Full text of "The truth about Mexico ; being a bird's eye view of political, social, and economic conditions, together with an analysis of past American policy and a suggestion for the future--based on a tour of observation in Mexico, November-December, 1916"

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)UT MEXIC

bird's-eye view of political, social, and economic
ditions, together with an analysis of past American
cy and a suggestion for the future — based on a tour
observation in Mexico November- December, 1916.

David Lawrence

Washington Correspondent of the

with the sit- "The most important series
> Evening News. which has appeared in some

ew York time on the ^kject of Mexi '
co." — Daily Financial America.

"No one has a juster appre-
ciation of the complexities of
the problem."— Charleston(S. C.)
News and Courier.

The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselv

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oreword

We talk a great deal in this country about the ignorance of the
I\,_.Yicans aiid the stupidity of their attitude towards the United
Stares. We forget that the people of the United States are almost as
'11- informed about Mexico as the Mexicans are about this country.
It is iv-jz the fault of the public that this is trueT^ trustworthy infor-
mation regarding conditions in Mexico has been very difficult to ob-
tain, isinformation has been widely circulated^ It has been hard,
indeed, o get the facts on which one could rely. ,

Because this has been the situation, the New York' Evening
Post ".en: its Washington correspondent, David Lawrence, to make
a mur of observation. He was unusually qualified for the assign-
ment. He had not only followed closely the development of
American policy, spending some time in intimate touch 'with

i Mexican- American Joint Commission at New London and At-
lantic City, but he had himself visited Mexico as a newspaper cor-
respondent several times before. Mr. Lawrence speaks Spanish
fluently. Before coming - to the Evening Post a year agp,
he was in charge of the Mexican story for the Associated Press
while m Washington. Previously — 191 1, 1912, and 1915 — he
was sent to Mexico by the Associated Press. He was at the
battle of Juarez which decided the Madero revolution in 191 1,
winning special recognition from the A. P. for his graphic descrip-
lions. He travelled southward with Madero, visiting Zapata and

il. < i'iiefs and remaining with him until the Presidential campaign
began in Mexico that year. In 191 2, Mr. Lawrence was sent again
by the Vssociated Pres^ to take charge of the Mexican story in
northern Mexico, where Orozco was in revolt and Huerta was mov-
ing northward as commander-in-chief for Madero. In September,
to 1 ;, before recognition was extended, Mr. Lawrence visited Gen.
Carranza at Vera Cruz, getting interviews from the First Chief on
his attitude toward the l T nited States. He has known Carranza per-
sonally for many years, as well as the other personalities conspicuous
in the daily dispatches from Mexico in the last six years. - Mr. Law-
rence 'joys the confidence 'of leading Mexicans of all classes, has
man. friends in the country, and is an unbiassed observer. He went
«.v?th no preconceived theories, but in an effort to tell just what he saw,
what ( r >m his knowledge of the past constituted the fundamentals
of the situation, whether it had really improved or gotten worse, and
he was ready to write the truth no matter which way it; ; cut. We feel
that his articles are as nearly impartial as it is humanly possible to
obtain.

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Contents

The "Vicious Circle" -

Effect of Pershing Expedition on

Mexican Internal Politics -

Ascendency of Civil Power Over

,' Irresponsible Milif$ty Chiefs -

Exploitation of Mexico by the For-

eigner a Thing of the Past

Religious Contention a Factor in

Mexico's Social Upheaval

13 3|

Mexico Reborn -

Graft — Pure and Simple

Armed Intervention - - • -

Mexico's Constituent Assembly -

Educational Reform - -

Venustiano Carranza — The Man -

Obregon and Gonzales — Their

Personalities

26,

Defects in American Policy - -

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)

The Truth About Mexico

i. ^

THE "VICIOUS CIRCLE"

Just How Lack of Money and Economic Troubles Affect the
Crushing of Banditry and the GuerrillaWarfare of Villa —
Difficulties With Official Reports — International Commis-
sion Viewed Hopefully in Mexico.

Mexico City, December, 191 6.

[T Is a far cry from Washington to
Mexico City — some 2,000 miles. But
.rains, telegraph wires, mails, all the
Utions of the day, do not conquer the
sal distance. -fTime — centuries of^
separates the civilizations of two
ipring peoples, is it any wonder
that there are misunderstandings?) The
njrfe thing that can prevent such dif-
ferences from leading to wars and blood-
ied is a tljnely exercise of the power of
"/i-rpref«*^|jj. The higher duty obviously
belongs to the nation of more advanced
>ili/.ation— -till*. United Suites.
(Thero are human beings south of the
Grande — SO!$jl- ' sixteen millions of
They are of a race that has dem-
ted in other parts of the world Its
rapacity for s . if -government. There is
no good reason on GocPs earth why an-
other iiyjentina should not rise at the

doors of the United States, and there will
be such a country, if only the two peo-
ples can be brought to understand each
otherp^ It ought to be a task ot the
mind, an accommodation of view-points,
not an obligation of the hand — the use
of forced That will everywhere be ad-
mitted as a proper sentiment, but fs it
' piactical? Therein is the doubt,
fit is very easy to shrug one's shoul-
ders and dismiss the Mexican problem
.With the phrase— intervention eventual-
ly, why not now? \ It is easy also to.
sympathize so excessively with the de
facto Government and the principles of
the revolution as to be Wind to the
abuses inflicted upon foreigners and na-J
tives alike; Jto tha graft, the dishonesty,
the fraud, the dirt, the disease, the ban-
ditry, and things even more reprehensi-
ble?)

It is hardest to be fair about the whole
business, to make reasonable allowances
to see far into the future and say
what really ought to be done by the
United States to help Mexico to her feet,
or what ought not to be done by the
United States because it might prevent
Mexico from getting her balance once
more.

SEEING IS BELIEVING.

/if the American people, or any disin-
terested number of them, could be trans-
ported to Mexico for the sole purpose of
study and observation, not through the
eyes of financially interested people, but
with their own powers of scrutiny and
broad judgment alerUy in pHiuy the du-
ty of the United States would be as clear
in the circumstances as it Is with any
problem of our domestic life whereftr
opinion crystallizes clearly and potenUy.
It is unfortunate that more observers
do not come. Seeing is believing. Filled
with the stories of starvation on every
street-corner, widespread suffering and
military chaos, this correspondent went
to see how Mexico differed from its con-
dition a year ago when the de facto Gov-
ernment was recognized; how it differed
from the days of the Madero Adminis-
tration when he saw a fairly normal
state of affairs. Possessed of a knowl-
edge of the Spanish tongue gained on
several previous sojourns in Mexico, as
well as an acquaintance among various
classes of M^iicans^lind foreigners, fee
travelled Southward/to find the ..acts, to
make up his own rhind if indeed there
is a hopeless case below the Rio Grande,
curable only by physical intervention,
or whether after all the thing is evolu-
tionary and needs infinite patience while
it moves forward.)

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

-THE soLrces of information.
But is it moving: forward? Tn Mexico
really making headway? \The average
American will grit his teeth and put
up with,a great deal if he can only see
progress^ Much of my time in Mex-
ico on "this occasion was spent in
searching out the facts of the past, but
during the very period of observation it
was possible actually to witness a change
for the better, a change which even
members of the disgruntled American
colony admitted was an improvement on
times past, on a year ago, for instance.
^ In all fairness to the Americans living
in Mexico, to the members of our Con-
sular service and diplomats, it can be
stated that they are not fully informed.
That is only natural. Thfcy have other
business to attend to than continuously
to survey the political, economic, or so-
cial conditions of the country in which
they live. The American is busy most
of the day with his own profession, his
mines, his merchandise. The diplomat
or Consul sits in his office, engrossed in
a mass of routine, and listens to the gos-
sip of the travellers who happen to drop
in with the stories they have heard. If
the American Embassy in Mexico City
were instructed to verify only one of
a dozen stories It hears, it would find
Itself confronted by an almost hopeless
task.

But the newspaper men, those who are
making a bird's-eye view of things every
day, those who are talking with the Mexi-
can Government officials daily and yet
are in contact with the foreigners and
are able to judge of the merit of their
• complaints, these unofficial but trained
observers really know more about what
is going on in Mexico than any other
class of folks. The resident correspon-
dents without a single exception, good
American newspaper men, who have put
up with a lot of personal inconvenience,
too, ftold me that \ Mexico had improved,
and that she was moving ahead, and that
if the United States and Mexico once
composed their border difficulties, there
would not bo the slightest doubt about
the future of Mexico, for while all her
leaders might not be efficient, enough of
them were capable, enough were honest,
slowly to conquer the graft and the dis-
honesty, and to establish a strong' Gov-
ernment, though it might take a year and
possibly two — because everything moves'
slowly in Mexico. 3 This procrastination
is usually the American's first point of
misunderstanding. He mistakes slow mo-
tion for reluctance, self-sufficiency, or
unwillingness.

And are these newspaper men them-
selves happy? Are things any bet-
ter for them than the other Americans
in business? Not at all. The correspon-
dents wait hours at a time to see a sub-
ordinate Mexican official. They put up

with vexatious whims of the censor. They
work at all hours of the night. They
sift out lies and gossip. They run the
risks of disease, of being targets for stray
bullets in street fights and brawls, of hav-
ing their pockets picked, of being- blown
up in trains, but they sit down and tell-
you in all fairness that, given half a
chance, the Carranza Government .will
puff through; but the facts are in front
of you.

TALKS WITH CARRANZA AND OTHER LEADERS.

Without disclosing the purpose of my
trip — to form a conclusion as to whether
intervention was really necessary at this
time — I had the opportunity of talking
with Gen. Carranza, then Gens. Obregon
and Gonzales, several Government offi-
cials whom I had known in the Madero
revolution, some "Cientifico" friends who
are living quietly in Mexico City and are
taking no part in politics; with diplomats,
foreign consuls, American business men;
in fact, with people of every point of view
and of every difference of opinion.

One. of these "cientincos," who had
every reason to hate the de facto Gov-
ernment, but whom I had known years
before when he was in the diplomatic
service, told me privately that the Car-
ranza. Government had done much bet-
ter than he had ever dreamed if would,
and that he believed they would succeed
in reestablishing law and order in Mex-
ico. Such an opinion, considering the
source, is obviously a fair one, especial-
ly since the man who gave it was him-
self imprisoned on suspicion when he first
returned to Mexico City, but is now quiet-
ly practicing law, free from harm, yet not
at all In sympathy with the existing Ad-
ministration.

MHXICO'S TBOUBLE ECONOMIC.

f To form a judgment of Mexico as a
I whole it is necessary at this time to in-
I vestigate Its sociological aspects, what
! has been done toward educating the ig-
/ norant masses, what is the condition of
I the railways and freight transportation,
| what is Mexico's real financial condition,
\ what do the activities of bandits and
j rebels amount to, and a series of other
\ subjects that will be described in subse-
| quent articles. Yet in twenty-four.
• hours it is possible for any one to come
to the conclusion that ^Mexico's troubles
is nothing more nor less than economic.^*
There is a phrase "CircuJo vicioso." used
as a rule in connection with the round-
about methods of Mexican politicians,
but it applies exactly to the present sit-
uation. It begins something like this:

The United States wants Mexico to
protect the lives and properties of for-
eigners. To do this; military discipline
and a sufficient army are necessary. To
have an army requires money, because'
troops can be organized well only if they

'are paid. Diaz had the money. Enough
officers would abandon grafting if they
were paid any decent compensation to
handle the few bandits and rebela If
the peons are not paid by the Govern-
jment, they will join Villa, Felix Diaz, 'or
[any other factional leader who happen*
;to come along.

< But American bankers say they can

make no loan until Mexico is at peace;

'the United States Government says the

'de facto Government cannot have am-

. munition until the stability of the latter

is established. The Mexican authorities

; declare this to be the "vicious circle" —

they are denied the very elements which

it is necessary for them to have in order

to accomplish the tranquillization of their

country.

Again, the United States says, "Crush
out banditry in Chihuahua and we will
withdraw the Pershing expedition." The
Carranza Government feels that Villa is
augmenting his forces by appealing to
the patriotism of the people, by accusing
the de facto Government of standing su-
pinely by while foreign troops camp on
Mexican soil; that's why Mexico can't
understand the United States.

INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION'S BENEFICENT
INFLUENCE.

The American-Mexican Commission
meeting at Atlantic City is the very best
thing that has happened in the relations
of the two countries. I fofmd everywhere
among the Mexicans a confidence that
the work of the Commission eventually
would be a success. It is incidentally a
check on the anti : American spirit. It is
enabling the de facto Government to turn
its attention to interior problems without
fear of a foreign war.

Alberto J. Pan!, who came here to re-
port on the work of the Commission, has
explained the American viewpoint elo-
quently and comprehensively and In a
language that the Mexican leaders un-
derstand. ^

The international problem is" not ye*
solved. There will be more discussion,
but the horizon is much clearer than it
has been. Gen. Carranza and the thought-
ful men about him know and appreciate
what help or harm the Unite! states can
be to them, and they want to reach a
friendly basis with their Northern neigh-
bor .CThe desire to^have peace exceeds the
wisn of a minority for trouble and con-
flict. What more powerful slogan for Gen.
Carranza than "he has kept us out Of war
with the United States".?/

PROGK kss is t^JW^r

V Mexico is progressing slowly. Her eco-
nomic condition, whH« very serious, la
better to-day than It was a month ago
or a year ago. \AU the paper money has
been driven out of circulation, and metal-

lazo

lie money, Mexican gold and silver]] hith-
erto hoarded, "has come out. Prices remain
high, but people can do business, because
metallic currency has a definite value;
there is no fluctuation.
/American money is accepted in many
transactions in Mexico, and for the pres-
ent there seems to be enough to meet the
circulation needs. It is a curious
phenomenon that the American, dollar is
•worth less than Mexican silver or gold.
In normal times, you could exchange two
1 Mexican silver pesos for one American
dollar. Now the American dollar bill or
silver dollar is worth only one peso and
ninety cents in Mexican gold or silver.
This is not due to any real depreciation,
but to the working of the law of supply
and demand. Mexican silver and gold are
much scarcer and, of course, are still pre-
ferred by most merchants. Eventually,
when the American dollar is accepted
everywhere or when there is an issue of
PRper money based on an actual gold
reserve, the old ratio of two paaoB for
an American dollar will obtain, feut the
vital fact is that the economic situation
•has been relieved, that business men
know "where they are at" and do not

E TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

have to calculate their prices on a fluc-
tuating paper currency, and that the
troops and Government employees are
being paid in metallic currency and new
Government bondsA <"

NATIONAL CONVENTION AT WORK.

Other factors have brought about a
noticeable change within the last two
weeks; the Constituent Assembly at
Queretaro has organized and Is revising
the Constitution. The general elections
will be held in February, and the consti-
tutional order has been definitely an-
nounced to begin on April 1, when Ve-
nustiano Carranwi will be inaugurated
President. The Courts of Justice and
Congress will be formally opened
then. The executive, legislative, and
judicial branches of the Government,
hitherto combined under the office of
First Chief in Charge of the Executive
Power, will go into operation again as in
the constitutional regime of Madero.
which was interrupted by Huerta'r
usurpation and illegal overthrow of the
Government. The sight of constitutional
guarantees, courts of process, and an end
of arbitrary decrees only three months

away, already has had a good moral ef-
fect as have the protestations of the
Guatemalan Government that It will not
permit the followers of Felix Diaz to
make of Guatemalan territory a base of
supply.

ST0RIK8 OF STARVATION EXAGGERATED.

There is no starvation of any ex- .
traordinary character. Some isolated
places are suffering— these are In the
Guanajuato and Zacatecas districts, but
it is due as much to interruption of rail-
road traffic as the economic conditions of
two and three months ago and failure
to plant crops on account of military
activities. But these situations are being
corrected. On the whole, making duo
allowance for many disagreeable things,
conditions are much better than they
have been in some time and the general
trend of affairs is decidedly for the bet-
ter. ^This does not mean that old com-
fortsSire availably that Americans and
their families can go back as yet, but
simply that Mexico is working out her
own problem In her own way, a pain-
fully slow process, but not by any means
;>. hopeless one.)

II.

EFFECT OF PERSHING EXPEDITION

ON MEXICAN INTERNAL POLITICS

Carranza Government Accused of Permitting Foreign "In-
vader" to Occupy Mexican Territory— Villa Appeals to
Patriotism of People to Get Recruits— While United
States Insists on Unlimited Pursuit It Really Desires Effi-
Pursuit.

caci<

Queretaro, Mex y December, 191 6.

INTERNATIONAL affairs are usually
the least of Mexican worries — there is
so m»Ch to he done at home; but just
now Gent, yenustiano Carranza -is busied
with litaaetee. While not «amltttng it
as a rule, most Mexican leaders realize

nowadays that in a friendly understand-
ing with the United .States lies tni key-
to success for the dc facto Government.

Alberto J. Pani, who came here from
Atlantic City to advise the First Chief
of what had been discussed during the

eleven weeks of meetings held by tha
Mexican-American Commission, has had
pretty much the centre of the stage; but
with rare discretion he has managed to
keep details of his mission a confidential
affair between himself, the First Chief,
and the head of the Foreign Office.

And as he started back to the
United States, neither the people nor tha
press, nor even the officials and mili-
tary men knew just what communication
he was carrying. Somehow there is a faith
in the ability of the First Chief to handle
the whol« business in a manner consis-
tent with Mexican dignity and pride, and
nobody becomes over-curious The only
word passed out was that "things ar«
going well in international matters."

