f 
 
 THE BLACK CZAR 
 
 PLUTARCO ELIAS CALLES 
 
 Bolshevik Dictator 
 of Mexico 
 
 Translated from the Spanish 
 — of — 
 
 FRANCISCO GOMEZ DEL REY 
 AND HERNAN DIAZ 
 
 BY FR. JOHN MOCLAIR 
 
 PUBLISHED 
 
 by 
 
 “EL DIARIO DE EL PASO” PRESS 
 El Paso, Texas, U. S. A. 
 
 1928 
 
 1 
 
INDEX 
 
 PART I 
 
 Translator’s Preface 
 
 Introduction 
 
 The Black Czar 
 
 His birth enshrouded in mystery 
 
 “El Maestro Mechas” 
 
 Towards the abyss 
 
 New enterprises 
 
 A scandalous triumvirate 
 
 The capitalist commissioner 
 
 Calles violates United States Territorial Rights. 
 
 Calles sheds tears! 
 
 Sonora — Scene of blood and grief 
 
 Founder of Sovietism in Mexico 
 
 The Staff Officers of Bolshevism 
 
 An unselfish leader 
 
 “Would it were so!” 
 
 PART II 
 
 Calles, President of Mexico # 20 
 
 The Persecutor 21 
 
 Blood-thirsty 22 
 
 The Reconstructionist 26 
 
 Calles, “Philosopher”! 31 
 
 The illegality of the tyranny 32 
 
 Refinement of cruelty 38 
 
 Criminal support 41 
 
 To save Mexico 46 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Father Miguel Agustin Pro, S. J. (The Shooting Scene) 23 
 
 Mr. Luis Segura Vilches (The Shooting Scene) 27, 30 
 
 (Not Illustrated) — Fr. Pro, Mr. Humberto Pro, Mr. Luis Segura.:34, 35 
 
 
 
THE BLACK CZAR 
 TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE 
 
 “For truth has such a face and such a mien, 
 
 As to be loved needs only to be seen.” 
 
 — Dryden: The Hound and the Panther 
 
 “The Black Czar” is a good title for this little sketch 
 of the life of Plutarco Elias Calles: but a still more apt 
 title would be “A Life of Dishonor.” No figure in contem- 
 porary history has so decisively established his claims to 
 a niche in the World’s Hall of Infamy. He had not to wait 
 for posthumous fame; he is already famous — mala quidem 
 fama! We might very aptly apply to him a saying credited 
 to one of the earlier sultans: “Where my horse trod, the 
 grass never grew.” Men living beyond the frontiers of 
 his country have already formed their opinions of Calles: 
 these estimates vary according to the sources of informa- 
 tion on which they are based and especially affected by the 
 color of the glasses used in reading. 
 
 Our subject is at once momentous and popular. The 
 “Mexican Question” or “Problem” has reached an import- 
 ant stage; it is of interest not alone to Mexicans and to 
 their immediate neighbors, but has assumed a world in- 
 terest. Now Calles is the “Mexican Problem” personified. 
 An honest appraisal of his real character is therefore highly 
 desirable. No man can afford to ignore the present state of 
 affairs in Mexico. This brief sketch gives the reader facts, 
 demonstrably true. Once the truth is known there is not 
 on earth an honest man who would dare to either sympathize 
 with Calles or render him aid ; he can have no well-wishers 
 except among those who cannot see any difference between 
 filial piety and parricide. 
 
 Propaganda is a pernicious thing and most of the Mex- 
 ican trouble is directly traceable to propaganda.. “Propa- 
 ganda’s objective is always to promote the interests of those 
 who promote it rather than to benefit those to whom it is 
 addressed.” A characteristic of propaganda is its notorious 
 indifference to truth. “Truth is valuable only in so far as 
 it is effective. The whole truth would generally be super- 
 fluous and almost always misleading.” * To this type of 
 propaganda, so potently and up to the present so success- 
 fully employed by the Calles government, we submit truth 
 which alone can set men free. 
 
 * Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 32, 
 12th Edition. 
 
The saying: “Tell me your company and I will tell 
 you what you are,” can have lost none of its verisimilitude. 
 The very “nicest” people will, sometimes, pick up undesir- 
 able acquaintances ; but good people soon drop such acquain- 
 tances and never allow the temporary relation to ripen into 
 friendship. This is exactly the case of Plutarco Elias Calles 
 and his supporters in other lands. No decent man can like 
 him. No honest man can find a decent thing to say about 
 him ; the friends of truth are the natural enemies of Calles 
 because he is an enemy of truth. 
 
 Now, we realize that the “Mexican Question” has been 
 sadly treated with blatant unfairness. The American peo- 
 ple are great admirers of truth, but not so many of them 
 are willing to become truth's servants. Wherever passion, 
 that fosterling of ignorance, has not become an acute form 
 of dishonesty expressing itself in a lie, we believe this little 
 book will achieve much good in the common cause of truth 
 and will help the people of Mexico. 
 
 A phrase comes to mind that disturbs our confidence: 
 
 “The times have been 
 
 That when the brains were out the man would die 
 And there an end: but now they rise again . 11 
 
 It is hard to kill a falsehood born of prejudice. This 
 rather lengthy and very disproportionate introduction is 
 necessary to pave the way for the proper reception and ap- 
 praisal of the splendid array of facts which the Spanish 
 writers have brought together so painstakingly. There will 
 be many objectors. An obvious question is: “What have 
 people outside of Mexico got to do with a religious ques- 
 tion?” To that we reply that it is not merely a religious 
 question; when you have read the book through you will 
 admit* that. Remember Tolstoy's words : It is wrongly 
 said that the Christian teaching relates only to personal 
 salvation, and not to public political questions.” John Mor- 
 * ley, English statesman and essayist. — an agnostic — wrote : 
 “Those who would treat politics and morality apart, will nev- 
 er understand the one or the other.” The reader will thank 
 us for this quotation, from the pen of a Protestant writer ; 
 it would serve as a perfect text for the title-page of a his- 
 tory of Mexico : “History consists of the miseries brought 
 upon the world by pride, ambition, avarice, revenge, lust, 
 sedition, hypocrisy, and ungoverned zeal. These are the 
 cause of the storms. Religion, morals, laws, prerogatives, 
 privileges, liberties, rights of man, are the protests.” Ev- 
 ery word of this quotation from Edmund Burke would serve 
 as a missile to smash the pretensions of Calles and his 
 abettors. 
 
 Other readers will ask: “Do you want armed inter- 
 vention by the United States?” To which we answer: No! 
 
5 
 
 May we remind the reader that it is the wrong kind of 
 American intervention that has made the career of Calles 
 possible. There has always been a “Mexican Question” for 
 the United States, and so far it has never been handled in 
 a forthright vigorous manner. Every enemy of Mexico’s 
 best interests, whether spawned on Mexican soil or import- 
 ed from without has had the active support of the United 
 States, either secretly or overtly. This statement is true 
 and needs no confirmation for the man who has read even 
 a meager outline of Mexican history. 
 
 Yet one more point should be mentioned. Who dares 
 deny that a great deal of the sympathy enlisted in favor of 
 Calles derives from the fact that the Catholic Church in 
 Mexico has been one of his many victims? Let the Prot- 
 estant reader ponder on these words of Lecky, a Protest- 
 ant historian: “The persecution of religious opinion and 
 the suppression of any form of religious worship must al- 
 ways appear peculiarly culpable in Protestants whose whole 
 theory of religion is based on the right of private judgment.” 
 The same writer, in “Rationalism in Europe,” has this to 
 say: “Catholicism laid the very foundations of modem 
 civilizations.” Nor will it be to the benefit of the United 
 States or the world at large to allow Calles to perpetuate 
 his nefarious achievement. 
 
 This little sketch is not. a finished portrait ; the palette 
 knife has been more often employed than the brush. The 
 picture is all the better likeness. The result is not pleasing 
 simply because the subject, Plutarco Elias Calles, is not 
 a genial one. It is a picture absolutely au naturel. So 
 many know Calles merely as another of these Presidents of 
 Mexico; but so few recognize him as very much at home 
 in that long series of inhuman monsters who, in the name 
 of law and order, have violated all the laws of God and 
 man, beginning with Benito Juarez and coming down to 
 Obregon ! Whatever force draws men into partnership with 
 Calles, it certainly is not love. 
 
 The handwriting may be seen already on the walls of 
 the Castle of Chapultepec. Let the reader approach his 
 study of the real Calles with these sentiments so splendidly 
 expressed by a great Spaniard, Donoso Cortes: “Man can- 
 not set aside the punishment which follows sin, nor prevent 
 the penalty of his crime, nor avoid death as a consequence 
 of his first transgression . . . nor shun the reparation due 
 to scandals, nor the catastrophe incurred by disobedience. 
 
 “Man has been allowed to crush society, agitated by 
 the discord which he has fomented; to destroy the strong- 
 est means of defense; to plunder the most opulent cities; 
 to overthrow the most extensive and populous empires; to 
 bring utter ruin upon the highest forms of civilization, ob- 
 
6 
 
 scuring their splendours in the dense cloud of barbarism; 
 but it has not been permitted him to suspend for one single 
 day, hour or minute, the infallible accomplishment of the 
 fundamental laws which regulate the moral and physical 
 world, the constitutive laws of order, in humanity and in 
 the universe. The world has never seen, and will never 
 see, the man who has departed through sin from the laws 
 of order, and who has been able to escape a conformity 
 with these laws by means of punishment, that messenger 
 of God which all men must receive.” * 
 
 Fr. John Moclair, 
 
 Hollywood, California, December, 1927. 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 All men are aware of the intolerable tyranny exercised 
 by the actual dictator of Mexico, Plutarco Ellas Calles. To 
 Europeans this sinister name has become a synonym for 
 ignominy on the continent of America. But although all 
 classes are impressed with a fact so obvious as his noto- 
 riously vile conduct, his antecedents remain shrouded in 
 mystery. 
 
 In Los Angeles, California, the Mexican writer, Don 
 Brlgido Caro, published a most interesting book, “Plutarco 
 Ellas Calles, Bolshevik Dictator of Mexico.” This work 
 was published in January, 1924, and deserves to be better 
 known. In this book the author paints a splendid silhouette 
 picture of Calles; here we find a true-to-life portrait of 
 the miscreant who has strangled the liberties of the Mexi- 
 can people and in years of agitation and revolution has 
 imbrued with blood the soil of the neighboring Republic. 
 
 THE BLACK CZAR 
 
 Throughout the world the very mention of the name, 
 Plutarco Ellas Calles, evokes a feeling of horror. • He has 
 secured for himself the bloody aureole of a Nero, a Caligu- 
 la or a Tiberius by his attacks on civilization, and his fero- 
 cious cruelty towards the Catholic people of Mexico. For 
 generations yet to be his name will synonomize anathema 
 and malediction. This is the man who had the satanic au- 
 dacity to declare, on seeing the churches of God deserted, 
 “I have fought Christ three times, and three time I emerged 
 victor.” In his blind fury he fails to observe, in what he 
 calls “victories,” the sure portent of his inevitable and 
 complete downfall. The victims of this despot's fury have 
 
 * Donoso Cortes: “Catholicism, Authority and Order.” 
 
7 
 
 repeatedly shouted with their dying breath : “Christ lives,. 
 Christ reigns, Christ commands, Christ dies no more.” This 
 is the cry — not the insensate boast of Calles — that fore- 
 tells victory. 
 
 Whence came a man of such monstrous instincts? 
 Where and by whose hand was rocked the cradle of the in- 
 fant Calles whom we recognize today as the assassin of ev- 
 ery principle of liberty? It is imperative that all, Catho- 
 lics and non-Catholics alike, who cherish a true regard for 
 liberty, should know the man who has hoisted the black and 
 red flag above the grave of liberty. A study of this char- 
 actdl* is worth while since he has strangled liberty before 
 the very doors of the United States. 
 
 HIS BIRTH ENSHROUDED IN MYSTERY 
 
 In Mexico nobody knows the birth-place of the man 
 who calls himself the President of Mexico. When the Red 
 workers proclaimed him a candidate for the presidency of 
 the Republic, a search was made for documentary data to 
 establish his Mexican origin. The search was fruitless. 
 Nowhere in any city, town or village in the State of Sonora 
 could be found either a civil or ecclesiastical record of his 
 birth! The date of his ill-starred entry into this world is 
 unknown. Calles himself has always evaded this pertinent 
 question of his origin with characteristic shameless auda- 
 city. 
 
 The surname “Elias” is certainly not Mexican; it is 
 Syro-Lybian, Arabic or Turkish. For this reason the Mex- 
 ican people call him “The Turk” ! Remember that the Mex- 
 ican Constitution — so sacred to Calles — requires that the 
 President of the Republic be a Mexican by birth and the 
 child of parents born in Mexico. Has Calles fulfilled these 
 conditions? Nobody has been able to discover anything on 
 the matter. Confronted with the shadows that surround 
 the cradle of their Black Czar, we can see whence comes 
 the universal verdict of the people he has enslaved : “Mex- 
 ican blood certainly does not flow through the veins of 
 Plutarco Elias Calles.” 
 
 EL MAESTRO MECHAS * 
 
 Calles began his public career as a school master. The 
 scene of his first pedagogic and inquisitorial efforts was 
 a small secular school in Guaymas, State of Sonora. A 
 few months after his appointment he had become treasurer 
 of the Teachers' Union. It was soon noticed that the con- 
 
 * “Maestro Mechas,” a nickname. Frowsy, an unkempt person. 
 
8 
 
 tinued drunken revels of Calles kept pace with the sudden 
 decline in the treasury funds ! In a little while the teachers' 
 syndicate was bankrupt! 
 
 Calles frequently absented himself from school due to 
 his shameful drinking bouts, and he went to school merely 
 to chastise the unfortunate children with ferocious savag- 
 ery. At the present moment the whole Mexican nation pre- 
 sents an exact picture of the spectacle witnessed in that 
 little school in Guaymas, when the drunken schoolmaster de- 
 vised a thousand forms of inhuman cruelty in maltreating 
 his unfortunate pupils. 
 
