Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/22

6 seek a precarious livelihood by joining the predatory bands that scour the country.

No one ever will know how many thousands of helpless women and children, to say nothing of able-bodied men, actually starved to death as a result of this almost complete stoppage of industrial activity. A prominent Mexican has estimated that not fewer than ten thousand persons have starved to death in Mexico City alone in the last four years. This is merely an informed opinion, to be sure; but beyond any question many thousands of these poor people have died of hunger while yet other thousands of lives have been lost as the result of privations and unsanitary conditions directly attributable to the lawless conduct of the dominant party. The epidemic of Spanish influenza swept through the country last fall, taking frightful toll because after enduring penury and want for so long the people lacked the stamina to resist disease.

Not satisfied with merely taking the bread out of the mouths of so many of their countrymen, the Carrancistas with a refinement of cruelty next deprived them even of the meagre dole of charity. No doubt many readers will recall the fact that in the latter part of 1915 the American Red Cross, which has earned the admiration of the world by its noble work in stricken Europe, which had been ministering to the needs of thousands of destitute