Mexico: The Law of the Land
Phillips, Charles
March 10, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 485 MEXICO: THE LAW OF THE LAND By CHARLES PHILLIPS WHEN we Americans read in our morning papers, day after day, news of persistent and continually ...
...Whether "oil" busies itself in the matter, for its own selfish purposes or otherwise, is really beside the question or at best only incidental...
...Even a cursory reading of the Mexican Constitution answers both questions...
...for this nation of 15,000,000 people is, in the bulk of its population, Indian and ignorant—and, therefore, incapable of proMarch 10, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 487 ducing a native ministry at all in proportion to its needs...
...we will continue to be bewildered by the Mexican news in our morning papers...
...He finds it difficult, indeed, to believe that it is all in accordance with the supreme law of the land—a land which calls itself a "free republican democracy...
...It is the law of the land that no academic credits shall be accorded any studies "carried on in institutions [seminaries] devoted to the professional training of ministers of religious creeds" (Article 130...
...We swallowed whole that passage of Article 130 which declares that "the Congress shall not enact any law establishing or forbidding any religion whatsoever," and we gave not a thought to the dozen or more restrictions on freedom of conscience which were boldly set forth in other passages, making this one perfunctory passage a ghastly joke...
...The reporter who sent that despatch either misunderstood or was misinformed...
...once a century ago, and once after the deposition of Diaz...
...We had grown a bit tired of that...
...What, then, really is going on in Mexico...
...Now, as it happens, this is a very confusing piece of news...
...If the sources of our information become suspect, then we are puzzled, decidedly...
...American oil could not very well play that role in Mexico...
...Nothing but a logical, and as far as the letter of the written law is concerned, a perfectly legitimate application of the national Constitution...
...but actually it was framed and imposed on Mexico by an armed junta...
...Say what we will at this late hour about the rights of Mexico to govern itself without our interference, the fact remains that the interference of our endorsement of the 1917 Constitution is what makes the Calles government bold and unscrupulous today in applying the constitutional law against freedom of conscience...
...Perhaps these Mexicans are a bad lot, after all...
...This is the one fact which we Americans need to know when we are questioning whether or not there is a genuine religious problem in Mexico and what that problem is...
...It is an historical fact that certain American terests" in Mexico desired above all things that the Carranza government be recognized by the United States, and it is likewise an historical fact that it was the setting up of the Constitution of 1917 that finally did win our recognition...
...one 486 THE COMMONWEAL March 10, 1926 which, if it issued from the sources of "oil" propaganda, miscalculated its effect...
...To begin with, the Mexican Constitution is really a spurious document...
...a situation which, in its seriousness, its violence, its flagrant repudiation of human rights, can hardly be exaggerated...
...And what of charity...
...for this fresh news of Mexican church persecution comes hard upon the heels of a long orgy of sensational items concerning the difficulties which American money interests have been suffering at the hands of official Mexico...
...That is the whole story of the Mexican church situation today...
...It is the law of the land that "state legislatures have the exclusive power of determining the maximum number of ministers of religious creeds" (Article 130...
...So, explicitly and categorically, reads Article 130 of the Constitution of 1917...
...So much for education, though there is, in fact, as much more that could be cited...
...it has its source in the very fabric of the Mexican state as that state now stands organized...
...priests hunted, bishops driven into exile...
...Catholic workingmen thrown out of work and imprisoned because they refuse to join the Red Soviets— when one sees all this and a hundred other manifestations of bigotry run wild, and sees it done under the aegis of official action at the gun-point of government troopers, he wonders, if he be an American, if it is not all a horrible farce staged by ignorant and overzealous petty politicians gone crazy with power...
...They are expelled because the Constitution of the republic of Mexico absolutely forbids any minister of any creed to remain as such in Mexico unless he be a native-born Mexican...
...far more than a mere political thunderstorm to be used or not used by alien interests...
...To the Mexican, then, there is real irony in imagining "oil" playing the role of champion of the persecuted Church...
...Only a Mexican by birth may be a minister of any religious creed in Mexico...
...If they do that they will foresee the day when, in just such measure as they stand uncompromising in their own religious beliefs, in that measure will they, too, be persecuted as the Catholics are persecuted now...
...And in the midst of the puzzle we are apt to lose sight of the real issue, which is not whether "oil" is exploiting a Mexican church situation for its own benefit, but whether there really is a Mexican church situation for "oil" to exploit...
...As for "other religionists," those nonCatholic organizations which are now established in Mexico, seem to be for the moment unmolested...
...Catholic seminaries raided, Catholic seminarians turned bodily into the street on five minutes' notice...