One thing, however, Is clear. No one
in all Mexico could have presented the
American point of view better than has
Mr. Pani. He has the confidence and
affection of the First Chief and of Mexi-
can officials generally, and it was easy
to see by the effusive greetings he re-
ceived that he is popular., Mr. Pani
himself was impressed by the courtesy
and altruistic spirit of the American

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HE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

Commissioners, ana he did not fail to
give an account of the variety of subjects
under discussion, clothing his verbal and
oral reports with a fine tribute to the
cordial spirit displayed by American rep-
resentatives. '

It was too much to expect that the
protocols "which Mr. Panl carried from
Atlantic City would be signed here with-
out further discussion by the Commis-
sion. The stumbling-block is a vital one,
but presents no insurmountable difficulty.

PERSHING EXPEDITION AS VIEWED BOTH WAYS.

The United States is willing to with-
draw its forces within forty days, pro-
viding there is a recognition by Mexico
of its obligation to protect the frontier.
But the United States announced its in-
tention to pursue to a finish the bandits
who may raid American territory. The
Mexicans object to-day, as they al :
ways have objected, to granting the
unlimited rights of pursuit. They
claim, as they have argued in their
notes about the Pershing expedition, that
the presence of infantry, cavalry, and ar-
tillery alarms the populace, making them
suspicious that the real purpose is not
to catch a few bandits, but military oc-
cupation — the much dreaded Interven-
tion.

On its part, the American Government
contends that to put qualifications or limi-
tations on the right of pursuit is to de-
stroy the efficacy of such pursuit, just as
happened when the progress of the Per-
shing expedition was retarded by failure
to permit the free use of railroads or
Mexican towns as bases of supply. Nor
does the American Government want to
give Mexico the reciprocal right of pur-
suit, though this right is likely never to
be ucsd, because Mexican troops will not
have occasion to repel raids started from
American territory. . Yet, for the sake of
the national dignity, it is desired by the
de facto Government,

CONCESSIONS MEXICO WILL MAKE.

The Mexican Government realizes that
limitations on pursuit might retard the
pursuers and enable the bandits to es-
cape, and is willing to make several con-
cessions. For example, it will permit the
Immediate entry of American forces, pro-
vided there is prompt notification to the
Mexican commander of the district af-
j fected, limitation of size of the expedition,
}■ and agreement that the forces shall be^
; withdrawn as soon as sufficient Govern-
1 ment troops are brought into the vicinity
of the bandit operations to take up the
pursuit. Indeed, the Mexicans would not
object to the continued presence of the
American forces and their cooperation on
Mexican soil with the Mexican troops,
but the command of such allied columns
is naturally wanted by the Mexican au-
thorities. To do otherwise, Mexico

argues, would be to yield sacred rights of
sovereignty.

The American Commissioners insisted
on the right of unlimited pursuit, but
the, Mexicans refused. It was decided to
omit from the protocols themselves the
whole business, each Government agree-
ing to protect its own frontier. But a
public statement was made by the United
States threatening to send, in the event
of a raid like that at otolumbus,
another punitive expedition, of what-
ever size it chose, to go whatever
distance it thought necessary to pursue
the bandits to a finish. But this could
lead to war, since the Mexicans again
would resent a long-distance pursuit, be-
cause the bandits who may have sought
to provoke intervention by attacking
American towns would not be averse to
drawing the American forces ail the way
to Mexico City, in *he hope of entangling
them with the constituted Government
or the populace, and thus precipitating
a general conflict.

/Such a threat or unlimited pursuit
might have a deterrent effect on bandits
and cause the de facto Government scru-
pulously to guard its frontier, but, just
the same, the relations between the two
countries would not be benefited, for a
club would be held over the heads of the
Mexican Government which would make
everybody, including American bankers,
and even foreign residents in Mexico, in-
clined to discount the moral support by
the United States of the de facto Govern-
ment, and keep the international status
of things continuously hanging by a hair.
Americans might not be willing to re-
turn to their accustomed occupations In
Mexico. Any moment they might be
ordered out, because of the dangers to
them involved in dispatching a punitive
expedition across the border that might
be combated by the Government forces.

A COMPROMISE PLAN.

There is no doubt that the United
States would be doing more to help Mex-
ico by agreeing to some limitation of the
right <»f pursuit, but at the same time
insisting that the effectiveness of such
pursuit must not be impeded, lest tha
United States hold itself at liberty to dis-
regard the limitations in cases arising
subsequent to the one in wnieh the in-
efticacy of pursuit will have been demon-
strated. Some such compromise seems
reasonable and fair. The important point
involved, however, in the previous expe-
rience of the United States with the mili-
tary forces of the de facto Government
sent to northern Mexico to lake control
of the territory evacuated by the Per-
shing expedition has been the alleged re-
luctance, indifference, or incapacity of the
Car ran za forces. ,

If the Carranza officers have not bean
vigilant in their pursuit of Villa (and If

this is conclusively proved to the Ameri-
can army observers), then the Mexican
Government should be advised of their
delinquency, and the information used as
a basis for action.

Carranza, it must be remembered, has
not yet got a competent military ma-
chine. He had put faith In' Gen. Jacinto
Trevino — a Chapultepec graduate— but ,
the latter has proved a failure. Gen.
Murgia is now being tried out, and his
defeat of Villa in Chihuahua City has en-
couraged the First Chief to believe that
at last he has secured some one who will
run Vina down. Should Murgia f«^.
Gen. Alvaro Obregon, the Minister of
War, will leave his official duties at Mex-
ico City and take the field himself.

THINGS MOVE SLOWLY IN MEXICO.

Things move slowly in Mexico. It takes
time for the Mexican Government to
weed out Its own incompetent menu If *
the United States can only be assured of
the good faith, sincerity, and earnest dis-
position of Gen. Carranza and his Gov-
ernment to do all that they humanly can
to stamp out banditry, forgiveness of
mistakes would not be withheld. Such a
pressure ought constantly to be exerted by
friends of the First Chief. ('Gen. Carranza »
is a fair-minded individual and lately Is
reported to have shown a much more
friendly disposition toward the United
States and Americans generally — a will-
ingness to go half-way. j

If there were only more concrete evi-
dence of his friendliness all would be
well, but obviously he cannot do much
while American troops are camping on
Mexican soil, any more than an Ameri-
can President would dare to be over-
friendly with the respective Emperors of
Japan and Germany if the troops of either
were bivouacked in Texas or California.

The most friendly thing the United
States could do to-day to win the friend-
ship and confidence of the Mexicans
would be to withdraw the Pershing ex-
pedition voluntarily and announce its
intention of giving its whole-hearted mo^
ral support to the de facto Government*
exchange would rise in Mexico, foreign-
ers would have confidence that there was
to be international comity, and a con-
sequent improvement in economic condi-
tions wtiuld soon be apparent. Such an
improvement would mean that the Gov-
ernment of Mexico would be able to raise
the funds wherewith to pay its troops
and organize an efficient patrolling forte
to prevent border raids and glva lifte nec-
essary protection within Mexico to the
lives and properties of Americans <atid
foreigners. It's agaim the famous "vl- <
cious circle"— but the circle must be
broken by the United States with just
such acts of friendship, or our altruistic
words will be, as always, misconstrued
and suspected.

pizo

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

III.

ASCENDENCY OF CIVIL POWER OVER

IRRESPONSIBLE MILITARY CHIEFS

Constitutionalist Administration Supported by Military Men-
Difference Between Carranza and Madero— Dealing with
Marauding Bandits and Train-wreckers— Railroad Con-
ditions.

_i_ — ,

• Mexico City, December, 1910.

POLITICAL intrigue, which is ( as
plentiful in Mexico as the green Ca<v
tus, and often just as thorny an im-
pediment to progress, has not abated a bit
under the revolutionary era; but now-
adays it is directed, not against the
constituted Government, but looks dis-
tantly to the elections of 1920, when
Venustiano Carranza's term as President
is due to expire.

The election of Mr. Carranza in Feb-
ruary and his inauguration in April are
foregone conclusions. There is no armed
opposition in sight which is of sufficient^
strength to overthrow Carranza, and
within his own party there is none whQ
would essay such a task. ? Mexico to-day
is better off, politically speaking, than it
has been in some time. Venustiano Car- ^
ranza started the revolution against
Hucrta. He has held his forces Intact
throughout It all; he has been recognized
||b Chief Executive of the de facto Gov-
ernment.

3?he men of Carranza's party are in
complete control of the Constituent As-
sembly which is framing a new Constitu-
tion for Mexico at Queretaro, and alto-
gether his right to the Presidency is
questioned neither on legal nor on moral >
grounds. %

The very feet that all the mililary men
are giving thj^r political support to Gen.
Carranza had stabilized conditions very
much. But everybody realizes that in
the hands of these same military men
( *ests the fate of the present Administra-
jtion. A triumvirate, therefore, rules
Mexico — Venustiano Carranza, Alvaro
Obregon, and Pablo Gonzales. The last
two command the two largest divisions
of the\»*rniy. At present both men are
in Mexico City, a year ago one heard
a good' Heal of talk to the effect that any

day Gen. Obregon might break with Car-
ranza The same gossip is to be had
for the asking, but not so many people
believe it any more. No one who has
talked with Gen. Obregon five minutes
would believe it. To be sure, there is
more plausibility to the story of jealousy
between Obregon and Gonzales, but these
proceed from the sycophants and staffs
of the two men rather than from them-
selves.

BOTH OBRIXJON AND U0NZAL.E8 ARB PATRIOTS.

Both are capable, patriotic Mexicans
and far too shrewd to disrupt the pres-
ent Government and start the revolution-
ary business all over again. Mr. Carranza
has benefited by such rivalry as has ex-
isted between Obregon and Gonzales. At
all cents, both are united behind the
First Chief, and they talk of his election
as an assured fact — as if it had already-
happened. Both Gonzales and Obregon
may be candidates for the Presidency in
1920. Each will set out to make a rec-
ord \tnder Carranza. Obregon is now
Minister of War; he will probably remain
there, for he is an unusually successful
military man. Gonzales- is a born ad-
ministrator. He, too, will have an oppor-
tunity to show his worth. He is per-
haps the most popular of all the Consti-
tutionalist generals, so far as Mexico City
is concerned. Foreigners generally say
he is eminently fair and capable, and wish
for his return to direct charge of the
affairs of the Federal districts.

But the interesting thing is that, while
ambitious, these men are doing nothing
to impede the progress of the de facto
Government or the political future prog-
ress of Don Venustiano. The Constitu-
tion provides for a four-year term and no
reelection. Both Gonzales and Obregon
are under forty, and therefore can wait

until 1920. Other candidates froi
civil ranks are likely to appear in the
interim. Which is the way politics

rould be in a democracy.
Provided Carranza hews to the line,
ovided he makes no compromises with
the foreigners, provided he follows close-
ly the principles of the revolution, there-
fore, he can be counted upon to have
clear .sailing so far as internal politics
is concerned 1 !) There is no danger that
he will depart from his intense nation-
alism. It has been his creed from the
start.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CARRANZA AND MADERO.

/^The difference between Madero and
Carranza — for tfte comparison must be
made in order to forecast whether the
Liberal movement will succeed this time
— is the difference between an idealist
without administrative ability and a prac-
tical man with radical principles, a poli-
tician of yore, and a capable executive)

Madero, who came into power after a
very brief revolution, with the physical
and economic condition of Mexico hardly
changed from the time of Diaz, lasted
a year and four months. During his Ad-
ministration his forces made little prog-
ress against Zapata in the South, and
were constantly righting Orozco in the
North. The Carranza party has already
held itself together longer than that; in
fact, it is now a year and a month since
the Carranza Administration was recog-
nized by the nrincipal nations of the
world. And Carranza's battle has been
to bring order out of anarchy, to keep
intact military men of all classes and
descriptions, many of them dishonest,
many of them so anti-foreign as to x
threaten international complications, and
a great many financially dishonest, plain
grafters.

CARRANZA UNDERSTANDS HIS DIFFlfcULTIBS.

Does General Carranza know the weak
spots in his own party? Better than
any man in it. But he is skilful and
diplomatic. When a general is "acting
up" and he cannot be handled by tele-
graph without fear that he will sud-
denly take up his forces and go off on
the war path, Mr. Carranza invariably
sends for him, brings him to the capital
"for conference." Away from his men,
an obstreperous chief is not able to do
much mischief, and Mr. Carranza has
usually foind a way of placing such men
where they are either under the eye
of another general or busily occupied
fighting Zapatistas or Villistas, instead of
loaf>ng, which breeds most abuse.

/This may sound like craven tactics, but
ic-4« the better part of wisdom in Mexico.
The Constitutionalist army is really a
variation of the old feudal system. The
men fight for their majors, their colonels,
or their generals. They don't, the ma-

yizo

Jority of them, fight for any principle.
Many of the leaders do, and thatfs why
a revolutionary army Is such an incon-
gruous affair//But it is a necessary in- •
strument, ana the hardest task is to dis-
band it when it Is once organized. Car-
ranza knew from the start that he had
to depend on the military men. Little by
little grew his own strength, the civil
power. It will reach its maximum point
with his inauguration as President In
April. As his power has increased he
has slowly gained the ascendency over
the generals, and he is much bolder and
far more radical with them, and they
obey his orders more diligently to-day
than a year ago. Bo not suppose that
this means perfect discipline, or that
Mexico isn't infested by bands or groups
of rebels. Scarcely a state that hasn't
*X Its marauders, but the surprising thing
is that there are so few trains blown uj>,
instead of so many, as the American is
likely to think, from reading the reports
of these "accidents." But it takes only

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

a half-dozen men to wreck a train and
run away. It requires tens of thousands
to patrol the railroad lines that run
through wild stretches of mountain and
the wasted plains of desert land.

One good thing the Government is do-
ing now is its sending of troops to points
on the line where it suspects disaffection.
Hitherto the Government has waited, as
a rule, Until a train was wrecked before
regarding the bandits seriously. The new
and cautious method saves rolling stock
as well as human lives.

TBLKQRAPH COMMUNICATION IMPROVING.

Telegraph communication is pretty
good, and is constantly improving. The
main lines have been restored. Trains
arc running regularly to Mexico City from
all border points, with the exception of
Juarez. In the interior traffic is fairly
good to Guadalajara, Aguascalientes,
Vera Cruz, and all the larger cities. In u
year the Constitutionalists have done re-

markably well in restoring railroad com-
munication. Between San Luis Potosi and
Tampico the Cedilla brothers are on the
rampage, and trains run Irregularly. Be-
tween Vera Cruz and Mexico City only
daylight service obtains, with not as
much risk as a month ago, but still with
a great deal of uncertainty, for freight
especially.

Yet the encouraging thing Is that the
de facto Government is fighting these
mosquito enemies as well as it can. r And
as soon as the mines are reopened and
there is more work for the unemployed
much of the banditry will disappear^ The
Government is doing all that most fair-
minded people- in Mexico think it can do
with its limited funds; but so long as ths
direction of things is forward, and not
backward, foreigners and natives alike
are hopeful. Patience and hope are Mex-
ico's greatest staples, which is why the
whole thing hasn't collapsed ere this, and
why there is a mighty good chance that
It won't.

IV.

EXPLOITATION OF MEXICO BY THE

FOREIGNER A THING OF THE PAST

Anti-Foreign Attitude of To-day a Natural Outgrowth of Diaz
Waste of Resources— Carranza Government Quietly
Adopting Foreigners' Methods, However— Administra-
tive Changes and New Cabinet Departments.

Mexico City, December, 191 6.

MSXICO, for patriotic reasons, just now
is anti-foreign, fanatically so. The
Diaz regime catered to the foreigners
and their wealth, squandering the resources
of the country among Americans, English,
Germans, etc. (Indeed, Mexicounder the
Diaz Administration was cTffFstened "the
, iovTnT"m°ther oi the foreign* and the

brutal stepmother of the Mexicans." This
state of affairs' was* one of the causes of
the revolution, begun by Madero in 1910
and c^£inii"d successfully by Carranza,
and now one of the inevitable effects is
a natural reaction against all foreigners,
a political clamor that foreigners shall
not possess more privileges than nationals.

Such an intense nationalism has devel-
oped that all things foreign are held at
a distance, and some time will elapse be-
fore it will be possible openly to encour-
age the development of Mexico's resources
by foreign capital — a necessary itep in
her internal progress as~ will eventually
he discovered, if it is not already known,
by the thoughtful Mexican leaders them-
selves. VBut "Mexico for Mexicans" is the
slogan to-day, and it always is a popular
shibboleth in revolutionary days, as a
bait-century of Mexican history proves.-
I tail way's, for example, used to be or 1 i ;ited •
by Americans, Englishmen, or otlier for-^
eigners. On the National Lines to-day yo* v
see only Mexican engineers, Mexican tin-
men, Mexican conductors, and Mexican
porters. All parts of the organization,
division superintendents, dispatchers, and
clerks, are Mexican, as it is with all other
branches of the governmental service to-
day.

Yet, while the Mexican leaders arc not
saying much about it. they-sj» auietly
looking about the world to incorporate
in their governmental system the very
best things that the foreigner has mould-
ed. ItSs too early to employ foreign ex-
perts—that would be resented by the
radicals and a political Issue made of it-^;

IZU

but in the next few years you will See
a number of Mexican cothrriisslons going
abroad to study educational and techni-
cal questions, to bring back the benefit
of foreign Governments' experience in
commercial and industrial problems.

Indeed. Gen. Venustiano Carranza is
planning, together with the Constituent
Assembly, which is revising the Constitu-
tion at Queretaro, an administrative re-
form of far-reaching importance to Mex-
ico. The executive branch of the Gov-
ernment will be reorganized with an eye
to a distinct separation of the executive
departments from dangerous political in-
fluences.

TO AB0U8H VICE-PRE8IDENCT.

