Evening star., 1927-04-25

Charge is Made That Z. S. Public
Has Been Misled.
To the Editor of The Star:

To the Editor of The Star:
II the facts upon which you base
your editorial '.Savagery in Mexico"
published in The Star for April 81. are
as you intimate, then your readers
are fully justified in sharing your in
dignation. But, examining your news
columns, / do not believe that the
information at hand is sufficiently
definite or detailed to justify the writ
ing of an editorial on 'Savagery in
Mexico"
Indeed, if one is going to discuss
the question of savagery in Mexico,
one is not justified in considering this
incident alone and apart from pre-
ceding incidents which are its tribu
tary causes and of which it may very
we'll be looked upon as the cumula.
tive effect. Beginning with last July,
agents of the government of President
Gales have resorted to methods of eX-
treme cruelty, executed with little or
no regard for the laws of Mexico, in
their attempt to suppress the opposi-
ton to the anti-religious decree pro-
mulgated by the government of Mex
leo, to take effect on July 81, 1926.
Beginning with the aSsa ssination oy
officers of the national army of Mex
leo of Jose Garcia Farfan, a defense
less old man, in the city of Puebla, be-
cause, in his place of business, he
was soliciting signatures to a petition
addressed to the Congress of Mexico,
asking for the repeal of this anti
religious decree. the secular press of
Mexico has reported, over a period of
ten months, similar assassinations in
Zamora, Colima, Acaponeta, Leon,
Puebla, Nayarit and a number of
other important cities in Mexico. AS
late as April 6, Excelsior, in it's ed
itorial columns, condemns the law
lessness with which the officers of the
Mexican army are imposing and ex-
ecuting death sentences. In that ed
itorial, Excelsior asks the pointed
question: How many times has the
secretary of war, during the present
year issued orders commanding the
chiefs of operations to abstain from
shooting men without observing the
provisions of the law? Three, four,
five, we do not remember how many.
In vain have the people and the press
protested. Disobedience to these or
ders is daily repeated as II or
ders issued publicly were accompanied
by other orders issued secretly rescind-
ing them. On April our cor
sent us from GuadalaJara
a dispatch which we published, re-
ferring to the shooting of certain
civilians by the military authorities,
with absolute disregard of the laws
and of orders issued by the secretary
of war. =" Excelsior in this
editorial reprints a clause of the con-
stitution, which is as follows:
Capital punishment is likewise pro-
hibited for all political offenses; in the
case Of offenses other than political, 1t
shall be imposed only for high treason
committed during a foreign war, par
ricide, murder with malice afore'
thought, etc"
I notice in the columns of your
paper for April 4 a news item from
Mexico City, dealing with the shoot
ing of these men at GuadalaJara.
These murders were the basis OF that
editorial in Excelsior already men,
toned.
/ do not seek in any manner to JUS
tify the barbarity which is described
in the press dispatches from Mexico
Citv as having been practiced by those
who assaulted the Guadalajara train
O. few days ago, but / do believe that
before we condemn even this reported
barbarity we should be fully informed
regarding the relations which may ex-
ist between this assault on the train
and the massacre of defenseless men
by the officers of the army OF Presi-
dent Gales in GuadalaJara only lew
days ago. Nor should it be forgotten
that the shopworkers of the Natonal
RAILWAYS of Mexico have for several
been on strike; that in this
strike they have had the sympathy OF
a. large number of Independent labor
throughout Mexico. but
have not had the support or the Z.
r. o. NJ; that the strike has Deen
suppressed and its leaders
driven to despair Dy tnredtS Oh SUM-
mary execution.
1t is but just and fair to the people
of Mexico, as well as to the reading
public of the United States, that ed
itorial comment on conditions In that
country be fair to all
parties and based on full knowledge.
Certainly, if the summary executions
bv a tyrannical government of four
or five officers of the Young Mems
Catholic Society in GuadalaJara de-
serves only three short paragraphs Ill
your news columns, the official report
issued by President Gales of the hold
ing up of a train near Gus &. la1ara
and. presumably by friends .. these
men who were thus ruthlessly slaugh-
tered only few days before, should
not be permitted to fill the greater
part of a column in several sue
ceeding issues.
There is, as you indicate. in Mexico
a condition of unrest. which is rapidly
into dangerous state OF
That condition is not
limited, as you intimate, to the wild
and less populated regions of Mexico.
This is apparent from the fact that
the incident to which you refer in
YOUR editorial occurred only a short |
distance from Guadalajara, the Sec !
ond most important city in the re-
public of Mexico.
Too much has already been done by |
parties in misleading pub |
lie opinion in the United States with |
regard to Mexico. The public has a |
right to expect from the representa- |
tive secular press the fairest and full |
est statement of facts. If insecurity |
in the interior and the arbitrary Gen. |
of the Gales government |
make it impossible for correspondents |
to have direct information or to send |
full and correct news, the reading |
public should know these facts. l be- |
Iieve that you have made an earnest |
effort to place all the news available |
fairly before your readers with re- |
gard to the holding up of this Guada- |
La lara train, but / do not believe that |
the reports referred to by you justify |
either the title or the substance of |
your editorial on "Savagery in Mex |
Ico." JOHN j. BURKE, C. S. p.