San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-11-09
TO TAX The CHURCH.
PROPOSED NEW ADDITION
TO MEXICAN REVENUES.
How a Patriotic People is Respond
ing to It's Nations Need-The Peon
and His Handy Knife-War Be-
tween the American Horse Jockey
and the Spanish Bull Fighter.


cial by Pan-American Press Asso-
ciation).-A proposition to tax the
property of the church is being Sc
riously considered just now by the
leading Legislators of Mexico. In a
late speech in the Mexican Senate,
Don Juan A. Mateos, the most elO-
quent debater of the republic, was
roundly applauded when he ex.
pressed himself at length on the
subject of making the church pay
tribute to the state, the same as
any other business institution
holding property and receiving
and dispensing money is required
to do. There are 120 Catholic
churches in the City of Mexico
alone,the annual receipts of which,
according to Senior Mateos, are
about 81 100000 hard cash every
year. Why the clergy should be al
lowed to accumulate this immense
sum with no return to the govern
ment the Mexican law makers
profess to be unable to explain, and
it is probable clerical tax bill
will be introduced shortly before
the Mexican Congress. The pro-
posed bill would in all likelihood
include the holdings of American
Protestant MISSIONS, and of course
will engender much opposition
from Catholics and Protestants
alike.
There is one less of the ancient
stock of the MocteZumas on earth.
There has just died in this city,
still in his childhood, the thir-
teenth grandson, in succession, of
the Emperor MocteZuma and the
fourteenth of the famous Aztec
warrior ruler, Cuitlahuac. The
deceased youth, whose name was
Roberto Luis Cuauhtemoc, was the
son Of Don Luis Sierra Horcasitas
and bona Dolores Abadiano de
Sierra, a direct descendent of the
old stock. The living representa-
tives of the MOcteZumas make up
large and still powerful contin-
gent in Mexico.
a Texas paper in commenting on
the praisewOrthy way in which
Mexico is trying to eXtricate itself
from its burdening encumbrances,
and the points of difference in a.
few little matters Of pure patriot
ism between the average Ameri-
can, has the following to say:
The Mexican people have contri-
buted of their means, the Mexican
officials of their salaries, the Next
can local governments of their re-
sources to help pay the interest on.
the national debt. The very
prisoners have voluntarily taken
up collections for that purpose-to
maintainthe credit of a government
that is furnishing them and which
has doomed some of them to death.
Be they rich or poor, proud official.
or condemned prisoner awaiting
the deadly vOlley, the honor the
Republica MeXicana is dear to
every Mexican heart.
How it it with us? We never al
low an opportunity to bleed the
federal treasury to pass unim-
proved. We elect congressman
with the view of securing appropri-
ations, and when they fail to do so
we feel that they have proven
unworthy of our confidence.
We demand the enactment
of laws that will put I'M
earned money in our purses.
We besiege Uncle Sam for subven-
lions and for pensions. No matter
what the old gentleman's necessi-
ties may be, our cry is still, "Give,
give" and we would regard as a fit
candidate for the lunatic asylum a
man who declined a bounty he did |
not need, refused salary he had
not earned, or asked that his pay
be reduced, that the public treas
ury might not be depleted. And as
we act toward the federal so we act
toward the state, county and mu-
nicipal government. The state must
provide for us. We logroll for Jobs |
that are simply sinecures, pocket |
money for which we have returned
no just equivalent; and are not
ashamed" 49, ...' |
The officials Of the Mexican cap |
ital are making a sturdy effort to |
successfully wrestle with the trOu-
blesome practice of carrying weap-.
Ons. The harvest of shooting af- |
fairs, duels and other debates of a
like fatal nature between gentle
men of honor has been an unusu-
ally prolific one Of late and pro-
hibitory law has been passed which |
resembles in a general way the reg
ulations regarding arms. in force in
the United States. The police Of |