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The political Constitution of 1857, left to us by our forefathers as a precious inheritance under which the Mexican Nationality has crystalized, a constitution which penetrated into the national soul with the War of Reform, during which great things were accomplished, and which constituted the flag carried by the people to the battlefield' during the war against intervention, presents without doubt the consecration of the highest prin- ciples, fully acknowledged in the dazzling light of the greatest revolution that has ever taken place in the world at the end of the eighteenth century; principles which have been sanctioned by the constant and patient practice which have made of them two of the greatest countries on earth: England and the United States. Unfortunately the legislators of 1857 were satisfied with the proclamation of general principles which they did not endeavor to _ gº"Yº * * *T3 carry into practice adapting them to the needs of the Mexican people in order to fulfill them completely and rapidly;- there- fore, our political code in general has the appearance of a col- lection of abstract formulae wherein scientific deductions of a great speculative value have been condensed, but from which little or no usefulness has been derived. In sooth, the individual rights which the Constitution of 1857 claims are the basis of social institutions, have been conculcated almost constantly by the different governments which since its promulgation have suc- ceeded one another in the Republic, and the organic laws of the appeal trial (juicio de amparo) designed to protect such rights, instead of helping to a rapid and exact result, did nothing but deviate justice, impossibilitating the action, not only of the federal courts usually swamped by numberless files, but also that of the common courts, obstructed by the suspension orders issued without rule or justification. But there is still more. The resource of appeal, instituted with a high social aim; soon became denaturalized until it was converted, first into a political weapon, and afterwards into an appropriate means to make an end of the sovereignty of the states, since even the most insigni- ficant acts of the authorities in the states were subjected to re- vision by the Supreme Court; and as that high court, due to the manner in which its members were appointed, was absolutely under the influence of the chief of the Executive power, it be- came evident that the declaration of the Rights of Man stated in the Federal Constitution of 1857, had not had the practical im- portance which was expected. Therefore, the first basis on which the whole structure of social institutions should rest, was inefficient to consolidate and adapt them to their object, which was the establishment of the relations between the individual and the State, in a simple and practical form, demarcating the respective boundaries within which their respective activities should develop, without-shackles of any kind; for the activity of the individual, outside of bounds, becomes perturbing and anarchical, and that of the State, op- pressive and despotic. But the principle to which reference has just been made, although expressly and categorically formulated, has had no real practical value, notwithstanding that in the field of constitutional rights it is an indisputable truth. The same thing exactly has occurred with all th eother fundamental prin- ciples set forth in the same Constitution of 1857. These principles have up to the present time, never been anything more than a. delightful hope, the realization of which has always been a mockery. In truth, the national sovereignty which is rooted in the people, does not and has not been, except in very few in- stances, a reality in Mexico, because, if not always, usually in an uninterrupted manner, public power has been exercised not by the free appointment made by the untrammelled will of the nation, . 4 * under the forms established by law, but by the impositions of those who had in their hands public force to invest themselves or invest others selected by them, with the representation of the people. Another principle which has not been carried out, and consequently has had no positive noticeable value, is that funda– mental one clearly stated in the Constitution of 1857 relative to the division of the exercise of public power; for such division has as a general rule, been existent on paper only, since it is a fact that public powers have been exercised by only one individual, and the contempt of the Supreme law has been evidenced by a series of acts constantly repeated which granted to the chief executive, without any opposition, the power of legislating on all subjects, and the Legislative Power was reduced to acquiesce, and afterwards to approve what was done by virtue of those faculties; and no case is on record wherein the Legislative Power has reproved, or even raised an objection to that usurpa- tion of its rights. In the same manner the precept which sanc- tions the federation, of the States which form the Mexican Republic, declaring that they must be free and sovereign as re- gards their-interior regime has been a vain promise, until now, since the history of the country demonstrates that, as