The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1919-06-03
FEUDAL SYSTEM IN MEXICO

WHEN COLUMBUS crossed the Atlantic the
w people of Mexico had the highest civili-
zation on the American continent They had
cities built of stone, with well organized gov
ernment, q high development of agriculture, a
very complete code of laws, and had even made
progress in science. They had no iron nor other
hard metal for making tools, but in other re-
spects they had a very creditabe degree of
civilization, probably the highest that any peo-
pie had ever attained without using metal
tools.
Cortez brought the MeXcans smallpox and
slavery, and nearly every thing the white man
has done in that country in 400 years has gone
wrong. Mexico is now the lowest and most rn-
happy country on the continent, with no mar
ket for the farmer no industries to pay wages,
no credit to rebuild the country and with mil
lions of people dying by inches of hunger and
loathsome diseases
The root of the trouble is that Mexico in
herited from the white man the old feudal
system of Europe, and has never been able to
throw it off. We cannot understand the
feudal system unless we study Mexico. The
Normans tried to establish it in England, but
the people would not have it, and the English
speaking people Of the world have been trav-
cling farther away from it ever since. Spain
could not throw it off and has been going
backward for centuries. Mexico inherited the
worst stage of it from Spain
The unit of the feudal system is strong
man who gathers around him band of rob
bers and makes himself the master of large
territory which becomes recognized as his es-
tate or territory A few of these strong men
own nation, and if they need national gov
ernment they set up dummy king. Sometimes
the king, like Diaz in Mexico, is strong enough
to control the other robbers, and country
may, for time, make a little progress
The barons under a feudal system pay no
taxes on their great estates, but they collect
tolls or blackmail from everyone who is able to
pay, or rob outright a stranger who gets in
their power. In feudal times in Europe the
people could not raise crops to SELL because no
merchant could keep his money or stay in bust
ness No one could carry on an industry or pay
wages, because the baron took all the money.
The people scratched a little ground with
wooden tools to raise something to eat. A
benevolent baron might let each family raise
one pig or few chickens. The people were
held in serfdom, a l't dfied form of slavery
which was less trouble to the barons than to
feed and house them actual slaves. The
roads which the Romans had built fell into
decay, and the general system dragged Europe
down into the Dark Ages.
system found in Mexico today excepting
n few favored spots. The land is held in
arge estates which pay no taxes, the bandits
10 not leave any money to buy crops or pay
wages, or to cary on business, the people have
)een in peonage so long they do not know any
'ther condition of life, the railroads that Daz
quilt have gone to ruin, and the theory of auto
ratio force in government has run to its last
tage of a Dark Age of desolation. Carranza
lreamed of reforming it all, but his generals
ire bandits and he has to make terms with
hem.
We have encouraged this system which has
'rought Mexico to ruin, by allowing them to
'lackmal, rob and murder Americans who
Wned farms, stores, mines or other property
which American enterprise had induced them
0 go into in the days of Diaz. Cuba under
American protection is the most prosperous
title country in the world. Mexico is the most
esolate. We protect law and order in Cuba.
-O-