 The methods of the quondam schoolmaster have under- 
 gone no change. Time and again he passed from the saloon 
 to the school. That uncertain step, the stupid gaze, the 
 slouching gait, the hat tilted to one side, a tufted fringe 
 blown across his forehead, were all unmistakable signs that 
 the teacher’s libations had been unusually copious that 
 morning! When the irascible teacher hove in sight the 
 mirthful, noisy chatter of the children was suddenly stilled. 
 A ragged urchin would rush in and pantingly exclaim: 
 “Here comes Maestro Mechas!” This title, “Maestro Me- 
 chas”, was the popular name of Calles during his stay in 
 Guaymas. At last, alarmed by the habitqal drunkenness of 
 the teacher the parents demanded relief from the Council of 
 Public Instruction, and relief was given them when the 
 scandalous teacher was dismissed. 
 
 TOWARD THE ABYSS 
 
 Without employment, the justly dismissed teacher ex- 
 perienced every form of wretchedness. He sought conso- 
 lation in his sad predicament, in an almost continuous orgy. 
 His neighbors regarded him with contempt, mixed with a 
 small percentage of pity. His uncle, Alexander Elias, was 
 determined to get Calles away from his scandalous mode of 
 living and succeeded in having him appointed Municipal 
 Treasurer in Guaymas ! 
 
 — In those days the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz seemed 
 
 a national glory in the eyes of Plutarco Elias Calles. Ac- 
 cordingly, he conducted a campaign of propaganda in the 
 Yaqui region on behalf of a group of political candidates, 
 nominees of Diaz. Calles brought with him on this tour, as 
 his faithful companions, three or four barrels of aguardiente 
 
 The same fortune that befell him while he was treasur- 
 er of the teachers’ union, attended his propagandist activi- 
 ties. “He began by scattering money with a free hand in 
 the saloons and brothels. As might be reasonably expected, 
 the defalcation was discovered in the accounts of the muni- 
 cipal treasury by the State Inspector, D. Francisco Rodri- 
 
9 
 
 guez. The errant propagandist was brought to justice at 
 the instance of Don Francisco Furcade, president of the City 
 Council. The necessary form for sending him to prison was 
 executed, but his uncle, Don Alejandro Elias, made good the 
 deficit in the treasury, a matter of several thousand dollars. ,, 
 (“Plutarco Elias Calles,” by B. Caro, page 16.) 
 
 Again our hero is jobless, but not for long. His half- 
 brothers, Arturo Malvido Elias, the future Consul at New 
 York, appointed Calles bar-tender in the Hotel Mexico, 
 fronting on the square “Trece de Julio.” In a little while 
 Calles blossomed forth as the sole proprietor. He now re- 
 sumed his bacchanalian orgies, and faced with the certainty 
 of financial failure, he set fire to the establishment. In this 
 easy way he secured $12,000 from the Insurance Company ; 
 he had often promised himself this little favor while talking 
 to his boon companions ! 
 
 NEW ENTERPRISES 
 
 Possessed of this easy money Calles sought a change of 
 scene, so he transferred his activities to the village of Fron- 
 teras, District of Arizpe, State of Sonora. Pistol in hand, he 
 now compelled his uncle to give him a farm. As he never 
 worked, he quite simply leased the farm to Manuel Ellas 
 Perez and resumed his role of libertine. Very soon he was 
 financially embarrased once more, and through the power- 
 ful influence of his relatives he was appointed superinten- 
 dent of the Excelsior Flour Mills, owned by the firm of 
 Smithers and Nordelhols, of New York. 
 
 This mill was the only one of its kind in the region and 
 accordingly very favorably situated. However, the dissolute 
 habits and lack of business capacity of the new superinten- 
 dent brought on the inevitable bankruptcy and a new man- 
 ager supplanted Calles. He next begged employment in a 
 gambling saloon — an ideal field for his peculiar talent — but 
 no, his chilling viciousness was too much, and again he is 
 out of employment ! 
 
 A SCANDALOUS TRIUMVIRATE 
 
 Roberto V. Pesqueira and Francisco Diaz Velasco were 
 two comrades worthy to associate with Calles. These unholy 
 three became inseparable pals and embarked on a spell of 
 unbridled licentiousness and intemperance. A favorite pas- 
 time of Calles and Co. was to shoot off their revolvers to 
 enliven the neighborhood and provide an outlet for their 
 base instincts. “More than one girl — minors — was launched 
 on a career of prostitution and crime by these men.” (“Plu- 
 tarco Elias Calles, Dictator,” page 20.) Every door in the 
 
10 
 
 village was closed at nightfall by the panic-stricken inhabit- 
 ants when these scoundrels put on their discharge of fire- 
 arms act. “Here comes Santanon,” was heard on all sides. 
 At this time Santanon was a notoriously cruel bandit chief 
 who terrorized the district of Huasteca, in the state of 
 Veracruz. 
 
 THE CAPITALIST COMMISSIONER 
 
 When Calles heard in Fronteras of the triumph of 
 Francisco Madero, he immediately declared himself an ar- 
 dent partisan of the victor. He employed in the Madero in- 
 terests the same propaganda technique which he used re- 
 cently in favor of the political nominees of Porfirio Diaz; 
 it was so simple ! An abundance of alcohol and rowdy po- 
 litical meetings held in the saloons ! 
 
 The new Governor of Sonora nominated him Commis- 
 sioner of Agua Prieta. In a surprisingly short time his new 
 office enabled Calles to become the most powerful capitalist 
 in that region. He possessed himself of a commercial es- 
 tablishment entailing a monopoly over the entire district. 
 He widened the sphere of his usefulness by adding a saloon 
 and a gambling house to his growing business — the latter 
 being illegal ! The neighboring town of Douglas furnished 
 him fine patronage. 
 
 By what means did the new Commissioner attain such 
 affluence in such brief time? This would be one more mys- 
 tery in the life of Calles but for the fact that the wealthy 
 merchant, Manuel J. Fuentes, was sent speedily to his re- 
 ward by an unknown assassin, and a few days later all his 
 merchandise was quietly transferred to the Calles establish- 
 ment ! It is perhaps not unworthy of notice that all the in- 
 ebriates who emerged from the saloons of Agua Prieta were 
 fined ten dollars, whereas the homeward bound drunks 
 emerging from the Calles , saloon went scot free ! 
 
 Calles secured another good source of income from a 
 business arrangement he made with one Tomas Rosas, a 
 professional robber and bandit, who specialized in cattle- 
 stealing in the United States. The stolen stock was sold to 
 a slaughter-house on the Arizona border, and one-half of 
 the proceeds went to the government comissioner, Plutarco 
 Elias Calles. When the time appeared opportune, Calles 
 quietly but very firmly expelled Rosas beyond the pale of 
 his jurisdiction, and made this lucrative business a one-man 
 affair. 
 
 CALLES VIOLATES U. S. A. TERRITORIAL RIGHTS 
 
 The inhabitants of Agua Prieta were soon to experience 
 a display of that cruelty of which the wretched urchins of 
 
11 
 
 his school at Guaymas had been the victims. A dagger 
 thrust sufficed for the ferocious commissioner to dispose 
 of his enemies, real and imaginary. A poor man of the 
 town had the temerity to shout in the streets: “Death to 
 Madero!” Calles had him hanged by a strand of barbed 
 copper wire from a railroad bridge beside the town. 
 
 Years later, in 1918, Calles had become Governor of the 
 State of Sonora, and terror and mourning reigned through- 
 out the land. Here in this same town of Agua Prieta, where 
 he was Commissioner before, he committed one of his most 
 dastardly crimes; he who at the present moment has con- 
 verted the whole of Mexico into a Moorish dungeon now 
 plans a crime to be committed on American soil. Calles re- 
 ceived information that a group of Mexican refugees were 
 plotting against the government of his Lord and Master, 
 Carranza, in the American town of Douglas. He planned 
 to capture them. His armed myrmidons crossed the border 
 into the United States; they secured the cooperation of the 
 police officers of Douglas, and seized the unfortunate ref- 
 ugees; all except one, Dr. Manuel Huerta, who was in bed, 
 sick. Mrs. Huerta summoned attorney Richardson to under- 
 take her husband’s defense, but the attorney failed to enter 
 the house of Dr. Huerta, as it has guarded by six henchmen 
 of the Calles band. 
 
 On this day, December 14, 1918, at ten o’clock P. M., 
 Calles’ agents, Eduardo Lopez, Sacramento Montano, Luis 
 Peralta, and Rodolfo Marquez, pistol in hand, attacked the 
 home of Dr. Huerta. Two of the gang bound and gagged 
 Mrs. Huerta, whilst the others seized Dr. Huerta, pushed 
 him into an automobile and quickly raced across the frontier 
 into Mexican territory. On the following night, December 
 15th, 1918, Dr. Huerta, Tranquilino Silva, Leyva, and a 
 fourth person, were hanged in the principal square of Agua 
 Prieta, by order of General Calles. Next morning, at sunrise, 
 Calles appeared at the place of execution, intoxicated, but 
 yet apparently able to thoroughly enjoy the sight of the 
 corpses swaying in the morning breeze, suspended from a 
 lamp post. Calles marked this unheard of violation of 
 American territorial rights, and celebrated his victory 
 by embarking on a six-hour drinking spree ; bestially 
 drunk, he was taken to his home in the same automobile em- 
 ployed in the passage of Dr. Huerta to his doom ! On several 
 occasions Calles sent his hired assassins across the interna- 
 tional boundary, and imbrued with blood of his victims 
 United States soil. Attorney J. A. Vails took part in 
 the inquiry into the death of General Lucio Blanco, in the 
 neighborhood of Laredo, Texas, and he has left on rec- 
 ord the fact that the assassins were agents of the Obregon 
 government, and belonged to the command of General Plu- 
 tarco Elias Calles. 
 
12 
 
 CALLES SHED TEARS ! 
 
 The rebel chief, Francisco Escandon, traversed the 
 frontier with twenty retainers, early in April, 1912. Calles 
 was no sooner advised of the fact, than he set out from A- 
 gua Prieta, with forty soldiers of the garrison, to give battle 
 to the rebel forces. He entered the little town of Cuchuvera- 
 chi, towards sundown, and neglecting to take proper precau- 
 tions against surprise, he established himself comfortably 
 with his staff, in the best house in the town; he had pre- 
 viously ejected the owner and his family. Escandon threw a 
 bomb at the door of Calles’ billet, to announce his visit ; Ca- 
 lles troops were completely routed, and the heroic general 
 had no time to dress. He made for the suburbs hastily, but 
 not quite fast enough. Recognized, he was captured and 
 brought before Escandon. The latter knew well the record 
 of General Calles, so he gave orders to have Calles shot at 
 once as a dangerous criminal. The soldiers hurried the prep- 
 arations for the execution, and Calles immediately threw 
 himself at the feet of Escandon. Calles was never disturbed 
 by the death rattle of his victims, but he was now weeping 
 bitterly, and begged for his life, pledging his support and 
 offering his services to his captor in exchange. His bandit 
 captor ignored the appeal, and merely reiterated his com- 
 mand to hasten the execution. Dr. Manuel Huerta appeared 
 on the scene at this critical moment and secured a pardon 
 and unconditional release for Calles. 
 
 Six years later the corpse of this same Dr. Huerta, sus- 
 pended from a lamp post in the square of Agua Prieta, af- 
 forded a moment’s pleasure, gruesome and fiendish though 
 the spectacle was, to the drunken general Calles ; this is the 
 incident referred to in an earlier paragraph. 
 
 SONORA: A SCENE OF BLOOD AND GRIEF. 
 
 Obregon was appointed commander-in-chief of the 
 army of the Northeast, when the State of Sonora supported 
 the Carranza Revolution. To inaugurate a campaign of ex- 
 termination against the southern states of the Republic, 
 Obregon called Gen. Calles and appointed him Governor of 
 Sonora. From now on the most revolting crimes against life 
 and property marked the activities of the Governor. At his 
 behest a committee was appointed in the principal towns 
 of each district, empowered to seize all the material posses- 
 sions of their enemies. Enemies, be it known, were all men 
 of honor and patriotic feeling, who were shocked and exas- 
 perated by the criminal behavior of the new Governor, who 
 
13 
 
 brooked no obstacle to his greedy appetite. The inhabitants 
 of Hermosillo, the State capital, were nightly alarmed by 
 the discharge of fire-arms, announcing the wholesale murder 
 of the best of their fellow citizens. 
 