In the first place, the Vice-Presidency
will be abolished. Why? Simply because
it is a constant source of danger. The
Vice-President has been next in line of
succession to the President in event of
death. His ambitions might lead him to
intrigue or so to prejudice the status of
the President politically as to encourage
assassination or other means of depos-
ing him. This has happened before. So it
has been with other Cabinet Ministers,
from the post of Minister of Foreign
Affairs down. Realizing that the Min-
ister of Foreign Affairs has been sec-
ond in succession (or even first, if the
Vice-Presidency happened to be vacant),
the* portfolio has been too often filled to
meet internal political expediency, rather
than the needs of the office. Consequent-
ly Mexico's foreign Ministers with few
exceptions have rarely been diplomats.
The temptation is to name one's successor
by making him first Minister for Foreign
Affairs, thus perpetuating a system and
denying the people their right to choose
their own President

AH this is now to be change.l, and by
the simple and democratic process of
having the people through the Congress
choose a successor to the President, no
Hba tter how the vacancy occurs, by death,
ttHignation, or physical disability. The
Congress must choose the President. It
is much better than our own system In
the Unit»'<t States, when a chance, may
remove an i fncient President and leave
>>untiy in the hands of a man who
never -was int< i. . I by the people to be
their CttWf° Executive. They have no
other rerriedgf.

Gen. CaFransa thinks, too, that by
keeping his Cabinet Ministers out of the
line of succesarteik he can appoint a Min-
ister for Foreigi Affairs who is really
i fit for the place, someone who knows
Img&iething about diplomacy and interna-
tional affairs.' One more change is need-
ed to safeguard the new system. Mem-
bers of the Cabinet ought to be ineligible
for selection by the Congress to succeed
to tttf; president v. ThJ* would put a
check*0& intrigues with Congress. It is

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

being discussed and may be adopted,
though the objection has been raised that
too few men of executive experience will
then be available for choice.

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY TO BE JORMED.

There are to be several ether changes
in the organization of the executive pow-
er. Besides suppressing the Vice-Presi-
dency, the incumbent of which office
could hitherto take over any Cabinet
portfolio he desired, the Department of
Public Instruction and the Ministry of
Justice will be abolished. In order to
take the question of education out of
politics, a commissionership of education
will be created to cooperate with the
State Governments in promoting educa-
tion. A national university or council
will be formed, composed to some ex-
tent of foreigners, which will make the
question of education an unofficial and
less public affair. This will permit of
aid from foreign institutions of learn-
ing.

Similarly, in order to correct abuses
which have arisen in connection with
the Ministry of Justice, a department that
had administrative charge of th* courts
and too often has influenced them, the
portfolio will be done away with entirely.
In its place there will be an Attorney-
General, but he will not be a member
of the Cabinet. He will be merely a gen-
eral counsel for the Government, and will
not have any more influence before the
courts than other attorney* The pur-
pose of the move is to make the admin-
istration of justice by the courts abso-
lutely independent of politics, a judiciary
in strength coordinate with the legisla-
tive and executive branches of the Gov-
ernment.

The method of* selecting a President
by the Congress has worked successfully
in Peru and other Latin- American coun-
tries, though to be sure in some of the
Latin republics, as Chili, for example, the
French system of making the Cabinet
responsible to the Congress and depen-
dent on its votes of confidence is in op-
eration. There has been serious discus-
sion here of a parliamentary form of
government for Mexico, much along the
lines of the French plan, but Gen. Car-
ranza in his address to the Constituent
Assembly, pointed out several objections
to it, proposing instead the Presidential
system in vogue in the United States
with the right of the people to vote di-
rectly for President of Mexico Instead of
indirectly through electors.

WHEN CARRANZA IS PRKSIDKNT.

Mexico has had many provisional Cab-
inets in the last few years, and Ameri-
cans who have come in contact even with
some of the members of the First Chief's
Cabinet to-day are not impressed with
the calibre of Mr. Carranea'e 1 aids. But

a revolutionary government is a different
thing from a constitutional government,
just as are a de facto administration and
a de jure administration in' the laws of
■nations. Mexico will have, beginning
about April 1, a de jure government, be-
cause by then Venustiano Carranza and
a Congress of Deputies and Senators will
have been elected. When Mr. Carranza
is President, and not First Chief, he will
have more real authority, he will not be
so dependent on the revolutionary fac-
tions or parties or the military groups,
but will be free to select a Cabinet fofr its
administrative ability rather than its
political strength.

Already, Mr. Carranza has in mind a
man for the portfolio of Foreign Affairs
who has had some experience in Europe
as a Mexican diplomat. A change in
the Ministry of Finance also would not
be surprising, especially if the right kind
of man with banking experience, and a
head for finance, who at the same time
is thoroughly in sympathy with the prin-
ciples of the revolution, can be found.
The truth is that most of the financiers
and bankers have been "cientiflcos," and
the material from which to select a Min-
ister of Finance is not all that could be
desired or that Mexico is really capable
of producing. It is too soon after the
close of the revolution to appoint a Min-
ister of Finance who hasn't participated
politically in the revolution, even though
he may not have been active on the oth-
er side. But within a year or two it te
not unlikely that Mr. Carranza will be
compelled after all to choose a non-po-
litical person to handle the huge question
of finance.

NEW DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.

The Department of Communicatione
and Public Works undoubtedly will be
headed by Ignacio Bonillas, at present «
member of the Mexican-American Com.
mission. He is an engineer of experience,
and already has initiated some important
construction work in harbors and public
buildings. At present the management
of the railways and the telegrajm and
mails is in charge of two general di-
rectors, who report directly to the First
Chief. These two directors will be kept
hereafter entirely independent of the De-
partment of Communications, or any
other Department in the Government, be-
ing responsible only to the Executive.

The Department of Fomento (colo-
nization and development of resources)
will continue as before, but it will no
longer have charge of industrial affairs
or interstate commerce. This is now to
be supervised by a new Cabinet officer,
who will be known as the Minister of
Commerce and Industry. This Depart-
ment will be copied closely after the
\ Departments of Commerce and Labor in
the United States, and an effort will be

1Z0

TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

■■■■■■1 1

made through it to solve Mexico'* In-
creasing number of strikes and labor
troubles, as well as the business of the
Federal Government, with mines, foreign
concessions, and the enterprises of for-
eigners generally. The head of the new
Department will try to conserve Mex-
ico's equities and at the same time try
to encourage the country's development
by foreign capital in legitimate ways.
There will also be a Federal Bureau of
Health and Sanitation, which is a new

thing for Mexico. The Department of
War will continue as before, as will the
portfolio of Qobernacion (or interior ad-
ministration), the connecting link be-
tween the state government and the fed-
eral authority. This makes a total of
seven Cabinet positions instead of eight,
as heretofore.

From this brief outline, it will be seen
that while the outcry against the for-
eigner has many political aspects of an
internal character, it is bound to be short-

lived. And as. soon as the Mexican Gov-
ernment assures itself that the immense
resources of the country are not to b«
gobbled up through false titles and spe- :
cial privileges, the foreigner will be wel-
comed. The radicalism of to-day will
inevitably give way to a more equitable
and conservative attitude towards for-
eigners, but there never wiill be such ex-
ploitation by foreigners as that for which
the Diaz system was responsible)*

RELIGIOUS CONTENTION A FACTOR

IN MEXICO'S SOCIAL UPHEAVAL

Some of the Reasons for the Hostility Against the Catholic
Church — Objections Not to Mexican Priests but French
and Spanish Clericals — Possibility of an Independent
Catholic Church of Mexico.

«.

Mexico City, December, 191 6.

RELIGIOUS contention has played no pecially in El Pueblo, the semi-official

small part in Mexico's social up- organ of the Government. Of the merits

heaval, and one need not be a church of the argument it is not necessary here

partisan to observe that while freedom to speak. (The truth is that most of th
of worship is now granted to Roman

Catholics as well as other rects by the
de facto Government in conformity with
established law, the fight against the
Roman Catholic Church, its alleged intol-
erance, and its remarkable hold on the
masses here, has only begun.

{The fact is that unless the Church at
Rome sees the handwriting on the wail
1 and adopts a more liberal policy in Mexico,
permitting Mexican priests and a Mexican
hierarchy to conduct its services through-
out the country instead' of French and
Spanish padres, there will be eventually a
Catholic Church of Mexico, separate and
distinct from the Church of RomeJ

This suggestion indeed is being serious-
ly advanced in the press of Mexico, es-

men in the Carranza Government,
originally Catholics, are anxious to lib-
eralize the Catholic Church, to make it
more in sympathy with the national
spirit, and if they do not succeed an
independent movement may result which
would mean that the Church at Rome
might lose its church properties here,
for the new church might lay claim to
them.

The general expectation is that so rad-
ical a step will not be necessary, and
that the Church of Rome will make
needed changes in the personnel of the
clergy. But in the midst of the con-
troversy and discussion there is good
ground to believe that Protestantism will
gain a strong foothold.

A'rriTrDE toward protrstant missions.

As a matter of fact officials of the de
facto Government feel kindly disposed
toward the foreign mission movements of
the Protestant churches. The Protestant
missionaries help in the establishment of
schools and generally in educating the
ignorant thousands. Anything that helps
to educate Mexicans is considered by
the Carranza Administration a good
thing, and the particular grudge the
party in power to-day has against the
Catholic Church is its alleged . obstruc-
tion of education and progress.

The Catholic Church as it has ex
here — the institution itself, not its
vice — has been charged by the Cam
Administration with playing politics. The
Church is supposed to have furnished
funds to sustain Huerta. is accused now ,
1.'' supporting Felix Diaz, and. through !
refugee priests In the United States, is i
reld to be conspiring for intervention.
s.i the enmity is considered in Mexico to
! >. a more or less reciprocal affair.

And while the controversy is going on
some interesting things are happening.^
Most of the Constitutionalist officials do
not attend any churches, and say they
will not untiK Catholicism is placed on
a non-political and broadei basis, All
the wives and daughters, however, of
these same Government ottii ials are pious
Catholics — they never miss mass, and
they frown on reii.uious discussion,
change,' or reform. The women aj* con-
tent with the Chinch as it is, which
makes one doui.ii frequently whether the
present anti-Catholic movement will
make the headway which the Govern-
ment authorities predict.

THK CASl'AR KIKNDO IKCIl-KNT.

The friction is not without its humor-

IZG

js aide. Recently there arrived in Max-
co an Italian by name, Gaspar Riendo.
Ae claimed when in company with cer-
tain church dignitaries to be persona
grata to the Pope at Rome, indeed to be
the representative of his Holiness. To
others, Riendo spoke of the need for a
separate church — a Mexican Catholic
Church. He is supposed to have talked
that way among the Government offi-
cials, contending that he had always been
in sympathy with the revolution.

Canon Antonio Paredes, who is the
nominal head of the Church in Mexico,
having been left in charge by Archbishop
Mora y del Rlc, declined to recognize
Riendo and openly accused him of being
aa impostor. Riendo's credentials were
demanded, but he claimed they were stol-
en from his baggage by the Constitution-
alists at Vera Cruz. Nobody would have
paid any attention to Riendo except that
Padre Jesus Cortez, head of the most
fashionable church in Mexico City, de-
clared himself in complete sympathy with
Riendo. Then Canon Faredes cabled
Rome, and in a few days produced a
message from the Vatican, signed by the
Papal Secretary, denying all knowledge
of Riendo or his mission.

Still Cortez would not repudiate Rien-
do. This led the Canon to denounce Cor-
tez and finally to dismiss him. Padre
Cortez refused to heed the order, claim-
ing Paredes had no such jurisdiction,
whereupon the latter announced through
the press that any one attending mass
celebrated by Padre Cortez would be
excommunicated. For a time other priests
officiated, but suddenly on Sunday morn-
ing Cortez reappeared, which resulted in
a panicky exodus of worshippers. Traf-
fic on the street in front of the church
was stopped for a long time while the
crowd waited to see if Cortez would re-
main after such a demonstration of dis-^
approval. He stayed, and several hun-
dred Catholics didn't celebrate mass that
day. Now most of them attend other
churches, and the Sagrado Corazon is
deserved, though every Sunday people
peep in to see if Cortez is still there.
Riendo; In the meantime, has disap-
peared.

TH* CHURCH IS BLAMBD.

From the -&oint of view of the de facto
Government Cflcials, the Church is re-
sponsible for What is now happening, and
that had the Church obeyed the reform
vs of 1857, which provided for the sep-
ition of church and state, there now
be no difficulty. Incidentally the
tttutionaliats claim they are to-day
merely enforcing those laws. Indeed,
these statutes are being incorporated in
the tip* Constitution at Querfttaro with-
out change.

Briefly, the laws of 1857 forbid con-
vents atfd monasteries and the appear-
ance in public of priests in clerical garb.

■jjp^pjpjpjpjpjSjBJBJpjBJSJBBaBJSJBJ|

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

The Church is forbidden to hold property
and is not permitted directly or indirect-
ly to participate in politics or the affairs
of the Government Diaz, and then
Huerta, winked at the open violation of
these laws. Prhe Constitutionalists have
enforced these laws rigidly. There have
been excesses. Some of the radicals have
gone beyond the law, but to-day the boast
of the Government is that worship in
the Catholic Church is permitted on an
equality with all other religions^fThere
is no persecution now \>f the priests,
though discontent among the Mexican
clergy with the Spanish and French
priests is growing.)

OUTCRY A REVOLUTIONIST'S TENDENCY.

Mexican Government officials do not
feel very kindly toward Cardinal Gibbons
and others who have attacked them in
the public prints or have worked against
their recognition by the United States.
rThe Mexicans say the American Catho-
lic Church has been used by Rome to
protect vested interests In Mexico, .. that
the quarrel is political, and that if it
keeps up there will be a reaction against
Catholicism itselfT/ But it is well to re-
member that the outcry against the
Church in Mexico only comes to the sur-
face in revolutionary days. It is a good
deal like the anti-Wall Street campaigns
which are launched to gain votes in our
political campaigns. The lower clergy
have a grievance against the French And
Spanish priests — the foreigners. (The
Church of Rome has undoubtedly been
somewhat backward, aa for example,
with respect to matrimony, the fees
charged being so far beyond the means
of the poorer classes that in many States,
especially on the ranches and farms, the
ceremony has for years been entirely dis-
pensed with. Then there have been too
many churches and too many priests in
some cities.

There is nothing inherent in the
Catholic religion to which the Mexican
objects. Its imagery and symbolism is
what fits his conception of life. But the

.-* ■■: .' » ' v.

management of the whole business, the
system, the plethora of foreign priests f
and churches, its part in politics— con-
stituting a system— is something far dif-
ferent from the religion itself, especially
a<j it is known in the United States. It
is the system, the foreign priests, to
which Mexicans object primarily, and
from one discontent have arisen many
others.

ATTITUDE OF THE U. 8. GOVERNMENT.
The Carranza Administration rode mto
power on an anti-Catholic programme
which was not altogether unpopular or It
never would have been pressed. (All radi-
cal administrations become conservative
in time. The Carranza Government will
be busy with too many things to continue
the assault against the Church beyond
the lines already laid— an enforcement of
the Reform laws of 1857, and If the
Church of Rome handles the matter skil-
fully, it can prevent a serious schlsfST)
For the thing has by no means gottefi
out of v id. The Mexican clergy are an
import mcleus stiU
(in all this It is known that the Unit-
ed" States Government has taken a lively
interest, but beyond insisting on the
principle of religious tolerance and non-
discrimination they cannot diplomatically
intercede. Even this is stretching a
point, for religious questions are strictly
internal affairs. The American Govern-
ment must phrase its inquiries vaguely
arguing merely that religious freedom is
a characteristic of civilized nations and
that to preserve the friendship of the
United States and other nations there
should be no persecution of Catholics aa
such, or interference with their customs
of fcyorshipJ This is given as the advice
oc* Mexico's "nearest neighbor."

But the Mexicans claim they are per-
mitting the greatest freedom, are merely
enforcing the law, and that if the Cath-
olics keep out of- politics, cease support-
ing revolutionary movements, and substi-
tute Mexican clergy for Spanish and
French clergy, the Church will have
nothing to fear.

I /

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

VI.

MEXICO REBORN

Social Aspects of Six Years of Internecine Strife— Country is
Paying Dearly for Her Revolution— Curbing Lawless-
ness and Immorality.

Mexico City, December, 1916.

( f\Y /ELL, what of the- people?" Every
X^once in a while somebody, in the
midst of a discussion j Jexi-
can politics or economic conditio .^ here
asks that question. It is not necessarily
asked in a spirit of criticism, im-
plying that the sixteen millions of people
are innocent bystanders, helpless victims
of 250,000 of their number who comprise
the grand total of the whole revolution-
ary business, army, officials, politicians,
chiefs, et al. But the revolutionists, or
Constitutionalists as they prefer to call
themselves, sit down themselves occa-
sionally—that is. the philosophically in-
clined among them do— to discuss what
effect six years of internecine strife has
had on the younger generation, what it
is doing to the civil side of things, what
morality or immorality it is producing,
and what will the Mexico of to-morrow
be like, built as it must be on the foun-
dations of to-day.

Since the subject is sociological and not
political, impartial opinion is easily dis-
covered. The first effects of the five years
at revolution have not been favorable,
rrhere has been a retrogression in moral-
ity, which includes, of course, Qualities
of honesty and uprightness as well as
the fundamentals of family life} This
ia indisputable because it is obvious. But
the Constitutionalists are quite right
when, admitting the ill-effects, they argue
these to be in conformity merely with
the laws of social progress and predict
an inevitable trend upward on the chart
' of morality.

