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Supplement to
STfje Snnals; OF
THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL
AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
January, 1917
The Purposes and Ideals
Mexican Revolution
Addresses delivered before the
Academy by:
Hon. Lais Cabrera
Hon. Ygnacio Bonillas
Hon. Alberto J. Pani
Hon. Juan B. Rojo
PHILADELPHIA
The American Academy of Political and Social Science
Origin and Purpose. The Academy was organized December
14, 1889, to provide a national forum for the discussion of political and
social questions. The Academy does not take sides upon controverted
questions, but seeks to secure and present reliable information to assist
the public in forming an intelligent and accurate opinion.
Publications. The Academy publishes annually six issues of
its "Annals" dealing with the six most prominent current social and
political problems. Each publication contains from twenty to twenty-
five papers upon the same general subject. The larger number of the
papers published are solicited by the Academy; they are serious dis-
cussions, not doctrinaire expressions of opinion.
Meetings. The Academy holds five scientific sessions each year
during the winter months, and it also has an annual meeting in April,
extending over two full days and including six sessions. The papers
of permanent value presented at the meetings are included in the Acad-
emy publications.
Membership. The subscription price of THE ANNALS of the
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to the Editorial Council for information upon current political and
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ncreft ubf&
THE ^URPOSES AND IDEALS OF
MEXICAN REVOLUTION
Addresses delivered at a joint session of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science
^tmd the Pennsylvania Arbitration and Peace
Society, held on Friday evening, November 10, 1916
HON. LUIS CABRERA
MINISTER OF FINANCE OF MEXICO AND CHAIRMAN OF THE MEXICAN
SECTION OF THE AMERICAN AND MEXICAN JOINT COMMISSION
HON. YGNACIO BONILLAS
MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC WORKS OF MEXICO AND
MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN AND MEXICAN JOINT COMMISSION
HON. ALBERTO J. PANI
DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE CONSTITUTIONALIST RAILWAYS OF MEXICO
AND MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN AND MEXICAN JOINT COMMISSION
HON. JUAN B. ROJO
COUNSELLOR OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF MEXICO AND SECRETARY
OF THE MEXICAN SECTION OF THE AMERICAN AND
MEXICAN JOINT COMMISSION
With concluding remarks by
L. S. ROWE
President of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science
PHILADELPHIA
THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
1917
^35
47
Copyright, 1917, by
THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
All rights reserved.
FOREWORD
BY L. S. ROWE, PH.D., LL.D.,
President of the Academy
The addresses printed herewith were delivered at a joint
meeting of the American Academy of Political "and Social Science
and the Pennsylvania Arbitration and Peace Society on the evening
of Friday, November 10, 1916. The importance of the occasion,
as well as the significance of the addresses, make it desirable to
place them in the hands of every member of the Academy. The
American public has never had an opportunity to form a judgment
of the purposes of the Mexican Revolution. It has seemed im-
portant to the officers of the Academy that these purposes should
be presented by the men who have taken not only a leading part in
the revolutionary movement but who are now actively engaged in
an endeavor to work out these purposes in concrete and practical
form.
liii]
THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION ITS CAUSES, PURPOSES
AND RESULTS
BY HON. Luis CABRERA,
Minister of Finance of Mexico, and Chairman of the Mexican Section of the
American and Mexican Joint Commission.
Whatever I might say in token of gratitude, for the honor
conferred upon us by the American Academy of Political and Social
Science and the Pennsylvania Arbitration and Peace Society,
would be little in view of the great importance of the special invita-
tion extended to us to attend this special session.
We consider it a high honor for our country more than for
ourselves, and we are glad of the opportunity to make ourselves
heard before a scientific and scholarly public, free from prejudice
and interested in the Mexican situation. Owing to their special
nature, the American Academy of Political and Social Science as
well as the Pennsylvania Arbitration and Peace Society are institu-
tions of scientific and humanitarian character. They have at heart
only the investigation and the good of humanity, and in that spirit
they study the Mexican situation.
Literature on Mexico which I have found in the United States
is of an entirely superficial character, such as is contained in news-
paper reports or interviews. Consequently, it is tinged with shal-
lowness, based on rumors, and intended for telegraphic transmission.
In many cases those reports have a political purpose and then the
facts are not only inaccurate, but are set forth with the intention
of moulding public opinion, or that of the United States Govern-
ment, or of some political party. In many other cases the literature
of Mexico known in the United States, is simply imaginative, like
the novel or the moving picture exhibition. I do not know of any
book, pamphlet or publication on the Mexican situation which has
been prepared with a scientific purpose.
The sources of information have been either newspaper corre-
spondents who discard 99 per cent of the important facts because
they cannot extract from them a sensational headline for their
papers, or foreigners who have interests in Mexico, and who look
at the situation merely from the viewpoint of their own businesses.
[11
2 The Annals of the American Academy
Other founts of information are either Mexicans who reside abroad
and whose views are affected by partisan bias,- or politicians repre-
senting some special faction or chieftain. All such sources must
necessarily be unreliable. Not one of them springs from the purpose
of ascertaining the true conditions of Mexico, and the public who
reads them desires to find therein the corroboration of its own
opinions rather than precise data.
The mission which has brought us to the United States being
of a diplomatic nature, prevents us from speaking with absolute
liberty, and our connection with the Constitutionalist Government
might cause our opinions to be viewed as decidedly partial. As
regards myself, without losing sight of the fact that I belong to the
Government of Mr. Carranza and am taking part in a diplomatic
mission, I would like to say some words on the Mexican situation,
appraising it from a purely scientific viewpoint.
Therefore I shall not speak either as an officiaror as a politician
or as a diplomat, but only as a member of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science who desires to present the general
features of a scientific interpretation of the facts which have been
agitating Mexico during the past six years.
THE CHAOS
The general impression regarding the Mexican situation, not
only abroad but in Mexico, is that it is but chaos. The causes put
forth by each Government, each chief, each conspirator, each poli-
tician or each writer, as the motives of the Mexican Revolution,
are so numerous and conflicting that it is almost impossible to under-
stand them. Some are general, others concrete, others immediate,
and still others remote in their influence.
The simplest conclusion which indolent intelligence or impa-
tient characters have extracted from this galaxy of motives, is that
the Mexican people have an incorrigible tendency towards disorder
and war, and Mexico is consequently the "sick man," whose cure is
hopeless. The number of presidents that Mexico has had in a cen-
tury, is nearly as large as the numbers of leaders, generals or chief-
tain who in the past six years have assumed the title of legitimate
governments of Mexico. All possible forms of administration have
tried to rule Mexico, ranking from brutally military governments,
without organization of any kind, such as those of Zapata or Villa,
The Mexican Revolution 3
Up to a Government of Democratic appearance, but headless, as
that proceeding from the Aguascalientes Convention.
Foreign countries know of Mexico only what they see in the
press headlines, and those teh 1 merely of bloody deeds, battles,
assaults, the blowing up of trains, massacres, shootings, imprison-
ments, exiles, etc. Judging from this kind of information, the
situation in Mexico is a complete chaos. Neither the American
people, nor the men who might be supposed to appraise the situa-
tion, can do so for lack of general lines of interpretation of those
facts.
The student or the scientist who would like to understand and
follow step by step the phenomena produced in the chemist's glass,
or in the receptacle of bacteriological cultures, or in the crucible of
the metallurgist; or the botanist who would like to follow minutely
the development of the seed or of the grass, would find himself
guideless to do so. Neither chemical, biological, nor sociological
phenomena can be studied through direct observation of the ele-
ments at the time in which processes of transformation are taking
place. It becomes necessary to know the nature of those elements,
to observe the previous condition of them, and subsequently the
phenomena materialized therewith.
To understand sociological phenomena, we need above all a
general interpretation of a whole series of facts and of the evolving
process; not a concrete explanation of each one of the facts as they
take place. I shall endeavor to make such a scientific interpreta-
tion of the Mexican situation.
