The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1926-08-05
AN ILLUMINATING LECTURE
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
Speaker At Mountain Lake Park
Pleads for U. S. Understand
ing of What Mexico Wants

"The efforts of the present Mexican
government to reconstruct the count
ry socially and economically and to
establish nationwide public school
system against tremendous odds,
should be appreciated and commended
by every thoughtful and liberty
loving American" said the Rev.
Ralph E. Diffendorfer, D. D., cores
ponding secretary of the Board of
Foreign Missions of the Methodist
Episcopal church, speaking at the
service at Mountain Lake Park under
the auspices of the Pittsburgh Area
Summer School for Theology, Sunday
evening, August LIST. DR.. Diffendorf-
er recently returned from an extern
sive visit to Mexico, studying the re-
ligious and educational problems of
that country.
"The religious question which has
stirred the Republic from the Allan
tic to the Pacific and from the border
to 4ucatan, is the result of the at
tempt of the present government to
enforce the provisions of the Consti-
tuition of 1917, which is the present
organic law of the country. This Con-
stitution provides that no one but a
native Mexican by birth can perform
the functions of minister of relig-
ion in Mexico, that no religion shall
be laugh in any primary school and
that all schools of any sort shall be
separate from church control or from
the control of men representing tn.
church, and no minister of religion
may be principal of any school in
Mexico The Constitution further
provides that all church property
passes automatically into the hands
of the government except that no
statutory has been passed which af-
fects church property acquired be-
fore 1917, when the present Constitu-
ton was put into effect.
an the midst, of this controversy
the Mexican Annual Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal church met in
the city of Pueblo. With Bishop
George A. Miller of the Methodist
Episcopal church, the resident bishop
in Mexico City, l attended this con-
ference upon invitation. The confer
ence elected one of its own members,
the Reverend V. D. Baez, Mexican,
from Mexico City, as its presiding Of
ficer, the bishop and myself taking no
official part in the proceedings of the
entire week. The conference was
conducted efficiently by Mexicans in
fine spirit, the business was transact
ed with dispatch and the appoint
ments were read by the presiding
Mexican officer.
"This only illustrates the spirit of
all the evangelical workers in Mexico.
We have assured the government that
we intend to obey the law and even to
go further, to support the government
and to give every possible aid in the
education and training of an intelli-
gent group of people who will partic-
ipate honestly and effectively in a
democratic government.
"The Methodist group in the evan
gelical movement is rapidly adjusting
its property holdings, the leadership
of its schools and the separation of
school and church property, and none
of its missionaries are performing the
functions of minister of religion,
having adjusted themselves to other
tasks approved by the Mexicans, so
that there is now opportunity for a
greater advance in the evangelical
movement in Mexico than in any pre-
vious period of our history"
DR.. Diffendorfer left Mexico when
the American papers were full of the
stories of alarming conditions in Mex
leo. During his visit he was able to
observe conditions sufficiently to state
that these reports were grossly eXag-
gerated and that there is much mis-
understanding in the United States
regarding the true purpose of the
Mexican Government and the condi-
ton of affairs over the border. What
Mexico needs, according to DR.. Diffen-
dorfer, is the friendly help of Ameri-
ca rather than any embarrassment of
the present government by withdraw
al of recognition, and intervention
should be the furthest from our
thought