Evening star., 1924-08-09


tured the assassins Of the English
subject, Mrs Evans, and will prompt
ly make all amends in it's power.
There Is no thought that the leaders
of the party in power had any part
in the attack. 1t was only their
political doctrines which fired the
hopes. the jealous passions and the
purposes of ignorant extremists, in
spring them in the belief that mur-
der was justifable. from the stand
point of the Agrarians, who are un-
dertaking to appropriate land for
distribution amongst the people.
Mrs. Evans was the widow of an
English engineer who had acquired
large holdings. For some months
the land commission has threatened
to take over several thousand acres
of her estate. under authority of the
1917 constitution and the federal
laws. compensating her with bonds
quoted as having no market value.
She had sought to protect her prop
erty by appealing to the British gov
ernment, through the charge daft
faires, and that official had so firm
dent Obregon had declared him no
longer persona grata, and had re-
quested his recall. This request
Great Britain refused
The murder of Mrs. Evans involves
the United States, since Great Bri-
cation to maintain international in
tegrity in this hemisphere, as we,
under the Monroe doctrine, bar Eu-
rope from applying force against any
American nation. In former days.
been SO broadly interpreted as now,
the ordinary course of procedure,
under present circumstances, would
have been for Great Britain to seize
certain ports or territory and hold
the seized property or territory as
security against proper amendS-per-
hapS as in China setting up a perma-
nent claim in lieu of other Indemnity.
What are the conditions in Mexico
which have developed such extreme
agrarianism? What are the Agrari-
ans demanding, and on what are their
demands based?
Americans have been taught that
former President Porfirio Diaz, who
''reigned" over Mexico as absolute
dictator through eight terms, was a
and father of the republic. Prior to
Diaz, the country had been in
frequent revolution and anarchy, but
during his eight terms no revolution
got farther than quick capture of
the leaders and their ruthless
strong man of Mexico" Now it is
known that he and his oligarchy
were also the instigators of whole
sale nationwide confiscation and en-
Slayement.
For centuries, under Spanish rule.
the Indians had been enslaved; yet
even in their peonage every native
community held in common great
land areas, used for pasturage or
leased for small individual farms
These commons were known as
ejidos. The story of how these and
other lands were taken from the
Indians by the Diaz government is
told in a book, "Barbarous Mexico"
by John Kenneth Turner (1911.
Prof. Starr of the Chicago University,
in his own book, Mexico and the
Mr.. Turner's articles were actually
q voice in the wilderness. They
contain many true things well and
forcibly said; they were written with
Keen sense OK Tue "IohSo hC
people of Mexico were suffering. Out
Of the many things which he dis
cusses we shall consider hve only
the confiscation Of land, the drifting
of the Indians into slavery, the drift
ing of the Mexicans into forced serv-
ice. the iniquitous railroad deal and
the American partnership.
"Under the Diaz regime, brilliant
and splendid, thousands OF Mexicans
indians and Mestizos-who had
been little landholders were abso-
lutely robbed of their small holdings.
This was done, of course, under cover
of law, It affected whole tribes Of
indians; it bIotted out entire villages
of simple and relatively happy, indus
trtous people. In this matter Turner
speaks as follows:
"In a previous chapter I showed
how the lands of the YaQuis were
taken from them and given to politt-
cal favorites of the ruler. The LANDS
of the Mayas of Yucatan, now en-
shaved by the henequen planters, were
taken from them in almost the same
manner.
1.-THE final act Of this confiscation
was accomplished in 1904, when the
national government set aside the
last of their lands into a territory,
called Quintana Roo. This territory
Contained $4,000 square kilometers, or
q, 900 square miles. It Is larger than
the present state of Yucatan by 5000
square kilometers. and. moreover, In
lthe most pronaisinG land Of TIA Antare