a general rule, and with extremely rare exceptions, this sovereignty has been purely nominal, because the central power has always been the one to impose its will, while the authorities in each state have limited themselves to being the obedient instruments of the central authority. Finally, the promise made by the Con- stitution of 1857 relative to assuring to the States the popular re- publican representative form has also been vain, for, shielding themselves behind this principle, which is also one of the fundamental ones in the Federal Government system adopted for all the country, the Central powers have intervened in the interior administration of a state when its governor has not been docile to the orders of the former, or they have fostered the establishment in each state of a real “cacicazgo”, for such has almost invariably been the so-called administration of the governors whom the people has seen in power. The country’s history, the fatter part of which is familiar to you, presents abundant data to fully prove the assertions I have made. But in the first place I know that you do not doubt them, as no Mexican is unaware of the scandals caused by the flagrant violations of the Constitution of 1857, and secondly, this would require extensive explanations entirely outside of the limits of a summary statement of the principal points of the initiative which I now place in your hands so that you may study it as carefully and painstakingly as is required by the nation, which expects you to remedy the ills and miseries which it has endured for so many years. - * .* In its expositive part, the decree of September 14, of the current years, which modifies several of the articles added to the Plan of Guadalupe, under date of December 12, 1914, the govern- 5 ment of which I am in charge, expressly offered that the pro- posed reforms to the Constitution of 1857 to be presented to, this Congress, would leave intact its liberal spirit and the form of government established therein; that those reforms would- affect only those parts of the constitution which make it inap- plicable, to supply its deficiencies, to clear the obscure precepts and to cleanse it of all those reforms which were inspired only by the desire to make it a tool in order to enthrone dictatorship. I cannot say that the project which I now present to your con- sideration is a perfect work, since no work of human intellect can aspire so high, but I can assure you, gentlemen, that the pro- posed reforms are the fruit of a sincere conviction, of personal experience and of a deep desire that the Mexican people may secure the enjoyment of all its liberties, the enlightenment and the progress of which signify respect abroad and peace and wel- fare in all domestic matters. I am going to present to you, gentlemen, a synthesis of the re- forms to which I refer, so as to give you a short, clear idea of the principles which have guided me, for thus you will be able to appreciate whether or not I have reached the object for which I aimed, and you will also then be able to learn what you have to do in order to duly fulfill your task. It being the object of all governments to protect and help each individual, that is to say, each of the units which form the nation, it is unquestionable that the first requisite to be fulfilled by a political constitution must be the protection of individuals granted with as much pre- cision and clarity as is adaptable to human liberty in all its direct and necessary manifestations, as they constitute the personality of man. * * * The Constitution of a people must not try, if it is to have a lasting existence—to place an artificial boundary between the State and the individual as if endeavoring to extend the field of action of the former to the detriment of the latter, so that what is given to the former is the condition for the protection it im- parts to that which the latter reserves for himself; but it must strive that the authority given by the people to its representa- tives—since the people cannot exert it themselves—should not be turned against the Society which has granted it, and whose rights must be within its reach. But one must keep in mind that the government must, perforce and necessarily, be a means to carry out all those conditions without which, right cannot develops and exist. Starting from this primary idea, which must figure in the first place as indicating the aim of the institution of the . government, which is that of giving their real value to social in- stitutions,—the action of public powers shall be conveniently directed and an end will be put to certain political and social habits, that is to say, certain government processes which to date have never had any basis; for, although the Mexican people does not believe in a social pact whereby the political organi- 6 zation rests fully on the divine origin of a monarch, lord of lives and property, it perfectly understands that the laws it has, tho proclaiming high principles, do not accommodate themselves to its mode of feeling and thinking; and instead of satisfying its need of giving protection to the full use of freedom, these laws lack life, since they have been controlled by an enervating mili- tary despotism and by iniquitous exploitations which have sunk the more