"VI 1 1 
 
 SB I f-
 
 ARY 
 
 TY 
 
 FROM 
 
 JIM 
 
 GIF, 
 MRS. JIM
 
 THE NEAR SIDE OF THE 
 MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 JAY S. STOWELL, M.A.
 
 THE NEAR SIDE OF THE 
 MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 BY 
 
 JAY S. STOWELL, M.A. 
 
 NEW X5JT YORK 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1921, 
 BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
 
 Co' 1 .- 
 Lfcu-y 
 
 TO MY WIFE 
 ANNE WILDER STOWELL
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 There are two sides to nearly every matter and the 
 ever-present Mexican question offers no exception to 
 this general rule. The side of this question of which 
 we hear least is that lying north of the international line, 
 yet this aspect of the situation is of^itaJLj^ncern^ta 
 jeyery citizen in the United States. The future of our 
 country is unalterably and inextricably bound up with 
 the future of Mexico and the Mexicans. Every passing 
 year but adds emphasis to this fact. The multitude of 
 Mexicans, who have found refuge within our borders 
 during the last decade, added to the not inconsiderable 
 Spanish-American element resident for a much longer 
 period here, forms a group which has become well-nigh 
 indispensable to our national life and one with which we 
 must reckon in the days to come. 
 
 It is to help the reader understand something of the 
 intimacy of our relationship to Mexico and the large 
 contribution which Mexicans and Spanish-Americans 
 are already making to our national life that this book 
 is written. If it helps at all toward a sympathetic ap- 
 proach to the common problems which Mexicans and 
 Americans must work out side by side in the days ahead, 
 it will have accomplished its purpose. 
 
 JAY S. STOWELL. 
 New York City.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE "BORDER" . . . . . . .13 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE MEXICAN AT WORK IN THE UNITED STATES . 32 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 SPANISH-AMERICANS IN NEW MEXICO ... 50 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 RELIGION . , .... . . .67 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 EDUCATION 85 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 A FORWARD LOOK 106
 
 THE NEAR SIDE OF THE 
 MEXICAN QUESTION
 
 THE NEAR SIDE OF THE 
 MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE "BORDER" 
 
 Arizona boy was recently taken by his mother for 
 his first visit to the "Border." He stood at the interna- 
 tional line and gazed in every direction. Then in disap- 
 pointment he turned to his parent and cried, "Why, 
 Mother, I don't see any Border." 
 
 The scenery on one side of the line was not particularly 
 different from that on the other; the vegetation was the 
 same; the little adobe huts on the American side looked 
 exactly like those on the Mexican side; and the people 
 were as dark-skinned on one side of the line as on the 
 other. There was a barbed wire fence, to be sure, but 
 it was not labeled, and it was not strikingly different from 
 the thousands of miles of similar fence which crisscross 
 the United States from coast to coast. 
 
 No, it was not specially surprising that the boy was 
 disappointed. Our 1,833 rniles of Mexican Border have 
 little that is spectacular to offer the visitor. The Rio 
 Grande River which flows between Texas and Mexico is, 
 at certain places and at certain seasons, an imposing 
 stream, but at other points and other seasons it is far 
 
 13
 
 14 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 from awe-inspiring. Even when it is too deep to be 
 forded, railroad bridges, foot bridges, licensed ferries, 
 and unlicensed boatmen at out-of-the-way points convert 
 the Rio Grande into the stream that unites Texas with 
 Mexico rather than separates her from Mexico. West 
 of El Paso, however, there is no Rio Grande and the 
 Border stretches for hundreds of miles to San Diego 
 and Tia Juana, marked here and there by concrete posts 
 and intermittent stretches of wire fence, but elsewhere 
 unmarked and often unguarded. The thing which im- 
 presses the traveler from Brownsville on the east to San 
 Diego on the west is the same thing which impressed the 
 boy, namely, that there is no Border. For nearly two 
 thousand miles the United States stands joined to Mexico. 
 Legally there may be a place where one nation stops and 
 another begins; an instant when you are in the United 
 States and the next instant in Mexico; but such distinc- 
 tions are artificial, and so far as our Southwestern Border 
 is concerned they can easily be over-emphasized. Human 
 nature has ever ignored artificial barriers, and human 
 nature on the Border is no exception. Life on the two 
 sides of the Border has blended to a remarkable degree. 
 
 American business men reside in the United States and 
 spend most of their waking hours in Mexico; Mexican 
 children sleep in Old Mexico and come into the United 
 States each morning to attend school; American laborers 
 work across the line in Mexico and Mexican laborers do 
 every conceivable sort of work in the United States ; 
 Mexican women purchase their groceries in the United 
 States and thousands of American women and men go 
 into Mexico to trade, to see the sights and, until recently, 
 at least, to gamble, to play the races, and to otherwise 
 disport themselves ; ministers on Sunday preach the Gos-
 
 -, THE "BORDER" 15 
 
 pel in the United States in the morning, in Old Mexico 
 in the afternoon, and again in the United States at night; 
 railroad and street car passengers get on trains in the 
 United States and ride down into Mexico, and other pas- 
 sengers get on trains in Mexico and ride across into the 
 United States; Mexican criminals seek haven in the 
 United States, and our criminals flee into Mexico. And 
 thus the list might be indefinitely continued. There are 
 important border towns in the United States which are 
 eighty-five per cent Mexican, and where Spanish is the 
 language of the home, the street and the market-place, 
 and there are Mexican towns across the line where Eng- 
 lish is practically as current as Spanish. 
 
 Added to these intimate and inevitable contacts there 
 is the bond of a large and ever-increasing international 
 trade. In spite of internal turmoil in Mexico this has 
 amounted to a large total in recent years. For the fiscal 
 year 1910 just before the resignation of President Diaz 
 .t was $ 1 1 5 ,000,000. In 1 9 1 7 the totel wias $ 1 91 ,000,000 ; 
 in 1918 $245,000,000; in 1919 $278,000,000; and for 
 1920 it is reported as over $300,000,000. Some one has 
 pointed out that our sales to the 15,000,000 people of 
 Mexico are more than our sales to the 400,000,000 people 
 of China or the 300,000,000 people of India. We import 
 sisal, petroleum, cotton, hides, copper, chick-peas, coffee, 
 mahogany, india rubber, silver and multitudinous other 
 products. In return we send Mexico quantities of manu- 
 factured articles and refined products. Before the war 
 we were supplying about one-half of Mexico's imports. 
 It is said that we are now supplying eighty-five per cent of 
 her imports and taking ninety per cent of her exports. 
 Much of the trade which conies directly across the Border 
 passes through Texas, but for the year ending June 3Oth,
 
 16 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 1919, the total imports and exports for the Arizona Dis- 
 trict were nearly $38,000,000 and for the Southern Cali- 
 fornia District nearly $20,000,000. Douglas and Nogales, 
 Arizona, and Calexico, California, have, within a few 
 years, become very important ports of entry. The large 
 investments of American capital in Mexico have been an 
 important factor in turning Mexican trade to the United 
 States. Before the war the investment of American 
 capital in Mexico was estimated at over $1,000,000,000. 
 It was recently estimated by United States Senator Fall 
 at $2,000,000,000. The War which shut off other sources 
 of supply from Mexico has perhaps been the chief factor 
 in the recent rapid growth of our trade with Mexico. 
 
 Now that the War is over the important question arises 
 whether we are to hold the trade which we acquired by 
 force of circumstances while it was in progress. The 
 attitude of the new government in Mexico toward the 
 United States becomes a matter of immediate concern to 
 many an American business man. 
 
 To many the term "Mexico" is but a synonym for 
 "revolution," and it is true that during the last decade 
 there have been several overturns in governmental au- 
 thority. Even before that period Mexico was not a 
 stranger to wars, internal dissensions, and revolutions. 
 Before the coming of the Spaniards under Cortes in 1519 
 the story of Mexico was the story of the struggle of one 
 group for supremacy over another. By 1376 the power of 
 the Aztecs was generally recognized, and they were the 
 rulers when Cortes appeared. Cortes had been in Mexico 
 City only a month, however, until he had Montezuma II, 
 the last ruler of the Aztecs and Emperor of Mexico, in 
 jail. History tells us that the reign of Montezuma II was
 
 THE "BORDER" 17 
 
 occupied "with expeditions of conquest, suppression of 
 revolts, erection of temples, and extensive immolations 
 of human victims." From 1519 until 1821 Mexico was 
 under the direct rule of Spain, exercised during the first 
 fifteen years through military governors and then through 
 Viceroys, of whom there were more than sixty. Some 
 of these were good rulers and some were bad, but in gen- 
 eral, with the exception of numerous Indian revolts, they 
 kept the people in subjection, and there was considerable 
 progress in education, mining, agriculture, drainage, com- 
 merce and similar lines. 
 
 On September 16, 1810, there began the struggle for 
 Mexican independence which lasted for more than a 
 decade, and on October 4, 1824, the first constitution of 
 the Republic of Mexico was proclaimed. There followed 
 a half century of internal dissension, during which revo- 
 lution followed revolution and Mexican affairs were in 
 continual turmoil until the coming of Porfirio Diaz. Dur- 
 ing this period the independence of Texas was won 
 (1836) and ten years later the war between Mexico and 
 the United States broke out. This resulted in a new 
 and largely modified boundary for Mexico. In 1876 Diaz 
 assumed control of Mexico and the following year he 
 was elected President of the Republic. From 1876 until 
 1911 Porfirio Diaz was the dominant figure in Mexico. 
 He established a stable government; negotiated foreign 
 treaties; extended educational facilities; established the 
 credit of Mexico; built railroads, harbor facilities, and 
 other public improvements ; and did much to regulate the 
 internal affairs of the Republic. In 1911 Francisco Ma- 
 dero overthrew the power of Diaz and was elected Presi- 
 dent. Revolts at once broke out and guerrilla warfare 
 sprang up. In 1913 Madero was forced out of the Pres-
 
 18 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 idency and four days later was murdered. General Vic- 
 toriana Huerta assumed control, and his power as pro- 
 visional President was continued until July 5th, 1914. On 
 August 2Oth, 1914, Venustiano Carranza made his tri- 
 umphal entry into Mexico City. He was soon forced out 
 of the City, however. He then set up his government at 
 Puebla and later at Vera Cruz. In one way or another 
 Carranza continued to be the dominant factor in Mexican 
 politics, until the outbreak of the revolution in Sonora, 
 April loth, 1920. Just thirty days from the outbreak of 
 this revolution Associated Press dispatches told of the 
 flight of President Carranza from the City of Mexico, 
 and on May 22nd press dispatches were telling of the 
 death of Carranza at the hands of his own troops. Adolfo 
 de la Huerta, Governor of the State of Sonora, was made 
 provisional President of the Republic, with General Al- 
 varo Obregon a strong factor in the new government and 
 candidate for the position of President. On September 
 5th, 1920, General Obregon was elected President. 
 . From such a background, optimism concerning the im- 
 mediate future of Mexico and of our relations with Mex- 
 ico can arise either because "hope springs eternal in the 
 human breast" or because there are real reasons for optim- 
 ism. Probably both factors are at work in the present 
 situation. At any rate there is a surprising amount of 
 optimism along the Border in regard to the future of con- 
 ditions in Mexico. It chanced that during the entire time 
 that the revolution was in progress I was on the Border 
 and had an opportunity to see the Border phases of it in 
 process. There was little that was spectacular, but there 
 was much that was interesting. Most interesting of all was 
 the conversation of those who were witnessing at short 
 range or were sharing in the revolution in some way. I
 
 THE "BORDER" 19 
 
 was over in Carranza's territory and also over in the rev- 
 olutionists' territory while the revolution was in progress ; 
 I talked with officials of both sides; and I talked with 
 many Americans of many sorts, some of whom had lost 
 heavily through the long continued unsettled conditions 
 in Mexico. Not once did I hear the revolution referred 
 to as "another Mexican revolution" or in any other dis- 
 paraging terms. There was a disposition everywhere to 
 take the movement seriously and to welcome it as a step 
 toward the establishment of a stable and dependable gov- "' 
 ernment in Mexico. 
 
 So far as the revolution itself was concerned it was 
 conducted with a minimum of violence and bloodshed. In 
 Sonora the revolution caused little disturbance, owing to 
 the fact that the leader of the revolution was the Governor 
 of the State. There was little or no interruption of busi- 
 ness across the border, and a visitor to Nogales or to any 
 of the other Arizona points on the Border would have 
 seen nothing to indicate that a revolution was in progress. 
 In Chihuahua General Emilio Salinas, brother-in-law of 
 Carranza and provisional Governor of the State, was im- 
 prisoned, but later allowed to escape upon payment of 
 12,000 pesos. I met General Salinas a few hours after 
 his escape and traveled with him and his young wife for 
 nearly twenty-four hours. He had formerly been Mex- 
 ican Consul in New York City. 
 
 Perhaps the severest disturbance on the Border oc- ^ 
 curred at Nuevo Laredo just across from Laredo, Texas, 
 on May gth. General Reynaldo Garza, the Carranza 
 leader, refused to surrender the town. His garrison con- 
 sisted of sixty men. The revolutionists attacked him with 
 eighty men. The battle lasted for thirty minutes, during 
 which the residents of Laredo gathered at the bank of the
 
 river just across from Nuevo Laredo. A few aeroplanes 
 added to the picturesqueness of the situation, and several 
 Mexican women provided the finishing touch by calmly 
 sweeping their sidewalks or patios while the fighting was 
 at its height. Other citizens in Nuevo Laredo watched 
 the fighting from their homes. Almost none of them 
 tried to find refuge in the United States as they had done 
 in previous times of disturbance. General Garza fought 
 for a time, and then he and his son jumped into an auto- 
 mobile and started out in a southeastern direction. The 
 machine was soon punctured by bullets, and the fugitives 
 abandoned it and soon after crossed the Rio Grande into 
 the United States, the desired haven of every hard 
 pressed soul in Mexico. During the fight rifles and auto- 
 matic pistols were the principal weapons used. The attack 
 occurred at 5 150 o'clock Sunday morning and by 7 o'clock 
 a parade of revolutionists, headed by a band and shouting 
 "Viva Obregon," filled the streets. Simultaneously a rev- 
 olutionist who had taken part in the attack appeared at 
 the river bank and shouted to the Americans across the 
 river: "We have taken the place; come over, boys!" 
 And the bell in the Catholic church at Nuevo Laredo rang 
 out notes of victory. Two hours after the fighting ceased 
 the place was as quiet and orderly as ever. The saloons 
 were kept closed all day, so there was no disturbance from 
 drunkenness. Seven were reported killed by the fighting 
 and seventeen wounded. As soon as the town was cap- 
 tured an acting mayor was appointed, a police force estab- 
 lished and the various customs, immigration and post- 
 office positions filled so that the life of the town might 
 proceed unmolested. 
 
 At many other places there was no fighting at all and 
 the transfer of authority was made without disturbance of
 
 THE "BORDER" 21 
 
 any sort. I stood on the international line at Brownsville 
 while negotiations were being made for turning over the 
 reins of authority in Matamoras just across. There was 
 some slight attempt to check passage across the line until 
 the status of affairs should have been determined and an- 
 nounced, but Mexican women with groceries and other 
 residents had little difficulty in going and coming. 
 
 The orderly conduct of the revolution and the evident l 
 desire on the part of the leaders to avoid bloodshed were 
 good omens. There is every reason to believe that the 
 revolutionists were as disappointed and grieved over the 
 sad fate which befell Carranza as were his admirers. Of 
 course it was good politics for them to be so, but it is 
 only fair to believe that their motives were humanitarian 
 rather than political. A prominent leader of the revolu- 
 tion told me while Carranza was still in Mexico City that 
 they would be delighted to have him escape, and that they 
 had already offered him safe conduct out of the country 
 if he would avail himself of it. I had at the time, and 
 still have, no reason to doubt his statement. Whether 
 Carranza underestimated the strength of the revolution, 
 or whether he felt that it was undignified for him to flee 
 from the country, he evidently did not care to avail himself 
 of the opportunity to escape. 
 
 More significant, however, than the method of con- i 
 ducting the revolution is the attitude of the present leaders 
 of Mexico toward the United States and toward the im- 
 portant questions concerning which Mexico must adopt 
 very definite policies. It is significant that the revolution 
 started in Sonora, a state which has kept on the most 
 friendly relations with the United States, which for years 
 has kept its borders free from the vice on which other 
 Mexican states have fattened, and which has given diligent
 
 22 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 attention to the building up of wholesome commercial 
 relationships with the United States. Nor have the state- 
 ments made by the leaders of Mexico since the success of 
 the revolution has been assured been disappointing. 
 Everywhere there has been a new note of sincerity, of 
 integrity of purpose, and of determined friendliness 
 toward the United States. Of course any other attitude 
 would only be folly on Mexico's part and a great disad- 
 vantage to the United States. That fact, however, does 
 not minimize the significance of Mexico's frank recogni- 
 tion of it. The leaders of Mexico know that they need 
 the friendly co-operation and assistance of the United 
 States. Possibly it would be a good thing for us if we 
 appreciated a little more clearly how much we need the 
 friendship and confidence of Mexico. 
 
 Recently (June I9th, 1920) President de la Huerta 
 gave a dinner to a number of American writers in Mexico 
 City. Some of his remarks are worthy of notice. 
 
 Speaking of conditions in Mexico, he said: "I think 
 that the economic situation will soon be better, as I have 
 noted a better atmosphere among bankers and business 
 men, although the men in power are the last to know the 
 true conditions. I may be fooled by this feeling, but it 
 would seem that we are on the road to progress." 
 
 When questioned concerning the oil situation, he re- 
 plied: "We will go half way, and I am sure that the 
 American business interests will come the other half." 
 
 He then went on to say that he wished to impress 
 upon the American people that Mexico would be more 
 than friendly, and that he personally would not permit 
 politicians for personal interests to provoke friction. 
 He said that it had been the idea of many Mexican
 
 THE "BORDER" 23 
 
 leaders to use fear of the United States as a threat over 
 Mexicans, but that he was determined to use all means 
 in his power to make clear to the United States, by deeds 
 as well as words, that Mexico and the United States 
 should and would be more than friendly. 
 
 Since the election of President Obregon he has given 
 voice to some of the ideals and policies which are to dom- 
 inate his administration. These include an honest gov- 
 ernment, amnesty for political offenders, punishment of 
 criminals, payment of the national debt, reduction of the 
 army, encouragement of agriculture and business, protec- 
 tion of foreign investments in Mexico, friendship with the 
 United States and other neighbors, development of indus- 
 try, and other similar items. 
 
 Surely those are encouraging sentiments, and we shall 
 get further along the path which leads to properly ad- 
 justed relationships with Mexico if, for the present, we 
 accept them at their face value than if we adopt an attitude 
 of suspicion. 
 
 In August (1920) General Salvador Alvarado, Min- 
 ister of Finance for the new government in Mexico, spoke 
 before a group of New York bankers and professional 
 men at the Bankers' Club in New York City. He spoke 
 frankly of the needs of Mexico after a decade of revolu- 
 tion and disorder, but he also spoke encouragingly of the 
 "newly awakened national conscience in Mexico." He 
 said in part : 
 
 "The great longing for peace, reorganization, work, 
 and prosperity is equally strong in the banker as in the 
 farmer, the merchant, or the cattle raiser, the skilled 
 worker or the common laborer; all are ready to settle 
 down and work. This enthusiasm, confidence, and optim-
 
 24 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 ism are the surest signs that the revolutionary era is over 
 in Mexico, at least so far as the present generation is 
 concerned. 
 
 "The new government of Mexico formed mostly of 
 young and progressive men who joined the revolution only 
 because they thought it was their duty to do so, is con- 
 scious of the state of mind of the country, as well as of 
 Mexico's duty, if Mexico wants to be considered as a 
 member of the community of civilized nations. 
 
 "This government has drafted a vast plan for the recon- 
 struction and reorganization of the country, covering all 
 national activities. 
 
 "You may not believe it, but it is nevertheless true that 
 all our trains are running on schedule, that all public 
 services are in normal operation, and our crops this year 
 will be the largest on record. And as to any anti-foreign 
 sentiment, I can assure you that none exists ; on the con- 
 trary there is probably on the surface of the earth no other 
 people more hospitable and warm-hearted toward foreign- 
 ers than the Mexicans. I wish to say that before I came 
 to this country I heard also of an intense anti-Mexican 
 feeling prevailing in the United States, but I wish to state 
 that my two visits have completely convinced me that 
 such sentiment does not exist. The same thing is true 
 about Mexico." 
 
 To be sure these are only words, but they are reassuring 
 words both because of the sentiments which they express 
 and of the evident sincerity which is back of them. Up 
 to the time of this writing we have had no reason for 
 refusing to take them at their face value. 
 
 When the chairman introduced Sefior Alvarado at the 
 gathering mentioned above, he referred half humorously 
 to the fact that he was under no embarrassment in enter- 
 taining General Alvarado in spite of the fact that the
 
 THE "BORDER" 25 
 
 country had become dry, because the visitor himself had 
 the distinction of being the original prohibitionist of 
 Mexico. He went on to explain that as Governor of 
 Yucatan under Carranza General Alvarado had made that 
 state dry. Yucatan, however, has not been the only dry 
 spot in Mexico, for Sonora at least has been dry, or largely 
 so, for some time. This condition existed under Governor 
 Calles even before de la Huerta became Governor of the 
 State. When Agua Prieta went dry a Chinese evidently 
 did not take the matter seriously. He opened a saloon, 
 but he was in jail before night. A little later saloons at 
 border points were permitted to sell liquor to American 
 visitors. This soon became a nuisance, however, and the 
 saloons of Sonora were tightly closed once more. 
 
