Mexico as It Is
Weber, Julius A.
MEXICO AS IT IS By JULIUS A. WEBER The following paper on Mexico, by a man who knows the situation intimately, displays a refreshing willingness to subordinate political events to economic facts....
...That is what every President has to consider...
...The present tranquillity will but usher in a still greater and more violent revolution because the people will never submit to American-made schemes...
...The average Mexican is under the impression that all difficulties can be adjusted and wrong overcome by the introduction of Communism...
...Undeniably this would be a good thing, but how about the facilities to materialize such an endeavor...
...It is absolutely impossible to take 12,000,000 people of another race, especially a race like the Indians, and impose upon them the kind of government that has worked in the United States or some other part of the world where governments have been developments, growths...
...Often little children are actually homeless, without shelter, fending for themselves...
...Beneath the veneer of gaiety the people at large are poverty-stricken and forlorn...
...Such attempts are absolute failures in Mexico...
...Due to their nature, information concerning them probably never crossed the border...
...To attend one of the official social functions is like a glimpse of the sumptuous scenes in The Last Days of Pompeii...
...Weber concedes the attraction which Communism has for the average Mexican, but feels that any endeavor to offset it by importing the authority of the United States could merely lead to further trouble...
...Revolution and religious controversy are apparently quelled...
...Clothing of American standard is high, yet one can hire the most luxurious type of automobile for approximately seventy cents per hour...
...An enormous staff surrounds the chief executive, resembling a group of self-satisfied, pre-war Prussian officers...
...These misleaders ignore the difference between the American and the Mexican in character...
...while in fact workers searching more agreeable conditions and personal freedom, are also attracted by glittering promises and will seek this earthly paradise...
...Also very little activity is shown in mining properties scattered in various other states, although at Chihuahua some American-owned mines are producing...
...While we, the sublimest of armchair Christians, are deeply in sympathy with Mexico, we have never done anything to help her, except to send Bibles during her times of apparent peace, and promptly when conflict starts, ammunition...
...Different, more enticing are the lyrics of 1930, especially composed to lure capitalists from foreign lands...
...These smartly attired officers, as chic as the Prince of Wales, are in striking contrast to the 57,000 privates, clad in ancient uniforms of the most astounding variety of misfits ever assembled...
...Weber's paper with interest they do not necessarily endorse all its statements.-The Editors...
...Unless (and this is impractical) a Soviet commission sent by Russia could aid in Mexico's reconstruction, the introduction of a Soviet regime will have to be assigned to the future...
...I have been given varying reasons for the cause of unrest and conflict from those who ought to know...
...Mexico's moving army is at present considerably reduced...
...Why should they spare a thought to the numbers of youngsters eating from garbage boxes, often contending with some self-supporting dog for an especially desirable morsel...
...Where are the schools to teach these various trades ? From one end of Mexico to the other, not more than two hundred shops exist that are equipped to teach them...
...Multiply their conceit and hateful attitude by the hundred and you have the finished product- the Mexican army officer and "superiorities" connected with the governmental service...
...During my five months at the main shops of the railroad at Aguascalientes, capitol of the state of the same name, I saw the results of nine disasters...
...This indeed shows courage...
...About 90 percent of these casualties are perpetrated by the dissatisfied (the federal term is rebels...
...Misery is not confined to any one section of the city but overflows to the main avenues and most thickly populated districts...
...Existing conditions might be more adequately described as a conflict between parasites and destitutes than as between federals and rebels or between capital and labor...
...These people of Mexico, once given the opportunity to work out their own destiny, unmolested by the carloads of ammunition often so lavishly supplied by our Wall Street to federals-or rebels?-will march in step with civilization...
...I have talked with descendants of the royal aristocracy whose patriotism would not prevent them from thoroughly approving Mexico's attachment to the United States...
...Stores, houses, lots and farms for sale practically monopolize the advertising columns of the daily press...
...Of the country's entire population, 80 percent at least are of the Indian race, so that Mexico is not, as popularly supposed, a Latin country, but one which is only slightly Latin...
...Business men hesitate to make investments due to their lack of confidence in the government's ability to protect them or their interests...
...They feel we have ' not achieved such amazing success in managing our affairs as would warrant them in modeling upon our methods...
