The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1927-02-04
THE SITUATION IN MEXICO
By Frederic V. Hetzel
(who has just been there)

of view. IT you are a conservative
distrustful of the common people, if
you are a capitalist interested only
in drawing large dividends from
Mexico, if you are a Clerical. anx
ious for the religious and political
supremacy of your Church. You will
say the country is on the road to
ruin. But if you are one who has
faith in the common people and
struggle for better living conditions
if you think that Mexico is entitled
to some of the great wealth now ex
tracted from it by foreign capital
if you know the long struggle of the
people against the exactions, usur-
pations, and tyranny of the Church
then you will look on the present
situation as one of Improvement and
promise of better things.
The struggle of the Mexican
people for freedom and toward
democracy has gone on for over
one hundred years. They have
made many mistakes, but still,
progress has been made. Seventy
years ago they overthrow the
feudal land system established by
the Spanish conquerors in the six
teenth century. and the lands of the
Church were made national prop
erty. The Church still retained
great wealth and controlled most of
the agencies which formed public
opinion. In name Mexico was
republic but the people were not
ready for democracy. Very few
voted. Their only political knowl
edge was loyalty to military
leod"rs. Less than 2O% coulo
read or write ard most of the people
were in 2 state of detection and
apathy which centuries of poverty
and suppression had put upon them
During the time of Portrio Diaz
1876-1910, foreign investors became
very influential in Mexico. They
acquired by means legal or illegal
great tracts of the national lands
They got hold also of the. village
communal lands which since Aztec
times had been the support of the
agricultural laborers. AS result,
the land was concentrated into large
estates, over three million country
laborers lost their small tracts and
their freedom and became serfs or
. poems on the large estates. bound
to their employers by miserable
wages and system in which unpaid
debts passed on from peon father tc
peon son. By 1910 most of the land
in Mexico was held by less thar
1000 owners, most of them living
in luxury abroad, while on their
estates lived ten million human
beings in a state of poverty, misery
. and degradation worse than the
, slavery that existed in our country
. before the Civil War
In 1910 the middle classes and the
poems, driven by increasing misery
again rose in revolution. They won
in the political conflicts and in 1917
; adopted new constitution, which
embodied some of their experiences
of the past and their hopes for the
, future. This constitution has put
restrictions on the clergy in addition
to those imposed in 1857 1t states
!, that the sub-soil wealth of the
country. such as metals and petro-
leum, should belong to the people
, of Mexico. 1t proposes to restore to
the agricultural laborers some of
the lands taken from them in the
time of Diaz 1t aims to restrict
the acquisition of land by foreigners.
1t has been followed by labor legis-
lation similar to that enacted in our
country, and by program of estab-
fishing common schools throughout
the land.
These reforms have encountered
opposition. The restrictions on the
clergy are severe, and the Church
says that it is suffering persecution.
Defenders of the government point
to the past record of the Church
and say that the laws do not harm
religion but are necessary to restrain
the Hierarchy from interfering
politically with the reform move
ment. In taking some of the land
of the large estates for the benefit
of the agricultural villages, the
government pays the owner at a
rate higher than the assessed value
not in cash, but in twenty-year five
per cent bonds. This has not beer
satisfactory to some land owners
and it has given rise to the charge
that the government is contiscating
the land. Some series of bonds
issued for this purpose have already
been redeemed.
The United States government has
admitted the right of Mexico to pass
the land laws and the petroleum
laws, but fears injury to American
business interests. Mexico, through
/ DEGREES of its President and de
cisions of its Supreme Court, has
decided that these laws are not