El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-09-14
MEXICO'S INDEPENDENCE DAY.
Its Eighty-Eighth Observance Will
Be Held This Week.

| Inc special vi JIG
Globe Democrat at the City of Mexico
write as follows under the date oil
September 6: The Republic OF Mex
leo is making extensive preparations
for the cele bration of next Wed
nesday Thursday and Fri
day, September IA, IS and 10, which
this year marks the eighty-eighth an-
niversary of the declaration OF Mex
lean independence from Spain, and the
6Sth birthday of Gen. Porfirio Disz,
the chief executive of the nation.
I be celebration will differ from the
anniversaries CT other years in the
added note OF Thanksgiving, sounded
by reason of the achievement OF Cuban
independence, which completes the
downfall of Spanish power in America
begun by the Mexican revolt OF lolO.
1t is sight worth seeing, when the
Mexican public gives itself over to the
observance of this, its chief civic holt
day season. After the thorough-going
Southern fashion, the festivities are
extended through three nights and two
days. The chief event is when tens of
tt Ousands of people mass into the
great Plaza de la Constitution, on
which fronts the national palace and
the grand cathedral.
A band OF several hundred pieces,
mum beripg the best musicians from all
the military zones, serenades the pres
ident and wife when they appear on
the balconies, looking out from the
hall of the ambassadors. where they
then hold their annual reception to the
diplomatic corps and the elite of Next
can and foreign society. Fireworks
torch the night, all the church bells
ring, and cannon are fired from the Cit
adels, when the president appears on
the central balcony of the palace and
gives the ''Grito de libertad, > in men,
DRY of the tine when the cry of liberty
was first raised against Spain in 1910.
Mexico has not forgotten the terrors
of the times leading up to her national
independence in 1921, and many in the
cheering multitudes still shout,
death to Spain,' as did their patri-
otto forefathers when the century was
young.
The influential Spanish colony in
Mexico has been so active in its sup
port of Spain in the Cuban war that
many Americans have mistakenly sup
posed that this wealthy minority repre-
sented the masses of the Mexican peo-
pie, and that the sympathies of the
whole nation were for the side of Spain.
The truth is that the Cubans and the
United States have had no more sym
pathetic allies in the contest than the
majority of Mexicans. OF course, some
allowance must be made for the fact
that the MeXicans are bound to Spain
by the ties of common language, re-
ligion and traditions, and with the
same natural Latin prejudice toward
the Anglo-Saxon.
Some members of the conservative
party have seen in the war of the
United States against Spain the be-
ginning of an aggressive policy of ex
pansioD on the part OF their Northern
neighbor, and have sided with Spain
for that reason. But the greater num-
Der of MeXicsns, knowing the friendly
attitude of the United States toward
their country, realize that every
growth in strength and power on the
part of the ''great republic will also
add to the security and advantage of
the smaller one.
Wishing to avoid foreign entangle-
ments, the Mexican government has
kept discreetly silent. but no nation re-
joices more heartily over the fall of
Spanish power than Mexico for her
experience before independence paral-
lels that of Cuba and all Spanish col
onies, past and present. When the
Spanish conquered Mexico early in the
sixteenth century, the native Indian
population was estimated at 30. 00O. 900.
Three centuries of murderous Spanish
rule reduced it to the II, 900, 900 making
up the present census.
When the patriot priest, Hidslgo,
led an insurrection against Spain in
1910, he land his principal followers
were promptly executed on capture by
the Spaniards. and their heads were
hung by iron hooks on the outer walls
of the citadel at Guanajuato, as per.
petual warning of the fate of all who
dared to speak the name of liberty.
The cruelty disgraced heads of the
fathers of Mexican independence now
rest 10 a crystal tomb under the Altar
of the Kings in the cathedral in the
City of Mexico, and when they were
placed there the ceremony was attend
ed by such an outburst of patriotism
on the part of the Mexican people as
could leave no doubt of their undying
enmity to CASTLE. Large amounts of
money and war supplies have been
quietly sent from Mexico to the Cuban
insurgents in the past three years, as
WAS also done for the ten years. war
ending in 1878.
THE GREATNESS OF PRESIDENT DIAz
The birthday of President Diaz is
each year Increasingly observed by
both Mexicsus and foreign residents.
who almost unanimously agree that be
is the practical savior of Mexico in the
accomplished in the less than
twenty years in which he has been in
Office. Were Mexico first-class pow
er, 1t is probable Diaz would be gener-
ally recognized as one of the
largest figures in contemporaneous
history. He has y stamped out
re evolution where powder is nat
urally in the blood of the people. and
has made life and property in that |
once wild land as safe as it is in the
United States, il not, indeed, safer in |
some particulars. He has encouraged
railroad building to the extent of the |
nearly 10000 miles now paying good |
dividends to their American and Eu-
ropean owners, and has so fostered the |
investment of foreign capital that
hundreds of millions of American mon
ey is now protitably planted in the |
mines, mills and other industries of this |
President Diaz has built up a system |
Of free public education so that any
one who today desires self-improve- |
ment can receive it at the public ex-
pense. The president has frequently |
said that the public school system is
one of the strong factors in his coun-
try's future, and that the $1,000. 900 |
which the government is now sDepdinp