...The Mexican Constitution of 1917 is the root, the soul, the source, and the entire being of the Mexican church situation of 1926, That constitution is one of the most violent and radical anti-Christian, anti-religious documents ever concocted by the mind of bias— not excepting even the blood-red statutes of Bolshevik Russia...
...And there is the nub of the situation as it relates to us— we are dependent on the press for our information...
...No religious corporation, nor minister of any creed shall establish or direct schools of primary instruction" (Article 3...
...Apparently, the mere constitutional gesture was enough to satisfy us...
...In its essence it was manifestly born of that hatred of religion and religious freedom which is based on fear of a spiritual power opposed to the selfish interests of political materialists...
...It is the law of the land that there shall be no such thing in Mexico as religious education of any kind...
...If American capital—not to speak of American missionary influences—wielding power at Washington, had not for the past hundred years succeeded in gravely misrepresenting the Mexican people to the people of North America, we would have political liberty and religious freedom in Mexico today, instead of the despotism of a tyrannical ring whose power rests heavily on the moral support of the United States government...
...Twenty times, at least, have I heard this story from thinking men in Mexico...
...we even had suspected a dash of "oil" propaganda in it all, the "interests" using the press, perhaps, to stir up sentiment in this country against Mexico, sentiment which might be calculcated in good time to produce a repercussion in Washington—and later in Chapultepec...
...We are disposed to be a bit short with Mexico and her affairs...
...Twice at least in the history of our country we came very near having representative government—but in both cases the interference of America spoiled it all...
...It is the law of the land that anyone who violates these statutes shall be deprived of trial by jury...
...It is a fundamental thing...
...March 10, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 485 MEXICO: THE LAW OF THE LAND By CHARLES PHILLIPS WHEN we Americans read in our morning papers, day after day, news of persistent and continually increasing trouble between the government of Mexico and the Catholic Church, we are pretty sure to ask sooner or later, and not without impatience: "Who is to blame...
...One clause of Article 127 is sufficient to put the quietus on Christian charity in Mexico: "Public and private charitable institutions for the sick and needy . . . mutual aid societies or organizations formed for any other lawful purpose . . . in no case shall be under the patronage, direction, administration, charge, or supervision of religious corporations or institutions, nor of ministers of any religious creed or their dependents, even though either of the former or the latter shall not be in active service...
...Is it just a scare worked up by "oil" to manufacture feeling for the protection of American money interests in Mexico...
...And is there, then, no real "church situation" at all in Mexico...
...It is the law of the land, and there appears to be no way out of it for the Catholics or any other religionists as long as that law stands...
...It is the law of the land that religious vows and monastic orders are prohibited (Article 5...
...But they will be wise if they look ahead, or rather if they look deeply and search well into the fundamental motives which underlie this strange growth of prohibitive law...
...As it is, this application has been, so far, more or less gradual (not, certainly, out of any tender feelings on the part of the government, but purely out of expediency) but it is none the less relentless, and it is none the less disastrous to the cause of human liberty and religious freedom—all the more so as it takes on momentum...
...when one sees Catholics driven from their houses of worship at the point of the bayonet...
...The story is told, in fullest detail, in the Mexican Constitution...
...It bears the form of a body of constitutional law drawn up for a free people by their representatives...
...while as for "oil"—"oil" here meaning any form of American capitalistic investment in Mexico—as for "oil" making even a gesture of defense on behalf of the persecuted Church, that is nothing short of ironical...
...But it is the law of the land—a law that prohibits any minister of any creed or religion unless he be Mexican born—which, applied, would reduce the religious ministry of Mexico to almost nil...
...The present situation in Mexico, therefore, founded as it is in the constitutional law of the land, is far more than a passing thing...
...After all, so far as we are concerned, there seems to be nothing to do now...
...all education shall be secular, whether in public or private institutions...
...Article 41 of the Primary Education Law of 1924 even forbids clergymen to visit schools: "As soon as it is evinced that a school is conducted, aided, or merely attended or visited by ministers of any sect, it shall be closed...
...To one who knows Mexico there is no puzzle in the situation...
...When one sees, as I have seen, churches not only razed to the ground, but their very stones pulverized for roadmaking...
...And no wonder...
...a situation for which we ourselves are, in a certain measure, responsible...
...On the contrary, again at least as the Mexican sees it, it is largely because there have been and are powerful American money interests in Mexico that the Church has been and is being persecuted...
...It is simply a case of applying the law...
...A new speculation begins to prompt us...
...Our tradition...
...Well, nothing came of that...
...Is it possible that this also is propaganda—that the "interests," having failed in their attempt to stir up feeling through the exploitation of their own woes, are now "selling" this Mexican church situation to our press in the desperate hope that we, who were cold to the cry of finance in distress, may yet rise hot to the call of religious freedom...