/To inspect Mexico from the point of
view of the sociologist, it is necessary
to remember that class lines are very
indistinct; it is difficult, unless one knows
this incongruous population of mixed
bloods and racesT to tell Where one class
« ends and another begins) Similarly you
must take horizontal as wen as perpen-

dicular cross sections. There is an upper,
a middle, and a lower class division in
southern Mexico which differs from those
same three in the central country, and •
is also unlike the classes in the north of
the republic.

NORTHERN PEOPLE 8TURDT.

The people of the north of Mexico are
of the sturdy race— they began this revo-
lution, and they are the virile persons
who forced -a radical programme on a
more or less decadent ruling ciass in the .
capital. But that is the geographical
division: every large country that begins
far outside the tropics and spreads down
toward the equator, a land of almost per-
petual sunshine, breeds persons of vary-
ing complexions and varying energies. .
Anyone who has lived in Mexico a week
knows what you mean when you refer
to the •'Indiana." or the "peons." those
primitive, half-clad, dirty, barefooted men,
women, girls, boys, babies, of brown face
and jet black hair and scarcely any edu-<,
cation. Also there are those of the
Indian type, just slightly more advanced.,
—they may wear shoes instead of san-
dals and trousers instead of mis-shapen
pantaloons rolled to the bare knees. But
improvement in dress does not always
signify education. . The majority of the
people in Mexico are tanned— either by
the sun of to-day or the sun which
browned their Indian ancestors. Only
when you have talked to them and de-
termined the limits of their minds can
you tell whether you are approaching the
upper classes. As a rule the pure whites,*
the second generation of Spaniards,
those who emigrated from the north of
Spain, are people of education and cul-
ture. . .

Still culture Is a hard word to denne
with respect to Mexico. Even the lower
classes are passionately fond of muBic.

They have an inborn affinity for flae-
art. And gentility, instead of savagenes*
characterizes them for the most part. ■ -

NEED OF EDUCATION.

Of course, in the tipper classes are
/found Mexico's finest-looking men and
women, but not necessarily its most ca- •
pable people. In the Diaz regime, the more
or less well-to-do, the first families, ruled
the country. - The Carranza Government
is really a mbst representative affair — in
an ethnological sense. For in it the mid-
dle class, composed of the original Mexi-
can type — a combination of Indian aria
Spanish — predominates. ~>fhere are in thip. ,
Government, too, men whose parents hay*
been full-blooded Indians— tfcenjseives
peons— and there are men also of. tjfce
\ cultured class. which has always managed
jto keep on top, but their liberalism, not
their money, gives them power to-day.

The Constitutionalists who rule Mexi-
co are northerners. Gen. Carranza, Gen.
Obregon, Gen. Pablo Gonzales, Ignacio
Bonillas. Alberto Pani— all these leaders
are from the Mexican states nearest U-e
Kio Grande. How much the inlluence *>t
contact with the ideals of the United
States may have had in giving these men
the courage of their convictions is hard
to say, but undoubtedly they have caught
some of the spirit of the great republic,
beyond.)

1 was walking one day with one of the
Constitutionalist leaders, a man of tech-
nical education, but interested, too, .in
Mexico's social needs. We almost stum-
bled over a man and boy asleep, folded la
I Sankets under the sky. They lay along-
side some freight cars, wherein were
troivps, wives, children, and camp follow-
ers.

•It will take generations," he said, "to •
make this a rare sight in Mexico. Edu-
cation will do it — education that the
(ientiflcos" said wasn't good for the
people, education that the Catholic
church wouldn't give them, education,
that we must give them and will. It
alone can change all this."

CURBING THE LAWLESSNESS.

On the theory that a little knowledge
is a dangerous thing, the old regime kept
the iower classes in constant ignorance .
as well as In constant awe of those
r.bove. To-day the peons still impress
you as afraid any mi nut. they will be
enslaved as happened on one pretext or
another in the days of the Porfirmta sys-
tem.

Hasn't liberty given way, as it usual-
ly does, to license? There can be no
doubt of it. Serious abuse of new-found
liberty, excesses of ail kinds, robberies,
bandit depredations, and a wave of mur-
der and crime have followed in the wake
of the revolution. An unscrupulous class

■■■■

MMBBHHBMMHSMByMMI

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

usually- rules a revolutionary army, *nd
If not savage at the outset, its leaders
become so when intoxicated with power.
It is simply a drop from ordered life to
the primitive state wherein might makes
right, wherein self-preservation and
selfishness are the .only laws that are
recognized.

But all this was inevitable and the
• Constitutionalist leaders are absolutely
confident that they will be able to curb
lawlessness. In fact, they have already
stamped out a good deal of it. Yet it
must of necessity leave imprint on the
young, the boys of fifteen to twenty. /
whose growth has been parallel with
anarchy, a disrupted Government, the
collapse of courts, and a reign of terror.
1 Immorality practiced by so many of
the captains, colonels, and generals with
impunity has had a correspondingly had
effect on the young in those districts
I where the revolution jhas trampled un-
|der foot the old order of things, but
fortunately the fighting has been going
on in comparatively few places, in the
small towns along the main railroad .
lines. The big cities have changed hands
frequently, but with few exceptions has
there been much fighting in them. On the
ranches and farms, on the plantations, in
Yucatan, for example, or the stats of
Guadalajara, the normal appearance of
things is preserved, the social structure,
such as it was. is Intact

msxico crrr and Guadalajara.

Mexico City and the city of Guadalajara
ate the two largest cities of the republic,
the former with nearly 600,000 and the
latter with at least 120,000 population.
Streets have not been kept up and are
sadly in need of repair, but the commu-
nity life is much the same as it has
been. Guadalajara has been least af-
fected of all the important cities, and
flourishing to-day. Mexico City has
ramshackle appearance, but is slowly
rig put into habitable condition by the
fe lcipal authorities. The chief of po-
lice, once a light-opera comedian, lias
turned out to be an efficient administrator
and One who has reduced the number of
street ItOldups and cafe brawls to a rath-
er resfSSj^table minimum — at any rate,
one that .Compares not unfavorably with
what happens on the Bowery in New
York or South Clark Street in Chicago.

Life among the better classes is some-
what different. There depressed spirits,
prevail. So many friends have been ex-
iled! Properties l»ve been taken away.
Many of the houses are now being given
back to the "cientiflcos." The Constitu-
tionalists are really doing a commendable
work in correcting the earlier abuses of
th$lr 'military commanders, but much is
still to be desired before Mexico City
will W. able to resume its gay life uf
yesteryears.

Theatres, operas, movlng-pieture shows,
and burlesque performances are in full
swing in the city. They always have
been, no matter what faction held the
capital. Mexicans must be amused. A •
circus moves about the country, drawing
big crowds. And midst all the fighting
and the money famine, one of the finest
looking edifices in the world— the Na-
tional Theatre of Mexico— is slowly being 1
completed.

Is Mexico better off to-day.' are/ the
people happier, more contented with the
rights and liberties now restored to them
by the revolution? The physical facts
admit of only one answer: Not yet Revo-
lution in established institutions means

not simply destruction of crops, maraud?
ing armies, and the spread of diSSaS^ It
means famine and high prices and suf-
fering. Mexico has suffered much. The
benefits of a revolution are not immediate
benefits.. It took a long time to recon-
struct France after the Revolution, pur
own Civil War brought on a terrible
period of hardship for the South. Mex-
ico is paying dearly for her revolution,
J*ut it was inevitable; it had to happen.
\And disturbed by no outside force, the
revolution will, as it has in other parts
of the world and in other periods of his-
tory, prove a godsend to the country, for
Mexico is being reborn. A

VII.

GRAFT-PURE AND SLMPLE

Reign of Fraud Makes Internal Problem for Carranza one of
Serious Difficulty— His Hand Firmly Set Against Graft-
ers _Pani's Contest With the Military.

Mexico City, December, 1916.

THIS is a story about graft. And if
graft is too generic a term, let it be
called loot, fraud, plunder, robbery,
burglary— or anything else that expresses
the idea of deliberately taking from one
person that which belongs to him and
calmly taking unto one's self his prop-
erty, usufruct and all.

Graft is not an innovation, however, in
Mexico — nor is it peculiarly ende"mic to
the tropics. Whispers of it are some-
times heard in the United States, but for
plain, open, unblushing graft, which in-
cludes speculation with a fluctuating
currency, the manipulators down here
could give tl\e brotherhood up North a
long handicap and beat them handily.

Before proceeding further, however, to
explain the devious ways by which graft
is practiced here, it ought to be stated at
the outset that the honest men in the
Carranza Government know who the dis-
honest ones are, and that Venustiano
Carranza, First Chief, and soon to -be
President, knows more about them than
any one in the republic. And what he is
doing to stamp it out, how he actually
is succeeding, the risks he is taking with
some of his military chiefs — all this is
but a small part of the burdens of the
man who is trying to establish a govern-
ment in Mexico."; He has an unenviable
job. So, when you read reports of loot
here and there, of forced loans, of the

izo

■BJMtJ|

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

» .«>

stealing: of horses and cattle, of the loot-
ing qf stores, remembe^that there is one
man on top whose power is slowly in-
creasing, and who will not right away,
but in the course of time, get the upper
hand and enforce discipline in a manner
that will make Porfirlo Diaz seem like a
mollycoddle. "\ He has the backbone to do
it, but he also has the good sense not to
try to reform everything at once. In any
revolution such as has to do with funda-
mental principles of government, the first
task is the actual organization of the
government, and after that, after author-
ity is once definitely distributed, then at-
tention can be paid to the morals of the
community.

WHEN MIGHT MAKES RIGHT.

But the story of graft is an interesting
commentary on what happens when a
state is dissolved, when the state disin-
tegrates and really for a time sovereignty
goes back to the several elements or fac-
tions that comprise the people and where
might makes right as well as law in the
land.

What is happening now is an evolution,
a gradual return to discipline and order,
and if the process seems lame and slow,
do not forget that the revolution has been
going on for five years, and during that
time the civil strife, the marauding ar-
mies, and raiding bandits have done quite
a complete job of it — that is, of disinte-
grating the authority and the physical
structure of the land.

Unscrupulous persons exist in all parts
of the world, but Latin-America has an
abundance of them, especially among the
lower classes. One always had to mind
his watch and his pocketbook in Mexico
City, but to-day he must sew them up
in his clothes — and then he isn't sure of
keeping them, for just the other day *
blithe young Mexican returned to one of
the clubs and discovered that somebody
in the street car, on the street, somewhere,
had cut a neat little slit just above the
,,ocket of his trousers and extracted there-
from his neatly arranged packet of bills.

Street cars arc infested with pickpock-
ets, also with germs. Moral: Don't ride on
street cars. Ride in the coaches (hacks)
or in automobiles, if they are available,
though you must spend quite a fortune
doing so. Still it may be an economical
investment, a wise insurance. \

THE THIEVES' MARKET.

There is a place in Mexico City the
Mexicans have named "the Thieves' Mar-
ket," recognizing the character of the
merchandise sold therein. Prices fluctu-
ate merrily. They take anything you will V
give almost. It is a cut-rate shop, and : ^
at the entrance thore are dozens of un-
intelligible signs. They ought to read,
"Nothing but Stolen Property Accepted
Here."

You can't leave a bicycle or an auto
around, if perchance you must run in at
the telegraph office, the post office, or the
theatre. Either you must devise a lock
as big as the machine itself or hire an
army of brown-faced muchachos to watch
the vehicle — boys whom you survey with
that comfortable expression of scc^rByi
which at heart you know'^s really? a fear
that the youths may be in collusion with
the thieves themselves!

But these are petty forms of stealing.
They are mere matters for the municipal
police to attend to, and little by little the
nation's capital is getting a decent force
of police and detectives. Some day — pos-
sibly another six months or year — things
In your pockets may be a little safer than
they have been. In fact, the improve-
ment in the last six months has been no-
ticeable. More autos are on the streets,
more bicycles, and more people go stroll-
ing at night There hasn't been a hold-
up of consequence in several weeks.

ENGAGING A FREIGHT CAR.

The real graft in Mexico Is in the
money speculation, in the misuse of
freight cars, the commandeering of sup-
plies by corrupt generals and colonels.
Any one who has tried to do business in
Mexico in the last few years knows it
in graphic detail If you had managed
.to get a consignment of goods to Mexico
by steamship, the problem was to get
it overland by rail to Mexico City. Roll-
ing stock is scarce. Perhaps by paying
the military commander at the port, or
some subordinate, a neat little sum, you
could get a freight car for your goods.
It may be some one else's freight car,
paid for and contracted for weeks in ad-
vance, but what matters that — what's a
freight car compared to some good old-
fashioned silver or gold, especially with
paper currency going down, down, down
every day? So you yield to the extor-
tion, only it is hard to say when the next
contribution must be made, that is, who
will hold up the car en route and demand
his fee. And so it has gone for months.
The offenders 'have been the military.
Generals and colonels early in tfce revo-
lution seized freight cars and day coach-
es and Pullmans, and converted them into
grotesque private cars. The troop trains
— ordinary box cars — were converted into
dormitories which for sheer dirt and smcli
would drive the average American crazy
if he had to live therein twenty minutes.
Few people have known of the real
fight against these things which the. Car-
ranza Government has made. Alberto
Pani, president of the National Railways*
began last summer a campaign against
these military men; and, with the co-
operation of ths First Chief, issued the
most drastically worded circulars and or-
ders. They have been effective, too. Pani
defied generals and colonels. Ons night

the passenger train which was di
leave Mexico City for Laredo had a
l'ul of passengers. A Mexican anc
wife had a ( drawing-room reserved
many weeks — it is SO hard to get acv
modations. And they had paid for it in
metallic currency, too. A general strolled
along and ordered them out, proceeding
to make himself at home. Mr. Pani hap-
pened to be about and heard the discus -
sion. He ordered the general out. The
latter pointed a pistol at the diminutive
form of the director of the railways. Mr.
Pani stood his ground, called the general
a coward, reminded him of the Firs*.
Chief's strict orders on the subject of
commandeering , trains, and told him to
get out — which be did. Pani has done
this same thing over and over again. And
employees who don't insist on transpor-
tation and tickets from military passen-
gers are heavily fined. Slowly the evil
has been eradicated until to-day, If you
buy a ticket and a berth, it Is yours. And
the railroad receipts have Increased tre-
mendously. *

EXCHANGING TOUR MONET.

Last but not least among the offenders
against honesty and other outworn vir-
tues here are the coyotes. This name,
taken, of course, from the plunderous in-
stinct of the animal of that species, is
applied to the brokers who buy and sell
exchange. If you have American money
and want to get Mexican paper cur-
rency, they will tell you the rate is go-
ing up, that you had better exchange to-
day and get more bills than might be
forthcoming to-morrow. On the other
hand, if you have Mexican money and
want to exchange it for American dol-
lars, they will lament the general condi-
tion of affairs, thoy will tell you Car-
ranza is going to fail, that the Govern-
ment is collapsing, and that the number
of American dollars you can get for your
Mexican money to-day will be cut in half
to-morrow — any day.

Then, too, with the Government often
decreeing the rate of exchange, knowing
in advance what are to be the decree*)
with reapect to all other phases of ex-
change, officials tip off friends, in fact
work with them frequently in acquiring
large gains on the very changes them-
selves. It la hard to trace this form, of
graft, but fortunes have been made that
way Any one who knew a month ago that
all the paper currency in Mexico would
be valueless thirty days afterward, that
only Mexican gold and silver would n*
in circulation, that the amount of these
coins was wofully small, and that they
would therefore be at a premium, need
only to have quietly exchanged $1,000 in
American money for 2,000 Mexican silver
pesos. Ordinarily a peso Is worth fifty
cents, and two are exchanged evenly
an American dollar. But with the Mea

1Z0

■"'■'& .":'•■' ' • i - ' ".'... ■■■ '• '»?'?.. ':'■■ ■'.•-■'" ",'■'' "•"TV,' • • ■' *. "'-"' '•■"' ' ;s . ~ '■"--.

■■IIMMHI

peso at & tan per cent, premium, the
value of your 2,000 pesos at the end of
1 hirty days -would be $1,100 in American
money, and you would have $100 profit
without turning a hand, without doing
more than asking your bank to exchange
.merican currency for Mexican coin.

PAPER MONET DRIVEN OUT.

Some few people, of course some in
Government, must have profited
j handsomely by all this. The incident
Is mentioned merely to illustrate what
Don Venustiano must contend with
while an impatient group of foreign na-
tions prod him for not preventing a
handful of ruffians from blowing up a
train in some unpronounceable region of
the mountain districts where bandits
hold sway.

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

To-day all the paper money has been
driven out of circulation. Thousands of
people have been left with the bills.
These are useless because no one accepts
them, but, just the same, I heard the
other day of an American who bought
80,000 peso bills for $80 in gold, and in-
tends holding on to them for some mys-
terious reason. Maybe he has inside in-
formation that these bills some day will
be retired at, say, a peso for ten cen-
tavos of Mexican money, or a nickel in
American money. In that case he would
collect $16,000 in good coin of the realm
with American eagles inscribed there-
on. These may be vague dreams, but
the thing to remember is that not a few
people in the Government itself con-
sider/ these manipulations merely "hon-
est graftf'

/All of which Is a necessary if not in-
evitable phase of revolution. And while
imposing hardships and sufferings on the
people, rich and poor, whose property is
subject to such kaleidoscopic change in
value, still the comforting thought is that
at last a start has been made toward
curing these evils. Mexico has been
honest in the past, and nothing has hap-
pened in the last five years to alter the
fundamental character of most o#v*he
inhabitants, business men included^! It
has been simply a reign of disorder.
There has been no law. Therefore, no
one has seen fit to obey any. Now, with
the early return >or constitutional order
and courts of Justice, something different
should result J

VIH.

