing only Tamaulipas, he would
be convinced that the chief products of Mexico were
oil and bandits, and would have registered the
superficial impressions by no means uncommon
among certain classes of commercial tourists. But
having overlooked the cities of the Central Plateau,
he would be ignorant of the real Mexico, and unable
to contrast the peace and prosperity of the country,
where the rule of the Constitutionalist authorities
is supreme, with the devastation and anarchy
wrought by bandits in the districts policed by
"General" Pelaez on behalf of the oil men. In this
land of contrasts Tampico is and always has been
loyal to the Government established in Mexico City,
and so are and have been the greater part of the
[22]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
political districts of Tamaulipas. The State Gov-
ernment has its seat at Ciudad Victoria, a town some
distance from the port, and the governor, Dr.
Osuna, who was at one time a Presbyterian mis-
sionary, possesses as complete an administrative
organization as can be found elsewhere; but no-
where else in Mexico outside Villa territory is there
such chaos as in parts of Tamaulipas.
A topographical map would go far toward ex-
plaining these contradictory conditions. In Ta-
maulipas as in Vera Cruz the descent from the cool
country of the Central Plateau to the t ierra caliente,
or hot land of the sea-coast, can be accomplished in
a single day. A chain of mountains blocks access
from the interior to the coast, and to the average
traveller there are but two routes open to Tampico,
one from San Luis Potosi, the other from Monterey,
which lies to the north of the former city both
cities on the direct line of traffic between Laredo
and Mexico City. Other routes available for horse-
men and pedestrians are known to the natives,
whether bandits or pacificos, but have no com-
mercial importance. Choosing the southern route
because it was closer to Mexico City, I left San Luis
Potosi at 6:30 A. M., bound for the oil fields. On
the Vera Cruz line to the capital, and throughout
the network of roads I had traversed in Central
Mexico, Pullman cars were in use, and travel was
in all respects as comfortable as in the United
[23]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
States; perhaps more so, in our days of congestion
and Government control; certainly more agreeable
than my rail journey from New York to Key West
a few weeks earlier.
There were no Pullmans on the roads leading to
Tampico. Pullman cars are expensive things,
difficult to replace, even in these days of reconstruc-
tion, and "King" Pelaez of the oil fields considers
it a patriotic duty to blow up any rolling stock be-
longing to the Constitutionalist Government, re-
gardless of injury to the passengers, who are
robbed, if still alive after the destruction of their
train, and may enjoy the felicity of seeing whatever
of their belongings the bandits have discarded
burned while they await the means of returning to
civilization.
In the most dangerous places on this dangerous
journey, one of Mr. Carranza's soldiers found the
cowcatcher a seat of honour from which to scan the
tracks ahead for evidence of dynamite. His life
and ours depended upon the accuracy of his vision.
Two soldiers, swinging out from either side of the
engine-tender, watched for broken rails, open
switches, wrecked culverts, or other proof of a
recent visit from the Pelaez following. And
whether danger was apparent or not, one soldier
stood, carbine in hand, on top of a baggage car
which contained half a dozen of his fellows, ready
to reply to fire from ambush, or take a pot shot at
[24]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
any bandit rolling rocks down upon us from the
steep mountain side.
The beginning of the danger zone was marked
in a most extraordinary way. Certain bandits who
ventured from the hot lands or mountain fastnesses,
where they can hide more easily than upon the
open plain, had been captured and hanged to the
telegraph poles. The bodies, when we saw them,
appeared to have been mummified in the dry pure
air, and swung to and fro in the breeze in a state of
perfect preservation except as to clothes.
Neither I nor the good lady who looks after me is
bloodthirsty, but we had heard so much of the
frightful crimes committed by these Mexican
bandits who style themselves patriots, revolutionists,
and sometimes Villistas, that I confess we tried, not
without success and a certain grim satisfaction, to
photograph five of these cadavers.
As we ran into the hill country, valleys of wonder-
ful beauty and fertility opened before us, and de-
spite unsettled conditions shown by ruined villages
and churches and the grouping of thatched huts as
close as possible to the tracks, we saw that planting
had been resumed in many places. The mountains
did not lift their heads into the region of perpetual
snow, and there was no such glorious giant as
Orizaba towering above us almost the entire day,
as when we journeyed from Vera Cruz to Mexico
City; but we saw sheer walls of rock, like a greatly
[25]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
magnified palisade; vast heights, so nearly perpen-
dicular that we wondered how the verdure clung to
them; and rifts and chasms so deep that, after a
glance, we instinctively drew back into the car.
Creeping at a snail's pace along a narrow shelf of
rock, we saw suspended from a spur nearly fifteen
hundred feet below us a train of oil cars. These
tanks, of course, and the oil they carried were the
property of the Tampico oil men, but apparently
they were en route to the wicked Constitutionalist
authorities in Mexico City; so "King" Pelaez of
the oil fields, who guards the jungle for the oil men,
dynamited them perhaps mistaking them for
passenger trains.
We reached Tampico at midnight, several hours
late, and with a prejudice against "General" Pelaez.
I had been told by the American Embassy in
Mexico City that the oil men paid Pelaez, for guard-
ing their interests, $200,000 a month. Still, I was
surprised to learn from the spokesman for the oil
interests next day that they would like to see Pelaez
president of Mexico, because he was their friend,
and the only friend they had, as they were "in bad"
with the Washington as well as the Mexican Gov-
ernment. Only a few months before Pelaez was
content with $40,000 a month blackmail, but the
Saturday Evening Post's articles on Mexico got into
his hands, and he "raised the ante." j
Two years ago Pelaez and his staff lived at Terra
[26]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
Armenia, the big oil camp belonging to "El
Aguila," otherwise Lord Cowdray's Mexican Eagle
Company, and were represented by "General"
Enriquez at Juan Casiano, the biggest of the camps
owned by the Huasteca Petroleum Company, of
which the founders were E. L. Doheny, and C. A.
Canfield of Los Angeles. The "Generals" were
not at home during my visit to Tampico, having
been dispossessed by President Carranza's soldiers
some weeks before; so I did not have the pleasure
of meeting them. But the oil men spoke highly of
them, and it may be that Pelaez is now dearer to
them because he costs them more.
Carl Ackerman was more fortunate than I, two
years ago. "Who is Pelaez?" he asked in Tam-
pico. "An ignorant Mexican rancher," was the
universal reply. "He is a revolutionist, like all of
us, against the Carranza Government. He has a
loyal army that protects our property and workers.
Pelaez is king of the police in the oil districts."
"And Enriquez?" Ackerman questioned. "A
Mexican doctor," answered the foreigners,
"cultured, educated and refined. He had a drug
store in Tuxpan." ("Mexico's Dilemma," p. 80.)
Unable to meet the "King of the Oil Fields," I
said to the oil men: "Why don't you shut off this
blackmail and make your peace with Mr. Car-
ranza? No doubt your stockholders could use to
advantage the $200,000 a month you are giving
[27]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
Pelaez, and he doesn't seem to be delivering the
goods." "We can't," was the invariable reply.
"He would blow up our wells if we did. Besides,
the State Department at Washington knows each and
every payment we make to Pelaez, and approves it."
Of course a guard of United States marines
would cost these gentlemen nothing. That is the
first incentive to the plot against Mexico extrica-
tion by armed force from a difficult situation and
at the expense of the American nation rather than
of themselves.
And there would be money in it!
American oil men profess not to have made a
cent in Mexico in years, although six months after
my return from Mexico Doheny's company paid a
1918 dividend of more than $14 a share, and Lord
Cowdray's company paid a twenty-five per cent,
dividend last January, and the Dutch Shell has paid
thirty-seven per cent, and forty-eight per cent, in
the last two years. And Mr. Doheny expects 1919
to be the banner year for opportunities developed
and negotiations completed.
How much money? I cannot state the amount
exactly, but one item of economy would be the ex-
port tax now levied on petroleum by President
Carranza's Government.
According to official Mexican figures, this tax
amounted for the year 1918 to $5,560,198.95 in
American money. The total value of petroleum
[28]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
exports for that year was 141,557,553.20 pesos, the
peso being legally fifty cents American, although
usually a trifle more valuable in the exchange.
Exports might be increased and taxes eased off by
American intervention.
Official Mexican figures show that twenty-four oil
companies own their land in fee simple and pay
no rent. Fifty-four companies pay an annual
rental of less than five pesos ($2.50) for one
hectare (two and one-half acres). These com-
panies occupy nearly seven-eighths of the oil land
under exploitation. The total area rented by them
is 3,325,490 acres, out of a grand total of
4,064,870 acres. On this they pay an annual
rental amounting to $589,320.54, or a little more
than ten and a quarter cents per acre. Twenty-two
companies pay annual rentals of less than $5 per
hectare upon 138,340 acres, amounting to $166,-
254.84. One hundred and twenty-two compa-
nies pay more than $5 per hectare. They oc-
cupy 175,087 acres and pay a total annual rent of
$2,443,457.72. Several companies pay from
$500 to $2,016 per hectare, which raises the aver-
age, so that on the total acreage, as stated above,
the total annual rent is $3,449,033.22. Both
rentals and tax rates are lower than in Texas or
Oklahoma, but under American intervention they
might be still further reduced.
The Mexican Secretary of Commerce and In-
[29]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
dustry estimates the value of all oil properties in
Mexico at $300,000,000, one-third of that sum
being allotted to the wells. But in 1915 the
Huasteca operators reported to their stockholders a
physical valuation of lands at $75,000,000, and
have since increased their acreage. Other esti-
mates, some by Americans, place the value of
foreign oil holdings at one billion dollars. A stake
worth playing for? But that is not all. Only the
surface of Mexico's wealth in petroleum has been
exploited as yet.
Recent efforts of the New York Sun and other
dailies to whitewash Francisco Villa and his lieu-
tenant, "General" Angeles, who, it is now pre-
tended, is "Provisional President of Mexico," while
Villa is merely his Secretary of War, shifts the
limelight for the moment to the State of Chihuahua
and the International Boundary. The Sun ab-
solves Villa from the Columbus massacre on the
ground that he was not in immediate command of
his men at the time. No doubt the American
people and the British Government have been
equally misinformed regarding the murder of
Thomas Benton in Villa's office, Juarez, April 9,
1914, and of the score and more of Americans
whom Villa is officially charged with having slain.
Conclusive evidence of the moral purity of Villa
will be found in the fact that the American oil in-
terests maintained a financial agent and a press
[30]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
agent with him for three years, which of course
they would not have done had he not been as angelic
as Angeles himself. And he is Mexico's foremost
military leader. That was conclusively established
at the Battle of Celaya, where General Obregon de-
feated the Villa army of 40,000 with a force half as
large, and drove him back with a handful of the
men who survived to the northern mountain fast-
nesses where he has since skulked, only re-appear-
ing for a cattle raid from time to time until his last
feint against Juarez. Villa's break with Carranza
took place in September, 1914. Chihuahua has an
area of 90,000 square miles nearly three times the
territory of the Kingdom of Ireland, but its popula-
tion numbers only 227,000 which exceeds that of
Springfield, Mass., by 2,000. Chasing bandits
through cactus lands isn't easy work. If you don't
believe it, ask General Pershing.
And a handful of men can do much damage and
make a lot of noise. If you don't believe it, re-
read the recent accounts of bombing outrages in
American cities, and of riots in Washington,
Chicago, Boston, Omaha, and elsewhere.
But how has Villa maintained himself in all
these years?
Partly by stealing cattle, which find a ready
market on the American side of the border, de-
spite the efforts of the Border patrol to prevent
smuggling, partly by robbing ranches and mines,
[31]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
but chiefly through the charity of his American
friends.
"Innocent, well-meaning, but utterly deceived
Villa," writes the charitably minded Carlo de
Fornaro (Carranza and Mexico). "If he only
knew that the Cientificos, whom he accuses of hav-
ing affiliated with Carranza, are really pulling their
wires from New York, and using him as a tool to
eliminate Carranza, and this because the First Chief
intends to carry out all the radical reforms of the
revolution."
Mr. de Fornaro believes, and rightly, that the
American press, though it cannot be bought, can be
fooled. He tells how British oil interests spent
7,000,000 francs to corrupt the Paris press when
Huerta was seeking a foreign loan, on the authority
of Dr. Atl, now director of the Mexican National
Art School, who exposed the facts in "L'Humanite."
Then he throws some interesting light on the press
campaign for Villa in 1913, when "the Villa pub-
licity reached its zenith," and "as much as two
hundred dollars was paid to a writer to get a story
on Villa into a New York Sunday paper."
"Even the Aguascalientes convention became a
Punch and Judy show," he writes, "managed from
New York, and it was used as a convenient lever to
oust Carranza and place a puppet in his stead. . . .
In fact, all the interviews passed through the hands
[32]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
of an American press agent of Villa, and his mani-
festos, proclamations, and letters were written by
the agents, and signed by Villa, who was absolutely
ignorant of the contents of the documents."
In the midst of a new campaign against Mexico
through the press, one wonders how intelligent
editors can be deceived so easily. In the case of
a great publication like the Chicago Tribune,
owned by people who, as revealed in the Ford libel
suit, are also interested in the Harvester Company
and in the oil corporations, all of which are now
in opposition to the present Mexican Government,
some overzealous newspaper employe might oc-
casionally stretch a point of fact in trying to
"roast" Mexico.
The attitude of Mr. Hearst's papers is partly
understandable on the grounds of that publisher's
large property interests in Northern Mexico. But
what about the others?
Melville E. Stone said a few years ago in the
course of an address at the Pulitzer School of
Journalism, "I once had luncheon with the editor of
the Paris Figaro, Gaston Galmette. That day his
paper had contained what purported to be a cable
message from New York, recounting in thrilling
phrase the story of a massacre of a large company
of people by Indians on Broadway. I asked him
why he published so absurd a tale. 'Ah,' said he,
[33]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
'there are sixty thousand brainless women in Paris.
They are the demimonde. They read Figaro and
these silly things amuse them.'
"This sort of journalism," Mr. Stone added, "is
not the most profitable sort of journalism," a state-
ment with which one may agree, and still wonder
why it should be blazoned to the world by certain
American newspapers in their efforts to please the
anti-Mexican propagandists.
Perhaps even the great and powerful news
gathering association of which Mr. Stone has been
so long and with such distinction the directing
genius is at fault. The Associated Press serves
several newspapers in Mexico, and has its main
office in the editorial rooms of El Universal, a
daily with correspondents in all parts of the re-
public. Yet its dispatches from Mexico are meagre
and far between.
On March 3, 1919, a Mexican official at a dinner
given to visiting newspaper men in Mexico City,
announced on the authority of the present Mexican
Secretary of the Treasury that the petroleum con-
troversy would be solved by eliminating the ret-
roactive features of Article 27 of the new constitu-
tion. The representative of the Associated Press
took the floor, and asserted that he would not wire
this statement until it was made in official form, and
criticized the Mexican officials for their lack of sys-
tem in communicating information to the press.
[34]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
Not wishing to duplicate, but believing that the
information should be cabled to New York, I asked
the A. P. man if he really meant to "spike" the
story, late that night, intending to cable it myself.
"Certainly I'll 'spike' it," he said. "It's plain
propaganda, and I've been warned from head-
quarters to let propaganda alone. There's too
much of it on both sides."
I shall not suggest to Mr. Stone that any member
of his organization would be guilty of suggestio
falsi, but here is a distinct example of suppressio
veri, and precisely at the time when his old friends
the Shanghai liar and the correspondent who fre-
quently heard firing off the Mole St. Nicholas ap-
pear to have taken their abode in Washington
and El Paso.
It is merely a coincidence, of course, that the oil,
mining, and other interests now attacking the
Mexican Government should have chosen as their
chief press agent in New York a former general
superintendent of the Associated Press office in
Washington, Mr. Charles Hudson Boynton, whose
father held that position before him. Mr. Boynton
came to New York nearly ten years ago to engage
in the brokerage business, and has been president
of the American Russian Chamber of Commerce.
In a characteristic letter covering anti-Mexican
oil propaganda, Mr. Boynton tells the editor that
he has now assumed the direction of affairs for
[35]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
the National Association for the Protection of
American Rights in Mexico, seeks "information as
to the individual with whom we should deal when-
ever we have information which we think would
be of news value," and concludes by a reminder
of old A. P. friendship: "As my new capacity
will bring me in touch with many old acquaintances,
I hope that you will permit me in the near future
to renew ours."
Frank J. Silsbee is associated as secretary with
Mr. Boynton, who is styled "executive director,"
and the offices are located at 347 Fifth Avenue.
But the Boynton bureau is not the only concern
handling anti-Mexican oil propaganda. There
seems to have been an Association of Producers of
Petroleum in Mexico at the same address, letters to
which appear to sometimes get in Mr. Boynton's
hands, and there is or was until recently, an "Asso-
ciation of Oil Producers in Mexico," which in last
March issued a legal brief for circulation in our
State Department, the foreign offices of other
countries, and the diplomatic corps. It is rather
well done, by a lawyer for the Standard Oil Co.,
I am informed, and in its summing up thus deli-
cately hints at what will happen to church property,
if the petroleum laws are not amended.
"Confiscation, like conflagration, spreads. If
Mexico consummates the confiscation of oil fields
contemplated in her newest constitution and de-
[36]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
crees, other confiscatory provisions of Article 22
of this constitution will be boldly applied as against
foreign and native holders of lands. It is undeni-
able that such consummation will encourage similar
spoliation of foreign owned interests in other new
countries. The result will be commercial chaos
and fatal retardation of industrial development in
these new countries where development is so
needed."
This association lost its punch by admitting that
if the petroleum laws were amended, the oil people
would have no further grievances against the Mexi-
can Government, and probably will disappear. Of
course they have grievances. Are not the Mexi-
cans committing the lamb-liH folly of muddying
the wells from which the oil men drink? They
have already manufactured the bases for a new set
of grievances, as related in the financial columns
of the New York Sun (morning edition), of June
7, 1919, where nothing appears offensive to the
propagandists.
"News that the confiscatory feature of the
Carranza subsoil nationalization decree is now a
dead letter has reached operators of oil companies
in the Mexican Tampico fields. They are going
ahead with exploration and drilling without any
interference from the Mexican authorities. All
foreign oil interests in Mexico got together several
weeks ago and agreed to keep on boring and bring-
[37]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
ing in wells without obtaining the new form of per-
mit. This was drawn to compel obedience to the
Carranza decree arbitrarily nationalizing Mexican
subsoil without regard to property ownership or
leased rights legally established before that decree
was promulgated last winter. To obtain such a
permit an operator had to sign an acceptance of the
subsoil decree terms, and thereby relinquish by
his own act his ownership or leasehold rights.
Several new wells have been brought in by Ameri-
can companies since the decision of the operators
to go ahead without government permission."
This unlawful conduct recalls the dicta of an oil
man, widely published throughout Mexico: "If
Mr. Carranza won't give us what we want, I'll go
down into Mexico City and set up a government that
will."
Even more dangerous to international peace than
the more or less easily recognizable propaganda of
the press, or the alarming and untruthful official
appeals from the governor of a border State, or
the intentional indiscretion of a public official like
Mr. Speaker Gillett in blurting out an attack on
Mexico at a gathering of pan-American public men
chiefly concerned with improving relations between
their countries and ours, is the veiled and scientific
attack by lawyers and other employes of the oil
interests in their private capacities.
Thus Mr. Ira Jewell Williams, of the Phila-
[38]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
delphia Bar, is always ready to reply to any article
in which a favourable opinion of Mexico may be ex-
pressed, and to set the editor right. In so doing
he encloses with his compliments a reprint of an
article he wrote for the Journal of the American
Bar Association on "Confiscation of Private Prop-
erty of Foreigners Under Colour of a Changed Con-
stitution." He writes on elaborate law firm
stationery, but omits to add that he is president of
the Panuco-Boston Oil Co., although he broke this
rule in a recent letter to the New York Times.
Much more frank is Thomas Edward Gibbon, at-
torney of Los Angeles, home town of Messrs.
Doheny and Canfield, who calls his book "a
lawyer's indictment of the crowning infamy of four
hundred years of misrule," dedicates it to the poor
peon and his distinguished fellow townsmen, and
echoes the demand for intervention. He has
written the text-book for the interventionists, re-
gardless of fact or of consequences, and his pub-
lishers are the Doubleday-Page Company, once
supposed to be close to the administration of Mr.
Wilson.
Careful reading of recent anti-Mexican oil prop-
aganda shows that the press agency desires to im-
press four points on the public:
( 1 ) There is no plot against Mexico.
(2) The plot against Mexico was discovered or
invented by an author of artistic temperament.
[39]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
(3) The oil men are spending only $30,000 a
month in maintaining armed rebellion against the
legitimate and recognized Government of Mexico
through subsidies to the bandit Pelaez, and not
$200,000 a month, as they told the American Em-
bassy in Mexico City.
(4) The oil interests are really engaged in mis-
sionary work in Mexico, seeking rather to benefit
the down-trodden peon than to exploit the natural
wealth of the country for selfish purposes.
These statements may seem contradictory, but
they can be reconciled easily by any mind which
has been thoroughly lubricated with petroleum.
For my part, I rarely express doubt at any statement
a press agent may make. It seems so useless. But
points one and two are flatly denied in a document
which is entitled to consideration:
WILSON TO END PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
(By the Associated Press)
Washington, March 25, 1916. Convinced that power-
ful influences are at work to force intervention in Mexico,
Administration officials were today considering just what
steps shall be taken to bring the agitation to an end. . . .
President Wilson is said to be determined to stop the cir-
culation of inflammatory rumours, and to take legal steps
if necessary.
I yield the honour of discovery, if it is an honour,
to the President of the United States, who is thus
[40]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
denounced, I believe for the first time, as an author
of artistic temperament.
His proclamation of an order to stop gun-running
into Mexico would indicate that he really means
business, and there is no doubt that the complete
pacification of Mexico would quickly be an accom-
plished fact if unlawful traffic in arms and ammuni-
tion were stopped, and legitimate sales to the con-
stituted authorities encouraged.
If the Police Department of New York City were
denied the right to purchase weapons, and the gun-
men and gangsters encouraged to buy automatics
and ammunition in Jersey City, it is probable that
there would be an increase of crime in New York,
and there is no doubt about the effect of a similar
policy for the last few years in Mexico. The num-
ber of murders of American citizens in the last nine
years is the saddest of proofs that a definite policy
is essential to peace along the border. Most of
these murders were committed by outlaws armed
with weapons of American manufacture, and trains
have been blown up and bridges destroyed by dyna-
mite "made in America."
Naturally the "flimsy" factory maintained by the
interventionists in Washington, has been working
double shifts behind closed doors for several weeks,
for circumstantial evidence points to this as the
propitious hour in which to force armed invasion
of Mexico. The presidential terms of Woodrow
[41]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
Wilson and Venustiano Carranza are drawing to a
close. Mr. Wilson, who has seized the republics
of Santo Domingo, Haiti, and Nicaragua, without
loosing the American grip on Panama, has thrice in-
vaded Mexico without a declaration of war, and
might be persuaded to do so again. Indeed, the
very terms of his latest proclamation make it pos-
sible for him to establish or overturn any Govern-
ment in Mexico, simply by instructing Mr. Lansing
to whom munitions may be consigned. The next
president of the United States may be of a different
moral and political type. Moreover, Mr. Car-
ranza may be replaced by one of those smooth di-
plomatists not uncommon in Latin-America, with
whom it would be next to impossible to pick a
quarrel.
But the "flimsy" factory has had a run of bad
luck. No sooner had it obtained first page in every
daily in the United States for a picturesque story
of an insult to the American flag than the Navy De-
partment admitted that a party of skylarking
sailors, who had gone fishing beyond the outposts
maintained by the Carranza Government around
Tampico, had been robbed ; and that they had gone
into the bandit-land (ruled by "the King of the Oil
Fields") without permission, and had carried no
flag. Efforts to fix on Mr. Carranza's soldiers re-
sponsibility for the murder of an American citizen
and the outrages committed on his wife by bandits
[42]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
also failed, although the shocking story would have
received more space had not the race riots in Wash-
ington seemed bigger news. The evidence of
Ambassador Fletcher likewise proved a great dis-
appointment to the interventionists. Instead of
half the territory of the republic being held by the
rebels, as the New York Times proved by a map
and a long article on the day of its interesting in-
quest into the death of Francisco Villa, Mr. Fletcher
said that practically the whole country was con-
trolled by the Government at Mexico City. How-
ever, Mr. Fletcher, who had spent many months in
Mexico, had been deluded by the Carrancistas, as
Mr. Hearst, who has not been in Mexico, proved by
reprinting the Times's figures, and the Times has
told its readers just how many men would be needed
to conquer Mexico.
Still there are hopeful signs for the future from
the point of view of the interventionist. The great
State of Texas, which so carefully enforces racial
equality and Christian good government that there
has only been one negro lynched since the race riots
of last summer, would like to conquer Mexico with-
out aid from the Government at Washington.
Furthermore, the Times refrained from killing
Villa entirely, and the capture of Juarez by the
angelic Provisional President of Mexico and Sec-
retary of War Villa, which may be attempted again,
would be a fine moral victory over the Carrancistas.
[43]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
And even if Juarez weren't captured, there would
be found plenty of newspapers to devote a column
on the first page to the glorification of Villa's
victory, and his forbearance in executing only eight
Carranza officials, and then deny the story next day
in a stickful of type at the bottom of an inside ad-
vertising page. That was, of course, the way Chi-
huahua City was "captured" recently. It was
briefly explained that Villa hadn't really captured
the city, but was planning to do so; and so the
eight Carranza officials came to life again! And
most of our American dailies swallowed whole the
extraordinary "evidence" presented by Mr. William
Gates, although Mr. Gates is known chiefly from his
propagandist articles in the North American Review
and the World's Work. We are indeed a credulous
folk.
Besides, this would be the opportunity to do
something for the army now being withdrawn from
Europe. America is well supplied with munitions,
with poison gas, and with seasoned officers. These
officers, especially those who are being detained in
the service, and can account for the fact in no
other way, expect an invasion of Mexico. Talk
to them in confidence, if you don't believe it, and
see what they say. From the greenest cadet to the
oldest U. S. A. retired, they expect to "clean up"
Mexico. And the thing is so easy on paper. A
retired colonel made the statement a few days ago
[44]
SELF PORTRAITURE
By German Gedovius
professor in the Nacional Academy
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
that it would take only 200,000 men to conquer
and pacify Mexico. But this is an exaggerated
estimate. Plans have actually been drawn, and
placed confidentially before more than one United
States Senator and more than one member of the
House of Representatives, showing that only 35,000
men will be required. These plans are familiar
also to at least two men as remotely apart as New
York and Mexico City, for both have talked to me
about them, and their figures were identical, as told
in a later chapter.
It must be admitted, however, that while the
psychological moment for invading Mexico is near
at hand, some of the separate movements which are
designed to strike terror into the hearts of the
Mexican officials, and which might have had that
effect had they been simultaneous, have failed to
synchronize. In order to make it appear that
President Carranza controls only a small part of
the 767,005 square miles of Mexican territory
five per cent., according to the information made
public by a New York banker at a public dinner
last winter the World's Work carried a series of
articles giving a personal estimate of the other
"chiefs." Included among them, of course, was
Emiliano Zapata. While the magazine was still on
the news-stands, Zapata had passed to the Great Be-
yond, having long before ceased to be a real factor
in the affairs of the State of Morelos, where he had
[45]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
once been supreme. An illiterate Indian, Zapata
was none the less a master of guerrilla warfare.
After his revolt against Huerta, that crafty soldier
sent as many as 30,000 troops, armed with machine
guns and cannon, against him. Zapata defeated
small bodies of troops in many engagements, and
when outnumbered, went into hiding. But when
Constitutionalist rule was established in Mexico
City, Zapata declined to acknowledge the leadership
of Mr. Carranza, having been persuaded by Manuel
Palafox, his secretary, that he, Zapata, should have
been named for the presidency. Mr. Carranza,
all attempts at conciliation having failed, sent
General Pablo Gonzalez into Morelos last winter.
Zapatista rule came to a speedy end. Zapata was
killed, together with his friends, Mejia, Amoles, and
Palacios; "General" Jaurequi was executed after
a court martial, and Zapata's body, having been
exposed for purposes of identification at Cuatla,
was buried there on April 12. The death of
General Aureliano Blanquet, following that of
Zapata, put an end to the possibility of overthrow-
ing the present Government of Mexico by concerted
rebellion within Mexican territory.
The landing of General Blanquet in Mexico was
planned and financed in New York, and was at-
tended by a fine burst of press-agent eloquence in
the New York dailies. Who paid the bills is not
stated. Perhaps it was the German Government,
[46]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
which defrayed the cost, as newspaper readers
will remember, of the proposed invasion of Mexico
by General Huerta, just before that worthy was
captured by United States authorities and placed in
the prison where he died. The fact that Germany
financed Huerta's attempt against Carranza is a
further revelation of the astute double-dealing of
that evil race, because, if you will believe the oil
men, Carranza himself was pro-German, and this
naturally leads to the inference that Germany must
also have backed Blanquet. At any rate somebody
did.
Blanquet was to join forces with Felix Diaz, who
was said to control the States of Vera Cruz, Tabasco,
Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacan, Jalisco,
Guanajuato, Puebla, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosi,
Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Chihuahua,
and the Territory of Tepic. Having been secretary
of war under Huerta, Blanquet was expected to
unite the forces of Zapata, Diaz, Villa, and Pelaez
and thus form an armed ring around the Consti-
tutionalist Government, and kill it by constriction,
boa-fashion.
Unfortunately, at the time of his landing, Blan-
quet learned that Felix Diaz had abdicated his
authority in all but one of the states named and
taken refuge in Vera Cruz, where, with a few fol-
lowers, he amused himself by dynamiting trains,
until General Candido Aguilar put a stop to that
[47]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
sort of sport; after which he took to robbing hen-
roosts. Villa, the leg he lost in the Columbus raid
having been kindly restored by the New York news-
papers, must have been courting the girl he married
recently, as gravely chronicled in the same vera-
cious journals on June 14, and Pelaez was fleeing
before Carranza soldiers somewhere between Tux-
pan and Tampico. Going first from New York to
Havana, Blanquet and seven companions sailed
for Mexico in a small vessel and landed at Palma
Sola, some distance north of the port of Vera Cruz.
Thence they made their way inland to the village
of Chavaxtla, where they were welcomed by Pedro
Gabay, one of the Diaz band ; but while they were in
conference, General Guadalupe Sanchez attacked
them. Gabay fled, but Blanquet was killed, almost
by the first volley, and with him died General Luis
Amado, Colonel Traslosheros, and his private
secretary. General Francisco Alvarez was court-
martialed and shot.
Comments La Revista Mexicana: "In his death
the followers of Madero and the supporters of the
Constitutionalist Government see a just vengeance
for the treason and assassinations in which he took
part. They also see in the collapse of the move-
ment so pretentiously heralded and advocated, the
practical collapse at no late date of the efforts of
Felix Diaz, who remains in hiding in the mountain
fastnesses of Vera Cruz, and evincing, as he always
[48]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
has done, no 'stomach' for a fight in the open, but
contenting himself with sporadic raids for plunder
and murder, and with the issuance of bombastic
proclamations."
It may be that the plot against Mexico will prove
a fiasco as a whole, that the complete fabric will
be no stronger than its weakest part, but it is a
danger, more menacing to the United States than
any other now presented by our highly complex
foreign relations.
May we not hope that the financial controversies
between citizens of the United States and our weaker
neighbours can be solved by open diplomacy rather
than by armed intervention, no matter by what
altruistic professions violence is prefaced or ac-
companied?
Shall we throw to the winds the peace of a con-
tinent as lightly as though it were a mere "scrap of
paper"?
Shall we deny to our next door neighbour to the
south the right of self determination we should not
dare deny to our next door neighbour to the north?
Let us not send for the bowl of P. Pilatus. After
washing our hands we may be compelled to swear
to all the world: "No, gentlemen. You mistake
the odour. What you smell on our hands is Attar
of Roses . . not Petroleum."
[49]
CHAPTER TWO: THREE SOLUTIONS
FOR OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM
In writing about Mexico I find that I have greatly
displeased a small minority of my countrymen
who advocate an armed intervention in that country,
and threaten libel suits against all who oppose them.
I am sorry for this, but console myself with the
thought that the interventionists, although important
because of great wealth and powerful political in-
fluence, number less than 2,000, while the people
who would bear the expense, the brunt of the fight-
ing, and the crime of war for conquest against a
small nation, exceed 100,000,000.
Most of the interventionists have never been in
Mexico, but have financial interests there in oil,
mines, or ranches. This is the explanation of the
difference between us. I have been in Mexico, and
I have no financial interests there. When in
Mexico I found no difficulty in obeying the laws of
the country, and it seems to me that I would have
been bound by them, if I had been the owner of an
oil well. Perhaps great wealth modifies one's
point of view. It seems to have had that effect in
anarchistic Tampico.
But since the Mexican problem is one of our
[50]
OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM
making, it ought to interest every citizen. Let
us try to see it, therefore, as loyal Americans,
fairly, squarely, and consider the possible solutions,
of which I offer three.
The past of Mexico belongs to Porfirio Diaz.
An Indian soldier, he grew in greatness almost to
three score and ten, and until he became senile, the
country grew with him. Before him there had
been heroic patriots, wise theorists, far-sighted
statesmen, but from the time of Montezuma, none
save he alone was able to unite and direct the
heterogeneous elements of the Mexican population
in such a way as to give Mexico an honoured place
among the nations. No viceroy was able to rule so
firmly or so long. No president or emperor con-
ceived of the material progress to which he guided
his compatriots.
The present of Mexico belongs also to Porfirio
Diaz, for the defects of his great qualities are still
felt. The evil that men do lives after them, and
the evil of Don Porfirio was both of omission and
commission. His government was merely a mili-
tary autocracy, powerful so long as he retained his
mental vigour, and to undo the things wrought in his
old age a revolution was inevitable. Neglect of
public education for the masses, without which re-
publican government is a farce, was the greatest of
his sins of omission, and it will take years of hard
work to give Mexico a literate electorate.
[51]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
The future of Mexico belongs to the revolution,
of which Venustiano Garranza has been the presid-
ing genius. In the year remaining of his term he
will go far toward restoring the order and stability
which characterized the rule of Diaz in his prime,
but with a regard for the rights of the peon, the
mechanic and the shopkeeper hitherto unknown in
Mexico.
The constitution of 1917 forbids the re-election
of Senor Carranza, and he will uphold the funda-
mental law he helped create.
Today in Mexico evolution is succeeding revolu-
tion, but civil war is costly, and the cost is still un-
paid. Destruction of material wealth can be re-
stored from the sources whence it was derived,
mines of incredible richness, soil of inexhaustible
fertility, a vast territory having docile labour, tre-
mendous waterpower, and at least a third of the
world's petroleum supply.
But Mexico has always been a debtor nation. In
comparison with those of her three chief creditors,
the United States, Great Britain and France, her
debts are trivial; but these three powers having
undergone a terrific strain, having spent in a
month more than Mexico lost in ten years of civil
strife, are becoming importunate. They are pre-
paring to demand a cash settlement. Mexico's
revenues are greater than ever, her prosperity is
assured if she can find a way of placating her
[52]
OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM
creditors, but at the present moment she can neither
pay principal nor arrearages of interest. This
doesn't mean that Mexico is bankrupt, for her
assets are a thousand times in excess of her liabili-
ties. It simply means that she can't convert these
assets into cash quickly enough to avoid the danger
of foreclosure.
The public debt of Mexico, the national debt,
as we should call it, had reached the sum of 520,-
853,586.56 pesos in January, 1919. Bear in mind
that normally the peso is only 50 cents in Ameri-
can money, and that the greater part of the debt is
owed either on bonds without date or maturing
many years hence, and all at low interest, and the
total seems ridiculously low.
Unfortunately Mr. Carranza was compelled to
finance the revolution without recourse to foreign
loans, Which were impossible, owing to the world
war, and while his administration is able to pay its
way, it has not been able to pay in full interest
on the national debt, and of the total given above
92,170,899.61 pesos represents interest due this
year or overdue. The total also includes the Muni-
cipal Loan of 1889, amounting to 12,525,815.47
pesos, which matures this year.
Mexico's estimated revenue for 1919 may be
figured at a minimum of 180,000,000 pesos. If
the Municipal Loan of 1889 were refunded, 115,-
000,000 pesos additional would more than square
[53]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
accounts for interest up to 1920, and no banker
would hestitate to lend this sum or take up the 1889
loan if the three chief creditor nations, the United
States, Great Britian and France sanctioned the
transaction. Mexico's financial agents were told
in New York nearly a year ago that the entire
transaction could be financed here, if Washington
could be induced to say "go ahead." In what
other country is the money to be had? Japan?
The three powers named appear to have resolved
to utilize the immediate necessities of Mexico to
force settlement of:
(1) The railways dispute.
(2) The petroleum controversy.
(3) Claims of their respective nationals arising
from the revolution.
It must be borne in mind that when the revolution
began the Mexican Government owned the control
of 80 per cent, of the railways in the republic. In
taking over the remaining fifth of the rails, "the
high handed confiscatory act" of Mr. Carranza was
therefore only 20 per cent, as heinous as that of
Mr. Wilson, who likewise took over the railways
of the United States when our country entered the
war, and who seems to be in no hurry about return-
ing them to their owners. Mr. Wilson, of course,
merely followed the example of Great Britain and
France in nationalizing the railways, but prior to
these identical and necessary war measures, the
[54] '
OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM
press of all three countries denounced "confiscation
of private property in Mexico," and editors still
take a whack at Mr. Carranza on this subject, al-
though instead of demanding a billion dollars to
make good a deficit of a single year, Mr. Carranza
has run the Mexican railways at a profit, and with-
out raising the tariff for passenger traffic.
Soon after establishing his Government in Mexico
City, Mr. Carranza returned the Vera Cruz road to
the capital to private owners, in response to strong
representations from the British Government, most
of the shareholders being British; but as the owners
were unable to prevent frequent interruptions of
traffic from followers of the late Emiliano Zapata
and of Felix Diaz, he was obliged to resume control
six months later.
The Mexican Government has always professed
that it would compensate the private shareholders
as soon as it had the money, but large sums have
been required for repairs and construction. I have
before me as I write the statement of Felipe Pes-
cador, who became director general of the national
railways when Sefior Pani went abroad. He says,
March 19: "The National Railways of Mexico
registered a gain in 1918 of 9,379,394.94 pesos in
comparison with the receipts for 1917." He then
calls attention to several new lines constructed dur-
ing 1918, and to further improvements he believes
to be justified in view of this proof of a business
[55]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
boom in Mexico. From what I saw of the country I
incline to agree that Mexico is ready for railway ex-
pansion, and needs only ready cash with which to
proceed. Col. Paulino Fontes, now at the head of
the railways of the republic, is a man of energy and
ability who learned the railroad business "from the
ground up" by starting as a brakeman, many years
ago, on a Texas railway.
