Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-09-02
A NEW DEAL IN MEXICO?

DESPITE President Obregon's message to
~ the Mexican Congress there is still ground
for the belief that all the differences which
have threatened to create dangerous strains
between the United States Government and
the Government of Mexico will vanish as a
result of the extraordinary series of con-
ferences held during the week between rep
resentatives of the big oil producers and the
Obregon Cabinet. 1t is impossible to over
estimate the Importance and the significance
of the sharp turn of events which was at
once apparent after the oil men packed their
bags and left New York to talk their case
out with the Mexican authorities.
change of temper was visible In the
Mexican Government as soon as it learned
that the magnates from the United States
were content to forget that they had might
on their side and to argue about principles.
The Supreme Court Of Mexico departed
from its usual routine to greet the visitors
in Mexico City with a decision which vir-
tually guarantees foreign investors from
harm through the so-called confscatory
clause in the new National Constitution
And President Obregon has made 1t clearly
apparent that he desires to be guided by
the rule of action indicated by the high
court Yet few months ago there was
unloosed in Washington a great deal OF
propaganda devised to reconcile this coun
try to the idea of an invasion of Mexican
territory by American troops.
Oil men in the United States had very
real grievance. Some Of the radicals in the
Mexican Congress forced into the new Con-
stitution a clause providing for a national
tax upon all oil taken from Mexican wells
for export. The Congress itself believed
chat through this method the country and
the people could obtain some direct benefit
from the vast resources of the land The
trouble began when 1t was proposed to so
interpret this clause as to make the tax
retroactive over long period of years. 1t
was plain that the accumulated sum of
the retroactive tax would be as great in
some instances as the actual value Of ex-
listing works owned by foreigners
If the current news from Mexico is to be
taken at its face value, the oil men have
won the first great victory of open diplo-
macy. They have won for themselves and
they have won for the country. For peace
and good government on the other side of
the Rio Grande should mean almost as
much to the people of the United States as
good government at Washington. Mexico
should be one Of our greatest markets. 1t
should be friend and an ally. rather than
restless and suspicious enemy Of tho
United States. As social development in
creascs in Mexico, as education is extended
and as industry is put upon sound basis,
the strength Of the country will increase and
its requirements will multiply. These things
are worth remembering. since nowadays it
is the habit Of most people to view inter
national relationships in a practical way.
The moral factors involved ought not to
be disrcgarded. AS years pass Mexico and
the MeXiCans will recover from the slough
in which a succession of brutal dictators
has left them. We shall have on the
Southern border a populous and resourceffl
country. Our relations with Mexico should
be as peaceful as our relations with Canada
The people who talk of invasion never seem
to realize that split between Washington
and Mexico would almost instantly become
a nearly impossible chasm between the
two halves of the American continent. 1t
would be accepted abroad as justification
Of the mperialstic policies Of old. And it
would rouse new suspicion and new hatred
of the United States not only in Mexico.
but throughout all Latin America.