The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-02-23

few Of the Mayas were able to raise
the required amounts-and conse.
quently the land sharks bought the
land from the state or the village
authorities at a price of So to SO
per acre. Then they farmed out the
land to the Indians on the terms of
the old serfdom, or they employed
them directly as hired laborers. But
no laborer or tenant farmer was al
lowed to produce anything else on his
land than the main product Of the
country, namely, henequen (sisal), q
kind of hemp, used largely in the
United States for the manufacture Of
binder Irvine cords. All foodstuffs
were consequently imported by the
big landowners and sold to the peas
ants and agricultural laborers "on
credit" at fantastic prices.
Always In Debt.
Thus, the Indians remained per-
manentIy in the debt Of their mas
tiers and another law declared it a
crime to leave ones working place
or village, before the debts were
paid. At the death Of the debtor,
his family or nearest relatives were
liable and the debt slavery was
passed on from father to son. The
Whipping Of men for insufficient pro-
duction was a daily occurrence, but
was, of course, no legal reason to
leave the place. The whole district
Of 10000 square miles, with its $780,
600 inhabitants, was the private
property of about 1000 owners.
According to other estimates, 80
per cent of the soil belonged to
twenty-seven families. And this
whole district paid under Diaz only
$685. in taxes to the Central Gov
ernment. There were no schools In
Yucatan and except for religious
teaching, it was illegal to teach the
Mayas Spanish.
CarrilIo's Early Career.
This changed, however, around
1915. For many years Felipe Car
rillo, at that time a railroad en-
pIoye and Maya by birth, started
an energetic propaganda among the
Mayas, whom he organized. The q u.
Istitution, according to which slavery
and every system of peonage was
expressly prohibited, was translated
lby him into the Maya language il
order to inform the slaves Of theii
rights. For this GARLIC was ar
rested; he escaped, however, and c.
tinued his propaganda secretly. IS
prearranged signals and whistles he
called the poems at night, first II
j small groups of from six to ten men
later however, rocket signals were
given for larger meetings with arms
Effect Of Madero Victory.
Madero's successful rcvoluto
against the tyrant, Porfrio Diaz, an
later the second victorious rcvolo'
Ition of Pancho Villa and CarranAc
against the counter-revolution of Vic
toriano Hucrta, had naturally an i'm.
mcnse influence on the fortunes o.
| Yucatan. Under the new colstita.
| ton a socialist administration was
elected, but another revolution again.
this time worlzmen's and peasants
revolution, against Carranza We
necessary, in order to Illustrate TIE
rcactionary plans of the "iiberator
Carranza, who, tho being liLelal
constitutionalist, could not suffer to
see that the land of the big land own
crs, to which clan he belonged, was
hcing subdivided, not only by DEGREES
and in theory but also in fact, AMI
that social reforms were being acsS-
ely realized. In 1915 We see the
socialist general Salvador Alvara 10
as governor of Yucatan, which he
became after defeating in March Of
the same year the army of the gov
ernor appointed by Carranza. Peon-
age was finally actually abolished.
Debts Voided.
All debts of the poems were fe-
clarcd void. Everyone who <want-d
to work the land by himself receives
forty acres each, which were cut Out
from the properties or +hc big own
ers. This land was partly confiscatcl
wherever it could be proved that the
"ownersv or their ancestors arpro.
rriated it unduly from the communal