The petroleum controversy is largely political.
It is true that Article 27 of the new constitution of
1917 appears to confiscate all existing oil develop-
ments, but another section of this same fundamental
law prohibits retroactive legislation. The Mexican
Congress now has before it a measure to correct the
confiscatory feature of Article 27, but it would be
supreme folly in the Mexican Government to meet
the demands of the oil men so long as they supply
arms, munitions, food and large sums of money to
such bandits an "General" Pelaez, who maintain
an insurrection under pretence of guarding the oil
camps.
An amicable arrangement can be made by Ameri-
can oil interests the moment they decide to conform
to law and cease fomenting rebellion, but if, as the
newspapers have repeatedly said, Lord Cowdray has
sold his Mexican Eagle and other oil interests to
the British Government, I have read the clause in
the concession under which he operates by which
such sale automatically annuls it. Lord Cowdray's
[56]
OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM
company can have no great grievance against the
Mexican Government, for it paid a 25 per cent, divi-
dend last year, surpassed only by the 48 per cent,
dividend of the Royal Dutch Shell, and as it is cer-
ain that the Mexican Eagle cannot pass title to a for-
eign government, it does not seem probable that
Lord Cowdray would be selling gold bricks to Great
Britain. Allied diplomacy was not in agreement in
Mexico regarding the petroleum controversy last
spring, but the presence of an American owner of
vast Mexican properties at the conference in Paris
may have had a harmonizing effect.
As to the claims of the Great Powers for damages
arising from the revolution to their nationals, I
was told by an American lawyer resident in Mexico
City that Americans place their damages at $100,-
000,000, and the French and British at $100,-
000,000 more. I could not believe this statement
until I had verified it through diplomatic channels.
According to the figures prepared by Marion
Letcher, American Consul in Chihuahua in 1912,
American investments in Mexico totalled $1,057,-
770,000; those of the British, largely in rails,
$321,303,000; the French, $143,466,000, includ-
ing $17,000,000 in rails.
These railway investments in Mexico are sound,
and the greater part of the money invested in mines,
oil developments and ranches is secure, and how
the claims of three sets of nationals for the destruc-
[57]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
tion of personal and movable property can ever
have reached the grand total of $200,000,000 is a
mystery which can be solved only by the court of
claims, international commission, or whatever
organization has occasion to audit them.
Regardless of the justice of these claims, it is
plain that Mexico's creditors are in a formidable
position, and able to enforce whatever terms they
may agree upon. They have money, ships, men,
and the might that goes with them. Perhaps an
agreement was entered into at the Peace Conference,
in which case its nature will doubtless be disclosed
when Mr. Wilson sees fit.
But after ten years of uncertainty and vacillation,
Americans and Mexicans have a right to a definite
declaration of policy at the earliest moment pos-
sible.
"What is Mr. Wilson going to do?" is the way
Americans in Mexico put the matter.
"What is the new Congress of the United States
going to do?" is the Mexican version of the same
question.
And in Mexico you hear these questions on all
sides, for it is perfectly understood down there that
the attitude of her powerful neighbour to the north
means prosperity or ruin to Mexico.
As Americans in Mexico see the situation, there
are three ways of solving the problem of Mexico's
future. Various minor modifications in plans were
[58]
OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM
suggested, but all were reducible to these simple
formulae:
(A) Financial assistance, backed by good will
of the American people, and genuine and intelli-
gent co-operation by the Government at Washington.
(B) Refusal to Mexican overtures for financial
assistance in combination with a solemn pledge not
to meddle in Mexico's affairs at home or abroad.
(C) Armed intervention and permanent occupa-
tion of the Mexican Republic by the United States.
Either of the first two plans would be acceptable
to a majority of the Americans in Mexico, and to
the majority of the Mexicans themselves.
Employes of the American oil interests in Tam-
pico, and a group of mine and ranch owners favour
intervention, which would be fought by the popula-
tion of the republic as one man and to the last ditch.
Let us consider briefly each of these possible
solutions. I have shown, and I desire to emphasize
the fact, that Mexico is not bankrupt. She is
merely temporarily embarrassed, can be tided over
by any one or all three of her chief creditors, and
can, I believe, obtain the money elsewhere, if these
three chief creditors will permit her to do so.
There is today in actual circulation in the republic
more than 80,000,000 pesos of gold and silver
metallic currency, which is usually above par.
The genius of Luis Cabrera placed the country on
a gold basis under conditions which would else-
[59]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
where have been regarded as prohibitive, and
stories to the contrary are mere propaganda.
If cut off from the United States for ten years by
a Chinese Wall of sufficient height, the Mexicans
could easily work out their own salvation. But her
next door neighbour, the richest and most powerful
nation in the world, gobbled up nearly half of the
original territory of Mexico in the last century, and,
in the opinion of intelligent foreigners, is about
ready at this time to swallow the rest at a single
gulp. This being the case, Mexico cannot finance
herself except in the United States; and yet Luis
Cabrera, now secretary of the Mexican treasury,
assured me last winter that a loan of $500,000,000
would suffice to put the country on a prosperous in-
dustrial basis, clear up back claims, and fully equip
the railways for the additional traffic they will
necessarily handle. Half a billion for such a pro-
gram seems small when it is remembered that Di-
rector General Hines, of the U. S. Railway Ad-
ministration, demanded $1,280,000,000 from Con-
gress to provide for the expected deficit of the rail-
roads in 1919 alone.
Is it safe to lend money to Mexico?
Was it safe to lend money to Great Britain,
France, Italy or Belgium?
Notwithstanding assertions of the intervention-
ists that the Government headed by Mr. Car-
ranza controls barely half of Mexico, any man who
[60]
OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM
has been in Mexico within the last six months knows
better. The fact is, the present Government of
Mexico is the strongest since that of Diaz, and even
men like former Provisional President de la Barra,
now an exile in Paris, admit that Mexico can work
out her own problem if the United States does not
interfere by an armed intervention.
Terms of the proposed loan and conditions for its
expenditure, if any, can only be made in Mexico
City under the eye of President Carranza, who is
in the habit of taking personal direction of all im-
portant matters. I have heard suggestions that the
loan might be expended under the supervision of a
commission of Mexican bankers, employing at least
one American financial expert to act in an advisory
capacity. Any stipulation of this kind must, how-
ever, be drawn with due respect to the dignity of the
nation, as the Mexicans see it, and in matters of
national honour the present Government is, to ex-
press it mildly, supersensitive. With an embargo
on gun running actually enforced by the United
States authorities, a genuine co-operation on the
part of Washington in adjusting international dif-
ferences, suppression of illegal acts by American
corporations or individuals doing business in
Mexico, in a word the friendly relations implied by
our recognition of the Carranza Government,
Mexico can be made as agreeable a neighbour as
Canada, and that before the expiration of the presi-
[61]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
dential terms of Mr. Carranza and Mr. Wilson.
Refusal upon the part of the American bankers
to assist Mexico financially, if coupled with a defi-
nite announcement by the Government of the United
States that it will not interfere with Mexico's
affairs, either at home or abroad, would result in
the rehabilitation of that country almost as quickly
as an American loan. Japan, grown rich in gold
as a result of the war, could finance Mexico without
ever missing the $500,000,000 required. Harbour
privileges on Mexico's West Coast, concessions as
to a trans-oceanic freight route at Tehuantepec, oil
concessions, safe-guarded to Mexico under the
famous Article 27 any of these things would be
a sufficient inducement to the financiers of Japan,
of France, of Great Britain, if the United States
would pledge non-interference.
Loss of Mexican trade would be the result of
such a policy, but neither American business men
nor the American Government have displayed
much interest in Mexican trade, and the burden
would fall on Americans now engaged in legitimate
business in Mexico.
Of the third proposed solution of the Mexican
problem armed intervention I would not write
a line did I not know that plans for the invasion
of Mexico were secretly drawn months ago, and
placed before certain senators and congressmen
who are supposed to have approved them. The
[62]
OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM
project is too grotesquely insane to merit more than
laughter from a self respecting, honour loving
people, as the Americans proved themselves to be
once more in the crucial test of the war against
Germany. But grotesque as it is, secret intrigue,
slimy propaganda, the use of tainted millions may
easily bring about an international crisis from
which war would seem the only way out. To avert
this danger pitiless publicity is the only weapon.
I believe that the war from which the United
States has just emerged triumphantly was a Holy
War, and that the cause we upheld was that of civi-
lization against barbarism.
Now that our wounds are still unhealed, when
the lists of our dead are still incomplete, when we
have cheerfully assumed such staggering debts that
the cost of our Civil War seems picayune, Ameri-
cans will not knowingly be forced into an unjust
war against a weaker nation, a war of greed, of
lust for conquest and spoliation, no matter upon
what high sounding pretext.
We have been told that our war with Germany
was to make such things impossible for all times
to come, and I believe that we Americans are
highly resolved that they shall be impossible.
I have spoken of plans. There may be several,
but this one, simple and direct, was outlined to me
by an American citizen in Mexico City last April
almost word for word as it was suggested to me three
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
months earlier by an American citizen in New York
City.
"We won't call it war, but pacific intervention,
or some other name that will not alarm our people.
We will begin by again seizing the Port of Vera
Cruz, but this time we shall take Mexico City as
well, and occupy the entire Federal District, which
is all the territory we shall need to hold for some
years. Not more than thirty -five thousand men will
be required for this purpose, and there will be very
little bloodshed, for the Mexicans are as tired
fighting as any race in Europe.
"An educational campaign will be begun the
moment our troops land. Proclamations will be
scattered broadcast in Spanish informing the Mexi-
cans that our only object in landing is to restore
order, to build up Mexico, and to make life and
property secure.
"There will be no trouble about getting educated
Mexicans to assist in this educational campaign, and
we will place such of them as can be trusted in
ornamental positions in such numbers that the
Government will still seem to be in the hands of
the Mexicans.
"Our army will be used as the nucleus of a
Mexican national army to be composed of natives,
who will be well paid and comfortably clothed and
fed, and who will make admirable soldiers, when
officered by Americans. Of our own men, 15,000
[64]
OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM
will suffice to hold Vera Cruz and the line of com-
munications, and 20,000 will police the capital and
surrounding territory until the native constabulary
has been established. As the Mexican force in-
creases in size, young Mexicans of good family
will be encouraged to accept minor commissions,
and American jurisdiction will be extended from
the Federal District in an ever widening circle until
the whole of the territories of the republic have been
pacified and occupied."
I asked both my informants if they did not think
in view of the lessons derived from our previous
occupation of Mexico's chief sea-port, and our
Punitive Expedition against Villa, it would be better
to start with 200,000 men, but they were sure
35,000 would be enough, which figure corresponds
pretty closely with the two divisions estimated as
necessary by the American officers in Coblenz
quoted in a cable to the New York Times of July
15. They were sure that 35,000 would suffice, that
the capture of Mexico City could be effected within
a month after landing at Vera Cruz, and that the
whole of Mexico could be pacified in two years.
"What do we get out of it?" I asked.
"Mexico!"
Here in New York, there in Mexico, the answer
was the same.
Mexico! 767,005 square miles; 14,000,000 of
population accustomed in normal times to in-
[65]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
dustrious habits and low wages; 10 per cent, of
the world's silver supply coming from the Federal
District alone; the greatest petroleum fields in the
world, already yielding nearly as much as those
of the United States; agricultural lands producing
everything from bananas to wheat.
On paper the scheme looks like the easiest and
most profitable grand larceny ever conceived by
Americans.
Would it be so in reality?
To the gentleman in New York I said: "Don't
you think your figures are too low? Instead of an
expeditionary force of 35,000, would not half
a million be needed? Would it not cost us
200,000 in lives, ten years of hard fighting, at least
two billions in treasure, and would we not at the
end of ten years have earned the eternal hate of
Mexico, the undying ill-will of all Latin-America,
and the contempt of the rest of the world?"
I could see he had a poor opinion of my knowl-
edge of Mexico, of finance, and of military mat-
ters, as he assured me that I was in error.
But having seen Mexico, and studied the Mexi-
cans, I am now convinced that my own bill of costs
was too low.
In ex-President Taft's time, when intervention
seemed imminent, an official calulation is said to
have been made as to the probable cost in money
and in men. It was then estimated that some four
[66]
OUR MEXICAN PROBLEM
hundred thousand soldiers would be required for
at least two years, while the money cost would run
into the billions.
"Since then," the New Republic comments, "the
standards of war expenditures, both in men and in
money, have greatly advanced. ... A million
men and five billion dollars might suffice to sub-
jugate Mexico; hardly less. Where are the men
and the billions to come from? Must we resort
again to conscription and to increased direct taxa-
tion, in order that the oil and metal profiteers may
be secure in their projects of rapid enrichment?"
[67]
CHAPTER THREE: AN INTERVIEW WITH
PRESIDENT CARRANZA
"We are beginning to understand President Car-
ranza, and to think he is really a great man; but
is he great enough? That is the question."
And that question, propounded to me by the
editor of a New York newspaper on the eve of my
departure for Mexico, haunted me for weeks, until
I became convinced that the answer should be in
the affirmative, and so informed him. .
My opinion of the man is based upon the tangible
evidence of real achievement, upon personal con-
tact, and upon the things said about Mr. Carranza
no less by his friends than by his enemies.
One cannot spend much time in Mexico without
realizing that in all the tragic years following the
retirement of Porfirio Diaz, Venustiano Carranza
is the one real leader evolved, the one man able to
hold his own despite opposition at home or abroad.
One cannot travel extensively in the Mexican Re-
public without knowing that today the greater part
of the country is at peace, that the complete pacifi-
cation of the land may be expected the moment
foreign aid is withdrawn from bandits posing as
patriotic revolutionists, that business conditions
[68]
INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA
have greatly improved, that reconstruction is
actually under way, and that the guiding genius of
law, of order, and of progress, is the President.
Such a man makes strong friends and bitte
enemies. His friends praise him for his personal
qualities and his sense of justice. They tell you
frankly that they see no evil in him, and refer you
to his political opponents for the shadows with
which to complete your picture.
But his enemies do not attack his private char-
acter, or those public performances for which
executive authority is solely responsible. They
condemn him, as General Grant was condemned,
because he loves his friends, and trusts them. In
this they are not altogether wrong. In more than
one instance, the President has been deceived by
those calling themselves his friends, but not for
long.
To the discontented, whether Mexican or Ameri-
can, it was my rule while in Mexico to listen pa-
tiently, and then invariably to slip in the question:
"If Mr. Carranza has failed to make good as presi-
dent, who can be depended upon to produce good
results in that office?" No one had a candidate for
the presidency until a Tampico oil man suggested
the bandit Pelaez, and I incline to think he was
spoofing.
Mr. Carranza is a. big man, physically, towering
over the heads of the average group of Mexicans.
[69]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
And he is a big man mentally, well educated, well
read; a lawyer by profession, a planter by prefer-
ence, a statesman through force of circumstances.
For common sense, ability to judge men, and for
quickness of decision, he perhaps has one rival in
the republic. This man, who surpasses most
Mexicans in vision, and is commonly spoken of as
"the Brains of the Revolution," is Luis Cabrera,
the President's devoted friend.
Of ancient and honourable Castilian ancestry,
Mr. Carranza entered political life as a member of
the State Legislature of Coahuila, represented this
state afterwards as a federal senator, and was its
governor at the time of the Huerta usurpation.
When I knew him, in the spring of 1919, his
sixtieth year, he was in his prime. Most Mexicans
of the better class are horsemen, but the President
was recognized as one of the best, and there are
several of his officials who accompanied him on a
fifty-seven mile ride to Cuernavaca who have
promised themselves never to ride with him again.
Of the details of his career from February, 1913,
when as Governor of Coahuila he disavowed the
Huerta government, newspaper files afford a com-
plete record, which may be supplemented by ex-
amination of the semi-official biographies of
Palavicini and others.
My purpose is to present the President of the
United States of Mexico to the people of my own
[70]
ISABEL DE PORTUGAL
By Pelegrin Clave, 1872-1890
INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA
country by direct quotation of his views on im-
portant questions, with a sketchy record of the con-
versation when he received me in audience at the
National Palace.
Mr. Carranza prefers to make his home in a
private house on the Paseo de la Reforma which is
in no way conspicuous among the palatial structures
which front on that splendid boulevard, and some-
times uses the official summer residence in the
woods of Chapultepec for state functions. Or-
dinary business, however, is transacted at the
Palacio Nacional, a vast structure on the site of
Montezuma's palace, affording ample room for the
treasury department and the national museum as
well as for the offices of the chief magistrate.
At four o'clock a fanfare of trumpets announced
the arrival of Mr. Carranza, and I passed through
a long series of antechambers to the handsome
apartment reserved for public receptions. The
President, who had been seated in an easy chair
beside a small table, arose to greet us with a firm
grasp of the hand and a pleasant smile. I say
"us," because on this and subsequent occasions, I
was accompanied by Oscar E. Duplan, secretary of
the Mexican Embassy to Washington, whose fluent
command of both English and Spanish makes him
an admirable interpreter.
Following the custom of Spanish-American
countries, I had submitted, with my request for an
[71]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
interview, a series of written questions. Mr. Car-
ranza said that he had read these questions, and
would dictate replies which would be sent to me
later, but that he was prepared to discuss some of
the matters thus brought to his attention, or to give
any other information that might be deemed useful
in promoting a good understanding between the
American and Mexican peoples.
This good understanding, I ventured to suggest,
had often been imperilled by deliberate misrepre-
sentation of fact in the sensational press of both
countries, to which the President assented. He be-
lieved, however, that the purpose of these publica-
tions was so well understood in the United States
that their power to injure either a nation or an in-
dividual was practically gone. In explanation of
the Mexican Government's toleration of a yellow
press within its own territory, he said that he made
it a rule to read every attack published against his
administration, and to act upon any suggestion
made for the improvement of any branch of the
Government. Merely personal attacks against the
President he had ceased to read, but if he sup-
pressed personal criticism directed against himself
it probably would have the effect of ending criticism
of his Administration, which he regarded as too
valuable to be dispensed with. I have reproduced
this much of the conversation relating to the press
because it amplifies Mr. Carranza's views on this
[72]
INTERVIEW" WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA
subject as expressed in the formal questions and
answers, which follow:
"I assume, Mr. President, that whatever mis-
understandings have existed between your Govern-
ment and that of the United States have been cleared
up; that whatever differences remain will be
speedily adjusted through diplomatic channels to
the mutual satisfaction of both countries. My
readers are profoundly interested in the reconstruc-
tion, in the future of Mexico, and I am sure that
they desire the bonds of friendship strengthened
between our peoples. What proof does Mexico
desire of this increased cordiality of sentiment on
our part?"
"Our relations with the United States are better
each day, because having passed through the period
of the war, the American people are now convinced
that we remained actually neutral during an epoch
when it would not have been to Mexico's advantage
to enter the world war. The best proof of friend-
ship the United States can give us in the future
would be to establish complete freedom of com-
merce and communications with us, and to follow
a policy of non-intervention in our internal affairs,
and, on the part of the American Government, to
avoid occasions of friction by exercising greater
caution in making representations or claims on be-
half of foreign citizens residing in Mexico."
"During a brief sojourn in this beautiful country
[73]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
I have heard from many sources of the policy of
conciliation your Administration is putting into
effect. I have witnessed the joy of certain Mexi-
cans at one time suspected of designs against the
Constitutionalist Government on being permitted to
return home after years of exile. Has the time
come when a general amnesty may be declared
safely for all except the most dangerous characters
among the exiles?"
"There are a number of Mexicans who aban-
doned their country and remain in exile without
other reason than vague apprehensions, as they
were not expelled from the country by the Mexican
Government. All of these Mexicans have the per-
mission of the Government to return. Some of the
Government's political enemies have also been re-
turning from time to time, after having manifested
a strong determination not to take part in plots or
conspiracies, and to keep the peace in all respects.
Those who are responsible seriously for crimes
committed in Mexico have no intention of returning.
There is no thought of enacting a law of general
amnesty until after the next elections have taken
place."
"Given the moral support of the United States
Government, and unrestricted access to Mexico for
the purchase of guns and ammunition in our mar-
kets, how long would it take your Administration
[74]
INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA
to rid Mexico of the skulking bandits who still infest
isolated districts?"
"Assuming that complete freedom in the ac-
quisition of arms could be counted upon, no help
from the United States would be needed beyond a
vigilance on the American border that would pre-
vent the organization of parties of rebels and hinder
them from obtaining supplies to be used after-
wards in Mexico. Under such an understanding
Mexico would be thoroughly pacified by the end of
the current presidential term. But to achieve this,
maintenance of an army will be required at the
approximate annual expense of 150,000,000 pesos.
Neither the time nor the money involved will seem
too much if compared, for example, with the years
and dollars expended by the United States in the
pacification of the Philippines." (Note: Mr. Car-
ranza's term expires December 1, 1920. The
figures in pesos equal $75,000,000.)
"Financial circles in the United States are keenly
interested in the recent visit of Sefior Nieto, of your
treasury department, and in the proposed visit to
Mexico of a group of Anglo-French-American
bankers, regarding a proposed loan to Mexico. I
can see the need of reconstruction and of public
improvements in many directions, especially in the
matter of railways and the stabilization of foreign
loans. On the other hand, I have been told the
[75]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
Federal revenues have largely increased within the
last twelve months, and that Mexico, having
weathered the revolution without financial aid from
foreign sources, is not incapable of continuing her
development through internal resources. May I
ask frankly if your Administration really desires
a foreign loan, and if so, of what amount and for
what purposes?"
"Mexico really believes that she does not need,
and therefore does not wish to obtain a loan to cover
official expenses, as we hope to be able to meet all
outlay from our own resources, handled with
economy and efficiency. Naturally, we should be
glad to come to some agreement with our creditors
whereby we should be allowed to resume the pay-
ment of interest on an equitable basis. We do not
wish to promise blindly terms that we cannot fulfil,
and hope to convince our creditors that any agree-
ment must be based on Mexico's actual possibilities.
All the economic and financial necessities of Mexico
will be resolved when the flow of capital returns to
its natural channel, much that is Mexican having
been diverted to the United States, and when new
capital is attracted to Mexico by the good oppor-
tunities for investment undoubtedly to be found
here. The Mexican Government is disposed to give
true, effective, and equal protection to all capital
invested here, without either promising preferences
and privileges to foreign capitalists, or creating
[76]
INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA
unfavourable conditions among its own people.
Knowledge of this attitude alone will, we hope, re-
sult in a great many investments being made here."
"Cuba will sell sugar to the United States this
year to the value of $450,000,000, and tobacco to
the value of $200,000,000. She will retain a
handsome balance after having spent in the United
States perhaps $500,000,000 for machinery and
supplies. Under normal conditions in Mexico,
commerce between our countries ought to be five
times as great. What can be done at this time to
develop our industrial and commercial relations?"
"The best method of improving relations be-
tween the two countries is one which is already in
operation; that is to say, facilitating and encourag-
ing visits to Mexico from professional and business
men in the United States, with journeys by the cor-
responding classes in Mexico to the United States,
by means of which the people of both countries will
acquire a better knowledge of each other. At pres-
ent mere official relations between countries are of
a very secondary importance when compared with
those established by direct contact between profes-
sional and business men, merchants, manufacturers,
students, and workmen."
"I am aware of the interest the President of the
United States of Mexico has manifested in agri-
cultural developments, and of those advantages of
climate which permit Mexicans to cultivate with sue-
[77]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
cess the products of every zone; and I should be
glad to know what may be expected in the way of
irrigation and scientific land culture as a result of
the impetus given under your direction by the De-
partment of Agriculture."
"Mexico must make a great effort to open up all
the land that can now be cultivated, and our agri-
cultural problem involves the education of the rural
population, and the establishment of a system
adequate to our conditions of agricultural credits
(Credito Agricola Refaccionario) that will free the
farmers from the ancient system of mortgage
loans."
"Education of the masses is one of the most
serious problems of republican government. In
my country the ignorant voter is a menace. In
some Spanish-American countries he is a danger.
What plans are being made for primary education,
and for a graded course of instruction leading to
the technical schools, now that Mexico has assumed
control of secular education?"
"The nation has come to the conclusion that the
chief effort that must be made in the direction of
education shall be a considerable expansion of
primary education, which at present is under the
direction of the municipal authorities. Both the
Federal and State Governments are trying to assist
in the development of technical, agricultural, and
industrial education, giving less attention to the
[78]
INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA
universities and leaving them to private initiative.
Meantime the Government prefers to give its best
efforts to the extension of primary education."
"In our country as in yours freedom of the press
is a constitutional guarantee, but with us the rights
of individuals are safeguarded by statutory re-
strictions. In dealing with public matters I find
at home as in Mexico a tendency to construe liberty
as license. Allow me to quote your own words at
a critical time in Mexico, because they precisely
describe conditions in the United States during a
period of trial, in regard to the newspapers of
Mexico:
" 'It is well known that the abuse of liberty of
speech and of the press in times past contributed
importantly toward weakening the stability and
prestige of the legitimate Government of the Re-
public, and to aid and encourage the audacity of
its enemies.'
"You are aware, Mr. President, that Mexico's
worst newspaper enemies in the United States have
also been the worst enemies of the United States.
Shall these discredited publications be permitted
to foment new misunderstandings between the Mexi-
can and the American peoples? Or have they lost
their power to do evil, now that their motives are
clear to all?"
"At present any attempt to restrain the abuses of
the yellow press would be interpreted as weakness
[79]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
on the part of the Government, and as dread of the
free discussion of its acts. Although I realize that
the attitude of many small newspapers is uncalled
for and unjust, the Government has decided to take
no steps to suppress them, unless they invite re-
bellion and assist with their propaganda those who
would overthrow public order. When abuses of
the yellow press reach a danger point, society will
demand the enactment of laws by the legislative
power that will safeguard private life and personal
reputation by providing for the punishment of those
responsible."
The only question, either oral or written, to
which the President declined a response was that
relating to petroleum. Having been officially in-
formed that the interpretation of Article 27 of the
new Mexican constitution, which appears to con-
fiscate oil properties, was still a matter of contro-
versy between the governments of Mexico and the
United States, I offered to transmit any statement
he might care to make on this subject.
Mr. Carranza said that, having submitted to the
Mexican congress a law intended to clarify this
situation, until the congress had taken action, it
would not be proper for him to discuss it.
I had also been officially informed of a rumour
that, notwithstanding the clause in the new consti-
tution making the President of the United States of
Mexico ineligible for re-election under any circum-
[80]
INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT CARRANZA
stances, Mr. Carranza's supporters might seek to
continue him in power by means of an amendment
to the fundamental law.
Mr. Carranza left no doubt in my mind on this
point. Mexico, he said, had never really enjoyed a
democratic government in the old days, a govern-
ment with free elections at which the people could
choose their chief magistrate. He regarded the
law which prohibited a president from succeeding
himself as a wise and necessary safeguard, if the
people were ever to learn the means of self-govern-
ment.
So ended my first meeting with a man who has
left with me an impression of kindliness, courage,
and intelligence.
[81]
CHAPTER FOUR: A PRESIDENTIAL
PROGRESS
There had been no attempt on the part of Mexican
officials during my visit to conceal the ravages of
the revolution. On the contrary I was invited to
visit the districts in Morelos and elsewhere which
suffered most from civil war in order to see the
extent of reconstruction work necessary, and was
disposed to do so until an inspection of the war
photographs exhibited by the Alliance Frangaise
in Mexico City convinced me that the world might
be weary of horrors. The waste of Belgium and
northern France has been superlative. Mexican
officials admitted that these scenes could not, for-
tunately, be duplicated in their country, and it was
with a grateful sense of relief that I accepted Presi-
dent Carranza's invitation to accompany him to
Guadalajara as an alternative, knowing that my last
days in the republic would be spent in pleasant
places, with congenial people, and under conditions
which would be most favourable to the study of the
personnel of the Mexican Government.
The presidential special consisted of six
thoroughly modern coaches. Mr. Carranza's own
car was that built by the Pullman company for
[82]
A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS
General Porfirio Diaz. Thoroughly renovated in-
side and out, it looked like new, and contained every
convenience of more recent invention. In order
that the observation platform might be utilized, this
car was the last. Next to it was an office car, be-
yond that a sleeper, then a baggage car, and finally
the private car Coahuila, in which a group of
Amercan newspaper men found excellent accommo-
dations. The decorations of the presidential sec-
tion were uniform, the President's own car bearing
the Mexican arms in colours on a large shield. In
addition to this train, however, was another in which
a car was reserved for correspondents of the prin-
cipal Mexican dailies, flats on which were carried
automobiles, box cars for horses and freight cars
and ordinary day coaches converted into temporary
quarters for a battalion of the presidential guard
and its band.
It was apparent from the start that at least three
of the best chefs de cuisine in Mexico were aboard
and that there was something of a spirit of rivalry
between them as to which should set the best table,
a competitive instinct much stimulated by the fre-
quency with which dinner visits were exchanged.
Clearly the affair was looked upon as a prolonged
picnic, except by officials intimately associated with
the presidential household. They knew what to
expect, and were not, therefore, disappointed to
find that President Carranza could find as many
[83]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
working hours in the day on train as in Mexico
City. The others were made to feel that as guests
of the chief magistrate they were free to come and
go, and to amuse themselves as they pleased, at-
tendance being expected, however, at the more im-
portant public functions. There was a delightful
absence of formality, but always an abundance
of that exquisite courtesy for which the Mexican
is distinguished, even among Spanish Americans.
In the presidential party were Pastor Roauix,
secretary of the department of agriculture, General
Candido Aguilar, chief of the military operations
in Vera Cruz, son-in-law of the President, and
representative of his hospitality on the President's
car; General Juan Barragan, chief of the presi-
dential general staff, and probably the handsomest
man in Mexico; Pedro Gil Farias, former news-
paperman and private secretary to the President;
Francisco M. Gonzales, controller general of the
treasury; Manuel Amaya, first introducer of am-
bassadors; Mario Mendez, director general of tele-
graphs ; General Heriberto Kara, minister designate
to Cuba; Ernesto Perusquia, governor of Queretaro;
Aurelio Gonzales, governor of Aguascalientes; J.
Felipe Vaile, governor of Colima; Pascual Ortiz
Rubio, governor of Michoacan; Col. Paulino
Fontes, director of the Mexican railways; Dr. J.
Aleman Perez, the President's physician; Ernesto
Garza Perez, under secretary for foreign relations;
[84]
A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS
Oscar Duplan, second secretary of .the Mexican
legation in Washington, and a number of the
younger officers of the army.
Aguirre Berlanga, secretary of Gobernacion, and
first minister, and Luis Cabrera, financial advisor
to the President were left behind "to sit on the lid"
in the capital, but later joined the presidential
party, and before the return to Mexico Mr. Cabrera
had resumed his post as secretary of the treasury.
The wife of the governor of Colima was the only
woman on the train during the greater part of the
time, but there was a constant ebb and flow of
visitors of an official character from day to day.
The rate of progress maintained was suited to the
taste of Mr. Carranza, and although the President
is an excellent horseman, so much at home in the
saddle that his friends dread the suggestion of a
horseback ride, never knowing when it will end, or
how fast a pace the President may set, he prefers a
moderate speed when travelling by rail and in-
variably, almost, caused the train to be stopped at
meal times. There were hours when one might
have walked beside the train, and it was unusual
for a twenty -mile rate to be exceeded. Moreover,
as the President had not passed over the road to
Guadalajara for more than two years, there were
little receptions at every way station. Sometimes
there would be songs by the school children, some-
times music by a military band, but invariably there
[85]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
was a gathering of the local notables, with a fringe
of peon labourers in the background, and still
further back, the women and children. And in-
variably the President was received with en-
thusiasm.
"It's quite different from the reception accorded
Mr. Carranza the last time we came over this route,"
said one gentleman in the party. "Then there
were crowds, as you see today, but the motive was
curiosity. They were not sure that the First Chief
would make a success of things, and especially,
they were not sure what the First Chief would do for
them. They were polite, but not deeply concerned,
either at our coming or our going. Now, as you
see, we are made to feel everywhere that we are
among friends. The revolution has succeeded, and
Mr. Carranza's attitude toward the people is no
longer a matter of doubt."
Mr. Carranza's attitude toward the people was,
in fact, the occasion of a certain amount of alarm
to some of us. We would crawl into some gaily
decorated station, and after the national hymn,
with which the train was always saluted, Mr. Car-
ranza would sometimes receive a few of the local
officials in his car, but would then descend for a
little walk up and down the tracks, and in the course
of this walk, none was so humble as to escape his
notice, or too obscure to receive a pleasant saluta-
tion. The President was ready to talk with any
[86]
A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS
peon who had anything to say, and there were
hundreds of opportunities for attacks upon his
person during these promenades. I ventured to
speak to one of the officials about this carelessness
in not watching over the President's safety.
"No one would think of injuring Mr. Carranza,"
said one of his household, "and besides he will not
permit us to interfere in these matters. What do
you think would happen to any man who attacked
him?"
At any rate no one did attack him, but those of
us who remembered the fate of certain American
presidents could not help feeling that, however de-
lightful the absence of ceremony, additional pre-
cautions by the secret service would have added
to the comfort of these receptions.
The President while on this journey began his
day's work at sunrise, spent several hours in going
through his correspondence, and held conferences
with the various officials on board in regard to their
departments. He liked to see his guests daily, and
apparently apportioned his time with such accuracy
that no one could feel slighted or neglected. In
conversation he is deliberate rather than slow, taking
advantage of the presence of an interpreter, when
talking with foreigners, to weigh his utterances
carefully, but showing by his manner complete com-
prehension of what is said to him before the trans-
lation had been completed. In a word, Mr. Car-
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
ranza understands English, and has been known to
speak it on occasion, and reads it easily. His use
of an interpreter is one of those little bits of hum-
bug to which visitors in Spanish American capitals
are quite accustomed. I have not heard, however,
that he ever carried his pretence of ignorance to the
extent that so irritated a recent French diplomatic
representative in Mexico.
Assuming that an interpreter was necessary, the
Frenchman called on one of the members of the
cabinet, was politely received, and entered upon
his very delicate negotiations at once. There were
half a dozen exchanges of visits leading to nothing,
but finally things came to a show down, and the
Frenchman lost. Details of an agreement were
reached, and a memorandum drawn, but when it
came to the exchange of signatures, the Frenchman
who was anxious to return home, called upon the
minister without his interpreter. The man was
ill, he explained in broken Spanish, and he begged
that the minister would be kind enough to provide
an interpreter from his own staff.
"It is not essential," said the minister in excel-
lent French, "for it will afford me great pleasure
to converse with you in your own tongue, if you
desire it."
The Frenchman has never forgiven the minister,
and yet the minister was entirely within his rights.
Possibly some indiscreet things may have passed
[88]
A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS
between the diplomat and his interpreter, as when
a newly arrived American asked a friend who had
been in Mexico several years to call on a landlord
with whom he wished to arrange a lease on a house.
They assumed that the landlord did not understand
English, and discussed various stages of the bar-
gaining freely. The would-be tenant had picked
out a house for which he was willing to pay $150
a month, although he admitted that it was easily
worth $200. The landlord thereupon exacted a
long lease at $175, splitting the difference exactly,
and when the transaction was complete, wished his
visitors good-bye in English.
To return to Mr. Carranza, one chief char-
acteristic of the man is frankness. In the course of
many conversations with him while on this journey,
I found that he would either answer a question in
detail, or decline to answer it at all. Thus when I
suggested that if he wished to say anything about
the petroleum situation or rather certain phrases of
it which had been discussed in the press, he repeated
that having sent a petroleum law to congress in
which these matters were covered, he could not dis-
cuss them until congress had acted. When the
Japanese concessions were filling first pages in the
Mexican papers, he was unwilling to say anything,
because the text of the American communication on
this subject had not reached him.
I found, however, that he was deeply interested
[89]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
in some of the problems with which we are con-
fronted in the United States, and that he could turn
interviewer upon occasion himself.
Mr. Carranza feels that the one great problem in
America for some years to come will be the ad-
justment of relations between labour and capital.
He regards the increasing number of strikes, the
Bolshevik propaganda, the I. W. W. agitations as
symptoms of unrest which, if neglected, may lead
to grave danger.
The danger may be averted, Mr. Carranza be-
lieves, by conciliatory action and wise legislation,
but if a policy of repression is adopted, he feels
that it will have merely a temporary effect. And
the adjustment of the relations between capital and
labour seems to him to be more important just now
than the formulation of a world policy.
"The time to establish a League of Nations is
after, not before the signature of the peace treaty,"
Mr. Carranza said in the course of one of these in-
formal conversations. "On the conclusion of a
real peace it will be possible to organize such a
league embracing all the nations of the earth, and
only such a league can have real value."
The exclusion of Mexico from the conferences in
Paris had been deeply resented by the Mexican
press, and had been regarded by certain of the
officials as an insult to the nation. Mr. Carranza,
however, had kept silence on the subject, and it was
[90]
A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS
not until the second day of the journey that he saw
fit to refer to the matter at all. Then it was in a
playful way, for the President enjoys a joke as well
as the next man, even at his own expense.
The talk had drifted to the national American
card game, poker, which is highly popular in
Mexico. Mr. Carranza commented that it was an
excellent game, and that he had been fond of it.
I said that I fancied the President had played
a pretty good game in his time, for in most of
the diplomatic exchanges with other countries
he had shown a complete mastery of the art of bluf-
fing, by which I meant that when it came to an actual
call, he always had the cards, and was thus able
from time to time to rake in a good pot with a four-
flush, or a small pair.
Mr. Carranza seemed amused at this notion, and
remarked that if he had unconsciously built up that
sort of a reputation, it might account for the action
of the peace conferees in shutting him out of the
game in Paris.
Mr. Carranza had admitted in the course of a
long talk that he considered himself responsible for
the conduct of every branch of the executive power,
and that he thought it his duty to supervise the work
of each department, and to exert direct authority in
case anything went wrong. This feeling of re-
sponsibility, coupled with the necessity of building
up a competent set of public servants who could be
[91]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
relied upon to carry out the principles of the revo-
lution after the retirement of the present chief of
state, is the explanation of so many young men
holding high office.
Travelling in the leisurely way indicated, we
were four days in reaching Guadalajara, one of the
largest cities of the republic, and held by many to
be the most beautiful, surpassing even the capital.
There was a vast crowd at the station to welcome
the President, and to accompany him to the newly
opened hotel, St. Francis, which was to be the head-
quarters of the presidential party. The St.
