. , i

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

x945

MEXICO ON THE VERGE
E. J. DILLON

MEXICO
ON THE VERGE

BY
E. J. DILLON
Author of "The Eclipse of Russia," "Ourselves
and Oermany," "Russian Characteristics," etc.

NEW ^gJP YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

Copyright, 1921,
By George H. Boron Company

Printed in the United States of America

TO MY FRIEND
FERNANDO TORREBLANCA
A TYPICAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE NEW PROGRESSIVE ELEMENTS
OF REGENERATE MEXICO WHO DRAW STIMULUS FOR SOCIAL
ENDEAVOR FROM INTENSE FAITH IN THEIR COUNTRY'S
CAUSE, UNFLAGGING HOPE IN ITS DESTINIES
AND A HIGHLY CULTIVATED SENSE OF
DUTY TO THEIR FELLOWS

CONTENTS

CHAPTER pAGE
I INTRODUCTORY  n
n Mexico's transformation  14
III MEXICO IN CARRANZA'S DAYS  21
IV MEXICO'S LAST DICTATOR  31
V EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE  37
VI PREPARING THE ATMOSPHERE  48
VII THE WHITE MAN'S PRECIOUS BURDEN .... 69
VIII THE FOREIGN PIONEER  79
IX THE OUTLANDER AND THE MEXICAN  88
X OIL AND WATER  IOI
XI TAXATION OR CONFISCATION?  112
XII CASTING OUT DEMONS BY BEELZEBUB AND SAVING
MEXICO IN SPITE OF HERSELF  120
XIII MORAL GUARDIANSHIP  I27
XIV FLAWS IN THE CONSTITUTION OF I917 .... I37
XV OIL AND POLITICS  151
XVI THE NEO-MONROE DOCTRINE  165
XVII MR. FALL'S MEXICAN PROGRAMME  l82
XVIII RECOGNITION BY TREATY  201
XIX THE PUBLIC DEBT AND NATIONAL CRIMINALITY . . 225
XX OBREGON'S TASKS AND DIFFICULTIES  245
XXI THE FALL FROM GRACE IN HAITI  265
XXII CONCLUSION  , 286

MEXICO ON THE VERGE

MEXICO ON THE VERGE

CHAPTER I
Introductory
The following pages offer a brief presentment of the main
factors of the Mexican situation which is now entering upon
a critical stage. The subject is tabooed by the average student
of contemporary politics on the ground that it is purely re
gional, devoid of interest and without noteworthy bearings on
the principal currents of the world's history. As a matter of
demonstrable fact, it is the reverse of all that. Mexico to-day
is the subject of an experiment which, whatever the upshot,
bids fair to link it for all time with one of the most fateful
and far-ranging changes in the basic relations of political com
munities with one another. In sooth it is no exaggeration to
say that the first deciding move in the work of transfiguring
those relations and setting the State-systems of the world upon
wholly new foundations is now being made in that Republic.
And this essay is scarcely noticed by statesmen or politicians
while its trend is not realised even by the races and peoples to
the course of whose life-history it is about to impart a new and
chartless direction. Thus the tide of cosmic innovations which
some observers are anxiously watching in Eastern Europe is in
reality rolling away from that quarter of the globe to the
shores of the Mexican Gulf and the southern banks of the Rio
Grande where new precedents are being forged and strange
doctrines promulgated which the near future may see eagerly
adopted in the older Continents with results which it would be
idle to forecast. It is the little beginnings that call for the
closest attention but unhappily the statesmen who could and
should scrutinise those which are certain to lead to the most
11

12 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
momentous consummations are at present absorbed by futile
wrangling and barren enterprises.
In attempting to determine the forces now at work, to
measure their intensity and foreshadow some of their probable
effects, the writer strove to purge his mind of bias and his find
ings of blame and praise. The latter aim was all the more
easy of attainment in that the law of cause and effect takes no
account of morality and that the principal politicians, the re
sults of whose follies and failings are now being visited upon
the ill-starred Mexican people, have passed beyond the reach
of censure, bequeathing to others, as they departed, the fair in
heritance with the heavy curse attached. For the course of
Mexican history, every page of which is framed with a black
mourning border, bears a curious likeness to that of ancient
Greek tragedy wherein grim requital fastens upon the innocent
with the deadly grip of cruel fate.
The following analysis of the national and international
difficulties which Mexico in the person of General Obregon has
now to tackle will be found to differ from the views current in
the United States which stand for the real beliefs of some and
for the ardent wishes of others. Whether this non-conformity
of the writer is a defect or a merit, coming events will show.
Despite strenuous efforts he cannot claim to be absolutely im
partial — no historian has ever reached this ideal. But at least
he is sincere and disinterested. No sensible person imagines
that all the evils which a decade of lawless orgies has inflicted
on the Mexican people or all the vices engrafted on certain sec
tions of it can be dislodged in a twinkling. There are some in
deed which cannot be displaced by ordinary methods at all.
Some devils, we are told, it is impossible to exorcise even by
prayer and holy water. The circumstance should also be borne
in mind that in public affairs there is one kind of slowness which
ripens and another which rots, and that the latter was a charac
teristic of the Carranza regime while the former marks the
methods of Obregon.
Foreigners who possess material interests in Mexico gen
erally wear blinkers, keep only their particular goal in sight,
believe in their own methods to the exclusion of others and are

INTRODUCTORY 13
impatient of contradiction. If some of the remedies which
they confidently propose are specifics at all, it is often only
against imaginary diseases, or artificially implanted vices.
Such readers may well take exception to much in these pages
and indeed to any study of the subject emanating from a de
tached onlooker, and if they would read an expose of the mat
ter entirely to their liking they must write or dictate it them
selves, as not a few of them are wont to do. Among them are
many who, in their haste to pass judgment on the general prob
lem which they confound with their own particular interest
in it, take no pains to understand its deciding elements, while
the credulous and easy-going are misled by the wild stories de
liberately circulated not only in the United States but also
among the foreign residents of Mexico.
"Is it a fact," several distinguished Americans asked me in
Washington last April, "that Villa insists on being represented
in Obregon's cabinet by one of his partisans, and what effect
will that have on Mexico's foreign policy?" I answered — "It
is just as likely as that Eugene Debs is about to pitchfork one
of his comrades into the Harding administration." "Yes,
but here is the American newspaper that makes the statement.
What do you say to that?" "Only that paper endureth all
things which publishers or capitalists pay to have printed on
it." My interlocutors frowned and fell silent.

CHAPTER II
Mexico's Transformation
The Turks, of all races on the globe, have a proverb which
says that fire and faggots, bloodshed and banditry, are sorry
reformers. And what to English-speaking peoples may seem
stranger still than the nationality of that saying is that its
truth has at last been brought home to Mexico, to that restless
republic which for years has been, seemingly, endeavouring
to heat her house with sparks. And she has already begun to
profit by it. A new spirit is springing up everywhere and
new men are embodying it, a spirit of justice on the part of
the country's leaders and an incipient respect for law and or
der among the rank and file, and the outside world takes no
note of the change.
The bulk of the nation — the people who paid and still are
paying the heavy cost of all the revolutions, rebellions and ris
ings — needed no arguments to convince them. They, indeed,
had seen and suffered enough to convert them to pacificism
long ago, had they stood in need of conversion. The obstacles
in the way of law and order were never of their making. The
main difficulty, which until quite recently seemed insuperable,
was to inoculate the leaders of the people with that salutary
doctrine of peaceful evolution and to render them immune
against the bait offered by interested foreign mischief-makers.
And of effecting this even optimists despaired. For, when
ever some semblance of a Government emerged from the reek
and gore of civil war, there always remained a nucleus of agi
tators who, egged on by outsiders, continued the subversive
work and played the part of a Bickford string, connecting
make-believe ideals with bombism and bloodshed. Ideals?
They knew not what they are. The English Revolution was
mainly religious. The French Revolution was largely social.
Most of the Mexican "revolutions" were neither, and as a
14

MEXICO'S TRANSFORMATION 15
consequence they often 8egenerated into a sequence of high
way robberies. The last change of regime was a noteworthy
exception. For it was the work of a few upright, selfless men
who voiced and executed the will of the inarticulate people
and satisfactorily answered the question so often put by for
eigners: "If the Mexicans disapprove their Government, why
do they not overturn it and set up a better one?" This has
now been effected by a truly progressive group of democratic
leaders whose watchword is law, justice, equal opportunity for
all, and whose moving spirit is General Obregon.
Anarchy and violence are apparently now at last about to
pass into the history of an epoch that is no more and are to be
followed by a period of strenuous building up, of moral, in
tellectual and economic development, of friendly intercourse
with foreign peoples whose co-operation is openly recognised
as an indispensable condition of success. For the governing
body is at last of one mind with the bulk of the people and is
determined to turn the sword into a ploughshare and the battle
fields into pastures and corn-growing lands.
While war is still destroying the achievements of civilised
man in Europe, Asia and Africa, it looks then as though Mex
ico had really inaugurated an era of internal reconstruction —
that Mexico of which it was recently and truly said that its
normal condition was internal strife and anarchy. Even the
casual observer can entertain no doubt that a vast change has
recently come over the people and — what is more to the point
— over those who now shape its destinies. To determine in
advance the final outcome of this change, especially in view of
the system of obstruction with which it has to cope abroad, is
a task for a prophet. The utmost that a conscientious chron
icler can undertake is to describe and characterise its principal
signs and tokens. And such a one will have no hesitation
in qualifying these as eminently favorable.
My opportunities of observation have been exceptionally
great. I have journeyed with General Obregon over thou
sands of miles of the Republic, considerable portions of which
were already known to me under the Carranzist regime, when
soldiers had to escort the trains; when we had to spend the

16 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
night at Saltillo or San Luis Potosi lest brigands should de
rail or blow up the carriages and kill, rob, or hold to ransom
the passengers.
In the month of March, 1920, the late President Carranza,
in the course of an interesting conversation I had with him,
assured me that he could not return the railways to their
.owners because no private company could run the trains in
the face of such constant perils. All trains had to be accom
panied by escorts of soldiers supplied by the State. But in
lieu of rooting out the pests which thus preyed upon the
people, he was preparing to have a line of blockhouses con
structed along the principal railway routes with a view to re
ducing the number of outrages and rendering travel less in
secure. That reminded me of the method applied by a Rus
sian Commune to combat the cholera; they purchased five
hundred coffins! The idea of defeating Villa, for example,
never seems to have entered his head as a plan to be speedily
realised. Neither had he any grounded hopes of quelling
General Pelaez's rebellion in the South where the proprietors
of the oil fields were compelled to pay tribute for their protec
tion to the leader of the insurgents. And when I, an un
armed foreigner, desired to cross the Sierra from Oaxaca to
Salina Cruz, it was to the rebel General Mexueira that I had
to apply for a safe-conduct. But although I had absolute con
fidence in that General's good faith, I had none at all in the
value of his safe-conduct outside his own district. For I was
warned that there was a bandit zone between his troops and
those of the Federal Government through which I must pass
and where the highwaymen not only took the property of the
travellers but completed the work by taking their lives as well.
A journey of six or seven days across the mountains in those
conditions was not particularly attractive. And as I could not
get any one to accompany me I had to give up the plan and
alter my route.
Whithersoever I journeyed, I found the people ground
down by crushing exactions, terrorised by rebels, bandits, Fed
eral soldiers and in perpetual dread of what the morrow might
bring. In the State of Michoacan and elsewhere I visited

MEXICO'S TRANSFORMATION 17
manor houses on large estates — haciendas is the Spanish
name — which a few years before had been luxuriously fur
nished, but having been gutted by a succession of bandits,
were now in an advanced state of decay. They had no baths,
hardly any furniture and that of the most primitive kind.
The walls in some of the rooms were riddled with bullet holes,
the roofs open to the rain. And the proprietors told me that
they were afraid to spend a peso in repairing their homes lest
they should be wrecked again. Some of these great landed
proprietors, beggared and desperate, were preparing to go
into voluntary exile in order to escape worse misfortunes than
those which had already overtaken them. And since then they
have emigrated to England, Spain or the United States.
Thus a dense cloud of depression overhung the country
and paralysed the people. Enterprise was throttled. No capi
talist except the oil companies would invest money or labour
in any undertaking, however promising, because he could never
be sure that the fruits of his labour would be his to enjoy.
Indeed, the experience of the recent past had taught him to
feel that he was working for others — for those who neither
toil nor reap but merely harvest in what they have failed to
destroy. And not only the products of the soil, but the land
itself was occasionally taken from its lawful owners and given
to favourites of the Supreme Chief. I saw several houses,
which, together with orchards and fields, had been disposed
of in this way, and I was told that the man to whom they had
been presented, fearing lest they should be restored by some
subsequent government with a conscience, had made hot haste
to sell them. While I was in the State of Jalisco an acquaint
ance — a European — told me that he had lost his house and
land in this way and his appeal to the Supreme Court had only
elicited a confirmation of the arbitrary decree. He added,
however — and this is the point of the story — that a proposal
had recently been made to him to spend three thousand pesos
in bribing a certain individual who undertook to have the
irrevocable judgment of the Supreme Court reversed. Thus
justice, the basis of all human society — was turned into its
opposite by the very men who were justifying their revolu-

18 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
tion and their tenure of power by the necessity of establishing
it on a solid foundation.
A severe judgment has been passed upon the Carranza
regime by the Mexican press of to-day. They describe the
late President as a self-centred dictator who violated the laws,
oppressed the people and was responsible to no one. Indeed,
"there were no responsible persons anywhere," writes one of
the press organs of the capital. "A few of the independent
newspapers did, it is true, call loudly for a return to morality
and integrity in public departments and demand that the chiefs
of the bureaucratic gang be called to account for their mis
deeds. But their cries were in vain. Nobody was answerable
for anything. . . . From the Minister to the usher each one
nudged the other and gave a look of mutual understanding
at his neighbour, casting a side glance at Don Venustiano
the while, as much as to say: 'The Chief has to answer for
us.' And the Chief . . . never deemed himself bound to
offer explanations to any one of the good or bad use — and it
was almost invariably bad, — of his versatile powers. . . . Be
lieving himself, in virtue of the Constitution of Guadalupe,
to be exempt even from the last judgment he was content to
contract his nostrils. . . . Mexico's peril lies in the camarillas,
in the parasites, in the abject and degenerate types who eschew
fair play in the strenuous struggle for life and support them
selves by selling their flattery."1 And one must add that it
was precisely such types as these that were courted, "atmos-
phered" and bribed by foreign interests for their own purposes.
Such was Mexico's condition down to April, 1920, and
Carranza expected it to last. To my question whether he dis
cerned any clouds on the political horizon, he gave answer:
"None." Then added after a brief pause: "Possibly a few
tiny cloudlets in the guise of local riots after the elections.
But nothing more serious. The population is contented."
That was the President's mature judgment in the latter half
of March. Nor did he modify it until he set out with a cargo
of gold and a multitude of parasites on his journey to Vera
Cruz which led him to the end of his earthly career. As for
xCi. La Revolution, 14 de junio, 1920.

MEXICO'S TRANSFORMATION 19
his tragic death, everything possible was done by the leaders
of the revolution, and in particular by General Obregon, to
save his life. But in vain. A plain-speaking, straightforward
Mexican whom I met in Sonora thus explained the sad incident
epigrammatically: "Carranza had with him a great quantity
of gold and was surrounded by a gang of robbers. Is it a
wonder that he was killed ?"
Since May, 1920, a complete transformation has been un
dergone by the country, and it is interesting to note the people's
mental reactions with the purer and exhilarating moral atmos
phere created by the new regime. I had observed the benefi
cent change everywhere among all classes and in all walks of
life. I accompanied General Obregon on his various journeys
from Mexico City to Guadalajara, Colima, Manzanillo, Mazat-
lan, Culiacan, Guaymas, Hermosillo, Nogales (Sonora) ; then
on his electoral campaign to Puebla, Tlascala, Atlizco, Tehua-
can, Oaxaca, Orizaba, down through the States of Chiapas,
Tabasco and Yucatan, and back through Vera Cruz to the capi
tal of the Republic. Our trains were not escorted by soldiers,
we generally travelled in second-class carriages,2 — mingled
with the people, listened to what they had to say, observed
their demeanour towards the new authorities, and learned their
grievances and aspirations. The reflections suggested by what
we saw and heard were not unlike those which Arthur Young
received during his travels in pre-revolutionary France.
Already the Government is assiduously repairing the dam
age caused by its predecessors and their enemies. The rail
ways are being returned or about to be returned to their
owners. Rebellions have ceased. Even Villa, who for years
was the ineradicable plague of the country has repented and
found salvation, and he and his partisans have become ardent
tillers of the soil. The Government is dealing magnanimously
with all its enemies. Gambling hells have been closed peremp
torily and without a day's grace, wherever the writ of the
2 There are only first and second-class carriages in Mexico. We occu
pied carriages filled with workmen and peasants. We ate and slept when
and where we could. On one occasion I induced the head of a railway
company to offer a special carriage to General Obregon, but the privilege
was gratefully declined.

20 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
Federal Government runs. The liquor laws are being rigor
ously enforced. The autonomy of the individual States — de
spite the undesirable results which it occasionally produces —
is being respected by the central Government. The army has
been materially reduced. The law everywhere is being left to
take its course. Travelling is once more perfectly safe, and
it looks as though in truth a new era had already begun. In
a word, this is the first of Mexico's recent revolutions after
which, to use one of Obregon's winged words, it is not neces
sary to liberate the nation from its liberators.

CHAPTER III
Mexico in Carranza's Days
The task which confronted Obregon and his fellow-work
ers as soon as they took over the reins of Government was
truly formidable. Even a past master in statecraft might well
shrink from undertaking it when surveying the situation, tak
ing stock of the available instruments and drawing up apian of
action. To my thinking the two easiest problems of all, which
might be settled speedily and satisfactorily with a reasonable
measure of good will and readiness to give and take on both
sides — foreign relations and finances — bid fair to become the
most arduous, because complicated by a number of extrinsic
issues. Foreign relations really mean intercourse with the
United States Government, and that connotes compliance with
the principal demands of the American oil companies.
As for the task of internal reconstruction, it is literally de
terrent in virtue of its magnitude. On the part of the prin
cipal reformer it calls for a resourceful brain, an iron will and
a considerable number of years in which to carry out a settled
policy. And even these conditions are hardly sufficient. The
man of destiny who has embarked on the venture requires to
be seconded by a staff of honest, eager lieutenants who under
stand and sympathise with his aims and can adjust means to
ends. And they are not easy to find. Hitherto,, in Mexico
the best intentions of a leader were baffled and his programme :
altered by the exaggerated zeal, ignorance or personal ambi
tion of his followers. An instructive example is afforded by
the pristine agrarian plan drafted by Emilio Zapata, the pedan
tic construction put upon it by his adviser Palafox, and the
utter fiasco in which it ended. The bulk of the Mexican people
are relatively easy to govern. They are peaceful, patient, for
bearing, industrious, moral and on the whole better than many
more fortunate communities scattered over the globe. They
21

22 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
possess a normal number of gifted individuals, and if they
enjoyed the benefits of a stable, honest administration and effi
cient educational establishments, their country would undoubt
edly be among the most prosperous on the planet.
But for the moment they lack these requisites and much of
what they imply. And one of the consequences is the extreme
difficulty of finding a capable, honest and well trained set of
men to form the rank and file of the administration. As Gen
eral Obregon often remarked to me : "To make a code of good
laws is child's play as compared with the selection of men who
will administer them impartially and in the right spirit. It is
of infinitely greater moment to have high-minded officials to
apply the laws than to have legislators well versed in the in
tricacies of Roman jurisprudence to draft them." No matter
how clear visioned the Chief of a reforming Government
may be, he is powerless to help his people without efficient
instruments. If the instruments break in his hands, he is no
better off than a tyro. And that, in my opinion, is the stand
ing danger in Mexico where communications are difficult and
the representatives of the local Governments necessarily enjoy
the full measure of discretion connoted by the term "State
sovereignty." Hence, unless the authorities of the individual
States are actuated by the same spirit as the President, they
may baffle, instead of furthering his most beneficent schemes
of reform. And that has already come to pass. As the Bul
garian proverb picturesquely puts it: "The lesser saints are
the ruin of God."
No one who really knows the President will hesitate to tes
tify that he is the one man in the country capable of coping
with the task of reorganisation. And if by the machinations
of outsiders he should be kept from solving the many-sided
problem, none of his fellow countrymen is likely to succeed in
working it out to a satisfactory issue. That is why so many
are eager to thwart him and bring about intervention. A faint
and far away notion of the situation of the country in the be
ginning of the year 1920, and of the difference wrought in it
since then, first by the Provisional Government of Sefior de la
Huerta, and especially by General Obregon, may be gathered

MEXICO IN CARRANZA'S DAYS 23
from the impressions which I received during my travels in
Mexico in January, February, March and May, 1920, as com
pared with those which have been borne in upon me since
then.
It is no easy matter at the best of times to gauge aright the
internal conditions of any foreign country with a view to fore
casting its future and ascertaining the bearings of those con
ditions on its international relations. And when the country
under examination was the Mexico of Carranza, one found
oneself attempting to decipher the hieroglyphics of national
and international politics. For the Republic in .his days pos
sessed a vast variety of aspects any one of which might fasci
nate the observer's gaze to the exclusion or partial effacement
of the others, warp his judgment and render his conclusions
worthless. For the administration of that Dictator left noth
ing undone to take foreign visitors in hand and prepare the
impressions which he desired to convey. And many more or
less independent Americans from the United States, to say
nothing of those who had axes to grind, allowed themselves
to be hypnotised or used as semi-conscious agents of his propa
ganda. It was quite possible, under that ruler, for a foreigner, es
pecially if he were ignorant of the history, language and psy
chology of the Mexican people, to pay a flying visit to their
fascinating country and even to reside there for a short while
and return with a picture of its present condition and future
outlook as different from the reality as were the distorted
shadows of Plato's imaginary men on the cave-wall from the
human beings hidden from the eyes of the spectators. A
tourist might, for example, start from Vera Cruz, travel to
Mexico City, spend a few weeks in that bright capital, visit
Puebla and Guadalajara and return via Queretaro and Laredo
without suspecting that there was anything organically wrong
with the greatest Latin-American Republic. The trains which
started at the scheduled hours might have arrived on time at
their destination. No abnormal sights or sounds would have
offended the eyes or grated on the ears of the stranger, seeing
that the authorities invariably adopted special precautions for

24 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
keeping them away. The theatres, churches, law-courts and
cinemas were as usual open and frequented. The natives, too,
whom the visitor met, could with truth have assured him that
the conditions of existence were much better than they had
been two years before, and some might give expression to their
hope that they would gradually become normal again. And
the serene optimism of the authorities could hardly fail to
impress him with the belief that they were confronted with
no problems more fateful than those which face every normally
growing and well governed State.
And yet despite the sagacity of such an observer, the un
biased character of his testimony and the correctness of the
facts which he alleged in support of his conclusions, the gen
eral picture he painted would be wholly false and misleading.
What such a flying visitor beheld was, so to say, the front
room that had been swept, garnished and embellished, not the
living apartments which stamp the dwelling with its distinc
tive characteristics. But there were then two Mexicos, one
on the surface — smooth, polished, lustrous like a crust of ice
and capable for a time of bearing the weight of a frail gov
ernmental fabric; and the other a river underneath — dark,
abysmal, sweeping ceaselessly onward and rapidly eroding the
layer of ice above. That the passing onlooker should take no
thought of the rolling stream underneath was but natural.
Surprising was the circumstance that the architects of the
governmental fabric should have forgotten its existence and
neglected to take its erosive action into account. They lived
and breathed and worked in an atmosphere of factitious con
tentment and serenity which was calculated to impart to the
visitor a false sense of the stability of things. Me, too, it im
pressed at first but without convincing. In some ways those
blithe administrators resembled the self-indulgent Florentines
who were enjoying a fleeting period of wild dissolute gaiety
while the plague was stalking through their streets, withering
human life and turning the capital into a charnel house. But
the Florentines were at least conscious, if heedless, of the
danger that compassed them. Not so the Carranzist rough-
hewers of Mexico's destinies. These men perceived as little,

MEXICO IN CARRANZA'S DAYS 25
suspected as little and were as self-complacent as the revellers
in the palace of Babylon's last king, until the fiery finger
burned the words of judgment and death into the wall of the
autocratic banqueting chamber.
Now this unrealised fact that there were two Mexicos under
Carranza — one of them phantasmal and the other practically
inaccessible to the average outsider — is accountable for the pa
thetic optimism of many more or less truth-worshipping visi
tors to that enchanting land of unmeasured possibilities and
amazing contrasts, and also for the distrust with which the
new and beneficent changes of to-day are received by the pub
lic. And yet had he but swerved a little from the railway lines
and ventured into the interior, or undertaken a journey outside
the protected zones, kept an open eye and an unbiased mind, he
would have awakened to the startling fact that the two aspects
of the country were as unlike each other as the masks of com
edy and tragedy. Every now and again the grim reality would
be brought home to those who had eyes to see and ears to hear
by misdeeds that left an indelible impress on the mind of the
beholder. During the first of my .many visits to the Republic, I had
several opportunities of contrasting the phenomena of the two
Mexicos. I remember the case of an Englishman who had to
take a railway journey of some eight or ten hours from the
capital and then to pursue his way as best he could across
country in the dark to examine a mine. His train started
punctually, he arrived on time, and leaving the railroad pushed
on at night accompanied by another man and after a lonely
journey of some hours on horseback reached his destination.
Having accomplished his work on the following day he forth
with returned and arrived in the capital with nothing unpleas
ant or noteworthy to report. He might have imagined him
self to be in his native land, so punctual were the trains and so
safe life and property. In a word, everything appeared to be
as satisfactory as in the much lauded era of Porfirio Diaz.
But the very day after the Englishman's return the train on
that same line was dynamited and some of the passengers
killed and wounded. He was just lucky. That was all.

26 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
A somewhat analogous experience fell to my own lot. In
Guadalajara I announced my intention of returning to the
United States by way of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso,1 but be
fore ordering my ticket I made inquiries of Mexican friends
as to whether the trains were running tolerably well and
whether there was really as much danger from attack by the
bandits under Villa as people affected to believe. The answer
I received was to the effect that the alarming reports were
much exaggerated, that Villa had announced his intention to
lie low after the elections in July and that the line was there
fore practically safe. Circumstances, however, obliged me to
postpone my journey three days. Then I ordered my ticket.
Two days subsequently, however, I learned from the papers
that the train in which I had meant to travel had been wrecked
and many lives lost. This is what occurred. The train was
accompanied by armed soldiers of whom some were in an ar
moured car, and others, as was their wont, seated on the roof.
Two powerful bombs exploded under the train, blowing
the engine to shreds, whereupon the rebels rushed up and
opened fire. All the soldiers on the roof were quickly killed
off and the others were prevented from issuing forth from
their stronghold. The trembling passengers were conducted
by the rebels to a spot a mile and a half distant, where they
were robbed of eighty thousand Mexican pesos and of all the
valuables on their persons. Twenty thousand pesos more were
taken from the postal express car. The two conductors were
hauled before Villa who shot them through the heart. The
passengers' turn came next. Villa summarily ordered them
all to be shot and they were duly lined up for execution. But
just when about to give the order to fire he suddenly changed
his mind and with tears in his eyes pardoned them, saying:
"Since the execution of my friend General Angeles I have
been thirsting for vengeance. That's why I blew up the train.
Well, I have avenged his murder. Now in memory of him I
spare your lives. You may go."
I concluded that I was lucky to have postponed my journey
to Ciudad Juarez and I thereupon decided not to tempt fate by
lIn early March, 1920.

MEXICO IN CARRANZA'S DAYS 27
trespassing through Villa's preserves. Travelling under the
Carranza regime was a lottery. If one were lucky one had
merely to rough it. The only two things certain about a jour
ney were discomfort and a military escort. Death or mutila
tion and robbery were contingencies about which one could
never be sure. But then this disquieting incertitude was an
essential characteristic of everything one undertook in the Re
public. It overhung mining, farming, trading, industry, poli
tics, finance, the administration and the regime. One never
knew what the morrow might bring forth, and the first ques
tion people asked themselves when contemplating any kind of
business or action, was : how will it be affected by the Unfore
seen? Thus there was ever a Damocles' sword in the shape of un
certainty and danger hanging by a frail thread over the heads
of people whose avocations took them from place to place and
of foreigners who resided beyond the city boundaries. They
carried their lives in their hands. That there were a few rail
way lines over which one might travel with some degree of
safety if special precautions were taken, it would be unfair to
deny. But these precautions constituted a heavy price for the
boon which was paid by the State and the travelling public.
The former had to provide all trains with an escort of soldiers
and the latter to put up with the loss of an entire night on a
journey of twenty-four hours.2 On the line between Laredo
and Mexico City, for example, the passengers had to resign
themselves to spending the night at an intermediate station
and resuming their journey in the morning.
Drawbacks like these brought home to me in conclusive
fashion the necessity of distinguishing between the show Mex
ico which Carranza exhibited to ingenuous American dele
gates and the real Mexico as he had helped to make it and as
2 The only line on which trains could run at night was that which con
nects Mexico City with Guadalajara, and even there the trains were
escorted by soldiers. To-day there are no escorts and trains run at night
as safely as by day. I have travelled some thousands of miles already by
night and by day and have been lost at night in the wilds of Chihuahua,
without experiencing any serious inconvenience.

28 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
it was known to those natives and foreigners who made it
their home.
My own experience, limited in time as in space, illustrated
the chances of journeying in safety if not in comfort, as well
as the risks and incidentally, too, the ever-present dread which
was felt by would-be travellers. From Puebla I desired to go
to Oaxaca, one of the most delightful States in the Republic.
Nearly all my Mexican friends, who, I may say, were staunch
supporters of the Carranza Government, endeavoured to dis
suade me on the ground that the journey was both uncomfort
able and perilous. My travelling companion in particular held
back and employed all his power of persuasion to induce me
to abandon the plan. I finally told him that I would go at any
rate as far as Tehuacan — about one-third of the way. Dur
ing our drive from the hotel in Puebla to the station we passed
crowds of men, women and children trudging along in the
same direction as ourselves, and as soon as we caught sight
of the terminus we beheld a vast concourse of men, women and
children, mostly Indians, who filled the little waiting room,
blocked the entrance, covered the stone steps and overflowed
into the streets. And every moment the crowd was swelling.
We could not even get near to the door. For a railway jour
ney was a precious boon. And it was still' so early that the
ticket office was not open. There was no hope, therefore, of
obtaining seats even if we should contrive to purchase tickets,
so after having talked the matter over with a railway servant,
we returned to the hotel and put off our journey until the fol
lowing day. The next morning we rose at three, had our
tickets and our seats by four and waited until five for the train
to start. In Mexico the traveller had to rise at an unearthly
hour in the morning, first because all long distance trains
started early in order to make up for the loss of time at night,
and second because the sitting accommodation in the ram
shackle carriages was limited whereas the number of seats sold
was not. Many passengers, therefore, had to stand around or
hang on wherever they could.
When the train steamed into Tehuacan station I resolved
to keep my seat and send for tickets to Oaxaca, whereupon

MEXICO IN CARRANZA'S DAYS 29
my companion overcame his reluctance and resigned himself to
share my fate. The journey was supremely uncomfortable.
The windows of the carriage were broken, the doors dis
jointed, the ceilings damaged, the sanitary arrangements
shocking. But the line appeared safe enough and the train
was not later than trains generally are in France.
While I was in Oaxaca, however, the rebels took the sta
tion of Etla, about eighteen miles distant, cut off our water
and light and caused a panic in the city. For two days I was
without water for washing and was obliged to content myself
with a candle after sundown. A short time previously the
bands had attacked the town of Teliztlahuaca forty-five miles
distant from Oaxaca, killing and wounding some persons and
striking terror to the hearts of many more. On our return
journey to Puebla an attempt was made to wreck our train
near the station of Santa Catarina. Fortunately special pre
cautions had been taken because we had a Governor on board.
The arrangements for derailing the train were discovered in
the nick of time, and workmen were set to remove the ob
stacles and clear the line, after which we resumed our journey,
which was completed without further interruption. These in
cidents occurred in March, 1920.
Several of my planned visits were countered owing to those
untoward conditions. Thus I had long desired to visit the
States of Chiapas and Tabasco concerning which I had gath
ered various interesting data. But every one discountenanced
the idea. While the matter was still under consideration the
rebels there under Cal y Mayor attacked a passenger train
from Tapachula on the Pan-American branch of the railways,
fought the usual skirmish with the escort, killed several sol
diers, left a number of dead and wounded on the field, and
destroyed properties near the railroad valued at over a hundred
thousand pesos.3 A day or two later we learned that a power
ful onslaught had been made by the rebels on the capital of
Tabasco,4 and that the fight continued for two whole days,
resulting in considerable casualties to both sides. In view of
3 Cf . Excelsior, 3rd March, 1920.
* Cf . El Universal, 5th March, 1920.

30 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
these "abnormal" conditions, it was put to me that I had bet
ter postpone my visits until order was permanently restored.
What that vague delay implied in years no one was rash
enough to conjecture. But I was enabled to reach the con
clusion that if the regime continued the interval would not be
very brief, by the circumstance that President Carranza and
his advisers had decided to introduce armoured cars provided
with machine guns and to build blockhouses of concrete at
intervals of less than three miles along the principal railway
routes, at an estimated cost of three thousand pesos for each
blockhouse.5 5 Cf. El Informador de Guadalajara, 9th March, 1920. and Excelsior, 1st
March, 1920.

CHAPTER IV
Mexico's Last Dictator
Whithersoever I wandered in Mexico the same two facesl
alternately appeared, the one smilingly turned towards for
eigners athwart the golden haze that hung over the principal
cities and the other, basilisk-like, gazing at the ill-starred in
habitants whom it fascinated with terror. I strove to obtain
a direct insight into the actual conditions of the Republic, un
influenced by the interpretations of other people, and with this
object in view I travelled about as any member of the public
might, mingling with the crowds, visiting the pestilential
abodes of the poor, the outcasts and the criminals, conversing
with the Indians and keeping aloof during the first period of
my sojourn from politicians, cabinet ministers, journalists,
consuls and other people who had specific interests to promote
or protect.
It was further my fixed resolve to keep aloof from the gov
erning authorities altogether, unless I had good grounds for
believing that a meeting between them and me would further
the cause of a real understanding between Mexico and the
English-speaking nations. As such an adequate reason I
should have recognised either an assurance from some friend
of President Carranza or of Sefior Luis Cabrera that these
rulers, aware of the straits, national and international, to
which their policy had reduced the country, were willing to
discuss the whole question with me with a view to reaching a
basis for settlement on acceptable terms, or else a direct invi
tation from either of them to see me.
On several previous occasions I had opened pourparlers be
tween two governments at odds with each other for the pur
pose of discussing the subject of their misunderstanding freely
and without diplomatic mental reservations, and the results
generally recompensed the effort. The last occasion was in
31

32 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
the Summer of 1914, when Greece and Turkey were prepar
ing to wage war on each other. After several journeys be
tween Athens and Constantinople and long debates with Talaat
Bey and the Grand Vizier on the one hand and Venizelos, on
the other hand, it was my good fortune to hinder hostilities
and to get the two governments to agree to a Treaty which
the Grand Vizier and Venizelos were to sign in my house in
Brussels. The Greek Premier actually started for Brussels
and had reached Munich when the quarrel between Austria
and Serbia and its menacing upshot compelled him to halt.
And I harboured the hope that a similar arrangement might
be come to with the Carranza administration, provided that
its chiefs were conscious of the difficulties and dangers that
compassed them round. Some of their own friends assured
me that they were alive to the existence of rocks and shoals
ahead and would welcome any feasible change of tack which
would enable them to steer clear of these.
One day a gentleman who had rendered sterling services to
the Carranzist cause informed me that Senor Cabrera and
the President had expressed a wish to have a talk with me.
Accordingly I went and called on them both. Senor Cabrera
welcomed me cordially, ushered me into his cabinet and began
a most interesting conversation which was largely a monologue.
Mexico's actual condition, future outlook and general policy
were dealt with exhaustively as were also the prospects of the
Carranzist regime. And each topic was handled by the
speaker, who showed a complete grasp of the theoretical side
of each question, in the style of a brilliant special pleader.
If Senor Cabrera had graduated in one of the best Sophist
schools of ancient Athens, he could not have expounded his
theses more speciously. It was one of the most masterly ex
poses I ever listened to. The impression it left on my mind
was that if the case were thus clearly and suasively presented
to an intelligent jury or to a foreign government directed by
a democratic theorist, it would inevitably carry conviction and
bring forth practical fruits. I further perceived, by piecing to
gether various data which I had received from other mostly
trustworthy sources, that Senor Carranza had worked out a

MEXICO'S LAST DICTATOR 33
comprehensive, rounded and ingenious plan, the object of
which was to obtain the official recognition of Great Britain
and France and to establish his regime on a stable foundation.
But having come from England, France and the United
States where the angle at which Mexican affairs were consid
ered was widely different from that of Senor Cabrera, I could
not blink the fact that he was striving after the unattainable.
The President received me most affably. He was more com
municative and less reserved than was his wont. His personal
appearance, bordering on the venerable, challenged immediate
respect, and the chamber with its subdued lights, mellow
colours and atmosphere of tranquillity served as a fitting frame
for the patriarchal figure with the flowing grey beard and the
emphatic words uttered in firm deep tones. On the writing
table at which he sat was a large inkstand with a silver figure
of Justice. "Do you see that figure ?" he asked at the close of
our interview. "You know what it represents?" "Yes, it is
the figure of Justice." "Well, I frequently gaze at that little
statue which suggests thoughts and queries that nerve me to
new efforts for the establishment of justice in the land. For
justice is the one thing necessary. It is the cement that will
unite the various elements of the population. Yes, in face of
that little figure I often sit and meditate. ..." I hoped he
was sincere were it only by a process of self-hypnotism.
There was, however, something artificial, something his
trionic in the whole scene which reminded me of my first
mission to President Paul Kruger, for the purpose of ascer
taining the conditions on which he would consent to terminate
the Boer War. Him, too, I found in a room which formed
a perfect frame for the clumsy figure of the rugged old Cal-
vinist. A table, three chairs and a carpet on which he freely
expectorated was all the furniture of the apartment. Oom
Paul sat in a chair, with a huge folio Bible on his knees,
apparently poring over one of the books of the Pentateuch
which he read through his vast goggles. Having marked the
page before closing the volume, he pushed the glasses on to
his forehead, rose slowly, coughed, spat out on the floor and
extended his hand to greet me. Although my reception by

34 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
Senor Carranza was not really staged, I could feel that he was
intent on producing a certain well defined impression and that
perceptible effort marred somewhat the general effect of his
assurances. He, too, spoke on the same lines, occasionally using the
same phrases as Don Luis Cabrera. Having sketched his pol
icy, he summarised its good results in pithy well chosen terms
and with a degree of apparent detachment which befitted a
successful statesman who, having achieved his life-work, could
afford to view it in the dry light of history. He certainly had
a clear-cut policy, showed a complete grasp of some of its bear
ings and displayed an intimate knowledge of the tactics by
which he was resolved to carry it out. There was only one
flaw in his reckoning, one unknown X in his forecast — but it
was of the very essence of the problem. I could not convince
him that the ship of State of which he was the master had
already drifted into dangerous waters from which it was be
yond his power to pilot her without altering her tack. He
denied that there was a single shoal or rock on all his course
which had not been carefully sounded and charted. "Plain
sailing," was his conclusion.
I had heard those words on several other historic occasions
and I could therefore gauge their value. Once they were ut
tered by the chiefs of the Constitutional Democratic party in
Russia when I urged them to support Count Witte's Cabinet
for some six or eight months and promised in his name that
they would receive the reins of power. And when having en
countered an inflexible non-possumus, I observed that a for
midable reaction would ensue, if they persisted in their refusal,
they answered that in Russia no reaction was thenceforward
possible. "It is all plain sailing now," they said. At another
historical conjuncture — before the first Balkan War — I went
to Constantinople with a simple, definite proposal from a
neighbouring Government which, had it been accepted, would
have warded off the catastrophe. After having considered
the matter for two days and hesitated for twenty- four hours,
the Grand Vizier and the Minister of Foreign Affairs felt
unable to accept my offer. "Have you no misgivings then

MEXICO'S LAST DICTATOR 35
about the immediate future?" I asked. "No, none," answered
the Minister. "No fear of troubles brewing?" "Local
troubles, yes. We know that Greece is fermenting, but we
also know that she will have to sip her own brew. We have
all the threads of Balkan politics in our hands and are not ap
prehensive of the skein getting ravelled." "In a word, it is
all plain sailing?" I asked. "It is," he answered, "plain sail
ing." About eighteen months later in the foyer of the Vienna
Opera, a man who was seated arose hurriedly and addressed
me: "Do you not recognise me?" "Yes," I replied, "you are
the Turkish ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs." "I wish to say
that since I last met you I have often regretted that I did not
accept your proposal. Turkey is ruined now. Did you know
at the time that war would be declared so soon?" "I did.
And it was because it was coming so soon that I had to press
for your answer at once." "Why in heaven's name did you
not tell me so or at least give me a hint?" "Because it was a
secret which I was not authorised to reveal. Besides I gave
you as much of a hint as I dared. But you told me that
it was all plain sailing." "Alas, poor Turkey!" he ex
claimed. With Don Venustiano it was also plain sailing. He de
scried no really formidable difficulties. If I spoke of the
sentiments of a large section of the English-speaking peoples,
he met my answer with the statement that Great Britain's dis
position was friendly and that a British Minister would shortly
be sent to Mexico City, after official recognition had been ac
corded. As for the United States, the relations between Wash
ington and Mexico City were never so cordial. All that was
still needed to set the seal of stability on them was an American
Ambassador who would present Mexico and Mexican affairs
to his countrymen as they really are and not as if he were in
quest of pretexts for intervention. "And in the domestic at
mosphere too, all is serene and you discern no cloud at all on
the horizon?" I asked, convinced that my questioning was
bootless. "No, none." And then after a moment's reflection :
"I do perceive one, only one cloudlet, in the shape of possible
troubles after the elections. When that has drifted away, as

36 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
it certainly will, the horizon will be perfectly clear and tran
quil." I left the presence of the Mexican Dictator, as I had left
the presence of the Russian Kadets and that of the Grand
Vizier at the Sublime Porte, with a pang of regret, akin to
that which I might feel if I beheld a child playing on the very
edge of a precipice and were unable to reach it in time to save
its life.
That was on the 3rd of March, and nine weeks later — on
the 7th of May — President Carranza was a fugitive from
Mexico City, a doomed man. Some people are pursued by
Fate. Don Venustiano pursued and overtook it.

CHAPTER V
Education of the People
Having myself studied and graduated in several European
Universities and been Professor of Comparative Philology,
Sanskrit and Oriental history, I naturally felt an interest in
the educational problem in Mexico, for upon the solution it
receives the destinies of the people depend. Learning my de
sire, Senor Cabrera kindly put me in communication with the
Rector of the University, Don Jose Macias, on whom I called
one morning, accompanied by a foreign prelate of the Roman
Catholic Church. We were received with that perfect cour
tesy which characterises the social intercourse of educated
Mexicans. None the less it turned out to be a most amusing
experience, a little comedy of errors. The Rector, assuming
that we were from the United States, assured us that we
would recognise in the institutions and various landmarks of
progress in his country mere copies of originals in our own.
"The United States," he went on, "is the standard-bearer of
culture and from her accumulated stores Mexico is drawing
freely and contracting a moral debt which she can only ac
knowledge without repaying. But her gratitude is profound.
She welcomes citizens of the great Northern Republic whose
various dissenting preachers are sowing the good seed on a
fertile soil" . . . and saying this he bowed to the prelate.
I listened without committing myself, but expressed the hope
that in the process he described the University at least would
find it worth while to retain some features of its own distinct
from those of the United States. Education, after all, ought
to be adjusted to the needs of the people, which are not wholly
identical with those of foreigners. Adaptation, I said, ought
to be substituted for imitation.
That elaborate eulogy of the United States by one of Car-
ranza's advisers and friends reminded me of an amusing ex-
37

38 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
perience which I had had years before with the late Prince
Ghika when he first came as Minister-Plenipotentiary of the
King of Roumania to Russia, in the reign of Alexander III.
I met him at a dinner in the house of Prince Orbeliani and as
French was the language of the salons the diplomatist had
no sure criteria by which to distinguish the Russian from the
foreign guests. Approaching me after dinner, he discanted
with rapture on the beauties of Russian literature which he
regretted his inability to read in the original and then passed
on to the praise of the Tsardom and the Tsar — to all of which
I listened with due attention and cold acquiescence, reluctant
to tell him that I disagreed with his appreciation of the Tsar
dom and its doings. A few days later Prince Ghika met me
at a court function and having in the meanwhile ascertained
that I was not a Russian and that I had published over a
pseudonym a tremendous indictment of the Tsardom and its
works,1 he apologized profusely for his mistake, asked me
to treat his remarks at the dinner as purely diplomatical, al
luded in complimentary terms to my writings which he had
read and then we both laughed heartily at his misplaced com
pliments. A similar development was brought about in the case of the
Mexican Rector by an observation which I purposely made,
implying that I came from over the Atlantic. "Then, you are
not an American?" he asked in a flutter. "No," I replied.
"Oh, oh, really. But what then, may I venture to ask, is your
nationality?" "British." "Indeed. I am truly delighted.
The British are our best foreign friends. Well, in this repub
lic you will find that the people receive your countrymen with
open arms and warm hearts. The British are" . . . and a
string of compliments followed. Then came the query. "But
your companion is a United States preacher surely?" "No,"
I answered, "he is not." "Is he a Baptist?" "No." "A
Presbyterian?" "No. He is a Catholic." "A Catholic!"
repeated the Rector. "My God! Not a Roman Catholic!"
"Yes, a Roman Catholic prelate." The Rector was overcome
1 Russian Characteristics, by E. B. Lanin.

EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE 39
by the announcement. For he had been extolling the works
of the non-Catholic American preachers to the skies. . . .
Don Jose then took us to various schools and confined him
self to pointing out the peculiar features of the buildings. But
in the medical school I fancied I could discern signs of real
vitality. There the students were hard at work, keenly bent on
qualifying themselves for their profession, and the head of
their institution struck me as a man of extraordinary energy
and scientific method who endeavoured successfully to com
municate his own. spirit to the young men under his charge.
That and the mining school were the only educational
establishments in the country where to my own knowledge
sound instruction was imparted and real progress was being
made. I asked the Rector whether I could obtain a copy of the
University charter. He answered that it was being drafted.
When I remarked that what was being drafted could only be
a new charter and that there must have been one in existence
before the decision was taken to supersede it with a new one,
he agreed with me and promised to let me have a copy together
with certain other documents. He undertook to send them to
me that very evening. On the following day I reminded him
of his promise and he forthwith renewed it. Several days
later it was again reiterated. But I never received either the
charter or the documents and I ought, perhaps, to add that I
never expected them.
Education in Mexico has always been an arduous problem
to tackle, owing mainly to the lack of funds and also to the
scarcity of qualified pedagogues. A further difficulty arises
from the long distances and inadequate means of communi
cation. I visited many schools in the south and centre and
was very favourably impressed by the aptitudes and eagerness
to learn which the children everywhere displayed and with the
assiduity and zeal of the female teachers.
The educational problem is largely a matter of funds and
the circumstance that it has never been solved even approxi
mately in a country where a vast stream of wealth is flowing
steadily beyond the frontiers into foreign lands is a standing

40 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
condemnation of the methods of exploiting Mexico's natural
resources that now prevail.
There is probably no social class in the Republic which en
dures such intense physical and moral suffering as that whose
members devote their lives to the upbringing of the young.
From outset to finish they live from hand to mouth, never rid
themselves of the gnawing anxieties of indigence or of the
pain of wounded self-respect. The teachers were badly paid
at best and were in some places not paid at all for months on
end. This brand of unmerited indignity and semi-starvation
inflicts on people who can think an abiding and festering
wound. In some cases, I was credibly informed, schoolmis
tresses, stung by hunger and confronted with despair, sold
their bodies in order to save their lives. Others sacrificed
their lives in order not to lose their souls, while billions of
pesos were being taken out of the country to swell the dividends
of foreign companies. One can readily visualise the successive
stages by which hungry, humbled and exasperated teachers
reached the position that the redistribution of wealth, how
ever effected, is a meritorious work and that there are certain
circumstances in which private property may become a pub
lic crime. It is not that these theories have ever been openly
taught in the schools. By no means. But they were indi
rectly inculcated by events and episodes known to all and well
understood by the quick impressible minds of Mexican chil
dren. There is no more efficacious means of converting a
people to Bolshevism than that of keeping them half starved,
badly housed, without hope of bettering their lot and flaunting
in their faces the wealth of their country as it passes them
by to the well filled treasure houses of supercilious outlanders.
Education in the highest meaning of the term has hitherto
been an unknown discipline in Mexico. It is only now being
introduced under Gen. Obregon and the Rector of the Univer
sity Jose Vasconcelos. The conditions were adverse to the
experiment. Instruction there is of various kinds and degrees,
primary, intermediate, superior and technical, and in some
branches such as mathematics, engineering and surgery it com
pares most favourably with that of Spain. But the training

EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE 41
of the mind and the building of character are hardly ever even
attempted. It would be a miracle where it otherwise in a
country which has long been plunged by imposed hardship and
poverty into internecine strife and in a society where primeval
instincts were being constantly provoked to break through con
ventional restraints. And yet the raw material for education
is excellent. Indeed, it could hardly be better. Among the
Indians I found self-restraint, patience and genuine morality
more widespread and developed than among any other ele
ment of the population. Their moral and physical natures are
well adjusted. The good humour of the adults and the excel
lent behaviour of the children in railway trains and at play,
their amazing self-command and the devotion of the mothers
to their offspring under the stress of want, disease and black
despair are calculated to make a profound impression on the
observant foreigner. Nor could a greater contrast be well
imagined than that between the simple, cheerful, spontaneous
hospitality of the impecunious Indian and the magniloquent
verbal generosity of some of the middle-class foreigners which
serves as a fanciful screen for egotism and meanness.
Mexican history is at any rate in parts a fanciful narrative
which stands in a more remote relationship to recorded events
of the past than did German history before the World War.
It has been coloured, bowdlerised and embellished with a view
to awakening or creating a sense of artificial patriotism in the
young generation.
Towards the end of the year 19 19 the National University
received several requests from abroad for text books of Mexi
can history and was greatly embarrassed thereby. For it felt
obliged to treat them as the Rector Macias treated my request
for the University charter, and for kindred reasons. It was
recognised that none of the existing histories was worthy of
the name. By way of remedying this defect the University
decided not exactly to produce a trustworthy text book but to
stimulate Mexican writers to compile a book on national his
tory with all the impartiality and the research required in
works of this kind.2
a El Universal, 24th March, 1920.

42 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
"In Mexico," an expert writes, "one might almost affirm
that no veritably historical research work has ever been done.
The narrative of past events is always employed by the com
pilers of our history to vent their political passions, their in
terest-born bias or their sentimental leanings. . . . We have
succumbed above all else to the infantile vanity of creating
heroes and inventing epopees. In this way the national story
has come to be a sort of golden legend wherein the profile of
truth disappears among the gilt and changeful reflections of
fancy. . . . The people continue to be entertained with a de
ceptive picture of our past, whereby the patriotic conception is
falsified inasmuch as it is made to rest upon a fragile web of
sparkling gewgaws. Defeats are denied, downfalls dissimu
lated, miseries hidden, the seamy side of life, which is perhaps
the largest part of it, is kept from the view of the pupils,
whereby their character is weakened with a paradisaical and
make-believe vision of existence." 3
All those evils are now being remedied, the only limits set
to the reforms being those which lack of funds imposes. Presi
dent Obregon's careful attention to the people's needs has
been especially devoted to the most pressing of them all — edu
cation. And with the valuable assistance of Senor Vascon-
celos he has already worked wonders in combating illiteracy
and spreading sane ideas about civic obligations. He is not
only painfully aware of the root defects of education in the
Republic, but he has been at great pains to discover and apply
efficacious means of remedying them.
Among his many utterances to me on the subject that which
made the deepest dent in my mind and memory was this : "The
base of our education at present is narrow, and therefore un
ethical. We teach and train and equip our youth to wage the
struggle for existence with the sole object of winning, and win
ning at the cost of others. Now that, I maintain, is immoral.
Individual egotism may be a necessity, but if you make it the
root of all social organisation, it is sterile, nay ruinous. You
cannot bring up a nation and render it prosperous on such doc
trines. They are superlatively immoral. Mind, I would not
sEl Universal, 24th March, 1920.

EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE 43
discourage the quality necessary and adequate to enable a youth
to fight his way upwards. Indeed, that is one of the functions
of education. But I would have him taught that his duty does
not begin and end there. It extends to his neighbour, and his
neighbour is the foreigner as well as the Mexican. He may and
must compete with that neighbour, no doubt to the utmost, but
it behooves him to do this fairly, and he should aid and second
that neighbour whenever he can do this without damaging his
own interests. For he has a duty to perform to that community
which is his own country, and also a further duty toward the
much larger community, which is the entire human race. Now
these obligations are never inculcated upon him at school or
elsewhere. To-day the boy and the young man are morally
isolated — they resemble snails, each one shut up in his own
shell. That is the basic error of our educational system.
What I want is to have every unit brought up to feel duties of
responsibility not merely toward himself and his family, but
also toward his country and humanity at large. It is not
enough for him to be a good Mexican. He must also be a
good citizen of the world."
Besides himself studying the grave defects of the educa
tional system in his own country, General Obregon has com
municated his zeal and interest to a number of his fellow
workers with a view to changing it radically, profiting by the
data of foreign pedagogic research and experience and creat
ing the most efficient educational establishments possible
throughout the length and breadth of the Republic. "The
money spent in thus qualifying our people to play a desirable
part in the progress of their country and of humanity will be
the most profitable investment of the nation," he remarked to
me one day. We talked this subject over again during our
travels and I was amazed at the thorough grasp of it which
his remarks displayed. Among other aspects of it, he has
made a study of the system adopted by the Japanese, and
while his main idea is to adjust educational methods to the
needs and strivings of his own fellow countrymen, he is ready
to avail himself to the full of the experience of all advanced
peoples. To-day he has prepared a complete system of educa-

44 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
tional reform which, if in the concrete it bears a fair resem
blance to the detailed description of it which he unfolded to
me, will unfailingly regenerate the people and raise them to a
high cultural and economic level. "Education," he observed to
me one day when sailing on the Pacific, "is the very basis of
freedom, justice and of all the other ideals for which our people
are inarticulately longing. It is by means of education that
we shall transform the state of chronic civil war into an era
of peace, productivity and prosperity. The training of the
young generation in accordance with the most approved meth
ods and with due consideration for their special needs should
be the chief care of every Government worthy of the name.
Educational methods, good or bad, make or mar a people.
That is the lesson taught by Germany's bitter experience.
Compare the schools and universities in that country before
and after the Bismarckian era. The results in each case speak
for themselves. If I am elected President my first and endur
ing care will be to see that the new generation of Mexicans is
fitted to play a worthy part in the advancement of their country
and of humanity. No higher ambition could attract any man
who has the will and the power to serve his country."
One night * General Obregon and I were returning from a
visit to the capital of the State of Tlascala. The rain was
coming down in torrents. The thunder claps were deafening.
The darkness was impenetrable. From the old Aztec city of
Cholula5 we were slowly driving in a special tramway car
into Puebla. The vehicle was without any inside lights. Oc
casionally a dazzling lightning flash would enable us to catch
a glimpse of each other's features for a second and to note
the inroads of the slanting rain. And during all that interval,
from the beginning to the end of that journey, General Obre
gon unfolded to me his views upon education in general and
upon the special needs of the Mexican people, as he under
stood them. I confess I was amazed at his vision, his knowl
edge of detail and his eye for the essential. I regretted that
his words were not recorded as they were uttered.
* 12th August.
5 In the State of Puebla.

EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE 45
As luck would have it, however, on our arrival in Puebla,
the professors and students of the University — a most impos
ing edifice erected by the Jesuits — were waiting in the great
hall to receive him. A student — one of the young men
brought up in the naw-fangled notions — delivered a pompous
speech in praise of revolutions against the capitalists who man
age to survive these and on the necessity of turning over a new
leaf. His speech was not relished by the General, who there
upon arose and unfolded his own ideas in simple, terse and
suasive language which came as a salutary electric shock to
the academic body. "Our whole educational system," he said,
"from base to summit is an anachronism and must be abol
ished. We must begin at the bottom and work up to the top,
adjusting instruction and training to the needs of our time
and our country. What we require to-day is men who can
carry on the struggle for life not, indeed, without strenuous-
ness and perseverance, but in a spirit of fair play and scrupu
lous respect for the rights of others. Character is the spiritual
essence of a man. That once formed all else is easy. As
for instruction we need establishments in all the rural districts
to teach the people how to till the soil to the greatest advan
tage, we need schools of crafts and arts in which to train
young men to revive the lost industries and introduce new
ones, we require schools of commerce, of trades, and colleges
for the preparation of consuls and consular agents, and all of
them with special reference to the needs of our people. What
the country now wants and has long yearned for is not abstract
theories, not civil war or revolution, but peace, work and pros
perity. The era of violence and bloodshed is over for good.
To seek to continue or to renew it would be to ruin the nation.
It now behooves us all to pull ourselves together and apply the
sum of our energies to productive work. That is our one an
chor to salvation. It will need a tremendous effort, but the
youth of the country will have to put forth that effort and
their teachers must encourage and direct it."
Those were some of the general ideas. When he entered
into details and unfolded his plan to men who had presumably
made education the special study of their lives and whose

46 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
theories he was now pulverising, genial excitement and spon
taneous applause were hardly distinguishable from tumult.
Professors rose, left their places, clapped their hands and
shouted "hurrah." For several minutes he was the recipient
of an improvised ovation, and his motor when he was leaving
was surrounded by enthusiastic young men offering themselves
as coadjutors in the patriotic work.
In a word, Mexico since May, 1920, has emerged from the
Slough of Despond. The overthrow of the Carranza regime
closed an era of chaos and confusion, and the advent of Gen
eral Obregon to power marks the beginning of a new era. All
the counts in the exaggerated and coloured indictment against
the whole nation, — for it was aimed at the whole nation — so
eagerly gleaned and so carefully filed by Mr. Fall, have be
come matters of history. They have ceased to characterise the
Republic of to-day. Many of them owed their existence to
the questionable lengths to which the rights of private prop
erty when conflicting with the needs of the community were
carried, whereas all the reforms alluded to and others are being
laboriously effected not only without the help, but in spite of
the vigorous opposition of those who profited by those privi
leges. Mexico is being financially starved at a moment when
she needs money more imperatively than ever before. And
those who treat her thus are of the country which has received
most of her wealth. It is a matter of supreme import that
this deciding transformation of the Republic should become
widely known. Secretary Hughes showed his appreciation of
it by implicitly shelving most of the recommendations of Mr.
Fall. That was a manly act worthy of its author. Unhappily
he undid it by laying down a condition which being unaccept
able to Mexico may ultimately have for its effect the revival
of all the terms proposed by his eminent colleague. Mexico
has fulfilled the essential requisites for recognition. Her
qualifications have been weighed and found adequate by nu
merous foreign States, including such Powers as Japan, Italy,
the Argentine, Spain and Germany. They would on their in
trinsic merits be recognised as fully by Great Britain and
France, were these countries willing to deal with the matter

EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE 47
without reference to extrinsical considerations. The decision
consequently hinges on the United States and all the full con
sequences of its adverse character are ascribed by Mexicans to
extrinsic motives.

