Evening star., 1938-01-10
JUAREz|S CALLED
MEXICAN LINCOLN
Poor Indian Boy Became
Highest Officer of Land
at Critical Time.

Benito JuareZ. the poor, full
blooded Indian lad Of Oajaca who
rose to become lawyer, by his own
intellectual efforts. legislator, a gov
ernor of his native province, judge,
chief justice, and ultimately a
constltutionally elected President OF
Mexico-and savior of his country
from foreign exploitation and dis
memberment at the hands of Euro
pean lmperialists-is regarded as the
Abraham Lincoln of our neighbor-
ing republic to the south His story
the life story of a remarkable char
acter produced by the native blood
and soil of N!eXico-will be partially
told, this evening, in the eleventh
program Of the Brave New World"
series OF educational broadcasts
sponsored by the Federal Office of
Education. over a coast forecast net
work Of nearly a hundred radio sta
tions affiliated with the Columbia
System
But the true story and the long story
OF the continuing Mexican revolution,
OF the bitter struggles of the peon and
the peasant for land and liberty. can
not be told in any broadcast, or article.
interpretations must always differ, of
course, depending upon the standpoint
from which the interpreter views the
moving panorama of life and conflict,
which is history. In the case of Mex
leo, 1t is an embittered history of
much more than 66 years, which have
elapsed since the death of Juarez, in
1872; long history stained with re-
ligious as we'll as political and economic
conflict and complicated with foreign
lnterventionS, as we'll as internal dis
sensions.
Juarez was born in poverty in an
Indian cabin, at Ixtlan. in 1906, three
years before Abraham Lincoln's birth.
Both were nurtured in the wilder
ness, close to the soil and to its stern
poetry. Both fought injustice and
lived to Lead nations struggle for
mastery of its own soul and of its
freedom from slavocracy, exploitation
and the iron rule of the oppressor.
But free institutions as we know them
existed in Mexico; and the struggle
OF Juarez and his successors was di-
rected necessarily not merely against
the slavery o. economic peonage, but
also against foreign armies invading
the fatherland. and against the subtle
peonage OF the mind Incorporated in
a wealthy and powerful ecclesiastical
hierarchy politically supported by, and
supporting an autocratic government.
HIS task, therefore, in seeking to
establish modern Mexico upon free,
a secular. and enlightened constitu-
flonal foundation the constitution of
1857 was largely his handiWork). was
IN some ways more difficult even than
that OF Abraham Lincoln How well
fE succeeded is still debatable.
Theory of Revolutions.
A recent Catholic Interpretation
denies the Importance of the ideolog-
ical basis and idealistic spirit Of the
Mexican revolution, while emphasiz-
ing the economic and even the sordid
DR.. Montavon of the National Catholic
Welfare Association, has written: The
political independence of Mexico came
not As the result of any social up
heaval in Mexico, not even as the
result of any revolt against political
condition in which political power
was exercised by a small governing
class. from which the masses were
excluded. The loss of her American
colonies by Spain was an incident in
An economic process that was world
wide in its scope and revolutionary in
its economic results. 1t was the pro-
cess whereby the system of regional
trade monopolies controlled by rival
nations of Europe (as they are con-
trolled. today. in the Orient. and
especially in hapless China) broke
down. This world revolution was
commercial rather than political in
Its aspirations and in its results.
If democracy miscarried in the first
sacrlfclai efforts TO establish it in
Mexico. or elsewhere. if it represented
there an importation alien to the SOIL
certainly the expressed purpose of all
the Mexican constitutions since 1913,
and especially that of Juarez, was to
restore to the Indian the patrimony
OF which his exploiters had robbed
him. One of Juarez'S first acts as
President. constitutionally elected was
to expel from Mexico one Don Louis
Clement. the papal nuncio. In doing
50 he caused to be issued an i'm
portant manifesto by the secretary of
state on January Is, 1861. stating:
Nov that the Mexican Republic has.
an the exercise of its sovereign power,
declared religious liberty, and the alb
asolute independence of church and
state ION the American plan), the
official representative of the Roman
Church can have no mission what
ever near the general government of
the republic. His disposition, and
the general tone of the church which
he has represented, has caused him
to figure throughout the civil war as
partisan of the seditious clergy who,
to the greatest degree, have stained
with blood the past revolution in this
country under the pretext of religion"
Contrast with this Catholic view
that OF the eminent Peruvian scholar
Prof. Andres Bclaunde of the Uni
Versity Of San Marcos, in Lima:
= AS the last century dawned." he
writes, "and as human destinies were
changing. there extended from Mex
ico to the Plata the holy intoXication
: OF liberty. To it were sacrificed the
wealth of cities. the tranquility Of
peoples. and the lift o. two gener-
ations. Since the emancipation
movement was idea llstic. it was ex-
pansive and dominating: since a
mystical power palpitated in it. it
was irresistible.
shall never become resigned to ac-
ccptlng the theory that explains the
movement Of Spanish American
emancipation by causes of an economic
order. Essential traits of the Ameri-
e. can soul eliminated in the wars of
, independence. Our liberty was the
result Of marvellous conjunction Of
= sentiment for the land, and en-