 All Catholic Churches, and all Catholic Schools in the 
 state were closed; priests were expelled, and thousands of 
 law-abiding citizens were deported. On December 31, 1919, 
 Don Jose Anchondo, reported an occurrence, in a letter to 
 Pres. Carranza, from which we selected these paragraphs : 
 “Because of the invasion of Mexican territory by the so- 
 called punitive expedition, under command of General Per- 
 shing, all the inhabitants of this region (the northern part 
 of Chihuahua) abandoned their homes, rather than risk 
 falling victims to the fiendish treatment of Francisco Villa. 
 They took with them their few possessions and even the live 
 stock . . . Unfortunately my hapless brother, Felix Anchondo 
 with Luis Gonzalez, Jose Hernandez, Magdaleno Diaz, F. 
 Cordero, (11 years old), Higinio Moncada, Hilario Chavez, 
 Rafael Ponce, and Miguel Molina led the advance. . . They 
 were captured by the soldiers of General Plutarco Elias Ca- 
 lles, and taken to Agua Prieta. Robbed of what money they 
 carried, and despoiled of their herd of 250 animals, they 
 were held prisoners by General Calles, who also took posses- 
 sion of a bank account of my brother. ... I took steps im- 
 mediately to secure their release, and I wrote to you, Mr. 
 President, to Adolfo de la Huerta, to the Mexican Consul 
 at Douglas . . . but all was in vain ! My brother and his com- 
 panions were murdered, en masse ; they were never question- 
 ed, nor even told the reason of their arrest. After the crime 
 the corpses of these unfortunate victims, so cruelly and so 
 wantonly murdered, were tossed together into a common 
 pit. . . . Wherefore, I appeal to you, Mr. President, that you 
 place on the shoulders of General Plutarco Elias Calles, ac- 
 tual minister of Industry, Commerce and Labor, the re- 
 sponsibility that is his, as being the author of these assassi- 
 nations committed in Agua Prieta the 10th of March, 1917” 
 
 FOUNDER OF SOVIETISM IN MEXICO 
 
 Before assuming the duties of his office as Bolshevik 
 Governor of the State of Yucatan, Felipe Carrillo Puerto 
 wrote to General Calles, March 10, 1926, “We are here in 
 Saltillo, consulting with Citizen Obregon as to the best 
 methods for an intensive campaign of propaganda in the 
 Southeast, beginning at Tabasco, Chiapas and Yucatan; in 
 the State of Yucatan, the Commissioners are requested to 
 support with great energy the candidacy of our standard- 
 bearer, Citizen Obregon”. To this, Calles replied from 
 Hermosillo, Sonora, March 12, 1920: “During my long 
 
career as a fighter, I have always had great faith in the 
 disinherited classes, and to-day I derive comfort from the 
 resolute manner in which the patriotic working classes have 
 espoused the good cause. ... I have confidence that very soon 
 happy days will dawn for the wretched State of Yucatan, 
 and that soon her Socialist party will arise frome the ashes 
 stronger and more hopeful for the days to come. . . I judge 
 it most important to intensify the campaign of propaganda 
 in the South East, and thus bring words of encouragement 
 to our co-religionist of that region”. To what propaganda 
 does Calles allude? Later events tell us very clearly. The 
 deputy for Yucatan, A. Manzanares, viewing the devastated 
 condition of this State, was prompted to issue a manifesto 
 to the Mexican nation. “The armed natives were guilty of 
 every conceivable excess; their sinister and destructive 
 shibboleth was: ‘Viva la Republica Soviet!' Men, women 
 and children, armed with knives, went on a rampage, and 
 with savage cries, destroyed hundreds of homes. ... In five 
 days, in a spirit of homicidal fury this band of Socialists 
 has murdered hundreds of citizens, burned over four hun- 
 dred private homes, and destroyed many commercial houses, 
 the property of foreigners. . . The prologue to this bloody 
 drama was under the special direction of General Calles, 
 when he had arms distributed among a band of harden- 
 ed criminals. I accuse, before the entire nation, as the prin- 
 cipal culprits in this work of ruin and barbarous retroces- 
 sion of Yucatan State, Salvador Alvarado, whose satellites, 
 Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Antonio Ancona, Castillo Torre, 
 Florentino Avila, etc. . . carry on their nefarious work un- 
 der the all-powerful patronage of the present minister of 
 war, General Plutarco Elias Calles.” 
 
 THE STAFF OFFICERS OF BOLSHEVISM 
 
 At the service of General Calles is a crowd of foreign 
 adventurers. There are hundreds of Russian Bolsheviks, 
 who entered the country as employes of the Russian Minis- 
 ter to Mexico; several undesirable aliens like that blas- 
 phemous Spanish lecturer, Dona Belen de Sarraga, and also 
 a particularly well known group of a highly dangerous 
 characters. 
 
 On August 8, 1923, appeared a detailed account of these 
 adventurers in the Chicago Daily Tribune; to this eminent 
 newspaper we are indebted for the facts and we make the 
 following excerpts: 
 
 “A small band of foreign adventurers, who evaded the 
 duty of military service in the United States in 1917 have 
 just succeeded in setting up an autocracy in Mexico, more 
 powerful than that of Maximilian, and as ambitious as that 
 
15 
 
 of Lenine. Taking advantage of a cessation of social agita- 
 tion, while bloody strife distracted the attention of the rev- 
 olutionaries, they now threaten to impose their will on the 
 victors, and dictate both the home and foreign policy of this, 
 the oldest American nation. They have attained partial suc- 
 cess in this ambitious enterprise. 
 
 “Thus encouraged they have been plotting the over- 
 throw of the United States Government itself, using a 
 formidable weapon, in the shape of propaganda, which is 
 financed by certain elements in the Mexican Government. 
 
 “Few similar incidents are recorded in history ; a small 
 group of distinctly foreign origin, undertakes the stupen- 
 dous task of converting a whole continent to Bolshevism, 
 and has been close to complete success, in the case of one 
 large nation. They have developed communistic propagan- 
 da to a pitch undreamed of in the Western hemisphere. 
 
 “Speaking in their own name, and in the name of the 
 Mexican people, they proclaimed all men brothers, and then 
 set the Indian race against the Latin, and the Latin races 
 against the Anglo-Saxon ! They have set class against class. 
 They have skillfully injected the virus of their doctrines 
 into the current of public opinion, always careful to camou- 
 flage their activities, and hiding their failures and reverses. 
 They rely on the passions of the untutored peones, to make 
 shipwreck on an ocean of half truths and cynicism the 
 faith and the very mentality of the rising generation. 
 
 “The leader of this dangerous project is Robert Haber- 
 man, a fugitive from justice in San Francisco, who is actual- 
 ly the Director of Foreign Languages Department in the 
 Ministry of Public Instruction in Mexico City. Haberman 
 entered a field already well prepared for his work by others 
 of his ilk. Haberman’s unofficial title is, however, Chief of 
 the Bureau of Propaganda for the Mexican Government. 
 This title merely serves to disguise his real activities ; he is 
 really the chief representative, in the Western hemisphere, 
 of the Moscow revolutionaries. 
 
 “An American correspondent, connected with one of 
 the principal newspapers of the United States, is in the ser- 
 vice of Haberman. He drives around Mexico in an auto- 
 mobile, presented him by the Mexican Government, and he 
 purchases gasoline for his machine with Mexican Govern- 
 ment notes! One female newspaper correspondent received 
 a cheque of $25,000 from the Mexican Government. 
 
 “Also in the Haberman group of thirty individuals of 
 both sexes, is Fred Leighton, correspondent of the Federated 
 Press in Mexico City. He is also inspector of Personnel, un- 
 der Haberman, in the Department of Foreign Languages 
 and derives his chief income from this source. This man, 
 Leighton, refused to serve the United States, his native 
 country, in the World War, and was sent to Leavenworth 
 
16 
 
 to serve a twenty-year sentence. \le was released in 1921. 
 He attends all the workers’ meetings, and is in close touch 
 with all radical activities in Mexico. He is an avowed enemy 
 of the United States, and never misses an opportunity to 
 prejudice the interests of the American Government. He is 
 twenty-six years old, and a bachelor. 
 
 “The most sinister figure among the women members 
 of Haberman is Harriet Mann; she is an employee of the 
 Secretariate of Education, at the orders of Haberman, and 
 a close friend of the radicals. She is twenty-five years old. 
 and came to Mexico from New York City. 
 
 “Another member of the Haberman group is Dr. A. 
 Weiberg, a Jew, of Polish extraction, and dentist by profes- 
 sion. He came to Mexico last year with Frank Tamenbaum, 
 who was a prisoner at Sing Sing on account of his activities 
 against the United States in the World War. Weiberg resided 
 some time in New Orleans. Mrs. Weiberg, the latter’s 
 wife, has also a place in the Haberman group ; she is a 
 professor attached to the Secretariate of Education, and a 
 prominent leader in the Teachers Union. Mrs. Chase, of 
 Denver, Colorado, a teacher, specializes in birth-control, and 
 several other branches of radical propaganda. 
 
 “All these, and many other foreigners, are under the 
 special protection and patronage of Calles.” 
 
 AN UNSELFISH LEADER! 
 
 Calles never worked. He knows nothing about industry, 
 and could never understand the honesty and grit of a decent, 
 efficient merchant. His life has been wholly devoted to in- 
 trigue, to revolution, and to the assiduous cultivation of 
 every form of vice ; yet he is, today, one of the richest men 
 in Mexico! 
 
 He declared himself an opponent of dictatorship, when 
 Madero’s short-lived triumph ended. Yet, in a short time, 
 he had become the most detestable and soundly hated dicta- 
 tor, among the many who laid waste the fair state of Sonora. 
 At the present moment he is the absolute master of the lives 
 and the property of every inhabitant of Mexico. At the out- 
 set of his career as an agitator, Calles had stamped on all 
 his proclamations and campaign literature, the now famous 
 slogan: “Sufragio efectivo-no reeleccion”. — (An honest suf- 
 frage — no re-election). Nevertheless, in November, 1926 
 he cajoled the House of Deputies into passing a 
 measure effacing this slogan, so long employed as a basic 
 principle in many bloody revolutions. In 1914 he appeared 
 in person in Cananea, Sonora State, and quenched in a tor- 
 rent of blood a strike of the workers, and filled the prisons 
 with the wives and children of the murdered men. In 
 
17 
 
 August, 1916, he executed attorney Lazaro Gutierrez de 
 Lara, socialist leader, and yet, in 1922,, bolshevik mobs, led 
 by the Argentinian, Jenaro Launto, the Guatemalan, Heron 
 Proal, and other foreigners protected by General Calles, at- 
 tacked the street cars, killed or maltreated the employees of 
 the company, exploded bombs, in the Archiepiscopal resi- 
 dences in Mexico and Guadalajara, and at the national 
 shrine of Guadalupe. Black and red flags were at this time 
 hoisted on all public buildings in Mexico, Vera Cruz, Guada- 
 lajara and other cities. 
 
 What are the real social ideas of Calles, formerly an 
 enemy of the working classes, and now an avowed bolshevik, 
 an extreme radical ? It is hopeless to attempt an answer. The 
 career of Calles has been too tortuous, marked by unspeak- 
 able crimes and flagrant inconsistencies. He who once mur- 
 dered innocent working men in the name of law and order, 
 now puts into practice a program of the most extreme ideals 
 of Russian Bolshevism. And all the while Calles becomes 
 wealthier, a moneyed potentate, a perfect specimen of the 
 hated Bourgeoisie, rolling in riches, while he wastes the 
 nation’s resources, and ignores the people who perish for 
 want of food. 
 
 This is not all. In addition to his business interests, ac- 
 quired in Agua Prieta what time he was commissioner there, 
 Calles founded a tannery which has netted him over half a 
 million dollars. 
 
 He had himself appointed a director of the Banking 
 and Loan Association of Sonora; 
 
 He has several fine farms in the Agua Prieta District; 
 
 He owns vast mining interests in Pilares de Nacozari, 
 and he is the chief operator of the mine, “El Tramador”. 
 
 He took possession of national lands in Vera Cruz when 
 he learned that this land contained rich oil deposits ! 
 
 He owns the vast ranch “Soledad de la Mota”, in the 
 State of Nuevo Leon. 
 
 Early in 1928 he formed an oil company, in partnership 
 with General Calderon, Engineer N. M. Rodriguez Sampe- 
 rio, Attorney Juan I. de Alba, Roberto V. Pesqueira, Floren- 
 do Torreblanca, General Serrano, Attorney Jose Estrada 
 Otamendi and Rafael Mancera, called “The National Oil 
 Company of Tabasco and Chiapas.” All these were the well 
 known sources of Calles’ wealth before he became president 
 of Mexico. Since he became president, Calles has assumed 
 absolute and unlimited powers as custodian (?) of the Na- 
 tional Treasury. He can dispose of any sum from the na- 
 tional exchequer, and is accountable to no individual, nor 
 anybody, official or otherwise, for his handling of the na- 
 tional wealth. This is doubly clear from the recently pub- 
 lished articles in the United States press. 
 
18 
 
 Profitable, forsooth, is the career of a labour leader! 
 If you need further proof, please consider the case of other 
 famous agitators and revolutionary leaders. 
 
 Obregon is the greatest land owner and capitalist in 
 Mexico. 
 
 Morones owns palaces, and a fortune in jewels. 
 
 Tejeda possesses enormous wealth. 
 
 A millonaire, also, is the engineer potentate, Leon. 
 
 All these men, as is the case of Plutarco Elias Calles, 
 have spent themselves in the salvation of the working clas- 
 ses purely as a labour of love and as true patriots. . . they 
 are not attracted by riches ! ! ! ! 
 
 * * * 
 
 We append to our translation another article, trans- 
 lated from the “Revista Catolica”, of December 18th, 1927. 
 
 “WOULD IT WERE SO!” 
 
 “The President of the United States, Mr. Coolidge, 
 referring to the feeling of good-will that animates the 
 Government of Washington towards the Latin- American 
 Republics, said, in one of his recent talks : 
 
 “Now, more than ever, we are preoccupied with our 
 relations with Latin America. ... We desire that our in- 
 fluence among the Latin-American peoples be on the side 
 of Liberty and honourable constitutional government.” 
 And he added: “I believe that this is a true presentation 
 of what has occurred in recent times, and of what we hope 
 for in the future.” Would that such beautiful language 
 were true! In spite of these declarations, we behold the 
 despotic and sanguinary government of Mexico sheltered 
 and sustained by the very government over which Mr. 
 Coblidge presides. Can any Government be found more 
 anti-constitutional and less honourable than the one which 
 actually is afflicting the Mexican fatherland with crimes 
 of a most shameful nature against innocent victims? Per- 
 haps the Washington government regards the government 
 of Mexico “honourable” because this latter pays the inter- 
 ests of its debts to the American bankers with the resources 
 robbed from the Catholic Church and f *'om private citizens ? 
 What does he mean by “honourable government?” What is 
 his idea of liberty? In Mexico there is no liberty, except 
 for Calles and his bailifs, for criminals, and for civil and 
 political scoundrels. 
 