CHAPTER VI
Preparing the Atmosphere
Public opinion on the Mexican outlook — such opinion as
looks to established facts for its warranty — cannot truly be
said to exist in the United States. The main factors of the
situation as outlined in the foregoing pages are still unknown
to the bulk of the nation, are indeed, one must reluctantly add,
diligently concealed from it behind a tissue of fantastic no
tions woven by interested individuals and corporations for the
purpose of working up a body of anti-Mexican sentiment suffi
ciently strong to enable them to carry their policy forward to
a successful issue. The painful care thus taken to keep the
truth from the great and generous people of the United States
and to put it on the wrong track constitutes a high and well
merited tribute to its innate sense of justice.
The public of the United States, known for its magnani
mous impulses and its fellow-feeling for struggling peoples
and in whose national life the spirit of fair play has grown
to be one of the most potent elements, is being effectually de
prived of the helpful guidance and check which its moral sym
pathies and political action would have drawn from a knowl
edge of the true facts. It is being blindfolded systematically
by organised groups of industrial and political interests whose
enormous influence is equalled only by the powerful tempta
tion to employ it for ends which are anything but humani
tarian. Their press propaganda is without parallel in history
for subtlety, plausibility and efficacy. In this way the con
trolling and organising force in the conduct of the great Re
public is kept in the hands of those few men, who being ex
posed to tremendous temptations and lacking the moral stam
ina to resist, are the least fitted to employ it. It is not neces
sary to stigmatise this mode of action as self-seeking or un
scrupulous in order to discern the sinister consequences to the
48

PREPARING THE ATMOSPHERE 49
entire community with which it is fraught. One of these is
the saddling of the people of the United States with political
and moral responsibility for acts which are cardinally repug
nant to its inner nature and which stain its history with in
delible blots.
The average citizen of that great Republic and one or other
of the professional moulders of "public opinion" as well, hon
estly believe that all the grave charges hurled against the Car
ranza regime are equally applicable to the Obregon adminis
tration. They hold that the long sequence of volcanic out
bursts which marked the revolutionary period to which Gen
eral Obregon put an end is being still perpetuated and that
nothing has changed save the stern determination of the Re
publican Administration to strike out a policy of militant
righteousness and make the new Continent safe for the latter-
day Saints. And it is difficult for them to think otherwise
seeing that the sources of information are being systematically
adjusted for the purpose of creating this belief. One of the
most influential newspaper editors in the United States, — a
man who prides himself on his painstaking accuracy and
scrupulous fairness — gave vent to his amazement on learning
that I was returning to Mexico with my family. "No lady
is safe in that restless Republic," he informed me, "and no
foreign man either. Your only hope and that of all humanely
thinking people is that before the danger has become real, the
United States troops will be on the spot to protect you."
"Have you not heard then," I asked, "that the new President
is an enlightened reformer, has inaugurated a policy friendly
to foreigners, is busy meting out justice to all and that life and
property are as safe there as here?" "I have heard of Gen
eral Obregon but I understand that he is a second edition of
Carranza and is moving along the same lines as his predeces
sor." "Then you have heard the reverse of the truth," I re
torted, "and you would do well to inquire anew into the facts."
"Well, may I begin my investigation by asking you a pointed
question which is a touchstone of your expose. You are ac
quainted with most of President Obregon's relatives. Tell me
truly, how many of them has he appointed to lucrative posts

50 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
in the Government?" "Not one," I answered. "None of them
has ever occupied any position in his or any other administra
tion. They are earning their livelihood by dint of hard work
and living the modest lives to which they have been accus
tomed. One of his brothers did present himself for election
to the governorship of his native State a few years ago when
General Obregon, being War Minister, might have used his
influence to turn the balance in his favour but steadfastly de
clined to give him the least support, whereupon his brother's
antagonist won the election." "Is that really so?" "It is."
"Well, I never would have believed it had you not told me. It
certainly runs counter to everything I have heard about him."
I expressed my pleasure at having nailed one falsehood to the
counter and my friend who derives most of his information
about Mexico from the interested corporations terminated the
conversation with the characteristic remark: "You have con
vinced me that there is at least one honest man in Mexico
and that, no doubt, is something but it is not very much."
More interesting was a talk which I had with one of the
foremost lawyers of the United States — a man who stands
well with members of the Harding Administration and also
with those of the Democratic party. He accepted what I told
him of the new era in Mexico and displayed a keen and sym
pathetic interest in President Obregon. In fact he grew hope
ful of the Southern Republic. But one day after having spent
nearly a week in Washington he approached me with a solemn
face and said : "You must be very careful when you go back
to that country. Obregon is all right of course, but he is not
alone. He has a curious set of people around him who stick
at nothing and they would make short work of you, if they
once conceived a dislike for you. Listen now to what hap
pened to one of your own countrymen this very year. I got
the story in Washington and from an excellent source.
"There was an Englishman in Mexico City, I forget his
name but it was something like Danall or Dalinn. He was in
vited to travel with General Obregon and became a staunch
friend of his. The two were often together and Obregon
thought a great deal of the Englishman. But some of the

PREPARING THE ATMOSPHERE 51
other members of the Administration took a dislike to him.
Well, one day the foreign guest was invited to partake of their
hospitality, I cannot say whether it was dinner or lunch, but
it turned out to be the last meal on God's earth which the un
suspecting stranger took. The poor fellow died of poisoning
a few hours later. Be warned in time therefore. By the way,
did you ever meet that Englishman or hear of him?" "Yes,"
I answered, "I did, and curiously enough I received the news
of his death from Warsaw and from Paris a fortnight ago
through a Russian Princess here. The details, as is natural,
were slightly at variance with those which you have just nar
rated — the Englishman after the meal dropped dead in the
University Club, in Mexico City. His name too was a little
different — it was Dr. E. J. Dillon. So, as you see, the story
has gone the round of two Continents already and has reached
me, the principal dramatis persona, from both sources." "Do
you really mean it ?" "I do, and the lady in question will bear
me out. It was through her that I got a glimpse of the letters
that conveyed the news. Don't you now think that your kind
admonition to be careful in Mexico may be useful to yourself
in Washington?" "Well, indeed you surprise me," the honest
lawyer added.
One fine June evening at a dinner table in New York at
which some of the most influential and wealthy representatives
of the foreign companies in Mexico were assembled, the con
versation turned naturally upon the condition of Mexico at
present. I gave it as my opinion that everything there had un
dergone a radical change since the day of the triumph of the
revolution over the Carranza regime and that much of what
had been true of the Republic down to that date was wholly
false to-day. Thereupon one of the magnates assured us all that
I was speaking as an optimistic foreigner, mistaking wishes for
realities and that the country was at that moment on the verge
of a revolution which would sweep away Obregon and his
regime as thoroughly as he had swept away his predecessor.
I insisted that the era of revolutions is closed but only two of
the individuals present paid heed to my statement and after
wards requested me to give them further particulars. One of

52 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
the others said: "Well but you who know the President per
sonally must surely be aware that he is a doomed man. He
is as you know suffering from an incurable disease which will
carry him off very shortly." "No. I do not know anything
of the kind. Neither does his physician who is a close friend
of mine. General Obregon is strong and active and hard
working and looks as though he might outlive your children,"
I replied. "Well, but I understand that his doctor says the
contrary. At least I have heard so."
In New York one morning towards the end of June, a pro
fessional gentleman whose work lies almost entirely in the
world of journalism and letters came to see me and inquired :
"Who in your opinion will be PresidentObregon's successor? I
have been asked the question and I am very anxious to answer it
but cannot. You are more likely to know than any of my ac
quaintances. Who is it ?" "But the question is not actual yet,"
I replied, "nor is it likely to become so for three years and in
the meanwhile the bases for an answer may change many
times. Why should your friends look so far ahead?" "Oh
then you have not heard that President Obregon's doctors have
given him less than four months to live, four calendar
months? That explains the actuality of the query and the
curiosity of those Americans who are interested in Mexico."
"Well then tell them from me that that story is stale enough
to have died of old age last year. It was circulating in Mexico
City in July, 1920. Bets were made by foreign residents, some
of whom I know personally, that Obregon would never take
possession of the Presidency and those bets were maintained
to my knowledge down to the very night on which he swore
fidelity to the Constitution. Yet he is still alive and hearty."
Among the passengers of the steamer on which I travelled
from New York to Vera Cruz last July (1921) were some
Mexican families on their way back to their native land. In
conversation with my secretary they confided to her their grave
apprehensions about the future. "We thought," one lady la
mented, "that we had done with civil war and revolutions.
But alas ! we now have to face those horrors once more and I
am in fear and trembling for what awaits us." "But why

PREPARING THE ATMOSPHERE 53
should you be afraid," inquired my secretary; "what is hap
pening to frighten you?" "I do not know what is actually
happening. I only know that in New York where we have
been staying for the last few months all the Americans as
sured us that Mexico is on the verge of civil war, that a revolu
tion is about to break out and that we ought to put off our
journey until peace has been established by American troops.
And surely they must know."
The lady was not far astray : they were the people who had
foretold the previous revolutions and they were right on those
occasions. They now expected a new one about June in Tam-
pico among the troops of General Pelaez, and she believed
them. As a matter of fact arrangements had been made for
overturning the Obregon Administration and General Pelaez
publicly accused the oil corporations of being implicated in
the matter, but so far he has not substantiated the charge
by producing evidence which he promised to publish.
In a word, the plain truth would seem to be that an atmos
phere is being carefully created and poured round the unsus
pecting American people, — an atmosphere favourable to un
warranted action of a kind which it would never countenance
could it pierce the veil and see things as they are. And of all
the relevant facts the most decisive are the advent to power of
President Obregon and the far-ranging changes which that
event has brought in its train.
In a series of articles which appeared in the Saturday
Evening Post I endeavoured to show how completely the
issue between the Mexican Republic and foreign States has
been transformed by those two changes in the Presidency and
in the policy of the country, and to convey to the public an
idea of the character, abilities and experience of Mexico's
new leader. They were biographical sketches calculated to
rid Obregon of his spurious character and to reconstruct the
broken image reflected in the ruffled waters of revolution, and
to depict him as he is. I was preparing others in which I set
forth his policy and sought to prove that it is a rounded system
of thought to be embodied in a graduated course of action and
legislation.

54 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
But to my surprise those articles were sharply criticised in
private and I learned that however indisputable the data might
be, their publication was deemed to be injurious at once to the
political and the material interests of those groups of Ameri
can workers who had been endeavouring to influence by sharp
ening the Mexican policy of the actual Administration of the
United States. I was further apprised that what the American
people needed to have brought home to them was the hopeless
condition of things in Mexico as painted in Mr. Fall's report
to the Senate, as though the sun and the moon had been
standing still since the days of Madero, Victoriano Huerta
and Carranza. To kindle emotion and arouse antagonistic
sentiment, rather than to spread accurate knowledge, appeared
to be most urgently needed in those high latitudes where the
threads of what might become Mexico's destinies were being
diligently spun. The factors of the problem might have under
gone a radical alteration. The truths of yesterday might have
become the falsehoods of to-day. But . all that was to be
treated as esoteric knowledge and the public was not to be in
formed of the transmutation; it was to have the misdeeds
which had passed into history kept steadily before its gaze
until fascinated by the spectacle it should work itself into a
fury of passion and call upon the expectant "cleaners up" to
exorcise the demons of bolshevism and anarchy.
That was one of the most noteworthy characteristics of the
phenomena which came within my ken in connection with the
deliberate and purposeful moulding of public opinion in the
United States by groups of influential individuals who call and
mayhap believe themselves to be friends of the Mexican people.
Ever since the accession of General Obregon to power all
kinds of reports calculated to depict Mexican conditions as
hopeless have been appearing and reappearing with the force
ful iteration of an advertisement and their hypnotising effect
on the average reader is supremely mischievous. A number of
daily papers kept publishing articles on Obregon, Calles and
other ministers by the journalist Mr. Stephen Bonsai and
others whose zeal outruns their knowledge. A pressman
named Albert W. Fox who lives in Washington and sketches

PREPARING THE ATMOSPHERE 55
Mexico from there published articles of a like alarming charac
ter. Here are the headlines of one: "Obregon losing hold.
Reports indicate overturn in Mexico within six months. Bad
influences gaining. Premier and Calles and other Leaders
now listed as Bolsheviks."1 In these ways Mexico is being
discredited. A bad name is all that is needed. "I will not
shed thy blood," cried the Quaker to the barking dog, "but I
will give thee a bad name," whereupon he shouted : "Beware
of the mad dog" and the passers-by did the rest.
Six months at the very outside — the more probable term
being three — were thus accorded by a Washington journalist
to President Obregon. This determination of the date is sig
nificant in many respects. Within six calendar months from
March, 1921, political forces were certain, according to this
remarkable forecast, to overthrow the First Chief and his Gov
ernment just as throughout the summer and autumn of 1920
unnamed forces were to have hindered him from surviving
long enough to take possession of his office, and bets were
given and taken to that effect in Mexico City by foreign resi
dents. General Calles and other leaders were listed as bol
sheviks — and their own protests ignored. Surely the Ameri
can public desires and deserves a nearer approach to the truth
than those pressmen seem capable of offering them.
The revenue of the Republic is being squandered, the Ameri
can people was assured, and squandered ruthlessly. "No one
appears able to find out how much money goes into the Mexi
can treasury and what becomes of it. . . . The nearest ap
proach to a definite statement on this score was obtained by
an American (the Mexicans invariably choose indiscreet
Americans to whom to make damaging confessions) within
the past few weeks who was informed on one particular oc
casion that two-thirds of the money received would be ex
pended legitimately by the Government."2 How can foreigners
be expected to invest capital in such a country or to object to
the advent of the professional "cleaners up" !
What naive people these Mexican rulers are who thus blurt
1The Washington Post, 28th March, 1921.
2 Ibidem.

56 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
out damaging truths to the wide-awake foreigner ! They se
lect an American as their confidant and tell him with engag
ing frankness : "Two-thirds of this money received will be ex
pended legitimately," and the scandalised American forthwith
has the unedifying piece of information blazoned abroad for
the guidance of the people of the United States. "The foreign
diplomatists in Mexico City," we read again, "estimate that
there will be a new Government within ninety days or six
months at the outside. Obregon," it is added, "fully realises
that he is powerless to bring about the restoration of his coun
try."3 The President presumably must have chosen another
good-natured American to whom he confided his despair, so
that the United States people should get timely wind of the
matter! He fully realises and frankly confesses his power-
lessness in private and announces the opposite in public ! He
deceives his own people and confides the painful truth to
hungry outsiders! What a President, or what a system of
propaganda !
The same influential organ informs the American people
of the terrible turn recently taken by the economic and finan
cial affairs of the Southern Republic. "Mexico almost bank
rupt, labouring under severe economic depression, has been
approaching a political crisis for weeks. The call of Congress
in special session, with the ensuing disturbances in the Cham
ber and radical outbreaks in various centres, has brought it to
a head. . . . Mr. Stephen Bonsai writing in the Evening Post
of March 29th said that the Republic was on the eve of a
severe political upheaval."*
All this may be excellent propaganda but it is superlatively
unsatisfactory as historical narrative. Undoubtedly the Mexi
can Republic is passing through a period of severe economic
depression, but it is largely the consequence of the financial
boycott to which she is being subjected by the United States.
But is there any country on the globe which can be said to be
exempted from economic depression? Is it France, or Ger
many, or England, or even the United States ? The entire civi-
8 New York Evening Post, May 19th, 1921.
* Ibidem.

PREPARING THE ATMOSPHERE 57
lised world is suffering from the consequences of an iniquitous
war which should never have been begun and which ought to
have been stopped before it had reached its catastrophic finale.
And of all the nations now undergoing those consequences
there is probably none better able to endure it than the Mexi
can. On the one hand its people have been inured to want,
and on the other hand, Mexico and the United States are still
among the very few countries whose finances are on a gold
basis. The national debt per capita of the population is very
much lower than in most States of the world. The potential
natural wealth of the country is considerably greater. And
the future of the people is in the hands of a statesman who, un
like so many of his foreign compeers, is neither a moralising
amateur nor a decorative figurehead but a safe guide and a
man of sterling character.
Propaganda — one of the most deadly of the scourges fos
tered if not created by the war which like militarism and im
perialism has survived into the present — deals as disingenu
ously with reputations as with economic and political condi
tions. Thus Mr. Stephen Bonsai, we read, describes ex-Presi
dent de la Huerta, "as a dangerous intriguer and declares that
his followers openly call him President designate." General
Calles, as we saw, is spoken of as a bolshevik, and so on to the
end of the chapter.
Surely the most effective way to bring about friendly rela
tions between the great English-speaking Republic and its
Latin-American neighbour is not for writers in the press of
the former country to pay it a flying visit, set up as friends
of the nation, enjoy its hospitality and then give its ruler
sixty days to remain in power and publicly announce a revo
lution against him as imminent. If the object pursued were
to key the minds of the American people to intervention, this
would no doubt be the proper procedure to adopt. And if we
join this with the endeavours made to keep open-minded Amer
icans from visiting Mexico and from judging its condition for
themselves, we have the two expedients which constitute the
tactics of the militant movement now going forward in the
United States.

58 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
In European countries there used to be a class of men who
gathered gold coins, filed and scraped them and without ob
viously defacing them obtained a considerable quantity of gold
by the process. They were known to the tribunals as "coin-
clippers." In the less refined political controversies of some
countries to-day a certain class of propagandists practise an
analogous method and when facts and arguments fail them, as
they usually do, proceed to clip the honour of those whom they
are unable to injure in any other way. This expedient, at all
times repulsive, is especially odious when used as a weapon
by the champions of people whom circumstance has made
neighbours and who are impelled by interest no less than by
duty to live in peace and amity.
And no Mexican public men have suffered so much from
reputation-clippers as the Mexican President and his fellow-
workers. They have been roundly charged with almost every
offence punishable by the criminal code. I myself was com
pletely misled on the subject of General Obregon and others
before I had the advantage of meeting them.
I had heard much about the former from eminent Ameri
cans — experts all of them on Mexican affairs — to whom the
principal sources of information, public and private, were
easily accessible. And the portrait which I drew from the data
thus liberally supplied was the reverse of attractive. Later
on when I came to know him as he is, I perceived that the data
were fabrications and the portrait a sorry caricature.
I should like, were it feasible, to ascribe the circumstantial
and false information volunteered to me by my informants to
what Goethe termed the dangerous ease with which a great
man's contemporaries usually go astray about him. "That
which is uncommon in the individual bewilders them," he
adds, "life's headstrong current distorts their angle of vision
and keeps them from knowing such men and appreciating
them." But it is to be feared that in the case of the great
Mexican President the true explanation lies elsewhere.
My first visit to Obregon took place while I still believed
that he was one of the least reputable types of the class ridi
culed in the United States as the Mexican General. Primed

PREPARING THE ATMOSPHERE 59
with this idea, I called on him one afternoon at his hotel in
Mexico City. His ante-chamber was filled with typical rep
resentatives of the despised masses with whom he was hail-
fellow-well-met, — of the ninety per cent set by nature in a
stream of wealth which like Tantalus of old they are forbidden
to enjoy. He inquired what he could do for me. I answered :
"I merely wish to know how you intend to deal with the prob
lems of recognition, of Mexico's debts, of foreign claims for
losses and kindred matters when, as now appears certain, you
will have entered upon the duties of President." "My answer
is simple," he playfully replied, "Mexico will pay her debts
and satisfy the just claims of foreigners. As for recognition,
I cannot admit that it is a Mexican problem. Foreign states
will recognise the lawful government of the Republic in ac
cordance with the laws of nations. That is all. You would
not suggest, would you, that any of them will make a new de
parture ?" I arose, said that I would not trespass further on
his time, thanked him for his reply, wished him good after
noon and left.
Next day a friend of his informed me that the General
would be pleased to see me again, to have a more satisfactory
talk with him, adding that he had been under the impression
that I was one of the numerous callers whose aim was to ply
him with futile questions and then to comment adversely on
his answers. He intended to start in two days for his home
in Nogales and would gladly receive me any time before his
departure. I said that I would not trouble the General fur
ther now but might possibly be in Nogales myself in a few
weeks when I would take the liberty to call on him. The next
day I received an invitation to accompany him on his journey
to Nogales which after a few hours deliberation I accepted.
On that journey and on our many subsequent travels, I had
a rare opportunity to study General Obregon in the various
lights shed by changing situations, by adventures pleasant and
unpleasant, exhilarating and depressing. I saw him in his na
tive place surrounded by his family and his kindred and
neither in real life nor in fiction could one find a more per
fect realisation of ideal family life than in the modest home

60 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
at Nogales or the little house beside the Castle of Chapultepec.
In that large family circle where representatives of three gen
erations live and work in harmony the best traditions of old
Castile are cultivated together with all that is most helpful
in the modern way of interpreting life. The children are
taught to be themselves, original, unaffected, modest, truthful
and considerate of others withal. The parents guide mainly
by example almost without perceptible effort and the inter
course between the two is natural and easy. In a word, there
is a soothing and yet stimulating atmosphere of peace and hap
piness in the domestic circle which is felt and appreciated even
by the casual visitor.
In the State of Sonora I met and conversed with General
Obregon's earliest teachers and his schoolmates. I accom
panied him on his electoral tour and listened to over a hun
dred of his improvised addresses, always with a keen sense of
aesthetic enjoyment and at times with admiration for his fair
ness and generosity as an antagonist. He is a magnanimous
enemy, free from spite and meanness. To my knowledge he
possessed documents which if published would have debarred
certain of his adversaries from ever again appearing on the
public stage. But he declined to make use of them during
the elections or indeed later unless the behaviour of the authors
should oblige him to make known their misdeeds. Since then
the authors have been fomenting a rebellion and the docu
ments have set an indelible mark on both.
Obregon is one of the very few men I have met — Veni
zelos is another — on whom power and rank have no further
effect than that of sharpening their sense of responsibility. In
all other respects he is as he was. Most men can bear adver
sity, few can support greatness. To weak heads great heights
are dangerous. Never in her history has Mexico had the good
fortune to possess a leader whose message appealed with such
irresistible force alike to the heart and the intelligence of a
whole people, revealing their needs and expressing their hopes
and uplifting their souls. Neither has any public leader ever
before appeared among the Mexicans whose ideas met so
many of the pressing wants of the population and fitted in so

PREPARING THE ATMOSPHERE 61
completely with the unprecedented conditions of the epoch and
the country. For the conditions have no parallel in history
and if the theory according to which Providence raises up men
of destiny for each great crisis were aught more than a pious)
desire one could not discover any more striking corroboration
of it than the personality and the message of General Obregon.
It is well nigh impossible for the bulk of the American
people to correct by such concrete tests the misstatements
about Mexico scattered broadcast for a definite purpose by
professional propagandists. And therein lies the danger to
peace and the fair name of the people of the United Stares who
together with their Southern neighbours are the victims of this
deplorable campaign.
Thousands of American excursionists — mostly business men
interested in buying from and selling to Mexico raw materials
and manufactured goods — visited the country in response to a
hospitable invitation given to them by President Obregon.
Many of them were able to converse with the people, exchange
views with members of the Government and to keep an open
eye for traces of the abuses spread over a decade of civil strife
the records of which were gathered up in a bulky volume and
presented by Mr. Fall to the world as a mirror of Mexico as
it is to-day. And those people returned home satisfied in mind
with the ample guarantees for life and property which the
Obregon Administration has provided for foreigners who visit
or reside in the land.
One would think that this personal contact was desirable be
cause illuminating, educational and humanising. But it was
found by the propagandists in the United States to have one
overwhelming disadvantage, and on this account they set their
faces against it : it tended to bring the two peoples together, to
dissipate the misconceptions on both sides, to discredit the mis
chief-makers and thus to destroy the case for intervention.
Every expedient that promised success was accordingly em
ployed to put a stop to these excursions. One of the most
singular of these efforts took the form of a letter publicly ad
dressed to the American Chamber of Commerce which had
arranged to visit Mexico City last June to take part in the In-

62 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
ternational Congress of Merchants there. The appeal to de
cline the invitation was issued by the American Association of
Mexico, and the argument employed was that these excursions
form "part of a program to render futile any protests against
acts and legislations of the Mexican Government, which pro
gramme if successful would render permanent the handicaps
imposed upon American citizens under the so-called Consti
tution (!) of 191 7. . . . No form of propaganda could be
more effective than this." None indeed. For when Ameri
cans have seen Mexican conditions for themselves they be
come proof against falsehoods and half-truths which are often
more poisonous than falsehoods.
Now there is but one conceivable motive for objecting to
this mode of investigation . . . and it need neither be quali
fied nor even named.
The Americans most conversant with what is happening in
Mexico are the inhabitants of the border states, Texas, Ari
zona, New Mexico, and they are profoundly struck with the
vast and beneficent changes already realised in the Republic
and with the admirable reforms outlined by President Obre
gon as part of his political programme. Having come to the
conclusion that after years of floundering in the quagmire of
internecine strife the Republic is at last on the high road to
progress and prosperity they are anxious to see removed those
formidable barriers to advancement which have been raised
by professional politicians among their own countrymen and
by a group of companies working hand in hand with these.
Friendly co-operation and peaceful emulation are their
ideals. And the views of those near neighbours are the more worthy
of note that they represent the convictions of the people who
a couple of years back clamoured for armed intervention and
persisted in the demand until they beheld and grasped the
significance of the change inaugurated by General Obregon.
Their Chambers of Commerce contain a considerable number
of individuals who are thoroughly versed in Mexican affairs,
are acquainted with the country, the people and the language,
are impatient of revolutionary methods, eager to do business

PREPARING THE ATMOSPHERE 63
and shrewd enough to know when the lives and properties of
their countrymen in Mexico are adequately protected.
And those are some of the people who now call upon their
Government in Washington to end the costly and irritating
boycott entailed by the refusal of recognition to Obregon's
Government and to enable the Mexican people to help them
selves and profit by the guidance of a leader the like of whom
they have never had the good fortune to follow even when the
President's name was Benito Juarez.
What impresses all those competent American observers
whose judgment is most favourable to the present adminis
tration in Mexico are the many unmistakable tokens of radi
cal betterment which have of late originated inside the Re
public. They are especially struck with the decisive innova
tion that its policy — in so far as it was anti-American — has
been reversed and is now directed by an exceptionally fine type
of statesman who displays capacity for basic reform and glow
ing sympathies with the higher aspirations of humanity.
They appreciate the extent to which his endeavours have
already contributed to raise the level of thought and feeling
in the community. They further dwell with satisfaction upon
the decisive circumstance that General Obregon, buoyed up by
the respect of political adversaries and cautious friends, re
gards it as his life task to evolve order out of that welter of
chaos and inaugurate a series of beneficent internal reforms,
after having first complied with all the just demands of foreign
governments. They rejoice to see that now at last the South
ern Republic has a President whose settled purpose is tfie sub
stitution of morality for politics and who is effectually stem
ming the tide of insubordination with a solid breakwater of
order and justice. They know that he has quenched the flames
of civil war, scattered its embers to the four winds of heaven
and bestowed surcease of bloodshed and terror upon the sorely
tried population. And they regard these achievements as a
pledge of still greater feats to come.
Why then, they ask, should we not assume that the new
spirit of which he is the incarnation will usher in a new era of
domestic peace and international amity?

64 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
Here is the gist of the answer given by the other group of
corporations and politicians whose conceptions are simple,
whose methods are primitive and who rely wholly upon exter
nal measures of a drastic character, leaving nothing to Nature's
healing processes : "Because we cannot build upon the present
until we have cleared away the consequences of the past; be
cause Mexico having forgotten her obligations, it behooves the
United States to enforce its rights; because the shadows of the
bloody past warn us of the perils of the future ; because there
is no hope for the nation from within; because socially and
politically Mexico is an Augean stable and it is incumbent
upon her neighbour to perform the friendly service of clean
ing it up as it has done so thoroughly in Cuba. The United
States," they add, "has been imitating Nature too closely and
has given a needlessly long credit to its frail neighbour. It
has unwisely refrained from dishonouring her overdraft and
now at last feels constrained to square accounts in the interests
of all concerned, even though the innocent should fare no
better than the guilty. One should be just before being gen
erous. The Mexicans whom Obregon is leading differ hardly
at all from those who were misgoverned by his immediate
predecessor. They are tainted by the same vices. His order
ing of things political has not fulfilled the hopes which his
friends entertained. He is but a chip of the old block. Hence
the salutary chastisement which the Republic has long since
deserved at the hands of the United States should be admin
istered forthwith irrespective of who is President and what
his policy happens to be and of the consequences which would
accrue to their own country from this energetic action." In
a word, in order to escape the smoke they are ready to jump
into the fire and take their country with them.
Mexicans are pained to hear such maxims of the primacy
of might propounded seriously. For they know that if acted
upon, their country's lines would indeed fall in unpleasant
places. They are grieved to think that their too quiescent
people having been victimised for years by bands of domestic
miscreants and exploited by grasping foreigners may now be
further penalised by fanatical crusaders of oily "righteous-

PREPARING THE ATMOSPHERE 65
ness" for having patiently endured these calamities. And the
edge of Fate's irony would be sharpened by the circumstance
that at the time when insatiable blood thirst and anarchist
frenzy ran riot in Mexico, when brigandage usurped the place
of military discipline, graft superseded justice and the further
ance of sordid aims was substituted for statesmanship, Car
ranza and his confederates, who were in a large measure an
swerable for that travesty of government, were treated by the
United States of America as petted children, their misdeeds
winked at and their power to go on perpetrating them strength
ened, whereas the strong man now in the presidential chair,
who is able and eager to heal the nation's wounds and impress
the stamp of his creative genius on the history of his country,
is to be denied not only recognition and credit but even the
time requisite for the fulfilment of his solemn promises.
Mexican affairs then have entered upon a stage respecting
which foreign political thought — in so far as it is interested in
them at all— ranges itself either in the category of manly trust
fulness or in that of swift aggressive action. Those who
favour the latter course are scanning the Mexican horizon
for a suitable champion of their ideas and they wistfully yearn
for the rule of Diaz which they contemplate athwart the
medium of foreign interests, forgetting that that highly gifted
leader brandished the bludgeon of the upstart Dictator whereas
Obregon wields the wand of Moses, — although unlike the
Hebrew leader he may for the moment lack the support of an
Aaron and a Hur against the enemies of his people.
The unbiased observer will symapthise with General Obre
gon who has taken over a heavily encumbered legacy and is
grappling with vast liabilities which would have dismayed the
world's most famous statesmen. For it is a struggle on wholly
unequal terms and against overwhelming odds. It might aptly
be likened to that of a Mexican David who is without his sling
facing the American giant Goliath armed from head to foot.
It is painfully true that time has long stood still for Obregon's
countrymen, — the time that brings experience, increased
knowledge and provides the motive power of progress. In
the onward march of peoples the Southern Republic has per-

66 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
sistently lagged behind among primitive cultures and exploded
ideas and is now about to undergo an ordeal from which it
cannot emerge unscathed except by dint of those very advan
tages which it has neglected to acquire.
While in this helpless condition it is being virtually sum
moned by a small group of foreign citizens of the nation which
holds the foremost place in the ranks of progressive races to
enter upon a contest for the possession of its own material
resources and to prepare the most favourable strategical condi
tions for its mighty rival. The published terms of the chal
lenge are naturally couched in less crude language but this is
the light in which the summons is envisaged by responsible
Mexican politicians and by many impartial outsiders. The
ideal as presented to the American people, which has no han
kering after territorial aggrandisement, is that of a fair and
free competition of all the forces of science, organisation, capi
tal and technical skill backed by political experience and mili
tary power. And this has an attractive ring which will it is
hoped disarm criticism. But as Mexico is deficient in them all,
is even dependent upon her competitor for her weapons and
sees her case grossly misrepresented to the American public,
the outcome of the contest may well seem a foregone con
clusion. For the hapless state of the Mexican people the fatuous pol
icy of the Carranza administration is only partially to blame.
Foreign exploitation of their natural resources was the root-
cause. But it cannot be gainsaid that that President acted on
the maxim that his country must be in standing antagonism
to the United States, or that he set up the doctrine that all
Latin-American republics should do likewise. The inevitable
result of his efforts in this direction was to throw Mexico
into the arms of her powerful neighbour without whose co-op
eration it must now continue to languish in darkness and misery.
To-day all its domestic problems present some delicate inter
national aspect which perplexes the native reformer. At every
hand's turn he must apprehend a protest from the great north
ern Republic. Every revolution against crying abuses is struck
barren by outside interposition. The levy of a new tax or the

PREPARING THE ATMOSPHERE 67
increase of one already in vigour may call forth a sharp diplo
matic representation on the ground that it impairs the interests
or infringes the rights of the citizens of the United States.
The expropriation of private land and the breaking up of large
haciendas which is an imperative necessity is found to inter
fere with the conditions deemed indispensable to the foreign
pioneers and forthwith oral or written expostulations are pre
sented. The Constitution, in which a germ of confiscation is
said to lie embedded, must be not merely amended but scrapped.
A dispute between employers and workmen is described as a
sinister quarrel between foreigners and natives into which the
poison of racial bitterness is speedily infused — a poison of
which the weaker party invariably receives the larger dose.
What in other countries would be an ordinary strike is made to
assume on the opposite bank of the Rio Grande the formidable
character of a bolshevist manifestation which cannot long
be brooked by the law-abiding neighbour. Foreign agitators
help create the very troubles which are relied upon to discredit
the Republic. Revolutions against the Obregon administra
tion are publicly said to be encouraged by Mexico's foreign
"friends." In short, one of the consequences of Carranza's
insensate doctrine of aloofness on the one hand and of foreign
machinations on the other hand has been to interweave almost
every fibre of the national organism with foreign rights and
interests so closely, so inextricably, as almost to defy the most
dexterous diplomatist to sunder them.
More ominous for the moment than aught else, however, is
the circumstance that the road to domestic reforms is effec
tually and deliberately blocked by international issues. And
until and unless they are satisfactorily disposed of, no serious
and lasting betterment can be achieved in the politico-social
sphere at home. Every jeer at Obregon's slowness is in truth
a scoff at foreign obstructionism which is mainly answerable
for it. The most genial reformer is paralysed by the Ameri
can boycott. For instance, Mexico needs rail, carriage and
water ways as sorely as the parched wheat needs rain, but
without large credits there can be no important extension of
the network of iron ways, no draining of rivers, no building

68 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
of causeways. And the great financial houses of the United
States have resolved to refuse financial succour until their Gov
ernment notifies them that they may safely accord it. If a
Cavour or a Bismarck were President of Mexico to-day he
would be as powerless for good as a new-born babe, so long
as the international boycott has not been raised by the United
States. The foreign politicians operate with economic means
of pressure and the foreign industrials with political. And in
this way they have contrived to place the ill-starred Southern
Republic between the hammer and the anvil.
In a word, the events of the past ten years have released
potent forces on this side of the Rio Grande the perpetuation
of which may thrust back the Mexican people into the ooze of
chaos from which they have just emerged. That is the mani
fest and only possible outcome of further persistence in the po
litical, financial, economic and journalistic campaign which is
now being conducted against the Southern Republic. But the
effects of the catastrophe, should it come, will not, cannot be,
circumscribed at will either within geographical frontiers or
class interests. When Samson dislocated the pillars of the
temple and caused the death of numerous Philistines he paid
a high price for his success. But at least he had reason to con
sider it a patriotic feat. Is this equally true of the foreign
saviours of Mexico?

CHAPTER VII
The White Man's Precious Burden
Since the historic days of the First Chief a noteworthy
change has, as we saw, come over the international situation.
To-day Mexico is on her trial. She is about to undergo an
examination which will qualify or disentitle her to take over
the role which she has been exerting herself to play since she
cut her moorings from Spain a hundred years ago and even to
retain the place which she still occupies in the society of na
tions. And the test is uncommonly searching. Happily the
Republic is personified by a man whose State-building capac
ity is unquestioned, who would fain steer a plain course
through the bewildering maze of international intrigue, and
who is prepared to render unto Csesar the things that are
Caesar's while keeping for Mexico the things that are Mexi
co's, unless force majeure prevents him.
This lucky coincidence which the superstitious might ascribe
to Providence gives the country a much better chance to main
tain its independence than it would have had under any other
leadership. None the less, this is Mexico's last opportunity
and the work of reconstruction, by which it alone can be fruc
tified, is being undertaken with painful consciousness of the
prize at stake and of the unsurpassed difficulty of the circum
stances. A decade of destructive civil war during which the
Mexican Republic stood at anchor in the stream of time while
other nations moved constantly forward, has dislocated various
State institutions and demoralised many of the former admin
istrators. Hence the difficulty of finding competent helpers.
And yet President Obregon, in spite of his comprehensive
knowledge of mankind, is an optimist, possibly because the
field of international politics has not yet been covered by his
varied experience. He honestly believes that in the long run
one of the achievements of foreign diplomacy will be to cause
69

70 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
the deep-rooted ethical forces of modern society to prevail on
the side of humanity over the impulse towards greed and
rancour. In fact he has made this assumption the pivot of his
policy which he framed in a spirit of justice that borders on
generosity and is pursuing with courage and constancy. It is
no doubt meet that his heart should thus charitably assume
the innate goodness of the great money-making corporations
of to-day but one feels that his eye should be none the less
sharp-sighted in seeking for proofs of its concrete existence.
Underlying almost every great political movement, however
noble, whether confined to diplomacy or extended to the battle
field, the scrutinising observer will perceive a more or less
sordid economic interest which is almost always kept in the
background and is often unsuspected. If this was a common
phenomenon in the past it is certain to be equally common in
the present and the future, seeing that the struggle for exist
ence — racial, national and individual — is become sterner and
more ruthless than heretofore, so that ethics and even re
ligion have been laid under tribute in order to provide a decent
vesture for sordid politics.
In this age of spurious virtues and law-made vices, the
prevalent incongruous mixture of -cupidity and altruism is at
times bewildering. There is a marked tendency to render na
tions as well as individuals righteous by statute law and it
now threatens to creep into international relations. In fact it
is beginning already to become operative as a force. On the
one hand the State is endeavouring to discharge certain func
tions of the Church within its own borders, and on the other
the leading races are being assured by their ambitious public
men that they are providentially destined to act as guardians
to their semi-civilised neighbours and to deal with these, their
"natural wards," as they are dealing with their own citizens.1
i There is at present a movement headed by the Presbyterian Church in
the United States which aims at extending prohibition to the Philippines
and suppressing the vicious habit of smoking by legislation. In the
United Mates at a place called Zion a New York lady visitor was recently
arrested on stepping down from the train because she was wearine the
ordinary short sleeved dress of New York and Washington. Moralitv bv
statute is making perceptible headway. See The New York Times Tune
2!St, 1921. ' JU"C

THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 71
It is a new and more mischievous form of the doctrine of
divine right and the grace of God. The main innovation is
that it is applied to privileged races instead of to privileged
individuals. Hence morality of a far-shining kind has become
a lucrative policy and is being cultivated accordingly. Anglo-
Saxon statecraft has instinctively borrowed and is quietly col
ouring for the use of its wards certain of the maxims which
hitherto belonged exclusively to the religious domain and whole
peoples are being rescued from "vice" by the "secular arm"
almost as in mediaeval times. Whether one approves or
deprecates this new line of action in world polity, no statesmen
among the unprivileged nations can afford to ignore it. For
it is being tentatively experimented with on the Old Continent
and is about to be proclaimed a political dogma or a regional
doctrine on the New. The maxims ascribed to those innovat
ing Governments being in the nature of a justification for a
resolve already taken on other grounds represent at bottom
concrete aims rather than general principles. None the less, a
special pleader might summarise the available arguments some
what as follows.
Progress is a law of life which operates with constancy and
rigour, necessitating competition and resulting in the selection
of the fittest. It actuates not merely the individuals of a race
or a State but likewise the larger organised entities which con
stitute the international family of civilised peoples. Race thus
competes with race, nation with nation and State with State.
And whenever this competition ceases the result is stagnation
which means retrogression. Now during the past ten years of
fitful volcanic outbursts and indeed for a much longer period,
Mexico had given up this pacific struggle and seemingly dis
qualified herself ever to resume it. Plans were accordingly
woven to save her from herself and it is a grievous disappoint
ment to the weavers to learn that they will not be needed. It
is this all important fact that is at the bottom of the present
and future relations between the Republic of the South and
the United States. The politicians, who have been joined by
the oil interests, intent upon applying their specific, maintain
that the Mexican people is devoid of the elements essential to

72 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
reconstruction and indeed to a fully independent nation and
further contend that even if it possessed them, the Constitu
tion of 191 7 would effectually hinder their exercise. There
fore the constructive outlanders should be allowed to have
their innings.
Isolation, it is further urged, — political isolation grounded
on potential self-sufficiency — was the policy struck out by Car
ranza and it is falsely alleged that it will be followed volun
tarily or involuntarily by Obregon. Now such a train of
thought as a motive for political action is stigmatised by the
progressive races of to-day as pernicious and not to be tol
erated. Contact and competition with other peoples are rightly
held to be indispensable and the ultimate disappearance of the
weaker unities in vying with the stronger and more quick-
pulsed is one of the dominant and salutary features in cul
tural and economic advancement. And it is desired that it
should have free play. The quality which tells most advan
tageously and decisively in favour of each competing people
is the subjection of the interests of the individual to those of
the social organism. And in this the Mexicans are admittedly
lacking. They have never yet displayed enough of that co-
hesiveness which is the cement of every social system. Hence
they are bound to fall into a state of dependence upon their
successful rival. And just as the interests and strivings of in
dividual competitors in the process of natural selection are far
from being identical with each other, nay are often mutually
antagonistic, so the interests and aims of the advancing sec
tion of human kind as a whole are generally incompatible with
those of the backward organisms. In the long run therefore
the latter are doomed to go down before the former. Now
one of the mainsprings of that social cohesiveness on which
the victory depends is, we are told, the altruistic spirit infused
ages ago by supernatural religion, some, form of which
quickens every type of civilisation. The more fully developed
and the more deeply ingrained is this super-rational influence,
the more readily will individual and group inspirations be sub
ordinated and sacrificed to the requirements of the higher
unit. Communities which like Mexico are the most deficient

THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 73
in this upbuilding power are the most likely to champ the bit
and ignore the sanction for altruistic sacrifice. Hence the up
shot of the struggle between the English-speaking and the
Spanish-speaking populations of the new world is a foregone
conclusion. Mexico, it is added, is the most conspicuous as well as the
richest of those defective countries. Individual ambitions run
wild there. They are unchecked by human or divine law.
Even Church influence is only skin-deep. The State is devoid
of organs indispensable to normal growth. The best of them
are rudimentary. Chaotic phenomena usurp the place of order
and render progress impossible. The Mexican people, however
great their potential innate aptitudes, have never yet made
any valuable contributions to the common stock of civilisation.
They have conceived no great idea, have associated their name
with no helpful discovery, have in fact enriched the world
with nothing but the gold, silver, oil and other forms of nat
ural wealth which were there before their advent and some of
which might still be unutilised had not English-speaking pio
neers discovered and exploited them. But ever since the fall
of Diaz the Mexicans have been playing the part of the dog in
the manger to these enterprising foreigners. And this mis
chievous obstruction will no longer be tolerated. The time
has come to break it.
Furthermore the world war and its consequences have, it is
asserted, confronted the United States as well as other pro
gressive countries with a dilemma, from the alternatives of
which no mere theory of sovereign rights however plausible
can deliver them. It is this : Either the progress of the world
must be stayed out of deference to a group of purblind poli
ticians who refuse to allow the resources provided by Nature
for the good of mankind to be made accessible to those who
are willing and able to use them to the best advantage of all,
or else friendly enterprising foreigners endowed with these
wealth-creating qualities must take them over by force and
exploit them unhampered. The human race having increased
and multiplied to an unprecedented extent, has need of all the
available mineral and agricultural wealth to meet demands

74 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
which cannot be evaded without a universal catastrophe. If
these resources should be kept sealed indefinitely, whether by
deliberate intent or inability to create and maintain conditions
favourable to their development, it is inconceivable that the na
tions which alone wield the power to utilise them should sit
still and wait for something to turn up. To do so would be
to be forgetful alike of their high ethical mission and their ex
tensive economic interests.
In the meanwhile, the argument proceeds, an example worth
taking to heart has been given by Great Britain, whose policy
whatever may be urged against it by strenuous competitors is
admittedly far-seeing. At the present conjuncture when min
eral oil fuel is taking the place of coal on land and sea and
when according to trustworthy account all available petroleum
in the United States will be exhausted within a relatively
brief period at the current rate of consumption which ex
ceeds production by more than fifty million barrels a year,2
the Government of Great Britain is very properly — and, it is
added, successfully — endeavouring to obtain control of the
most abundant supplies on the globe. And on the outcome
of this fraternal competition may depend the roles which each
of these kindred peoples will play in the further material de
velopment of the race. The force of this appeal to Britain's
example was somewhat impaired by a number of assertions
which turned out on inquiry to be false. Secretary Fall al
leged, for example, that King George's Government controlled
one of the principal oil companies operating in Mexico and he
received in dignified immobility and silence the courteous and
emphatic contradiction which was issued by Great Britain.
The history of progress throughout the globe, it is further
urged, has been the story of the forcible seizure of the ma
terial means of advancement by those who could employ them
to the best advantage against the will of the races which would
have let them lie dormant. Although the methods employed
in this struggle have been rough and blameworthy the lofty
principle underlying them has never been repudiated. It is an
2 Statement issued by R. L. Welsh, General Counsel for the American
Petroleum Institute. Cf. Los Angeles Evening Express, 23rd April, 1920.

THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 75
instinct rather than a principle and it is at the bottom of the
revised version of the Monroe Doctrine. It inspired English-
speaking Americans in their attitude towards the Colonial
strivings of European Powers ; it engendered the long-visioned
policy of Great Britain, and now furnishes Japan with a tell
ing argument in favour of her mission in the Far East. And,
spirited politicians hold, no flimsy altruistic theories should
blind the United States to the advantage of applying that prin
ciple to its own pressing wants. The backward peoples who
happen to reside in a country which contains the necessaries or
the luxuries of the chosen races who form the vanguard of
civilisation must no longer be permitted to render them inac
cessible. Progress requires the distribution of labour and op
portunity among all classes, individuals, nations and races ac
cording to their qualifications and the imposition of the rough
work upon those inferior races and individuals who are fitted
for no other. In the international domain the first step in this
direction is the recognition of the hallowed custom of com
pelling backward peoples to allow the qualified pioneers access
to their natural wealth and to adopt or accept such a code of
laws as may appear to the latter conducive to their humani
tarian ends.
Those are the premises from which the trend of the present
political current may fairly be deduced. Gauging the aptitudes
and aspirations of the Mexican population by these lofty stand
ards, North American politicians affirm that they have been
weighed carefully and found wanting. The two-fold root of
Mexico's troubles, internal and external, ever since her inde
pendence, has been a complete lack of politico-social cohesive^
ness together with that deep distrust of strangers which char
acterises the various elements of her population. The former
defect has proved an active bar to the establishment of a
settled and rational type of government and unless it be speed
ily displaced will bring about the extinction of Mexico's inde
pendence ; while the latter is answerable for the long sequence
of misunderstandings, serious troubles and sinister quarrels
which have marked, the Republic's intercourse with foreign
States. The country has always needed human leaven from

76 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
abroad. It is the very breath of its economic existence. And
yet throughout its history the foreigner has seldom been
treated fairly and never consistently.
That whole train of reasoning when scrutinised in the dry
light of experience will be found to be little more than a strong
scaffolding behind which a structure is being raised without
any of the ideal features of which it is so suggestive. There
will always be differences in degree and in form among the
viable types of civilisation, however marked the tendency may
become to substitute uniformity for variety. And whatever
may be thought of the innate qualities of the Mexican peoples
which, like the Russian, are still in flux, it will not be gainsaid
by those who know them best that some of the innate elements
of their mind and character, their hereditary faculties and apti
tudes bid fair under adequate educational training and higher
social bonds to harmonise with what is best in the economic,
political and spiritual conditions of the new era. They nearly
all display a highly developed sense of the spiritual which
often fringes upon mysticism, are marked by that attractive
note of meditation and introspection which in the more cul
tural among them generates enthusiasm and inspires heroic
self-sacrifice. It is only fair to add, however, that these re
marks should not be qualified with the limitation that gen
eralisations on matters Mexican are well nigh always con
ducive to error. Another of their noteworthy traits is their
power of assimilation. Gradually the foreign races are be
coming merged with the Indians and the blend is said to be
excellent. It should further be borne in mind that those who put for
ward the plea of the primacy of the needs of mankind over
the rights of the lesser peoples, especially when the latter fol
low a dog-in-the-manger policy, are arguing on false assump
tions. They have not been forbidden to develop the resources
of the country. On the contrary, they have been and are be
ing encouraged to go on with the work. All that the present
Mexican Government is striving for is that the stream of
riches which from the outset has been continuously flowing
away from the country should be allowed to reach and bene-

THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN 77
fit those who own it. As the President forcibly put the mat
ter in his telegram to the New York World : "Mexico has well
been called the treasure house of the world. In our moun
tains, plains and valleys there is incalculable wealth. Given
scientific methods in agriculture and in irrigation, and our
arable acreage will be able to sustain a population of 100,000,-
000. We have iron, coal and water power sufficient to turn
the wheels of the world. Our oil fields give promise of pro
ducing a billion barrels annually and our great stretches of
pine and hardwoods are virtually untouched.
"The same condition obtains with respect to metals. As
for gold and silver there is no exact record of the millions
sent annually to Spain during the three hundred years of vice
regal rule. In the last twenty years, however, even with revo
lutionary disturbances, our mines have produced more than a
billion dollars in net value.
"Consider these facts and then consider the horror of pov
erty in which ninety per cent of the Mexican people have lived,
a people endowed by nature with every blessing necessary to
comfort and happiness, yet compelled to suffer and die from
sheer lack of the necessities of life. Common humanity dic
tated a change, and it is this change that Mexico has made.
We stand to-day on the principle that the natural resources of
a nation belong to the nation. Never again will the people of
Mexico tolerate a Government that does not support this
principle. By no means does this imply a hermit nation policy.
Mexico is not so foolish as to think that she can live alone or
work alone, nor is any such wish in her heart ; but what Mex
ico will ask in the future is a fair partnership in development.
We are through forever with the policy of gift, graft and
surrender."3 It is not denied that serious encroachments upon life and
property were among the phenomena that characterised the
various revolutions or that crime and vice were rampant dur
ing that long drawn out period of wild orgies. But such com
pensation as is possible for reparable losses is being provided
3 Cf. New York World of June 27th, 1921. Telegram sent by President
of Mexico.

78 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
for, abuses are being remedied, and guarantees given for the
future. The internal Mexican situation has therefore changed
radically. The militant attitude of the foreign groups has re
mained without modification. It is also an unquestioned fact
that the oil companies in especial which are now clamouring
for drastic pressure to be put upon Mexico contrived to carry
on their work during the darkest days of the Revolution. The
talk about the needs of humanity, the white man's burden
and the sacred duty of the more advanced nation to act as the
keeper and mentor of the more backward is one of the least
respectable survivals of the world war when clap-trap of the
most specious kind usurped the functions of sound common
sense and fiction was substituted for fact. Cuba which went
through the mill which is now being prepared for Mexico
became materially prosperous under the tutelage of the United
States but for the time being lost her national soul. ">

CHAPTER VIII
The Foreign Pioneer
Mexico is a microcosm — an epitome of the planet. It con
tains mountains and valleys, lakes and plains, a vast coast line
and extensive deserts, rich mines, oil wells, coal measures,
agricultural and grazing soil, tropical lands, temperate zones,
snowbound hills, volcanoes and hot medicinal springs. In a
word, in order to become the most thriving country on the
Western Continent it needs only money to provide water and
communications. Meanwhile the lack of these entails economic
misery and political disintegration. There is money in abun
dance but in virtue of an oversight of the legislator it is ear
marked for the wealthy foreigner. In vast stretches of terri
tory a sufficiency of moisture, whether from rainfall or arti
ficial irrigation, would make all the difference to the inhabi
tants between downright poverty and material well-being.
And as the rainfall is too meagre or too violent and irriga
tion has not yet taken its place, poverty and all that that im
plies have for generations been the lot of the people. This is
especially true of some of the northern States in which thou
sands of square miles of potentially fertile soil produce noth
ing for lack of water. The State of Chihuahua, for example,
which is far greater in area than Holland and Belgium has,
we are assured by statisticians, only some sixty-five thousand
hectares of land under cultivation, and most of this would
have been as it was a few years ago — a barren steppe — were
it not for the skill and labour and capital of the pushing out-
lander. In the great State of Sonora where most of the soil
differs in no essential respects from that of Southern Califor
nia, hardly five per cent of it is under cultivation. And yet
it shows the same characteristics and the same potentialities
as that for the growing of fruit and the production of cereal
and leguminous food stuffs. It is only the stamina of the
79

80 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
men who inhabit the respective countries — one set well fed,
well housed and well paid ; and the other hungry, ignorant and
diseased — that makes the difference. And it can be unmade
only by remedial measures against which the outlander has
set his face. Like the mines, the coal measures and the oil
wells, such lands are Nature's promises which the hand of man
alone can redeem.
Irrigation, although by far the most urgent need of the
population in those arid territories of the North, is by no
means their only requisite for self-support. Ways of com
munication are another. Lack of waterways and roads has
from time immemorial formed the crux of the economic, politi
cal and cultural plight of Mexico. If the sense of national
unity is weaker than it should be in that Republic to-day, one
of the causes lies largely in the circumstance that owing to the
impossibility of communications, the various ethnic elements
held only rare and fitful intercourse with each other. A
similar condition of things cut up the kindred branches of the
ancient Hellenic race into isolated regions. In spite of the
fact that Mexico in 1910 possessed a larger number of rail
ways and a greater mileage than any other Latin- American
State, her people have sometimes to quit the Republic alto
gether and travel thousands of miles through foreign lands in
order to reach some remote town or district in their native
country. For ages this inaccessibility of one part of Mexico to the
inhabitants of another part kept the various sections of the
population effectually isolated, hindering the fusion of races,
the elimination of the less cultivated languages, the extinction
of dialects and the growth of a strong national spirit. It
compelled a considerable percentage of the people to support
life on serpents, bugs, worms, lizards, locusts, slimy insects and
kindred loathsome things while others were well provided with
corn, beans, bananas and fish. Relative plenty in one place
was attended by waste, while scarcity in another caused
famine, disease and death. And to-day it is computed that
agricultural produce grown thirty miles from the railroad is
not marketable. Rail and carriage roads constitute, therefore,

THE FOREIGN PIONEER 81
the complement of irrigation, the one being only partly
effective without the other. And both necessitate more capital
and skill than the Mexican people with hardly any millionaires
among them could provide. For the country is such that
roads there unless constructed with the solidity of European
and North American engineering are likely to be washed out
by frequent destructive floods while bridges must be uncom
monly well made to keep them from being bodily swept away
in like catastrophic fashion.
When the foreign yoke was first shaken off by a band of
half-breeds, Mexicans of Spanish stock and friendly Indians,
there were no foreigners but Spaniards in the country. And
these — their number is variously computed at from five to
seven thousand — had displayed as little initiative as the Indians
in developing the mineral and agricultural riches of the country.
For centuries they had had unmatched opportunities which
they employed only to plunder the natural resources to the full
extent of the technical appliances of the day. For the behoof
of the common people they did little but build churches. For
three hundred years after the Spanish Conquest no subjects
of any European State except the Spaniards — and even of
these very few — were admitted into the land. Two years
after the attainment of independence a law was passed by
which the State protection of non-Mexicans was restricted
to those who professed Catholicism, which was still the only
recognized religion of the Empire.
In the very same year1 that this inhospitable law was enacted
another bill of a different kind was passed. The imperial
Government recognising the inability of the natives to acquit
themselves of the various duties of progressive peoples with
out help from outside, decided to invite immigration from
abroad. The objects were to develop the dormant resources
of the country, awaken confidence, obtain loans and equip
the Republic for a worthy place among the nations of the
earth. By this decree lands were offered to immigrants, who
were dispensed from paying taxes for a period of six years
and from paying duties upon agricultural implements and other
1i823.