ARMED INTERVENTION

—

The Pro and Con of It — Revolution Has Put Thousands Under
Arms and Seasoned Them— Why Mexican Patriotism
Would Produce Bitter Opposition — President Wilson's
Popularity in Mexico.

Mexico City, December, 191 6.

|-^EOPl^Lin the United States talk
\~ about armed intervention in Mexico
with a ^tan-'c tn-up spirit of brag-
gadocio. AnoVsome Mexican refugees as
well as Americans who have lived in
Mexico sit abou£in New York and else-
where and calmly Jfcell you: Intervention
will in- welcomed; there will not be much
|Hhl*tance; it will be over soon, because
^■L»eople will be well fed, and—

Thus runs superficial opinion, hut no
one ? !*n really think that way who has
P'-netHftted the Mexican character aol
This refugee class which is in the United
States to-day and wants to conserve its

Mexican properties, thinking an Ameri-
can occupation will prevent confiscation
by the radical revolutionists now in
power— but the rank and file of the Mex-
ican people.
vThey talk about intervention here, ab-
stractly and academically^ It is, of
ijourse, always impending — a possibility.
>Most of the foreigners have blown it
through thousands of smoke-rings until
they believe in its inevitableness just as
they believe in the cycle of seasons^
They think it will help them, that ah
American occupation will mean freedom
of operation and the same privileges they

used to have under Diaz. But they are
mistaken. The American troops were in
possession of Vera Cruz a year ago, and
the most unpopular names among the
American business interests were those
of the army officers, who had direct
charge of various municipal departments.
The army officers Insisted that the
Americans must be subject to the same
rules and regulations as Mexicans, and
considerable chafing ensued which is not
yet forgotten in the American colony.

But what would the Mexican people
really do if intervention did come? It is
a delicate subject to talk about in Mex-
ico — that is, among Mexicans — but I
managed to introduce it occasionally in
the conversation so as to find out what
Mexican folks thought about it.

MEXICAN PATRIOTISM.

The most interesting experience was at
tea one Sunday afternoon in the home of
a leading family. The mother is half-
American, and, of course, both she and
her son of twenty speak English. We
were talking of the political situation.
The properties of the family had been
taken away, i*nd such as remained yield-
ed about ten dollars a month of actual
value, though thousands In worthless pa-
per currency. It' had compelled big In-
roads on savings, for there was not
enough income from rents to pay a sin-
gle servant Fortunately, the real wealth
of the family was more than adequate;
but obviously the family felt bitterly to-

1Z0

ward the Carranza Government. The
mother spoke of intervention as a, proba-
ble remedy.

"What would really happen if inter-
vention did come?" I asked.

"I would be glad. I don't think there
would be opposition. The people would
be satisfied with any Government that
kept them at work," she replied. But
• there was an interruption. The son
spoke.

"Oh, no, mother," he said; "there
tcovld be opposition. Why, do you think
I would stay at home? Yes. I know we
have American blood in us, but, mother,
wo are more Mexican than American.
And wouldn't Juan go, too?"

The son was speaking of a younger
brother, now at school — but all the
schools have now been militarized. And
the mother confessed she had been wor-
ried many times lest the younger boy
should go off with the army before she
had a chance to see him.

Theoretically, therefore, there would be
no opposition, but actually, of course,
there would. (Mexican patriotism Is as
strong and passionate as American pa-
triotism. ) One Mexican of a prominent
family told me that he had never car-
ried a pistol in his life, but if the Amer-
ican troops came he would not be with-
out one. He would resent any insult, he
would fight the hated invader every
chance he got.

BT NO MEANS A WALK-OVER.

This would mean endless sniping, and
before the American forces #ot through
they would have to apply practically the
same measures or force that the Ger-
mans thought it necessary to use in Bel-
gium to disarm and conquer the civil
population.

But, from a military point of view,
there ought to be no misunderstanding
of what sort of righting woflld be en-
countered. There would be a good deal
of marauding, banditry, and guerrilla
warfare. Thousands and thousands of
soldiers would have to be used to garri-
son the lines of communication, and in
the last few years, it must be remember-
ed, the Mexicans have become quite ex-
pert in blowing up bridges and dynamit-
ing \rains. The revolution has taught
them much about warfare.

For five years at least 150,000 men have
been under arms, have withstood the rig-
ors of the climate, have become seasoned
fighters. \The American troops, unused
to the country and bushwhacK'.ng, would
find their task an unusually difficult on«
Nobody — not even the Mexican — hail
any doubt that the United States, with
Its immense resources, eventually would
conquer. But the Mexican can go down
with as much resignation, and can take
defeat as heroically, as any people in the
world. I "to die for one's country is as

^ ■BMHBBBBBBMHBBWBBHBMBHBBBBMBBna

THE TRUTH A$OUT MEXICO

nobly extolled in Mexico as in the Unit-
ed States ot on the battlefields of Europe.
Human nature Is not a bit different in
Mexico^?

But/ assuming that intervention did
come, assuming that an American occu-
pation finally did tranquillize the coun-
try, and the United States set itself to
putting Mexico's house in order, to set-
tle the problems that have caused popu-
lar discontent and revolution, to whom,
to what class or group, would the admin-
istration of affairs lie given? it must
be to the Mexicans, for ccrta ; .nly all the
professions of the United States that it
doesn't want territory would be put to a
test, and Latin America would be not
the least interested spectator. Would the
United States deliver the Government in-
to the hands of the "cientificos," the old
ruling class? If that was done, there
would be peace only while the American
forces wore on Mexican soil. Revolution,
which had been interrupted by the
American intervention, would break out
anew.

^ LCT MEXICANS WORK IT OUT.

<The revolution has been baaed on prin-
ciple. It is a popular contest It arises
from the aspirations of a people to self-
mastery, if revolution followed Ameri-
can intervention until the people really
got possession of their own Government,
the natural question is, Why not let the
revolutionists, who have finally gotten
the upper hand now, work the thing out
themselves? It not only saves blood-
shed, saves millions of dollars, and does
not bring into question before Latin
America the real motives of the United
States in this hemisphere, but it makes
Mexico xolrc her own problem. By so
much does it add to Mexico's self-reliance
in having patriotically come to her own
rescue, but by just so much does it make
the successful and popular Government
that arises in Mexico the real friend jf
its neighbor, the United States — a prac-
tical Pan -Americanism^/

Let the discussion of intervention con-
tinue on theoretical grounds. Let any one

who doubts Mexico's national spirit make
his own inquiries here. It would not be
an armed occupation such as was wit-
nessed in Cuba, a small country, easily
traversed, but a war in a foreign land, in
thousands of miles of desert, among
mountains, and among a strange hostile
people, who would fight to the death.

President Wilson's policies may not
have been popular in Mexico because of
things the Mexicans did not and do not
yet understand, but throughout Mexico,
rightly or wrongly, the impression wa»
strong that tho election of Hughes meant
certain intervention and war. Never be-
fore in the memory of older Mexicans
has there been such interest taken in an
American election. One of the Mexican
newspapers got a bulletin service from
the Associated Press, advertised it sev-
eral days in advance, and on the night of
election the streets were jammed for
many blocks.

WILSON'S POPULARITY IN MEXICO.

The Mexicans bet heavily on Wilson.
They seemed to think he ought to be
elected because he was for peace with
Mexico. And when he did win, the exul-
tation was not concealed. An American
President was never more popular in
Mexico than when Woodrow Wilson was
finally declared reelected. And the expec-
tation that Mr. Wilson will keep the Unit-
ed States at peace with Mexico is deeply
ingrained. He has a great deal more
influence in the situation "than he ever
had. He has a more powerful instrument
than armed intervention. He has a moral
power which, if properly exercised, can
make Mexico understand the American
spirit and the American people in such
a way that a better start than ever be-
fore can be made to remove anti-Ameri-
can feeling. Hostility to the American
has existed here ever since the secession
of Texas and the War of 1848. It made
Mexico nationally suspicious of the Unit-
I states. And never did an American
l 'resident have such an opportunity to
reveal America's real purposes and real
motives as has Woodrow Wilson to-day.

120

■HMMHHHHMIMMHMMnUHHaaBHHHMni

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

IX.

MEXICO'S CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

Difference Between de Facto and de Jure Government in
Mexico and How the Constitutional Order Interrupted by
Huerta is Being Restored— The Outlook as to Suffrage,
'ale and Female.

Queretaro, Mexico, December, 191 6.

TO most people in the United States
the frank admission of the Carranza
Government that it is not operating
I under the Constitution of Mexico, that
It is not the legally constituted govern-
ment of the republic, would seem an odd
denial of Its own authority. But it does
not pretend to be a constitutional gov-
ernment, and it never did. Gen. Carranza
and his party obtained recognition as a
de facto Government. They never asked
to be considered otherwise. Only when
there is a general election, which will be
held in another two months; will a
de jure Government arise, and only then
will the country resume the constitution-
al order, courts of justice, and regular
legislative and executive processes.

The word "resume" is used advisedly
and requires a retrospect. The Carranza
party never recognized Huerta as a legal
iKxecutive— nor did the United States.
'Madero was, of course, legally elected
igt 1912 to All out the unexpired term
©f Porriiio Diaz, which would have been
Utttil 10U. Huerta's coup d'etat, his over-
throw of Madero, therefore, was eonsid-
e^Hk, Carranza and his adherents as
an flferuptiou of the constitutional
regime of Madero. In fact, the Carranza
n volutloiifats took the name "Constitu-
tionalists" and maintain it still as a sym-
bol of thetir creed, their programme — to
restore constitutional government in Mex-
ico. The first' atep was to get military
control of the country— to get power.
The revolutionist! .succeeded Their or-
ganization they called the Co-nstitutional-
ist army, and Gen. Carranza. though not
a military man, they designated in a con-
ference of leaders held at Guadalupe in
191S, v as First Chief of the Constitution-
alist iMTmy in charge of" the executive
power. 'iTho programme of that confer-
ence has Jjecome famous as the Plan of

Guadalupe. It called for the formation
of a Constituent Assembly, which was
to revise the Constitution and arrange
for a general election of President and
Congress. It was tried out' at Mexico
City and Aguascalientes in 1914, but both
conventions were failures because Fran-
cisco Villa and his brigades of the Con-
stitutionalist army refused to permit
them to be carried on without military
duress/ And the separation between
Carranza and Villa grew out of the con-
tested procedure at those conventions.

THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY.

Now Gen. Carranza and his followers
have succeeded not only in gaining mili-
tary control of all but one of the states of
the Republic — Chihuahua— but the First
Chief has been recognized by the prin-
cipal nations of the world as .the Chief

. Executive of a de facto Government. Mr.
Carranza is therefore at the present mo-
ment carrying forward his plans for res-
toration of constitutional order laid two
years ago.

The. Constituent Assembly is now meet-
ing. Its 250 members were recently

Sl chosen by the people in elections which
permitted the widest freedom of discus-
sion and the exercise of unrestricted suf-
frage. The Assembly is modelled closely
after that which followed the end of the
French Revolution. The Assembly's work

\ is to revise the Constitution which Mex-
ico adopted in 1857, arrange for the gen-
eral elections of President and Congress,
and to fix the date for the resumption
o? constitutional order. As soon as these
things are done, the Assembly auto-
matically expires. Some of the mem-
bers, no doubt, will be elected as regular
Congressmen and Senators when the gen-
eral elections are held in February for

the new Congress, but that, of course,
rests with the people.

The point is that Mexico at last is get-
ting back on the foundations of law and
order interrupted by Huerta's illegal and
arbitrary overthrow of Madero. Strictly
speaking, the United States need not have
recognized the Carranza Government un-
ti'. it established a de jure Government,
but in the nature of things the recogni-
tion of the Carranza party as a de facto
Government was in accord with the ac-
cepted principles of International law, be-
cause the Carranza party, having gained
military supremacy, really possessed the
elements of sovereignty in the country.
Sovereignty, according to both ancient
and modern political theory, resides al-
ways In the people, and when their desig-
nated spokesman — the President, or king
— abuses his power, they rebel. The tri-
umphant revolutionary party in effect re-
covers possession of the sovereignty, the
power previously abused, and then makes
up its own mind to what man or group
of men the authority should thereafter
b. % delegated.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSEMBLY.

The Constituent Assembly's purpose is
to construct on behalf of the people a
new government, to give it a revised Con-
stitution, and really procreate a legal
Executive, a legal Congress, and a judici-
ary of lawful origin.

The Assembly has had under consid-
eration all the decrees and acts of Citi-
zen Carranza, First Chief of the Consti-
tutionalist army, in charge of the execu-
tive power. In his speech to the As-
sembly, he gave an account of his cus-
todianship of the executive power. Some
of these acts will he incorporated in the
revised Constitution, being embodied in
new principles of authority, and others
will be given the sanction of law when
the new Congress meets.

The Constitution will not be completed
for another month. It is an interesting
document, as tentatively drawn, a rather
rrogressive chart of rights. Take, for
instance, the woman suffrage article
which it is being proposed shall be In-
cluded in the Constitution. All women
would not be permitted to vote but only
unmarried women who are occupied^ i i
professional work — such as the law, medi-
cine, teaching, bookkeeping, stenography,
etc. — but not in manual labor. The
daughters of wealthy people would not
be permitted to vote, the theory bein~
that they are dependent on others who /
exercise a voice in the community. Sim-
ilarly, the moment any of these young
women, who are entitled to vote because
they are self-supporting, become married,
they lose their franchise, as the husband
thereafter can vote for the family. The
argument that is making • headway in
the Assembly is that, if an ignorant day-

V?A)

laborer can vote, certainly a school teach-
er in the same community ought to have
the right of suffrage.

8UFFRAGS RESTRICTIONS LIKKLT.

Eventually, of course, not every day-
laborer will be permitted to vote. Revo-
lution, however, sprung from the people
wouldn't dark to incorporate any restric-
tions on voting in the Constitution at
present, but, after a time, perhaps a few
years, doubtless before the 1920 election,
suffrage will be restricted to those in the
republic who can read and write, and
women of all classes may then be grant-
ed suffrage.

It is interesting to observe, however,
that the membe'rs of the Constituent As-
sembly are anxious to put at the disposal
of the republic the intelligent voters so
that public opinion will rule, so that it
will be impossible for a military dic-
tator to drive thousands of ignorant
peons to the polls through local military
commanders to vote a certain way under
penalty of arrest and other punishments
in vogue in the days of Diaz.

Much interest was taken in the elec-
tion of Deputies to the Constituent As-
sembly. There was plenty of rivalry, and
it looked for a time as if Gerzayn Ugarte,
Oarranza's own private secretary, might
not be elected from his Congressional .iis-
trict in Mexico City. Not so many vote3
were cast in the general elections for
Constituent Assembly, but the interest
taken was greater than in any previous
election, and an indication that, although
the triumph of Mr. Carranza is a fore-
gone conclusion, there will be spirited
contests for places in the new Congress
as well as for Governorships. Indeed, in
the state of San Luis Potosi, eight men
have announced themselves as candidates
for . Governor, and since there are no
primaries, the one receiving the highest
number of votes in the election will be
declared elected. At the same time that
elections for the national Congress and
Governors. of states are held, the people
will vote for members of the State Leg-
islatures, every one of which is to be
constitutionally organized.

NATIONAL HOUSE-CLEANING.

It is a constitutional house-cleaning

that the Carranza party has brought
about — a revolution in every sense of
the word. And just now Mexico is in
the midst of these organizing processes.
Within two months the elections will be
held, the date has not yet been set, but
inasmuch as the inauguration of Presi-
dent is fixed for April 1, everybody ex-
pects the elections to be held in Feb-
ruary or March. The campaigns already
have begun in some states. The Constit-
uent Assembly is to fix the^date for the
elections, and make all the arrange-
ments..

Why is the Constituent Assembly be-
ing held in'Querdtaro? For sentimental
reasons, chiefly. Here in this quaint
town ended the dictatorship of Emperor
Maximilian, th^ invader. On a lonely
hill, a mile from the city, an ancient
chapel marks the historic spot where
Maximilian was executed in 186 r. The
Mexicans consider that their era of lib-
^ erty, their emancipation, began then.
They feel inspired that another era of
liberty will begin with the revision of
'he Constitution here, and arrangements
for a resumption of the constitutional
regime.

Querdtaro also was chosen because it
is a quiet place, lacking in diversion or
distraction. The Assemblymen can be
the more easily kept at work. Given a
lot of theatres and amusements such as
Mexico City has, the Assembly might
have by now hardly started its labors.
As it is, the Assembly has divided into
numerous committees and is moving
ahead with an air of sober confidence.

As a whole, the Congress doesn't look
very intellectual, but thei^ that distinc-
tion is not always vouchsafed to Con-
gressmen In the United States either.
Actually there are about fifteen men
Vin the 250, who really can be said to
lead, which is a good percentage as Mex-
ican legislatures go at any time, normal
or abnormal. Of course a higher grade
of Mexican will sit in the new Congress.
The men chosen for the Assembly were
in each instance pronounced Constitu-
tionalists, men known to be in thorough
sympathy with the principles of the
Revolution.
\ The military have nothing to do with
the Constituent Assembly. Few soldiers

are bivouacked In town — simply a police
garrison. The first two weeks of sessions
were secret while credentials were ex-
amined. The only outsiders admitted
were from the press. The discussion was
mostly about personalities. I was pres-
ent one day when two officers strolled in,
thinking the meetings were public. One
Deputy made a point of order and the
military were politely asked to leave —
which they did with apologies.

FREEDOM OF DEBATE.