 Mexico still has a long road to travel before her political 
 and social life can be organized on a genuinely demo- 
 cratic basis. Education must be extended and common 
 ideals inculcated before this can be achieved, but, although 
 no one can foresee what accidents are in store, there is 
 no apparent reason why Mexico should not travel this 
 road with no more than the ordinary misadventures. Al- 
 though a republic in name, Mexico has really had no 
 experience in self-government until the last ten years, 
 and if she has made a good many mistakes she has also 
 learned a good many lessons which should be of ines- 
 timable value in the years ahead. As her neighbor we 
 are profoundly interested both from altruistic and selfish 
 motives in Mexico's welfare. 
 
 One of the first matters which confronted the new Mex- 
 ican government was what to do with Lower California, 
 perhaps the one outstanding area where the revolution 
 did not seem to "take," and a region in which Americans 
 of several sorts had become deeply interested.
 
 26 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 While the revolution was still in progress I asked T. R. 
 Beltran, an agent of the revolutionists, "What do you 
 plan to do with Lower California and Governor Cantu?" 
 
 He replied, "We will give him a chance to come in, and 
 then if he refuses we shall be obliged to go and compel 
 him to come in." 
 
 In line with this policy, the new government very soon 
 sent word to Governor Cantu to come to Mexico City and 
 report. Now for ten years Cantu had not been in the 
 habit of reporting to anybody, and very naturally he did 
 not comply with the demand of the government. For 
 the first time in many years, therefore, an expedition to 
 Lower California was organized; Cantu was ousted from 
 his position of authority; he departed for the United 
 States, and LuJs Salazar took control of the "lost state." 
 For ten years the central government of Mexico had been 
 too busy to concern itself with Lower California. During 
 that time Esteban Cantu went on his way unmolested by 
 governmental interference or by revolutionary uprisings. 
 He built up a little private kingdom within a republic, 
 and, naturally, that could not permanently continue. He 
 had a few troubles of his own. At one time considerable 
 dissatisfaction developed among the natives over the im- 
 portant concessions which Cantu granted to foreigners, 
 particularly the Chinese and Japanese. By taking precau- 
 tions, however, Cantu was able to ward off what seemed 
 like impending trouble, and to continue to do pretty much 
 as he pleased. 
 
 Lower California is a mountainous peninsula 750 miles 
 long and from thirty to one hundred and forty miles wide. 
 It forms the most western part of Mexico and comprises 
 an area of 58,343 square miles, or a little more than the 
 area of Wisconsin. It is separated from the rest of Mex-
 
 THE "BORDER" 27 
 
 ico by the Gulf of California, by an almost impassable 
 desert in the western part of Sonora, and by the Colorado 
 River. Much of its area is uninhabited and uninhabit- 
 able, but there are some outstanding exceptions along the 
 western coast and the northern border. In 1910 the pop- 
 ulation was 52,244. It is doubtless considerably larger 
 than that now as the last ten years have witnessed remark- 
 able developments at several points. For some time the 
 capital of Lower California has been located at Ensenada 
 de Todos Santos on the west coast. A fine automobile 
 road runs from here to Tia Juana between the ocean and 
 the mountains, and Tia Juana just across the line from 
 San Diego, California, is connected with San Diego both 
 by trolley and by railroad. Ensenada, Tia Juana, and 
 Mexicali further east, just across from Calexico, Cali- 
 fornia, are the three most important places in Lower Cali- 
 fornia. The interest of Americans is chiefly in the two 
 border points, Tia Juana and Mexicali. 
 
 Mexicali on the Mexican side of the line and Calexico 
 on the American side form in reality a single community 
 with a combined population of approximately 16,000, two- 
 thirds of which is on the Mexican side of the line. Of the 
 total population there are perhaps 7,000 Mexicans, 4,000 
 Chinese (chiefly in Mexicali) and 5,000 of American or 
 mixed stocks. These two towns lie in the heart of the 
 rich Imperial Valley, which has within recent years been 
 transformed by the waters of the Colorado River from 
 one of the most absolute deserts in the world to a verit- 
 able garden spot. In 1918 the assessed valuation of the 
 irrigated land in this region was approximately $36,000,- 
 ooo; the same year the value of the farm products was 
 $50,000,000. In 1910 there were only 793 people in
 
 28 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 Calexico, and 650 in Mexicali. A very large import and 
 export trade with Mexico has sprung up at this point. In 
 1918 this totaled $9,521,000, as compared with $7,877,000 
 for the five other ports of the District of Southern Cali- 
 fornia, including Los Angeles and San Diego. 
 
 Cotton is one of the chief products of this section, par- 
 ticularly on the Mexican side, where Chinese, who have 
 been granted important concessions by Governor Cantu, 
 are raising thousands of acres of cotton. Large cotton 
 gins are located at Mexicali. The Chinese who work 
 here have come, many of them, through the United States, 
 and it is a not uncommon sight to see a carload of new 
 recruits, landed at some American port, but destined for 
 Lower California, passing through to Mexico in a locked 
 car with heavily barred windows. 
 
 The water which renders productive the land on the 
 Mexican side of the Border is from the same source as 
 that which is used for a similar purpose on the American 
 side. It comes from the Colorado River, but it passes 
 down through a portion of Mexico before it returns to 
 water the Imperial Valley in the United States. This 
 fact has given rise to many conjectures as to what might 
 happen if we were to get into difficulty with Mexico, and 
 has led to extended discussions in Congress concerning 
 the possibility of an "all-American ditch." Those who 
 were watching this project some years ago will remember 
 how the river broke bounds, and for nearly two years 
 poured its water down into the Valley, forming the now 
 famous Salton Sea and threatening to inundate the entire 
 region. President Roosevelt's appeal to Congress for 
 help was unheeded, and the Southern Pacific Railroad, 
 under the direction of Mr. Harriman, finally closed the 
 gap, although it involved running trains of new steel cars
 
 THE "BORDER" 29 
 
 loaded with rocks and dumping them, cars and all, into 
 the break. All of this expense was later charged back 
 against the land in the Valley. 
 
 Governor Cantu had, however, other sources of revenue 
 than legitimate business, and he waxed fat under his vari- 
 ous revenues, particularly from commercialized vice. A 
 count in Mexicali, while he was in control, showed ten 
 pool rooms, twenty-one saloons, two Chinese gambling 
 houses with lotteries, one bull ring, and a theatre, gam- 
 bling house, bar and house of prostitution combined. 
 This latter institution, which was owned and operated by 
 three Americans and was directly controlled and managed 
 by one of them, occupied the most conspicuous square in 
 the center of town. It was said to pay $22,000 per month 
 into Governor Cantu's pocket as a license fee and to have 
 had a total overhead expense of $40,000 per month. The 
 150 American, Negro, and Mexican women housed here 
 paid a monthly license fee said to be $27.50 each, a daily 
 rental of two dollars each, and an inspection fee of two 
 dollars per week. The principal owner of this institution 
 is commonly rated as a millionaire, and one of his reported 
 stock remarks was, "Every man in the Imperial Valley is 
 working for me." During the War this institution took 
 $70,000 worth of Liberty Bonds at one time. 
 
 The other great center of vice in Lower California was 
 Tia Juana. Here a race track and multitudinous other in- 
 stitutions attracted regularly thousands of visitors who 
 either liked the excitement of a place where the "lid was 
 off" or who were seeking to earn a living by some ques- 
 tionable method. Transportation was made easy by rail- 
 road, bus, and electric car service from San Diego. 
 The whole situation was demoralizing, both locally and 
 nationally.
 
 30 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 One of the finest things which the new government in 
 Mexico has done is to clean up the resorts both here and 
 at Mexicali, and to declare its policy of establishing a 
 "dry zone" along the Border. Under the conditions which 
 have been permitted to exist along the Border it was hard 
 for Mexico to develop any feeling of respect for America 
 and Americans, and in the same way Mexico's reputation 
 suffered among Americans because of the unfavorable 
 impression which the Border presented of conditions in 
 Mexico. The entire situation was against the development 
 of those wholesome relations between the two sides of 
 the Border which should exist, if our mutual business, 
 social, and political interests are to be cared for and a 
 firm foundation laid for future prosperity. 
 
 The United States has perhaps been equally responsible 
 with Mexico for the unfortunate conditions which have 
 existed at so many points along the Border, for we have 
 many times furnished both the capital and the patronage 
 which has made vice profitable. At any rate, we may all 
 rejoice at what seems like the dawning of a better day 
 with a less murky atmosphere for our Mexican Border. 
 We have a chance here to help Mexico maintain the stand- 
 ards which she has set up. It is significant and not par- 
 ticularly to our credit that, when President de la Huerta 
 tried for the first time to limit the sale of liquor in Mexico 
 City, the American press reported that the Mexicans took 
 the decision without protest, while Americans in the City 
 made vigorous protestations against this interference with 
 their "rights." 
 
 So far as the United States is concerned, the Mexican 
 problem is inescapable. It is to our direct advantage to 
 see Mexico prosper in every way. Our relations with her
 
 THE "BORDER" 31 
 
 must be placed upon the sure foundations of morality, 
 integrity, and Christian neighborliness. Everything that 
 makes for the establishment of those conditions we may 
 well encourage. Mexico has passed through some difficult 
 days and, before these words are read, some dissension 
 in her government may threaten her peace, but in spite of 
 misadventures there is every reason to believe that the 
 leaders and the common people of Mexico are tired of 
 turmoil, and that with our help they stand ready to work 
 out an altogether new future for themselves. Whether 
 this be true or not, it is true that the expulsive power of 
 the recent revolutions in Mexico has placed the Mexican 
 in a position to build himself into the future of our own 
 country in quite a new way. Without much ado he has 
 gone at the job, and the indications are that he will "make 
 good" at it.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE MEXICAN AT WORK IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 THE emigration of Mexicans to the United States began 
 something over three hundred years ago. There is no 
 record that the stream has ever stopped, but it is only 
 within the last decade that the tiny rivulet has swelled 
 to proportions sufficient to attract attention. Since 1911, 
 however, every overturn of the political craft in Mexico 
 has been followed by the eager scramble of a certain pro- 
 portion of the survivors to find refuge in the United 
 States. Some of these newcomers have been political 
 refugees who have suddenly discovered that the climate 
 of the United States was far more healthful and salubrious 
 than the climate of Mexico, but multitudes of others have 
 been simple Mexican peons, who, for one reason or an- 
 other, have found life intolerable in Old Mexico, and have 
 been attracted by the superior economic and educational 
 opportunities which the United States seemed to offer. 
 /^ The wealthier refugees have settled in many centers 
 I from Los Angeles, El Paso, San Antonio, Laredo and 
 J other Border towns to New York and other eastern cities. 
 ^ The poor Mexican has for lack of means usually been 
 I forced to make his first stand at some point close to the 
 / Border. Later, as opportunities have offered, he has 
 found his way to more distant regions. 
 
 We already had a large Spanish-speaking element with 
 Mexican affiliations and of Mexican extraction in our 
 
 32
 
 THE MEXICAN IN THE UNITED STATES 33 
 
 country, particularly in the Southwest. Although the tra- 
 ditions and environment of Spanish-Americans and Mex- 
 icans are quite different in many respects, yet in others 
 they are almost identical. The mere fact that they speak 
 a common language helps to blend the two elements into 
 one common group. Just how large this group is, it is 
 not easy to state. It is frankly admitted by immigration 
 officials that many of these newcomers have entered the 
 United States over unauthorized paths, and no record 
 has, therefore, been kept of them. The limited appro- 
 priations for the Immigration Bureau have made an ade- 
 quate Border patrol impossible. Possibly the zeal of of- 
 ficials has also been dampened by the fact that farmers 
 and ranchers in the Border states have been very glad to 
 welcome Mexican laborers regardless of the path by which 
 they may have arrived. Once in the United States they 
 form a constantly shifting group very difficult to enumer- 
 ate, and totals are further complicated by the fact that 
 thousands of Spanish-Americans are, for census purposes, 
 "Americans of American parentage." In view of the fact 
 that the Mexican is legally a "white" man, his totals do 
 not apppear in any race grouping based on the color of 
 the skin. 
 
 The best estimate available at the present writing indi- 
 cates that there are approximately 1,500,00x3 Mexicans 
 and Spanish-Americans in the United States at present. 
 Texas has the largest group of any of the states, and 
 recent estimates indicate that her total population of Mex- 
 icans and Spanish-Americans approximates 450,000. The 
 Secretary of State's office in New Mexico estimates that 
 the state is at least sixty per cent Spanish-American. This 
 would give a total for New Mexico of approximately
 
 34 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 220,000 Spanish-Americans. A man who has studied the 
 situation in Arizona for years says that there are more 
 than 100,000 in Arizona, and the Spanish-speaking pop- 
 ulation of California has recently been estimated as ap- 
 proaching 250,000. Whatever the exact numbers may 
 be, their name is "legion," and they are to be found not 
 only in our Border states but by thousands in Colorado, 
 Nevada, Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma, Indiana, Illinois, 
 Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York, New England and 
 in many other states both east and west. The largest 
 single colony in the United States is perhaps at San 
 Antonio, Texas, which is said to have a Mexican popula- 
 tion of 50,000. El Paso, Texas, is reported fifty-five 
 per cent Mexican, and Los Angeles, California, has a 
 Mexican population of 30,000. 
 
 During the War the shortage of common labor in the 
 Southwest led to the admission under special permit of 
 otherwise inadmissible aliens. Since the war this custom 
 has been continued, and three clauses of the immigration 
 law have for the purpose been suspended, namely, the lit- 
 eracy test, the head tax, and the contract labor clauses. 
 Under this special provision thousands of Mexican labor- 
 ers have been admitted to the United States. A very 
 careful record with a photograph of each immigrant thus 
 admitted is kept and the employer becomes responsible for 
 the return of the immigrant. In case there is trouble, 
 deportation may take place at the employer's expense. 
 Owing to the admission of these laborers, vast areas of 
 irrigated land which would otherwise have remained 
 untilled have been producing bountiful crops. 
 
 Mexicans in the United States have distinguished them- 
 selves in a number of fields of labor. Thus on the rail- 
 roads of our country they have made a large place for
 
 THE MEXICAN IN THE UNITED STATES 35 
 
 themselves not only in the Southwest, but from the Pa- 
 cific Coast through to our eastern states. On January 
 1 3th, 1920, the Santa Fe Railroad reported as employed 
 on its Western Lines in the states of Kansas, Colorado, 
 New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma 6,077 Mexicans. A 
 large proportion of these men were employed on track 
 work, but some were engaged in cleaning cinder pits, 
 wiping engines, cleaning cars, icing cars, loading stock 
 and similar occupations. Others were reported working 
 as machinists and boilermakers, and engaged in similar 
 occupations in the mechanical department. At about the 
 same time there were reported on the Eastern Lines of 
 the same railroad approximately 4,200 Mexicans. About 
 ten per cent of this number were employed in the mechan- 
 ical department in shops and roundhouses and the remain- 
 der principally on track work. This division covers part 
 of Kansas and Oklahoma as well as Missouri and Illinois. 
 On the Coast Lines of the Santa Fe there were employed 
 about 4,000 Mexicans. Thus on this one railroad some- 
 thing over 14,000 Mexicans were employed. The man- 
 ager of the Western Lines says of their record as laborers, 
 "While not as energetic or competent as white men, they 
 are as a rule satisfactory for track work and other work 
 of that nature, and probably more so than other alien 
 labor which can be secured for this purpose." 
 
 On the Pennsylvania railroad Mexicans have been em- 
 ployed in limited numbers at various points between New 
 York and Pittsburgh and Buffalo. The General Manager 
 of the Eastern Lines of this railroad says of their work, 
 "As a class they were among the best track laborers of 
 any foreign nationality." Numerous other railroads, par- 
 ticularly in the West and the Southwest, are largely 
 dependent upon Mexican labor.
 
 36 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 In the growing of sugar beets the Mexican has become 
 next to indispensable. The new and rapidly developing 
 beet sugar industry of the United States could never have 
 made the enormous strides which it has made in recent 
 years had it not been for Mexican assistance. You may 
 travel from the far western beet fields of Southern Cali- 
 fornia to the northern areas of Idaho or the eastern beet 
 sections of Michigan and everywhere you will find Mex- 
 icans working patiently and efficiently in the beet fields, 
 driving the heavy wagons loaded with beets and assisting 
 about the beet sugar factories. It was largely to increase 
 the production of sugar beets that the special arrangement 
 for the admission of contract labor from Mexico was 
 made. The raising of sugar beets is of course a seasonal 
 occupation, and the introduction of Mexican labor into 
 the beet fields has brought with it some of the problems 
 which come with seasonal employment. A newspaper 
 item dated October 27, 1919, at Pocatello, Idaho, tells 
 of the difficulty which Idaho faces with several thousand 
 Mexicans on hand and nothing for them to do after the 
 beet season is over, and then quotes the local federal 
 immigration inspector as follows : 
 
 "I'll be hanged if I know what to think of it, or what 
 to do about it. We need these Mexican laborers at cer- 
 tain seasons of the year to do work that American laborers 
 will not do. They are needed and needed badly to culti- 
 vate the beets and to harvest them. They were brought 
 here under a special agreement with the labor department 
 in 1918 to save the sugar beet crop. It was agreed that 
 they were to have the same wages paid to other laborers, 
 and this looked big to them. But their work only lasts 
 a few weeks in the early summer and another few weeks 
 in the late fall. They begin weeding beets in the latter
 
 THE MEXICAN IN THE UNITED STATES 37 
 
 part of May or June ist, and when beet harvest comes on 
 they have worked up to about the middle of November. 
 What are they to do between these periods ? They cannot 
 earn enough to live a year on these few weeks' work." 
 
 Similar situations exist in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, 
 Iowa, Nebraska, and other states, but that does not change 
 the fact that the Mexican has made a large place for him- 
 self in the sugar beet industry which is to-day supplying 
 millions of pounds of sugar for domestic consumption in 
 the United States. 
 
 In Southern California the Mexican does not, however, 
 confine his activities to the sugar beet industry. He may 
 be seen working in the orange orchards, helping in the 
 large groves of English walnut trees, or dominating the 
 lima bean enterprise of the immense "lima bean empire" 
 of that rich state. In fact, there is hardly a fruit or a 
 vegetable of any sort in California in the production or 
 distribution of which the Mexican is not having a part. 
 Around Los Angeles and other centers Mexicans have) 
 recently been employed in the raising of flowers for the S 
 floral trade, and it has been discovered that they are( 
 exceptionally well adapted to this fine art. 
 
 In this connection a prominent florist of California 
 says: 
 
 "Mexicans are coming to be the finest florists that we 
 can secure. The Japanese and Belgians, both specifically 
 trained in their countries to do this work, are not as good 
 as the Mexicans. Several nurseries and florists, that I 
 know of, are turning off their Japanese and other em- 
 ployees and are taking on Mexicans." 
 
 In many states of the West, such as Arizona, New 
 Mexico, Texas, Colorado and the states farther north,
 
 38 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 Mexican cowboys care for uncounted thousands of cattle ; 
 and Mexican herders tend multitudes of sheep. The 
 loneliness of this latter occupation has few terrors for 
 the Mexican, and he will uncomplainingly take his sheep 
 out into the wilderness and care for them alone when 
 other workmen will refuse to undertake the task. Thus 
 the Mexican is having a large part in the production of 
 the wool for our clothing, the leather for our shoes and 
 the beef for the nourishment of our bodies. 
 
 At mining the Mexican is particularly skillful. An 
 American who has for many years been mining with Mex- 
 icans describes them as "natural miners." In coal, copper, 
 gold, silver, and many other sorts of mining projects in 
 the West and Southwest the Mexican is playing an 
 important part. 
 
 Possibly no single state has profited so generously from 
 Mexican labor as has Texas. This state is now at the 
 very head of the procession of agricultural states, and 
 the thing which has made this rapid advance possible has 
 been Mexican labor. In 1919 Texas ranked third among 
 the states in the production of corn, with 202,800,000 
 bushels to her credit. At the same time Texas produced 
 2,700,000 bales of cotton, or more than one-fifth of the 
 total national crop. And Texas realizes her indebtedness 
 to the Mexican. John B. Carrington, Secretary of the 
 San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, is quoted by Gerald 
 B. Breitigam as saying in this connection: 
 
 "We couldn't do it if we didn't have the labor. Yes, 
 3ir, we are dependent upon the Mexican farm labor supply 
 and we know it. Mexican farm labor is rapidly proving 
 the making of this state." 
 
 In many places in Texas the Mexican has entirely dis-
 
 THE MEXICAN IN THE UNITED STATES 39 
 
 placed the Negro or made his services unnecessary, and 
 his activities in agriculture are not limited to any one 
 crop. Recently a town in Southern Texas announced that 
 for the 1920 season it had already shipped 1,058 carloads 
 of Bermuda onions, and the season was only partly over. 
 Practically all of these onions were produced by Mexican 
 labor. In a similar way the Mexican shared in the pro- 
 duction of Texas' many other crops. Surely these facts 
 are of national significance at a time when foodstuffs are 
 well-nigh prohibitive in price. 
 
