The Background in Mexico
Sands, William Franklin
430 THE BACKGROUND IN MEXICO By WILLIAM FRANKLIN SANDS IN THE United States it is not to be assumed that history is a matter of general knowledge. That is even especially true of the history of...
...Apart from that, the causes of Mexico's crisis, political and religious, lie in her history...
...not only an economic problem of Church property and mortmain and tradition of special privilege...
...It is not unlikely that in the very early days, before community of language, the Indian in many cases looked upon baptism and profession of faith as an act of allegiance to the conquerors (whatever in his dull and suffering mind they might stand for) rather than as a sacrament, though he is tenacious today of his religious forms...
...The Indian had no notion of what it all meant and has not advanced very much further today...
...There was a time when Catholics of the United States easily might have given valuable assistance through their lay organizations, if we had possessed knowledge of the facts or interest in them...
...Before even a balanced constitution can be made to function (and one does not include in that category the latest addition to the list) it will be necessary for Mexicans of all classes to learn something of the practical application of the fundamental principles demanded by the form of government which they have chosen—a form based theoretically, though not practically, upon our own, but as foreign to the tradition and present condition of Mexico as any system could be...
...By reason of the enforced brevity of a monograph of this character, it is not possible for the author to support his recital of events by an explanatory prelude on the history, tradition, character, and psychology of the human elements whose struggle he is picturing during the brief period of thirty-five years out of centuries...
...Those who are insisting now that the situation is worthy of careful study and that such study is essential to comprehension, are forced almost into the appearance of "lack of sympathy for oppressed brethren" by the emotions of a generous but uninformed public mind...
...Whatever their faults, those who ruled Mexico in the ensuing forty years knew that and chose to govern extra-constitutionally with a semblance of order, peace, and prosperity until some measure of comprehension of constitutional government should pervade future generations...
...Some of their political activities have been unimpeachable...
...there was no knowledge whatever, except among a handful of specialists, concerning the constitutional discrepancies and national psychology out of which the crisis has arisen...
...The gains for democracy in that instrument are nevertheless an abstraction...
...Calcott offers a plain, straightforward record, a quite obviously fair statement, a painstaking presentation of a political situation with which the American mind is necessarily in complete disagreement but in which, convinced as most *Church and State in Mexico: 1822-1851, by Wilfrid Hardy Calcott...
...One does not need to go outside for evidence nor further than the reform records of the Church...
...Until then the Constitution is useless and its enforcement can only lead to disorders and retrogression...
...They have shown themselves to be clearer political thinkers than the present Mexican government...
...The Mexicans have before them a formidable task and the Mexican hierarchy have made a giant stride forward in the political development of their people by the manner in which they have met their problem...
...Much information on the subject is not yet available even to Mexican readers...
...some certainly questionable...
...to the safeguarding of all rights and protection of ordered liberties...
...One would be on quite safe ground in asserting rather emphatically that until the crisis in Mexico's religious affairs stirred American Catholics to their depths, there was no general knowledge among us of conditions which ultimately would certainly affect Mexico in this way...
...Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press...
...The crisis in Mexico is not only a conflict between religion and anti-religious forces...
...It remains to reviewers to point out that fact and to other authors to supply the deficiency through original research...
...Possibly we may still have occasion to help, if we reason in the light of facts...
...Moreover, against this very small amount available to those of English speech the percentage of American Catholic contribution would be interesting to note, in the light of our presumably greater facilities with regard to sources not so easily accessible to others...
...If it were, it would be high time to set our own house in order for there are very interesting and very deep problems in solution in Mexico...
...and, finally, to the facilitation of true expression of an enlightened public will...
...This rather visionary and nebulous trend of thought achieved its great triumph in the Constitution of 1857...
...It is an acceptable contribution though one wonders a little at the optimism of some of his conclusions...
...deeply interesting problems to all the world quite aside from the present sufferings of our brothers in faith...
...There is a consequence therein, however, that would seem to touch very particularly the province of American Catholics since in that combination one should expect understanding of Catholic psychology together with appreciation of American ideals of self-government...