Francis, it may be noted in passing, would be
a credit to New York, both as to architecture,
convenience and service, a statement which would
not be true of any other hotel I have seen
in Mexico. The higher officers of state being pro-
vided for at St. Francis, other members of the party
were made comfortable at the Hotel Fenix, and a
round of festivities began on Saturday.
There was a parade of school children in honour
of the President in the morning. Small girls were
arrayed in the costume of the Mexican Red Cross,
and the boys were, of course, scouts. There must
have been five thousand youngsters in line, making
a most creditable showing.
In the afternoon there was an elaborate dinner
at die Country Club, offered by the municipal
councillors in honour of the President, with covers
[92]
A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS
for at least 1200. There were seven meat courses,
five kinds of wine, and best of all, but one speech.
The following day was without a formal pro-
gram, most of the presidential guests taking ad-
vantage of the opportunity to visit Lake Chapala,
the greatest of the Mexican lakes, having a length
of seventy miles, and a breadth in places of nearly
thirty. In the evening there was a literary tea,
followed by dancing, which was attended by Mr.
Carranza and his entire entourage.
The entertainment was held in a newly completed
public school, built of white stone and in the airy
style suited to a climate which knows no winter.
A string quartette played an early piece of Men-
delssohn's; there were original verses by one
Spanish and two Mexican poets, and operatic
selections by an excellent baritone and a young
soprano. Tea was then served at small tables, with
sandwiches, salads, ices, etc., and the floor was then
cleared for the dancers.
Monday the President and his guests resumed
their places on train, and a start was made for
Cocula, some thirty kilometers to the west, where
the new road which will ultimately open up the
Pacific port of Chamela to inland commerce now
ends. Arriving late in the afternoon, the President
laid the corner stone of the terminal building, and
the ceremonies were at an end. Dinner followed
at a hacienda, after an inspection of Cocula, and a
[93]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
dance followed which lasted late into the night.
It had been expected that Mr. Carranza would re-
turn to his car before night-fall, but the festivities
having been prolonged until evening, bonfires were
lighted along the entire stretch of road between the
town and the railway with rather a startling effect.
The return to Mexico City was made without in-
cident, but with the customary stops along the route,
varied by little excursions into the nearby country-
side.
The region traversed in this presidential junket
is the richest of the central Mexican plateau.
From the higher levels of the Valley of Mexico we
passed gradually to the lower altitude and warmer
climate of the lake district, through lands abound-
ingly fertile, and capable of enormous yield. The
President, himself a planter in his younger days,
was sufficiently interested in a great dairy to make
a personal inspection. He found a place devoted
to the manufacture of cooking cheese in which
8,000 cows are milked daily. He also visited the
irrigation plant at Chapala, realizing as thoroughly
as the agricultural experts who accompanied him,
that the most arid part of Mexico would bloom like
a garden, were irrigation possible.
To those of us who were merely sojourners in, the
land, there were some impressive sights to which
no reference has thus far been made.
Thus there was the battlefield at Celaya, at which
[94]
A PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS
Villa's army of 40,000 men was crushingly de-
feated by General Obregon, with half as many
troops. The bandit who still terrorizes part of the
northern border never recovered from this blow,
which gave the Carranza forces undisputed pos-
session of the greater part of the republic.
Then there was the little chapel which may be
seen from the train at Queretaro, but which is worth
a closer inspection, erected by the Austrian gov-
ernment in memory of the Archduke Maximilian,
for some years Emperor of Mexico. Queretaro
in an old fashioned Spanish town lying in a cup-
shaped depression in the hills, and once Maximilian
had been driven within it by the republican army,
his fate was sealed. There could be no escape
from the doom he met with his faithful lieutenants,
Miramon and Mejia. Within the chapel are three
stones marking the spot where these men stood to
receive the bullets of a firing squad. This monu-
ment to an unfortunate Hapsburg prince, serves
also, it seems to me, to point to the futility of
foreign intervention in this ancient land.
At La Barca there were two things to be seen
that some of us are not likely to forget. One was
a vast residence fronting on the Plaza in which the
main patio displayed unique mural paintings
representing scenes during the French occupation.
The other was a richly fitted up chapel in the prin-
cipal church.
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
Seeing a recumbent figure on a cot bed, we
entered this chapel, and a small boy drew down the
sheet which covered it to the chin. It was a life
size wooden effigy of Our Lady, neither better nor
worse than the average from the artistic point of
view, but which possessed unusual interest from
the fact that once a year it arose from its couch and
talked.
Returning to Queretaro after having spent eight
days with the presidential party, I made my
acknowledgements to Mr. Carranza and said good-
bye to his agreeable entourage, taking advantage of
the special train on which Col. Fontes, director of
the railways, was returning to Mexico City, in order
not to miss connections for my return to New York.
There was a decided contrast between the speed
of the presidential train and that of the director of
railways, so great that I could not help remark-
ing it.
"The reason is simple," said Col. Fontes. "We
must be careful about Mr. Carranza when he is on
the road. He would be a difficult man to replace.
A railway man can afford to take chances."
[96]
CHAPTER FIVE: MEXICO'S NEXT
PRESIDENT
The next president of the United States of
Mexico will be a Man on Horseback. That's rather
vague, for the proportion of Mexicans who don't
ride about equals that of Hawaiians who don't
swim. But it's quite as far as any prophet can go
who knows that what he may write this year may be
used against him next year.
However, it is quite certain that his name won't
be Carranza. Don Venustiano will be content, ac-
cording to his own words, in assuring a free election
to the Mexican people, and even if he were disposed
to be a candidate again, the new constitution of
1917 provides, Article 83:
"The President shall enter upon the duties of his
office on the first day of December, shall serve four
years and shall never be re-elected."
Reference to the fundamental law facilitates the
process of elimination. No one can be President
who is not a Mexican by birth, in full enjoyment
of his rights, and the son of parents who are Mexi-
can by birth. He must not be under thirty-five
years old, nor have been absent from his country
during the entire year prior to the election.
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
Millions of men could qualify under those re-
strictions, but here is a constitutional "don't list"
which brings the number of candidates down to a
mere handful:
"He shall not belong to the ecclesiastical state nor
be a minister of any religious creed.
"In the event of belonging to the army, he shall
have retired from active service 90 days immedi-
ately prior to the election.
"He shall not have taken part, directly or in-
directly, in any uprising, riot or military coup."
At the last election, held March 11, 1916, Presi-
dent Carranza, then first chief of the revolution,
received 797,305 votes of the total of 812,928, the
remainder going to other leaders of the Constitu-
tionalists, including General Gonzalez, Obregon and
Alvarado.
It is not surprising to find, therefore, that these
soldiers are among the foremost candidates for the
next election, although by no means the only ones.
A list which passed muster as complete, ran
through the Mexican newspapers recently, and in-
troduced a number of civilians, more or less known
outside their own country :
General Alvaro Obregon
General Pablo Gonzalez
General Salvador Alvarado
General Manuel M. Dieguez
Licenciado Luis Cabrera
[98]
MEXICO'S NEXT PRESIDENT
Licenciado Manuel Aguirre Berlanga
Ingeniero Felix F. Palavicini
It may as well be explained that in Mexico and
in most Spanish-speaking countries, it is customary
to prefix the professional title to a man's name, if
he has one, and that "licenciado" means lawyer, and
"ingeniero" an engineer.
Even this small list can be subjected to the same
process of elimination, and to discuss the per-
sonality of the candidates may have the effect of a
"close-up" on some of the gentlemen conspicuously
identified with the Carranza Administration.
Don Luis Cabrera assured me, when I last talked
with him, that his real ambition in life was to turn
haciendado. He is country bred, having been born
some forty-three years ago in a village in the
mountains of Puebla, and having acquired the
ownership of a small farm or hacienda, is eager
to experiment in intensive agriculture.
At present Sr. Cabrera is secretary of the
treasury, an office he has filled before, and with
such shrewdness as to justify the designation be-
stowed upon him by the American colony in Mexico,
where he is referred to as "the Brains of the Revo-
lution."
Sr. Cabrera supported himself while studying
law by writing for the newspapers, and suggesting
ideas for cartoons. He was one of the first news*
papermen to attack the Diaz regime, notwithstand*
[99]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
ing which he made a success in the law before turn-
ing to politics. Having been -a congressman in
Madero's time, he served as a diplomatic agent for
Mr. Carranza, both in the United States, and
throughout Central and South America, and then, as
the President's confidential friend, took a leading
part in the reconstruction work now underway in
many parts of the republic.
Forced by circumstances into the law, which he
detests, Sr. Cabrera is by instinct a literary man.
He speaks French as well as he does Spanish, and
converses fluently in English, German, and several
of the Mexican Indian tongues. A delightful com-
panion and an indefatigable worker, he is extremely
radical in his political views, and no one who has
heard his keen flow of wit and sarcasm would be-
lieve him capable of the smooth and flowing new
version of "The Song of Songs." He treats this
love poem as a love poem, and collates in an ap-
pendix the Vulgate, the Septuagint, the King
James's Version and Luther's Bible with the Hebrew
text when he wishes to justify a departure from the
accepted translation. When you add that Sr.
Cabrera's favourite recreations when he had more
leisure were horseback riding, duck-shooting and
playing poker, you only make more of a puzzle of
a many-sided character. Having lost his father
and two brothers in the revolution, and given it the
ten best years of his life, Sr. Cabrera's friends feel
[100]
MEXICO'S NEXT PRESIDENT
that he has a right to quit the game if he wishes to.
Sr. Berlanga, at present minister of Gobernacion,
a post which pretty nearly carries the rank of prime
minister, is frankly more ambitious. He is be-
lieved to have been pro-German during the war, and
in fact, looks more like a German than a Spaniard,
having light hair and blue eyes with a ruddy com-
plexion. As a candidate he just barely gets by the
age-limit, but then the Carranza Administration is
a Government of Young Men, and his youth is by no
means conspicuous, General Juan Barragan, chief
of the general staff being only 28.
Notwithstanding his youth, Sr. Berlanga has had
much experience as an official. He explained to
me one day that General Carranza ever had his eye
open for young men of promise, knowing that the
future of Mexico depended upon their develop-
ment.
"The General tries always to accustom his subor-
dinates to responsibility," he continued. "He will
appoint a young lawyer to a minor judgeship, and
watch his decisions carefully. Then he may shift
him into municipal administration, and if he
makes good there, raise him higher in the ad-
ministrative scale, even encourage him to become
a candidate for governor. Then he may ask him
to accept a sub-secretaryship in one of the de-
partments, which may be followed by quick pro-
motion to cabinet rank.
[101]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
"General Carranza cannot tolerate stupidity, dis-
honesty or laziness, and men afflicted with these
faults do not last long under him. On the other
hand, he is perfectly willing to overlook a failure,
if he believes in his man, and will always give him
a second chance on some other job."
Consciously, or not, I think Sr. Berlanga was
autobiographical in this discourse upon el Senor
Presidente; which I give because it explains the
rapid rise of more than one talented young Mexican.
Sr. Berlanga is perhaps the strongest candidate
among the civilians now entered in the presidential
stakes. He is widely known as the author of
"Genesis de la Revolucion Mexicana," a title which
does not seem to need translation, and is personally
very popular. It has been his duty as cabinet
minister in charge of what corresponds to our de-
partment of the interior to enforce the church laws,
and if a Catholic party re-appeared on the eve of
the election, it probably would oppose him. Other-
wise he might have a good chance, for the allied
black list has been abolished, and nobody in Mexico
cares whether a man was pro-German during the
war or not.
Sr. Palavicini's candidacy was not taken
seriously when I was in Mexico last spring; not
that he lacks ability or a following, but rather be-
cause of these facts combined with his present
occupation. An engineer by profession, he is a
[102]
MEXICO'S NEXT PRESIDENT
newspaper man by preference, and as such, guides
the fortunes of El Universal, one of the three best
papers in the Mexican republic. In the course of
a very few years, especially in Spanish American
countries, the average editor cracks too many heads
to be able to run for office. He was minister of
public instruction in the revolutionary government,
spent some months in exile in New York, and took
back with him some rather progressive journalistic
ideas. He was a leader of pro-Ally sentiment
during the war, and thoroughly exposed German
propaganda at a time when Mexico was supposedly
"neutral in thought as well as in action."
Of the military candidates the one best known to
Americans is General Obregon, who toured this
country not long ago on a mission of conciliation.
It was Obregon, who, with 20,000 men, routed an
army of 40,000 at Celaya, commanded in person
by Francisco Villa and seconded by Felipe Angeles.
The story as related to me by an American news-
paperman who was present, may be given briefly.
Obregon, knowing himself outnumbered, formed
his men in a hollow square and dug in. Villa
feinted an attack on one corner of this square,
whereupon Obregon threw all his machine guns
and field pieces to the opposite corner. When Villa
opened his real attack with a cavalry charge,
Obregon's shrewd guess enabled him to mow down
men and horses alike. Four times Villa charged
[103]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
the same objective, each time meeting heavy loss.
Then, at four o'clock, Obregon found his ammuni-
tion exhausted, and expected that another charge
would destroy his command. Just then a supply
train came in from Mexico City. Villa's fifth
charge was repulsed, the Carranza forces took the
initiative, and from the commander of an army of
40,000 well armed men, Villa had become a bandit
again.
Angeles, the story goes, had advised Villa not to
give battle, but to fall back on Guadalajara, a rich
city where much loot could be secured, but Villa,
eager to again establish himself in Mexico City, and
knowing that he could never get together or hold so
large an army, plunged into battle.
After Celaya, General Obregon became secretary
of war in the revolutionary government of General
Carranza, and when this merged into the present
Constitutionalist regime, General Obregon retired
to his hacienda in western Mexico, and has re-
mained out of public life ever since.
His platform, widely published throughout
Mexico, endorses the constitution of 1917, which
he pledges himself to enforce, and he guarantees
equal justice and privileges to Mexicans and
foreigners alike.
General Pablo Gonzales, who has figured in the
news recently as one of the Constitutionalist officers
commanding troops sent against Villa, was a power-
[104]
MEXICO'S NEXT PRESIDENT
ful factor in the overthrow of Huerta. He drove
the Huerta forces out of the northeastern part of
Mexico, and by the capture of Tampico, made the
collapse of that leader's power inevitable. More
recently he was charged with the pacification of the
State of Morelos, the last stronghold of Emiliano
Zapata. An illiterate but resourceful leader of the
Villa type, Zapata fought against Huerta, but de-
clined to recognize General Carranza as First Chief
of the revolution. For a time his sway extended
over several of the southern states, but while an
adept at guerilla warfare, he had none of the qual-
ities of a statesman. Last winter General Gonzales
led a small force into Morelos, destroyed the Za-
patista organization, and with the death of Zapata
in April, the pacification of that state was complete.
What Huerta could not accomplish with 30,000
men armed with cannon and machine guns, Gon-
zales achieved with a force one-tenth as large. In
political feeling, there probably isn't much dif-
ference between General Gonzales and President
Carranza.
General Alvarado is at once the richest and the
most radical of the military candidates. A major
in command of 400 men in the Yaqui region, he
joined forces with Obregon, then a lieutenant-
colonel, in the revolt against Huerta, and in the
early days of the revolution was second in command
to Obregon. His most important recent task has
[105]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
been in the reconstruction of Yucatan, the State
which exports most of the world's supply of hen-
nequin. General Alvarado is accredited with an
amusing but highly effective piece of strategy
during the Battle of Santa Maria. The Huerta
troops had been driven back from their water sup-
ply, and fought with the utmost desperation to re-
gain their position. There was hand to hand fight-
ing for nearly twenty-four hours, at the end of
which time, General Alvarado drove the Huerta
troops into a watermelon field, and the men re-
fused to fight.
Since his retirement from the army, General
Alvarado has shown a strong interest in journalism,
and is now the proprietor of a new daily in Mexico
City, El Heraldo.
General Dieguez is at present commanding the
forces operating against Villa in the north and
Pelaez in the Tampico oil fields.
If he can "get" these two men, he may prove a
formidable candidate, for he will have completely
restored order in the northern part of the republic.
If, on the other hand, he fails to beat Pelaez and
Villa with larger forces than even have been em-
ployed against either bandit heretofore, he isn't
likely to retain his popularity.
But, having fought the Huerta crowd to a finish
in company with Obregon, Gonzalez and Alvarado,
[106]
MEXICO'S NEXT PRESIDENT
Dieguez is regarded as one of the ablest men in the
Mexican army.
It does not seem probable that General Candido
Aguilar will seek the presidency at the next election.
The rumour of his candidacy can be traced to
American newspapers, soon after his arrival in
Washington on a special embassy from President
Carranza. I am not sure that he would qualify at
thirty-five in December, 1920, and the fact that he
is President Carranza's son-in-law would militate
against his chances at this time. General Aguilar
has been governor of the State of Vera Cruz, and
secretary of state for foreign affairs, and can afford
to wait his turn until later.
From what I have written, it would seem that the
four best bets at this time in the great Mexican
presidential handicap are:
Obregon
Gonzalez
Alvarado
Berlanga
Of course there may be several entries of dark
horses within the next few months, and conditions
may change greatly. At the moment it is any-
body's race.
The next president of the United States of Mexico
will find, when he takes office, December 1, 1920,
that his powers are no greater than those ascribed
[107]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
to America's chief magistrate in times of
peace. But the constitution of 1917 in denning the
powers of the President differs from that of the
American constitution on several points, which may
be quoted:
"The President shall not absent himself from the
national territory without the permission of the
Congress."
"The right to originate legislation pertains to the
President of the republic, as well as to senators
and representatives in Congress, and to the State
Legislatures."
The President's treaty-making power is am-
biguously stated, for among the powers and duties
mandatory upon him, one clause asserts that he is
"to conduct diplomatic negotiations and make
treaties," while it is elsewhere expressly stated to
be an exclusive power of the Senate to "approve the
treaties and diplomatic conventions concluded by
the Executive with foreign powers."
Since this chapter was written a new candidate for the presi-
dency has been announced in the person of the Mexican Ambas-
sador to the United States, Ignacio Bonillas. Graduate of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, married to an American
woman, thoroughly familiar with American ideas, tactful and in-
telligent, Sefior Bonillas ought to be persona grata to Americans,
if he really intends to make the contest.
[108]
CHAPTER SIX: BY SEA TO MEXICO
On board the Ward liner from Havana to Vera
Cruz was a young American business men returning
to Mexico City after a sojourn in the United States
who was kind enough to offer advice regarding
newspaper work in Mexico. "You periodistas
come down here," he said, "and see what you are
told to see, and then we show you what we know you
ought to see, and wait hopefully for the result. It
is always the same. Poetry about the beauties of
land and climate. Dull facts about trade. Noth-
ing that will help us, and that should be your first
object."
Perhaps he was right, but to refrain from com-
ment on mere physical impressions would be to
indicate a degree of insensibility to which no news-
paper man willingly confesses.
Thursday evening the lights of Havana sank into
the sea, and on Saturday morning, February 15,
1919, after steaming through quiet seas, with much
heaving of the lead, we anchored in five fathoms
as near the Port of Progresso as possible ; that is to
say, some five miles out.
Tedious discharge of cargo by lighter, and of
passengers by tug meant hours of delay, and per-
[109]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
mitted the more adventurous to go ashore, and all
to wonder that a port which had been for half a
century second only to Vera Cruz should be so ill
provided with accommodations for shipping.
Progresso, be it known, is the port of Merida,
capital and chief city of Yucatan, one of the most
prosperous of the Mexican States, and the centre
of the henequen industry. It is also the natural
port for the State of Campeche and the territory
of Quintana Roo, the former producing lumber and
chicle or chewing gum; the latter having a wealth
of undeveloped forest and farm land. Progresso
has 7,000, Merida 60,000 people, all dependent
upon imports for food. The greater part of the
Yucatan peninsula is a low and rocky terrain, fit for
nothing but henequen, and with insufficient rain for
other crops. Economic conditions have been un-
favourably affected by the war in Europe, which has
sent up the cost of living by depriving the country
of necessary commodities from the United States,
but in 1917 the declared value of articles invoiced
at the American Consulate for the United States was
$35,881,988. In that year 125,595 tons of
henequen, valued at $34,959,937, were shipped to
the United States, other exports being, in the order
of value, chicle, raw cattle and raw deer hides,
coffee, logwood, hair and sponges. Later figures
are not available, but a sensational trend upward
may be looked for in the next few years.
[110]
BY SEA TO MEXICO
In Progresso the price of a shave was $1; of a
bottle of beer, 60 cents; of a package of cigarettes,
grading at 5 cents in Havana, 15 cents; of a pound
of sugar, 25 cents; of a little dinner for four per-
sons, $60. Naturally, the price of labour has risen,
and with it the price of henequen, and there is no
probability of a return to normal conditions until
supplies and shipping also return to normal.
Meantime, people are doing the best they can. The
Comision Reguladora del Mercado de Henequen,
Yucatan's state commission for the regulation of
the henequen market, not only fixes the price of that
product, but acts as banker, and issues a paper
currency which it has managed to exchange steadily
at 50 cents American per peso.
But ask a planter of henequen, as I did. "Are
you downhearted?" and the answer will be, "No."
These people have something to sell which is a
necessity, and of which they practically have a
monopoly. They look forward to a better state
of affairs, and believe that they see a beginning
now. President Garranza is much interested in
Yucatan affairs, and sent Luis Cabrera there to
make a study of the situation. Mr. Cabrera spent
several months in Merida, returned to Mexico City,
made his report personally to the President, and
will, it is understood, supervise plans for returning
control of the henequen industry to the planters,
ending the state monopoly.
[in]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
I am able to say on excellent authority that the
Mexican Government is fully awake ro the need of
a better port than Progresso to drain this vast ter-
ritory, and this is a matter which will be considered
as soon as the financial problem now harassing
all Mexico is solved. For the present the cost is
prohibitive. Water is shoal along the greater part
of the Yucatan-Campeche coast, and the planter
I have already quoted estimated that the matter of
piers and breakwaters at any site he had heard of
would involve an expenditure of from 10,000,000
to 50,000,000 pesos.
At Vera Cruz one passes the customs with not
more delay or inconvenience that in Havana.
Mexico's chief seaport has a capacious harbour
protected by a breakwater and with forty feet of
depth in the basin, enabling the largest vessels to
lie up against the wharves. Normally the popula-
tion is about 60,000. During the period following
the evacuation by the American troops under
Funston it was for a time the headquarters of
General Carranza, then First Chief of the constitu-
tionalists. Nearly 100,000 people, including the
larger part of the American colony from Mexico
City, crowded it for a time, and melted away when
General Carranza returned to the republic's ancient
capital.
At present it is clean and seems prosperous. Ex-
ports to the United States during the six months
[112]
BY SEA TO MEXICO
ended June 30, 1918, had fallen to $2,086,380, as
against $7,242,781 for the corresponding period of
1917, so there still is abundant room for improve-
ment.
A favourite topic of conversation on the steamer
had been the frequency with which the Vera Cruz-
Mexico City train had been held up by bandits, and
the ever accurate returning business men had stories
of wrecked stations, derailed cars and engines and
the swinging cadavers of bandits who had been
caught and shot, which were to be seen all along the
route. We were told that it would be the part of
wisdom to buy drafts on Mexico City in Vera Cruz,
because while it was probable that we might get
through in safety, it was certain that if we were
stopped the bandits would take whatever money
we had with us, and also our luggage, and per-
haps our clothing.
This lurid fiction was not without a foundation
in fact. So long as the central government was too
weak to protect itself against the bands of patriotic
"istas," whose argument in favour of universal free-
dom was the indiscriminate destruction of whatever
property could not be carried off, the Vera Cruz
line was the subject of attack. I can only say that
had I listened seriously to all these friendly warn-
ings I would have missed seeing the most enchant-
ing and ever changing vistas of always lovely land-
scape it has ever been my good fortune to behold,
[113]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
I would have missed the glories of Orizaba,
Mexico's highest mountain. I would have arrived
at old age without ever being on a railway train
from 6.15 A. M. to 9 P. M. under circumstances
which made every moment of daylight a delight and
the coming of the darkness a source of regret. I
give the figures as a gentle suggestion for emula-
tion on the part of our own railway administration,
for the train left Vera Cruz on time and arrived in
Mexico City to the minute.
Bearing in mind the warning that periodistas
from New York are too much given to describing
the beauties of the country, I refrain from telling
of the contrast as the train rushes through the hot
zone back of Vera Cruz, through the temperate
climate where the character of vegetable life com-
pletely changes, until an altitude is reached at
which wraps are essential to comfort and perpetual
snow is in sight.
Perhaps it would be more worth while to tell
why the journey is now safe. I will not say of the
scenery, as Dicky Davis did of the coronation of
the late Czar, that it is indescribable, but in mak-
ing the attempt to portray it there would be danger
of falling into poetry, like Mr. Wegg.
Credit is due in the first place to General Candido
Aguilar, for some time foreign secretary in Presi-
dent Carranza's cabinet, and then in charge of re-
construction work in the state of Vera Cruz. I had
[114]
BY SEA TO MEXICO
the pleasure of meeting this gentleman during
a brief stop at Cordoba and later, of visiting in his
company a new aviation camp which is being con-
structed there in order to provide a strong corps
of airplane scouts for mountainous districts.
General Aguilar has erected a series of block-
houses at intervals of ten miles along these isolated
tracks, declared a military zone for fifty yards on
either side of the track, connected the blockhouses
by telephone and permitted it to be generally known
that any unauthorized person found inside the fifty-
yard line will be shot on sight. The new system
has been in operation for a short time only, but
there have been no attempts to interfere with traffic.
Probably there will be none so long as vigilance is
maintained, especially as armed guards are pro-
vided on through trains between the capital and its
chief port. And as this book goes to press, night
traffic has been resumed.
[115]
CHAPTER SEVEN: MEXICO CITY
PROSPERS
In Mexico City on February the twenty-second,
flags of the United States of Mexico flew at half
mast from all public buildings. From a few pri-
vate houses including the American Club, flags of
the United States of America floated proudly in the
breeze proudly, I say, because there have been
times in this city when such a display might have
caused a riot, times happily gone, we may hope, to
return no more.
It is unfortunate that Washington's Birthday and
the anniversary of the murder of Francisco I.
Madero, once president of the republic, and of Don
Jose Maria Pino Suarez, vice president, must be
commemorated on the same day, but there was no
conflict between patriotic mourning on the part of
the Mexicans and the equally patriotic rejoicings
of the small American colony.
The entire press of the city next morning de-
scribed in many columns and with profuse illustra-
tions the three ceremonies held during the day in
honour of Madero and Pino Suarez, in which fed-
eral and state officials took part, many patriotic and
[116]
MEXICO CITY PROSPERS
political organizations assisted, and in which
oratory, music and flowers were offered to the
memory of these victims of "the usurper Huerta."
And full justice was done to the celebration of
Washington's Birthday at the American Club.
This institution, which dates from 1895, occupies
a large house on the Avenida 16 de Septiembre, and
has managed to maintain itself during troublous
times, and doubtless will share in the return of
prosperty now underway.
The offices, a large dining room, and a ladies'
room, are on the ground floor. The second story
contains a large billiard room, library, lounge and
bar. A goodly number of magazines and news-
papers from many cities are to be found in the
library, and there are pictures of all the American
presidents from Harrison to Wilson. Of these the
best is an early portrait in oil of Theodore Roosevelt.
The decorations consisted of the national colours
of the United States and of Mexico, and those of
the Allies. There were no speeches, but an excel-
lent dinner was served, to the jazz band accom-
paniment of which Americans here appear as in-
ordinately fond as if they were at home. The
menu was as nearly American as possible, begin-
ning with oyster soup, and including turkey, and
ending with vanilla cream and coffee. Fish in
Mexican style, and ravioli gave an exotic touch not
unwelcome to the gourmet who sat opposite me.
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
The cost, if one may be pardoned for satisfying
the curiosity of the folks at home, was five pesos per
plate, approximately $2.50, exclusive of wine.
There were probably one hundred and fifty at
dinner, and the dance which followed was pro-
longed by the younger people until an early hour
next morning. On the assumption that the diners
were representative of Mexico's American colony,
I give the names, some of which may be familiar to
people in the United States: George T. Summerlin,
chancellor of the American embassy, and charge
d'affaires in the absence of Ambassador Fletcher;
Major Robert Campbell, military aide, Henry R.
Carey, M. Elting Hanna, H. L. Sylvain and family,
E. Kirby Smith and family, C. B. Cleveland and
family, E. W. Sours and family, Arnold Shanklin
and family, R. T. Dobson and family, A. F. Code-
froy and family, Lucien Ruff and family, W. B.
Stephens and family, K. M. van Zandt and family,
C. E. Cummings and family, W. P. Moats and
family, C. Bland and family, Gerald Rives and
family, H. Doorman and family, H. C. Baldwin
and family, E. J. Wuerpel and family, F. E. Moore
and family, J. J. Zahler and family, J. M. Gal-
braith and family, C. H. McCullough and family,
J. C. Van Trease and family. A number of Mex-
ican gentlemen and their wives were also at the
dinner, and several representatives of the diplo-
matic corps, including the French Charge d' Affaires,
[118]
MEXICO CITY PROSPERS
M. Frangois Dejean; Baron Fugitaro Otori, the
Japanese minister, and Keicho Ito, of the Japanese
legation.
I have spoken of Mexico's returning prosperity
as something underway. I do not think I can be
wrong in this, for while, as a newcomer, I had no
standards for comparison, I found a multitude of
shops which seem to do a thriving business, and
offered for sale every article of necessity, of
luxury or convenience which is to be had in our own
large cities. I found the streets which are wide and
clean, thronged with people, of whom the propor-
tion of the seemingly well-to-do would be normal
for New York.
There are beggars, it is true, but there are beg-
gars in all Spanish American cities with which I
am familiar, some even in American cities of
Anglo-Saxon population, and the guide-books as-
sure us that street mendicants are no new feature of
Mexican life. And if the splendid Avenida de la
Reforma which connects Chapultepec park with
that loveliest of city parks, the Alameda, shows
fewer automobiles than Fifth Avenue, it must be
remembered that the entire population of the
federal district of which this city is the municipality
is less than 1,000,000. The picturesque Indian
with his sandalled feet, enormous sombrero and
brightly coloured blanket is still here, but he has
a right to be, for this, the oldest city in America,
[119]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
was the capital of his people in the Thirteenth
Century.
However, unwilling to trust my own impressions,
I formulated a series of questions, which I address
to residents of every class. Some of the informa-
tion thus presented I give in condensed form.
An American shopkeeper: "I have done more
business within the last two months than at any
corresponding period of the last six years. Of
course the tourist trade was my mainstay, but I
find that the Mexicans are beginning to appreciate
one of my specialties, handwrought leather goods,
and I am not only selling leather as fast as my
workmen are able to turn it out, but have many
orders ahead. I find a renewed demand for drawn
work, which is a good sign, but we have not been
able in a long time to get any of the linens re-
quired."
A Mexican official: "Conditions are, I believe,
steadily improving, but I believe that you will find
very little ostentatious display of wealth. The
working people and the middle classes are better
off, and there is more money in circulation than
we have had in a long time. These things mean
that we are beginning to get results. Wealth is be-
ing more evenly distributed, and the contrasts be-
tween extreme luxury and dire poverty are less
striking than in many years."
A Spanish hotel proprietor: "We would be
[120]
MEXICO CITY PROSPERS
glad to give you a room and bath, especially if you
expect to be here for some time, but at present we
are full up. A group of American visitors has
engaged in advance every available room, and we
can do nothing for you until they depart. It seems
like old times to have so many tourists from the
north."
A Canadian banker: "Conditions are easier
than they have been for some time. The return
of prosperity involves the return of confidence, and
I cannot say that this is complete, but I think we
all feel a sense of relief when we compare banking
conditions today with those we have gone through."
An American importer: "A complete under-
standing with the United States is the one thing
essential to the commercial and industrial develop-
ment of Mexico. When that has been arrived at,
you may expect a boom in all lines. Until then,
we will do the best we can, but the uncertainty of
the past has been a most serious drawback. We
all want to know what Mr. Wilson intends to do, if
anything."
There are, however, more hopeful signs of a re-
turn to better conditions than are revealed either
in the life of the capital or the observations of
men and women long resident here.
Of primary importance I count the return of the
emigres. Thousands of Mexicans of intelligence,
wealth and position, were forced into exile, or re-
[121]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
tired from the country of their own free will, dur-
ing what the Americans here refer to as "week-end
governments," of which there was an all too rapid
succession until General Carranza obtained control
of Mexico City.
They are coming back. Some of the most im-
portant of the earlier regimes are here now. The
Iturbides are here. Passengers with me on the
Ward liner Mexico from Havana were General
Camacho, a former brigadier of the Rurales, who
had been in exile for five years, and Carlos Rincon-
Gallardo, general of division under both Diaz and
Huerta.
To return to mere personal impressions, let me
describe a Sunday afternoon visit to the bull ring.
The Federal Government of Mexico does not in-
terfere with the State Governments, except in cases
of necessity, but is supreme in the federal district,
which corresponds to our District of Columbia.
President Carranza disapproves bull fights and
lotteries, hence the lottery has disappeared, and
there are no more bull fights in the capital. The
bull ring is a circus with seating capacity of 20,000.
It has been used for opera, and this afternoon was
the scene of an entertainment by Anna Pavlowa
and company, which now includes as principals
Wlasta Maslowa, Alexandre Volinine, Hilda But-
zova, with Alexandre Smallens, formerly of the
Boston Opera Company, as musical director.
[122]
MEXICO CITY PROSPERS
An old New Yorker myself, I shall not commit
the folly reviewing a Pavlowa performance 2400
miles from Broadway, but will be content with
saying that the bill included "La Flauta Magica"
which the programatical annotator pointed out is
the work of Mario Petipa, of the Petrograd Im-
perial Theatre, and "is not to be confounded with
the opera of the same name by Mozart," with music
by Maestro Drigo; "Walpurgis Night," Pon-
chielli's "Dance of the Hours," Grieg's "Holland
Dance," Grieg's "Anitra's Dance," and numbers
by Kreisler, Lewandoswki and Lincke. Possibly
the "Walpurgis Night" in the arrangement by
Ivan Clustine may be new, and certainly it is
charming. The audience to me was quite as fasci-
nating as the dancers.
Prices in the bull ring are graduated by the sun,
and fixed, of course, by the management. On this
occasion the cheapest seats were one and a half
pesos, the dearest, seven and a half pesos. The
cheap seats are those on the sunny side, and the
more expensive, those in the shade. Seats in the
arena were four pesos, the highest price being
charged for the boxes which encircle the arena.
Mexico City is a mile in the air, and "sol" and
"sombra" mean a marked difference in tempera-
ture, for at noon today the thermometer in my
room at the Hotel de Geneve registered 65 Far. and
its companion instrument in the sun marked 110.
[123]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
Under the circumstances I took general admission
in the "sombra," with an excellent view of the stage
from seats on the stone bench about the middle of
the auditorium. The acoustics were excellent.
Probably a fifth of the eastern side of the am-
phitheatre was cut off by the stage, leaving seats for
6,000 in "the bleachers," if I may borrow a base-
ball term for application to the bullring. All
these cheap seats were occupied. There must have
been more than 4,000 more people in the shade, in-
cluding the fashionable element in the boxes and in
the arena. It was a good day for Anna, and I can-
not figure how, after giving the ballet liberal sup-
port for a long run at the Teatro Principal, this
city of half a million population could afford to
spend 15,000 to 20,000 pesos for an open air per-
formance unless business conditions were fairly
good, even making due allowance for the fact that
the Mexicans, like all Latin-American peoples
like myself are melomaniacs.
A well dressed, good humoured, highly appre-
ciative gathering it proved to be. The performance
was scheduled to begin at half past four, but was
late, and the people in "the bleachers" indicated
their impatience by clapping with a triple rhythmic
beat, and occasional catcalls, just as we might do
at home at a ball game. But when the trumpet call
announced that the curtain was about to be drawn,
[124]
MEXICO CITY PROSPERS
there was hearty applause, followed by complete
silence.
This same signal, by the way, is employed at
bull fights, to announce that another bull is about to
be brought into the arena, and so, after the inter-
mission, the trumpet sounded, some wag in "the
bleachers" shouted "Otro toro!" (another bull) and
the vast audience shrieked with laughter.
Caruso writes that he sang in "Carmen" at a
rainy matinee in September, to a $45,000 "house" !
[125]
CHAPTER EIGHT: JOURNALISM PAST
AND PRESENT
Journalism in Mexico City has undergone many
changes in the last quarter of a century. During
the rule of Porfirio Diaz every encouragement was
given to the press. It was the policy of the Govern-
ment to patronize arts and letters, and in the Latin
world the distinction between journalism, author-
ship, and magazine work is by no means finely
drawn. Workers in all three classes are grouped
in what I ventured to call in a little volume of
essays "The Serio-Comic Profession."
Don Porfirio asked only that nothing be written
against the Government. The publication that con-
travened the presidential policy of optimism disap-
peared. And Don Porfirio liked to see a foreign
press in his capital. When he came into power
he found the Trait d? Union, a French publication
still issued under the name of Le Courrier du Mex-
ique, which was established in 1849 and is the
oldest daily in the republic today.
He helped along the American who founded the
Two Republics back in the Eighties, and looked
with favour on the Mexican Herald, which was a
well written and thoroughly up-to-date American
[126]
JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT
daily, still much lamented in Mexico. The Mexican
Herald was a morning paper, but there was an
English afternoon publication called the Daily
Record, besides an Anglo-American weekly.
Toward the close of the Diaz administration
there must have been nearly 250 publications in
the capital, including trade papers. The verna-
cular press was headed by El Impartial, and the
Catholic organ, El Tiempo, the other dailies being
El Heraldo, El Mundo, El Diario, El Pais, El
Popular, Mexico Nuevo, El Diario del Hogar, and
the organ of the Spanish colony, El Correo Espanol.
All of the publications named with the exception
of the French daily have vanished, but that does not
mean that the Mexicans have abandoned the pleas-
ant and profitable habit of reading the daily papers.
Today the leading Spanish language dailies are
the five issued in the morning, three of which carry
Associated Press dispatches, and appear to have
well organized reportorial and editorial staffs, and
correspondents in all the important Mexican cities.
Most of them also maintain branch offices in New
York and in Spain. They are:
El Universal, now in its fourth year, and edited
by Felix F. Palavicini. This is an independent
newspaper having eight pages in its weekly day
editions, and Sunday supplements.
Excelsior, now in its third year, and edited by
Rafael Alducin, El Universal 9 s chief rival. It is
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
well written, newsy, and disposed to be friendly
to the United States.
La Republica, edited by Heriberto Barren, is sup-
posed to be owned by M. Aguirre Berlanga, whose
candidacy for the presidency is referred to else-
where. It has taken over the greater part of the
staff and equipment of El Pueblo, the government
organ, which discontinued publication in the sum-
mer of 1919. El Pueblo, by the way, was an
excellent paper of its type. The editor was
Gregorio A. Velasquez.