...While the editors have read Mr...
...Many of these unfortunate victims of poverty and incurable disease are crippled or blind...
...Communistic headquarters are prominently located in Mexico City, whence un-exaggerated information of this movement is given out by rather pleasing officials...
...I have witnessed one of these officers deliberately thrust a child out of his way with his foot...
...Huddling together as inconspicuously as possible, they remain little noticed by the unheeding crowds, or if called to their attention, are but a source of annoyance to the well-dressed men and women, many of whom by the way, are arrayed in the merchandise of some credit house...
...The luxury and splendor indulged in by a few at the head of a nation of millions of hungry souls cannot fail to result in disaster...
...The situation, however, is very different from the one which prevailed in Russia where the prerevolutionary money powers had substantially prepared the way for her new government...
...the country is at peace and again Mexico, the land of inexhaustible but latent wealth, becomes the realm of opportunity and romance...
...What the former may call an imposition, novel or unique, and then cheerfully proceed to circumvent, the latter will not hesitate to shed his blood to resent...
...It is an Indian country...
...Little groups of them cuddle together for warmth, sleep in alleys or doorways, their almost nude bodies finding such protection as they can from coverings of newspapers and rags...
...It is possible that some readjustment in the political machine patterned after European methods might work, but any so-called help from Wall Street's democracy will only make matters worse...
...Racial traits and prejudices being as they are, the introduction of American rules and regulations by Senor Rubio, or any subsequent president, will result in the masses persistently proceeding in their 'own, and exactly opposite, direction...
...While the civil authorities, including the police, are sympathetic and humanely inclined, the exact opposite is true of the military officials...
...This movement has taken root everywhere, therefore it is exceedingly difficult to do business in the large cities but even more so in smaller communities where at fairly regular intervals Communistic warnings are posted on show windows as well as on the entrances of private homes...
...a notable exception is the Mexican Corporation, Limited, operated principally by English interests...
...Obviously it is impossible to bring about tranquillity and utilize Mexico's resources for the general good until the great mass of the people find recognition and consideration as human beings...
...Great activities are shown at the various railroad shops where locomotives, sections of passenger and freight trains that have been wrecked are constantly under repair...
...Regardless of who has introduced them, or who has been at the helm of the ship of state at the moment, the people have never welcomed any attempts at interference originating north of the border...
...The chief executive has now to contend with only 400 generals and some 8,400 other officers...
...At present the battle is on, he tells us, not so much between federals and rebels as between parasites and the destitute...
...The authorities strictly prohibit any pictures being taken that would carry away the facts of the widespread distress, and this law is enforced with heavy fine or jail sentence imposed as penalty...
...The colony of about fifteen mines in the state of Zagatecas is idle...
...We read the glowing account of the government's intention to compel every young man past school age to learn a trade...
...The vast numbers of would-be workers are acting with marked independence, and whether it is acknowledged or not by the disturbed body of business men, the fact remains that Communism is making rapid advance...
...Nowhere has the seed of Sovietism fallen on a more fertile soil than in Mexico...
...Exploitation and development at the oil fields are practically at a standstill...
...The Indian has as well developed a brain as the white man...
...He has had governments and systems of economics in past centuries that were effective, and had he remained unmolested, he would have gone slowly but surely to greater things...
...When the government partially curtailed contributions by the ecclesiastical powers to the coffers of Rome, the people themselves who were intended to be benefited by the ban, arrived at no gain whatsoever...
...The front pages, with headlines, of course, proclaim coming prosperity...
...Costs are out of proportion...
...They know well what they want and will keep on rebelling until they skim the foam from their population and shape their constitutional rights in balance with their own ideals and in accord with those of other nations...
...Another item now seriously considered in the federal program is the introduction of prohibition...
...These, I need not add, are in the hopeless minority...
...Very pleasing to ear and fancy is the propaganda disseminated by the Mexican Chamber of Commerce, seemingly a department of past and present administrations...
...ONCE more we are told of Mexico's coming glory under the new President, Senor Pascual Ortiz Rubio...
...They look upon the Germany of today as profiting from her annexation to the United States in 1918, and would gladly welcome a similar fate for themselves...
Vol. 11 • March 1930 • No. 20