 Possibly one of the most interesting projects dependent 
 upon Mexican labor in the United States is to be found 
 in the Salt River Valley of Arizona. A few years ago 
 this valley was as utter and absolute a desert as could 
 be found in any part of the United States; to-day there 
 are few places more productive. The backbone of this 
 project is the Roosevelt Dam and the water for irrigation 
 which it supplies. This dam, begun September 20, 1906, 
 and completed February 5, 1911, is 284 feet high. It 
 not only supplies the water which is fed out to the thirsty 
 land in the valley through some 800 miles of main canals, 
 but it also is the means of creating thousands of horse- 
 power of electric current. This current is used, among 
 other things, to pump still more water from wells in the 
 valley, so that altogether there are 300,000 acres of irri- 
 gated land in the valley. It is predicted that by 1921 this 
 area will be increased to 400,000 acres. On these acres 
 many crops are grown, including alfalfa, cotton, barley, 
 corn, wheat, oats, sorghum, cantaloupes, oranges, grape- 
 fruit, olives, apricots, peaches, Irish potatoes, sweet pota- 
 toes, lettuce, beans, and small fruit. For some years cot- 
 ton has been the largest single crop. In 1917 16,200 bales 
 were raised, in 1918 there were 34,000 bales and in 1919
 
 40 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 60,000 bales. In 1919 more than 90,000 acres of land 
 were devoted to the raising of cotton here; in 1920 this 
 acreage had increased to nearly 150,000 acres, and the 
 yield will be proportionately enlarged. The cotton grown 
 here is known as "Pima" cotton. It is a sport developed 
 from Egyptian cotton introduced by the United States 
 government for experimental purposes. The fiber is un- 
 usually long and fine, with the result that this cotton is 
 eagerly sought after for making the fabric of automobile 
 tires, aeroplane and balloon materials, and mercerized 
 goods. Automobile tire concerns have already invested 
 millions of dollars in the growing of cotton in this 
 Valley. In February, 1920, this cotton sold as high as 
 97/^2 cents per pound. The cotton crop for the season 
 1919-1920 was valued at $20,000,000 and the total prod- 
 ucts for the valley at $45,000,000. The other shipments 
 included 200 carloads of lettuce, 1,900 carloads of canta- 
 loupes and many other things. 
 
 The significant fact for our present purposes, however, 
 is that millions of dollars of invested capital are here de- 
 pendent for their productiveness upon Mexican labor. 
 Added to the Spanish-speaking laborers already available, 
 thousands of contract laborers have been shipped into this 
 region. During the winter of 1919-1920 4,000 of these 
 workers were retained throughout the winter, lest the 
 same conditions of return might not be permitted during 
 the spring of 1920. It developed that the special plan for 
 admitting laborers was continued, but there was work on 
 roads and construction projects sufficient during the 
 winter to keep the thousands who were retained busy, so 
 there was no loss. In fact, it was felt that it would be 
 worth while to feed these Mexicans during the winter at 
 the expense of the growers rather than to run the risk
 
 THE MEXICAN IN THE UNITED STATES 41 
 
 of losing their assistance the following year, for as one 
 grower employing forty-five families of Mexicans said, 
 "We would go bankrupt at once without the Mexicans." 
 
 The list of occupations in which Mexicans are to be 
 found in increasing numbers is almost limitless. There 
 are Mexican storekeepers, laundrymen, barbers, clerks, 
 chauffeurs, printers, streets weepers, newsvenders, boot- 
 blacks, window-cleaners, gardeners, cobblers, expressmen, 
 meat-cutters, scrub-women, factory workers, ranchers, 
 teamsters, carpenters, plumbers, and many others. Nor 
 does this complete the list. One of the leading, if not the 
 leading surgeon in a large Southwestern city is a Mexican 
 Indian. f^A. recent Governor of a Southwestern state 
 is a Mexican by birth and an American by adoption. 
 There are Mexican or Mex-American judges, state leg- 
 islators, lawyers, ministers, social workers, court report- 
 ersTand teachers. It is perhaps fair to say that there is 
 not an individual in the United States who is not directly 
 or indirectly indebted to the Mexicans who have crossed 
 the Border and who are at work in the United States. 
 Surely every one of us would feel the pinch of it if the 
 Mexican should by some mysterious process be suddenly 
 removed from our midst. Proceeding humbly, quietly, 
 and unheralded, he has made himself indispensable to our 
 welfare. 
 
 And these Mexicans who do so many different things 
 for us are as a class good workers. One man who had 
 been employing Mexican labor on a large scale for twenty- 
 seven years said in reply to a question relative to hia 
 opinion of Mexican labor, "If any one tries to tell 
 that the Mexican is not a good worker, you may tell him 7" 
 for me that he does not know what he is talking about." j 
 Another man employing a large number of Mexicans in-
 
 42 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 the raising of cotton was asked what he thought of Mex- 
 ican labor and why he did not endeavor to get Negro help. 
 He replied, "The Mexican is a good, faithful worker, 
 always quiet and orderly, and we would not for a moment 
 think of exchanging him for Negro help." Similar tes- 
 timony comes from many different sources. 
 
 The Mexican who comes across the international line 
 to work in the United States does not, however, come 
 alone. He brings his wife and family with him. This is 
 true Mexican custom, for the Mexican has been accus- 
 tomed to take his women folks along to provide food, 
 even when he has been serving in the army. It is quite 
 different from the custom of immigrants from many other 
 countries. Possibly the nearness of Mexico to the United 
 States and the ease with which the journey across the 
 line can be made have something to do with the matter. 
 On a recent visit to an immigration office on the Border, 
 a card picked at random from the files showed that the 
 Mexican 'whose record it contained had brought with him 
 a wife and nine children into the United States. This 
 instance is more or less typical, for the Mexican families 
 are large. A group of Mexican laborers, therefore, means 
 at once a new Mexican settlement in the United States 
 or an old one enlarged, and since an overwhelming propor- 
 tion of the Mexicans who come into the country are very 
 poor various social problems are more or less inevitable 
 in every Mexican colony. 
 
 When the average Mexican immigrant arrives he brings 
 little or nothing with him except the clothes on his back, 
 yet what he brings represents his entire earthly posses- 
 sions. He finds himself a stranger in a strange land, the 
 language of which he does not understand. Of course 
 the fact that many of his fellow-countrymen have pre-
 
 ceded him helps him at this point as at others. He moves 
 into the cheapest shack which he can find, or he shares 
 the already overcrowded space allotted to a previously 
 arriving immigrant. One case of this kind which came 
 to the writer's attention recently was that of a family of 
 eleven living in one room, the use of which was donated 
 free by a poor Mexican woman whose heart was touched 
 by the need of a fellow-Mexican. Even when a place of 
 abode is found the difficulties of the newcomer are not 
 ended. Unless he is a contract laborer brought in by an 
 employer who immediately needs his services, he must at 
 once find employment in order to supply the necessities of 
 life to himself and his family. If he is in the city, he 
 may go to an employment office conducted by some church 
 or other social agency, and there be told of a place where 
 help is needed. He takes the address and starts out, but 
 his timidity, his ignorance of the English language, and 
 his general inexperience make it impossible for him to 
 find the place toward which he is supposed to be bound. 
 This circumstance happens often enough to make it a real 
 problem for volunteer employment agencies which are en- 
 deavoring to be of service to the Mexican immigrant. 
 Thus in many ways the path of the newly-arrived Mexican 
 in the United States is far from a rosy one. If perchance 
 the situation is complicated by sickness in the family or 
 of the bread-winner himself, the entire family is at once 
 reduced to desperate straits. 
 
 The houses which the Mexican finds available for his 
 occupancy when he arrives are for the most part small 
 adobe huts or wooden shacks. Now, it must not be 
 thought that adobe in itself is necessarily an inferior 
 building material for use in a dry climate, for some of 
 the best buildings in the Southwest are of adobe construe-
 
 44 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 tion, but a one-room adobe hut with a dirt floor is a no 
 more suitable place for establishing a home than is a 
 wooden shack under the same conditions. When the num- 
 ber of rooms is increased to two, or three, or four, the 
 situation is of course by that much improved. Tens of 
 thousands of these little homes occupied by Mexicans and 
 Spanish-Americans may be seen scattered throughout the 
 Southwest. In the cities the situation is often not ma- 
 terially different, except that congestion tends to be in- 
 creased both as to the houses themselves and as to the 
 number of individuals living in a particular house. Here 
 the house court, the remodeled residence, and the shack 
 rented at exorbitant rentals abound. A recent study of 
 the housing situation among Mexicans in Los Angeles 
 showed that one per cent of the families lived in one-room 
 houses, two per cent in two-room houses, twenty-four per 
 cent in three-room houses, thirty per cent in four-room 
 houses, and twenty per cent in five-room houses. This 
 condition represented an improvement over the situation 
 revealed by a survey in 1912 when eighteen per cent of 
 the people were reported as living in one-room houses and 
 sixty per cent in two-room houses. In spite of improve^ 
 ment, housing conditions in the Mexican quarter of Los 
 Angeles are very bad and they are perhaps fairly typical 
 of conditions to be found in other congested city centers/ 
 where Mexicans are dwelling. In Los Angeles twen 
 eight per cent of the habitations studied had no sinks, 
 thirty-two per cent had no lavatories in the houses, and 
 seventy-nine per cent had no baths. Of these houses only 
 five per cent were classed by the Housing Commission as 
 good; more than half were rated as poor or very bad. 
 In spite of unsatisfactory conditions, rents have been rap-
 
 THE MEXICAN IN THE UNITED STATES 45 
 
 idly advanced until the housing problem has become a 
 serious one for the Mexican in more aspects than one. 
 
 The food of the Mexican is on the same unsatisfactory 
 level as are his housing conditions. Often this is due to 
 dire poverty; possibly more often to ignorance concerning 
 the simplest facts related to an adequate diet. Every- 
 where throughout the Southwest the Mexican is a steady 
 and consistent consumer of beans. Beans form the staple 
 article of diet, and, under unfortunate conditions, the only 
 article. Under better conditions the beans are supple- 
 mented by tortillas, coffee, chili, and meat when it can be 
 secured. Owing to the warm climate, flies and other un- 
 sanitary conditions, even this is not always wholesome. 
 Unfortunately the Mexican in the United States appears 
 to consume very few dairy products. He uses very little 
 milk, no butter, and only a small amount of cheese. There 
 is reason to believe that much of the sickness among the 
 Mexicans and the apparent lack of energy at times is due 
 to insufficient nourishment. Social workers tell of sick 
 babies covered with sores made well in a short space of 
 time merely by changing the diet from beans to milk, 
 and boarding-school superintendents tell of remarkable 
 physical transformations on the part of pupils with an ac- 
 companying rebirth of animal spirits merely by the change 
 from the home food to the more adequate diet of the 
 school dining-room. One of the outstanding needs of the 
 Mexican in the Southwest is some definite instruction in 
 food values and some training in the preparation of food- 
 stuffs. To some extent the schools are beginning to ren- 
 der a real ministry at this point among the boys and girls, 
 but as yet only a beginning has been made. As to the 
 matter of actual relief some social centers already give
 
 out milk daily to children and to tuberculosis sufferers and 
 others. 
 
 Naturally the entire question of health is closely bound 
 up with that of food and housing. It is not to be expected 
 that, with unsatisfactory and unsanitary houses and with 
 poor and inadequate food, the health of Mexicans will be 
 of the best. As a matter of fact, disease is prevalent and 
 the death rate is high. Thus in Los Angeles it was dis- 
 covered that while the rate of infant mortality for the City 
 as a whole was 54 to 1,000, the rate for Mexican babies 
 was 152 to 1,000. In other words, a Mexican baby born 
 in Los Angeles has just one-third the chance to survive 
 as has the average baby for the entire city. Of the total 
 deaths for the City of Los Angeles for the year 1918- 
 1919 1 1. 1 per cent were deaths of Mexicans, although the 
 Mexican population of the city was only five per cent of 
 the total population. Tuberculosis is one of the prevalent 
 diseases, and a tuberculosis map of Los Angeles coincides 
 in important details to a map showing the Mexican resi- 
 dence section of the city. The causes given for these un- 
 satisfactory health conditions are the low wage, poor and 
 insufficient food, overcrowding and lack of ventilation, 
 lack of facilities for cleanliness, ignorance in regard to 
 personal hygiene, and the prevalence of flies. In other 
 sections of the Southwest social diseases are prevalent and 
 much suffering is caused by them. , 
 
 The entire question of wages has a large bearing upon / 
 living conditions. The Los Angeles study showed that/ 
 seventy-two per cent of all the Mexicans employed in the 
 city were working as laborers; fourteen per cent were 
 listed as skilled workers ; seven per cent as in the profes- \ 
 sions; and five per cent were reported as unemployed. 
 Before the war daily wages were as low as $1.60. More
 
 THE MEXICAN IN THE UNITED STATES 47 
 
 recent studies show the average wage of the Mexican 
 laborer in Los Angeles as $3.45 per day. Inquiries in 
 different parts of the Southwest would seem to indicate 
 that daily wages for laborers varied from approximately 
 $2.50 to $4.00. Sheep herders are paid in certain sections 
 from $90 to $110 per month and other ranch labor is 
 secured for less than that amount. In the mild climate 
 of many parts of the Southwest wages go farther than 
 they would in a more rigorous climate, but it should also 
 be remembered that employment is by no means constant, 
 and that often the earnings of a few weeks must be made 
 to stretch over much longer periods or else seasons of 
 want soon follow those of plenty for the Mexican house- 
 hold. The fact that so many of the Mexicans in the 
 United States are poor does not by any means necessarily 
 imply that they are by nature improvident. It often 
 simply registers an income inadequate to cover the needs 
 of a large and growing family. Some means of giving 
 more constant employment to seasonal labor must be 
 worked out before the Mexican will have a fair economic 
 chance at life. In spite of untoward conditions, however, 
 our entire Southwest is dotted with little homes of many 
 sorts, purchased, paid for and owned by Mexicans and 
 Spanish- Americans. 
 
 For the most part there has been little organized dis' 
 content on the part of Mexican laborers in the United 
 States, although agitators and propagandists of many 
 sorts have been at work among them. It was recently 
 reported that the I. W. W. headquarters in Chicago had 
 three Mexican and Spanish editors busily engaged in pre- 
 paring and sending out inflammatory literature to the 
 Southwest and into other important Spanish-speaking 
 centers. The very ignorance of the Mexican furnishes
 
 48 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 a fertile field for this sort of propaganda, and it is hard 
 to tell what may come of it unless it is counteracted by 
 just and sympathetic treatment, by persistent education, 
 and by an intelligent effort to alleviate unsatisfactory 
 conditions. 
 
 M 
 
 For those who have been accustomed to think of the 
 Mexican as somewhat of a bandit or brigand it is not 
 altogether easy to picture him as a timid, quiet, peaceable, 
 polite, and kindly person who will go out of his way to 
 avoid trouble, yet the latter picture is perhaps more ac-j 
 curate than the former so far as the Mexican in tl 
 United States is concerned. When trouble does conie 
 the Mexican sometimes takes matters into his own ham 
 and inflicts such retribution upon his enemy as he sees fit. 
 This is not particularly surprising when we remember j 
 that he has for years been living in a land where orderl} 
 processes of law have been far from thoroughly estab-\ 
 lished. Even such conflicts, however, are usually of Mex- \ 
 ican with Mexican rather than of Mexican with Ameri- j 
 can. So far as we have the facts, there is every reason 
 to believe that as a peaceful, law-abiding member of the 
 community the Mexican ranks well with the native-born 
 American. Thus in the City of Los Angeles in the year 
 1919 the percentage of Mexican arrests to the total num- 
 ber of arrests for the entire city was 5.5 per cent in a 
 population which is five per cent Mexican. It is evident 
 that the ratios here were not appreciably different. Of 
 the total arrests 34.9 per cent were for drunkenness. Of 
 the 962 cases of drunkenness, 780 occcurred before July 
 1st when war-time prohibition went into effect; during 
 June of that year 142 Mexicans were arrested for drunk- 
 enness and during July only nineteen. Other offenses 
 charged against Mexicans were violation of traffic regu-
 
 THE MEXICAN IN THE UNITED STATES 49 
 
 lations, vagrancy, petty larceny, disturbing the peace, and 
 burglary. These were the most numerous violations 
 charged. 
 
 On the other hand, twenty-three per cent of all appli- 
 cants for relief at the County Charities in Los Angeles 
 were Mexicans. Thus one-twentieth of the people fur- 
 nished practically one-fourth of the charity cases. The 
 causes making for poverty in these cases were reported 
 in order of importance as follows : Acute illness, chronic 
 physical disability, death of bread winner, old age, tuber- 
 culosis, desertion, insufficient employment, death in fam- 
 ily, non-support, maternity, intemperance, imprisonment, 
 insanity, accident (general), unable to locate, industrial 
 incompetency, blindness, poorly paid employment, feeble 
 minded, accident (industrial). The earnings of men in 
 this poverty group ran as low as $1.25 per day. The 
 Mexican in poverty is more the victim of accident and 
 unfortunate circumstances than of intentional error. 
 Added to that he is at the mercy of every unscrupulous 
 exploiter from the rent gouger and the profiteer in food- 
 stuffs and other necessities of life to the seller of enlarged 
 photographs and useless bric-a-brac. Nothing but the 
 diligent neighborliness of Americans in the communities 
 in which he lives will protect the Mexican from the multi- 
 tude of enemies and carefully-laid snares which beset his 
 path as he endeavors to establish himself in the new land 
 to which he has come and in whose interests he is laboring 
 so diligently.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 SPANISH-AMERICANS IN NEW MEXICO 
 
 NEW MEXICO, one of our youngest states, is probably 
 more thoroughly dominated by a non- Anglo- Saxon, non- 
 English-speaking citizenry than any other state in the 
 Union. The circumstances which have brought this 
 unique distinction to the state are deeply imbedded in the 
 events of the past, and it is not easy to understand the 
 present situation in this large and increasingly important 
 commmonwealth unless we pause to consider something 
 of its history. 
 
 When Cortes and his followers were conquering Mex- 
 ico as early as 1519 they kept hearing from the natives 
 of a "fair land" to the north, but for the moment their 
 attention was confined to the conquest of that part of 
 "New Spain" which was more distinctly tributary to the 
 present Mexico City. In the year 1527 Panfilo de Nar- 
 vaez, the Spanish soldier and conquistador, was given a 
 grant authorizing him to explore and to govern all that 
 part of New Spain which extended from Florida west- 
 ward through all of the territory occupied by our present 
 Gulf States and on to and including the present state of 
 New Mexico, Texas and the northern part of Mexico. 
 This Narvaez expedition started from Spain June 17, 
 1 527. It landed on the coast of Florida and started west- 
 ward. Misled by Indian guides, entangled in the swamps, 
 suffering from hunger and deprivation, attacked by hostile 
 
 So
 
 SPANISH-AMERICANS IN NEW MEXICO 51 
 
 natives, and finally shipwrecked on hastily constructed 
 boats, the expedition collapsed and Narvaez himself died 
 before New Mexico was reached. Nine years after this 
 expedition started from Spain a few survivors made their 
 way down through Texas and Mexico to Mexico City, 
 where they arrived July 24, 1536. Three years later 
 (1539) friar Marcus de Niza, an Italian missionary who 
 had become a Franciscan monk and had entered the serv- 
 ice of Spain, left the City of Mexico to explore the coun- 
 try now included in Arizona and New Mexico. He had 
 with him a Negro, one of the survivors of the ill-fated 
 Narvaez expedition. ( Some historians say that survivors 
 of this expedition entered New Mexico under the leader- 
 ship of De Vaca after the death of Narvaez. Others insist 
 even more strongly that there is no evidence to indicate 
 that any of the Narvaez party reached as far west and 
 north as New Mexico.) It is said that Marcos sent the 
 Negro ahead of him with the instruction that if he dis- 
 covered a mean thing he was to send a white cross one 
 handful long, if a greater thing a white cross two handfuls 
 long, and if a very great thing a large cross. The story 
 goes on to relate that the Negro kept the natives busy 
 carrying crosses taller than a man back to Marcos. The 
 party reached at least as far as the pueblos of the Zuni 
 Indians. The Negro, however, adopted high-handed 
 methods in dealing with the natives, and he was at last 
 killed by them for appropriating property and women not 
 his own. Friar Marcos returned home with glowing 
 accounts of the country and the things which he had seen. 
 The following year (1540) Francisco Vasquez Coro- 
 nado was appointed Governor of the Province of "New 
 Galicia," and he organized an expedition for the conquest 
 of the "Seven Cities of Cibola," which friar Marcos
 
 52 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 claimed to have discovered. A large force of mounted 
 men, infantry, and natives, well-armed and well-supplied 
 with food, set out for the north. When Coronado 
 reached the Zuni country he sent expeditions both east 
 and west to explore the country. The western expedition 
 went as far as the Grand Canyon and the eastern expedi- 
 tion explored parts of New Mexico. The Zunis were 
 rather anxious to get rid of Coronado so they told him 
 wonderful stories of a rich land farther on toward the 
 east. They gladly furnished a guide and Coronado de- 
 parted. The country got more and more barren as they 
 progressed, and after long and weary wanderings they 
 hanged their guide, who had at last confessed his decep- 
 tion. The party returned to the Rio Grande River and 
 later to Mexico. Coronado was permitted to resign his 
 position as Governor of New Galicia, for as a ruler he 
 had not proved particularly successful. As an explorer, 
 however, he had covered a great amount of territory from 
 the Grand Canyon on the west to Kansas and Indian 
 Territory on the east, and north as far as the present state 
 of Colorado. Concerning all this territory he brought 
 back much interesting information. 
 