El Heraldo is the personal organ of General
Salvador Alvarado, another presidential candidate.
Alvarado is as much at home in a newspaper office
as a bull in a china shop, and his startling indiscre-
tion in attacking his country and its Government
during an international crisis is not likely to be
forgotten soon, either in Mexico or the United
States.
The fifth morning daily is El Democrata, which
was rabidly anti-American and notoriously pro-
German during the war. It is in its fifth year, and
is directed by Federico de la Colina. A change of
management has been announced since the signing
of the armistice. Its dispatches are furnished by
"The Spanish American News Agency," with head-
quarters in New York.
The much lamented Mexican Herald moved from
the capital to Vera Cruz on the occupation of that
[128]
JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT
port by American forces. It did not come back.
It is doubtful whether the combined American and
English colonies in Mexico City now have suffi-
cient numerical or financial strength to support an
English daily, so Le Courrier du Mexique began
the publication of an English section recently, and
will continue, and enlarge this department, if it
meets with proper support, and the Spanish dailies
have English sections.
The afternoon newspapers are numerous but un-
important. Conspicuous among them are A. B. C. 9
a frank imitation of the Spanish publication of the
same name, and La Nacion, which aims to be dis-
tinctively Mexican.
New weeklies of the cheaper type are constantly
being born and dying of inanition. Usually they
are devoted either to a personality which lacks a
following or to a "cause" which declines to support
it. A specimen is "The Voice of Misery" ("La
Voz de Miseria"), which modestly admits that it
speaks for the labour interests of the republic. The
first issue was on March 1, 1919. Then there is
a little handbill in Spanish which professes to speak
for the Bolshevik movement, although Linn A. Gale
makes the same claim for his English "journal of
the new civilization," which bears his name.
President Carranza allows the widest latitude to
publications in the republic, and apparently does
not object to sensational attacks either on himself,
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
his officials or his policies. He realizes the value
of an intelligent press, but is disposed to show his
contempt for "yellow journalism" in Mexico by
ignoring it. At any rate, things are tolerated in
print which would not have been permitted under
the older regime. That does not mean, however,
that President Carranza is equally disposed to over-
look misrepresentation on the part of foreign cor-
respondents here.
Press matter is filed in triplicate if addressed to
foreign countries, and one copy goes to the censor.
There is what is known as the Law of 33 by which
the chief magistrate is empowered to expel from
the territory of the republic any objectionable
foreigner, without explaining his reason for so do-
ing, and without recourse for the individual "thirty-
threed." This fate has befallen many "periodistas
norteamericanos," and may again.
"The Government is not concerned at the trans-
mission of ordinary newspaper matter, or personal
gossip," a Mexican official said to me. "We
realize the difficulty of securing accuracy of in-
formation at all times, and make due allowance
for the instinct which leads a man to send out a good
story without too much investigation. But we see
no cause for the toleration either of stupidity or
malice. A first offence in either direction is over-
looked, but if a second and third follow without
an appreciable interval "Thirty-three."
[130]
JOURNALISM PAST AND PRESENT
After all, not such a bad law, and one which
would have been extremely useful in the United
States during the war.
The astonishing thing to me about the Mexican
daily press as represented in the capital is its ex-
cellence. Newspaper men will admit that it is
more difficult to publish the news in brief compass
than in a blanket sheet, and the average size of a
Mexican daily is eight pages.
Each paper must maintain a large enough staff
to cover the official news, and all the departmental
sources of information of the local as well as the
federal Government. There is no city press service.
Each paper must maintain its editorial writers,
critics, and desk editors, as with us. But the As-
sociated Press dispatches are received in English,
and must be translated. That means fast work.
The fact is, as soon as a piece of telegraph is re-
ceived it goes to the translation department, con-
sisting of a chief and two or three men, and by
the time the last sheet of "copy" is turned in by
the operator, all the rest of the dispatch has been
translated and put into type.
Linotypes and modern presses are the rule.
There is a weakness for illustrations and large
headlines, but news judgment appears to be sound,
and the dailies, considered by and large, are clean,
well written, and well printed.
At a staff dinner given by El Universal where
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
I was a guest, I counted at least four women em-
ployes, and was told there were others who con-
tributed regularly, so here is one profession, at
least, open to Mexican women of the higher classes.
I have not been able to make a complete survey
of Mexico's provincial press, but the newspapers
examined reflect the influence of the newspapers
in the capital precisely as the French provincial
newspapers do that of the Parisian dailies. It is
rather startling, however, to note that Tampico is
about to have an English daily.
Volume 4, No. 9 of the Tampico Tribune, which
is dated March 1, 1919, says:
"A daily newspaper such as Tampico is entitled
to have and which we shall endeavour to supply,
must have a complete telegraphic news service,
capable of competing with the Texas daily news-
papers coming here, and those from Mexico City.
It must have a competent staff of experienced news-
paper men to handle the news and to report
thoroughly and accurately the events of the city
in which its readers are interested. This has been
provided for. . . . The date of issue cannot yet be
announced but it will be as soon as arrangements
now being made are completed."
[132]
CHAPTER NINE: MEXICO'S NATIONAL
SCHOOL OF ART
Mexico has developed a national school of art
in a double sense, as the tourist may find, possibly
to his surprise, certainly to his delight, on visiting
the capital of the republic. Guide books, of
course, refer to it, but in matters of art, seeing is
believing, and it apparently has remained for me
to bring back to America tangible proof in the way
of photographs, some of which illustrate this book.
Mexicans, whether of Indian, Spanish or mixed
blood, have always possessed the art creative in-
stinct. Temple decorations and grotesque pottery
of the prehistoric period, the latter revealing first
an Egyptian, later a Mongolian influence, show
craftsmanship of no mean order, and the picture
writings of the Aztecs are hardly inferior to the
illuminations on monkish manuscripts of contem-
poraneous moyen-age Europe. A striking example
may be seen in the map of ancient Tenochtitlan
which hangs in the National Museum, and might
almost serve as an outline chart for the Mexico
City of today, so little has the topography changed.
Montezuma's Palace and the Great Teocalli oc-
cupied the sites of the present National Palace and
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
Cathedral, and there is a mound, clearly drawn and
with careful attention to distance which is unmis-
takably Chapultepec, now crowned as then by the
summer residence of the ruler of the land, and in-
dicated by the Aztec cartographer by a perfectly
drawn grasshopper, Chapultepec meaning in the
not yet extinct Nahuatl tongue, "grasshopper hill."
Perhaps the vivid colours with which Nature has
painted the Mexican landscape, the translucent at-
mosphere, and the intense brilliancy of the sun-
light may have been the inspiration of all the races
that have lived on the Mexican plateau, but the love
of line and colour persists in the today in the com-
monest blanket, the crudest pottery of native fabri-
cation.
In the wake of the Conquistadores came the
Padres, and with them a passion for church build-
ing so intense that in a single district of Puebla with
not more than 5,000 inhabitants there are three
hundred and sixty-five religious edifices ... all
of which may be counted with the aid of a field
glass from the pyramid of Cholula, even now a
place of pilgrimage because of the shrine which
surmounts it. With the multiplication of churches
and convents grew the need of sacred paintings and
holy images with which to adorn them. The
church fostered and controlled a school of native
artists . . . mere copyists, most of them . . .
whose work is still preserved from the Rio Grande
[134]
SAN JERONIMO
By J. Gutierrez
MEXICO'S NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ART
to the borders of Guatemala. It gave them new
ideas of perspective, of realism, and sound pig-
ments; nor did it discourage the imaginative
faculty, although it prescribed the realm in which it
might range to its own precincts. Best of all, it
set before the painter some excellent examples of
the best European art, for the church speedily
grew rich in the New World, and Flemish, Spanish
and Italian art was too pious a luxury to be deemed
extravagant.
Laymen, too, imported many pictures and much
statuary. Students of Murillo will remember that
in his youth that master was seized with the desire
to travel. Investing his small capital in a bolt of
canvas, he cut it into convenient pieces, covered each
with paint, and selling these pot-boilers to the West
India export trade set forth upon his journey.
Doubtless Valasquez, fashionable as a court painter,
fared better in a financial way in his dealings with
Spanish military and civil officials in Mexico, but
until long after the end of the Colonial Period,
Mexican art was almost wholly ecclesiastical.
Nothing, in fact, of a distinctly national character,
developed until the reform laws became effective in
1860, whereby civil government was disassociated
from the church, a vast amount of church property
sequestered, and public education made a function
of the state.
Churches, public buildings, the homes of wealthy
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
haciendados house thousands of these religious
paintings, many of them unsigned, like the superb
"Santa Cecilia," which some of my friends find sug-
gestive of Guido, and which may, indeed, prove to
be a faithful copy of some European masterpiece.
But the earliest of Mexico's painters were
Spanish, not Mexican. Thus Baltazar de Echave,
"el Viejo," called "the Mexican Titian," had
formed his style in Venice, before settling in Mexico
about 1590. And Sebastien Arteaga, a notary of
the Holy Office, who shares with Echave the fore-
most place among earlier Mexican artists, had also
studied in Italy before sailing for America. Of
his many works, which vary greatly in quality "Los
Deposorios de la Virgen" (the betrothal of Mary)
is, I think, the most beautiful, although a Zurburan
quality is so frequently encountered in his paintings
that Zurburan's "El Castillo de Emmaus," valued
at $150,000, was long attributed to him. It is
precisely this criticism of Arteaga that the admiring
student will apply to most of the Mexican painters
prior to 1860. All show some European influence,
if not of an individual master-painter, then of a
school, or of the church or the church's preferred
artists.
Dating the Renaissance of Mexican art from
1860, one notes the turning away from religious to-
ward purely national subjects, or those having
historical or artistic significance.
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MEXICO'S NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ART
Thus Rodrigo Gutierrez devoted a large compo-
sition to the memorable session of the Senate of
Tlaxcala, August, 1519, when the Cacique Xico-
tencatl swayed the Tlaxcalan nation to attack Her-
nando Cortes, although the Spanish adventurer
was making war upon their ancient enemy, Mon-
tezuma, and had asked permission to march un-
molested through the republic's territory. Surely
the painter has seized upon a dramatic moment!
Aside from the boldness with which the actors are
represented, one cannot help being impressed with
the enthusiasm of the younger leaders for war,
while at least one of the older leaders of the
council appears to be still doubtful of the issue.
An antiquarian friend assures me that Tlaxcalan
costumes and furnishings have been reproduced to
the minutest detail, and that the painter sought his
models among the descendants of these ancient
republicans.
"The Courtyard of an Old House," by Jimenez,
is drawn with such nicety as to be almost photo-
graphic. The colouring is subdued for the most
part, notwithstanding the strong light in which the
small girl is playing with her pigeon.
"Othello," by Gonzalez Pineda, seemed to have
been studied from Salvini's famous impersonation
of the Moor which would possibly have been fa-
miliar to the painter. That, at any rate, is the
opinion of John Rariken Towse, the dean of New
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
York's dramatic critics, to whom this photograph
suggested delightful reminiscences. Pineda, while
following tradition as to the Venetian colours of
Desdemona, has declined to ascribe a negroid type
to the unfortunate Moor, but gives him both in
cranial formation and in a warmly tinted skin
purely Arab characteristics.
"The Valley of Mexico," which according to the
much travelled Bayard Taylor, is second only to
that of Cashmere in loveliness, fascinated Jose M.
Velasco to such an extent that he devoted at least
three large paintings to it. In charm and delicacy
of colour, and in the courageous fidelity with which
he depicts so extended a view, they are difficult to
choose from. That reproduced here only seems
best for photographic purposes. The volcanoes
of Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl which rear their
crests in the background were some thirty miles
from the painter's easel.
Soto's "Ahuehuetas de Chapultepec," apart from
its value as a fine piece of landscape painting, will
be of interest to students of natural history because
the trees are the sole survivors of the immense
tropical forest which flourished in the Valley of
Mexico before the climate cooled to its present tem-
perate average.
A fascinating historical study is the painting by
Pelegrin Clave, who was born in 1872, representing
the last days of Isabel de Portugal.
[138]
OTHELLO
By Gonzalez Pineda
MEXICO'S NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ART
The San Jeronimo of J. Gutierrez is a modern in-
stance of devotion to religious subjects, justified by
careful drawing of a striking pose, excessive care
in the treatment of details, and a fine sense of
colour.
The "auto-retrato" of German Gedovius is not
only a clever bit of self -portraiture, but an example
of racial fidelity to type. However much he may
look like a Spanish cavalier of the older ages,
Gedovius is one of the professors in the Nacional
Academia.
It must not be supposed, however, that these
paintings, selected as being representative of a
distinctly national and Mexican school of art, alike
as they are in microscopic brush-work, careful at-
tention to detail, and an uncommon sense of
colour values, are the best or the only ones worth
seeing. There are dozens of painters, as proved
by scores of pictures, well worth the attention of
the art loving visitor in Mexico.
Nor is modern Mexican art exclusively national.
No new movement abroad has been without its re-
action in Mexico. Thus one will be reminded that
Beardsley lived, that Zuloaga and Sorolla painted,
that Goya and Zamacois are no more to be ignored
than Murillo and Velasquez. Traces of impres-
sionism and post-impressionism is there. The
futurist ... but no, I am not sure that the cubists
have reached Mexico as yet.
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
As an example of broad brush-work and the
occasional use of a palette knife, it may be worth
while to present "La Ofrenda," by Saturnino Her-
ran, who died last year, a youth of promise and of
ultra-modern proclivities. It represents a family
group in one of the boats which ply the canals of
Xochimilco, providing the City of Mexico with
fruits and flowers, and affording a pleasant outing
to the tourist.
I spoke of Mexico having developed a national
school of art in a double sense. Perhaps I have
proved the existence of real painters in that lovely
and much abused land, which is the main purpose
of this little essay, but now, prepare to be startled.
There are 1,400 students in the National Art
School in Mexico City, devoting their time under
competent instruction to painting, statuary and
architecture. And I doubt if our own Art
Students' League contains a finer or more ambitious
lot of youngsters. The Academia de los Nobles
Artes de San Carlos de la Nueva Espana, was
founded in 1778 by Charles III of Spain, and took
possession of its present home, back of the National
Palace, in 1791. Like the national conservatories
of music and declamation, it is a government insti-
tution, and removed from political influences, not-
withstanding that fact.
There is a superb patio, containing an excellent
selection of antique casts, useful for the student to
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MEXICO'S NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ART
work from, and the galleries display good speci-
mens of the master painters of Europe, and a suffi-
ciently large collection of the works of Mexican
painters to cover the entire history of the subject
from the earliest period, that of the Conquest, to
date. Taken in connection with the historical
paintings preserved in the National Museum, only
a few steps away, the collection is ample for all the
needs of the student until such genius has been
displayed as should, in, every part of the world,
bring the award of a prix de Rome. There is
everything to please the eye and instruct the mind.
The one thing lacking to Mexican art is the kind
of appreciation which manifests itself in money.
One of Mexico's greatest painters, Luis Monroy,
died this year. He had been obliged to follow the
legal profession to gain the living which the world
owed him for his art.
[141]
CHAPTER TEN: A STUDY IN MELOMANIA
There are few tall buildings in the Mexican
capital, but in one of them, at la. Calle Nuevo
Mexico No. 6, is the office of Maestro Julian Car-
rillo. From his windows on the fifth floor we
looked across flat roofs where women were hang-
ing out the family wash toward a massive pile of
white marble at the lower end of the Alameda.
"Some day that building will be finished," said
Carrillo, "and then Mexican composers will come
into their own. Operas which exist in manuscript,
symphonies, all will be heard. But when will it be
finished? Who knows?"
"Fortunately I do," I said, "and I am glad to
be the bearer of good news. President Carranza
told me yesterday that he was resolved to complete
the interior of the Nacional Opera before the ex-
piration of his term of office. He would not
promise, he said, to carry into effect the whole of
the decorative scheme, but he realized the need of
an auditorium for music and drama of the highest
class, and as two-thirds of the estimated cost of
12,000,000 pesos had been spent already, he con-
sidered it good business to convert a property now
useless into a producer of revenue."
[142]
A STUDY IN MELOMANIA
Carrillo smiled expansively, and remarked that
he was now at work on his third symphony. I
fancy this work will be ready for a public hearing
by the time the Nacional Opera is thrown open to
the public, that the news will have a stimulating
effect on other Mexican tone poets, and that gentle-
manly managers in divers music centres on both
sides of the great pond will look longingly toward
the time when music drama can be adequately
staged in this music-mad capital. True there is to
be a short season of opera when Lent ends, but
opera in an ordinary theatre is quite different from
opera in an opera house, and Mexicans hope their
new temple of art will be the most beautiful in the
world. Certainly it will be the largest in the three
Americas.
I had gone to Carrillo seeking information as to
the training of the military bands which give public
concerts in all the larger cities of the republic.
One in Vera Cruz, one in Guadalajara, one in
Puebla, and three in Mexico City had demonstrated
such astonishingly uniform excellence as to arouse
my curiosity. The brasses were mellow, the wood-
winds smooth, and the leaders none of them mere
time beaters, although of course, differing widely
both as to temperament and ability.
As New Yorkers may have forgotten Carrillo's
attempt to found an "American Orchestra" here in
1915, it may be well to remind them that he speaks
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
with authority, having been president of the In-
ternational Music Congress held in Rome in 1911,
that he was at one time director of the Mexican
National Conservatory, and that he was concert-
meister in Leipsic under Arthur Nikisch. Back
in Mexico after many years in other lands, he
teaches violin and composition, writes technical
works on theory which are issued by Schirmer for
Spanish American countries, and gives what leisure
he has to original work.
Mexican bands, Carrillo affirms, owe their ex-
cellence to two things: careful preliminary training
of the musicians in the conservatories, of which
there are now two instead of one; and unremitting
labour at rehearsals. He does not claim that the
personnel of the bands is really higher than in
other countries, but he insists that elsewhere, and
especially in the United States, not enough time is
devoted to rehearsals, and that where orchestras are
abundant there is a tendency to look down upon
military bands, and to relegate to them only the so-
called popular music. He deplores the pride of the
musician who thinks it beneath his dignity to direct
or compose for a military band, and says that every
conservatory pupil should be made to study a band
instrument.
An enthusiast on bands?
Well rather.
The fact is that the average military band in the
[144]
A STUDY IN MELOMANIA
United States would not think of attempting the
programs which are given here. Popular marches,
an occasional overture, ragtime and jazz certainly,
but not the symphonies of Beethoven, which are a
feature of Sunday morning performances in the
Alameda. Naturally the Police Band fails to pro-
duce the effect of the Philharmonic, the Symphony
Society, the Bostonians, or even the minor sym-
phony orchestras, but the adaptations are good, the
educational value is immense, and the bands suffice
to keep alive the sacred fires until in the good times
that are coming, orchestral concerts and chamber
music will cease to be a rare treat.
Lately Mexico has heard an annual series of
twelve concerts by the Nacional Orchestra, but the
Beethoven Orchestra, of which much was expected,
has disbanded, and concerts of string quartette are
to be listened to only in the conservatories.
The oldest of these institutions, the Conservatorio
Nacional de Musica y Declamacion, is housed in an
ancient palace which once belonged to the Univer-
sity of Mexico, not far from the Plaza de la Con-
stitucion, and facing one side of the Palacio Na-
cional. There is an immense patio, with offices
and class rooms opening upon the ground floor and
balcony, and a teaching staff for all branches of
musical and dramatic art and literature. The
pupils number 200. The Free Conservatory,
organized some years ago after a disagreement in
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
the faculty of the older school, maintains separate
quarters and staff, and trains 400 pupils. Both
conservatories are subsidized by a grant from the
Government, and both are apparently doing good
work.
Mexico's earliest musicians, it need hardly be
said, were chiefly concerned with church music,
but in course of time a school of national com-
posers has grown up, including many writers of
dance music and songs, and some few men who
have composed in the larger forms. Among the
best known musicians who have written serious
works may be named Milesio Morales, Ricardo
Castro, Felipe Villanueva, Gustavo Campa, Manuel
Ponce, Rafael Jello, and Arnulfo Viramonte.
Of Maestro Carrillo, I may say in parting, that
he is the most distinctively American composer I
have ever encountered, being in fact a full blooded
American Indian, a native of the State of San Luis
Potosi. Like most cosmopolites he is fond of
New York, and may return for a visit within a
year or so.
[146]
CHAPTER ELEVEN: BANDITS AND
BOLSHEVIKI
"There is no. danger of the Bolshevik movement
gaming headway in Mexico," a distinguished Mex-
ican official said to me. "Bolshevism is an in-
ternation disease which must wear itself out, and
which is highly contagious.
"Poor Mexico! How the world pitied us when
our disorder first broke out. It was the first mani-
festation of the international epidemic, all our
friends thought we were very sick indeed, and
some went so far as to prepare obituaries. We
felt pretty badly, too, there's no denying it, but
now Mexico is convalescent, and we all realize that
we were fortunate in having a very mild attack.
And now we are immune, and glad of it.
"Look at Russia, for example. There is the in-
ternational disease in its acute form smallpox
where we had only varioloid. In fact I think that
in Mexico we had only a bad case of measles."
Certain it is that Mexico's revolution began in
bloodshed, and that pacification has been gradual;
while to the contrary, Russia's revolution began with
the peaceful abdication of the Czar, and soon
evolved into a region of terror, of which the end is
not yet in sight.
[147]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
It is a matter of common knowledge in Mexico
that the Bolshevik movement was encouraged there,
as in Russia, by German gold of common knowl-
edge because El Universal published the whole
record of slimy German propaganda in detail, with
verification from the papers of the German minister,
Von Eckardt.
Naturally the series of articles in this expose at-
tracted wide-spread interest throughout Mexico, and
brought down upon the newspaper publishing them
and upon its editor, bitter denunciations from the
men and the interests involved. So sure was he of
his facts and of the proof behind them that Felix
F. Palavicini would reprint in El Universal the
most eloquent of these attacks, usually without
comment.
To be successful a Bolshevist movement must
have the support of a large part of the masses,
since it is evident that if both aristocracy and bour-
geoisie are destroyed, only the proletariat remains.
Now the proletariat of Mexico is eminently pacific.
It will work if compelled to, or if in the humour;
but it is easily fed, housed, amused; and it prefers
to sit in the sun and smoke cigarettes and drink
pulque to getting excited about the rights of man.
Or if the day is hot it prefers to sit in the shade and
drink pulque and smoke cigarettes.
The Mexican proletariat never heard of Karl
Marx. It doesn't know the difference between
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BANDITS AND BOLSHEVIKI
Tolstoi and Vodka, and doesn't wish to. The Mex-
ican proletariat doesn't read much. It can't.
That was the fault of Don Porfirio Diaz, who had a
whole generation in which to educate the lower
classes, but didn't think they were worth it.
The part of the Mexican proletariat in the revo-
lutions which have so often convulsed the country
has been about as important as that of an army
mule. Most of the time he has been forced into
the army, and usually he has been glad to get out
again.
The ruling classes have coaxed him with patriotic
speech, and threatened him with divers punishments
to keep him fighting, and the analogy will be
stronger to any one who has heard a mule driver's
monologue anywhere in Spanish America.
As long as the mule pursues his course with suf-
ficient "get up and git," he is my darling, my angel,
the son of a happy mother, and of a family blessed
with many gallant brothers and virtuous sisters.
But let the mule balk, and he is assured that he is
bound for perdition, and that his entire family con-
nection are of a most undesirable kind.
Mind you, I write of the proletariat of Mexico
of today and yesterday, going back to the rule of
Montezuma. Of the future I am not so certain.
Mr. Carranza's Government is undertaking to open
all the wisdom of the world to the proletariat
through the public schools, and the time is coming
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
when every Mexican boy and girl will be able to
read and write. Still the day when Mexico can
be interested in political theories learned out of
books is at least fifteen years in the future, when it
may be hoped that Bolshevism will have burned
itself out.
Mexico, in fact, is just arrived at the stage when
it can take up the matter of collective bargaining
between labour and capital. It doubtless will have
a progressive experience with unionism, guided and
aided by the Government. But it seems perfectly
plain that Bolshevism can have no growth unless
it is supported either by the Government, the church,
or the opposition to the Government.
Enemies of Mr. Carranza denounce the new con-
stitution as a Bolshevik instrument, although a two
years' test has thus far failed to justify them. Bol-
shevik publications, in English as well as Spanish,
are permitted, but that is apparently because the
Government makes a fetich of "liberty of the press."
A Bolshevik organization in the State of Vera
Cruz sought to bolster itself up in the opinion of the
public by electing to honourary membership Gen-
eral of Division Candido Aguilar. Aguilar de-
clined in language which made it plain that he
detests anything that has to do with Bolshevism.
Clearly the Lenine-Trotsky theories have no place
in Mexico.
The church isn't trying to build up a party here
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BANDITS AND BOLSHEVIKI
just now. The archbishop of Guadalajara and the
archbishop of Mexico have returned, and other prel-
ates have resumed their labours. The church
wishes to make friends, and if the church has ever
manifested sympathy with Bolshevism outside
Mexico, I do not recall it. I fancy, indeed, that
if the Bolsheviks in Mexico can win the support of
the hierarchy, the I. W. W. may convert that fine old
gentleman, James, Cardinal Gibbons, to their way
of thinking in the United States.
The remaining hope of the Bolsheviki would
seem to be the opposition to the Government. At
present there isn't any. Regardless of previous
political affiliations, the best class of Mexicans to-
day are trying to uphold the existing Government,
to make it strong enough for security at home, and
respect abroad.
There remain the bandits.
Have they not realized all the dreams of the Bol-
sheviki already?
But the bandits are not here to stay. They are
doomed to disappear, as they always have when
a stable government has been attained, here or else-
where. Some say that Americans have a liking for
bandits, a point on which I am not sure, as the news-
papers tell of 10,000,000 cartridges shipped to
"General" Pelaez, the bandit who rules the oil
jungle back of Tampico. I also have a recollection
of arms having been provided at one time from the
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
United States for "General" Villa, which brings
me to a story of that "patriotic" scoundrel that may
be new north of the Rio Grande.
Villa announced to a gathering of his followers
that President Wilson was the only man living with
whom he would not shake hands. He declared
that he had been shamefully treated by our first
magistrate, and that he would never forgive him
so long as he lived.
"He took me up, and made much of me," said the
"Patriotic General," "and then dropped me just
as suddenly. The only reason he would give was
that I am a bandit. Why, I was a bandit when he
took me up!"
Where do the bandits get dynamite?
That is a question the Mexican Government has
been vainly asking for some time. The fact is
they have been getting it, for they have neither the
intelligence nor the facilities to manufacture it
for themselves. Not only have they been provided
with dynamite, but they have learned how to use
it. Some years ago the bandits held up a south
bound train in what was then regarded as Villa
territory, and having looted it were much annoyed
because they could not force the lock on a single
car, which happened to be loaded with giant powder
and detonators for a mining camp. So they set
fire to the train, and were having a wild dance
about it when there was a terrific explosion. When
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BANDITS AND BOLSHEVIKI
the smoke cleared away there were no bandits to
be seen.
The Government's present effective but costly
method of protecting the railways by means of
blockhouses and armed trains was resorted to after
the Zapatistas and Felicistas had discovered that a
charge of dynamite placed under a rail could be
exploded by means of an electric wire, the "pa-
triotic" officer in charge remaining carefully under
cover until after he had pressed the button, and be-
ing content with such spoils as were not destroyed in
the explosion.
An American travelling man whose business com-
pelled him to come through a danger zone several
years ago, told me that on one occasion, after the
passengers had been relieved of all their valuables,
and in some cases of portions of their clothing and
their shoes, they were all obliged to line up and
listen to an address by the "general" in command.
"If you must come through these territories
where you are not welcome," he said, "I wish you
would not plunge into unnecessary danger by vio-
lating every means of safety. We are obliged to
relieve our necessities as honest men by borrowing
some of your superfluous wealth, but we prefer
not to kill you. My boys are as gentle as lambs,
but they have been persecuted so often that some-
times they are careless.
"When you hear firing, do not look out the win-
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
dows. My boys are sure to think that where there
is a head there is a gun, and 'they will pop at any
head they see.
"And do not stand on the front or rear platforms.
That is where a tyrannical government places its
armed guards, who are not always in uniform. My
boys will pop at anybody they see on a platform,
and if you are hurt, it will not be their fault but
yours."
The etiquette of the road in those days was for
the passengers, when firing began, to lie flat on the
floor on their little tumtums, and wait until they
were told to get up. If the bandits had been beaten
off, they resumed their places as before. If the
bandits captured the train, they would offer their
silver, watches, rings, hand luggage, etc., having
secreted gold or valuable papers, and sometimes
got off very easily.
But not always. There are stories of women
massacred as well as men, and of personal searches
which are better not repeated.
Some three years ago the wife of a man promi-
nent in the American colony was returning home
over a route which was not altogether safe, when
the train stopped suddenly. Instinctively she fell
to the floor, and a second later a bullet crashed
through the glass of the window where she had been
sitting. This man had tried to be absolutely
neutral in Mexican politics, but he got off the fence,
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BANDITS AND BOLSHEVIKI
and it was not on the side of the "general" who had
nearly murdered his wife.
It is all very well, of course, for the scoundrels
who rob and maltreat passengers, dynamite or de-
rail trains, blow up bridges, to say that they are
not bandits, but the chiefs of political parties who
are making an earnest effort to heal the wounds and
dry the tears of their beloved patria. In years
past they have been believed, some of them, for a
time at least, in our own country, but not in
Mexico.
The decent Mexican looks upon a bandit pre-
cisely as a New Yorker does a gunman. He is to
be put out of business in the quickest and most con-
venient way, and the less said about it the better.
But a nightstick is not the surest of weapons for a
New York policeman, and it does not seem that the
quickest way of eliminating the bandits of Mexico
is to embargo arms and munitions intended for the
recognized Government.
[155]
CHAPTER TWELVE: IS MEXICO
PRO-GERMAN?
"Is Mexico pro-German?"
That is a question I have been asking myself and
others Mexicans as well as Americans, during my
first month's sojourn in the Republic.
I shall try to answer it frankly, assuming that
my own record as co-founder of La Ligue des Pays
Neutres, of which Theodore Roosevelt was honour-
ary president, and such men as Venizelos, Take
Jonescu, Ruy Barbosa, Conde Romanones, heads of
section like myself, places me above the suspicion
of sympathy with Kaiserism and Kultur.
My answer is plainly and emphatically "no!"
The answer of the Mexicans is also in the nega-
tive, with the exception of a few who would like
to make it appear that President Carranza was
entirely too friendly with Herr von Eckardt.
In the case of Americans the nays appear to
have it, but the reader will have to be content with a
vive voce vote, for to attempt a roll call might place
certain of our countrymen who have a stake in
the country in an embarrassing position.
Mind you, I do not say that Mexico was pro-
American during the war, or even pro-British, but
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75 MEXICO PRO-GERMAN?
I believe that all Mexicans of the better class love
France, and that for five years they secretly vio-
lated the injunction laid upon them, as upon others,
to be "neutral in thought as well as in deed."
Officially Mexico was neutral.
Actually Mexico annoyed us by tolerating the
most extravagant German propaganda, and by per-
mitting an extensive system of communication to
be operated between Berlin and South America
and Spain through post, telegraph and wireless.
This is precisely the course taken by the United
States up to within a short time before the declara-
tion of war, a course upheld by the American Gov-
ernment and a part of the American press, how-
ever irritating to a majority of the American peo-
ple. Doubtless it was distressing to the Allied
Powers who knew, as we all know now, that they
were fighting for all humanity, not for themselves
alone, and may naturally have felt that "he that
is not for me is against me"; but it was in strict
accordance with national and international law.
We were told so by Washington.
When the United States entered the war, Amer-
icans were no less aggrieved by Mexican neutrality
than the Allies had been by American neutrality.
We are inclined, and perhaps with justice, to re-
gard ourselves as spokesmen for the three Amer-
icas, and we felt hurt that Mexico did not follow
the example of Cuba, which declared war against
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
the Central Powers, or at least that of Haiti, which
provoked a rupture of diplomatic relations. The
fact that Cuba is bound to us in its foreign rela-
tions by the Platt amendment, and that Haiti has
been occupied by Marines for three years, made
no difference. It was our part to lead, and for
the other sovereign states of the Western Hemis-
phere to follow.
Moreover, we were obliged to keep a large force
of men on the border, and we were frankly afraid
of "neutrality" in so near a neighbour. Having
revised our own ideas of neutrality, we applied the
revision to all the rest of the world. We thought
of the Yellow Peril invented by William Hohen-
zollern and proclaimed to the world by our own
yellow press. We ascribed to German money and
intrigue in Mexico a power which, the event proved,
it did not possess.
Was not this our attitude, and could not this at-
titude, conveyed in terms not too polite through
the press, have produced an unpleasant reaction in
Mexico?
In Mexico the situation was extraordinarily
complex.
The whole policy of Porfirio Diaz had been
founded on one axiom: "We must keep on good
terms with the United States."
The wisdom of this course was perfectly appar-
ent to every Mexican who sought to win supreme
[158]
75 MEXICO PRO-GERMAN?
power after the retirement of Diaz. I venture to
say that it is and has always been quite as plain
to General Carranza as to any one else. But keep-
ing on good terms with the United States has not
been an easy matter. Washington did not make
it so.
Let us try to see things from the Mexican point
of view.
In the first place, Mexicans remember certain
historical episodes quite well. Only this year
there died one of the generals who had tried to
resist our invasion of 184647. It cost us a trifle
of 25,000 men and $166,500,000 to beat the Mex-
icans at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Vera Cruz,
Cerro Gordo, Churusbusco, Molino del Rey, Casa
Mata, and to fly the Stars and Stripes on the Pala-
cio Nacional Sept. 14, 1847.
When the settlement was made February 2, 1848,
by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo we took in
payment New Mexico and Upper California, com-
prising 522,955 square miles of territory, and
"rectified" the Texas frontier by making the Rio
Grande the boundary from its mouth to El Paso.
We assumed claims of American citizens against
Mexico amounting to $3,250,000, and paid to
Mexico $15,000,000. It was a better bargain than
the Louisiana or Alaska purchases, but ever since,
like Warren Hastings, we have been astonished
at our own moderation.
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
The Mexican remembers, of course, that 1847
was the sequel to the liberation and subsequent an-
nexation of Texas, and that these two acts of spolia-
tion reversed the territorial rank of the two coun-
tries, making the United States first where she had
been second.
Writing as an American whose family furnished
five soldiers to the American forces in the war with
Mexico, I cannot well condemn the course of the
United States in taking what it apparently thought
was essential to its development, but I certainly
will not attempt to justify it on moral grounds.
Nor can I blame the Mexican for remembering that
which we would like to have him forget.
Apparently he had forgotten it during die rule
of Porfirio Diaz, but the United States found oc-
casions to remind him of it the seizure of Vera
Cruz, and the Punitive Expedition under General
Pershing.
Mexicans were as completely mystified by these
extraordinary proceedings on the part of the United
States as were Americans. They could not and
can not understand why the United States should
have taken forcible possession of the chief seaport
of the republic without a declaration of war, nor
can they understand why, having obtained con-
trol, the American forces were withdrawn. I can-
not either, but doubtless a satisfactory explanation
may be given a generation hence, when the history
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75 MEXICO PRO-GERMAN?
of Mr. Wilson's administration is written with the
proper perspective, and with due access to the se-
cret archives of the State Department.
Neither can Mexicans understand why General
Pershing should have been sent in friendly terri-
tory to capture a bandit who had formerly been on
the best of terms with the United States, and why
he retired to the United States without accomplish-
ing the purpose for which he entered Mexico.
Diplomacy, as represented by Lane Wilson and
John Lind, and William Bayard Hale is still unin-
telligible to the Mexicans. It may be illustrated
by an anecdote I heard here of the departure of
Lind.
His conferences with Huerta having been un-
productive, Mr. Lind called in a group of rep-
resentative Americans, and asked their advice.
They had none to give, whereupon he decided that
the time had come to deliver an ultimatum. It
was duly written and read to the Americans, and
they were asked what the result would be. One
of them replied that there wouldn't be any result.
"What?" cried the super-envoy. "Do you think
Huerta will dare to ignore the armed power of the
United States of America? He will reply, and at
once, or I will withdraw from Mexico, and war will
follow."
A messenger was accordingly dispatched to find
Huerta, who happened to be out of town for the
[161]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
time being. He returned to the Palace in the aft-
ernoon, and the message was presented. He read
it and laid it aside. Being informed that an im-
mediate answer was expected, he glanced at it again,
and said he saw no occasion to hurry.
"But Mr. Lind will depart for the United States
on the six o'clock train if he does not receive a
reply."
"Mr. Lind is at liberty to leave Mexico when
he pleases," said Huerta, with a grin; "but if he
wishes to go at once, see that a presidential private
car is placed at his disposal."
Mr. Lind on receiving this message, prepared
to depart, but he again called in his acquaintances
in the American colony before going to the station.
"It is war, gentlemen," he announced with more
than usual solemnity. "I shall be on United States
territory within twenty-four hours, and will im-
mediately telegraph a statement to Washington.
The President will declare war against Mexico the
next day. I tell you this, so you may get out of
the country as best you may."
None of the Americans took Mr. Lind seriously
enough to follow his suggestion about quitting
Mexico.
And nothing happened.
Uncertainty as to the intentions of the United
States with regard to Mexico was, until American
troops got into action in the Argonne, accompanied
[162]
7S MEXICO PRO-GERMAN?
by a disposition to undervalue the American fight-
ing force. At the time we were building up a
great army, that army which was to deliver the
coup de grace to the Hun fighting machine, a Mex-
ican military official spoke of our troops as
"Chocolate Soldiers" in the course of a conversa-
tion with an American friend. He was at great
pains, I am glad to say, to apologize for this, after
our men had shown their worth, and gave our
troops the superlative praise they deserved.
Clearly, the Mexicans understood nothing of
our motives in entering the war, and still less of
our. strength. All they could see was the threat
of an invasion from the north.
We did not take the trouble to enlighten them
until the war was practically over. We did noth-
ing until it was too late to accomplish anything
to offset the propaganda of the Central Powers.
Mr. Creel's bureau offered long stories for pub-
lication, free of charge, where the German Lega-
tion offered short stories, and paid for their inser-
tion.
The pro-Ally press of Mexico had the greatest
difficulty in obtaining news print at a time when the
German Legation was supplying its subsidized news-
paper with all it could use.
But to say that, even under such conditions, Mex-
ico was pro-German, would be far from the truth.