GEOGRAPHICAL DATA
Geographically, Mexico is a high triangular plateau, having
its vertex towards the south and its base towards the north, com-
prised between two mountain chains, of which one runs parallel to
the Gulf of Mexico and the other to the Pacific Ocean. This high
plateau is dry and bare in its northern part, and has been chiefly
devoted to cattle raising. In the southern part it is less dry and
more fertile, and this southern portion, properly called the central
plateau, is the cereal region.
The Gulf slope, damp and hot, is rich for tropical agriculture
and gifted with extensive oil fields. The Pacific slope, dry and hot,
but well irrigated by our mountains, will become an important
4 The Annals of the American Academy
agricultural region. Yucatan, a stony desert, which has been able
to produce only hemp, is out of the main body of Mexico, like Lower
California. The mountain chains running parallel to the Gulf and
to the Pacific, and which interlock in order to form the high Central
Plateau, are not merely spurs, but comprise vast regions, constitute
the extensive mountain portion of Mexico, and are the mining
region.
For a long time Mexico was considered to be a country of
marvelous wealth. Afterwards it was believed that Mexico, on the
contrary, was a very poor country. The truth is that Mexico
possesses great wealth, unexploited, and needing large investments
of capital and exceeding energy and skill to develop it.
POPULATION
From the point of view of population, Mexico is as little known,
as from the geographical. One speaks of the Mexican people and of
the characteristics of such people, without taking into considera-
tion that the Mexican people, or the Mexican race is not a well
defined group, but an agglomeration which has been constantly
changing during the past four hundred years, and is still in the
process of formation. Before the Spanish conquest, hundreds of
indigenous races existed, of such distinct and opposite character-
istics, that it would be difficult to find another country in the world
possessing such a number of different races. It is for facility's sake
that we speak of the "Mexican Indian," instead of speaking of the
hundred of indigenous races of Mexico.
After the Spanish conquest the indigenous population became
enslaved. Later, through the efforts of the Spanish friars to protect
the aboriginal races of Mexico, the Indians ceased being slaves,
only to fall into a condition of legal incapacity. Subsequent to the
Conquest a mixed or mestizos population began to appear, and it is
still continuing and modifying its development day by day. In
Mexico there is thus not a mixed population, properly speaking,
with characteristics different from those of the Indian, or different
from those of the white. We have "a varying mixed population,
which in certain strata are very near to the Indian, and in others
cannot be distinguished from the white. For the rest, the ease-
with which whites mix with mestizos, and the latter with Indians,
produces the fact that in Mexico the race question properly speaking
The Mexican Revolution 5
does not exist. There is merely a question of education, for as soon
as the Indian has been educated, he actually takes his rank by the
side of the mestizo.
The population problem consists in unifying the mixed race by
means of education and intercrossing with the Indian race and in
striving to secure the constant dissolving of the immigrant white
races into the mixed race. This problem does not present diffi-
culties as regards the intercrossing of the Indian race with the mixed
race, but it is very serious as regards dissolving the white immi-
grants. The white immigration of Mexico as regards numbers, can
be classified in the following order: Spanish, North American,
French, Italian, English and German.
Of the white immigrants to Mexico the Spaniard nearly always
blends with the native, so that after a generation it may be said
that all the Spaniards become Mexicans. We may say the same
thing of the Italian and immigrants of Semitic origin: the Arabians,
Armenians, etc. After the Spaniard and the Italian, the German
assimilates best, and becomes Mexican in two generations. The
German frequently marries a Mexican woman and settles per-
manently in the country. The French come after the German, as
regarding facility of blending.
The American immigrant very seldom becomes Mexican. The
very small percentage of American immigrants who settle perma-
nently in Mexico or who marry Mexican women, preserve American
citizenship, educate their children abroad, and it may be said that
95 per cent of American immigrants remain always American,
socially, politically, and ethnically. The English immigrant rarely
becomes Mexican. Hardly ever does he marry a Mexican woman
and his children are always educated abroad.
These brief explanations respecting the tendencies to assimilate
the white population, reveal also many political and economic
questions which exist in Mexico regarding the situation of foreigners.
EDUCATION
The lack of education of the indigenous population, is the only
obstacle to the dissolution of the Indian population into the mixed
one. Mexico has a problem of education. It will suffice to say that
there are 80 per cent of illiterates in our country. Education in
Mexico has had many obstacles. The principal ones have been the
6 The Annals of the American Academy
landlord system, which has created the peon class, who are really
serfs, and the action of the Roman Catholic Church during the
nineteenth century, which has assisted landlordism to preserve in
ignorance the indigenous masses.
The activities of the Spanish friars in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, and in general of the Catholic clergy during
those centuries, may be said to have been constantly beneficial to
the indigenous race. However, when the clergy acquired vast
wealth and the Church became the great landowner, then the
beneficial work of the Catholic Church for the education of the
indigenous races of Mexico and the Mexican rural population in
general, ceased to exist and there began a counter movement. The
tendency of the Church then was directed to maintaining the rural
population in ignorance.
The previous governments, either were not aware of the prob-
lem or did not wish to educate the Indian and the proletariat. The
best proof of the failure of the Catholic Church as educator of the
Indians is that after the Church has had four hundred years of
absolute dominion in educational matters, we still have in Mexico
80 per cent of illiterates.
The tendency of the revolutionary government is, not only to
remove the obstacles that the Mexican Government might have,
but to devote a considerable portion of its efforts and of the public
funds to the education of the masses of the people.
RELIGIOUS PROBLEM
Mexico has no religious problem properly speaking. The
Spanish system of patronage extended to the Catholic Church by
the Spanish kings gave a mighty temporal power to the clergy,
which lasted up to 1860. In that year owing to the War of Reform
the Church was dispossessed of its property, incapacitated from
acquiring real estate, and deprived of temporal power.
During the long government of General Diaz the Catholic
clergy creeping on from point to point in concealed form, recovered
much of its temporal power and rebuilt part of its fortune. At
present some members of the Catholic clergy have a tendency to
recover the temporal power which the Church had enjoyed previous
to 1860. The tendency of the revolutionary government is to render
effective the absolute separation of Church from State, and to
The Mexican Revolution 7
prevent the Mexican clergy from recovering its temporal power,
leaving it, however, in the most absolute liberty as regards religious
matters.
AGRARIAN PROBLEM
The agrarian problem of Mexico is due to the geographical and
ethnical conditions of the country. The Spanish colonial system of
huge land grants, the constant absorption of real estate by the
clergy during the eighteenth century and the first half of the nine-
teenth century, with the system of concession of Government lands
adopted during the second half of the nineteenth century, created
and continued a state of landlordism which has been the chief
cause of disquiet in Mexico during the nineteenth century.
As a consequence of this landlordism there has been produced
a constant condition of serfdom among the rural classes of Mexico,
a condition known as peonage. The solution of the agrarian problem
of Mexico consists in the destruction of landlordism to facilitate the
formation of small farms, and also in the granting of "commons"
to the villages. It includes the division or parcelling of large
estates, and a system of taxes upon rural property to prevent the
reconstruction of large estates. Up to date it may be said that
large rural estates have almost never paid taxes.
NATURAL RESOURCES
The lack of Mexican capital has been the reason that mining
and other Mexican industries have not been developed save through
foreign capital. The Spanish Government believed that the eco-
nomic development of Mexico should be based on land monopoly,
and also on commercial privileges granted to Spaniards born in the
mother country. In the exploitation of the natural wealth of
Mexico, the system followed by the past administrations, and
especially by that of General Diaz, was that of granting concessions
so intrenched in privilege that further competition became impossi-
ble. This system of privileges and monopoly comprised not only
the mining, petroleum and water power industries, but all kinds of
industries and manufactures, commerce and banking. It may be
said that, in general, the economic development of Mexico during
the administration of General Diaz, was the growth of big business
based on privilege.
