Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-26
MEXICO HAS PLAN TO AID
NATIONS TRADE FUTURE
Architect Heads Group Trying to Guide
Handicraft Culture Into New Chan
nels Allied to Naturalization.

on a calory basis, Is all too common
among industrial and urban workers.
Capital Scared Away.
What do we actually find in Mexico
at the present time that makes for in
misunderstanding not the cul-
tural penetration of the yankee tnva-
sion" but P,assed factories, blast fur
naces, slvnas-the Pittsburgh sort Of
things? Precious little. We find tier
on tier Of mountain ranges bisected with
frightful barrancas, as inimical to iron
horses as to huge supplies Of dependable
fuel and water, without which mass pro-
duction cannot function. We find litCiv
| purchasing power, no stable pecuniary
demand, no veStige of mass consump-
ton, failing which mass production has
no rhyme or reason. We find $4,000, 600
Indians who are not to be capsized over
night by super-salesmen. When their
simple wants have been met they go to
a f1essa or they go to sleep. They have
no itrh for acquisition; their sales re-
Sistarrce is superb.
The machine needs capital-million
Of 1t. Mexican citizens have very little
capital, and foreigners are still in fear
Of Article 81. Until the full implications
Of that amazing document are made
clears matter of decades perhaps
capital simply will not flow into the
country In suficient quantity to finance
industrialization. Mexico might like
Russia, lift herself by her bootstraps and
create capital out of natural resources
and labor. but that requires a central
lied socialism beyond her grasp at the
present tine.
Have National Plan.
Most Mesicans cannot read. To op-
crate machines or consume their prod
ucts on a Scale profitable to the man
lfacturer requires literate population
which is Why Russia "liquidated illit-
eracy" before she inaugurated the Five
Year plan. It will be many years before
the little white school house liquidates
illiteracy iI> Mexico, even to a prac-
ticable minimum.
The future for industrialism In the
sense Of mass production Is not rosy,
for which We may thank whatever gods
there be. As result Mexico has I'M
paralleled opportunity to evolve
master plan whereby the machine is adj
mitted only on good behavior. and not
gulped rsw rs North Carolina now gulps
it. Fortunately there is a definite
movement IL: this direction 1 have re-
about mass production. I can go
farther and present the National Plan
for Mexico.
| hICnAteCb ncduS Tldus
Carlos Confreras, the driving force
behind the plan, is an architect edu-
Gated at Columbia and the Sorbonne
He started his agitation eight years ago.
In 1925, he presented to President
Gales "A Natiidlal Planning Project for
the Republic Ct Mexico" In 1927 he
published a magazine, Plani1cation.
In January, 1890, the first national
planning conference was held in Mexico
City, under the auspices of the Minis
try of Public Works, with some so
papers by engineers, architects econ
on1ists. doctors. The keynote read:
Our object il to plan a united, no.
mogeneous and beautiful Mexico-and
an independent respected and prosper
GUS Mexico, in which the life of man
will be complete, filled with noble in
terests dignified and as happy or hap
pier than in any other part Of the world
:. Know in order to forsee; forsee in
order to work"
program department in the govern
ment with a staff of engineers and
craftsmen. His first work was the re-
organization of the port of Vera Cruz.
President Ortiz Rubio has pronlul-
gated Law Of General Planning Of
the Republic" which provides for .
central coming tower in the govern
|
mating topography. climate, population,
social and economic life, national de-
tense, public health.
Programs Listed.
Under its mandates Contreras and
his staff are endeavoring to set up the
following specific programs:
/. The division of Mexico into natu-
raj economic regions, or functional
zones. determining the best crops, the
best industries for each area.
2. A master plan for the federal dis
trict.
g. A plan for the future develop
ment of railroads, highways and COM
munication lines.
f. A plan for the photographic sys-
tenn of the Valley of Mexico.
5. A plan for seaports.
g. A plan for airports
Z. A plan for the use Of waters,
primarily in the interest of irrigation
Mexico has very few navigable rivers)
8. A plan for afforeStation and ma
tlona! parks.
throughout the republic.
the program department, it is pre-
sented to the President. If he ap-
proves he has the power, without
legislative check, to condemn prop
erty and put the project into imme-
date operation. No government
, agency furthermore, can undertake
any major work of construction with
out the approval of the program de-
partment. Contreras dreams no
longer but has double-barreled execu-
, tive sanction behind him. At a nod
from the President his blue prints can
be turned into cement. breakwaters,
irrigation bitches and tall pine trees.
Mexico has the framework of q
genuine machine to control the ma
, chine; to strain industrialism through
! sieve of just enough and no more.
tCopyright, 1879