Mexico had her experience of French invaders
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
under Maximilian of Austria in the Sixties, and
licked them thoroughly. That episode Mexicans
could easily forgive. Mexico had been in the
closest of financial and commercial relations with
France. Good Mexicans like good Americans ex-
pected to go to Paris when they died. Well to do
Mexican women clothed themselves in French
gowns, saturated their bodies with French per-
fumes and their minds with French novels. Mex-
ican millionaires loved to spend their money on
French furnishings for their homes, French wines
for their tables, and as much time as possible in
Paris. France, the art centre of the world, France
the Latin, Catholic, republic, appealed to Latin,
Catholic, republican Mexico in the time of her
greatest sorrows.
And Mexico remained strictly neutral.
Why?
Because the Mexicans would not fight beside the
Yankees.
They disliked us, and they distrusted us.
But we are necessary to them, and they know
it. I am inclined to think that they dislike and
distrust the Germans quite as much as they do
us. And the Germans are not merely not neces-
sary to them; it will be, as they see it, a matter
of years before the Germans can even be useful.
The dislike and distrust of the Mexicans for
[164]
75 MEXICO PRO-GERMAN?
Americans is based largely upon a misunderstand-
ing for which we are in part to blame.
The dislike and distrust of Mexicans for Ger-
mans is based upon a perfect understanding of the
Teutonic character and aims.
President Carranza's course during the war re-
flected public sentiment accurately. He did noth-
ing against the United States that could justify a
charge of broken neutrality. He did nothing for
the United States that would involve Mexico with
the Central Powers.
He did not, as his critics so often say, back the
wrong horse. He watched the race without mak-
ing a bet, and is content with the result, but he
could not have forced his people into an active
alliance with the United States, even to help France.
This is the truth as I see it.
And people in Mexico have seen a great light.
They will no longer oppose the plans of the Presi-
dent for a rapprochement within the United States.
They seem now to be willing to forget and forgive.
Under the circumstances, ought not the initiative
to come from us?
[165]
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE DEMON AS
LICOR DIVING
At a time when the press is devoting editorials
to the dangers threatening Mexico as a result of
prohibition in the United States and the plans of
the American Whiskey Trust to establish six giant
distilleries in the chief cities of this Republic, I
am able to say on the highest authority that no
concessions will be granted for distillery purposes.
When the project was outlined to President Car-
ranza, his only comment was that the Mexican Gov-
ernment was not so badly in need of money as to
wish to profit from vice.
Nevertheless there was quite a tempest in a tea-
pot as a result of the recent visit of el Sefior J.
McRead, representing American whiskey inter-
ests. He found that there were admirable sites
for distilleries, that an abundance of grain could
be obtained suitable for malting, and he assumed,
perhaps, that Mexicans are a thirsty race. What
more natural than to transplant Peoria to, we will
say, Monterey?
I take it for granted that the American whiskey
men really planned an export business, meaning to
benefit by the cheapness of labour and materials in
[166]
THE DEMON AS L1COR D1V1NO
Mexico, for there is no reason to believe that they
have failed to hear of pulque, the form in which
the Demon Rum is best known to and best loved
by the masses of the Mexican people. If they
haven't heard of pulque
Sabe que es pulque,
Licor divino?
Lo beben los angeles
En vez de vino.
Which may be freely interpreted: "Don't you
know that pulque is liquor divine; the drink of the
angels in place of wine?"
In our own glorious republic whiskey men al-
ways have been good business men, and ought
therefore to know that they cannot compete with a
national drink which is to some extent an agri-
cultural by-product, and which is so cheap that at
manufacturers' prices a plain souse may be pur-
chased for two cents, a complete jag for three cents,
insensibility and a fine headache for five cents,
and a murderous fit of the D. T. for a dime!
What then is pulque?
The question is much more easily answered than
the one propounded several years ago by President
Taft: "What is whiskey?"
Pulque is merely the fermented juice of the
Maguey plant, which thrives without cultivation
[167]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
on the Mexican plateaus, and is valuable for many
other purposes than the production of intoxicating
drink. It furnishes a vegetable parchment not less
durable than vellum; twine, rope; both needles and
thread; molasses and vinegar, and roofing for
houses. It acts as a binder for friable soil, and
its enormous root formation conserves moisture
during the dry season. Corn and barley are grown
between the long rows of maguey. Without the
maguey there is a probability that this arid land
would become a desert. That, at least, is the
opinion of many of the most intelligent land own-
ers, and as corn is an important if not the most
important food crop, and Mexico is now export-
ing barley, national prohibition of pulque does not
seem possible until a substitute for the maguey
can be found for other agricultural purposes.
Propagated from suckers, the maguey attains
enormous size, and in the course of five years or
more, is ready to blossom. It is, in fact, our Cen-
tury Plant, but the leaves attain a length of ten
feet, and the flower stalk rises to from twenty to
thirty feet above the ground. But before the
maguey flowers its central stalk is cut down, and
the heart of the plant is scooped out to form a
bowl, which soon fills with "aguamiel" (honey wa-
ter). The plant, which would have died after
flowering, continues to yield fluid at the rate of
from a gallon to a gallon and a half daily for a
[168]
THE DEMON AS LICOR DIVINO
period of from three to five months, depending
upon the skill of the men who handle the job. The
usual method of removing the liquid is for the
workman to suck it into a pipette formed of a cala-
bash. When the calabash is full he closes the
bottom aperture with his finger, and then releases
it into such a pig or sheepskin as was used for
carrying wine in the memorable days of Don
Quixote. Then he scrapes the cavity from which
he has emptied the aguamiel, so as to keep the
wound of the heart of the maguey fresh. If he is
a good workman and removes but the outer layer
of the plant, it will continue to yield its sap for
five months. If he is careless or unskilful, and
wounds the plant too deeply, it may die in three
months or less.
The aguamiel is sweet, slightly astringent, and
aromatic in flavour. The odour is not unpleasant,
and the aftertaste bitter. Carried in its skin bag
to the hacienda or farm house, it is poured into a
large vat, or a cow-skin hung upon a wooden frame,
depending upon the size and importance of the es-
tablishment, where a small quantity of stale pulque
is added to start fermentation. In twenty-four
hours the aguamiel has been converted into the
pulque of commerce, a milky looking and sulphur-
ous smelling liquid, and is shipped to the larger
centres of population, where it retails at five times
the cost of production. It was estimated some
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
years ago that the consumption of Mexico City
amounted to 100 or more carloads daily, at a cost
of 20,000 pesos a day. Doubtless there has been
no diminution in the cost during the revolution.
As to the effect of the national drink on the peo-
ple there is a wide difference of opinion.
Dr. Felipe Valencia, a Mexican physician of dis-
tinction who has travelled much and observed
greatly, asserts that pulque is the curse of the na-
tion, just as mate is of the people in extreme South
America. He considers that its effect is much more
deleterious than that of beer, and that the constant
use of pulque in large quantities is certain to wreck
both the moral and physical structure of the ad-
dict. Having been invited to contribute a series
of articles to El Pueblo, the official newspaper
of the Republic, based upon the results of travel in
the United States and South America as well as Eu-
rope, he exposed the pulque evil and attacked it in
every way he could. Dr. Valencia is far from be-
ing an extremist. He likes a good glass of wine,
and approves of beer in moderation. He would
also approve of pulque if the lower classes could
be brought to approve of moderation in consump-
tion, a thing that now appears impossible.
On the other hand, a Mexican aristocrat assured
me that he always drank a small glass of pulque
daily, and believed that it had valuable tonic qual-
ities, and was an aid to digestion.
[170]
THE DEMON AS L1COR DIVINO
The effect on the Mexicans who are neither of
the aristocracy of birth nor of brains is unmistak-
able. There is more drunkenness here than in
Cuba, and about as much as would be found in
Kentucky before that State went dry. The pulque
drunkard is quarrelsome, and drifts easily into
crime.
The upper class Mexican considers himself a
gentleman, and he is. The lower class Mexican
calls himself a "hombre" (man), and has a code
in which personal courage ranks first in impor-
tance.
Two anecdotes will suffice to show the effect of
pulque on the "hombre" where a thousand might
be told. A dispute having arisen between two
peons as to which was the braver man, one bet
that he would stand in front of an electric train.
The wager was to be paid in pulque. The tram
smashed one pulque addict into pulp, and the
other, considering the death of his friend a great
joke, went to the hospital after having tried to
consume the entire amount of the wager at a sit-
ting.
Two friends and neighbours started home from
a pulque shop arm in arm. It was necessary, since
neither could have walked well alone. A quarrel
arose over some trivial circumstance, in the course
of which one "hombre" called the other a liar.
Both drew their knives, and began carving each
[171]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
other in a deliberate and not unskilful manner.
By-standers called the police, but did not interfere.
When the police arrived, one man was dead. The
other, holding together a gaping wound in the
abdomen with his hands, walked to the police sta-
tion, and lived long enough to explain to the officer
in command that he had "fallen on a piece of
glass."
A real "hombre" does not think of asking the
police to assist in the settlement of personal affairs,
nor does he "squeal."
His ethics are those of a similar strata of so-
ciety which sometimes get into print in American
newspapers.
A majority of the passional crimes, perhaps even
of all crimes of violence, may be traced in Mexico
to pulque.
More than an hundred years ago, when Count
de Revillagegido was viceroy, pulque paid a rev-
enue in Mexico City of 800,000 pesos per annum,
on a consumption of about 100,000,000 quarts.
The consumption has decreased, but pulque is
still the greatest of Mexico's evils, despite a dozen
attempts at reform. Mescal and tequila, both dis-
tillations from the cactus, are said to be even more
injurious than pulque itself. Fortunately, they
are less popular, because more expensive.
I have no prejudice against the Demon Rum in
any of the forms in which he has been manifest to
[172]
THE DEMON AS L1COR DIVINO
me, and no distaste for pulque. But I must con-
fess that what I say about pulque is based on ob-
servation rather than experiment. So far as I am
concerned, its odour is against it for purposes of
beverage, and I am compelled to admit that, from
the point of view of hygiene, it is probably the
dirtiest alcoholic ever marketed.
But the problem of pulque is one of immense
difficulty for the Government. Prohibition might
produce worse evils than the beer strikes which
have taken place in Great Britain. The Govern-
ment would not, I believe, hesitate to attack the evil
at its source, but for the immediate effect on the
soil which would result if the maguey were no
longer cultivated. And but for pulque the maguey
would not be cultivated.
The Government, on the other hand, recognizes
the instinct for stimulant which prevails through-
out humanity. It hopes to devise a scheme for
regulation short of prohibition. But while it is
trying to solve the pulque problem, it will not com-
plicate matters by authorizing new establishments
for the distillation of grain. As evidence of free-
dom from fanatical sentiments, either for or against
the use of alcohol, it is worth nothing that the tariff
on the importation of foreign wines has recently
been reduced. The import tax on a case of cham-
pagne was 140 pesos. Today the tax is only 40
pesos.
[173]
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: TRADE AND
COMMERCIAL CREDITS
If the Germans are decidedly "under all," their
organization is intact. They will sell American
goods if they can get them until they are able to
substitute German goods. So free are they from
racial antipathy that they will sell British and
French goods if they can get them until German
manufactures can again be imported.
For the last five or six years some of us who
know a bit about Latin America have been preach-
ing to American business men that never again
would they have such an opportunity to extend and
solidify their exports, but quite in vain. They
could not get ships. They did not like long credits.
Patriotic motives gave Europe the preference.
There were a thousand reasons for inactivity, most
of which when put to the acid test, were based on
the matter of credits.
South of the Rio Grande are 100,000,000
people, inhabiting countries of vastly greater
natural wealth than Europe, who have been driven,
in some cases against their wish, to the markets of
the United States. During a period when billions
have been lent to Europe, the rule enforced has
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TRADE AND COMMERCIAL CREDITS
been cash with order or draft against bill of lading,
in dealing with the Latin countries of the New
World.
What will happen is this. If the Germans fail
to regain their dominant position, it will be as-
sumed by France and Great Britain, who are al-
ready actively exploiting Cuba and Mexico, and
probably the twenty republics further south as
well.
Writing in Collier's some months ago, former
President Restrepo, of Columbia, made this plea:
"Have faith in us, North America. The Eu-
ropean producers and commissions readily give us
six and nine months credit. North Americans dis-
like to give us even three months credit. They
prefer thirty days credit, and many give us not a
day, yet they give a longer credit to their own
people. We do not understand why this is so.
These credits have helped European commerce
enormously."
To confine the discussion of credits specifically
to Mexico, and as showing the kind of competition
to be expected by Americans from the rest of the
world, I present in condensed form information
prepared for the American Chamber of Commerce
in Mexico by Edwin W. Sours, general manager in
Mexico for R. G. Dun & Co.
Prior to the war British exporters sold to large
Mexican houses in open account, charging 4^? per
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
cent, on unpaid balances. Sales to small concerns
were as close as possible for cash, drawing through
a bank on shipping documents. The rate on un-
paid balances during the war has been raised to
5~L/2 and in some cases to 6 per cent. In sales of
textile machinery, in which a large trade had been
established between England and Mexico, the cus-
tom was one-third with order, one-third against
shipping documents, and one-third when the ma-
chinery was in operation ; but exceptions were made
when competition required, and six to twelve
months credit was allowed.
The British system was largely followed by the
French exporters, but the French were more
generally represented by resident agents, and an
enormous trade in dry goods was carried on here
by French firms who maintained purchasing
agencies in Paris. Credit was very freely extended
in the sales of wines and brandies, amounting to
six months or more.
The export trade of Germany had assumed large
proportions through a different system from that
employed by England and France. Not only were
agents and representatives established in Mexico,
but travellers came frequently, and it was their
custom to sell both to the larger houses in the more
important cities, but also to the small trade in the
interior towns. To these buyers credit was ex-
tended freely for a term of six and eight months
[176]
TRADE AND COMMERCIAL CREDITS
and even longer. The principal German trade was
in hardware, both heavy and small, toys, drugs,
chemicals, leather and shoemakers supplies, ma-
chinery, electrical goods, etc.
The British sold cotton and woollen goods, linens
and laces.
The French sold silks and novelties.
The Americans sold what they could.
Since the war the bulk of Mexico's foreign trade
has necessarily been with the United States, al-
though Spain, which had chiefly exported wine,
canned goods and wooden ware to Mexico, has de-
veloped a fair sized trade in shoes, dry goods, and
various articles made by hand.
The United States had, before the war, built up
a trade in machinery, hardware, typewriters, shoes,
papers, printing supplies, and has been supplying
temporarily practically all the other lines enu-
merated.
Mr. Sours notes the American tendency to insist
on cash or cash against shipping documents, and
tells a story to illustrate the situation.
"A very large order was placed for dry goods
by one of the leading houses here, of unquestioned
credit, with an American house. The Americans
were requested to ship the order, sight draft for
bill of lading, but refused. They were then asked
to turn over the shipping papers to the buyers'
bankers in New York, who happen to be one of the
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
best known financial institutions there. This was
refused and strict cash in hand exacted as a condi-
tion for shipping the goods. The order was can-
celled."
As a result of such practices, Mr. Sours thinks
considerable dissatisfaction exists, and it need oc-
casion no surprise should the importers of Mexico
show an inclination to return to their European con-
nections and curtail as far as possible their pur-
chases in the United States.
The time has now come, of course, when this
shift of international trade is possible.
The Ward Line has now increased its service via
Havana to New York to pre-war frequency, a
steamer a week. But the Compagnie Generale
Transatlantique has resumed its service to Vera
Cruz, and it is expected that a group of English
capitalists will inaugurate a new service with
British ports.
And the country has been full of British and
French commercial travellers, all desirous of re-
newing old relations, which are quite different
from those in vogue in the United States.
The "drummer" who goes into Mexico and ex-
pects to start work the first day with a line of sample
cases is doomed to disappointment. It is not done
any more. He will find that his French or British
colleague goes about it in quite a leisurely way.
First a brief morning call, then a day or two later
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TRADE AND COMMERCIAL CREDITS
a luncheon, with social gossip, and no talk about
business. Perhaps a visit to the theatre, if the city
is large enough to support one. Then a suggestion
from the Mexican business man that he needs cer-
tain supplies, and the order is booked.
Of course this isn't our way of doing business,
but after all it is pleasant, and in the end involves
the exchange of money for goods.
A New Yorker traveling for a chemical house has
learned the trick. "These people," he said, in-
dicating the class with whom he did business, "are
not merely my customers, they are my friends. In
many cases I dine at their houses, and at the time
for me to catch a train to come here from the last
town I visited, my biggest customer in that place,
who had entertained me delightfully, took me to
the station in his car."
[179]
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: FINANCE AND
THE BANKS
Nothing could be more opportune than the pro-
posed visit to Mexico of a committee of American,
French and British financiers. They will be re-
ceived courteously, hospitably, and it is the im-
pression here in well informed circles that the
Government will lay its cards face up on the table.
(This article was written in March, 1919.)
But, to quote a Mexican gentleman who knows
local conditions, they will find that Revolution has
been succeeded by Evolution, that Mexico today
has sufficient means for actual expenses, and needs
money only for the purposes of reconstruction.
Once a friendly understanding between the two
Governments has been reached, the financial situa-
tion will quickly right itself, in his opinion, as it
will involve the matter of credits rather than of
cash. And there is every reason to hope, from the
Mexican point of view, that the few existing differ-
ences are now being adjusted in a manner which
will prove satisfactory to both Mexico and the
United States.
"Imagine yourself dealing in a business way
with a young man of twenty," continued my in-
[180]
FINANCE AND THE BANKS
formant, "and then, after a lapse of ten years, re-
suming relations with him. He will have matured
somewhat, will he not? He will have gained both
wisdom and experience."
In a word, what Mexico desires most of all is the
friendship of our country, because Mexico believes
that co-operation in business matters will follow.
During a civil war finance moves in a mysterious
way its wonders to perform. Ask any of the older
generation in the South, where the notes and bonds
of the Confederate States of America are still
treasured because of a sentimental value which
cannot be destroyed. Study the history of the
Greenback party, or the rise and fall of the 16 to 1
epidemic, and it will appear that even in a period
of reconstruction, financial problems are not clear
to all alike.
The Evolution will frankly welcome foreign
capital; the Revolution was aware that foreign sup-
port could not be obtained at any price. The Revo-
lution maintained itself by revolutionary methods.
The Evolution will be developed by constructive
methods. The first step has been taken in the
establishment of metal currency, which is abundant,
with exchange maintained at the rate of two pesos
to the American dollar.
The Mexican financial problem is triangular. It
involves:
(A) Either a foreign loan or increased revenues
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
to meet the cost of necessary reconstruction work,
and for the expansion of agricultural interests.
(B) Settlement of the controversy over petrol-
eum.
(C) Adjustment of the claims of foreign holders
of the railways which have been nationalized.
To the Mexican who faces local conditions, whose
present living and future state depend upon the se-
curity of internal credits, his side of the triangle is
all-important. To the foreigner, whether Ameri-
can, French or British, either petroleum or rail-
ways looms much larger. To an unprejudiced
observer whose interests are aloof from Mexico and
from foreign capital invested there as well, the prob-
lem is complex, but by no means impossible of
solution.
The matter of a foreign loan need not be dis-
cussed until something tangible develops. The pe-
troleum controversy hangs fire for the present in
the Mexican courts. The railway interests are no
worse off for the moment than in our own country.
Let us try to understand something of Mexico's
budget, therefore, as a foundation for comprehen-
sion of the whole problem.
Mexico has been trying to work out a financial
system adapted to present day conditions. To this
end President Carranza appointed a "Comision de
Reorganizacion Administrativa y Financiera,"
which at once availed itself of the services of
[182]
FINANCE AND THE BANKS
foreign economists. A preliminary survey of the
Mexican revenue problem, with suggestions for the
reconstruction of the system was completed in July,
1918, by Dr. Henry Alfred E. Chandler, professor
of economics in Columbia, which has been pub-
lished with a foreword by Prof. Edwin R. A. Selig-
man, of the same institution. Prof. Seligman
pointed out that "a fundamental defect of the old
system was the multiplicity of taxes." And he
asserted that "just as the French Revolution swept
away at one blow the heterogeneous mass of com-
plicated mediaeval taxes in order to replace them
by a small number of well selected imposts, so the
first task of the fiscal reformer in Mexico must be
to introduce simplicity in the tax system. A few
carefully chosen sources of revenue will be pref-
erable to a jumble of partial and ineffective im-
posts."
This statement, much amplified by Professor
Chandler, has been deeply pondered by Mexican
statesmen, who appear also to have been impressed
by these suggestions of Professor Chandler, made in
1917:
"A very important part of the wealth of the
country is taxed very little or not at all.
"A large part of the productive wealth of the
country is controlled by non-residents or aliens,
and escapes a portion of its fair share of the state
and national burden.
[183]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
"While the large percentage of wealth of the
country is concentrated in the hands of the very
few, the bulk of the tax burden of the nation rests
upon the lower classes.
"Directly or indirectly, consumption instead of
property or income, is one of the tax bases most
used or finally reached."
To prevent waste of public funds and provide
a modern system of accounting, Henry Bruere, of
New York, was invited to bring to Mexico a staff of
accountants in order to install an audit office, and
notwithstanding some opposition on the part of
under officialdom, this system is now in operation.
But having taken counsel of American and other
experts, the Carranza Administration decided upon
the most sweeping reforms.
Luis Cabrera, secretary of hacienda (treasury),
in a conversation with me some days ago, used a
homely illustration to describe the situation.
"Vegetation is so rank in our country," he said,
"that before we can do any planting we have to set
fire to the fields. It seemed to me that in the
multiplicity of laws and precedents we had in-
herited in relation to financial matters, there was
nothing to do but destroy before trying to build
anew. Naturally every change brought a storm of
protests, but we weathered the storm.
"I found, for instance, that we were not taxing
exports, and as our exports are entirely raw ma-
[184]
FINANCE AND THE BANKS
terials, it seemed to me that we were overlooking
an excellent source of revenue.
"When it became known that export taxes were
in contemplation, I received a request for an in-
terview from a lawyer, and when he came he
brought with him a stack of books, all, he informed
me, the highest authorities on economics and taxa-
tion, in order to prove that export taxes were im-
possible. 'Neither Great Britain, nor France, nor
Germany nor the United States, uses the export tax,'
he said. 'It is contrary to the policy of all civilized
countries.'
"It was in vain that I pointed out to him that the
countries he named exported chiefly manufactured
goods, not raw materials, and that our country dif-
fered in all respects from the economic needs of
the powers he named.
"He went away despairing of the future of
Mexico, and convinced that it was useless to argue
with a man who couldn't see reason.
"Ten years from now, he may be able to realize
that we were right, for we obtained a large and
necessary increase of revenue in a way which the
people have hardly felt."
On the same excellent authority I am able to say
that the increase in the federal revenues during the
last three months has been so great as to inspire new
confidence throughout the administration.
To illustrate the importance of this one reform,
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
the taxation of exports, I quote from reports of our
Department of Commerce at Washington, the state-
ment that imports from Mexico to the United States
for the last fiscal year were $140,000,000 and ex-
ports from the United States to Mexico during the
same period were $106,893,653. There has been
a steady upward trend since 1912, when, accord-
ing to the same authority, our imports from Mexico
were only $65,915,313, and our exports to Mexico
$52,847,129. In 1913 Mexico drew 48 per cent,
of its imports from the United States, and sent in
exchange 76 per cent, of its imports, and this pro-
portion for the subsequent years has steadily grown
in our favour.
In a message to Congress in 1918, President Car-
ranza announced that the Government had been able
to cover "all indispensable expenditures" out of the
federal revenues. In 1917 the congress had ap-
proved a budget of 187,000,000 pesos. The
budget, according to President Carranza's statement
to the chamber of deputies, Sept. 26, 1918, should
be based on a prospective income of $149,384
pesos, of which I give the most important items:
Import duties $25,000,000
Export duties 14,000,000
Federal contributions (from the
several states of the Republic) . . . 31,000,000
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FINANCE AND THE BANKS
General stamp taxes 13,000,000
Duties on gold, silver, etc 13,000,000
Petroleum lands 7,000,000
Petroleum 12,000,000
While the Government is paying its way, and
may be able to do much better in the future, it
must be admitted that payment of interest on
foreign loans has not been met. The treasury de-
partment figured that as the Government was wholly
dependent upon immediate income, actual running
expenses must first be met, and that it was better to
pay the interest in part only, and until better times
were at hand.
There has been no disposition, however, to repu-
diate any legitimate claims. It is true that at the
beginning of the Constitutionalist Government it
was resolved to repudiate all the loans Huerta
might have made abroad, but, to again quote Pres-
ident Carranza's message to congress:
"Nevertheless, the Constitutionalist Government
does not shirk the recognition of all legitmate obli-
gations contracted previous to the revolution, and
consequently considers as outstanding the debts
covered by Huerta's administration with bonds or
funds acquired by means of unlawful loans."
The amount of the public debt at the beginning
of 1913 was approximately 427,000,000 pesos, and
up to the beginning of the present year, interest due
[187]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
and pending payment to date approximated 75,-
000,000.
The four years' struggle before the Constitu-
tionalist Government came into its own cost Mexico
about 125,000,000 pesos of debt, of which the
items are:
Paper money to be redeemed at 10 per
cent, gold 80,000,000
Vera Cruz paper money 5,000,000
Loans from banks 20,000,000
Debts and amounts due employes .... 20,000,000
Aside then, from the claims of the railways,
which I propose to discuss later, the national debt
of Mexico may be stated at 627,000,000 pesos, the
greater part of which is at 5 per cent. Pesos have
been and are now two for a dollar, so that reckoned
in our currency, the obligations might be discharged
for $313,500,000, a sum which would be astonish-
ingly small for a nation of 14,000,000 souls in
normal condition and in times of peace. And
Mexico's internal troubles lasted nearly a decade.
Maintenance of the army has naturally been the
largest item of expense up to the present time, and
will continue to be so until the few remaining
"istas" are wiped out. The cost of civil war in con-
trast to civil government is strikingly shown in
figures supplied by the general treasury covering
[188]
FINANCE AND THE BANKS
the revolution's disbursements from the beginning
of General Carranza's struggle against Huerta up
to 1917, following his election as president of the
republic. The total receipts for taxes collected by
the treasury in this period were pesos 75,000,000
gold and 236,000,000 paper. The disbursements
were pesos 95,417,400 gold and 855,818,900
paper. The war department received pesos 61,-
554,096 gold and 656,800,958 paper.
Material reduction has already been effected
in the cost of the war department, so as to leave ad-
ditional funds for agricultural development and
public works, and figures to be presented at the as-
sembling of the Congress in April next may be ex-
pected to give receipts and expenses in detail. And
it is to be noted that the six months ended as this
book goes to press have been both as to the extent of
foreign trade and governmental income, the most
prosperous in the history of Mexico.
[189]
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: RAILWAYS AND
NATIONALIZATION
When I wrote in discussing Mexican finance that
for the time being the railway interests here were
"no worse off for the moment than in our own
country," I had in mind, of course, the owners of
stocks and bonds. Their property is in the hands
of the Government, and is badly in need of repairs,
improvements and new rolling stock, but it is a
definite and valuable property for which the Gov-
ernment has given guarantees, and which must in-
crease in value during the reconstruction period, for
the natural wealth of this country is inexhaustible,
and, under whatever government, the railways are
essential to its development. Repairs and improve-
ments are underway, new rolling stock has actually
been purchased in the United States, machine and
repair shops have been established, and it must be
remembered that during the war, our Government
almost crippled itself in the endeavour to supply
railway material to France, and was not in position
to supply the necessities of a neutral nation.
Where else was Mexico to buy?
I assume that the U. S. Treasury has been meet-
[190]
RAILWAYS AND NATIONALIZATION
ing interest on railway securities promptly. I feel
convinced that the Mexican treasury will do so at
the earliest possible moment. I assume that the
return of the railways to private ownership in the
United States the terms and the time, is still an
open question. The tendency in Mexico during
the last twenty years has been to nationalize rails,
and the experience of the last few years has
strengthened this tendency, and I see no manifesta-
tion of an inclination there to revert to private
ownership.
Most of us can recall that when the revolution
took possession of all railways in Mexico there was
an outcry throughout the money markets of the
world. Shareholders and bondholders alike were
alarmed at what they regarded as confiscation of
private property. The foreign investments were
large enough to justify strong diplomatic represen-
tations, in which Great Britain, France and the
United States, all took part.
But when our country took over the railways as a
matter of military necessity, it was with the assent
of people, press, and politicians.
If government control of rails was necessary in
a foreign war, and if Mr. McAdoo was right in
urging a continuation "for experimental purposes"
of government control for a five year period after
the war, perhaps Mexico, facing the difficulties of
civil war, was justified in seizing the rails. Per-
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
haps she is right is declining to consider a return to
private ownership until Villa, Pelaez, and Felix
Diaz have definitely retired from business.
However, conditions here and at home differed
widely. Railway development in Mexico began
during the rule of Porfirio Diaz, under concessions
he granted to private companies. In most cases
these concessions provided for the automatic return
of the roads to the Government after ninety years,
on compensation for rolling stock, buildings and
materials on hand at the date of transfer.
The Government began buying stock in the three
most important lines toward the close of the last
century, and in 1906, having united the three most
important lines under the name of the National
Railways of Mexico, and owning 50.3 per cent, of
the stock, extended its control over other roads.
In 1910, when President Diaz retired, the Govern-
ment owned or controlled 8,200 miles of track.
There remained under private ownership 7,800
miles, of which 3,000 was local narrow gauge of
relatively small importance. To be exact the Gov-
ernment was a majority stockholder in a system
comprising the National Railroad of Mexico, the
Mexican International, the Hidalgo and North-
eastern, the Vera Cruz and Isthmus, the Pan-Ameri-
can, the Mexican Southern, and operated the In-
teroceanic Railway of Mexico under lease. Most
of the stock not Government owned was held by
[192]
RAILWAYS AND NATIONALIZATION
Americans, who were also interested largely in all
other important lines.
In 1902 it was estimated by the American consul
general that 70 per cent, of the $500,000,000
American capital invested in Mexico was in rail-
roads. Five years later, according to our Depart-
ment of Labour and Commerce, the American in-
vestments had grown to $750,000,000, of which
two-thirds was in rails.
By 1912, Consul Marion Letcher, at Chihuahua,
estimated the total American investments in Mexico
at $1,057,770,000, and British investment at
$321,303,000.
According to his figures railroad investments
were as follows:
American capital $235,464,000
British capital 81,238,000
Mexican capital 125,000,000
Holdings in railroad bonds:
American capital $408,926,000
British capital 87,680,000
Mexican capital 12,275,000
But while Mr. Letcher's figures are generally ac-
cepted as correct in regard to the amount of Ameri-
can, British and Mexican capital invested in rails,
he appears to have overlooked the fact that the
French have invested $143,466,000 in Mexico,
[193]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
and that of this sum, $17,000,000 is in railway
bonds.
The total holdings of all other countries in Mexi-
can rails is $75,000 in stocks, and $38,535,380 in
bonds. The Mexican figures in the above tabula-
tion are representative of private capital only.
What happened to the railways, however, is told
thus by President Carranza in a message to
congress:
"Since the First Chief entered the capital, the
Government has felt the necessity of taking over
some of the principal railway lines of the country,
not only for the purpose of moving troops, pro-
visions, arms and ammunitions promptly and at
the proper time, but also to facilitate the necessary
means of coumunication and transportation to the
people in the territories occupied by the Constitu-
tional forces.
"But when the revolution triumphed and rebel
bands of importance were disbanded, I thought the
time had arrived for returning these lines to their
former owners, and, therefore, began by relinquish-
ing the railway line running from this capital to
Vera Cruz, known as the Mexican Railway.
"Since the railway was returned to its owners,
developments have demonstrated that they are un-
able to keep it in service, as they could not prevent
frequent assaults on trains by small bands of
bandits. As it is of vital importance that this line,
[194]
RAILWAYS AND NATIONALIZATION
be kept in operation and that passengers be pro-
tected, I have deemed it absolutely necessary to
again take it over, and have appointed as its
manager Lieutenant Colonel Paulino Fontes, who
will carry on the administration independently from
the other lines that make up the National Railway
System.
"The First Chief has also just ordered the taking
over of the National Tehuantepec Railway, ap-
pointing Mr. Rosendo Mauri, as manager.
"Finally, the attachment of the Alvarado to the
Vera Cruz Railway, and the Terminal Station at
Vera Cruz have been decreed."
I hold no brief for the Mexican Government in
the matter of its railway administration or anything
else, nor am I about to make an appeal on behalf
of American capital, but I have tried to explain
control here where the Government is hard pressed
for money, in the light of control in our own
country, which is the richest in the world.
After making the above explanation of his mo-
tives in taking over the railroads, President Car-
ranza admitted that the National Railways of
Mexico were "debtors for capital and interest ma-
tured up to the first of July (1917) for the sum of
71,388,790.26 pesos." Doubtless this sum has
been considerably increased, as net earnings of
the railways appear to be devoted to the expenses
of Government, and the payment of interest has not
[195]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
been regarded as an "indispensable expenditure"
for the time being. But tfre President added :
"The Mexican Government is responsible for part
of that sum, which is that representing the interest
on the 4 per cent, guarantee bonds of general
mortgage of the National Railways, in accordance
with the organization plan of said company and the
decree of July 6, 1907, and which will up to the first
of July of the present year (1917) amount to the
sum of $6,089,829, U. S. currency.
"This debt has been created by the impossibility
of the company meeting such obligations, owing to
the attachment of its lines in accordance with the
dispositions of the railway law, and it possesses
legal status derived from the obligations contracted
by the Mexican Government towards the holders of
the bonds of the above referred general mortgage."
Included in the roads taken over by the Govern-
ment are:
Southern Pacific Railway of Mexico, which owns
1,341 miles of track, and is still operated through
the American management representing the owners.
Mexican and Northwestern Railway Company,
which controls 496 miles of track between El Paso
and Chihuahua, or did until the "patriotic" Villistas
wrecked it. Owned by British capital.
Mexico City and Vera Cruz road, built by British
capital and operating 402 miles of track between
port and capital.
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RAILWAYS AND NATIONALIZATION
The American owned Kansas City, Mexico and
Orient Railway, with 349 miles of track has not
changed hands.
The director general of the Constitutionalist rail-
ways was an engineer, Alberto J. Pani, who was
also secretary of commerce, industry and labour in
President Carranza's cabinet. His last budget for
repairs disclosed the following items, the figures
standing for pesos: tracks, 27,393,617; in which
are included the purchase of 16,000 cross ties,
86,671 tons of rails, tools, etc.; repair and recon-
struction of buildings, 2,774,000; bridges, 8,558,-
000,048; new rolling stock, 5,000,000; repair of
rolling stock now in use, 4,000,000, new fuel
stations, 769,000; small buildings, loading stations,
fences, etc., 379,000. The total bill would be on
this estimate 31,873,665 pesos.
On the recommendation of the President, con-
gress authorized a foreign loan of 300,000,000
pesos for the purpose of rehabilitating the railways,
and of establishing a new national bank of issue,
but up to this time the money markets of the world
have been disinclined to make favourable terms,
and the loan has not been consummated.
There is a probability, also that the matters of
rails and banks will not be lumped together next
time, which leads me to note that while I make no
claim to special knowledge of banking matters, I
seem to have acquired more information in a week
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
than some of our largest banks possess, and that it
is my duty to pass it along.
Finding only metallic money in use in Mexico
City, I wished to open a small checking account,
as a matter of convenience, and took the letter of
credit issued by one of the best known banking
houses in New York to the institution named in its
printed list of correspondents.
Probably I was the only caller that day at the
palatial offices of the Banco de Londres y Mexico.
They seemed deserted, although an office force re-
mained in possession, a very small office force in-
deed. Finally the manager presented himself, and
explained that to his deep regret he could do noth-
ing for me.
Was there any disposition to question either my
identity, or the credit of my New York banker?
Not the slightest, but it seemed incredible that
the so well known New York house should not be
aware that for a period of six years the Government
had not permitted the bank to transact business. I
would do well to make myself known elsewhere, for
example at the offices of the Bank of Montreal,
Avenida 5 de Mayo.
Profiting by this excellent advice, I made myself
known to the Bank of Montreal, where I speedily
transferred dollars from a letter of credit into
pesos at a much better discount than the peso and
ninety centavos I had been obliged to accept in
[198]
RAILWAYS AND NATIONALIZATION
Vera Cruz, and was provided with a pass-book and
check-book, such as we use at home, only, of
course, with Spanish substituted for the English
language. I was informed that a stamp must be
affixed to all checks under 100 pesos to the value of
five centavos, and to the value of ten centavos for
each 100 pesos on checks for larger amounts.
And then I learned that there were two small but
sound private American banks in the capital, a
strong German bank, and plenty of other banks
representing foreign or domestic interests. This
aroused my curiosity regarding the "London Bank."
I turned to the treasury of information I have so
often quoted, President Carranza's speech to con-
gress in 1917, where I found this explanation:
"Commencing with General Diaz's Government,
the banking system of Mexico, placed on a con-
cessionary basis, implied a system of privilege, the
defects of which had been apparent a long time.
"The banks of issue of Mexico loaned to Huerta's
Government to help it in its struggle against the
Constitutionalist Government, approximately forty
six and a half million pesos. Huerta decreed, in
exchange, the obligatory circulation of their bills,
which the constitutionalist government found still
in circulation upon occupying the city of Mexico.
"The Constitutionalist Government, busy with
other details of the campaign, could not immedi-
ately take up banking matters, notwithstanding the
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
fact that it was notorious that the banks were its
financially powerful enemies.
"The banks could not, on the other hand, re-
establish the obligatory circulation of their bills,
as, even if some of them held their reserves prac-
tically intact had they been required to redeem
their bills at par, they would have been obliged to
enter into liquidation.
"Inasmuch as the Government did not wish the
large sums in metallic reserves massed by and
stored in the banks to disappear, it preferred to take
certain measures to prevent these amounts from be-
ing disposed of. To this effect a decree was issued,
ordering the banks to complete their reserves. As
this disposition did not obtain the desired results
it became necessary for the Government to order
the attachment of the banks. This was effected
practically by merely placing the management of
these institutions in the hands of an attachment
board.
"The banking problem is still unsolved, for, al-
though the constituent congress decreed the estab-
lishment of a national bank of issue, the definite
standing of the banks has not and cannot be de-
termined until the national bank of issue, which is
designed to replace all other banking institutions,
can be placed in operation.
" Forced by circumstances, the Constitutionalist
Government was obliged to draw from the banks ap-
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RAILWAYS AND NATIONALIZATION
proximately twenty million pesos, to cover its needs.