numerous classes into a deep mire of desperation and ruin: For this reason, the first declaration in the political constitu- tion of a people is to guarantee human freedom in the most ample and full manner possible, in order to prevent the govern- ment, under the pretext of order or peace—the motives always alleged by tyrants in order to justify their outrages—from at- tempting at any time to limit the rights of the governed ones, impeding the full use of these rights, and assuming the exclusive faculty of directing individual initiative and social activities, and trying to control man and society. The Constitution of 1857 states, as I have already said, that the rights of man are the basis and object of all social institutions, but with few ex- ceptions, it does not guarantee these rights in due manner; nor was this done by the successive laws that were passed, and which do not prescribe any serious punishment for the violation of those rights, since they merely give nugatory penalties which very seldom become effective. Therefore, and without fear of falling into any exaggerations, one can say that despite the Con- stitution referred to, individual liberty was completely at the mercy of rulers. The number of outrages against freedom and its different manifestations during the period of time in which the Constitution of 1857 has been in force, is surprising; there have been daily complaints against the abuses and excesses com- mitted by the authorities throughout the republic and notwith- standing the general spread of this evil and the constant dis- turbances which the judicial authorities caused the Federation, the latter never made any efforts to repress such abuses, much less to punish for them. - The imagination cannot conceive the number of appeals from consignment to military service or from arbitrary acts of the civil authorities especially the “jefes Piliticos” mayors, who, seemed to be the tormentors of the individual and of society rather than the ones charged with maintaining order; and as- suredly these appeals would cause not surprise, but amazement even in those most heedless and insensible to the misery of mankind. The mere declaration of right which is enough to im- pose respect in a people of high culture wherein the proclamation of a fundamental principle of political and social order is suffi- cient, becomes a barrier behind which the authority invested with Omnimode faculties, assuming unlimited power, and where the people has nothing to do but keep silent and endure. The cor- 7 rection of these evils is the aim of the different reforms which the Government in my charge proposes in regard, to the first section of the first title of the Constitution of 1857, and I enter- tain the hope that by these reforms and the severe penalties im- posed by the penal code for the outrages to individual guaran- tees, it will be possible to make the public authorities what they should be, the instruments of social safety, instead of being what they have been : the oppressors of the people which unhappily have been under their sway. It would require a long time to . enumerate all the reforms proposed in this project; but allow me . to call your attention to a few of them, on account of their special importance, Article 14 of the Constitution of 1857, which in the mind of the Constituents, as deduced from its text and the discussions which took place relative thereto, referred only to trials of the penal order, after many delays and contradictory decisions of the Supreme Court, was definitely extended to civil cases and the result of this was, as I have already stated, that the judicial federal authorities became the revisors of all acts of the judicial authorities in the States, and thus the Federal power on account of the influence it exerted, controlled the action of the common courts, either with political views or in order to advance some favorite." Due to the appeal recourse, the federal judicial authorities were overburdened with work, and the course of common court cases was greatly impeded. Despite all these facts, we must acknowledge that the tendency to give an undue extension to article 14 of the Constitution was caused by the urgent necessity to reduce the judicial authority of the States to their just boundaries, for it was soon felt that the judges, converted into the unconditional tools of the governors- who brazenly interfered in matters absolutely outside of their scope, made it necessary to have recourse to the federal judicial authority in order to repress all those abuses. So it appears from the modification made under date of December 12, 1908, to article 102 of the Constitution of 1857, a reform which, other- wise, is very far from attaining its object, and merely com- plicated still more the mechanism of the appeal, already slow and difficult; furthermore, the Supreme Court made so many breaches of this reform, that within a short time it was abso- lutely null and useless. s The Mexican people is so used to appeal in the civil proceed- ings in order to free themselves from the arbitrary acts of judges, that the government in my charge has considered it imprudent and unjust to deprive them of this recourse, and thinks it will be sufficient to limit it to the cases where it is absolutely