8 The Annals of the American Academy
The endeavor of the Revolutionary Government of Mexico is
to obtain an economic development based on unshackled competi-
tion, and of such a nature that the development of existing business
may not prevent future commerce and industry. From this point
of view, foreign capital invested in Mexico upon the system of
privilege considers itself attacked by the present revolution. How-
ever, if we understand the general tendency of the Mexican Revolu-
tion, we find that it opens a field of action for the investment of
foreign capital much wider than that existing heretofore.
COMMERCIAL PROBLEM
The lack of fluvial navigation and the great height of the Cen-
tral Plateau above the sea level, together with the uneven topog-
raphy, have compelled Mexico to rely upon a scant system of
railways. Because of this- Mexico's commerce has been established
on false bases. It has been simply importation and exportation with
foreign countries, without developing domestic interchange of prod-
ucts. Commerce itself has been to a great extent the only fount of
fiscal revenue, principally the commerce of importation. For a long
time exports even of raw materials have been free from duty. The
policy of the revolutionary government is to control the railways,
these being the only ways of communication that the country has.
It purposes also to develop other ways by utilizing the forces which
lie latent in Mexico, i.e., oil and water power.
INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM
The industrial development of Mexico has occurred during the
last twenty years. Its basis has been artificial. It has consisted of
an excessive protection to infant industries, rendering them uncer-
tain and precarious because of their lack of mercantile bases,
and (jit has prevented^the establishment of competing industries.
The tendency of thej^revolutionary government is to place the
industrial development of the country upon a business basis, leav-
ing aside the system of protection, concession, privileges and monop-
oly, until now the bases of that little development have been effected.
POLITICAL PROBLEM
The diversity in types of civilization as shown by the Indian,
the mestizo and the white, furnishes to Mexico a serious social and
The Mexican Revolution 9
political problem which may be set forth by saying that it is neces-
sary to find a formula of Government which may serve at the same
time for a type of mediaeval civilization, as is the mestizo, and for
a type of modern civilization, as is the foreign immigrant or the
educated Creole. If this be not possible, it would be necessary to
find various governmental formulae and various regimes for each
one of the elements forming Mexico's population.
Up to the time of General Diaz the political laws of Mexico
have been based on advanced theories, but these have never been
rendered effective. This produced inequality both juridic and
economic. The political problem of Mexico consists in rendering
effective the political and civil law. In order to do this it is necessary
above all to find the proper legal and political formulae, so that
after those laws have been promulgated, it may be possible to
apply them efficaciously, securing thus equality of rights among all
men.
INTERNATIONAL PROBLEMS
The international problems of Mexico deserve special atten-
tion, the main one being found in her relations with the United
States.
After the war of 1847 which cost Mexico half of her territory,
Mexicans were not able to regain confidence in regard to the impe-
rialistic tendency that the Latin American countries attribute to
the United States. During the Mexican revolution, after the occu-
pation of Vera Cruz and the Columbus expedition, the fears of
Mexicans of a conflict with the United States have increased con-
siderably, chiefly since it is known that one of the political parties
of the United States frankly advocates intervention. The repeated
and public statements against intervention made by the Democratic
Government of the United States, have not been sufficient to allay
the fears of Mexicans.
As a neighbor of the United States, Mexico will also have as an
international problem the danger of a conflict between the United
States and some other European or Asiatic power. The foes of the
United States, who are always foes of the whole American con-
tinent, will certainly assume to be friends of Mexico, and will try
to take advantage of any sort of resentment, feeling or distrust
that Mexico may have against the United States. Mexico, never-
theless, understands that in case of a conflict between the United
10 The Annals of the American Academy
States and any other nation outside of America, her attitude must
be one of complete continental solidarity. On this point the revolu-
tionary government has followed a policy of frankness and con-
sistency in her relations with the United States, putting always her
deeds in accordance with her words, and sincerely trying to reach
an understanding with the people and the Government of the
United States.
Within Mexico, the real international problem is that of pro-
tecting foreign life and property and of establishing proper relations
between foreigners and natives. On account of the non-enforcement
of the political and civil laws in favor of Mexicans, and on account
of the always watchful diplomatic protection that foreigners have
enjoyed, a sort of privileged condition has arisen little by little in
favor of foreigners. Mexico has the problem of equalizing the
condition of Mexicans and foreigners, not by lowering the status of
the foreigners, but by raising the condition of natives.
The privileged condition of foreigners that has existed in Mexico
for a long time, has 1 produced a certain jealousy, and distrust with
which Mexicans look upon the increase of immigration and foreign
investments in Mexico, since such increases would be considered
as the strengthening of a privileged class.
The problem for Mexico is to find the way in which foreign
money and immigrants can freely come to Mexico and contribute
to her progress without becoming a privileged class. Instead of
becoming a growing menace to the sovereignty of Mexico, they
should contribute to the consolidation of her sovereignty and her
independence as a nation.
All the problems heretofore stated have been always complex
and greatly misunderstood. The old regime had created such
interests as have just been described and those interests were so
strongly bound up with the Government, that during the last years
of the government of General Diaz it was quite clear that no peace-
ful solution was attainable. The transformation of the whole
system by congressional action trying to change the laws and the
Government at large, as well as the economic conditions of the
country, would have required probably a whole century of effort,
and still it is not certain that such solution would have been reached
or that in the meantime civil war would not have broken out.
After the election of General Diaz in 1910, it was well under-
The Mexican Revolution 11
stood that the purpose of his election was to perpetuate the same
form of Government and the same system as had long been in
existence. The people saw that it was impossible to transform
anything by peaceful methods. They had then to resort to force
in order to destroy a regime which was contrary to their liberty,
development and welfare. The last six years of internal upheaval,
though chaotic in appearance, mean for Mexico the sociological
transformation of her people.
A scientific interpretation of the Mexican Revolution is not
possible, unless facts are taken as a whole and a considerable period
of time is analyzed. All of us know that in the every day reading of
the newspapers of the United States, matters of the utmost impor-
tance are analyzed and studied and conclusions are drawn from
incomplete facts. It is impossible to draw sane conclusions from
facts thus secured. I have never seen a country, either in Europe
or in South America, where conclusions are drawn or editorials are
written save after a reasonable time has justified the drawing of
such conclusions. But in the United States the rush of public
curiosity for facts is misunderstood as an eager curiosity for ideas,
and so this is the only country in the world where we can see that
an editorial comes the same morning in which a mere rumor on
some subject is published.
This way of studying sociological facts, sounds to me like the
attempt of a physics student who studies the swing of the pendulum
and instead of waiting until the whole swing is complete or until a
certain number of swings have occurred, is so eager to draw scientific
conclusions that he would at any moment of the swing proceed to
calculate the exact direction in which the center of the earth is
placed. The conclusion of that student would be that the earth is
mad and that its center is changing foolishly.
It has been said that the Mexican Revolution is not properly
a revolution, but mere anarchy, that countries at peace consider
dangerous and intolerable. Nevertheless, if we can demonstrate
with facts that the Mexican Revolution has followed exactly the
natural course of any other revolution , and if it can be demonstrated
that even at the present time the revolutionary government of
Mexico is pursuing a well defined program of reconstruction, one
must necessarily reach the conclusion that the Mexican people are
not acting madly, nor blindly destroying her wealth and her men,
12 The Annals of the American Academy
but performing a task of transformation beneficial and indispensa-
ble, from which results may be expected that will be commensurate
with the sacrifices that are now being made.
It will appear indeed as strange and bold, and it will perhaps
shock to a certain extent, especially the members of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science and of the Pennsylvania
Arbitration and Peace Society that in a scientific and pacifist
audience like this, one should come to apologize for force and insur-
rection as a means of securing the liberty and welfare of her people.
I am not trying to impose my views, but simply applying sociolog-
ical criteria to facts that have occurred in Mexico.
When a system of work is right, but we fail to obtain results
from our efforts for lack of efficiency, the task of the reformer con-
sists in improving that system. But when a system is radically
wrong, we must abandon that system and find a better one. The
gradual and slow reform of a system to make it suit the require-
ments of a man, of a business enterprise, of an institution or of a
country, is called evolution. The abandonment of a system to be
replaced by another, is called a revolution. The use of force is not
essential to a revolution; but the revolution in the personal conduct
of men, in business or in communities, implies always a considerable
effort and a great amount of sacrifice.