82 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
foreign merchandise up to two thousand dollars. One can
imagine the feelings of the English-speaking Protestant,
Baptist, Methodist and other non-Catholic new-comers on
learning that the Government which thus bestowed on them
large tracts of land situated hard by unruly Indian tribes
and held out to them various other inducements to settle there,
must conscientiously decline to protect their lives or property.
It is fair to add that neither that Government nor those which
succeeded it for a quarter of a century or more sincerely
desired to see an influx of non-Catholic foreigners into the
country. Thus nearly every new Administration realising the need
of an energising spirit, incarnate in foreign settlers, inaugu
rated its career by making a bid for enterprising capitalists,
thrifty farmers, skilled technicians and generally immigrants
possessed of the material wealth, moral fibre and business
enterprise in which the population of Mexico was deficient.
But owing to the distrust which the native almost everywhere
in the world displays towards foreigners, every inducement
offered was bracketed with a deterrent. Thus under the
Empire, sturdy farmers like the English, the Scotch, the
Dutch were warned away if their theological beliefs happened
to differ from those of the Vatican, and when the Empire
made room for a Republic, the legislature invested the Execu
tive with power to adopt "precautionary measures for the
security of the Confederation" against foreign immigrants.
In sooth the Mexican administration has never until quite
recently been quite at ease when dealing with settlers from
abroad. If these were pushing, eager for innovation and im
patient of time-killing formalism, they were set down as
politically dangerous. If they were weak and lazy, as were
some of the settlers of Latin race, they became a burden to the
Treasury. If their faith was heretical, they were an abomina
tion to such governments as that of Iturbide. If it was
orthodox, they were odious to the Revolutionists and Constitu
tionalists of a later date. In a word, the foreigner might be
likened to the travellers captured by the brigand Procrustes of
ancient Greek fame who never by any chance fitted the couch

THE FOREIGN PIONEER 83
prepared for them and had to be adjusted by their host to the
dimensions of the ever-ready grave.
The pages of the Statute Book abound in enactments which
convey a fair idea of the fluctuating status of foreigners in
Mexico. Hardly was the country an independent community
when a law was passed forbidding them to purchase land with
out a special authorisation from the State legislature or the
Federal Congress, whereas other countries — with a few excep
tions such as that of pre-war Finland — dispensed with such re
strictions. A few years after the declaration of independence
a clause was introduced into the Constitution prohibiting the
purchase of land by any outlander unless he first became
naturalised. Porfirio Diaz' advent to power constituted a land-mark in
the history of Mexico's attitude towards immigration. En
couragement to foreigners was the corner stone of his policy.
They became a privileged order in the State. They revere
his memory accordingly and still wistfully yearn for a return
of the paradise lost. Mexican historians affirm, on the other
hand, that if Diaz transformed the Republic into a paradise
for those outlanders who were building up the finances of the
nation, he made it a hell or at any rate a purgatory for the
native who was expected to bear and forbear and was shot
down or banished if he displayed the slightest symptom of
active discontent. It is alleged by that President's admirers
that this severity was a political necessity. If so, it was un
fortunate not merely for the victims but also for the country
and for the Dictator's reputation. He has, it is true, been
apotheosised by the grateful foreign element to whose danc
ing he accommodated his music. They belaud him for having
preserved exemplary order in the Republic. But his own
countrymen anathematise him because, according to them, the
only order preserved was purely mechanical depending upon
downright coercion while the principal object for which he
established it was undisturbed tenure of power for himself and
his friends. At all events the natives whenever they were, or
were suspected of being, unruly or restless received short
shrift, the innocent being mowed down together with the so-

84 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
called guilty, while the fortune-hunter from abroad was a
superior being in whose favour the laws were stretched or
violated to suit his needs or his convenience. Indeed if Mexi
can history is to be trusted, some of these proteges of Diaz
resembled that pious member of the upper class who once
asked: "Why ever did God give bones to the fishes, seeing
that we, his favoured creatures, cannot eat them ?"
The unbiased historian is thus forced to the conclusion that
until General Obregon became President none of the govern
ments that had theretofore watched over the destinies of
Mexico contrived to strike the happy medium between the two
extremes represented by Don Porfirio and Don Venustiano
respectively. The former neglected or sacrificed his people
for the sake of the foreign element, whereas the latter some
times denied common justice to that foreign element in the
name of his fellow-countrymen but without benefiting these.
Both Presidents exhibited courage in working out their respec
tive policies to the consequences of which they ultimately
succumbed, both regimes dying of political apoplexy. But
still greater courage is required by him who would assume
the prosaic and commonplace function of meting out simple
justice to each of the elements, native and foreign, and brave
the resentment of each. And that is the attitude of General
Obregon. To scrutinise the ordering established by former Presidents,
therefore, in the hope of finding examples of statecraft there,
would be like going to a member of Diaz' rural police for a
description of the beauties of the Mexican landscape.
The foreign element which has experienced such varied
treatment still forms :the abiding feature of international in
terest in current Mexican history. Indeed the future of the
Republic is so closely bound up with the aspirations and striv
ings of those professional wealth-creators and their respective
governments that the two have become well nigh indissoluble.
They resemble the famous wooden horse introduced into
beleaguered Troy by the wily Greeks as a boon and a talisman
but which was filled with armed enemies of the doomed city.
It cannot be too often repeated that the benefits which

THE FOREIGN PIONEER 85
Mexico has received for those adventurous fortune-seekers
are valuable and perhaps imperfectly appreciated by the coun
try of their temporary adoption. It was their labour that
drained swamps, reclaimed vast stretches of desert and im
parted to them the agricultural value which they possess
to-day. As Holland may be said to have been recovered and
preserved from the sea by the exertions of her hardy sons,
so a certain section of Mexico has been snatched from the
swamp and the wilderness by groups of foreign pioneers who
drained this region and provided that one with water by con
structing dams, culverts and canals. These benefactors were
not the natives. The Mexicans and their governments have
accomplished hardly anything in this direction, have in fact
undertaken little or nothing for lack of money or initiative.
During the revolutionary epoch they even squandered con
siderable sums in flashy enterprises, pulling down what others
had built up, and grudged the requisite funds for the redeem
ing of arid land. There are laurels to be culled on a field of
battle which never grow in fields of rice, cotton or sugar cane.
And several of the men who formerly rough-hewed the desti
nies of the nation were ambitious to figure in the limelight of
a national theatre. They hungered after plaudits and triumphs
or power or pelf. The prospect of unostentatiously benefiting
the bulk of their fellow-countrymen without having their
services blazoned abroad had no attraction for them.
To English-speaking pioneers, therefore, Mexico owes much
of what has been achieved for her in the way of land-reclama
tion. These men staked their money, devoted their time, ap
plied their skill and labour to this task of making part of
God's earth better than they found it, and while enriching
themselves benefited their fellow-men. Their qualifications
were enterprise, capacity for hard work, perseverance and
thrift. Their incentive was not a State subsidy, not a bribe
in any shape or form, but a desire to receive a large return
for their labour, and to some extent also the instinct of their
race to behave like the steward in the Gospel story and, instead
of burying the talent confided to them, to augment it and
leave themselves and others the better for the trust. Beyond

86 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
these conscious motives and semi-conscious instincts there was
seldom any stimulus and hardly ever an unworthy one. And
General Obregon has always been ready and eager to acknowl
edge the debt of gratitude which his country owes to these
individual pioneers and to encourage their enterprise by every
legitimate means. But wealthy companies and powerful asso
ciations belong to a different category and some of them
have lived up to the proverbial description that they have no
conscience to be scared, no soul to be saved and no body to be
whipped. Take the oil wells, for example. Mexicans argue that when
the credit account of the American oil companies has been
made up to the last item and all the benefits accruing to the
nation from their activities have been duly recorded, the master
fact remains that they entered the Republic solely to make
colossal fortunes and without the faintest trace of altruistic
motive. This is not a reproach but merely a circumstance
which deprives them of the benefit of their plea of altruism.
And to these colossal fortunes there are no bounds except
those which Nature set to Mexico's resources. The appetite
grows on what it consumes. They want all that can be ex
tracted from the country — Mexicans allege — and hold that
they are therefore entitled to protest against the laws, object
to the Constitution, veto official acts of the Executive and aid
and abet disaffected natives who are plotting against the
Government. Does this attitude, do the riches which they
have speedily acquired, it is asked, entitle them to such influ
ence over the internal ordering of the Republic as no Mexican
citizen ever wields? How little thought these corporations
take of the lot of the natives may be gathered from their wist
ful yearning to see embodied anew in a government after their
own liking the odious maxims of the Diaz regime under which
the native population was treated as manure for the growth
of foreign culture and prosperity.
Thus the dispute between the foreigner and the native
resolves itself into the contention of the former that he enjoys
an indefeasible right — which he is warranted in enforcing 
not merely to exploit the mineral wealth of Mexico but also

THE FOREIGN PIONEER 87
to establish there all the conditions which he deems necessary
to the successful pursuit of this legitimate object. Hence the
legislation of the country must be accommodated to that and
a mechanism devised by which the Government which repre
sents the principal foreign elements shall be at once the judge
and the executor of the appropriate measures. Hence the de
mand, not yet hall-marked by the State Department in Wash
ington but voiced by influential politicians and strenuously
advocated by the Association for the Protection of American
Rights in Mexico and the American Association of Mexico,
that the Constitution of 1917 be repealed and a treaty con
cluded with the United States which will confer upon that
country the rights and privileges of guardianship and bestow
upon Mexico all the boons and blessings at present enjoyed
by Cuba.

CHAPTER IX
The Outlander and the Mexican
It has frequently been complained that the foreign capi
talist in Mexico never gets credit for altruism and seldom for
fairness. That grounds have occasionally been given for these
allegations it would be idle to deny. In Mexico, as in most
European countries, the foreigner is often regarded with dis
trust not so much by the common people as by the educated
classes who are acquainted with the history of their country
and of its relations with its great northern neighbour. They
have not forgotten that some years ago the Republic extended
its power over more than twice the territory which it occupies
to-day, nor the circumstances in which it lost the larger half of
its possessions to the United States. Neither are they ignorant
of the desire of an influential party in that Republic at present
to obtain possession of Lower California — by purchase if
possible, but by hook or by crook. Those among thinking
Mexicans who are given to reading remember the significant
words of that straightforward, upright American sociologist
who wrote : "We have inherited our full share of the appetite
which I have called political earth-hunger. Internal troubles
and the time required to digest the last meal have allayed it for
a period, but it will awaken again."1 And many fear that
the question of the sources of the Colorado River and Lower
California are already whetting it.
It is not the people of the United States who are to be
blamed for such machinations. The bulk of the nation has
never been a party to them, has in fact sincerely and vainly
deprecated them. But one of the political characteristics of
the people is their readiness at all times to rally round their
Government, whatever its party-colour, and however pro-
* Earth-Hunger and Other Essays, by W. G. Sumner. Yale University
Press, 1914. P. Si. The italics are mine. university
83

OUTLANDER AND MEXICAN 89
foundly it may dissent from a given policy. What the Mexi
cans consequently behold is a great nation which contrives to
win a reputation for disinterestedness, nay for altruism, yet
goes on preserving that good name in the world while repre
hensible manoeuvres are being carried out by its chosen repre
sentatives or by a clique which influences these, for the purpose
of dispossessing weak neighbours of their territory or depriv
ing them of their sovereignty. That these wily tactics should
be undertaken by imperialistic States which make no claim to
"righteousness" and are ready to plead necessity's immunity
from law, is natural and carries with it such compensation as
the moral reprobation of right minded people confers. But
when those unjustifiable acts are labelled "amity," "humani-
tarianism," "moral guidance," the nation that suffers thereby
is stung to the quick. Resentment in such cases is as in
evitable as a manifestation of the law of gravity, and distrust
is an instinctive impulse. The thief, Mexicans say, is not he
who steals well but he who keeps the stolen property and his
good name to boot.
The plodding, self-reliant, English-speaking wrestlers with
the brute forces of Nature whose life-purpose is an unending
struggle have little in common with the expansive, explosive,
simple-minded and generous people in whose midst they live
and labour. Their standards of progress, their social concepts,
their outlook upon life are widely different. We behold on the
one side practical sense, stubborn will-power, dogged tenacity,
indomitable courage, while on the other we discern specious
theories and distracted misgivings, an innate bent towards
unfruitful discussion and a frequent short-circuit between
saying and doing. The one set of men are able and willing
to grapple with undertakings which the other can conclusively
prove to be impossible — until they are achieved. The former
can boldly set to work at a task with seemingly little hope of
accomplishing it and go on with it perseveringly without even
the encouragement of partial success. The latter are wanting
alike in initiative and constancy, are hampered by a feminine
solicitude about the prospects and by an imagination so lively,
nimble and Protean that it assumes the shape of well nigh

90 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
everything that affects it. Hence their courage rises and falls
in sympathy with external forces, and although they are bril
liant and generous and courageous to a heroic degree, their
energy can seldom be calculated with certainty or employed
with method. In a journey of, say, a hundred miles the most
difficult laps for the average Mexican are the beginning and
the end, and when he has covered ninety miles he is still but
half-way through.
From the ingrained incapacity of the two races to under
stand each other flows much of the bitterness which renders
fruitful co-operation between them, except on terms of rank
inequality, impracticable. And to that cause may be traced
the inability of the English-speaking foreigner to fathom
what is meant by national dignity in connection with the de
mand for a treaty before recognition, and the incapacity of
the Mexican to realise the trend of the cosmic currents of the
new era. And yet the matter is really simple.
The Mexican's distrust of foreigners, deep-rooted in recent
history, still receives pabulum from many of the foreigners
themselves who display a contemptuous disregard for the
forms of intercourse prevalent in the country. They come
unprovided with the small change of social life which enables
individuals to meet and converse on neutral ground and ex
change courtesies which although void of reality are helpful
as a bridge to friendship or to good fellowship. It may be
objected that the forms in use are exaggerated and meaning
less and that the serious man of business cannot afford to
devote part of his precious time to complying with them. But
experience has disposed of the objection without altering the
procedure of the strangers. It has shown that great issues
are sometimes dependent on small matters of form. A frail
thread for his hand, of no value as a support, is enough to
enable many a man to cross a narrow bridge over a precipice
who would not attempt the feat if this inadequate but impor
tant aid were lacking. The weakest of withes will bind great
bundles of wood.
The American residents in Mexico are admittedly the prin
cipal trespassers against the social enclosures of the Mexican

OUTLANDER AND MEXICAN 91
people. They seldom have an inkling of the mental mechanism
of the Spaniard or the Indian, nor do they care what impres
sion their own brusque behaviour produces. The capitalist,
in particular, relies entirely upon the irresistible power of gold ;
the aggrieved commoner upon the force of his arguments to
move his hearers and win their support. Upon the personal
factor they hardly ever lay stress. Nay, they frequently scoff
at it. Americans who are nothing if not realists trust entirely
to the legitimacy of their business, to its alleged beneficial
results for the Mexican people, and care nothing for the "silly
scraping and bowing and complimenting" which goes on
sempiternally among the natives who, like the Spaniards, are
sticklers for form.
It is pathetic to watch the coming together of the average
representatives of two races and to note how their best in
terests are often permanently damaged by the veriest trifles
which the one regards as essential and the other scouts as
ridiculous. The foreign pioneer of the highest type is a
diamond in the rough who for lack of polish is not recognised
for what he is — a fine, honest, clean man who works hard, lives
thriftily, wishes well to all men and asks for no privileges.
He appears in his shirt sleeves, possibly spits on the floor,
employs an obnoxious nickname to designate the Mexican,
claps him on the back after a few minutes' acquaintance and
is at no pains to learn his "lingo." In a word, he brings his
country and often his village with him, unwittingly treats the
natives as intruders and deems himself to be the mountain
to which Mohammed himself must pilgrimage.
The two types move on different planes. Race divergencies,
national traditions and diversity of aims have been suggested
as the explanation. And it is true that the Americanised
"Anglo-Saxon" and the Latinised Indian personify, not as is
commonly assumed, two epochs of one and the same civilisa
tion but two wholly distinct cultural ideals and tendencies —
artificially dwarfed in the one and highly developed in the
other but none the less specifically different. This assertion
may smack of political heresy but time will show how close it
is to the reality. For one thing, the man of English speech,

92 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
particularly on the Western shore of the Atlantic, is more
responsive to the pressure of material needs, more solicitous
about economics, more intent upon conquering the forces of
Nature than the highest type of Latinised American, who
takes after the Celt and the Slav. But the root of the matter
lies in the circumstance that the English speaking resident,
however low the rung of the social ladder on which he himself
may stand, looks down upon the native as upon an inferior
who is disqualified to ascend it. The consciousness of this
inequality is ever present to the man of English speech who
lacks the social charm, the exquisite politeness, which among
all Latinised Americans are indispensable passports to fruitful
co-operation. "How many bitternesses," wrote the famous
French statesman Turgot, "have their origin in a word, in
forgetfulness of some slight observances. . . . How many
persons of understanding have we taken for fools?"
A concrete instance which occurred during my stay in
Mexico City of the way in which the wealth-creating foreigner
wounds the sensitiveness of the Mexican without being con
scious of violating any social propriety, is perhaps worth
recording. In October, 1920, two Houston excursionists
were standing in the lobby of one of the principal banks
of the capital when turning to a Mexican gentleman they
inquired where they could quench their thirst. The per
son addressed is a well-known citizen who occupies an excep
tionally high position in the Republic. With the unfailing hos
pitality which characterises his countrymen he invited the
strangers to accompany him and he duly offered them the
beverages which they desired. Hardly had they emptied their
glasses when they turned on their heels exclaiming — "Well,
we must go now." The words "many thanks" were uttered
not by the guests but by the host who had entertained them.
The "typical Mexican" created by foreign caricaturists and
cinematographists — the boisterous braggadocio who cuts the
throats of the unarmed and takes to his heels when he scents
danger even from afar — is a factitious monster nowhere to
be encountered in the Republic. Human life is relatively
cheap in Mexico and the individual lays it down without many

OUTLANDER AND MEXICAN 93
regrets. His physical endurance too outbids that of any
European. And yet it is hard to convince the highly cultured
foreigner that the current notions on the subject are saturated
with fable and absurdity. In this connection and also inci
dentally as a sample of the bitter spirit engendered by news
paper lampoons, it may serve a useful purpose to reproduce
a few remarks on this topic lately published by one of the fore
most periodicals of Mexico.2 They were evoked by the
despatch of the American warships to Tampico and by the
conditions there established for the genesis of a grave inter
national incident such as interventionists were eagerly antici
pating and prematurely discounting.
"One day," writes this publicist, "a sensational episode sent
a thrill to the hearts of the population of the entire American
Continent. Mr. Wilson, then President of the United States,
had sent warships to Mexican waters for the protection of
American citizens. And a boat belonging to one of the cruisers
and manned by thirteen marines went up the river beyond the
town of Tampico and was there fallen upon by rebels. The
assailants not merely stripped the vessel of everything it con
tained but took even the boots of the sailors.
" 'The attacking party must have been strong numerically,'
I thought, the moment I learned of the occurrence, thus to have
despoiled of their belongings thirteen marines whom one must
picture to oneself as thirteen veritable athletes. And viewed
in this light the incident was invested with real importance,
one might even say with an alarming character, although of
course this would ultimately depend upon the mood of Mr.
Wilson. "But shortly afterwards the official report drawn up by the
Admiral in command of those vessels came in and one gathered
from that considerate document that the formidable body of
assailants consisted of three wretched lack-alls of whom only
two carried arms and one of these withdrew almost at once,
according to the Admiral's account.
"Thus it turned out that the redoubtable posse of marauders
was composed of two men, one of them provided with a wea-
3 Senor Querido Moheno in El Universal of Mexico.

94 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
pon, the other unarmed, so that if we can imagine one of the
thirteen burly marines taking charge of the defenceless bandit,
there remained but one armed highwayman confronting the
other twelve towers of strength.
"On the river Tamesi then, on board of that boat the amus
ing story was rehearsed of those forty Galicians who let them
selves be robbed on the highroad because they were travelling
'absolutely alone.' In like manner those twelve marines found
themselves absolutely 'alone' face to face with a terrible Mexi
can bandit and as a matter of course there was nothing else for
them to do but to allow themselves to be plundered without
resistance. "Or take the punitive expedition headed by General Pershing
which cost the United States Treasury theitrifle of one hundred
and fifty million dollars. It consisted of twelve thousand men
of four different kinds of arms, including aeroplanes, and was
rigged out for the purpose of capturing Villa 'living or dead.'
Well, when the General returned home (without Villa) the
moving-picture shows of the United State9 presented night
after night the portrait of Pershing with this pompous in
scription : 'The Pacifier of Mexico.'
"Now if in the name of common sense one were to explain
to these good people (of the United States) that incidents of
this nature can take place only on the screen; if by quoting
accounts of their own press one were to prove to them that
among our many national defects that of cowardice cannot be
assigned the smallest place. . . . ; if one were to make it clear
to them by abundant statistics that in our country human life
is squandered with the utmost offhandedness, by reason of the
few attractions it offers; if, after all this, one were to unfold
to them on the screen a moving picture of those twelve sturdy
Sinewy marines letting themselves be robbed by a sickly desti
tute tramp, and after that, if one were to bring home to them
the fact that in Mexico, in any and every social layer, twelve
men, whatsoever their condition might be, would stand and
defend themselves were it only by using their teeth, against a
solitary armed assailant. ... we should feel profoundly
struck to see their expressionless faces unmoved by the recital

OUTLANDER AND MEXICAN 95
while their blue child-like eyes were devoid of the faintest ray
of light to suggest that they discerned the point."3
That the English-speaking foreigner regards the Mexican
as an inferior type of human it would be idle to gainsay. His
every act, his every ejaculation, betrays the feeling which
occasional honeyed words can neither hide nor neutralise.
Those tributes of praise which he airily tosses to his Mexican
friends from time to time have no more practical significance
than the yearly washing of beggars' feet by the Catholic
monarchs of Italy and Spain. When the Mexican talks of
national dignity the average Yankee sets him down as a
mendacious "grafter" for whom patriotism is, what Dr. John
son described it as being, the last refuge of blackguards. The
ordinary American, in turn, is to the educated Mexican a
righteous Puritan in seeming and a hard-fisted egotist in act
ing, whose philanthropy is not to be distinguished from the
most sordid self-interest. But even conventional truth
habitually lies somewhere between two extremes where most
people are averse to seeking it. Many foreigners in Mexico
flatter themselves that they know the natives thoroughly be
cause they had the luck to be present at a revolt, an onslaught
of brigands or a murder which resembles the familiar domestic
lynching. But the roots of racial character lie elsewhere. In
the course of my travels I have observed that when enumerat
ing the selfish or domineering nations each nation is apt to
make the excusable mistake of reckoning one too few. And
to some extent it is the same when the classification turns upon
inferior peoples and races. That, however, is a failing com
mon to individuals and nations alike.
The typical outlander immigrates to Mexico in order to
make money and return home as soon as possible to a com
fortable life in his native land. He seldom knows anything
about the Spanish language and hardly ever masters its gram
mar. The German is an exception. Before he starts for the
Republic he endeavours to learn Spanish and what is more he
acquaints himself with the outlines of Mexican history and
with the customs of the people to which he unhesitatingly con-
aEl Universal, 8th July, 1921.

96 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
forms. And his success in establishing good neighbourly rela
tions with the natives of his adopted country is in proportion
to these exertions.
How far apart from each other the native and the English-
speaking foreigner really are may be gauged from a few
words which once passed between two of their representatives.
The Mexican being asked why his countrymen are looked down
upon by the outlanders as the inferiors of these, replied —
"Because of our childish illusions." "Illusions?" "Yes. We
suffer from many. For example we nearly all flatter our
selves that we are at home in Mexico and owe no apologies to
any one for having been born there. Yet the attitude of for
eign residents among us proves that that is a silly mistake.
Another of our self-deceptions derives from our habit of in
ferring the motives of our foreign guests from their behaviour
which bespeaks selfish interests whereas we fail to pay due
heed to their professions which go to show that the main
spring of their actions is pure philanthropy. But judicious
propaganda is correcting these errors."
In daily converse the English-speaking resident shows that
he is separated from the Mexican by an abyss and he seldom
seeks to bridge it over. The native population of Mexico,
whatever one may think of its mental and moral equipment —
and this is lamentably defective — undoubtedly possesses latent
capacities which it would pay the country to cultivate and
develop. After centuries of oppression, misery and forced
ignorance to-day it is naturally at its worst. The mental and
moral energies of the people, like the natural resources of the
country, have been systematically wasted for ages. And a
protracted civil war has put the finishing stroke to the work
of demoralisation. And yet despite these tremendous handi
caps the bulk of the Mexican people is socially lovable, intel
ligent, mobile, truthful, honest and hospitable. The foreigners
who fled the country during the revolutionary outburst and
left their property to the care of the common Mexican peasant
pay the highest tributes to his loyalty, courage and honesty.
Many interesting stories are told of his devotion. The fol
lowing incident is of more recent date: President Obregon

OUTLANDER AND MEXICAN 97
issued a decree prohibiting the circulation of foreign moneys
in the Republic, whereupon vast cases filled with American
coins and paper were transported to the United States. And
the representatives of the Company charged with the opera
tion are reported to have said that so long as they were on
Mexican soil they had no misgivings about the safety of their
precious cargo, but that once they had crossed the border and
entered the United States they were in a continuous tremor
lest it be wrested from them.
Systematic efforts are being made by President Obregon
and Senor Vasconcellos, the Rector of the University, to pro
ceed to the education of the masses. And it would be an un
pardonable crime for any foreign State to baulk these begin
nings and turn the plastic elements of the Republic into human
dynamite which is so apt to explode and would not only
destroy their own political fabric but cause considerable dam
age to that of their neighbour. The endeavours of irresponsi
ble agents to foster revolts and rebellions with a view to clinch
the argument for the "cleaning up" process are therefore
among the deadliest crimes against humanity.
It is a phenomenon well worth noting that despite the
grinding conditions in which the people of Mexico have
hitherto lived and worked, their inborn vitality is still excep
tionally vigorous. The innate racial force which, together
with other characteristic traits, differentiates most of them
from the Indians of the United States, exhibits itself in the
ease with which they assimilate foreign elements of Latin,
Slav and Teuton extraction. Intermarriages between Span
iards, Portuguese, French, Italians, Slavs and Mexicans are
fairly frequent and the blend is said to be excellent from all
points of view. But with the peoples of English speech such
unions are rare.
Without being gifted with special powers of observation,
one may discern manifestations of a potent force of attraction
— the attraction of material comfort — wielded by the Amer
ican people over the Mexicans, especially in the border States.
And considering the poverty, ignorance and general helpless
ness of the latter as compared with the training, the strivings

98 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
and the high standard of living prevalent among the former,
the process, which is gradually gaining in intensity, is what
one would naturally expect. On the part of the Mexican it
may be described as a legitimate desire to better his social
standing at a cost which he is incapable of appreciating, and
on the American side as the overwhelming influence of material
well-being and an abiding sense of general superiority radiat
ing to the uttermost limits of political consciousness.
In various parts of the Mexican Republic then, especially
in the border States and Yucatan, a process is going forward
to which one is tempted to give the name of denationalisation.
For it is gradually wearing away by erosion not only the
defects, but certain of the national characteristics almost be
fore they have become definitely fixed. The economic ascend
ancy and cultural sway of the United States is a resultant
of the enterprise, industry and pioneer spirit of the Anglo-
Saxon on the one hand and of the quietistic dreaminess, fatal
istic bent and centrifugal tendencies of the Latinised Indian
on the other. And it bids fair under present conditions to
penetrate in the fulness of time from Mexicali in the North
west to San Cristobal in the Southeast before political unifi
cation can be completed. The operation of this tendency is
noticeable to a greater or lesser degree in many States of
the Mexican Union and in well-nigh every walk of life. The
newspapers are passably faithful copies of the great dailies
of New York in which one finds the same sensational head
lines, articles begun on the first page and continued on the
seventh or eleventh, the voluminous Sunday editions with
comic and illustrated supplements — often literal translations
from New York newspapers — and most of the other attributes
of the newest phase of journalism. Their advertisements are
Spanish reproductions of those flashy hypnotising announce
ments with which Chicago, New York and San Francisco are
familiar. The phraseology is identical and superlatively un-
Mexican. The universities too have been largely modelled on
those of the United States.4 But the children of wealthy
?Under the present Rector, Don Jose Vasconcellos, a healthy reaction
has begun.

OUTLANDER AND MEXICAN 99
Mexicans are being educated in North American schools and
universities. Not only in frontier towns, but along the coast
line, east and west, United States money has practically ousted
the Mexican currency out of circulation, and in Lower Cali
fornia even the telegraph and post offices insist on payment
being made in dollars.5 The State of Sonora in the North
and Northwest and that of Yucatan in the Southeast are yield
ing more readily than the others to these steady influences
from the United States. Consequently the English language
is making headway and Mexican servants capable of convers
ing in that tongue are to be had in the principal cities of the
Republic. The vulgar fox-trot, cake-walk, one-step and tango
have entirely supplanted the graceful Spanish jotas, sevillanas
and other higher forms of terpsichorean diversion. Mexican
and Spanish songs are being forgotten. The picturesque re
gional costumes are being discarded in favour of the graceless
garb which denotes cultural progress. The tailors of New
York and Boston create the fashion in men's costumes and
hats. American dishes, canned peaches and pineapples, meats
and fish find lucrative markets throughout the Republic. In
a country which abounds in luscious fruits all the year round,
the hotels serve only Calif ornian or Florida peaches, pears,
cherries, etc., imported in glasses or tins. North American
mannerisms in speech are being translated into Spanish and
are coming into vogue among the pushing semi-intellectuals.
In a word, Yankee is trump.
The art of politics, as cultivated not in its heights, but in
certain of its unsunned depths, was also imported, cut and
dried, from the United States in the days when political moral
ity in the great Republic was at a somewhat lower level than
that to which it has since attained. And it still holds the field.
The United States system of federation, suited at best to
Anglo-Saxons and which men like George Washington and
Alexander Hamilton deemed too democratic even for them,
is the charter which was adopted by the Mexican liberators
for their unsophisticated fellow countrymen. Porfirio Diaz
5 President Obregon has issued decrees dealing with this incongruity. <

100 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
rated it at its true value in private speech and public deed, as
a serviceable instrument for politicians and lawyers to wrangle
about, but hardly more. The part constantly played by many
of the sovereign States of the Mexican Union has been dis
rupted. In a word, the inhabitants of the Southern Republic
were thrown into a Medea's cauldron before being cast in a
national mould. And if the influences to which they are sub
jected to-day — before they have become fully conscious as a
nation — keep on operating at their present rate without any
systematic national breakwater to withstand them, there can
be no doubt that the Mexican people will emerge partially
recreated in the image and likeness of their Americanised
Anglo-Saxon model — a politico-cultural hybrid. It is merely
a question of time, and that of a relatively brief span.

CHAPTER X
Oil and Water
The capitalists and explorers who responded to Diaz' invi
tation were mostly men of the races whose enterprise, thor
oughness and staying powers have carried the world to its
present cultural level. But soon after the Dictator's disap
pearance from the scene "there arose up a new king over
Mexico which knew not Joseph," whereupon the attitude of
the authorities towards foreign companies underwent a marked
and infelicitous change. They were occasionally mulcted and
harried, a few of their contracts were questioned, others for
mally annulled, some of their servants were killed by bandits
and others maltreated or threatened. For the misdeeds of
criminals during a revolutionary welter it is not easy to fix
moral responsibility upon any administration. Moreover
Mexico, in spite of the loud outcry against her "savagery"
which has been raised abroad, can point to a much less bloody
record than either France or Russia. Foreigners in particu
lar suffered less than elsewhere and much less than was appre
hended at the outset. But by gathering together in one com
pact record all the crimes perpetrated in the name of liberty
or order during ten years of civil strife, by branding every
Mexican with the mark of the bandit, the cutthroat or the
ravisher, by creating odious types, attaching to them the badge
of infamy and holding them up to universal opprobrium in
moving pictures, it became possible to discredit a whole people
in the eyes of the world. And that, Mexicans complain, is
what has been, and still is being, done by the plutocratic little
oil State which operates within the great Democratic State to
the north of the Rio Grande. But as Edmund Burke put it,
one cannot frame an indictment against a whole nation.
Notwithstanding the fact that the revolutionary movement
at its height was beyond the control of disciplined reason and
101

102 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
political expediency, the foreign element as a whole occupied
a more or less privileged position even then. And yet the
attitude which it assumed, like that of the clergy, was dis
tinctly antagonistic to every popular movement. Hostility to
Madero, to the forces that attacked Victoriano Huerta, to
Alvaro Obregon and to all democratic movements, whatever
their origin or their object, invariably sought and found a
rallying point in certain wealthy foreign residents. They
upheld Diaz, they gave at least their "moral" support to
immorality incarnate in Victoriano Huerta, they courted, en
couraged and struck up agreements with "coming politicians"
of whom they have always a few in waiting, and they main
tained friendly intercourse with rebels throughout the coun
try. It may seem as incredible as it was reprehensible, but it
is said to be a demonstrable fact, which will subsequently ap
pear evident to all, that this intercourse took on the character
of — shall we call it moral guardianship ? — and exposed the fair
name of the people of the United States to aspersions merited
only by certain of its servants. Even foreign diplomacy has
been known to intervene unofficially and importunely on be
half of the discredited candidate of an anti-popular party and
to have dangled before the eager eyes of the people's repre
sentatives the lure of quick recognition by a certain foreign
power !
Now this aspect of current Mexican history is still a sealed
book to those experts who claim to know the rights and wrongs
of the subject and are looked up to for information and guid
ance by the statesmen of their respective countries. And yet
it is a theme full of surprises. If a Mexican, spurred by mo
tives analogous to those which stimulated Mr. Fall, endowed
with that politician's perseverance and supplied with the requi
site materials, were to set himself to compile a register of those
breaches of hospitality — not to call them by a harsher name —
he would shed a wholly new light upon Mexico's international
relations and possibly contribute to modify the policy of the
watching and waiting Powers who are fitfully groping their
way in darkness.
In view of those and other provocations, it is well worth

OIL AND WATER 103
noting that during the period termed "confiscatory" by foreign
interventionists the oil companies were doing a flourishing
business. President Obreg6n himself has supplied the follow
ing figures, which make it clear that whoever else was feeling
the heavy hand of misfortune, the foreign oil companies were
thriving: "In the year 1917 the companies exported 42,545,853
barrels of oil; in 1918, 51,768,110; 1919, 77,703,289; 1920,
151,058,257; 1921, January to May inclusive, 76,493,564;
probable production for 1921, 190,000,000 barrels.
"Does this steady increase indicate that the Mexican Gov
ernment has been placing any obstacles in the way of develop
ment or that during the Great War it sought to hamper the
United States by crippling oil export?"1
But the errors, prejudices and bad faith of one party to
the present dispute should not be allowed to blind" one to the
blunders and shortcomings of the other. Nor would any sur
vey of the origins of the present impasse, however summary,
be complete without some account of the grievances of foreign
investors. If moral responsibility for the acts of bandits and
other criminals cannot be laid on the shoulders of either of the
belligerents in a civil war, the functioning of judicial institu
tions in peace time undoubtedly concerns the constituted Gov
ernment and forms an essential part of its responsibilities.
And on this score one must admit that the complaints uttered
against the Mexican tribunals are too often well founded.
Neither the legal procedure nor the subsequent sanction attains
or comes near to the standard accepted in English-speaking
countries. Hence the rooted aversion displayed by so many,
Mexicans and foreigners, to carry their claims into one of the
law courts. There are instances not a few in which avoidable
procrastination has defeated the ends of justice, and others in
which a manifest — or what appeared to be a manifest — viola
tion of rights was countenanced or winked at by the authorised
administrators of the law. President Obregon has since de
voted much time and study to this fundamental question, and
among the first fruits of his investigation was a bill amend-
1 To the New York World, June 27th, 1921.

104 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
ing and simplifying legal procedure. But as yet much remains
to be done.
It may not be amiss to offer here a concrete case of real
hardship which the present writer has taken the trouble to
investigate on the spot. The details he took from the official
records. A few years ago the Yaqui Valley 2 consisted of arid land
of which only 3,750 acres had been reclaimed. The rest was
not cultivated for lack of water. An Anglo-American Com
pany which has since become wholly American s entered into
a contractual arrangement with the Mexican Government and
without any subsidy or even land grant bound itself to con
struct at a cost of some twelve million dollars (U. S. cur
rency) a system whereby permanent irrigation would be sup
plied not only to its own holdings but also to the entire area
of the Yaqui Valley susceptible of irrigation — approximately
750,000 acres. The Company estimated that with a fair
supply of water the district might be made to produce an
nually some twenty million dollars' worth of crops and live
stock. On the strength of this calculation those men of English
speech went to work, staked their capital, devoted their time
and applied their experience and skill to the realisation of this
dream of betterment. The incentive was the innate pioneer
impulse of the Aryan race coupled with the prospect of mak
ing their venture a financial and technical success. One of
the first needs of the district "was railway communication —
and one of the first achievements of the Company was a trans
action with the South Pacific Railway Co. which had for its
effect the construction of a line from the port of Guaymas
in an easterly direction through the Yaqui Valley, a distance
of 154 miles, which in time will form an iron way of 800
miles down the West Coast, thus closing the present gap in
railway communication along the Pacific seaboard from Brit
ish Columbia to Central America.4
2 In the State of Sonora.
3 La Compatiia Constructora Richardson.
4 To Guadalajara. The line covers already nearly 700 miles.

OIL AND WATER 105
The Company also made and maintained 400 miles of roads
with over 100 bridges and thus contributed materially to the
breaking down of some of the natural partitions which tend
to keep Mexican from Mexican and isolate the Republic from
the outside world.
The material achievements just enumerated nowise ex
hausted the task on which these forerunners of the higher
civilisation had embarked. Another was, as has been said,
irrigation. Lack of water in season is one of the scourges of
Mexico. If the country could reckon upon an adequate
amount of rainfall at the right periods, it would be a veritable
paradise, a granary of the human race. But dry farming un
der the actual climatic conditions of the Valley is in some
cases a lottery which ruins him who buys a ticket and in other
cases a sheer impossibility.
Over and above those contractual obligations the Company
discharged functions of a most helpful kind which ought
properly to have been fulfilled by a State institution. It sur
veyed the land most carefully, metre by metre, prepared tables
classifying each kind of soil such as sandy loam, red loam,
red clay, salt loam, etc., determined the exact area of each,
listed the crops that will best grow on them in the order of
their suitableness and calculated by actual experiment the num
ber of irrigations requisite and the total volume of water that
each crop would need on each variety of soil. Over and
above all this, its officials gathered and classified a body of
precious meteorological data for each day of the year, giving
the state of the atmosphere, the temperature, the relative hu
midity, the velocity and direction of the wind, etc. In pos
session of these observations for a period of ten years, one
can now foretell with such a degree of accuracy when a frost
may occur that all danger of damage to the crops from this
source has been practically eliminated.
In the eastern section of the Valley cultivation had already
increased from 3,750 to 27,000 acres, and was proceeding
apace when the depredations of the Yaqui Indians forced
the Company to suspend work. During the ten years of Revo
lution it went on supplying water to all applicants and for a

106 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
considerable time accepted payment therefor in worthless pa
per currency. It gave its workmen a wage varying from 50
to 75 cents (U. S. currency) a day. Those in truth were
lean years.
For thirteen years it has never paid a dividend.
Those services were never properly appreciated by the local
authorities. Not only was the Company denied protection
against the Yaquis and bandits, but the duly established State
government is affirmed to have endeavoured systematically by
taxation to despoil them of the land which they owned. The
rate of taxation had been fixed by contract for ten years, end
ing in September, 1919, but in 1916 this basis was rejected
by the authorities as inadequate. As soon as a stretch of land
became cultivable by irrigation, the Company sold it, as it
was bound by contract to do. The result was that it never
had more than a small percentage of soil capable of being
tilled, the rest being grazing land. Yet the authorities in
sisted on taxing all its possessions as though they were all
under cultivation, whereas only two per cent came under this
head. In the year 1916, it is further alleged, the Governor of
Sonora raised the taxes thirty times more than the proper
rate. The motive which he adduced was the advisability of
splitting up large estates. The Company refused to pay this
impost, whereupon the State Government proceeded to sell
the property. Here, however, Mr. Lansing interposed a pro
test in the name of the United States Government, adding that
the Company's position was "unassailable in law and in mor
als." None the less the contract was cancelled by a Mexican
military decree, but the Company was not apprised of this
arbitrary act which came to its knowledge quite casually when
its representative was handing in the amount of the legal taxes
due. As the Revolution rendered the carrying out of the contract
impossible, the Company petitioned that the term fixed be
extended in consequence. For Yaquis were overrunning the
district, bandits had killed the live stock, railway communica
tions had ceased. But the Carranza Government turned a

OIL AND WATER 107
deaf ear to the request.5 An appeal was thereupon made to
the Federal District Court, but this tribunal declared itself in
competent, whereupon the Company inquired what tribunal
was competent. But the question was never answered.
That is one instance of the reception accorded to foreign
pioneers whose co-operation is one of Mexico's greatest assets.
It afforded General Obregon, who sees things in correct per
spective, an opportunity to show the stuff he is made of. He
had no sooner acquainted himself with the preposterous in
crease of taxation and the consequences drawn from the Com
pany's refusal to pay than he gave orders that the Company
be dealt with as justice required. And it received satisfaction
forthwith. The oil companies profess to have a similar dirge to sing
and they have chanted it in many keys. But between the two
cases there is no parity. The discovery and exploitation of
mineral oil in Mexico is from one angle of vision a romance
fraught with interest as intense as that which is still aroused
by the adventures and misdeeds of Cortes and Pizarro. The
history of the origins of that branch of industry if written
without bias or reticence by the right kind of chronicler — a
man with a spark of genial fire — would yield a human docu
ment worthy to outlive most of the "immortal" works of the
past hundred years. Like many other discoveries, that of oil
in Mexico has brought worry and anxiety to the country that
produced it. It may be compared to the gold of the Rhine, a
blessing and a curse in one. Many a Mexican fervently
wishes oil had never been deposited in his ill-fated fatherland
or else that his country were situated on some other Conti
nent ; and many a Yankee regrets that the source of this pre
cious liquid is not placed in some region where North Ameri
cans are better appreciated or more free to change the laws and
constitution congruously with their interests.
One may readily trace the genesis of the waves of critical
5 It is fair to note that the matter — like the anti-Japanese legislation in
California — lay between the Company and the Sovereign State of Sonora
and that the Federal courts in Mexico as in the United States are not
competent to try such cases. To my thinking this is one of many argu
ments against the Federal State system in the Mexican Republic.

108 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
feeling in Mexico which for long have been angrily beating
against the men who first unlocked the mineral treasure house,
gave the precious oil to the world and claim to be regarded
as benefactors of the race. Like Rhine-gold, oil is power —
economical, political, social power — and the concentration of
such power in the hands of a few citizens of a foreign Re
public in whose national life the political spirit is as domi
nant as is greed of gold, fills with apprehension a community
of people like the Mexicans who in politics are children almost
devoid of social coherency and sadly deficient in the self-
protecting faculty inherent in most political communities.
This feeling is enhanced by the enormous importance attached
by the American people and Government not only to the pro
duction of oil but to the establishment of such a system of
governance in the country where it is found as will suit the
varied requirements of those who exploit it. For this is the
point on which the dispute between the two parties really
hinges. Mr. E. L. Doheny, an accepted authority in these matters,
publicly announced some time ago that the oil supply from
Mexico "has come to be regarded as a part of the available
petroleum supply essential to meet the demands of our mar
kets. . . . Consideration of this phase of the petroleum situa
tion immediately raises the conjecture as to the probability of
this reliance being supported by a definitely declared policy
on the part of our Government to encourage and protect its
citizens in the lawful acquisition and development in foreign
countries of those essential raw products which include petro
leum and many others well known to our men of industry." a
This statement is lucid, comprehensive and significant.
"Without the continued importation to the United States of
the production of the wells of American companies in Mexico,"
he goes on to say, "the Shipping Board might just as well plan
to use coal on practically all of its fleet after April ist next;
many industries, including railroads of the South and facto
ries of the East, may just as well look forward to reconverting
6 Interview of .EL. Doheny, Esq.. with press representative, Los
Angeles, California, December 9th, 1910, p. 6. The italics are mine.

OIL AND WATER 109
their plants from the use of oil to the use of coal, and the cities
of the East, including New York City, that are planning to
use fuel oil in lieu of coal for heating purposes may just as
well abandon the idea, because the supply of fuel oil for all
these needs is not and will not be available from the produc
tion of United States oil fields. They are dependent upon un
interrupted supply from Mexico for the present and immediate
future." T
"The strained relations between the United States and Mex
ico can, I think, very well be classified as being of a three
fold nature, all included under the expression, 'International
Obligations.' " 8
Mr. Doheny then goes on to say that the three points of
difference between the two Governments are the failure of the
Mexican Government (i.e., the Carranza administration) to
protect Americans engaged in lawful and peaceful pursuits in
the Republic, the failure of the Government to prevent the
spread of bolshevism ( !) from Mexico to the United States,
and its repeated attempts to confiscate valuable properties right
fully acquired by Americans under Mexican law.
Since those significant utterances were penned Carranza
and his regime have vanished from the scene and the new head
of the Government is redressing grievances, correcting mis
takes, returning property wrongfully sequestered and generally
administering justice to all with a firm hand. And he is full
of hope that all complainants and creditors will be content.
This hope, however, is not shared by all his countrymen.
What sceptical Mexicans are apprehensive of is lest the foreign
elements should be carried by a strong impetus of right not
merely to the point of its enforcement but by the vis inertiae
far beyond that. Vaulting into the saddle they may alight
on the other side and trespass on Mexico's reserved ground.
. . . Asserting their rights they may demand privileges. In
sisting on protection they may prescribe the kind of laws by
which it should be secured and establish a precedent destruc
tive of Mexican sovereignty. And their reading of recent
T Ibidem, p. 7.
8 Ibidem, p. 9.

110 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
American history appears to them to bear out this apprehen
sion. Well grounded or imaginary, this misgiving is a fact and
therefore a force to be reckoned with, just as is the belief
of many Americans that the Mexicans are incapable of any
kind of self-government and therefore ripe for the status of
wardship. The main grievance of English-speaking oil magnates in
Mexico turns upon Article 27 of the last Constitution.9 In
principle this enactment disqualifies foreigners collectively and
individually from acquiring or holding mines, oil wells or land
in the Republic unless they renounce in advance their right
to appeal to their respective Governments against laws which
they may deem unjust or vexatious. It also declares that all
minerals — solids, liquid or gaseous — are vested in the nation
and consequently that the rights of ownership hitherto con
ferred by purchase according to law will from the date of the
promulgation of the Constitution cease to be attainable by na
tives or foreigners.
There is, however, another article in the same Constitution
which provides that retroactive force shall not be given to
these new canons. But it_was ignored in some cases by Presi
dent Carranza, as weTe the official representations of the State
¦ Department in Washington, and the principle of nationalisa
tion was applied in certain decrees which, according to some
jurisconsults, he had no power to issue.
The effect of that innovation upon the outlanders who had
discovered and exploited petroleum, enriching themselves and
to a limited extent benefiting the country in the process, can
well be imagined. They held that it was calculated to despoil
them of what was theirs by law and equity. It struck at the
roots of private property. It violated solemn promises made
by spokesmen of the nation. The decrees that embody it were
held by many to be illegal. The Constitution which provoked
those decrees was stigmatised by certain jurisconsults as a
violation of the preceding Constitution and therefore devoid
of legal force. The protests from Washington, London and
9 Framed at Queretaro in 191 7.

OIL AND WATER 111
Paris nullified in advance the application of those decrees to
American, British and French citizens. But with Carranza
these considerations went for nought. He held that oil hav
ing acquired a wholly new value the Government in the inter
ests of the nation could readjust the terms of the original grant.
Some oil-bearing lands duly purchased he wrested from their'
rightful owners. Appeals for protection filed by the injured
parties in the Supreme Court were left unanswered and all
that was vouchsafed these were arguments purporting to show
that their interests were not really impaired.

CHAPTER XI
Taxation or Confiscation?
Two interesting illustrations of Mexico's entanglements are
worth recording. They show how defenceless she is before her
great northern neighbour and how incumbent it is on this
neighbour to use its strength sparingly and in accordance with
the promptings of reason and humanity. To-day General
Obregon as President of the Republic has but one sheet anchor
of salvation — the consciousness that his policy is based on
justice and the hope that interest no less than principle may
impel the present businesslike Administration of the United
States to give him the requisite time and opportunity to un
fold it.
Hampered by a relatively light foreign debt for the settle
ment of which creditors and politicians are daily clamouring,
the Obregon Cabinet is at its wits' end to find the wherewithal
to pay the interest. And unless it can hit upon some happy
device, the country will soon fall under an international finan
cial as well as an American moral tutelage. Usually necessi
tous governments have the choice between taxation and a loan.
But Mexico is an exception. Not yet recognised by the only
country able to lend her money, her rulers are obliged to ob
tain a contribution to the service of the foreign debt by taxing
what will bear taxation. And that is oil. There is no other
way. Accordingly General Obregon has recently increased the
tax on crude oil produced in the country by an average, it is
computed, of twenty-five per cent and decreed that the pro
ceeds shall not be swept into the bottomless pit of wasteful
expenditure but shall be applied exclusively in making pay
ments on the foreign debt. This measure is gall and worm
wood to those companies which possessing no refineries in
Mexico will have to pay the augmented impost. Their repre
sentatives in Washington immediately called the attention of
112

TAXATION OR CONFISCATION? 113
the State Department to the decree which they regard as il
legal in form and "virtual confiscation" in effect, and there
fore a twofold crime in international law. They moved that
the State Department should include their complaint in its
list of claims against the Mexican Government which would
then be compelled to adjust its Constitution, its legislation and
its taxation to the best interests of the powerful oil interests.
Thus the camel's hump would follow his nose into the Mexi
can tent.
President Obregon contemplates the issue from the same
angle of vision as did Russia's eminent financier, the late Count
Witte, whose opinion may be summarised as follows. Taxa
tion is an essentially democratic measure. It furthers the in
terest of labour which has a right to demand that as large a
share as is safely possible of the indispensable public expen
diture shall be defrayed by taxes on capital. To-day this is
a recognised maxim everywhere and a peremptory necessity
in the Mexican State which sorely needs money wherewith to
heal the wounds inflicted by ten years of anarchy and to un
dertake reforms without which the State cannot long subsist.
And at present money can be had only within the boundaries
of the Republic. None of the ordinary devices are of avail.
Economy presupposes a fairly well filled Exchequer — a boon
which Mexico has not enjoyed since the days of Limantour.
Moreover thrift, however stringently practised, would contrib
ute nothing towards the service of the foreign debt, seeing
that the pinch of penury is felt in all departments. And at
the moment when more money is required than ever before
all hopes of a foreign loan are coincidentally barred by what
may be termed the Triple Alliance of American, British and
French bankers, which has imposed on Mexico a politico-finan
cial boycott.
Every effort made therefore in these conditions to hinder
the imposition of adequate taxes on oil is at the same time
a clever manoeuvre to tighten the noose round the neck of the
Mexican State. And this is the construction put upon it by
Mexican statesmen.
The only way to ease even partially a situation like this,

114 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
which is as painful as it is dangerous, is taxation, and to this ex
pedient every country in the world is having abundant recourse
today. Indeed in some progressive States taxation has been
raised to a level not far removed from confiscation. In others,
as in Germany and Sweden, the Governments have compelled
the great industries to admit them as partners with a right
to a share in the profits. Against these innovations private
corporations and individuals have loudly murmured but in no
case have their respective Governments ventured to protest on
their behalf. For they are all in the same boat. Necessity
knows no law but that of justice and it is recognised as a prin
ciple that if all the industries of a class are equally liable to a
tax, the demands of justice are satisfied. If it be objected
that in the case under consideration the industries in question
are all owned by English-speaking foreigners who regard it as
an unfriendly act, Mexicans might fairly retort that the pos
session of one lucrative monopoly does not entitle the holder
to claim another. Besides, natives and foreigners are alike
subjected to the new tax.
There are, however, other ways of looking at the matter.
Every country is entitled and every government morally
obliged in the interests of its citizens Jo adopt protective meas
ures in the form of export dues on those natural resources
which, once exhausted, can never be replenished. And no
foreign State, however painfully its nationals may be hit
thereby, can fairly oppose the levy of such a tribute. Unhap
pily for themselves many countries have failed to exercise
that right and their respective governments have neglected to
perform the corresponding duty. The consequences which en
sued from this lack of provision are writ large to-day in the
decay of industry and commerce, the plague of chronic un
employment, the unrest — in some lands the revolt — of labour
and general discontent. The twenty-eight millions of workers
in England who during part of the year 1921 were dependent
for their living on doles meted out by the State were currently
supposed to be strike-victims. But one would not be far
wrong if one sought for the origin of their pauperism in the
improvidence of their rulers who for generations allowed coal,

TAXATION OR CONFISCATION? 115
iron ore and other national resources to be sold for a song and
made no provision for the lean years which they ought to have
known were coming.
To-day statesmen vainly deplore the shortsightedness of
their predecessors who permitted the most precious produce
with which Nature had endowed their country to be brought
to market and disposed of, so to say, for a mess of pottage, to
the foreigner who built fleets, railways and established lucra
tive industries with the proceeds of the transaction. If an im
porting country is earning, say, a thousand per cent profit on
raw materials, is it meet that the country which owns them
should be forced to do with ten or twenty per cent ? In favour
of such a contention there is nothing to be urged.
Examples are many and instructive. Coal is the tap-root of
Great Britain's economic and political standing among the na
tions of the world. Had it been suddenly deprived of that re
source, the Empire would have fallen to pieces and the British
Isles would have shrunk to the dimensions and the status of
Spain. And yet coal has for a century been squandered as
though the quantities available were inexhaustible. In the
year 1816 only 238,000 tons of that mineral, including culm
and bunker coal, were sent out of the country,1 but in 1840
the quantity was already 1,606,000 tons; in 1854 it reached
4,309,000; and in 1862 it was officially given as 8,302,000. A
quarter of a century later the exports totalled 24,461,000 tons;
eight years later it was 57,850,000 tons, and in the year 19 13
it had risen to 97,720,000 tons, to the joy of the mine-owners.
The price it fetched was but a fraction of what must be paid
for it to-day. In order to keep up the exportation, the cost
of production was forced down so low that the miners had to
dispense with a decent living wage as well as the sailors who
manned the steamers to Singapore, the Piraeus and other
foreign ports. Even the mine-owners contented themselves
with less than reasonable profits and the country in general
with fewer benefits. The workers were ill-paid, badly-housed
and chronically embittered against the upper class.
1 These figures are taken from Commerce and Industry, Statistical
Tables.

116 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
But the Scandinavian countries, Greece, Russia and other
States were enabled to build merchant fleets and establish a
powerful carrying trade at England's expense. Moreover,
she picked the very best product of her coal measures for the
home and foreign markets, leaving the inferior coal to be mined
later on at an enormous cost. To-day the best quality coal
is said to be well nigh exhausted.
A similar policy of wastefulness were pursued in the case
of iron ore. From the year 1819, when Great Britain exported
73,000 tons of iron and steel to certain foreign countries, the
quantities sold to foreign consumers went on increasing, at
first very gradually and then with amazing rapidity. Thus
in the year 1845 the total sent out of the United Kingdom
was 352,000 tons; in the year 1853 it reached 1,261,000 tons;
in 1872 it had grown to 3,383,000 tons, and in 1907 the official
figures were 5,152,000 tons.
The United States dealt and is still dealing in the same
thriftless way with its material resources. A noteworthy per
centage of its forests has already been cut down. Estimates
made by the American Paper and Pulp Association, which ad
mittedly do not claim to be more than approximate, place ex
isting forests in the United States at between 500,000,000 and
550,000,000 acres. This country originally had a forest area
of about 850,000,000 acres. Of the present area, 200,000,000
acres are believed to be merchantable timber, 250,000,000
acres partially burned and cut over land on which there is
sufficient natural production to insure a fair growth. At the
present rate of consumption it is estimated, the stand of
matured timber in the United States will be exhausted within
fifty years unless a drastic re-afforestation policy is adopted
and enforced.
It was those forests and the trades and industries to which
they gave rise that enabled railways, steamships and flourish
ing marts to be constructed. The city of Seattle, for instance,
is a product of splendid forests which are now fast vanishing
and of mines which are approaching the point of exhaustion,
and when these will have ceased to repay the cost of exploita
tion and nothing remains but agricultural produce, the effects

TAXATION OR CONFISCATION? 117
on the city will be painful and far-reaching. The timber sold
to the foreigner did not, it is alleged, fetch more than a mere
fraction of its intrinsic value, the remaining three-quarters
going to enrich countries overseas.
Similar remarks are applicable to the low prices which
ruled for iron, copper and oil. And according to the most
competent geologists, half of the oil in the United States is
already exhausted. Germany bought large quantities of
American oil at prices which are now considered to have been
inadequate. Her industrial corporations refined it at large
profits and manufactured various other articles out of the by
products. For a considerable period the price was one dollar
for a barrel, while the Germans sold the gasoline, vaseline,
saccharine, paraffine, perfumes and about two hundred other
by-products at prices which brought the profits up to twenty
dollars a barrel.
A cognate if less apt illustration is afforded by the United
States which with a practical monopoly of cotton disposed of
the crops during several decades at the rate of from five to
eight cents a pound, a price rendered possible only because of
cheap labour in the South. This money did not allow the
labourers a sufficient living wage, the owners a fair return,
nor the railway companies adequate pay for carrying it to
market. What could and should have been done was to levy
an export duty ofTthe produce, raise the wages of the agricul
tural labourer and oblige the foreigner to whom an exorbitant
share of the value was accruing to contribute to the well-being
of the country and the people who were creating it.
In those improvident ways the English-speaking races went
on compelling or allowing their own people to dissipate its
wealth to enrich strangers overseas.
Now is it unreasonable in itself or tantamount to an un
friendly act towards foreigners for the President of Mexico,
who has the interests of his country at heart, to profit by the
mistakes of the British and the Yankees ? He does not think
so, nor does he believe that the great English-speaking nations
entertain any such opinion. Mexico's oil, mines and forests
constitute her greatest economic assets and her heaviest politi-

118 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
cal curse, and to allow these resources to be carried out of the
country in the improvident way in which England and the
United States permitted their principal resources to be ex
ported would be a crime. And General Obregon refuses to
commit it.
The sharp polemic now going on between the press of Mex
ico and that of the United States on this question of taxation
is confused by the importation into it of political issues. The
essence of the matter would seem to be whether or not the
increased tax is confiscatory. If the reply is in the negative,
there is no objection derived from international law which
will hold against it. And that is the stand taken by the Mexi
can Government. Of course if it could be shown conclusively
not merely that production will sensibly fall off in consequence
but that the oil industry as a whole will become unprofitable,
there should and would be no hesitation on the part of the
Mexican Administration to temper the wind to the shorn
sheep. For no Government, and least of all one that needed
money as badly as does that of Mexico, would be fatuous
enough to commit economic suicide by cutting off the main
source of its existence. Confiscation or a tax equivalent to this
would spell bankruptcy and ruin to the Mexican State, for
taxation to the point of confiscation carries its own remedy.
Mexicans urge that to-day oil is being extracted and ex
ported at a rate calculated to alarm the nation's trustees. It
is a repetition of what England did with her coal and iron ore
Immense fortunes have been and are being made and taken
away by foreigners, few abiding traces of which are left in
the land. So considerable are the quantities of Mexican oil
at present imported into the United States that voices have
been uplifted in the latter country calling for an import duty
on it. The Fordney tariff is a conclusive proof that the Mex
ican oil industry can support a heavier impost than it has yet
borne and it is meet that the Mexican States should get the
benefit of it. Why should a foreign government as well as
foreign corporations draw enormous gains from a product
which yields inadequate profits to the country in which it is
found? If oil can bear an increase of taxation — and this is

TAXATION OR CONFISCATION? 119
admitted by all — why should the Government which contrib
utes nothing to its production be the beneficiary? Again, it
cannot be asserted that there is any international law which
forbids a government to regulate in the interests of the com
munity the exploitation of natural produce or even manufac
tured commodities. Every State is at liberty to put in force
such measures for the purpose as it deems called for. Ex
amples of the exercise of this right during and since the war
are numerous, and for the protection of a source of wealth
which can never be replenished, the right is unassailable and
the duty to exercise it imperious.
From the fiscal point of view also the arguments that favour
the Mexican position are forcible. There is something pecu
liarly repellent in the contention that a nation should go to
rack and ruin for lack of the funds requisite to carry on the
Government of the country when that country is teeming with
wealth. And Mexico thinks she can discern a Mephistophelian
touch in the policy forged by a combination of powerful and
unfriendly interests which presses her to pay her debts, yet
closes to her all avenues of credit throughout the globe, and
by way of crowning the work disputes her right to raise part
of the money by taking her full share of the resources which
she herself possesses at home. A more stringent boycott, a
more deadly grip, it would be difficult to imagine.