 Behold the type of honour characteristic of the Mexican 
 government and the liberty which reigns throughout the 
 land painted in broad strokes by the Mexican newspaper, La 
 Prensa, published in San Antonio, Texas. In an editorial in 
 the issue of November 30, 1927, commenting on toasts 
 pronounced by General Obregon at a banquet given by a 
 
19 
 
 group of his friends — after his escape from an alleged at- 
 tack against his life — in which he enlarged upon “the 
 gigantic work of natural reconstruction”, developed by 
 President Calles : 
 
 “Viewing the whole Mexican nation under whatever 
 aspect one wishes to estimate the administrative work of 
 General Calles, the eyes of the most tolerant and optimistic 
 can encounter nothing except ruin and despair. The regime 
 of this citizen, towards whom History shall have to be ex- 
 tremely severe, very far for having reconstructed anything 
 in our national life has destroyed everything. He has ruined 
 agriculture, reduced to the lowest degree all industrial ac- 
 tivity, impoverished commerce, has imposed upon the 
 populace crushing taxation; he has abandoned public edu- 
 cation, demoralized the army, congress and the Judiciary; 
 he has enriched the ministers and his close personal friends 
 at the expense — through despoilation — of hundreds of 
 private citizens he regarded as unsympathetic towards the 
 revolution. He has wasted the contributions of the people 
 in enterprises entirely foreign to the object for which they 
 were collected; he has driven forth from the land of their 
 birth hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, some the victims 
 of his insatiable cruelty, others of that public misery in 
 which he has inundated the nation. He has brought a trou- 
 bled conscience and tragic despair to the majority of our 
 compatriots through his iniquitous anti-religious cam- 
 paigns. He has trodden under foot all our laws; he has 
 flouted our rights, and outraged all our liberties. He has 
 imbrued the soil of the nation with the blood of innocent 
 victims, sacrificed on the altars of his caprices ; he has pro- 
 voked a civil war in which, for the past two years, a great 
 number of Mexicans die daily. We fail to understand how 
 the name ‘National reconstruction’ executed ‘with talent 
 and energy,’ could be applied, in any country or in any lan- 
 guage to a line of conduct as we all observe in Mexico, and 
 such as has been experienced in other countries in greater 
 or lesser measure.” 
 
 The Revista Catolica editor continues : 
 
 “All this, Coolidge and his government, know well, and 
 nevertheless they are, in the words of Excelsior, the most 
 important newspaper published in the Mexican capital, in 
 more cordial relations with the infamous regime of Calles 
 than existed between the U. S. A. and Porfirio Diaz ! Why is 
 it so ? There is no shadow of doubt that the present govern- 
 ment of the United States is in great measure responsible 
 for the calamities that afflict the martyred peoples of Mex- 
 ico.” 
 
CALLES, PRESIDENT OF MEXICO 
 By HERNAN DIAZ 
 Translated from the Spanish 
 By FR. JOHN MOCLAIR 
 
 The civilized world, contemplating with horror the of- 
 ficial crimes that are being committed in the Republic of 
 Mexico, naturally asks, “How could a man with such a past 
 be elected President ?” 
 
 The explanation is quite simple. Since the revolution- 
 ary movement gripped the unfortunate country — thanks 
 to unlimited aid from the White House and to the latter’s 
 unbroken friendship with the revolutionary leaders — the 
 Mexican people have been under the iniquitous rule of a 
 Praetorian oligarchy. Practically speaking, there are no 
 elections, for although there is staged an electoral farce, 
 the governors of states, the deputies, the senators and es- 
 pecially the President no longer owe their appointment 
 to popular election. The leaders of the revolutionary tyr- 
 anny designate beforehand all those whom it behooves them 
 to support, in order to cover up their infamies, and these 
 chosen ones inevitably emerge victorious in the farcical 
 election caucuses. The people are now so thoroughly aware 
 of this fact that nothing will induce them to take a hand 
 in Mexico’s political games of chess. They have grown 
 tired of being made a butt for jest and sarcasm by the pro- 
 fessional politicians. 
 
 As the end of his presidential term drew near, Obre- 
 gon cast about for a possible successor; he sought for one 
 sufficiently loyal to be entrusted with power, yet such a 
 one as would not refuse to vacate the presidential chair 
 when Obregon should desire to resume power. Obregon 
 found his man in the person of Plutarco Elias Calles, one 
 whom the people profoundly abhorred. The official mach- 
 inery was set in motion, servile deputies and docile gov- 
 ernors of all the States were nominated; things were so 
 skilfully arranged that when election time came around the 
 electors had no choice nor any chance of making their real 
 will effective. 
 
 At this juncture Don Adolfo de la Huerta presented him- 
 self as a Presidential candidate, but from the first he was 
 made to realize that here was no democratic contest, but 
 a barefaced imposition. De la Huerta resolved to oppose 
 this fraud by force of arms. There is not the slightest 
 reason to doubt that de la Huerta would have triumphed 
 but for the intervention of White House functionaries. They 
 
21 
 
 took steps to have* Obregon supplied with munitions of war, 
 while all sources of supplies were cut off from de la Huerta. 
 
 The rebellion suppressed, Calles was assured of the 
 Presidency. Not to Obregon alone does Calles owe his pres- 
 ent position but to the Government of the United States, 
 very decided and consistent friend to this brace of Mexican 
 bandits. 
 
 In such manner, a man who richly deserved to spend 
 the rest of his life in prison, expiating his unspeakable 
 crimes, is elevated to the presidency, only to become the 
 chief executioner of the Mexican people. Obregon ceded 
 his authority joyfully and with every mark of affection 
 for Calles. “Take good care of the throne for me,” was 
 his facetious remark to his successor ! 
 
 THE PERSECUTION 
 
 Scarcely had Calles assumed power when he essayed 
 to impress the whole country with honourable administra- 
 tive labours; he had good reason to fear that the people 
 would remember him as the swindler and bartender of ear- 
 lier days. For a brief moment the people thought the well- 
 known “HERO” of the saloons of Guaymas had become 
 transformed into a statesman. Very soon the rascal showed 
 himself in his true colors. 
 
 Calles had attempted to prove that the religious perse- 
 cution in Mexico was the result of the “REBELLION” of 
 the clergy; the real truth of the matter is that Calles 
 planned his savagery in advance, and patiently prepared 
 his villainous program. Tejeda, Secretary of State in the 
 Calles , Administration, has made this fact perfectly clear: 
 he did not realize, when he spoke, how his words would 
 serve history. “The most delicate and transcendental prob- 
 lem which confronted General Calles was, without doubt, 
 the religious question, because it affected the future of the 
 country, and FOR THIS REASON IT WAS CAREFULLY 
 THOUGHT OUT BEFOREHAND .” 1 Calles, nevertheless, 
 made the following declaration when about to launch his 
 campaign of persecution: 
 
 “The Federal Government did not forget, absorbed 
 completely as was its attention by the prodigious problem 
 of administration ... it did not forget, I say, the eternal 
 enemy, the clerical evil in Mexico, both Mexican and for- 
 eign . . . when the head of the Catholic Church in Mexico, 
 on the last anniversary of the Federal Constitution, brought 
 forward an old document in which the heads of the Mexi- 
 can clergy repudiated and would not recognize the Cons- 
 
 iReport in Mexican Press, Nov. 18, 1927. 
 
titution of the Republic .” 1 The “old document ” referred to 
 was a protest of the Episcopate against those laws to be 
 found in the Constitution which denied freedom of con- 
 science. It is easy to realize how difficult it would, be for 
 the former swindler and border robber, the habitue of 
 unspeakable gambling houses to abandon his vicious habits. 
 Long before he became President, Calles carried in his 
 pocket a program of religious persecution planned in ad- 
 vance. 
 
 BLOOD-THIRSTY 
 
 Religious persecution had been fierce from the begin- 
 ning but never attained such proportions as under Calles. 
 “Maestro Mechas” and “Santanon”, who hanged his vic- 
 tims from lamp-posts, and martyrized innocent school- 
 children, now gave the world an exhibtion of blood-thirsty 
 barbarity. Even though he has willed to place the respon- 
 sibility on his executives, Calles himself has been the real 
 author of these martyrdoms. Space permits merely a bare 
 narration of the crimes committed against the Catholic 
 clergy and the laity: We are forced to confine ourselves 
 to a brief mention of just a few incidents. 
 
 Calles circularized all the military leaders and Gover- 
 nors of the various states — each one of these was a con- 
 firmed demagogue and a tool in the hands of the tyrant — 
 threatening dire punishment unless they promptly seconded 
 what he called “a definite solution of the religious prob- 
 lem” ; this has been really a deliberate attempt to extermin- 
 ate the Catholic Church in Mexico. The chiefs of the rev- 
 olutionary hordes who hold high command today in what 
 they style “The Army,” embraced with pleasure the stimu- 
 lating order of their leader; incited by the Masonic Lodges 
 they promptly put in motion the bestial and sanguinary 
 plans of the ex-bartender, President Calles. 
 
 In Puebla the first victim fell. Don Jose Garcia Far- 
 fan was an old and highly respected citizen: through con- 
 sistent industry he managed a small store very successfully. 
 On a sideboard in his store he had placed a card with the 
 motto: “God never dies!” General Amaya, chief military 
 officer in Puebla, accosted the old man, and bade him re- 
 move this motto. The old man replied that he wasn’t con- 
 scious of any criminal act in putting up this sign: he felt 
 he was simply doing a good deed. The corpulent general, 
 a man of vile disposition, struck Farfan a cowardly blow. 
 The old man promptly repelled this attack and carried on 
 by a perfectly legitimate desire to defend himself, fired a 
 shot at the general, merely wounding the latter’s hand. 
 
 lJune 6th 1926- Calles’ Speech, reported in Mexican Press. 
 
23 
 
 Father Pro knelt humbly before death, to pray, and to commend 
 his soul to his Creator. Here we see him in prayer before the wall 
 where he was sacrificed. One of Calles’ evil-looking henchmen urges 
 the priest to get on his feet as they want to have the murder done 
 as quickly as possible. Father Pro stood up, looking serene, and 
 before receiving the sacrilegious shots proclaimed before God and be- 
 fore the world that he was innocent of the crime imputed to him. 
 He extended his arms in the form of a cross and thus received the bul- 
 lets which Calles ordered, in a breast full of charity and the loftiest 
 Christian virtues. 
 
 This priest was an apostle whose burning charity led him to every 
 home where counsel was needed. The proof of his innocence, and that 
 he was incapable of committing such a crime as he was charged with, 
 is to be found in the fact that a cortege of fifteen thousand people in 
 Mexico City accompanied his body to the cemetery; they struggled 
 for the privilege of touching the coffin with pious objects, to be held 
 forever in veneration. In the minds of the people was recorded the 
 conviction that the motive for this crime was no other than the terri- 
 ble hatred which Calles and Obregon have for the Church. 
 
 Crimes like these cry to Heaven for vengeance, and should weigh 
 heavily on the conscience of those who, for illegitimate political in- 
 terests, maintain in Mexico an empire of banditry become government. 
 
2h 
 
 The general had Farfan arrested and brought to the mil- 
 itary barracks, where he was detained while General Calles 
 was consulted. ‘‘Kill him at once,” was the order of the 
 Black Czar. Amaya hastened to carry out the President’s 
 order and with well-thought-out cruelty, Farfan was strict- 
 ly forbidden to move his lips in prayer in the last moments 
 of his life. Thus the jackal President proceeds to reveal 
 his true character ! 
 
 A few weeks later two youths, Joaquin de Silva, seven- 
 teen years old, a student, and Manuel Melgarejo, twenty- 
 five, a respectable merchant were arrested in Zamora, while 
 engaged in a perfectly inoffensive religious propaganda. 
 Generals Tranquilino Mendoza and Francisco Cepeda seized 
 these young men, and treated them with the fuiy of wild 
 beasts. Calles was consulted as to the disposition of the 
 prisoners, and the laconic reply was: “Kill them imme- 
 diately!” The worthy generals carried out the President’s 
 order in the Pantheon of Zamora : thus were two loved ones 
 devoured by this wild beast, and two homes left forever 
 desolate. 
 
 Some time later, after the stupid law against religion 
 which makes it a crime for a priest to conduct a religious 
 service, was well under way, a zealous butcher in the rev- 
 olutionary army surprised a priest saying Mass, in a pri- 
 vate home in Chalchihuites, state of Zacatecas : Mass, was 
 of course forbidden in the churches. The priest was ar- 
 rested, taken from the town, and assassinated by the ex- 
 press orders of General Calles, transmitted by telegram. 
 Three fine young men, members of the Young Men’s Cath- 
 olic Association of Mexico, were murdered when they 
 begged to accompany the priest on his journey to the place 
 of execution. 
 
 Father David Uribe, pastor of the church of Iguala, 
 Guerrero, was assaulted by Calles’ agents, on the road from 
 Cuernavaca to Mexico City: he was shot in the back for 
 the “crime” of distributing hand-bills to his flock, warning 
 them against the peril of schism. 
 
 In April, 1927, two lawyers, the best known and es- 
 teemed in Guadalajara, Anacleto Gonzalez Flores and Luis 
 Padilla, with the brother Vargas, were arrested by General 
 Ferreira, a special confidant of Calles in this region. They 
 were guilty of no crime except that they were zealous Cath- 
 olics. Calles is consulted as to their fate and the Black 
 Czar orders Ferreira to “put them to the torture and kill 
 them” Suspended in mid-air by the finger tips, they first 
 received several bayonet thrusts — particular vengeance be- 
 ing shown to Flores — and finally all were killed as if they 
 were mad dogs, in the Colorado barracks. 
 
 Accused of disobeying the anti-religious laws being en- 
 forced by Calles, certain young men of Leon, were arrested : 
 
Valencia Gallardo, Ezequiel Gomez, Salvador Vargas and 
 Nicolas Navarro. Held prisoners, their captors await tel- 
 egraphic orders from the Black Czar, and the murderer- 
 in-chief^ of Mexico gives his famous order: “Shoot them 
 at once.” The order was duly carried out, and was marked 
 by one feature of unsurpassing horror: the tongue of Va- 
 lencia Gallardo was pulled out by the roots because, with 
 his dying breath, he cried out: “Long live Christ the 
 King.” 
 
 A very short time ago — November 1927 — some person 
 unknown threw a bomb at General Obregon, the political 
 godfather of Calles. A search was made for the authors 
 of the attack but no one was found. Then the Black Czar's 
 Chief of Police, Roberto Cruz, arrested the Jesuit priest, 
 Fr. Miguel Agustin Pro, his brother Humbert, the Engineer 
 Luis Segura, and a poor little boy of the community, Anto- 
 nio Tirado. Ah ! these are the guilty ones ! They are Cath- 
 olics and therefore guilty! Cruz, the police chief, clearly 
 admitted this. “Their responsibility for the crime having 
 been completely ‘proven’ it was arranged to have them 
 shot at once.” 1 Now, these men were not even accused of 
 the crime: Cruz became their judge and executioner. 
 When he says : “it was arranged to have them shot at once,” 
 he refers to the characteristically hasty order of Calles. 
 