Historically, we can assert that with very few exceptions, the
greatest conquests of human liberty and human welfare have not
been made without large sacrifices of men and property. Sociolog-
ically, the revolution is the rebellion of a people against a social
system that has been found wrong. But as every social system is
embodied in certain laws and in a certain political organization,
revolution appears always as a violation of existing laws and as an
insurrection against the Government. Hence all revolutions appear
as anarchical attempts to destroy society and this is also why most
insurrections are called revolutions.
A revolution means the use of force to destroy an unsatisfactory
system and the employment of force and intelligence to build the
new system. A revolution has consequently two stages clearly
defined; the destructive, which is nearly always a period of war and
rebellion against the so-called established Government, and the
stage of disavowal of most of the existing laws, which means the
use of force against the social, economic and legal system.
The Mexican Revolution 13
When the old re'gime has been destroyed, the mere reestablish-
ment of legal order without any change, would be tantamount to
the simple reconstruction of the same structure already destroyed.
This is what sometimes makes revolutions fail. To avoid this, any
revolution has a second stage that is always known as the period
of revolutionary government. During this second period, force is
also employed in the form of a dictatorial government, to establish
the required reforms, that is to say, to lay the foundations of the
new social, economic and political structure. After every revolu-
tion, a period of dictatorial interregnum has always followed,
because revolutionary dictatorship means the use of force for recon-
struction.
When the foundations of reconstruction have been laid down,
then it is possible to return to a legal re'gime no longer based upon
the old legislation nor upon the obsolete system, but upon new
principles that become the new legal system, that is to say, the
new re'gime. The French Revolution has been the most complete
example of a revolution, with its frankly destructive period, its
anarchic state, its revolutionary government and its new re'gime
upon which France afterwards developed and we also can say upon
which the rest of Europe has subsequently developed.
The Mexican Revolution was nothing more than the insurrec-
tion of the Mexican people against a very repressive and wealthy
re'gime represented by the government of General Diaz, and against
a social, political and economic system supporting such govern-
ment. This revolution had as its prodrome the political insurrec-
tion of Madero. But Madero saw no more than the political side
of the Mexican situation. He professed that a change of Govern-
ment was sufficient to bring about a change in the general condi-
tions of the country. Madero compromised with the Diaz re'gime,
acquiesced in taking charge of his Government, and ruled the coun-
try with the same laws, the same procedure and even with the same
men with whom General Diaz had ruled. The logical consequence
was that Madero had to fail because he had not destroyed the old
nor attempted to build a new re'gime. The assassination of Ma-
dero and the dictatorship of Huerta were mere attempts at reaction
made by the old re'gime with its same men, its same money and its
same procedure, and an attempt to reestablish exactly the same old
conditions that existed during General Diaz* rule.
14 The Annals of the American Academy
The Constitutionalist Revolution set forth from the very begin-
ning its line of conduct. The Plan of Guadalupe issued by Mr.
Carranza in March, 1913, immediately after the assassination of
Madero, is the straightest revolutionary proclamation that could be
imagined to destroy an old regime. This plan meant the absolute
disavowal of the executive, legislative and judicial powers that had
existed up to that time, and authorized the use of force for the
destruction of Huerta's government, which was being supported by
General Diaz' army, by the power of the landowner and by the
moral influence of the Catholic clergy.
A period of bloody war followed, and when Huerta was finally
defeated and the chief of the constitutionalist revolution reached
the City of Mexico, it was believed that the destructive period of
the Mexican Revolution was at an end. But a period of an extremely
chaotic and anarchic character necessarily followed. At the end of
1914 the Mexican situation was most puzzling and bewildering, and
still it was at that very moment and in the middle of such an ex-
treme confusion, that Don Venustiano Carranza, as the chief of
the Constitutionalist Revolution, set forth the general outlines upon
which the reconstruction of Mexico was to be carried out.
These outlines are embodied in the decree of December 12,
1914, which I will quote here as the best interpretation of the basic
lines upon which the new regime and the new social system were to
be found. The decree in substance indicates that whereas the use
of force had been required to overthrow the Huerta Government in
view of the chaotic conditions of the country, it was necessary to
use the same force to continue the struggle until peace should be
attained, and to reconstruct the new regime.
The main provisions of said decree read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. The Plan of Guadalupe of the 26th of March 1913 shall remain
in force until the complete triumph of the Revolution. Consequently Citizen
Venustiano Carranza will continue as First Chief of the Constitutionalist Revolu-
tion and in Charge of the Executive Power of the Nation, until such tune as the
enemy is vanquished and peace is restored.
ART. 2. The First Chief of the Revolution, in Charge of the Executive
Power, will issue and put in force during the struggle all such laws, regulations
and measures that may satisfy the economic, social and political requirements of
the country, carrying out such reforms as public opinion may require to estab-
lish a re'gime to guarantee the equality among all Mexicans, to wit: Agrarian
laws that may facilitate the creation of small property, parcelling the large
estates and restoring to the villages the commons of which they were unjustly
The Mexican Revolution 15
dispossessed; fiscal laws tending to reach an equitable system of taxation upon
real estate; legislation to better the condition of rural laborers, working men,
miners and in general of all the proletariat; establishment of municipal liberty as
a constitutional institution; basis for a new system of organization of the army;
reform of the'electoral system to obtain actual suffrage; organization of an inde-
pendent judicial power both in the Federation and the States; revision of laws
relating to marriage and civil status of persons; regulations that will guarantee
the strict enforcement of the Reform laws; revision of the civil, criminal and
commercial codes; reformation of judicial proceedings for the purpose of obtaining
a rapid and efficient administration of justice; revision of laws relative to the
exploitation of mines, oil, waters, forests and other natural resources of the coun-
try, in order to destroy monopolies created by the old regime and to avoid the
formation of new monopolies in the future; political reforms that may guarantee
the real enforcement of the Constitution of the Republic, and in general of such
other laws as may be considered necessary to ensure to the inhabitants of the
country the real and full enjoyment of their rights and equality before the law.
ART. 4. At the triumph of the Revolution, when the Supreme Power be
reinstated in the City of Mexico and after municipal elections take place in most
of the States of the Republic, the First Chief of the Revolution, in Charge of the
Executive Power, will call elections for the Federal Congress fixing the proclama-
tion, the dates and conditions in which said elections must take place.
ART. 5. When the national Congress assembles, the First Chief of the
Revolution will report to it concerning his stewardship of the power vested upon
him by this decree, and he will especially submit the reforms issued and put in
force during the struggle, so that Congress may ratify, amend or supplement
them, and raise to the rank of constitutional provisions such laws as may have
to take that character; all before the establishment of constitutional order.
The reading of this decree is of the utmost importance to all who
seem to be confused by events developing in Mexico since the over-
throw of Huerta, and to those who see in Mexico only an incom-
prehensible condition of anarchy. It will be of still greater impor-
tance to kAow that this decree has been the rule under which the
construction 'of Mexico is being made by the Revolutionary Gov-
ernment.
Students of the Revolution of Mexico from a disinterested and
scientific point of view, should keep in mind, as an outline for the
interpretation of the events of the last six years, the following
points, which might be at the same time a sort of index to the
chapters of an extended study of the Mexican situation.
I. Causes of the Mexican Revolution as derived from the
political and economic development of the country up to
the end of the nineteenth century.
16 The Annals of the American Academy
II. Prodromes of the Mexican Revolution until the death of
Madero.
III. Destruction of the political and military powers of the old
regime, until August 1914.
IV. Destruction of the economic power of the old regime during
the preconstitutional period (1915-1916).
V. Beginning of the reconstruction.
Such has been the development of the Mexican Revolution,
and such is the interpretation of past, present and future occurrences
in regard to this revolution. Such has to be the interpretation,
regardless of who are the men in the government.