This represents a debt toward the banks which the
Government has assumed and recognized as a loan
on short terms, and for which it is ready to offer a
sufficient guarantee. I desire to call the attention
of Congress to the fact that .the Government drew
money from the banks' reserves only when paper
money became absolutely discredited and could not
be circulated.
"I must point out also that the National Bank of
Mexico and the Bank of London and Mexico alone
loaned the usurper twenty million pesos."
[201]
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: PETROLEUM
AND POLITICS
Primarily petroleum has been a political prob-
lem in Mexico, and still is. That one of the
greatest sources of Mexico's natural wealth should
be exploited exclusively for the benefit of
foreigners, especially at a time when the Govern-
ment needs funds for reconstruction purposes, is an
absurdity quite obvious. Some form of taxation
must be devised by which petroleum shall pay its
share toward the common weal, and this can be
achieved without conflict between Mexican and
American interests when the political issue has been
disposed of.
It is frequently said by the enemies of General
Carranza, both in Mexico and at home, that he
"backed the wrong horse" in the world war. This
criticism would be well founded if applied to the
oil interests at Tampico. They backed Villa to
win, and at the quarter he may have been a nose
ahead, but the race is over, and Villa is hidden in
a cloud of dust among the "also rans."
Legislation based on the new constitution will
eliminate the retroactive features of Article 27,
which, as it now stands, appears to confiscate the
[202]
PETROLEUM AND POLITICS
property of the oil interests. In a word, Mexico
will claim all future oil discoveries as the nation's
property, without disturbing the private ownership
of oil fields now in operation. Let Article 27,
which I quote, speak for itself, but I am reminded
of the question sometimes asked in our own glorious
republic. "What is the constitution between
friends?"
"The ownership of lands and waters comprised
within the limits of the national territory is vested
originally in the nation, which had, and has, the
right to transmit title thereof to private persons,
thereby constituting private property.
"Private property shall not be expropriated ex-
cept for reasons of public utility and by means of
indemnification.
"The nation shall have at all times the right to
impose on private property such limitations as the
public interest may demand as well as the right to
regulate the development of natural resources,
which are susceptible of appropriation, in order
to conserve them and equitably to distribute the
public wealth. For this purpose necessary
measures shall be taken to divide large landed
estates; to develop small landed holdings; to
establish new centres of rural population with such
lands and waters as may be indispensable to them;
to encourage agriculture and to prevent the destruc-
tion of natural resources, and to protect property
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
from damage detrimental to society. Settlements,
hamlets situated on private property and communes
which lack lands or water or do not possess them in
sufficient quantities for their needs shall have the
right to be provided with them from the adjoining
properties, always having due regard for small
landed holdings. Wherefore, all grants of lands
made up to the present time under the decree of
January 6, 1915, are confirmed. Private property
acquired for the said purposes shall be considered
as taken for public utility.
"In the nation is vested direct ownership of all
minerals or substances which in veins, layers,
masses, or beds constitute deposits whose nature 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 exploitation
requires underground work; phosphates which may
be used as fertilizers; solid mineral fuels; petro-
leum and all hydrocarbons solid liquid or
gaseous. . . . The ownership of the nation is in-
alienable and may not be lost by prescription; con-
cessions shall be granted by the Federal Govern-
ment to private parties or civil or commercial cor-
porations organized under the laws of Mexico, only
on condition that said resources be regularly de-
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PETROLEUM AND POLITICS
veloped, and on the further condition that the legal
provisions be observed."
Article 27 likewise declares public ownership of
inland waters, prohibits churches from owning real
property, irrespective of creed, and declares all
such property to be that of the nation. It likewise
defines other real property rights of national, but
not international interest.
The regular session of the Mexican congress is
expected during the winter of 191920 to enact
laws which will put Article 27 into effect, but with-
out injustice either to the church or to the petroleum
concessionaires.
The Mexican view of Article 27 is based on the
old Spanish law of real property. The American
view is based on the old English law of real
property, by which the owner in fee is proprietor
not only of the surface soil, but of all that is be-
neath, as of the air above. From the American
viewpoint mining coal or iron or gold or silver or
coal would not be justified beyond the territory to
which operator had a legal right. But if by sink-
ing a well, a man drained a vast territory rich in
natural gas or oil quite beyond the boundaries of
his own property, he would be within his legal
rights, and an uncommonly lucky chap, much to
be envied.
Spanish land grants conveyed merely the sur-
face soil, suitable for agriculture, reserving
[205]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
mineral rights to the state. Coal, natural gas and
petroleum were not specifically included because
their value was unknown.
But if mineral oil is as great a source of wealth
as ore, is it not logical to apply the legal principles
governing mines in general? From the Mexican
point of view it would be inconsistent to do other-
wise, hence there is no probability that the Govern-
ment here will recede from the application of
Article 27 to future petroleum developments. But
I doubt if it was ever seriously intended to con-
fiscate the existing and developed oil fields. That
feature of Article 27 was political.
The new constitution was signed and promulgated
at Queretaro de Arteaga, January 31, 1917. It
contains many radical features of which certain
of the First Chief's wisest advisers disapproved, but
which they were obliged to accept. General Car-
ranza's power was not established on the firm basis
now achieved, and the oil interests, although subject
to the First Chief's customs authorities in Tampico,
had set up a state within a state in the oil jungle,
commanded by "General" Manuel Pelaez and
"General" Enriquez, who pretended to hold
subordinate authority from Villa, and who were
therefore and are, rebels in the eyes of the then
First Chief of the Constitutionalists, now President
of the United States of Mexico.
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PETROLEUM AND POLITICS
The oil interests justified themselves not only
to themselves but to their Governments, by repre-
senting that it was necessary to maintain the se-
curity of their establishments, that Mexico's at-
titude toward the United States and the Allies was
doubtful, that they had no concern with Mexican
politics, that their business was to produce and ship
oil, and if it was necessary to pay two conflicting
sets of officials in order to do business, they were
still obliged to do business.
I have heard it said in my own country that cor-
porations are soulless things, organized to make
money. Perhaps they are soulless. Certainly
they sometimes lack vision, for what happened in
the Mexican oil fields is precisely what happened
some years ago in the Santo Domingo cane fields
though on a much larger scale. American capital
had developed a great sugar estate, and was prepar-
ing to put in a mill. Even a small sugar mill
in these days costs $1,000,000 or more. What the
management desired above all things was security,
so when a local political chieftain offered to
establish a guard to prevent bandits from destroying
the property, his offer was accepted.
The guard consisted first of half a dozen ragged
fellows, who soon grew slick from good feeding,
and began to assume an air of importance in the
neighbourhood. In due course the guard became
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
an army, and its chief a "General," and the whole
outfit equally a nuisance to the Government and to
the American sugar planters.
It was a cancerous growth which required a
capital operation, this little "army" built up by
American capital. In Santo Domingo City the
"General" was referred to as a bandit, and a force
of Marines was sent out to put him out of business.
The "General" asserted that on his word of honour
he was not a bandit but a patriot. That made no
difference. Both "General" and "army" were
exterminated.
In Tampico the "army" has had the same mush-
room growth. Two years ago Carl W. Ackerman
wrote, apparently on information derived from the
oil men themselves:
"Pelaez and his army estimated at 3,000 to
27,000 men, depending upon the authority quoted
get $40,000 a month protection money from the
oil companies. Carranza gets $100,000, in taxes
every month from the Standard Oil Company;
$200,000 a month from the Huasteca Petroleum
Company, and more from the Lord Cowdray in-
terests. The oil producers maintain Pelaez, his
soldiers and his government, and they contribute
more than any other foreign interest toward the
revenues of the present Mexican government."
The retroactive feature of Article 27 was in retal-
iation. It was in line with a decree issued by the
[208]
PETROLEUM AND POLITICS
Constitutionalist Government in August, 1914,
establishing a petroleum department, invalidating
all oil transactions made during Huerta's admini-
stration, and with the assumption of Government
control of oil production decreed in Vera Cruz,
January 7, 1915. A petroleum commission was
created for technical study, and it is an open secret
that the Government has been conducting explora-
tions for oil on its own account for several years.
Concessions granted to Robleda Coss y Brito for
the exclusive privileges of exploiting petroleum
in four zones of 100 kilometers each in the States
of Taumalipas and Vera Cruz were cancelled. The
same action was taken regarding concessions to De
la Barra y Bringas in the State of Chiapas, and the
Aguila Oil Co., S. A. (Cowdray's Mexican Eagle
Co.). At the same time five concessions were
granted for laying pipe lines for public use, and
three pipe lines for private use. Concessions for
the establishment of refineries and the extension
of those already in use were granted to the Huasteca
Petroleum Co. (Doheny) and the Aguila Oil Co.,
but steps were taken to put a stop to speculation
in "wildcat" companies by the imposition of heavy
inspection fees. More than 100 of these com-
panies speedily disappeared.
Enough has been written to show that President
Carranza has been making earnest efforts to control
the oil industry, and why he has repeatedly de-
[209]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
nounced the oil corporations for their association
with rebels and opposition to the established Gov-
ernment.
Perhaps the origin has been disclosed of the Car-
ranza doctrine, the essential points of which are:
No nation should intervene in any form or for
any reason in the affairs of another.
Nationals and aliens should be equal before the
sovereignty of the country in which they reside.
Diplomacy should not serve to protect private
interests.
It should be borne in mind that every oil con-
cession has been made with a condition to which the
concessionaires pledged themselves, that they should
be regarded as Mexican citizens, with no right to
diplomatic appeal.
Opposed to the Mexican official view regarding
the retroactive features of Article 27, the position
of the United States was voiced in a protest from
Ambassador Fletcher, April 2, 1918, in which he
said:
"The United States cannot acquiesce in any pro-
cedure ostensibly or nominally in the form of
taxation or the exercise of eminent domain, but
really resulting in confiscation of private property
and arbitrary deprivation of vested rights."
Similar protests were sent by Great Britain,
France and the Netherlands, whose "vested rights"
[210]
PETROLEUM AND POLITICS
were concerned. Of the powers named, 'Great
Britain is the only one largely represented in the
oil fields at this time, her investments being
estimated at $100,000,000, as against $200,-
000,000 of American capital. It is doubtful if the
powers chiefly concerned are in complete accord
as to diplomatic action here with regard to petro-
leum interests, but once the ownership of the oil
fields held by foreign corporations is legitimated,
the political phase of the oil problem will vanish.
There remains to be considered the future of
Mexican petroleum production. It is boundless.
During the first year of exploitation by the Doheny-
Canfield company in the jungle to the west of Tam-
pico, 1901, the production of oil was 10,343
barrels. In 1917 it had reached 55,000,000 bar-
rels. A conservative estimate gives the capacity of
the Mexican oil fields now partly exploited at 250,-
000,000 per annum.
No one in Mexico is so foolish as to believe that
the fields in the five districts now shipping oil
represent Mexico's entire wealth in petroleum.
These districts are Ebano, forty miles west of Tam-
pico; the Panuco, which includes the Topila region;
the Huasteca, south of Tampico, the Tuxpan, in-
cluding the Furbero region, and Tehuantepec-Ta-
basco, in none of which is development complete.
These figures mean, if they mean anything, that
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
Mexico will be the greatest oil producing country
in the world. Heretofore she has ranked third, the
United States coming first, Russia second.
Do they mean also that, with oil fields to be dis-
covered hereafter the property of the Government,
of the nation, the United States of Mexico will be
the world's richest republic?
Quien sabe?
[212]
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE OIL MEN'S
VERSION
To say that the oil men of Tampico are between
the Devil and the deep blue sea is quite literal.
The Devil is anarchy. On the land side there
are two lines of rail communication, one leading to
San Luis Potosi, the other to Monterey, both im-
portant cities on the main highway from Laredo to
Mexico City. Twice within the last ten days I
spent in Mexico the northerly route to Monterey
was interrupted by bandits. The first time the
train from Tampico was blown up some forty kilo-
meters from that city. The passengers were not
injured, but were robbed, and their luggage either
stolen or burned. One American woman long resi-
dent in Tampico says that fourteen soldiers were
killed on this train while attempting to defend it
from the bandits, and that the commanding officer
of the guard, who had entered the "first class" car,
was so near her when he fell with a bullet through
his heart, that her clothing was stained with his
blood.
Having lost all her outfit, she returned to Tam-
pico, and started north next day. Again the train
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
on which she was a passenger was dynamited, and
also the train to Tampico from Monterey, but no
details filtered in as to the loss of life or property
during my brief sojourn.
Communication between Tampico and San Luis
Potosi has not been stopped, but is far from safe.
When I asked an oil man in Tampico why, on
first attack on a train they had not cut off the black-
mail levied by Pelaez, in which event he would have
been wiped off the map several years ago, the reply
came promptly that they paid Pelaez to protect
their oil camps, and had no concern with what
happened elsewhere.
"What would happen if you refused to contri-
bute further to this outlaw?"
"Well, you see, he isn't an outlaw, but a revolu-
tionist. Probably if he failed to get his money
he would blow up our properties. He is an oil
owner himself, and guards our camps with his men
just as he guards his own property."
"But he doesn't guard his own property very
well," I said. "Federal troops recently captured
his archives covering the last three years, and when
I left President Carranza at Queretaro a week ago,
he was going over these records with much enjoy-
ment."
Getting a man's office records, and getting the
man himself were two very different things, the oil
[2141
THE OIL MEN'S VERSION
man thought, and all efforts to capture Pelaez
would fail.
I had the pleasure of meeting a representative
gathering of oil men, called for the purpose of pre-
senting their side of the petroleum controversy. It
was interrupted by a late comer with the news that
bandits had just captured a payroll of the Huesteca
Oil Company, after shooting two Americans and
one Mexican who were guarding it, and as this little
episode took place in the neutral zone, beyond the
lines held by the Federal Government, and near
the zone commanded by Pelaez, it seemed to me
that "the King of the Oil Fields" must be tottering
on his throne.
Enough of anarchy on the land side.
To the periodista from the States who had seen
peaceful and prosperous Mexico under the rule of
President Carranza, it seemed reasonably clear that
safety lay in the deep blue sea, personified in
the river by one Mexican and two American war
vessels.
It was agreed at the conference with the oil men
that no names should be used. They said with the
utmost frankness that they had nothing to hope for
either from Washington or Mexico City, and that
whatever they might say would be used against
them.
With no desire to increase the difficulties of a
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THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
position already untenable, I agreed to suppress
names, but pointed out to them that what I might
say on their behalf would carry much less weight
than if they said it themselves, taking full responsi-
bility, and that a round robin could be drawn up
which would divide this responsibility equally
among all present.
"There is no way in which we can present our
side except this," the spokesman replied. "So
long as the gentleman now in Paris remains at the
head of the American Government it is useless for
an American citizen in a foreign land to demand
either redress or protection, and anything we say
will be construed against us. We know this. We
have tried to get a hearing in Washington, but with-
out success.
"We are American citizens engaged in a patriotic
duty. We have come into Mexico to develop the
country, and we are doing it. Every dollar we
have made is the result of hard labour intelligently
applied. We have risked our lives as well as our
fortunes down here, and while we have built up a
great industry, and have made a city, the expenses
of operating are so great that despite the vast
amount of oil shipped we would all be ruined to-
morrow if our plants shut down, as the investments
exceed the profits to date."
"Is there any truth in the rumour that the Tampico
oil field is beginning to show signs of exhaustion?"
[216]
THE OIL MEN'S VERSION
"There are some symptoms of a decrease in the
flow, and we have had experts at work for some
time in the expectation that the supply can be nursed
along for years to come. The Government, too, has
been making a study of the situation, but while we
are uncertain as to the future, we are still looking
forward to new developments if the Mexican Con-
gress legalizes our ownership of property we have
already bought and paid for."
"Mexican officials say that the petroleum law
presented at the last Congress by President Car-
ranza will be re-introduced, and that the confis-
catory features of the new constitution will be elimi-
nated, so that on all property purchased prior to the
date on which the new constitution became effective
your titles will be absolute. This is to be effected
by means of an amendment to which Mr. Carranza
will consent. There will also be an amendment
providing for additional protection to owners of the
surface soil, but the Government will not recede
from its position that all future oil fields discovered
shall be the property of the republic. Is there any
reason why you cannot operate under the new law
in extending your production?"
"We will not do any new business under such a
law," said the spokesman, who represents one of the
larger American oil corporations.
"It seems to me that you are going too far there,"
interrupted a man who is among the most important
[217]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
of the individual owners. "I have no objection
to doing business under the new constitution, pro-
vided the royalties fixed are such that I can make
a profit. In fact I have no objection to the new
law in its application to all future oil transactions,
although I agree that it would be a crime to take
our properties from us after we have paid for the
land and developed it at our own expense."
"It is possible," the spokesman resumed, "that
some of you may be able to operate under the new
law, but to make the attempt would, from our point
of view, mean placing full reliance upon the
promises of the Carranza people, and what we want
from them is not promises but performances. Our
experience thus far with the Government in Mexico
City is quite as unsatisfactory as our experience
with Washington, and we feel that we have nothing
definite from either source upon which to base our
course."
"Does it not seem possible to you that the Mexi-
can Government resents the support the oil interests
are giving to Pelaez? Would it not be easier to
come to terms with Mr. Carranza, and to obtain the
backing of the United States in support of your
claims if you rid yourself of this Old Man of the
Sea?"
"Not at all. Pelaez is our friend. We would
like to see him president of Mexico, and if he were,
[218]
THE OIL MEN'S VERSION
we would get what we want. We have never had
any assistance or encouragement from Mr. Car-
ranza any more than we have from Mr. Wilson, and
it would be folly on our part to turn down Pelaez,
even if we could, to please either of them. Be-
sides, the State Department at Washington is per-
fectly aware as to our relations with Pelaez, and
has approved them from the beginning. Wash-
ington knows to a penny what we have paid and are
paying Pelaez, and has never interposed any
objection."
(An oil man testified before the Fall Committee
that Acting Secretary Polk had been told of the
arrangement with Pelaez, but the State Department
has no record of this arrangement having been ap-
proved.)
"But even if Washington does not object to the
payments to Pelaez, what is there to prevent you
from cutting them off now, when he is obviously
failing to give you the protection for which you
are paying?"
"We are so situated that this man could destroy
millions in property, and if we cut off his revenues
he probably would do so. It is better to let things
continue as they are rather than to court destruc-
tion."
"But do not these heavy payments in graft eat
into your profits?"
[219]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
"We have no profits. We are able to keep things
going, but I can't say how much longer we will be
able to do so."
"This is a most surprising statement. How is
it that if the American oil interests in Tampico
have failed to make a profit the Cowdray people
were able to declare a 25 per cent, dividend for
1918?"
"I don't see how Cowdray could possibly have
earned such a large amount last year. Of course
he has certain advantages in shipping and market-
ing his products, which would account for a better
business showing than we could make, but 25 per
cent, must be an exaggerated estimate."
"Suppose I tell you that the figures are from the
company's report published in the London
Economist?"
"That authority would not be questioned of
course, but the fact remains that we are not making
any money here, but are hanging on upon the theory
that after the lean years there will be a succession
of fat years. With proper encouragement from
people at home, and protection from the Mexican
Government, there is no reason why we should not
eventually reap the reward of our labours here.
There are times, however, when we have been so
heartily disgusted that we have been on the point
of giving up, and pulling out of the country. In
fact, I so advised my people some time ago. I told
[220]
THE OIL MEN'S VERSION
them it would be better to pocket their losses and
close up."
"What losses would there be?"
"The scrapping of a plant that has cost millions,
and the impossibility of converting anything we
have here into real money upon our withdrawal."
It was the sense of the conference that unless the
Mexican Government actually carried out its
promises regarding the elimination of the retro-
active features in the new constitution regarding
the ownership of oil discoveries, the situation as
regards Mexico would be quite hopeless, that an
appeal for protection or assistance from Wash-
ington would be equally hopeless, and some of
the grievances of the oil men against both Govern-
ments were thus outlined:
Washington, at the time of the Vera Cruz epi-
sode, instead of helping the Americans in Tampico,
ordered the two naval vessels then in port to sea,
leaving the Americans at the mercy of a mob which
was parading up and down the streets, shouting
"Death to the Gringoes!"
Washington apparently held to the view that Mr.
Taft had given ample warning to Americans to get
out of Mexico, and had assisted those who needed
aid, and that if any were foolish enough to remain
behind after this warning, it was their duty to take
care of themselves.
While no one was actually injured during this
[221]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
demonstration, the Americans were embroiled with
their British neighbours because their British neigh-
bours declined to admit them to a stronghold pre-
pared for their own nationals in times of emer-
gency, and this feeling of ill-will engendered in
times of stress has not wholly died out.
When Tampico business men sent representatives
to Washington to lay their grievances before Presi-
dent Wilson, they were unable to see him. Re-
ferred to the secretary of the navy, they obtained
no satisfaction from Mr. Daniels.
"Tampico," said Mr. Daniels, turning to the map.
"Ah yes, here we are," and began running his
finger along the coast midway between Vera Cruz
and Progresso.
"No, Mr. Daniels, to the north of Vera Cruz,"
one of the committee said.
"To be sure," replied Mr. Daniels, turning his
attention to a district some hundreds of miles
further north. "Here we are, right on the coast."
"No, Mr. Daniels," objected another Tampico
man, "not on the coast, but seven miles up the
river."
No doubt Mr. Daniels was jesting, for one does
not run a country daily for a score of years without
acquiring a smattering of geography, but his pre-
tended ignorance of the location of Tampico hurt,
for these men had assisted in putting it on the map,
and had seen it grow from a sleepy little Indian
[222]
THE OIL MEN'S VERSION
town of some three thousand inhabitants to its
present proportions which are those of a prosperous
semi-American city with tall buildings and a popu-
lation of sixty thousand, and ambitions of a metro-
politan character.
Against the Mexican Government the grievances
are equally numerous and no less bitter.
American citizens have been denied the right to
carry arms for their own protection. It being
pointed out to some of them that on making applica-
tion to the proper authorities a permit would be
issued to them, both arms and ammunition were
brought in, and the applications made and granted.
Several days later both arms and ammunitions were
seized on the ground of military necessity.
Taxes assessed in the municipality of Tampico
amount to some $1,500,000 per annum, a revenue
wrongly said to be larger than that of Kansas City,
but Americans have no voice in the administration
of the revenues, and plans for civic improvements
are promptly sidetracked if presented.
There are leaks between the Carranza officials in
Tampico and the outlaws, as shown by otherwise
uncanny knowledge of the routes of pay rolls, the
amount of money carried, and the strength of the
guard. No satisfaction has ever been had upon
complaints arising from such cases.
Until recently it has been impossible to obtain
protection from the Federal Government for the
[223]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
oil camps, so that the heavy payments of tribute to
Pelaez have been a matter of necessity.
Finally, it is charged, but without proof, that
many of the hold-ups which frequently take place
between Tampico, which is controlled by the offi-
cials of Mr. Carranza, and the oil zone, which is
guarded by "General" Pelaez, are the work of
Carrancistas.
The oil 1 men say that on the one hand they have
contributed liberally of men and money toward
winning the war for America, besides furnishing an
essential war material. They insist that they are
reputable American business men, entitled to their
rights as citizens, even though resident in a foreign
country, and that they have been insulted so uni-
formly when attempting to confer with American
officials that they will not renew their efforts at an
understanding with Washington until a Republican
Administration takes office. On the other hand they
are tired of smooth words and vague promises from
Mexico City, and only definite actions will convince
them of the reality of Mr. Carranza's good inten-
tions toward them.
It was suggested to them, but in vain, that Wash-
ington had recognized Mr. Carranza's Government
as the one and only legal government in Mexico,
and that the United States would be hampered in its
efforts to obtain a financial settlement by persistence
[224]
THE OIL MEN'S VERSION
on the part of the oil men in aiding a rebel with
money and munitions.
It was suggested to them, but in vain, that Mr.
Carranza's Government might be disposed to do
more for them if their status was cleared from this
political taint.
They are standpatters, these oil men, and are
determined to hold their own, no matter at what
cost. Perhaps the owners of oil securities in the
United States may not agree with the position these
gentlemen have taken, but they are at present in
control of the Tampico oil industry, and will con-
tinue to run things to suit themselves unless some-
thing happens.
No objection to the accuracy of this presentation
of the oil men's version has been made by them,
six months after its publication in the New York
Tribune. Their statement regarding financial loss,
however, I have found to be untrue, and I there-
fore doubt many of their other statements.
[225]
CHAPTER NINETEEN: MEXICO'S
FUTURE BRIGHT
The future of Mexico, and indeed of every
country, can be nothing but the outgrowth of the
present. At present, says the Mexican secretary of
the treasury, "Mexico is convalescent." If Mexico
is on the way to recovery, which is my own opinion,
President Carranza was not far wrong in express-
ing the hope that he would be able to leave a com-
pletely pacified country to his successor in office in
December, 1920. In this event I forecast a bright
future for our neighbour. Indeed, I venture to
suggest the possibility that in ten years from now
the people of Mexico may find themselves in the de-
lectable position as regards taxation in which sub-
jects of the Prince of Monaco are now unique tax
free.
It is not altogether beyond possibility that the
nationalization of petroleum may make Mexico the
richest nation on earth. Let us for the moment
waive all thought of the Tampico and Tuxpan oil
fields, which are almost wholly controlled by
British and American capital, but exported in the
year 1918, 58,560,553 barrels of petroleum to-
gether with the political and financial questions in-
[226]
MEXICO'S FUTURE BRIGHT
volved. Waiving this, it is beyond the range of
controversy that Article 27 of the new constitution
of 1917 stands good in international law, once its
retroactive features, which are contradicted by an-
other section of the same fundamental law, are
eliminated. That means that all future oil
discoveries will be the property of the Mexican
nation, and can be developed on a royalty system by
which the operators will be allowed sufficient profits
to encourage the investment of brains and money,
but without giving the lion's share to foreigners
a lion's share which enabled Lord Cowdray's com-
pany to pay a 25 per cent, dividend last year, and
the Royal Dutch Shell to pay dividends for the
last two years of 38 and 48 per cent.
Ever since I got into the heart of Mexico I have
had a strong conviction that the oil regions of the re-
public still undeveloped but known to the higher
officials of the government, and perhaps to certain
Americans also, vastly exceed the properties
now exploited, affording, in view of the constantly
increasing demand for mineral oil, the certainty
of enormous wealth. I knew that Mexican, French,
British, and American oil men had been exploring
every part of the United States of Mexico for
several years. I knew that these investigations had
covered the Yucatan peninsula, Lower California,
the States of the Central plateau, and those of the
Pacific coast. The Mexican officials had been per-
[227]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
fectly frank with me in discussing financial affairs,
giving me the very latest figures regarding the na-
tional debt, the foreign loans, the revenues, and the
railways. No information was forthcoming on
petroleum. I never met a more courteous or com-
panionable lot of people than these same Mexican
officials, and I had found them ready at all times
to furnish information if sought except when
it came to petroleum. My "hunch" is that not
more than a tenth of Mexico's known petroleum re-
sources are being operated as I write. I believe
that if Mexico enjoys for ten years to come as peace-
ful a rule as that which now exists, her exports will
be ten times as great as in 1918, and that nine-
tenths of the increase will be of oil owned by the
nation. Bear in mind that the population of
Mexico is now under 15,000,000, and then take
your paper and pencil and figure to yourself the ex-
traordinary magnitude of the per capita wealth
which will flow into Mexico from this source alone.
Cuba's profits in sugar will seem as a drop in the
bucket.
Even if my "hunch" is wrong, however, peace-
ful development for ten years certainly means a
bright future for Mexico. Mexico is naturally, as
the Englishman says of his modern flat, "self-con-
tained." Her tropical coasts produce an abun-
dance of bananas, the cheapest food in the world;
[228]
MEXICO'S FUTURE BRIGHT
of cocoanuts, which yield the cheapest and most
wholesome vegetable oil for food, as well as sugar,
and the tropical fruits, which are valuable for their
delicacy and nutritive qualities. The temperate
zone includes vast areas suitable to the cultivation of
cereals in which, to take a single instance, the yield
of corn is immense, and there are two crops a year.
The pasturage for cattle and sheep surpasses that
of any other country in America. The mines aban-
doned years ago by Spanish owners are yielding
handsome returns under modern methods, and a
single mine in the Valley of Mexico, reported in
the latest book on that country as having been shut
down since the retirement of President Diaz, is
actually shipping 7,000,000 pesos a month in
bullion.
Mexico needs above all things peace, schools, and
irrigation. No one knows it better than the Mexi-
cans themselves. Mexico, which had a population
of 30,000,000 when Cortez landed, and can support
three times that population today, is, notwithstand-
ing the long domination by Spain, the most Ameri-
can of all American countries, for the aborigines
constitute 85 per cent, of the population, and this
Indian element, which has dwindled under the op-
pression of centuries, has produced its fair share
of the men who have distinguished themselves in the
public life of their country. There are possibili-
[229]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
ties in the peon which neither Diaz nor any of his
predecessors was willing to develop. What they
wanted was peon labour.
What the Mexicans themselves want, and what I
hope they may have, is a nation in which the stand-
ard of illiteracy shall be reduced from the present
80 per cent, to a point at which the only adults who
cannot at least read and write will be the con-
genitally defective. That condition cannot be
brought about in less than a generation, but I am
happy to say that I saw the beginning of the system
of universal education, the necessity for which is
now admitted by all parties and all classes of Mexi-
can society.
But if the germ of the future is in the present,
it is worth while to make it clear that conditions in
Mexico at this time are by no means as bad as they
have been painted. One of the most astonishing
bits of unintentional misinformation was furnished
by a map of Mexico in a New York daily of June
22, which purported to prove that rebel forces rule
one-half of Mexico. This map showed by various
shadings the territory controlled by the rebel
leaders. Were it correct, it would have been
physically impossible for me and my good wife
either to have entered Mexico last February, or to
have left that country two months later, although
our passports, with all due vises, would suffice to
convince any court of justice that we are right in
[230]
MEXICO'S FUTURE BRIGHT
believing that we were in Mexico. This map shows
that between Vera Cruz and Mexico City is a large
tract of territory controlled by Felix Diaz. Yet
we passed through, accompained by a party of
Mexicans who would have furnished a big haul to
any bandit.
The map shows that on June 22 all of the State
of Puebla and part of Guerrero were ruled by
Emiliano Zapata, despite the fact that we had
visited the City of Puebla, had dined with the
governor in his palace, and returned to Mexico City
without seeing any trace of disorder, and the ad-
ditional fact that Zapata and the handful of fol-
lowers remaining to him were killed by soldiers
last April. The map shows that Felix Diaz and
"General" Pelaez together rule practically all of the
State of Tamaulipas and the northern part of Vera
Cruz. Therefore we could not possibly have
travelled from San Luis Potosi to Tampico to get
a steamer for New York, and instead of finding the
oil men in Tampico paying their taxes to the Car-
ranza Government, we should have had to interview
Diaz or Pelaez. Equally absurd, of course, was
the assignment of all of Chihuahua, and parts of
Durango, Sonora and Coahuila to Villa. This ter-
ritory included the cities of Jaurez, Chihuahua, Par-
ral, San Pedro, and Torreon, all of which, unless
the American authorities in Mexico are mightily
deceived, are loyal to the Carranza Government.
[231]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
Ambassador Fletcher has testified that Villa con-
trols merely the land on which he is camping for the
time being. Pelaez, who was retreating before the
Carranza soldiers in Tamaulipas when I left
Mexico, was estimated to have in all less than 200
men. These figures were given me by a Belgian
oil inspector who had spent eighteen months in the
oil jungle, and were not disputed by the oil men
residing in Tampico. It is doubtful if Diaz has
fifty followers, and it is certain that he was unable
to prevent the destruction of the landing party led
to his support last winter by General Blanquet,
whose death occurred shortly after that of Zapata.
Conditions in Mexico are bad enough without any
misrepresentation. The loss in property during
ten years of civil strife has run into the hundreds of
millions. A minor official who had taken part in
some of the severest fights of the whole period told
me that he believed the total sacrifice of human
life had been not less than 1,000,000. Zapata left
the rich State of Morelos, the centre of the Mexican
sugar industry, in ruins, so that not a mill was
standing, and for a time it was necessary for Mexico
to import sugar. Villa has made it impossible to
work some of the richest mines in northern Mexico
even now. Pelaez still keeps from their homes
scores of Americans who settled in the interior of
Tamaulipas, attracted by the wonderfully fertile
soil and the climate. It is doubtful if the great
[232]
MEXICO'S FUTURE BRIGHT
Mexican country estates, taking them by and large,
would show today more than half the wealth in
horses, cattle, sheep, or farm implements, that they
possessed ten years ago. The railways of Mexico
are badly in need of all kinds of rolling stock and
equipment, and should be augmented by new lines
to tap undeveloped mineral and agricultural lands.
The international claims for damages from the
United States of Mexico because of the destruction
of foreign-owned property during the revolution
now number 9,073, and may be expected to total
$400,000,000. It is true, of course, that claims
of a similar nature have been settled on a basis of
1 per cent. There is still insufficient revenue to pay
all interest and principal of government bonds.
These are the worst features of the situation as it ap-
pears today.
To offset them the first asset is the will to live in
peace and happiness, which, I believe, now ani-
mates ninety-nine out of every hundred Mexicans;
the fact that the revenues are now $180,000,000
per annum, more than at any period of the nation's
history; that the greatest drain is the army, which
is much smaller now than in years, and will be still
further reduced as the bandits are subdued. Add
to these facts increased profits from the railways,
a better system of general taxation, a present pros-
perity everywhere evident in the Central States of
Mexico, >and an abundant supply of gold and
[233]
THE PLOT AGAINST MEXICO
silver money which is above par in exchange, and
there are ample reasons for optimism as to Mexico.
Only a continuation of war can complete the ruin of
this rich country, and the Mexican people know it
as well as we do.
j
OP. VI, AEVIA
[234]
APPENDIX I
PRESIDENT CARRANZA'S MESSAGE
Delivered to the National Congress on September 1, 1919;
Reported by La Revista Mexicana.
On Monday afternoon, September 1, 19l9, the regular
session of the Honourable Congress of the Union met at
4.30 o'clock, upon which occasion President Carranza ad-
dressed that body, and the reports of the various Depart-
ments were read.
Preceding the perusal of the reports mentioned, the
President spoke as follows:
Citizen Deputies:
Citizen Senators:
The circumstances recorded in the progress of the
nation during the past year invest the communication
which, in accordance with the Supreme Code, the Exec-
utive renders before you today, with a special interest,
translated into the most favourable facts of the progress
of the Republic in the whole of its affairs. The de-
velopment of the country is so remarkable in this direc-
tion and so free in its vigour, that the same difficulties
presented in the different classes concur to demonstrate
the strength with which Mexican life is developing.
A comparison of the actual condition of things with
that of the first days of May, 1917, when the precon-
stitutional period had just expired, or an analysis of the
evolutionary process of the different activities of the
[235]
APPENDIX I
official and private machinery of the present moment as
compared with the former period, demonstrates positively
that there has been non-interrupted progress. The same
state of affairs in which the Republic stands now, in the
conclusion of the most serious of our revolutions, has
not succeeded in obstructing the social, political and
juridical development, equivalent to the pacific task of
several years. The problems of reorganization and the
phenomenon of accommodation need the results of ad-
ministrative effort in the brief period mentioned.
Countless have been the hindrances which the Exec-
utive, in conjunction with the other Powers, has had to
overcome, but the general results without doubt are
satisfactory to the aspirations of the Union.
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Republic still maintains very good relations with
all countries and has interrupted them only with Great
Britain for the reasons expressed by the Executive to
the Honourable Congress in the last report.
In order to cultivate and promote these diplomatic
relations, the Government accredited several officials to
represent Mexico abroad. Mr. Alberto J. Pani pre-
sented his credentials in France as Extraordinary Envoy
and Plenipotentiary Minister of Mexico last March, and
General Eduardo Hay was accredited last May before the
Italian Government with the same capacity; Mr. Amado
Nervo was sent as Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipo-
tentiary Minister before the Governments of Argentine
and Uruguay, where he presented his credentials in
April and May this year, respectively; Colonel Fernando
Cuen went to Chile under the same capacity and pre-
[236]
APPENDIX I
sented his credentials there last April; General Aaron
Saenz was appointed to go to Brazil as Plenipotentiary
Envoy also, and presented his credentials last March;
Mr. Alfonso Siller was accredited as Minister from
Mexico to Peru, and assumed his post last April, while
Mr. Jose Almaraz was appointed Minister to Nicaragua
and Costa Rica; finally, last May General Heriberto
Jara was received by the Cuban Government as Extraor-
dinary Envoy and Plenipotentiary Minister from Mexico.
We have also diplomatic missions in the United States
of America, France, Italy, Spain, Colombia, Equador,
Venezuela, Salvador, Honduras, Japan, China, Belgium,
Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
The friendly governments for their part have also their
respective missions in this capital, as for instance, the
United States of America, Germany, Argentine, Austria,
Belgium, Cuba, Chile, China, Spain, France, Guatemala,
Honduras, Italy, Japan, Nicaragua, Norway, Sweden and
Uruguay. On account of the heads of some of the
foreign legations having been vacant, their Excellencies
Alberto Yoacham Varas and Ezequiel Garcia Ensenat
were accredited as Extraordinary Envoys and Plenipo-
tentiary Ministers from Chile and Cuba respectively, and
Honourable Cong Tsieng-Hwong as Charge d' Affaires ad
interim from China since last November.
Our Relations With the United States
On the 22d of December, 1918, the United States
Embassy addressed the Foreign Office two notes regarding
the oil question. The first one was a reply to Mexico's
note basing our right to legislate on oil matters as has
been done.
[237]
APPENDIX I
Said answer expresses that the United States Govern-
ment believes that Mexico is moved by the best intentions
to settle the oil controversy and that this shall redound
to the benefit of the good relations existing between both
countries. The United States Government adds that
Mexico's good disposition is expected to purport a re-
consideration of all decrees and laws issued in regard
to oil, and avails the opportunity to state that the United
States have never pledged in any way through declara-
tions of any of their rulers, particularly of their actual
President, not to resort to diplomatic intervention in be-
half of their citizens abroad whenever such intervention
be justified. The same note rejects the argument pre-
sented by Mexico to the effect that if foreigners are given
the right to make diplomatic claims in similar cases they
would often be placed under conditions more favourable
than those enjoyed by the natives; it is argued therein
that the citizens of a country have, besides the ordinary
judicial resources, the last one of changing by means of
their vote the institutions or remove the authorities
which may be detrimental to their rights; and that this
prerogative is not enjoyed by foreigners, and, therefore,
to forbid them to resort to the protection of their govern-
ments in case of wrong, would be to place them in a
state of disadvantageous inequality regarding natives.
