Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-05-20
NEWARK DIVINE
SEES BRIGHT ERA
DAWN IN MEXICO
Rev. DR.. WATSON Says Retire.
ment of Diaz Means End
of Slavery.

At least one local pastor sees in the
retirement oil. President Diaz. OF
Mexico, a brighter and more righteous
era dawning for its people.
That divine Is the Rev. DR.. Edmund
A. WATSON, rector of st. Stephens
Episcopal Church, who roundly scores
the "~despotism' and 'peon slavery
that have marked the continuous
thirty-four years reign of the con-
stitutional president of Mexico, who
has been forced to abdicate.
"Porfirio Diaz became the president
of Mexico in 1871" said the noted rec
tor, land with the exception of the sec
ond term, has been reelected every four
i years to the present day.
IF Alexander Hamilton, one of the
fathers of our country, had had his
way we, too. should have a president
for life, who needed not even the for
mality of a reelection. In all that period
of thirty -four ear no other~N candidate
has contested the election with Diaz.
Anyone who offered to do so, or was
suspected of an intention to do so.
was arrested or driven into exile.
The elections have been controlled
by the soldiers and the soldiers have
been controlled by Dlaz. The constitu-
ton called for freedom of elections, but
Diaz overode the constitution. Diaz-
he was the constitution and he was
Mexico. The poorest class naturally
were the easiest victims, and the farm
laborers were reduced to slavery, thin
ly disguised under. the nam of
peonage.
More MerciIess Than Negro slavery.
THE peon is a slave and his slavery
is merciless in a measure that few
negro slaves in South knew. Poems
are flogged and murdered with i'm
punity, and on these plantations slave
breeding, too, is a business. How many
Americans realize that their country
is bordered on the south by a slave
nation?
But, still, the lust of Diaz and his
fellow-Camorrists for wealth was not
glutted. There were still the natural
resources of the country in the way of
mineral wealth, These were sold to
foreigners, and the inducement was
held out of an unlimited supply OF
cheap slave labor to work these mines
and convert these into gold.
.duch of the money paid for these
princely concessions went, not into the
national treasury, but into the pockets
of Diaz's ~aceomplices.
THE consequence of this Diaz
craftsmanship is that Mexico is not
owned by Mexicans. Is it not atrocious
that Mexicans should have so little
title in Mexico? They have been sold
out by their president and chief men.
Mexico has not developed under
Diaz, if we mean the Mexican people.
Does despotism advance a nation, or
slavish toll, or a thieving government?
What has Diaz done for the Mexican
people? Have they better incomes, OF
are. they more secure in life and prop
erty?.
What nation in all history has
ever profited by a regime of tyranny:
y this brigan,. was lauded to the
skies not long ago by Theodore Roose-
welt as one of the greatest men that
this continent has produced n one
of the few great men that the nine
tenth century mas produced. On thu
contrary, he is one of the meane ano
most execrable of mon, one of thl
monsters of history, a traitor to his
| people and an enemy to the human
race"