 Other Spanish explorers entered the territory, but it 
 was not until the coming of Don Juan de Onate with 700 
 men and 130 families that a settlement was established. 
 This settlement was made September 5th, 1598, at 
 Chamita. Chamita was abandoned in 1605 and the settle- 
 ment moved to Santa Fe. The Spaniards succeeded in 
 conquering and enslaving the Pueblo Indians who occu- 
 pied the country, and with their assistance they developed 
 the mining, agricultural, grazing and other interests of 
 the region for more than three-quarters of a century. In 
 1680, however, the Indians revolted. They burned ranch
 
 SPANISH-AMERICANS IN NEW MEXICO 53 
 
 houses, destroyed other property and finally besieged the 
 Spanish Governor in the old Governor's Palace at Santa 
 Fe. On August 2ist the Governor was forced to retreat 
 and move southward. In October of the same year 
 (1680) he reached El Paso with a company of 1,946 
 individuals, which included 300 friendly Indians. During 
 this rebellion 401 persons, including 78 soldiers and 20 
 priests, were killed. 
 
 For the next twelve years (16801692) the Pueblos 
 again controlled Santa Fe and they did their best to wipe 
 out all traces of the Spanish domination. Spanish rec- 
 ords were burned, Spanish mines were obliterated, the 
 Spanish language was prohibited, and even the use of 
 seeds introduced by the Spaniards was no longer per- 
 mitted. This continued until 1692, when De Vargas was 
 appointed Governor of the "lost province." With an 
 army of 300 Spaniards and 100 Indians he overran the 
 territory and in 1693 established himself in Santa Fe. 
 Three years later there was another Indian outbreak, but 
 this was soon put down by De Vargas. From the time 
 of De Vargas until the year 1800 twenty-four Spanish 
 governors ruled in the old Governor's Palace in Santa Fe. 
 
 Up until the beginning of the nineteenth century there 
 had been no approach of Americans from the East into 
 New Mexico. In 1 804 an American peddler entered New 
 Mexico, sold his wares at fabulous prices, and decided 
 that he would remain in the country without bothering 
 to render an account to his employer back east. The 
 following year (1805) a hunter, trapper, and trader, 
 named James Purseley became lost in the Rocky Moun- 
 tains and wandered down into New Mexico. The fol- 
 lowing year Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike en- 
 tered the San Luis Valley by mistake and built a fort.
 
 54 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 He was arrested and taken to Santa Fe and later to 
 Mexico. 
 
 In 1812 merchants from St. Louis blazed the now 
 famous Santa Fe Trail, although this was not perma- 
 nently opened until 1822. From this time trade rapidly 
 increased and caravans of one sort or another were con- 
 tinually going and coming. By the year 1843 these 
 caravans were very large, and single caravans which in- 
 cluded 350 men and 230 wagons and carried nearly half a 
 million dollars worth of goods at first cost were known. 
 
 In the year 1826 Kit Carson accompanied a party of 
 hunters to Santa Fe and from that time until the time of 
 his death in 1868, New Mexico was the center of many 
 of his most interesting exploits. 
 
 From 1821 on, New Mexico was no longer under 
 Spanish control. At that time she became a province of 
 Mexico practically without bloodshed or disorder of any 
 sort, and thus she remained until 1846 when General 
 S. W. Kearney, marching westward from Fort Leaven- 
 worth, Kansas, occupied Santa Fe, and on August 22nd 
 raised the American flag over the plaza and declared New 
 Mexico a part of the United States. Not a shot was 
 fired or a drop of blood spilled. By the terms of the 
 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo completed with Mexico 
 February 2, 1848, at the close of the Mexican War this 
 territory was ceded to the United States. A territorial 
 government was soon set up, and in 1863 Arizona, which 
 had originally formed a part of New Mexico, was set off 
 as a separate Territory. In 1912 President Taft issued 
 the formal declaration of statehood and New Mexico 
 became a regularly recognized state of the United States 
 of America. During the sixty years from 1851 to 1911
 
 SPANISH- AMERICANS IN NEW MEXICO 55 
 
 twenty-four different territorial governors served New 
 Mexico. 
 
 The present state of New Mexico is almost square, 
 extending approximately 350 miles east and west and the 
 same distance north and south. Its area is 122,634 
 square miles, or 98 times the size of Rhode Island and 
 larger than the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
 Ireland. The altitude of the state varies from 13,360 
 feet to 2,876 feet, with an average altitude of more than 
 one mile. There is an average of 214 clear days and 99 
 partly cloudy days each year. The resulting climate is 
 mild, dry, and invigorating, although it varies greatly 
 with the altitude. Many of the residents of the state have 
 come as health-seekers attracted by the climate. The Rio 
 Grande River flows for five hundred miles across the 
 state from north to south. 
 
 In 1910 New Mexico ranked forty- fourth in popula- 
 tion among the states. Her population in 1850 was 
 61,547; by 1860 it had increased to 93,516; in 1870 it 
 was 91,874; in 1880, 119,565; in 1890, 160,282; in 1900, 
 195,310; in 1910, 327,301; and in 1914 the estimated 
 population for the state was 383,551. In 1910 the density 
 of population was 2.7 persons per square mile, as com- 
 pared with 31 for the entire area of the United States. 
 Of the total population in 1910, 280,730 were classed as 
 rural and 46,571 as urban. Albuquerque was the only 
 place in the state of 8,000 or over; its population was 
 10,020. The native white population was 281,940; the 
 foreign-born white was 22,654. Of this latter group 
 more than one-half came from Mexico, and of the native 
 white group possibly sixty per cent were of Spanish and 
 Mexican stock. There were 20,573 Indians in the state, 
 and these were almost all Pueblo Indians. There were
 
 56 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 only 1,594 negroes in the state. So far as population is 
 concerned the entire state was and is predominantly of 
 Mexican or Spanish ancestry. 
 
 For many years the development of New Mexico was 
 held back by lack of railroads. In 1878, however, the 
 Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad entered the 
 state, and by February 15, 1880, it had been completed 
 through to Santa Fe. There was considerable excitement 
 over the building of part of this road, as the last 360 
 miles were built in 260 days in order to save the charter 
 of the road. Soon after the road was completed through 
 to El Paso. Later came the Denver and Rio Grande, the 
 Southern Pacific and other roads. There are now nearly 
 four thousand miles of main track in the state. Trans- 
 portation facilities are, therefore, relatively good. 
 
 Another circumstance which delayed the development 
 of New Mexico was the difficulty of getting a clear title 
 to land. It was the custom of the early Spanish sov- 
 ereigns to issue grants of territory to explorers and 
 settlers. These grants often covered large areas. Later 
 the land was parceled out on certain terms to loyal fol- 
 lowers. When the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was 
 made with Mexico in 1848 it contained a provision for- 
 ever guaranteeing the validity of these original grants. 
 Naturally this left matters in a very complex state and 
 for a long time it was very difficult to get a clear title to 
 any land which had been included in these early grants. 
 For years Congress delayed action in this matter, but at 
 last the Court of Private Claims was established and most 
 of the questions of titles have now been settled and an 
 individual can purchase land in New Mexico with as 
 much legal security to the title as in other states. 
 
 So far as agriculture is concerned over eleven million
 
 SPANISH-AMERICANS IN NEW MEXICO 57 
 
 acres of land in New Mexico were laid out in farms in 
 1910, and the area has been steadily increasing since that 
 time. An overwhelming proportion of this land is farmed 
 by Spanish-speaking farmers. About one-third of these 
 farms were irrigated farms. The climate of New Mexico 
 differs so much in different parts and at different altitudes 
 that in many places good crops can be raised without 
 irrigation. The amount of irrigated land is, however, 
 steadily increasing. On these farms millions of dollars 
 worth of farm products are grown every year. These 
 products include corn, wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, hay, 
 beans, yams, apples, peaches, pears, plums, prunes, sugar 
 cane, berries of many sorts, and other small fruits and 
 vegetables. The mild climate and vast grassy plains of 
 New Mexico make unusually favorable conditions for the 
 raising of stock, and millions of sheep and cattle roam 
 over her hills and valleys and supply yearly millions of 
 pounds of wool and other animal products for our con- 
 sumption. There is some lumbering in the state and a 
 great deal of mining, particularly of coal and copper and 
 of many other metals on a larger or smaller scale. 
 
 As a land of romantic and archaeological interest, how- 
 ever, New Mexico stands perhaps unexcelled. Here 
 Indian pueblos of traditional age and Mexican plazas of 
 charming simplicity blend into the already beautiful land- 
 scape in a way to charm the eye of the artist. The thou- 
 sands of little adobe houses scattered over hillside and 
 valley, sometimes many miles from the beaten path of 
 civilization, seem to form as integral a part of the ever- 
 pleasing vista as do the bushes by the way, the projecting 
 rocks, or the tumbling streams. Everything seems to 
 "belong." One has only to visit New Mexico to feel 
 that he is in an ancient land, a land of mystery, and a
 
 58 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 land with an untold past which must be full of interest. 
 When the Spaniards arrived they found a very old civil- 
 ization, how old no one knows. Some say the past of 
 New Mexico goes back at least to 600 A. D. Very old 
 indeed it is, and the very isolation of the life has tended 
 to preserve its oldness. Some have called the state the 
 "Holy Land" of America, for here as nowhere else in 
 America can be seen the customs of the orient. Here 
 the sickle is still in use; and here the ox and the goat 
 may still be seen treading out the grain. Here the 
 shepherd still lives with his sheep; and here the rugged 
 mountain-side reminds the visitor of the rocky hills of 
 Palestine. Here bricks are still made of straw; corn is 
 ground between two stones; and beds are rolled up and 
 taken along when on a journey. There is much in the 
 life to suggest to the visitor that he has slipped back a 
 few centuries into a life of which we have read, but which 
 few of us have witnessed. The artist, the archaeologist, 
 the anthropologist, the ethnologist, the sociologist, and the 
 student of folklore all find here in New Mexico a field 
 which satisfies their longings, for there are ever new 
 things to learn. 
 
 We do not have to go back into the prehistoric period, 
 however, to find much that is of unusual interest. The 
 old Governor's Palace in Santa Fe, of which we know 
 the history, is perhaps as interesting and as full of 
 romance as any of the prehistoric dwellings with which 
 the state abounds. This Palace, built in 1605 of the ever- 
 available adobe, still stands after more than three cen- 
 turies of constant use. Here the long line of Spanish, 
 Pueblo, Mexican, and American Territorial Governors 
 has passed in continuous procession. This building, 
 which antedates the settlement of Jamestown, New
 
 SPANISH-AMERICANS IN NEW MEXICO '59 
 
 Amsterdam, and Plymouth, has been through sieges and 
 triumphs. It has housed executions and scenes of public 
 thanksgiving. Here has floated the flag of Spain, the 
 flag of Mexico, and the flag of the United States. Here 
 murder has been committed, and here Lew Wallace as 
 Governor of the Territory wrote the last part of Ben Hur, 
 a tale of the Christ. Here in 1846 General Kearney 
 formally took possession of New Mexico for the United 
 States, and here he slept on the dirt floor after his long 
 and weary march across the prairies. Or if one is not 
 content he may walk across the ancient plaza and visit 
 the famous old San Miguel Church, claimed to be the 
 oldest church in the United States and to date back more 
 than three hundred years. It is made of adobe and its 
 walls are very thick. It is said that the bodies of many 
 very important personages have been buried in this 
 church, including the famous Spanish conqueror, De 
 (Vargas. Here can be seen and heard the famous bell, 
 said to be the oldest bell in the United States, and just 
 across the way stands the old adobe house which is 
 claimed with equal enthusiasm to be the oldest dwelling 
 in the United States. In Santa Fe one does indeed stand 
 in the presence of the past, but a past which antedates 
 the coming of the Spaniard nearly four hundred years 
 ago by hundreds and possibly by thousands of years. 
 
 All this provides but the setting for the life of the 
 present, but it is a setting which must be understood if 
 the New Mexico of to-day is to be understood and if her 
 problems are to be sympathetically and intelligently ap- 
 proached. New Mexico bears to-day the imprint of both 
 the Spanish and the Mexican periods through which she 
 has lived. The Spanish era left its language, its religion, 
 its methods of agriculture, and many of its social customs
 
 60 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 indelibly stamped upon the region. The Mexican period, 
 which was shorter and which occupied a time when Mex- 
 ico herself was in turmoil and only just finding herself as a 
 nation, possibly had a larger effect indirectly than directly 
 upon the life of the region. Throughout all the South- 
 west there were many of Spanish and Mexican descent 
 when the territory became a part of the United States 
 three-quarters of a century ago. For the most part these 
 settlers were of the independent, rugged, frontier type 
 which had never been bothered with any undue enthusiasm 
 for a central government of any sort. Their very isolation 
 made their interests local. The fact, however, that the 
 language of these people was Spanish as was the lan- 
 guage of Mexico gave them a feeling of kinship with 
 Mexico. Of course, too, the kinship was more than a 
 mere feeling. On the other hand the stream of immi- 
 grants from Mexico has never ceased for more than three 
 hundred years and the group which we adopted in 1848 
 has been steadily augmented both from within and from 
 without. The fact that General Kearney was able to take 
 over New Mexico without the shedding of blood, and the 
 further fact that during the Civil War, which followed 
 so soon after New Mexico had become a part of the 
 United States, New Mexico stood loyal to the Union, 
 are both indications that there never has been among our 
 Spanish-speaking people of the Southwest any very pro- 
 nounced pro-Mexico feeling. So far as they have been 
 stirred by feelings of patriotism those feelings have been 
 directed toward the United States. There has probably 
 never been any real danger in the past that our Southwest 
 would quickly turn against the United States in case of 
 trouble with Mexico. The descendants of those who 
 occupied this territory when we received it are of course
 
 SPANISH-AMERICANS IN NEW MEXICO 61 
 
 American citizens, "Spanish-Americans" we have come to 
 call them. They are to be found throughout all of the 
 Southwest, but they stand out most conspicuously in New 
 Mexico. Both isolation and numbers have been factors 
 in creating this situation. 
 
 At Santa Fe, both the ancient and the modern capital 
 of New Mexico, there are to be seen some of the 
 sights which are to be witnessed in the United , c 
 In politics the Spanish-speaking element has alw 
 and still is the dominant factor in the state. 
 ernor, a large number of the legislators, a*" 
 of all the other office holders in the 
 group. When the legislature of th^ 
 fore, to transact business it becc' 
 tance that the speeches which * 
 which are passed shall be ir> 
 stand. When a memb^ 
 must be turned by t 
 those members o c 
 English rrv 
 another 
 
 r
 
 62 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 of the difficult task which the public school confronts in 
 
 the teaching of English in communities where Spanish is 
 
 the only language heard in the homes, on the streets, or 
 
 on the playground. In the larger centers there is more 
 
 incentive to master the English language, but in New 
 
 Mexico there have been few "larger" centers. For the 
 
 -t part the people have lived tucked away in the rnoun^ 
 
 ~r hidden in the valleys sometimes fifty miles from 
 
 oads, sometimes more. The roads are rough, 
 
 wing the beds of mountain streams, so that 
 
 ' of high water they are altogether cut off 
 
 world and even during the more favor- 
 
 "".Ities of travel are so numerous that 
 
 -nt to be looked forward to for 
 
 nly in the face of obstacles. 
 
 ^f New Mexico visited by 
 
 "o is more or less typical 
 
 railroad, back in 
 
 ' r e Spanish- 
 
 'on school 
 
 ~y home 
 
 'duals 
 
 'sh
 
 SPANISH-AMERICANS IN NEW MEXICO 63 
 
 ing of a language which one in the very nature of the 
 case can rarely or never hear spoken. In this particular 
 town nearly everybody was related to nearly everybody 
 else. The town has had an interesting history. More 
 than fifty years ago a Mexican and his wife drove back 
 into the wilderness and settled. There they raised a 
 family. For the first few years they lived in a cave in 
 the side of the mountain. Later they built an adobe 
 house. As the children grew up they sought wives and 
 husbands. A few people moved into the region and one 
 after another little adobe houses and barns came into 
 existence until the town has grown to its present size. 
 As soon as spring appears the residents begin to scatter 
 out to their little ranches distributed throughout the 
 region. They raise their corn, and their beans, their oats, 
 their wheat, their potatoes and various other crops. Their 
 sheep, their goats, and their cattle forage on the moun- 
 tainside or in the valley. In the fall the population once 
 more returns to the town with the fruitage of the 
 summer's labors. 
 
 In some of these higher altitudes in New Mexico the 
 climate is surprisingly severe and sometimes the seasons 
 are unfavorable. It is not to be wondered at that these 
 people have only succeeded in securing the barest living. 
 We should pause, however, before we jump to the con- 
 clusion that this indicates some native lack on the part of 
 the people themselves. I have spent months at a time 
 among the Highlanders of our Appalachian mountains 
 and for industry, frugality, cleanliness, and general pro- 
 gressiveness these highlanders of the Southwest of Span- 
 ish and Mexican ancestry would seem to be on a par with 
 those of the East who are of the best Scottish and Anglo- 
 Saxon descent. Similar forces of environment have pro-
 
 64 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 duced a similar result among peoples sometimes supposed 
 to be very different. In each case we have a poor, but 
 sturdy, independent, and self-reliant people. As a mat- 
 ter of fact the Mexican has never yet had a fair chance 
 to show what he could make of himself. He has 
 been held in subjection by autocratic political power and 
 by a feudalistic social system which was bound to be 
 dwarfing. Even in the early days of New Mexico a well 
 developed feudalism prevailed. Sheep-growing was the 
 great industry and we are told that at the beginning of 
 the nineteenth century one single holding amounted to 
 2,000,000 sheep. The care of these required 2,700 per- 
 sons always in the field, besides the thousands of others 
 who were directly dependent upon them. These workers 
 received little pay and it was very easy to get them into 
 debt to the overlord, who thus held his workers in 
 practical slavery. 
 
 For a time even after New Mexico became a territory 
 of the United States practical peonage was authorized by 
 law under an enactment entitled a "Law Regulating Con- 
 tracts Between Master and Servant." This provided that 
 a servant might leave his master's employ upon paying all 
 that he owed to the master. This provision gave the 
 master practically the continuous service of the servant. 
 Since New Mexico became a part of the United States the 
 chief obstacles to progress, however, have been ignorance, 
 isolation, the barrenness of much of the country, and, for 
 some time, the difficulty of getting a clear title to real 
 estate. Gradually these untoward conditions are being 
 removed, and there is every reason to believe that these 
 Spanish-Americans will move out into more vital rela- 
 tionships to our national life as the years pass. The 
 talk about the Mexican and the Spanish-American as
 
 SPANISH-AMERICANS IN NEW MEXICO 65 
 
 "manana" men is somewhat unfair, at least until we 
 have had a chance to see what they can do with proper 
 incentives and with adequate nourishment for their bodies. 
 Up to date there is little to indicate that they have behaved 
 particularly different from what other races would have 
 behaved under similar circumstances. 
 
 Nor should we assume that the Spanish-American is 
 necessarily disloyal or unpatriotic merely because he does 
 not speak the English language. The reason that he does 
 not know English is that he has never been taught it, and 
 in his limited sphere he has not felt particularly embar- 
 rassed by his ignorance. Of course we cannot permit 
 him to remain permanently in this unfortunate condition, 
 but it is a condition which cannot be altered overnight. 
 Until it is altered the responsibility rests perhaps as much 
 upon our shoulders as upon his. We have a large task, 
 but there are few discouraging and many encouraging 
 aspects of it. The present is a time for patience and a 
 time for rendering every possible assistance to New Mex- 
 ico within our power, as she grapples with a situation 
 which is of national significance but the details of which 
 must be worked out locally. 
 
 Governor O. A. Larrazola, the recent state executive, 
 has been sharply criticized for his zeal for the teaching 
 of Spanish in the lower grades of the public schools of 
 the state. He is doubtless wrong in his judgment as to 
 methods of procedure, but there appears to be nothing 
 sinister in connection with his patriotic intentions and 
 attitudes so far as the United States is concerned. He 
 has zealously preached an orthodox Americanism, has 
 taught respect for and urged allegiance to the American 
 flag, and he has extolled the ideals of Christianity and 
 the virtues of the Christian home.
 
 66 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 For three-quarters of a century New Mexico has been 
 a part of the United States. During that time she has 
 made remarkable strides along every line. She got a late 
 start, and physical conditions and differences of race have 
 proved to be large, but not unsurmountable, difficulties. 
 We are already proud of New Mexico and her Spanish- 
 American population. They gave a good account of 
 themselves both during the Civil War and during the late 
 War, and they have given a good account of themselves 
 in times of peace. Some day when educational facilities 
 shall have been better developed and shall have had an 
 opportunity to work their inevitable results we shall find 
 it less natural to speak of them as "Spanish-Americans," 
 for they will have lost their identity and have become 
 merged in the great American populace which is made up 
 of so many different strains and different mixtures and 
 which we all fondly believe possesses the abilities and the 
 virtues of them all
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 RELIGION 
 
 IF we are to understand the present religious situation 
 among the Mexicans and the Spanish-Americans in the 
 United States, we must recall a little of the historical 
 background for it. The natives of Mexico were zealously 
 religious even before the arrival of the Spaniards, and 
 the religious authority was very closely identified with 
 the political authority. This was particularly true under 
 the Montezumas, the last of the Aztec rulers, and re- 
 ligious practices had become rather highly developed. 
 Cortes and the other early Spanish explorers were accom- 
 panied by Catholic friars, and one of the avowed pur- 
 poses of all the early explorations was the extension of 
 the Christian faith among the heathen. 
 
