Evening star., 1938-04-10
By BLAIR BOLLES.


IN THE center of the Mexican crisis
brought to head by the recent ex-
preparation Of foreign oil holdings
1 stands glum- looking. copper skinned,
laconic strong man whom the mass of
Mexicans, like him, part Indian, look on
as their own particular Messiah.
He is Lazaro Cardenas, the man Of the
Mexican people who began his 6-year
term as President in 1884 with a 6-year
plan for Mexcanizing Mexico. a country
which historically has been the economic
playthlng of foreigners and the political
paything of Mexicans favorable to the
foreigners
Cardenas now is in the thick of the
most trying period of his administration.
Reverberations from his oil appropriation
put to its sharpest test his program OF
fcuting economics in the interest of
nationalism and fuller life for the COM
mon people.
Little Likelihood Of Wavering.
There is little prospect. however, that
Cardenas will waver from his path. As
President he is in a position to bring about
wanted done.
The trappings which might accompany
distinction mean nothing to him. He
spurns the elegance Of the Chapultepec Pal
ace in Mexico City for modest home in
an questionable quarter Of the capital
He neither drinks nor smokes When he
became Mexican general years ago the
of
to set himself up in style becoming big
warrior; Cardenas returned $4,000 pesos
and outfitted himself to his own satisfac-
ton with 1000
He is man with purpose. and that
purpose has nothing to do with his own
comfort, although woven in it no doubt
is good deal of mental satisfaction in
the feeling that he is man of destiny.
born and elevated to the presidency SO
that the mestizos, the part-1ndians, part
Spaniards who make up 80 per cent of
Mexico's population of 100000, might
be brought to the fore in Mexican society.
Instead of governing from an Office in
Mexico City, he spends most of his time
travelling around his country, which COM
prehends % states. territories and a
federal district, 7671s8 square miles in all.
Under trees, on street corners, in yards,
he talks with his people and listens to
their problems. He goes everywhere un-
guarded
Lazaro Cardenas likes it understood that
he is Indian. Many important Mexi-
cans with Mayan or Aztec or Trascan or
Zapotecan or other American aboriginal
ancestors like to have the fact forgotten.
He lacks the fire and the smile and the
articulateness and the guile of the Spanish
Mexican. He is an oriental mystic by heri-
tage and socialist by expedience.
This idealistic descendant of Tarascan
Jiquilpan de Juarez, in the state of
Michoacan. When he was II his father
died and he went to work to support his
mother and his seven brothers and sisters.
He became first printer and then keeper Of
the village Jail and head of the village tax
office.
When he was 18 he joined the revolu-
tionary movement in support of DR.. Fran
cisco Madero and then of Venustiano Car
rama. That was 1918, three years after
the revolution which forced out Porfirio
Diaz. the dictator OF 80 years. Mexico for
years to come was to be land of turmoil,
revolution, counter-revolution, bloodshed
and internal warfare, and Cardenas was in
the thick of all of it.
The coursed story Of Cardenas from his
Inauguration until now is determined by
an oddity In his character which confused
drst sx-PTssident Plutarco Gales and then