The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1914-05-14
Carranza and Villa
Dividing the Land


Get this the Mexican people are
Indians but not savages. They live
bare. mean. unlovely lives, not be
cause they are MexicaRs but because
they are poor Because they have been
despoiled and degraded anu exploited.
Il hoped our folk would stay out or
Mexico at least three months longer.
Had we done so. Carranza and villa,
heads or the Constitutionallst govern
meat, would have driven Huerta from
the City OF Mexico and would have set
mp government not formally but &C.
tually representative OF the people OF
Mexico During the eight months OF
their activity In the field, they have
conquered several states or Northern
Mexico. AS quickly as they got con-
troll In each Of these states, they sent
their civil engineers and surveyors
on: 10 plat the great ranches (Which
they OF course conflscated in the name
OF the people) into ten, twenty ana
forty acre farms. The CONSTITUTIONS
alist state governments have already
issued written titles TO more than o.
900 OF these small farms, granted 10
heads OF peon families, men and Wo-
men IL was and Is II they shall be
permitted 10 go forward-their pur-
pose 10 confiscate all the great estates
and divide them among the people OF
Mexico. Doing this, they would re-
move the cause OF all the genuinely
revolutionary spirit in Mexico. Spor-
adic outbreaks by professional ban
dts might continue here and there;
bu; these could not command any pop
ular welfare, and would be quickly
suppressed by general consent.
Whereas, any time during the past
four decades, the bandit who raised
revolutionary flag in Mexico, and
promised to restore the land 10 the
people, could procure devoted fol
lowing OF simple minded poems sum
GENTLY numerous 10 dignity his un-
dertaking and enable him TO take a
lot OF loot before the emptiness OF
his Iretenses and the insincerity OF
his promises we're made apparent.
Carranza, villa and their associates
IN the Mexican Constitutionalist gov
eminent are trying to do. by direct
methods, exactly what the British
Liberal government OF Great Britain
is trying TO do in England-what II
has lately done In Ireland-that Is.
20 get the land back into the hands
OF small farmers who will make II
productive and recreate a numerous
landed middle class who shall consti-
tute a national bulwark by reason OF
having a stake In the country. l COM
municated this fact--which has not
been sufficient II at all, stressed in
the published reports OF Hale, Lind
aud the other official Investigators
10 the White House and TO the Post
Dispatch. But as / have not seen
many papers from st. Louis during
my absence from the P.-D. Office, do
not know whether my communication
on this subject has reached the pub
lia. 1t is incomparably the most i'm.
portant factor in the whole Mexican
situation. | am intellectually In
favor OF the Constitutionalist govern.
ment'S program OF conflscation and
redistribution OF the land. For cen
turtles the people of Mexico held the
| land either communally or in small
! individual tracts. The Diaz despotism
dispossessed them and gave the land.
In vast areas, 10 court favorites; TO
Mexican grandees who could lend
strength TO his rule at home: to Amer.
leans, like Hearst Otis and others.
who could, through their journals, col
or American public opinion favorably
TO the Diaz regime The land was
stolen from the Mexican people. BY
every right, moral and legal. It ought
now 20 be restored TO or reclaimed
by them. Ii would be infamous for
the United States 10 interfere with
this programme. Nobody in this coun-
try, except the very few benefciaries
OF Diaz's Wholesale robbery, knowing
the facts. We have our own troubles,
bit the instinct OF fair play is not
dead among us. We are sporting
people. and we detest oppression STILL
however used many OF our folks have
Putnam in Reedys Mirror.