The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-05-30
THE MEXICAN. CHARACTER

WakCn0u VIII frequently let Lie WdICu
er have what he is looking for; while
If the same men are put upon Their
honor and not watched, few there be
who will not feel their resistance tc
unfaithfulness profoundly strengthen
ed, growing, developing to normal.
Some say a Mexican will steal your
eyes out if you give him a chance
Under the same circumstances that
a Mexican steals, a negro steals, and
SO will and does the white man-witt
exceptions of adamantine virtue that
prove the rule.
Can BE Trusted.
Now, with agricultural wages
when there are wages-down away
below the cost of the humblest living
what, in his misery, does the Mexican
do? Well, he returns to the fera
state, the state of nature, that of al
animals, he stays his hunger by help
ing himself to such food as may be
in sight.
AO419 0OCO tAC QMOAASSNA 0NOOAS W
he does. When the economic pres
sure becomes a menace to his life o.
the lives of his family he returns t.
the feral state, and like Sherman
"bummers," lives off the country
That is, some do. Multitudes do not
the lesson of spiritual morality, the
resistance to sin in the carnate life
is strong because of the injury to the
soul which will be MANNED for the
life eternal. So these suffer in silence
they shrink and fade away under pri
vations which sap their. health ant
strength, but remain steadfast to the
religious principles which have satu
rated their lives.
have trusted hundreds of Mexi
cans in small accounts. Very few in
deed have been careless buyers. Some
have not paid; some could not pay
and continue to eat. In hundreds Of
cases the debtors would appear sooner
or later and take from their bosom
the petty slip of account, where they
had guarded it with religious care fol
weeks or months, until in their narrow
lives the small sum would be saveC
for payment. Thus do I know thai
the Mexican men and women are o.
good faith and honest heart and d.
not from choice make accounts the!
cannot pay.
I have no difficulty putting my finger
on the sore spot of the Mexico situa
ton. Some say the Mexican would
rather fight than eat. l say this il
not so He fights because he and hi
family are not permitted to eat. Tht
Mexican would rather work than fight
When he has no work he and his arr
falling into Ia miseria," and it becomes
an honorable privilege to fight for hi
country in preference to taking to thu
road to steal. He is a better man TO
his honorable fighting. He would in
deed be a despicable cuss if he dit
not fight, tooth and nail, for thu
amelioration of the wretched condition
of economic misery in which he il
plunged
The Sore Spot.
I said I could place my finger OF
the Mexican sore spot, and here it is
1t is the survival of the feudal sys
tenn of land tenure, with a few civil
lied proprietors and the vast mass O
the people despised dependents vastl.
worse off than ever were the serfs o
Russia Under Russian serfdom thu
serf was fixture of the estate; h
could not leave it. On the other hand
the serf had a prior right to his years
supply of the produce of the soil. 1
was all warehoused and the lord O
the manor could not sell pound unit
the annual requirements for seed ann
for the yearly sustenance of ever!
serf and his family. How is it IL
Mexico? Well, I have often seen thu
half wholly taken to settle
the advances made him by the hacen
dado, leaving nothing for the paymen
of the petty accounts with which
too had aided the medieros to- achieve
their meager harvests. 1 have seer
the medieros go off with remnant o.
beans and corn SO small as to be bott
pitiable and tragic.
Now, when it is remembered thai
the Mexican agriculturist gets very
little work for wages and that wheI
he does. it is at so cents per day il
currency or less, it may be better
realized how close the gaunt wolf Of
penury-la miseria-keeps before the
door of his adobe howell.
I heard one of the hacendados
whose name is on the list Of those
whose properties have been confis
Gated congratulating himself that al
though his wage we're so cents pei
day in Mexican currency, the real cos
was only three reales per day, owing
to the profits of his commissary. II
other sections the ruling wage is onl!
two reales per day.
Thus may we understand more full!
the truth of the remark made by I
Mexican mother:
Eel future de la mujer mexican;
esta muy triste v muy oscuro."
The Mexican loves la patria, how
ever hard a mother she has been tt
him. However little his minute frac
ton of ownership is, he is intensel.
jealous of being despoiled Of hi
meager share or of the honor of hi
country being impaired. He may be
come by force of circumstances ;
bandit, but he never waivers in hi
loyalty to his country, If he be a poo
man, clad in cotton. jeans and guar