CARRANZA, THE SCOURGE OF GOD

New Zealand Tablet, 10 May 1917, Page 11

CARRANZA, THE SCOURGE OF GOD

(Ebee Cole Byam, in America .) The revolutionary activity in Mexico has been a continued process of selection of the baser elements. This process was interrupted by the French intervention and the rule of the Emperor Maximilian, whose term, while short, still gave opportunity for a revival of the better element, which was permitted some slight expression under the later rule of . Diaz. Slight as this expression was, it made possible a measure of religious liberty and the practice of thrift and industry. Moreover, debts were paid, a sound national credit was established, a surplus was laid up and millions were employed at good wages. To the rage and chagrin of the ‘ Liberals/ the Church began to prosper and its teachings improved the moral and material stamina of the people. Another generation of peace and prosperity in Mexico and the overthrow of government might have been impossible. During the whole rule of Diaz there had been repeated efforts to revolt these met with repeated failure, largely because there was no sympathy in the United States with the destruction of law and order. ' Finally the revolutionists hit upon the happy scheme of ‘ educating ’ the American public. This was done most effectively by means of a Socialist writer, who made a trip through Mexico under conduct of a Mexican guide and interpreter, who was also a Socialist. This American Socialist then wrote a series of articles for one of the American magazines, and the articles were widely copied and quoted. The magazine refused to complete the publication of the articles in question because a little investigation proved their utter falsity. But the seed had been sown and the promoters of the scheme had only to wait patiently for the harvest which came in due course. The American People Read and Believed the statements of this writer, with the result that when the Madero revolution broke out American public opinion prevented any restraining action, and, as .a consequence, the Diaz Government was overthrown with little effort.

For every prejudice the Mexican revolutionist has an acceptable excuse. Is it against the Catholic Church ? Then he justifies the villainies by tickling his hearer's hatred with tales of ' Romish oppression,' ' great wealth of the clergy,' a ' priest-ridden Mexico'; hot forgetting to mention the ' efforts of the superstitious and reactionary clergy to keep the people in ignorance.' Is it a prejudice against 'corporations,' or 'capital' ? Then he has tales of ' pernicious American speculators who have robbed the Mexican masses of their patrimony and left them poverty-stricken in a land of plenty, whose soil they cannot even call their own.' Is it a prejudice easily aroused through credulity and morbid sympathy ? Then he has tales of 'slavery' and 'peonage,' and ' people robbed of their lands.' The Mexican revolutionist poses as a modern knight-errant, avenging the wrongs of suffering humanity. In reality he is a demoniacal Socialist, ravishing, murdering, and destroying, while the communities over which he tyrannizes sink deeper and deeper into the helplessness of despair. Those who would work are being driven- gradually, through repeated robbery, into the ranks of the fighting Socialist

bands where habits of pillage can only be cured by the firing squad. That Mexico has had evils it were futile to deny. There have been practised all the frauds common to all the;, governments of man, in addition to those perpetrated by minority governments established by force. To political oppression have been added the abuses by .wealthy corporations and individuals who have not hesitated to take advantage of the ignorant. And under all have flourished the ever-present ignorance, dirt and poverty. .' - • The Attacks Upon Wealth in Mexico have found much sympathy in the United States, where a growing feeling of resentment against wealth has created a spirit of envy which views with pleased complacency the spoliation of those repute, ,d wealthy. To such an extent has this evil spirit developed in the United States that the mere suggestion that an individual possesses wealth becomes evidence that he is a criminal deserving most drastic punishment. The foundation of this resentment is often of the most trivial character. Perhaps the employee of some publicservice corporation has displayed the discourtesy of an ignorant mind, thus arousing hot wrath in the injured patron, who thereupon condemns the corporation employing the guilty servant, and hastily assumes that the ‘ wealthy ’ owners of the enterprise are the cause of the affront. Overlooking the fact that the real owners are thousands of modest people of moderate means, the insulted person in hasty judgment demands ‘ government ownership’ as a remedy for the fault, forgetting that the same guilty employee would continue as ignorant, and be emboldened in his impudence, under the protection of government employment. Ninety-nine per cent, of the complaints against men of wealth and great corporations can be traced to the over-bearing manners of their subordinates, who, under any character of government management, would become intolerable.

A little reflection will discover the remedy to be a cheerful observance of the Ninth Commandment and the inculcation of a stricter discipline of morals and deportment whereby the ‘ liberty ’ of insulting one’s neighbor will be compelled to give way before the ‘ servility of decent courtesy and respect for the rights of others. Before the Anarchical Uprising in Mexico Under Juarez, in 1856-7, the convents of that country were schools and colleges; their libraries contained books and manuscripts, and their archives were filled with statistical historical documents of great value. The fate of most of these institutions is illustrated by that of the Convent of San Francisco in Celaya. The group of buildings served as hospital, college, school, and, besides living quarters for the inmates, also housed a number of pupils who were present as boarders ; many receiving free room and board, and all receiving free education. The revolutionists closed all but the hospital which was left to be operated by the Government on an appropriation of some six cents a day for each patient. They emptied the library and used the books and manuscripts and documents from the archives to make cartridges. In 1876 the city officials tore off the tile roof to secure the cedar beams which were used to build a covered way, about half a mile long, down the main street, during a holiday celebration on May 5. The tiling was destroyed and the building left in a condition of utter ruin.

The Church of San Augustin, in the same city, possessed six large, carved, gilded altars, adorning the two side aisles. These works of art the revolutionists ground up and ‘ panned * for the few dollars worth of gold-leaf used in the gilding. The hells they took down and melted to make cannon, and the organ was destroyed to obtain the lead tubing for making bullets. . In 1859 the Several Cathedral Archives of Mexico escaped damage, with all their records of priceless historic value, for the history of Mexico stood written

through nearly four hundred years in the documentary files of the several bishops. These records in 1913 still stood practically intact, along with many valuable libraries. The triumph of Carranza saw the pitiless destruction of all this invaluable material, for the barbarous Carranzistas emptied the libraries and archives of their records and books and sent them to the paper mill to be ground up as old paper. Churches may be razed, but other generations of men will reconstruct them; confessionals may be burned and images smashed, but all these can be recreated by loving hands;' men, women and children may be butchered, yet others will rise to take their places. But who can reconstruct, who can recreate, who can replace the destroyed and irredeemable historic records that had been accumulating through four long centuries ? Of all their murderous and destructive deeds, of all their outrageous and villainous conduct, this act stands out as the culmination of a career of stupid infamy, and brands the arch-fiend Carranza, with his horde of socialistic devils, a greater ' Scourge of God ' than Attila, a greater Goth than Alaric, a greater Vandal than Genseric.