If Carranza and the men around him are personally over-
powered by the new anarchic period, and if they have to die or get
out, that would not mean that my conclusions are wrong. It would
only mean that a man is not always a span between two regimes.
There have been cases in which a revolution has been completed
during the life of a man, be he Cromwell or Washington. At other
times a long list of heroes and martyrs is required to complete a
transformation of the people, from Mirabeau to Napoleon.
In Mexico we have had three revolutions. Our revolution of
independence in 1810 was not carried out by a single man. Hidalgo
initiated it and died without seeing the end. Morelos continued it
and also passed away before our country was free. Guerrero was
the only one who saw the consummation of our independence. In
1857 it took only Juarez to see the beginning and the end of the
reform revolution. The present revolution has already consumed
Madero. If Carranza does not see the end of this movement, that
will not change the development of the revolution. It will only
mean that Carranza himself and the men around him are no more
than a link in the chain of men who will sacrifice their lives for the
liberty and the welfare of the Mexican people.
To close my remarks I wish to reiterate my apologies to the
audience, and especially to the members of the American Academy
of Political and Social Science and of the Pennsylvania Arbitration
and Peace Society, for the theme I have chosen for this conference.
I sincerely believe that the people of this country need to study the
Mexican Revolution, not only for the sake of their interest toward
Mexico, nor for their own interest alone as our neighbors, but also
The Mexican Revolution 17
as an example of an economic and social revolution that is taking
place in the twentieth century.
I wish a great prosperity and a long peace to this country, and
that the solution of all its problems may be made by peaceful
methods. Nations nevertheless, when they make mistakes in their
development, have to experience a revolution. If such a revolution
can be accomplished without disturbance of peace, unnecessary
evils can be avoided and all the benefit that a revolution neces-
sarily brings about will be reaped.
Bernard Shaw says that revolution is a national institution in
England, because the English people, through democratic proceed-
ings, can make a revolution every seven years, if they choose to do
so. The Anglo Saxon referendum is no more than a right to peaceful
revolution. The Mexican people do not enjoy that blessing, and
have been obliged to engage in a bloody and costly revolution to
attain their liberty and welfare. There is an excellent reason.
A revolution is not always a source of evil and tears, just as
fire does not always produce devastation. Unexplored wildernesses
of the Temperate Zone can be opened to agriculture by exploiting the
forest wealth and at the same time preparing the soil for future
cultivation. In tropical countries, however, the common way of
opening fields to cultivation is to clear them with a great fire that
consumes indeed much natural wealth, but which at the same time
devours r apidly the jungle and by purifying and fertilizing the soil,
saves a large amount of work.
BY HON. YGNACIO BONILLAS,
Minister of Communications and Public Works of Mexico, and Member of the
American and Mexican Joint Commission.
From its very inception, the spirit of reconstruction along lines
of social, economic, political and industrial tendencies has been
manifest in the Mexican Revolution. It has crystallized in deeds
which have produced a deep impression upon the minds not only of
those who have taken an active part in the movement, but also
of those interested in preserving the old conditions. The character
and earnestness of the principal leaders of the Mexican Revolution
proclaimed to Huerta, the usurper, and to his associates, that the
struggle, begun in the northern states of the Republic, was to be
waged to a finish, not only to avenge a hideous crime, and to dispel
from the mind of the civilized world the impression that the people
of Mexico would submit tamely to such a national affront, but
also that a new order of things might be established embodying
improvements in all departments of the national life. It was
annoying to Huerta and his followers that men from the north,
whose records in private and public life were clean, and that men
emerging from partial or complete obscurity, should sever their con-
nections with homes and business; that they should give themselves
up with all their resources to the vindication of the national honor
and to the creation of new institutions and a government by the
people and for the people.
Because of this attitude of the Huerta government, the revolu-
tionists whether engaged in military or civil pursuits were
often approached by the partisans of the illegal government, with
tempting offers to discontinue their participation in the revolution
and to accept high positions in civil, diplomatic, or active military
service. The invariable reply was a flat refusal accompanied by
patriotic declarations of unswerving fidelity to the high ideals pro-
claimed by the revolution. Such an attitude from resolute men,
in the very capital and from all quarters of the Republic, could
118]
Character and Progress of the Revolution 19
only forebode ill to the usurper and to the privileged classes who
supported him. The downfall of the government which had been
born of treason and murder was accomplished by the victorious
army headed by its first chief Venustiano Carranza. As Constitu-
tional Governor of the State of Coahuila at the time of the coup
d'e"tat, he had never hesitated a moment to disavow the military-
government of Huerta. He did it also in spite of the appalling odds
against him and the small group of patriots who took up arms with
him. They firmly resolved to blot out the shame cast upon the
national honor and to restore to the country the constitutional
government which had perished with the tragical demise of its
lawful representatives Madero and Pino Suarez. It took seven-
teen months from March, 1913 to August of the following year
to accomplish this. The enemy was vanquished in numerous
encounters and the City of Mexico, the capital of the Republic,
was finally occupied.
It is needless to mention the terrible sacrifices incurred in at-
taining the triumph. Historical precedents show distinctly that no
important achievements in the life of a nation are accomplished
without sacrifices, and we hold that, in the vindication of our
national honor, no sacrifice could be too great.
It may be supposed by those who are unacquainted with Mexi-
can political, social and economic conditions, that the original pur-
pose of the revolution, having been accomplished by violent and
destructive means, further conquest and the attainment of the
national wellfare, might be left to the slow processes of evolution.
To the leaders of the revolution, however, and to all other sound
thinking people in Mexico, the opportune moment had arrived for
carrying out political, social and economic reforms, deemed indis-
pensable for the reestablishment of a government founded upon
principles of right and justice to all.
Furthermore, the triumph of the revolution was a triumph of
the people, of the down-trodden and oppressed, over a corrupt
aristocracy and more corrupt clergy. Since Colonial times and
almost without interruption these privileged classes have held the
reins of government and complete despotic sway over the country
and its destinies. They have governed it for their own selfish
aggrandizement and to the detriment, in all respects, of the other
classes who constitute the great majority of the people. The sue-
20 The Annals of the American Academy
cess of the revolution had been comparatively easy and the resources
of the privileged classes at home and abroad, remained practically
intact. Large numbers of officers, civil and military, of the old
regime, who had been generously amnestied, remained within the
confines of the country and many more such were enjoying the
spoils of their rapacity in foreign lands.
It could hardly be expected that such elements, so thoroughly
accustomed to rule the country in an absolute manner, would as-
sume a mild attitude without a further struggle. While the armies
of the old regime were being vanquished, they practiced their old
tactics of creating dissension among the victors. The insubordina-
tion of the Division of the North and the unpatriotic action of the
Aguascalientes convention was due to the efforts of these reaction-
aries to regain power.
In this second epoch of the Constitutionalist Revolution the
struggle was more intense and the number of participants was greater
than in any previous war in the history of the country. There was
a time during the armed conflict when all except honor seemed to be
lost for the cause of legality, personified by the First Chief Carranza
and by the group of loyal citizens who derived from him a constant
inspiration to perform acts of chivalry and valor, and to persist
undismayed until final success was attained. Victory was achieved
by the indomitable army under the leadership of General Obregon
upon the battlefields of Celaya, Leon, Trinidad, Aguascalientes and
many others where the armies of the reactionaries were completely
and ignominiously defeated and dispersed.
It might be supposed that during the armed conflict in these
two epochs attention had been given to nothing but the vanquish-
ment of the enemy, and that nothing but a destructive campaign
was the rule. Such was not the case. All departments of the gov-
ernment were organized and much reconstructive work was ac-
complished, although under most adverse circumstances. Where-
ever the Constitutionalist arms obtained control the organization of
temporary municipal and state governments followed, and the work
of pacification, and the betterment of conditions for the ameliora-
tion of the people ensued.
The most earnest endeavors have been and are being made by
the government of the Revolution to restore order at the earliest
possible moment. To that end, municipal elections have been held
Character and Progress of the Revolution 21
throughout the country and the officials elected in their respective
localities took their oath of office and entered upon the discharge
of their duties on the 16th of last September, the anniversary of
Mexican independence.
