EXPLAINING MEXICO.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 212, 4 September 1920, Page 17

EXPLAINING MEXICO.

THE POSITION TO-DAY

(BY AX EX-RESIDENT). President Carranza fell before the combination of two rivals. Generals Obre.gon and Gonzales. Mexico has added another so-called revolution to the nuiribers she has "suffered"' in her century of disturbance. Since 1810. in 110 years ehe has had juet t\vpnty years of peace. '"Suffered" is the right wgrd. for the real Mexicans, of the centre of the Republic, display almost complete apathy towards these various "revolutions" and their leaders. And it is the right word, too, because the Mexican public is bled by one and the other alike. It is a colossal game of grab. At bottom the latest development is simply the temporarily successful attempt of two rivals to se'ze some of the spoils which since 1913 Carranza has been employing to enrich himself and his friends, relatives, and henchmen. Here is the position in a nutshell: The Mexican Government has been increasing old taxes and inventing new ones ruthlessly. Enormous sume have flowed into the Government exchequer, but they have not found their way into the public service. The taxes are tremendous; every user of telephone or electric light pays a Government tax proportionate to hie bill: consumers of all kinds are similarly mulcted.

Xoiv there is a capital tax. The Mexican Light and Powep»Company, for instance, is to pay one per cent of the first million of its capital, one-half per cent of the rest. The tramway company pays five per cent of its gross (not net) revenue annually to the Government. The Mexican railway is still in the hands of the Government, which extracts enormous profits and does not pay a cent to the shareholders.

The old taxes and duties are. perhaps about normal, though customs may have fallen off. Yet despite th:s colossal taxation the public services are shamefully neglected. For instance, public education is at a standstill. There are no funds to pay professors and teachers

How the money goes is proved by the fact that half a dozen or more men have become millionaires in sterling from nothing within the last five years. One of them is a relation of Carranza.

An illustration within my own experience will show how the system works.

There was until recently a small town near the coast held for Carranza l>y a general who claimed to command a force of 1,000 men with SOO horses. For this j number he regularly drew pay and j money in lion of rations. One day he, disappeared. He had married and fled . to Cuba with a Imgc fortune awaiting him thorp. When lie hud pone it ivas»iliscoverod that his force had never consisted of more than 000 men, that there had been, no horses, that for a long time even the ;JOO men had received no pay. ami had in addition been obliged to forage for ihemeclves. There are literally hundred-, of similar; cases. Nominally, the total army main-j tamed and paid for by the people if: about 120.000 to 130,000. Really it counts barely a quarter of that number. | When there is "graft -, on this stall'! there U bound always to be jealousy.; General Obregon hoped to get hold of the reins—and the "graft"— at a legitimate election for the Presidency General Gonzales hoped the same, and; both doubtless discovered that there was; not a ghost of a chance of their succeeding by legitimate means. Hence, pre- j sumably, their otherwise unnatural com- j bination to oust Carranza.

Tiiere was a third candidate for the" Presidency. Ignacio Bonillas. sometime ;i Ambassador to the United .States. 11*; candidature had the full support of Car-;i ranza and the Government, but it U j commonly suspected that this was ;' merely a trick. Carranza knew—must j have known—that Bonillas had lost his • Mexican citizenship and become a citi-'j zen of the United States. It wasj strongly suspected that Carranza meant] to get him elevated as his successor in! the"Presidency, then discover that the , election was not legal, and proceed to ;

carry on himself. | Between the new men there is not I much to choose, though Gonzaies is the better of the two. He is perhaps something of a patriot, with a certain idealistic strain, while Obregon, whatever lie may now pretend, is of very dubious patriotism, to say the least of it. Probably he will play very much to the'gallery, for which reason there may be few executions, and nc will certainly b'd high for recognition by the Powers. But lie is a Northerner, like all, or almost all. the rest of the "graftere" allied to the more savage Indian tribes of the North and utterly unrepresentative of the true Mexicans of tlie centre of the Republic, where the better class concentrates. It may be observed that Mexican revolutions, barring executions, rarely prove very sanguinary affairs. There is precious little fighting. "Generals" of sorts take up strategic positions, inform the adversary that they hold those .positions, and the adversary, unless he thinks he can execute another manoeuvre. surrenders himself and j the city or town he occupies. Hence you hear of big battles and — total casualties, 5 killed and a few wounded! It is mostly a great chos same of autumn manoeuvres.

As for the future, tHe position is not' hopeful. Obregon will doubtless try t>, make himself "provisional president pending legal elections," but the leg.ill elections are very unlikely to conn- nil', j He, or indeed any other president of tinlot in sight, is almost certain to ■•■ ;■■•■■ up asainst jealous adversaries, an 1 t':'Mi another "revolution" get> started. >"■' is there any single person r.r group "f| persons in sight likely to promote nml , ma : ntain stability. ■ i British interests so far haw U-i-ii; fairly lucky. The sVizure- of lh- Irani-j way company and the Mexican rsiil'Aiiy I to Vera Cruz have been V"- only mi. - ■■■■ importance. There wan some j.:-r,r in: the claim that, a< every mile oi t i< , railway had to be guarded and it v.a- i-nin- : monly necessary to run m litary t.uiis the (Jovornment could run the whole t:iin<* better themselves. But then they reaped huge profits and did not pay tile shareholders.