The Assembly meets in the Queretaro
Theatre, a typical opera house * of the
size which a city of 50,000 would be ex-
pected to have. Its seating capacity, bal-
conies and all, would not exceed 500. It
is an orderly Assembly, but the utmost
freedom of debate has characterized the
sessions. Mr. Carranza himself has ap-
peared before it only once, when he read
his address, but since then the leaders
have been in consultation with him, as
happens in the United States. But in
reality, the Assembly is laying down the
law. It may not be an imposing-looking
affair, but the members know what they
want. They know the loopholes in the
old Constitution of 1857, whereby dicta-
torships were established and the rights
of the people wrested from them. They
are deliberately closing up those holes
how and moulding a democracy, a gov-
ernment suited to Mexican conditions of
life, a government for which they have
shed much blood.

They have suffered extremely in order
to get the opportuhity of reform wb
they have to-day. Their eyes are
focussed on' international obligations
yet They are intensely absorbed in tl
internal problems. That's why forei*..
nations are a bit impatient of what seems
to them Mexico's slow progress. It is
as fast, however, as can be humanly ex-
pected, but the prodding by foreign Gov-
ernments won't do any harm. It ought to
quicken the Mexican leaders and keep
them conscious of the breadth of their
task as well as the breakers that lie
ahead of them. Eternal vigilance, de-
manded for the succens of individuals, is
not less the obligation of friendly Govern-
ments.

\Zi)

— ■— — Mil I —

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

EDUCATIONAL REFORM

Each State Controls Education, but Plans Being Laid to Co-
ordinate System— Sending Mexicans to United States to
Study Aids International Amity — Many Thousands of
Children Have No Schooling Whatever.

Mexico City, December, 1916.

AS you travel across the Rio Grande,
you are immediately impressed
with the fact that you have turned
the pages of history back a century or
two — you are in the midst of a primitive
civilisation. It is not that the complexion
of the people or their habits of life are
different. It is that millions— literally
millions — of those around you can neither
read nor write, and out of a population
of 16,000.000 at least two million still
speak Indian dialects and communicate
crudely with their countrymen.

Mexico's greatest problem is how to
educate her Illiterate masses— ^for an un-
derlying ignorance is always a potential
source of revolution.

Opening schools and planning a uni-
form system of education that will take
hold throughout the republic is neither a
spectacular nor dramatic affair. It
doesn't get headlines. But while in
Mexico to-day it would seem that im-
provement of living conditions, and a
stabilisation of the central Government
were the most pressing and urgent things ,
to be done, It is gratifying nevertheless
to discover 'that First Chief Carranza Is ,
personally iuwlstin.i; in educational re-
form in Mexico, is directing that liberal
appropriations from the funds of the
central Governn&ent be made for teach-
ers' salaries and new school*, and is also
supervising the expenditures as much as
possible so that there may be no waste.

Andres Osuna, who Is general super-
intendent of education in Mexico City
and Is an intimate friend of the First
Chief, having been at the head of the
board of Education in the latter's native
state — Coahuila — makes it his business
to consult the First r-nief af least twice a.
week. The more one digs into things
here, the more one finds that Venustiano
Carranza has upon his shoulders Innu-

merable burdens. And how he man-
ages to do as well as he does with some
of the inefficient men be has to deal
with, who have not yet learned the fun-
damentals of service, is indeed a mystery.

BOITATED IN THE UNITED STATES.

It is fitting that a man like Andres
Osuna should be at the right hand of
Carranza in educational matters. Osuna,
of course, has the confidence of the First
Chief. He also is thoroughly familiar
with American systems of education, both
in the primary and secondary schools and
colleges, being himself a graduate of
Bridgewater Normal School, at Bridge-
water, Mass.. and having received B.A.
and M.A. degrees at Vanderbilt Univer-
sity, Nashville. Tenn. He has lived for
many years in the United States and
knows the value of the American plan of
education.

While most Mexicans look suspiciously
on all plans for cooperation with the
United States. Osuna has no such fear.
H~ is in constant correspondence with
educators in the United States, seeking
for Mexico the best that it is possible to
get for existing conditions in the dis-
turbed republic. Perhaps the most inter-
esting development in this line is the
splendid effort of Stanley Yarnell, of the
Friends' School, Philadelphia, who has
launched a plan for university scholar-
ships in leading universities and colleges
in the United States for deserving Mexi-
can students. Already about fifteen to
eighteen scholarships have been obtained,
and nearly twenty other colleges have
endorsed the plan. Some institutions
have offered full scholarships, board,
tuition, and all. Oth.-rs have given tuitio.i
and suggested opportunities for student
self-support. Catalogues and literature
from American colleges have been sent

to the Department of Education here for
general distribution, and altogether the
Mexicans are quite enthusiastic about the
plan.

Already, too, Gen. Carranza has given
his consent for a delegation of Mexican
teachers tq accept the invitation gener-
ously extended by the National Associa-
tion of Teachers to attend their meeting
in the United States in June. Unfortu-
nately, the vacation for schools in Mexi-
co comes in January and February, so It
will be difficult to obtain leave of ab-
sence for many teachers, but at least
twenty-five will make the trip.

MEXICAN SCHOOL REGISTRATION.

Mexico's school registration Is far be-
low what it ought to be. Based on per-
centage estimates in the United States,
there ought to be in a place .like Mexico
City at least 150,000 children In school;
but there are only 120,000. Thirty thou-
sand boys and girls, therefore, have never
attended school. It is a nucleus of igno-
rance — an ultimate instrument for revo-
lution and bloodshed or banditry or other
lawlessness. In Michoacan, which has 1,-
000,000 inhabitants, there ought to be at
least 150,000 in attendance, but only 60,-
000 are registered. Figures for the en-
tire nation, taken in 1910, when Diaz was
in power, show that only 1,000,000 chil-
dren were In school, out of a total pop-
ulation of 15,000,000, which should send
3,000,000. or at least 2,000,000 to school.

The Diaz Government did not believe
in spreading common-school education.
There was no system. Even Mexico City
was never divided Into school wards, and
sometimes there were two and three
schools in the same block. Sanitation
was neglected. All this has now been
changed. Not only has the city been di-
vided tnto districts, with a superintend-
ent directly responsible for each district,
but special attention has been given to
the health of the children tnd the sani-
tation of buildings. A board of physicians
— fifteen is all — has been organised,
who. together with twenty-six nurses,
make constant rounds in the, schools.
Also, at least fifteen male teachers, whose
Irregular habits did not. in the opinion of
the general superintendent, make them
fit to teach the young, have been dismiss-
ed.

The curious thing about education in
Mexico since the, re volution began In 1S11
is that the schools have never been closed
by any faction. For a time In the state
of Morelos, overrun by Zapatistas, It was
dangerous for any employee of the state
Government to be about, and It was im-
possible to send salaries to the teachers.
Classes were suspended, but as soon as
the civil authorities were able to recover
possession of the cities, schools were
promptly reopened.

IZO

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

TEACHERS IN DEMAND. \

Some splendid things have been done
to forward education in the state of
Yucatan, from 300 to 400 new schools hav-
ing been opened there. A few new schools
have been established in Mexico City,
but lack of financial resources has been
a severe handicap. There are 78,000 chil-
dren enrolled In the 450 primary schools
and 93,000 in the private schools of the
capital.

Teachers are in demand. The Carranza
Government has raised the salaries of
male instructors 25 per cent., in order to
attract men of education to pedagogy.
From five to six million dollars of Mex-
ican gold ($2,500,000 to J3.000.000 in
American money) has been spent by the
Carranza Government in each of its two
years of Governmental control over the
schools. And. in spite of the pressure
of other things, Gen. Carranza has found
time to visit the schools regularly— in
fact, he has visited them already more
times than did any Executive or Minis- 1
ter of Public Instruction before him.

Unfortunately, the need for economy
has forced the closing of one large normal
school here. The Government had been
spending $87,500 in American money for
the support of a school which had only
130 students. So it was decided to take
$20,000 of this money and send these 130
students to normal schools in other cities,
paying all their expenses, and yet sav-
ing $57,000 by closing down the normal
school in the capital. Teachers, as a rule,
don't want to go to normal schools outside
of the cities, but the Carranza Govern-
ment is about to establish sectional nor-
mal schools, so that teachers will be
drawn from them for surrounding rural
communities. Puebla, Vera Cruz. Guada-
lajara and Jalisco have fine normal
schools. Some of the normal-school grad-
uates who stand highest in their work
will be sent to the United States for post-
graduate work. Six are now in Massa-
chusetts, studying at the expense of the
Carranza AdmiAist ration— two at Wor-
cester, one at Bridgewater, and three at
Boston.

WANTS UNIFORMITY OF SYSTEM.

Essentially the problem of education in
S \ Mexico as In the United States is in the

hands of state authorities. States' rights
is Constitutionalist doctrine here. Gen.
Carranza many years* ago while Governor
of Coahuila engaged in a long contro-
versy with the central Government as
to the right of the state of Coahuila to
run its own educational system without
interference by the Federal authorities.
He still stands for that principle, but rec-
ognizes the value of informal cooperation'
and the need for uniformity in system.
He hopes to obtain this, however, through
the unanimous approval by the state*, of
the plans now being unofficially recom-
mended to the different Governors.

Osuna, who was at the head of the
School Department of the state of Coa-
huila for many years, Is the author of
the plan which has been approved in
principle, though not in detail, by First
Chief Carransa. Its object is to divorce
the schools from politics. Instead of hav-
ing one man at the head of the educa-
tional machinery of every state, Osunas
proposal is to substitute state and mu-
nicipal boards of education. The mem-
bers would be chosen by the governors of
the city councils, respectively. Of the
Ave members of each board, one would
hold office for a single year, a second for
two years, a third for three years, and
so on, so that there would be but one va-
cancy each year, and political changes
would not so easily affect the continuity
of educational work. There would be, of
course, a general superintendent and as-
sistants, but these men would be select-
ed by the state of municipal boards and
would map out courses of study and sub-
mit textbooks for the approval of the
governing boards. -

MN1NO UP STATE GOVERNORS.

In the United States many cities have
solved the problem of education versus
local politics by abandoning the electoral
method of choosing a superintendent of
schools and appointing a non-partisan
school board to supervise the entire sys-
tem for a city. In Mexico, particularly,
where school-teachers occasionally get
prominent in local politics, it is desirable
to remove their positions as far as pos-
sible from the political spoilsmen. The
Massachusetts plan of selecting superin-

tendents by examination ia a conspicuous
part of Mr. Osuna's plan. He has written
a long prospectus on the whole thing,
and Is soon to make a tour of the coun-
try urging the different governors to
adopt the plan he has sponsored. He has
asked the governors to convene a com-
mittee of the educators of each state so
that he may present the merits of the
plan. Of course, the Federal Govern-
ment is interested in the adoption of the
plan, but each state will of course have
the right to reject the same if it desires-
Mr. Osuna hopes to persuade the state
authorities to make permanent provision
for educational funds. Hitherto, there
has been appropriation only when a sur-
plus existed in state revenues. He la
suggesting that each state fix by law that
a certain percentage of the income be
applied for educational needs.

Mexico's educational future is, theo-
retically speaking, a bright one. The de-
sire to educate is a sincere one, but the
only question is how funds are to be ob-
tained with the Government so desperate-
ly in need of money for military and
other administrative purposes of prime
importance.

■STABUSHINQ INTERNATIONAL AMITT.

It ia a marvellous thing that out of lta
limited funds, the Constitutionalist Gor-
ernment has been able not only to keep
the schools going but actually to open
new ones and show conspicuous prog-
ress in so many localities. But the work
is hardly begun. Millions of children
are not yet in schools, and it will probably
be another year before this phase of Mei-
ico's reconstruction will get the attention
it deserves.

On the whole, the efforts of the Con-
stitutionalist Government in educational
lines have borne much fruit. And the
willingness to send Mexican young men
and women north of the Rio Grande to
study is not the least important part of
it all. These future principals and su-
perintendents should be effective mission-
aries for the cause of international amity,
i -lose cooperation between the educators

of the United s£ates and Mexico will do

a great deal toward making the people*
of the two countries sincere friends.

IZO

■ -■ V . '■> ■ ' sV '--"■

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

XI.

VENUSTIANO CARRANZA— THE MAN

Some Aspects of His Political Philosophy— T^e Struggle for
Individual Liberty as Opposed to Oligarchy— Preach-
ments Based on Experience with Diaz Group.

Queretaro, Mex., December, 1916.

WHAT kind of a man is Gen. Car-
ranza? Does he hate Americans,
does he breathe anti-Americanism
at you, does he grow furious over the
prolonged stay of the Pershing expedi-
tion; in short, is he reasonable at all. is
he the kind of man that ought to be
President of a republic? These questions
flitted through my mind as I strolled
toward the house of the First Chief for
an interview. They were questions which,
I knew, issued from the curiosity of the
average American, but on which any one
who had had the opportunity of really
knowing the First Chief could not have
the slightest doubt.

Six years ago, just this month, I met
Venustiano Carranza for the first time.
He was in Washington incognito. He
was a Senator in the Congress under
Diaz, but fled the capital to join the Ma-
dero revolution. He was of impressive
presence, tall, characteristically slow of
.. speech, serious — almost solemn. I have
seen him many times since, but I doubt
Hfcftether he ever looked the part of Chief
Executive of a republic more than he
did to-day He is big. broad-shouldered,
firm of grip, his face browned by the
sun, .'■Ijtii eyes lialf-obscured by his heavy
blue ftfjjictaek's —a strong-looking, erect
figure. And as 1 stepped forward to shake
hands he Smiled, it was a sympathetic
smile, yet as he rose, he plainly showed
fatigue. He had been sit it from 5 A. M.
He had seen ^constant .stream of callers
from all parU'ii the republic. He had
dispatched a mass of domestic business,
and he had spent two hours discussing
with Alberto Pani f$& -international situ-
ation as it was being handled by the
joint Mexk an-Amerlcan Commission.

WANTS TO bf; fkiendlx WITH VS.
Wetalked a long time. The First Chief
gives, of cnu-.se, the usual stereotyped
interview of prepared questions and an-

swers, but sometimes he will talk freely
with the understanding that he is speak-
ing privately, and not for quotation. I
carried away the impression that he
wanted to be friendly with the United
States, but that he didn't dare be so. no
matter how advantageous it might seem,
until the American troops were with-
drawn from Mexican soil. I told him out-
forces had been anxious for some time
to leave, provided the Commission could
come to some agreement about it, that
hardly anybody in the United States
wanted the Pershing expedition to re-
main, and that public opinion favored
the withdrawal, and had left the whole
business to the Commission to arrange.
The First Chief looked at me with an
expression which, translated into words,
meant : "I'd like to believe you, but I've
heard that story before." For the fact
of the matter is, the Mexicans do not
trust the United States, they don't real-
ly put any faith in our promises, and if
you are alone with them, in their con-
fidence, under circumstances which will
draw from them their private opinions, you
will discover that, however unintentional
it may have been on the part of the Unit-
ed States, the American Government has
made some moves which to the Mexicans
look very suspicious. Jumping into Mex-
ico without even asking the permission
of the dr facto Government, and then
apologizing for the "error" may have
become stale news in the United States,
but it still rankles here. And again, the
statement issued by the Secretary of War
at the direction of President Wilson, a
day or two after the Pershing expedi-
tion was ordered into Mexico, and say-
ing the American forces would be with-
drawn as soon as sufficient Government
forces arrived on the scene to take con-
trol of the situation, is remembered for
its non-fulfilment. Enough Mexican
forces were soon concentrated in that

vicinity, but the American troops kept
on and on toward Parral, disregarding
the Mexican Government's efforts to put
some limitation on the pursuit. The Car-
ranza Government had feared that Vil-
la's game was to draw the American
forces through the sparsely populated
regions all the way to the City of Mex-
ico, and thereby precipitate a general
war.

KEEPS HIS WORD.

Gen. Carranza is not narrow. He is
simply the inflexible kind who, when he
gives his word, keeps it, and when you
give him your word, expects you to keep
it. He wants to know why the Pershing
expedition has stayed so long on Mexi-
can soil, what has it been doing for the
last three months, and why must Mexico
be forced into the humiliating position
of promising a score- of things in order
to rid her territory of foreign troops who
by no right of international law. can
occupy the soil of a nation with whom
relations of peace exist unless specific
consent therefor is given. And certain-
ly Mexico never consented to the entry
of (he Pershing expedition. That is his
viewpoint. ».

But while Gen. Carranza was in a
more or less you-must-show-me attitude,
somewhat skeptical that the United
States was really sincere about withdraw-
ing Pershing since it had entangled the
Commission with so many other ques-
tions which it was his understanding
would not be discussed while American
troops were on Mexican soil, neverthe-
less I really believe that If the United
States, by its acts, showed a genuine
friendship for Mexico, it would have in
Venustiano Carranza a real friend.

The First Chief is no ordinary indi-
vidual. None but a man of his fibre
could have kept his motley forces In- /
tact for a whole year without funds,
without much support from foreign gov-
ernments, with internal intrigue, with
graft, with bad crops, and with economic
conditions of a distressing character. He
is a type of Mexican statesman of the
old cultured class in Mexico, long in
public life, yet thoroughly progressive
and liberal in his views. Probably the
best exposition of his political philosophy
was contained in his opening address to
the Constituent Assembly here, which Is
now revising the Constitution. It was
not fully reported in the newspapers be-
cause cable' tolls were high, but it gives
as good an insight into Venustiano Car-
ranza as anything he has ever written
or spoken. It was a speech of 9,000
words, but I have selected some excerpts
here which illustrate the breadth of vis-
ion of the man, his liberalism, his keen
desire to rid the people of dictatorships
and tyrannical oligarchies — his creed of
democracy. He said In part:

HIS REFORM PLANS.

