Mexican Liberalism At Work

...Tomochic declared that it would never surren- can government...

...The drawal of the clergy, as the one mentioned at Tomowealth of Obregon, the predecessor of Calles, was chic-and there were hundreds similarly situated-the founded on some of these lands...

...At last the church doors domination in educational matters, as stated by Luis were battered in, the edifice fired, and from its smoking Cabrera, I may mention the fact that the Yaquis ruins the wounded survivors were removed, and after were gathered into their towns and settlements by the being placed on the ground in a row, they were shot Jesuits toward the close of the sixteenth or the beginto death...

...Dawley, a people were rich and prosperous, and he resolved to go non-Catholic who has long been a close student of Mexican and see for himself...

...looting of which was the origin of all this slaughter of As for the Church having had 400 years of absolute men, women and children...

...They which act is acknowledged by impartial historians as were a brave, sturdy, industrious people...

...It was to put down the revolution...

...On one occasion, at least, they had pursued habits, and many of them were driven out of the coun- the Indians, defeated them, and recovered their cattle...

...Genera- their lands...

...He raised large illiteracy must have been much less than it is today...

...But it stands to reason that if protesting, were shot down or driven into the moun- the schools were left without teachers by the withtains where they were hunted like wild beasts...

...Why, dice that his histories of Mexico and Central Amer- whatever chicken or dog that happened in would disica are not worth the paper on which they are printed, tract my attention...

...All Ameri- one of the gravest errors ever committed by the home cans who have employed them in the mines and else- government...

...Thus Tomochic ceased to exist...

...quantities of frijoles and garbanzos on them, which What has done more than anything else to turn me he exported to the United States for American gold...

...Then came the evil Yaquis read and write when the government seized day when the missionaries were expelled...

...It was an evil day for Tomochic when the attention Diaz was furious...

...Two generations have passed since then...

...The adminis- order, and a judge to administer justice...

...Their work being This is no isolated case of what has happened since educational as well as religious, they taught the Indians the "liberals" gained control of the government in to read and write...

...It was not tration of Comonfort, who was elected president under long before the judge was accused of violating the the constitution, was of short duration, the presidency daughter of one of the villagers, and the soldiers havbeing abandoned by him the year following, and the ing nothing else to do, and not much to eat, spent conflict went on...

...much of their time in committing acts of violence...

...mules and proceeded to the Rio Grande where they Although the "reform laws" were not strictly en- bought Winchesters and cartridges...

...Every attack upon the redoubts was repulsed compared to a foreigner writing a history of the United until, weakened by death, wounds and illness, the vil- States on no other authority than a political partisan lagers made a final stand in the church, the proposed campaign book...

...When I see the image of Christ and yet he is quoted by the Methodist bishop, who before me inspires me and absorbs all my attention...

...In the past they had, without the force the constitution of Comonfort...

...Do you suppose I used it...

...Bancroft's histories may well be der...

...Centuries ago the Christian mis- write after the expulsion of the Jesuits...

...Religious instruction was prohibited in the schools, and now in their simple and honest minds they believed and in order to more thoroughly destroy the religion of that they could still defend their village from the the people, Protestant missionaries were invited into raiders who violated their women and stole their fowls the country, and were given guarantees and protection and produce...

...To the west of Chihuahua, embowered governor that the people were in open revolt, and the in a pleasant little valley, reposed the village of Tomo- governor reported it to Mexico, and asked for troops chic, fairly lost to Mexico, and to the world...

...This is the second of two articles, the first of which ap- so long from the outside world...

...in favor of Catholicism has been the gross immorality When he was in Washington, to my personal knowl- and misrepresentations of those who oppose it...

...and crossed our frontier...

...This army, unable village beyond the mountains to the west, hidden away to take the town by assault, invested it, and during 382 THE COMMONWEAL August 25, 1926 the weary weeks that followed the villagers were re- contributes The American Protestant View in Current duced to meagre rations, and death stalked among History, to support his thesis on behalf of the Mexithem...

...The troops came, and as one of the many towns founded by the Catholic mis- they were descending the range of mountains that sionaries in colonial days, when they gathered in a hemmed in the valley on one side, they were attacked few scattered Indians and European settlers, and by the Tomochics in detail, and defeated...

...IIe was so biased by his anti-Catholic preju- could pray like your people to a dead wall...

...With this in mind they packed their that were not given to native Mexicans...

...It had its priest and school, and the mander, if I remember correctly, fled to the Rio Grande children were taught to read and write...

...The possessors and then it was not "absolute"-was definitely stifled were "only Indians" who had no rights that the gov- by prohibiting the clergy from teaching in public ernment was bound to respect...