 In order to oppose the return to the presidency of Gen- 
 eral Obregon, certain anti-reelectionist political parties 
 were organized. Two candidates of the party were put 
 forward, General Francisco R. Serrano and Arnulfo Go- 
 mez. Obregon and Calles were incensed; the very idea of 
 their being deprived of control of the government, at a 
 given moment, made these bandits wild ! Accordingly, Gen- 
 eral Serrano was arrested in a Hotel in Cuernavaca, where 
 he was celebrating his birthday, with a party of friends. 
 He was taken to a military barracks and together with thir- 
 teen civilians, shot dead! Among the victims were Attor- 
 ney Martinez de Escobar, the poet Otilio Gonzalez and the 
 Peralta brothers. 
 
 General Gomez escaped the fate of Serrano — temporarily 
 — by fleeing to Veracruz, accompanied by a group of his 
 supporters. Thousands of troops went in hot pursuit : Go- 
 mez was captured and shot by order of the Black Czar. 
 Here we see the ferocity of Calles and that other protege 
 of the White House, Alvaro Obregon, reach an unprecented 
 height. They brought the body of General Serrano to Cha- 
 pultepec Castle — the official residence of the Mexican Pres- 
 ident— to make sure of his death by a personal inspection ! 
 Obregon stood over the corpse and exclaimed with pro- 
 
 iDeclaration of the Chief of Police, R. Cruz, published in Ex- 
 celsior — the great Mexico City journal. 
 
26 
 
 found satisfaction: “This is the birthday present I had 
 prepared for them, so that they will never dare to dispute 
 with me my succession to the Presidency!” 
 
 THE RECONSTRUCTIONIST 
 
 Calles has spared no pains, since the inception of his 
 work of despoilation to assure the world he is “reconstruct- 
 ing the nation ” After each massacre, after each wanton 
 murder, after every official infamy, he has cried out to 
 the four winds: “I am rebuilding the country” You can- 
 not find a more interesting task than examining the scope 
 of this policy of “reconstruction” ! 
 
 From the first of the revolutionary disasters, the emi- 
 gration of Mexicans attained alarming proportions ; but the 
 figures have mounted up until at last the country is com- 
 pletely held fast in the talons of the “Restorer” Calles. 
 According to the latest official returns not less than one 
 and a half million Mexicans have abandoned their native 
 land in quest of refuge on foreign soil. Some emigrated in 
 search of work, others in quest of liberty denied them by 
 the tyrant, others in search of peace and tranquility after 
 seventeen years of banditry and anarchy. The “Recons- 
 tructionist,” far from staunching this terrible bleeding of 
 the country, has taken special pains to drive out of Mexico 
 all independent newspapermen, disaffected politicians, and 
 every person whose presence threatened a check on the 
 unbridled passions of the Black Czar. 
 
 One must bear in mind that Mexico does not suffer 
 from over-population, but the reverse. She needs every 
 arm for her proper development: consequently this tide of 
 emigration means, for the most part, deserted fields, an 
 industrial 1 crisis due to shortage of labor, and poverty has 
 invaded every branch of national activity. 
 
 After the marauding hordes of Carranza passed over 
 the land, agriculture was left in a deplorable condition. 
 The “ Liberators ” left behind them wasted fields, empty 
 granaries and a fruitful country turned to ashes. But 
 there is still room for “ reconstruction ” and for this task is 
 the man, Calles! Giving a free rein to “Agrarianism” he 
 armed the peons who worked in the estates, and lent his 
 
 iTranslator’s Note: Agents of Calles are now arranging for 
 the colonization of Lower California. Los Angeles County has 300,000 
 Mexican exiles! But Germans, not exiled Mexicans are to settle in 
 Mexican abandoned farms! Harry Chandler, owner of the Los An- 
 geles Times, holds 862,000 acres in Mexico since 1896! In 1911 the 
 United States Senate estimated the total wealth of Mexico at 2,434,- 
 241,422; of this total the United States then owned one and one-half 
 billions! Two thirds of Mexico’s wealth! Thus have Mexicans of 
 the Calles’ type sold their native land to foreign capitalists without 
 conscience. 
 
Sr. Luis Segura Vilchis was arrested with Father Pro. He was 
 a young and most highly respected member of Mexican society. He 
 was accused of being the author of the attack on Obregon, but the 
 real reason for his imprisonment and later execution was that he was 
 a Catholic. He was a member c' ';he Mexican Catholic Young Men’s 
 Society and stood out as a man distinguished for his religious life, 
 his singular talent and exemplary conduct. 
 
 He had no legal trial, no defense attorney’s services. He was 
 assassinated, with rank injustice, a few moments after Fr. Pro was 
 killed. Enough that Roberto Cruz, Inspector General of Police under 
 Calles and a criminal of national reputation, asked him a few ques- 
 tions declared him guilty and ordered his murder. 
 
 Nevertheless, Cruz said that the engineer confessed his guilt, 
 but he has no proof, and the dead do not rise to refute a lie! 
 
 When Cruz was closely questioned about this illegal process, 
 which cannot be paralleled in the most savage countries, he said, dryly, 
 that he had received “higher orders,” referring to Calles. 
 
 There are laws in Mexico which demand a fair trial for the ac- 
 cused, no matter how evident their guilt; there are tribunals of justice. 
 In the Constitution are inserted guarantees that citizens shall not be 
 even imprisoned without judicial authority. Calles and his associates 
 recognize no law and no tribunal. Their only law is caprice, their only 
 tribunal is their hatred of society. 
 
 This picture shows the Engineer Segura at the moment of his 
 assassination. 
 
28 
 
 protection to every malefactor ; in a little time the proprie- 
 tors were forced to abandon their farms: the fields were 
 cultivated no more, and at last divided up among the sup- 
 porters of the Calles’ regime! 
 
 No man can compute the vast acreage of arable land 
 destroyed by the supporters of Calles ; taken from the law- 
 ful owners, they were handed over to the peasants with 
 scandalous prodigality; the peasants, poor dupes, were ab- 
 solutely unfitted for proprietorship of the land, and being 
 without means of cultivating the soil, they at once aban- 
 doned their labor in the fields. In this fashion, vast re- 
 gions, like those of Guanajuato, Morelos and Guerrero, so 
 rich before in agricultural produce, have become impov- 
 erished and ruined. Meanwhile the decent peasants, who 
 would have none of this policy of expoilation, have been 
 forced to quit the land and seek in the land of the stranger 
 work denied them at home. 
 
 Blindly and stupidly the American Federation of La- 
 bor has espoused the cause of that doleful Soviet organiza- 
 tion, “the Regional Confederation of Labor.” This Mexi- 
 can organization compels all industrial employees through- 
 out the land to join the labor syndicate in their respective 
 districts. The real purpose of this regulation is to place 
 every labor element in Mexico at the political service of 
 Calles and Obregon. In this way is created a mass of de- 
 pendents, who, compelled by the necessity of subsistence, 
 shall serve as props and stays for the tyrannical regime 
 of the incorrigible ex-bartender, Calles ! 1 
 
 Industrial enterprise has been paralyzed by immod- 
 erate demands for increase of salary, incredibly frequent 
 strikes, and by innumerable wanton attacks made on the 
 independent workers; these attacks have been made with 
 impunity, thanks to the open connivance of the Govern- 
 ment. Many industrial plants continue work merely to 
 exist; there is no stimulus to growth or expansion. No 
 sane man would today risk investing his money in any new 
 
 iTranslator’s Note: During- the past century United States' 
 capitalists have exploited the great material wealth of Mexico. They 
 have bought the services of every Mexican degenerate willing to sell 
 his country. The American Labor Organizations have either never 
 troubled to study the situation or else have been blinded by prejudice, 
 for they never helped the “under-dog” in Mexico. Five American 
 Protestant sects voted sixty million dollars, in 1914, to “evangelize 
 Mexico and perpetuate the Carranza regime”! From Washington 
 they sent 9,000 tables to the illiterate soldiers of Carranza. In 1916 
 the Times Picayune stated: “If we desire to cultivate friendly rela- 
 tions with Spanish-American nations, it is with one end in view, to 
 control the commerce of these countries.”! On February 20th 1916, a 
 speaker declared at the Protestant Congress in Panama: “American- 
 ism consists in making to march together, and in step, business and 
 Protestantism.” Mexico today is the sad victim of a double dose of 
 this type of “Americanismo.” 
 
29 
 
 Mexican enterprise since the investment of capital has be- 
 come a foolhardy adventure. Consequently, despite the fact 
 that Mexico has an incomparable supply of raw materials, 
 no great industrial activity and other ideal conditions for 
 industrial expansion, such few small industries as are in 
 the country, have a hard struggle to survive. Constantly in 
 danger of extinction, we can imagine what effect the un- 
 stable condition of the factories has on the poor workers: 
 these are forced, through privation and artificial misery, 
 to abandon their native land. Consider the exodus to Tex- 
 as, New Mexico, Arizona and California. As proofs of 
 these statements: in the Southwest an ever rising tide of 
 Mexican laborers inundate the land; they are driven from 
 home by famine and no man can hazard a guess at their 
 numbers. Thus has mis-government produced famine in 
 a land of potential plenty. Calles still calls all this “Na- 
 tional Reconstruction !” 
 
 The population of Mexico, according to the 1925 cen- 
 sus, is 98% Catholic. Calles has promulgated laws which 
 make religious life impossible so that today there is not one 
 church in Mexico open for religious worship. All those who 
 protested against this oppression have been declared “sedi- 
 tious’ ’ and promptly put to death. A far too moderate es- 
 timate place at three thousand the number killed, in divers 
 manners, in just one year of religious persecution. If to 
 these we add the uncounted massacres of politicians — Calles 
 ordered the whole House of Deputies of the State of Mo- 
 relos to be killed at once — we immediately grasp the enor- 
 mity of this policty of devastation of a whole nation now 
 near consummation under the tyranny of this cynical “Re- 
 constructionist.” 
 
 Now, if there exists in any land a proper foundation 
 for its well-being, we should look for it in time-honoured 
 institution. Calles thinks otherwise; in order to make his 
 infamous program effective he has studiously flouted his 
 country’s noblest institutions. 
 
 ..--Consider, first, the army. The Mexican army has be- 
 come a band of murderers, without an idea of dignity, of 
 valour or of a sense of duty. It has become a murder- 
 machine for the killing of the innocent and the defenceless. 
 In all the armies of civilized nations, the generals are the 
 very incarnation of honour and patriotism and this spirit 
 permeates all ranks of officers and through them affects 
 the private soldier. In the Calles army, if you would find 
 an honourable man you must search for him among a se- 
 lect few of the private soldiers. Honour and valour disap- 
 pear in proportion as we ascend the ranks and when we 
 reach the commanding officers we find not one decent man. 
 Obregon, tutor and political godfather of Calles, cynically 
 remarked, “There is no general who can resist a cannonade 
 
If this photograph fails to move the American people, and above 
 all those functionaries who persist in maintaining criminals in power 
 in Mexico, then no argument can be found sufficiently cogent to im- 
 pel men to seek justice for the Mexican people, nor is there any valid 
 reason for same. 
 
 Here we have a picture of Senor Segura, in the fullness of 
 youth; on his noble brow shines the light that illumines the morning 
 of life; the picture was taken at the very instant the bullets entered 
 his body. Note the contraction of the body, his expression in which 
 intense pain is united with Christian resignation. Beside the Engineer 
 Segura lies the bloody corpse of Father Pro who has just been assassi- 
 nated. At his side you notice the wooden figures which serve as tar- 
 gets for the soldiers in their spare time, so that when they receive 
 the order to kill their aim may be sure! 
 
 Luis Segura was cruelly tortured before his death. The hospital 
 surgeon, who performed the autopsy, declared that the young vic- 
 tim’s hands bore unmitakable signs of his having been tortured. The 
 same surgeon avers that the body bore marks which showed that “un- 
 speakable things” (textual phrase) had been done to the young man. 
 The methods of torturing the unfortunate before assassination, em- 
 ployed by the Calles’ police, are far too nauseating to write. 
 
31 
 
 of fifty thousand dollars!” They all sell their sword to 
 the highest bidder. 
 
 Guardians of order and protectors of society ? The mil- 
 itars in Mexico have become a scourge to the people and a 
 constant deadly menace to all citizens of orderly habits. 
 The inversion has been absolute. 
 
 Tribunals of Justice have been likewise corrupted. 
 There is not in the entire Republic a single court of justice 
 that enjoys freedom to pass a just sentence. All court 
 decisions need the sanction of the Black Czar for their val- 
 idity. 
 
 The legislative assemblies should represent the people: 
 in Mexico they are not composed of duly elected citizens 
 but are a sorry collection bf servile figurines, selected by 
 “Maestro Mechas”, Calles. In them he finds willing sec- 
 onds for his caprices and fanaticisms. We truthfully sum 
 up the whole question by saying: there is no institution in 
 all Mexico that remains free: the terrible work of prosti- 
 tutions threatens to undermine the very foundation of the 
 nations. Unfortunately for Mexico, to undermine the na- 
 tion is “reconstruction” according to the Calles’ idea; in 
 this way the drunkard of Guaymas rules the unfortunate 
 inhabitants, and enforces his will at the point of the bay- 
 onet. 
 
 CALLES : “PHILOSOPHER” ! 
 
 When the Catholic people resolutely demanded the re- 
 peal of the anti-religious laws, Calles assured them that it 
 was necessary, first of all, to ask for the reform of the 
 Constitution of 1917. As is well known, this famous Mex- 
 ican Constitution is a sink into which the Carranza revolu- 
 tionary leaders, sheltered and caressed by President Wil- 
 son, poured all the Jacobin filth in their systems. Calles 
 knew his Congress; entirely made up of his hand-picked 
 dependents he felt quite confident they would reject the 
 people’s petition, albeit Congress bore the title of “popular 
 representatives” ! 
 