Another general election of great significance was held through-
out the country last month. Delegates were chosen to a constitu-
tional convention which is to meet at Queretaro on the 20th of
this month, for the purpose of revising the federal constitution and to
pass upon such decrees of the First Chieftaincy as are in the nature
of Constitutional amendments. The convention will be in session
for two months and during its deliberations will set the time for the
next presidential election. This is an event to which the country
looks forward with intense interest, as it hopes that with the return
to Constitutional order, Mexico will take her place among the fam-
ily of nations under a government of the people, by the people and
for the people.
THE SANITARY AND EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS OF
MEXICO
BY HON. ALBERTO J. PANI,
Director General of the Constitutionalist Railways of Mexico and Member of the
American and Mexican Joint Commission.
During the most acute and violent period of an armed revolution
a veritable chaos in which it would seem that the people after
destroying everything try to commit suicide in a body the news
of isolated cases, however horrible, makes but little impression. As
the struggle gains form by the grouping of men around the various
nuclei which represent the different antagonistic principles, in-
dividuals grow in importance until the nucleus which best inter-
prets the ambitions and wants of the people acquires absolute as-
cendancy. Henceforward this group is unreasonably expected to
fulfil strictly all the obligations usually incumbent upon a govern-
ment duly constituted. The sensation then provoked by the news of
isolated cases of individual misfortune, because of their very rarity,
causes greater consternation.
This is precisely what is occurring with^the present Mexican
government. Select any two dates from the beginning of its organ-
ization. Compare dispassionately the relative conditions of na-
tional life on each, and one must admit that the country is rapidlj
returning to normal political and social conditions. It is also un-
deniable that the temporary interruption of a line of communica-
tion, or the attack on a train or village by rebels or outlaws, now
causes an exaggerated impression. People forget that not so long
ago, the greater part of the railway lines, or even of the cities of the
Republic were in the hands of these rebels or outlaws, and that in
the very territory now dominated by the constitutionalist govern-
ment, trains and towns were but too frequently assaulted.
It is unreasonable to try to make the present government
responsible for the transgressions of its predecessors. The revolu-
tion itself is a natural consequence of these faults. Former govern-
ments who knew not how to prevent the revolution, are responsible
for the evils which may have come in its train, and should the nation
[22]
Sanitary and Educational Problems of Mexico 23
be saved, as it shall be, it will be due solely to the citizens who have
been willing to sacrifice themselves. Only through such personal
sacrifices as these is it possible to construct a true fatherland.
The enemies of the new regime irreconcilable because they
will not accept the sacrifices imposed are now burning their last
cartridges, making the constitutionalist government responsible
for many of the calamities which caused the revolution, and which
the government, impelled by the generous impulse which generated
it, purposes to remedy. Thus do we explain the protests of the
discontented, and the monstrosity that these protests are even
more energetic and loud when they defend money than when they
defend life itself.
The theme of this night's address refers to one of these calami-
ties, a shameful legacy of the past. Inimical interests are trying
to attack the constitutionalist government on this score, though it
is the first government in Mexico which has tried to remedy this
evil. Having been appointed by the first chief in charge of the ex-
ecutive power of Mexico, Mr. Carranza, to make a study of the
problem, I would have only to summarize or to copy, in order to
develop such theme, some fragments of the resulting report.
One of the most imperative obligations that civilization imposes upon the
State is to duly protect human life, to permit the growth of society. It becomes
necessary to make known the precepts of private hygiene and to put them in
practice, and to enforce the precepts of public hygiene. For the first, there is the
school as an excellent organ of propaganda. For the second, with more direct
bearing on healthfulness, there are principally special establishments to heal, to
disinfect, to take prophylactic measures. Then there are engineering works,
laws and regulations to put in force by a technical personnel, or by an administra-
tive or police corps. It may therefore be said without exaggeration, that there is a
necessary relation of direct proportion between the sum of civilization acquired by a
country, and the degree of perfection attained by its sanitary organization.
The activities, in this respect, of General Diaz' government,
during the thirty odd years of enforced peace and of apparent ma-
terial well-being, were devoted almost exclusively to works to gratify
the love of ostentation or peculation. Seldom were they devoted
to the true needs of the country. There were erected magnificent
buildings. To build the national theatre and capitol, both un-
finished, it was planned to spend sixty millions of pesos. When it
was a case of executing works of public utility, their construction
was made subservient to the illicit ends pointed out. Thus, for
24 The Annals of the American Academy
example, the works of city improvement, never finished, not even
in the capital, in spite of the conditions of notorious unhealthfulness
in some important towns, were always begun with elegant and costly
asphalt pavements, which it became necessary to destroy and re-
place, whenever a water or drainage pipe had to be laid. The work
of education undertaken by the government was chiefly dedicated
to erecting costly buildings for schools : it is only in this way, there-
fore, that we can realize that the proportion of persons knowing how
to read and write is barely 30 per cent of the total population in the
Republic.
The net result of what was done in these respects during the
long administration of General Diaz could not be more disastrous.
If we take the average mortality for the nine years from 1904 to
1912, the heyday of that administration, we find that in Mexico
City, where the greatest sum of culture and material progress is to
to be found, there is a rate of mortality of 42.3 deaths for each one
thousand inhabitants. That is to say:
I. It is nearly three times that prevailing in American cities of
similar density (16.1};
II. Nearly two and one-half times larger than the average co-
efficient of mortality of comparable European cities (17.53} and
III. Greater than the coefficient of mortality of the Asiatic and
African cities of Madras and Cairo (39.51 and 40.15 respectively)
in spite of the fact that in the former, cholera morbus is endemic.
During the same period the annual average of deaths in the
City of Mexico was more than 11,500. These deaths were due to
diseases that are avoidable if proper care of private and public
health be observed and constitute an arraignment against the admin-
istration of General Diaz. As the deaths occasioned by the Revo-
lution during the six years surely do not reach 70,000, we find that
the government of General Diaz so greatly eulogized in the midst
of peace and prosperity, did not kill fewer people than a formidable
Revolution which set afire the whole Republic, and horrified the
entire world.
But the truth is that General Diaz' government did not recog-
nize the formula of integral progress- 1 - -the only one which truly
ennobles humanity but wasted its energies in showy manifesta-
tions of a progress purely material and fictitious, with the inevitable
train of vice and corruption. The ostentatious pageant the most
Sanitary and Educational Problems of Mexico 25
shameless lie with which it has ever been attempted to deceive the
world which celebrated the anniversary of national independence,
took place only a few weeks prior to the popular revolution of 1910,
before whose onrush the government fell like a house of cards.
Let us now turn to the constitutionalist government. On its
banner it has written its resolve to better the condition of the life of
the people, socially and individually, and its sincerity and energy
may be seen not only in its words but in its deeds.
The constitutionalist government remained at Vera Cruz at the
close of 1914 and at the beginning and middle of 1915, while its
army reconquered the territory of the Republic, which had been al-
most wholly in the hands of the enemy. In spite of being engaged
in the most active campaign in the annals of Mexican history, this
government still found time to take up the efficient political and ad-
ministrative reorganization of the country.
Whoever may know something of our history, and may view with impar-
tiality the long and complicated process of formation of our nationality, from the
pre-Cortes period through the troublous time of the Conquest, the colonial
days under the viceroys, the wars of Independence, the convulsions only calmed
by the iron hand of Diaz, through nearly a century of autonomous existence until
our own tune will be bound to discover in the salient manifestations of the life of
our national organism, the unequivocal symptoms and stigmata of a serious
pathological state, brought about by two principal agents: the loathsome corruption
of the upper classes, and the inconscience and wretchedness of the lower.
