Evening star., 1937-01-21
BY CARLOS ]. VIDELA,


Latin America Editor of the North Amer
lean Newspaper Alliance.
NEW YORK, January 81 (N.A.
NA).-Political dissatisfaction, agra
rian unrest, business resentment, eco
,,onnic irritations and financial puzzles
are among the possible causes for a
Mexican revolution which many be-
Neve to be brewing.
: In trying to steer an independent
course, free from sectarian dictatlon,
President Cardenas has made quite
number of enemies. Mexico City Is
full of rumors-that Emilio Portes Gil.
former President, and until recently
head Of the all-powerful National Rev
. .olutionary party, Is slated for "diplo-
matte deportation" via an ambas-
sadorship in London or the chair
manship Of the Mexican delegation to
the League of Nations: that Gen.
Eduardo Hay. foreign minister, is
about to resign and also be "dlplo-
matically deported": that Education
Minister Gonzalo Vazquez Vela Is
being forced to resign, in view OF his
failure to appease discomfort among
the teachers. Gen. Gales, former
President and strong man." has been
exiled and is now in California. Gen.
Nicholas Rodriguez, head of the Gold
Shirts, semi-Fascist organization, Is
biding his time in Texas.
Meanwhile, 1000 Catholics from all
over the state of Vera Cruz demon
strate in Jalapa against the anti
church policy of the government.
School teachers have gone out on
strike in large numbers in the states
of Campeche, Tabasco and Yucatan,
in protest against alleged brutal treat
ment of teachers and students by the
authorities. Teachers in the state Of
Coahuila have struck, demanding
better salaries.
In Mexico City, the Confederation
OF Chambers of Commerce, alarmed at
the rapid rise in the prices of food
stuffs, predicts a terrible economic
crisis" if the government does not do
something about it, declaring that
the rise is not the result of specula-
ton but of the serious economic con-
ditions' confronting the country.
owing to poor harvests and labor
conflicts.
In Puebla, there was bloody fight
on January 13 between thousands of
peasants who had bought their small
holdings from former owners and
other thousands. belonging to the
League Of Agarian Communities. who
demanded that the government take
those lands away from their pos
SCISSORS and give them over to mem
bers Of the league.
The Mexican federal government
admits that the rise in the cost Of
life Is serious, but so far its only
corrective action has been to threaten
merchants for their unlimited spirit
of lucre' and to assert that the coun-
try is in excellent economic shape. So
good. in fact. does the Mexican gov
ernment, regard the economic con-
dition Of its country that negotia-
tions have been started with the In
ternational Committee of Bankers on
Mexico to pay the defaulted dollar
ioans-at the rate Of % cents on the
dollar, If and when an accord Is
reached.
Distress Seen in Reforms.
That the agrarian reforms UNDER
taken by the Cardenas regime and
its predecessors will hardly benefit the
economy Of the country is view wide
ly held by Mexicans intimately con-
versant with conditions there. They
declare that reforms" such as the
appropriation of lands in the Laguna
district, the most prosperous agricul-
tural zone in Mexico, will bring only
distress to the poems and to the
country, inasmuch as the necessary
technical skill of the former manage
ment is not now available. the present
management being in the hands Of
bureaucratic government agencies.
Mexico is a country Of enormous
natural resources, which, If properly
exploited, could indeed give its popu-
lation a more abundant life" But
only the surface of those riches has
been scratched, methods Of cultivation
are largely primitive. and the amount
Of money that the government could
give. or lend, to the new class Of
! peasant owners it wants to create Is,
to say the least, insufficient. It Is
estimated that Mexico has some
12000O,000 acres of tillable land, out
Of which only 30,00O,000 are cultivated
II the figures published by the au-
tonomous agricultural department can