CHAPTER XII
Casting Out Demons By Beelzebub and Saving Mexico
in Spite of Herself
All the vexatious acts of which foreigners could reasonably
complain and the quibbles by which it was sought to justify
them belong to the past. Even under Madero, Huerta and
Carranza the oil companies continued to earn enormous profits.
Since General Obregon took over the reins of power the last
of the blameworthy practices and dubious doctrines which
marked the Carranza regime have ceased to bear sway. A
wholly new spirit is incarnate in the present Administration
and no country, party or individual sincerely desirous of see
ing friendly relations established between Mexico and her
neighbours would deliberately ignore its presence or underes
timate its significance. It consigns to history those forcible
arguments and impassioned appeals by which the self-consti
tuted champions of American rights sought to fulfil their mis
sion and justify their propaganda. Their legitimate claims
are now recognised by a man whose words are acts and it
only remains to settle the details. Further agitation and prop
aganda seems superfluous. It would be fatuous to knock at
an open door. And yet the knocking is louder now than ever
before. Some Americans — and they are among the most influential
— have made up their minds that Mexico is incapable of inde
pendent national life and growth, complain of the slowness of
Obregon's advance on the path of reform and clamour or in
trigue for American tutelage. To this there is a simple an
swer. In all countries the politician who acquires power is
allowed a reasonable time to exercise it beneficially by unfold
ing and applying his reform schemes, and it would be alike
unfair and dangerous to make an exception for the dislocated
Mexican State whose President, although never a dabbler in
120

SAVING MEXICO 121
politics, is gradually proving himself to be a first-class states
man and organiser. It would Le still more unfair and dan
gerous to seek to block General Obregon's way by raising in
ternational obstacles to domestic reform. For it should be
remembered — if indeed it has ever been forgotten — by those
who expect immediate wonder-working measures on the part
of Obregon, that in Mexico to-day no President can precipi
tate things without precipitating himself and his administra
tion, — a denouement which would embarrass even those who
forced him to rush on to destruction. But although it is poor
policy to jump into the fire in order to escape the smoke, some
politicians have adopted it.
Why, one may reasonably ask, if Mexico and the United
States are agreed upon essentials — as they manifestly are —
should there be a deadlock in their present relations and a
grave danger in their future intercourse ?
The answer to this query is given by those Mexicans who
are familiar with the strivings of the little plutocratic State
within the great democratic State. It is because the demands
made upon Mexico have never yet been fully and openly pro
pounded. Some of them being esoteric are but vaguely hinted
at and remain for the time being in petto. Hence the issues are
being publicly dealt with in misleading statements while a
movement is being fomented in secret which has quite dif
ferent objects in view, and the men who are' directing it are
the very last who should put their influence and standing to
such a sinister misuse.
The world recognises Secretary Hughes' rectitude and plain
dealing. Nobody imagines that a man of his character and
standing would consciously lend himself to any group of men
or to any pushing politician interested in modifying Mexico's
international status. Hence no one can have been bold enough
to propose to him the plan of Cubanisation cherished by the
conclave in the shade. What they have, however, succeeded
in proposing and having accepted is a condition antecedent to
recognition which may be made to appear in the abstract
harmless enough to an eminent lawyer who has no experience
of international affairs, but which when applied in the concrete

122 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
to international and national politics turns out to be a wedge
capable of splitting and shattering the Mexican State. Mr.
Hughes' demands for protection and compensation are legally
just; and his desire to see a treaty of commerce and amity
signed is comprehensible ; but insistence on the latter require
ment as a condition antecedent to recognition changes their
character fundamentally. Fresh earth is good in itself; crys
talline water is also good, but mix them together and you
have nothing but mud.
In the United States the machinery of Government may
from one point of view be likened to the workings of the
human intellect. Countless impressions are made by external
objects on the senses every day and hour, but of these only a
limited number reach consciousness and are passed on to the
intelligence. In like manner innumerable demands are laid
by influential individuals and corporations before the State
Department and are fortified by arguments, complaints, ac
cusations and statistics, but only a very small percentage of
them at a time are stamped with the hall-mark of govern
mental approval and inserted in the official programme. The
others may or may not be adopted later on. In the case of
Mexico Mr. Hughes has set aside all Mr. Fall's recommenda
tions but one. But that one has produced the present dead
lock and may engender further-reaching and more sinister con
sequences. ., No branch of foreign intelligence is so well equipped with
"'Vigilance committees, volunteer watchmen and amateur
prompters as that which has Mexico for its object The
wealthy corporations and associations have also a political pro-
» gramme for its good ordering and a series of records to prove
their case. They likewise possess their agents, their "eyes"
and "ears" and their secret propagandists whose zeal at times
defeats their aims. It is no exaggeration to affirm that the
Mexican Republic is honeycombed with spies after the manner
of Russia under Tsar Alexander III. They are in the Post
Office, the Telegraph Office, the University, the lodges of Free
masons and in the State Departments. Those foreign cor
porations are primed therefore with information — oftentimes

SAVING MEXICO 123
invented— about politics, the army, economics, the Church,
every group of malcontents and about the disaffected gen
erals who are ready to rise against the Government. It is no
wonder that those corporations are the first and best informed
respecting imminent revolts and coming rebellions.
All these streams of information, opinion and sentiment
flow into a central reservoir which is at the disposal of the most
powerful unofficial body in the world to-day, a body whose in
fluence makes itself felt continuously and almost irresistibly, '-
in the financial, journalistic, economic and political spheres of
the United States. One of these Associations represents all
the manifold interests of American citizens in the Southern
Republic and is rightly or wrongly believed to be able at will
to adopt or have adopted measures of such stringency as would
bring the population of that Republic to financial and economic
downfall. It can likewise to a marked degree, it is affirmed,
enlist public support in the United States on the side of in
trinsically unpopular measures. Nowhere is such a task
easier than in a young democracy.
"We do not know," writes a distinguished American pub
licist, "what public opinion really is, or who really supports it.
It is so unformed and disorganised, so lacking in real leader
ship, so unsupported by disciplined thought, that almost any
well conducted propaganda can seise it and temporarily con
trol it to almost any end. The reason is again that we are not
in the habit of thinking in terms of public life. We are think
ing in terms of individual opportunity."1
One of the favourite expedients adopted towards Mexican
public men by the various groups of capitalists promised heavy
returns, provided that their discrimination, intuition and tact
should prove equal to its execution. It was this : to seek out
among prominent politicians and revolutionists in that Re
public the individual or individuals who seemed most likely
to attain to the presidency in the near future, to cultivate their
friendship with assiduity and, if possible, to obtain from them
binding promises respecting their future dealings with them.
1 "After Thirty Years," by Fred. J. E. Woodbridge in the Atlantic
Monthly, June, 1921. The italics are mine.

124 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
In this way there were a number of pet candidates in this or
that camp whose capacities and patriotism they extolled and
blazoned abroad and whose friendly co-operation they endeav
oured to secure in advance. Victoriano Huerta was one, Fran
cisco Villa was another, Pablo Gonzalez a third and Robles
Dominguez a fourth. Some of the presidents in petto actually
pledged their word to pursue a certain line of action towards
American investors, to give them preference over the British
and other foreigners in matters of concessions, to abolish the
Constitution of 191 7 and to realise various other postulates
once they had reached the goal of their ambitions. Commit
ments were also entered into respecting the treatment of the
religious question for the benefit of those bodies, American
and Mexican, who were especially concerned with this matter.
Those stipulations were no secret. I heard them discussed
on several occasions. Of these secret conclaves and their cove
nants the American people knew nothing, neither of course did
the Federal Government.
Those Presidents in petto included civilians and military
leaders, and the circumstance that a man's escutcheon was not
wholly free from blots was not regarded as a disqualification.
According to an interesting document, a facsimile of which
I possess, one of these substitutes for Carranza actually at
tempted to enlist the services of a stranger representing a
foreign Power and to secure his assistance for the purpose
of helping him to the Presidential chair. And he promised
him a round sum in case of success. A foreign diplomatist
when the first elections were at hand made bold to sway the
electors by holding out to them the perspective of immediate
recognition by his Government if one of these favourites were
chosen for the vacant post. Another candidate laid himself
open to a criminal charge which if proven — and the incrim
inating evidence, of which I also possess a facsimile, is in his
own handwriting — would put him out of court for all time.
But in the eyes of the schemers these taints did not disqualify
the chosen one. If he stood for property rights all his sins
were forgiven him.
The various candidates were supplied with funds by the

SAVING MEXICO 125
groups whose proteges they were, and besides promises for the
future they sometimes conferred favours without further de
lay. One of the companies purchased lands for exploitation
but was unable to obtain the title deeds. It appealed to its own
candidate for the Presidency, a well known Mexican at pres
ent residing abroad, and asked him to interpose his authority
or use his influence on its behalf. He made answer : "When
I am President, all will be well with you. My future attitude
is known to you. In seven or eight months from now your
title deeds will be in order and in your possession." But the
company's spokesman would not take this answer. He said :
"While grateful for your assurances and promises we are now
in need of immediate help and you and I know that it is within
your power to give it. Unless we receive the title deeds at
once we shall be plunged into a sea of troubles. Help us as
we are helping you." And after some further parley the
protege started off for the National Palace and obtained what
the Company desired.
Those are but a few of many incidents which reveal how
far undue foreign ascendency over Mexican politics can go
and how incompatible such a condition of affairs is with the
normal relations which ought to prevail between the two Re
publics, and which the great people of the United States is led
to believe do actually prevail. There is no doubt that if it
realised the extent to which these schemes go to concentrate
power in the adjoining Republic in the hands of a few multi
millionaires and ambitious politicians and to demoralise the
prominent public men of that Republic, it would make short
work of the system. Americanism, in its highest form, is sen
sitive, scrupulous, self-respecting, and it cannot but lose its
worthiness, self-respect and its power for good in an environ
ment of mean purpose and corrupting tactics. The circum
stance that the Mexicans chosen for these degrading experi
ments were sometimes the flotsam and jetsam of a society in
the melting pot provides neither a justification nor an excuse
for those who in the name and under the aegis of a glorious
and progressive people use them as tools for a purpose that
cannot be openly avowed.

126 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
One of the most popular Mexican leaders who was inac
cessible to such influences and on whose 'scutcheon there was
no blot was General Obregon. No overtures of the character
described were ever made to him. And yet the legend was
studiously spread that he was like the others, venal, ambitious
and unscrupulous, although the contrary was known to be true.

CHAPTER XIII
Moral Guardianship
The members of the oil and policy groups who believe with
the Germans that the strongest defence is to take the offensive,
being thus primed with detailed information about every Mex
ican event and episode of importance, past and present, about
every leader and politician of distinction and about every com
ing man and his vulnerable points, — know the particular mo
tives to which each one is impressible. Hence they can play
upon the right chords and could usually foretell a revolt or a
revolution until July, 192 1, when the upheaval planned in their
own oil district under conditions which they are said to have
foreknown was trampled out as soon as it began. They are
also more fully conversant with every clause and every inter
pretation of the Constitutions of 1857 and 1917 and with the
seamy side of the history of this period than most Mexican
Ministers. They influence some of the principal journalistic
sources of information and opinion. And they also boast
that they have "enlisted" the sympathies and the services of
some eminent Mexicans who are in voluntary exile. They in
vest considerable sums of money in propaganda. In a word,
the Mexicans hold that if knowledge be power, this wealthy
Junta is well nigh almighty, and if money be the open sesame
to either, all its avenues and by-ways have been swept and
garnished for their passage.
Some of the avowed objects of the Association at the outset
commanded the respect of every friend of justice and equity.
They were desired by Europeans as ardently as by Americans,
being described as adequate protection for the lives and prop
erties of outlanders in Mexico, and compensation for the finan
cial losses inflicted in the past. That such an influential and
well-equipped body should be exceptionally successful in the
prosecution of these aims was only to be anticipated. For it
127

128 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
pursued them steadfastly and ingeniously, unaffected by minor
currents, and never once did it take an official step without
having first assured itself of the support of the State Depart
ment in Washington. This precaution explains its formidable
strength and went far to cause its avowed policy to be identi
fied with that of the permanent element of every Government,
Republican or Democratic.
But long before the pristine programme of the Association
had been realised, Mexicans were in a quiver lest it should be
stretched over more ground. And ominous signs and tokens
strengthened their apprehension. Among these was the de
fection of some of the unprejudiced financiers of Wall Street
who disagreed with certain of the objects of the Association
as unwarranted. The Mexicans feared interpenetration accel
erated by diplomacy, which is the latter day substitute for inva
sion and annexation. And this was unofficially confessed to
by some private members. That was the policy of the late
Russian statesman, Count Witte, in the Far East ard it bade
fair to bring forth the fruits which he anticipated, when it was
thwarted by the disturbing action of the German Kaiser who
preferred the old system of territorial annexation to the new.
Interpenetration, as Witte understood it, consisted in first dis
claiming any design upon territory, next in obtaining a firm
economic hold in the country by advancing loans and then
putting forward various demands for protection for nationals
and special legislation as practical corollaries. It is an adapta
tion of the Arab camel's way: he first puts his nose through
the opening of the tent and then draws his body, hump and
all, after it. Thus the Eastern Chinese railway which was
Witte's first standing ground had to have Russian officials to
administer it. These required a Russian semi-military body
to protect them against angry natives. The two sets of offi
cials had to have Russian banks and schools. To avoid friction
the Russians were allowed to select the Chinese local authori
ties and lastly to suggest the special legislation which best
suited Russian requirements. But there was no intervention,
no territorial aggression, no trace of force. The entire arrange
ment was but the building up of a "durable friendship" and

MORAL GUARDIANSHIP 129
by way of sealing the compact Russia generously undertook
to defend China against her enemies with troops and money
and to give sound advice to her friend in all cases of diplo
matic difficulty with other Powers and to occupy her ports in
case of threatened foreign aggression. The present writer
was with Count Witte when this treaty of commerce and amity
was concluded.
Mexicans are apt to dread similar developments as a result
of the unofficial action and far-ranging influence of the Asso
ciation and its political allies in the background. They feel
instinctively that some of the political currents in the world
are set in that direction to-day and that comprehensive aims,
as friendly as were those of Tsarist Russia in China, may be
— are in fact — believed by misinformed statesmen to fit the
Mexican situation exactly. They have the examples of Haiti,
and Santo Domingo before their eyes and they remember the
French proverb qui a bu boira. They know that the struggle
for the necessaries of economic life among the leading races of
the globe will be characterised by a degree of ruthlessness
hitherto unexampled. They are aware how attractive a prize
is Mexico which has already absorbed forty per cent of all
American capital invested abroad and will attract a great deal
more as soon as outstanding political scores are wiped off the
slate. Mexican oil has been publicly declared essential to the
United States. That implies a fixed official attitude on the
part of the United States Administration and may well entail
in the long run a corresponding official adoption of further
clauses of the programme of the Oil and Policy group. In sil
ver production Mexico is ahead of all the world. Nearly every
mineral worth exploiting is found in the Republic and can be
worked commercially. It is able to vie successfully with Cuba
in sugar and with Egypt in cotton production and representa
tives of every American branch of commerce and industry are
already flocking thither to provide for their future wants and
await the moving of the waters.
Thus a large part of the trade, commerce and industry of
the Republic has passed into the experienced hands of the
greatest business people on the globe who are eager for the rest

130 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
and are being efficaciously seconded by their public trustees.
And these workers or their spokesmen feel warranted in de
manding adequate facilities for their activity in the shape of
domestic legislation and foreign policy, this being a correlate
of that. Such legislation, it is urged, must come up to the
standard of those who are creating public opinion in the States
with a view to the establishment of close permanent relations
between the two countries. Prominent among them is the dis
tinguished American statesman — now a member of the Cabinet
— whose programme is believed to include an arrangement
with Mexico of the same orcleras that which the Piatt Amend
ment established with Cuba. Another of the unofficial de
mands on Mexico formulates a series of reforms to be carried
through on Church matters, as, for instance, the abolition of
all the restrictions enacted against the Roman Catholic clergy,
despite the circumstance that however stringent or inexpedient
these statutes may be they are virtually identical with those
in force in the democratic French Republic and cannot be
made the subject of complaint by any foreign Power. In a
word, Mexico's Constitution is an eye-sore to these self-con
stituted reformers and they will not be satisfied until it is su
perseded by a charter which is in their opinion more conducive
to the spiritual, social and political welfare of both Republics.
And that is the Constitution of 1857. Only when this has
been effected will the intimate union planned by these foreign
friends of Mexico be possible between the two countries.
They are aware that it would be as unseemly to demand the
abrogation of the Constitution of 19 17 as it would have been
for the mild pacific Quaker to kill the dog that bit him, so they
merely call for a series of measures which will oblige the Mex
ican Government to cancel it and will render that Government
a puppet of the United States.
Men's souls, a Russian proverb says, are dusky virgin for
ests, wherein motives are lost to sight. And in default of
knowledge it is fair that the detached outsider should give
those would-be foreign saviours of Mexico full credit for the
friendship which they profess for it. At the same time, how
ever, one cannot affect surprise if the Mexicans appreciate it

MORAL GUARDIANSHIP 181
in the words of the saying: "The vulture kisses the chicken
until there is not a feather left." Has he not done this in
Haiti? Whatever one may think of the strivings of the Associa
tion and of the inaccessibility of Mexicans to its reasoning, one
must admit that no adequate opinion of the situation can be
formed without a clear understanding of the standpoint of
each. Thus at any moment one of those unforeseen events of
international import in which Mexican history abounds may
occur to belie the soundest forecast. The utmost one can do
therefore is to make one's deductions from the data actually
available and allow a broad margin for the freaks of circum
stance. The ostensible issues, then, between Mexico and the United
States are the repeal of all the decrees which demonstrably en
croached upon private rights, of property, reparation j iorjbe
pal^raTld~aismancejLioxJhe_to Legally and technically
thTeTJ mtgdlStates Government .is well, within its. rights in pre
ferring these^claims. And the Obregon Administration has
recognised their justice in word and is satisfying them in deed.
But behind these legitimate demands lurks the steadfast con
viction of the capitalist interests that they cannot be satisfac
torily complied with under present conditions nor so long as
the Constitution of 191 7 is allowed to stand, and that in case
this were feasible it would be undesirable, because the result
ing situation must be necessarily transitory and incongruous.
One practical inference from this thesis is as good as drawn
already ; neither a legislative act by the Mexican Congress nor
a decision of the Supreme Court will be accepted by the United
States Government as a satisfactory solution because a judicial
pronouncement and a legislative enactment are both liable to
reversal each by the respective institution whence it emanated.
What is postulated then is a solemn commitment of a com
prehensive character which shall bind the Republic of Mexico,
authorise the United States Government to keep it to its word
and thus bring about a set of conditions propitious to pacific
labour in harmonious fellowship, — conditions, in a word, such
as obtain in prosperous Cuba. As for the binding force of

132 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
any compact however solemn on the United States, Mexicans
entertain their own settled opinions. And they base these on
the recent tragic history of Haiti.
This consummation, it is discerned, cannot be effected at
once. Mexico abhors it. An attempt to achieve it whether
from within or without would provoke bitter resentment and
resolute resistance. In fact it would plunge the country into
civil war once more. It needs a peculiar kind of shameless
daring in the Mexican worker which is never found in combi
nation with any civic virtue and it can be entrusted only to
those base products of all social upheavals who are willing to
serve as the instruments of any sinister influence on condi
tions advantageous to themselves. And then it goes by an un
pleasant name. If a man with such proclivities were in power
in Mexico to-day not only would the ostensible issues be speed
ily revealed but likewise all the other unavowed desiderata
would be disclosed by the docile leader congruously with the
promptings of the friendly foreign Mentor. Is there such a
tool ? Rumor answers : Yes, and history awaits the promised
proofs. To advocate the moral guardianship of the United States,
is to harp on a string which has no music for the Mexican
ear. In all the other Latin-American Republics too the tide
of national and racial feeling flows steadily against it. Could
they think or feel otherwise, history's records being what they
are ? They all regard the proposed treaty as the insertion of
the thin end of a wedge destined gradually to break up their
sovereignty. They apprehend that what is aimed at is the es
tablishment of a permanent agency through which the breezes
of salutary inspiration may blow steadily from Washington
first to Mexico and then to all the Southern Republics. The
past history of Mexico and the correct reading of the current
history of Haiti and other little States they take as warnings
and as omens. They regard the civilisation of the United
States when confined to its own home with respect mingled
with awe, but they resent having it superimposed on their own.
They unconsciously echo the thought of that patriotic Ameri
can publicist, W. G. Sumner, who wrote: "There is not a

MORAL GUARDIANSHIP 133
civilised nation which does not talk about its civilising mis
sion just as grandly as we do. The English, who really have
more to boast of in this respect than anybody else, talk least
about it, but the Pharisaism with which they correct and in
struct other people has made them hated all over the globe.
. . . For each nation laughs at all the others when it observes
these manifestations of national vanity. You may rely upon
it that they are all ridiculous by virtue of these pretensions, in
cluding ourselves. The point is that each of them repudiates
the standards of the others, and the outlying nations which
are to be civilised hate all the standards of civilised men. We
assume that what we like and practise and what we think bet
ter must come as a welcome blessing to Spanish-Americans
and Filipinos. This is grossly and obviously untrue. They
hate our ways. They are hostile to our ideas. Our religion,
language, institutions and manners offend them. They like
their own ways, and if we appear amongst them as rulers,
there will be social discord in all the great departments of
social interest. . . . Now the great reason why all these en
terprises, which began by saying to somebody else, 'we know
what is good for you better than you know yourself and we
are going to make you do it,' are false and wrong, is that they
violate liberty."1 There one has the entire subject in a nut
shell. One must reluctantly admit that liberty is among those
rights of peoples and individuals which is most imperfectly
understood in the United States.
If it could be shown conclusively that the Mexican Consti
tution as a whole is what certain foreign corporations affirm
that it is, — a nefarious charter which legalises confiscation, —
there is no doubt that the President of the Mexican Republic
would have refused to swear fidelity to it until and unless it
was abrogated. Nay more, if it could now be demonstrated
that any article of it conduces to a breach of international law,
measures would be enforced to modify it. Already it has been
amended in several details. Don Venustiano himself spon
sored various projects tending to better it. Even lately cer
tain projects have been drafted for the like purpose. But the
1 War and Other Essays, by W. G. Sumner, pp. 303-305.

134 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
ground taken by Mexicans who have scrutinised the oil com
panies' complaints is that the origin of their grievances lies
not in the Constitution itself but in certain presidential de
crees which ran counter to its spirit and that they have since
joined hands with the enemies of Mexico's sovereignty.
Thus the more active protectors of American rights start
with begging the question and fabricating proofs. They as
sume that the Constitution of 191 7 is a perennial source of
evil, keeps Mexico in a continuous ferment of turmoil, mak
ing her a nuisance to her neighbours, and that until it is done
away with that country's condition cannot change sufficiently
for the better to warrant the moral and financial support of
the United States, nor even to justify further forbearance.
In plain terms, it must be abrogated if the Republic is to live.
They forget that the past is not the present and ignore the
new order of things. The United States, they further urge,
can no longer tolerate the dangerous vagaries of a semi-savage
neighbour running amuck, killing their citizens, destroying
American property, trampling on American rights, sending the
poison of bolshevism into United States cities and rendering
it increasingly difficult for law-abiding people in either country
to discharge their duties, and perpetrating these enormities in
the name of constitutional law, — as though such excesses took
place in post-revolutionary Mexico or indeed of late years at
all. This, it is argued by those who are intrepid in propagandist
logic, is one of those cases in which the maxim — from a theory
it is fast becoming a maxim — of "Manifest Destiny" is fairly
applicable. When the United States quarreled with Spain in
Florida and Louisiana — the argument runs — it had right on
its side, because Spain was clearly unfitted to govern her de
pendencies in accordance with the dictates of humanity and
over and above all was unwilling to discharge her international
commitments and functions. Arrogating to herself extensive
rights she shirked the correlative duties and implicitly claimed
to be a law unto herself. And as this was merely one of the
aspects of the case presented by savage tribes which strive to
hold their territory against civilised colonists, it was very prop-

MORAL GUARDIANSHIP 135
erly treated as such by the United States. Mexico is in a like
plight to-day, say the would-be reformers from the great
Northern Republic, well knowing that the statement is utterly
at variance with the truth. Her pacific population is cruelly
oppressed by a gang of thieves and cut-throats whose squalid
and immoral policy cries out to civilised mankind for repres
sive measures. Obregon may be the honest man he is repre
sented to be, but what is one sane individual among so many
furious madmen ? A foil and nothing more. And the Consti
tution to which Carranza appealed for his confiscatory decrees
may be relied upon by Obregon's successor for similar mon
strosities. It is certain then that Mexico's progressive and
kindly disposed neighbour is invested with the natural right
and bound by the moral obligation to shoulder the white man's
burden and assume the minimum degree of indirect jurisdic
tion adequate to enable it to bestow on the population peace,
order and guarantees so that commerce and industry may be
prosecuted there.
And the first step to be taken towards bringing back the
country to the "normalcy" of the Diaz regime must be the
abrogation of the obnoxious Constitution. This was also one
of the moves made by the United States officials in their benefi
cent labour for the establishment of "tolerable conditions" in
Haiti. Colonel Littleton Waller, commanding the United
States expeditionary forces in Haiti, wrote to the President
of the Haitian Senate2 demanding the general revision of the
Constitution and the dissolution of the Senate, should this
body decline to co-operate with the Constituent Chamber in
this sense.3
The President of the Haitian Senate resented this well
meant exercise of fraternal authority and replied : "The at
tempt to abolish the Senate is a flagrant violation of the Con
stitution and is consequently tantamount to a revolutionary
act."4

2 Paul Laraque.
3 Extract from letter sent by Colonel Littleton Waller on 27th April,
191 6.
* Extract from reply sent by Paul Laraque on 28th April, 1916.

136 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
None the less, the Senate was summarily and unconstitution
ally dissolved, the lower house was illegally transformed into
a constituent assembly and a dictatorship was established in
lieu of the Constitutional Government.

CHAPTER XIV
Flaws in the Constitution of 1917
The magnitude of the interests at stake and the serious
nature of the outlook justify a brief review of the interna
tional perils with which Mexico is confronted and of the al
leged nexus between them and the present Constitution.
This Constitution is by no means all evil. It possesses cer
tain redeeming traits which are well worth retaining. At the
Congress of Queretaro its authors introduced provisions into
the new charter which were framed to deal with social condi
tions unknown in the year 1857 when the previous Constitu
tion was drawn up. These hastily drafted enactments protect
women and children and rescue them from the status of serf
dom theretofore prevalent, devise a reasonable formula for
regulating the question of remuneration, oblige employers to
pay their workmen in legal currency, to refrain from whittling
down wages by fines, to erect sanitary dwellings to be had for
fair rents, to eliminate gambling dens and generally to treat
the workers as human beings and free agents. And in this re
spect the Constitution of 1917 marked a distinct advance on
that of 1857 ar,d challenges the opposition of certain oil com
panies. But its framers did not stop here. They went to extremes,
unduly favouring the workman at the expense of the em
ployer, compelling the latter in certain emergencies to continue
to operate at a loss, giving the former an undetermined share
in the profits and generally upsetting the equilibrium which
should exist between capital, labour and intelligence and which
Obregon is now bent on restoring. Thus, an amendment to
the Constitution passed at a subsequent date1 lays it down
that neither suspension of work by employers nor a strike by
the workmen is lawful without the assent of the Executive,
1ln December, 1918. 137

138 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
and that if one or the other takes place without this assent,
the Executive is warranted in taking over control of the busi
ness, if he deems it to be of public interest.
These and kindred enactments, it is agreed, are calculated
to deter capital from seeking investments in Mexico. They
are further of a nature to spur the workmen to sinister efforts
to overturn the entire social system. And these, it is added,
are precisely the consequences which the Constitution has al
ready generated. Here is one of the many proofs adduced.
At the Convention of the Labour Party in Pachuca the fol
lowing resolution was passed unanimously: "The Mexican
Labour Party has ever stood by the side of the proletariat, aid
ing it to win its total emancipation. It holds that the prole
tariat is warranted, at the fitting moment, to seize and keep
the lands, machinery and all the means of production and
transportation, and likewise to control production and con
sumption by means of a system of social organisation which
shall guarantee economic equality in every branch."2 A com
prehensive programme drafted by grown-up children!
An eminent Mexican publicist3 commenting on this remark
able profession of faith states that according to the Mexican
press it counts upon advocates inside the Cabinet, who would
fain see capitalism and private capital generally superseded
by nationalisation and the overthrow of the Government of
which they are members. He contends that the working men
in Mexico are immune from real punishment if they break
their contracts, however wantonly, whereas the employer can
be held to his bargain or chastised condignly. "By terror the
syndicates impose their will on the community and the Gov
ernment, whereas it is exceedingly difficult for a Government
to exercise constraint over the syndicates by its terrorism. . . .
The syndicates are therefore irresponsible, and in law con
tracts with irresponsible parties are unknown." And he ad
monished his countrymen that "the bulk of the capital which
operates in Mexico is of foreign origin, and the Great Powers
upon whom rests the duty of protecting it will not permit it
2 El Universal, 6th April, ig2i.
8 Don Francisco Bulnes.

FLAWS IN CONSTITUTION OF 1917, 139
to be made the slave of Mexican Labour Syndicates. ... In
a short span of time Mexicans will be forced to the conclu
sion that capital is a slave which will kill, unless indeed the pol
icy announced by General Obregon turns out to be as trenchant
as the terror with which the community is assailed by the pro
letariat."4 This apprehension of bolshevism — for that is what it
amounts to — is one of the favourite battle grounds of those
American friends in Mexico who are anxious to import into
that Republic the material prosperity and politico-social ar
rangements which prevail in Cuba. No war cry, it is rightly
assumed, could be more effective than this. It appeals power
fully to financiers and men of business on whose good will
the Mexican State must ultimately depend for the means of
setting its house in order. Everything that scares or dis
courages foreign capitalists is a danger that transcends most
others and must be removed, even at a heavy political sacri
fice. But whether the bolshevist symptoms alleged are trace
able to the Constitution of 1917 or flow from that of 1857
which confers sovereignty upon a number of sparsely popu
lated States, hampers the executive and frustrates the only
efficient measure with which the malady can be combated — is
a matter which will bear discussion and will be touched upon
in another chapter as will also the allegation that bolshevism
is rampant in the Republic. If it is true, as Senor Bulnes
contends, that only the Central Government can stem the bol
shevist tide, surely it follows that in order to produce the de
sired effect that Government must have a free hand through
out the entire Republic; and it is equally clear that the sov
ereignty of the separate States must be done away with, seeing
that it ties the hands of the Executive and opens the door to
inexperienced administrations like that of Yucatan.
It is further asserted that scant encouragement is held out"
by the Charter of 19 17 to foreign bankers. They are treated
as covert enemies of the nation, — they on whose good will
Mexico absolutely depends for the success of the work of re
construction. And without reconstruction from within offi-
* El Universal, 6th April, 1921 : El Esclavo que Matara.

140 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
cial recognition is but a meaningless form. Article 27 contains
this provision : "Banks duly organised under the laws govern
ing institutions of credit may make mortgage loans on rural
and urban property in accordance with the provisions of the
said laws but they may not own nor administer more real
property than that which is absolutely necessary for their direct
purposes." Now what, one naturally asks, is the extent of the real
property absolutely necessary within the meaning of that act?
In order to ascertain this the words, expert opinion says, must
be construed in the light of the foregoing clause which enacts
that "Commercial Stock companies shall not acquire, hold or
administer rural properties. Companies of this character
which may be formed to develop any manufacturing, mining,
petroleum or other industry, excepting only agricultural indus
tries, may acquire, hold or administer lands only in an area
absolutely necessary for their establishments or adequate to
serve the purposes indicated, which the Executive of the Union
or of the respective State in each case shall determine."
It is inferred from both those clauses that banks may not
acquire, hold or administer rural properties, nor indeed any in
dustrial possessions which have no direct bearing upon banking
purposes. And this, it is pointed out, is tantamount to a pro
hibition to lend money to agriculturists who will consequently
be abandoned to the clutches of the usurer. For the usual
guarantee of such a loan is the hacienda or estate of the bor
rower, and circumstances such as inability to pay interest may
oblige the Bank to take possession of the property and admin
ister it. To dispossess it of the right to do this is to take
away the only guarantee available and therefore to render
such advances of money impossible. The final outcome, it is
contended, is that these clauses deal a stunning blow to foreign
banks and also to Mexican landlords.5
A country, it is affirmed, which upholds legislation of this
suicidal character is on the high road to economic ruin. Un-
suited to any contemporary State it is absolutely calamitous
to Mexico whose policy must be directed to encourage foreign
B Cf. Excelsior, 8th April, 1921.

FLAWS IN CONSTITUTION OF 1917 141
capital to come into the country, and the Constitution that
contains it should be abolished.
On the other hand, Mexicans of a logical turn of mind,
while ready to amend those loosely worded clauses, would con
fine the change to them. An article, after all, is but_a_ frac-
tion_of the Constitution,_and Mexicansjieel, as~3o the English,
that in legislation transformation is better than creation out
of nothing and that to go back to a Constitution framed sixty-
four years ago when most of the crucial problems of to-day
were not yet mooted would be retrogression worthy only of
reactionaries. Hitherto several amendments have been passed
which were rendered pressing by new requirements or old
errors and this process is obviously preferable to the forging
of such a brand-new Constitution as foreign politico-commer
cial interests advocate.
One of the densest banks of storm clouds which hang over
Mexico to-day is alleged to be formed by various aspects of
the agrarian movement now going forward in the Republic
and by the many abuses to which it has given rise. And yet
it is doubtful whether an agrarian problem can be said to form
part of the actualities of contemporary Mexican politics. The
amount of land in the Republic still awaiting cultivation is
enormous. I have myself visited a great part of the country
and I write with first-hand knowledge. The soil in many dis
tricts is uncommonly fertile, in others it is potentially so.
Every kind of fruit can be produced in abundance and per
fection on the coast and the tableland. The most palatable
strawberries, mangoes, oranges, bananas, pineapples are
awaiting transport facilities to enable them to vie with those
of the fruit-bearing countries which dominate the world's
markets to-day. Cotton, sugar fibre and rubber lands are
extensive and relatively cheap. The northern States bid fair
to become the greatest ranching country on the American
Continent. In a word, there is soil enough to satisfy the
acutest land-hunger that the people is likely to feel for a long
sequence of years to come.
What the country is deficient in is a class of hardy enter
prising tillers equipped with technical training, capital and

142 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
credit wherewith to purchase and use the requisite implements
of modern agricultural industry. The writer of these pages
who travelled over the whole Republic was profoundly struck
with the backwardness, poverty and quietism of the people,
their primitive agricultural expedients and their slow and
faint response to outward stimuli. Wooden ploughs, harrows
that resemble broken rakes, water carried to the fields by
human beings and harvests that barely keep body and soul to
gether are among the phenomena that attract attention. Be
yond the attainment of the most meagre results the peasant
seldom feels impelled to advance. "In these parts we live in
poverty," said the spokesman of a delegation in the State of
Chiapas to General Obregon in my presence, "but we live con
tent and we shall die content if you guarantee us peace. That
is all we ask." Exactly. They are contented with too little.
Soul-eating rust makes many of them fail at the critical stages
of many an undertaking, that is to say, at the outset and the
end. Initiative and constancy are the qualities of which they
stand most in need.
That people of this type are eager to get land to till and are
willing and able to till it is a statement that requires an effort
of the imagination to accept. Yet this assumption has been
made the starting point for a powerful movement in favour
of parcelling out the great estates among the "land-hungry,"
of establishing peasant proprietorship on a vast scale and of
raising the material life-standard of the native population.
Careful Mexican writers6 have been at great pains to show the
fallacy of this assumption and the untrustworthy character of
the data underlying it and there is little doubt that it is being
used very largely as a lever to embarrass the Government.
Still President Obregon could not but take cognisance of the
current, however artificial its origin might be, and devise a
formula for the bestowal of land upon those who could prove
that they were really willing and able to cultivate it. Their
right to it is beyond question. The ideas which he put for
ward in the Chamber7 reveal a thorough grasp of the subject
e Don Francisco Bulnes is the most eminent among them.
7 In November, 1920.

FLAWS IN CONSTITUTION OF 1917 143
and a masterly method of dealing with it, but owing to the
sovereignty of the States of the Union his intentions have been
temporarily thwarted from time to time. Consequently this
impotence to deal with questions which are national and in
ternational in their bearings — and the land problem partakes
of both characters — is an argument not against the Constitu
tion of 1917 but against the federal system of State structure.
It has been demonstrated by statistics, which have been con
firmed by a number of concrete cases recently published, that
the Indians, while eager enough to get possession of lands be
longing to others, have seldom the means or the will to culti
vate them and make haste to sell them to the highest bidders.
In some instances they refused point blank to take them over
at all, in others they at once disposed of them to the first pur
chasers they could find. What they particularly covet are
flourishing estates, but only with a view "to impoverish them,
by subsisting on their spontaneous produce. If on the Indian's
lot there happens to be nopal plantations he lives on the fruits ;
if woodland, he hews the trees until there are none left; if
game be there, he hunts until he has caught or driven every
animal away; if there be fish in the water, he fries them in
his pan. This and two or three chunks of lard satisfy him and
he asks for nothing better. We supplied a striking instance
of this last Saturday, in the narrative of how that most flour
ishing estate, La Purisima, was plundered and destroyed with
ruthless thoroughness. Converted into common lands, the In
dian first devastated it and then transformed it into a marsh
for duck-shooting. To-day that whilom source of wealth is
become a desolate, pestilent, barren swamp, in which nothing
is cultivated and where the very people who clamoured for it
are perishing."8
Since the agrarian agitation began to be utilised as an engine
of political warfare, some prominent Mexican publicists solici
tous for the economic well-being of their country have been
bringing to the cognisance of the general public the master
facts that bear upon agriculture and upon the introduction of
a system of peasant proprietorship after the French model.
8 Excelsior, 5th April, 1921.

144 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
And these data, which tally with what is known of the tempera
ment of the population and seem decisive, point to the absence
of any widespread demand for land or indeed of any serious
demand whatever for the parcelling out of large estates. This,
it may be parenthetically remarked is a matter of genuine re
gret. Were there real eagerness among the natives to possess
and till the soil as it should be tilled, Mexico's future would
look brighter beyond compare. But as things now are, it
seems as though the soil were doomed to pass wholly into the
hands of foreign capitalists who are already the masters of
so many other sources of the country's wealth. In a word,
the process which is now going forward has been described as
the Americanisation of Mexico, using the word American as
synonymous with Yankee.
General Obregon grasps the situation, eschews extremes, and
is playing the only trump card in his hand. He will not
brook the survival of these latifundia, which besides being ex
cessively large are partly uncultivated or cultivated only by
antiquated methods. These he will have cut up in every case
in which the public interest demands it. Other large estates
properly stocked and tilled he will leave intact. The Indians
shall have all the land they can cultivate, but should they be
unwilling or unable to till those lots, the President will en
courage the best qualified husbandmen he can find in the old
world to immigrate to Mexico, settle down as agriculturists
and give a stimulating example to the natives. In time they
will become prosperous Mexican citizens and in the meanwhile
they will have shown practically what can be got out of the
land by proper treatment and have thereby awakened in their
neighbours a spirit of fruitful emulation.
This is the conception of a patriot who is a statesman. And
the systematic opposition which it has encountered is among
the difficulties that block his way.
Some European observers who have an axe of their own
to grind have recently recorded the results of their investiga
tions, and these shed an interesting light on the reality as dis
tinguished from the idyllic picture painted by day-dreamers
and held up to the world by professional agitators. One of

FLAWS IN CONSTITUTION OF 1917 145
the most methodical and level-headed foreign economists9 who
gathered, sifted and published a number of illuminating data
respecting the agrarian experiments already tried, is worth
hearkening to. He writes : "In the district of Temax, Yuca
tan, the communal lands of Temax, Tzoncahuich, Tzitzantum,
the town of Tzilan and the port of the same name were split
up during the past ten years into normal farms of about four
hectares.10 The eight hundred families which received their
lots, with the exception of ten at the most, have already sold
their farms. In the municipal territory of Causahcab, situated
in the same district, a landlord got possession of the communal
lands of the natives and set to work to grow hennequin11 there.
The Government took possession of the lands and gave them
back to the Indians without any expense to the latter. Down
to August, 1907, when I visited that district, I found that out
of the 300 families thus benefited only forty had kept their
possessions. The other 260 had sold theirs at once to the
landlord." In Tabasco the result was similar. There the lands of
twenty-one townships were also parcelled in the same way,
but "out of the recipients of these allotments who numbered
some 4,500 no less than 75 per cent disposed of them to third
persons. "In Pocyaxuma, a district of Campeche, the common land
was partitioned among fifty-three families. And all of them,
with the exception of three or four, got rid of their allotments.
In Hecelchacan, situated in the same State of Campeche, the
great majority of 200 families sold their farms even before
they had received their title deeds. In Tenabo, in the same
district, the 200 families which were to have had farms be
stowed upon them, refused to contribute to pay the fee of the
surveyor who was to have delimited them."12
One of the principal Mexican journals commenting on these
significant manifestations of the temper of the natives, writes :
"The land-hunger by which the Mexican rural class is sup-
9 O. Penst.
10 A hectare is 2,471 acres.
11 Sisal hemp which is used in the United States for binding-twine.
12 Excelsior, nth April, 1921.

146 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
posed to be possessed is not noticeable. Above all, there is no
token of a desire to acquire a piece of unexploited land, with
a view to put value into it by labour. And in the absence of
this striving are we to assume that with such a group of people
we can form a class of husbandmen who will extract from
the soil not merely the wherewithal for their own existence
but also further produce to augment the resources of the en
tire community? What we do behold is eagerness to get pos
session of lands already cultivated by others and improved by
various installations, machinery, etc. And that is what, to
employ the term used by the Commissions, we feel tempted
to call plunder."13
It is fair, however, to admit in advance that some of these
phenomena may be capable of an explanation by local condi
tions which differs from that ascribed to it by those investi
gators and it is also worth noting that in the northern States
the inhabitants are both able and willing husbandmen.
Those American would-be saviours of Mexico who seem
bent on having the Constitution of 1917 abolished argue that
the principle of nationalisation is an apple of discord which
will keep the population of the Republic in a continuous fer
ment that may at any moment come to a head in civil war.
They add that a standing menace of this gravity is a matter
of deep concern to themselves and that in the interests of
both countries it must be removed. This is another striking
instance of the two-fold aspect of all Mexico's troubles.
Every domestic problem presents disconcerting international
bearings concerning the solution of which the northern Re
public has a friendly word to say. It may not be amiss to
glance at the nexus between the "anticipated civil war" and
the principle of nationalisation as it appears to the American
reformers. It is found in the gross injustice which is being
done to Mexican citizens who in virtue of the law are being
denied rights accorded to foreigners. The State Department
in Washington is reported to have formulated an anticipatory
protest against the probable sub-division of large agricultural
estates. Thereupon the American charge d'affaires, Mr.
13 Ibidem.

FLAWS IN CONSTITUTION OF 1917 147
Summerlin, is said to have made a report to Secretary Hughes
to the effect that he had heard indirectly that the Mexican
Government had affirmed its resolve not to break up any
estates belonging to American citizens.14 What that would
mean is that American citizens would enjoy privileges while
Mexicans are to forfeit rights.
Against this one-sided arrangement the Mexican press has
uplifted its voice with passionate emphasis and curious fore
boding. "It is no secret," writes one of the principal organs,
"that various foreign land-owners who protested against the
encroachments on their property made by the local agrarian
juntas have received redress. Mexicans, on the other hand,
have been compelled to resign themselves to the abuses and
to endure this spoliation." Very significantly the journal
adds : "It is not we Mexicans who will protest against the
'inequality of treatment' thus meted out to residents of one
and the same country under the same laws; it is unquestion
able that the protests will emanate from the foreigners." . . .
In effect, it is unquestionable. Many other analogous demands
put forward by outlanders operate and are meant to operate
as wedges for splitting up the actual State structure. Another
of the "dangers" confidently predicted consists in this, that
the Mexican landlords seeing themselves defenceless will, as
a last resort, dispose of their properties to foreigners.15
The sudden discovery of oil in the State of Tabasco precipi
tated matters. Tabasco is a State in which Mexican landlords
are numerous and they naturally enough hastened to strike
the iron while it was hot and make the most of their posses
sions. The petroleum companies, equally eager to fructify the
opportunity, had their representatives hie to the spot, where
transactions were effected with a speed which took the au
thorities by surprise. "A veritable fever has fallen upon the
businessmen of the United States," writes one of the Mex
ican press organs 16 "and likewise upon the foreign companies
which own oil interests in Mexico, actuating them to acquire
14 Excelsior, 15th April, 1921.
15 Ibidem.
16 Excelsior, 8th April, 1921.

148 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
rights in Tabasco where there is no longer any doubt that
the subsoil contains petroleum in vast quantities. ... A
legion of agents of the oil companies rushed hither-thither
hunting for the owners of the lands from whom they pro
posed to lease or buy them on such advantageous terms that
the authorities were put on their guard." 17
Thereupon the Central Government instructed the Gov
ernor to hinder transactions of the nature described and in
formed him that a commission would shortly be despatched
to Tabasco. But here again the federal system, not the Con
stitution of 19 1 7, was made the pretext for obstruction. The
Governor of Tabasco proposed to have special State legisla
tion passed on the subject, independently of the Federal Gov
ernment ! On this the Ministry of Industry telegraphed point
ing out that the only authority competent to make laws on
the subject was the central government, to which alone, as the
nation's trustee, the produce of the subsoil belonged, and that
consequently transactions concluded by the landowners with
agents of the oil companies would be null and void. This
injunction was beyond all question warranted. For Article
27 of the Constitution of 1917 nationalises the produce of the
subsoil from the date on which it was promulgated, but only
.from that date. Lands purchased or leased before then
will have to be excepted, but none others. Now the Ministry
of Industry and Commerce is said to have cognisance of
crooked deals concluded between agents of oil companies
and owners of lands last March in which, with the connivance
of the sellers, a false date was registered, a date anterior to
the publication of the Constitution of 1917, for the purpose
of obtaining the benefits of the clause of non-retroactivity.18
The greed of gold is almost as fertile a source of ingenuity
as natural hunger and a more powerful dissolvent of the
moral law.
In Mexico where a long spell of anarchy has made the
voice of misery imperious and that of morality often in
audible, money can accomplish things greater than in Europe,
17 Excelsior, 8th April, 1921.
is Universal, 9th April, 1921.

FLAWS IN CONSTITUTION OF 1917 149
but not as great as in the most cultured States of the New
Continent. Patriotism which is not a particularly hardy plant
among certain sections of the Mexican population can but
fitfully withstand its subtle withering force. Hence the temp
tation to owners of lands and agents of oil companies to con
spire to defeat the law. Hence, too, the accusations so freely
bandied about of late by the press organs, the one accusing
the other of selling its convictions for the money of the oil
companies and the retaliatory charges of blackmail launched
against certain newspaper managers by the oil companies'
representatives.19 Thus the "Universal" writes triumphantly
at the close of one of these unedifying controversies: "If any
body has asked or received money from the oil men, it is
the very people who some months ago dared to calumniate
the 'Universal'." 20
The fact would seem to be that in certain spheres of dem
agogy in Mexico as elsewhere it is occasion that makes people
honest. And the task of President Obregon is rendered un
commonly difficult and dangerous by the rareness of this
occasion, owing to the frequent offers of bribes. Some for
eign agents have done much to foster and spread corruption.
For the laws of the State and those of morality present but
a frail barrier against systematic dishonesty. This unsavoury
theme, however, deserves special treatment. The President
surely knows that to-day no less than in the epoch of Moses,
whenever the dance around the golden calf is as lively as it is
in the oil region, the tables of the law are doomed to be broken.
And he and many of his compatriots have often fervently
wished that Nature had not handicapped Mexico with a sin
ister combination : the boon of vast material wealth, the draw
back of a listless, poverty-stricken population and the bless
ing of a progressive neighbour endowed with the gift of ex
ploiting both. Patriotic Mexicans must feel tempted to re-
19 The legal adviser of the Huesteca Petroleum Company, Senor Caste-
lazo Fuentes, publicly stated that the Manager of the Heraldo de Mexico
offered him the neutrality of that paper and its silence for fifteen thousand
dollars and the Manager asserts that it was Senor C. Fuentes who sought
for the alliance of a good newspaper. Cf. Heraldo, 19th March, 1921, and
the Universal, 18th March, 1921.
20 Ibidem.

150 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
peat the words uttered by Seiiora Torcuata in Alarcon's story
of the buried treasure : "Accursed be treasures and mines and
devils and everything else that lies buried beneath the surface
of the earth, excepting water and the dead bodies of the
faithful." 21
21 "Malditos sean los tesoros, y las minas, y los diablos, y todo lo que
esta debajo de tierra, menos el agua y los fieles defuntos." Cf. Moros y
Cristianos, by Pedro A. de Alarcon, Chapter XIII.

CHAPTER XV
Oil and Politics
That Mexico's destinies should be influenced if not dom
inated by the oil interests is natural and inevitable. These
constitute such a paramount element in her economic life that
even domestic politics in that country is now wedded to them
for better or for worse.
The American oil companies in Mexico recently an
nounced x that during the first quarter of 192 1 oil stood for
no less than 62.1 per cent of that country's total exports to
the United States, while of its principal imports (manufac
tures of iron and steel) 40 per cent enter very largely into
the oil industry. Thus it is petroleum that supplies the staple
of Mexico's foreign trade and industry and will have to
bear the brunt of taxation. The bulk of the revenue is drawn
from that, and before other forms of commerce and in
dustry can be fully revived or be called to life to vie with oil,
the treaty, it is assumed, will have been signed and the Con
stitution amended or abolished, or else Mexico will be on the
way to Cubanisation. That is the current belief in the United
States. No wonder the attention of natives and foreigners
is focussed upon the sub-soil and its treasures or that the
contemporary history of the Republic is soaked through and
through with oil. But the allegation that the oil men have
lately broken bounds and encroached upon the domain of
politics should not blind one to the fact that certain of their
grievances were genuine and their demand for the protection
of private property justified at least in law.
The owners of the oil fields, the organisers of the inde
pendent industries, the capitalists and the shippers are mostly
men of English speech. The land which they exploit was
bought or leased, sometimes at very low prices and rents, but
1In a pamphlet entitled: "What Oil Means to Mexico,"
151

152 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
in most cases in formal accordance with the legislation in
vigour at the time. Hence their titles are on the whole juri
dically unassailable. On other and higher grounds their titles
have been called in question, but with this aspect of the matter
we are not concerned. It was that legislation, then, wise or
unwise, which guaranteed their rights to the produce of the
subsoil and warranted a large expenditure of money, brains
and labour in research and exploitation. It is true that they
enriched themselves rapidly, but they also benefited indi
rectly and to a far too limited extent the country whence they
drew and exported their wealth. And, like most foreigners
of English speech, the bulk of them were well-meaning, blus
tering and ill-informed and their attempts to get on with the
natives kindly, clumsy and unsuccessful.
One day the law which had protected their enterprise was
partially altered by the legislative enactment 2 which has given
rise to the sequence of grievances, protests and problems that
now threaten the sovereignty of the Republic. For at bottom
the stake at present at issue is the sovereignty of the Mex
ican State and not merely protection of rights or redress of
grievances. According to Mexican accounts, there was no active co-oper
ation between American investors and Mr. Fall until the down
fall of the Carranza Administration. Most of the former
professed to be eager only for the enjoyment of their legal
rights. They occasionally hinted at intervention in wild un
measured terms, but their deliberate aim as expressed to others
was professedly unpolitical. That was a prudent attitude.
For so long as Carranza retained the reins of power there was
no need of any co-ordinate action on the part of the politicians
and the oil groups, because it was manifest to all that his
policy if persisted in after March, 1921, would end by pro
voking intervention. And there was a general consensus of
opinion that his successor would uphold that policy unflinch
ingly. It was for this welcome conjuncture that the Fall
Report was hurriedly terminated and published. Had the
salutary revolutionary movement headed by General Obregon
2 By Article 27.

OIL AND POLITICS 153
been trampled out, as Carranza believed and assured me it
would, be, there is not the slightest reason to doubt that
American intervention, together with all that that implies,
was a foregone conclusion, little though the late President
realised the danger. And certain of the foreign interests
were waiting for that and preparing to profit by it.
At this posture of affairs I visited the Republic. I came
equipped with only a general knowledge of Mexican affairs
at their points of contact with world politics and of Mexican
history, including that of the Maya civilisation and language
which I had studied many years before. My first step was
to betake myself to the study of the political and social con
ditions, to bring to bear upon them an independent judgment
and freely to record the results of my observations in the
light in which they appeared to me. I was fettered by no
preconceived ideas or purpose.
I found that the potential results of the great revolution
which had placed Senor Carranza at the head of the Republic
had been exchanged for the small money of personal and
partisan aggrandisement. A revolution can justify itself only
by working desirable changes, by setting up a better ordering
than that which it pulled down. And this justification was
lacking. Local, State, national and international affairs were
going from bad to worse. The misery of the common people
was widespread and intense. This I could attest as an eye
witness, for I went among the lowest and most forlorn sec
tions of the population in several cities, visited their squalid
dens, conversed with the sick, came in contact with some who
were homeless, diseased and dying uncomplainingly. Only
the persons who have beheld the results of the Allied block
ade on the children and the women of Central Europe can
paint a fairly adequate mental picture of some of the scenes
and types that came to my notice. Financially, economically
and politically the inhabitants of one of the richest countries
on the globe had sunk into a Serbonian bog of misery and
disease and were fast going under. The Federal State was
little more than a board of directors working for its own
enrichment and that of its friends. Its every undertaking

154 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
resembled a structure raised on the quicksands. The convic
tion was forced upon me that with Carranza or a puppet of
his choice grasping the helm the Ship of State was doomed
to flounder in United States waters and to receive a pilot
from that Republic. That was evident to the dullest appre
hension. The men of money desired only that it should be
come widely known and that the American public should be
properly keyed to the coming transformation of Mexico.
The principal objects of the Carranza Government as they
seemed to me were the establishment of the regime on solid
foundations and the perpetuation in power of the President's
partisans. All foreign and domestic policies were at that time
being carefully subordinated to those aims. I found no
united nation, no self-conscious classes, no compact organism.
Before a group had time to crystallise and become the
nucleus of an influential political or social organism, it
was dissolved in the crucible and poured anew into the
seething mass. There was no middle class, no farmers'
class, no constitutional opposition. Every section of the popu
lation which in virtue of its special interests, material or spir
itual, of its traditions, aims or ideas might be expected to
favour a fixed independent policy or to form a solid kernel
around which other groups might rally had been disintegrated.
For among the postulates of the system were an indifferent
or at any rate a quiescent population and the absence of or
ganised opposition. And these postulates were secured by
threats of severe punishment. The conclusion was forced
upon me that such a Government could not claim to be
national, pacific, constitutional or stable and was therefore
but a gliding shadow deserving no more than a chronological
record. From every view-point then Mexico seemed to me to be the
embodiment of stagnation. There was no social, no political,
no industrial movement in the country, no burning issues, no
spiritual or intellectual life, no salutary contest between oppos
ing principles, no established way of shaping public opinion
or sentiment with a view of enlisting them in the service
of men, — in a word, none of the various manifestations which

OIL AND POLITICS 155
denote and foster national vitality, nothing but stagnation and
sullen resignation on the one hand and endless petty strife,
more purposeless then the civil war of the Fronde, on the
other hand. Under such conditions no political development
or social growth, no satisfaction to the deepest and best ele
ments of human nature, seemed possible. Politico-social recon
struction was out of the question so long as the Carranza
regime, which was partly answerable for this deplorable con
dition, held the field. And many of the signs and tokens
pointed to its surviving, at any rate until the advent and
action of the Republican Administration in the United States.
The conclusion was drawn by interested foreign observers
that the regenerative force necessary and adequate to infuse
a new spirit into the country could come only from without
because in Mexico itself under prevailing conditions collec
tivity of effort was an impossibility. Hence the foreign re
formers could content themselves with watching, waiting and
bruiting abroad the true state of affairs.
At the end of Carranza' s political road, therefore, which
seemed bound to be disastrous, lurked intervention or worse.
On the only occasion when I conversed with him I ventured
to intimate to him in courteous language that I was convinced
of this. For so far as one could then see there was no
tertium quid worth considering. A revolution was indeed a
possibility and is assumed by onlookers in the United States
to be sempiternally impending. None of the interested spec
tators, political or industrial, anticipated an improvement from
any such upheaval. On the contrary, they expected confusion
to be worse confounded and intervention to be more peremp
torily called for. And from this chaos they would evolve an
order all their own.
And therein lay the source of their fateful miscalcula
tion. For while I was still investigating conditions, a sudden
and root-reaching change came over the situation. A deus
ex machina in the person of General Obregon appeared and
put a wholly different complexion on the national and inter
national problems by introducing an element of transforma-

156 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
tion. At first neither the nature nor the vastness of this
metamorphosis was realised by those foreign spectators who
are wont to lump all Mexicans in one class and label it "in
ferior" or "benighted." But as soon as I began to record my
impressions of General Obregon, my estimate of the extent
to which his influence would upset current expectations and
projected policies and my conviction that in his case the
line between biography and national history would shortly
fade away, the attitude of those interested foreigners under
went a noteworthy change. They belittled the importance
of the downfall of Carranza and the advent of the new men
and sought to force an issue on the strength of the Fall
Report which Obregon's assurances had consigned to the
limbo of history. They also strove by every means in their
power to hinder American excursionists from visiting Mexico
and published an appeal to certain Chambers of Commerce
with this object. They would fain cause Mexico's history
to stop short on the last page of the Fall Report and direct
the ensuing stream of public indignation against the Mexican
Republic, while ignoring the complete change in the situa
tion which the just and friendly polity of the new Adminis
tration had imported into the problem. Translated into plain
English, there curious manoeuvres meant that the politico-
capitalist group was determined to persist in its policy of
praeter-diplomatic pressure — or in plain English, intervention,
— for the purpose of depriving the greatest and wealthiest of
the Latin-American Republics of its sovereignty.
Thenceforward they announced their conviction, to which
they still hold fast, that no promises of the Mexican Govern
ment, no legislative acts of the Mexican Congress, can provide
them with conditions which they deem advantageous enough
for their enterprise. They long sighed for the halcyon days
of Don Porfirio when fear of Yankee intervention was the
"fantasma" which moved the Mexican Executive to accord
them all that they asked for. And as none of the "coming
men" whom they flattered and disciplined and prepared for
presidential duties contrived to reach the goal of his ambitions,
they lost heart for a time but continued to keep a look-out for

OIL AND POLITICS 157
the "man of destiny" who would enable them to execute their
design. After a while — so the Mexican narrative runs — they joined
forces with the enterprising politician in the United States
who was believed to be conversant with every phase of Mexi
can affairs, in fact with most matters excepting the psychology
of the people. Desirous of making a dent in the history of his
country, this statesman drew up a programme in which he un
folded his own conceptions of the relations that should sub
sist between Mexico and the United States. It included the
treaty which Mr. Hughes has since made his own, the abolition
of certain articles of the Constitution, preferential treatment
of Americans in commerce and industry, an arrangement
which would virtually give to the State Department in Wash
ington the rights and privileges of guardianship, a sort of
Piatt amendment for choice. And all that is now lacking to
its realisation are the occasion and the Mexican man of des
tiny. The former would have been supplied by a revolution —
it too failed to come off at the date fixed — or the perpetuation
of Carranza's policy, and the latter by one of two types of
President: a fanatical obstinate anti-Yankee or a subservient
tool who would consent to see Mexico's needs eye-to-eye with
the groups in question and to carry out its behests.
If Mexico is still a sovereign State to-day, it is because
neither the occasion nor the man has been forthcoming. There
is no revolution threatening. Peace and order have been re
established. Reforms of every kind are being pressed forward.
Business has revived to such an extent that in the month of
May, 1 92 1, only four countries bought more goods in the
United States than Mexico, who imported more than all the
countries of South America by nearly two million dollars.
The Federal Army has been reduced from 105,000 to 77,000
men and by the autumn it will number only 50,000.
Despite the defective condition of much of the railways' roll
ing stock the trains run almost on time and accidents are fewer
in relation to the number of passengers than in France.
In this way the anticipated occasion was brilliantly warded
off — and the realisation of the guardianship project which had

158 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
reckoned with a totally different situation had to be post
poned. The economic grievances wrongly ascribed to Article
XXVII of the Constitution were next relied upon. Fears
were expressed that oil properties would be confiscated. These
apprehensions, however, were speedily dispelled first by Presi
dent de la Huerta and then by President Obregon. The latter
has solemnly promised to respect all property rights in the
country and that Mexico's debts will be paid to the uttermost
farthing and he has shown that he means what he said. But
what was most resented in his public utterances was his deter
mination to see that the people of Mexico, whose treasures
have for ages been flowing ceaselessly into the coffers of
strangers, shall have a fair share of what still remains in the
soil. In this way the ground was completely cut from under the
feet of those restless foreign corporations which were press
ing forward their scheme of readjustment. And Mexicans
hoped and believed that with these dangers dislodged a com
plete and satisfactory understanding with the United States
Government would be a mere matter of days or weeks. But
the camel's nose was suddenly thrust into the Mexican tent
and a treaty insisted upon as a condition antecedent to recog
nition — whereupon the hopes of the would-be ethical guard
ians revived, that the rest of the camel would shortly
follow. That the American people whose sense of fair play is almost
proverbial approves this procedure is not believed by Mexi
cans who have resided in the United States. A noteworthy
section of the American press expresses the same disbelief.
Commenting on the admirable programme set forth by Presi
dent Obregon in the New York World, that journal writes :
"The Executive who stands for such a programme and the fol
lowers who uphold it are worthy of more consideration than
is implied in demands from our State Department for imme
diate legislation defining constitutional provisions. The United
States in assuming to dictate what laws Mexico shall pass does
what it would not permit any foreign Power in its own case
even to suggest. If there are interests in the United States

OIL AND POLITICS 159
that desire to postpone recognition in order to weaken the
Obregon regime and prepare the way for a Government as
amenable to outside discipline as was that of the Dictator
Diaz, the continuing barrage of active Mexican propaganda
may be easily understood." 3
One can hardly blame the Mexicans for ascribing the vari
ous plots and outbreaks of the month of July — especially those
the scene of which was the oil country — to that discontented
element which alone would have profited by their success.
Suspicion, we are assured, is borne out by tangible proof. If
this be true, and a genuine plot is unmasked, one cannot affect
surprise if those to whom the guilt is brought home, whoever
they may be, are regarded by Mexicans as the most pestilent of
their enemies. The day is not far distant when that evidence
— if it exists — must be produced. The statement has been
published by the Mexican press that at the conspirative meet
ings held by Robles Dominguez Cantu, Pablo Gonzalez and
General Murghia, a representative of the oil companies from
Washington was present.1
But for those things the Mexican mind was prepared.
Hence although they might arouse resentment they could not
awaken surprise. What stirred the people to the quick wa9
the disillusion caused by Mr. Hughes' demand. They had
built upon his sense of justice, his fervid honesty and his
breadth of practical wisdom and were buoyed up with the
hope that he would recognise the change that had taken place
in Mexico, rate at its just value the work of social reconstruc
tion which is going forward there and the readjustment of its
relations with the United States, and would strike out a policy
at once amicable, generous and congruous with these new and
deciding facts. They still think highly of Mr. Hughes' mo
tives but deem them more interesting to the biographer than
to the historian and they feel strongly about his Mexican
policy. During the years that elapsed between the promulgation of
the new Constitution and the overthrow of the Carranza
3 New York World, 28th June, 1921.
* See for example El Heraldo de Mexico, June 19th, 1921.