"I cannot say to you that the project
I present to you is perfect, as nothing
human can be perfect; but, believe me,
gentlemen, the reforms I propose are the
outcome of sincere conviction, personal
experience, and the expression of my
deep and ardent wish that the Mexican
people may attain to an enjoyment of
liberty, education, enlightenment, and
progress which will earn It respect abroad
and peace at home. Gentlemen, I will
summarize the reforms to which I re-
fer, 'in order to give you a brief and clear
idea of the principles that have guided
me, so that you may decide whether I
have attained the object I have had be-
fore me. The object of every Govern-
ment being to protect the individual — that
is to say, the varied elements in society
which go to make up the whole, unques-
tionably the first requisite to be filled by
a political constitution must be the pro-
tection given to individual liberty.

"The 1 Constitution of a nation should
not seek, if it is to be long-lived,. to estab-
lish artificial restrictions between the
state and the individual, as if it were de-
sired to increase free action on one part
and limit it on the other, in such a way
that what is granted to one shall be a
condition for the protection of the other,
but should seek to arrange matters so
that the authority given by the people
to their representatives (seeing that the
people cannot exercise such authority di-
rectly) be not used aaainst the society
or public which appoints it, and whose
rights must remain intact. Because wo
must not for a moment lose sight of the
fact that a government is necessarily a
means towards realizing all conditions
without which human rights cannot exist
and develop. Starting out with this fun-
damental conception, social institutions
will then be assigned their real value, and
a suitable course will be given to the
exercise of the public powers whereby
social and political habits and customs
will be determined.

"Government procedure up to the pres-
ent has not been able to establish itself,
due to the fact that the Mexican peo-
ple have not believed in a social pact
that placed all political organization in
the divine origin of a monarch, a master
of life and property. They have relied
on institutions which, although embody-
ing high principles, are not adapted to
their manner of thinking and feeling, and
are fir from satisfying their needs. These
institutions at present completely lack
vitality, because they have been dominat-
ed by an enervating ijhllitary despotism
and by iniquitous exploitation, which has
thrown the most populous classes into
dejpair and ruin.

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

FOR INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY.

"I have already stated that the first
duty of government is to assist in bring-
ing about the necessary conditions for
the organization of legislation, or, what
amounts to the same thing, to be careful
to maintain intact individual liberty. For
this reason, the first thing the political
constitution of a nation should do is to
prevent the government, on the pre-
text of preserving peace and order (rea-
sons always alleged by tyrants to Justify
their actions), from restricting individual
rights and arrogating to itself the ex-
clusive right to direct individual initiative
and social activity by enslaving the in-
dividual and society. The Constitution
of 1857, as I have already stated, declared
that the rights of the individual are the
basis and object of all social institutions;
but, with few exceptions, did not grant
such rights or sufficient guarantees. The
secondary laws did not severely punish
the violation of such guarantees, because
they only provided insignificant penalties,
which were hardly ever enforced. So
that, without fear of exaggeration, it may
be said that, in spite of the aforesaid
Constitution, individual liberty remained
entirely at the mercy of the rulers. The
numerous attempts against individual
rights and their various manifestations
during the period in which the Constitu-
tion of 1857 has been in force are sur-
prising. Not a day had passed without
complaints against the abuses and ex-
cesses of the authorities from one end to
the other of the republic, and, notunth-
standing the frequency of the evil and the
trouble it constantly caused the Federal
judicial authority made no effort to put
an end to this state of affairs or to punish
those guilty for it. Imagination cannot
even form an idea of the innumerable
cases of appeals from being drafted into
the army, or against the arbitrary ac-
tions of justices of the peace. The mere
declaration of a right, the mere proclama-
tion of a basic principle of social and
political order, is a futile bulwark with
which to contest long-established tradi-
tion and the inveterate habits and cus-
toms of an authority invested with om-
nipotent powers. These have been so far-
reaching that often the people have had
no other alternative but silence and obe-
dience.

TO CORRBCT EVILS.

"It is to correct these evils that my
Administration brings forward the vari-
ous reforms bearing on the first section
of the first part of the Constitution of
1857, and I hope that with them and the
severe penalties imposed by the Penal
Code for the violation of individual guar-
antees, the public authorities will be com-
pelled to be what they should be, namely,
the safeguards of society, instead of what
they have been, the oppressors of those

who have had the misfortune to fall into
their hands.

"The Government emanating from the
revolution— and this is known through-
out the republic— has taken particular
care to encourage education in all social
spheres. I firmly believe that this im-
pulse will not only continue, but will be
intensified day by day, so that the Mexi-
cans will become a cultured people, capa-
ble of realizing their high destinies, and
able to give to their national Government
such solid and efficacious cooperation :j
will make anarchy, on the one hand, and
a dictatorship, on the other, impossible.
The independent municipality is undoubt-
edly one of the great achievements of
the revolution, as well as the basis of a
free Government, a conquest which not
only gives political freedom to municipal-
life, but also economic independence,
since the municipality will have its own
funds and resources with which to me?t
it* needs, thus being taken out of reach
of the insatiable greed generally shown
by governors.

"Tocqueville observed in his study of
the history of the American peoples of
Spanish origin that the latter turn to
anarchy when they are tired of obedience,
and to a dictatorship when tired of de-
struction, and he considers that this osciri
lation between order and violence is the
fatal law which governed and will govern
for a long time those nationa This theo-
rist did not say what, in his opinion,
would be the means of getting rid of tho '
evil, which he could quite easily
done had he observed really the
cedents of each case and the cii
stances under which revolution inva

occurs." i H

Here (Jen. Carranza launched into an
analysis of "strong governments" as con-
trasted with "despotic governments," and
pointed out that certain superior classes
have always blundered in thinking that
the way to produce order was to ignore
tho law.

'That, and nothing else," continued Mr.
Carranza, "was the cause of the fatal
habit of which Tocqueville spoke, be-
cause a dictatorship will no more product
peace or order than darkness will pro-
duce light."

Tht First Chief, who is soon to bo
President of Mexico, is a man of rars
political ability. He is undoubtedly, of
all the revolutionists produced in the last
six years in Mexico, by far the most
learned and the most cultured. He was
a Senator from, as well as Governor of,
the state of Coahuila in the days of Diaz.
He has seen Mexico under conditions old
and new. He is proceeding slowly, and,
disturbed by no outside influence, is bound
to be remembered in Mexican history as
one of its greatest statesmen.

0216:

THE THUTH ABOUT MEXICO

XII.

BREGON AND GONZALES

-THEIR PERSONALITIES

Generals of the Revolution Support Carranza Loyally— Both
are Thoroughgoing Constitutionalists Who Enlisted
Against Huerta on Principle.

Mexico City, December, 1916.

TNTIL revolutionary governments
take the form of stable administra-
tions ruled by a chief executive
whose words and commands become in-
violate. It is not unusual to find the body
politic governed by a group of military
chiefs. Mexico is no exception, but to-
day the southern republic is passing
through that evolutionary stage wherein
the lesser chiefs have become incorporat-
ed in the military strength or prestige
of a few greater ones. \

Next to Gen. Carranza there are two
men in Mexico to-day whose political
and military power constitutes an essen-
tial part of the whole fabric of the Con-
stitutionalist Administration. They are
Gen. Alvaro Obregon and Gen. Pablo
Gonzales. Without their cooperation,
without their consent, Gen. Carranza
could not administer the office of chief
ij&executive — a central government would

t virtually hopeless. And whenever two
A ascend to such strategic heights, it
is as natural as it is inevitable in Mexico
that doubt should at once be cast on
their individual loyalty to the higher au-
thority^- frequently subordinate colonels
or chiefs through hopes of self-advance-
ment, spur th^eu leaders on to revolt;
they engage in intrigue and sooner or
later, by creating an atmosphere of jeal-
ousy and suspicion, easily discover a pre-
text tor a quarrel and urge It upon their
superiora If the tatter be unscrupulous
f "and without moral character, ambitious
and fearless, as wat Huerta, no obstacle,
not even assassination, will be permitted
to stand In the way of accomplishing a
usurpation.

Many persons have thus worked on
Gena Gonzales and Obregon, some of
them On the pretence of deep friendship,
in an effort to effect a break with Car-

ranza, but with no success. The con-
spirators have, however, been able to stir
up jealousy between the staffs of the
two generals, and to contribute no little
embarrassment to both. But neither gen-
eral is himself unscrupulous, neither is
a fool, and neither wants to start a revolt
of arms. The certainty alone of an Amer-
ican occupation as a sequel does not
make the responsibility for a aew revo-
lution seem particularly attractive.

BOTH SUPPORT CARRANZA.

As a matter of fact, Alvaro Obregon
and Pablo Gonzales are thoroughgoing
Constitutionalist* They enlisted in the
revolt against Huerta purely on principle.
It they have any ambitions, they will de-
sire to satisfy -them through the regular
electoral processes some day, but not
through another arbitrary overthrow of
constitutional government. And both
men are earnest and sincere in their
support of Gen. Carranza's candidacy for
President, which is unopposed.

Both Gens, Obregon and Gonzales were
in the city during my stay here, and I
spent an hour or more with each, talk-
ing about domestic troubles, the effect
of the reelection of President Wilson, the
Pershing expedition, and other subjects
of mutual interest. I found Gen. Gonza-
les at Tacubaya, a suburb, where he and
his staff had occupied the home of Fer-
nando de Teresa, a millionaire now in
Europe. I had heard a great deal about
requisitioning houses, but after a stroll
through this immense estate, I came to
the conclusion that not only had Don
Pablo taken good care not to destroy
anything in the big dwelling, but he ac-
tually had detailed several men to trim
the gardens daily and generally clean it
up, for the place had been unoccupied for

several years. And wh> ■ ndo de
Teresa comes home, he'l • . . . i man-
sion, furniture, gardens pools,
swimmtag tank, bowling heatre,
art gallery, stable* mir illway,
trees, and arbors in jus. 1 con-
dition as when he left.

Don Pablo is fond of ho ponies

and must needs show me : iction.

A few minutes he spent r< litary

telegrams and then he sat talk.

He had a rather disagrees ience

with Gregory Mason's int i the

Outlook — a bona-fide intej the

way,) because copies of it -\ i also

to all the newspaper corr 'a in

Mexico City, but containing : ther

indiscreet to say during tht y of

a Presidential election in dted

States. So Gen. Gonzales i ' of

quoted interviews. As a_m; ' fact,

what he said in that intervit nt-

ed what he actually felt — tl pen

enmity of Hughes was to be \to

the incomprehensible friends 7 ll-

son. It was a typical vie> v .he

Mexicans wanted to know if t.irs*

States really was planning on

or occupation and wanted to I to

prepare against it. Or they to

know what to be sure was fc le

many conflicting moves on t )f
their northern neighbor.

QLAD WILSON WON.

But Pablo Gonzales really 1

Wilson won. On the whole, tl ■••ion
was considered favorable to M <
the feeling prevailed that if V..
cans really were sincere, they r
withdraw the Pershing exped.
there would be no international
Gen. Gonzales is a man of coi
character and integrity. He e ■
little, but you can rely on his wo -1. e
is very popular among the f<
He was in the milling busine:
the revolution began, and his m
success has resulted merely fron
plication of business sense to a
ganization. He has been in th<
States a great deal, has done
with Americans and foreigners, a
dies himself very well indeed. . .
m6st disgruntled member of the
can colony in Mexico City an •.; ■ a
say: "Oh, Gen. Gonzales is all rU
a good administrator. If there ~\
more like him." The same is 3
Tampico, San Luis Potosl— eve
that he has been stationed.

Don Pablo is a favorite of Ge.
ranza. Both come from the same
Coahuila — and their friendship date
many years. Friction between th
any serious character is very impro
In a sense, Gen. Gonzales is a creatu ■<
Gen. Carranza, and throughout all
ructions with Villa and the dissensio

Q21GZ

•

the Constitutionalist camp, not a bit of
doubt prevailed that Gonzales would stick
to the First Chief through thick and thin.
His square jaw,_in fact the lines of face,
are those of a man of character. It is
what we are accustomed to call a strong
face. His hair is jet black and runs
somewhat to the football crop. He wears
gold spectacles and a black fedora hat, a
plain sack suit and polka-dot vest — at
least this was his Sunday morning garb,
and I noticed that he was the only man
at headquarters who didn't wear a uni-
form, which is a fact of no small signifi-
cance, because in Mexico there seems to
be some kind of contest or rivalry on
among the generals and colonels, cap-
tains and lieutenants to see who can
design the most distinctive uniform out
of khaki, or olive drab, an abundance of
brass buttons and gold lace, and a study
of military fashion plates of generations.
Indeed, the Interesting thing to tho
casual observer of both Obregon and
Gonzales would be that they didn't look
like military men at all. .They might be
business men, bankers, or merchants for
all the outsider knew. Gen. Obregon, for
instance, when I visited him at his home
in the military school alongside Chapul-
tepec Castle, wore a heavy gray sweater
and mufti of the plainest.

OBnBOON HAS "PUNCH."

Alvaro Obregon is an engaging figure
and a winning personality. He can bo
Just as anti-American as any one else in
Mexico and as simpatico, too, though, to
be sure, whenever I investigate the ef-
fects of our crudely worked out policy to-
ward Mexico, I am not surprised th«it
anti-Americanism is so infectious. Obre-
gon is a man of force. He has the punch
Americans love to admire. He is honest.
He is good-hearted. He is a*brave com-
mander and a tactful one. He has never
lost a battle in nearly three years of con-
stant campaigning. When I saw him he
was going through a rather excruciating
experience. The stub of his left arm
which had parted company with a pow-
erful right hand at the last battle of

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

Celaya against Villa was in a cast. He
had slipped on the stairway a few days
before and fractured the upper arm. Yet
he was up and about carrying on his du-
ties of Minister of War from hfs resi-
dence. And he had time to work on a
book that he is writing covering his ex-
periences in the campaigns of the present
revolution, his"' thousands of miles of
marches and countermarches, his sweep
from the Arizona border through Sonora
and along the Pacific Coast to Mexico
City against Huerta — he was the first to
enter there in"-l914 — and his northward
pursuit and spectacular defeat of Villa,
after which the latter took to the moun-
tains. If Gen. Murgia fails in Chihuahua,
Gen. Obregon expects to take the field
himself against the northern bandit.

Gen. Obregon is what Americans would
call a reasonable man. He has neither
the wisdom nor the profundity of a
statesman — and doesn't pretend to have.
He is a man of utter simplicity, a man
without guile, direct, emphatic, energetic,
and true blue. People who gossip of in-
trigue and disloyalty in his connection
simply do not know the man. I like
his good-humor. Some people say he has
inherited it from Irish ancestors. Cer-
tainly his spirit is a youthful one; his
years arc thirty-six. He has just married
and with him lives an older sister.

HIS VIEW ON OUR PEARS.

We talked about the embargo on arms
and international questiona Gen. Obre-
gon was matter-of-fact and frank. I told
him that ever since Carrizal people in the
United States had been so uncertain
about the future status of their relations
with Mexico, however well disposed the
American Government might be, public
opinii n would not sanction the arminu
of a possible foe. Gen. Obregon under
stood that in an instant; — it was merely
military necessity. But he was just a*
sure American apprehensions about M
ico were ill-founded, and that there wis
to be peace, not war. And, moreover. : he
embarrassment about arms was over he
confessed, because machinery had Seen

Imported, and Mexican arsenals wert
turning out thousands and thousand
cartridges every day— sufficient at u
rate with which to conduct the various
campaigns against bandits.

By his conversation it was easy to e.e
that Gen. Obregon had |»erfeci; confidence
in Gen. Carranza's ability tc handle the
international situation. He did not insist
on knowing details or interjecting a po*r>
of view. Don Venustiano could intp
the Mexican point of view or. sueii ma
ters. Nationalism is neve an amblgv
ous thing, anyway. It permits of no su
render of any of the sacred right*
sovereignty, no yielding of the nation
independence — and these principles, r.
thing more and nothing less, under*
Mexico's cautious, even suspicious, at'
tude toward her big, powerful, resource!
neighbor — the United States.

Obregon and Gonzales a'e from t
north of Mexico, virile personal ties. TV"
combined military strength., distxibut.
through a lot of lesser generals an
chiefs, was the Instrument by which V
revolution was won first against Hueru
and then against the organized warfar»
of Villa Their tasks are not dona Bar
ditry, the sequel of organised flghtmfc
still prevails, as it did in Madero's time,
as it ever will until the central author-
ity has been firmly enough established i
get money wherewith to supply and trai
an efficient force for bandit hunting,
job many times as difficult as an out-»v.
out fight, as our own experience -^ith J
dian forays and bushwhacking will te
tify. All of this takes time. And
America can once be assured that Mexico
has in her leadership men of capacity, the
moral help necessary to enablB the de
facto Government to obtain credit and
the elements wherewith to combat ban.-
ilitry, industrial troubles, and other dis-
turbances, ought not to be long withheld
Again, seeing is believing, and fair-mimt
ed observations will bring convincing
proof that Mexico indeed has the mora!
capacity, needing only certain material
aid or elements to become master of her-
self.

02166

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

XIII.

:CTS IN AMERICAN POLICY

Prim;, ie of Wilson Policy of Altruism Correct, but Execution
ClumsyMomt of the Disastrous Mistakes of the Past—
Conductive Suggestions for the^Future.

Washington, D. C, December, 191 6.

