Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/112

96 established in New York City shortly after the beginning of the Carranza revolution, by what was called the "Latin-American News Association." In some way unknown my name appears to have been entered upon the mailing list of this association, and I have received numerous pamphlets devoted to various phases of Mexican affairs. In one of these appears the following statement:

 "Mexico has been the happy hunting ground of the adventurer since the days of the Spanish Conquest. Egypt, Morocco, Tunis, South Africa, do not compare with it as a treasure box. Government has always meant merely an organized system of robbery and exploitation. It gave the people nothing, it took everything the people had. It taxed them in the most ruthless ways; it spent the taxes for private purposes and profit. The courts were merely another instrument for enforcing serfdom along with the army."

As we shall see, this statement is entirely true as applied to the Latin masters of the Mexican people and the sort of government which they were accorded by these masters during the first three hundred years of their control. The pamphlet continues:

 "Diaz reduced the process to a scientific system. He termed it 'developing the country. The concession seekers flocked to Mexico with the coming