This note ends by saying that if the subsequent acts of
the Mexican Government and its administrative or judi-
cial authorities do not meet the expectations of the
United States Government, it reserves the consideration
of paying more attention to its citizens concerning this
important matter; that the President has traced a well
defined line between the policy of armed intervention and
[238]
APPENDIX I
the policy of diplomatic intervention; on several oc-
casions he has indeed expressed that he would not back
up armed intervention in another country for the sake of
selfish interests, and the complete exposition of the
subject as made by the Mexican Secretary of Foreign
Affairs evidently describes such case; but the President
has never said that he would resign the right of diplo-
matically intervening in behalf of his fellow-citizens,
which undoubtedly is a friendly method to protect legiti-
mate national interests in order to prevent injustices.
On the contrary the note goes on nowhere, as in the
following paragraph quoted from one of his speeches
made Jan. 29, 1916, has the President stated more clearly
his favour to diplomatic intervention:
"Not only have the United States the right to protect
life within their own boundaries, but they also have the
right to demand equal and just treatment for their
citizens wherever they may go.
"The United States Government asks for nothing else
but 'an equal and fair treatment' for its citizens, and
consequently entertains the sincere hope that the Mexican
Courts called to decide on the legal questions implied in
the oil regulations, shall protect in the lawsuits that
have been brought or which may later on be started, the
lawfully acquired rights of the United States citizens.
Thus might the controversy be satisfactorily settled;
however, if this hope should be disappointed, the United
States Government must reserve to itself the right to
consider the questions of interest more in favour of its
citizens affected by this grave and important matter."
The second note of the same date expresses that in
case that the Congress should approve the laws and de-
[239]
APPENDIX I
crees on oil, the United States Government wishes to re-
new the protests previously made.
The Department of Foreign Affairs answered acknowl-
edging receipt.
The American Embassy protested against the circular
orders given by the Financial Department relating to the
collection of royalties from the oil companies. The
Department of Foreign Affairs made the corresponding
objections.
The United States citizens interested in oil properties
in Mexico for their part initiated and maintain with a
perfect organization, extraordinary strength and remark-
able persistence a press campaign in the United States
devised to impress the public mind of the country and
the general mass as well as the members of both Houses
by all possible means of the necessity to compel their
Government to intervene in Mexico in order that our laws
be drafted in perfect accordance with their personal in-
terests, a finality which, of course, they do not frankly
invoke, for they demand intervention on account of an
alleged lack of guaranties prevailing in our country, an
argument which easily impresses the public mind.
Unfortunately we receive frequent suggestions, more
or less vehement, from the United States Government
whenever we wish to adopt any changes which might
purport some damage for the interests of the citizens of
that country, such suggestions tending to restrain our
liberty of legislation and to impair our right to develop
ourselves according to our own judgment.
The most important case of this nature was that of
the Richardson Construction Company, when diplomatic
[2401
APPENDIX I
endeavours were made to have us revoke the decision to
raise the taxes on a great land-holding, despite the fact
that one of the causes of the revolution of 1910 was the
lack of proportion between the value of real estate and
the taxes paid thereon, and notwithstanding that one of
the fundamental principles of the Constitutionalist
Revolution was that of progressive taxation of landed
estates, so as to compel the landholders to divide their
large properties.
Still other cases of representations of that sort are
recorded, as for instance in the following cases: On
account of the raising of taxes or creating restrictions to
the exportation of hides and cattle; on account of taxes
imposed on production of metals and on mining claims;
on account of the value of henequen having gone up, and
recently, because the export duties on cotton produced
in Lower California were increased.
In all these occasions the argument of the United
States Department of State, whenever official notes have
been exchanged, or that of the press when the action
assumed a different character, has been that such taxes
or duties are "confiscatory," this word having received
such an amplitude that just by invoking it any limitation
to our right to legislate seems justified.
The Mexican Government hopes that the Government
of the Northern Republic shall respect the sovereignty
and independence of Mexico, for to violate them under
the excuse of lack of guaranties for its citizens or our
legislation being detrimental to their interests would be
an unpardonable transgression of the principles of In-
ternational Law and morality, and would demonstrate
[241]
APPENDIX I
that the greatest misfortune that may ever fall on a
people is to be weak, and not able to protect itself by
force against stronger nations.
On account of our geographical situation in regard to
the United States of America and the close commercial
ties binding us, several incidents of different kinds have
arisen in the course of our international relations.
Last year a group of United States soldiers came
across the boundary line into our territory to a town
called El Mulato and a shooting ensued where an Ameri-
can citizen was killed and a Mexican fiscal guard was
wounded. Our Embassy made the due representation
and the United States Government answered that its
soldiers had been indeed responsible for the incident, and
that having been tried by a courtmartial two of them had
been sentenced to one year imprisonment, two others to
three years and one to five years.
Last year also a group of United States soldiers shot
at a handful of Mexican farmers who were engaged in
their work in our territory within the jurisdiction of
Villa Acuiia, Coah., and the Mexican citizen Angel Ran-
gel was killed. Our Embassy presented the correspond-
ing claim and the State Department informed that three
United States soldiers had fired at the Mexicans, and
they would be tried by a courtmartial. We have no
information thus far regarding the sentence given to the
culprits.
Last April our Embassy at Washington received a
petition signed by many Mexican citizens located in Bar-
tlesville, Oklahoma, complaining of the unjust persecu-
tion they are being made victims of in that region, be-
[242]
APPENDIX I
cause David Cantu was beaten on the 16th of the same
month by five or six American citizens. On the 18th
several Mexicans who were together heard a public
official of the locality express the opinion that Cantu
should be whipped and hanged to a post, and on the
22d three United States citizens came indeed to the house
where Cantu was working and hanged him and mis-
treated him without any justified reason. In that very
place a Mexican Jose N. who worked in one of the cafes
of the town was shot at by a dentist. Our Embassy in
these as in all similar cases made representations and we
know not yet whether the culprits were arrested and
prosecuted.
Last April several soldiers of the United States Army
invaded our territory through Vado de Piedra, jurisdic-
tion of Ojinaga, Chihuahua, in pursuit of bandits, and
they entered some twelve kilometers into Mexico. Once
again through the same place they came into our territory
and attacked the marauders, killing five of them. They
accidentally wounded a young lady and a man. The
corresponding representations were made through our
Embassy to the Government at Washington, but we do not
know yet if any action was taken to punish the soldiers
responsible for the deed.
Last May the Mexican citizen Jesus Aguirre, who
worked at a ship-yard in Rockport, Tex., was unjustly
beaten and wounded by three American citizens, the local
authorities paying no attention to the case. Our Consul
in Corpus Christi informed that there existed a marked
hostility toward our fellow-citizens in Rockport, for they
are not admitted in hotels, boarding houses, lunch-
[243]
APPENDIX I
counters, barber shops and other public places, while
their children are confined in a special school under
very deficient conditions.
In June this year the Board of Education of the State
of California excluded the Mexican children from the
official schools of Santa Paula, El Centro and other Cali-
fornia towns, and sent them to the schools for coloured
people. Our Embassy made the proper representation
and the United States Government gave explanation of
the case.
On the 15th of last June Villa and his followers at-
tacked Juarez City, garrisoned by General Francisco
Gonzalez, and having been defeated in three successive
attempts to capture the town, Villa tried to provoke an
international conflict by firing at the American side,
where a few persons were wounded. On this account
the troops of that country were sent across the boundary
line into Mexico to disperse the "Villistas" and the next
day re-crossed the line into the United States. General
Gonzalez demanded the immediate withdrawal of the
foreign forces, acting with all firmness and prudence,
Our Government protested against the invasion and
made representations before the officials at Washington,
and our Embassy was told in answer to our complaint
that the sending of troops was intended merely as a
protective measure and had for its only purpose to
repel the aggression of the Villa followers.
Last July the Mexican military paymaster M. L.
Palma was assaulted by three masked individuals in
Marfa, Texas, and deprived of the money he carried
with him to pay our troops at Ojinaga, Chihuahua. The
chairman of the Grand Jury at Presidio, Texas, informed
[244]
APPENDIX I
our Consul that after a close investigation the conclusion
had been arrived at that even though the robbery had
indeed taken place it was not possible yet to establish any
responsibility, and that the paymaster, even being in-
nocent, was partly to blame for having left Marfa so
early in the morning. No arrest has been made thus far
on that account.
In the same month of July the Mexican citizen
Anacleto Salazar was killed by a drunken policeman in
Eureka, Utah. The officer was set free, as though having
acted in self-defence.
Again in July the Mexican citizen Francisco Resales
was beaten and robbed during the race riots that occurred
in Washington. Our Embassy has made the due repre-
sentations but the culprits have not been arrested.
At the same time a patrol of United States soldiers
fired at several Mexicans in Los Adobes, Texas, taking
them for deserters, and the Mexican citizen Julio Car-
rasco was killed. Our Embassy presented the cor-
responding claim and the United States Congress was
recommended to pass a resolution for the payment of
an indemnity to Carrasco's relatives.
Last August Jose Blanco and Elizondo Gonzalez,
Mexican citizens, were attacked by a mob in the city of
Chicago, and Blanco wounded in self-defence his as-
saulters, armed with a knife. On this account he was
arrested. Gonzalez was taken to a hospital, badly
wounded. The assaulters have not been arrested. Our
Embassy made the corresponding representations to the
Washington authorities.
In the same month three United States soldiers came
across the boundary line down south as far as San Juan,
[245]
APPENDIX I
Chihuahua. Our troops tried to capture the invaders,
but they fired at our men and fled across the border,
having killed a Mexican soldier. The Mexican Embassy
presented the due claim, but thus far no news has been
received of any action taken in that regard.
Some Mexicans have at times tried to go across the
Rio Grande without complying with the laws and rules
established to that effect, and unhappy accidents have
occurred on that account, for the United States guards
fire upon these people, wounding or killing them. Such
was the case with Feliciano Hernandez and Reyes
Payanes, killed that way in the jurisdiction of San
Antonio, Chihuahua. Our Government has made the
corresponding representations.
On several occasions United States aviators have come
across the border and operated with their airplanes over
our territory, and in all such cases our Embassy, by
instructions of the Department of Foreign Affairs, has
presented the necessary representations and protests, de-
spite which the raids have been repeated.
Last August an airplane of the United States Army
flew over into Mexican territory and landed near Falomir
Station, on the line from Chihuahua to Presidio, some
112 kilometers from the border. Before any news was
heard of the aviators' whereabouts, the United States
authorities requested permission to have another of their
aviators come over in search of the stray officers, which
was granted on the llth, and the Americans never made
use of such permission. A band of twenty Villa fol-
lowers captured the aviators and approached the border
with them demanding a ransom. On this account
United States forces invaded the national territory in
[246]
APPENDIX I
pursuit of the kidnappers of their countrymen. The
Mexican Government demanded of the Washington
authorities the immediate withdrawal of the invading
troops and protested against the invasion, which con-
stitutes a serious and unwarranted violation of our
rights that wounded very deeply the patriotic feelings of
the Mexicans.
Unfortunately in the history of our relations with
the United States of America this is not the only case of
similar outrages. Whenever the authorities of that
country have deemed necessary or convenient to invade
our territory, they have done so, thus violating the rights
of a friendly nation. It is not true that only at present,
as a result of the abnormal circumstances of the Re-
public after the civil war, that Government has been
adopting measures of that sort. Nor is it true, as some
people dare affirm, that the attitude of the Mexican Gov-
ernment during the world war should be the cause of
these frictions and of the complete disregard of our
rights on the part of the United States; it shall suffice
to recollect a few cases to convince ourselves that also
in other stages of our history have occurred happenings
like these we now deplore.
Around the year 1869, the Kickapoo Indians were
causing serious damages to Mexico as well as to the
United States. The Washington foreign office asked
permission of the Mexican Government to send troops
across the border in pursuit of the Indians. Mexico re-
fused it, but gave orders to the Governors of the
Northern States to co-operate with the United States
forces. However, on the 21st of May, 1873, Colonel
MacKenzie came across the Rio Grande, above Piedras
[247]
APPENDIX 1
Negras, with five hundred cavalrymen of the United
States Army, provoking the corresponding protests of
the Mexican Government.
On May 28th, 1874, an armed force of the United
States Army invaded our territory under the excuse of
pursuing cattle thieves.
In October, 1874, the Governor of Texas, Mr. Coke,
ordered the State Guard to pursue into Mexico a band of
savage Indians.
In May, 1875, a group of armed men under the com-
mand of two Sheriffs of Laredo entered the Mexican
town of Nuevo Laredo, pretending to capture some
marauders who had fled into Mexico across the border.
On November 19th, 1875, United States forces came
across the frontier in pursuit of cattle thieves. Our
Government requested through its Minister at Washington
that measures be adopted to prevent such transgressions
and that further invasions of our territory be avoided.
In May, 1877, a certain number of United States
soldiers, under Colonel Shafter, crossed the Rio Grande
and came to Piedras Negras, intending to take from the
public jail two individuals who were arrested there.
On May 27, 1877, the Governor of Arizona at the
head of military forces entered Sonora in pursuit of
Apache Indians.
In December, 1877, Captain Young and Lieutenant
Bullis entered Mexican territory with a squad of cavalry-
men for the purpose of destroying the house of some
moonshiners.
In December, 1877, 50 men from Apache Pass Fort
crossed the boundary line into a point called Cajon de
Las Alijas, Sonora.
[248]
APPENDIX I
In January, 1878, when Colonel Shafter was called to
appear before the United States Military Committee to
inform on border matters and expeditions across the
boundary after cattle thieves, he stated that in May,
1876, he had come into Mexico in pursuit of Lipan In-
dians, the result of his expedition being the capture of
19 of them and the destruction of their settlement.
On June 22d of the same year again United States
forces entered Mexico under Colonels MacKenzie and
Shafter, forty miles above Eagle Pass, under the excuse
to pursue marauders. The forces included twenty com-
panies of cavalry and various divisions of artillery,
provisions for fifteen days, a heavy train and several
experts. These American troops committed many de-
predations in the ranch known as "El Remolino."
On the 30th of June that same year our territory was
once more invaded by United States troops in the juris-
diction of Capitan Leal (Las Vacas) ; the foreign troops
were commanded by Captain Kelly and remained in our
territory from the 24th to the 27th of July. They
captured and took with them the Justice of Rio Grande.
In July of that same year Colonel MacKenzie again
entered Mexican territory through a point close to
Piedras Negras, according to advices from the Mayors
of Sabinas, Zaragoza and Jimenez. This invasion was
effected despite the continuous diplomatic opposition
made by the Mexican Government.
In August of that very year United States troops from
Forts Duncan and Clark came across the boundary line
under Colonel Young, and entered the State of Coahuila
in pursuit of a bandit named Arriola. The invading
troops included two regiments of cavalry.
[249]
APPENDIX I
At the beginning of April, 1879, a Land of United
States troops from Fort Bayard entered Mexican ter-
ritory as far south as Ascension and intending to march
on to Janos, but the band retreated at last, giving no
excuse for the invasion but that they wanted to know
those towns of the State for Chihuahua. There were 25
men in the band.
Still in the same year, on September 22d, the State of
Chihuahua was again invaded. Six hundred men came
in and pursued some Indians. Our Government notified
the Washington authorities through our Minister there,
that if the United States forces did not leave the country
at once our troops would be ordered to fight them.
From the 5th to the 6th of October that very year
United States forces commanded by Lieutenant Taylor
pursued a band of Indians across the border.
In 1880 our Government made representations on
account of the invasion made of Chihuahua through the
towns of Lucero and Cantaros. The invading forces re-
turned to their territory, claiming to have come across
into Mexico because they lacked water and were looking
for it.
In February, 1881, Lieutenant Morey entered Mexican
territory with a platoon of soldiers as far south as the
Candelaria range of mountains, in pursuit of some
Indians.
On the same date a group of United States soldiers
came across the border searching for a soldier who de-
serted in Tucson.
In May of the same year Lieutenant Bullis entered
Mexico with his soldiers just above Las Vacas, pursuing
some rebellious Lipan Indians.
[250]
APPENDIX I
In November of that very year 30 United States
soldiers under Lieutenant Gardey pursued Indians into
Sonora.
In January, 1882, 28 men of the 4th Regiment
U. S. Cavalry under Lieutenant MacDonald came
across the frontier and were captured by the com-
mander of the garrison at Janos for violating our
territory.
In July of the same year a military force entered
Mexico near Janos, under the command of Colonel
William Ross. General Bernardo Reyes went to that
point with his troops and disarmed all the foreign
soldiers. Forty eight rifles and five Springfield guns
were taken from them, while such soldiers were com-
pelled to return to their territory.
On the 14th of last August several United States
soldiers were firing at the peaceful inhabitants of a
settlement called "Las Pompas," jurisdiction of Zara-
goza, State of Chihuahua, about five o'clock in the
afternoon. The people of that community had to seek
refuge outside their settlement.
On the 19th of the same month three American soldiers
entered Mexico at a border town called Barrancos de
Guadalupe, jurisdiction of Ojinaga, Chihuahua, and fired
without any reason at some Mexican peons who were
farming in the field, wounding Juan Rey.
On the 23d of the same month came into our territory
some United States forces through the town of Gua-
dalupe, Chihuahua, in pursuit of some bandits, and cut
off our telegraphic lines.
On the same date other troops entered the town of San
Ignacio, in the State of Chihuahua, and took by sheer
[251]
APPENDIX I
force with them to American territory several peaceful
citizens of the place.
In all these cases the Mexican Government has made
emphatic representations, as well as in any other in-
stances in which our territory was violated or our
sovereignty disregarded.
A great part of the Mexicans who on account of the
world war were recruited in the United States, have
already been dismissed although no news is available
regarding some of them. Of all those sent to the front,
it is positively known that five perished in combats or
in shipwrecks, two in service accidents and one through
sickness.
Our Embassy made the corresponding representations
in all these cases.
Since the day when the United States recognized our
Government, the Washington authorities had refused to
attend the request of extradition Mexico made according
to the Treaty. In May this year the State Department
informed our Embassy at Washington that it was now
ready to transact any extradition demands that the Mexi-
can Government would present, and this offer has been
kept.
The United States Government for its part has also
demanded several extradition cases.
The American Embassy addressed our Foreign Office
several notes asking for the capture and punishment
of people guilty for crimes committed against United
States citizens in our territory, and has constantly re-
quested that fuller guaranties be extended them. Some
concrete cases may be mentioned. At the end of Novem-
ber last year the United States Embassy communicated
[252]
APPENDIX I
that the American manager of the Espada mines in the
State of Jalisco, had been kidnapped. The bandits were
pursued by our troops and the American regained his
liberty in the first days of January.
In February the same Embassy advised that Messrs.
William J. Devitt, Roy A. Mathewson and William H.
Holmes had been kidnapped at Santa Eulalia by a band
of Villa followers. The local authorities reported that
on the same day of their capture those Americans were
set free.
In March the Embassy informed on the kidnapping of
Oscar Wallace at the ranch of Encinas, State of Coahuila.
Despite the activities of our authorities only the corpse
of the kidnapped could be found, but the bandits were
taken and are now in the hands of justice.
Last June the Embassy advised that the United States
citizen W. Tevots had been kidnapped by a band of
Yaqui Indians in La Colorada, Sonora. As soon as our
authorities learned the case, forces were sent to pursue
the Indians and killed three of them.
Last July a boat of the United States Warship
Cheyenne, manned by a few marines, steamed up the
Tamesi River without taking the necessary precautions,
and was held up outside the city by an armed group of
men, who stole from the sailors their personal belongings
and a small amount of money. As soon as our author-
ities got acquainted with the occurrence they tried to
investigate the case and the culprits have already been
found, arrested and prosecuted. They will suffer the
corresponding penalty.
In the same month the United States Embassy com-
plained that the American citizen Hiram Hughes had
[253]
APPENDIX I
been arrested by the police at Tampico and had died of
a wound inflicted on him. Investigations were made
and the result was that Hughes had wounded himself,
being drunk, according to his own deposition signed by
his own hand.
In July also the same Embassy presented a claim for
the murder of Mr. John W. Correll, committed in the
State of Tamaulipas. As soon as the case was known
our authorities sent troops after the bandits, and our
soldiers succeeded in killing four of them and recovering
things they had stolen. This property was given back
to their owners while the other marauders who took part
in the murder of Mr. Correll were captured and are now
being prosecuted. A heavy penalty will be imposed
upon them.
Still in July the Embassy advised that Mr. Lawrence
L. Shipley was kidnapped in the State of Zacatecas.
Our authorities gave at once the necessary orders to see
that Shipley was protected, and this American regained
his liberty five days later, sane and safe.
Also in July the Embassy complained that a young man
by the name of Phillip R. Thompson had been kidnapped
at the Miraflores Ranch, jurisdiction of Chalco, State of
Mexico, and a ransom of $1,500 was demanded by the
bandits.
The Department of Foreign Affairs informed the
Embassy that our Government, wishing to do for its
part all that was possible to prevent international dif-
ficulties, offered to pay the amount demanded as ran-
som to save the life of young Thompson, intending of
course to send the necessary forces in pursuit of the
marauders.
[254]
APPENDIX I
No ransom was needed to get Thompson out of
trouble; the authorities stated that they had opportunely
warned him of the danger he ran by going to the place
where he lost his liberty.
The Embassy communicated that in the same month
of July the United States citizen T. J. Castello had been
robbed of a considerable number of cattle. Our forces
started an immediate pursuit of the thieves and fought
them, taking from them almost all the stolen cattle.
In May last year the United States citizen Whiteford
was assassinated by bandits in the State of Nayarit. All
the bandits who took part in that crime have been killed
by our forces.
On the 14th of last August the United States Embassy
complained about the offices of the Pen.-Mex. Fuel Com-
pany having been robbed in Tuxpan. In a second note
the Embassy insisted that guaranties should be extended
and had a few unkindly expressions to make. On the
same date our authorities had already discovered that
the thieves were four employes of the same company,
two of whom were shot, part of the money stolen being
recovered and returned to its owners.
The enunciation of all these cases is enough to prove
that all charges made against the Mexican Government
not to be willing or not to have enough power to punish
bandits, are perfectly unjust.
On the 22d of last July the United States Embassy
sent a note regarding the murder of Peter Catron, de-
manding the punishment of the murderers and that ade-
quate measures were taken to prevent any further occur-
rence of assassination of United States citizens. The
Embassy added that it had instructions from its Govern-
[255]
APPENDIX I
ment to express to the Mexican Government that if the
lives of these citizens continued under the same state of
insecurity through the unwillingness or the inability of
the same, the United States would be compelled to
adopt a radical change of its policy toward Mexico.
The Mexican Department of Foreign Affairs answered
in regard to the particular case in question, that the
necessary measures were taken to punish Mr. Catron's
murderers, and in regard to the last part of the note the
reply was that Mexico has always shown perfect willing-
ness to protect all foreigners residing within its ter-
ritory, proving it with positive facts; that the protection
afforded by Mexico to foreigners could not be absolute,
for it does not exist in any part of the world; that our
Government has always pursued all transgressors of the
law, punishing them very severely; that the Govern-
ment of Mexico has been earnestly and constantly work-
ing to pacify the Republic and has attained frequent
successes, as proven by the death of Zapata, Blanquet and
Ines Davila, as well as of many others of lesser im-
portance; that wishing to prevent the United States
citizens from being the victims of outrages they are ex-
posed to, the Government suggests the convenience of
having them concentrate in populated centres where full
guaranties shall be enjoyed, and have them also ask for
military escorts whenever they may need to travel or
to remain in dangerous zones; finally, that a conspicuous
case of Mexico's willingness to protect the lives and in-
terests of the United States citizens was the offer made of
escorts for the paymasters of the oil companies, an offer
which has been refused. The Government has also
promised to refund any amount of money taken from
[256]
APPENDIX I
the paymasters despite their being escorted, and that for
all the above reasons the Mexican Government was sur-
prised at the threat enclosed in the last part of the note.
Our authorities have recently arrested in Tampico a
United States citizen by the name of Sam Tolley, who
has confessed to have committed several assaults in that
region, and turned over a pistol and a rifle. He also
gave information regarding another American citizen
who took part in the assault. His reports on the bands
of marauders who have held up oil barges are of great
importance.
On several occasions our Government has endeavoured
through our Embassy at Washington to secure the return
of the custom duties which were collected in the port of
Vera Cruz by the American forces during the occupation
of that city, therefore belonging to the Mexican Repub-
lic. However, no satisfactory result has even been
achieved, not even a categoric reply.
The cessation of the European war has ended many
of the difficulties Mexico had connected with it, to
which due reference was made in the previous report
rendered by the Executive to the Honourable Congress of
the Union.
The Mexican Republic observed, as it is well known,
a perfect neutrality during that conflict, for even though
certain enemies of the Government and people interested
on various occasions expressed the opinion that the Mex-
ican Government was not strictly neutral, it must be ad-
mitted that no one may at present nor shall ever be able
to mention an act or omission of the Mexican Govern-
ment to prove the slightest breach of our neutrality if
judging in accordance with the most exacting principles
[257]
APPENDIX I
of International Law, of the Treaties in force and of
practices universally established.
But at the same time, most unfortunately, the rights
of Mexico as a neutral were not always duly respected,
for some United States warships remained in exceptional
cases over twenty-four hours in our territorial waters,
and have constantly been and still are anchored in Tam-
pico, under the excuse of affording protection to their
citizens.
When the struggle was over the Governments of the
Allied Powers got together to constitute a League of
Nations, to which it was said that almost all countries
would have access under certain conditions; all of them
were invited excepting a few, Mexico among them, and
our Government has done nothing, nor shall ever do, to
enter into that international society, because the bases
upon which it was formed do not establish, neither as
to its functions nor as to its organization, a perfect
equality for all nations and all races, while the Mexican
Government has proclaimed as the main principles of
its international policy that all the powers of earth must
have the same rights and the same obligations, and also
that no individual may pretend to be placed in a priv-
ileged situation nor demand extraordinary protection in
a country under the pretext of being a foreigner or for
any other reason.
In view that the acceptance of the Monroe Doctrine
was discussed at the Paris Peace Conference, the Gov-
ernment of Mexico found itself compelled to make a
public declaration and notify officially the friendly
powers, that Mexico had not recognized nor would do it,
[258]
APPENDIX I
that doctrine because it upholds, without the consent of
all the peoples of America, a thesis and creates a sit-
uation on which no opinion has ever been consulted
with such peoples, and therefore that doctrine impairs
the sovereignty and independence of Mexico and would
constitute for all the nations of America a forced
tutelage.
Last December the French Legation informed the De-
partment of Foreign Affairs that according to the clauses
of the Armistice signed at Treveris in November last
year, the German delegates had agreed with the Allied
powers not to dispose, without their previous consent, of
any stock in money, securities, etc., owned in foreign
countries by the German Government or by private Ger-
man subjects, and informed also that measures would be
adopted to deprive of such property whoever might ac-
quire it through purchase or transfer of any kind, for
all dealings regarding such property would be fraudu-
lent. The Italian Legation addressed an identical note
to our Foreign Office, to which the Mexican Government
replied that it could not recognize any effect to that
agreement within our territory, because it was against
our Constitution, as also against a treaty still in force
between Mexico and Germany, more so since the Ger-
man authorities had given no special advice to Mexico
in that regard.
The United States Embassy and the Legations of Italy
and France in April ult., informed our Department of
Foreign Affairs that the Supreme Allied Council of
Paris had entrusted the United States Government with
the mission to take from Mexican waters the merchant-
[259]
APPENDIX I
ships belonging to citizens or subjects of enemy coun-
tries, and that the German Government would notify
Mexico also in that regard.
The Department answered that it expected to receive
Germany's advice in order to then resolve the case and
such advice was received last July in our Department,
expressing the agreement to place at the disposal of the
Allies, while the armistice lasted, German steamships
from 500 to 2,000 tons.
The official who was in charge of the British interests
in Mexico addressed himself directly to the Executive,
informing that, without including the sailships, the enemy
ships referred to in the above mentioned notes should
be delivered to the British Government instead of to the
United States, as was said before, and that the only ship
in the conditions described was the Antonina, anchored at
Tampico.
Claims. Some time ago the Mexican Government es-
tablished the way in which damages would be paid for
losses sustained during the revolution, by which a proof
was given to the world that we were moved by a more
liberal spirit than that shown by other Governments un-
der similar conditions. It was resolved that natives as
well as foreigners would apply to the Claims Commit-
tee to assert their rights, and in case of some foreigners
disagreeing with the judgment of that board, the case
would be submitted to the decision of a Mixed Commis-
sion, formed by a representative of the Mexican Gov-
ernment, a delegate of the Diplomatic agent from the
country the claimants belong to, and a third one chosen
by mutual agreement. The Claims Commission has al-
ready received applications made by foreigners, the num-
[260]
APPENDIX I
do.
Turks
3,434,196.66
do.
Germans
657,362.54
do.
French ......
282,841.32
do.
Italians ....
272,497.50
do.
U. S. citizens .
139,914.79
do.
Chinese
38,662.38
do.
Guatemalan . .
20,000.00
do.
British subject
9,907.25
'do.
Hollander . . .
7,700.00
do.
Austrian ....
3,225.38
..S13.469.190.61
her of which, as well as the amounts, are as follows:
33 Claims presented by Spaniards.. .$ 8,602,882.79
15 do.
19 do.
2 do.
2 do.
9 do.
2 do.
1 do.
1 do.
1 do.
1 do.
No foreign Government has ever opposed any objec-
tion to the purposes Mexico has in view regarding pay-
ment of indemnities. However, it is remarkable to no-
tice the contrast there is between the small number of
claims presented by some, as for instance, by British
subjects and United States citizens, with the assertion
generally made regarding the damages they have suf-
fered. The Mexican Government has all reasons to be-
lieve that all claims shall be submitted to the respective
Commissions, especially so on account of the recent
changes made to the corresponding law and devised to
meet objections of a secondary character made to the
presentation of claims against the Government of Mex-
ico for damages caused during our Civil War, since this
Government has proved not only to be moved by a spirit
of justice in this matter, but also to be most desirous of
dealing with all equity and in a spirit of conciliation.
[261]
APPENDIX I
On the other hand the Congress of the Union will
vote the necessary amounts to pay the claims approved.
The relations between Mexico and Great Britain have
been interrupted, as the Honourable Congress knows well
and in spite of it the person who was in charge of that
legation usually addressed himself to the Chief Execu-
tive in behalf of his fellow-countrymen. In view that
this created a situation not only unnatural but also
privileged and unacceptable even in case of that person
being an Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipotentiary Min-
ister well accredited, more so then, when such person had
no recognized official capacity whatsoever; it became
necessary to tell that gentleman that his behaviour was
irregular and improper, especially so since a high au-
thority of his Government had recently repeated in a
public manner that Great Britain intended not to main-
tain relations with Mexico. It was also said that his
presence in national territory was inconsistent with this
situation.
Our diplomatic representative in Peru informed that
the Government of that country had been overthrown,
a new administration being organized under the Pres-
idency of Mr. Augusto B. Leguia.
Our Legation in Costa Rica reported by wire that
Mr. Tinoco had left the Presidency and General Juan
Quiroz assumed the Executive Power.
Our relations with the Spanish-American countries
have been now as ever most cordial and without the
least friction, for on the contrary several occurrences
have made evident once more the fraternal feelings of all
the Indo-Latin peoples.
Unfortunately our Extraordinary Envoy and Pleni-
[262]
APPENDIX I
potentiary Minister to the Republics of Argentine and
Uruguay, Mr. Amado Nervo, died at Montevideo on the
24th of last May, and on this account the peoples and
governments of Uruguay and Argentine made evident
their fraternal feelings toward Mexico, and their ex-
traordinary consideration for the deceased official. By
official decree honours were paid him as Secretary of
State, and a funeral of exceptional significance was held,
attended not only by the Diplomatic Corps and certain
officials, but even the very President of the Republic, His
Excellency Baltasar Brun. That Government has noti-
fied our Foreign office that Mr. Nervo's remains will be
sent to Mexico on board a Uruguayan warship, which
will probably leave the shores of that friendly country
in the first days of this month.
These tokens of singular courtesy speak very highly
of the fraternal friendship and mutual sympathy bind-
ing all the Spanish-American Republics, for on this oc-
casion there was not only the tribute paid by the re-
spective governments, but also private citizens and the
general public showed true affection for Mexico.
Last January our Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipo-
tentiary Minister before the Government of Guatemala,
General Jose Bermudez de Castro, died, and the Govern-
ment of that sister Republic paid him on that account the
honours due his high position. The corpse was brought
to Mexico, where the Department of Foreign Affairs ar-
ranged the funeral proper for that distinguished official.
Last May the Republic of Salvador was shaken by
several earthquakes and the Mexican Government con-
tributed with $20,000 to help the victims of that catas-
[263]
APPENDIX I
trophe, as it could do no less for a sister Republic which
has given us so many tokens of friendship.
Conventions have been concluded for the use of diplo-
matic mailbags with Peru in March this year, with Chile
last May and with Costa Rica last July, these treaties to
be in force as soon as the Senate approves them.
Boundaries. The International Commission of Boun-
daries with the United States has been actively working,
and it projects a new Treaty on distribution of waters
from the Bravo and Colorado Rivers. The same body
has been engaged in works connected with the removal
of shoals in the lower Rio Grande.
In regard to our southern boundaries with Guatemala,
nothing new has occurred except the reconstruction of a
bridge called " El Talisman," on the Suchiate River.
Our international trade relations have increased a good
deal, and in order to meet the actual necessities con-
nected therewith our Consular Service has been per-
fected, new offices being opened and we are endeavouring
in all possible ways to fill vacancies by promotion of
the oldest and most efficient clerks of the same offices.
The foreign governments have for their part appointed
in several cities of the Republic 88 new consular rep-
resentatives, and the Executive has granted 16 Exequa-
turs, 36 permanent authorizations and 35 provisional
ones.
A good proof of the increase of our foreign trade are
the figures recorded as income of our Embassy, Lega-
tions and Consulates on account of legalization of sig-
[264]
APPENDIX I
natures, fees on Manifests and Consular invoices, Mar-
iners registers and certificates, all of which gave the
Government an income of $7,255,315.94 during a period
between September, 1918, and August, 1919, against $5,-
669,389.94 recorded during the same length of time in
the previous year, which means an increase of $1,585,-
926.00.
During the fiscal year 1908-1910, which was consid-
ered the most flourishing during the time prior to the
revolution, the collections made on the same account
were only $1,248,962.90, and therefore the income of
last year increased over that sum by more than six
million pesos.
The amount collected by legations and consulates is
far above the whole budget of the Department of For-
eign Affairs, the Embassy, the Legations and Consul-
ates all together, for it amounts to $2,400,000 more or
less. Therefore the services of the Foreign Department
not only furnish funds for their own expenditures, but
also give the Erarium an income of considerable import.
In order to defend the rights of some Mexicans abroad
the Government paid lawyers' fees during the period I
speak of amounting to $31,369.22, and repatriated needy
Mexicans and helped others with pecuniary aid, spend-
ing $21,623.56 on it through the Foreign Department.
Sixty aliens applied to the Department, requesting
papers of Mexican citizenship, during the same months,
and 55 certificates were issued.
According to Article 33 of the Constitution 67 for-
eigners were expelled from the country, belonging to
different nations. The number of documents legalized
by the Office in the same period was 4,856.
[265]
APPENDIX I
Some 1,656 permits have been granted to foreigners
to acquire real estate in the Republic, according to the
prescriptions of Art. 27 of the Constitution. The detail
is as follows:
Germans 127
United States Citizens 415
Austrians 18
Argentineans 3
Belgians 6
Cubans 6
Chinese 19
Danish 3
Spaniards 615
French 140
Greeks 3
Guatemaleans 1
Hollanders 13
Hondurenas 7
British Subjects 83
Italians 93
Japanese 2
Turks 59
Rumanians 1
Salvadoreans 3
Swedes 5
Swiss 19
Uruguayan 3
Norwegian 4
Hungarian 8
Total 1,656
[266]
APPENDIX I
THE PRESIDENT'S CONCLUDING REMARKS
At the conclusion of the reading of the reports of the
various departments, President Carranza spoke as
follows:
From a resume of the aforesaid data you can obtain
an irrefutable demonstration of the assertions made in
the foreword of this report, in which I stated that the
Republic had sensibly progressed in spite of the vain
designs of the reactionaries and bandits. The interior
administration is firm and has not been weakened by
the elections of local officials. It is true that in some
States elections have provoked effervescence, but the
local troubles have developed in a legal form. Highly
significant is the persistency with which our institutions
have been transformed by means of the initiatives of
law presented to the Congress, the decrees that the
Executive has issued in use of its extraordinary powers
and the regulations that have been approved upon an
ascending scale of order and justice. The intervened
properties have been returned to their owners, with the
exception of those belonging to the responsible accom-
plices of the uprising in 1913, who have responsibilities
clearly determined by our constitution. Nationals and
foreigners have confidence in the interior conditions of
the Republic and this is proved by the increasing of
immigration and the return of Mexicans. The solicita-
tion of concessions to invest capital in the Republic is
a fact upon which the foreign press have made com-
ment as well as the investors interested in bringing to
Mexico their elements of labour. Comparison of the
importations and exportations of the period
[267]
APPENDIX I
to the revolution and the last year, 1918, in which the
commerce of the world was very much restricted, shows
that in spite of all circumstances our foreign commerce
considerably exceeded that of the best years registered
in our statistics. The exportation was almost double
that of 1910. The public finances offer a decisive bet-
terment. In 1917 the deficit was $35,000,000, more or
less; in 1918 it was $18,000,000, and in the present year
the expenses will be totally covered. The time is com-
ing when the Government will begin to pay its debts.
The army has a disproportionate organization, as it
was observed that an excess of officials over the troops
always existed. At present the army is thoroughly or-
ganized, it is subject to ordinances, and it can be as-
serted that the discipline is habitual in almost all mili-
tary components. The majority of the rebel leaders have
died, and those that still menace the absolute pacification
are dispersed. As proofs of the national development
are the statistics of the departments of Communications,
Industry and Commerce, and of Agriculture and Devel-
opment, in comparison with the administrative volume of
the preceding years. In fact, the railroads in exploita-
tion during 1917 amounted to 11,068 kilometres, and
at present they cover 13,784 kilometres, administered
by the government. The postoffices in 1917 were 1,200,
and at present they are 2,473. The postal routes in that
year were 39,000 kilometres. At present they are 45,-
605. Postal drafts amounted to more than $26,219,830
in the present year, while in 1917 they were only $10,-
000,000. In 1917 1,057 kilometres of telegraph line
were constructed and in this year we constructed 1,879
kilometres. The telegraphic drafts amounted in that
[268]
APPENDIX I
year to $4,000,000, and in the present year they were
$12,000,000. The mining titles issued in 1915, 1916
and 1917 were 578, and in the last year they amounted
to 764, which shows an increase of more than double the
amount. Patents of invention in 1917 were 500, and in
the last year 832. Commercial marks registered in 1917
amounted to 450, and in the last year they were 1,032.