 Thus when Panfilo de Narvaez petitioned in 1527 for 
 a grant which was to include all of our southern gulf 
 states, the northern part of Mexico, and New Mexico, 
 he wrote: "Sacred Cassarean Catholic Majesty: Inas- 
 much as I, Panfilo de Narvaez, have ever had and still 
 have the intention of serving God and Your Majesty, 
 I desire to go in person with my means to a certain coun- 
 try on the main of the Ocean Sea. I propose chiefly to 
 traffic with the natives of the coast, and to take thither 
 religious men and ecclesiastics approved by your Royal 
 Council of the Indies, that they may make known and 
 
 67
 
 68 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 plant the Christian Faith. I shall observe fully what your 
 Council require and ordain to the ends of serving God 
 and Your Highness, and for the good of your subjects." 
 This particular expedition met with many misfortunes, 
 but the statement is typical of the time and of the entire 
 period of Spanish domination. 
 
 The early Spanish expeditions to "New Spain" were 
 all conceived with the avowed purpose of extending the 
 ecclesiastical authority of the Catholic Church quite as 
 much as to extend the political domination of Spain. The 
 story of the spread of nominal Christianity became prac- 
 tically identical with that of Spanish conquest. The 
 spread of missions in those days did not wait upon the 
 slow processes of enlightenment, education, or persuasion. 
 The rule of the Church was imposed as ruthlessly as the 
 rule of the state. Thus De Vargas had no more than 
 established himself in Santa Fe, after he had subdued 
 the natives who had revolted some years before, than he 
 sent back word to his Viceroy that he had "conquered 
 for the human and Divine Majesties" all the pueblos for 
 thirty-six leagues and had baptized nearly 1,000 children 
 "born in rebellion." Thus in a sort of wholesale fashion 
 Christianity was imposed upon the natives throughout 
 New Spain. The story did not vary particularly in the 
 different parts of the territory. During the entire period 
 of Spanish domination and of Mexican independence the 
 Church and the ecclesiastical authorities have been per- 
 haps the dominating influence in determining the political 
 fortunes of Mexico, for, in spite of the fact that the 
 ecclesiastics stood, with few exceptions, strongly with 
 Spain against Mexican independence, the power of the 
 clergy was dominant in the new republic. One of the 
 early acts of the new government was the passage (Jan-
 
 RELIGION 69 
 
 uary 4, 1823) of a "National Colonization Law," of 
 which the following paragraph is the first article : 
 
 "Article I. The government of the Mexican nation 
 will protect the liberty, property, and civil rights of all 
 foreigners who profess the Roman Catholic apostolic 
 religion, the established religion of the empire." 
 
 Another article of the same law reads as follows : 
 
 "Article XVI. The government shall take care, in 
 accord with the respective ecclesiastical authority, that 
 these new towns are provided with a sufficient number of 
 spiritual pastors, and, in like manner, it will propose to 
 Congress a plan for their decent support." 
 
 It is needless to multiply illustrations of the close asso- 
 ciation of the ecclesiastical with the political authority, or 
 to dwell upon the vast wealth collected by the Church. 
 By 1850, however, it was estimated that the Church 
 owned one-third of all the real and personal property of 
 the Mexican Republic. The power of the Church became 
 so vast and the conditions which it imposed became so 
 intolerable, that an overturn of authority became next to 
 inevitable. This came under Benito Pablo Juarez, an 
 Indian by birth but one of the great leaders of Mexico. 
 Under his influence the constitution of 1857 was made to 
 provide for freedom of religious opinions, and two years 
 later the complete separation of church and state and the 
 confiscation of much of the Church property was brought 
 about. The influence of the church in politics did not 
 stop with the formal separation of church and state. The 
 common people had become so dominantly Catholic that 
 the influence of the Church upon all public affairs was 
 still bound to be very large. Nor did the exploitations of 
 the people by the Church cease.
 
 70 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 As late as 1851 we are told by the author of "El 
 Gringo" that in New Mexico the charge for spiritual 
 services in connection with burials was so large that 
 parents were known to abandon their children because 
 they could not afford to pay for the burial charges of the 
 church. He tells of one bill regularly made out and 
 submitted of which he had personal knowledge which 
 amounted to $1,600. This included a charge of approxi- 
 mately $1,000 for "los derechos del obispo" (the rights 
 of the bishop), and a charge of fifty dollars each for 
 "los posos," which meant that each time the procession 
 halted on the way to the burial a charge of fifty dollars 
 was made. He tells of another bill of which he had 
 knowledge which included charges for the following 
 items : "Tolling of the bells," "the grave," "the grand 
 cross," "high mass vestments," "holy water," "candle- 
 sticks," "vessel for incense," "resting places," "the inter- 
 ment," "mass," "use of the organ," "the chanters," "the 
 response of the oratory," "the deacon's fee," and "addi- 
 tional." The charges for these items varied from one to 
 thirty dollars each, and a bill made out in regular form was 
 submitted by the ecclesiastical authorities and paid by the 
 man who was so unfortunate as to lose any member of 
 his family by death. 
 
 Up until 1850 in New Mexico and 1867 in Old Mexico 
 the Catholic Church had no competition from Protestant 
 churches. Protestant work has developed slowly. With- 
 in recent years, however, there has been a steadily grow- 
 ing feeling of dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church 
 and its methods in Mexico, and in large areas the priests 
 have, at times, literally been driven out of Mexico. While 
 the revolution of 1920 which resulted in the overthrow 
 of Carranza was in progress I talked with a prominent
 
 RELIGION 71 
 
 leader of the revolutionists concerning this religious 
 question. 
 
 "What will be the attitude of the new government 
 toward religion ?" I inquired. 
 
 "It will be that of religious freedom and toleration," 
 he replied; and then he continued, "For one I do not 
 believe that we ought to drive out the Church. That 
 won't work. The Mexican people are too religious for 
 that, but I do believe that we must have religious liberty, 
 and Protestant missionary work will be gladly welcomed 
 by the new government, particularly the educational 
 work." 
 
 The new government in Mexico evidently intends to 
 give both the Catholic and the Protestant churches in 
 Mexico every opportunity to carry on their regular activi- 
 ties, but the lessons of the past have not been forgotten, 
 and there is a determination of steel to see to it that the 
 blighting hand of Catholic ecclesiasticism shall never again 
 dominate the government. 
 
 All of this may seem to have little to do with the 
 religious situation among our own Spanish-speaking 
 population, but as a matter of fact it has much to do with 
 it ; first, because New Mexico was so long a part of Old 
 Mexico and, second, because out of this Mexican en- 
 vironment there have come hundreds of thousands of 
 Mexicans into the United States recently, and, while they 
 are mostly nominal Catholics, many of them are in a state 
 of mental revolt against the only church with which they 
 have been associated. This makes them particularly re- 
 sponsive to any sincere, sympathetic, and kindly, religious 
 approach which is made to them. They are, therefore, 
 more responsive to Protestant and other religious efforts 
 than are the Spanish-American Catholics who have re-
 
 72 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 sided longer in the United States and who are not so 
 familiar in recent years with the results of unrestrained 
 Catholic domination which has so long blighted the life 
 of Mexico and the Mexicans. Some of the charges 
 against the Catholic Church in connection with its work 
 among the Mexicans and Spanish-Americans in the 
 United States do not form pleasant reading, but until 
 they are faced frankly by ecclesiastical authorities and 
 some solutions worked out there is little hope of these 
 people taking their full place on an intellectual and moral 
 level with the rest of our citizenry. The question is fully 
 as much one of Americanization and of social morality 
 as it is a religious question. 
 
 In the early days the natives were "converted" to 
 Christianity at the rate of thousands per day practically 
 at the point of the gun. It was inevitable that this ac- 
 ceptance of Christianity could be only a formal matter. 
 The cross was substituted for or became an affix to some 
 pagan ceremony. Even to-day in our Southwest the 
 cross is an ever-present wayside decoration in scores of 
 communities where vital Christianity is unknown. 
 Heathen rites and Christian ceremonies became merged 
 in something which was partly Christian in nomenclature 
 and pagan in spirit and reality. Such wholesale extension 
 of formal Christianity could result in nothing else. Chris- 
 tianity became a matter of form and ceremony, and 
 Christianity as a way of life received little attention. 
 
 Religion and morality either became entirely divorced 
 or religion became a convenient device for making im- 
 morality safe and innocuous. The "Bull of Composition" 
 is said to have permitted the priests to relieve persons 
 who stole property from the obligation of making restitu- 
 tion, provided that a certain sum, based on the value of
 
 RELIGION 73 
 
 the stolen goods, was paid to the priest. It was under- 
 stood, however, that the same person could not purchase 
 more than fifty of such licenses in one year. As late as 
 1914 John Wesley Butler writes of Mexico, "Indulgences 
 are still sold publicly." To-day we see the fruitage of 
 such a system, for observers everywhere testify to the 
 fact that Mexicans raised under such a system may have 
 many virtues, but they will persistently steal and lie. 
 Thus a Mexican who is a faithful worker and is a kindly, 
 polite, and orderly citizen will lie amazingly and will take 
 property which does not belong to him when opportunity 
 offers. On the other hand, Mexicans raised under a dif- 
 ferent environment are as scrupulously truthful and 
 honest as Americans. 
 
 Closely associated with this is the attitude of the Mex- 
 ican toward marriage and the sex relationship in general. 
 Here again the church by its exorbitant marriage fees 
 has discouraged marriage and encouraged promiscuity. 
 This, too, is unfortunate. The author of "El Gringo" 
 tells us that after New Mexico became a part of the 
 United States the very lowest marriage fee charged was 
 $20, or the equivalent of a peon's wages for four months. 
 From this amount the charges ranged up to at least $400. 
 The list of abuses might be greatly extended. It should 
 be borne in mind also that many Roman Catholic writers 
 have spoken as freely of religious conditions in Mexico 
 as have Protestant writers. 
 
 In 1865 Abbe Emanuel Domenech came to Mexico as 
 chaplain of the French troops. Later he was asked by 
 the Vatican to make a tour of the country and report upon 
 "the moral and religious conditions of the clergy and 
 Church." The following is quoted by John Wesley But- 
 ler from Abbe Domenech's report: "Mexican faith is a
 
 74 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 dead faith. The abuse of external ceremonies, the facility 
 of reconciling God, the abuse of internal exercises of 
 piety, have killed the faith in Mexico. . . . The idola- 
 trous character of Mexican Catholicism is a fact well 
 known to all travelers. . . . The mysteries of the Middle 
 Ages are utterly outdone by the burlesque ceremonies of 
 the Mexicans. . . . The Mexican is not a Catholic. He 
 is simply a Christian because he has been baptized. I 
 speak of the masses and not of the numerous exceptions 
 to be found. . . . The clergy carry their love of the 
 family to that of paternity. In my travels in the interior 
 of Mexico, many pastors have refused me hospitality in 
 order to prevent my seeing their nieces and cousins and 
 their children." It should be remembered that these are 
 the words of a Roman Catholic who has endeavored to 
 understand the actual situation in Mexico. 
 
 It is not surprising that with such a background we 
 find throughout the Southwest, but particularly in the 
 secluded parts of New Mexico, religious beliefs, customs, 
 and superstitions which have either never existed in other 
 parts of the country or have been outgrown generations 
 ago. Thus we read in the "Land of Poco Tiempo" by 
 Charles F. Lummis that as late as 1887 a local witch was 
 stoned to death in New Mexico for the crime of turning 
 a perfectly respectable citizen into a woman for the space 
 of three months. He also speaks of a number of people 
 who have seen and held converse with "his Satanic 
 Majesty." Possibly the most extreme manifestation of 
 depraved religious practices at the present time is to be 
 found among the Penitentes of New Mexico. 
 
 The origin of this peculiar Penitente order is somewhat 
 in dispute. It has been easy to jump at the conclusion 
 that they were connected in some historical manner with
 
 RELIGION 75 
 
 the "Flagellantes," an order which originated in the 
 Middle Ages (Italy, 1210) and later spread throughout a 
 large part of Europe. A more careful study seems to 
 indicate, however, that the Penitentes of New Mexico 
 (for they are to be found nowhere else except in the 
 northeastern counties of New Mexico and to a slight ex- 
 tent in southern Colorado) are a continuation of the 
 Third Order of Saint Francis. L. Bradford Prince, in 
 his story of the "Spanish Mission Churches in New Mex- 
 ico," says that this order introduced customs which could 
 very easily be exaggerated and corrupted into the present 
 Penitente customs and ceremonies. Benavides, the great 
 Franciscan, in his report to the king in 1630, quotes an 
 Indian wizard who was opposed to Christianity as say- 
 ing : "You Spaniards and Christians are crazy and desire 
 us to be so also. You are so crazy that you go along the 
 streets lashing yourselves like madmen, shedding blood." 
 To this Benavides adds, "He must have seen some disci- 
 plinary procession of Holy Week in some Christian 
 pueblo/' 
 
 There is every reason to believe that we have here the 
 beginning of the Penitente customs. The Third Order 
 of Saint Francis was composed of laymen and it was 
 widely extended throughout New Mexico. Its purpose 
 was to carry the principles of the life of Saint Francis 
 into the life of the laity, and for two centuries nearly all 
 of the leading citizens were members of the Order. This 
 fact is borne out by the wills of the period which are 
 said to have usually contained the following clause, "I 
 direct that when God, our Lord, shall see fit to call me 
 out of this present life, my body be enshrouded in the 
 habit of our father, San Francisco, of whose Third Order 
 I am a brother, and that my funeral be modest." This
 
 76 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 continued throughout the Spanish occupancy and until 
 the Mexican Revolution, when the Franciscans were 
 forced to leave the field and the supervision of the Third 
 Order. The Penitentes, who seem to be the lineal de- 
 scendants of this Third Order, came to call themselves 
 "The Brotherhood of the Blood of Christ." 
 
 Some years ago this order was supposed to be dying 
 out, but it has recently seemed to take on new life. This 
 is said to be due quite largely to the encouragement of 
 politicians who have discovered the political possibilities 
 of the organization. I have not seen the articles of in- 
 corporation, but I am informed by a Spanish-American 
 who has long been resident among the Penitentes of New 
 Mexico that the order has recently been incorporated by 
 the state of New Mexico under the name, "Sociedad de 
 Nuestro Padre Jesus, De Nazareno" (The Society oi 
 Our Father Jesus, the Nazarene), and that many county 
 and state officials in New Mexico owe their positions to 
 the Penitentes. Mr. Lummis writes that in the year 
 1888 but "three towns in the Territory had Penitente 
 processions and but one enjoyed a crucifixion." If Mr. 
 Lummis was correct there has indeed been a considerable 
 revival since that time, for in the year 1920 there are 
 scores of towns where the Penitentes are the dominating 
 political, social, and religious factor in the community. 
 The Moradas or Penitente houses are usually made of 
 stone or adobe, often without windows of any sort and 
 marked only by a small wooden cross. Sometimes these 
 buildings stand by the side of the Catholic church and 
 sometimes at a distance from it. Sometimes they are out 
 in the open and sometimes in out-of-the-way spots. 
 
 The meetings of the order are secret and it is not easy 
 to know even who the members in a given community
 
 RELIGION 77 
 
 are. During Holy Week, however, some of their cere- 
 monies and particularly their processions are in the open. 
 The participants in these open processions wear a black 
 mask over the entire head, so that even their neighbors 
 do not know who is taking part. They wear a small lower 
 garment, but aside from that and the mask their bodies 
 are naked. Their backs are gashed with flint or some 
 other sharp instrument, and then they whip themselves 
 with whips made of yucca or other harsh cactus, as they 
 proceed on their weary march. Some carry wooden 
 crosses of great weight to a distant hill; some wheel 
 barrows of stone through impassable sand, and others 
 draw heavy loads with cords which cut into their naked 
 bodies. Many sorts of suffering are devised and these 
 vary from community to community, inasmuch as there 
 is little or no general supervision of the order. There is 
 said to be a superstitious regard for the verse, "Without 
 the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." 
 There is also on the part of some a desire to do sufficient 
 penance at one time to last for the entire year. It should 
 not be inferred, however, that these people are particu- 
 larly contrite, for some of the worst characters appear 
 to enter most zealously into the ritual and then to go out 
 for another year of unimproved conduct. Actual cruci- 
 fixions apparently no longer take place, but exposure and 
 scourging often incapacitate the participants for longer 
 or shorter periods. A reliable witness told the writer of 
 a young man who was recently laid up for nearly six 
 months, during a portion of which time he was at the 
 point of death, as a result of participation in a Penitente 
 procession. These Penitente processions have been wit- 
 nessed by hundreds of people in spite of the fact that 
 every possible secrecy is observed, and I have seen several
 
 78 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 relatively recent snapshots of participants in such pr< 
 cessions. 
 
 For many years, particularly since the coming of 
 Bishop Lamy in 1851, the Catholic Church has dis- 
 approved of the Penitente customs. In spite of that fact 
 all of the Penitentes are supposed to be members in good 
 standing of the Catholic Church and they usually succeed 
 in holding a portion of their Holy Week exercises in the 
 Catholic Church. 
 
 Of a similar superstitious nature is the reverence paid 
 to the little old Catholic church at Chimayo, New Mexico. 
 This object of pilgrimage and reverence is variously 
 known as "Santuario, Chimayo" and as the "San 
 Esquipula Church." It is a little adobe structure sixty 
 by twenty-four feet in dimensions and with walls three 
 feet thick. Picturesquely situated on the mountainside, 
 miles from the railroad, in a most inaccessible region, it is 
 the object of pilgrimage for Mexicans and Spanish- 
 Americans from a wide area, including Arizona and parts 
 of Old Mexico. The dirt enclosed in one room of this 
 church is supposed to have miraculous properties, espe- 
 cially in the healing of sickness. As many as one hundred 
 visitors have been known to visit the church in a single 
 day, and on occasion pilgrims may be seen approaching 
 the building on their hands and knees. Hundreds of 
 people all over the Southwest attribute their present good 
 health to the healing properties of the dirt in this famous 
 church at Chimayo. A considerable hole has been dug 
 in the dirt floor by pilgrims who insist on carrying home 
 some of the earth. Old residents say that this earth was 
 once used to allay the violence of storms and to ward off 
 lightnings. The method used was to throw a few grains 
 of the dirt into the fireplace; when the smoke reached the
 
 RELIGION 79 
 
 top of the chimney the fury of the storm abated and, if 
 there were lightnings, they were turned aside. At pres- 
 ent diseases are supposed to be healed by the drinking of 
 a sort of tea made from the sacred earth or by the appli- 
 cation of a portion of it to the diseased part of the body. 
 
 This Church was privately built in 1816 by a pros- 
 perous Mexican. It is still under private control and has 
 never been under the control of the priest. For many 
 years, however, the priest ministered in it. The Church 
 is said to be unique among all the churches of the South- 
 west in its reputation for the healing of disease. 
 
 It is needless to multiply illustrations of the way that 
 ignorance, bigotry, and superstition have been woven 
 into the very warp and woof of the religious life of the 
 Mexicans and Spanish-Americans of our Southwest. If 
 further illustration were needed we might note the 
 legends concerning the miraculous painting of "Our Lady 
 of Guadalupe" still perpetuated as truths, or the super- 
 stitious beliefs which have gathered about the famous 
 De Vargas Day celebration in Santa Fe and other similar 
 superstitious beliefs and practices. The fact is that the 
 Spanish-Roman-Catholic domination of our Southwest 
 has left our unfortunate Spanish-speaking citizens there 
 with a heritage some of which dates back almost un- 
 changed to the Middle Ages and which at its best is un- 
 American and unfitted both in principle and practice to 
 the needs of the Twentieth Century in which we live. 
 For not the least of the errors which the Church has 
 committed has been the refusal to raise up a native leader- 
 ship, so that after 400 years we have the Church dom- 
 inated by priests from France, Italy, Belgium, Spain and 
 other European countries, priests who sometimes know 
 little or nothing of the English language and who are
 
 80 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 ignorant of or out of sympathy with American ideals 
 and institutions. 
 
 Unsatisfactory as has been the ministry of the Roman 
 Catholic Church in this region, even this unsatisfactory 
 ministry has failed to reach large numbers of the people, 
 and the story has in many places been chiefly a story of 
 neglect. The religious ministry in many communities 
 consists of an infrequent visit from an itinerant priest. 
 The poverty of the people has made the monetary returns 
 small and the service has suffered as a result. 
 
 From a religious standpoint possibly nothing would be 
 better for our Spanish-speaking Americans than for the 
 Roman Catholic Church to frankly acknowledge her 
 shortcomings in the past and to embark upon an educa- 
 tional campaign designed to substitute a religion of en- 
 lightenment for a religion or! superstition; a religion of 
 righteousness for one of formality; a religion of service 
 for one of moral and financial exploitation; a religion of 
 Americanism for a religion of un- Americanism ; and a 
 native trained leadership for a European trained leader- 
 ship. The Roman Catholic Church holds the key to 
 unlock the new day in our Southwest, so far at least as 
 our Mexicans and Spanish- Americans are concerned, if 
 she will but use it. If she refuses some one else must do 
 the job. 
 
