UNHAPPY MEXICO

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2966, 3 January 1917, Page 3

UNHAPPY MEXICO

AN HISTORICAL SURVEY

When ii) is>considered that one-half tho world's en tiro supply of silver for the nineteenth and n portion of tho eighteenth century was supplied from Mexico, that tho hugo quantities of gold and iron and zinc that are produced there are negligible as compared with tho deposits which exist, that her agricultural lands arc- wide and rich, and for the most part well watered, and that the vegetation of tropic, seinitropic and temperate..zones flourishes within her boundaries with small aid from mankind—when - all theso facts aro considered, it is small wonder that President Wilson gets more advice than to can well use in regard to his Mexican policy. For in hjs own words, "It is a country exceedingly to be desired by those who would amass a fortune." Few indeed are tho suggestions as to what the United States should do in Mexico, based upon,sympathy with the Mexican people, or any effort ,to understand what they need and. desire.

The history of Mexico is the history of class, struggle, in which the native class, ground down by three centuries of oppression, is opposed to a master class, as distinct in blood, _ tradition, and psychology as it is possible to be. Outside of Mexico thero are few trains of thought which run parallel on the Mexican question but it cannot be disputed that all that is good—architecture, works of engineering, poetry, the heroic struggle for democraoy— originates in the native classes; while all that is i ovil —oppression, superstition, class distinction—is tho gift of Spain to the land of tho Aztec.

Numeroas theories have been advanc-i ed_ as to the origin of the three great original American races, namely, the Mayas, who occupied Yucatan and Chiapas; the Zapotecas, whose home was in Oaxacoj and tho Aztecs, in tho valley of Mexico. Early Greek historians believed that over, tho middle part of what is now tho Atlantic Ocean once existed a brbad continent called Atlantis, inhabited by a highly cultured raco of people, who persistently pushed their , sphere ,of occupation, until the gods became envious and submerged Atlantic. Into this strange land tho pioneers of the red racq found their way from Asia. Here they prospered and. multiplied, and isolated and free from interruption, went on from century to century, building cities and developing their various arts. Peace prevailed. and communities wore welded together in a strong and permanent union— perhaps the first. • United States of America. Thero is no doubt about the remote antiquity of those early Americana. . Their traditions aiid ruins, their moral and physical uniformity prove it. Then_ camo jealousies and feuds. From nativo sources it has been learned that only a few decades before the arrival of Columbus disastrous wars ensued, ■ depopulating many districts and ' reducing many cities. Debilitated by these wars, the Spaniards found them easy victims, and they quickly subjected tho Aztecs in Mexico, who had developed a civilisation astounding and incomprehensible to tho European adventurers.

Spanish rule lasted for threo centuries, and duriiijj that time these- Christianconquerors, by careful and unremittinj;' oppression, wero quite ablo to reduce the larger part of tho Mexican population to a state of degradation undreamed of in their "barbarous" days. Given as a baso a conquered peo]>lo, merged into innumerable castos by intermarriaco with Africans and Europeans, steeped for three centuries in ignorauco and superstition, and ground under the heel of political, ecclesiastical and social despotism, and the result to-be expected is exactly what is_to_bo found in Mexico.- lip to tho beginning of tho revolutionary period, and this condition still obtains in a niarked degree, tho Mexicans were divided into two , distinct crusts—the lower, who worked for nothing (so small was their.waco;, and the upper, who would not work for anything. Those lived off thoir fellows. No great middle class, no fine firm body politic made up of farmers, artisans and traders, such as exist in all other countries to act as buffer, inspiration and driving force, existed in Mexico. Tho poor were just hopelessly poor, and tho. rich just hopelessly lazy. TJw upper crust was made up of'throo controlling privileged classes—tho clergy, who by judicious handling of bequests had accumulated, either direct or through liens, about two-thirds of the real estate, and whose combination of wealth, religion, and education gavo them almost absolute control; the born Spaniards, holding all offices of trust and' profit;, and the army, into which no Mexicans were admitted except in very subordinate positions. All these, of course, were attached to Spanish rule, since it meant the continuation of their wealth and power, and all of them for the same reason joined the Conservatives after Spanish rule was overthrown. , The lower crust, or peons, until they became rebels, were.little better than bondsmen. Servants of servants, held by debt'and family ties, they lived out their lives bound to'the haciendas or tho mines where divelfc their fathers and their forefathers. They did more work for less remuneration than any other class of labour that has ever existed. No Chinese could ever compete with them in the. straitness of their economy. Taught to regard their employers as masters by divine right, successive generations of oppression reduced them to tho point where Ihoy looked upon a kind word with suspicion and distrust. From this distrust they havo never recovered.