Regarding agriculture and development, the concessions
for exploitation of timber suspended in 1917 were
granted again in the last year. They amounted to six-
teen. One hundred and forty-six permissions for cutting
hard wood timber were granted; 36 for the extraction
of chicle, and 386 for the exploitation of other products.
The agricultural school is in operation. We have con-
tinued the purchasing of agricultural machinery in great
quantities to extend its use among the farmers. From
the immigration, the prosperity of agriculture and in-
dustry, the equalization of the expenses and the in-
come, the solidification of the administration, the ac-
complishment of all the revolutionary promises, espe-
cially that regarding lands, the watching of the finances
of the government, the impulse given to our culture, and
all the detailed news you have heard, you cannot doubt
the importance of the labour of the administration which
has given all the possible profits in accordance with its
capacity in this period of world wide crisis.
The respectability of Mexico before all the nations of
the world has been maintained with the energy and
prudence demanded by internationalities. The causes of
trouble can be divided into four different sections:
Those regarding special conditions on the border of the
United States; those originated by damages to foreign
[269]
APPENDIX I
properties; those which refer to personal injuries of
citizens of foreign countries residing in Mexico; and
those arising from the application of the revolutionary
laws. Regarding the first one, history mentions the fre-
quent passage of American troops into the national ter-
ritory and the problem principally is of policing for
the safety of both countries. The invasions of American
troops have been repeated since the middle of last cen-
tury, and various arrangements have been projected with
the object of prosecuting the bandits who cross from one
country into the other. The government believes that
this cause of trouble will disappear as soon as an agree-
ment is reached to protect the border. Regarding the
damages to foreign properties, it may be stated that in
spite of the fact that a mixed commission of reclama-
tions has been operating, only a small number of for-
eigners have demanded indemnizations for the damages
caused by the revolution since 1913. As a proof of the
goodwill the government has to repair even the dam-
ages caused by the bandits, there has been introduced
into the law of the Commission of Indemnizations a new
rule of covering the damages caused by bandits, when
these damages are not caused by the imprudence of the
injured person, and the authorities can be blamed with
omissions, and also when the injured persons are not in
sympathy with the bandits.
The law recognizes the damages to foreigners and
pledges to the immediate payment of the indemnization
with the same limits that are mentioned for the damages
to properties. Regarding this point, it is to be stated
that it is impossible for a government, especially after
a revolution, to prevent in all the regions of the nation
[270]
APPENDIX I
the attacks against nationals or foreigners. The effi-
cacy with which the government has punished those re-
sponsible for offences against foreigners is very signifi-
cant, when it is considered that Mexico and the United
States have unfortunately been in the same circum-
stances regarding the attacks that the inhabitants of one
country have committed against the citizens of the other.
It would be desirable that the diplomatic representatives
accredited in this republic should advise constantly their
nationals to exercise more prudence with the purpose of
avoiding the causes of trouble. The Executive hopes
that when the cause of imprudence is removed, and the
protection of the troops and of the police is intensified,
the attacks will be more scarce and the difficulties will
have less importance.
The foreigners residing in the country are so con-
vinced of the sincerity of and efficacy of the government
to give guaranties that in spite of the accidents occurring
in our country the naturalization of citizens and sub-
jects of other countries increases every day, because they
have confidence in the authorities and in the laws, as is
proven by the many foreigners that have adjusted them-
selves to the requisites demanded by the supreme law to
obtain real estate.
The fourth cause of trouble is of a severe nature. It
deals with objections that are practically a limitation
to our national sovereignty. The revolution has put in
force reforms that represent the welfare and the progress
and tranquillity of the Mexican people, renewing its in-
stitutions in important branches, as that regarding lands
and the exploitation of the natural wealth. The govern-
ment desires to respect and consolidate the existent rights,
[271]
APPENDIX I
but it absolutely cannot accept the limitation of the lib-
erty of the Mexicans to be governed in accordance with
their own needs. A conciliatory spirit and a desire for
harmony in accordance with the law will be exerted to
conquer the difficulties which may arise, but always main-
taining firm our sovereignty. Mexico will comply with
its obligations with nationals and foreigners. The doubts
arising in this matter have been due only to mininterpre-
tations of the conduct of the government, which is not
capable of denying its legitimate obligations. The de-
lay in the payment is due to motives that cannot be over-
come at present.
The Executive has given a preferent place to the leg-
islation on petroleum, as is proven by the peremptory
character with which was sent the project of law to the
Chambers on the 1st of May, when the extraordinary pe-
riod of sessions was inaugurated.
The actual situation promises for the next year a
greater progress in the conditions of the government.
The Executive hopes that he will have the goodwill of the
legislative and judicial powers, with the purpose of
maintaining the increasing moral and material activities
of the life of the Republic, as I have informed you.
In conclusion, it is logical to conclude that if all the
exterior troubles can be evaded or removed, the vigorous
interior resurgement of the country will assure the fruits
of all the sacrifices and will maintain its march in the
development marked at present with a great success.
[272]
APPENDIX II
PROOF OF THE PLOT; BEING A POSTSCRIPT
BY THE AUTHOR
In accordance with Senate Resolutions numbers 106
and 163, the sub-committee of the .Senate Committee on
Foreign Relations met Monday, September 8, 1919, in
the Senate Office Building, Washington to begin "an in-
vestigation of Mexican affairs." The sub-committee was
clothed by these resolutions with all the powers of a high
court of justice for the purpose of investigating "the mat-
ter of damages and outrages suffered by citizens of the
United States in the Republic of Mexico, including the
number of citizens who have been killed or have suf-
fered personal outrages in Mexico and the amount of
proper indemnity for such murders and outrages; the
quantity of damages suffered on account of the destruc-
tion, confiscation, and larceny of personal property for
such murders and outrages," etc., since the retirement of
Porfirio Diaz; and the resolution also provided that "the
said committee shall further investigate and report to
the Senate what, if any, measures should be taken to
prevent a recurrence of such outrages."
The sub-committee consisted of Albert B. Fall, of New
Mexico; Frank B. Brandegee, of Connecticut, Republi-
cans; and Marcus A. Smith, of Arizona, Democrat. Mr.
Smith has been absent from the sittings of the sub-com-
mittee because of ill-health. Mr. Brandegee has fre-
quently been absent, and the entire direction of the sub-
committee's activities have vested in Senator Fall.
According to the Washington correspondent of the
[273]
APPENDIX II
New York Sun, in announcing the appointment of the
sub -committee to investigate Mexico:
"Mr. Fall for years has been demanding a vigorous
policy in Mexico. He is at once the best informed man
in Congress as to all Mexican affairs, and the most bit-
ter critic of the Administration's policy there. Likewise,
he has been an outspoken enemy of the Carranza regime."
According to the New York Times, in an editorial
commenting on Senator Fall's opening session as Chair-
man of this Sub-Committee:
"Senator Fall has never concealed his opinion of the
course the United States Government should adopt in the
matter. Speaking at the Lawyers' Club in this city two
years ago he said:
" 'I favour the immediate organization of an army of
500,000 men, ostensibly for the policing of Mexico or
for the invasion of that country, to protect our citizens,
if necessary. I do not mean that the United States should
annex Mexico; that I would never agree to, but it should
be kept in a peaceful condition as a buffer State between
this country and the Latin-American republics to the
south of it.'
"In the Senate on March 9, 1914, Mr. Fall urged the
employment of the 'land and naval forces,' to protect
'our citizens and other foreigners in Mexico,' and to
pacify the country. He affected to believe that the in-
tervention he proposed would not be an act of war, but
was sharply corrected by Senator Shively of Indiana."
According to the New York Globe of September 9th:
"Senator Fall, on the other hand, left little doubt that
he was there not to find out the truth about Mexico but to
drag from the witness facts in support of his own pre-
[274]
APPENDIX II
vious conviction. It is indeed unfortunate that at a crisis
in our relations with Mexico this country's sole official
investigation of the situation should be in the hands of a
committee which is dominated by active interventionist
beliefs, with a minority which is bitterly anti-adminis-
tration. The truth can hardly be expected to come out
other than badly battered through such a tortuous pas-
sage."
At all the sessions of the sub-committee included in
this review there were present Edward L. Doheny, Presi-
dent of the largest group of American oil companies op-
erating in Mexico; Harold Walker, his confidential rep-
resentative; Charles Hudson Boynton, Executive Director
of the National Association for the Protection of Ameri-
can Rights in Mexico, and press agent for various oil in-
terests; Agnes C. Laut and William Gates, authors of
numerous articles attacking the present regime in Mex-
ico, some of whom were under subpoena.
The interest of the Committee on Mexico of the League
of Free Nations Association was dual. First, the com-
mittee desired to establish by the testimony of those of
its members who had recently visited Mexico that con-
ditions there have greatly improved, and that there is no
need of an intervention on the part of the United States;
second, that an elaborate propaganda chiefly directed by
the oil interests, was seeking to influence the press and
to inflame public sentiment against Mexico, with a view
to an American intervention.
As a member of the committee I feel that it has proved
its case, although the efforts of Senator Fall to discredit
its witnesses fill a large part of the first two volumes of
the printed testimony, with which this statement exclu-
[275]
APPENDIX II
sively deals. There is no doubt in my mind that Senator
Fall will achieve his purpose of painting a picture of
Mexico in the most sombre colours, in accordance with
the phobia against Mexico which has been his distinguish-
ing characteristic in public life.
At the beginning of the hearings, Senator Fall read
into the record letters from James G. McDonald, chair-
man of the Executive Committee of the League of Free
Nations Association, New York, one of which contained
the following paragraphs:
"Several of the members of our Mexican committee
have been in Mexico recently, and are in a position to
give information regarding present-day conditions there.
They will be glad to appear before your committee at
your convenience.
"May we not venture to express the hope that the
Senate sub-committee will exercise more discretion in its
selection of witnesses than did the House Committee on
Rules?
"Denunciations of a Government with which the United
States continues to be in friendly treaty relations by a
go-between for various bandit chiefs were widely ex-
ploited through the press recently, and as loyal Ameri-
cans we hope your committee will not lend itself to
similar propaganda."
Dr. Samuel Guy Inman, executive secretary of the
Committee on Co-operation in Latin America, and a mem-
ber of the Committee on Mexico of the League of Free
Nations Association, was the first witness. Senator
Fall's attitude toward Dr. Inman and that of the other
witnesses offered by the Committee on Mexico, was
marked throughout by deliberate discourtesy which con-
[276]
APPENDIX II
trasted strongly with the sympathetic attitude he mani-
fested when E. L. Doheny, Agnes C. Laut, and various
other witnesses representing the oil interests were testify-
ing. Dr. Inman had heen for ten years teacher of a
mission school in Mexico, where he became personally
acquainted with Mr. Carranza, whose farm was nearby,
and had visited Mexico in the spring of 1919 to attend
a missionary conference held there. Senator Fall de-
sired Dr. Inman to give the committee precise informa-
tion regarding the nationalization of women and the ex-
tent of venereal disease among little girls in Mexico.
Dr. Inman denied that there was either law or custom
for nationalization of Mexican women. The following
dialogue is then reported on page 72 of the printed
record :
THE CHAIRMAN. And you know nothing about the outrages of
little children in Mexico which have filled the hospitals now with
those children suffering with venereal diseases?
DR. INMAN. No, sir; I never heard of that.
THE CHAIRMAN. You have not been in the hospitals of Mexico?
DR. INMAN. No, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN. You have been writing about Mexico and con-
ditions in Mexico?
DR. INMAN. Yes, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN. Do you not think you might very well have
spent a few days in the city of Mexico and in the hospitals among
these poor people?
DR. INMAN. If I had done everything you had suggested this
afternoon, I never would have gotten to write that book.
THE CHAIRMAN. If you did not do some of those things, you
should never have written the book. I have not written a book.
DR. INMAN. I hope some day you will write a book.
THE CHAIRMAN. I am going to write a chapter before we get
through with this investigation.
We will be in recess until 11 o'clock tomorrow.
Dr. Inman told of extensive travels through Latin
America for missionary purposes, and of the better-
[277]
APPENDIX II
ment of relations between the countries visited and the
United States, and added: "I believe our relationships
to Mexico have a great deal to do with our relationships
with all of Latin America. We are now in a new day
in Pan Americanism. ... I feel convinced that if ...
we should have armed intervention in Mexico that that
would prejudice all Latin-American countries, and would
set back this development of Pan American friendship
in a way that could not be described; in a very, very,
large way. Therefore I think that in all our dealings
with the Mexican question we should take into account
the whole of Pan America." He continued:
"In the second place, I would like to call the commit-
tee's attention to the interests of the missionary forces
of North America in Mexico. There are probably 150
to 200 American missionaries in Mexico at the present
time. They have had the best year in their history dur-
ing 1918 and 1919. The mission schools are all
crowded; the churches are crowded. From six hundred
to a thousand people come together in one church in
Mexico City every Sunday, and the churches are crowded
to capacity in Mexico City, in Chihuahua, in Guadala-
jara, in Puebla, in Vera Cruz, in Yucatan, and I might
say in practically every region of Mexico. These mis-
sionaries are scattered all over Mexico, in practically
every part of the country. Their schools are crowded
at the present time; their hospitals are overrun, and
there are continual demands for their services."
Asked if he got his impressions of present day condi-
tions in Mexico from the Mexican newspapers, Dr. Inman
said:
"No, sir; I got it, first from my own experience down
[278] '
APPENDIX 11
there in January, February, and March, and I got it
from the missionaries who are located in all parts of
Mexico and with whom I have continued correspondence.
For instance, in January there were 22 representatives
of mission boards who went to attend a conference in
the city of Mexico. Some of them went into Mexico by
way of Arizona and went down the west coast through
Sonora, through Guadalajara to Mexico City; others
came through El Paso, down to Chihuahua and Durango
to Mexico City. Others came from Eagle Pass and others
from Laredo down through Monterey and San Luis to
Mexico City; others through Brownesville and Tampico
to Mexico City; others from Vera Cruz. Some of these
ladies and gentlemen had not travelled in Mexico and
did not speak any Spanish, but they all arrived without
any untoward event whatsoever, in the city of Mexico, and
we had our conference there. I should be glad to read
here a resolution that was passed at the time."
THE CHAIRMAN. Give the date of it, please.
DR. INMAN (reading) :
The conference of Christian workers meeting in the City of
Mexico, February 17 to 22, 1919, wishes to express its deep grati-
tude for the cordial way in which it has been received by all the
people and for the fact that improved conditions and the open-
mindedness of the people permit Christian work to be carried on
in all parts of the Republic, with protection and welcome for the
workers.
The 20 delegates from the United States, before arriving at the
capital, have visited their work in all sections of the country,
the routes of some being through Nogales, Sonora, Sinaloa, and
Guadalajara; others through El Paso, Chihuahua, and Aguas
Calientes; others through Laredo, Monterey, and Saltillo; others
through Matamoras, Victoria, Tampico, and San Luis Potosi; and
others through Vera Cruz, Jalapa, and Puebla. Such travel has
been attended with no untoward incident whatever, and with a
far greater degree of comfort than was anticipated.
Many encouraging evidences were found of the fact that the
[279]
APPENDIX II
country is slowly but surely returning to normal conditions, so-
cially, economically, and politically. While some outlying districts
are still greatly disturbed, practically all the centres exhibit stable
conditions.
We recognize keenly the many difficulties against which the
Government is working in restoring the country to a normal life,
and register our hearty sympathy with the Mexican people in their
earnest struggle toward the real democracy.
We pledge ourselves to do all within our power to promote a
closer friendship and clearer understanding between the two
neighbouring Republics, both by making known in the United
States the real developments and deep aspirations we have found
among the Mexican people, and by encouraging in every possible
way the increase of those institutions and movements which are
set to aid Mexico in her struggle toward a new life.
In regard to the propaganda for an intervention in
Mexico, Dr. Inman, who is the author of a recent book
setting forth what intervention means, quoted the Field
Secretary of the National Association for the Protection
of American Rights in Mexico, as reported in a San
Francisco newspaper, in part as follows:
"Seeking the support of local leaders, Maj. John G.
MacDonnell, United States Army, one of Lieut. Gen.
Hunter Liggett's staff in France, arrived in San Francisco
yesterday to promote plans to solve the Mexican prob-
lem. Maj. MacDonnell is field secretary for the National
Association for the Protection of American Rights in
Mexico. Membership in the association is held by more
than 600 banks, industrial and commercial institutions
in the United States. San Francisco will be asked to fall
in line, Maj. MacDonnell says, in upholding Congress
and the administration in whatever policy is mandatory
for the correction of present intolerable conditions.
"'The placid indifference with which killing of more
than 300 American citizens in Mexico within the last few
years is regarded,' says Maj. MacDonnell, 'to say noth-
ing of the attempted confiscation of American property
[280]
APPENDIX II
worth more than a billion dollars, would appear to in-
dicate the need for somebody to assume the leadership in
arousing the torpid public conscience.
" 'Our association, for which I am seeking the support
of San Francisco, was formed to arouse, organize, and
lead public sentiment which would support Congress and
the administration in taking, without further delay,
whatever steps may be necessary to secure protection for
the lives and property of American citizens wherever they
may be and to compel that respect for the American flag
which has been so conspicuously lacking in Mexico for
the greater part of 80 years.
"'We did not hesitate to take energetic steps for the
protection of American citizens in China in the Boxer
rebellion of 1900. We recognized the right and duty
of a government to protect its citizens temporarily re-
siding in foreign lands, when Italy demanded and re-
ceived, without demur on our part, reparation for the
lynching of some of its citizens in New Orleans. In-
deed, the duty of a government to protect its citizens
wherever they may be seems to be fully understood every-
where but in America today. That is the purpose for
which governments are created.
" 'The Mexican situation concerns not alone those who
have invested large sums in Mexico, nor the survivors of
thousands of colonists who have lost everything they pos-
sessed and whose families have been murdered. It is a
matter which vitally interests every man, woman, and
child in America.
" 'Mexico is the haven or refuge to which the I. W. W.
were sent to be tortured by German propagandists. The
product of this joint labour of anarchy and kultur was
[281]
APPENDIX II
Bolshevism, which was first put into effect in Mexico in
all its details, even to public ownership of women and
corruption of children. The truth is that there is no or-
ganized government in Mexico. Carranza is merely the
nominal head of a movement and does not even control
his own so-called government. The control rests in the
hands of military chieftains who acknowledge no al-
legiance to Carranza, except that which is gained through
being provided with money. Only one-half of 1 per
cent, of the people of Mexico are responsible for the
crimes that are committed there.
" 'Chaos is the only word which describes the situation
when we attempt to view it as a whole. Under such
conditions is it not imperative that America should be
aroused to the menace of the southern border? Those
who originated the National Association for the Protec-
tion of American Rights in Mexico thought so. And no
violent protests against its aims and activities have
emanated from Washington.' "
To offset that call to arms by a soldier who has not
been in Mexico, Dr. Inman, a teacher knowing the coun-
try well, said :
"The officers of the Federal Council of Churches, the
Chicago Federal Council of Churches, the missionary
boards, the missionaries themselves in Mexico, and so far
as I know the Christian leaders all over the United States,
are entirely opposed to armed intervention. I have sub-
mitted certain editorials from the religious press to sub-
stantiate that statement.
"I do not care to create the impression at all, if it
were possible, that things are all right in Mexico today;
[282]
APPENDIX II
but I would like for all of us to realize that after a period
of revolution every country has had in its history a period
of reconstruction, and that Mexico today is striving with
the same problems largely that we strove with in the time
following the Civil War and the difficulties of catching
Villa, for example, are similar to the difficulties we found
in suppressing banditry, the James boys and others in
the western part of the United States ; and that conditions
are gradually growing better; indeed, more rapidly than
most of us in the United States have any idea of.
"As to Mr. Carranza, who is largely the bone of con-
tention here, I believe that Mr. Carranza is an honest and
capable man. I recognize his faults. He is ultra-inter-
nationalistic. He is very sensitive and the attacks of the
American press on Mr. Carranza have caused him to be
exceedingly sensitive as to what has been said about him
here. He has been called a thief and a liar and a robber
and everything that certain parts of the American press
could invent.
"That has made Mr. Carranza naturally very resent-
ful. I knew him as a neighbour in the State of Coahuila
when I was director of the People's Institute there several
years ago. Knowing him as a neighbour, I formed a
high opinion of him as a man, and his belief in a demo-
cratic form of government. I believe that he is not anti-
American, for he has done too much for American
schools; he has employed too many of the young men
who have been educated in American institutions; he
has sent too many teachers and students to the United
States, and he has had friendship with too many Ameri-
can people in Mexico for me to believe that he is anti-
[283]
APPENDIX II
American. I believe that he is very much pro -Mexican.
He is trying to work out a policy of Mexico for the
Mexicans."
Bishop Cannon, of the Methodist Episcopal Church
South, who is in charge of the work of his church both
in Mexico and among the Mexicans on the American
side of the border told of improved material and spir-
itual conditions during his last visit to Mexico, saying:
"I think, perhaps, we have had more accessions to the
church this year, the old missionaries tell me, than they
have had for many years." He continued:
"As an illustration, I went in at Eagle Pass about the
1st of August in an automobile, a Ford car, and drove
through the interior of the country. I was very much
amused to read something some gentleman had written,
who seems to be a German Altendorf, I think his name
was in which he said it was not safe for anybody to go
down there, that they would be murdered. I went out in
that car with a Mexican driver and a missionary and
rode into the interior of the State of Coahuila, after dark,
after 10 o'clock at night. I remember I stopped at Al-
lende. I found the Mexican people there sufficiently
prosperous to put down $6,000 if our missionaries would
put down $6,000 to build a new church, to cost $12,000
in a town of about 10,000, which I didn't think was very
bad, even for the United States. Over in Saltillo a man
came from Turan, which was either in Nuevo Leon or
Tamaulipas, and said, 'If you will put down $3,500, we
will buy the lot and put in $3,500 to build the church.'
"Now, those are straws, but they are the straws that
come my way.
"We believe, gentleman of the committee, that the best
[284]
APPENDIX II
solution for Mexico would be the largest possible amount
of sympathy for them, the bearing with their mistakes,
remembering that she has about 70 per cent, illiterate
people who can not read a newspaper for themselves,
and are dependent on other people to tell them what is
going on in the world, and who are easily influenced by
these things, and to realize that they have been and are
under a tremendous handicap."
Dr. George B. Winton, another member of the Com-
mittee of Mexico of the League of Free Nations Associa-
tion, also gave a favourable picture of the Mexico of to-
day, although careful to show that recovery from the ef-
fects of the revolution was not complete. In his clos-
ing statement, Dr. Winton said:
"I might say just one word, Mr. Chairman, before I
leave the stand. In deprecation of misunderstandings
among those of us who are interested in Mexico, you will
find among other things that I have written phrases that
seem to point in the direction of a charge that there are
persons interested in promoting intervention, and that
they are active. What I wish to say in regard to that
is that the weakening of the hands of the Mexican Gov-
ernment in the present juncture by painting very gloomy
and exaggerated pictures of social and economic condi-
tions in Mexico, creates the impression in the mind of
the average man that the only way it can be remedied is
by armed intervention. That is how it arises that some-
limes the phrase is used that those who speak and write
against Carranza are speaking and writing in favour of
intervention. It is not a charge that they are intending
to do that, necessarily; it is simply qualifying the out-
come of their work. I am obliged to say that I have had
[285]
APPENDIX II
a good deal of experience in that line, and I am afraid
that is the tendency of it."
James G. McDonald, chairman of the League of Free
Nations Association, and of its Committee on Mexico,
gave a brief survey of the activities of the Association
regarding Mexico, which set forth that:
"The immediate program is, first, syndicating gratis
daily and Sunday feature material to the press through-
out the country, presenting fact statements of actual con-
ditions in Mexico.
"Second, co-operating with societies throughout the
country interested in justice for Mexico.
"Third, preparing for a Mexican conference in New
York City, and urging the holding of similar conferences
elsewhere.
"Fourth, arranging, in co-operation with other socie-
ties, for a mass meeting at Madison Square Garden.
"Fifth, acting as a medium for the creation of a com-
mission of five or six nationally known and representa-
tive Americans, to investigate and report on actual con-
ditions in Mexico.
"Sixth, studying the situation from every angle, with
a view to aiding in the formulation of a Mexican policy,
at once economically sound and socially justifiable."
Mr. McDonald suggested the names of a number of
gentlemen prepared to give first hand information re-
garding Mexico, offered to supply the committee with
an auditor's statement showing receipts and expenditures
with the names of all contributors since the formation of
the Committee on Mexico, and suggested that a similar
auditor's statement be required from the National Asso-
ciation for the Protection of American Rights in Mexico.
[286]
APPENDIX II
Another witness was the author of this book. I was
asked if I received money for my services from Mr. Car-
ranza, although the chairman had in his possession when
putting the question an affidavit in which I had disclosed
the sources of my income and the nature of my employ-
ment for a ten year period, and stated that I was still
a confidential employe of the United States Government
on indefinite leave of absence.
I then read a memo of which part is quoted:
I am a member of the Mexican Committee of the League of
Free Nations Association and of the association itself, and have
been chiefly responsible for the activities of the committee in its
attempt to reply to the propaganda favouring an intervention in
Mexico.
Having been threatened with a libel suit by the Association of
Oil Producers in Mexico in their letter published in the Nation,
I have avoided any specific mention of the oil interests by name.
The Nation of July 26, 1919, page 108
THE SECRETARY. What is that reference, please?
MR. DE BEKKER. The Nation, of July 26, 1919, page 108. But
assuming that the statements made before the committee are
privileged I am right in that, am I not, Senator?
THE CHAIRMAN. If you desire to claim privilege; yes, sir.
MR. DE BEKKER. I do desire to claim privilege.
I give the list of the oil interests concerned, which Mr. Mc-
Donald our chairman, did not have in his possession when testify-
ing before the committee: California Petroleum Co., Continental
Mexican Petroleum Co., Freeport & Mexican Fuel Oil Corporation,
Huasteca Petroleum Co., Mexican Gulf Oil Co., Mexican Petro-
leum Co. (Ltd.), of Delaware, Mexican Petroleum Corporation,
National Oil Co., Pan-American Petroleum & Trading Co.,
Panuco-Boston Oil Co., Port Lobos Petroleum Co., Snowden &
McSweeny, Southern Oil & Transport Corporation, Standard Oil
Co. of New Jersey, Tamiahua Oil Co., The Texas Co., Tuxpam
Petroleum Co., Union Oil Co. of California, Union Petroleum Co.
Among the most active individual propagandists are Edward L.
Doheny, leader of the entire group of oil interests operating in
Mexico; I. Jewell Williams, a Philadelphia lawyer, who is also
president of the Boston-Panuco Oil Co.; and Burton W. Wilson,
a New York lawyer in the employ of the Standard Oil Co., or
those of its subsidiary corporations operating in Mexico. Charles
Hudson Boynton, at one time superintendent of the Associated
Press in Washington, is the press agent for this group. The list
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is probably not complete, but Mr. Boynton can give a complete
list of the Association of Oil Producers in Mexico, of which he
is also press agent. All of the corporations above named are
members of the National Association for the Protection of Ameri-
can Rights in Mexico, of which Mr. Boynton is "executive direc-
tor" (which may be interpreted press agent), with offices at 347
Fifth Avenue, New York; Frank J. Silsbee is styled secretary of
the National Association for the Protection of American Rights in
Mexico, and in the absence of these persons the office appears to
be in charge of Harry W. Berbie.
I then suggested that C. H. Boynton, Agnes C. Laut,
and William Gates might throw additional light on the
propaganda of the oil companies for an intervention in
Mexico, offered various instances of specific propaganda,
including the Altendorf letters issued by the National As-
sociation for the Protection of American Rights in Mex-
ico, the "atrocity" stories of Miss Laut and her picture
fake in the Independent, the fake map of Mexico in va-
rious newspapers, and other proof of a circumstantial
nature pointing to a plot to intervene. The following
colloquy occurred toward the close of my testimony:
Senator BRANDEGEE. Give me circumstances that caused you
to believe there is a plot in this country to force armed interven-
tion in Mexico.
Mr. DE BEKKER. I would say for one thing, Senator Fall's
presence as head of this committee, as shown in my letter to him.
Senator BRANDEGEE. One minute. Who put up that plot?
Mr. DE BEKKER. I am sure I do not know who did that.
Senator BRANDECEE. Do you mean to say that because the
chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United
States Senate appointed Senator Fall chairman of this committee,
that is evidence of a plot to force armed intervention in Mexico?
Mr. DE BEKNER. That, I would say, is strong circumstantial
evidence.
Senator BRANDEGEE. That is what you call strong circumstan-
tial evidence?
The CHAIRMAN. You claimed immunity in your testimony. If
you read that, you read it without any immunity. You are not
going to read that into this record.
Mr. DE BEKKER. I see I am not.
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The letter referred to was in the form of an affidavit,
and Senator Fall had repeatedly refused to admit it to
the record, possibly because it contained pointed refer-
ences to the Senator's notorious hatred of Mexico and
Mr. Carranza.
Miss Laut, for whom Senator Fall at once called the
first and only night session of his committee, and who
had represented herself while in Mexico to be the cor-
respondent of the Saturday Evening Post, told how she
met some members of the National Association for the
Protection of American Rights in Mexico, and was asked
if she would make a report on economic conditions to
various members of the Association.
Senator BRANDEGEE. That is the Association for the Protection
of American Rights in Mexico?
Miss LAUT. Yes, sir. I was asked to make that report, be-
cause, after all, the stability of a country depends on human
conditions, and that is what I wanted to get. I agreed to do that.
Shall I go right on with my visit to Mexico?
The CHAIRMAN. Yes. But first, how were your expenses paid
down there, if any one paid them?
Miss LAUT. That brought up a very fine point. I agreed that
I would make them a report if they would pay such expenses that
would make it possible for me to take a constant companion, be-
cause I saw an international scrap coming, and I know the danger
of blackmail in those international scraps, and I always take with
me on those trips a married sister or an unmarried sister. I
always go on such long trips, purely as a protection from mis-
representation, with a sister. They agreed, not the protective
association, because it was not fully formed, but they agreed per-
sonally that the expenses of that trip would be sufficiently covered
to take along a companion to cover blackmail protection.
Miss Laut testified that her present job was linking up
the financial interests with the churches, to help Mexico,
and said that a single article she wrote brought in $40,000
in contributions.
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APPENDIX II
The CHAIRMAN. By what organization of ministers or churches
was that money paid?
Miss LAUT. Senator, it rather scares me to say that the money
was paid to me personally; that the only way that I could keep
free of any charge that I had handled that money through a per-
sonal account, I immediately indorsed it over to the head of the
Latin-American Church Bureau.
The CHAIRMAN. Who was that?
Miss LAUT. May I give you that name in executive session or
shall I do it now? I will give it to you now. Dr. Teeter. The
witnesses so far know so little of what the churches are actually
doing that they do not know that the big church movement is
under way in Mexico now and the members of the movement are
in Mexico now working on that.
Miss Laut was indignant at the thought that she or any
of her associates favoured an intervention in Mexico,
saying :
"We are told in the Bible that we must bear the in-
firmities of the weak. It seems to me the same Good
Book says that you shall not bear false witness against
your neighbour. At the very time that the charge was
made that the oil interests were financing intervention,
the oil interests had put up $40,000 to help the church
campaign, the union of Protestant and Catholic churches,
to place before the American public the necessity of
helping Mexico."
Her view of how not to intervene was expressed as
follows:
Senator BRANDECEE. What effect would it have in Mexico if
this Government did intervene, with an army announcing that it
came to establish order and stop the banditry and to help them
to help themselves to set up some form of government of their
own, that they were not going to stay there or annex their terri-
tory or anything of that kind? Have you any means of forming
an opinion as to how that proposition would be received by the
people of Mexico?
Miss LAUT. Well, I have been told by their own leaders that
if such a beneficent pacification were undertaken and followed by
thousands of cars of food that a hurdle 16 feet high would not
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APPENDIX II
stop the population coming en masse behind and supporting the
movement.
Senator BRANDEGEE. Well, I have heard both sides. I have
heard people state both opinions. I see that some of the military
chiefs of Mexico state that any attempt by this country to send
troops there and establish order would combine the whole popula-
tion of Mexico against us, that the Carranzistas and all the bandits
would immediately make common cause against the invader. I
wondered whether you were able to form an opinion about the
probabilities of that?
Miss LAUT. I think it is pretty largely politics for home con-
sumption.
Senator BRANDEGEE. It seems to me now I do not know how
you look at it but it seems to me no financial interests in this
country can back up such an angel down there and endow him
with the necessary funds to help this armed movement without
being charged with fomenting a revolution in a foreign state with
which we are at peace, and our Government certainly could not
do it as a government without laying itself liable to the same
charge.
Miss LAUT. But, Mr. Senator, we are not at peace. We don't
keep a border control at a cost of $150,000,000 if we are at
peace.
Senator BRANDEGEE. But we have not declared war on them.
Miss LAUT. I know, but the peace is not there. We are simply
fooling ourselves, bluffing ourselves.
Charles Hudson Boynton, press agent for various pe-
troleum associations, and "executive director" of the Na-
tional Association for the Protection of American Rights
in Mexico filed articles issued by the National Associa-
tion for the Protection of American Rights in Mexico,
including atrocity stories, which occupy a special place
of honour in Part 2 of the printed record, pages 438 to
468, but without including the monthly bulletin of his
organization, nor the mimeographed sheets issued to the
Washington correspondents by his branch bureau there.
Senator BRANDEGEE. We have asked the other representatives
of these other associations that have appeared before us what their
salaries were; that is, the publicity men, so to speak. What is
your salary?
Mr. BOYNTON. $20,000 a year.
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APPENDIX II
Mr. William Gates was permitted to read into the rec-
ord his correspondence with Secretary Baker, but
has not testified since the U. S. State Department for-
warded to Chairman Campbell, of the House Committee
on Rules, the letter accrediting him to Mr. Campbell
from the bandit Amezcua, then in Havana. The death of
Amezcua has subsequently been reported from Mexico
City. He had attempted to return to Mexico to assist
in revolutionary schemes.
It will be noted that the Protestant Missions operated
from the United States are keenly opposing the proposed
intervention, many of the witnesses appearing before the
Fall committee being identified with these organizations.
The Catholic opposition is now being voiced in an influ-
ential section of that church's press. The Committee on
Mexico therefore should call especial attention to the
eloquent and pathetic appeal issued from Chicago, April
4, by three Mexican Archbishops, then in exile, now in
Mexico, thanks to a reconciliation effected by Mgr.
Burke:
The late war has spread desolation and destruction
over large areas of the earth: has shaken our social fab-
ric to its foundations : has left in a maimed, starving, and
plague-stricken condition multitudes of our fellow-men:
and has filled the world with the lamentations of the be-
reaved and the suffering. As the common father of man-
kind and as the custodian of the Christian world, the
Sovereign Pontiff has appealed to us all in the name of
God and for the sake of humanity, not merely to bind
up the wounds of our civilization, but, through steadfast
advocacy of justice to all peoples, also to point the way
to permanent peace and goodwill. Even while we in
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APPENDIX II
love and charity labour to fulfil this duty which Chris-
tianity imposes upon us and which the Holy Father so
eloquently requires of us, there are others who fan old
fears, and rekindle oJd hates. A small, selfish, but very
powerful minority still pervert and obscure the interests
of the plain people. The rights of the weakest continue
to be sacrificed to the interests of the strongest.
In Mexico, anarchy is abetted by a few aliens; and
our people are angered by unwarranted foreign interfer-
ence in their domestic concerns, an indignity which a
proud and sovereign race cannot lightly endure. The
purpose of these activities is made plain by a press
which is filled with the threats and portents of a new
war, the work of a small group of heartless or thought-
less men against our own well-beloved people of Mexico.
We, the undersigned bishops of Mexico, sustained in
our exile by our faith and trust in God and by kve of
our country, share the hopes and tribulations of our
people. We rejoice in their gladness, and grieve over
their sorrows. And in obedience to the command of our
blessed Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, in conformity
with the behest of His Vicar, our Sovereign Pontiff, and
dominated by our ever vigilant solicitude for the safety
and well-being of those committed to our care, we are
impelled to appeal to the citizens of the United States
and to the citizens of the Republic of Mexico to be pa-
tient and forbearing the one with the other, lest the
amity which just men desire to preserve and to foster
should be disrupted by the machinations of the evil forces
that are now arrayed against it. We desire that wise
counsel should displace all thoughts of violence in the
consideration of such differences as exist, or as may be
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APPENDIX II
created, between our dear land of Mexico and the land
of our refuge. Between lands linked in a common des-
tiny by nature and by sentiment, free lands intended by
God to help each other in harmony, mutual confidence,
and disinterested friendship, in the fulfilment of the high
purposes for which He has created them peace, the
peace of God and the Church, should prevail.
We, as representatives of the Church which has under
our leadership and in our persons suffered persecution
at the hands of the Mexican Government, appeal in our
anguish especially to all who are bearing burdens un-
fairly placed upon them by the Mexican authorities.
Before those who are burdened, we would give testimony
of our abiding faith in the essential justice of the Mexi-
can people, and our unalterable trust in the ultimate tri-
umph of all just causes placed before the tribunal of our
people. We, homeless shepherds whose folds are
wrecked and ruined, and whose flocks are scattered and
sorely beset; we who are bound in conscience to abate no
effort till the trust be fulfilled that God gave to our care;
we urge mutual patience and forbearance, for our trust
in the Mexican people is absolute. And proclaiming that
trust before men, shall we appeal in vain to the fair-
minded moulders of American opinion that they refrain
from thoughts of violence and instruct their public in the
ways of charity, and of peace settlement of all diffi-
culties? We appeal especially to th'ose in the United
States who in good faith have made our cause their own,
reminding them that the temples of God are the hearts
of His people and that the mission of His Church is to
create peace and good will among men. The principle
on which our Church is founded will insure a peace of
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APPENDIX II
justice, for the capacity of the Mexican people to respond
to the mission of the Church is limited only by the arti-
ficial and temporary barriers which restrict our func-
tions. Finally we appeal to the faithful in the United
States and in Mexico to join us in our prayers that God
may be pleased speedily to remove all occasions of mis-
understanding between these two sovereign states so that
the American and the Mexican peoples, each preserving
its own sovereignty, may dwell together in perfect peace
now and for ever.
FRANCIS PLANCARTE
Archbishop of Linares
LEOPOLD Ruiz
Archbishop of Michoacan
FRANCIS OROZCO Y JIMENEZ
Archbishop of Guadalajara
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