160 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
regime,6 all that was needed to put Mexico right with foreign
States was the redemption of the plighted word of her Presi
dent. And nothing would have been easier for her while
Mr. Lansing was Secretary of State than to have settled on
equitable and easy terms with her aggrieved neighbours; for
the issues were then reduced to their narrowest compass and
simplest forms, and even the oil companies might conceivably
have been contented with strict justice. Why should any
thing more be exacted to-day? Every demand made by the
State Department in Washington during those years of storm
and distress has been acquiesced in by President Obregon
and more. But the requirements of the Department have
grown and been made to include a claim which amounts to
an implicit denial of Mexico's sovereignty. To constrain a
State to sign a treaty to which it has a rooted objection con
notes a wholly new departure in international politics. And
Mexico can hardly be expected to contribute to its establish
ment. It goes beyond the terms put forward by Mr. Lan
sing and rejected by Senor Carranza. It transcends the former
demands of the oil companies and of other American in
vestors. It is rooted in a wholly different soil. It is a new
postulate, political in character, commensurate with Latin
America in extent and cosmic in its bearings. In short, it
is the foundation stone of the vast fabric which is destined
to keep the world divided into a dual system of which one
part would temporarily recognise the overlordship of the
non-American peoples of English speech and the other the
hegemony of the United States.
A formal treaty with Mexico did not become an official
condition of settlement, still less of recognition, until Mr.
Colby was appointed Secretary of State. And a treaty
embodying what Mr. Fall termed "special agreements" and
"recognition of the Monroe Doctrine" has, it appears, not
been seriously contemplated at any time by the State Depart
ment. Even now Secretary Hughes has not formally adopted
any portion of the Fall programme but one. The preamble
of the scheme fathered by Mr. Fall gathers up the many
B 1917 and 1920.

OIL AND POLITICS 161
rumotws, facts, accusations and calumnies that lay scattered
in the unfavourable judgments passed on Mexico for a num
ber of years. His line of reasoning is simple. The Mexican
governing class is pictured as devoid of the capacity for
governing or building up. The nation which it impersonates
is destructive by habit if not by nature and the political
atmosphere in which it lives and works is mephitic. The bulk
of the people, pillaged or neglected by the ruling group, has
for generations been buffeted to and fro on the waves of
misery and disease. Like the blind fish in certain cave-lakes
one of its senses is atrophied. The whole Republic is in an
advanced stage of decomposition. It recognises no moral, no
legal restraint. Its plighted troth is worthless. To-day, there
fore, do what they may, Obregon and his fellow workers
cannot possibly reorganise and maintain it on a basis which
would challenge and receive the approval of any righteous
State. Mexico's only chance lies in securing the active and
unremitting co-operation of the United States. And this
co-operation should be given only on America's terms which
include all the privileges of ethical, financial and economic
guardianship. Hence the sole sheet anchor of salvation is for
the Mexican President to bow to the inevitable and smooth
the way for its reception by the people. This is at once his
opportunity and his probationary ordeal. Patriotism and
personal interest alike should prompt him to turn the turbid
rill of Mexico's history into the mighty waters of America's
destinies. His countrymen would then be admitted to a share
in the boons enjoyed only by the most progressive race of the
world. Bending is better than being broken. But if he be too
high-spirited to play the leading part in thus patriotically
knuckling down, then his greatness will entail disaster and may
lead to his country's undoing.
It is fair to say that that is a practical corollary of the
arbitrary premise that all Mexican promises and reforms are
valueless. For if this be true it follows that, whether they are
embodied in a bilateral treaty or a one-sided legislative or
judicial act, they are not worth the paper on which they would
be written. Any treaty under such circumstances would be

162 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
valueless unless it conferred on the United States in Mexico
as in Cuba the right of making its counsel heard and its power
felt to countervail Mexican remissness.
Now Mr. Hughes' demand for a treaty antecedent to recog
nition is the first step towards the realisation of these designs,
however little he may suspect it. In this sense one may regard
it as a temporary substitute for the "occasion" which as we
saw is recognised as an indispensable condition to the imposi
tion of the new relationship between the United States and
Mexico. And determined efforts have since been made by
persons whose identity may possibly be revealed by the law
courts before these lines have seen the light to create an "occa
sion" incomparably more auspicious and to champion the
"man of destiny."6
As for the man fitted to play the primary role prepared for
him in this political mystery play, he too has been found but
like so many of his compeers he has not yet reached the foot
lights. His qualifications are not exorbitant : he must be weak
by temperament, compliant by reflection and mentally vacuous
enough to serve as the channel through which good advice
from the North may uninterruptedly flow to the Government
and population of the Mexican Republic. The framers of
the project lost sight of the resolve of the Mexican people to
lead its own life and work out its salvation in its own fashion
and of the circumstance that it resents being made virtuous by
act of Congress, parasitical by treaty or wealthy by proxy.
As military intervention has an ugly ring, it is now rigour-
ously excluded from the vocabulary of the foreign junta
which would fain save Mexico in spite of herself. Their plan
is less simple and more specious. Having found a duly
qualified President — and there is said to be one now impa
tiently waiting abroad — the modus operandi would be some
what as follows : The President would first come to a secret
understanding with the United States Government on the
subject of the Constitution of 19 17 and of the other conces-
6 General Pelaez has publicly accused the agents of a certain oil com
pany of supplying the rebel General Martinez Herrera with a large sum
of money to enable him to overthrow the Obregon Government See The
Mexican Post, July 16th, 1921.

OIL AND POLITICS 163
sions deemed indispensable to the establishment of stable
friendly intercourse and would receive in return the promise
of moral, financial and eventually military support and assist
ance in carrying out the concerted plan. The first step on the
part of the State Department, after a definite refusal of recog
nition, would be a notice issued to the Mexican nation that the
people of the United States would not war with them but
would take effective measures to protect the lives and proper
ties of foreigners. And as Mexico would be still without a
recognised government it would send warships to Vera Cruz
and "a police force consisting of the naval and military forces
of our Government into the Republic of Mexico to open and
maintain open every line of communication between the city
of Mexico and every sea-port and every border-port of
Mexico." This force once despatched, the compliant Presi
dent, "acting in the highest interests of his country," would
fulminate a fiery protest against the foreign invaders, denounce
their incursion as a violation of international right and sum
mon them to withdraw at once and permit the Mexican people
to settle the matter without constraint and congruously with
its interests and duties. Thereupon the foreign police force
would be withdrawn in order to enable the Republic to recon
sider its position. On this the President would issue a mani
festo to the nation, deprecate the violation of its territory,
point out that the menace was still hanging over its head and,
in view of the material impossibility of successfully resisting
the overwhelming force of the invader, would ask for extra
ordinary powers to accept the best conditions to be obtained.
If these powers were accorded to him, he would employ them
— always in the highest interests of the nation — for the pur
pose of concluding the secret compact already agreed upon.
Should those powers be refused or should a rebellion break
out at any stage of the proceedings the United States Govern
ment would step in to aid and abet the patriotic President by
every means in its power, as it offered to aid and abet Presi
dent Oreste Zamor of Haiti. The procedure is evidently
stereotyped. It is an instructive and illuminating detail that a firm belief

164 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
was entertained by politicians and capitalists of note in the
United States who currently pass for authorities on Mexican
affairs that President Obregon would lend himself as chief
actor to this international melodrama. On the psychological
assumptions on which that belief was based and first-hand
knowledge of which is now accessible, it would be unfruitful
to dwell here. It may suffice to add that to any one who can
truly claim acquaintanceship with General Obregon the sup
position was preposterous. Fabricius in ancient Rome whose
name has become a synonym for jncorruptible patriotism and
loyalty was not better panoplied against temptation and menace
than is the President of the Mexican Republic.
Schemes of this nature which take it for granted that no
good can come out of Nazareth have had their natural effect
on the minds of Mexican statesmen. They see, as they think,
clearly, the interests which are being tirelessly furthered in
their country under various high-sounding names and they
consider them irreconcilable with the complete independence
of the Republic. Hence their sullen opposition to the insertion
of what they look upon as the thin edge of the wedge, in the
shape of a covenant of friendship to be imposed by sheer force.
But General Obregon does not make the unpardonable mis
take of confounding certain interested groups in the neighbour
ing Republic with the bulk of the American people whom he
sincerely admires and in whose unerring sense of justice he
feels and displays implicit confidence. What he and his fellow
workers desire is an opportunity to set before that people in its
daily press the elements of the question at issue, the causes of
the present misunderstanding, and his country's desire to live
in genuine amity with that great nation, to profit by its ex
ample and to benefit by its friendly co-operation.

CHAPTER XVI
The Neo-Monroe Doctrine
There can be little doubt that all the terms of recognition
outlined by Mr. Fall in the report of the Senate Sub-Commit
tee would have been imposed on Mexico, had the Revolution
headed by General Obregon been quelled. For they were
drawn up specially to meet a particular situation and to solve
the problems to which it gave rise. And Cuban history leaves
no doubt in our minds what the course of Mexico's affairs
would then have been. As it chanced however the Mexican
people was ripe for reform, rose up in arms and overthrew
the system that was exposing it to that danger. Its leader
inspired it with a growing passion for social justice which is
fast bearing fruit and he implanted in the soul of the whole
nation a sentiment of dignity and self-respect which will stand
it in good stead during the work of reconstruction which has
already begun. Every kind of outside pressure put upon the
people under the new conditions will therefore operate as a
potent irritant, and that the Mexicans should so regard the
terms demanded of them as the price of recognition is neither
surprising nor blameworthy.
With the overturn of Carranza' s regime and the re
versal of his policies the motive and justification of the Fall
recommendations vanished and a new epoch was inaugurated.
But the lack of preparation in the inelastic minds of North
American politicians for this swift transformation and the
strong influence of certain insatiable oil companies partially
account for the tenacious clinging of the principal framer of
the recommendations to what might aptly be designated the
magnum opus of his public life. One can sympathise with a
diligent worker who after a protracted period of strenuous
toil, planning for the expansion of his own country at the
expense of another and fancying he had devised a new and
165

166 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
puissant agency for the reorganisation of the State systems of
the world, beholds the outcome of his labour made valueless
and void by the achievements of a citizen of the backward
nation whose moral quality and political vision placed him all
at once in the front rank of reforming statesmen. What Mr.
Fall offered was a form of guardianship which would admit
of the United States bringing up Mexico by hand. What
u4 General Obregon actually accomplished was to set his country
j.Awui> „ on its legs and render it wholly independent of ethical, politi-
!M4,wn*v,«,«A.cal and economic wardship. And one of the chief causes of
s tou?/ *^e deplorable misunderstandings between the two republics
° ._ to-day lies in the inability or slowness of the North American
.Jlir Government to realise that the necessity for the drastic
*¦*- '**^" remedial measures prescribed by the distinguished ex-Senator
4r ,jp-tCy has disappeared. He is a poor surgeon who would insist on
ce'*4*4.»»jamputating a limb after it had recovered its pristine strength
»- I and flexibility. But there are such.
The roots of the matter, however, lie deeper than a mistake
in political diagnosis and extend farther than the boundaries
of the Mexican Republic. They spread to all the lands of the
American Continent south of the Rio Grande and may be
labelled the Neo-Monroe Doctrine. Mr. Fall's suggestions,
Mr. Hughes' condition of recognition, the various demands,
strivings and protests of the foreign capitalists in Mexico are
all so many tentacles of the doctrine of Monroe. And one
of the indirect consequences of the World War which has
stricken so many European powers with palsy is the creation
of conditions exceptionally favourable to its resuscitation,
growth and spread.
The friends of this elusive canon admit that it thrives on
anarchy and confusion. And its enemies maintain that it
produces the conditions on which it lives and thrives.
The Monroe Doctrine, long dormant and never authorita
tively defined, is looked upon by easy-going Americans as an
old-fashioned weapon of defence against Europe's long for
gotten velleities of conquest by means of colonisation. And
they consign it to the dusty archives rather than to the arsenal
of effective political armaments. Those among them to whom

THE NEO-MONROE DOCTRINE 167
current history is not a sealed book invoke good authority for
their contention. For example, William Graham Sumner, the
patriotic American, terms the doctrine a fetish and asks :
"Does the United States intend to deny that the States of South
America are independent States open to access by any other
nations and liable to have any kind of friendly or unfriendly
relations with European States such as any two independent
States may have with each other?"1 President Wilson an
swered that question in the following passage of a public
speech: "It is none of my business . . . how long they (the
Mexican .people) take in determining what their Government
should be. Their country is theirs. The Government is theirs.
Have not European nations taken as long as they wanted, and
spilt as much blood as they pleased, in settling their affairs?
And shall we deny that to Mexico, because she is weak ? No,
I say."2 That interpretation was as authoritative as any. And
it reassured the States of Latin America whose peace of mind
had been perturbed by the imperialistic utterances of respon
sible and irresponsible politicians. But President Wilson's
successor implicitly puts a different construction on it, as indeed
Mr. Wilson himself did in other declarations and acts of his.
And yet Mexico and the sister Republics are expected, nay
enjoined, by Mr. Fall to accept formally, solemnly and irre
vocably what he is pleased to term the "Monroe Doctrine."
Those Americans who complain that one Mexican President
is apt to reverse the political maxims of his predecessor and
go on a wholly new tack are the best qualified to comprehend
the bewilderment of the Mexicans when faced by these contra
dictions and the fervour of their desire to be freed from the
painful uncertainty now prevailing respecting the policies of
successive administrations of the United States.
That lucid statement was not the only one given to the
world by Mr. Wilson.
Incidentally that President dealt a stunning blow to the
imperialist interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine when he
1 War and Other Essays, by W. G. Sumner, p. 61.
2 Speech delivered at Indianapolis on January 8th, 191S. In June of the
same year the President struck a wholly different note, but that was
ignored in Mexico City.

168 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
announced that "all the governments of America stand, so far
as we are concerned, upon a footing of genuine equality and
unquestioned independence."3 And Mexicans pertinently ask
how they can satisfy the demands of the great Northern Re
public if one of its Presidents contradicts or cancels the solemn
utterances of his predecessor in a matter of such moment.
And following the American demand for a treaty defining
these reciprocal relations, they ask for an authoritative defini
tion of the Monroe Doctrine.
Mr. Sumner, commenting upon President Cleveland's refer
ence to the doctrine, wrote: "He talks about the Monroe
Doctrine and he tells us solemnly that it is true and sacred,
whatever it is. He even undertakes to give some definition
of what he means by it; but the definition which he gives
binds nobody, either now or in the future, any more than
what Monroe and Adams meant by it binds anybody now not
to mean anything else."4 In another passage the same author
says: "If you want war, nourish a doctrine ... it would
ruin a doctrine to define it, because then it could be analysed,
tested, criticised and verified; but nothing ought to be tolerated
which cannot be so tested."5 Accordingly the Monroe Doc
trine has never been authoritatively defined. It is a blank
cheque on which any sum may be written by the State Depart
ment in Washington. Hence Mexico refuses to sign it.
If the principle underlying those important pronounce
ments represented the policy of the United States Govern
ment, as might well be the case, seeing that President Wilson
was as great an authority on the subject as President Monroe,
the doctrine might decently be buried, for it would certainly
be dead. But in the course of the World War this canon,
quickened into fresh vitality by combination with a principle
misnamed "manifest Destiny," has tacitly become the palladium
of certain superior races who feel themselves charged with a
providential mission to guide their lesser brethren and shoulder
the "white man's precious burden." To-day therefore under
3 Message to Congress, 7th December, 1915.
4 War and Other Essays, by W. G. Sumner, p. 38.
5 Op. cit. p. 36.

THE NEO-MONROE DOCTRINE 169
the pressure of economic necessity the dogma and its gloss
bid fair to crystallise into a political maxim which may be
formulated thus: "If an inferior nation cannot or will not
develop the natural resources of the country it inhabits, the
superior race on the other side of its frontiers has the right
and the duty to develop them and to take the inferior nation
under its guidance."
In effect certain progressive peoples are seriously recon
sidering the accepted doctrines of democracy, progress and
self-determination with a view to their amendment. Limita
tions have already been set upon these and upon various other
forms of liberty. The State has begun to make weak-willed
individuals virtuous by statute and from this to the reforma
tion of weak-willed States by a neighbouring Superstate in the
name of humanity and economics there is only a step and it
looks as though it too would shortly be taken. Such is the
trend of social thought to-day among those advanced nations
who believe that their moral vision fits them for the work of
discerning the needs of their backward neighbours and devis
ing the ways and means of satisfying these. The functions
of government are thus being stretched so as to cover part of
the sphere formerly regulated by religion and the moral law.
This innovation looks like the prelude to a new altruistic
move which will bring together in close contact the lion and
the lamb, the hawk and the pheasant. And neither the lamb
nor the pheasant like the prospect. It is generally considered
an ill sign to see the fox manifest tenderness toward the lamb.
This introduction of "morality" into international polity was
applied at the Peace Conference in Paris in the shape of the
system of mandates for such backward and wealthy lands as
Mesopotamia, Persia and Syria, and it bids fair to leaven
politics with this new type of international ethics in other
regions and in a way never struck out before. It may become
in the international sphere what prohibition is in the national.
In the western hemisphere it was implicitly adopted by the
versatile President Wilson when he wrote to Carranza: "I
therefore call upon the leaders of Mexico to act. ... If they
cannot accommodate their differences and unite for this great

170 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
purpose within a very short time, this Government will be
constrained to decide what means should be employed by the
United States in order to help Mexico save herself and serve
her people."6 Here we have the magic word fated to attract
and crystallise the floating ideas and aspirations of the new
era which have not yet been embodied in practical politics.
Mexico must be helped to save herself. And yet her Govern
ment "stands upon a footing of genuine equality." President
Roosevelt with whom I had the privilege of exchanging views
on this subject upheld the same principle and looked to it for
the solution of the Latin-American riddles. Publicly he laid
it down 7 that "chronic wrong-doing or an impotence which
results in a general loosening of the ties of civilised society
may in America as elsewhere ultimately require intervention
by some civilised nation, and in the western hemisphere the
adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may
force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases
of such wrong-doing or impotence, to the exercise of an inter
national police power. It is a mere truism to say that every
nation whether in America or elsewhere, which desires to
maintain its freedom, its independence, must ultimately realise
that the right of such independence cannot be separated from
the responsibility of making good use of it." But who is the
judge? The Power that is able and willing to employ force?
And suppose its economic interest in intervening overbears its
judgment, what then? Is there to be no appeal ? Apparently
not. Now that would seem to be the accepted way of applying the
enlarged Monroe Doctrine to-day on the principle that duty
changes with conditions and rights expand commensurately
with responsibilities. All that is further needed in order to
reveal the concrete embodiment of the canon thus widened
and raised to the status of a world-policy is to determine
which are the nations thus qualified to intervene helpfully in
the internal affairs of a restless neighbour, for the laudable
purpose of raising barriers to the possible spread of anarchism
6 Note dated June 2nd, 1915.
7 In his annual message to Congress in 1904.

THE NEO-MONROE DOCTRINE 171
and attuning progress there to the rhythm of the culture-bear
ing race. The necessity of instructing the executors of the
Monroe Doctrine, who were already admittedly the protectors
of a whole continent against foreign aggression, with the in
terpretation and maintenance of the basic principles of social
stability and accepting them as moderators and mentors of
backward American communities in matters of social, political
and moral advancement, and of generalising this principle and
extending this trust, is being slowly stamped into the political
consciousness of the leaders of the English-speaking peoples
throughout the world.
At first sight it seems to be a maxim capable of working
vast changes in the destinies of the human race by conjoining
resolute will with overmastering power and quickening both
with lofty ethical professions. But the student of history
knows that world-wide policy, however mild and moral, in
variably challenges world-wide resistance for it assumes what
cannot be accepted universally — that all kinds of culture must
give way to that of a single type. And this is especially true
when the privileged form is believed to consist mainly in ma
terial well-being, mechanical morality and spiritual pretensions.
It is fair to add that in such a classification of nations the
ethical values are necessarily relative. W. G. Sumner lays it
down plainly that this doctrine is but "a glib and convenient
means of giving an appearance of rationality to an exercise
of superior force." 8 And it is impossible to gainsay the
statement. He further avers that : "There is something hideous
in the attitude of one community standing over another to see
whether the latter is 'fit for self-government.' Is lynching or
race rioting," he asks, "or negro burning, or a row in the
legislature, or a strike with paralysed industry, or a disputed
election, or a legislative deadlock, or the murder of a claimant
official ... or financial corruption and jobbery, proof of
unfitness for self-government? If so, any State which was
stronger than we might take away our self-government on the
ground that we were unfit for it. It is, therefore, simply a
question of power, like all the other alleged grounds of inter-
8 Earth-Hunger and Other Essays, by W. G. Sumner, p. 54.

172 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
ference of one political body with another, such as humanity,
sympathy, neighbourhood, internal anarchy, and so on."9
This deliberate judgment of the eminent American soci
ologist is identical with that of serious Mexican politicians.
They too feel and say that if Mexico were a country devoid of
natural riches, no Great Power would worry much about its
ethical or social advancement. They would look elsewhere
for the white man's burden and first scrutinise its contents.
"Some righteous folks," exclaimed a Mexican to me, "would
be disappointed if there were no wealthy peoples backward or
peccant enough to need salvation from without." The remark
is true. None the less, it is refreshing to know that there are
men who profess to lay greater store by the saving of their
brother's soul than by the cut of his coat or the colour of
his tie, and nations which think that they set a lower rate on
their trade and industries in a foreign land than on the moral
upbringing of its inhabitants.
But if a privileged race be qualified to sit in judgment on
less progressive peoples, is it equally capable of deciding what
is good for them? No one conversant with contemporary
history can truly answer that query in the affirmative. As a
whole the politico-social institutions of communities of English
speech are passably good in themselves and in a rough way
suit the peoples who elaborated them, because they have
grown out of their needs and of their national and racial con
sciousness. But only a visionary would regard them as ap
propriate to all other nations and races. Neither the British
conception of self-determination nor the North American in
terpretation of individual liberty will commend itself to France,
Italy, or Japan. And as for the craze of imposing the institu
tions of either upon such backward communities as Persia or
Mexico, it would be little less than a crime against humanity.
Indeed it is no exaggeration to affirm that most of Mexico's
tribulations are the direct outcome of her own foolish effort
to model her political system upon that of the United States,
and of the resolve of the United States Government to punish
her for the results.
9 War and Other Essays, by W. G. Sumner, pp. 349-350.

THE NEO-MONROE DOCTRINE 173
None the less, the new canon, which might be termed the
doctrine of ethical guardianship, may possibly be incorporated
for a time among the unwritten laws of nations in the new
era which has begun. Already at the Paris Conference it
received, as we saw, the implicit assent of the greater and
greedier States which profited by it considerably. They freely
gave and took mandates to protect well-to-do wards — but
fought shy of poor ones — on the ground that moral responsi
bility and guardianship are the correlates of political power
and high moral standing. And in the near future wherever
on the globe there happens to be a strong, thriving, order-
loving, assimilating and progressive people and beside it a
restless, backward, potentially wealthy, politically incohesive
State, there will be a strong temptation to apply the principle.
Divested of its moral wrappages it is the doctrine of might.
As General Obregon puts it: "The World War is obliging
great nations to choose between force and justice and the little
ones can escape from force only by submitting to justice."
Force decked out in the garb of ethics would seem to be the
one fixed and immutable point in the various doctrines which
still inspire Latin-Americans — "the inferior races" — with
alarm. For what it connotes is the Anglo-Americanisation of
the western hemisphere.
The North American politician who dwells in the high
politico-spiritual latitudes of righteousness professes to regard
Mexico as a huge decaying organism at the very doors of his
country and proclaims that it has become a danger not merely
to group interests or to legitimate political aims but also and
especially to the normal progress of the world. And he re
fuses to inquire whether the germs of the decay were imported
or nurtured by outside influences, as Mexicans assert, and de
liberately cultivated by outside sordid interests. He takes the
ground that the whole organism being tainted with gangrene,
it is bootless to seek to heal this or that symptom. Of all
Mexico's democratic institutions he denies that there is one
which is real. Of all its avowed aspirations he perceives none
that are attainable. Every native effort put forth to stay the
moral, social and political dissolution which has played such

174 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
havoc with the people he dismisses as nugatory. Riveting his
gaze on the past, he is blind to the present and incredulous
about the future. Hence, to his thinking, none of the func
tions of an organised community is being discharged, none of
the objects of civilised society is being achieved: the State is
without a Government, the people are devoid of guidance,
misery stalks a country which abounds in all the resources
necessary and adequate to material well-being. Relations be
tween the governing and the governed, between this racial ele
ment of the population and that, between the judicial and the
executive powers, between the States and the Federal Govern
ment, although defined by paper laws, are in perpetual flux
and inextricable confusion. That such a diseased body should
be left decomposing in the sun during a period of psychic
epidemics is contrary to that common sense which is to be
found in the soul of every man of Anglo-Saxon blood.
Such is the gist of the staple argument in -favour of prompt
action and drastic expedients. Official recognition of the
Obregon administration will not silence or discourage those
who rely upon it to-day. It is one of those obsessions or pre
texts which are independent of the reasons advanced for hold
ing it. Hence it is argument-proof.
A glance at the curious relationship which prevailed be
tween the United States and the Diaz Government will enable
the reader to perceive why the minds of the average North
American investor and of the imperialistic politician are stereo
typed against any form of future intercourse with Mexico
further removed from overlordship than that.
It has been often termed "intervention by 'fantasma.' "
Whenever the Dictator Diaz whose statecraft was but surface-
deep desired to carry a measure he was wont to dangle before
the eyes of the dissentient members of the Cabinet the menace
of the United States' intervention. This sobering prospect
which was always efficacious he playfully termed the "fan
tasma." The essence of his domestic and international policy
was respect for property and for all that that implied. Many
of his own friends and most of his adversaries admit that it
was an exaggerated respect — a species of idolatry — and that

THE NEO-MONROE DOCTRINE 175
some of the ways in which it was manifested were indefensible.
It was founded, they alleged, on no higher principle than ex
pediency and therefore was devoid of a solid basis. One might
describe it as the quest of material prosperity for the benefit
of the few. It was the thinnest of materialisms translated
into politics and as such could not stand the test of time. It
lost sight of the nobler aspirations of human beings and used
the bulk of the population as a means to an end instead of
treating them as the proper end of all governance. Indeed the
paramount, nay the sole, interest which they had in the matter
was to rise up in arms against it.
Diaz' statecraft was but a series of sorry expedients. It
took hardly any account of distant bearings or interdependent
relations. The Dictator contented himself with holding up to
the imagination of his fellow-workers the "fantasma" of
Yankee intervention and strove to burn into their minds the
constant peril which Mexico ran of forfeiting her sovereign
attributes if she failed to retain the good will of the United
States by foregoing certain of those attributes spontaneously.
That was the ever-present spectre which haunted the National
Palace and the legislatures, frightened gainsayers of Diaz'
policy and kept the Mexican ear open to the breeze of inspira
tion which blew steadily from the north side o*f the Rio
Grande. Hence the alacrity with which foreigners' claims
were satisfied, foreigners' complaints were listened to and for
eigners' grievances were redressed. Even the Supreme Court
itself was trained by the Dictator to shape its decisions in strict
accordance with the requirements of this settled policy and to
await his injunctions before pronouncing them. It is con
tended that on the whole in these law suits right was on the
side of the foreigners, so that what the President violated was
not so much essential justice as the mechanism by which it was
administered and the respect in which it ought to have been
held. But even admitting this, one cannot gainsay that he
was sapping the foundations of the State.
The "fantasma" which silenced opposition and enforced
unanimity is gone. Many outlanders hoped that General
Obregon with an eye to his own interests if not to theirs would

176 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
follow the Dictator's example. They can plead as their excuse
that they did not know the character of the new President.
Diaz was solicitous above all else about suppressing revolts,
murders and other excesses, keeping the seamy side of Mexi
can life out of eyeshot and maintaining himself in power. But
he only partly accomplished these objects and by practices
which were ruthless. Sacrificing the lives and liberties of a
section of his own people he pleaded in justification that by
killing off a few he saved many. Possibly he did. But it is
credibly alleged that the direct effects of this policy were to
lay in the materials for the ten years of conflagration that
began after his overthrow, to create an economic oligarchy of
grasping foreign capitalists and to keep the Indian workers and
the poorer classes of the population wretchedly paid, ill housed,
ill fed and in a state of benighted ignorance.
The general character of Diaz' rule, which ignored the maxim
that sheep may be shorn but not flayed, became widely known
by its fruits, passable in the field of international finance and
poisonous in the social and political spheres at home. Here is
a mild sample of the consequences of the vicious economic
arrangements in vogue. A highly intelligent non-political
Mexican travelling in the Republic towards the close of the
Diaz regime found conditions suggestive of those described by
Arthur Young in France on the eve of the great Revolution.
"I visited haciendas and factories," he said, "filled with
workmen who toiled from sun-rise to sun-down for a few
measures of beans, half a dozen bananas, a little sugar, coffee
and bread. They were attired in the cheapest of cotton gar
ments and slept on coarse mats spread on the earth. Heavily
in debt to their masters they had no hope of ever freeing
themselves from thraldom. They were taught to undergo their
trials uncomplainingly, accepting them as immutable conditions
of the cosmic scheme of things. In a Chiapas plantation I
came across a large number of these hopeless toilers, Indians
most of them, but to my great surprise there was one genuine
Frenchman among them. This to me was a revelation. I
questioned the interesting foreigner who wore the same kind
of ragged garb as the natives and I ascertained that he had
\

THE NEO-MONROE DOCTRINE 177
wandered to the place several years before and, being penniless
and friendless, had taken work in the plantation, married an
Indian girl who bore him several children, and continued to
live there ever since. He had acquired the language of the
tribe, had contracted, like his comrades, a debt which he could
never hope to refund and was sullenly contented with his daily
rations of food which included portions for his wife and
children. He had no prospect of betterment, no expectation
of innovation, except the exchange of his wretched hut for
the grave.
"I rode away from the plantation heavy at heart meditating
on the cheerless existence of these semi-human machines and
their functions in the divine ordering of mundane things,
when I came up with a strapping young fellow trudging along
the road. With him I at once entered into conversation. For
the by-ways of Chiapas were not encumbered with traffic nor
frequented by travellers, and a meeting with a chance pedes
trian was calculated to awaken all one's dormant social in
stincts. The wanderer who carried his property in a little
bundle on his back informed me that he had come from afar
and was on his way, I think, to Salina Cruz, where he hoped
to find work. 'But surely you might have found work much
nearer, in that plantation yonder, for example?' I remarked.
'Yes, I know,' he replied, 'but that kind of work is of no good
to me. There is no money in it. All you get is your food and
barely enough of that. And I am in quest of something else.'
'Of money?' I queried. 'Well, you see,' he replied, 'my father
is employed on that plantation, has been there many years
and he could give you a wrinkle or two about it. For him it
is a life sentence in the galleys. He can never get out again
if I don't help him and I am in search of work that will give
me the money to buy him out. That is what I am looking for.
Every mother's son of those workmen over there is laden with
debts, debts they never fairly contracted and yet can never
wipe out. For the money they owe they never received. That
is the way the business is done. I am sorry for my poor
father who should be resting at his time of life and I am going
to ransom him if I can get a job that will bring me in a little

178 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
money. I don't care how heavy the work is or how badly I
fare myself. What I want is to buy the old man free and
that is why I am going so far afield.' 'How much does your
father owe ?' The answer was fifty or sixty Mexican dollars.
I would myself have given the lad the sum he needed if I
could have afforded it, added my friend, "but my own spare
cash was very limited. All I could do I did. I made him
a present of nine Mexican pesos, and my reward was instan
taneous. He embraced me. He shed tears of joy. He
tendered me rapturous thanks which filled me with intense
grief that I could not do more for him and with abiding
gladness that I had sent a ray of hope to his aching soul."
When one contemplates the grinding, relentless spirit in
which the natives of one of the richest countries in the world
were thus beggared and crushed by the few who were living
on the fat of the land and building up colossal fortunes, one
may still deplore but one can hardly feel surprised at the mad
attempts made by a section of the downtrodden people to
annihilate the privileges and sources of power possessed by
their taskmasters. Probably no such spectacle has been wit
nessed anywhere before. Mexico is an Eldorado. Its natural
resources are incalculable. Even this very year it has pro
duced sixty per cent of all the world's output of silver. It is
capable of maintaining a population of a hundred million peo
ple instead of the fifteen or sixteen millions, mostly lack-alls,
living from hand to mouth. To watch the stream of riches
flow smoothly by into foreign channels without benefiting
the bulk of the natives that own it, is a constant provocation
to lawlessness, the force of which is realised only by those who
experience it.
When the opportunity at last arrived and the revolution
broke out it was expected that a new and improved state of
affairs would at once ensue. But these hopes have been
shattered. By whom ? Mexicans unhesitatingly answer : "By
those very groups which have accumulated wealth at our ex
pense and are using it to our detriment." If the economic
resuscitation of the country has not yet been realised, if for
eign capital keeps aloof, if the foreign politicians and indus-

THE NEO-MONROE DOCTRINE 179
trial corporations have erected a Chinese wall around the
country in the hope of reducing it to subjection, is it fair, is it
humane, to taunt Mexico with its shattered finances, its de
fective transport system, its halting internal reforms?
The would-be foreign masters of the country still look back
wistfully towards the fantasma of the Diaz regime and are
hopefully striving to substitute for that another and more
durable method of exerting a predominant influence over the
Republic. As this innovation is "Cubanisation," it is a matter
for surprise among Mexicans that so little heed has been paid
to this aspect of the subject seeing that if embodied in the con
crete proposal which emanates from Mr. Fall it would thrill
with emotion all the peoples of Latin-America.
When the demon of terror — the fantasma — was exorcised
and together with it the ready consideration vanished which
had theretofore been bestowed upon every expressed or im
plied wish of the northern Mentor, the foreign groups turned
their attention to the filling of this gap. And the execution
of this scheme is regarded as an essential condition of satis
factory relationship between the two Republics. It would
seem as though nothing else, not even a treaty guaranteeing
the effective protection of life and property, the payment of
the national debt and the return of the railways, will be re
garded by the self -constituted saviours of Mexico as an ade
quate substitute for the threatening shadow which Mexican
officials under the Diaz regime carried in their hearts even
under the brightest sunshine.
That is the crux of the situation to-day. To ignore it is to
operate with misconceptions and to waste time on bootless
endeavours. Mexico is now being summoned to fulfil certain
international obligations, the binding force of which cannot
be called in question. Her official spokesman acknowledges
the duty and is prepared to discharge it. The obstacles in his
way come from the United States and are wholly artificial.
If the leading men in the southern Republic have, as behooved
them, ascertained the true leanings of their foreign colleagues'
minds they must feel that such international commitments as
payment of interest on the national debt constitute but the

180 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
merest fringe of the matter and that the problem which is
being gradually pressed forward as essential, though it has not
yet been officially formulated, may be described as the estab
lishment of such relations as will render the Mexican Govern
ment, irrespective of the party which may chance to be in
power, permanently and readily accessible to whatever counsel
the United States as ethical Mentor and self-constituted friend
may feel prompted to vouchsafe. Diaz' expedient of the
fantasma was accepted as satisfactory so long as its author's
tenure of office lasted. But what is demanded to-day by
many of those who are engaged in moulding public opinion in
the United States is a stable arrangement which will outlive
presidents and revolutions, commit the country for all time
and warrant the State Department in Washington, to offer, and
if need be press, its services upon its weak neighbour. Haiti
is the model.
An exhaustive discussion of the motives of this striving is
beyond the scope of the present study. The writer's only con
tention is that it is a factor which ought to be fully covered
by the surveys made of the international situation by those
whose duty it is to keep a sharp look-out and recommend or
adopt such measures as are called for. It would be a lack
of candour on his part to pass over this far-reaching issue in
silence or without due stress. For however completely Mexico
may meet her present obligations the unavowed issue, which
has not yet been clearly mooted, is certain to crop up in un
familiar shapes, at times with vexatious accompaniments and
possibly sinister consequences until it finally stands out with
out wrappage or disguise as a corollary of the latter-day
doctrine sketched above, of the ethical guardianship of the
superior political organism over the inferior.
No arrangement less far-reaching than that can be expected
to satisfy the aspirations of the money-seeking American
groups which are bent on "saving" the southern Republic.
And Mexico, it may be added, feels that in this connection she
stands for all Latin- America. This was one of the few issues
of the international enigma which Carranza, short-sighted
though he was in most other matters, thoroughly mastered and

THE NEO-MONROE DOCTRINE 181
clumsily strove to tackle. His sole claim to political vision
reposed upon his correct reading of that phenomenon. And
his dismal failure was due to the fatuous expedients with
which he encountered it.
A line of action becomes a policy only if it extend to far-
off aims. And the attainment of these invariably requires
labour, skill, time and the frequent readjustment of tactics to
shifting conditions. Carranza devised such a rounded policy :
he undertook not merely to liberate all Central America from
the guardianship of the northern Mentor, but further to
create a sort of lesser Monroe Doctrine there for the behoof
of Latin- America without reference to the North American
Republic. And he might as well have dipped a sieve into the
ocean in the hope of catching the stars.
Immunity from unwelcome guardianship was guaranteed
by President Wilson when he laid it down in his message to
Congress that the "governments of America stand, so far as
we are concerned, upon a footing of genuine equality and un
questioned independence."10 This pronouncement, had it been
final, was the utmost that any central or south American Re
public could reasonably demand or expect. To set about im
proving it and propounding a brand new Latin-American Doc
trine on the very lines of the one which aroused Mexico's re
sentment, and in open defiance of the great northern Repub
lic, was an enterprise which gives one the true measure of
Carranza's political acumen. If, moved by the desire to pre
serve all that appears worth preserving in their national or
racial customs, institutions and strivings as well as their inde
pendence and language, the Latin-American Republics could
band themselves together for the attainment of these legitimate
objects and for friendly emulation with the great people of the
United States, they would have made as much headway as is
possible or desirable in the direction struck out by Carranza.
10 Message to Congress, December 7th, 1915.

CHAPTER XVII
Mr. Fall's Mexican Programme
Mexico's international situation, apparently complex, is in
reality superlatively simple. The primary causes of the seem
ing complications are the predominance of foreign capital in
the country and its deliberately perturbing influence on Mexi
can politics. Every domestic problem, whether it be agrarian,
labour, financial or constitutional, affects in some degree the
outlander who thereupon complains, protests or petitions his
Government for political help. And the recognised spokes
man of all foreign Governments and citizens whatsoever their
nationality is the State Department in Washington, which
automatically translates every such complaint and petition
into terms of politics and therefore of strictly national inter
ests. Thus far has economic interpenetration of the Tsarist
type forged ahead in the Southern Republic. All the capi
talistic interests now spread over Mexico have been gradu
ally compacted into a vast political lever which the United
States Government is free to handle as it lists. Since the day 1
on which the British Foreign Office announced that it would
take no steps in connection with the Mexican situation with
out previously consulting the United States Government 2 and
followed up this announcement by requesting that Govern
ment to investigate the murder of the British subject, Benton,
the State Department may be said to have had a free hand in
Latin-America. And one cannot be blind to the fact that
the policy which it has steadfastly pursued ever since bears
all the characteristic features of intervention. Mexico's in
ternational relations, in a word, have been lowered to the level
of the vassal State of Rajputana or of Afghanistan and all
1 October 27, 1913.
2 February 22, 1914. 182

MR. FALL'S MEXICAN PROGRAMME 183
that is still lacking is a suitable formula to be recognised by
international law.
To-day the Mexican Republic stands alone. Those Euro
pean Governments whose nationals possess interests there have
bartered these for the good will of the United States in other
parts of the world. The hopes of Mexicans that a certain
equilibrium of foreign strivings might be effected by methods
akin to those inaugurated by Limantour were discouraged
after the advent of Madero to power and have been totally
shattered since the World War.
Limantour was one of the first to realise that the economic
expansion of the English-speaking element in Mexico tended
directly towards the political subjection of that country to
the United States, and by way of thwarting or staving off
this consummation he encouraged English, French and Ger
man capital to seek investments in the Republic by the offer
of particularly favourable conditions. It was under his aus
pices and with these attractions in prospect that Lord
Cowdray took over important contracts for improving the
ports of Vera Cruz, Tampico and Salina Cruz, and it was to
the same set of conditions that French capital owed its pre
dominance in banking over that of other nations. That eco
nomic interpenetration which Limantour dreaded with all that
it implies has since come to pass without evoking a word or
a sign from apathetic Europe. And yet there was a moment
when European diplomacy awoke from its lethargic sleep and
a sudden transient impulse among the members of the diplo
matic corps in the Mexican capital lent colour to the belief
that a joint telegram was about to be despatched by them
to their respective Governments to the effect that the attitude
of the United States toward Mexico was manifestly con
tributing to revolutionary movements. But that opportunity
lapsed unutilised and there is now no Power but the United
States ready to press with steady energy in the direction in
which its economic interests and its politico-humanitarian aims
are being systematically countered.
The simple character of the issue between the United States
and Mexico may be gathered from the trend of almost every

184 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
step taken by the former country since the disappearance of
Porfirio Diaz from the political stage. The ground taken by
the former country may aptly be formulated as follows: As
citizens of the United States have paramount interests in
Mexico, the State Department is resolved to enforce such in
ternal conditions as will enable them to further those interests
most advantageously. It is concerned only with its own citi
zens. And with this object in view it will present such pro
posals as it deems conducive to its attainment, and will enforce
their acceptance by the most efficacious methods, appealing for
its sanction not to the musty canons of international law but
to "regional" agreements and the privileges of ethical guard
ianship. That was the attitude, that the maxim, of the Administration
which refused to treat Victoriano Huerta as President, de
spite the recognition accorded to him by all other nations and
the despatch of autograph letters from several European sov
ereigns welcoming his regime in cordial terms. And the
refusal of recognition was followed by injunctions to the
Mexican people respecting their choice of a chief of State.
This was a striking instance of what Mexicans term the ex
ercise of obstructive power which destroys all security for
internal organisation and opens the Mexican Republic to the
uncongenial and erratic methods of North American poli
ticians. And against that evil there was no counter force.
Neither is there any at present, unless it be the moral support
of the civilised world to which President Obregon silently but
suasively appeals.
It is easy to-day, and it was not difficult then, to perceive
the moral drawbacks of Huerta's triumph or the sinister
elements which he imported into the Government oi the Re
public. And nobody would be less disposed than the present
"writer to utter a word in favour of the usurper. But the case
Jivas one for Mexicans alone to deal with. It was for them
to pass judgment on his person and his misdeeds. And under
Obregon they rose up and with angry passion and firm resolve
in their hearts cleansed the country of the taint with which
he had striven to tarnish it.

MR. FALL'S MEXICAN PROGRAMME 185
President Wilson's moral scruples on the subject of Huerta
doubtless do him credit. His intentions too were, one must
assume, admirable. But the foreign polity of a great people
cannot be usefully carried on by mere scruples and intentions.
Nor is that all. Even those admirers of Mr. Wilson who
approve that particular act must admit that it is wholly out
of keeping with other moves of his and also with the meas
ures and utterances of his successor. Mr. Wilson postulated
as President of Mexico a man of acknowledged integrity of
mind whose egotistic impulses and leanings would be over
borne by considerations of morality — in a word, a man who
might be weighed in his own home-made scales and not found
wanting. Mr. Hughes, on the other hand, is understood to
be ready to recognise any Mexican Government whatsoever
provided that it will sign his pet treaty and bow to_the gqd_
of priyale projperty. It is obvious that to glaring inconsisten
cies such as these the ill-starred Mexican Government finds it
difficult to attune itself. To have to harmonise its policy, its
laws, its customs and its Constitution now to a Republican,
now to a Democratic standard — for that is what it comes to —
is an unenviable task and a dangerous ordeal. The Mexican
Constitution of 1917 was not objected to by Mr. Lansing, who
merely refused to brook confiscatory acts whatever their mo
tive or sanction. Mr. Colby went a step further, and the
climax was reached by Mr. Hughes, who insists on a prelimi
nary treaty entailing a breach of the Mexican. Constitution
and of the President's solemn oath to respect it. And the
incongruity of the situation is such that any unscrupulous
Mexican who would sell his conscience and his country for
the presidential arm-chair in the Palacio Nacional — one of
those self-seeking recreants whom Mr. Wilson would have
excommunicated and whom the Mexican people would con
demn to death — would be entitled to recognition at the hands
of the United States Government to-day, while the man who
may be described as Mexico's conscience, who occupies with
credit and success the first post in the Republic and whose
policy is founded upon justice, is curtly told that he cannot
be recognised unless and until he commits acts which he and

186 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
his fellow-countrymen regard as unpatriotic, immoral and
criminal. It would be unfruitful to pass in review the numerous in
consistencies which have coloured the quick-changing Mexi
can policies of the State Department in Washington during
the past ten years. But one cannot affect surprise at Mexi
cans' belief that the constant menace to peace in their Re
public since the fall of Diaz has had its principal source and
centre in the United States. This conclusion which they sup
port by a forcible array of historical facts nowise implies a
reflection on the American people, any more than does the
world-wide censure evoked by the high-handed methods pur
sued by certain American elements in Santo Domingo and
Haiti. For it is not to be supposed that the American nation
as a whole countenances every political stroke of its State
Department or that the State Department applauds all the
underhand machinations and propaganda tactics of those plu
tocratic groups and dim political figures who seek to sway
its policy or to force its hand. The process which really takes
place resembles, as we saw, that by which impressions made
by outer objects on the senses are transformed into ideas.
One has but to recall the recent course of events in Colombia,
Haiti and Santo Domingo to realise how it comes to pass that
the great democratic nation suddenly finds itself far ahead of
its competitors in snug economic or favoured political situa
tions without having craved them and as a result of aberrant
manoeuvres which it never would have deliberately sanctioned.
And it is gall and wormwood to Latin-Americans that they
should be expected while paying the price of these acquisitions
to join in the paeans that are being chaunted to the altruism
of the great and generous American nation.
One may sincerely congratulate the United States on its
many grandiose achievements in the commercial and indus
trial spheres without approving all the devices by which it has
risen to its present commanding position in the world or be
lauding its attitude towards Latin-Americans generally and
Central Americans in particular. It requires a heroic effort,
for example, to ascribe to ardent zeal for human improve-

MR. FALL'S MEXICAN PROGRAMME 187
ment or to any other altruistic aim the measures which Mr.
Fall in his Report to the United States Senate desired to see
adopted by his Government towards Mexico. One is hardly
able even to conceive the nexus between them and what is still
recognised as common justice and equity. To the unbiased
mind the aim underlying them looks uncommonly like im
perialism of the kind which United States soldiers heroically
fought and died to eradicate.
No one accustomed to scrutinise carefully the records of
international politics will find it feasible to associate Mr.
Fall's Mexican Programme or Mr. Hughes' condition for
recognition with disinterestedness, justice or even legitimate
self-defence. They deliberately ignore the accepted rules,
precedents and comity of international intercourse. Take for
example Mr. Fall's demand for a clause in the projected treaty
to the following effect: "Article 130 of the Constitution of
1917 shall not apply to American missionaries, preachers, min
isters, teachers or American schools, nor to American periodi
cals, but American missionaries, ministers and teachers shall
be allowed freely to enter, pass through and reside in Mex
ico, there to freely reside, preach, teach and write and
hold property and conduct schools without interference by
the authorities so long as such ministers, teachers or mis
sionaries do not participate in Mexican politics or revolu
tions." "This clause of the Constitution," we are told, "provides
that no one except a Mexican by birth, may be a minister of
any religious creed in Mexico; that neither in public or pri
vate shall such minister criticise the fundamental laws of the
country, the authorities in particular or the Government in
general. "That no periodical of a religious character shall comment
upon any political affairs of the Nation, nor publish any in
formation regarding the acts of the authorities or of private
individuals in so far as the latter have to do with public
affairs. "That ministers are incapable legally of inheriting by will
from ministers of the same creed, or from any private indi-

188 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
viduals to whom they are not related by blood within the
fourth degree, etc." 8
And "that Article 3 (prohibiting any minister or religious
corporation establishing or directing schools of primary in
struction) shall not apply to any American teaching or con
ducting primary schools." 4
This same article further decrees that "the State legisla
tures shall have the exclusive power of determining the maxi
mum number of ministers of religious creeds, according to
the needs of each locality." To one accustomed, as I have
been, to see a much larger measure of liberty conferred upon
ecclesiastical institutions and their judgment on such matters
as the maximum number of ministers accepted as final, this
limitation appears excessive. To me it seems unquestionable
that liberty to practise their religious rites includes, or under
normal conditions ought as a matter of logic and expediency
to include, the right of determining the number of its min
isters, but I cannot conscientiously say that this principle has
been followed or recognised by every civilised State or that
its denial amounts to, or has ever been treated as, a violation
of international law. What Mexico is doing in this respect
is what other States have done in virtue of their sovereignty.
And that being so, it is a curtailment of Mexico's sovereignty
for a foreign State to insist upon its abrogation.
Another provision of the same Article reads : "Only a Mex
ican by birth may be a minister of any religious creed in
Mexico," and the demand is made by Mr. Fall and his friends
for its repeal, at least to the extent that it "shall not apply to
American missionaries, preachers, ministers, teachers or Amer
ican schools." There is no doubt that the steady and resist
less tendencies of the age run counter to such restrictions
as that in countries where the relations between Church and
State are normal. Intolerance towards any form of religious
worship as such is an anachronism to-day. And personally
I disagree with those who, like M. Emile Combes, introduced
* See Sub-Committee Print. Senate, 66th Congress, 2nd Session. Af
fairs in Mexico, page 61 and following.
* See the same Report, p. 62.

MR. FALL'S MEXICAN PROGRAMME 189
the anti-clerical measure in virtue of which Frenchmen and
foreigners alike were taken by force from their monasteries,
friaries, convents and houses and expelled, solely because they
were members of religious congregations. But the Republic,
as M. Combes assured me, was well within its rights, and his
prophecy that no Government would protest was duly fulfilled.
Now it should not be forgotten that among those who were
thus forbidden to carry out their religious duties and were
compelled to thus quit French soil and had to spend the re
mainder of their lives beyond the French borders were numer
ous foreigners, including Americans, Italians, British, Rus
sians and others. Sisters of Mercy too, whose self-denying
activities challenged and received the grateful acknowledg
ment of the entire world, were among the victims of Combes'
Draconian laws. In almost every country public sympathy
was on the side of a considerable section of the forbidden
congregations. But no State — not one — arrogated to itself
the right of intervening or even protesting. The enactments
were recognised as coming within the domain of domestic
legislation and therefore beyond the purview of international
law. Again, in Tsarist Russia not only was a foreign clergyman
not permitted to discharge the functions of a minister of reli
gion,5 but he was absolutely debarred from crossing the Rus
sian frontiers under pain of immediate imprisonment. And
several cases of summary punishment inflicted on foreign
clergymen who violated this prohibition came to my notice.
On two occasions I myself obtained special permission for
the visit of a school-fellow of mine, and once his character
was detected by a member of another church and he would have
been arrested by the police had he not had his permit with
him. Moreover, if a dissenting clergyman of Russian nation
ality ventured to convert or preach to a member of the Or
thodox faith or administer a sacrament to such or receive
him into any Christian or other Church, he was liable to severe
5 An exception was made in favour of three Dominican priests in the
capital who were permitted to serve the foreign residents but not to preach
in the language of the country, nor to convert the natives.

190 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
punishment — either imprisonment or banishment to Siberia —
which was invariably inflicted. Foreigners who married mem
bers of the Orthodox Church were not permitted to baptise
or bring up their children in their own faith. And yet no
Government ever intervened or protested. The grounds for
this forbearance were the acknowledged right of a Sovereign
State to legislate on all such matters according to what it con
siders to be the requirements of the nation or its good. The
questions of expediency, of morality, of rational liberty, stand
of course upon a different footing from the political and are
governed by quite another set of considerations, but they leave
intact the international law which accords to sovereign com
munities the faculty of dealing with all such subjects as they
may think fit. And it is with this only that we are now con
cerned. In Mexico the relations between Church and State are ad
judged to be abnormal. Mexicans who, like Senor Vera
Estafiol, are opposed to the rigorous anti-clerical laws at pres
ent in force in their country admit that the Catholic clergy
there stand on a different footing towards the nation from
that which it occupies in the United States, Great Britain or
Belgium. It is a historic fact, he says, that it was the mem
bers of that body who successfully intrigued and negotiated
for the invasion of the Republic in 1863. And at a much
more recent date, writes Senor Estafiol : "Taking advantage of
the fact that the Constitution of 1857 did not expressly for
bid religious institutions as such to organise into political
parties, the Catholic Church, immediately after the revolution
of Madero, formed the 'Catholic Party,' with a view to tak
ing part in the elections of 1912. The party was supported
by the clergy. All, from the highest to the lowest, availed
themselves of religious offices, the confessional, the pulpit,
doctrine, dogma, faith, superstition, and all the instruments
at hand to gain proselytes. They worked on the consciences
of the people, their friends and their servants, using the for
midable argument of eternal salvation, and when the ballot
boxes were installed they placed about them standards bearing
significant legends. On many of them, for example, were in-

MR. FALL'S MEXICAN PROGRAMME 191
scribed the words: 'Here you vote for God.' The Catholic
Church thus attempted in this way to convert itself into a
temporal power in rivalry to the State ; it endeavoured to re
establish the theocratic regime of the middle ages." 6
The wounds thus inflicted on the nation have, therefore, not
yet had time to cicatrise and one can understand without ap
proving the animus which still subsists among the representa
tives of the nation towards the ministers of the Church. Add
to this the aggravating circumstance that the supposed candi
date of the latter for the presidency of the Republic was a man
who strove to rise to this position by the help of an official
representative of the United States and whose unpopularity
was and is as intense as it seems warranted.
The Catholic faith is professed by the great bulk of the
Mexican people. In some places, it is true, especially among
Indian tribes, its rites and ceremonies have become associated
with superstitions, illusions and various kinds of survivals
of the indigenous religion,7 but the solemn liturgy of the Cath
olic Church fits in better with the ingrained love of form,
pomp, ceremony and symbolism which marks all classes of the
people than the cold, cheerless worship of the dissenting bod
ies. Mexicans feel, therefore, that while the work of con
verting idolaters to Christianity may be meritorious from a
Christian, and possibly also from a humanitarian, viewpoint,
the attempts to lure pious Catholics from their own denomina
tion to another by stigmatising the former as a source of
idolatrous errors is from every standpoint, including the
Christian, reprehensible. And for that among other reasons
it is keenly resented. When, therefore, well-meaning citizens
of a foreign nation arrive to enjoy the hospitality of a coun
try for the purpose of effecting a breach and creating dissent
6 Carranza and His Bolshevik Regime, by J. Vera Estafiol, pp. 24-25.
7 The venerable Archbishop of Mexico in a pastoral letter recently con
demned several superstitious practices such as the picturesque Monday
pilgrimages to the town in which St. Nicholas of Bari is venerated, the
habit of setting the image of St. Anthony on its head and hiding it in a
sequestered spot in the house with the object of finding stolen property
and the burning of three tallow candles on a triangular brick before which
ladies desirous of retaining or regaining the love of their husbands or
bridegrooms pray for half an hour, and various others. See El Universal,
September 20th, 1920.