The iniquitous means used by Don Porfirio Diaz to impose peace during more
than thirty years, not only annulled all efforts tending to remedy the evils dis-
cussed, but rather determined their greater intensity. As a matter of fact, it
satisfied the omnivorous appetites of his friends and satellites; it crushed and
caused the criminal disappearance of whoever failed to render tribute or bow to
his will; it fostered cowards and sycophants, repressing systematically and with
an iron hand, every impulse of manliness and truth. It placed the administra-
tion of justice at the unconditional disposal of the rich, paying not the slightest
heed to the lamentations of the poor. In a word, it increased the immorality
and corruption of the small and privileged ruling class and increased in conse-
quence the sufferings of the immense majority, grovelling in ignorance and hunger.
Therefore, the thirty or more years of praetorian peace but served to deepen still
further the secular chasm of hatred and rancor separating the two classes men-
tioned, and to provoke necessarily and fatally the social convulsion, begun in 1910,
which has shaken the whole country.
The three aspects of the problem which I have presented the economic,
intellectual and moral coincide with the purposes of education through schools, as
ideally dreamed of by thinkers, that is as "Institutions whose object is to guide
and control the formation of habits to realize the highest social good." But our schools,
26 The Annals of the American Academy
unfortunately, have not yet acquired the necessary strength to assuage in an ap-
preciable degree, the horrible ambient immorality, or to counterweigh its inevitable
effects of social dissolution.
The true problem of Mexico consists therefore in hygienizing the population
physically and morally, and in endeavoring to find through all means available, an
improvement in the precarious economic situation of our proletariat.
The part of the solution of the problem which corresponds to the Department
of Education or to the municipalities, must be realized, by establishing and main-
taining the greatest possible number of schools. To do this their cost must be re-
duced by means of a rational simplification of the organization and of the school
programs. This must be done unthout losing sight of the fact that its preferential
orientations should be marked by: (I) the essentially technological character of the
teaching, to cooperate with all the other organs of the Government, in the work
of economic improvement of the masses, and (2) the diffusion of the elemental
principles of hygiene, as an efficient protection for the race.
"And finally, as the medium constitutes an educational factor more powerful
than the schools themselves, the country must, before and above all, organize its
public administration upon a basis of absolute morality."
Restricting myself to the purpose of this address, it will in con-
clusion suffice to say that even when the constitutionalist govern-
ment ruled but an insignificant portion of the country there were
sent to the principal centers of culture of the United States several
hundred teachers to investigate and secure data to reform school
matters in Mexico. This was done at a time when dollars were of
great importance for the purchase of war material.
Subsequently, in spite of the countless obstacles which seemed
to obstruct every step of the government, the number of schools
has been greatly increased. It is not much greater than it was
before the Revolution and in some states the number has been
doubled. There have been effected, besides, important works of
city improvement in Mexico, Saltillo, Queretaro, Vera Cruz, etc.,
and the mouth of the Panuco River is about to be dredged. It has
been specified in the respective contracts that the soil taken out is
to be used to fill in the marshy zone around Tampico, thus elimi-
nating the chief cause of the city's unhealthfulness.
In short, in order that the government which has arisen from
the constitutionalist revolution may realize its program of public
betterment, which implies the physical and moral hygienizing of
Mexico, it is only necessary to give it time. Only some magic art
could transform in a moment a group of human beings into an angel
choir, or a piece of land into a paradise.
THE MEANING OF THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION
BY HON. JUAN B. ROJO,
Counsellor of the State Department of Mexico and Secretary of the Mexican Section
of the American and Mexican Joint Commission
The Mexican Revolution is a revolution. I use these words,
which are not my own, to emphasize the true character of our strug-
gle; and as I know that in the United States as well as in foreign
lands, public opinion is at sea regarding us, due to the efforts of
those who strive to resurrect obsolete systems, I have thought it
my duty, as a Mexican who loves his native land, to try to explain,
however deficiently, the real motives of this vast social movement.
This excuses my efforts, such as they are, before so distinguished a
gathering, in a language practically unknown to me.
The founts of alleged information are responsible for the de-
rogatory conception of Mexico in the minds of most Americans.
Writers of overheated imagination depict Mexico as a land of mental
as well as physical quakes, where everything is perpetually boiling,
the climate, the politics, and the passions. Men of business look
upon Mexico as an alluring field for capital, for investment (or
rather for exploitation), in the most onerous sense of the word.
The reader in general, reflecting on the morning pabulum of his
favorite newspaper, believes that the revolution is but a kaleido-
scopic succession of battles and skirmishes, with the leaders now on
top, and now underneath, something like dogs and cats in a barrel.
Even the fair-minded cannot know what is going on south of the
River Grande, as they cannot know the truth.
In all social upheavals which have to be decided on the field
of battle, the far-away observer is apt to lose sight of the motives
and purposes, the psychological energy. He only rivets his atten-
tion upon the warrior's bloody business, which is but the exte-
riorization of thought's evolution. In all its history, from the strug-
gle for independence, Mexico has struck some notes, has cleared
some paths, which have awakened the interest of the United States.
The struggle to throw off the Spanish yoke, though it did not
awake any special interest in the United States, did at least elicit
[27]
28 The Annals of the American Academy
its sympathy. In truth the subjects of mutual interest between the
budding North American democracy, and the secular Spanish
colony were few. Investments of American capital, and American
settlers were barely noticeable. It was after the fall of Maxi-
milian's empire, and the triumph of the liberals in Mexico that re-
lations really began. In that critical period of our history, when
Napoleon III decided to impose by force an imperial throne upon
free America, the spirit of justice and foresight of the American
people awoke to the danger, and the United States helped us in a
positive manner to regain our freedom and develop our individual-
ity. Slowly, capital and technical skill came to work among us, and
we received them with open arms.
Mexico is a great field for endeavor and capital, and fortunes
have been made overnight. Therein lay the red flag of danger.
Enormous regions on the north were surrendered for a song to would-
be colonists who were to transform them into rose gardens, yet the
wilderness still exists and the rose gardens are not in evidence.
The Mexican government's concessions were utilized to exploit,
not the land but the concession. This benefited many but not the
country itself which lost untold millions of acres solely for the ad-
vantage of speculators, who had no intention of making needed
improvements or of creating anything except trouble.
If it was the case of an "infant industry," it was smothered
with privileges and franchises to such an extent that if a competitor
tried later to enter the field, it found its efforts of no use in view of
the first one's monopoly. It was simply that the first got all, and
the others found the field closed. It would be out of place to
cite examples in these cursory remarks, but there were many
companies with no competition to face who dreamed only of their
privileges. They did nothing, and prevented others from doing
anything. I must say that free competition appeals much more to
me. In struggles of all kinds, biological, social, and economic, the
triumph goes to the fittest. I cannot believe that individuals, or
industries, really require the state's crutch in order to progress.
The Mexican revolution understands the need of developing
the country; that progress depends on work. It wishes to unshackle
opportunity, and open the doors to those who wish to work and to
get an adequate return for their efforts. Instead of accumulating
all of the wealth in the grip of a handful who adopted a dog-in-the-
Sanitary and Educational Problems of Mexico 29
manger policy towards development, the revolution wishes to help
the average man and to destroy the treadmill of hateful privilege.
Finally, the revolution has been called inimical to foreigners,
and it is alleged that it denies them their rights. This is a phe-
nomenon like those Spencer called "errors of social perspective."
For a long time written law existed in Mexico merely as a matter
of form and only in books. Its guarantees and its sanctions were
never applied for the benefit of the common people. Only foreign-
ers, and especially those of such high position that they could bring
their influence to bear upon their diplomatic representatives,
could secure the application of the law through diplomatic channels,
provided such law was favorable to them. A rigorous law was
always applied against the Mexican.
From all this there resulted the fact that thus the foreigner was
aided and the Mexican was at a serious disadvantage in the enjoy-
ment of rights and in the protection of the laws. It is now the pur-
pose of the revolution that all may equally enjoy such benefits.
The revolution withdraws nothing from the foreigners that they had
before, but it grants to Mexicans what was denied to them. Hence
the astonishment that for the first time in the history of Mexico
the equality of all before the law is sought.
