El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-06-29
.HUERTi GAME IN WALL STREET;
CHARACTER Sketch Of GENERAL
He Dresses Like Corporation Director and Has the Sang
Froid of the Man of Affairs; Quickly Adapted Him
self to American Ideas and Customs and Was Not
Slow to Win the Respect of Associates

! and want peace. and do not believe
] that peace can be very far off
Some day in the near future someone
/ will take hold of the situation and
/ treat the 100000 bandits who are now
| terrorizing the country in Just the way
/ they deserve TO be treated and would
] be treated II they were in the United
States They are criminals and ought
/ to be treated as such and there viii be
no lasting peace till someone stretches
! forth the iron hand OF unbending au-
/ thority over them and brushes them.
[ Ten years ago any woman could travel
unmOlested from one end Of Mexico to
the other. now no woman between the
ages of u and so is safe where these
bandits are. What is wanted in Mexico
is a man who can make wild beasts
behave themselves as il they were hu-
man. And IL cannot be done with pleas
ing words or soft speech; and it can
not be done from the outside"
Law Exempting Uneultivated Land.
One day I was talking to him about
poems and the land problem OF Mexico
and he said:
Il was peon myself and I know that
the poems Of Mexico want peace. They
form more than rs percent Of the total
population Of the country and TO them
is made the principal appeal in the plat
form Of each political party in Mexico.
The poems are downtrodden and have
been left in ignorance. but their very
numbers give them an element OF
strength. And so every revolution has
made promises TO the poems.
Also the poems have been made an
argument to enlist the sympathies OF
the United States and the suggestion is
always being put forward by revolu-
tionary leaders that they viii help the
poems and divide up the land among
them Now how long do you suppose
the poems would keep the land II II
was distributed to them7 In less than
a year they would have sold il as they
did before when it was given 10 them
Besides. it would not be fair to take
away the land from the rich simply %
give il TO the poor. That may SOUND
very nice, but no one will say that II
would be honorable.
Tax All Land.
But there is one very simple reform
that can be carried out. and ought 10
be insisted upon It is this; Under
existing laws the proprietor OF lanu
that is uucultivated pays no taxes on
it, and there are many men OF 6fedt
wealth who keep enormous landed es-
tsres uncultivated purpOsely so as 10
avoid paying taxes The government
ought TO tax uncultivated land hlsh
enough 10 1orce the owners 10 euLIl-
vate or TO sell. I will even go so 1ar
as to say that the government ought
to buy the land that the owner re-
fuses to cultivate, and that through
an agricultural bank the land should
be parcelied out into hOmesteads and
allotted TO the poems on longtime pay
meuts, even as long as % years II nee
essary, with the prOvisO that in case
the land was not successfully culuVat-
ed it should revert to the government,
and that until the full term had elapsed
the poems could not transfer the ute [
or sell TO anyone, so as TO prevent the
wealthy from buying up the land
There can be no doubt that II the /
land in Mexico is cultivated the public
revenues will be greatly increased and !
work would be more plentiful Tor the /
moor nnnnIa II the mems have work D
they viii be cOntented with small re-
turns because they will be occupied I
and will accumulate enough to keep I
themselves and raise their families
That is a very important point because |
the education of the children Of MeXi- /
co has been grossly neglected in the /
past and there can be no real democ- 4
racy in country where so large i
proportion Of the people can neither
read nor write"
Not Ashamed; Started N LOvvIy Peon 1
Huerta- is not ashamed OF the fact I
that he started life at the bottom of /
the ladder. He rose from a penniless \
peon to be president Of Mexico Of
nearly pure indian blood. Huerta was
born 81 years ago in the COlOtlan dis i
trict of the state OF JaIfsco not far
Mexico. Before he was Is he had made 4
his way to Mexico City and started TO
fight LIES battle all alone. He had .
neither money nor friends One day
he picked up a paper and saw a notice
that young men who wanted to be-
come soldiers could get their military
education free at the military college.
That was the turning point OF Huerta's
life. He went to the military school I
and created such an excellent impress
sion that, although he failed to pass
the entrance examination, they took
him in
The regular course OF study covered
eight years, but in five years Huerta