 It should not be inferred, of course, that the Protestant 
 church is to have no place in ushering in the new day. 
 She already has a large part in the task, and although 
 she has sometimes moved haltingly she has made a far 
 larger contribution to the religious and moral life of the 
 people among whom she has been working than any 
 results in terms of membership constituency might seem 
 to indicate. She began her work about 1850 and she
 
 RELIGION 81 
 
 was, therefore, some 325 years behind the Roman Cath- 
 olic Church in the same field. In the early days there 
 was much persecution of Protestant workers; they were 
 threatened, stoned, and, in at least one or two cases, 
 killed, At present Protestant work for Mexicans and 
 Spanish- Americans is being carried on in some 300 dif- 
 ferent communities in our border states. There is a 
 reported membership of more than 10,000 and a Prot- 
 estant constituency of several times that number. In the 
 early days the work consisted largely of preaching and 
 Sunday-school activities. Very soon an educational work 
 was developed and more recently an elaborate social pro- 
 gram has been undertaken. This is particularly true 
 since the large influx of Mexicans into the United States 
 has brought congestion and multiplied social problems 
 into many communities in the Southwest. This social 
 service program takes on many forms. It includes the 
 maintaining of employment agencies; the furnishing of 
 work and the teaching of trades through "Goodwill In- 
 dustries" ; the establishment of medical and dental clinics ; 
 home visitation ; the teaching of English ; the teaching of 
 Spanish; instruction in music, elocution, practical nurs- 
 ing, health, hygiene, sanitation, manual training of many 
 sorts, and other branches. Mothers are taught sewing, 
 cooking, home-making, and the care of children in 
 Mother's Clubs; and Boy Scout, Girl Scout, and many 
 other clubs are maintained for boys and girls and young 
 people. Mexicans in trouble and sickness are assisted; 
 milk is distributed to undernourished children and to 
 invalids ; reading and rest rooms and information bureaus 
 are maintained; and kindergartens are conducted. Day 
 schools are conducted among Spanish-Americans and in 
 Border towns, and Protestant boarding-schools for Span-
 
 82 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 ish-speaking youth are to be found in all the Border 
 states. In many places playground apparatus is pro- 
 vided, and community activities promoted. These include 
 community celebrations, war-time garden projects, "clean- 
 up" weeks, and other similar projects. 
 
 Much of this work is done purely as a service to the 
 individual and the community, and no strings are at- 
 tached to it. It is pure Americanization work done in 
 the spirit of Christian service. Whenever possible a small 
 charge is made for services rendered, in order that the 
 habit of dependence and pauperization may not be en- 
 couraged. There .is nothing of exploitation and little or 
 nothing of "proselytism" in connection with this fine and 
 rapidly extending social ministry. Its primary purpose 
 is to assist an unfortunate and often helpless people to 
 establish themselves upon an American plane of living. 
 As a by-product this work is doing much to establish 
 confidence on the part of Mexicans in Americans and in 
 America, and new arrivals in America have proved to be 
 remarkably open to approach and remarkably grateful 
 when they have once become convinced that certain 
 Americans, at least, stand ready to help them during the 
 difficult period of getting established in a new land, 
 merely because they are fellow human beings in need. 
 
 In this fine work many independent agencies are assist- 
 ing. .Thus the Y. M. C. A. has several Mexican branches 
 where Mexican boys and young men are receiving under 
 a wholesome environment the same sort of opportunities 
 and training as is accorded .to American youth. The Y. 
 W. C. A. used a portion of its'war fund for Americaniza- 
 tion work among Spanish-speaking people on the Border. 
 A number of centers were opened from San Antonio 
 through to Los Angeles. As the original funds have
 
 RELIGION 83 
 
 become exhausted, the work has in some cases been 
 adopted locally. In these centers a great variety of activ- 
 ities has been carried on. Hundreds of Mexican girls 
 and women have been gathered in English classes, cooking 
 classes, and home-making clubs of many sorts. The 
 teaching of history and American civics has been included, 
 and the work has reached not only the poorer Mexican 
 women but also some of the wealthiest and most aristo- 
 cratic among the refugees. In Pirtleville, Arizona, the 
 work has included a fine ministry to the boys and girls 
 of the community, the establishment of a community read- 
 ing room, the distribution of quantities of magazines and 
 other periodicals, and various other ministries. In El 
 Paso a room has been set aside for the use of Mexican 
 girls employed as shop girls and as stenographers, to 
 which they can come during the noon hour to prepare 
 and eat their mid-day lunch. Thus the list of ministries 
 carried on by these and other agencies might be greatly 
 extended. They are but illustrations of the way in which 
 America is extending the hand of friendship to our newly 
 arrived neighbors from Old Mexico. They represent one 
 of the most hopeful aspects of the entire Border situation. 
 It is needless to talk about the "rights" of the Protest- 
 ant church to work in this field. In a land of religious 
 freedom there will always be opportunity for earnest 
 Christians to proclaim the truth as they see it. In this 
 field, however, there has been the challenge of great need 
 to which the Protestant church could do no less than 
 respond. There will, without doubt, always be a Protest- 
 ant constituency here, and very likely it will be a steadily 
 increasing constituency. The responsive attitude of the 
 newcomers from Mexico seems to promise this, particu- 
 larly when the present enlarged program of Christian
 
 84. NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 work on the part of the Protestant agencies is taken into 
 consideration. On the other hand, a Protestant member- 
 ship constituency of something over ten thousand souls 
 as the result of three-quarters of a century of effort does 
 not promise any quick solution of the religious problem 
 in this field by the conversion of our Spanish-speaking 
 population to the Protestant faith. If the solution of 
 the matter depended upon this, the situation would indeed 
 be discouraging. Quite apart from numbers the Protest- 
 ant Church has brought into the field higher ideals of 
 life and conduct, a more wholesome interpretation of God 
 and of Jesus Christ, and an attitude of unadulterated 
 Americanism which has had a wide influence upon the life 
 of the Southwest, including the Roman Catholic Church. 
 There have been many fine, self-sacrificing, and devoted 
 Catholic leaders in the Southwest, but they have been 
 handicapped by a heritage so corrupt and a system so 
 un-American that their best efforts have been largely 
 nullified. And yet the future of our Spanish-Americans 
 would seem to lie in the hands of the Catholic Church 
 unless that institution persists in "sinning away its day 
 of grace." If she will but substitute a religion of truth 
 for one of superstitution : if she will put as much em- 
 phasis upon conduct and social morality as she now puts 
 upon ceremony; if she will substitute Americanism for 
 un-Americanism ; if she will raise up and substitute a 
 native leadership for a foreign leadership; if she will sub- 
 stitute service for exploitation ; and if she will assist every 
 Spanish-speaking member of her constituency in the 
 United States to master and speak the English language, 
 she will render a service for which we shall as a nation 
 have genuine cause for thanksgiving and which will help 
 us to forget some of the errors of the past.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 EDUCATION 
 
 THE many recently arrived Mexican families in the 
 United States have placed the school systems of our 
 Southwestern states under an unusual strain. The mere 
 increase in numbers, coming as it did at a time when at- 
 tention and energy were taken up with the World War, 
 was sufficient embarrassment in countless communities, 
 but the introduction of a large group of non-English- 
 speaking children brought with it complications and prob- 
 lems which have proved much more difficult of solution 
 than has the mere problem of numbers. These considera- 
 tions, added to the fact that both New Mexico and Texas 
 have been slow in bringing their public school systems to ' 
 efficiency, and to the further fact that schools all over 
 the United States have recently been seriously embarrassed 
 by a shortage of teachers and other post-war conditions, 
 have accentuated an already difficult situation. 
 
 Writing in "El Gringo" as early as 1857, W. W. H. 
 Davis said : "The standard of education in New Mexico 
 is at a very low ebb, and there is a larger number of per- 
 sons who cannot read and write than in any other Ter- 
 ritory in the Union. The number attending school is 
 given as 460, which is about one scholar to every 125 
 inhabitants. . . . This exhibits a fearful amount of ig- 
 norance among the people, and it is enough to make us 
 question the propriety of intrusting them with the power 
 
 85
 
 86 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 to make their own laws. It was always the policy of 
 Spain and Mexico to keep her people in ignorance, and, 
 so far as New Mexico was concerned, they seem to have 
 carried out the system with singular faithfulness, and in 
 no country in the world that lays the least claim to civ- 
 ilization has general education and a cultivation of the 
 arts been so generally neglected. . . . There is not a 
 native physician in the country, nor am I aware that 
 there has ever been one." 
 
 At best, 460 pupils in a population of 61,547 does not 
 make a very satisfactory showing. Matters did not im- 
 prove rapidly, however, when New Mexico became a Ter- 
 ritory of the United States. The Federal government did 
 little at first to promote education and New Mexico did 
 not have a public school law until 1891. 
 
 It should be said, however, that the New Mexico Ter- 
 ritorial Legislature passed a bill at its 1855-1856 session 
 establishing a common school system to be supported by 
 public taxation. The measure was submitted to the peo- 
 ple, and thirty-seven votes were cast for it; a total of 
 5,016 votes was recorded as opposed to the measure. It 
 is worthy of mention that about this time the United 
 States government sent a box of books as a gift to the 
 Territory with which it might start a territorial library. 
 The territorial legislature, however, refused to pay the 
 freight charges on the books and left them to be sold for 
 the freight or destroyed by the freight agent. Dr. 
 Thomas Harwood, who spent half a century in New 
 Mexico, says that in 1870 "not a public school house could 
 be found, hardly a Bible in one family in a thousand, and 
 only a few other books; hardly a public road or a 
 bridge; . . . hardly an American plow, wagon, or 
 buggy."
 
 EDUCATION 87 
 
 In 1910, 48,697 persons of ten years of age or over, 
 or 20.2 per cent of the total population of the state, were 
 reported as illiterate. 
 
 The latest biennial report of the State Superintendent 
 of Public Instruction, published in 1918, gives the total 
 school population (5 to 21 years) of New Mexico as 
 121,829, f whom 86,699 were enrolled in school. The 
 average attendance was 56,398. For the state 1,413 
 schoolhouses were reported, and a total of 2,641 teachers 
 was employed. A recent investigation by the Russell Sage 
 Foundation into the efficiency of the different school sys- 
 tems in the United States places New Mexico thirty-first 
 among the states of the Union. This rating is said to 
 have been based upon a study of attendance, training 
 given, progress made by pupils, amounts expended for 
 buildings and supplies, salaries paid, and other similar 
 items. New Mexico seems, therefore, to have made very 
 encouraging progress in connection with her schools. 
 Such a report cannot, however, in the very nature of the 
 case, tell the whole story, for New Mexico is unique 
 among the states. 
 
 The language question is ever at the front in New 
 Mexico. Shall it be English, or shall it be Spanish ? The 
 Governor and a certain group of officials have had one 
 idea and another group has had another idea. Governor 
 Larrazola is reported to be strongly in favor of having 
 the first few years of instruction given in Spanish in com- 
 munities where it is desired. This plan has not yet been 
 legalized in the state, however. The present state law 
 provides, "That Spanish as a separate subject shall be 
 taught in any public elementary or high school in the 
 state when a majority vote of the board of school direc- 
 tors or board of education in charge of such school shall
 
 88 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 direct" . . . but that, "Except as herein provided, the 
 books used and the instruction given in said schools shall 
 be in the English language; provided that Spanish may 
 be used in explaining the meaning of English words to 
 Spanish-speaking pupils who do not understand English." 
 The law is perhaps beyond reproach, but it is only fair 
 to say that, in the rural regions particularly, it does not 
 operate to produce any very great facility in the use of 
 the English language among pupils who come to school 
 from Spanish-speaking homes. The reason of course is 
 not far to seek. Thousands of pupils come to the public 
 school who have never spoken a word of English. Very 
 likely their teachers are also from Spanish-speaking 
 homes. It is inevitable that under those conditions much 
 of the conversation in the schoolroom will be in Spanish, 
 while on the playground and at home Spanish is the only 
 language heard or used. The ability to pronounce a few 
 English words from a book, words the meaning of which 
 is often unknown, does not add greatly to the pupil's 
 knowledge of a language which is strange to him and 
 which he has little occasion to use in school and no occa- 
 sion to use outside of school. Thus I rode recently for 
 two days over the mountains of New Mexico with a 
 Spanish-American, a citizen, born and raised in the United 
 States and trained in the public schools of New Mexico, 
 and yet, if his life had depended upon his ability to have 
 spoken a complete sentence in the English language, I 
 do not think that he could have accomplished the feat. 
 And his case is more or less typical of the cases of thou- 
 sands of others, who under similar conditions grow up 
 without being able to read either English or Spanish and 
 with a speaking knowledge of Spanish only. We face 
 here a very difficult situation and one which calls neither
 
 EDUCATION 89 
 
 for harsh criticism nor for harsh measures, but rather for 
 sympathy, helpfulness and insight. There are many 
 factors involved here in addition to the simple pedagogical 
 matter of teaching a language. Of course the language 
 must be taught persistently and insistently, but what is 
 one going to do with it after he has learned it if it is a 
 language which his father and mother and his neighbors 
 do not understand. It would seem that these communi- 
 ties which are so distinctly Spanish to-day must inevitably 
 pass through a bi-lingual period before English can finally 
 dominate, and during that period the school has an un- 
 usually important and an unusually difficult task to per- 
 form. In communities where there is a larger proportion 
 of Anglo-Saxon stock the problem is a simpler one, un- 
 less, as happens in many cases, the Spanish element be- 
 comes segregated and lives largely to itself. The whole 
 problem is aggravated by the tendency of Spanish-Ameri- 
 can boys and girls to cut the school years as short as the 
 law will alloy, and in many cases even shorter than that. 
 
 In the larger centers along the Border, such as San 
 Antonio, El Paso, Los Angeles, and others, we have simi- 
 lar problems with all sorts of variations. 
 
 As early as 1915 Miss Elizabeth Barbour, School 
 Superintendent for Brownsville, Texas, said, in speaking 
 of her pupils in Brownsville, "of those entering the first 
 grade, ninety-two per cent are unable to understand one 
 word of English, much less to speak it. Those of you 
 who have three or four such children in your classes can 
 have no idea of what it means to have the numbers re- 
 versed and have three or four English-speaking children 
 among a class of non-English-speaking ones." Some of 
 these children of whom Miss Barbour speaks were not 
 only American-born but of American-born parents, and
 
 90 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 some of American-born grandparents. All of these Bor- 
 der towns have recently received a fresh influx of Mex- 
 icans. From these Mexican homes come throngs of 
 bright boys and girls with all the good wishes of fond 
 parents who want their children to enjoy all of the ad- 
 vantages which American children have. In an over- 
 whelming proportion of cases, however, their hopes are 
 doomed to disappointment. The entire trail of the public 
 school in the Southwest is strewn with the blasted hopes 
 of Mexican boys and girls. By the time high school is 
 reached there are few left, and of those who complete a 
 high school course the number is small indeed. The pro- 
 portion varies from city to city, but in general it is always 
 small and sometimes almost negligible. In San Antonio, 
 for example, where 1 1 ,000 Mexican pupils are enrolled in 
 the city schools, only 250 were found in high school and 
 not more than ten Mexican graduates were included in a 
 recent graduating class. In El Paso with one half of 
 the grade pupils of Mexican parentage the ratio in the 
 high school is 100 in a total enrollment of 1,400. Recent 
 graduating classes have had from four to ten Mexican 
 students. The Superintendent, A. H. Higby, says "The 
 Mexican children drop out in great numbers at about the 
 fourth grade," Mr. Harry M. Shafer of the Los An- 
 geles city schools says, "Very few Mexican pupils reach 
 the high school and almost none graduate from high 
 schools." Public school authorities have been frank to 
 place part of the blame for this situation upon a course 
 of study conceived for use with American boys and girls 
 and upon methods designed for use with pupils who 
 come from a different environment and who already 
 understand the English language. There is no doubt 
 that part of the difficulty lies here, but there are many
 
 EDUCATION 91 
 
 other contributing causes such as economic pressure, un- 
 dernourishment which undermines ambition, the absolute 
 lack of home assistance, and, perhaps not least, a native 
 sensitiveness which makes unfavorable comparison with 
 other pupils unendurable. This latter factor is accent- 
 uated in communities where bitter race prejudice has been 
 allowed to develop, in some cases making the life of a 
 Mexican pupil well-nigh intolerable so long as he stays in 
 school. Fortunately, this condition is not universal, but 
 it is becoming altogether too common especially in Texas 
 towns. 
 
 Speaking of the Mexicans in San Antonio, W. J. Know 
 says: 
 
 "They will deny themselves the bare necessities of life 
 that their children may be supplied school books. Nothing 
 that will benefit or uplift is withheld. Not only do they 
 think of their own, but you will find in nearly every family 
 some orphan who receives the same consideration as their 
 own child. As is often the case with foreigners, you 
 never hear of a Mjxican taking his child out of school for 
 the reason that it nas had opportunity enough and must 
 go to work to repay parents. The children are only taken 
 out of school for sheer need, or because they are over- 
 sized and ashamed to be with smaller ones, or because 
 of race prejudice against them being so strong that they 
 forego an education rather than submit to the conditions 
 imposed." 
 
 Unfortunately one or more of these factors is at work 
 in a sufficient number of cases to make the life of the 
 Mexican pupil in many cases a very unpleasant one, and 
 to make him welcome an interruption of his school activ- 
 ities. Of those who do persist in school a large propor- 
 tion are from the better Mexican homes where better
 
 92 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 opportunities and more adequate food are available. It 
 should be noted, however, that the child of a Mexican 
 peon does not differ in mental ability from the more for- 
 tunate Mexican child, as a peon is only a poor Mexican. 
 
 The language difficulty is of course a serious one. The 
 Mexican pupil is not only expected to learn all that an 
 English-speaking pupil learns but to learn it in a language 
 which he does not understand. Much of the time he does 
 not know what his teacher is talking about, and the 
 tendency is to learn the English which he does learn in a 
 parrot-like fashion. Even in the schools which are made 
 up largely or exclusively of Mexicans or Mex- Americans 
 the pressure to "make the grade" each year is often the 
 same as in other schools, so that at best the pupil faces 
 a very difficult task. Some schools provide separate 
 classes for those who do not understand English. In 
 California some cities segregate the children of Mexican 
 parentage during the first three years of school life. In 
 congested Mexican centers segregation becomes almost 
 automatic, and in some cases, particularly in Texas, race 
 prejudice brings about segregation. 
 
 Of course the child of poorer Mexican parentage is al- 
 ways handicapped both in ideals, incentives, and actual 
 achievement by the limitations of his home environment. 
 The ignorance of the Mexican is always the bond which 
 binds both him and his children. This ignorance often 
 extends to the simplest details which teachers may per- 
 haps be excused for taking for granted. Thus a social 
 worker recently found a girl in a poor Mexican home in 
 distress. She had been told to write a composition upon 
 the "cow in commerce," but a sympathetic conversation 
 with her revealed the fact that she did not know that beef- 
 steak came from a cow or that butter was made from
 
 EDUCATION 93 
 
 milk. The utter lack of home guidance had left her to 
 grow up at the mercy of her pitifully limited environment. 
 Nor is the problem of attendance an easy one to solve 
 among Mexicans in the United States. There is much 
 seasonal work and much moving from place to place, and 
 there are many other factors present to complicate the 
 situation. In the city the task is always difficult, and in 
 the country it becomes in some cases almost hopeless. 
 For example, the report of the Commissioner of Ele- 
 mentary Schools for the State of California published in 
 1919 states casually that a recent visit to Imperial County 
 has revealed the fact that there are hundreds of pupils 
 of school age not in school, and this in spite of the diligent 
 efforts of attendance officers. Now Imperial County is 
 one of the very southern counties of California on the 
 Mexican Border and inhabited by thousands of Mexicans. 
 The same condition of non-attendance at the public schools 
 can be duplicated in practically every rural region in the 
 Southwest inhabited largely by Mexicans. In Texas it 
 is only recently that there has been a compulsory educa- 
 tion law. For the year beginning September I, 1916, a 
 total of sixty days' attendance was required of children 
 between eight and fourteen years of age; in 1917 this 
 was raised to eighty days ; and in 1918 to 100 days. There 
 are, however, numerous exceptions, as, for example: 
 "Any child living more than two and one-half miles by 
 direct and traveled road from the nearest public school 
 supported for children of the same race and color of such 
 child, and with no free transportation provided." In the 
 same way, "Any child more than twelve years of age who 
 has satisfactorily completed the work of the fourth grade 
 of a standard elementary school of seven grades, and 
 whose services are needed in support of a parent or other
 
 94 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 person standing in parental relation to the child" may 
 be exempted from further attendance at school. In New 
 Mexico the period of compulsory school attendance is 
 from six to sixteen years, except that pupils fourteen 
 years of age or over may be excused from school if they 
 are gainfully employed. 
 
 In spite of limitations, however, the public school is 
 probably rendering a larger service and accomplishing 
 more in the way of Americanization in our Border states 
 than any other institution. For it is a work of American- 
 ization, no matter whether the particular pupil concerned 
 is the child of a Mexican refugee, only temporarily in the 
 United States, or whether he is destined to become a full- 
 fledged American citizen and spend his life in this coun- 
 try. During the World War a large amount of patriotic 
 training was introduced into the public schools, and it 
 was not at all uncommmon to see the children of recently 
 arrived Mexican parents shouting as vigorously for the 
 United States and waving the American flag as energet- 
 ically as native-born American children. 
 