I wish to make this point clear. Our purpose is not to lower
the status of the foreigners. We desire that they come and work
among us, and contribute to the nation's development through
their capital and labor and skill. But we also wish that the Mexi-
can too may know that in his own country he will receive similar
justice.
If my labored words have not been well understood, they may
yet cast some light upon the points which I wish to make clear.
If I have secured this result I shall consider myself happy. I beg
this distinguished gathering to excuse my many deficiencies in the
use of a language that is not my own.
CLOSING REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE
ACADEMY
Permit me, in the first place, to say to the members of the
American and Mexican Joint Commission, how deeply we appre-
ciate the privilege of welcoming you to this special session, which is
being held in your honor. We all have the feeling that in the con-
duct of her international relations the United States must stand for
new and higher standards of international dealing. Jealousy and
distrust must give way to frankness, helpfulness and cooperation.
If there is any one mission which the privileged position of the
United States calls upon her to perform it is to sound a new note in
international intercourse. It is because the work of this Commis-
sion is the expression of these higher standards that we deem it a priv-
ilege to do honor to the men who are conducting these negotiations.
We realize that the situation bristles with difficulties; that the
problems involved are delicate and undoubtedly at times baffling,
but it is no less true that it is only through such negotiations that
a permanent and effective settlement can be reached; a settlement
not only in harmony with the dignity of both countries, but one
calculated to allay animosities, promote mutual confidence and es-
tablish a relationship which will contribute to the peace and pros-
perity of both nations.
We desire to avail ourselves of your presence to give you a
message which we hope you will carry with you to your people.
We earnestly hope that the mission which has brought you
to this country will be entirely successful; that the difficult and
delicate problems pending between the United States and Mexico
will be solved to the satisfaction of both countries. We hope,
furthermore, that your domestic problems will be solved in a man-
ner no less satisfactory. The people of the United States desire to
see a Mexico prosperous, progressive, independent and sovereign.
We desire this both for your sake and for our own. Our welfare,
our peace of mind, depend in large measure on the establishment of
cordial relations with our neighbors. You carry with you, therefore,
the earnest hope of these two associations for the peace and pros-
perity of your country. You may rest assured that every effort
[30]
Closing Remarks by the President 31
in Mexico to improve the condition of the masses of her people will
find a responsive echo in the United States. In this work you have
not only our good wishes, but the assurance that if we can in
any way be helpful in the furtherance of this great plan we will
deem it a privilege to cooperate. The vast educational agencies
of this country are at your service in the solution of your educational
problems; the public health agencies of the United States are ready
to assist in the solution of the sanitary problems. It is our earnest
hope that through a policy of frank and cordial cooperation there
will be established in the relations between Mexico and the United
States a new standard of international helpfulness and solidarity.
INDEX
BONILLAS, YON AGIO. The Character
and the Progress of the Revolution,
18-21.
CABRERA, Luis. The Mexican Revo-
lution Its Causes, Purposes and
Results, 1-17.
Civilization: obligations, 23; types, F 8.
CLOSING REMARKS. L. S. Rowe, 30-
31.
Foreigners, status, 29.
FOREWORD. L. S. Rowe, iii.
Huerta, military government, 19.
Hygiene: private, 23; public, 23.
Mexican Commission, work, 30.
people, welfare, 16.
Mexican Revolution: development,
15-16; purposes, iii, 19; reconstruc-
tion, 18; scientific interpretation, 11;
triumph, 19.
MEXICAN REVOLUTION, THE ITS
CAUSES, PURPOSES AND RESULTS.
Luis Cabrera, 1-17.
MEXICAN REVOLUTION, THE MEAN-
ING OF THE. Juan B. Rojo, 27-29.
Mexico: agrarian problem, 7;- average
mortality, 24; chaos, 2-3; commer-
cial problem, 8; economic develop-
ment, 7; education, 5-6; geograph-
ical data, 3-4; industrial problem,
8; international problems, 9-10;
natural resources, 7-8; political
problem, 8-9; population, 4; prob-
lem, 26; reconstruction, 11, 14-15;
relations between United States and,
9-10, 31; religious problem, 6-7; re-
organization, 25; true conditions, 2;
United States and, 28.
MEXICO, THE SANITARY AND EDUCA-
TIONAL PROBLEMS OF.][ Alberto^J.
Pani, 22-26.
PANI, ALBERTO J. The Sanitary and
Educational Problems of Mexico,
22-26.
Public opinion, moulding, 1.
Reconstruction, foundations, 13.
Revolution: meaning, 12; stages, 12-
13.
REVOLUTION, THE CHARACTER AND THE
PROGRESS OF THE. Ygnacio Bonil-
las, 18-21.
ROJO, JUAN B. The Meaning of the
Mexican Revolution, 27-29.
ROWE, L. S. Closing Remarks, 30-31;
Foreword, iii.
United States: educational agencies,
31; international relations, 30;
Mexico and, 28; relations between
Mexico and, 9-10, 31.
32
The November (1916) ANNALS
ON
AMERICA'S
CHANGING INVESTMENT MARKET
Edited by E. M. PATTERSON, Ph. D.
yarding the AXNALS I must say I was aina/..
information. One can hardly afford to skip an article, and it is to be
hoped that our men of aff. iind sufficient time to look into the
articles contained therein.''
JAMES J. SHIRLEY, M.E.E.E., New York City.
"la t&e midst of the unpreeed phi ...ad and with ;>!..
mal conditions at home, your Xov :< issue on AMERICA'S
CHAXGIXG INVESTMENT MAllKI-T by eminent authb!
helps wonderfully t< ' . \ of our transformation from a
debtor to a creditor nation. This transformation takes us into the
international field for investments, and thus adds new problems to our
ever expanding progi
ANDREW JAY FRAME, President,
Waukesha National Bank, Waukesha, Wis.
; : rong food for thought on
any 'allied su -. it is an awesoiih
'left any pnrticular contribution for specific mention,
one of them is worth}- of several careful rending-' when one's mind
is free from every other subject and ott< -ntration at
their best. Perhaps 1 was most ini)-:
graph of Mr. Waiting's l-iconomic Internationalism; the instn,
artici' -...hange by Mr. Zimii :
of M- Mr. Shirley."
E. B. JONES, President, The Colonial Trust Company,
Philadelphia.
OF
Philadelphia
President
L. S. ROWE, Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania
Vice- Presidents
CARL KELSEY, Ph.D. CHARLES W. DABNEY, Ph.D.
University of Pennsylvania University of Cincinnati
DAVID P. BARROWS, Ph.D.
University of California
Secretary Counsel
J. P. LICHTENBERGER, Ph.D. HON. CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF
University of Pennsylvania North American Building, Philadelphia
Treasurer Librarian
CHARLES J. RHOADS, Esq. JAMES T. YOUNG, Ph.D.
Federal Reserve Bank, Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania
General Advisory Committee
RT. HON. ARTHUR J. BALFOUR, M. P.j PROF. W. W. FOLWELL
London, England University of Minnesota
PROF. C. F. BASTABLE i HON. LYMAN J. GAGE
Dublin University San Diego, Cal.
PROF. P. VIDAL DE LA BLACHE
University of Paris
PROF. CARL GRUNBERG
University of Wien
PROF. F. W. BLACKMAR I SENOR ANTONIO HUNEEUS
University of Kansas Santiago, Chile
PROF. EDWIN CANNAN, LL.D. PROF. J. W. JENKS
Oxford, England New York University
DR. LUIS M. DRAGO PROF. W. LOTZ
Buenos Aires, Argentina University of Miinchen
PROF. L. DUPRIEZ ! PROF. BERNARD MOSES
University of Louvain University of California
PROF. R. T. ELY j DR. JAVIER PRADO y UGARTECHE
University of Wisconsin Univ. of San Marcos, Lima, Peru
PROF. HENRY W. FARNAM j HON. HENRY WADE ROGERS
Yale University New Haven, Conn.
PROF. CARLO F. FERRARIS HON. HANNIS TAYLOR, LL.D.
Royal University, Padua, Italy Washington, D. C.
V
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