necessary, expediting it so that its course will be rapid and effective, as the Chamber will see by the proposed reforms. Article 20 of the Constitution of 1857, marks the guarantees which every de- fendant shall have in any criminal proceedings; put into practice; those guarantees have been absolutely ineffective, since al- though not violating them openly, practices which were abso-, 8 lutely inquisitorial have been carried on the side which generally leave the defendant subject to the arbitrary and despotic action of the judges and even of the agents or clerks in the offices of the •º. former. >y You well know, gentlemen, and the whole Mexican people knows it as well, that the rigorous incommunication, or solitary confinement at times prolonged for several months, to punish pre- sumptive political prisoners, or to frighten and subdue the un- happy individuals who had fallen under the action of the criminal courts and compell them to make forced confessions which prac- tically always were false, and which were merely the outcome of a desire to get out of dirt and conditions which were a real menace to health and even to life. The criminal procedure in Mexico has, up to date, and with slight variations, been exactly the same which was implanted by the-Spanish domination, without any change in the harshness of the treatment of prisoners, for the Mexican legislation has re- mained entirely conservative in this matter, without any one taking any pains to improve it in this point. Secret proceedings and acts took place, with which the ac- cused was not acquainted, as if his own freedom and life were not at stake; restrictions to the rights of the defense, preventing the accused and his defenders from being present at the hearing of proofs against the former, as if these were of no moment to the prisoner, and finally, the fate of the prisoner was left entirely in the hands of the clerks who, either by antagonism or interest, altered their own declarations, those of the witnesses against him, and even those of the witnesses who had declared for him. The law grants the accused freedom under bail during the course of the proceedings, in certain cases; but this faculty was subject to the arbitrary will of the judges, it being sufficient in order to annul this concession, a mere declaration that they feared the prisoner would evade the action of justice by fleeing and losing the amount of the bail. Lastly, there is no law which establishes, in a precise and clear way, the maximum duration of penal proceedings, and this lack has permitted the judges to hold the defendants for a longer period than that marked by the law for the misdemeanor or crime, and thus arrests were often -absolutely unjustified and arbitrary. The reforms suggested for Article 20 will remedy all these evils. 3. tº - Article 21 of the Constitution of 1857 granted to the adminis- trative authority the power of imposing, as a correction, up to $500 fine or up to one month's imprisonment in the cases and manner expressly determined by the law, reserving for the judicial authority the exclusive application of all penalties properly called so. This precept opened a wide breach for. • .9 abuses, for the administrative authority considered itself always authorized to impose one month of imprisonment for any imagin- ary fault, a month which was always prolonged, and never, ended on time. The proposed reform in this particular, while" confirming the judges in their exclusive power of imposing penalties, grants to the administrative authority the right to punish only infractions to the police bylaws, which ordinarily mean fines and not imprisonment, which is imposed only when the infractor cannot pay the fine. The reform does not stop there, but offers a new suggestion which undoubtedly will com- pletely revolutionize the system of procedure which for so long a time, despite all its imperfections and deficiencies has ruled the country. The laws now in force, both in the federal and in the common order, have adopted the institution of the “Ministerio Público” but this adoption has been nominal, for the function assigned, to the representatives of the former has a merely decorative character, for the prompt and straight administration of justice: Mexican judges during the period that has elapsed from the consummation of independence to date, have been identical to the judges of the colonial period. They are in charge of investigating delinquencies by seeking proofs, for which reason, and in order to secure them, they have felt authorized in committing real assaults on the defendants to compel them to confess, acts which without doubt denaturalize the functions of judges. The whole nation remembers with horror the outrages committed by judges who, craving fame, awaited with positive fruition the arrival in their hands of a case which would permit them to deploy a complete system of oppression against indi- viduals who were in many cases innocent, and in others, against the tranquility and honor of families, respecting no barriers, not even those imposed by the law itself. The same organization of the “Ministerio Público” (Public prosecutor) at the same time that it will prevent such vicious proceedings, restoring to judges all the dignity and respectability of the magistracy, will