...But no matter-— the thing was done, and this violently anti-religious, anti-Christian, and anti-Catholic constitution was imposed on Mexico as the supreme law of a land whose population is at least 90 percent Catholic...
...No charitable [i.e., free] institution for scientific research or the diffusion of knowledge shall be under the patronage, direction, administration, charge, or supervision of religious corporations or institutions, nor of the ministers of any religious creed nor of their dependents, even though either the former or latter shall not be in active service" (Article 27...
...And alas, because too often their ministers...
...Catholic schoolchildren jailed because they are Catholic schoolchildren...
...There is a big difference between the man who is expelled "because he refuses to take out citizenship papers" and the man who is expelled because he is debarred from the country by constitutional law...
...But does the Mexican Constitution really restrict and repudiate freedom of conscience...
...Indeed, if every article in that constitution regulating religion and worship were applied literally and in full force, matters would be far worse than they are...
...But it might be able to get away with it for awhile in the home press...
...If truth be told, the history of America-in-Mexico, at least as the Mexican sees it, is anything but a story of religious freedom championed and defended...
...For any American reading that item would very naturally be inclined to side with, rather than against, the Mexican government...
...But here now, we say, is something different...
...Foreign clergymen are not expelled from Mexico because they refuse to take out citizenship papers...
...For it must be plain to anyone who studies this whole matter that while there appear to be exemptions for the ministers of Protestant creeds at the present time, and while the full force and violence of the anti-religious laws of the Constitution of 1917 seem now to be directed solely at the Catholic Church, the truth is that these laws are aimed at the whole idea of religion and of Christian civilization...
...The fact of the matter is, we were duly and fully apprized of the real situation, the most serious protests being made to us by representative bodies of Mexicans...
...Immediately it was born of a special hatred of the Catholic Church—the only organized spiritual opposition "inforce established in Mexico in absolute to every tenet of the political materialist...
...they are inclined to rejoice today because the application of the anti-religious laws of trie Mexican Constitution is confined to their Catholic brethren...
...Human liberty...
...To find these things out, we must try to get the Mexican slant on the matter...
...and if so, what that situation is...
...In Tabasco, where a state law compels priests to marry, the above clause has been applied so as to provide one priest for each 30,000 inhabitants...
...It is not only the law of the land that all places of worship are the property of the government, but likewise that the government "shall determine which of them may continue to be devoted to their present purpose" (Article 27...
...in Guadalajara, one priest for each 6,000...
...It is the law of the land that "episcopal residences, rectories, seminaries, orphan asylums, collegiate establishments, religious institutions, convents, or any other buildings built or designed for the administration, propaganda, or teaching of the tenets of any religious creed" shall be exclusively state property, "to be used exclusively for the public service" (Article 27...
...Plainly then, there is no mystery in the Mexican situation...
...And until we Americans come to understand this fact we will go on misunderstanding Mexico...
...and if we do that it won't really matter to us whether or not "oil" is waving the red shirt of outraged freedom in the hope that the Eagle will scream...
...are violently prejudiced against the Catholic Church...
...But alas for a suspicious age...
...and on the strength of it we gave Mexico our full recognition and endorsement...
...here is a situation that touches American sentiment to the quick...
...But reading the Mexican Constitution does not answer the question...
...It is the law of the land that priests "shall have no vote nor shall be eligible for office," and are "incapable legally of inheriting by will from any individual to whom they are not related by blood within the fourth degree" (Article 130...
...One of our press sheets published a news despatch from the Mexican capital recently which, whatever its purpose, really gives the key to the whole problem...
...They feel, these Mexicans, that the bulk of their troubles, including, certainly, their Church troubles, can be traced to us, for the simple reason, as they put it, that time and again we have backed with guns as well as with moral support the worst and most unrepresentative elements in Mexican political life—not because we love bad Mexicans, but because we love our oil, and will make any sacrifice for it—even the religious freedom of our neighbors...
...This despatch told of the expulsion of a number of Catholic priests from Mexico "because they refused to take out citizenship papers...
...It is the law of the land...
...It is the law of the land that every church or other religious edifice now existing, or ever to come into existence in Mexico, is the sole property of the state (Article 27) and that no religious rite shall be performed except in edifices under governmental supervision (Article 24...
...and that law is the logical outcome of causes that go back to the fundamental war which natural materialism has always waged and always will wage against supernatural religion...
...Freedom of conscience...
...We committed ourselves ten years ago when we let ourselves be hornswoggled into recognizing the then existing Mexican government merely on the strength of its having set up a constitution...
...What matters to the Mexican, and should matter to us as lovers of human liberty, is that there is a situation in Mexico which is a disgrace to the world of thought and progress...
Vol. 3 • March 1926 • No. 18