...Those of English speech know still less about it...
...They do not exist in fact...
...with both sides using the dull, patient mass to raise armies or swell ballots...
...In all this struggle for power between political parties and chieftains there has been quite truly a persistent trend toward democracy, but democracy as understood by the makers of the French Revolution, not at all as it is understood by the founders of the United States...
...Americans are of the advantages of an enlightened democracy over other forms of national life, sympathy goes out at once to the unenlightened majority of Mexico's people...
...Bishops and priests have occupied administrative office in government...
...The current talk of "Bolshevism" as directly responsible for Mexico's present deplorable condition is rampant nonsense, due consideration being given to the fact that one of the Third Internationale's very fundamental principles and most cherished methods is prompt seizure upon national or group discontent or disorder anywhere in the world for the purposes of world revolution...
...One must not confuse all revolutionary strivings with assertion of democratic principles...
...The Constitution of 1857 is unworkable because its spirit is more earnestly directed to suppression and to restrictions affecting particular cases than to the defining and inculcation of broad principles for the inspiration of particular legislation, or of legislation applicable to all...
...Its good features cannot be brought into play since the whole is vitiated...
...That is even especially true of the history of the countries in which it would be natural to suppose that North Americans have a particular interest: our Latin American neighbors...
...Church property, special privileges, vested interests, formed in time an important feature of the struggle if not its very centre, always to the detriment of the masses, for all too often special interests or opinions were confused with religion...
...That is the simple fact...
...and that, not because the Constitution has not been given an opportunity to function, as is claimed by those who resurrected it, but because it is unworkable in practice...
...It would be totally unfair to classify all who have opposed special political privileges of the clergy, or sought to circumscribe their power in economic matters, as primarily anti-religious...
...That is inevitable...
...In the continual struggle between great landowners for his enslaved body and the better element of the clergy for his soul and bodily liberty as well, with economic theories conflicting with spiritual and educational ideals, it is not astonishing if education in our sense made no such general advance amongst the masses as has been possible in our more favored democracy...
...An illustration to point this suggestion lies in current expressions of opinion concerning Mexico...
...From the beginning they have taken as great and the same kind of part in politics as they have in Ireland, as they have in France...
...That there have been periods of wide-spread deterioration among the clergy is indisputable...
...The whole disjointed and inappropriate Mexican system is cracking and cannot be repaired or reconstructed except by the Mexicans themselves, and then only when they have learned the first principles of self-government...
...it is not only a socialistic experiment by political theorists of a not very high order...
...Fortunately, recent agitation is no true measure of Catholic reason...
...Wilfrid Hardy Calcott, associate professor of history in the University of South Carolina, has added to the study of the antecedents of this crisis a monograph entitled, Church and State in Mexico: 1822-1857.* He concludes his preface with the following words: "In the latter year [1857] the Constitution which remained the official foundation of the Mexican government till 1917, was adopted...
...Although our author does not agree with this view, it is the firm opinion of some writers who have studied Mexico in the light of Spain, of what is known of the native civilization prior to the conquest, and of the institutions of self-governing peoples, that the principal conflict in Mexico's development has truly centered in a struggle for power between the local conservative elements of Spain (the higher officials and the higher clergy traditionally opposed each to the other in matters affecting the native, but outwardly united in Spanish policy) and the growing middle class composed of Creoles, mestizos, and some Spanish elements—"liberal," even "radical" in tendency, opposed to both state and Church, opposed also to both Spaniard and Indian...
...when they have learned the meaning of the form of government they have chosen as desirable...
...Denial of them must astonish the Mexican hierarchy who are bearing the burden of an inherited situation of singular difficulty, and who, while insisting on their inalienable rights, are surely well aware of the ultimate causes of the crisis...
...These are facts...
...it is not honestly a question of present improper clerical activity in politics, as alleged...
...Priests have taken part in, and led revolution...
...not only a struggle between local Church organization and the state...
Vol. 5 • February 1927 • No. 16