enjoy its full importance, taking exclusive charge of the persecution of delinquency and the search for proofs which will no longer be carried out in the censurable and outrageous manner in which it was done, and will issue orders for the apprehension of delinquents. On the other hand, the “Ministerio Público” having under his orders judicial repressive police, will take away from Municipal Mayors and common police, the facilities which the latter have had up to date, for arresting any individual they considered sus- picious, without any more reason than their own personal con- victions. By the establishment of public prosecutors such as is proposed, individual freedom is guaranteed, for according to article 16, no one may be detained except under orders of the judicial authorities, and the latter cannot issue such orders ex- cept in the terms and with the requisites prescribed by that - article. 10 Article 27 of the Constitution of 1857 authorizes the authorities to take possession of the property of any individual, without his previous consent, when public utility so demands. This power, in the the judgment of the Government in my charge, is sufficient to acquire lands and distribute them in the form considered con- venient: among the people who want to undertake agricultural labors, thus founding the small property, which must be pro- moted as public necessity may demand it. The only proposed reform to this article is that the declaration of necessity be made by the corresponding administrative authority, and the judicial authority will have only the power to intervene in order to ap- praise the éxact valuation of the land to be expropriated. This article, besides keeping in force the law prohibiting civil and ecclesiastical corporations to acquire and administer real estate, but exempting from this all private and public beneficent insti- tutions, in regard to the real estate strictly necessary, to carry out immediately and directly, the object of these institutions, and authorizing them to accept on said real estate capitals and in- terest, the latter not to exceed in any case the legal rate, and for a period not over ten years. The need of this reform is obvious, for no one is ignorant of the fact that the clergy, impossibilitated to acquire real estate, has defrauded the law by means of the organization of corpora- tions; and as on the other side, these companies have under- taken the acquisition of large tracts of land in the Republic, it is necessary to correct this evil in an effective and rapid manner; otherwise the national territory would soon be, either really or in a fictitious manner, in the hands of foreigners. It is obviously necessary that every foreigner, when acquiring real estate in the country, should renounce his nationality expressly with refer- ence to such property, submitting in regard to it, in a complete and absolute manner, to the Mexican laws; a thing which could not be accomplished as to societies, which on the other hand con- stitute, as has been suggested, a real menace of monopolization of the territorial property of the republic. Finally, this article ex- pressly forbids that institutions of private beneficence be in charge of religious corporations or of ministres of cults, for otherwise the door of abuse would be open again. With these reforms to article 27, and the reform preposed for article 28 in order to combat monopolies efficaciously, and to as- sure free competition in all branches of human activities—a com- petition which is indispensable to secure the life and development of peoples, and with the authorization which the proposed re- form of section 20 of article 72 confers on federal legislative power for the issuance of laws on labor, whereby all improve- ments of social progress shall be implanted for the benefit of the working classes; with the limitation of the hours of work itself, so that the workingman will not exhaust himself, and may have time for rest and recreation, and for the cultivation of his mind, * ... s 11 so that he may be enabled to have intercourse with his neighbors, which engenders sympathies and breeds habits of co-operation *~, towards the common weal; the responsibility of contractors-in case of accidents; the policies for old age or illness; the establish- ment of a minimum salary sufficient to cover the immediate needs of the individual and his family, to insure and improve his position; the law of divorce which has been enthusiastically received by the different social classes as a means to establish the family on a basis of love and not on that of interest and con- venience; with the laws which will soon be issued to establish the family on a more rational and just basis, which will-elevate the consorts to the high mission which society and nature place in their charge, such as propagating the species and forming the family; by means of all these reforms, I repeat, the government in my charge has logical hopes that all political institutions in the country will respond satisfactorily to all social needs, and this, toº gether with the guarantees which protect individual liberty, will become a real fact and not mere impossible promises; and that the division among the three branches of public power will im- mediately become effective, and a solid