 Somebody asked Calles, in view of the fact that he had 
 so obligingly pointed out the way to redress, to introduce 
 this measure of reform to Congress. He bluntly refused: 
 “My philosophical convictions forbid it,” he said! So Ca- 
 lles, the ex-bartender, drunkard, incendiary, and murderer- 
 in-chief of Mexico is also a Philosopher ! He does not know 
 what philosophy means since he calls his Jacobinism “phil- 
 osophical convictions.” No phrase could better express his 
 petulant ignorance. Philosophy, by extension, signifies “the 
 solving of questions which the mind puts to itself relative 
 to the most important subjects with which the mind can 
 deal” ; it is “organized and supreme common sense” ; “a 
 
system of orderly mental arrangement embracing all the 
 sciences, so as to be defined as “the science of the univer- 
 sality of things.” To say one “holds philosophical convic- 
 tions,” as Calles says he does, is to be ignorant of the mean- 
 ing of the word “philosophical” and of the word “convic- 
 tions.” But after all, what should we expect from the in- 
 cendiary of Sonora? 
 
 Preparing an article for the American Press he de- 
 clared that Russian Sovietism appealed to him “as a phil- 
 oshophical system.” Notice the silly inaccuracies: “The 
 Soviet system solely interests Mexico — (which Mexico? we 
 ask) — because it represents a new philosophy, a new social 
 point of view ...” So does Sovietism become a new phil- 
 osophy although every school boy knows it is, above every- 
 thing else, an economic system. This class of flippant but 
 shameful ignorance falls in foaming torrents from the lips 
 of the mediocre ex-master of a rural school, since he began 
 to play the role of Reformer. Since he has assumed the 
 airs of a philosopher, we must not be surprised at his use 
 of language truly philosophical. We will quote a few sam- 
 ples. 
 
 When the Religious Defense League commenced its he- 
 roic resistance to tyranny Calles declared, and his state- 
 ments were faithfully reported in the press, that he was 
 not “worried by the grimaces of a bunch of sacristans nor 
 by the groans of a few pious hags.” Such eloquence is 
 surely worthy of such a philosopher ! A gutter philosopher, 
 perhaps. A short time later, at a Convention of the CROM 1 
 he made a speech in which he inveigled against the inde- 
 pendent press and called the newspapermen “a bunch of 
 scandalous drunkards and pen-hirelings.” Could any Pres- 
 ident be more philosophic and more vile? 
 
 THE ILLEGALITY OF THE TYRANNY 
 
 One of the most exasperating features of the Calles’ 
 regime is its Pharisaical “legalism.” Every time he com- 
 mits an outrage, orders a shooting of some hapless victim — 
 this is a daily occurrence — every time he sanctions the vex- 
 ation and unspeakably cruel torture of the thousands 
 thrown into prison at his order, Calles has declared with 
 cynical boast that it is all because of his zeal for the obser- 
 vance of the law ! He says he is compelled to have the laws 
 obeyed at all costs, and as these laws are severe it becomes 
 necessary to employ the most cruel means to have them ob- 
 served ! 
 
 What superb hypocrisy ! Who can suppose that Calles 
 
 1CROM: This is the abbreviated title of the Confederacion 
 Regional Obrera Mexicana”: “Mexican District Federation of Labor.” 
 
33 
 
 is a faithful observer of the law since his life has been an 
 unbroken and interminable violation of the law : he has at- 
 tained to his present position through a chain of unlawful 
 acts of usurpation climaxing his shameful record as Gov- 
 ernor of Sonora. His most insignificant acts have been 
 against law. Now, if all tyrannical power, even though 
 lawful at its inception ceases to be lawful from the moment 
 it sins against the real purpose of authority and gradually 
 becomes a scourge of the people, and a source of evil to the 
 commonweal, surely the tyrannical regime of this odious 
 despot is illegal both in its origin and in its duration. It 
 would be childish to look for respect for the natural and di- 
 vine laws which govern society in a man who has made 
 open boast of his having violated the most basic of the mo- 
 ral laws. But even if we grant that he has proven himself 
 a zealous guardian of the Constitution of 1917 — imposed on 
 the people by a successful revolution — let us see whether 
 in fact he respects this Constitution, the great object of 
 his great love ! 
 
 Article 82 of said Constitution says : “For the Presid- 
 ency it is required . . . V. — That the candidate, if an army 
 nan, be not on active service ninety days before the elec- 
 tion; VII. — He must not have participated, directly or in- 
 directly, in any mutiny, insurrection, or military coup 
 d’etat.” Calles remained in the army, with rank of “general 
 of division” during the ninety days preceding the electoral 
 farce that made him President! He used his military po- 
 sition to secure his own election, at the point of the bayonet, 
 since he could never be elected to any position by a lawful 
 vote. He not only took part in a “mutiny, insurrection and 
 military coup d’etat” but he organized the military intrigue 
 which culminated, thanks to the cooperation of Obregon, in 
 the assassination of Carranza. In this way they got control 
 and established their loathsome diumvirate of government, 
 first the one and then the other alternately, as if the gov- 
 ernment were a fief bequeathed them. 
 
 The house of deputies which proclaimed the exbar- 
 tender President, was itself installed in quite a gay manner. 
 On the opening day of Congress a group of hand-picked 
 individuals — selected by Calles and Obregon to fill Con- 
 gress and protected by the militia — seized the House, so that 
 when the other elected representatives arrived there was no 
 admittance for them. The assembly — created by Calles 
 and Obregon — declared itself “by law established” and then 
 issued a proclamation declaring that “General Calles had 
 triumphed in the elections”!! Where in history can one 
 find a more illegal system for the usurpation of govern- 
 ment: Calles selected and put in office the men who were 
 told to declare him elected President! Yes, this is an un- 
 precented comedy. 
 
THIS PICTURE WE DEEM TOO 
 GRUESOME TO PRINT. IT IS PUB- 
 LISHED IN THE SPANISH EDITION 
 
 Father Miguel Agustin Pro, S. J., one of the one hundred forty- 
 seven priests assassinated by Calles since his regime began. Father 
 Pro was a young Jesuit priest, recently arrived in Mexico. He came 
 from Belgium where he had just completed his studies. 
 
 On the 13th of November 1927 two bombs were exploded beside 
 the automobile in which General Obregon was riding; no damage was 
 done, and consequently everybody came to the conclusion that the 
 bombs were merely a pretext to commit further crimes against those 
 whom Calles and Obregon so savagely hate. Two days later Father 
 Pro was arrested. The police attacked his residence at three a. m., 
 and did not grant him time to dress before taking him to prison. With 
 him were arrested his two brothers. 
 
 They were imprisoned in the dungeon of the Inspector General’s 
 office, accused of having thrown the bombs. They had no trial; they 
 were not brought before any civil judge; they were denied the right 
 of defense; they were not even told they were about to be murdered! 
 
 On the 23d of November, 1927, Father Pro was violently dragged 
 from his prison cell, and conducted to the square in front of the 
 Police Inspector’s ofice, where was drawn up a strong military force. 
 A platoon of soldiers took him and cowardly assassinated him, vio- 
 lating every law, every principle of justice, the most elemntary pos- 
 tulates of civilization. 
 
 In the same fashion in which Father Pro was killed, one hundred 
 and forty-seven other priests have been murdered. Some others who 
 were made martyrs in the states of the Republic were hanged from 
 trees, with the added infamy of having an inscription of unspeakable 
 type attached to them! 
 
 And all this takes place in a so-called age of freedom! Yes, and 
 those who actually carry out such crimes are applauded by the United 
 States Government — the government of that great nation which is the 
 home of all lawful liberty! 
 
 THIS PICTURE WE ALSO DEEM TOO 
 GRUESOME TO PRINT. IT IS PUB- 
 LISHED IN THE SPANISH EDITION 
 
 Behold this picture of another youthful victim of Calles and 
 Obregon: Sr. Humberto Pro, brother of the assassinated Priest. 
 
 Twenty-four years old was this martyr to savagery. He was, 
 like young Segura, a man of complete righteousness. He was a 
 model son, a gentleman without blemish and an ideal citizen. He held 
 with distinction due to his honesty and ability, the post of Treasurer 
 of the Bank of Mexico. Nobody so much as whispered a word against 
 his ability or his conduct. He was dragged from his home by the hired 
 murderers, and butchered in the same illegal manner as were his fel- 
 low martyrs. 
 
35 
 
 Humberto Pro was also a member of the A. C. J. M. (Catholic 
 Association of Mexican Youth) and this drew the attention of that 
 band who desire the extirpation of all religious beliefs in Mexico. 
 
 In his shooting we find details particularly cruel. He was the 
 last to be killed so he had to stand up beside his brother’s corpse and 
 stand in his brother’s blood! 
 
 Humberto Pro protested to the last moment his innocence. Nev- 
 ertheless it was necessary that he should die to assuage the insatiable 
 blood-thirst of the tyrant. 
 
 The responsibility for these unspeakable infamies — we have had 
 space for just a few — falls on the material authors, it is true, but 
 do not forget that these men would not be in power but for the aid 
 given them by the United States government. 
 
 A few days after these crimes were committed the United States 
 Ambassador, Mr. Morrow, took a long trip, a holiday tour, with Calles, 
 as a proof of friendship! . . . 
 
 THIS IS ANOTHER PICTURE WE DEEM 
 TOO HORRIBLE TO PRINT. IT IS PUB- 
 LISHED IN THE SPANISH EDITION 
 
 Here is the body of young Segura, on a slab in the hospital, after 
 the shooting. We have already given some data about this young 
 man but we wish to supplement it. Segura belonged to a distinguished 
 family of the Metropolis. He made his earlier studies in the French 
 College in Mexico, being conspicuous both by reason of his exceptional 
 mental ability and exemplary conduct. While still very young he en- 
 tered the College of Engineering and secured his degree in Engineer- 
 ing. Before his twenty first year he was practising his profession 
 at the Electric Plant of Necaxa: here he attracted attention on ac- 
 count of his technical knowledge, his irreproachable conduct, affable 
 disposition and above all for his code of honorable behaviour that 
 was never stained. 
 
 The Mexico City Street-car Company placed him in the Engin- 
 eering Department, where he was the youngest member, but in spite 
 of his youth he was a prime favorite on account of his talent and his 
 goodness. From here he was dragged by Calles’ murder gang to his 
 assassination. 
 
 Young Segura was a member of the A. C. J. M. (Association of 
 Mexican Catholic Youth) as we said elsewhere, and here also was he 
 noted for his virtuous life. In fact this was the reason for his assas- 
 sination. 
 
 Segura is only one of seventy-four youths who have been mur- 
 dered in the same fashion in different parts of the Republic. 
 
 This is how Calles rules: murdering all decent people. 
 
 In the photograph one can see clearly the corpse of Segura cov- 
 ered with blood. This blood is £n affront to civilization and a cause 
 for shame to the American continent, because it is the blood of a just 
 man, it is the blood of a young and useful citizen, because it is the 
 blood of an innocent man whose only crime was that of being “perso- 
 na non grata” to the Black Beast who rules the destinies of Mexico. 
 
36 
 
 Article IV says: “No man may be prevented from 
 dedicating his life % to any profession, commercial occupa- 
 tion, industry or labor that may suit him, provided such 
 profession, labor, etc., are lawful”; and Section V of Arti- 
 cle 130 establishes — quite arbitrarily too — that “the minis- 
 ters of Religion shall be considered as men who follow a 
 profession and shall be directly subject to such laws as may 
 be made in this connection.” The Calles government has 
 not only impeded the exercise of the priesthood, openly vio- 
 lating constituional law which he professes to respect, but 
 has condemned a multitude of priests to assassination. Ac- 
 cording to data furnished by Mr. W. J. Montavon, in a pub- 
 lic lecture given in New York, Nov. 29th 1927, ONE HUN- 
 DRED AND FORTY SEVEN PRIESTS HAVE BEEN 
 MURDERED BY CALLES. To this number must be ad- 
 ded several others ordered to be shot in recent weeks. Those 
 who have not been assassinated have been either driven from 
 the country, or else those who remained are obliged to live 
 in hiding places as if they were criminal vagabonds. 
 
 Article VI says: “The expression of ideas shall not 
 be an object of any judicial or administrative inquiry, un- 
 less there be an attack on the moral law.” And Article VII 
 adds: “The liberty to write, and to publish one’s writing 
 on any subject whatsoever is inviolable.” Calles has shown 
 absolutely no respect for these articles of the Constitution 
 For proof we state the fact that he has expelled all inde- 
 pendent newspapermen, shut down, by force, a number of 
 printing presses, and shamelessly pillaged a number of pub- 
 lishing houses throughout the Republic. Among exiled 
 newspapermen we mention the names of Don Jose Elguero, 
 Don Victoriano Salado Alvarez, Don Jesus Guisa y Azevedo, 
 Don Felix Palavicini and a host of others whose names 
 would make a tremendous list. 
 
 Article VIII provides that “Public functionaries and 
 employees shall respect the exercise of the right of petition, 
 provided, always, it be formulated in writing and in a peace- 
 ful and respectful manner.” One incident will amply prove 
 how this article has been grossly violated by Calles. When 
 the church of the Holy Family was closed, by order of Ca- 
 lles, several hundreds of the most distinguished ladies from 
 the highest stratum of society came before the ministry 
 of Government, bearing a written petition, in which an 
 appeal was made for the opening of the church. Tejeda, 
 the Minister, refused to receive them and Calles ordered 
 Roberto Cruz, the sanguinary jackal who is Inspector Gen- 
 eral of Police, to have the distinguished ladies driven forth 
 by water hose in the hands of the municipal firemen ! The 
 brutal order was carried out with fitting barbarity and a 
 complete absence of chivalry. Cruz went in person and ac- 
 tually struck many of these good ladies with a whip ; there 
 
37 
 
 are women of noble birth and gentle breeding in Mexico to- 
 day who still bear on their faces the marks of the cruel 
 whipping at the hands of this savage. And this is Calles’ 
 idea of respect for the right of petition ! 
 
 Article IX says: “The right to associate or convene 
 for any lawful purpose, peacefully, shall not be restricted. ,, 
 All religious organizations have been suppressed; their 
 homes despoiled, their superiors either imprisoned or ex- 
 iled, and their members subjected to unrelenting surveill- 
 ance. 
 
 Article XI says that “no person may be judged by se- 
 cret tribunals nor by secret regulations.’’ For the killing 
 of many Catholic citizens not only have special secret regu- 
 lations been made and special tribunals established but with 
 not even a semblance of legal form; common soldiers and 
 gendarmes, organized into sanguinary tribunals, have sav- 
 agely murdered some of the finest citizens in the Republic. 
 