192 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
and dissension among its inhabitants by turning some of them
against the faith of their fathers, it is natural that an influ
ential body of the people should look askance upon the cru
saders while admitting that they are prompted by the human-
est intentions, and that the Government, however cordially it
might sympathise with free religious discussion in principle,
should hesitate as a matter of expediency to encourage the mil
itant Christian apostles by conferring on them extraordinary
privileges. It was on this and cognate grounds that Tsarist
Russia kept out all religious proselytisers and that Austria
systematically discouraged them. These motives acquire a
noteworthy increase of momentum when, as in the case of
Mexico, whose peoples have been long kept divided from each
other and are only now being compacted in one homogeneous
nation by General Obregon, religion and language happen to be
among the main elements that cement their inchoate union. In
tellectually and morally too this aggressive religious spirit, ow
ing to the fierce controversies which it engenders, is at times a
potent force in throwing veracity, honesty and fraternity into
the background. Nowhere are the religious emotions and be
liefs less independent of the traditional social surroundings
with which history has associated them than in countries like
Mexico, where the bulk of the people is unsophisticated and
incapable of applying its reason to discussions of dogma and
liturgy. Whatever else may be predicated of the pious Mexi
can Catholic, it cannot be gainsaid that his attachment to his
creed — which generally underlies his respect for political au
thority — has its source in a yearning for a higher and better
life and a disinterested striving to attain that.
There is, however, another side to all this which is com
monly lost sight of. The American dissenting minister is
not merely a fisher for souls. He is at the same time by the
force of things and without deliberate effort on his part a
political missionary. He cannot be less. His schools and
other various institutions for the young of both sexes, in Mex
ico as in the United States, are seminaries in which the subtle
elements that make up a child's outlook on the world are com
pacted into a whole and to that extent they are political also.

MR. FALL'S MEXICAN PROGRAMME 193
It is impossible that they should wholly fail to be that. And
the results are alleged to be generally associated with a marked
lessening of respect for, and attachment to, native institu
tions. It is Christianity minus Catholicism and plus Ameri
canism. One might term the system indirect propaganda for
the "higher civilisation" as against the "lower." In China
too there are excellent American schools which turn out Amer
icanised Chinamen who look down upon their own traditions,
religions and philosophies, receive positions of trust in various
branches of the Administration and doubtless justify the con
fidence placed in them by their superiors. But these officials
are almost all pro-American in politics, look to the United
States for guidance as well as help and are said to constitute
a dissolvent force in the national organism. In Macedonia
before the war a like phenomenon confronted the visitor at
every hand's turn. The Macedonians speak a dialect which
is partly Serb and partly Bulgar, so that even expert philolo
gists could never be sure to which of the two ethnic branches
the population really belonged. In every case it was the cler
gyman or the schoolmaster who decided the question practi
cally. Wherever there was a Bulgar school, subsidised by the
Government at Sofia, the scholars, their parents and the entire
neighbourhood were Bulgars. If the priest and the teacher
chanced to be Serbs, paid by the Belgrade Government, the
people who resided in the district of which the Church and
the school were the centre eagerly claimed Serb nationality.
Hence the keen competition of both these Governments for
Turkish permits to open schools and churches of their re
spective creeds and tongues and nationalities.
Now if there is one thing more than another of which
Mexicans stand in need to-day it is institutions capable of
strengthening their nationality, already weakened by the
steady inroad of American customs, business methods, cine
mas, journalism and coinage. There is hardly enough reli
gion in the country to support several competing denomina
tions. Everything that tends to loosen the ties of nationality
they believe to be a danger, even though it be attended with
undoubted material advantages, because it deadens and ulti-

194 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
mately kills the soul of the people. And President Obregon
personally realises this as thoroughly as any of his fellow-
countrymen. To bestow upon foreigners, therefore, the right of in
creasing at will the number of lines of cleavage which already
keep Mexicans apart is decidedly and necessarily unpopular.
But when such a demand is put forth as a special right of
North Americans and is to be accompanied with certain privi
leges legally denied to Mexicans, the consequences are bound
to be untoward. For the foreigner is asking for a lever which
cannot be pressed without shaking the foundations of the
social and political fabric. It is not, therefore, the Consti
tution which will generate discontent and feuds, but such ex
ceptions to it as these which Mr. Fall and his influential sup
porters are insisting upon introducing.
Such is the light in which many Mexicans envisage this un
precedented demand. In France and Russia no such claims
have ever been advanced by any of the Governments inter
ested in the attainment by their nationals of religious freedom.
The foreigners were told by their respective Governments to
obey the law. If international law or custom had given them
a pretext however frail for claiming such a far-ranging license,
they would have utilised it without hesitation or delay. As
an act of courtesy the Governments of both those States ac
corded permission to a few foreign clergymen of the Catholic
Church to preach to, and hear the confessions of, the per
sonnel of the diplomatic corps and the foreign residents and
in their respective tongues which are not those of the people,
but forbade them under severe penalties to preach or adminis
ter sacraments to the natives. And if Mexico be summoned
to make more far-reaching concessions it can only be, her
statesmen argue, because her sovereignty is not recognised by
the United States to the full extent and that a new and west
ern version of international law is being developed by means
of freshly established precedents, of which the Central as the
weaker States of the new Continent are to be the first victims.
This conclusion seems incontrovertible. Undue pressure is
undoubtedly being employed to obtain a privilege, the obvious

MR. FALL'S MEXICAN PROGRAMME 195
effect of which would be to impair the international status of
Mexico and establish claims which have no parallel in the
history of intercourse among nations. In plain terms the con
tention is being implicitly advanced that there are two types
of political communities on the new Continent to-day, the
sovereign and the semi-sovereign, and that the United States
alone belongs to the former. This would seem to be the real
issue as revealed in the demand for special proselytising privi
leges for the various dissenting bodies of that Republic.
Another aspect of this unprecedented claim is revealed by
its effects on the domestic policy of the country. Everybody
understands that to grant to foreign clergymen, however lofty
their purpose, the faculty to do in Mexico what the natives
are debarred by law from doing would be to provoke a de
plorable conflict between the latter and the lawfully consti
tuted Government. It would be an indirect incitement to
such unmeasured opposition as has hitherto been customary
in the country. And in Mexico that is rebellion. In this case
it would be rebellion with a good cause backed up by encour
agement and moral help, to be followed possibly by military
aid, from outside. In a word, it might well become a modifi
cation in non-essentials of the foreign intervention of 1863.
In that year it was chiefly the Mexican Catholic clergy who
desired and brought about the invasion of the country by
foreigners and undertook to support it by a native rebellion.
To-day it is a foreign Government which, doubtless with ex
cellent intentions but defective data and warped judgment,
would be preparing the soil for a rebellion and civil war of
the worst kind by exacting privileges for its nationals which
the Mexican State withholds from its own citizens. From
whatever angle of vision, therefore, one contemplates the mat
ter, it is tantamount to interference with the domestic policy
of a sovereign State. The Government of the Republic of
Mexico is constrained by this demand to choose between the
two horns of a ruinous dilemma. By compliance it would
antagonise a powerful body of opinion at home and spread
discontent throughout the land ; and by refusal it would pro
voke the enmity of a neighbouring Government which is now

196 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
qualifying for the "rightful leadership among the sovereign
nations of the world." 8
Another of the recommendations made by Mr. Fall's Sub-
Committee reads as follows : "That article 33 of said consti
tution, providing that 'The Executive shall have the exclusive
right to expel from the Republic forthwith and without judi
cial process any foreigner whose presence he may deem inex
pedient,' shall not apply to American citizens who shall, when
they so demand, have access to their consulate or consular
agent or diplomatic representative and have the right to avail
themselves of the assistance of such officials, and until after
due judicial proceedings upon application of such Ameri-
can. This demand, in perfect keeping with the foregoing, is no
less exorbitant than those. From none of the sovereign States
of the world has it ever been preferred, for the conclusive rea
son that there is no international law, no international prece
dent, which can be appealed to in its favour. It is wholly
arbitrary and amounts to an encroachment on the sovereign
rights of the Mexican State. The only grounds which Ameri
can politicians can adduce in support of it is that the United
States has adopted trial before deportation. That was the
result of an act of its sovereign will. It is free to repeal that
procedure to-morrow and no foreign State would be war
ranted in uttering a protest or complaint. Why then should
Mexico be forced against her will to follow the example of
her powerful neighbour? In virtue of what general princi
ple? Is it that Mexico must be guided by the United States
in her domestic legislation and deprived of the exercise of her
sovereign rights? If not, there is no argument that will bear
scrutiny. Will it be maintained that Mexico must not be allowed to
do what France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Russia and Austria
have done and still do without provoking the faintest protest
from the United States ? Is there to be a special international
8 President Harding's words uttered in his address to the District of
Columbia Bankers' Association on April 26th. Cf. New York Times,
."April 27th, 1921.
I

MR. FALL'S MEXICAN PROGRAMME 197
law created for Central America, a law restrictive in its char
acter and different from that of other nations? And if so,
what right can one invoke in support of the contention?
The Mexican Government will continue to treat all for
eign citizens whose presence in the Republic is undesirable as
the French democratic Republic treats them, and in doing so
reckons upon the courteous forbearance of the civilised
world. In France and other countries a foreign citizen whose pres
ence in the land is deemed harmful can be deported with
out trial. As recently as the year 19 19 a well-known and
highly respected British subject named Dell, who had lived
several years in France, was the correspondent of the great
English newspaper The Manchester Guardian, and had fre
quently testified his affection for that country, was expelled.
And he was not given a trial. Nobody in England, however,
asked for a repeal of that French law. Nobody protested be
cause he was expelled without trial.
Before the war several foreign correspondents were ex
pelled from France in the same summary manner. Among
them was Herr Frischauer, correspondent of the Vienna jour
nal Neue Freie Presse. It was a matter of common knowl
edge that this measure was adopted under a mistaken assump
tion. Herr Frischauer was a friend of M. Clemenceau. And
yet the persons expelled were not allowed to return for some
years and only when their influential French friends had in
terceded for them and shown that they had done nothing
whatever to merit expulsion. Frischauer was received back
with open arms by Clemenceau, with whom he was on inti
mate terms. As lately as September 1921 a renowned scholar
of the highest character, a foreigner against whom nothing
reprehensible has ever been alleged and in whose favour the
British press has uplifted its voice, was expelled from England
together with his wife without any explanation. One of the
principal evening journals of London writes : "We published
yesterday a letter from Dr. Oscar Levy, the well-known editor
of the English edition of the works of Nietzsche, in which he
stated that he and his wife are being expelled from this coun-

198 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
try by the Home Office, which derives this power of expulsion
from the Aliens Restriction Act of 1919. We protested
strongly against the general principles of that measure when it
was passing through Parliament, for we regarded it as con
trary to all the best traditions of this country. We had no
idea, however, that it would be used to exclude from Great
Britain a scholar of distinction who has resided here for
nearly thirty years, and who has used his scholarship for the
benefit of Englishmen. Some explanation is most clearly
needed from the Home Office of the reasons for so drastic
and extraordinary a decision." 9
But no explanation has been or will be offered, and Dr.
Levy's Government has no right to demand any.
That President Harding's intentions are lofty is evidenced
by his description of America's high ideals which he set be
fore American bankers. "I want America to stop and turn
its face forward not only for the achievements which we may
bring ourselves, but also that we may play our part in show
ing the world the way to a righteous settlement." 10
It is not easy to discern the quality which is commonly un
derstood as righteousness in a policy which directly under
mines the foundations of a good, sound Government for the
sake of enabling non-Catholic sects to snatch a few stray sheep
from the Catholic fold. It is equally hard to understand by
what order of considerations the urgency and peremptory
necessity of such a measure can be brought home to the un
biased mind. And yet Mexicans were seriously told that
unless General Obregon violates the Constitution for the pur
pose of thus setting foreigners above his own fellow-coun
trymen, the Republic of which he is the recognised chief will
be declared to be no Government and the State to be beyond
the pale of international law, in spite of the dissent of nunier-
ous other sovereign States without whose acquiescence there
is no international law. Such a declaration would then confer
upon the United States the right to invade Mexico and "pro-
8 Westminster Gazette, 14th September, 1921.
i° Extract from his speech to the Bankers' Association.

MR. FALL'S MEXICAN PROGRAMME 199
tect" its own citizens there. Violation of the Constitution and
of his oath to uphold it are, therefore, the two offences which
General Obregon is enjoined to commit for the behoof of reli
gious bodies in the United States under pain of seeing the
territory of the Republic violated by a "police force" sent by
the Administration which is "showing the world the way to a
righteous settlement."
That procedure may be defensible on grounds not yet made
known to the world, but it is fair to conjecture that these
grounds will deserve some other name than righteousness.
The people of the United States, who have the instinct of
righteousness without the self-complacency which character
ises its political professors, will regret to learn the interpre
tation which the impartial world is thus forced to put on the
acts of the present Administration. The powerful journalis
tic articles which have appeared in Spain11 offer a striking
example of this. All admirers of the great American people
will be unpleasantly affected by such comments as Deputy
Barcia makes on the United States policy : "There are widely
known reasons," he writes, "for affirming that the United
States is forging ahead with hollow insincerity and making
ready for the complete domination of the Continent across
the Atlantic." 12 Assuredly it is not the people of the United
States who deserve this bitter reproach.
On the other hand one can readily imagine the feelings of
thinking Mexicans when their President is summoned by the
United States Government to become a perjurer and a violater
of the Constitution in order to get recognition, and by the oil
companies to obey the Constitution which they say forbids him
to diminish their present revenues by heavy taxation! His
conduct and that of his fellow-countrymen are thus being care
fully framed for them; all that they have to do is to pursue
it and enable a few Republican politicians and their plutocratic
allies to inaugurate their rightful leadership among the sover
eign nations of the world. Experimentum in corpore vili.
11 In such press organs as El Debate, El Tiempo, La Libertad, etc.
12 La Libertad, nth May, 1921.

200 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
The Mexican people are among the last to lay a claim to spe
cial righteousness and among the first to allow that claim —
were it deserved — by the politicians of the United States, but
they do insist on retaining their sovereignty and are not will
ing to barter that even for righteousness' sake.

CHAPTER XVIII
Recognition by Treaty
In theory the matters in dispute between the foreign and
the Mexican peoples seem simple enough and capable of being
readily adjusted. In reality the settlement demanded by the
advocates of the "cleaning-up" process would cut deep into the
politico-social ordering of the Southern Republic with incal
culable consequences to the parties immediately concerned and
a disquieting prospect for the remainder. All that the United
States demands officially, for itself and for the European peo
ples the furtherance of whose interests is entrusted to its care,
is that the lives, properties and rights of foreigners in Mexico
shall be adequately protected in the future and that the losses
which they sustained during the revolutionary upheaval shall
be made good. Than this nothing could be fairer, and Mex
ico, in the person of her President, recognises the obligation
and is firmly minded to discharge it without avoidable delay.
If that were all, the outlook would indeed be roseate. But
as a statement of the issue it is sadly incomplete. There are
cross currents beneath the surface which must be reckoned
with and forms to be observed which are almost as important
as the substance. And these complicate the situation con
siderably. Two movements are at present afoot in the United States
which are carefully kept sundered there but are merged to
gether in the minds of Mexicans apprehensive of what the
morrow may bring. The object of one is the re-establish
ment of official and friendly intercourse between the two Re
publics, Mexico redressing her neighbour's grievances and
the State Department in Washington recognising President
Obregon's government. The ultimate goal of the other is
much more comprehensive : it includes a complete rearrange
ment of the two countries' reciprocal relations along the lines
201

202 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
traced by the United States Senate for Cuba. And in the
proposed treaty of commerce and amity Mexican statesmen
discern the tell-tale nexus between the two. They apprehend
that the condition officially put forward which is essentially
irrelevant to the question of recognition is but the prelude to
the unofficial scheme of which it vaguely sounds the keynote.
The function of the one is to furnish the frame-work, that
of the other to complete the fabric. Form plays an appre
ciable role in the first, substance monopolises the second. In
ternational law should supply the motive power for recogni
tion ; public opinion, or what passes muster for that, will pro
vide the stimulus for Cubanisation. The United States Gov
ernment confines itself to the actual in time and to the Mexi
can in space, whereas the creators of public sentiment looking
further ahead in both are formulating a modus vivendi for the
future and for Latin-America generally. State sovereignty
and its correlate duties towards the unhappy family of nations
are the only postulates of the diplomatists.
A specific politico-economic object, commonly known as the
Cuban standard, floats before the imagination of an influen
tial group of American business men and politicians. They
maintain that for the United States Government to protect
the rights of its citizens is a duty. With the oil companies,
however, the rearrangement of reciprocal intercourse is an
appetite and a somewhat voracious one. And against appe
tites as against passions there are no arguments that carry.
To fall in with the legitimate claims of the United States
Government is President Obregon's fixed resolve. To help,
however indirectly, build up by a punitive treaty a bridge be
tween those claims and Cubanisation is repugnant to him per
sonally and beyond his powers constitutionally.
Such is the light in which the present controversy is viewed
by Mexican statesmen.
It is taken for granted bv many that the recognition of
the Obregon regime is the one thing necessary and that every
thing else will be added to that, more or less automatically.
As a matter of fact, the real work planned by American re
formers, which consists in the splicing of the severed strands

RECOGNITION BY TREATY 203
of international intercourse, will not commence until recogni
tion has been vouchsafed, and it is doubtful whether it will
entirely end before much in Mexico that seems firmly rooted
to-day will have been plucked out of the political soil to make
room for something wholly different. One may recognise this
eventuality without characterising the motives of those who
are striving to realise it. Their standards are said to be
North American and their ideals have nought in common with
those of the people whom they would fain "regenerate." Car
ranza perceived the existence and gauged the strength of this
inchoate process which was silently going forward in his time,
but his clumsy exertions which, not contented with damming it,
aimed at starting a counter-current throughout Latin-Amer
ica only intensified its force.
In Mexico the ultimate aim of the scheming outsiders is
believed to be the Americanisation of the Latin races. This,
however, must not be taken to connote a form of that morbid
land hunger which is now driving so many European States
to the brink of ruin, nor to be deliberate on the part of the
responsible statesmen. Territorial expansion is not one of
the impelling forces of the people of the United States to-day,
nor indeed will it be the mainspring of the policy of any coun
try whose destinies are controlled by a statesman of vision.
Even Tsarist Russia, when well advised, discarded it. The
keynote of the late Count Witte's Far Eastern line of action
was gradual, economic interpenetration without violence or
annexation. And the business men of the great American
Republic to-day are alive to the advantages of preferential eco
nomic usufruct and also to the drawbacks attending the forci
ble annexation of a country abounding in natural resources
and inhabited by a people passionately fond of liberty.
To-day Count Witte's theory of economic interpenetration
is become a maxim of international politics. It is translated
into American by the term Cubanisation and into Mexican
Spanish by the word protectorate or "ethical guardianship."
Those American statesmen, captains of industry and enter
prising pioneers whose wealth or reputations depend upon the
degree to which Mexican conditions are made to approach

204 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
their ideal, are penetrated with the desire that no redress of
grievances, no compensation for past wrongs, no guarantee of
present rights should be accepted as adequate. They are also,
however, aware that to Cubanise Mexico without more ado
would be to fly in the face of public sentiment in the United
States, whose people is always actuated by a dominant sense
of fair play. Hence they have reduced their minimum demands
to a treaty of amity and have raised those of the Government
by insisting on this. That was the utmost which Mr. Hughes
consented to accept as a prerequisite to recognition. But it is
enough for the purpose of driving a wedge between the two
States. An instrument of that kind comprehensively drafted
Iwould bind present and future Mexican Governments, fix their
^foreign policy for all time, keep them within narrow limits
'and confer upon the State Department in Washington the right
'.to supervise the execution of the compact by forewarnings
'and advice as well as by vetoes and protests and to enforce it
when requisite by military and naval measures. They urge
that pronouncements issued by native institutions, whether by
Congress or the Supreme Court, however solemn and emphatic,
lack the element of stability inasmuch as being one-sided they
might be rescinded and reversed as easily as they were made.
This argument is identical with that employed by certain
members of the German Government during the war against
the restitution of Belgium to her former independent status
It was alleged that recent history had shown that no promises
of neutrality made by Belgium could be trusted and that the
only guarantees which would adequately reassure the German
people must be embodied in a treaty imposing limitations upon
the sovereignty of the Belgian realm. The answer made by
allied diplomacy was that guarantees which give absolute cer
titude are not attainable in politics and it was emphasised by
the energy with which the allied armies prosecuted the war.
Now the politicians and business men who carried their
treaty scheme and had it adopted by the State Department
were well aware that, as it stood, President Obregon neither
could nor would comply with the demand to agree to it. And
conversant as they are with Mexican affairs they clearly under-

RECOGNITION BY TREATY 205
stood the nature of the consequences to which his refusal
would open the door. And those dire consequences, it is
argued, are far from being unwelcome to them.
Thus in one of its aspects the present divergence between!
the two Governments appears to hinge upon a mere matter
of form : whether recognition should be accorded before or
after the settlement of outstanding scores. And for form,
as such, English-speaking peoples, especially those who dwell
on the western shores of the Atlantic, feel and exhibit scant
respect. The Mexicans, on the contrary, are wont to set it
almost on the same level as substance and occasionally higher
still. The forms and symbols which affect national dignity,
for example, are for them things just as real as national
property and are valued and cherished as highly. But the
average American official who holds mere forms in contempt
has no understanding of the Mexican's national dignity and
cannot bring himself to believe that the Mexican has any.
And this is a fruitful source of misunderstanding. But the
roots of the matter lie much deeper.
In this case form is an integral part of the substance and
the stakes played for include much more than a question of
procedure or preference. The arguments that favour a writ
ten covenant are forcible. It appears quite reasonable that
the Southern Republic should have a commercial treaty with
its great northern neighbour — not necessarily, however, a
treaty conferring special privileges on its great sister — seeing
that nowadays all States are linked together with all other
States by compacts of this nature and none of them feels
that its interests are damaged, its dignity wounded or even
its freedom of action inconveniently hampered thereby. Why
then, it is asked, should Mexico shrink from binding herself
by a formal compact of that harmless nature? Is her national
dignity specifically different from that of every other nation?
Is her sensitiveness a morbid symptom or a hollow pretext?
The answer is that it is neither. Mexico has no rooted repug
nance to discuss the terms of a commercial treaty unless it
be the prelude to economic interpenetration. What she de
clines is a process of bargaining for recognition. And her

206 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
objections are derived from international usage, from a deep-
rooted sentiment — over-developed it may be, but very real,
which the average foreigner is unable to discern or unwilling
to allow for — and from an intense solicitude to preserve unim
paired her attributes of sovereignty which in this case are
demonstrably at stake.
These considerations, misgivings or precautions, trivial
though they may appear to the large-hearted American, carry
great weight with the Mexican who realises the forlorn con
dition of his country. Mexico to-day stands alone in the
world, isolated and impoverished. She has no powerful friend
on the globe and the kind of friendship which is within her
reach she instinctively eschews. Her own people are not yet
sufficiently united to present a compact front to outsiders
so long as the dispute is diplomatic. Many of her distin
guished citizens are become frondeurs who mistake a party
for their country and add to the difficulties of their Govern
ment. Her one strong man is exerting himself untiringly
to clear away the ruins left by the subversive waves of ten
years' successive revolutions. But as yet he lacks an ade
quate staff of competent helpers. The funds needed for ur
gent internal reforms are not sufficient. France and Britain,
who would gladly succour him financially, morally, politically,
are either themselves without the means or else they do not
venture to take independent action in the matter lest they
should offend the United States on whose good will they are
dependent elsewhere. The Republics of Latin-America fail
to see that Mexico's cause is their own. Thus Mexico, ex
hausted economically and morally, stands alone face to face
with the greatest Power on the globe. President Obregon
has nought to rely upon, therefore, but moral force to stay or
check that mighty ihfluence which tends to impress a new
course upon the current of Mexico's national life. He pre
sumably draws from the history of Mexico's past relations
with the United States warnings and forebodings which cast
a deep shadow over his picture of their future friendly inter
course. Accordingly he deems it to be his duty to withstand
such pressure brought to bear upon him as would jeopardise

RECOGNITION BY TREATY 207
the sovereignty of the Republic. To accuse him of criminal
stubbornness for this attitude is like classifying as ferocious
a certain domestic animal on the ground that it defends itself
desperately when attacked. It is not surprising that a Mexi
can in his position should regard the violent imposition of a
treaty of friendship as a contradiction in terms. He feels the
force of the Russian saying that "you cannot make yourself
loved by coercion."
The recognition of one Government by another is hardly
more than an implicit admission that the administration recog
nised does really represent the country, is authorised to act in
its name and can be approached and dealt with as its trustee
and mouthpiece. The theory, accepted and acted upon by
other nations, is confirmed by international precedent.
Treaties are negotiated only with recognised Governments and
this principle is so rigorously upheld that even when one of
the countries has been vanquished in battle by the other recog
nition invariably precedes treaty-making. The two are never
simultaneous and to endeavour to make them so is an unwar
ranted innovation. In all such cases the terms of the covenant
are discussed on their intrinsic merits exclusively, and to en
force them as a condition of recognition is therefore an
anomaly. Whether Obregon's Government is entitled to be
regarded as the legal repository of valid authority in the Mex
ican Republic depends upon its relations to the Mexican
nation, not upon its liabilities, and still less upon its readiness
to accept a compact regulating its future behaviour. In the
history of diplomacy which supplies precedents of international
law there is no example of recognition being confounded with
the settlement, nor even the express acknowledgment, of claims
made by the recognising State. Still less does it presuppose
that a treaty of friendship has been concluded or agreed upon
by the two. To assume the contrary is to ignore the rules
that govern international relations and to forget the bearings
of recent events.
President Obregon's objections to a preliminary treaty are
many and convincing. One of them is that it is a slightly
disguised form of purchase money paid for recognition. Inr

208 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
sistence upon it by the United States would be evidence that
the Government which the Mexican people regard as the re
pository of the sovereign rights of the Republic cannot be
trusted even for a brief span of time. And true or false,
nothing could well be more humiliating. Those manifestly
are also the views taken by a number of sovereign States —
among them Italy, Japan, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, the
Argentine — which have already given recognition to the
Obregon Administration in accordance with international
usage. They implicitly hold that Mexico's differences with
foreign countries can best be adjusted by diplomatic methods
after recognition. And it is hardly too much to assert that
Britain and France would likewise have recognised President
Obregon if considerations of political expediency had not im
pelled them to refrain from weakening Washington's influ
ence in Mexico by countering or checking her policy there, even
when that policy is a flat negation of their economic interests.
Lastly, the advocates of unconditional recognition point out
that former Mexican Administrations much less promising
than that of General Obregon received recognition de facto
and de jure without any preliminary compact. That was the
experience of the Carranza Government. "Why," it is asked,
"should the actual President with whom the exercise of jus
tice is the result not of an effort but of an inborn instinct be
treated worse than his predecessor of whom Americans af
firmed that injustice had become almost a second nature?
Surely the ruler to whose moral sense of fairness all his
experience, thoughts and motions are set and referred as to
a fixed standard should be allowed to share at the very least
the same degree of trust as the 'artful dodger' between whose
words and deeds there often yawned an impassable abyss. It
is a waste of energy to knock at an open door and a damag
ing blunder to use force to compel a friendly Government to
do what it is effecting voluntarily. Nor is it worldly wise to
strive to divest of his prestige in the eyes of the nation the
one man who is able and willing to satisfy the equitable de
mands of Mexico's creditors and to realise the hopes of her
well-wishers."

RECOGNITION BY TREATY 209
No imaginative observer touched with even a vague sense
of the tragic elements in Obregon's position, as he crosses
the national stage, can help hoping that he at least will be
allowed to play his part without being baulked by sticklers
for monopolies and greedy fortune-hunters. The retrospec
tive mind, evoking the figure of the petted and spoiled Car
ranza, recoils from the thought that foreign Governments
should whet the edge of the irony of circumstance by put
ting a premium on bad faith and punishing plain dealing.
But it is further urged that, independently of the personal
deserts of Mexico's First Citizen, the interests and claims of
the three foreign Governments postulate unconditional recog
nition. For if those demands are to be satisfied fully and in
amicable fashion, common sense prescribes that the ways and
means be left to the one man whose office, experience, sense
of justice, tact and popularity qualify him to establish such
internal conditions as alone can render the settlement possible.
If the unprecedented stand be taken and the dangerous prin
ciple enforced that not only the results aimed at but also the
means of attaining them ought to be outlined by a foreign
power, then the prospect changes and the issue turns upon
Mexico's sovereign rights. And before any such interna
tional compact can be imposed upon President Obregon, in
ternal troubles may be generated which must be quelled by
force, and ultimately by force from outside. This would con
front both parties with a factor of unknown character and
magnitude which might stand for anything from local revolts
to widespread resistance against any and every national insti
tution that had countenanced such external interference. And
the latter state of Mexico might be worse than the former.'
Would her neighbours and creditors appreciably benefit by this
upheaval? They would be creating the situation which they
profess to apprehend. For if that is not the consummation
wished for it certainly is the one that will be precipitated.
The insistence of the United States Government on a pre
liminary treaty means that recognition on the American Con
tinent is become something wholly different from what it has
been hitherto and still is in the remainder of the world to-day.

210 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
In international law it is no more than an implicit acknowl
edgment by one State that another State has a government
which duly represents it and exercises legal and valid author
ity within its frontiers. That and nothing more. Now this
condition which is necessary and adequate has a purely domes
tic character. So true is this that even the all-powerful dis
solvent of war itself does not affect it. Take a striking ex
ample. The Emperor Franz Josef died before the armistice,
yet his successor was tacitly recognised as the ruler of Austria-
Hungary even by his enemies who discussed peace proposals
with his envoy, Prince Sixtus, and peace conditions with the
delegates whom he sent to St. Germain. They did not insist
upon a treaty as a prerequisite to recognition, but only as a
condition of peace. After all, a State usually has a much
longer life than any of its governments and it continues to
subsist after a regime is overthrown. But once it establishes
a government which is not the occasion of civil war, its neigh
bours if they desire to hold intercourse with it must
acknowledge it without laying down conditions of their own
making. Take a case in point. Great Britain and Russia are still
at loggerheads on the matter of the latter's debts, the damages
which her revolution caused to British capitalists and the com
pensation owing to British subjects. For in Bolshevist Rus
sia the rights of private property and free trading have been
continually and systematically trampled under foot. Not
withstanding this, however, and despite other more incriminat
ing counts in the indictment. Great Britain has recognised the
Bolshevist regime as the de facto Government of Russia.
And it would have done this over two years ago if Mr. Lloyd
George had had his way. The Court of Appeals in England
has recently ruled 1 that in virtue of that recognition all acts
of the Soviet Government performed before, as well as after,
the signing of the trade agreement are outside the jurisdiction
of British Courts as being the acts of a Sovereign Govern
ment.2 Here, then, recognition was given because the Bol-
1 On May 12th, 1921.
2 Ibidem.

RECOGNITION BY TREATY 211
shevist Administration, however obnoxious it might be to the
British people, was accepted as the outward expression of the
sovereignty of the State and as the sole agency by which the
sovereign powers of the State are exercised. That is the sig
nificance of the act. Whether in the case of the Bolshevist
Government recognition can also be justified as expedient or
moral, is a question which does not concern us here. The
essence of the matter lies in the circumstance that Russia's
debts to Great Britain, her liability for damages incidentally
done to the lives and possessions of British subjects during
the Revolution and for the further injuries caused by delib
erately hostile misdeeds had no place in the balance. As these
considerations stood and could stand in no relation to the
legal claim of the Bolshevist Government to exercise the sov
ereign rights of the State, they went for nothing.
Now in the case of Mexico, it is urged, the arguments
against Mr. Hughes' demand have incomparably more force
than those which carried the day in favour of the recogni
tion of the Russian Duumvirate. In fact, there is not a single
motive drawn from Mexico's debts or commitments — none of
these have been, or will be, repudiated — which can reasonably
be pleaded as an argument against acknowledging the present
Government, seeing that it is admittedly the agency by which
the sovereign rights of the Republic are duly exercised. In
fact, if it be not first recognised, it cannot be deemed com
petent to conclude any treaty or compact or to satisfy any
claims whatever.
It may be objected that the United States has created a
new precedent and laid down as an indispensable condition that
the Government to be recognised must first prove that it has
both the disposition and the power to discharge its interna
tional obligations, and unless and until it has successfully
undergone these two tests it is not entitled to be recognised.
With the assumptions underlying these terms Mexico can join
issue and show that this innovation has not been accepted by
the community of nations, forms no part of international law,
is therefore binding on no Power and is tantamount to a dis
regard for the law of nations.

212 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
What it amounts to is the one-sided promulgation of a
principle new to international custom and tradition, which
shall be applicable on the American Continent to Latin-Ameri
can States and shall fit in with that new and comprehensive
interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine which has been advo
cated by Mr. Fall in his public utterances. This tendency is
a survival of the ambitious experiment tried at the time of
the historic Panama Congress 3 and thwarted in the clash be
tween the Adams administration and the Jackson opposition.
The object of that polity was to organise the Western Conti
nent "as a unit in independence of, and possible hostility to,
the Eastern Continent." Some of the soundest American
thinkers on both sides of the Rio Grande pulverised the no
tion of this dual organisation of the world. "In their quar
rels with European States," writes the eminent American
sociologist already quoted, "it suits the South American States
very well that the United States should act the cat's-paw for
them, but it cannot be that their statesmen will be so short
sighted as to accept a protection which would turn into domi
nation without a moment's warning. . . . The advocates of
the Monroe Doctrine have been forced to meet the argument
that their doctrine was not in international law by new spin
nings of political metaphysics. They have to try to cover the
fact that the Monroe Doctrine is an attempt by the United
States to define the rights of other nations. The modern con
ception, however, is that the States of the world are all united
in a family of nations whose rights and duties towards each
other are embodied in a code of international law." * That is
a fair statement of the case.
Those words uttered by a sagacious and patriotic American
are re-echoed to-day by those Mexican statesmen who are
endeavouring to rough-hew the destinies of their nation. They
believe that they are breasting a current which — if they fail
to stem it — will soon carry away the substance of Mexico's
sovereignty. They are convinced that the first steps at the
8 In the year 1824.
* Cf. War and Other Essays, by W. G. Sumner, p. 278. The italics are

RECOGNITION BY TREATY 213
parting of the ways are decisive. And they are rightly re
solved, come what will, to stand their ground and make the
true issues clear to the whole world.
That, in brief, is President Obregon's attitude — as it ap
pears to an onlooker — towards the imposition of friendship
by a treaty and a threat.
A curious political document drawn up by the represen
tatives of the "unpolitical oil corporations" interested in Mex
ico deals with this matter in a series of fallacies which might
impress the mere lawyer but could not impose upon the stu
dent of international politics. The gist of this prolix argu
ment which is thick-set with irrelevant quotations is briefly
this : In determining whether the United States Government
should recognise a new Government "erected by a foreign
country there are two tests which have been always applied
in determining this question: I. Whether it is in possession
of the machinery of the State and is in a position to fulfil its
international obligations. 2. Whether it is disposed and will
ing to fulfil such obligations." One of the principal quota
tions given is this : "It has been the custom of the United
States, when such changes of government have heretofore
occurred in Mexico, to recognise and enter into official rela
tions with the de facto Government as soon as it should appear
to our Government to have the approval of the Mexican peo
ple and should manifest a disposition to adhere to the obliga
tions of treaties and international friendship.
"It cannot be too strongly emphasised that both of these
tests must be applied with satisfactory results in order to
meet the requirements of the United States State Department.
Mere capacity to act properly unaccompanied by the disposi
tion to do so is not enough ; and the mere disposition, without
the capacity, is, of course, unavailable." 5
This argument answers itself. For either the Obregon
administration possesses the will and the power to meet those
requirements or it lacks them. In the former case, recogni
tion should be accorded without more ado, and in the latter
it is preposterous to suppose that the act of signing a treaty
0 Moore's Digest, Int. Law, Vol. i, p. 148.

214 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
would make up for deficiency of will and power to fulfil inter
national duties. In order to gauge aright the significance of
the demands put forward by Mr. Hughes, one need only imag
ine that they proceeded from Japan, were addressed to the
United States and intimated Japan's refusal to recognise the
| present Republican Administration until and unless Japanese,
I subjects are treated in accordance with the law of nations.
With the praiseworthy intention of helping Mexico out of
her difficulties Mr. Hughes, who seems to operate with ab
stract principles in vacuo, has provided a lever for all those
Mexicans and Americans who are working openly or cov
ertly for the overthrow of the present Mexican Government.
In his zeal for the defence of the rights of property he is
sapping the power of the only defenders of property in the
Republic. In the name of righteousness he is unwittingly
aiding and abetting the conspirators who are plotting to re-
plunge the country in confusion and urging President Obregon
to break his plighted word. On behalf of a great democ
racy he is forcing Mexico by means of a financial and political
boycott to acquiesce in a treaty which it considers detrimental
to its sovereignty. In these ways he has established a strong
claim to be judged not by what he is doing but by what he
would do.
The obnoxious treaty, it is argued, possesses the advantage
that it can be enforced by military and naval pressure. True.
But then so can any arbitrary exaction, and to plead this as
an argument is to pass from the sphere of right to that of
might. In any case it is an innovation for Mexico, and a
perilous as well as a humiliating one. Nor is it only interna
tional law and Mexican forebodings which reject the condi
tion as capricious; the acid test of common sense produces
the self-same effect. To discover the real disposition of any
Government and discern motive behind the mask of words
one must be a veritable seer. Yet the politicians who advocate
conditional recognition claim to be able to accomplish it. As
for the second condition — the proof that any Government dis
poses of adequate power to discharge all its international obli
gations — it cannot be adduced until the experiment has been

RECOGNITION BY TREATY 215
made. And Mexico is keen to make it, whereas those who
profess to desire it are resolutely hindering her.
If we glance at the action of the world Powers to-day we
find that they discard all such conditions as worse than use
less. They unhesitatingly recognised the Austrian Govern
ment, well knowing that it lacked the means of fulfilling its
international obligations, and they recognised the German Gov
ernment despite the firm and outspoken conviction of its mem
bers that it could not meet its international liabilities and that
even if it possessed the power it lacked the disposition. "Yes,"
one may object, "but in that case the Powers were and are
prepared to enforce fulfilment by arms if necessary." "So
too," Mexicans may retort, "is the Government of the United
States, the only difference between the two being the resolve
of the latter to employ force, if necessary, before recognition,
and humiliation prior to force." And force will prove dis
astrous. International experts are agreed that it is meet that
every attempt to isolate and impoverish a country for the pur
pose of constraining its Government to part with certain attri
butes of sovereignty should be unmasked and characterised as
what it is — an unjustifiable breach of the laws and customs
of nations, and that the despatch of a foreign police force to
that country on the pretext that it has no recognised Govern
ment is neither more nor less than an overt act of war which
deserves to be treated as such. It is the duty of the aggrieved
State to accept such an overt act of war for what it really is.
However just, then, the basic demands voiced by the Wash
ington State Department may be, the ground on which Gen
eral Obregon declines to consider them is that they are to be
embodied in a covenant and imposed as a condition of recog
nition. And his contention is unanswerable. For they have
no more to do with recognition than a clause of the postal
convention. It is pretty certain that Mexico's next Ambas
sador to Washington will wear a decent suit of clothes there
and will not clash with the criminal law of the country. But
if it pleased President Harding to refuse to receive any Mexi
can Ambassador unless his Government first promised in writ
ing that he would don the conventional garb of civilised men

216 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
And conducted himself properly, these terms would be sum-
l^marily rejected and all the world would applaud. If the world
is less awake to the extraordinary nature of the demand for
a treaty, before recognition, it is because the issue is obscured
by being mixed up with extraneous matter. The public is
told, for instance, that the Mexican Constitution contains a
clause confiscating the property of Americans who have in
vested their capital, devoted their brains and employed their
time in exploiting the oil fields and that the confiscatory effect
of that clause must be neutralised by treaty before the Re
public can be admitted into communion with three Powers —
one may call them the Triple Entente for the Protection of
American Rights. And the public accepts the allegation with
out further enquiry while those publicists who seek to place
the matter in a different light find it passing difficult to venti
late their views in the United States press.
Now that way of stating and confusing the question is
*hardly fair. Article 27 is not confiscatory, because it does not
stand alone. If it stood alone, retroactive force might per
haps be read into it by jurisconsults, and retroactive force
would undoubtedly render it what is termed confiscatory. But
nothing less than that. For the clause only nationalises the
'products of the subsoil and nobody has ever denied to the
Mexican Republic the right to do this. What foreigners
clamour against is the nationalisation of property which they
had legally acquired before the Constitution was passed. And
.their resentment would be natural were their apprehensions
well founded. But they are not. All such property is ex
pressly exempted by Article XIV which declares that nation
alisation shall not work backwards but only forwards. Its
operation will be confined to the future and eliminated from
the past. There is, therefore, no need whatever, Mexicans
hold, for a treaty binding their Government to that interpre
tation of Clause XXVII which Secretary Hughes considers
just. The Constitution itself leaves no doubt about the right
interpretation. The opinion of the President of the Mexican Senate is
worth reproducing here as a contribution to the discussion.

RECOGNITION BY TREATY 217
This legislator" contends that Article 27 has been disin-
geniously construed by Mexican engineers. What the enact
ment really meant to do, he tells the public, was to establish
the direct dominion of the State over the treasures of the
subsoil but not its absolute dominion. It was the crafty engi
neers who distorted the tenor of the law. And the confisca
tory decrees against which the foreign companies raised their
voices and invoked the aid of their respective Governments
presuppose the absolute dominion of the State, which was
never aimed at by the legislators.7 This is the interpretation of
an eminent Senator and as such it is worth recording. He
seeks to reinforce it by laying stress on the circumstance that
the decrees thus falsified did not bring in one cent to the
nation during the three years that have passed since their
promulgation. Experience has merely demonstrated their use-
lessness and the impossibility of applying them. Indeed, the
only noteworthy effect they produced has been to whet the
cupidity of a few persons who covet their neighbour's goods.
And he illustrates this by interesting examples.
There was a Cuban citizen, he goes on to narrate, who spent
the best years of his life selling cigars on one of the main
thoroughfares of the Mexican capital. This humble individ
ual has rapidly became the proprietor of more than 250 oil
properties in virtue of those misinterpreted decrees. And curi
ously enough the lands are all situated in the very best locali
ties, just as though he had devoted the twenty years of his
life spent in vending cigars to the study of the geography of
oil wells! Another stroke of similar good fortune favoured
a certain engineer who had merely to sign his name and buy
a revenue stamp worth thirty pesos in order to become the
fortunate owner of a well in Zacamixtle which brings him in
50,000 barrels of oil daily. This favourite of fortune, it is
believed, was unaware of the whereabouts of Zacamixtle when
he first acquired his holding there.
The Senator pointedly declares that to render the nationali
sation act retroactive would be to violate justice and to fly
6 Senor Adalberto Rios.
7 Cf. Universal, 14th April, 1921.

218 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
in the face of the law itself. If the petroleum were the
property of the nation, he urges, how could private individuals
and foreign companies go on selling and exporting it as they
have been doing on the strength of their leases and fees-
simple ? 8 The contradiction is manifest.
In truth it was President Carranza's decree which originated
the trouble. That President's treatment of foreign investors
was at times most reprehensible and his endeavour to justify
it by an appeal to Article 27 was a fallacy in law and a blunder
in politics. And in this it is said he sinned against his own
countrymen as grievously as against the outlanders, the appeal
to the Constitution as his warranty being, so to say, the sin
against the Holy Ghost. But for him too the day of doom
arrived. His own people removed him from the dictatorial
chair and his successors have repeatedly repudiated his doc
trine and solemnly promised to repeal the illegal acts and
remedy the sinister consequences which have given rise to the
present trouble. The injustice perpetrated by one President
is being redressed by another and suitable amends made for
damages inflicted. In all this the Constitution itself is not
in question.
"That is not enough," exclaim the advocates of the new
doctrine. "If one President can repeal the acts of another,
General Obregon's successor can repudiate the satisfactory
interpretation which he may now read into the Constitution
and four years hence we may be exactly where we were in
19 19, whereas if we possess a binding treaty signed and sealed,
we are on the safe side once and for all."
Now that mode of ratiocination is but a piece of specious
casuistry. For if Obregon's successor can put a false con
struction on the clauses of the Constitution he can likewise put
a false construction on the terms of the treaty. And what
remedy will the United States Government have then? Ex
actly the same remedy which it possesses to-day without any
treaty. That and nothing more. For even to-day, if the
President instead of declaring, as he has done, that Article 27
will be regulated by law in a broad spirit of equity and will
8 Universal, 14th April, 1921.

RECOGNITION BY TREATY 219
be applied without confiscatory effect or retroactive force,9
had refused to do anything whatever in the matter, what line
of action would then be open to the United States Govern
ment? Precisely the same that it would have under the
treaty, and none other. In each case it would feel con
strained to move in order to assert its rights, and shyness to
come forward under such circumstances is not among its
marked traits. And in both cases these rights derive from
international law. Now if there is no tangible advantage to
be gained by imposing a treaty as a prerequisite to recognition,
what intangible advantage forms the motive for this singu
lar demand? Mexicans answer the question by an appeal to
their history and to the many evil-boding symptoms reported
to them lately from the United States. Grounded distrust
has large eyes and a quick imagination, especially when por
tentous facts provide the spectrum.
All that is so clear that it would be superfluous to dwell
upon it were it not that the attention of the public is de
flected from the main issue by a cloud of wholly irrelevant
considerations which are rooted in American group, party or
personal interests and ambitions. There is but one fair way
of presenting the matter to the world and it is this : Is it
congruous with international law to constrain a sovereign State
to conclude a treaty against its will? Is not such an act an
abuse of power? Would a treaty be conducive to the praise
worthy aim which Mr. Hughes assuredly has in view — i.e.,
the protection of American rights? Nowise. For when he
refuses to accept the guarantees now offered by the Mexican
Government, it is admittedly because that Government may
be unable to make good its less solemn promises. Yet it is
exactly the same set of guarantors who will underwrite the
treaty. There are none other. And if they are too power
less or too fickle to be trusted in the one case, the same dis
qualifications attach to them in the other case.
What the American State Department, doubtless with the
best intentions, asks is that General Obregon shall consent to
a transaction which would brand himself and his administra-
0 Statement issued by General Obregon to the press on April 3rd, 1921.

220 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
tion as.disingenuous or weak-willed, self-seeking men who have
inherited together with the liabilities of their predecessors their
defects and vices. As the State Department was unable to
trust Carranza's pledged word it argues that it can have just
as little faith in Obregon's emphatic assurances and it im
plicitly calls upon him constructively to admit that it is right
by signing a document which would be superfluous on any
other supposition and is humiliating and illegal on this. To
contend that a treaty brought about under such conditions is
not a humiliation of the entire Mexican people is to ignore
the meaning of national dignity. Mexicans go further and
assert that it is an attempt to goad the President into tram
pling on the laws of his country which he has sworn to observe
and enforce. That this would be the direct effect of com
pliance with the demand of the State Department is evident.
It is a noteworthy phenomenon, we are further told, that an
instigation of this demoralising character should have found
a place in the programme of a Republic to which is ascribed
the future role of ethical guardian of the backward Latin-
American peoples. If you want to shape a people's conduct
for the general good, you must appeal to it through creditable
motives and key it up to commendable, not to blameworthy,
acts. A President who should openly qualify for his certifi
cate as a good moral ruler by lawless deeds and downright
perjury would be a poor reformer for the ill-starred Mexican
Republic. The fundamental law which the President has sworn to
observe contains an article10 expressly withholding from him
the right to conclude any such treaty as that proposed. If
therefore he sets his hand to the Covenant on which the State
Department insists, he is violating both the Constitution and
his oath to observe it. There are doubtless ambitious men
devoid of scruples who would pay even that price for power
— the names of some of them have recently become public
property — but President Obregon is not a member of the
group. The inevitable effect of compliance with the State
Department's demand would be to lower him to their level
"Article XV.

RECOGNITION BY TREATY 221
and his fellow-citizens naturally join him in resenting the
attempt. Further, assent to the proposal would be an implicit avowal
that the Constitution establishes and legalises systematic con
fiscation of American property and that President Obregon
considers it a praiseworthy act to violate such an iniquitous
charter. Can he be expected to make that avowal? Would
any self-respecting man make it ? One knows what to think
of a leader who first publicly proclaims his resolve to respect
the Constitution, then swears fidelity to it and a few months
later agrees to trample it under foot in order to induce a
foreign Power to recognise him as its guardian. Is it con
ceivable that the assertion of American rights calls for such
a tremendous change in the political fabric of the Southern
Republic as the dissolution of democratic government there
and the setting up of a dictatorship, to qualify for which per
jury is a peremptory prerequisite ?
Many of Obregon's countrymen are prone to suspect that
behind the imposition of a treaty as a preliminary to recog
nition lies some unavowed and sinister purpose. And this
purpose they believe themselves able to perceive or divine,
and entitled to counter. For, as we saw, the condition in
question is a recent innovation for which no satisfactory
grounds have been assigned. It is known to have been un-
thought of before the closing months of the Wilson Adminis
tration. And it is admitted that nothing has since occurred
to render it desirable or feasible, — that in fact the main
events which have taken place in Mexico since then were cal
culated to produce the opposite effect. And the knowledge of
these considerations was expected to exert a decisive and re
straining influence over the attitude of the Republican Ad
ministration. How telling a disadvantage it is thus to have
international usage, ethics, logic and common sense and the
example of all disinterested nations arrayed on the side of
a little State in its passive resistance to the Government of a
great and fair-minded people may be gathered from recent his
tory. It would be superfluous to recall the examples.
In the first month of 19 17 the American Government, hear-

222 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
ing that Carranza was devising measures of a confiscatory
nature to the detriment of foreigners in Mexico, sent him a
note to the effect that it would not "acquiesce in any direct
confiscation of foreign-owned properties in Mexico or indirect
confiscation." Soon afterwards the Constitution was adopted
— the Constitution which is now the bogey of the foreign
oil men and their political allies. The State Department in
Washington forthwith asked for assurances from the Mexi
can Government that in enforcing this constitutional provision
American rights would suffer no abridgment. That is all that
was asked for. And if it was necessary it certainly was ade
quate. It is manifest then that no rooted objection to the
application of any part of the Mexican Constitution was at
that time entertained by the State Department. Article 27
as modified by Article 14 was neither condemned nor held to
be incompatible with any foreigner's rights or interests. On
the contrary it was rightly assumed to be reconcilable with
these. All that was needed was an assurance that in apply
ing it American rights would not be infringed. And this
assurance was given before a month had gone by " to the pres
ent Under-Secretary Fletcher. This response and a later one
couched in similar terms were deemed to be perfectly "reas
suring," when Carranza was in power. The Constitution was
not called in question. It is fair to conclude that the assurance
then asked for, accompanied and followed by tangible evi
dence of its sincerity, would meet all the requirements of the
case now that the presidential chair is occupied by a Mexican
whose rectitude and will-power are beyond the reach of evil.
We need not forget the imbecilities of the Carranza admin
istration nor palliate the presidential decrees which called forth
protests from the Powers of the "Triple Entente." What
really matters, however, is the striking change for the better
which has taken place in Mexico since then and is being
deepened and extended by the present Government. And this
change warrants a more generous — or rather, a more just —
attitude towards Mexico than was displayed by the United
11 On February 20th, 1917. It was repeated on the 2nd of August fol
lowing.

RECOGNITION BY TREATY 223
States during the Carranza regime when graft and sinister
interest were rampant. And in any and every case a demand
to-day for terms which were not considered necessary then
would under all the circumstances have a blighting effect on
the moral sense and self-esteem of the nation that enforced
as well as the nation that accorded it.
Those are some of the musings of those Mexicans who
think and read and remember and wonder how it comes to
pass that the great American people, in whose name that
unacceptable demand has been presented, have never had the
issues clearly placed before them. They complain that in none
of the widely circulating journals of the Union has their side
of the question been comprehensively set before the public,
nay, that it has been positively and systematically kept out
by occult influences. Surely it cannot be true of the Great
Western democracy as it is of the Russian Bolshevist State,
that politics is for the governing few and propaganda for the
masses, or that it is disastrous to be right when the Adminis
tration happens to be wrong? And yet that is the view
ascribed to certain North American politicians by Mexicans
who object to be browbeaten into friendship with a foreign
government in accordance with a plan devised by corporations
and schemers whom they regard as enemies of their country.
There is much more to be said on the subject but this is not
the place to say it. The bearings of the treaty proposal upon
the internal situation in Mexico cannot be ignored by the pub
lic, however much they may have been missed by responsible
American politicians. One aspect of the matter hinges on the
sinister effects which the forcible imposition of the treaty con
dition would produce on the public peace which Obregon has
just restored. And these effects will be realised irrespective
of the form in which the will of the United States Govern
ment is enforced, whether it be by the perpetuation of the
economic blockade, the seizure of Mexican Custom houses,
the despatch of warships or by undisguised military inter
vention. Tentative intervention has been going on all the
time. But the spirit in which any decisive manoeuvre to
abridge the sovereignty and wound the dignity of the Mexican

224 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
Republic would be resented by those who speak and act in its
name is still but imperfectly realised to the north of the Rio
Grande. And it is hardly too much to affirm that the reac
tion against such coercion would assume forms which would
destroy the last vestige of pacification and throw open the
sluice gates to anarchy, confusion and destructiveness. Is that
the consummation which the inspirers of the financial boycott
have at heart?
There are but two sets of political conditions in which germs
of chronic unrest can thrive and fructify in Mexico to-day, and
of these one is not yet fully operative while the other is un
happily realised. The former is the line of coercive foreign
action now being pursued in the United States, and the latter
is the perpetuation of that portion of the Constitution which
bestows sovereignty upon the various States of the Mexican
Union. For the moment we are concerned only with the for
mer and with it merely in so far as it obviously aims at the
ousting of General Obregon from the presidency of the Mexi
can Republic and the substitution of a subservient instrument
there for a genial worker, — of an Americanised pawn for a
Mexican Chief.
The belief is wide-spread and deep-rooted in Mexico that
the latter consummation is being deliberately, directly and
lawlessly striven for. This is a grave charge to level at any
section of the citizens of a powerful nation and the people of
the United States naturally looks forward to its speedy dis-
proval while the people of Mexico as naturally anticipates the
production of substantiating evidence. The historian in the
meanwhile can content himself with chronicling the beliefs
and tempers of each, waiting for what the morrow will bring
forth and expressing his regret for the sake of art and poli
tics that the most consummate actors are not to be found on
the theatrical stage.

CHAPTER XIX
The Public Debt and National Criminality
No nation can live longer in peace than its neighbour
pleases. Neither can any undeveloped and untutored people
like the Mexicans establish by peaceful methods a new and
stable order after the dissolution of its ancient politico-social
bonds, unless its wealthy and powerful neighbour allows it.
The enterprise on which the Obregon administration has em
barked is neither more nor less than the complete reconstruc
tion of a society. The task is not new in the world's history. It
has been accomplished in various countries more than once but
under conditions so unlike those with which the Mexican Presi
dent has to cope that the experience of the past is of little help
in his undertaking. The notion that a foreign Government, and
in particular that of the United States, can prescribe what is
good for the people of the Southern Republic better than the
leaders of that people is preposterous. What the capitalist
groups and their political allies desire — and it is they who make
this bold assumption — is that the period which has elapsed since
the halycon days of Diaz should be treated as an impertinent
parenthesis in history and the threads of national and interna
tional polity be taken up where they fell from the nerveless
hands of that aged Dictator. The Revolution and its conse
quences are to be ignored, the hands of the clock of time turned
back. Truly the minds to which these ideas commend them
selves are not of the type that can offer sound advice, still less
continuous guidance.
The revolutions through which Mexico has passed — largely
the outcome of foreign economic thraldom — were undoubtedly
a fruitful source of national misfortunes. They kept the nation
anchored in the stream of time while other peoples were rapidly
moving forward to pleasant harbours. They dethroned cher
ished ideals and overthrew institutions that had once performed
225

226 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
a useful part in the State organism and some that were still in
dispensable for a time: They dislocated trade, commerce and
industry. All this is true and deplorable. But it is well worth
noting withal, say Mexican thinkers, that throughout this awful
welter the people were actuated by an ardent instinctive desire
to better the lot of the whole community, to create equal oppor
tunity for all, to inaugurate an era of justice and liberty and to
put an end to one of the most repulsive spectacles ever wit
nessed in any country — the perpetuation of national misery,
ignorance and disease, nay of the degeneration of a naturally
gifted people — in order that a few foreign corporations should
pile up immense dividends and a few foreign politicians should
make a dent in local history.
And this was a noble striving, little though it is understood
by those interested outlanders who would fain present the
Mexicans with the fruit of the tree of knowledge and teach
them what is good and what is bad for them.
Now that the revolutionary epoch has come to an end, and
even the bitterest enemies of the new regime have decided to
content themselves with constitutional weapons in their future
struggles, President Obregon, his Government and his people
are confronted with the prospect of being thrust back into the
quagmire of chaos from which they have just emerged. And
the people responsible for this back-handed stroke are certain
of the groups which have thriven on Mexico's resources and
their political coadjutors in the United States. Mexicans who
have given this matter some thought re-echo with the fervour
of conviction the significant utterances of President Harding in
the course of his eloquent address from the cloister of the
Washington Memorial Chapel1 : "The rational work of every
civilisation is to cure without destroying and guard against the
enemies of liberty who come to us cloaked in pretended helpful
ness ..." That is a part of the rational work which President
Obregon is conscientiously playing to-day.
As for the official directors of the policy of the United States
which is fettering Mexico commercially, financially, indus
trially, and checking her moral and spiritual development, they
1 On June 6th, 1921.

