The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-07-26
GALES HOLDS
KEY TO MEXICO
PEACE HOPES
Whole World Watching for
Next Step of Nations
Strong Man.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIAIMS
Soripps-Howsrd Foreign Editor

WASHINGTON, July 26.-The
peace of Mexico today rests in the
hands of one grizzled warrior, the
part-Indian. Gen. Plutarco Elias
Gales, one-time president and
strong man" OF the republic, who
at last report was in the United
States.
Catholics and other rehgionists
the world over are watching Upon
the outcome of the present re
VOLT" they believe, the future Of
the church south of the Rio
Grande in no small measure de-
pendS..
President Lazaro Cardenas. who
is also a general, is now directly
or indirectly roofing out, by armed
force where necessary, those S ate
and municipal governments remain
ing loyal to the former leader.
If he succeeds-and it looks as
if it would take an army to stop
hint will be only a matter of
time, plus a few local 'revolts" of
the sort now taking place, before
he will usurp the title of Mexico'S
strong man"
Nobody knows this better than
Gales. His decision, therefore
whether to step in and stop Car
denas before it is too late, or give
up without further struggles of
utmost importance.
A Maze of ParadOxes
The Mexican lineup is a maze of
paradoxes. The whole thing re-
wolves about two men-Calles and
Cardenas. Cardenas is a young
Cardenas is a disciple of Gales.
He was virtually put in Office by his
master. Yet, two months ago, they
split, almost violently, over the road
Mexico is taking.
Gales believed Cardenas is turn
ing radical. CardenaS believed
Gales has gone conservative. Yet
both are really left wing. Gales
charged CardenaS with encourag-
ing labor strikes, which were de-
stroying the national prosperity,
and with following destructive land
division policies. CardenaS, on the
other hand, apparently holds that
Gales bore down too hard on the
Catholics.
Business interests and foreigners,
along with a large but indetermin-
ate number of petty Office holders,
inclined toward Gales. Labor
groups, the small farmers and poems
favored CardenaS. The religionistS,
perhaps because they felt they had
little to lose, looked hopefully in the
same direction.
They took it as a good sign when
Gen, Saturnino CedillO, a former
governor of the state Of San Luis
Potosi, was appointed to the Car
denaS cabinet after the custer of
Gales friends For it was under
his administration in San Luis, the
church felt, that Catholics received
better treatment than anywhere else
in Mexico.
Religion Not Big Issue
But religion is not the big issue.
To-Day, in Mexico, the demand is
once more the old revolutionary cry
of zapata and his followers: Land
and liberty!' Cardenas is headed in
that direction. He is backing the
revolutionary constitution and the
land laws which grew out Of it. He
aims to give more land to the land
less poems and more power to labor.
Gales says he is still the same old
revolutionary, but that he learned
much from experience during his
years in the saddle. Labor abused
its liberty, in his opinion, and many
peasants, to whom land had been
given, never touched it with hoe or
plow. Young Cardenas, therefore,
would find his policy doing more
harm than good.
Today the followers of Cardenas,
in spots, are up in arms after land
and new liberties. The followers Of
Gales see themselves at a crisis.
They must act soon or it will be too
late.
n