...The town was a revolution...

...and various attempts, preserve in its pristine beauty from time immemorial...

...He was told that the peared in The Commonweal of August 18, by Mr...

...annulling the titles, possessions were given to others, There are no available statistics to show what the perand the rightful owners were dispossessed...

...I do not prosionaries gathered the ancestors of these Yaquis to- fess to know, but I do know that after the Jesuits were gether on the fertile bottom lands of the Yaqui and driven out, their missions in Lower California lapsed Mayo Rivers, laid out villages for them, with their into ruin and decay, and the Indians there no longer churches and schools, and not only taught them to read learned to read and write, nor could many of the and write, but to sow and reap...

...The Constitution of announced his intention to have them...

...In the some of the results of those laws, and the preceding meantime it had been noised about that Tomochic was conflict with the Church that came under my personal preparing for a revolution...

...This second army when it got somewhere laid out and built in accord with the laws of the Indies, near the supposed scene of action, charged into a cornwith its plaza, its church on one side, and town hall field and got lost among the mountains...

...ning of the seventeenth century...

...Then again, nearly seventy years have passed the titles to them were held by the people who culti- since "Church domination in educational matters"vated them, that made no difference...

...Who taught the Yaquis to read and where confirm this...

...I may pause here to tell why the war of ex- Jesuits were all expelled by the government of Spain, termination was carried on against the Yaquis...

...Her reply after the Church has had 400 years of absolute domin- in a somewhat angry tone, rendered into English, was ion in educational matters, we still have 8o percent of something as follows: illiterates in Mexico," is a fair example of "liberal" "What do you take us for...

...Hubert Howe Bancroft, our own historian the images are made of wood...

...By the "reform aid of the government or any other earthly support, laws" that followed, priests and nuns were prohibited defended their village and their ranches against Apache from appearing in public in their clerical or religious raids...

...1857, in the formulation of which the people had no The attempt to take the paintings met with such a voice whatever, was for the two-fold purpose of de- violent protest on the part of the villagers, that the stroying the people's devotion to their God and their governor sent a squad of soldiers with an officer to Church, and to seize by confiscation the great wealth garrison the town on the pretense of preserving public the Church was supposed to possess...

...Don't we know that logic used...

...The edge, he put up in a Spanish lunchroom, a sign adver- chief talking point of the Protestants in their propatising the beans...

...President formed for them a municipal government according to Diaz could not let such an act go unavenged, and he the laws of Spain, as free and independent as our town- sent a second army to put down what he believed to be ship governments of New England...

...The statement of women who have figured prominently in Christian Luis Cabrera, foremost draftsman of the Constitution history...

...more or less successful, were made to destroy their The governor's attention was at once attracted by religion as well, because it was the only thing that had certain paintings, said to be of great value, and he any control over the masses...

...Its brave comon the other...

...On a certain day in 1767, the Mexico...

...ganda against it is that the churches have images of One of the great talking points of the "liberals" for Christ on the Cross, and also of the holy men and propaganda purposes is education...

...tions passed and then Mexico gained confidence and To lay the blame for the high percentage of illitercoveted the fertile lands that had been set aside for acy in Mexico on the Catholic Church, then, is a the people during the Spanish regime, and although fallacy...

...As the governor attended by his affairs.-The Editors...

...It was reported to the observation...

...August 25, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 38 MEXICAN LIBERALISM AT WORK By THOMAS ROBINSON DAWLEY, JR...

...forced during the Diaz administration, I may give On their return the soldiers were gone...

...When centage of illiteracy was before an inhibition was this happened in the Yaqui domain, the natives, upon placed on the clergy...

...They Maximilian, that a drastic attempt was made to en- were brave men...

...He sent another army under of the governor of Chihuahua was directed to the command of his most able generals...

...To get their mental which he said: "The best proof of the failure of the attitude I asked a poor woman, one of the masses, if Catholic Church as an educator of the Indians is that she believed that the images were gods...

...Juarez succeeded Comonfort, but he could not main- The leading men of the village, incensed at the detain any government, and it was not until after his predations committed, called a meeting and solemnly reelection on the collapse of the Second Empire under resolved not to put up with them any longer...

...escort, rode down into the valley, the simple villagers, D URING the internecine strife that followed elated at the honor of his visit, tendered him a recepthe coming of Mexican independence, the tion, and having nothing else to show him, escorted leaders of the "conservative," family-spirited him into their church which they had been careful to groups were killed or exiled...

...Means were devised for schools...

...try...

...Because devout Catholics pray before these of 1917, in his address that year at Philadelphia, in images they are voted idolaters...