Evening star., 1938-09-18

non-existent While this book was
on the press. President Cardenas was
forced to suspend for one year the I'M
port duties on wheat!' Eight months
later duties were suspended to allow
the importation of corn, . highly sig
nificant action, for corn ID the national
staple Of Mexico. When the nation
can no longer make its own tortillas,
something u definitely wrong. The
drop in agricultural production u 30
serious that the entire program, and
with it the economy Of the country.
has reached . crucial state. From
74,257 900 bushels in the average period
Of ls3l-35, corn production dropped to
65,S00,0 bushels in 1885 and to g..
800 900 bushels in 1886.
Bread prices during the preceding
year 0o3O has doubled in Mexico
City and the standard loaf was re-
duced In size. A chicken that had q
year earlier cost no more than ons
peso was now two and . half to three
pesos, milk was higher by half, beef
was twice as high. and, alas, goat
meat had followed"
CIMILAR statements, well suhstanti-
ated throughout the magazine,
bear out the claims that the expro-
priation Of the land of the prosperous
and its redistribution to the peasants
has not brought overnowing plenty
Of food or even food enough to the
country to fhA sos,th
An explanation of this failure Of the
program (which began with hussas
Of JOY for its humanitarisnism and
justice) b offered in an anonymous
article in this same magazine. The
author, says the editors. Is . Mexican
citizen living in Mexico. He prefers
to keep his name unknown because
''of the danger of reprisals." Here
Is his statement:
~From the time Of the Spanish
conquest. the Indian has developed,
to the highest degree, his three pres
| ent characteristics: Ignorance. lasi-
ness and indifference. For his ig-
norance. he can hardly be blamed. :.
His laziness is so conspicuous that no
visiting writer overlooks it, and from
it spring, more or less, the social and
labor problems which have arisen in
rs years. The indifference accounts
for the enthronement Of dictatorships
which. with different names and vari-
Gus tendencies. have constituted the
| government of almost all OF Spanish
America for the last 40 years"
And elsewhere. commenting on the
claims Of the sentimentalists that the
Indians are 4 race Of great capacity.
this author says, .. the fact that
Indians Of great worth appear At the
rate Of one in 10000 900 hardly war
rants presenting the Indians Of Mexico
As civilized. Archaeological ruins sim
ply show the enormous difference be-
tween what the Indian was and Is
the artistic capacities Of today's In
dian are limited to the weaving Of
baskets and serapes and to other arts
requiring more patience than imagi-
nation"
COMING to the appropriation OF for
eign oil companies, the maeanAs.
gives q wide range OF facts which, in
general, indicate that the Mexican
laborer will not benefit by the change
Of masters and that the government,
II it is to realize on the properties
which it has seized, will have to resort
to measures OF operation which are
far more oppressive than those used
BY the least enlightened foreign con-
cern. Actually. the workers under the
foreign companies received higher
wages and better treatment than any
other group Of laborers in Mexico,
says this magazine. In . condensation
Of an article by Frank L. Kluckhohn
In the New York Times there are these
interesting statements:
In the Poza Rica field "the weekly
pay roll Of those on q daily basis has
dropped from 10000 pesos to $4,000
pesos. according to officials.
In the first week of June the
average daily production OF the Il
former British wells operating was
S3.Sls barrels. As compared with .
former normal of 10000 barrels.
while the men 0aborers) have had
their incomes cut of the former
union leaders and subchiefs are lead
ing = luxurious life. They are a far
separated socially from the ordinary
workmen rs the handful of former
British chiefs could have been. Most
Of the leaders have had their incomes
doubled or tripled. while the ordinary
| laborer gets fewer pesos. and these
have been devalued 80 per cent.
"On the wide veranda Of the lofty
club the leaders now sit in solitary
glory. slipping 55-year-old brandy, ex-
propriated with . soodly supply Of
whisky and other liquors from the
British, or play pool and dominoes
inside the club. In the evening they
bring their wives and sweethearts to
the site.
Instead OF getting the 40-hour week
that the companies had agreed to &C.
cept the laborers are still working a
hours. In addition, food costs at the
camp stores and At oil camps all along
the east coast have gone up, on the
admission of ofncials, instead Of down
As expected.
workers, their own pay stationary.
are forced to see the heads Of their
unions getting higher, In some cases
double. pay. living in excellent homes
Of the former foreign managers, driv.
ing what were company automobiles.
Common laborers are excluded from
the ex-compAny clubs that the leaders
use. In many cases this doss not seem
to represent much gain to the rank and
| fils."
There Is nice thinking In this, for
the philosophical. though not any
thing that is particularly new. What,
one wonders, did the rank and file *.
pect? Let the rank and file read his
tory. People who march In lockstep
are generally going to disappointment
It Il only the individual who ever tri-
umphs.