foundation for true democracy in México, that is to say, the government of the people of Mexico by the effective co-operation, spontaneous and conscient, of all the individuals who form the nation, who will look for their own welfare in the reign of law and justice, having the latter equal for all, defending the legitimate interests of all, safeguarding all noble aspirations. In the reform of article 30 of the Constitution of 1857, it has been considered necessary to de- fine, with all precision and clarity, who are Mexicans by birth, and who are so by naturalization, in order to put an end to the long dispute which some time ago started about the case whether a foreigner's son born in the country, who on becoming of age decides for Mexican citizenship, should or should not be con- sidered as a Mexican born citizen. On upholding the forms of articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution of 1857, the old question was asked, whether the active vote should be granted to all citizens without exception, or only to those who are capable of voting in an effective way and conscious of what they are doing, or whose economic position gives them a decided interest in the management of public affairs. In order that the exercise of the right of suffrage be a positive and real manifestation of national sovereignty, it is necessary that it be general, for all, free and direct, because if any of these conditions is lacking, it becomes a class prerogative or a mere artifice to hide usurpations of power, or governors' impositions against the evident, manifest will of the people. Suffrage, therefore, being an essentially col- 1ective function as a manifestation of the exercise of sovereignty, must be granted to all members of the social body who under- stand its full value and importance. This would seem to author- ize the conclusion that the right to vote should be restricted to those individuals who have a full conception of the high import. *. * 12 of such an act, and this would naturally exclude those who through ignorance, carelessness or indifference are incapable of duly fulfilling this act, as refers to the government of the people by the people. However, and although acknowledging that the above is a theoretical truth, there are in the case of México, factors or historical antecedents which compel the acceptance of a solution different from the one which is the practical result of the principles of political science. ~ **- The revolution headed by the chiefs who agreed to the Plan de Ayutla, aimed to put an end to the military dictatorship and the oppression exerted by the wealthy classes; and as this revo- lution was made by-the oppressed, the lower classes, the ignor- ants, the Constitution of 1857 which was its result, could not, rationally, forego, the granting to all without distinction, of the right to vote, since it would have been an inconsequence to deny the people the advantages of their triumph. The revolution at the head of which I have been placed, has also aimed at the destruc- tion of the military dictatorship, uprooting it and giving to the Nation all the conditions of life necessary for its full develop- ment; and as the ignorant masses are those which have suffered most, because the full weight of cruel despotism and insatiable exploitation has fallen on them, it would be not only an incon- sequence, but an unpardonable deceit, to deprive them of what they have conquered. - The Government in my charge considers it, therefore, bad procedure and—inopportune at the present moment, after a great popular revolution, to restrict suffrage demanding the only re- quisite that can be exacted, that all citizens have sufficient elemental instruction to know the importance of the electoral function so that they can fulfill it in conditions fruitful for society. Despite this fact, in the proposed reform which I am submit- ting to this honorable body, with reference to the electoral right, the conveniency is consulted, of temporarily depriving any Mexican citizen of this right who does not know how to use his right as a Mexican correctly, any one who looks with indiffer- ence on whatever matters pertaining to the republic. His economic condition or his education would be no preventive for this barring, since they would only tend to demonstrate his lack of interest, which in itself would be sufficient for depriving him of the prerogative to vote. The Government in my charge believes that the constant de- .sire shown by the lower classes of the Mexican people to secure a welfare of which they have been deprived to date, fully capa- citates them to appoint representatives when the time comes, and to seleet those individuals which inspire them with more confidence. ` ... On the other hand, the Government resultant from the Revo- lution,-and this fact is evident to all the republic—has had a de- -13 cided interest in spreading instruction throughout the country, and this gives rise to the well-founded belief that instruction will continue to spread intensely so that all Mexicans become a cultured people, capable of understanding the high destiny of the nation and give them and the government a solid, effective co-operation which will make anarchy on the one side, and dictatorship on the other, an impossible thing. -