 The field of education has not been left entirely to the 
 public school, however. The Roman Catholic Church or- 
 ganized some parochial schools at an early date, and there 
 are still a number of such schools serving Spanish-Amer- 
 icans, particularly in New Mexico. A work which has 
 been of larger significance from the standpoint of general 
 training and the promotion of Americanism has been 
 done by the Protestant churches. As early as 1852 Pro- 
 testant mission school work for Mexicans was begun at 
 Brownsville, Texas, and about the same time schools 
 began to be opened in New Mexico. For a long time 
 education in New Mexico was largely confined to church 
 schools. A great many of these schools have been con-
 
 EDUCATION 95 
 
 ducted, and their influence has been incalculable. The 
 custom has been for Protestant agencies to give up their 
 distinctive day schools as soon as communities have been 
 in a position to give satisfactory elementry education to 
 their boys and girls, and in some cases even long before 
 that ideal state has been attained. 
 
 During the year 1919-1920 forty Protestant mission 
 schools were in existence in the four Border states of 
 Texas, New Mexico (including a small part of Southern 
 Colorado), Arizona, and California. Eighteen of these 
 schools are boarding-schools, as follows : Eight girls' 
 boarding-schools, seven boys' boarding-schools, and three 
 co-educational schools. There are two girls' boarding- 
 schools in California and one for boys; in Arizona there 
 is one girls' boarding-school and none for boys; there 
 are six boarding-schools in New Mexico, two for girls, 
 two for boys, and two co-educational; Texas has eight of 
 these Protestant boarding-schools, three for girls, four 
 for boys, and one co-educational. The chief centers of 
 this boarding-school work are Santa Fe and Albuquerque, 
 New Mexico ; El Paso, San Antonio, and Laredo, Texas ; 
 Tucson, Arizona; and Los Angeles, California. The 
 Protestant day schools which remain are to be found 
 chiefly in New Mexico and Texas. 
 
 These mission schools for Mexicans in the Border states 
 represent a property investment of something over a mil- 
 lion dollars, a teaching staff of 157, and an annual budget 
 of not less than $150,000. Just at present this figure bids 
 fair to be largely increased by the erection of new building 
 and the addition of needed equipment. One school alone 
 is putting $100,000 into additional buildings. During the 
 year 1919-1920 3,210 pupils were enrolled in these
 
 96 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 Protestant mission schools for Mexicans and Spanish- 
 Americans. 
 
 Something of the popularity of these schools may be 
 gathered from the fact that although tuition is charged 
 at practically all of these schools they are in most cases 
 filled to overflowing. During the year 1919-1920 one 
 school alone turned away more than 150 applicants for 
 admission and for whom it had no room. In New Mex- 
 ico it is particularly striking that hundreds of Spanish- 
 American parents pay their taxes to support the public 
 school and then voluntarily pay tuition to send their chil- 
 dren to a Protestant mission school in the same com- 
 munity. And this is done in spite of the fact that the 
 parents are for the most part Catholics and in spite of 
 the strong and often bitter opposition of the itinerant 
 priest. The fact that the standard of instruction is higher 
 in the mission school than in the public school and that in 
 many cases the mission school offers the one opportunity 
 to learn the English language accounts for its popularity. 
 Then, too, the fine unselfish spirit of the mission school 
 teachers has won the confidence of the people. No undue 
 religious pressure is put upon the pupils in these schools, 
 but there is a persistent attempt to inculcate the Christian 
 virtues and to hold up Christian ideals of life and conduct 
 before the pupils. The only pupils who consistently and 
 persistently refuse to attend these schools in the com- 
 munities where they exist are the children of Penitentes. 
 On the Border these schools often serve an important 
 international constituency, and scores of Mexican boys 
 and girls come regularly across the international line to 
 attend Protestant mission schools. 
 
 Nor are these pupils of mission schools all from the 
 poorer homes. Many of them come from homes of
 
 EDUCATION 97 
 
 Mexican government officials of importance. General 
 Emilio Salinas, brother-in-law to Carranza, and formerly 
 Mexican Consul in New York City, sent his son to a 
 missionary boarding-school conducted by the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, at Laredo, Texas. Another 
 Mexican consul has several children at present attending 
 another mission school in California, and the list might 
 be greatly extended of similar cases on either side of the 
 Border. The young woman who was stenographer to 
 former President Madero of Mexico recently graduated 
 from a mission school in California, and expects to give 
 her life in sen-ice to her people. A young man, who, 
 at the time the United States Army entered Vera Cruz, 
 was an officer under Villa, came across the Border, 
 was reached by a home missionary and is now studying 
 in a mission school to prepare himself for the Christian 
 ministry. 
 
 The training in these mission boarding-schools includes 
 elementary, secondary, and many special courses. One 
 school is planning to extend its course to include a full 
 college training. At present the girls are taught cooking, 
 sewing, music, and various household arts in addition to 
 the regular elementary and secondary courses offered. At 
 Holding Institute, Laredo, Texas, one of the most popu- 
 lar departments, both among the girls and the boys, is 
 the business department, where stenography, typewriting, 
 bookkeeping and other related branches are taught. Sev- 
 eral schools are located on large farms; the Texas-Mex- 
 ican Institute at Kingsville, Texas, has 700 acres and the 
 boys spend half a day in the schoolroom and half a day 
 at work on the farm ; the Rio Grande Institute at Albu- 
 querque, also on a large well-equipped farm, furnishes 
 similar opportunities for various kinds of farm training.
 
 98 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 Many schools have wood-working or other manual train- 
 ing. At the Spanish-American Institute for boys at Gar- 
 dena, California, one of the popular departments is the 
 printing department. This fine, well-equipped department 
 not only trains skilled printers but it incidentally does 
 all of the school printing and handles a large volume of 
 outside work. As one of its activities it publishes every 
 two weeks a paper entitled "The Mexican Boy." The 
 writing, editing, typesetting, and printing of this paper 
 are done by the boys themselves as a part of their training. 
 The Lydia Patterson Institute in El Paso is planning to 
 add to its present excellent course a printing department, 
 tailor shop, carpenter shop, shoe shop, and an auto shop. 
 These are only illustrations of the varied training which 
 these mission schools are rendering and are projecting for 
 the future. 
 
 The boarding-school seems to offer an unusually good 
 opportunity for non-English-speaking pupils to get that 
 personal contact with their teachers which seems to be 
 almost indispensable to satisfactory progress. Graduates 
 and former pupils of these schools are everywhere giving 
 a good account of themselves; some have gone on to col- 
 lege and then to professional schools of different sorts; 
 and they have filled every sort of position from that of 
 state legislator to sheep herder. Some are ministers, 
 some are Y. M. C. A. secretaries, some are in business, 
 many are teachers, and many have gone out to establish 
 Christian, American homes after years of living in the 
 environment of a Christian boarding-school. In some 
 sections of New Mexico a large proportion of the public 
 school teachers have been trained entirely or in part in 
 mission schools. Thus in many ways the mission schools 
 for Mexicans in the Southwest are exerting an Ameri-
 
 EDUCATION 99 
 
 canizing and a Christianizing influence quite out of pro- 
 portion to the actual numbers enrolled in the schools. 
 
 The following is the first composition in English writ- 
 ten by a little Mexican girl in a mission school, after she 
 had mastered the language enough to begin to write in it : 
 
 A MEXICAN GIRL'S COMPOSITION 
 
 "One apon time live a boy, has (his) name were Frank. 
 He Askt has mother for nice party on Holloheen night. 
 Mother sed all right if you be good boy. It was Holloheen 
 night in the little house and it looked so perty with somany 
 flags and punkens and paper turkeys. 
 
 "The Yacalentars (Jack-o-Lanterns) were all lighted 
 bright and many friends come to Frank's house and his 
 mother made a many pis and cakes. When friends come 
 they smelled chile cooking and said, 'What a perty smell/ 
 
 "In the center of little house they had picnic with a 
 table of punkens and cranberres and somany kinds of 
 fruit and pi. Frank received a big package and he got so 
 happy and then he say 'Everbodie get round me' and then 
 everbodie looked in package. Everbodie beginning to 
 laughed. There was a big bone and a dead rat. 
 
 "Frank say 'Everbodie danse.' He gets his girl to 
 piano. Mother pulled his ears and hit him so hart and 
 made a ball (bump) on his head an everbodie got scare. 
 Mother say 'I tole you I don wan see you dansing.' Party 
 stop and all say good nite." 
 
 In contrast to the foregoing and illustrative of the 
 progress both in the use of English and in the inculcation 
 of lofty ideals and patriotic sentiments which takes place 
 in the mission schools is the following essay written by 
 a Spanish-American boy about to graduate from the high 
 school department of the Menaul School in Albuquerque :
 
 100 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 PATRIOTISM 
 
 "Patriotism is love of country. It is that sentiment 
 which enables us to study, deeply interested, our country's 
 past, with intentions of learning what it stands for. It 
 is this sentiment which makes great statesmen out of 
 mere men, men who sacrifice everything for their coun- 
 try. It leads us to watch the progress of our coun- 
 try, do all in our power to insure and nothing to prevent 
 it. A real patriot watches the program of his country and 
 sees himself an actor taking an important role in it. He is 
 a man who looks to his duty before his rights. 
 
 "To what do we attribute the success with which our 
 army was organized during the world war? Why is it 
 that labor and capital both forgot their troubles? Was 
 it not a crime punishable by imprisonment to spread prop- 
 aganda of any sort against our government ? What was 
 it that brought our soldiers to regard each other as broth- 
 ers regardless of nationality? We were big enough then 
 to overlook petty questions. All was done to secure our 
 success as a nation. 'Unity, team-work,' we said, 'will 
 bring about the victory of our armies.' We had rights 
 as we have now, but duty came first ; rights were ignored. 
 
 "Certainly America has been the melting pot of the 
 world. But in this pot, no one will doubt, there is a 
 residue which needs a higher temperature to melt it. Not 
 so much legislation as warm American hearts. We have 
 been cold to the foreigner. We must be interested in him 
 if we are to make him a true American citizen. These 
 people have acquired very different habits of living, con- 
 sequently it is hard for them to break away suddenly 
 from these habits. It is only by realizing that they are 
 really our brothers that they can come to learn our lan- 
 guage and, in turn, our customs. 
 
 "This war did away, in a great measure, with both class
 
 EDUCATION 101 
 
 and race distinction, but it also made the foreigner proud. 
 He learned that he could do work equal to any man's, 
 that he could fight as well as others. No wonder that we 
 do not find him as submissive as before. The hyphenated 
 American is to blame for not making himself thoroughly 
 American, as is the so-called American for not giving him 
 a better chance. Neither is willing to make any sacrifice 
 for the good of the country. It was an extreme sense of 
 patriotism which made us love our brothers. It was all 
 to insure our country against any possibility of its working 
 power being reduced. But where is this love of country 
 gone? Why not give as much of our energy to insure 
 the progress of our country now as we did during the 
 war ? Why not be as great a civilian nation as we were a 
 soldier nation? 
 
 "We have a patriotism that is extremely beneficial to 
 a country and another that ought never to exist. There 
 are people who leave their mother country for one reason 
 or another. They see some advantage in the country to 
 which they go. But when they get there they do not 
 swear allegiance from their hearts to that country which 
 offers them better opportunities. This kind of ore coming 
 into our melting pot is absolutely out of place in our 
 country. We say nothing against this patriotism, but if 
 we must love our mother country wherever we are the 
 best thing to do is to stay there and cause no trouble else- 
 where by a too deeply rooted patriotism. If Greek, 
 Italian, French or Mexican comes here and remains so 
 our pot has no power over them. We shall have to cast 
 them away as worthless slag. 
 
 "It has been proven that patriotism makes us act as a 
 body, brings us to see our relations to each other. Then 
 why not bring this sentiment back into our hearts and 
 keep it forever there? It is the keynote to national and 
 individual prosperity."
 
 102 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 The foregoing may have some defects as an essay, but 
 as an expression of pure Americanism and as an illustra- 
 tion of the contribution which mission schools are making 
 to the lives of thousands of our Spanish-speaking boys 
 and girls in the Southwest it is pertinent. 
 
 The educational task among Mexicans and Spanish- 
 Americans in the United States is not, however, limited 
 to the period of childhood and youth. We face the prob- 
 lem of dealing with hundreds of thousands of adults who 
 do not speak the English language and who do not under- 
 stand our customs and our forms of government. A 
 recent study of 1,081 Mexican families in the Plaza sec- 
 tion of Los Angeles revealed the fact that fifty- five per 
 cent of the men and seventy- four per cent of the women 
 could not speak English; sixty-seven per cent of the men 
 and eighty-four per cent of the women could not read 
 English; and seventy-five per cent of the men and eighty- 
 five per cent of the women could not write English. Of 
 the families studied, more than sixty per cent had been in 
 Los Angeles more than three years; fifteen per cent had 
 been in the City less than a year. The excellent work 
 done by the public schools and other agencies of Los 
 Angeles makes it seem likely that the situation here, so 
 far as illiteracy is concerned, is better than in many other 
 centers. 
 
 Up to date no very great progress has been made in 
 the teaching of English to adults of Mexican origin. A 
 number of churches have maintained, and are maintaining, 
 English classes for adults. The Goodwill Industries of 
 Southern California teaches English to its employees. 
 The Y. W. C. A., at its International Institutes, has en- 
 rolled some hundreds of adults in English classes, and 
 the pupils have included representatives from some of
 
 EDUCATION 103 
 
 the more prosperous Spanish-speaking homes in the 
 United States. Various other social agencies have done 
 more or less of this work. The total of all adults included 
 in English classes has. relatively speaking, been small. 
 Most adults have been left to pick up the English lan- 
 guage in connection with their regular employment, and, 
 when this does not provide the opportunity to learn Eng- 
 lish, the opportunity has not been provided. In the case 
 of the women the opportunity has very naturally been 
 much less than in the case of the men, and this has been 
 unfortunate for a number of reasons. For example, in 
 cities where unprecedentedly high wages are being offered 
 for housework Mexican women are unable to qualify for 
 the positions offered because they are not familiar with 
 American ways of housekeeping and because their lan- 
 guage limitations will not permit them to ask questions 
 or to receive instructions from their would-be employers. 
 The language question is such a large and important 
 one that it is to be doubted whether adequate progress 
 will be made in handling it until it is taken up systemat- 
 ically by some state or national agency. On the other 
 hand, there is a real embarrassment on the part of certain 
 Mexican young people in the United States, because of 
 the limited facilities offered for perfecting themselves in 
 the use of Spanish and for training in Spanish literature. 
 A considerable number of these Americanized young folks 
 later become teachers of public schools in Mexico, and 
 they must, in order to do this, perfect themselves in Span- 
 ish. Some schools on the Border, therefore, make much 
 of the study of Spanish, and in some cases, particularly 
 where a school is serving regularly an international con- 
 stituency, all instruction is given both in English and in 
 Spanish. Of course it may be argued that we are not
 
 104 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 obligated to train teachers for schools in Old Mexico. 
 On the other hand, it is to be doubted whether we could 
 do any finer piece of service for Mexico than to do just 
 that thing. A generation of teachers trained in American 
 schools and inculcated with American ideals would not 
 only do much for Mexico, but it would provide a surer 
 and cheaper protection for the United States than armies 
 and navies can ever furnish. 
 
 In many informal ways educational work is extended 
 among Mexicans in the United States. Through mothers' 
 clubs many sorts of instruction are given, such as instruc- 
 tion in the care of babies, the preparation of food, the 
 care of the home and similar subjects. For the young 
 people there is a limited number of literary clubs, debating 
 societies, branch libraries, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boy 
 Indians, sewing classes, business classes, wood-working 
 classes, basket ball teams, kindergartens, day nurseries, 
 baseball clubs and numerous similar organizations and 
 activities carried on in connection with various churches, 
 social centers, and other organizations. 
 
 The total amount of educational work which is being 
 done for and with our Spanish-speaking people is very 
 large, and there is every reason for encouragement not 
 only from the fact that for the most part educational op- 
 portunities are eagerly grasped after, but also because the 
 Mexican has demonstrated the fact, beyond peradventure 
 of disproval, that with adequate nourishment and under 
 a favorable environment he has the ability to profit to the 
 utmost from the very best educational opportunities which 
 we can give him. And the very fact that mission schools 
 charging tuition on the Border are filled to overflowing 
 and are turning away hundreds of applicants every year 
 for lack of room to accommodate them is but one of many
 
 EDUCATION 105 
 
 circumstances which indicate the eagerness of both parents 
 and children for the very best which we have to offer. 
 Incidentally, in this connection, it would seem to be sig- 
 nificant that in one boarding-school for Mexican pupils a 
 set of "The Book of Knowledge" placed in the library 
 of the school was almost worn out from constant use 
 the first year.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 A FORWARD LOOK 
 
 "WILL they all go back to Mexico as soon as conditions 
 become settled there?" 
 
 This question has been asked again and again, and is 
 still being asked. What will happen when the Mexicans 
 on the Border become reasonably assured that conditions 
 in Mexico have become stabilized, that their lives and 
 property will be safe back in the homeland, and that 
 economic conditions have sufficiently improved to warrant 
 the establishment of a home there. 
 
 So many unexpected things have happened in the days 
 that have passed that no one but a prophet would be 
 justified in making an authentic statement on this inter- 
 esting point. Nevertheless, I venture the prediction that 
 the last decade has ushered in for us an entirely new per- 
 manent situation so far as the Mexican in the United 
 States is concerned. Many Mexicans will, of course, re- 
 turn to Mexico, but it is also to be expected that many 
 other Mexicans will come to the United States. The 
 stream which has been flowing so freely in the recent past 
 has worn too smooth a channel to be suddenly checked 
 unless very radical measures are taken to check it. Under 
 present conditions the Mexican is eagerly welcomed in this 
 country. Never did so many Mexicans have relatives and 
 friends in the United States; never did they know so 
 much about the United States as now, and it is perhaps 
 
 106
 
 A FORWARD LOOK 107 
 
 fair to believe that never before did they have such a 
 wholesome respect for our country and her institutions. 
 Our Committee on Public Information is said to have 
 done an extremely important piece of work in Mexico 
 during the War, and the Mexican people not only came 
 to understand what the War was all about, but they also 
 learned many things about the United States which they 
 had never before known. 
 
 In order to understand just what may be expected to 
 happen if conditions continue to improve in Mexico, we 
 should remind ourselves just who these people are who 
 are at present in our midst. Some of them are political 
 refugees who have no idea of staying permanently in the 
 United States. As soon as they are assured of personal 
 amnesty they will return to Mexico to look after their 
 financial and other interests there. Even some of these 
 political refugees have, during their period of waiting, 
 engaged in business in this country and formed so many 
 connections here that, although they may return to Mex- 
 ico for a time or many times, the United States will be 
 the scene of most of their future activities. Then there 
 are the contract laborers who have been admitted under 
 special arrangement and who, by the very terms of their 
 admission, are supposed to be returned at the close of 
 their period of employment. The largest part of the 
 recent immigration, however, is made up of poor Mexi- 
 cans who during the long period of revolution and ban- 
 ditry in Mexico have come to the United States in order 
 to find a place where their existence would be to some 
 extent more tolerable. Some have said that they have 
 suffered worse in America than they did in Mexico, but 
 for the most part they have found remunerative employ- 
 ment at wages many times those which they were receiv-
 
 108 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 ing in Mexico, and they have found advantages for their 
 children which are far superior to those which they were 
 enjoying in Mexico. It is fair to assume that those who 
 are established in the new land will think twice, or thrice, 
 before they pack up and return to the uncertainties of 
 Mexico. For those who have been admitted through the 
 regular ports of entry there is always the danger that, 
 should they again be dissatisfied with Mexico and desire 
 to return to the United States, the stricter immigration 
 regulations would prevent them from coming again to this 
 country, and, for those who have come across the line 
 without troubling to pass through a regular port of entry, 
 there is the same danger. Then, too, enough Mexicans 
 have come to the United States, so that none need to be 
 lonely for the companionship of his fellow countrymen 
 who can speak his language. Some one has pointed out 
 that one out of ten of the Mexicans is already in the 
 United States, and this is not far from the truth, if we 
 include also the Spanish-Americans here. In other words, 
 there never was greater reason for the Mexican to be 
 content in the United States, and there are still many 
 good reasons why he should hesitate to return to Mexico. 
 So far as the boys and girls who have been born and 
 are being born in the United States and who are growing 
 up, attending the public schools, and forming their early 
 attachments here, there is no apppeal from Mexico as 
 the homeland, since they are native sons and have their 
 associations and their interests here. Many of these 
 boys and girls would sooner or later return to the United 
 States even if their parents should take them back to 
 Mexico meantime. This fact alone would seem to make 
 it certain that we have for all time to come materially 
 increased our Mexican stock. Whether this will eventuate
 
 A FORWARD LOOK 109 
 
 to our advantage or not will be determined very largely 
 by our wisdom and our tact in dealing with certain very 
 important problems in the days ahead. 
 
 Nowhere in the United States is the problem of Ameri- 
 canization a more complex one than here. Our non- 
 English-speaking immigrants from nearly every other 
 country come to us across thousands of miles of ocean. 
 On the contrary, in our Southwest tens of thousands of 
 Mexican immigrants live literally within the proverbial 
 "stone's throw" of their native land. They can see it 
 each day if they care to do so, and it is always "just 
 across the line." They may live and die in the United 
 States, but yet Mexico is there, and with all her faults 
 they love her still. It is not surprising that few Mexicans 
 apply for American citizenship, for Mexico is always a 
 tantalizing possibility. We have, therefore, thousands of 
 Mexicans in the United States who have no desire to be- 
 come Americans or to be "Americanized," and they never 
 expect to be. As fair-minded Americans we can either 
 eject them bodily from the country or we can endeavor 
 to be decent to them while they remain with us. In many 
 cases their children are destined to be loyal American 
 citizens, and possibly we can afford to be patient with 
 them, if they are not overly eager to learn the English 
 language or to take on American ways. 
 
