Page:The Masses, Volume 1, Number 3.pdf/5

 THE - MASSES Α MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF T H E W O R K I N G P E O P L E E D I T E D BY T H O M A S S E L T Z E R E U G E N E W O O D, PRES. H O Y D E N C A R R U T H, VICE-PRES. A N D R E T R I D O N, SEC'Y.

THE MASSES PUBLISHING COMPANY 112E.19thST.NEW YORK M A R C H, 1911

Vol. 1

No. 3

REVOLUTIONARY MEXICO By C A R L O D E F O R N A R O NΟ

M A T T E R what my friends and supporters say, I retire when my present term of office ends, and I shall not serve again, I shall be eighty years old then." These were the words of General Diaz as quoted in Pearson's Magazine, March, 1908. O n another occasion the same year he said to a newspaper man: "In 1879 when I declared that I was opposed to the re-election to the presidency I was sincere, but later my friends begged me to remain in power for the good of the country."

the fact that the campaign had proceeded very peacefully and quietly. B y so doing Diaz openly repudiated all his hypocritical talk about his un­ willingness to be president, and showed his true Drawings by the Author colors to the Mexicans and Americans. H e was afraid of a popular candidate. H e had never I really meant to leave the presidency until he was driven to it by force of arms. Diaz and the Revolution The Mexican people fear the rule of Porfirio Diaz, but they fear even more the clique of finan­ cial buccaneers surrounding him. This financial ring is called the cientifico party. Cientifico The series of articles to which this is an intro­ duction will deal with the conditions and events in means scientific, and the party derives its name Mexico that led up to the Revolution, with the from its alertness i n the gentle art of grafting. various Mexican partiesparatively fighting to little overthrow the at the present time. B u t Whether he was "sincere" in 1879isof com­ moment They have reduced graft to a science. I n 1904 present regime, with the complications that are there can be no question that he is not sincere likely to arise therefrom, and with the relation of the cientificos put up Limantour as their candi­ now. H e has refused to listen to the will of the the United States to Mexico. Fornaro is in close date for vice-president. The popular opposition touch with the leaders of the Mexican revolution Mexican nation. H e has refused it the right to to Limantour was so strenuous and violent that and is well posted as to the very latest happenings. nominate and elect its own president. More Diaz was forced to nominate another man in He has a wealth of interesting and weighty material than that, he would not even allow the people to which will be made public for the first time in his place. This man was Ramon Corral, gov­ nominate their own vice-president. Before each these articles in The Masses.—EDITOR. ernor of Sonora, also a cientifico. But popularity farcical election the citizens of Mexico are re­ never threw its mantle over the shoulders of galed with the same old story of Diaz's unwill­ Vice-President Corral. H e was hated by the ingness to run for office, of the great sacrifice he government are added the mismanagement, the entire Mexican nation. is making for the country by accepting the ardu­ The government of Mexico has thus for years arbitrariness, and the blunders of incompetency, ous duties of Chief of the Commonwealth, been i n the hands of Czar Diaz and his allies, then it becomes intolerable. T h e people of Prince of Peace, and M a n of Destiny. It is an Mexico grew more and more restless under the the cientificos. Under their rule every form of old comedy, a comedy eight times reenacted be­ wrongs and persecutions of the bungling, ineffi­ oppression and persecution known to an absolute fore each so-called election since his rise to cient coterie of officials and advisers, with whom and corrupt government has been practiced. T h e power i n 1876. There is no longer any novelty Diaz surrounded himself. A n d finally they system of peonage, the awful conditions under in it. The Mexican people are tired of it. They which workingmen are forced to labor, the re­ broke out into a revolution. want no sacrifices from Diaz, and since he in­ duction of a large part of the working population In 1910 the demand that General Reyes, the sists on making them, they have at last determ­ to virtual slavery, the cruel exploitation of the people's own candidate, should be nominated for ined to end them by force. vice-president became so insistent, that Diaz was country by American capitalists—all these are the fruits of the rule of Diaz and his cientificos. A s long as Diaz was i n complete possession of frightened, and sent Reyes away to Europe for his physical and mental alertness, there was two years. General Reyes's followers then Freedom of speech and the press is non-existent small chance of his defeat i n the game of poli­ transferred their allegiance to Francisco I. M a - in Mexico. A systematic policy of repression is tics. Mexico seems to have had no man his dero, who is now heading the Revolution in pursued, such as can be compared only to the persecution of the Russian revolutionists by the equal in playing it. But as he aged, his splendid Mexico. Madero is the son of the governor of physique degenerated, he became senile, and he Coahuila. H e is rich, cultured, liberal-minded, Russian government. A l l the liberal newspapers, lost that wonderful grip he had had on men and and patriotic, and is the author of a book dealing with the exception of the Catholic papers, have affairs which is necessary for despotic rule. H e with the presidential succession in Mexico. M a ­ been suppressed, and the editors and members remained the nominal autocrat, but the actual dero actually had the courage to let his name be of the Reyist and Maderist clubs have been sent burden of government fell upon less sturdy shoul­ put up as candidate for the presidency i n the to prison or killed or forced to flee to the United ders than were Diaz's i n his prime, and the result contest of 1910—a thing that had not happened States. was that the beautiful bureaucracy he had or­ in Mexico for the past twenty-five years. N o But the liberal movement could not be sup­ ganized became thoroughly demoralized. A Mexican before him had dared to do it. pressed. T h e government succeeded only in tyrannical government at its best is odious to a This was an act of usurpation which Porfirio fanning the flame of rebellion, until it broke out modern civilized people. It is an anachronism, Diaz simply could not permit. He eliminated into a conflagration, and the logical outcome was an anomaly, a monstrous relic of the past. B u t Madero from the political campaign and the an armed revolution. A s long as Porfirio Diaz when to the general evils of a despotic form of was in the vigor of his prime he was able to keep elections by throwing him into jail, in spite of THB CO-OPERATIVE PEESS 15 a P B U C E S T. , ΝΈW Y O R K.

Author of "Diaz,

Czar of

5

Mexico"