In .tho beginning of the nineteenth cwitury, when all the lvorld was agog with democracy, and when Spam was more than comfortably engaged with Napoleon and her rupture with England, Mexico began to seethe with the -revolutionary spirit of tho ago. Ijj 1810, led by Miguel Hidalgo, now enshrined as saint and patriot - in tho heart of all Moxicaus, they Ventured their first rebellion. . Defeated and put to death by the Spanish army, Hidalgo was succeeded by Morelos, a. full-blooded Indian priest. Morelos was shot in 1815, but the seeds sown by theso two martyrs bore fruit in 1024, when tho yoke of Spain was cast asido and the first Mexican Congress convened to promulgate a constitution, 'patterned after that of the United ■Staten. The Church or Conservative party, too strong for the rebel leaders, in 1835 succeeded-in overthrowing tbn Liberal Government and setting up another and more Conservative- rulo under their "Constitutional Laws" ami "Organic Bases." However, tho las.to of liberty, some slight trickling of education and the contact with foreign nations (Mexico in tho meantime having had four foreign wars), gavo to the Liberals additional strength, and in 1817, through process of revolution, they were able to restore their original constitution.' In 1853 General Santa Anna arose and established a dictatorship of the niost reactionary sort. Ihen in a series of revolutions which defy unravelling tho Liberalists rose and foil, rose and fell. During this period Juarez, called the "Law Giver," fathered tho "Reform Laws," which reduced much of the.political power of the clergy. In 1861 lie was elected President for his first constitutional term,' established his Government in tho city of Mexico. Then, in 1863, camo the Napoleon-sent Maximilian, whoso unhappy ompiro camo to a tragic end in 1867. "May my blood be the last shed in sacrilico in the land of tho Aztecs," was his

final prayer, which seems to have goneunanswered. At Maximilian's downfall Juarez was restored,™ a completely demoralised nation, to bd succeeded eight years later by Porfirio Diaz, who established a thirty years' dictatorship. which, in its absoluteness of one-iiian power, is unequalled in modern history. Ho restored complete poaco to Mexico, but at fearful cost to her budding ideas of democracy. Material doveiopment nourished, not for the benefit of Mexico, but for tho benefit of foreign concessionaries, into whoso hands Diaz betrayed his country in return for their financial aid. They were allowed to exploit the fertilo lands and rich lodes of Mexico. They accumulated under ono title hundreds of thosuands of acres and swept within one ownership groat parts of States. Tlie labouring population sank back into peonage. Diaz was a great military and political leader, 'aud those who hold that idealism cannot tako the place of cannon and common sense, say lie was a great patriot. In, 1903 Francisco Madero, fanatical, patriotic, "conscientious, educated, came forth to crusade against Diaz, and anarchy anjl revolution wore again in tho 6addlo. Ho overthrew the Government of Dial in 1910. but himself was unequal to tho task of governing Mexico. Then camo in rapid succession Huerta, Carranza, and lip.w Villa, aud the people of Mexico.were again involved in what at times looks, like a hopeless struggle to see the light of democracy. In the meantime all the republics of Latin America havo 'concentrated their attention on the policy of the United States, for they havo never ceased to regard with distrust tho big and powerful neighbour who. has essayed to play tho part of. their Big Brother without their invitation, and tfie President is determined that the conduct of America shall be sufli as will afford to these treasure-houses of tho world a guarantee of their territorial integrity and political sovereignty shall be respected by the United States, even as tho United States insists that Europeans shall respect them.'