 Article XVI provides that “no person may be molested 
 in his person, family, home, papers or possesiones unles by 
 virtue of a special written mandate issued by competent 
 authority, which alone shall be the real ground and motive 
 for legal procedure. No order for arrest or detention shall 
 be issued unless by judicial authority ...” Throughout the 
 whole land the most honorable citizens have been “molested 
 in their persons, families, goods, papers and possessions” 
 without any judicial order. They are sent to prison and de- 
 tained there in the same manner; whenever the unfortu- 
 nate victims of this interpretation of the Constitution, ask 
 for or demand the written order of a judge they are shown 
 a pistol as the only writ that runs, the only reason and the 
 only legitimate (?) order! 
 
 Article XIV provides that : “No man may be deprived 
 of life, liberty, or property . . . unless through judicial pro- 
 cess, before tribunals already established.” One hundred and 
 forty-seven priests, seventy-six boys of the Mexican Asso- 
 ciation of Catholic Youth, and countless others have been 
 deprived of their lives without other legal procedure than a 
 mere word of command : “Kill them at once,” from the foul 
 lips of the saloon-keeper of Sonora, Calles. Hundreds 
 have been robbed of all their earthly goods in the same 
 fashion, many imprisoned, thousands deported to the dread- 
 ed Islas Marias, and scores scourged in the same brutal 
 fashion. We could thus go on for innumerable pages be- 
 fore exhausting the list if we were to examine one by one 
 the crimes committed by Calles against the Constitution he 
 wants the people to observe. Law, in Calles’ mind should 
 be obeyed by the masses who are mis-governed, but not by 
 the authorities who govern ! 
 
38 
 
 Consequently, we have amply proven that the tyran- 
 nical regime under which Mexico is now agonizing, is ille- 
 gal, absolutely illegal in its origin, its methods and in every 
 one of its daily acts. 
 
 REFINEMENT OF CRUELTY 
 • 
 
 Plutarco Elias Calles is no ordinary criminal ; with him 
 cruelty has become a fine art! His government is com- 
 posed of evil-doers, as if he had scoured the jails of the 
 country to make a collection of the greatest thieves, the 
 most seasoned assassins, the most audacious highwaymen; 
 he has welded them into an infernal band of murderers. 
 We herewith submit to the world some of his chef d’ouvres 
 in the art of crime. 
 
 At the head of his band is Roberto Cruz, a man of un- 
 believably ferocious instincts; this man was given, with a 
 gesture of humiliating sarcasm, the title of “Inspector Gen- 
 eral of Police ,, ! All those priests who are arrested and im- 
 prisoned for the “high crime and misdemeanor” of saying 
 Mass, such politicians who are to be chastised for having 
 opposed the unchecked vandalism of the Government, all 
 those noble women who are imprisoned for the terrible and 
 dangerous crime of being good Christians, all those writ- 
 ers, victimized for not thinking as the tyrant thinks, in fine, 
 all those citizens on whom a suspicion has fallen that they 
 are out of sympathy with the crew of scoundrels, are left 
 to the “tender mercies” of the Inspector General of Police. 
 
 The offices of the Inspector General are in a manorial 
 mansion, formerly the home of a politician, but now under 
 the control of Calles. The upper floors are used as offices 
 by the Police Agents and serve as quarters for the military 
 guards stationed in the building. The cellar has been con- 
 verted into a chain of prison cells. These dungeons are nar- 
 row, dark, and badly ventilated. A man cannot find a 
 comfortable standing room there and the humidity makes it 
 intolerable for the unfortunate prisoners. As many as fif- 
 teen persons have been packed at once, into one of these 
 cells, and forced to remain in most uncomfortable positions 
 for entire weeks, with no place to lie down to rest, and per- 
 meated with the foul stench emanating from the toilets to 
 be found in each cell. 
 
 Now, a few words about Mexican Police methods. A 
 short time ago a youthful member of the Mexican Catholic 
 Young Mens’ Association was arrested and accused of be- 
 ing one of the most active opponents of the evil regime of 
 Calles. The police agents conveyed him in an automobile 
 along the Puebla road to a deserted spot, where they made 
 him dismount ; there each police officer — there were eight of 
 
39 
 
 them — drew his pistol and menaced the youth with death 
 unless he betrayed his companions. Failing in this, they 
 struck him several blows with their gun butts ; others twist- 
 ed his arms until he fell, fainting to the ground ; they then 
 jumped on the fallen body like a group of wild animals. 
 One officer gripped the young man’s throat making a fierce 
 effort to strangle him, while the rest literally showered 
 blows upon the defenceless youth. They gave him the op- 
 tion of betraying his friends or else forfeiting his life. As 
 they could not force a statement from him and not having 
 instructions to kill him, they placed the unfortunate half- 
 dead victim in the automobile and threw him into a cell in 
 the Prefecture of Police. In his sad plight he was surrep- 
 titiously cared for by a humane gendarme: he survived 
 ten days, being given a little food, despite his terrible tor- 
 ment and the filthy condition of the dungeon. 
 
 We are in possession of data sufficient to provide the 
 reader with hundred of such cases. Let the reader but ap- 
 peal to any decent person living in Mexico or approach 
 trustworthy exiles in U. S. A. and other countries, and he 
 will realize the unimpeachable truth of our narrative. Such 
 a tale of horrors may strike the reader as impossible — but 
 not so once the real Calles and his gang are known. 
 
 There are other methods of torture far worse than any 
 so far described. In the entourage of the Inspector Gen- 
 eral is a cold-blooded criminal, the hangman General Palo- 
 mera Lopez. This man, who should certainly be imprisoned 
 for life on his long criminal record, is free and an official 
 scourge to decent society. A young man was arrested re- 
 cently in Colima, accused of having worked against the 
 Calles’ governement, and brought to the Capital. The ban- 
 dit government regarded the case as a serious one and re- 
 solved on drastic punishment as an example to the country. 
 The luckless youth was handed over to General Palomera 
 Lopez, who conducted his victim, at midnight, into the 
 mountains near Contreras, in the Federal District. The 
 young man was bound hand and foot, released — flight be- 
 ing out of the question — and riddled with bullets. Three 
 days later the Italian manager of a neighboring ranch dis- 
 covered the corpse and reported the incident to the press 
 with abundant details. The police authorities shrugged 
 their shoulders in silence ! This young man was a member 
 of one of the finest families in Colima. Again we refrain 
 from further narratives of this type as we aim at making 
 the terrible story as brief as possible. 
 
 We cannot, however, refrain from giving the reader a 
 glimpse at a species of official crime of a still more shock- 
 ing nature. A young lady, daughter of a distinguished 
 metropolitan family was commissioned to distribute some 
 
leaflets of religious propaganda : this being a terrible crime 
 in the eyes of the government. Arrested, the young lady 
 was not taken to a prison cell in the Inspector General’s of- 
 fice but to a cage in the offices of the Mexican Attorney 
 General. The young lady’s relatives sought her anxiously 
 in every place, and at length her father discovered her in 
 the Attorney-General’s office. The hapless girl threw her- 
 self into her father’s arms; bursting into a flood of tears, 
 she shrieked in anguish her sad misfortune: she had been 
 violated. The poor father, in shame and indignation, re- 
 monstrated with Romeo Ortega, the Attorney-General ; this 
 brute merely grinned his satisfaction and said: “I have 
 sworn to do the same to every young girl whom my agents 
 bring to me, accused of being Catholic.” 
 
 It will suffice to say that in the City of Mexico more 
 than two hundred women of distinguished families have 
 passed through the police dungeons of President Calles ; in 
 Guadalajara three hundred and sixty ladies have been im- 
 prisoned. In Morelia fifteen have suffered a like fate. In 
 the course of the campaign waged by Calles against the 
 Catholics of Jalisco there has not been left a single home in 
 a single village free from this class of official infamy, ins- 
 tigated and sustained by the drunken ex-schoolmaster of 
 Guaymas. Yet, need we remind the reader, these people 
 merely exercised their perfectly lawful right of defense. 
 
 Fifteen young men were apprehended in different 
 parts of the Republic and reunited in the dungeons of the 
 Police Inspector’s office. All were accused of not being 
 friendly towards the bandit regime and all were members 
 of the first families of Mexico. The authorities resolved on 
 a terrible chastisement. They were incorporated among a 
 group of the vilest criminals, one hundred and twenty in 
 number, and deported to the Islas Marias. The Marias Is- 
 lands are a penal colony, situated in the Pacific Ocean, and 
 the climate there is notoriously unhealthy. 
 
 Arrived at the Islands, all the young men — and among 
 them was a respectable gentleman seventy years old — were 
 stripped of their clothes and forced to put on a pair of short 
 trousers. Cruelly lashed by vile guards they were forced to 
 work for sixteen hours daily; their labor was the hardest 
 and most humiliating imaginable, from collecting salt on 
 the seashore to carrying sacks of lime, under a burning 
 sun, enormous distances. We have had the great privilege 
 oi becoming acquainted with many of these prisoners; af- 
 ter two months of captivity many of them carried on their 
 shoulders the terrible wounds caused by friction from the 
 heavily-laden coarse sacks they were forced to carry; all 
 of them bore the furrowed marks of the cruel lash freely 
 given by their despicable guards. 
 
4 / 
 
 In this matter of deportation one deed looms up as typ- 
 ical of the vandal felony of Calles. The relatives of the old 
 man exhausted every means to prevent his deportation to 
 the dread Islands. In course of their efforts the old man was 
 told that if a fine of two thousand dollars were paid he 
 would be set at liberty. The same rapacious trick had de- 
 ceived others in a similar plight; the family was led to be- 
 lieve everything would be well; they sold everything they 
 possessed, and their fortune was a small one, accumulated 
 after years of hard, honest toil. The sum secured was 
 handed over and the promised freedom awaited. Neverthe- 
 less, Calles and Cruz refused to free the aged prisoner; 
 they sent him to the Islas Marlas, in spite of his advanced 
 age, and then held the money which had been handed over 
 to them ! . . . 
 
 We have already referred to an incident which occurred 
 few weeks ago. Some hands unknown threw a bomb into 
 the coach in which rode General Obregon. The authorities 
 searched for the authors of this attack and the police agents 
 had no difficulty in arresting a man Nahun Ruiz. In order 
 to compel him to reveal the names of his associates the po- 
 lice gouged out his eyes and tortured him to the verge of 
 death ; they then brought before him — now blind — a police 
 officer whom they alleged was the victim's brother. The 
 dying man made a statement and entrusted a dying mes- 
 sage to his supposed brother. In this way the Calles' po- 
 lice secured other addresses and were able to arrest Father 
 Miguel Agustin Pro, S. !l., his brother Humbert and the 
 Engineer Luis Segura ; these innocent men were murdered 
 barbarously, without any trial, without the slightest inves- 
 tigation, solely to demonstrate the fury of Calles against 
 those he supposed the authors of the attempt to kill his pol- 
 itical godfather, Obregon . . . 
 
 In no country in the world can a parallel be found for 
 Mexico wherein, in this twentieth century, criminals and 
 evil-doers are governing the nation. Society, for whose 
 service a police force exists and for whom all authority is 
 created, far from finding protection in their police force 
 and a guarantee of security in their government authorities 
 encounter instead a perfectly organized band of jail birds 
 who rob, murder, imprison, trample upon, outrage and ter- 
 rorize the citizens with an impunity which should bring a 
 hot blush of shame* to the face of every decent person on the 
 American continent. 
 
 CRIMINAL SUPPORT 
 
 Since we have said that Calles was never elected Pres- 
 ident of Mexico, but seized the Government by force of 
 arms and continues to govern against the unanimous will 
 
of the people, our readers may well ask in surprise : “What 
 force keeps such a gang of bandits in power?” We will 
 very briefly answer this important and very obvious ques- 
 tion. The following are the chief sources of support and 
 maintenance for the Calles' Government. 
 
 1. The very powerful aid of the United States’ Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 2. The Revolutionary Army. 
 
 3. The Mexican Federation of Labor. 
 
 4. The Agrarians. 
 
 We have purposely placed at the head of the list the 
 assistance given these evil-doers by the White House at 
 Washington because it is the most potent of all the forces 
 which sustain in unfortunate Mexico the Empire of crim- 
 inal government. We are absolutely certain that the very 
 moment the Government at Washington withdraws iti 
 friendship and leaves the Mexican people free to defend 
 themselves against the oppression of Calles, he will not 
 remain in power one month longer. 
 
 Now we have reason to fear that this statement may 
 give offense in certain quarters and arouse a passionate 
 denial and as we have powerful motives for respecting the 
 American people and treating them with every considera- 
 tion, we lay down our pen and allow an upright American 
 citizen, Theodore Roosevelt, to give his eloquent explana- 
 tion of the triumph of the revolutionary band and he will 
 tell you how the country was brought under the unchecked 
 oppression of an oligarchy. Theodore Roosevelt wrote in 
 the New York Times of December 6th 1914: 
 
 “The act of permitting the passage of arms across the 
 frontier, on the part of Wilson, meant that he not only ac- 
 tively helped the insurrection, but without any doubt pro- 
 vided the means of achieving success, in so far as he actively 
 prevented Huerta from organizing an effective resistance. 
 The defenders of Wilson allege that he could not have pre- 
 vented the passage of arms across the frontier. Our reply 
 to that is: Wilson did, at times, prevent such gun-running. 
 He thus proved that he was actively interested in arming 
 the revolutionaries, and when he so desired he gave per- 
 mission, when he wished otherwise, he refused it; he was 
 therefore absolutely responsible for this.” 
 
 “The United States would not have had the least re- 
 sponsibility for what has been done to the Church, if the 
 faction which committed these outrages had not been en- 
 abled to triumph by the United States. But since the United 
 States took part in a civil war in Mexico, in the manner in 
 which Wilson and Bryan obliged our government to take 
 part, this country, through this act alone, is responsible 
 for the horrible injustices, the terrible outrages . committed 
 
±3 
 
 by the victorious revolutionaries against hundreds of be- 
 lievers of both sexes. 
 