TT is ,i ^ ry well to interpret Mexico
■ s it evolutionary development,

* to H;va, ie at true values the dis-
'urbaueea herfe^JPi PO» nt out the
•ertain movement forward
facto Government and
the MexicaxMople; but, you will ask,
,ov can tbeftJnlted States solve Its im-
tkfedlato pr blem, what about banditry,
about jfco Americans being: killed
.1 ii, and what of Villft, the
pedition, and the Interna -
, dssion? To put these aues-
•fct.s nucdrjB&t What policy would be
/ this correspondent or any
<tihc ■■; tor t iat matter, who had made a
a- tour Jtoboervation ? Suppose one
ty given by the United-State s
nm«nt Hp' responsibility of han-
dling the s inle business, what would be
tfc«. fiist stt ps taken?

u j% can be simply stated. It

r> t, a sincere desire to. ander-

1 the atla- character, and, *Beond,

1 1 recute the obvious policy

an understanding dictates

^hen the curtain is lifted ami

record of our dealings with

^•evealed to the naked eye,

I not feel very proud* of her

There is in them every

honest, patriotic wish to

^her feet, but a regrettable

blunders, and miscon-

ivp wounded Mexico and

prestige of the United

jj|i- American spirit and

|grnrnents to-day mu-

^each other, respec-

§ far from under-

:h other aJLthey were nearly

ago when the trouble started.

i occasions when the higher

1 to write in criticism of one's

irhent "The king can do no

•at. abili
which

place in the vocabulary of republican
peoples. America's policy toward Mex-
ico has not been at fault in principle, but
disastrously ■ lumsy in execution thereof.
We have expressed ourselves crudely,
and we have acted inconsistently. But
fortunately we have not lost our oppor-
tunity. We can still convince Mexico
that the United States is her best friend,
if we will but be big enough, aye gen-
erous enough, to deal with. her as only
a great and powerful nation like ours
can act toward a weak and struggling
neighbor or as one honorable nation
should act toward another of similar in-
tegrity.

NEITHKH Slhfe; TRUSTS Tt** OTHER.

1 have just come from Mexico City and
queretaro, where I sat down with many
old friends, in and out of the Govern-
ment, discussing for many hrurs, Mexico's
attitude toward the United States. I
have talked many hours here, too, with"
officials of the United States. Government
in the last five years. The two Govern-
ments are far apart, too far. They have
not -even reached the point of actual
trust. Heither believes in the other. Nei-
ther will take the word of the other. On
the surface, friendship, the hypocritical
kind that leads to tears, prevails; under -

<ath ore the bitterest of resentments,

ten ill-concealed enmity. It is just as
hue, in both capitals — in Washinpton as
u '71 as Mexico City.

it would be superfluous here to analyse
the Land mission, the odd spectacle of the
American Government layiag down spe-
cific conditions for the holding of an elec-'
tlon in sovereign Mexico; it' would serve
no good purpose now to tell what harm
the occupation of Vera Cruz did, what
doubt it cast upon America's intentions,
but there are things happening to-day be-
fore our very eyes that are doing harm
""■? t hat "~t" > ^iv may fnrre war on an

unwilling American people if a halt Is
not soon called by an alert American pub-
lic opinion.

OUR ABSURDLY INADEQUATE REPRESENTATION.

Does the average American know, for
example, that the business of the great
United States Government is being han-
dled in Mexico by one or two clerks, neith-
er of whom is accredited to the Carranza
Government, neither of whom is in the
diplomatic service, neither of whom has
had the training or experience to express
to Mexico the many good purposes which
the United States has in mind toward her
neighbor? Who talks to Carranza for
vs.: who explains our purposesf No one.

Does the average American know, too,
that friendly diplomatic relations were
renewed with the recognition of the de
facto Government a year ago, and yet in
all that time an American Ambassador
has not been sent to Mexico nor even a
Cliarpe" d' Affaires — no one except a special
agent or two, whose status differed not a
bit from the status of the special agents
sent before a Government was recognized
In Mexico.

Is Mexico to be blamed for suspecting
the good faith of the United States wfcen
the latter hesitates to shake hands, to
make good the promise to send an am-
bassador, a promise given more than a
year ago? What is the real explanation
In Washington of the failure to send
Ambassador Fletcher? Well, first, the
Republicans filibustered and his confir-
mation was delayed several weeks. When
he was finally confirmed, last spring, the
American Government decided that it
wouldn't be "dignified" to send an Am-
bassador to Mexico "just yet." In other
words, it was decided to wait until Mex-
ico was In complete peace, when an
Ambassador would be of only one-hun-
dredth as much good to Mexico or to the
United States as he could be to-day. v An
American Ambassador should have been
in Mexico for many months, dignity to
the contrary notwithstanding. He should
have been rendering help to Mexico, as
well a-s looking ,out for Americans and
their interests, but above all, he should
have been giving the United States Gov-
ernment and the American people the
benefit of his observation and his judg-
ment. We haven't even known the facts
from unbiassed sources.

No better man than Henry P. Fletcher
could have been chosen Amhassador. He
has had long experience in Latin coun-
tries. He Is a former Rough Rider, but a
versatile diplomat, a man of charm. He
talks the language o£ LrfUin America, and
grasps its thought. He is simpatico. He
is tactful; he Is resourceful. He would
be able from Mexico City — on the ground
— to advise the President and Secretary of
State on matters of policy. Mexico wants
him to come. He is young and enthusias-

0216'

tic. Why shouldn't he go at once? And
wouldn't that very act carry to the Mexi-
can mind, as well as the whole world, the
conviction that peace, and not a break
in relations, was contemplated by the
United States? Would it not remove
doubt as to American plans?

A HOT AND COU> POLICY.

The policy of the Administration at
Washington ever since it recognized Car-
ranza has been intermittently hot and
cold. We have never whole-heartedly
given our moral support to the de facto
Government. This has always been held
back while we were waiting for some-
thing—peace and order, perhaps — waiting
for the very things to happen which the
United States ought to have ungrudgingly
helped Mexico to make happen.

Let us look at the Pershing expedition.
It entered Mexico without Mexico's per-
mission. When it crossed the line a
statement was issued by the War De-
partment at the direction of the Presi-
dent, saying the American troops would
be withdrawn as soon as Carranza Gov-
ernment forces could arrive on the scene
to take control. Enough Carranza troops
arrived, but the American Government
did not withdraw. Instead, it brushed
against Mexican forces at Carrlzal, and
then It settled down to a quiet occupa-
tion of Mexican territory without accom-
plishing Its original object. Its quarrel
had been with Villa. Carranza certainly
had not raided American territory. But
falling to catch Villa, the American
troops were held on Mexican soil as a
bargaining lever with Carranxa, as a
means of getting something out % of weak
and struggling Mexico — getting whatf
Why, promises of protection for foreign-
ers, and effective patrol of the "border.
Yet any one who knows Mexico knows
that such promises are not worth the
paper they are written on unless there
Is a strong central Government to en-
force them, unless there is a stable Gov-
ernment, financially able to pay its
troops and organize them as was Diaz.
But did the United States keep sight
of that dominant fact? Did it take ac-
count of the injury it was doing the
central Government, the embarrassment
It was imposing before the world by cast-
ing doubt upon its own friendliness or
moral support of the Government it had
only a few months before recognized?
Mexicans do not like foreign troops on-*,
their soil any more than we do. Turn
to the Far East, where Japan on the
slightest provocation sends troops Into
the territory of helpless China, while a
suspicious world looks^on, if you want
to understand what Mexico and Latin
America secretly think when the Pun-
«ton forces or the Pershing expeditions
axe roaming on the sovereign territory

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

of the Mexican republic in Vera Cruz or
Chihuahua.

BARGAINING ABOUT SOVEREIGNTY RIGHTS.

The United States did not withdraw
the troops, as so frequently promised.
Mexico threatened, but soon realized the
futility of threats. Mexico, like China,
was too feeble to resist. A commission
was appointed really to bridge the crisis
that arose at Carrlzal. The Presidential
campaign here delayed matters. The
Mexican indulgently understood. Now
the campaign is over. Gen. Carranza
had been promised that If he agreed to
discuss all the points involved in the
Mexican problem, the question of with-
drawal of American troops would be
discussed "preferentially." It would be
tr.ken up and disposed of first. Privately
he suggested a wide discussion later. He
wanted this procedure so that Mexico
would not be In the position of bargain-
ing with her Northern neighbor for
rights of sovereignty, so that Mexico's
territory could be free of foreign troops
when a discussion •* other matters was
begun.

Was that promise of the United States
to withdraw the American troops and
then discuss the other questions real-
ly kept In letter or in spirit ?
There are doubts. The Joint Com-
mission, acting presumably under In-
struction from Washington, asked for
the settlement of many other questions
along with the border problem. It took
up a variety of other subjects, and only
lately drew up a protocol about the with-
drawal of Pershing. Has it taken Mex-
ico's word that as soon as the troops
were withdrawn she would discuss other,
problems of international importance? Not
yet. Mexico isn't to be trusted, says Wash-
ington. Why, as soon as the Pershing
expedition is withdrawn, the Mexicans
wouldn't care anything about the other
problems, and would hem and haw and
do nothing— that is the real American
point of view. Is Mexico to be given a
chance to prove her good faith? No. the
assumption upon which action Is based is
the same assumption that the White
Papers and the Orange Papers and the
Red Books reek with.

And when the protocols are submitted.
a statement Is Issued separately by the
United States threatening unlimited pur-
suit of bandits In Mexico. That was a
threat of more punitive expeditions. It
was a warning that in withdrawing
Pershinsr now. Mexico might have other
expeditions to worry about if sV didn't
do what ' if she didn't stop border raids.
And Mexico is powerless to stop bor-
der raids so long as her Government is
weak. The Government of Mexico can-
not be strong if it is at odds with the
United States, if the United States keeps

casting doubt on Its capacity. Its ere..
remains depressed. Was the statement
of unlimited pursuit consistent with
"moral support"? On the contrary, it re-
acted in Mexico in a way quite differ-
ent from that which was supposed. It y
was construed as an official threat. That's \
why Gen. Carranza didn't sign the Amer-
ican protocols. What is the use of
signing a deed for a lot the sale of which
you are just completing, when the seller
reminds you that if your children play
In his front yard, he will come over and
lick your whole family? That Isn't
nelghborliness. That depreciates^ the
value of the lot. deed and all. Gen.
Carranza had to point out that he could
not let such a statement of hostile In-
tention pass unnoticed. His commis-
sioners will probably have to accept, af-
ter all. the American programme, and
discuss questions of various kinds while
the Pershing expedition is on Mexican
soil. What remedy has Gen. Carranra?
He can't go to war about it. But is It
any wonder that Americans are not
liked in Mexico? Is this the way to build
international friendships? The methods
used sound strangely like Japanese coer-
cion of China, like the ultimatum which
China was compelled to accept In 1915
because there was no alternative.

UNEQUAL TREATMENT OK SMUGGLING.

While I was in Mexico, a bitter anti-
American speech was made in the Constit-
uent Assembly at Queretaro by a member
of the Carranza Cabinet, Candido Aguilar.
This was why: Although Mexico has to-
day a constituted Government, and by all
our laws Is entitled to ammunition, the
embargo, declared after Carrlzal, never has
been lifted. Villa smuggles on the north-
ern border, largely because of the ineffi-
cient secret service and some corrupt
state officials in Texas and New Mexico.
Carranza's military men decide to do some
smuggling, too. A cargo of ammunition
is consigned as machinery on board the
Ward liner JSsperanza. As the boxes are
being unloaded at Vera Cruz, a crane
breaks, and one box falls, spilling car-
tridges on the docks. Promptly American
officials are advised. The captain of the
Illinois, lyittg in the harbor, orders no
further unloading until he can communi-
cate with Washington. He should have
known that the place to prevent smug-
gling was In New York harbor. There is
some delay. The Mexican Government at
Queretaro is advised That same dav
Villa defeats the Carranza garrison at
Chihuahua. The Mexican leaders at Que-
retaro infer that the Cnited States is do-
ing all it can to prevent the de facto Gov-
ernment from succeeding Yet the Unit-
ed States wants the northern eampai*.i
against bandits prosecuting vigorously. I«
it any wonder that the simple Mexican
mind evolves the idea of double dealing

02168

*rom that incident? The ammunition at
Vera Cruz is finally released to the Mex
leans, but the effect of the manoeuvre is
not lost. It creates much ill-feeling in
Mexico. \"et in the United States this
has probably never been printed. It il-
lustrates why the two nations do not trust
each other.

But here is another illustration: The
United States is not content to keep am-
munition from 'being exported to Mexico
from the United States. The Government
of Salvador is approached by the State
Department and warned against selling
any ammunition to the Carranza Govern-
ment. A protest Is made. The State De-
partment finally yields. Is this the pro-
cedure of friendship? Is this "moral sup-
port'

ire of frie
"? X

MBXICO MANUFACTURING AMMUNITION.

To-day the Mexicans are manufactur-
ing enough ammunition themselves to get
along. But if they succeed in establish-
ing a strong Government, will they forget
who embarrassed them as they were
struggling to their feet? Mexicans nev.;r
forget.

The Mexican Government is in, its in-
fancy. It no doubt has handled its foreign
affairs sometimes in a fashion exasperat-
ing to our State Department There arc
no trained diplomats versed in interna-
tional etiquette in the Mexican Foreign
Office as yet. These things come in later
stages of a new Government. They take
time. Instead of bearing patiently with
these faults of etiquette, and putting in
Mexico an Ambassador who, is himself
tactful enough to overcome such handi-
caps, the officials of our Gijvernment
chafe because their representations air
not promptly attended to, representations
handled by men not even accredited offi-
cially to the de facto Government, and
who have neither the initiative nor the
authority to push those representations
along with the proper authorities.

Mexico must be dealt with honorably,
as one man expects another to deal with
him. Let us ask Mexico what she wants.
The answer will be this: Withdrawal of
Pershing, a vigilant patrol of the border,
and enforcement of neutrality in Un-
united States; preventing refugee Mexi-
cans from financing and plotting ne v
revolutionary movements, and the issu-
ance of a warm pronouncement by the
United States of moral support of th<-
de facto Government. The United States

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO

ought - to grant this without asking a
thing in return. The sense of honor of
the Mexican is as highly developed as
that of an American. When you loan a
man money, you usually; don't ask him if
he will loan you some when you need it
You don't want that stipulated In ad-
vance. You inwardly expect it,- and if he
is able, you trust he will reciprocate.

By nisentangling ourselves from bar-
gains^ and ceasing to treat Mexico as a
■^uspVct, as some one' who will not keep
her word, we will lay a new foundation
for Mexican-American relations.

THB SLATE SHOULD BE CLEANBD.

We ought to start out with a clean
slate. We should withdraw Gr>n. Persh-
ing's- forces at once, and not try to drive
any bargains. His work is over. Let
the United States stop embarrassing Car-
ranza, who is being held up every day
before the ignorant masses in Mexico
by Villa as the traitor who. sits supinely
by while American troops camp on the
sacred soil of Mexico. Villa has been is-
suing proclamation after proclamation to
the people of north Mexico, claiming that
he is about to attack the "foreign in-
vader." He appeals to their patriotic pas-
sions, telling: them Mexico is at war with
the United States, and the masses in
northern Mexico, having, no newspapers
with which to verify the report, naturally
credit it. Then Villa recruits a few thou-
sand men, descends on a small garrison at
Chihuahua or Torreon, holds the city for
a few days until the Carranza forces in
greater numbers arrive on the scene, and
then retreats to the mountains.

It costs much money for the Carranza
Government to carry on a campaign
against one who simply robs foreigners of
their gold bullion, and gives it to the peon
troops as pay. The Carranza authorities
need a loan wherewith to equip their
army, yet in the United States the mere
capture of Chihuahua or Torreon for a
few days makes the Government of the
United States hesitant about continuing
to support the de facto Government, and
thereby gives to these incidents an impor-
tance which they ought never to have.
For in Mexico the state of Chihuahua is
looked upon as a wild country, the dis-
turbances in which bear no real relation
to the score of states of the republic
where almost normal conditions prevail.
Some people have an idea that the pres-
ence of Pershing has a salutary effeot on

Villa, and that with the latter's small
success, the Pershing expedition should
not now of all times be withdrawn; but
by keeping Pershing in Mexico, we
strengthen Villa's hand and antagonize
Carranza, encouraging conditions of an-
archy. Gen. Pershing is hundreds of
miles north of Torreon, where Villa is
operating, and Villa, will keep that dis-
tance between them if Pershing is with-
drawn to the American line. He will
never come close again for a raid, be-
cause the American troops have learned
a lesson and will not be caught napping a
second time.

And simultaneous with the with-
drawal of our troops let Ambassador
Fletcher start for Mexico to carry ,
forward this programme of construc-
tive friendship. Let us stop issuing
threats hnd informing bandits exactly how
they can provoke international compli-
cations. Let us stand by the Government
we have recognized and help it mak«
good by not asking a thing for ourselves.
But, some American officials will say,
isn't this giving Mexico her own way;
isn't this giving up our "rights?" The*
answer is to be found in this question:
Aren't we big enough to give Mexico
what she wants, what she thinks will
give her internal peace and stability?
Can't we afford once to take her word
for it? For certainly if Mexico is right
and a strong central government issues,
there will be no border raids-, no further
assault on Americans in Mexico, but
peace and order. And if the Carranza
Government is wrong and fails, having
been sincerely helped, would the Amer-
ican Government not find a unanimous
opinion later, instead of the divided opin--
ion of to-day as to certain other drastic
measures that might then be inevit-
able?

But Mexico knows her own problem
and peculiar conditions, and will never
consciously furnish a pretext for inter-
vention. She needs American help, and
if she gets it, will reciprocate. Her
self-respect <and honor will compel it. Let
America deal with Mexico on a basis of
honor, as nations should, and the results
that will flow therefrom will be a revela-
tion in diplomacy — the actual fulfilment
of the ideals we describe -so eloquently
in words, but all too seldom translate
in deeds.

02169

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