PUBLIC DEBT AND CRIMINALITY 227
at least can lay the unction of good intentions to their souls.
They are working in their own way according to their own
lights for what they believe is their own country's good and
Mexico's. But they are driving the latter country into the
Slough of Despond. "I can think of an America," said Presi
dent Harding in that touching address of his which the New
York Herald termed "a sermon of faith . . . and hope" — "I
can think of an America that can maintain every heritage and
yet help humanity throughout the world to reach a little higher
plane." So too can the Mexicans, and it is precisely from such
an America and not from rich companies and associations
which are endeavouring to sway her policy that they looked,
less perhaps for immediate help to reach a higher plane, than
for common justice. And odd though it sounds, they have
hitherto looked in vain.
Mexicans ask : What is justice in the Mexican problem as
it affects the great northern Republic ? Surely it is to do unto
Mexico as you would have Mexico do unto you? Is that the
attitude of official circles in the United States? A few instruc
tive incidents in the recent history of the two countries point
the answer.
The vagueness, inconstancy and incongruousness of the
policy of the United States towards Mexico are among the
most perturbing factors with which the latter country is con
tinually full fronted. In the sphere of international relations,
where so much else that affects the nation is decided, nobody
can foresee to-day what to-morrow will bring forth. The
consequent incertitude is disconcerting and mischievous. For
the potentialities are well nigh unlimited and range from the
exchange of cordial missives and the visits of common friends
of the Presidents to the sudden despatch of warships on an
errand incompatible with pacific intercourse. The advent
to power of the Democratic Party, for instance, means the
unfolding of a veritable kaleidoscope of measures that run
counter to each other and leave one utterly bewildered, while
the triumph of their Republican adversaries brings with it a
behest to Mexico to reverse her policies, alter her Constitu
tion, change her laws and follow the new lead under pain of

228 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
economic strangulation. And however friendly the official
attitude may be, Mexicans are never free from the conscious
ness that a strong and steady undercurrent of unofficial
schemes and machinations is flowing onwards into the vast
Monroe reservoir, the sluices of which may one day be opened
to sweep away their independence.
And in all this there are no principles to discuss, no politi
cal conceptions to analyse, no definitions to consider — nothing
but the public utterances it may be of an eminent and honour
able lawyer or professor who has never studied foreign rela
tions and can have no notion of the psychology of the Mexican
people unless he have received it by a pentecostal miracle.
And the form is that of a whimsical dilemma which takes no
account of national or international precedents.
Conditions like these put a tremendous strain upon the
efforts of the men charged with the reorganisation of the
Mexican State, fill them with grave anxiety, tend to produce
involuntary fluctuations in their policy and confront them with
the most sinister prospect which any Government can face.
And they are unable to vie with their adversaries, whose influ
ence over the press has no parallel in any other country, in
setting their view of the matter before the fair-minded people
of the United States. All the items of news calculated to
discredit the Mexican people are carefully gathered, classed,
commented, launched forth, and at irregular intervals sensa
tional fabrications are circulated as news, the only effect and
presumably the sole object of which is to irritate the American
nation and produce spurts of fire culminating mayhap in a
conflagration. Thus lately 2 a telegram was published by the
Universal Service announcing that the American flag flying
from a small boat of the warship Cleveland was torn down and
trampled on by Mexicans during the stay of American ships
in Tampico, that "it was unsafe for Americans to walk the
streets in Tampico," that "the children cursed us in English
and spat at us," and more to the like effect. Against this poison
ing of the sources of information — a vice bequeathed by the
2 In the second half of July, 1921. See the Mexican Post, July 20th,
1921.

PUBLIC DEBT AND CRIMINALITY 229
war propagandists and intensified by other propagandists who
have succeeded those — the Mexicans are powerless. But the
serene temper and complete absence of irritating language with
which those undignified tactics were commented on by the na
tive press challenge and receive the admiration of the foreigner.3
Probably never since the downfall of Diaz has there been less
bitterness, less distrust of the average American by the average
Mexican, than to-day, and the example repeatedly given by
the President has had a profound, widespread and beneficial
effect. "Without the shadow of a doubt," General Obregon said
when addressing American and Mexican citizens in Nogales,*
"it is to morality and to culture that the world of the future
will look for guidance and direction. And we, in harmony
with this new tendency, will gladly throw open our frontiers
and fraternally stretch out our arms to all men of good will
who bring with them those two elements of progress and come
to co-operate with us for the advancement of our country."5
The prevalence of this new spirit of brotherhood is still un
known, hardly even suspected by the people of the United
States. And yet it is one of the most potent factors in the
future relations of both Republics. After all, ignorance of
each other is the mother of hatred, feuds and wars among
nations. The most efficacious means of securing and main
taining peace is to get the various peoples to know each other
and, one may add, to get them also to know themselves. Every
thing that conduces to that is a valuable international asset
and every deliberate attempt to defame the character or exag
gerate the defects of a people in the eyes of its neighbours is
one of the most nefarious of the many misdeeds that still go
unpunished. Those who for such a purpose tamper with the
press, the cinema and other sources of public information are
3 "It is the duty of all who love fair play, and especially of those who
desire that the United States and Mexico should be friends and good
neighbours, to condemn in unmeasured terms the circulation and publication
of false reports of the kind above referred to." Cf. Mexican Post, July
20th, 1921.
* On July 4th, 1920.
* The Nogales Herald, July 7th, 1920.

230 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
among the worst pests of civilised society. And to-day their
name is legion.
General Obregon made a praiseworthy effort to bring influ
ential sections of the people of the United States into close
contact with his fellow-countrymen. He had excursions
planned for members of various chambers of commerce, jour
nalists, students and men of business to whom the various in
stitutions of Mexico with all their advantages and defects
were thrown open unreservedly. It was a noble enterprise
worthy of encouragement from all men who have the advance
of humanity at heart. Yet it was vigorously discountenanced
by the two American associations whose members claim that
they are Mexico's best friends. "The American Association of
Mexico," we read, "being advised that a Committee of the
Confederation of the Mexican Chambers of Commerce is
visiting Los Angeles for the purpose of extending invitations
to American business men to participate in the International
Congress of merchants to be held in Mexico City next June,
has decided to counteract this friendly move of Mexican busi
ness men by advising American merchants against attending
such a conference or accepting any invitation from the Con
federation and urge them not to participate in any friendly
overtures with the Mexican Government or the Mexican peo
ple until the Administration of General Obregon yields to the
eight points set forth by this American Association of Mexico
for the recognition of the Mexican Government."6
The political allies of this and the other great association
are credibly affirmed to have approved this unqualified measure.
Mr. Gladstone who had less striking examples of this anti-
humanitarian spirit before his eyes wrote with firm convic
tion: "The history of nations is a melancholy chapter; that
is, the history of Governments is one of the most immoral
parts of human history."
It is a noteworthy fact that at the present moment two
grandiose experiments of a character as novel as they are
momentous are being tried in two countries which are as far
apart in space as they are in all else — Marxism of an imprac-
8 El Universal, March 9th, 192 1.

PUBLIC DEBT AND CRIMINALITY 231
ticable kind in Russia, and Government based on morality with
out admixture of "diplomacy" and what "diplomacy" stands
for, in Mexico. Those business men and numerous other
guests of the latter country from the United States beheld
things there as they are — the poverty and ignorance of the
people, the backward state of communications, the deadlock
produced by State penury, caused by the economic boycott, the
accumulating wealth of a few foreign companies, and at the
head of this ill-starred nation a man with a genius for moral
probity. And returning to their native country they petitioned
their Government to put a speedy end to the system of eco
nomic throttling to which Mexico is being subjected.
Another equally significant example of the corporate and
anti-democratic spirit of the undying class of wealth-mono*-
polisers, as contrasted with the political tact and sense of jus
tice evidenced by President Obregon is afforded by their re
spective attitudes on the subject of taxation. The oil com
panies, when an additional tax was imposed on the crude oil
exported from Mexico, uplifted their voices against the assess
ment, stigmatised it as disguised confiscation, dismissed thou
sands of working men, filled the newspaper press with lamen
tations, threats and figures, and then rushed to their Govern
ment asking it to make the matter a State concern and to have
the tax removed by diplomatic pressure or more drastic
methods. On the other hand, Mexicans resident in the United
States, some of whom live entirely, others partly, upon the
profits from their lands or business in Mexico but have to pay
income taxes in the United States upon the whole sum received,
irrespective of its source, petitioned President Obregon to press
the diplomatic lever for the purpose of having the burden,
which they consider unfair, lightened or removed. The Presi-(
dent replied to those requests through the Mexican Consuls in
the United States as follows : "It behooves all Mexican citi
zens who enjoy the hospitality of the United States to abide
by the laws of that country and to pay their taxes without mur-,
mur. In no case will the Mexican Government entertain any,
requests or petitions of the nature of those which it has re-'
cently received, nor can the matter be made a subject for pro-,

232 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
test or representation to the Government of the United
States."7
This and similar characteristic facts are unknown in the
United States.
It cannot be gainsaid that the enemies of Mexico's inde
pendence are working strenuously behind an almost im
penetrable screen of prejudice, ignorance and misconception
raised by themselves and their propagandists. It is this cur
tain that hinders the people of the United States from
acquainting itself with the remarkable reforms which have
already been taken in hand by the present Mexican administra
tion and the deciding circumstance that those measures are
being retarded by a group of individuals bent upon creating
"accomplished facts" and thereby forcing the hand of the
United States Government and the reluctant acquiescence of
the people in consequence of those facts.
No Mexican questions the loftiness of Mr. Hughes' inten
tions or considers the measure in which they shaped them
selves conducive to their realisation. Nor can any careful ob
server blink the grave danger which the deadlock produced
by the delay of recognition on the one hand and the continu
ous machinations of interventionists on the other hand has
created for the Mexican Republic. True, Mr. Hughes has
brushed aside all Mr. Fall's recommendations excepting that
of a treaty antecedent to recognition. A small matter in
itself, this is the grain of sand that hinders the international
machinery from working. If it could be complied with by the
Mexican Government it would add nothing to the existing
guarantees for life and property in Mexico, the cordiality of
the friendship between the two peoples or the stability of the
amicable relations between the two Governments.
And yet that superfluous demand has sealed up all sources
of international credit to Mexico, is hindering or retarding
the reorganization of the country, and thus providing the
enemies of that Republic with pretexts for further complaints
and accusations. Caustic criticism is applied, for instance, to
the defective condition of the railways, yet the money needed
7 See also the Mexican Post, 24th July, 1921.

PUBLIC DEBT AND CRIMINALITY 233
for the purchase of rolling stock is withheld on the ground
that no loans can be made until the political demand of the
State Department has been fulfilled. The work of educating
the people, vigorously taken in hand by President Obregon
and the Rector of the University, Senor Vasconcellos, who
have worked wonders by their splendid campaign against
illiteracy, is severely handicapped by lack of funds. And the
funds are not available for reasons of foreign politics. Thus
Mexico is deliberately kept revolving in a vicious circle. All her
financial and economic problems are dealt with on purely po
litical lines and kept without solutions while her proper politi
cal status is denied to her on grounds which in the last analy
sis are industrial and economic. In a word, oil is trump. The
claims of the United States Government for losses inflicted
on its nationals during the Revolution offer an instructive case
in point. The issue turns upon international law, not upon
politics. Yet here is what we find : President Obregon writes :
"Even now we are planning the machinery that will settle all
claims in accordance with the principles laid down by interna
tional law. Nor should it be forgotten that as late as six
months ago we urged our creditors to send a committee to
Mexico for conferences in the interests of fair adjustments
and honest settlements. Strangely enough, acceptance of the
frank invitation has been prevented by various governmental
pressure, and to date Mexico has not been able to secure these
face-to-face meetings that are her desire." 8
To clamour for fair adjustments and honest settlements,
then to decline to co-operate in making them, hardly offers
firm ground for the contention that Mexico is endeavouring
to evade her obligations.
A vast amount of foreign capital in the United States and
Europe is waiting to be invested in the Republic from motives
which seem conclusive to its possessors. Foreign capitalists
are aware that Mexico possesses all the natural conditions
requisite and adequate to the creation of wealth. They also
know that her liabilities judged by latter-day standards are
8 Cf. President Obregon's telegram to the New York World, 27th June,
1921.

234 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
insignificant. Her debt, for example, which is so often
alluded to as "overwhelming and unpaid," is in Mexican pesos
as follows: Principal Interest due
External debt  287,043,240.53 87,001,260.10
Internal debt  136,510,387.50 42,522,269.33
States' debt  3,500,000.00 1,254,492.75
427,0531628.03 130,778,022.18
Grand total  557,831,650.21 Pesos
Equivalent  $278,915,825.11 U. S. Currency
"This amount of a little more than a quarter of a billion
dollars is distributed among a population of sixteen millions
or thereabouts. At the close of the Civil War the United
States, with a population two and one-half times as great,
had a total indebtedness of three billions of dollars. Canada,
with a population of less than one-half that of Mexico, has a
present indebtedness of two billions of dollars, and is now
increasing it in order to care for its soldiers.
"Mexico has always paid what she owed, and the longer
her creditors have waited for her to pay, the more costly
it has been to Mexico. It is estimated that the Government
revenues for the present year will yield one hundred million
dollars United States currency.
"Thus, the total of Mexico's Public Debt is not triple the
entire budget of the Republic." 9
Mexico's per capita national public debt charge amounts
to about one U. S. dollar a year whereas that of the Argentine
is now more than seven dollars, that of Belgium about sixteen
dollars and that of Canada thirty. These figures are signi
ficant. Consequently the national debt is not overwhelming.
Neither is there any fear of President Obregon having re
course to the shabby expedients to which so many other States
on both shores of the Atlantic have occasionally had recourse.
Repudiation has no place in his programme. On the con
trary, he has stated publicly and repeatedly that the national
debt will be paid to the last farthing. In this connection people
9 The (New York) Nation, June 22nd, 1921.

PUBLIC DEBT AND CRIMINALITY 235
who have given this matter their attention recall the fact that
several States of the American Union have given a dubious
example to Mexico, having themselves been in default for
quite a number of years. "It is to be hoped," writes a cor
respondent of the London Morning Post,10 "that any settle
ment of British indebtedness will take into consideration these
outstanding debts.
"According to the annual report of the Council of Foreign
Bondholders, the amount to which these States are in default
is estimated at $60,000,000. The same report, after taking
note of the fact that a settlement of West Virginia's debt was
made in 1919, remarks: 'It is indeed regrettable that those
States of the nation whose credit leads the world should allow
their obligations to continue in default and refuse to listen
to appeals from their creditors. The Council would be glad
to hear what arguments can possibly be adduced in extenua
tion of the conduct of Mississippi in repudiating payment of
its loans in 183 1 and 1833, which were duly authorised by
the State Legislature and issued at a high price in this
country. " 'The State invested the proceeds in the establishment of
two banks and so long as they prospered Mississippi paid the
bondholders; but when the banks ceased to be profitable the
State not only suspended payment, but actually repudiated
its debt. Such a step has not been taken even by so backward
a country as Honduras.'
"The Morning Post's correspondent suggests that, now that
Great Britain is a debtor country to the United States, the
latter be asked to recognise the debt of its defaulting States
as a national obligation."
These and similar facts are relevant to the various staple
charges brought against the Mexican people.
Before forming a final judgment on disputes such as that
which at present sunders the Mexican from the United States
Government one would do well to scrutinise the issues in the
light of the reciprocal relations of the two States over a num
ber of years. This is the only way to assess at their just
10 May 2nd, 1921. See also the New York Times, 3rd May, 1921.

236 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
value charges preferred by one country, which has but re
cently desisted from acts of the kind it complains of, against
another which is only just following the good example of
turning over a new leaf. Thus when looking into the oft-
expressed apprehension that Mexico may repudiate her debt,
one would do well to bear in mind the virile retort made by
President Obregon in his historic telegram to the New York
World:11 "We stated repeatedly that Mexico would not repudiate any
just obligations. We have always paid our debts, we always
will pay our debts. We have seen a loan of $20,000,000 re
ceived in 1824 changed magically into a debt of more than a
$100,000,000. We have seen Maximillian sign an obligation
for $40,000,000 in return for a loan of $20,000,000. We
have seen Miramon, the counter-revolutionist, sign a note for
$15,000,000 in return for a loan of $750,000. Yet not once,
even under these outrageous burdens, have we ever advanced
the idea of repudiation. Throughout the revolution we stated
repeatedly that Mexico would meet every just obligation with
out evasion. It is a promise that will be kept to the letter."
The alleged criminality of the Mexican people is another
of the many counts in the indictment against that Republic
and of the pretexts alleged for the necessity of the "clean-
ing-up" process. A dispassionate study of the facts, however,
will show that the charge is calumnious, and a comparison
between the crimes perpetrated against life and property in
Mexico and those recorded in other States of the new world, or
indeed of the old, will not redound to the discredit of the
former country. It would be unfruitful and ungracious to
point to the recent lynchings in Georgia, the robberies in
the Middle West, the tarring and feathering of defenceless
citizens, American and foreign,12 women and men, in Texas
and other parts of the United States, or to the kidnapping
11 June 27th, 1921.
12 In Miami, Florida, the Rev. Philip S. Irwin, a British subject, rector
of a. church in the negro quarter, was seized one night by masked men,
whipped, tarred and feathered and left lying in the street where he was
ultimately found by a policeman. Between April 1st and 24th July, 1921,
twenty-six such disgraceful incidents were recorded in Texas.

PUBLIC DEBT AND CRIMINALITY 237
of a little boy of five in New York City who was cruelly put
to death because his parents were unable to pay the heavy
ransom demanded. Nor does the Mexican press make cap
ital out of data of that character. Such revolting atroci
ties, whether they occur in one republic or the other, kindle
a blaze of anger in the hearts of all normal men in both
countries. For either people to indulge in exaltation over
the other after the matter of the Pharisee in the Gospel, or
Mr. Fall in his Report to the Senate, would be unfair and
premature. The same remark holds good of that canker of nearly all
the republics of the New Continent for which Americans
have invented the term "graft." Unhappily, it is as wide
spread as it is deep-rooted. That Mexico is no exception
is perfectly true. If years of revolutionary chaos, pillage and
lawlessness were the real explanation of this deplorable phe
nomenon the friends of that country might well rejoice. But
unhappily the cause lies deeper and cannot be displaced in a
day or a year. And yet, oddly enough, the writer of these
pages is acquainted with an American who invested many
millions of dollars in that country without having paid one
centavo in bribery. But for that one there are thousands of
others who have a different story to tell.
It is more instructive than edifying to read the following
remarks in one of the really independent press organs of the
United States. The subject was the disclosures made by Mr.
Untermyer : "His revelations are a tremendous blow at the
present economic organisation of society. For he has estab
lished a number of highly important facts : First, wherever
he has probed he has uncovered labour or capitalistic con
spiracy, or corruption, or both, always at the cost of the pub
lic; second, he has proved the existence of ring after ring
and ring within ring all in flat violation of law; third, he has
proved that the United States Government has deliberately
permitted these rings and combinations in restraint of trade
to exist by prosecuting neither civilly nor criminally; and,
fourth, he has proved where the sympathies of our courts
lie in that every labour rascal whose prosecution he has brought

238 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
about has been given a jail sentence, while every crooked
business man has been let off with a fine." "
It would be difficult to frame a more sweeping indictment
against a society than that and impossible to mark more
clearly the character of a truly progressive and fearless press
organ than by framing it; but the amazing expose presented
by Mr. Untermyer is worth mentioning here only because
it connotes the depth and strength of corruption in such a
model State as the North American Republic, whose mission
is believed to be the ethical and economic guardianship of its
neighbours. "The revelations of Mr. Untermyer," continues
the journal already quoted, "reveal as conscienceless and un
social a state of business life as could well be imagined. For
the sake of private or corporate profit we behold an economic
condition of lawlessness and cut-throat exploitation to give
heart to every extreme advocate of social reconstruction who
believes that our capitalistic system needs only a little more
time to collapse of its own rottenness." 14
If one assumes for a moment that equally vehement terms
of condemnation are applicable to Mexicans, who by the way
are not capitalists, by what country in the new world could
they be appropriately uttered? Which of them is qualified
to cast the first stone?
Protection for American business men who are engaged
in legitimate commercial and industrial pursuits in Mexico
is one of the staple postulates of those groups of companies
and politicians in the United States who are striving to press
their political programmes on their Government and their
fellow-citizens. And it is perfectly legitimate. But if a league
of Mexican patriots were to lay siege to the Teatro Arbeu in
Mexico City, to picket for a whole day, to organise a riot
lasting six hours and finally to put a violent end to the per-
13 The (New York) Nation, July 6th, 1921.
14 The (New York) Nation, July 6th, 1921. Another instance, taken
from the New York Times of June 13, 1921, is worth a passing reference.
Lewis F. Jacobson, counsel for Ascher Brothers, owners of a chain of
moving picture houses in Chicago and vicinity, expressed to the Legislative
Committee which is investigating business conditions in Chicago his belief
that the theatre men of that city had been compelled to pay out approxi
mately one hundred thousand dollars in graft.

PUBLIC DEBT AND CRIMINALITY 239
formance on the ground that the film on the screen was
American-made and must be replaced by one taken in Mexico,
with what feelings would the announcement be read by Amer
ican patriots? Yet incidents of this kind are met with in
the United States without evoking an emotional thrill. "The
American Legion," we read in a Los Angeles newspaper, "at
8 :40 o'clock last night won a complete victory in the first open
fight in this country on the German-made film issue, when
Hollywood Post, after a day of picketing and rioting lasting
more than six hours, caused Miller's Theatre to stop its per
formance of the German-made 'Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' and
to put in its place a Los Angeles-made film. The playhouse,
which had started the picture early in the afternoon for a two
weeks' run, capitulated only after it had been picketed for
hours by hundreds of men in uniform and after the disturbance
at its entrance had gone to such extremes that two mob rushes
had been attempted, rotten eggs had been hurled, and police
and provost guard forces had been reinforced until they
numbered thirty-five men."
"Ten days later the same newspaper announced that at a
meeting of the Loyal American Film League it had been
decided to send a representative to Chicago, New York, Wash
ington and other cities in an effort to spread the campaign
against German-made motion pictures." 15
When reading these and similar disclosures about a well-
ordered State whose official guides preach righteousness and
aspire for their country to the moral overlordship of a Con
tinent, we cannot but feel that we are living through a period
when the foundations of political and social institutions are
sapped and rotten, and caprice and self-delusion are taking
their place. Some of the established landmarks of old-world
civilisation are being moved, the cement of the social organism
is crumbling and the place of ethical maxims is being usurped
by the catchwords of cant and the unctuous jargon of phari-
saism. The Governments and the press of the military and
plutocratic States which rule the world to-day are apt to
lay great stress upon justice, humanity, righteousness and
m The Nation, July 6th, 1921.

240 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
other lofty ideals and to allege these as the motives of policies
which in truth render an approach to these ideals a sheer im
possibility. Secretary Hughes announced that the fundamental
issue between the United States Government and Mexico
turns upon the safeguarding of property rights. In plainer
words, the material rewards accruing to industrial initiative,
however exaggerated they may appear in the light of the
latter-day conceptions of private wealth and public needs,
must take precedence over the material and spiritual welfare
of an entire people. "There is no form of privilege and
monopoly," writes an influential periodical " "so open to criti
cism as that in natural resources, which belong of right to
the citizens of a country at large and to no particular group
of men, much less to a group of outlanders. . . . Does not
President Obregon's assertion mean something for Americans
as well as Mexicans?
" 'We stand to-day,' writes Obregon, 'on the principle that
the natural resources of a nation belong to the nation. Never
again will the people of Mexico tolerate a Government that
does not support this principle. . . . What Mexico will ask
in the future is a fair partnership in development. We are
through for ever with the policy of gift, graft and sur
render.' "
The same journal, discussing the transition of natural rights
into the legal phase of concessions granted, continues : "When
in consequence of a development of civilisation natural re
sources come to possess a value undreamed of before, has
not the Government the right to readjust the terms of the
original grant in the interests of society at large? At one
time no one questioned the right of a man to exclusive in
terest in the air above his land. With the invention of the
aeroplane the interest of the community in this air leads to
governmental action which is certainly retroactive. When
this substance, as in the case of oil, becomes of such impor
tance that it may be vital to national existence, does not a
government's right to self-preservation extend to the recov
ery of title in return for a fair pecuniary compensation?
18 The New Republic, July 13th, 1921.

PUBLIC DEBT AND CRIMINALITY 241
"But these subtleties are ours — not President Obregon's.
He says emphatically: 'Every private right acquired prior to
May ist, 191 7, when the new Constitution was adopted, will
be respected and fully protected. The famous Article 27,
one clause of which declares the nation's ownership of subsoil
rights in petroleum, will never be given retroactive effect, nor
has it ever been given retroactive effect.' "
"Right," Mazzini tells us, "is the faith of the individual.
Duty is the common collective faith. Right can but organise
existence; it may destroy, it cannot found. Duty builds up,
associates and unites. It is derived from a general law,
whereas right is derived only from human will. There is
nothing therefore to forbid a struggle against right." Nothing
but might.
Respecting the protection of the lives of aliens in Mexico,
on which Mr. Fall's Report laid so much stress, nothing more
is heard for the time being. Mr. Hughes doubtless under
stands that excesses committed at the time of Madero and
Huerta have passed into history as completely as the lynch
ing of the eleven Italians by a mob in New Orleans in the
year 1891. But it is not generally known in Europe that the
murder of foreigners resident in the United States outside
the Federal District, even though it amount to a massacre,
is a crime which the Federal Courts of the United States
are incompetent to try. Nay, if one of the States of the
Union should violate an international treaty, the Federal
tribunals may not take cognisance of it.11 This is a fact
well worthy of the attention of those who blame President
Obregon for not taking action against the backsliding States
of the Mexican Union.
It brings us face to face with the crux of the situation
to-day — the obnoxious treaty which is to render recognition
of the Obregon Government possible. The tenacity with
which the demand is being pressed and the seemingly intense
faith which is proclaimed in the force of a treaty — as though
it possessed a sacramental virtue in this era of Haitian Con-
1T A Bill is now before the Senate to authorise Federal intervention to
protect the treaty rights of aliens in the various States of the Union.

242 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
ventions and other scraps of paper — compel one to ask what
benefit a compact of that kind would import into the rela
tions of the two countries? A covenant purporting to estab
lish friendship between two governments, one of which con
strains the other by economic strangulation to accept it, frankly
deserves some other name. Its effect would hardly be friend
ship or cordiality, and it is somelwhat difficult to apprehend
the line of thought by which statesmen can have reached the
conclusion that it would be that.
But eliminating the two essential aspects of means and end,
and keeping solely to that of the force inherent in the form,
one feels tempted to ask what difference a written compact
would make to Mexico's international relations from any
point of view worth considering. Would it add a moral to
an international obligation? Hardly. Promises made under
duress are seldom respected and never deemed to be obligatory
in the political world, if they can be shirked or broken with
impunity. This remark is not to be taken as a reflection upon
either of the two Republics in question, but merely as an addi
tional illustration of the mysterious nature of the predilec
tion and respect which one of them displays for a formal
bond in the case of the Mexican Republic, but repudiates in
the case of the Haitian Republic. Involuntarily one asks what
sort of a picture do those politicians conjure up in their mind's
eye of the binding nature and enduring effects of a treaty
generally. A Mexican press organ contributes data for an answer.
"In the United States," it writes, "there is much talk about
a treaty, but seemingly no recollection of the circumstances
that there is one actually in force to-day. It was signed by
the two governments at the close of an unjust war in which
the weaker was forced to surrender to the stronger one-half
of its territory — a much harsher condition than any that
was imposed by the victors on the vanquished after the
four years' world war waged on the other shore of the
Atlantic. "And it may not be amiss to recall to mind Article
XXI of that treaty, which runs : 'If unhappily at some future

PUBLIC DEBT AND CRIMINALITY 243
time any disagreement should arise between the governments
of the two republics respecting the meaning of any stipula
tion of this treaty or any other aspect of the political or
commercial relations of the two nations, the aforesaid Gov
ernments in their name undertake to endeavour in the most
sincere and strenuous manner to settle the differences and to
preserve the state of peace and amity hereby established be
tween the two countries, and to employ for this purpose
reciprocal representations and pacific negotiations. And
should they not succeed in coming to an agreement by these
means, recourse will not on that account be had to reprisals,
aggression or hostilities of any kind by one republic against
the other, until the government of the country which deems
itself aggrieved has considered ripely and in a spirit of peace
and good neighbourliness whether it would not be better to
compose the disaccord by arbitration of commissioners ap
pointed by both parties or by a friendly nation.' 1S
"And we might point out that this treaty was in force
at the time when the military invaders landed at Vera Cruz
and trod our territory on their so-called punitive excur
sions. "And with all our blood transmuted into eloquence we
might exclaim : 'How is it possible for us to conclude a
treaty with a State which does not know how to respect a
treaty ?'
"In what thrilling tones might we say : 'The United States
have taken part in a war against a people whose government
treated as mere scraps of paper the covenants which it had
signed with various States. To Belgium, the mutilated nation,
went out the sympathy of the whole civilised world, which
unanimously condemned the conduct of the German Empire
towards a weak neighbour, who took it for granted that the
promise registered in a scrap of paper was binding on its
honour. And for what purpose? In order that the Republic
of the North, which stood forth as the ally of right and
18 This is not the original text of the article in English but a literal
translation from the Spanish. As I am travelling in various countries I
have been unable to get access to the English text.

244 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
justice, should treat its signature exactly as the German Em
pire had treated the scrap of paper which guaranteed Bel
gium's neutrality !'
"We might well say this and more. . . ." 19
Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi.
19 Excelsior (Mexico), June 18th, 1921.

CHAPTER XX
Obregon's Tasks and Difficulties
The ancient Chinese teacher Confucius laid it down in one
of his books that the good ordering of a political community
depends upon the proper maintenance of five kinds of rela
tions: those between father and son; between the eldest and
the younger brothers ; between friend and friend ; between hus
band and wife, and between master and servant. Any serious
derangement of these, he held, would of necessity throw the
entire organisation out of gear. Contemporary history con
firms the truth of the remark and extends its application. The
anarchy which of late has thrown every nation of the globe
into confusion is manifestly the result of a radical and, as
many fear, permanent disturbance of all kinds of human re
lationship. Morality as a guide of conduct is persistently dis
carded in the mutual intercourse of nations, citizens, social
classes, sexes, and of employers and employed. Every man's
hand is raised against every other man and each organised
group is intent upon the furtherance of its own interests to
the exclusion of all others while doing lip homage to altruism.
In a word, the cement which hitherto bound the elements of
society together is fast losing its cohesiveness and civilisation
in the forms in which it has progressed since the days of King
Hamurabi and the builders of the Pyramids is seemingly
doomed to undergo a radical change or vanish.
Sanguinary and decimating intestine feuds and wars —
largely the outcome of foreign machinations — had reduced
Mexico to a like distressing plight before the rest of the world
began to experience it, and now that internal conditions in that
Republic are becoming exceptionally favourable to reconstruc
tion and progress the world-wave of anarchy threatens to roll
over it with elemental force and can be kept out only by dras
tic and well-timed measures, to which, if they are to become
245

246 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
efficacious, her neighbours who are mainly answerable for her
condition must also contribute wholeheartedly.
The bulk of the Mexican people are as God made and man
marred them. Their inborn qualities, which are many and
excellent, have never had a fair chance to develop. In shak
ing off the Spanish yoke they showed that they knew how to
die, but their subsequent political experiments proved them to
be imperfectly qualified to live in a progressive self-governing
community. Nor was this either surprising or blameworthy.
For their Spanish rulers had left them in a condition similar
to that in which some haciendados keep their dependents to
this day, benighted, squalid, listless and fatalistic. And one
hesitates to affirm that any of the many changes brought about
by foreign influence since then has raised them to a perma
nently higher level. Under the Spanish rule there was no
political plan, no administrative machinery, nought in»the na
ture of self-government or of public opinion, to serve as
models, nothing in short but a number of costly agencies or
ganised to harvest in cheaply and despatch safely to foreign
ports as much as possible of the wealth of the country, leaving
the people indigent and desperate. And to-day the same pro
cess is going on under another name, American oil men occu
pying the place of the Spanish wealth-exporters. Ethnically
the country has progressed perceptibly.
During the century which has elapsed since the declaration
of independence Mexico has gone far towards producing a
truly national type — a blend of the various ethnic fragments,
mostly Indian and Spanish — to which immigration on a large
scale is fast adding various European strains. To this phe
nomenon and its tangible results there is probably nothing
comparable in any other part of the American Continent, nor
indeed with the sole exception of Russia in any quarter of the
globe to-day. Into its significance, which is likely to prove far
reaching in the future struggle of races, neither American nor
European statesmen have yet had the leisure or the desire to
inquire. The fusion of the races, although still in flux, is visi
bly resulting in the rise of a wholly new people, whose temper,
aptitudes, moral fibre and intellectual capacities differ con-

OBREGON'S TASKS 247
siderably from those of the individual races of whose union
they are the fruit. Unhappily, despite the absolute social and
political equality of all the ethnic constituents of the popula- < -
tion, the mestizos, now the most numerous element, has been
as stunted in its mental and moral development as the Indian. ," ^

T

T'i

The common people generally have had no fair chance to out
grow the superstitions, prejudices and narrow outlook upon ;
the world with which the Spanish invasion found and the Car-.- 1 /
ranza regime left them. Natural evolution has been checked
among them systematically. Racial ties, instincts, tempera
ment, use and wont, perpetuated by geographical isolation and ,v
artificial restrictions, kept them bound to a past which had
little or nothing in common with the progressive aspirations
and ideals of the great onward-moving world outside their ^,
own. And so they remained adult children incapable of using ' '
the many organs of knowledge and advancement with which 0
other nations were so well equipped. And they were kept un- ),,-
conscious of theirjgss. The only seed that has been scattered .„ ,
among them since the roots of their religious faith were loos- /'
ened is of foreign origin and nonconstructive tendency, and it , .;
is a matter of surprise that it has not perceptibly thriven and
brought forth fruit, the conditions being so auspicious. It is
not, however, the fault of the revolutionaries that, born to
gloom and misery, they instinctively made for such stray
gleams of light as happened to pierce through the murk around
them, nor are they answerable for the quality of this light
which is sometimes of the nether regions. Now suddenly to
apply foreign political coercion to such a mass of impulsive
and wrathful humans would be like setting a lighted torch to
a heap of tinder in a powder magazine.
The lower orders of the Mexican people are not only unso
phisticated and politically listless, but they are also poor, under
fed, improvident, and over large tracts of country, especially
in the South, physically degenerating. Their huts are eyesores,
— little traps of infection, and so tiny and bare that, as the
Russian peasants used to say of their own wretched abodes,
the inmates "have neither the space in which to hang them
selves nor the wherewithal to cut their throats." It can hardly

248 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
appear surprising therefore that many of the wretches thus
brought into the world only to pass through the slow-grind
ing mill of disease, misery and pain, have abandoned their be
lief in a hell to follow such a life of suffering. The happiest
among them are the dead, could they but realise it. It is fair
to add that the living seldom exaggerate the value of existence
and answer the death-call as readily as did the ancient Greeks.
In the streets of cities and villages lepers commingle freely
with the population without a challenge from the authorities
or a protest from their fellow townsmen. I have actually
seen them stalking the streets and begging alms unchecked in
more than one town. The main cause of this woeful neglect
is lack of funds which the United States Government is per
petuating, with excellent intentions and these sinister effects.
It is obvious that abstract ideas, however respectable and
attractive, can make but little impress on the minds of men
and women so circumstanced. Only corporeal needs and ma
terial baits can goad or lure them to fitful action with the
promise of immediate results. They rallied in their thousands
around condottieri like Villa, Chavez, Pascual Orozco and
others who could tempt them with loot and reward them with
promotion, and they lavished their attachment and loyalty
upon these chiefs with a rare degree of self-sacrifice. But like
the average Russian of Tsarist days and not unlike some
branches of the Latin race they entertain a distorted notion of
liberty which they often confound with absolute license.
The political domain in the Republic throughout those years
of rapid decay was monopolised by the semi-intellectuals — a
dangerous class in any loosely cemented society — men of nar
row horizons, no special attainments, insatiable ambitions and
egotistic instincts. They lived not in the future or the past
but exclusively in the present. None of them, not even Car
ranza himself, was endowed with the vision, the sense of pro
portion or the serenity of mind necessary to survey a distant
horizon. Many of the partisans of the Government were past
or prospective rebels, and until Obregon gave a new meaning
to the word "revolution" nearly every rebel was first cousin
to a brigand. The unity of the army was riven by the spirit

OBREGON'S TASKS 249
of pronunciamientos; the judicature was discredited by its ab
ject dependence on the Executive; the State departments were
marts for graft. Industry, trade and commerce oscillated in
rhythm with the uncertainty respecting the financial burdens
to which they were liable and with the fitfulness of the open
and covert attacks to which they were subjected by bandits,
rebels and dishonest rivals backed or connived at by the author
ities. Hardly any of the principal dramatis persona? of Mex
ican history has made lasting contributions to the social or
moral advancement of the nation, and none but Benito Juarez
ventured upon helpful experiments in the difficult art of gov
ernance. Most of them were deficient in disciplined intelli
gence and lacked a trained sense of measure. Nor did any
of them except Juarez attempt systematically to combine hu
manitarian interests with the nation's immediate requirements.
Hence their influence, when beneficent, flitted swiftly like a
lightning-flash, leaving the gloom through which it broke as
dense and dreary as before.
The necessity of governing, if possible with, and in any
case for, the people as a whole, was never thoroughly grasped
by any of the former Presidents except Juarez. For most of
the others the bulk of the population was merely a means, not
an end. And as for those gifted individuals who under normal
conditions might have made valuable contributions to the cause
of progress they were but as foam on the revolutionary wave.
During all this period of warfare and confusion the great mass
of the nation yearned for peace. The various leaders were
ready to die for it. But few of them were content to live and
work for it.
One can readily understand the arduous nature of the task,
and the slowness of the process, of transforming a people thus
floundering in an ooze of political decomposition into an or
derly, industrious, self-restrained and law-abiding society.
Yet that is the concrete problem with which General Obregon
has now to cope at the end of a purifying revolution. The
utmost a successful revolution can accomplish is to remove the
obstacles to renovation. Only the liberators and the people in
concert can displace the effects of these and begin to build.

250 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
And there is no grounded hope that a tidal wave of circum
stance will roll in and bear the much suffering Mexican people
to new and fruitful shores. There is but one road to reform
and it is rugged and beset with natural hindrances. Unhap
pily in Mexico's case foreign Governments have blocked it
with artificial barriers, rendering it wholly impassable. And
they intensify the injury by claiming credit for humanitarian
motives. General Obregon is confronted with perplexing problems
drawn from every conceivable sphere : from the domains of
foreign policy, internal legislation, constitutional law, national
economy, railways and waterways, labour, finance, the army.
And some of these are uncommonly delicate. True, the new
President is gifted with an unusual stock of common or
rather uncommon sense, with the rare quality of leadership,
and, although still young, has vast stores of experience to draw
upon. This is another striking instance of his personal luck.
For "experience," as the Turkish proverb puts it, "is usually
a comb presented to us by destiny when our hair is all gone."
But while genius in a statesman can achieve much, it cannot
achieve everything. The greatest kneader of human wills
when charged with reconstructive work depends for results
very largely upon those to whose lot it falls to translate his
ideas into acts. Even an autocrat is to that extent restricted
in the exercise of his power, just as a skilled artisan finds his
natural limitations in the materials and the implements of
which he disposes. And whether General Obregon will find
enough coadjutors and subordinates of the right kind for a
task of this magnitude remains to be seen.
One day when we were travelling through the Southern
States and talking of the physical deterioration of the inhabi
tants which I ascribed primarily to deplorable foreign in
fluences, I asked General Obregon what, in his opinion, was
the first step towards reconstruction. He replied at once : "The
people must be taught to eat, drink and house themselves
properly. They have wrong notions on these subjects and the
right ideas must be instilled into them methodically. This may
sound fanciful but it is painfully true. They are chronically

OBREGON'S TASKS 251
underfed, yet they do not realise it. They often receive food
unfit for human consumption, but instead of spurning they par
take of it and put up with the consequences, which are fre
quently disease and occasionally death. They are miserably
lodged, yet make no exertion to acquire hygienic or comfort
able dwellings. They are among the most prolific people on
the globe, yet the population remains almost stationary owing
to the appalling death-rate among the children. Over vast
stretches of the country the physical type has gone off to an
alarming degree. The individual is listless, his initiative is
atrophied, his activity fitful and unsustained. In a word he
lacks enterprise and perseverance, and has hardly any grit.
Now, as you know, the arts, the sciences, in fact all the cul
tural acquisitions which go with these, presuppose a certain
standard of material well-being which our people are far from
having reached. To help them attain that must be our fore
most care."
On another occasion he said in reply to a kindred query:
"The reforms which Mexico needs require at least four factors
for their complete solution : time, capital, education and a di
recting hand. And I should like to add that the seemingly
longest road to renovation is in truth the shortest, for in re
building a vast social organism one cannot improvise with
safety." Of all the tasks awaiting General Obregon that which will
most severely strain his ingenuity and resourcefulness is the
transformation of the revolutionary Republic with which the
world has so long been acquainted into a pacific and well or
dered community. And it is by far the most urgent and mo
mentous. Mexico must become an elective, law-abiding com
monwealth on pain of extinction as a sovereign State. The
alternatives are as certainly these as if fate had embodied them
in a formal decree promulgated urbi et orbi.
The vices and propensities which years of savage warfare
and unbridled license have engrafted on the soul of a section
of the population cannot be eradicated in a few months, still
less can they be displaced by a mere change of regime or the
enactment of wise laws. This matter of converting the Re-

252 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
public from a revolutionary into a pacific State General Obre
gon is wont to refer to as the "suppression of lawless per
sonal ambitions," and from the very outset of his presidential
career he set to work to deal with it energetically as occasion
arose. Many of the measures which he has adopted since his ad
vent to power challenge the approbation of all who have Mex
ico's well-being at heart. But they only touch the fringe of
the corrosive evil which must be eradicated once for all if the
Republic is to maintain its sovereignty intact. And the first
step is a correct diagnosis. Arbitrary government is not the
most potent dissolvent of a State; it is anarchy, which offers
an almost irresistible temptation to an ambitious or an order-
loving neighbour to intervene. It was anarchy that disinte
grated the Polish Republic. It was anarchy and not despotism
that destroyed the French monarchy and rendered the revolu
tion at once possible and inevitable. And anarchy, political,
social and moral — far more than the irresponsible rule of Car
ranza, Huerta or Diaz, — is directly responsible for most of
Mexico's misfortunes. The appearance on the scene of a born
leader of men like General Obregon, however genial he may
be, will prove but a parenthesis in the annals of the anarchist
state, unless he succeed in changing the system root and
branch. And this is tantamount to saying that he must bring
about a complete revolution in the disposition of that section
of the population which has hitherto supplied the breakers of
law and the disturbers of order. Here again his most artful
thwarters are working in a friendly country under the aegis
of a foreign flag.
If Obregon were suddenly to pass away to-day, his work
and the best fruits of the revolution would vanish with him.
The men in whom down to a few months ago the spirit of re
bellion, lawlessness and destruction was incarnate would once
more unsheath their swords, mount their chargers and inaugu
rate another — and this time the last and fatal — period of civil
strife in Mexican history. As long as Obregon continues to
direct the affairs of his country peace and order may be
deemed to be secure. That, however, is not long enough. The

OBREGON'S TASKS 253
test of a great ruler is so to govern the State and educate its
members as ultimately to enable it to dispense with his ser
vices. Unless he does this he has accomplished nothing dur
able. Only if General Obregon can transform the revolution
ary Republic into a law-abiding state, in which the supreme
power is transmitted by legal procedure, will he have achieved
the most important part of his mission. And of this neces
sity he is perfectly aware. But the reforms which it entails
not merely in the administration but in certain of the basic
laws are so radical that one wonders whether under actual con
ditions they are likely to be realised.
I have often talked with him on this topic and his concep
tions seemed to me on the whole perfectly sound. Although
neither a historian nor a politician, his views of contemporary
history and politics are those of a man who has deeply medi
tated on the course of human affairs and their larger aspects,
and who firmly grasps the main factors in the politico-social
currents of his time. He realises — much more fully than do
most European statesmen — the interdependence of peoples and
their unconscious but continuous approximation toward an in
formal community of the whole human race based on the high
est interests of each. His own ideal is a universal civil society
cemented by justice, and his belief in its ultimate establishment
is unshaken by recent events. His active undersense and feel
ing of the whole, joined to a keen understanding of the in
tegral parts, constantly impels him so to adjust the interests
of his country to those of humanity that the two can be closely
associated. This is the quality which distinguishes him from
the best of his predecessors in the presidency, entitles him to a
foremost place among the best statesmen of modern times and
warrants the high hopes entertained of his work by those who
know his views and appreciate his intentions. A subject on
which I hold an opinion that may possibly provoke dissent
among my Mexican friends is the federal State-system. With
all the diffidence becoming a foreigner I venture to give it as
my firm conviction that the maintenance of Mexico's sover
eignty will be found to be incompatible with the perpetuation
of that clumsy arrangement.

254 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
Approaching the subject of reconstruction from a different
and less ideal starting-point, General Obregon realises the im
perative need of exceptional wariness and circumspection on
the part of a weak and wealthy country whose neighbour is
powerful, progressive, and enterprising. The motive is ob
vious. Unless the feebler nation contrive to conduct itself
with passable seemliness at home and with extreme consid
eration for its neighbour abroad, it is certain to end by be
ing taken in hand and tutored by the latter. But even under
the most favourable circumstances its troubles are likely to be
so many and occasionally so distracting that the temptation
is almost irresistible to seek an effective counterpoise to these
drawbacks abroad. Such a course — legally open to every in
dependent nation — must appear especially attractive to Mex
ico. President Carranza was so enamoured of the idea that
he seriously purposed realising it by acceding to the specious
proposals laid before him by Germany during the war. And
it is probable that he would have closed with them definitely
had it not been for the vigorous opposition which he encoun
tered from General Obregon whom he consulted as the des
tined commander-in-chief of the Mexican forces. Obregon's
view of the matter was at once realistic and sound. He char
acterised the suggested course of action as nationally suicidal
and therefore refused to countenance it by word or deed. And
when Carranza emphasised the promises made by the German
Government and the benefits which it undertook to confer
upon Mexico, he irreverently exclaimed : "Yes, Germany will
help us as the clergyman helps the agonising man by commend
ing him to the protection of the Most High."
His conception of the line of action imposed by present
world conditions upon his country is this : "Mexico is the
neighbour of the United States, whose Government rendered
her precious help — now too readily forgotten — in the revolt
against the Spanish dominion. It is our imperative duty and,
therefore, our interest to cultivate neighbourly relations with
her Government and people and to show them every sort of
consideration compatible with the independence, dignity and
interests of the nation. Consequently, the notion of seeking in

OBREGON'S TASKS 255
foreign alliances or in military conventions an arm of defence
against future contingencies from that quarter, contingencies
which should never be allowed to arise, would be not merely
bootless but provocative and ultimately disastrous. Military
force at home directed to this end is equally out of the ques
tion. And yet it is certain that we need some kind of neutral
ising agency. To my thinking the one sheet-anchor of defence
for a country situated as is ours must be sought and will be
found in the esteem and good will of our next-door neighbour
and of the entire civilised world. There is and can be none
other. And to win this by her exemplary conduct should be
Mexico's first care. Morality and might are now contending
for the mastery of the globe. The struggle is desperate and
its outcome will affect us, together with all the lesser nations.
If morality prevail, as we hope and desire, all will be well with
Mexico, seeing that that is, and will continue to be, the key
stone of her own policy in the new era. But if force should
win the palm, nothing can save the weaker peoples and we shall
go under together with these. Switzerland offers a useful
object-lesson in the difficult art of making friends and con
ciliating potential enemies. During the World War she was
beset with tremendous perils and strong temptations but by
dint of endeavouring honestly to discharge her duties towards
each of her neighbours she compelled the respect of all. Mex
ico is in like manner wholly dependent upon the moral sym
pathy and support of the civilised world and must, therefore,
bend her efforts to acquire them. Consequently, it behooves
her to see that the epoch of revolutionary changes passes into
history, and to inaugurate an era of well established order and
law." No Mexican whom I have met or heard of has discerned so
clearly or defined so precisely the only helpful course of action
open to his country. One of the aids to this discernment is
the accurate perspective in which the new President visualises
the history of his native land and foreshadows its potential fu
ture. He is wont as we saw to contemplate Mexico as a part
of the great human family which, although still in process of
formation, may be looked upon already as a reality for all the

256 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
purposes of a far-sighted national and international policy.
His mental picture of the country is not marred by the slightest
tinge of that chauvinism whcih inspires the writings and dis
courses of some of his countrymen. There is neither misti
ness in his perception nor vacillation in his action. Thus he is
keenly mindful of the noteworthy part played by the United
States in supporting the Mexicans against their Spanish mas
ters and likewise of the undeniable boons bestowed upon his
fellow countrymen by the band of enterprising pioneers from
the great northern Republic and from European lands who dis
covered and developed Mexico's mineral and agricultural re
sources. Of these services he always speaks with gratitude,
the sincerity of which is vouched for by his earnest desire to
secure the friendly co-operation of those same foreign peoples
in the coming work of reorganisation. For he regards Mex
ico, the wealth of its lands and the still undeveloped energies
of its population as a trust for humanity. Nor does he ever
fail, when discussing these matters with his countrymen, to
emphasise the deciding fact that unless those material and
spiritual resources are rationally exploited and made available
so that they may be duly shared with humanity at large, they
are certain to be fructified by others who have the will and
the power to make prompt and proper use of them. And it is
not only the riches of the soil and subsoil that must thus be de
veloped and turned into the common stock, — the energies of
the people, their mental and moral capacities which have for
ages been artificially checked and dwarfed must likewise be
cultivated, disciplined and fitted for their part in the task of
national reconstruction and international rearrangement.
In a word, General Obregon keeps a death grip on a politi
cal faith calculated to awaken a response from spiritual depths
never reached by any of his predecessors. His detestation of
war as a satisfactory .method of settling disputes is worthy of
the most enthusiastic pacifist and comes with immense force
from the successful military leader who put down anarchy
and is thoroughly conversant with the generous selflessness
and lofty altruism which so often characterise the soldier in
the field. Force, bloodshed and every kind of destructiveness

OBREGON'S TASKS 257
are abominations to him. He sees in them the fetters that
have kept his country from moving forward with the progres
sive races and these from reaching still distant goals. And
the lesson drawn from his own experience which he yearns to
impress upon his fellow countrymen is that respect for law, a
certain degree of self-abnegation for the common good, and
the substitution of moral relationship in the dealings of man
with man and nation with nation for the savage state of na
ture, constitute the only solid basis for that process of renova
tion which is Mexico's last hope. On this foundation Presi
dent Obregon is minded to build up his policy. But unless he
is ably seconded by men of his own stamp and by the people
at large he may not succeed. In any and every case, however,
he will play his part worthily to the end. To employ another
Turkish saying, if he must drown it will be in clear water.
But however comprehensive and statesmanlike Obregon's
programme of domestic reforms may be, the real work of re
construction can hardly even be started until and unless the
misunderstandings between Mexico and the United States are
cleared away. And in this process the next move depends
upon the latter country, which has had all its grounded claims
recognised and is now holding out for what can add nothing to
its own legitimate satisfaction and would utterly ruin Mexico's
last hope of regeneration.
Justice is another of the public functions the administration
of which the new President is intent on rendering simpler,
speedier and sounder. The matter is fundamental. No State
can thrive for long in which the tribunals and judges lack the
confidence of the people. Destroy that confidence and you
have struck a deadly blow at the very heart of the organism.
And justice in Mexico has hitherto been open to grave charges.
The Supreme Court itself has long been known to be swayed
by the Executive. It was thus even in the time of Porfirio
Diaz. He often influenced it in order to secure such decisions
as seemed to him just and possibly were so. It is worth noting
that the American press which has recently laid stress1 on the
1 See Articles in the Philadelphia Public Ledger and other periodicals
by Mr. Stephen Bonsai, for example.

258 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
need for this reform had no complaints to make on the sub
ject so long as the irregularities were committed in favour of
their own countrymen. It is only the clamour of the latter
that has called forth its scathing criticism and vehement con
demnation. So long as the sufferers were merely the natives,
justice found no champion outside their country. Its cause be
comes worthy of vindication only when bound up with the in
terests of foreign companies and influential individuals. Con
sidering the moral, intellectual and political anarchy in which
the population existed for so many years, one could not rea
sonably have expected the administration of justice to have es
caped unscathed. One does not look for hot water under the
ice. "Why is your neck crooked?" some one inquired of the
camel. "What have I straight?" was the answer.
Judicial procedure too is antiquated, complex and abounds
in delays, — all drawbacks which favour the law-breaker and
the wealthy and often defeat the ends of justice. It has also
called into being a band of unscrupulous pettifogging lawyers
whose principal function is to frustrate the intentions of the
lawgivers. And they very often succeed.
The agrarian and labour ferment throughout the country
could be satisfactorily disposed of were the demands of the
discontented elements prompted by intelligent self-interest and
moderated by a sense of equity. And in all cases in which
they answer to this description they are being settled promptly
and fairly. For General Obregon's views on both subjects
are eminently sane. He favours a just equilibrium of labour,
capital and intelligence, three factors all equally indispensable
to the success of industry and agriculture and none of which
can be eliminated without serious damage to the community.
But in many cases the demands spring from a different source
and cannot be complied with economically, nor could they be
settled with finality even were compliance possible. One
branch of the movement is akin to bolshevism in its origin,
subversive in its aims and disastrous in its methods. But like
most of Mexico's tribulations it hails from abroad. It was
planned and is fostered mainly by foreigners who are neither
workmen, artisans nor husbandmen but professional agitators,

OBREGON'S TASKS 259
who scatter broadcast leaflets and booklets of the most sedi
tious nature plausibly written and cleverly adapted to the com
prehension of working men, peasants, soldiers and the semi-
intellectual youth of the country.
By way of indulging my curiosity about the relation be
tween elementary education and the working of universal suf
frage I made inquiries in the most advanced State of the Re
public, Tamaulipas, which offers a fair test. Tamaulipas has
more schools in proportion to its population and has had them
for a longer period than any other State of the Union. As
far back as the year 1884 an educational law was enacted there
and is still in force which gave a considerable impetus to
schools. Well, I ascertained that the effects of this praise
worthy initiative had been frustrated by the revolutionary ex
cesses to such a degree that during the elections of 1920 no
votes could be legally recorded in certain cantons for lack of
overseers able to read and write. The law requires that two
men who can read and write be appointed in every canton to
preside at the voting. But in several of these cantons, for in
stance in that of Jaumave which is not far from the capital of
the State, there were not two men to be found who could fulfil
this condition. And in consequence polling booths could not
be opened there. In other places where two citizens credited
with these attainments were available, it happened that they
did not understand what they read and fell into various irreg
ularities which warranted the annulment of the elections. Ow
ing to the frequent occurrence of similar illegalities, I am as
sured, many an election can be annulled at will, and as the re
turns are submitted to the Chamber itself for confirmation or
invalidation, it is most often party interest that decides. It is
affirmed that a formal compact exists between a party in one
of the houses of the legislature and certain members of that
body in virtue of which the latter are invariably declared legally
elected no matter how few votes they may have received and
that in consequence some of these privileged democrats spare
themselves the trouble and expense of an electioneering' cam
paign, content themselves with a minority of the votes how
ever small and get themselves elected by their friends in the

260 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
legislature by having the votes given to their opponents nulli
fied on technical grounds.
In Mexico a smaller percentage of the population than in
Belgium grasps the significance of the suffrage, knows how to
exercise it or is willing to go to the polls. The remedy for
this lies either in disfranchising illiterates or educating them
at high pressure as ignorant immigrants are being instructed
in the United States. The latter alternative is now being tried
under adverse conditions but with energy and perseverence.2
At the Constituent Assembly of Queretaro where the Con
stitution was drafted and adopted, one representative whose
name deserves to be remembered, General Esteban Calderon,
insisted on the necessity of restricting the suffrage to those who
were qualified to exercise it and made a concrete proposal to
this effect. But in that Assembly of enthusiasts the voice of
this realist was drowned in dithyrambic phrases. It has since
been affirmed that the millions of illiterate and listless voters
constitute a grave peril to the State.3 They are said to be the
unconscious tools of scheming agitators who foment local
tumults and lawlessness in the intervals of revolutionary up
heavals. It is argued that they are not only themselves in
capable of voting deliberately but are active in nullifying the
suffrage of those who are fully qualified to exercise it. The
little Republic of Guatemala was until recently face to face
with the same problem. Of its two and a half million in
habitants some two millions are imperfectly civilised abori
gines who are wanting in the most rudimentary notions about
governance and policy. But the Guatemaltecans recently ex
cluded all illiterates from the voting booths, on the principle
that it is more democratic to prepare voters in advance for
the exercise of their rights than to render those rights nuga
tory by bestowing them upon individuals who cannot com
prehend them, still less exercise them rationally.4
2 A campaign against illiteracy is being carried on under the joint
direction of President Obregon and the Rector of the University.
3 Italian statesmen, it is fair to remember, think otherwise. Shortly
before the war Premier Giolitti had a bill passed in both houses of the
legislature, by which several millions of illiterates were admitted to
the vote.
4 See El Universal, 27 Jan. 1921.

OBREGON'S TASKS 261
According to the Mexican Constitution, each of the federal
entities is a sovereign State, with its legislature, elective Gov
ernor, Secretary and the usual host of employees who absorb
the substance of the people and not only give nothing valuable
in return but very often open the sluices for the revolutionary
flood to sweep away the produce of labour and thrift. Two
of these sovereign States have an insignificant population of
78,000 and 85,000 souls respectively,6 four of them less than
200,000 ;6 nine have more than 200,000 but less than half a mil
lion. In five States the population exceeds 500,000 without
totalling one million and in the whole Republic only four
States can boast of a million inhabitants. Now if one deducts,
as is meet, from these numbers the women, the numerous chil
dren, and the still more numerous illiterates, it will be seen
that the dangerous instrument — in this case, weapon — of
power is in the hands of a few, of ten-times harebrained indi
viduals who are lured by the two-fold prospect of lording it
over their next-door neighbours and making a comfortable live
lihood without having put forth any exertion to deserve a
Government post or even qualified themselves to occupy it.
Many of these State dignitaries are primitive beings in the full
sense of the term who are incapable of perceiving either the
fatuity of their aspirations or the tragi-comedy of their fail
ure. Hardihood they possess in the superlative degree, the
hardihood to trample under foot every law and to ride rough
shod over every right in maintaining their own privileges.
Every one of these arbitrary dispensers of emoluments and
offices is a sort of tsarlet at the head of a little army of State
functionaries who in turn have their deputies and substitutes
and occasionally their Pretorian guards. Thus Mexico is bur
dened with over thirty separate Governments and specifically
political parliaments besides the various municipalities which
are also centres of political and other machinations.
In Yucatan the recent elections let loose passions suggestive
of prehistoric ages. The best organised and most resolute
party there were the so-called Socialists and they distinguished
5 Colima and Campeche.
8 Aguascalientes, Morelos, Tabasco and Nayarit.