 “Not long ago, President Wilson, in a speech delivered 
 at Swarthmore, Penn., declared that ‘in no part of this con- 
 tinent can any government survive that is stained with 
 blood/ and in Mobile he said : ‘We shall never forgive ini- 
 quity solely because it may be more convenient for us to 
 do so/ 
 
 “At the very moment he was pronouncing these high 
 sounding phrases, the leaders of the faction which he ac- 
 tively aided, were shooting down hundreds in cold blood; 
 they were torturing men supposed to be wealthy ; they were 
 casting forth from their homes hundreds of peaceful fam- 
 ilies : they were sacking the churches and maltreating priests 
 and religious in the most infamous manner, from assassi- 
 nation to mutilation and outrage. 
 
 “In other words, at the very time the President assured 
 us ‘that in no part of this hemisphere can any government 
 endure if it be stained with blood’ he was helping to put 
 in power a government that was not only stained with blood 
 but was stained with stains worse than those of blood. At 
 the very time he announced that ‘he would not continue re- 
 lations with iniquity even if it were more convenient to do 
 so/ he not only consorted with iniquity but openly supported 
 it and vut in vower men whose actions were those of fero- 
 cious barbarians.” 
 
 We believe no evidence could be more impartial and 
 more honorable. 
 
 Now what Wilson did with Carranza, Harding repeat- 
 ed with Obregon and Mr. Coolidge with Calles, for we must 
 advert to the fact that although these three personalities 
 mav appear different at first sight — Carranza, Obregon 
 and Calles — they all have been revolutionarv leaders and 
 have been imposed on the people by the system which Mr. 
 Roosevelt so fitly described. 
 
 When Obregon was seen to be menaced bv the De la 
 Huerta movement it was the United States’ Government 
 that supplied him with abundant materials of war to sus- 
 tain himself. All the attempts which have been made to 
 demolish the regime of criminals, have been severely sup- 
 pressed bv the American Government over which Mr. Cool- 
 idge presides. For proof of this we have the fact that Gen- 
 eral Enriciue Estrada was imprisoned for attempting to 
 cross the frontier, by the American authorities, and only a 
 short time ago Mr. Gandara was sentenced, in Tucson, to 
 two years in the penitentiary for having sent arms to the 
 enemips oi Calles. As if all this were not enough, precisely 
 when the Mexican nation is shuddering with horror at the 
 massacre of priests and politicians and young men ordered 
 by Calles in these last months, Mr. Morrow arrives in Mex- 
 
ico as Ambassador from the White House and a few days 
 later goes on a trip with the bandit through the Republic, 
 in close friendship, as if he wished to declare to the world : 
 “The United States maintains in power the murderers of 
 the unfortunate people of Mexico.” 
 
 Sad irony, surely! Mexico, victim of the most savage 
 crew one can imagine, the work of the government of the 
 great nation which leads the procession in the civilized 
 world! Mexico, bereft of liberty of conscience, without 
 freedom to think, without civil liberty, without the liberty 
 of the press, without freedom of speech, without religious 
 freedom, without liberty to educate; all because of the as- 
 sistance given to the criminal who govern her by a nation 
 which is a beacon light of the highest democracy and a 
 splendid ome for all legitimate human liberties ! 
 
 II. Another support of this savage despotism is “the 
 army.” Permit us to say a word about this. The “army” 
 which keeps Calles in power is not what people understand 
 by a real army. Men of the worst antecedents fill the army, 
 the majority of them with accounts to be settled in a court 
 of justice. In organizing his revolutionary forces, Carran- 
 za recruited all the bandits in the country, he took all the 
 criminals out of jails, and collected the most notorious evil- 
 doers to incorporate this mess into what, up to the present 
 moment, is called the Mexican “army”! The leaders are 
 not men of any class of military training, but bandits who 
 achieved notoriety, of the calibre of Pancho Villa ; men who 
 won their spurs in the revolution for conspicuous ferocity 
 and cruelty. 
 
 Suffice it to say that the present Minister of War, 
 “General of Division” Joaquin Amaro, is a man who, al- 
 ready a Cabinet Minister began to read and write ; less than 
 three years ago this person traversed the State of Michoa- 
 can at the head of a band engaged in wrecking trains and 
 robbing ranches ! To this day he bears the mark of an ear- 
 ring in his right ear: he bore this gem as a symbol of his 
 profession of banditry, and although he has thrown away 
 the badge, he is still a bandit. It is easy to imagine what 
 kind the subalterns are. 
 
 These gallows’ birds have enriched themselves while 
 in power: and instead of expiating their crimes in prison, 
 enjoy the highest honors and privileges. They have a spec- 
 ial interest in sustaining the actual regime of tyranny, and 
 theirs is a war machine ever ready for fight. Nevertheless, 
 this unclean mess of criminals would put up a poor show 
 of resistance against the decent people of Mexico, if only 
 the latter were in a position to free themselves. 
 
 III. A third force which gives unconditional support 
 to Calles is the “Mexican District Federation of Labor,” 
 known generaly as the CROM from its initials (Confedera- 
 
cion Regional Obrera Mexicana) . Government agents have 
 been appointed to organize communist syndicates whose 
 real objective is to be at the service of the government. Very 
 difficut is it to avoid enrollment in this class of syndicalism, 
 because refusal to join means that the poor worker is thrown 
 forcibly out of employment with no hope of securing work 
 elsewhere; consequently, the unfortunate workers are face 
 to face with this grim alternative: “Join the CROM or 
 starve to death.” 
 
 The CROM is at the unconditional service of the gov- 
 ernment. Every time the government wants to stage a pop- 
 ular parade it has recourse to the CROM to put on a “show”. 
 The crowds march through the street, cheering the gov- 
 ernment, for if they do not cheer they are expelled from the 
 syndicate and once expelled from the union they find them- 
 selves out of employment. The American Federation of La- 
 bor has maintained a close friendship with this society for 
 Soviet propaganda, whose leaders propagate in Mexico Rus- 
 sian Soviet ideas, albeit they take good care to hide this. 
 Doubtless the American Federation of Labor is quite ig- 
 norant of the fact that it is allied with a group hostile to 
 itself. 
 
 IV. The last supporting agency of Mexican tyranny- 
 is Agrarianism. It is very necessary to remark that the 
 rural inhabitants of Mexico are very poor and very igno- 
 rant. Calles and Obregon have learned how to avail them- 
 selves of this poverty and of this ignorance as a source of 
 support. We will see in what manner. 
 
 In keeping with its Soviet tendencies, and in the same 
 manner in which the oil men were deprived of their rights, 
 the vast majority of the landed proprietors in Mexico were 
 robbed of their holdings, which properties were subdivided 
 among the laborers. Naturally the ignorant peasants do not 
 know what to do with their unexpected proprietorship, and 
 not a few failed to feel elated on receipt of a gift of this 
 nature, because no matter how ill-instructed they might 
 be they still had strong conscientious objections to accept- 
 ing a gift which had been robbed by the giver from the law- 
 ful owners. 
 
 Not all the peasants received equal treatment in the 
 appropriation of the lands. Only those who pertained to 
 the agrarian organization were considered : in other words, 
 the government party. These poor natives are in far worse 
 plight even than the industrial workers. Not only are they 
 made to march in the parades staged to set off the triumphs 
 of the government, but at any moment they may have a rifle 
 thrust into their hands and ordered off to fight without 
 knowing for what or for whom ! 
 
 So that we may thoroughly understand the system of 
 deceit which characterizes the conduct of Calles and Obre- 
 
U6 
 
 gon, we wish to present this peculiar incident. Not long 
 ago Obregon arrived in Mexico City from his vast ranch in 
 Sonora — this vast acreage, of course, was not divided among 
 the peasants! — and his partners in crime determined on 
 staging for him a tumultuous reception, so that everybody 
 might believe that Obregon is the popular candidate for the 
 coming electoral masquerade. Calles put sufficient trains 
 at the disposal of the Obregonists so as to bring to the Cap- 
 ital thousands of peasants. This “stunt” was vile and at 
 the same time sad ; the writer of these lines had an oppor- 
 tunity of speaking with these poor peasants, who, on b&ng 
 asked what was the purpose of the demonstration, said: 
 “They told us the Archbishop was going to arrive ! . . ” 
 
 The Archbishop certainly did not arrive, because sev- 
 eral weeks before he had been expelled from the country 
 by Calles and his counsellor and director Obregon . . . 
 
 These are the four great supports of the criminal re- 
 gime which exists in Mexico. 
 
 TO SAVE MEXICO 
 
 What the martyrized people need, to throw off the yoke 
 of banditry become government, is that both the people and 
 the government of the United States, for elementary rea- 
 sons of humanity, have compassion on her miseries. 
 
 What the decent people of Mexico ask is, neither direct 
 nor indirect intervention on the part of the United States, 
 as to desire such intervention would be unpatriotic, but 
 simply that America leave Mexico free to save the nation 
 from the talons of these criminals. 
 
 Since the bandit government of Calles exists and is 
 sustained by the help which he has received from the White 
 House, all that the Mexican people ask of the United States 
 is simply the justice of neutrality, so that they may be able 
 to defend themselves. 
 
 The Mexican people believe themselves capable, and 
 they are, of ending the Calles’ tyranny and making of their 
 fatherland a country peaceful, industrious and progressive. 
 They do not plan to install a sectary regime but a natural, 
 representative government, which shall guarantee the safe- 
 ty of property and legitimate liberties, open the doors, step 
 by step to capital, for the benefit of the workers and the 
 development of the national resources; in fine, only thus- 
 wise can Mexico take her place in the concourse of civilized 
 people through the bond of a loyal and honorable interna- 
 tional friendship. 
 
 But the Mexican people can never, absolutely, attain 
 to this legitimate destiny if, instead of dealing with a band 
 of criminals such as the Calles and Obregon clique, she finds 
 
herself confronted by the powerful aid which these men are 
 receiving from the American Government. Consequently, 
 we believe it necessary to bring home to the minds of Amer- 
 ican officials, Congress, Senators and Representatives, of 
 all politicians and of all citizens among this great American 
 people, without distinction of political or religious creeds, 
 the conviction that a stop must be put to this Empire of 
 crime, if not for justice’s sake at least in the interests of 
 humanity. 
 
 You who have children whom you educate according to 
 your tastes, imagine the agony of good parents in Mexico 
 denied the liberty to educate their children unless exactly as 
 Calles commands ! 
 
 You, who profess a religious creed, whatever it may be, 
 and worship in your temples a Supreme Being, imagine how 
 you would suffer were all your churches to be closed, many 
 of them converted into barracks, impiously wrecked, your 
 images profaned and your altars desecrated ! 
 
 You, American citizens, who have attained to such a 
 height on the path of progress through your respect for the 
 belief of others, and who have achieved lasting peace and a 
 flourishing culture, try to realize what your reaction would 
 be if your priests were exiled from their fatherland, as if 
 they were criminals, the bishops expelled, and one hundred 
 forty-seven other priests riddled with bullets, in revolting 
 cruelty. 
 
 You who have families, young boys and girls in whom 
 you have placed your dearest hopes, as you look on them 
 with pride, and recognize in them your own felicity, look, 
 please, if not for a motive of love at least for humanitarian 
 reasons, upon these hundreds of Mexican parents and fam- 
 ilies from whose homes the black beast, Calles, whom you 
 support, has snatched thousands of our youth; they too, 
 were the hope, the joy, the centre of the sweetest loves and 
 now they are torn to pieces for the sole crime of being Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 We appeal to you who are the proud parents of young 
 daughters, full of enchantment and beauty, to understand, if 
 you can, the shame and the ignominy of many Mexican fam- 
 ilies where young daughters have been devoured by the bes- 
 tiality of Calles and have been outraged in abominable dun- 
 geons as a chastisement for their religious beliefs. 
 
 You American ladies and gentlemen who belong to 
 clubs, societies and organizations of various kinds try to 
 estimate what annoyance and irritation you would endure 
 were you to be suddenly expelled from these societies, to 
 witness their wholesale suppression, the leaders imprisoned, 
 all because .a tyrant chose to think that he had the right to 
 deprive them of their liberties. 
 
U8 
 
 You who select to run your government men reputed to 
 be honorable and versed in the science of Government, who 
 give you laws conformable to your will and your special 
 needs; you who have a Constitution that you venerate as 
 the synthesis of the national soul, consider if it be just that 
 the Mexican people should live under the tyranny of a band 
 01 robbers who hold them down by brute force, who enforce 
 arbitrary laws contrary to their will, who suffer great dVils 
 for refusing to respect an abominable Constitution begotten 
 by a group of malefactors who styled themselves a “con- 
 stituent assembly,” now find themselves innocent victims of 
 a bloody persecution. 
 
 And you, who have no children and have never tasted 
 the sweetness of a home nor have ever worried about laws, 
 if such as you should read these lines, remember that you 
 have, at least, the right to live and walk the streets without 
 terror or the fear of assault; you admire how the plants 
 are allowed to grow and the meanest birds are allowed to 
 live ; look you and see if there is reason and justice for main- 
 taining a population of fifteen millions under such dire ser- 
 vitude, under such awful torment that denies the right to 
 live: in Mexico it is impossible to move without danger of 
 being declared an enemy of the oppressors, or of seeing 
 hundreds of human beings, one’s brothers, assassinated 
 with horrible prodigality. 
 
 Why do you Americans cause in our homes sorrows and 
 disgrace that you would not suffer in your own? Why in- 
 jure your equals, who have never done you an evil? 
 
 Ah! Please do not think you have done your duty by 
 us if you merely sympathize with us. See to it that justice 
 is done to Mexico. Who causes damage is bound to re- 
 pair the injury. 
 
 Mexico asks for no assistance. What Mexico asks of 
 the United States is that for humanitarian reasons she be 
 not hindered from defending herself ; she asks to be allowed 
 by removal of the embargo on export of arms, to defend her 
 home threatened or invaded by bandits; let there be noth- 
 ing done to prevent her proving to the world that the Mex- 
 ican people know how to be free, peaceful and respectable. 
 
 You who are charged with the task of American gov- 
 ernment, members of Congress, all you citizens of North 
 America add to your past triumphs and your ancient glories 
 one more glory, one more triumph : put an end to the dolor- 
 ous agony of the oldest nation on the American Continent.