The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-07-28
HISTORY OF MEXICO.
BY Eber Cole Byam.
Part XIII.


of the revolutionary rule of three
murder, outrage and pillage. When
In possession of the public purse they
are adopts at subtraction and division,
and when they discuss the wealth OF
the Church they become experts at
addition and multiplication.
Realizing the chattering fear and
hate which many Americans entertain
for either the Catholic clergy or wall
Street" a number of writer's recently
have improved the opportunity to for
mulate equations in which these two
bogies appear as plus or minus equal.
Thus they kill two birds with one
stone and play both ends against the
middle.
In a pamphlet containing articles
by Robert Bruce Brinsmade, M G.
Roland, and David Starr Jordan, there
is an anonymous article intended to
show that the enormous wealth of
the Mexican clergy" is being used in
some mysterious way to tease wall
Street" ton a manner even more
mysterious - effect intervention"
ostensibly to secure protection for the
great Church wealth" The writer
says THE capital placed at interest
in Mexico is, by more than eighty
per cent, the property of one creditor
only-the Clergy" To explain the
source of this he says: "* One
of these sources of income, that of
the 1.-THE imposed upon the Indians
in the sections where they are most
fanatical" The words lin the Sec
tions where they are most fanatical"
are introduced to provide an alibi
when someone discovers the fact that
the Indians were specifically exempt
ed from the tithes!
The writer then proceeds to state:
THE basis for this calculation is
the following: Two hundred working
days in the year, twenty-five cents
income per day per Indian, and four
million contributing Indians; these
figures being a very conservative min
imum. The resulting income for the
sixty years previous to the RevOlu-
ton amounts to the portentous amount
of twelve hundred million pesos sill
vert"
He does not say which Revolution
but doubtless refers to that for en-
dependence" The sixty years would
be the period from 1850 to 1910. The
tithes paid in during the twenty-year
period from ITO to 1890 average ST.
5S4,049, and as this period is the
middle third of the ''siXty years"
mentioned, it's average may be taken
foir fnr WI
a penny of which was paid by the
Indians The yearly average, accord
ing to the anonymous writer, appears
as twenty million, or more than twelve
and half times the truth!
What Humboldt Had To Say.
In 1903, Baron Won Humboldt, a
Protestant, visited Mexico, and, by
the Kings orders, had access to all
the records, both civil and ecclesias-
teal. In his work on Mexico, publish
ed later, the worthy Baron says: 'The
value of the real estate belonging to
the clergy does not exceed two or
three million dollars" In his edition
of 1922 Humboldt says: Since the
suppression of the Jesuits few estates
belong to the Mexican clergy, and
their real wealth, as we have already
stated, consists in tithes and capitals
laid out on farms of small cultivators
These capitals are usefully directed
and increase the productive power OF
the national labor"
The Jesuits, numbering 52S individ
uals, were expelled in 1857. They
were engaged in the service of higher
education, and the properties" were
schools and colleges which did not
reach two million dollars in value.
The capitals laid out on the farms
of small cultivators" amounted to $44,
100000, earning SO. To the extent
of the capital mentioned we see &C
complished the very thing that the
American Congress has only recent
" granted the American farmer, viz.
Farm Credits In later day we see
the total disappearance of this sum
which was seized partly by the Kins
of Spain and partly by the revolution
aries.
Figures False And True!
The seizure of the government il
1888 by the violent radical elemen
opened the way for direct assault
upon the Churcn and it's property. Tt
justify these assaults the red-faggers
published statement of the Church
wealth. intended to show how
great it was. To arrive at theil
totals these sapient mathematician:
assumed that each pastor received $500
yearly, in fees, etc. Then they mul
tiplied this sum by twenty and charg
ed it up to the Church as capital
AS matter of fact, if the average
pastor could have been assured o.
this sum he would have tainted with
JOY, and then upon revival would have
fastened to devote it to worthy char
liable purposes, of which every parish
priest can always discover an unlimit
ed number. 1t is well to mention
in passing, that under the Spanish
government the priests in the Indiar
parishes receive two or three hundred
dollars per year from the Kings
treasury, and were not permitted tc