262 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
themselves by mowing down their political adversaries with
rifles, blowing them up with dynamite, hewing them with
hatchets, clubbing them to death with sticks, carrying their
dead bodies on poles, reducing their dwellings to ashes and
sending disguised gendarmes to impersonate voters. General
Calles himself exclaimed: "It looks as though the competitors
in the struggle now going forward were not human beings but
beasts, such is the wild fury with which they attack, maim and
slaughter each other."7 Yucatan, it is fair to add, is an ex
ception. Its lamentable plight is the result of special condi
tions with which we are not now concerned. But the evils of
the federal system are widespread and paralysing.
Two Constitutional reforms then are peremptorily called
for : the qualification of the citizen for the franchise, and the
strengthening and tightening of the bonds between the people
and the Government by the abolition of the sovereignty of the
federal units and the substitution of Municipalities which, if
they are first adequately reformed, can discharge many of the
State functions much more satisfactorily and with a great deal
less friction.
In the Republic there cannot be a smoothly working State so
long as the provinces continue to enjoy the rights of sovereign
communities. The sovereignty of these different centres pro
motes regionalism, fosters distracting feuds, hinders the
growth of common interests and the pursuit of common pur
poses and may, at any of the critical conjunctures in which
Mexican history abounds, lead to separatism and disintegra
tion. In favour of the autonomy of a number of petty States
each containing only the population of a European parish,
composed largely of poverty-stricken individuals dispersed
over a vast territory, devoid of political knowledge and train
ing and even of elementary instruction, the grounds adduced
were never convincing. And they are so weak to-day as hardly
to need refutation. For the federal units are admittedly the
germ centres of the revolutionary fever which has for long
been consuming the energies of the population.
During the brief period that has passed since his inaugura»
''Excelsior and other journals of the capital, November 9, 1920,

OBREGON'S TASKS 263
tion the new President has swept away some of the worst
abuses, drafted a series of excellent schemes which are grad
ually being inscribed on the statute book and accomplished
more in the direction of reforms than was done by the best of
his predecessors during their whole term of office. The mas
terly way in which he checkmated the railway strikers won for
him a high tribute of universal praise. He has closed gam
bling houses and other haunts of vice, has begun to purge the
prisons which were seminaries of crime and has adopted a
series of measures for the reformation of criminals. Further,
he has issued a number of hygienic regulations in various
parts of the Republic and has put disinfecting apparatus in
forty towns and the principal ports. He has begun the irri
gation of vast tracts of land in Guanajuato, framed a law for
disposing of the agrarian movement, given orders for the
preservation and expansion of ancient crafts and industries,
laid extensive plans for improving communications by land
and water, bettered the railway services and laid a bill for the
creation of a merchant marine before Congress. The problems
of colonisation by foreign immigrants has also received care
ful attention and comprehensive arrangements have already
been made for the sifting, classification and reception of many
thousands of husbandmen from Canada, Italy, Germany, Aus
tria and other countries, to whom considerable inducements
are being offered during the first years of their residence in
the Republic. The army is being rapidly demobilised and
has already been reduced to fifty thousand men, the strength
adequate for a minor State whose sheet-anchor of safety is
henceforward to be the moral support of the civilised world.
The numerous misunderstandings with foreign govern
ments, corporations and citizens have likewise been closely
studied in a spirit of equity and with a sincere desire to deal
fairly by all. The national debt has been recognised and means
considered for resuming payment of the interest. A plan for
meeting the demands of foreign residents who sustained losses
8 It is right to say that this scheme was originally thought out by Car
ranza who first laid down the principle involved. General Obregon has
merely resolved to redeem the promises of his predecessor.

264 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
during the Revolution has also been formulated and will be
duly acted upon.8
This list of tasks achieved or undertaken in the brief span
of two months might be further expanded, but it is sufficient
to indicate the sincerity of purpose, the intenseness of the
labour and the rapidity of method which the new President
has displayed. He is evidently conscious that the events of
his first year of office will impart its definite cast to the con
juncture which will make the Mexican Republic or unmake it.
If, as one ardently hopes, his quickness of political intuition
match his popularity and be equalled by his power, the country
will be saved from within and may look forward to a period
of material prosperity and cultural progress. He is working
with the knowledge that there is no time to be lost. The march
of events is uncommonly swift. The Mexican Government
can no more be slow and sure than can a watch. This is well
understood by the President but not by the bulk of Mexican
demagogues who have yet to exchange the temper and the
dialect of parochial politics for the classic language of con
structive statesmanship. Delay or vacillation may spell disas
ter, and when Fate arrives on the scene the most genial states
man becomes a mere puppet.
On one of our journeys I remarked to General Obregon
that an idealist who is this and nothing more can afford to dis
pense with concrete success and content himself with sowing
that others may reap, but that a reforming statesman must
necessarily be able to point to tangible results. Soon after
wards he was publicly congratulated by an orator on his elec
toral triumph, whereupon he replied : "For the people it is in
deed a triumph to have cast off the shackles of the dictatorship
and I am happy to have had a hand in bringing that about.
My election, however, does not give me the feeling of being in
a triumphal chariot but rather that of being harnessed to the
wagon of the nation. I am on probation. For my triumph
I must look not to the day on •which I was chosen but to the
hour when I lay down office and then only if I am able to ask
the people without misgivings as to their answer: 'Have I
done my duty and served you faithfully according to my lights
and possibilities ?' "

CHAPTER XXI
The Fall From Grace in Haiti
The experiment made by the United States in Haiti has
burned itself into the souls of all Central Americans. Mexico
in particular has special grounds for apprehension. Presi
dent Zamor of Haiti was put through the mill which is now
believed to be awaiting some Mexican President less resolute
and powerful than Obregon. He was offered help from the
United States to keep himself in power, but refused to com
promise the independence of his country and resigned.1
Haiti, like Mexico, was summoned to sign a treaty with
the United States, but the Haitian Senate refused. The new
President was denied recognition unless he first sent a Com
mission to Washington for the purpose of signing "satisfac
tory protocols" relating to various questions, notably a con
vention for the control of the Haitian custom houses with
the United States. The same condition confronts Mexico, as
we gather from the scheme propounded by the international
committee of bankers,2 which by a curious coincidence is of
the same mind as Mr. Fall and the National Association for
the Protection of American Rights in Mexico. In the pro
posal for the refunding of Mexico's debt and the supplying
of capital for new developments we find among the condi
tions "the pledging of the national customs revenue as secu
rity for the whole debt, and the administration of the cus
toms revenue by a joint commission or international board of
representatives of the United States and Mexico." 3 In other
words, what is planned is a financial and political pro
tectorate, in which the bankers will hold the natural resources
of the country and the railroads, expending their "loans"
1 October 29th, 1914.
2 It consists of ten American, five French and five British bankers.
3 I learn that it has been somewhat modified since and that the Banco
Nacional would be substituted for the joint commission.
265

266 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
to promote their own enterprises, where the bankers collect
the revenues, the bankers supervise the disbursements, the
bankers dictate the policies of a puppet government — their
rule made good by the armed might of the American people.*
The entire story of the dealings of the United States with
Haiti from the year 191 4 to the present day deserves to be
made known throughout the length and the breadth of the
globe, in the interests of the American people whose fair
name they tarnish. Some of the alleged horrors, had they
been perpetrated by a Tsarist Government against Poles or
Jews or revolutionists, would have provoked a howl of in
dignation among civilised peoples. Does the circumstance
that they are charged against a democratic Republic which
aspires to the moral leadership of the world purge them of
their iniquitous character? "No graver indictment of an
American administration," writes an honest New York press
organ, "has ever been made. . . . The atrocities . . . murder
of women and children, wholesale killing of prisoners, torture
with red-hot irons, the 'water-cure,' arson, robbery . . . con
stitute an everlasting stain on American honour." 5
The initial procedure of the United States towards Haiti
resembles in most essentials the methods employed against
Mexico and includes the same systematic misleading propa
ganda, the same financial thumb-screw, a similar demand for
a treaty or convention for the purpose of strengthening "the
amity existing between them by the most cordial co-operation
in measures for their common advantage." The United
States Government demanded the control of the Haitian cus
tom houses and the right to exercise a veto against future
modifications of customs duties. The Haitian Government,
like the Obregon administration, declined to sign such a cove
nant on the ground that it would be tantamount to placing
the Republic under a foreign protectorate.6 Thereupon the
4 See Article by J. K. Turner in the New York Nation, June 1st, 1921.
B The Nation, May 18th, 192T.
6 On December 19, 1914. These and the following details are taken
from a. Memoir presented on the part of the Republic of Haiti to the
Washington State Department and to the Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee on May 5th, 1921.

THE FALL FROM GRACE IN HAITI 267
American Minister notified the Haitian authorities that his
Government would not insist upon the treaty.
"Two days previous to this communication from Mr. Bailly-
Blanchard, in order to force the Haitian Government to ac
cept the control of the custom houses by systematically de
priving it of financial resources, American marines carried off
the strong-boxes of the National Bank of the Republic of
Haiti in broad daylight and took on board the gunboat Machias
a sum of $500,000 belonging to the Republic of Haiti and
destined to be used for the redemption of paper money. In
his notes of December 19 and 26 the State Secretary of For
eign Affairs asked in vain for explanations from the United
States Legation regarding this military kidnapping of the
funds of the Haitian Treasury. This amount is still in the
United States, where it was transported and deposited in a
New York bank.
"On July 29 the population awoke to learn that the terri
tory of Haiti was invaded by American forces which had
landed at the extreme south of the city the night before.
Hundreds and soon thousands of American marines occu
pied the town and disarmed the surprised Haitians who were
completely bowled over by the terrible events of the last two
days — and so the American forces did not meet with any
resistance from the population. Two weeks passed, during
which the landed forces succeeded in getting control of Port-
au-Prince and its immediate vicinity. Meanwhile other Amer
ican troops had occupied the city of Cap-Haitien, in the
northern part of the country. On August 12, 191 5, after
numerous conferences between leading members of the Hai
tian Chamber and Senate and the American naval authorities,
at the United States Legation and elsewhere, a Presidential
election was held by permission of the Occupation, and M.
Dartiguenave, president of the Senate, was elected, the ma
jority of the members of the two houses agreeing to support
him. It was made clear that the choice of M. Dartiguenave
was essentially agreeable to the American Occupation. He
was therefore elected for a term of seven years in accordance
with the Haitian Constitution then in force.

268 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
"Two days after the establishment of the new Government,
Mr. Robert Beale Davis, Jr., American charge d'affaires, in
the name of his Government, presented to President Dartigue
nave a project for a treaty. This project was accompanied
by a memorandum in which the President was informed 'that
the State Department of Washington expected that the Hai
tian National Assembly, warranting the sincerity and the in
terest of the Haitians, would immediately pass a resolution
authorising the President of Haiti to accept the proposed
treaty without modification.' Since this request indicated a
certain ignorance of Haitian constitutional practice, as re
gards the negotiations of treaties, the Government hastened
to call Mr. Davis' attention to the article of the Constitution
relating to this subject, and showed him that the President
of Haiti did not need special authority of the Chambers to
negotiate and sign treaties with a foreign Power.
"The American charge d'affaires, after examining the con
stitutional text, readily acknowledged it and withdrew. Imag
ine the surprise of the Government on receiving the next day
a threatening note signed by the charge d'affaires, insisting
that the resolution indicated in the memorandum should be
passed by the Haitian Chambers, and setting in the form of
an ultimatum a time limit within which the resolution must
be passed."
The demand on Mexico is of the self-same character as
that which was presented to Haiti. The State Department
in Washington virtually said: "We care nothing about your
Constitution, nor whether your President is or is not author
ised by it to sign treaties. We insist on his signing a treaty
and our will must be done by hook or by crook." T
And yet when the Italians were massacred in New Orleans
and the Italian Government requested the Federal Govern
ment in Washington to see that the murderers were duly pun
ished, it pleaded its inability under the Constitution, which
bestows sovereignty in such matters on the individual state.
If we imagine Italy, Japan and Russia urging the American
Government to violate the Constitution or modify it on pain
T It was signed in September, 1915.

THE FALL FROM GRACE IN HAITI 269
of being economically boycotted, we shall be able to under
stand the feelings of Mexicans.
"The Haitian Government, after the landing of the Amer
ican troops, was actually nothing more than a purely nominal
government. It had neither the power to enforce its au
thority, nor finances. The American military authorities had
taken possession of the custom houses, had invaded the terri
tory of the nation, and, by the establishment of martial courts,
had practically suppressed the Haitian administration of jus
tice. The protests of the Government against these acts of
interference in internal politics had remained a dead letter.
And it was 'to put an end to these difficulties and to obtain
the liberation of the territory that was formally promised'
that it had to yield."
The treaty of "friendship" thus imposed by brute force
was observed by the Haitians who had no choice but to
carry it out. The United States Government being free
availed themselves of their liberty and broke it. This is a
grave charge to levy against the great Republic which is con
tinually preaching the sacredness of public treaties and the
immutability of service contracts in Mexico. But the Haitians
substantiate their charges by striking facts. "Instead of sim
ply keeping to the regime fixed by the treaty, the Haitian
Government was constantly obliged by the American offi
cials to take unjustified initiatives. It was forced to accept
the placing of American superintendents in charge of the postal
service and of the Ministry of Public Education, with salaries
equal to, and in some cases even higher than, those of the
State Secretaries.
"At the municipal councils it was obliged to appoint so-
called council officers who had actually the exclusive admin
istration of the communes and absolute control of municipal
affairs, including revenues and expenses. This state of affairs
not provided for in the treaty gave rise to regrettable con
flicts. When a Council officer (American) was confronted
by an administrator of finances and provisional prefect (Hai
tian official) wishing to investigate the accounts of the com
mune, as the law obliges him to do, it always ended either

270 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
with the forced silence of the Haitian official or with all
kinds of difficulties which he had to face simply because he
was trying to do his duty."
What Mexicans had to expect from the "police force"
which was to have maintained "peace and order' in Tampico
when the two gunboats were despatched thither by the United
States Navy Department in July, 1921, was foreshadowed by
what a similar force effected in Haiti. "Internal peace could
not be preserved" — the Memoir goes on to say — "because the
permanent and brutal violation of individual rights of Hai
tian citizens was a perpetual provocation to revolt, because
the terrible military despotism which has ruled in Haiti for
the last six years has not created and could not create for
the Haitian people that security which it was hoped the ap
plication of the treaty would bring about. Among other
things, it is sufficient to call attention here to the system of
corvee, that is to say, forced unpaid labour on public roads,
imposed for military purposes upon the Haitian peasant. This
will give some idea of why the gendarmerie, aided and en
couraged by the American Occupation, instead of assuring
respect for individual rights, caused the revolt known as
the revolt of the Cacos for the repression of which so many
useless atrocities were committed by the marines in our un
happy country. This gendarmerie in spite of the aid of the
marines of the Occupation and the use of the most modern
armament (machine guns, military planes, armoured cars,
etc.) was never able, by purely military methods, to contend
with these undisciplined and unarmed bands known as Cacos.
Therefore, it is ineffective. And if it is ineffective it is be
cause, in spite of the repeated warnings of the Government,
the personnel which composes it was not chosen as it should
have been. In fact, it contains men 'wanted' by the Haitian
courts for criminal acts (robberies, murders, etc.) Exam
ination of the archives of the Ministries of the Interior and
of Justice of Haiti will throw light on this subject."
Thus to entrust common criminals with the work of pre
venting crime and advancing the cause of morality is surely
not in harmony with the methods approved by the United

THE FALL FROM GRACE IN HAITI 271
States Government. It is like casting out devils by Beelzebub.
"Official documents of Haiti," the Memoir continues,
"clearly confirm that the treaty of September 16th, 19 15,
has never been carried out by the American Government."
One could hardly credit such a statement were not the facts
on which it is based clear and incontrovertible. All the greater
is the amazement of Mexican politicians at the consuming de
sire of the State Department in Washington to have another
treaty to experiment with in Mexico and to get it signed be
fore recognising the Obregon Government. The people of
the United States in whose name such conventions are made
cannot be aware of these damaging facts which place it in the
unenviable position of competing with Carranza and out
stripping him in the race.
The avowed aims of the United States Government in Mex
ico are exactly the same as those which moved it to hasten
to the help of Haiti. They were enumerated in the preamble
to the Haitian treaty as "the maintenance of public peace and
the establishment of the finances on a sound basis and the
economic development of Haiti."
How these voluntarily assumed obligations were carried
out by the official representatives of the great American
democracy is set forth by the Haitian people as follows :
"No effective aid has been brought to Haiti for the develop
ment of its agricultural and industrial resources, and no con
structive measure has been proposed for the purpose of plac
ing its finances on a really solid basis.
"By the terms of Article 2, paragraph 8, of the convention,
the President of Haiti appoints, upon the nomination of the
President of the United States, a Financial Adviser who will
be an official attached to the Ministry of Finances. The ad
viser is then a Haitian official paid $10,000 (American gold)
annually by the Haitian public treasury. But in reality the
Financial Adviser is not responsible to the Haitian Govern
ment. On the contrary, his actions indicate his purpose to
subject it to his will.
"Numerous facts show the omnipotence which the Financial
Adviser arrogates to himself. Nothing more strikingly illus-

272 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
trates this than the confiscation by the Financial Adviser,
with the support of the American Minister, of the salaries
of the President of the Republic, the State Secretaries and
the members of the Legislative Council, because the Govern
ment had refused to insert in the contract of the National
Bank of Haiti (which is controlled by the National City Bank
of New York), a clause prohibiting the importation into Haiti
of foreign gold coins, which the Financial Adviser wanted to
force upon them.
"If there be any special kind of help which the United States
is better qualified to give than any other nation on the globe
it is financial. And the Convention with Haiti provided for
this expressly. Article II says:
" 'The (American) Financial Adviser shall inquire into the
validity of the debts of the Republic, shall keep the two Gov
ernments informed regarding all future debts, shall recom
mend improved methods of collecting and applying the rev
enues, and shall make such recommendations to the State
Secretary for Finances as are judged necessary for the well-
being and prosperity of the Republic' . . . No inquiry into
the validity of our debts has been made. No improved
method of collecting the revenues has been recommended.
No recommendation for the well-being and prosperity of
the Republic has yet been made to the Haitian Govern
ment. "Now we come to the strangest phase of the situation from
the point of view of the Haitian Government; not only have
American officials done nothing that could have been done
for the intellectual development and economic prosperity of
the country, but they oppose the Government's work in this
direction. Numerous projects for laws dealing with the
finances, agriculture, public education, administrative and rural
organisations meet with either the direct opposition of the
American officials, or lie unanswered in the archives of the
American Legation.
"Particular resistance is made to projects dealing with the
education of the people, such as for the preparation of teachers

THE FALL FROM GRACE IN HAITI 273
for primary education, industrial and agricultural schools,
secondary or higher education, and for the construction of
school buildings.
' . . . The Financial Adviser 'refused appropriations for
three Associate Professors from the University of France
who were offered to the Haitian Government by the French
Government for the Lycee of Port-au-Prince.' "
Those and other charges against the American forces of
occupation are superlatively damaging. A Naval Court of
Inquiry was called for and sent to the country, but, accord
ing to the Memoir, "all Haitians who had anything to say
regarding the numerous cases of murder, brutality, robbery,
rape, arson, etc., that is, Haitians who wished to convince the
Court of Inquiry of the way in which the forces of the Occu
pation had carried out their duty in Haiti," were systemat
ically excluded. Many of them have published in the press
of Haiti the letters which they sent to the Court demanding
to be heard. . . . "Witnesses testified on the case of Lieut.
Lang, accused of having killed three prisoners with his own
hand at Hinche, making them go out of the prison one at a
time, firing a revolver shot in the back of each one. . . .
"In Haiti numberless abominable crimes have been com
mitted. To give some idea of their horror we cite only a few
cases made public through the press which the Naval Court
did not feel the need to investigate.
"Execution by the Marines of Joseph Marseille and his two
sons, Michel and Estima Marseille, of Princivil Mesadieux,
Baye Section, District of Mirebalais; assassination by the
marines of Guerrier Josaphat and one of his children, aged
14, in his own house, acts denounced by M. Louis Charles,
Sr., December 8, 1920.
"Arrest by an American officer, and mysterious disappear
ance of M. Charrite Fleuristone, former school inspector at
Chappelle, District of Saint Marc. He was arrested in the
first part of 1919, at the same time as MM. Jean Baptiste
and Clement Clerjeune.
"At Marin, District of Mirebalais, in December, 1919, as-

274 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
sassination and mutilation of Joseph Duclerc, a respectable
old man of sixty, by marines and gendarmes. After the crime
they burned his cottage.
"At the same time and in the same section the same group
fired on a school-teacher and wounded her in the mouth.
She managed to escape. The marines and gendarmes burned
her house as well as everything that went with it. They were
accompanied by an American officer, a lieutenant, whose name
can be established by an investigation.
"Near Marin, at Collier, District of Mirebalais, the same
band cut the head off a blind man named Neis, 25 years old,
and did the same thing to a child who was with him, named
Jules Louisville.
"On the same day (in January, 1919) the same band of
marines and gendarmes surprised Esca Estinfil in his house
at Caye-Beau with his young sons. They shot all three,
father and children. Then they robbed his house and burned
it. Esca was a great planter, and had a large quantity of
coffee stored, and a good sum of money ready for com
mercial transactions.
"On January 25, 19 19, at 'Savane Longue' near Marin, a
group of marines and gendarmes coming from Terre-Rouge,
District of Mirebalais, killed Hon. Aure Bayard, who was ill
in bed. They pulled him from his bed and shot him through
and through. The house was robbed and burned. Then
they forced Madame Aure Bayard, by striking her with the
butt ends of their rifles, to take the things that they had just
stolen and carry them along with them. It was not until the
next day that the poor woman could render her last services
to her husband.
"On January 30th some marines and gendarmes led by
spies named Neis (des Orangers) and Aure Fleury (du Carre-
four grand-mat), killed a pregnant woman in a place called
Thomaus. The cottage was robbed.
"In December, 19 19, some marines and gendarmes coming
from Saut d'Eau or Mirebalais arrived at the second station
of the Crochus, District of Mirebalais, and shot, at Beauvoir,
Saint-Felix Geffratd, who lived with his two little daughters,

THE FALL FROM GRACE IN HAITI 275
aged 8 and 12 years. The terrified children managed to
escape the shots of the assassins.
"Bodily tortures were inflicted by the American captain
of gendarmerie, Fitzgerald Brown, upon M. Polydor St.
Pierre, clerk of the St. Marc Police Court, in the prison of
that town. He was arrested on January 3, 1919, on a false
charge of theft, and was imprisoned for six months. Brown
administered the 'water-cure' to him and burned his body
with a red-hot iron ; to say nothing of the beatings and other
tortures which he inflicted upon him. St. Pierre Vainly
begged a hearing from the Naval Court of Inquiry.
"Hanging of Fabre Yoyo from a mango tree on March 13,
1919, at Pivert, on property belonging to the Orius Paultre
family of St. Marc; execution on this same property this
same day of two young boys of 14 and 15 years, Nicholas
Yoyo and Salnave Chariot, by Captain Fitzgerald Brown.
"Among the crimes perpetrated in the region of Hinche,
Maissade, from 1916 to 1919, by Lieutenants Lang and Wil
liams, acts little known and denounced by M. Meresse Wooley,
former Mayor of Hinche, on December 10, 1920, in the
Courier Haitien, are the following: (1) M. Onexil hanged
and burned alive in his house at Lauhaudiagne; (2) execution
of Madame Eucharice Cadichon at Mamon; (3) execution
of Madame Romain Brigade at l'Hermitte near Maissade;
(4) execution of Madame Prevoit with a baby of a few months
at 'Savane-a-Lingue' on her own property.
"In the prisons of Cap-Haitien, during the years 1918,
1919 and 1920 more than four thousand prisoners died.
"At Chabert, an American camp, 5,475 prisoners died dur
ing these three years, the average being five deaths a day.
"At Cap-Haitien, in 1919, eight corpses of prisoners a day
were thrown into the pits.
"Before American Occupation and the seizure of the prisons
by the American officers the number of prisoners in the Cap-
Haitien prison did not exceed on an average forty a year."
The Memoir concludes as follows: "The Haitian Republic
was the second nation of the New World — second only to
the United States — to conquer its national independence. We

276 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
have our own history, our own traditions, customs and na
tional spirit, our own institutions, laws, and social and polit
ical organization, our own culture, our own literature (French
language), and our own religion. For in years the little
Haitian nation has managed its own affairs; for in years it
has made the necessary effort for its material, intellectual and
moral development as well as any other nation — better than
any other nation, because it has been from the first absolutely
alone in its difficult task, without any aid from the outside,
bearing with it along the harsh road of civilisation the glor
ious misery of its beginning. And then, one fine day, under
the merest pretext, without any possible explanation or justifi
cation on the grounds of violation of any American right or
interest, American forces landed on our national territory and
actually abolished the sovereignty and independence of the
Haitian Republic.
"We have just given an account of the chief aspects of the
American Military Occupation in our country since July 28,
I9I5- "It is the most terrible regime of military autocracy which
has ever been carried on in the name of the great American
democracy. "The Haitian people, during these past five years, has
passed through such sacrifices, tortures, destructions, humilia
tions, and misery as have never before been known in the
course of its unhappy history.
"The American Government, in spite of the attitude of
wisdom, moderation, and even submission which it has always
found in dealing with the Haitian Government, has never
lived up to any of the agreements which it had solemnly en
tered into with regard to the Haitian people."
Seldom has such a tremendous indictment been framed
against the official representatives of any great people in mod
ern times. Compared with this selection of crimes said to have
been committed in the name of the greatest democracy, the
excesses perpetrated in Mexico during the whole heat of civil
war and published by Mr. Fall, fade into relative insignificance.
For in the latter case the misdeeds occurred during a ruthless

THE FALL FROM GRACE IN HAITI 277
struggle between two infuriated sections of the community,
whereas in the other a group of culture-bearers entered the
country in the name of humanity, tendered the hand of friend
ship to the people, struck up binding agreements which they
never lived up to, were received with peaceful resignation and
then, we are told, burned the houses and shot and tortured the
inhabitants and destroyed the independence of the Republic.
And throughout this lugubrious document which, fair-
minded Americans hope, will bring about a thorough investi
gation, one is confronted with the ominous refrain: "The
American Government has never lived up to any of the agree
ments which it had solemnly entered into with regard to the
Haitian people."
It is easy to realise the effect which the warning note
sounded by this historic Memoir must have had on Mexicans
who fancied they saw their own turn coming next. And all
the Latin-American Republics look with deep concern on the
outcome of the Mexican situation, much as Ulysses regarded
his plight in the cave of Polyphemus when his comrades were
being devoured by the Cyclops one by one.
The central defects, it seems to me, of those who frame the
Mexican policy of the United States, lie in the oppressive
narrowness of their horizon, their ignorance of the character
and strivings of the Mexicans and their liability to be in
fluenced rather by the few restless wealth-hunters who uplift
their voices in angry protest than by the humanitarian senti
ments of the inarticulate American people. There is no doubt
that the American nation wishes well to Mexico and would
willingly help her out of her present troubles. It is equally cer
tain that Secretary Hughes is animated by a sincere desire to
remove all misunderstandings between the two Governments.
And yet despite these laudable intentions we see the ill-fated
Republic being slowly strangled to death because the heads of
the State Department in Washington having put gyves on its
feet and manacles on its hands insist on its attuning its progress
towards normal international life to the quick march of Yan
kee Doodle.
This matter of studying the psychology of the neighbour-

278 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
ing countries with which they have continually to deal is well
worth the attention of American statesmen, some of whom
may have been surprised to learn that Mr. Henry Lane Wilson,
who was once Ambassador in Mexico, contrived to earn the
resentment not only of Mexicans but, it is also reported, of
Latin-Americans generally.8 Secretary Hughes in a speech at
an Odd Fellow meeting went to the heart of the matter when,
in paying a tribute to fraternities, he said: "I wish nations
might be committed to the same fraternal relations . . . out of
fraternity comes understanding, and if nations possessed un
derstanding and sought to deal fraternally with one another,
they could dwell together as the United States and Canada
have for more than a century without fortifications along
thousands of miles of border."9
If we compare those wise words with the deeds of which
Haiti, Santo Domingo and other neighbouring States com
plain and with the impression produced by the United States
foreign policy abroad, the practical conclusion stands out that
between saying and doing there is a chasm. The Filipinos,
despite petitions, arguments, protests and patience,10 have not
yet been vouchsafed their long-promised independence. Mex
ico is being starved into bolshevism or submission not only
without sinister intent but for her own good and the highest
interests of humanity. On the other hand the oppressive mis
rule which afflicts Venezuela is actually approved by the United
States' official representative there. Porto Rico's claims to in
dependence go unheeded. Santo Domingo is mourning the loss
of her sovereignty as irreparable. In Spain Deputy A.
Barcia y Trelles writes : "There are notorious reasons for af
firming that the United States is going ahead with dissimula
tion and preparing for the total domination of the Continent
across the Atlantic. Conditions changed radically with the
8 "According to a report which has reached officials here,'' writes the
Mexican Post, "King Victor Emanuel of Italy has notified the State De
partment of the United States that Henry Lane Wilson who was ap
pointed Ambassador to Italy is a persona non-grata." Cf. Mexican Post,
July t6, IQ2I.
• Speech delivered on April 26th, 1921.
10 See Letter of the Director of the Philippine Press Bureau in the
New York Times, June 26th, 1921.

THE FALL FROM GRACE IN HAITI 279
World War. The strength and economic power of Europe
in the new Continent, if not to-day, will in the very near fu
ture be inferior to those of North America."11
"You are always talking to me of principles," Tsar Alexan
der I once remarked to Talleyrand. "As if your public law
were anything to me ; I do not know what it means. What do
you suppose that all your parchments and your treaties sig
nify to me ?" From the lips of a Russian autocrat these words
appear natural if anti-social. To-day there is probably not
one civilised power on the globe which would not promptly dis
miss and disavow any of its representatives abroad who should
employ such language. For we ascribe a sacramental virtue to
phrases. But acts which tally with Alexander's sentiments
may be committed not only with impunity but with the moral
certainty that they will be applauded as "one hundred per cent
patriotic." It is but just to point out that a considerable section of the
United States press has called upon Mr. Harding to order
an immediate investigation of the Haitian atrocities.12 "In
the face of the terrific arraignment of our record of military
occupation in Haiti," writes one widely circulating journal,
"now laid before the Government at Washington by delegates
from that island, it is impossible for Mr. Harding to postpone
that full investigation which events in Haiti have long de
manded. "The language of the Haitian protest is more than strong.
But it is also specific, and many of the charges are corrobor
ated by American observers in the island. An investigation,
for example, would be justified by the findings of so compe
tent an observer as Harry A. Franck who in the Century
Magazine tells a story of American oppression, of callousness
to life on the part of many of our soldiers and officers there,
and of a lack of discipline, which the best sentiment of the
American people will not tolerate if proved to be true."13
Unhappily in the Haitian as in the Mexican issue it takes a
11 Cf. La Libertad (of Madrid) nth May, 1921.
12 The New York Evening Post, the Century Magazine, the Nation, the
New York Herald, May 9th, 1921, and others.
13 New York Evening Post, May 9th, 1921.

280 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
long time for the best sentiment of the American people to
make itself heard and felt and in the meanwhile wrongs are
inflicted which can never be repaired.
The Republic of Santo Domingo is almost as vociferous in
its protests and as despairing of its future as that of Haiti.
And yet the troops of the American Occupation are about to
be withdrawn thence — under conditions which the best senti
ment of the American people must condemn as decisively as
the misdeeds of its forces in Haiti. "The Harding Adminis
tration," writes one of the principal Dominican press organs,
"with the most absolute tranquillity has declared us slaves of
the White House, slaves of ambitious capitalists, slaves of
that Republic which boasts itself the freest on earth." A
joint protest signed by the editors of all the important news
papers states that the conditions of the withdrawal of the
American troops deprives the people of their liberties, of their
fiscal and legislative rights, of their schools, etc. The editors
urge the whole Dominican people to unite in passive resistance
to this encroachment on their sovereignty. The newspaper
El Tiempo appeared with a funeral oration over the Domini
can Republic. "Alas for us and for our children ; for the cap
tivity will be eternal !" The American journal14 from which
these extracts are reproduced comments thus on the work of
moralising the Dominican people by the military forces of the
great democracy: "Have we as a people so far forgotten our
republican principles as to charter our bureaucrats and soldiers
to subjugate whatever weaker peoples they may find con
venient? That is exactly what we have permitted in the case
of Santo Domingo. It is imperialism of the most dangerous
sort, because it is the imperialism not of a nation, but of a
nation's servants, acting irresponsibly."15
All this is surely far removed from what Mr. Hughes had
in view when aspiring for his country to the moral leadership
of the world, on the ground that it is the foremost among the
progressive nations. But it is nowise far removed from the
fate which Mexicans believe would be theirs if they too should
14 Taken from the New Republic, July 13, 1921.
15 Ibidem.

THE FALL FROM GRACE IN HAITI 281
fall under the moral guardianship of the great "Democracy
of prohibition and righteousness." And one should make due
allowance for this grounded apprehension when examining the
motives of Mexico's reluctance to find herself isolated from
the eastern world and left face to face with the United States.
A people which has already lost more than half of its terri
tory to its great democratic neighbour, which is threatened
with the prospect of losing more, which is having its treas
ures systematically drained by the new-rich of that assimila
tive Republic, is now being called upon to change its Consti
tution and alter its laws in order to enable those capitalists to
exploit the natural resources of the country more easily, —
such a people cannot be expected hurriedly to conclude a
treaty — even though it be termed of "amity and commerce" —
with the great moralising neighbour. The examples o<f Haiti
and Santo Domingo corroborate its own experience and con
firm the belief that the character of States like that of indi
viduals rarely changes.
It is not an easy matter to dispossess Mexicans of the no
tion that at the bottom of those fine phrases about the moral
advancement of backward peoples, a policy of righteousness
and a reign of justice, lurks hypocrisy of the rankest type.
They refuse to make a distinction between the worst senti
ment of the servants of the United States Government, and the
best sentiment of the American people which is ignored by the
former while republics are being shorn of their sovereignty
and is invoked only when the wrong can no longer be righted.
They make the State responsible for its chosen agents and
condemn and fear both equally.
But it is not only the Mexicans who view the inspiriting
watchwords and shibboleths of the great American people in
the unfavourable light shed upon them by the deliberate acts
of its -representatives. In most countries of the world the ver
dict is the same, but being seldom reproduced in the United
States it is hardly known, and is certainly not realised, there.
If it were, the grotesqueness of the contrast between the noble
aspirations towards the moral guardianship of the world voiced
by well-intentioned but naive statesmen and the repellent in-

282 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
stincts and brutal misdeeds of their representatives and agents
in weak States would have long since appealed to the Yankee
sense of humour., The Mexicans, however, appreciate it
keenly. They put Mr. Hughes' lofty ideal of the fraternity of
peoples side by side with the blood-thirst, violence and cruelty
of the culture-bearers who have been operating in Haiti and
with the imperialistic feats of those who have been uplifting
Santo Domingo. "This is a period," writes a representative
New York journal, "when the motives of the United States
and its relation to other nations of the world are being seri
ously questioned. Altruistic expressions of our views and in
tent are the common language of politicians of both parties
and all groups. . . . The aspersion of hypocrisy which is al
ready cast upon us . . . can with difficulty be warded off."
As an instance of the way in which the idiosyncrasies of
Washington diplomacy appear to plain-dealing public men in
Europe, Lord Robert Cecil's recent remarks may be worth re
producing. Speaking16 on the subject of mandates before the
Council of the League of Nations, he said that "if that prob
lem was at a standstill it would be the fault of the United
States who* did not want it to be solved without them but at
the same time refused the invitations of the Chancellor of the
League." And an influential British journal declares that the
effort to draw closer the Latin-American Republics to the
United States "has hitherto been checked by fear on the part
of the South and Central American States that the great North
American Republic has a half -formed desire to dominate the
whole Western Continent and reduce the sister Republics there
to a state of tutelage under their powerful neighbour. . . .
The chief basis for Latin-American dubiety in regard to the
United States is mainly their uncertainty as to the policy of
the latter in regard to Mexican affairs. If this is cleared up
and guarantees are given in respect to the United States' in
tentions regarding South America there is no doubt that the
political organisations of the whole Continent, with the ex
ception of Canada, would tend to draw closer together, so as
to enable the Western hemisphere as a whole to stand in a
16 At Geneva on September 7th, 1921.

THE FALL FROM GRACE IN HAITI 283
firmer position with regard to the economic, financial and mili
tary power of Europe, backed now by the rising nations of the
Far East."17 That is exactly what Mexico desires to have —
guarantees in respect to the United States' intentions.
"United States morality," Mexicans declare, "smells of oil.
Oil is the motive power of its Mexican policy." Take, for
instance, the recent despatch of warships to Tampico coinci-
dently with the outbreak of the revolution expected and an
nounced by certain oil companies' agents. Its avowed object
was to quell the disorders which these oil corporations con
fidently anticipated as a certain result of their own act of sus
pending operations and throwing thousands of Mexican work
men out of employment. A more suspicious looking com
bination of circumstances it would be hard to imagine. And
when it is illumined by the allegation of the oil companies'
whilom friend, General Pelaez, that to his knowledge a large
sum of money was paid by one of the oil corporation's agents
(he mentions names) to the chief of the rebels, one can readily
understand the feelings of Mexicans. "An American
steamer," we read in a provincial American journal, "carry
ing American cargo was tied up for more than a month at
Buenos Aires because longshoremen declared a strike. Amer
ican property was by that strike damaged to the extent of
several thousand dollars a day. . . . There was no sugges
tion during the 'Martha Washington's' enforced internment
at Buenos Aires that the United States despatch a couple of
warships to the Argentinian port to stand by in case the hos
tility of the strikers threatened to imperil the skipper's life or
the property in his care. To have suggested such a course
would have been to incur the charge of criminal feeble-minded-
ness. Had the Martlta Washington been engaged in the oil
trade and had she docked at Tampico instead of Buenos Aires,
the inference is strong that our Government's attitude would
have been less restrained. It makes a difference in whose
bailiwick American property is threatened. If it is threatened
in the territory of a first-class Power our State Department
writes notes. If it is threatened in Mexico our War Depart-
" The Daily Telegraph, Sept. 7, 1921.

284 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
ment sends battle cruisers. It makes a difference also what
kind of American property rights are jeopardised. If it is
cable rights in Yap, we complain to the Supreme Council. If
it is oil rights in Tampico, we despatch a young fleet with
orders to the Commanding Officer to land an army of occu
pation. "The cry of imperilled American interests comes loud from
Tampico but it is a cry with an oily overtone. The deadly
petroleum virus is once more at work to poison our relations
with our Southern neighbour. Obregon's Government seems
abundantly capable of protecting American lives, but unfor
tunately it is not American lives over which the State and
Navy Department are so strangely exercised, but American
oil."18 The influence of oil is, it must be admitted, answerable
for the eclipse of truthfulness, the distortion of facts, the
twisting of moral principles and the perpetuation of rank in
justice disguised as human fellowship and altruism. It was
solicitude for the oil interests that led Secretary Fall to assert
that the British Government controls one of the principal oil
companies working in Mexico, to accuse it of unduly favour
ing these and to maintain an attitude of dignified silence when
both statements were publicly proven to be untrue. It was
solicitude for the oil interests that moved the State Depart
ment in Washington to insist upon a new agreement being
made retroactive and the sacred property rights of non- Amer
icans in Mesopotamia being set summarily aside in order that
Americans should acquire them. That Department contended
that the concessions received years ago by British subjects and
by the nationals of other countries should be declared null and
void in the same off-handed way in which Carranza is accused
of having proceeded with American rights. And Lord Curzon
who in this case championed the sacredness of private prop
erty pointed out the inconsistency of this attitude with that
which the same State Department is taking up "in regard to
similar American interests in Mexico." He further laid stress
18 The Virginian Pilot (Norfolk, Virginia). See also the Mexican Post,
July 24, 1921.

THE FALL FROM GRACE IN HAITI 285
on the odd circumstance that, while the State Department con
tends that the oil resources of the world should be drawn upon
for development without reference to nationality, still, by Ar
ticle i of the Philippine Constitution19 (the oil companies make
a speciality of Constitutions) participation in the working of
all public lands containing petroleum is confined to citizens or
corporations of the United States or the Philippines, and he ex
pressed his regret that this enactment contradicts the general
principle of the United States. Lord Curzon might have
added, had he been aware of the fact, that one of the candi
dates of the American corporations for the Presidency of the
Mexican Republic is already bound by agreement, should he
be put in power, to accord to American citizens a decided pref
erence over all other nationals in the matter of oil concessions.
Is it to be wondered at that it is in the light of these back-
slidings from grace that Mexicans interpret the terms right
eousness, moral guidance and altruism which are so often
wafted to their ears on the breezes that blow from the northern
bank of the Rio Grande?
19 Adopted on August 31st, 1920.

CHAPTER XXII
Conclusion
The degree to which the sonorous phrases of American
politicians about altruism, humanitarianism and righteousness
are at variance with what appears to be the settled policy of
imperialism originated and furthered by propagandist intrigue
and subsequently acquiesced in by the responsible leaders of
the great Western Democracy, is not realised by the American
or European public. Nor can it be divined under the present
system by which the wells of public information in the United
States are controlled and "doctored." I have never during
my various travels on the planet beheld any parallel to it
in any country — the Tsardom included — with the sole excep
tion of Bolshevist Russia, and there the press is gagged openly
and professedly. The main characteristics of public opinion
enumerated by the late W. G. Sumner hold good to-day. Were
it otherwise the public would apprehend the real nature of
the feelings entertained towards the great imperialistic Democ
racy, as they know it, by all Central American Republics and
by almost all the peoples of Latin- America. But, unhappily,
the bulk of the population, which has little in common with
its political leaders, cannot see the Republic as others see it.
Even French publicists, whose general bias is to flatter the
United States, feel constantly impelled to apply caustic criti
cism to the political methods and principles of the candidate-
nation for the moral leadership of the world, which "thrusts
aside treaties and refuses to be bound by the word of its
President." In this connection some of the outspoken com
ments of that press would amply repay perusal. Those of
M. Saint Brice, for example — who upbraids the United States
for having "repudiated the signature of her President," and
reproaches her late President with having "craftily tried bias"
in order to undo covertly what he had done openly in connec-
286

CONCLUSION 287
tion with the Shantung question: "Slyly he advised China
to refuse her signature," — impute sinister tactics to the nation
of which one may be sure the nation itself would never have
approved. Without formally endorsing those grave accusations one
cannot but see that vital interests are at stake in the vague
new political doctrines of a group of men headed by Mr.
Fall and in the very definite practices of the troops of occupa
tion and of other public servants of the great Democracy.
The general trend of contemporary civilisation is frankly hos
tile to those dogmas and practices and the thinking world is
growing more and more suspicious of the moral tone and
truthfulness of those who inculcate and practise them.
A system of double weights and measures is always odious
and in a country which is to serve as the moral guide of
nations it is superlatively so. And that such a system is a
feature of the foreign policy of the United States will be
gainsaid by no impartial student of contemporary history.
Leaving on one side the Haitian atrocities and the imperial
istic policy towards Santo Domingo, we need only take as
an illustration "the doctrine of American property" as un
folded by Secretary Hughes. "Mexico is free," he says, "to
adopt any policy which she pleases with respect to her public
lands, but she is not free to destroy without compensation
valid titles which have been obtained by American citizens
under Mexican laws. A confiscatory policy strikes not only
at the interests of particular individuals, but at the founda
tions of international intercourse." Now if this be true it is
just as applicable to the United States as to Mexico, and may
be invoked with as much force by the State Department in
Tokio as by the State Department in Washington. It might
happen that Japan some day should turn to account in Cali
fornia the Hughes doctrine of "the safe-guarding of property
rights against confiscation" and the Hughes denial that Mex
ico is "free to destroy without compensation valid titles which
have been obtained by American citizens under Mexican laws."
But of course Japanese rights on the Pacific Coast are another
question. Our Mexican policy smells strongly of oil. Indeed,

288 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
no effort is being made to conceal the odour.1 Nor should
it be forgotten that the property rights which are so sacred
in Mexico are brushed aside by the State Department when
they belong to foreigners in Mesopotamia.2 If Mexico fol
lows the example of many other independent states and for
bids foreigners to acquire lands within a certain number of
miles from the land and sea frontiers, a deafening outcry is
raised in the United States and the repeal of the obnoxious
statute is peremptorily called for. But the circumstance is
withheld from the people that Mexico has kept well within
her sovereign rights in this and might go further without
overstepping the bounds. Nor has due attention been paid
to the fact that the Government of Jamaica introduced a bill
into the Legislative Council to prevent aliens from holding
lands in any part of the island — a measure which will seri
ously affect the American companies now operating there.3
Down to three years ago and possibly still to-day Russia had
a law of the same tenor as that of Mexico. Germany pos
sessed another of the like character. In Finland no foreigner
could acquire land anywhere without the enactment of a spe
cial statute in each case for the purpose by the Legislature — a
procedure which was well nigh prohibitive. But no Govern
ment has thought or thinks of protesting against such limita
tions of "American rights."
In the France of to-day the alien restriction laws recently
passed by the Chamber are drastic enough to warrant not
merely diplomatic notes and protests but much more heroic
measures on the part of a Government which objects to the
mild self -protective legislation of the Mexican Republic.
"Under the new law," we read, "no foreigner is permitted to
exercise the professions of customs-broker, transport agent,
information bureau, immigration and emigration agents, di
rector of an employment bureau, proprietor of a hotel, cafe or
1 The (New York) World, June 9th, 1921.
"See the official Oil Correspondence between the United States and
Great Britain, published in London by the British Foreign Office, and
the refusal of the latter to violate the rights of property in favour of
Americans. 3 See telegram of the Associated Press, July 23, 1921.

CONCLUSION 289
cabaret, director, administrator or proprietor of a newspaper,
unless express permission has been first obtained from the
Government. Thousands of Americans living in Paris will
be affected by the law." If an enactment of this tenor were
entered on the Mexican statute book what a howl of indig
nation would be raised in the United States! And yet the
Mexican Congress would be merely exercising its sovereign
powers. But what is meet and proper for all other inde
pendent States is to be forbidden to the Southern Republic.
And the only intelligible principle on which such a curtail
ment of sovereignty can be defended is one which assumes
that Mexico is become a "sphere of influence" of the United
States. Casting a hurried glance at the past and present relations
between the two neighbouring Republics, one is forcibly struck
with the broad gulf that sunders the magnanimous profes
sions of the great Northern Democracy from its deliberate
and systematic acts. The former appeal to sentiments of
benevolence, humanity, brotherhood, while the latter seem
rooted in greed of pelf and power and are carried out by
methods which may be explained, — but can neither be justi
fied nor excused — by the German militarist maxim that
"necessity" knows no law. And in applying this maxim
Mexico's would-be ethical Mentor does not recoil from the
extreme of creating or fostering the appalling conditions in
the sister Republic which would alone provide a warrant for
regenerative action. Truth is stifled by disingenuous propa
gandists. Intercourse between the two peoples is craftily
hindered, lest they should carry out Mr. Harding's fruitful
advice and learn to know and respect each other. Excursions
of America's business men are openly discouraged. Calum
nies and poisonous half truths are scattered broadcast by the
press, the cinematograph, books and pamphlets until the aver
age American's mental picture of the Mexican people bears
as little resemblance to the original as to the Weddas of
Ceylon. There is, however, one true feature in that distorted pic
ture: the conditions in which the great mass of Mexicans

290 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
live and work and die are a disgrace to civilisation. But the
remedy lies where the cause lurks. And most of those shock
ing conditions are traceable to a single source, the appropria
tion — one might aptly term it expropriation — by foreign cor
porations, mainly American, of the natural wealth of the
country, in circumstances which would not be tolerated else
where. For the righteous indignation of those who stigma
tise as iniquitous Mexico's lack of respect for the sanctity of
private property is linked with the all-important fact that this
property was originally acquired at a time and under cir
cumstances which, without actually destroying its technical
validity, considerably lessen the sacred and inviolable char
acter claimed for it. The individuals who sold the lands
in those days, as well as the legislators whose laws sanc
tioned the sale, were unaware of the value which the subse
quent national progress of the world would impart to the
wealth of the subsoil.
To-day the Mexican people may be said to have no share in
the marvellous riches of their native land. Their plight may
be likened to that of Tantalus. The resources of their coun
try go to enrich a group of affluent foreigners and to em
bolden these to intermeddle in every branch of government.
This disinheritance which the Mexican Government is now
summoned to sanction and perpetuate is at the root of the
people's ignorance, of the dissatisfaction and the frequent
bloody revolts — disastrous only to themselves — which stamped
their impress on the recent history of the Mexican Republic.
Systematic education, the maintenance of public order and
the smooth working of national institutions have been made
impossible by want of funds. The population is the poorest
and most wretched in the civilised world. This is so true
that the most effective way in which the Mexican Govern
ment could make known its case would be — were it not
derogatory to the dignity of the nation — to send groups of
the misery-stricken men, women and children of the Republic
around the globe and let their prosperous fellow-creatures be
hold how the inhabitants of the richest country on earth are
condemned from their birth to a slow physical and spiritual

CONCLUSION 291
death by suffering, disease and crass ignorance, in order that
a few pampered foreigners should become multimillionaires.
And not contented with their vast monopoly in the present,
the enterprising oil corporations are casting around for the
means of increasing it in the future. Hence their quest of
political, in addition to financial, power, their alliance with
pettifogging politicians and the extensive use which they
make of misleading propaganda. In words they repudiate
intervention, but the unswerving trend of the movement which
they have called into being is intervention pure and simple.
The history of Mexico for over half a century consists largely
in episodes of intervention by the United States. During
that brief period more than fifty per cent of Mexico's terri
tory was seized and annexed by the sister Republic on pre
texts which are being diligently kept alive by the propagandists
to-day who have earmarked what remains of the Republic for
Cubanisation. By her open-handed hospitality under Diaz, Mexico en
meshed herself in a fine network of international complica
tions from which extrication is superlatively difficult. By
welcoming American capitalists she introduced American
politicians within her gates and is now liable to become their
ward. By admitting American clergymen to preach and teach
she is deemed to have given away with her hospitality a
portion of her sovereignty and to have renounced her right
to legislate on matters ecclesiastical. By adopting freedom
of the press she has exposed herself to the damaging charge
of bolshevism and her government is held responsible for
newspaper articles of which it has no cognisance.4 If a sup
plementary tax is levied on the export of crude petroleum —
a tax which the American Legislature was disposed to put on
its importation — angry voices are uplifted in protests and
the cry of confiscation is heard throughout the United States,
whose citizens in the Transvaal silently endure the govern-
* In the month of March, 1921, some Americans who were said by a
writer in a Mexican journal to have worked for intervention took umbrage
because the President of the Republic did not order the articles to be
stopped. They considered that to be his duty to American citizens, what
ever the Mexican Constitution might say to the contrary.

292 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
ment tax of forty per cent on all gold and diamonds which
they find in that country. If "ObregorTs government parcels
out estates as vast as some European realms in order that
Mexicans able and willing to till the land may receive suit
able lots, it is forthwith accused of communism or worse.
When men obnoxious to the oil corporations are offered
posts in the cabinet and the candidates of these corporations
are passed over — for they too have their candidates — the
President is said to be in the hands of bolshevists and the
country on the high road to ruin. Labour legislation, too, in
cases where it merely secures a living wage for Mexican
workmen is denounced as bolshevist. And so on to the end
of the chapter. Thus in whatsoever direction Mexico moves
she is caught and tripped up by the fine meshes of international
complications woven by those foreign guests on whom she
bestowed hospitality, wealth and the power inseparable from
wealth. The legends created and spread abroad by professional
propagandists about Mexico are, to use a simile employed
by Joseph de Maistre, like counterfeit coin which is struck by
unscrupulous individuals who know what they are doing and
is afterwards uttered by honest unsuspecting folk who in
tensify the evil deed unwittingly. With such counterfeit coin
the United States is now inundated.
Nor does Mexico's complaint against her neighbours end
here. She roundly charges them with plotting against the
legally constituted government, with aiding and abetting
Mexican rebels, with sending their representatives to secret
conventicles in which revolutionary plans of campaign are
elaborated, with donating funds to those who undertake to
make war on the authorities and with securing special preferen
tial terms for themselves and their countrymen from pre
tenders to the Presidency. Those are damaging indictments
which undoubtedly impair the value of the State Department's
assurance that Mexico is free to have any government that
suits her — although one must recognise the fact that that
department is not responsible for the aberrations of American
citizens, nor even of American officials. These damning

CONCLUSION 293
charges, however, are so definite and circumstantial that in
all probability a good deal more will have been said and
written about them before these pages have seen the light.
The reader has already been apprised of General Pelaez'
arraignment of his former friends, the oil men, one of whom
he names as having handed a large sum of money to the
leaders of the abortive June "revolution" in Tampico for
the cause of the rebels. On the 17th of that same month
the Ministry of the Interior in Mexico City received an offi
cial telegram from one of its agents in Nuevo Laredo con
taining an account of a conspirative conclave held in Montull
at which Pablo Gonzales, Robles Dominquez, Francisco Mur-
guia and Esteban Cantu were present and "held consultation
with a delegate of the oil companies who arrived expressly
for the purpose from Washington."5 What degree of truth
this message contained the writer of these pages is unable
to determine and unwilling to discuss. He is concerned only
with the fact that it was taken very seriously by the Secre
tary of the Interior, as were others of a still more compromis
ing character that shortly afterwards followed. If the grim
truth which will be disclosed in the near future should be
found to tally with its presentment in those telegrams, the
sympathy of right-minded people throughout the world for
the ill-starred Mexican people will be increased a hundred
fold. In the meantime it will be wise to suspend one's judg
ment on this, the most sinister of the alleged features of the
open and covert campaign carried on against the Southern
Republic, under cover of the loftiest motives that inspire
human endeavour.
Mr. Hughes enjoys an enviable reputation throughout the
world wherever probity is appreciated in deed or by lip-wor
ship, and if straightforwardness and fairness were identical
with statecraft he would deserve to rank with the foremost
statesmen of modern times. But honesty is only one of the
many elements that go to qualify a man to govern a nation
and its possession, as we see, does not dispense its fortunate
*El Democrata, June 19th, 1921. Also El Heraldo de Mexico, June
19th, 1921.

294 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
possessor from the acquisition or inheritance of the others.
Without committing himself to any scheme for disposing of
the differences between Mexico and the United States, the stu
dent of history cannot but wonder at the line of reasoning by
which such an upright public worker has reached the conclu
sion that he can best serve his country — and possibly further
the best interests of the sister Republic as well — by rendering
financial credit inaccessible to the latter and thus condemning
its sorely tried inhabitants to go on enduring hunger, disease
and despair without visible hope of surcease or easement.
Truly there is something supremely pathetic in the figures of
the Presidents of the two Republics of whom both are sin
cerely anxious to combine the interests of their respective coun
tries with the principles of truth, justice, human brotherhood,
and yet one through his chief secretary is busy withal sapping
the power of the other and strangling the Republic which this
other is successfully endeavouring to save and regenerate.
Mechanically one's mind wanders back to those days of yore
when honest well-meaning men like Torquemada sent their
honest fellow creatures to the rack and the stake with a re
luctance the sincerity of which did credit to their fellow-feel
ing, and an anxiety to save their souls which testified to their
profound religious sense. Their only drawback was what
Pascal termed a false conscience, which is no uncommon phe
nomenon among some of the very best intentioned men of to
day. While hoping to further American interests which he
appears to have partly identified with those of the oil corpora
tions, Mr. Hughes has failed to take due account of those of
humanity at large which occupy such a prominent place in his
public utterances. This aspect of the American secretary's
statecraft reminds one of what Turgot said of those who be
come the dupes of general ideas which are true because drawn
from nature, "but which people embrace with a narrow stiff
ness that makes them false, because they no longer combine
them with circumstances, taking for absolute what is only the
expression of a relation." Their minds operate in vacuo.
If Mr. Hughes could but put himself mentally in the place
of General Obregon and realise this President's tasks, difficul-

CONCLUSION 295
ties and exertions, he would probably feel moved to help in
lieu of thwarting him, and this quite as much in the interests
of the United States as of Mexico. Meanwhile the unbiased
outsider whose angle of observation permits him to survey
both sides with equal comprehensiveness is amazed at the spec
tacle of the deplorable one-sided campaign that unfolds itself
to his gaze. The North American statesman declares that he
will recognise the Mexican Government only after it has given
proof that it wields the power and possesses the will to fulfil
its international obligations. Now the only proof conceivable
is the experiment and Mexico is eager to make it. Mr. Hughes,
however, declines to accept that and insists upon Obregon imi
tating President Wilson in Paris and signing a treaty which
the nation will repudiate and which will have no more intrin
sic worth in Mexico than that signed by the United States
has had in Haiti.
The scrap of paper doctrine is gall and wormwood to Mex
ico, and if the Haitian Memoir signifies anything, it cannot
have a particular relish for the United States. Nor does Haiti
offer the only example of the kind. The treaty of amity still in
force between Mexico and her northern neighbour as we saw
obliges the two contracting parties to refrain from having re
course to arms and to submit their differences to arbitration.
Yet that solemn obligation did not prevent Mr. Wilson from
despatching an army under „GeneralJEershing to the northern
provinces of Mexico, nor Mr. Harding from sending recently
two warships to Tampico, congruously with Senator Fall's
recommendations to the Senate. The binding power of trea
ties was seldom less effectual than it is to-day.
Further, the United States Government has asked Mexico
to pay her debts, but refuses to allow her to raise the money.
Taxation is termed confiscation and foreign loans are effec
tually vetoed in advance. Yet the liabilities cannot be met
without having recourse to both expedients. Again the United
States Government demands from Mexico full compensation
for damage done to its nationals during the period of the
civil war. Waiving all unsettled questions of liability and limi
tations, President Obregon assents and officially invites the

296 MEXICO ON THE VERGE
United States and all debtor countries to send delegates to ar
range the procedure and determine the amount due. But the
United States refuses to accept the invitation and induces
France and Britain to follow her lead. Thereupon the propa
gandists of the oil companies proclaim to the world that Mex
ico is a defaulter and President Obregon not a whit better than
President Carranza. And the bulk of the unreasoning public
believes them. Lastly, President Harding, through his chief
secretary, Mr. Hughes, denies official recognition to President
Obregon unless he first demonstrates that his word as Presi
dent is indeed worthy of trust, and the only demonstration
that will satisfy him consists in Obregon deliberately violat
ing his oath as President and publicly violating the law which
he solemnly swore to observe.
Meanwhile General Obregon undeterred by these formidable
hindrances and dangers pursues his own course with persever
ance and serenity, relying upon the approval of his conscience
and the sympathy of right-minded men and guided in all his
steps by high moral ideals. His is perhaps the first concrete
example of governance by morality irrespective of political
controversies, party interests and ephemeral success, and for
that reason among others is well worth a careful study by
those public bodies and private individuals throughout the
world who are interested in the spiritual advancement of man
kind. His remarkable experiment, whatever may be the out
come, will leave a profound and salutary influence on the
political and social thought of his generation which will make
itself felt far beyond the boundaries of his native country.

THE END