 For many years to come, if not permanently, the Bor- 
 der must be a place of two languages, and the more Amer- 
 icans who understand Spanish and the more Mexicans 
 who understand English the better it will be for all con- 
 cerned. There is no better way for two nations to under- 
 stand each other than for them to understand each other's 
 language. There is every reason why the educational 
 institutions on the American side of the Border should
 
 110 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 furnish every opportunity for English-speaking pupils to 
 learn Spanish and for Spanish-speaking pupils to learn 
 English, and Mexico in turn should provide similar op- 
 portunities on her side of the line. The matter is of suf- 
 ficient importance to warrant some definite international 
 understanding and method of procedure. In the mean- 
 time we should be patient and remind ourselves that 
 "Americanization" which so often simmers down to the 
 learning of the English language must, in many instances, 
 in the very nature of the case move slowly. 
 
 It should be noted that we have been talking about Mex- 
 icans in the United States and not about Spanish-speaking 
 American citizens. With this latter group there has been 
 an excuse for their ignorance of English, but it is an ex- 
 cuse which cannot long remain valid, and vigorous meas- 
 ures should at once be taken to see to it that such educa- 
 tional steps are taken as will make it unnecessary for 
 any commmunity in the United States, made up of native- 
 born American citizens, to be dependent upon a foreign 
 language for the transaction of its affairs or the carrying 
 on of its social life. 
 
 The War has had its effect here, both upon the young 
 men who went into the service and upon those who stayed 
 at home, for a new patriotism was instilled, and the desire 
 to learn the English language was quickened. How much 
 this was needed is perhaps illustrated by the story told on 
 good authority that native-born Spanish-speaking Ameri- 
 cans claimed military exemption on the ground that they 
 were not American citizens, and that this was done in all 
 good faith and with no attempt to deceive. One of the 
 by-products of the War, namely, the increased wages for 
 common labor, has had a large and far-reaching effect 
 upon Spanish-American towns of long standing. Some
 
 A FORWARD LOOK 111 
 
 have for this reason lost from ten to sixty or seventy per 
 cent of their population. The assumption is that as most 
 of these people go out to larger centers or mingle more 
 actively in the life of to-day they will learn and come to 
 use the English language. During the War Work Cam- 
 paign the Y. M. C. A. did a valuable piece of American- 
 ization work on the Border. This included, among other 
 things, the distribution of $40,000 worth of Spanish 
 pamphlets and other propaganda work. 
 
 Now that the centuries-old seclusion of our Spanish 
 Southwest is being broken up, it is not to be expected that 
 opinions and attitudes will remain in the same static con- 
 dition as in the past. Nor is it to be expected that our 
 Spanish-speaking friends will be immune from harmful 
 propaganda. Already there has been much I. W. W. and 
 radical socialistic agitation fomented by Spanish-speaking 
 agitators. This propaganda has been both against the 
 church and the state. Dr. Vernon M. McCombs of Los 
 Angeles describes a "cross-eyed, Spanish-speaking agi- 
 tator haranguing some 200 Mexicans from a broken chair 
 in the Plaza." The following poem and pledge was widely 
 distributed as a part of this propaganda : 
 
 CHURCHES AND BIBLES 
 BY HARRY HERMANN 
 
 The church is a fiend, 
 
 The Bible a lie, 
 Though Jesus and God 
 
 Are extolled to the sky. 
 
 The preachers will tell us of God they are sent, 
 But their speech does betray that for money they went; 
 They talk of that beautiful home in the sky, 
 While they know of a truth they are telling a lie.
 
 112 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 Food, clothing and shelter they're after . . . O, well ! 
 
 So they jump to the pulpit and talk of that hell: 
 Tis marvelous, indeed, how the dupes they do work, 
 While themselves from all useful employment they shirk. 
 
 The time has now come 
 
 For the preacher to shun, 
 
 Put God and his Jesus to hell on the run; 
 The infidels, atheists, agnostics are here 
 To proclaim the glad tidings, a message of cheer. 
 
 So to hell with the churches, the bibles and all, 
 'Tis nothing but graft, and bitter as gall ; 
 If worship you must, then worship a God 
 Who will give you a living without being a fraud. 
 
 Anti-Enlistment League 
 
 I , being 
 
 over eighteen years of age, hereby pledge myself against en- 
 listing as a volunteer in any military or naval service in 
 international war, offensive or defensive, and against giving 
 my approval to any enlistment on the part of others. 
 
 City 
 
 State , 
 
 Street.... 
 Date. 
 
 The foregoing is a sample of the character and spirit 
 of many tracts and cartoons which have been distributed 
 broadcast among the Mexicans of the Southwest. The 
 literature for this propaganda is not limited to tracts, 
 however; many books are used, such as "J esus Christ 
 Never Existed," "Mary Magdalene, the Mistress of 
 Jesus," "An Imaginary God, the Child of Fear," and 
 others of like nature. How deeply the seeds of atheism 
 and radical socialism have been implanted up to date it is
 
 A FORWARD LOOK 113 
 
 difficult to say. The work has gone far enough, however, 
 to warrant the undertaking of aggressive steps to counter- 
 act such harmful agiation. It is significant that a member 
 of the Mexican national legislature returned, after a trip 
 throughout the Southwest among Mexicans, to report in 
 Mexico City that "the United States is becoming I. W. 
 W. and atheistic." It is also significant that in the Bisbee 
 deportation some time ago one-third were of Mexicans. 
 The ignorance of the Mexicans makes a fertile field for 
 the planting of all sorts of corrupting ideas and nothing 
 but a counter-attack along lines of education, and the im- 
 planting of the Christian principles of individual responsi- 
 bility for and service to the group will protect them from 
 this insidious propaganda which is continually beng spread 
 among them. Incidentally it must be noted, however, that 
 education must be accompanied by a rigorous application 
 of the principles of social justice to our treatment of the 
 Mexican. Churches and schools and ministers and social 
 workers are already doing much to counteract these dan- 
 gerous tendencies which are manifesting themselves 
 among the Mexicans, and this is done, not only through 
 the general influence of the work, but also by direct deal- 
 ing with unsafe leaders and agitators. Many of the fine 
 and educated Mexican pastors are in a position to render 
 and are rendering a unique service of this character among 
 their fellow-countrymen, a service which one of another 
 race could hardly perform. 
 
 The fact that Mexican labor has been largely engaged 
 in agricultural projects where decentralization is the order 
 of the day may account to some extent for the fact that 
 we have not had more labor disturbances than we have 
 had. Just what the future has in store along this line 
 will be for us to determine, either by our f oresightedness,
 
 114 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 or by our negligence and indifference. The Mexican in 
 the United States is just finding himself. Some day he 
 will be more conscious of his power and his importance 
 than he is to-day. If we are discreet enough we shall 
 see to it that these Mexicans in the United States are so 
 fairly and decently treated that they will never have occa- 
 sion to express their race consciousness or to act as a unit 
 for the attainment of social justice. Up to date the Mex- 
 ican has had many reasons for distrusting the disinterested 
 motives of America and Americans, and these fears have 
 been played upon by both priests and politicians. The 
 mere fact that a Mexican has been forced to seek refuge 
 in the United States does not of necessity imply that he 
 has a very high regard for Americans. It is little short 
 of amazing, however, to see how quickly this inbred dis- 
 trust of America and Americans disappears before the 
 sunlight of understanding, friendly sympathy, and kindly 
 interest expressed by Americans who are eager to serve 
 and to work with him rather than to exploit him. 
 
 So many aspects of the problem come back for their 
 final solution to a question of the human elements in- 
 volved that we are not likely to give the matter too much 
 attention. If we insist upon assuming a mental and moral 
 superiority to the Mexican, and upon looking at him as 
 a convenient beast of burden, useful so long as he stays 
 such, and undesirable as soon as he begins to elevate him- 
 self and his standard of living and to become our com- 
 petitor in the various fields of activity which we like to 
 look upon as distinctly the province of "Americans," then 
 we are preparing for ourselves a problem for the future, 
 the solution of which will be as long drawn out and as 
 difficult as any we have ever faced. Nothing but the 
 frank recognition of the Mexican on his own merits and
 
 A FORWARD LOOK 115 
 
 the determination to give him a chance to make of himself 
 as a man all that he can make will help us to avoid catas- 
 trophe here. The Mexican in the United States in con- 
 trast to any other alien group here has at hand a nation 
 fifteen million strong which will not permanently tolerate, 
 in silence, insults and mistreatment. It is foolish to 
 argue as to whether the Mexican is equal to or superior 
 in ability to the Anglo-Saxon. That is quite beside the 
 point, which is whether we are going to permit the Mex- 
 ican to go as far along the pathway of achievement as 
 his ability will permit him to go. If we accept him on 
 this basis, we have no occasion to fear the future, but 
 on any other basis there are indeed dangers ahead. 
 
 While legally the Mexican in the United States is a 
 "white man" (and incidentally many of them are as 
 white as Anglo-Saxons), and his children are admitted 
 to the public schools, and he is permitted to purchase 
 a ticket and ride on any train on which a white man 
 can ride, yet there is a tendency in too many quarters 
 to insist that "A Mexican is a Mexican." There is no 
 disposition on the part of the present writer to deny that 
 fact; he might even say with equal enthusiasm that "An 
 American is an American." Nor is there any question 
 about the fact that there are some very bad Mexicans 
 and that probably the percentage of dishonest Mexicans 
 and of poverty-stricken Mexicans is greater than the per- 
 centage of similar classes among Americans. But to any 
 student of the situation this would seem to indicate, not 
 that the Mexican is born with any particular moral defi- 
 ciency, but rather that he has unfortunately been cursed 
 with a political and a religious environment which has 
 been largely responsible for making him what he is. On 
 the other hand, I know Mexicans who are as cultured
 
 116 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 and as thoroughly educated as the most fastidious Ameri- 
 can could desire for a friend; Mexicans who speak and 
 read, not two languages alone, but three and four ; Mexi- 
 cans whose ideals of integrity and personal honor are on 
 a par with the best Anglo-Saxon ideals; and Mexicans 
 whose charming manners and sensitive natures make of 
 them delightful companions and ornaments for any draw- 
 ing-room. For an American to snub a Mexican because 
 of his birth is for him to reveal his own provincialism 
 and to cast a blot upon the fair name of America. Mr. 
 S. G. Inman, in "Intervention in Mexico," tells of an 
 American coming to the end of a trip as a guest of Mex- 
 ican officials and business men in Mexico during which 
 he, with other Americans, had been shown something of 
 the marvelous resources of Mexico, and had been enter- 
 tained by some of the most cultured and most prosperous 
 people in Mexico and in a style of which Americans need 
 not have been ashamed, remarking in the presence of 
 Mexicans, and even before he had crossed the interna- 
 tional line, "There are two things I could never under- 
 stand, why the Lord made mosquitoes and Mexicans." 
 ouch an exhibition of incivility, discourtesy, and abso- 
 lute foolishness is not only un-American, but it is also 
 un-Mexican, for even the humblest Mexican can teach 
 us many things about the art of politeness. The incident, 
 however, is more than an isolated incident, it is but an 
 illustration of an attitude of assumed superiority of one 
 race over another, and an attitude which can only bring 
 disaster in our dealings with the Mexican, if we persist 
 in it or permit the unthinking element of our population 
 to give frequent expression to it. 
 
 Fortunately there is every reason to believe that the 
 conditions which make for a continuance of this attitude
 
 A FORWARD LOOK 117 
 
 are rapidly passing away. There is a steadily growing 
 respect for America and Americans on the part of Mex- 
 ico, and there is a similarly enhanced respect for Mexico 
 and Mexicans being developed among Americans. What- 
 ever President Obregon may have said or thought about 
 Americans in the past, his regard for them has been 
 steadily increasing as he has come to know them better. 
 He frankly recognizes the large part which American cap- 
 ital has played and must continue to play in the develop- 
 ment of Mexico; he has declared that the foreign debts 
 of the Mexican republic will be paid; and he has very 
 plainly declared his conviction that friendship with the 
 United States is not only essential to Mexican progress, 
 but that it will be the aim of his government to promote 
 such friendship. All of this augurs well, not only for 
 the future relationships of the two governments con- 
 cerned, but also for the future relationships of the two 
 races concerned. 
 
 As these words are being written word comes that 
 in line with the previous declaration of the Obregon gov- 
 ernment to establish a "dry zone" on the Border one of 
 the very worst resorts there, namely, the "Owl," at Mex- 
 icali has been closed by order of the new government in 
 Lower California. If a similar policy is followed along 
 the entire Border, one of the greatest occasions of mis- 
 judgment of each other may be done away, for it was 
 here on the international line where the very worst ele- 
 ments of Mexico and the United States met and where 
 respect for each other was lost in the free reign of vice. 
 If we can now supplement this very necessary and desir- 
 able negative program with a positive program which will 
 supply wholesome interests and activities for those which 
 have long been so extremely unwholesome, we may as a
 
 118 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 nation breathe a freer and purer atmosphere in the future 
 than we have in the past along our extended southern 
 Border. 
 
 It is apparent long before this that, try as we will to 
 limit our attention to those phases of the Mexican ques- 
 tion which lie north of the international line, we con- 
 tinually find ourselves dipping down into Old Mexico 
 herself. It is suggestive of the fundamentally artificial 
 character of our political demarcations and of the insist- 
 ence of human nature in disregarding them. We can 
 as little permanently confine people and social problems 
 within political areas as we can control water with a 
 basket; they will not stay "put." Mexico's problems and 
 Mexico's achievements become ours by the very law of 
 propinquity, and the rapidity and extent of our progress 
 is to a very considerable extent conditioned by hers. We 
 have more than a mere neighborly interest, therefore, in 
 Mexico's progress educationally, socially, and econom- 
 ically. We are man and wife by common law marriage, 
 and no international divorce court can ever issue a decree 
 which will separate our interests. 
 
 Not only should we understand each other's language, 
 but we should also understand each other's history, tra- 
 ditions, and customs. Many who cannot learn another 
 language or who would have little occasion to use it can 
 at least take pains to be informed about these neighbors 
 who are not destined to move soon out of the neighbor- 
 hood. A little study of the historical background for 
 the situation to be found in the Southwest will not only 
 put us into a more intelligent touch with the Mexicans 
 themselves, but it will also give us a more sympathetic 
 understanding of our own Spanish-American fellow citi- 
 zens. For many who are removed from personal contact
 
 A FORWARD LOOK 119 
 
 with these people, an understanding of the situation and 
 a loyal support of the agencies dealing with them is per- 
 haps all that can be expected; for those who live in 
 intimate contact with it duty does not end there. The 
 whole nation has a right to expect that every true Amer- 
 ican who has dealings with an individual of Mexican 
 origin shall maintain an attitude of friendliness and re- 
 spect toward him, and treat him with all the fairness and 
 the justice which he would accord to one of another race. 
 To do less is not only to bring reproach upon America 
 but to lay up for all of us serious complications for the 
 future. 
 
 We have a difficult task to perform ; it is the ever com- 
 plicated one of endeavoring to help a people who are 
 in need without doing them more harm than good, with- 
 out pauperizing them as we try to assist them. Both the 
 Mexican in the United States and the Spanish-American 
 have needs deep and far-reaching which we must from 
 all the motives of altruism and self-interest help to meet. 
 These needs are physical, economic, intellectual, moral, 
 and spiritual. We cannot refuse to meet them without 
 great danger to ourselves. The Mexican in our national 
 life has become too numerous to ignore; he is too im- 
 portant a factor in our life to forget; but as we assist 
 him to take his place as an integral part of our body 
 politic, and not as an alien adjunct thereto, we must 
 endeavor to master the fine art of working with and not 
 so exclusively for him as we have in the past. In the 
 accomplishment of this task we ought to be able to call 
 into play the best efforts of some of the best educated, 
 most cultured, and wealthiest Mexicans in our midst. 
 If they have not been accustomed to engage in altruistic 
 tasks, they ought to be trained to do so. At present there
 
 120 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 is too great a gulf fixed between the more fortunate and 
 the poorer Mexican in the United States. There seems 
 to be no medium through which the one can help the 
 other. We have been so impressed at times with the 
 needs of the poorer Mexican that we have not only 
 ignored the needs of the more prosperous, but we have 
 also failed to bring the resources of the one to the help 
 of the other to their mutual advantage. 
 
 A gentleman of Mexican extraction has suggested in 
 this connection that we need in important centers more 
 "Mexican Centers," institutions which will furnish a 
 meeting place for people of Mexican extraction, not a 
 social settlement for the poor and in 'which a more for- 
 tunate Mexican would hesitate to be seen, but centers so 
 conducted as to bring no social reproach upon those who 
 enter their walls but rather to serve as the nucleus of the 
 Mexican life of the community and of an educational 
 and social program which will interest and minister to 
 groups of many sorts. Something of this sort has already 
 been achieved in certain centers opened by the Y. W. C. 
 A., the Y. M. C. A., certain churches, and other agencies; 
 but only a beginning has been made, and we are still in 
 the class of learners. 
 
 Of course there is no one solution to a problem so 
 large, so diversified, and so complex. It will require the 
 best efforts of all of us applied in many ways and through 
 many channels. The essential thing is for us to recog- 
 nize that the Mexican is with us to stay, that our future 
 is inextricably bound up with his, as with no other alien 
 race, that we must live together whether we will or no, 
 and, most important of all, that the Mexican is a man with 
 fine, sensitive qualities of nature and with capabilities 
 which are destined to lead him, no one knows how far,
 
 along the path of progress. He is a factor to be reckoned 
 with, but to be reckoned with gladly, for he comes bring- 
 ing gifts; and his already large and steadily increasing 
 contribution to our life is helping to make America a 
 better place in which to live and a far more interesting 
 abode because of the rich and diversified endowments 
 which he brings with him. 
 
 Our great Southwest, destined to be the chief amphi- 
 theater of the Mex- American life in our country, is 
 already an empire in itself, but its marvelous resources 
 have only begun to be exploited. Within the last decade 
 hundreds of thousands of acres of what was once sup- 
 posed to be permanent desert have been transformed into 
 veritable garden spots, and millions of dollars worth of 
 products are being produced where nothing but cactus 
 and sagebrush had ever grown before. Dams have been 
 built, irrigation projects opened, and electric power plants 
 erected. Great pumping outfits have been established, 
 and these are increasing as the water power is more thor- 
 oughly harnessed, so that land which could not otherwise 
 be watered may have water pumped for its use. Thus 
 everywhere the thirsty desert is being transformed and 
 the Mexican is making this transformation possible. He 
 does 'not limit his activities to the surface of the ground, 
 however, for he is a natural miner, and he may be found 
 underground or digging into the side of a mountain to 
 release the hidden coal, gold, silver, copper, and other 
 minerals with which the hills of the Southwest are stored. 
 
 We have heard a great deal in recent years about 
 "city planning." Once people let their cities grow up 
 as chance might dictate, and then one day they woke 
 to the folly of such a procedure. Why not plan the city 
 in advance, and thus direct the lines of its growth so that
 
 122 NEAR SIDE OF THE MEXICAN QUESTION 
 
 the final result might be more pleasing to the eye and 
 more worthy of the people to whom it belonged? To-day 
 we are as a nation building a great empire in our South- 
 west, and we are building it, to a large extent, out of 
 stones quarried from the human quarries of Old Mexico. 
 Up to date we have moved ahead without much plan and 
 with slight vision of what the final result might chance 
 to be. Is it not time that we should begin to consider 
 with care what we are building in order that the product 
 of the formative years just ahead may be pleasing to be- 
 hold and may be worthy of a great nation established 
 upon principles of justice, enlightenment, and human 
 brotherhood ? 
 
 Among those who have been wise enough to see and 
 plan for the future is the Mormon Church. In the very 
 center of the Southwest in the Salt River Valley of Ari- 
 zona which has risen almost overnight from the wilder- 
 ness and clothed itself with verdure of remarkable beauty 
 and economic value, the Mormons have quietly estab- 
 lished themselves on thousands of acres of the most pro- 
 ductive soil. They have reared their neat chapels, and 
 now they have projected a Mormon Temple to cost at 
 least $600,000. This will make the Salt River Valley 
 the great Mormon center of the Southwest, and from it 
 will go out scores of missionaries to work among Mex- 
 icans both above and below the Border. Already many 
 adherents of Mormonism are reported in Old Mexico, 
 in Sonora, Chihuahua, and other states, and a recent 
 report indicates thirty-seven Spanish-speaking Mormon 
 missionaries in the four states of Arizona, New Mexico, 
 Texas, and Colorado. It is reported that a considerable 
 number of Mexican converts to Mormonism in the United 
 States have already been baptized.
 
 A FORWARD LOOK 123 
 
 It is for the people of America to determine whether 
 the ideals of Mormonism, of the I. W. W., of radical 
 socialism, of atheism, and infidelity, or of the very best 
 that America has to offer are to dominate the Southwest 
 which is to-day in the making. Possibly nowhere else 
 has America an opportunity, at the moment, to do a finer, 
 more constructive and more rewarding bit of national 
 prophylaxis than here. 
 
 A word to the wise is sufficient. 
 
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